NtvTxn

Hello to all the Nifty Fifties!!!

Maybe life starts at 56? Or it just starts over better? I am planning lots of changes besides sleeving my way to a healthier lifestyle. If losing 30 lbs can make me feel 10 years younger (no huff & puff, no swollen ankles and feet, and walking is soooo much easier) -- I figure I may be a mere child when I reach my goal!
Even if I wind up having to tuck my boobs behind my ears when my weight works its way off -- it will be worth it! What was that Clairol, Revlon, Loreal hair coloring ad from the 70's???? "your not getting older; your just getting better!"
I can't wait until I'm cruising with Valentina (hear that GF???) in that convertible Mini Cooper looking for young studs who like older women with excess skin!!!

Way to go Friends! We "50s" can do it ad do it well!

I'm 56 right now, and am just finishing up my 6 month diet before I can apply for insurance coverage. Your posting gives me a lot of hope. In my freshman year of college I weighed 118, and still thought I was pudgy. I can't wait to feel like a normal, thin person again.

BTW, I do NOT think the sleeve stop working, we might, but the sleeve does not. If I'm up two pounds, losing it is not a problem. It might be more difficult if you have eight or ten to lose, but I am certain it can be done. I have a friend who was injured, had back surgery and ended up gaining 30 pounds, she lost almost 150 the first ten months, so she KNEW what to do and she did. She's lost it and is maintaining!

It's absolutely true. I am almost 3.5 years out, I've been maintaining easily for not quite three years, but as time goes on you are able to eat more, so if your bad habits haven't been addressed, even though you can still eat less than before, weigh loss will slow down and it will be harder to get to goal. I made the most of it and hit goal at six months, by the time I was one year out, I could eat substantially more than the 1/8 cup I was eating that first month. My doctor doesn't want his patients to EVER eat more than a cup of food at one meal, I still cannot eat a cup of food. Hopefully I never will be able too. I think many people struggle after the honeymoon period (6 - 12 months) because they've let bad habits slip back into their lives. I was very strict with myself when I was losing. NOTHING that you'd normally consider 'bad'. Nothing at all sweet, fried and I limited Pasta, potatoes and bread....I still limit them quite a bit. I didn't eat real butter.....I was careful and mindful of every single thing that I ate. I logged it all, I weighed daily, I weighed and/or measured my food. These are things I still do today and I will have to do forever. They're as natural to me as breathing. I know how quickly I can gain, I have a comfort zone, and if I'm a half pound above my high end, I cut back my calories by 100 - 150 per day.
For the first time in my life, I NEVER feel guilty about what I eat, for the first time in my adult life, I am not on a diet. I am in control, food is not. It's very liberating to throw food away.
My restriction is still very good, I try and under eat my sleeve, if I FEEL full, it's too late, I'm miserable. I haven't been hungry in almost 3.5 years, I have what I call my new hunger, more of an empty feeling.
I love my sleeve, not a minute of buyer's remorse.

BTW, I do NOT think the sleeve stop working, we might, but the sleeve does not. If I'm up two pounds, losing it is not a problem. It might be more difficult if you have eight or ten to lose, but I am certain it can be done. I have a friend who was injured, had back surgery and ended up gaining 30 pounds, she lost almost 150 the first ten months, so she KNEW what to do and she did. She's lost it and is maintaining!

It's absolutely true. I am almost 3.5 years out, I've been maintaining easily for not quite three years, but as time goes on you are able to eat more, so if your bad habits haven't been addressed, even though you can still eat less than before, weigh loss will slow down and it will be harder to get to goal. I made the most of it and hit goal at six months, by the time I was one year out, I could eat substantially more than the 1/8 cup I was eating that first month. My doctor doesn't want his patients to EVER eat more than a cup of food at one meal, I still cannot eat a cup of food. Hopefully I never will be able too. I think many people struggle after the honeymoon period (6 - 12 months) because they've let bad habits slip back into their lives. I was very strict with myself when I was losing. NOTHING that you'd normally consider 'bad'. Nothing at all sweet, fried and I limited Pasta, potatoes and bread....I still limit them quite a bit. I didn't eat real butter.....I was careful and mindful of every single thing that I ate. I logged it all, I weighed daily, I weighed and/or measured my food. These are things I still do today and I will have to do forever. They're as natural to me as breathing. I know how quickly I can gain, I have a comfort zone, and if I'm a half pound above my high end, I cut back my calories by 100 - 150 per day.
For the first time in my life, I NEVER feel guilty about what I eat, for the first time in my adult life, I am not on a diet. I am in control, food is not. It's very liberating to throw food away.
My restriction is still very good, I try and under eat my sleeve, if I FEEL full, it's too late, I'm miserable. I haven't been hungry in almost 3.5 years, I have what I call my new hunger, more of an empty feeling.
I love my sleeve, not a minute of buyer's remorse.

I've heard a LOT of vets talk about this. I think at 6 months the sleeve is healed. Swelling is down, capacity has often doubled from where we started. If you have a cup of capacity and choose to fill it with chips, then as you can imagine, a cup of crushed up chips have close to 500 nutritionally bankrup calories or thereabouts. In contrast, if you do 1/2 c Protein, 1/4 c veg and 1/4 complex carb, you're doing considerably less damage if any.
From what I understand, the increased capacity makes smart choices that much more vital.
Additionally, most of us have lost a lot of weight by then. So let's say you've shed 60% of your excess weight, now your caloric requirements are necessarily lower. So you should be eating less, but suddenly you can eat more.
Rut roh.
Having said that, there are many, many examples of people who have continued to lose well after 6 months so it's not like the sleeve "stops working". It's just a tad tougher from what I can tell.

More hunger and more capacity. I remember being exactly 5 months post op on my lunch break at work and having a panic attack at how much more I could suddenly eat.

I don't like yogurt, Greek or otherwise, but my husband has gotten hooked on it. His favorite, and it's also reasonably priced is Lucerne, Plain Greek Yogurt. He adds a stevia and I change it up for him, right now I have some granola for him to add. Some times he'll add Grape Nuts, some time mini choc chips. Sugar is not a concern for him, but it's 10.9 grams per 8 oz serving.

My surgery is on June 5th I can't wait

I just got approved for surgery at this small hospital that does the robotic surgery, they will let me know Monday when my surgery will be, I'm 6'5 440 lbs be turning 54 the 13th of June, I just hope I can get to my goal of 220, and that I'm picking the right surgery to have, I seem this app and the info been so helpful

It may be 'just a number' to some, but to me, it goes far beyond a number. It's part of my dashboard, that number let's me know what's going on 'under the hood'. That number is like a red light coming on in my truck. It lets me know if something needs to be checked or changed. Like you, if I don't see a certain number, or less (in my case it is 142 - 145) I take action, not a big deal, all I have to do is cut calories by 100-150 and the extra pound or two is gone in just a few days. It's as easy as that. I cannot become complacent, in my book, that is a slippery slope and I know how quickly I can slide!!

Yes, in the beginning, but I don't think they mean anything by it. I think they are surprised that there are not 'rules'. My sister in law said to me, after I reached goal and we were out to eat.....I am so glad to see you can eat like a real person, just less. She had NO idea what WLS was about and figured it would be something like all the other 'fad' diets we've all been on in the past!!

Cara,
I may be an odd ball, but I do NOT struggle at all with keeping the weight off. No white knuckling here! I reached goal in six months and that was back in Dec. 2010. I've been maintaining for over 2.5 years.
I would do this again in a heartbeat, I wish I had been 35 or 40 instead of 50 when I had VSG!!!! It's life changing, life altering - it's wonderful, every day is STILL is exciting to me. I've been on board and beyond thrilled since I woke up in recovery. It's fun, it's a wild ride and you will not believe how different your life is a year into this journey!!!
I am pretty darn lazy, and by that I mean, I am not a gym rat, I am not a member of a gym and I do not do any 'formal' exercise. I park as far out as I can in parking lots, even in triple digit heat, and I do it on purpose, I go up and down our stairs more times than I need to. I have a 5 lb weighted ball that I toss around on occasion and I have even started doing 'wall' push ups. That's it. I know me, I have the attention span of a four year old. I did NOT want part of my weight loss to be due to my sudden interest in exercising....so I can honestly say, NONE of my weight loss was due to joining Curves, Gold's Gym etc. I DID know that I would need to make lifestyle changes that I could do forever, changes that would become my new life, my new normal. That is what I did and that is what I will continue to do. Age, boredom nor a twisted ankle will be a stumbling block and deal breaker!!!
There are things I do that I call my 'dashboard' - just like on my truck. I watch my dashboard and if something needs 'changing', I know it right away.....not eight or ten pounds down the road.
1) I weigh every morning
2) I weigh and/or measure my food when I'm home
3) I log my food on line (my fitness pal, I keep track of calories and protein)
Last but not least, I attend support groups. Most people go to one, I have four that I attend each month. I feel like I'm paying it forward. So many folks let ME pick their brains and ask numerous questions & calmed my fears early on. Now I am doing it for others. I am usually further out than most people at the support group meetings, so I seldom come across somebody to answer MY questions, but there are plenty for me!!! LoL
There are other little things that I started doing prior to surgery and continue to do, at least most of the time. Keep in mind, a lot of our 'issues' are all in our heads!! I eat on a smaller plate, a salad plate or bread and butter plate, it's great for 'visually' seeing a plate that isn't all plate and a dab of food. I eat with a seafood fork most of the time. Little changes like that, also become habit and it is helpful.
Good luck on whatever decision you make. Make sure to research, ask questions.....get on board, all of you, to make lifestyle changes. I feel like I eat like a naturally thin person, for the first time in my life, I am in control, food is not. Know that the doctor removes approx 85% of your stomach, after that, it is all up to you. This is a life time commitment, and like I said, I don't consider it work or time consuming, it's my new life. It is forever, there is no end date and it is worth every single change I've made. I still eat, nothing is "off limits" to me except carbonation, big deal, right???!!! There are things I choose not to eat or at least not often, but no hunger makes it much, much easier to resist when I need/want to.
Again, good luck!!

It was always good, but since I feel better about being in my own skin......wow.

Good morning! I am so sorry about the weight gain. All I can tell you is what I do, what I've done from the beginning. For me it is a total lifestyle change, as natural to me as breathing. I call this my 'dashboard'.
1) I weigh EVERY day. I KNOW how quickly I could gain eight or ten pounds, and that would be overwhelming to me. If I'm up a pound or two, I just make a change or two and it's gone in several days.
2) I weigh and/or measure my food when I am at home (eye ball it carefully when out)
3) I log my food on my fitness pal. Before discovering MFP, I used fitday.com and at the VERY beginning, I have a spiral notebook and wrote it down.
4) I attend support groups
My comfort zone is 142 - 145, I weigh first thing in the morning, out of bed, go to the bathroom and on the scale. A pound or two is manageable, but for me, I cannot go by how my jeans fit, by that time I'd be up ten pounds and it would take me a few months to get that off, I'm sure of it. I must track my calorie, there is a fine line for me between maintaining, gaining and losing. I've been doing this for over 2.5 years, so I've got the hang of it, but I can never be complacent. Like I said, this is my new normal. This is why I call what I do, my dashboard, if a 'light' comes on, and to me, being up a couple of pounds, or my calories being above what I need.....those are my lights. I just change things up a little, meaning, I lower my calories by 100 -150 and that takes care of it.
Make sense? My advice is, find something that works for you, something you can do forever, there is no end date, we've made a lifetime commitment.....and make it part of your life. Good luck, you can do this.

There is a point where many may:
have more capacity to eat more food/stomach relaxes
get their hunger back
weight loss slows or stops
start gaining weight
reach goal and navigate maintenance
are past the "honeymoon"
usually past a year or more may be earlier
find themselves in a new "stage" different from the beginning stages after WLS
finding the old methods used to take off weight may or may not work
are finding a way to stay the same weight after gaining or losing too much
the issues are no usually longer about what Protein drink to buy, the three week stall, the funny taste of food, gas pain, eating in public, hair loss, insurance approval.....
come to the conclusion that the process NEVER ends, it is a lifetime of learning and doing and sharing and counting and moving... and that is the new normal.
Realizing what is meant by "the sleeve is a tool" and it is only part of the process, you can gain all your weight back if you don't start forming a new life and just resting from the work and eating "normally" after getting to goal will result in weight gain for many.
These are some of the issues I see arising for "vets" and distinguishes them from "newbies"... which we all were once... You can't know how the sleeve and the rest of the body and mind will be until you experience it for yourself over time. 1-2-3-5 years later, things change. We don't know about 10 years because there just aren't many out there with current style sleeves to talk to. But some at 6 months are getting some of this experience, I think after a year or two you really see the Vet issues even clearer. Some don't come back here, so hopefully they are doing great, are living life and not gaining or losing too much.... the ones of us that are still here are experiencing the stuff listed above... some are having NO problems at all.
I love my sleeve and my life, and at this time (2 1/2 years out) I am still not at goal, but very close and believe I will make it to goal pretty soon, and have some plans on how to maintain I think I can follow. Taking the long view has been very helpful for me....If I took the view that if I didn't lose all my weight by 6 months without pulling all my hair out or I was a failure if I didn't lose 30 pounds in the first month, then this experience would have been hell. I have some good support friends here that have been here for years... we chug along together, and check in often, share research, worries and challenges, and we will share the pleasure of accomplishment as well. I plan on staying in contact during maintenance when I get there. Maintenance may well be the most difficult part of this journey. Keeping the weight off is the trick.
Someone here said it best... reaching goal at 3 years feels just as good at reaching goal at 6 months. Who cares as long as you get there!

I have to ask, if you refuse to do the things you listed, what changes are you willing to make after having approx 85% of your stomach removed? After the doctor does HIS part, and we wake up in recovery, the rest is up to us. We have after all, made a lifetime commitment. There is no end date.
I do all the things you listed and it does not feel like a diet, it makes ME feel in control for the first time in my adult life. Had I counted calories, had I been diligent 30 years ago, I might not have found myself sitting in the waiting room of a bariatric surgeon. I made 'healthy' choices, I thought I did, until my fitness pal told me differently, I didn't realize the calories some things contained. I believe it when they say we always underestimate when guessing at calories. You do not have to do what I do, but you must do something if you expect long term, forever success.

I have to ask, if you refuse to do the things you listed, what changes are you willing to make after having approx 85% of your stomach removed? After the doctor does HIS part, and we wake up in recovery, the rest is up to us. We have after all, made a lifetime commitment. There is no end date.
I do all the things you listed and it does not feel like a diet, it makes ME feel in control for the first time in my adult life. Had I counted calories, had I been diligent 30 years ago, I might not have found myself sitting in the waiting room of a bariatric surgeon. I made 'healthy' choices, I thought I did, until my fitness pal told me differently, I didn't realize the calories some things contained. I believe it when they say we always underestimate when guessing at calories. You do not have to do what I do, but you must do something if you expect long term, forever success.

I have to ask, if you refuse to do the things you listed, what changes are you willing to make after having approx 85% of your stomach removed? After the doctor does HIS part, and we wake up in recovery, the rest is up to us. We have after all, made a lifetime commitment. There is no end date.
I do all the things you listed and it does not feel like a diet, it makes ME feel in control for the first time in my adult life. Had I counted calories, had I been diligent 30 years ago, I might not have found myself sitting in the waiting room of a bariatric surgeon. I made 'healthy' choices, I thought I did, until my fitness pal told me differently, I didn't realize the calories some things contained. I believe it when they say we always underestimate when guessing at calories. You do not have to do what I do, but you must do something if you expect long term, forever success.

I have to ask, if you refuse to do the things you listed, what changes are you willing to make after having approx 85% of your stomach removed? After the doctor does HIS part, and we wake up in recovery, the rest is up to us. We have after all, made a lifetime commitment. There is no end date.
I do all the things you listed and it does not feel like a diet, it makes ME feel in control for the first time in my adult life. Had I counted calories, had I been diligent 30 years ago, I might not have found myself sitting in the waiting room of a bariatric surgeon. I made 'healthy' choices, I thought I did, until my fitness pal told me differently, I didn't realize the calories some things contained. I believe it when they say we always underestimate when guessing at calories. You do not have to do what I do, but you must do something if you expect long term, forever success.

Hi Ashley,
You're welcome! It is possible, I feel like I live the life of a naturally thin person. Develop good habits now, it makes life very easy in the long run. All the things I do, my "dashboard" is my new normal, as natural to me as breathing!!! Good luck to you, hold on tight, it's a wild ride, but OH SO FUN!!!!

Well, after reading the study info that Laura provided I feel better. I'm a little over three years. I just ate my dinner which started with a plate of salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes lettuce and 3 ounces of chicken which at the time seems edible. I ate MAYBE a fourth of it and about 1 1/2 ounces of the chicken on top.
I can't imagine that just suddenly in the next year and a half ALL this restriction is going to have disappeared. I did gain over 25 lbs ( which I have almost completely lost less 2.5 pounds) but it WASN'T because of the sleeve. I would have gained it in the first year, the first months or the third, fifth or tenth year. Garbage in garbage out. If you eat junk and sliders you WILL gain weight just like you do without the sleeve
Like Swizzly, I will NOT be gaining back all my weight lost and ALL THOSE DOCTORS who told us most restriction can't be lost (yes, some naturally will) are wrong??
The tool continues to work WITH ME as I Work my sleeve.