BlackBerryJuice

LOL, awesome!

What's a good day/time/location for everyone? I live downtown and go to school at the U, so I'm fairly central and can go wherever. Are there certain days of the week or times of day that definitely don't work for people (e.g. maybe someone works night shifts)? I'm fairly flexible myself, so it's just a matter of what works for the rest of you guys.

Don't forget the folks who get full from half an egg are probably a few weeks out! Your pouch will definitely stretch out to some extent. I'm 8 months out and I can eat about 1/2 or 2/3 of a Subway sandwich (6"), or an entire bfast sandwich from the likes of McDs or Tim Hortons, to give you an idea. I'll feel comfortably full on half that sandwich, but yes, I can eat a whole one, so I just have to take care to throw out the other half or save it for later. I couldn't eat 2 large pizza slices, but I can eat 1 - I'm 2.5" shorter than you, so height may explain some of the difference. I just don't want you to think that everyone out there is living on an egg a day! Do you work out at all? I find that as long as I work out, I can definitely eat whatever I want. It will help change your body composition, too - in the end, it's less about weight and more about lean body mass, which is why you see people who are pure flab at 130 lbs, yet there are some hard-bodied women who are 150. And having more muscle will rev up your metabolism. One of the reasons people regain weight so easily after losing a lot is because they lose so much muscle mass, and their metabolism slows down to match. Eventually, it requires an inordinate amount of self-control just to maintain the new weight, forget about losing more! I don't really track my calories, but I definitely have days when I eat 2000 calories - which is what someone my current size should be eating to maintain, anyway! So yes, you can lose/maintain weight if you eat more than a tablespoon of yogurt per meal, but it may involve working out regularly. For all I know, maybe I could maintain my weight without working out - I enjoy exercise and do it for health benefits, so I wouldn't quit it regardless, but it'd be interesting to know. Last but not least, I think you should get some counselling for binge eating....and if that's not affordable now, there's a great book called "Overcoming Binge Eating." It's written for patients, but all the suggestions in there are the exact same that a psychologist or psychiatrist would be giving you, you just won't have the accountability to others. You may also benefit from some medication to help you with the binging, as I'm sure there's an element of depression, anxiety, or some other mood disorder that's contributing to your binging. It's worth looking into these options!

Tell me about it, my dance teacher loves to get us doing full sit-ups on the hardwood floor (no mats or anything), and I can't get through the whole set because of the excruciating pain in my tailbone! Yet somehow my butt is still fairly big, but the fat I have left seems to have collected at the bottom.

I'm essentially eating whatever fits in my sleeve and gives me energy, although I try to eat more Protein, choose whole grains rather than refined, drink no-sugar-added juices or smoothies instead of pop, etc. But I'm definitely not on any sort of diet, I've had enough of those over my lifetime.

Woah, didn't realize there were so many of us here! If you guys want to meet up (I'm also in E-town), let me know, it'd be great to meet up with some local sleevers IRL!

Hahaha, I'd need a dictionary for THAT tirade, but I could probably make it happen!

That sucks! I'm trying this Velashape thing starting tomorrow, on my inner thighs (the only area it's been tested on, with results for 70% of pts). We'll see how it goes. I got it practically for free, and I've already received so many "if you don't do this just right, it won't work" warnings from the stupid office, that I honestly don't expect any results, but given that it cost me less than a drop-in gym fee per session, I decided to just give it a shot. I'll keep you guys updated.

I got sleeved at 25, 208 lbs. I have SOME loose skin, but not very much. I don't have the same skin as someone who's never been overweight, but I can still wear shorts or tanks without worrying about it. I don't have wrinkly skin, it just tends to kind of bounce a bit....hard to explain. But bottom line is, it's not a major problem, although you won't look as taut as someone who's never weighed more than 125 lbs.

I don't know what the official guideline is, but I personally avoided things with a lot of tiny seeds (e.g. strawberries and raspberries) in the first 3 months. I just didn't want some tiny seed to get stuck in a healing scar and then cause an abscess.

I've seen it before, I find it fascinating on so many levels. For example, the African woman's diet: FIRST MEAL OF THE DAY: Cornmeal porridge, 1.7 lb. with sour whole milk, 11.3 fl. oz. • SECOND MEAL: Cornmeal porridge, 1.8 lb. with sour whole milk, 11.3 fl. oz. • THROUGHOUT THE DAY: Sour whole milk, 26.3 fl. oz. Bird plums (not pictured as she ate what she had picked before the photo was taken), 3.5 oz. Water from nearby river, 12 fl. oz. Shows you how so many people, especially in the developing world, subsist on an entirely vegetarian diet....but also makes you wonder about her nutritional status. Yeah, she ate a lot of food and a reasonable amount of calories, probably a good amount of Fiber and Protein, but you bet her Vitamin and mineral intake is significantly less than that of most people in North America. Yet presumably, she's doing ok - she looks to be a normal weight and her muscle mass seems to be fine. The obese American man's diet is probably a good representation of the average North American diet - yeah, he's eating a fair amount of processed food, but there is a decent amount of fruits and vegetables in his meals; there are quite a few animal products, too. It's amazing that he doesn't eat much more than the African woman, as far as calories are concerned, although the article mentions that on other days, he may eat a lot more. The Chinese teenager - she eats quite little considering she must be very physically active! Note that she doesn't seem to eat dinner at all. She also doesn't consume very much protein, yet she's obviously in amazing physical shape. The young American woman from Mall of America - it's amazing how unhealthy her diet is! Just shows you how having easy access to cheap, low-quality food can egg you on to make unhealthy choices. All of these chains offer much healthier choices (e.g. grilled chicken sandwiches, juice), yet she selects the deep-fried, sugar-laden items. I can't help but wonder if a decade from now, she'll be 50+ lbs overweight. Then compare her to the next man - his activity level is obviously limited because of his disability, but he's able to maintain a healthy weight by making nutritious choices most of the time. The model....she eats very healthy, I think it's about as healthy as most of us can get without getting into orthorexia territory! But notice that she eats more than all of the preceding subjects, as far as the calories are concerned. The woman from Yemen. It's interesting to compare her to the Chinese acrobat, because they are both female and very petite, yet the Chinese girl eats way less and is most likely more physically active (although you bet that the homemaker in Yemen also probably does a fair amount of physical labor and walking throughout her day). The Yemeni woman eats 1000 calories a day more and maintains the same BMI range! It's also amazing how varied her diet is, especially when you think back to the African woman. Camel meat - I've got to try this! The farmer from Ecuador - just shows you how much energy you need to sustain a lot of physical labor. Makes me think back to the very rich and fattening meals my grandmother always cooks and offers when I come to visit her in the countryside. They still eat as if they have to spend ten hours a day tending to the fields and the animals.....except for hardly anyone does as much physical labor anymore! Not surprisingly, my grandmother is quite overweight. The US soldier - note how many calories he consumes, yet he's in great shape, presumably thanks to a combination of a fast metabolism and the physical demands of his work. But you wonder if he's going to proceed to eat just as much once he's done with his physically challenging training/work and balloon like so many former pro or even high school/college athletes do. You'd have to pay me to eat a lot of the stuff the Japanese man eats.....natto and umeboshi are two of the VERY few foods I detest with a passion. The Iranian man's diet highlighted another pattern you see in a lot of foreign diets - a lot of people like to start their day with some vegetables. This is rather rare here - the only vegetables most North Americans eat for bfast are potatoes and then sometimes some veggies in an omelet. And I want that giant plump fish so bad!

I wish...I still have breakouts, seborrheic dermatitis, etc.

I'm a former competitive boxer. I think boxing is too much until you are completely healed, 3 months out. And non-contact only, of course. I've been having thoughts about returning to it, but I just don't want to risk having my sleeve ruptured by a serious punch.

I drink diet pop a few times a week, as well as coffee sweetened with Splenda (or Sweet'n'Lo if no Splenda is available). Neither seems to bother me. I have occasional cravings for sweet things regardless, might as well quell them with a diet pop rather than ice cream or something.

Yeah, but that just kind of reaffirms that 1) fat people deserve to be insulted 2) you will bust your ass to fit societal expectations. Know what I mean?

To top it off, just Googled him and the results confirmed my long-standing theory that douchebags get the farthest in life! On the upside, he works in Britain now, so maybe he won't be there to bless me with his presence.

Bfast: Protein bar Lunch: corn chips with homemade guacamole, some chocolates Snack: coffee with cream, strawberries with splenda Dinner: leftover vegetable and chicken/meat/shrimp noodle stifry from last night Before bed: fish and coconut rice, more chips and guac

So my 5-yr university reunion is coming up this summer. I was coming to town regardless to visit some friends, so I registered for it, although I haven't really heard from anyone from my class so far, so I was checking out people's Facebook pages yesterday to see if any of my old college buddies will show up. Then I saw this guy from my class on someone's friends list, and it brought back this really traumatizing memory from freshman year. That guy was just really slimy and unpleasant and he took a particular disliking to me right off the bat, for no reason. One day, I was sitting in the cafeteria and talking to a male friend. This guy comes up to him and says in a foreign language he obviously thought I did not know (fortunately - or unfortunately - I speak almost 10 different languages): "Why are you sitting with this fat cow?" My "friend" didn't say anything, but he told me he had to get going. Oh, and I was maybe 165 lbs at that time, just in case you are wondering how fat of a "cow" I was. I had totally forgotten about that incident, but seeing that dude's slimy mug on my old classmate's friends list just made me so f**king ANGRY. Pissed off that that asshole would insult me right when I was there, thinking I don't speak his language - obviously he didn't have the balls to do it in English; pissed off that the guy I had been talking to didn't have the nerve to say "What the hell are you talking about?" as well as pissed off at myself for not picking up my plate and throwing it in that asshole's face. I was 17 at the time, so I was too shocked and taken aback to do anything - obviously, today I'd just hurl my food in his face and make a huge scene to embarrass him publicly. It also reminded me of a bunch of other episodes like this with random men harassing me when I was hardly 20 lbs overweight and saying all kinds of insulting shit, but that was outside of school, so I'm not going to talk about them here. Suffice to say, I spent the evening really angry/anxious/depressed and then downed 2 drinks and a sleeping pill and went to bed. I hadn't slept the night before and had to be up early today, so I absolutely had to get some sleep and there was just no way I would've fallen asleep before 3 am without some sort of help. Anyway, I'm just wondering if I'm gonna see that asshole at my reunion....I'm obviously dreading it, but it's also very difficult to decide whether to pretend it never happened or just call him out on it and tell him I understood everything he said and ask him how he feels about doing stuff like that now that he's almost 10 years older. And I'm pissed that almost a decade later, this episode still riles me up so much that I have to resort to substances to fall asleep. That asshole really got under my skin, I really wish I had stood up for myself back then. [/RANT]

Does this mess with your sleep? I have terrible insomnia, last thing I need is an upper to stop me from sleeping altogether.

Find out whether they drug you at endoscopy. Seems to be a popular thing based on the earlier replies - but I've had endoscopy done several times (not in North America) and no one ever used any medication on me. It's rather unnecessary, as this isn't a painful procedure, just a bit uncomfortable (you'll gag for 30 seconds or so). If they don't give you any meds, you'll be a-skippin' on your way to work the second they pull that tube out.

I'm not a huge bread person, but I did have a Tim Horton's bagel with cream cheese the other day, it went down fine. I could only eat half at a time, though - which is great considering the entire sandwich is 440 calories.

This is definitely a problem for me! Like coops, I drink something that's not too dense in calories - water doesn't do much, but I do enjoy tea with milk and Splenda. If that doesn't do it for me, I just try to pick healthier things to munch on - sliced fresh fruit or vegetables are a good option. The key here is not to get carried away with calorie-dense foods, like nuts.

I'm definitely enjoying this feeling after the surgery! I do feel a bit guilty sometimes if I just eat crap all day, but that doesn't happen very often, and when it comes to my daily treat of a few pieces of chocolate or half a dessert at a restaurant, I don't feel guilty, because I know it won't make me put on weight. Of course, I'd love to eat 100% healthy every single day, but for now, I'm just happy being "normal."

I ran mine this morning - personal best at 30:15, although I was hoping for a better time since I was like 35 lbs heavier at my last 5K, which I ran in 31:30. I really hoped to get under 30:00, I guess next time I'll bring a stopwatch with me. If I had known it was a matter of 15 seconds, I would've pushed myself harder! What pissed me off is that my boyfriend who doesn't work out at all finished in 23-odd minutes! MEN!

I had my surgery at a BMI just under 35. I had also lost and gained the same 30-40 lbs for years; the lowest I got down to in the recent 10 years or so was 165, for a BMI of just around 29. I achieved a BMI of 25 in about 4.5 months, if I remember correctly, and now I'm hovering above 23 and not really trying to lose more, although if it happens, it happens. I think the sleeve was a good choice for me!