BlackBerryJuice

Literally strips. You put them on your tongue and they dissolve within a minute. The taste's not bad.

Consider eggs and egg whites as a protein source. They go down pretty easy.

I couldn't walk more than 3-4 blocks without getting exhausted and light-headed until like 10 days out. I'm finally at a point where I run most of my errands on foot, but so far I'm still driving to the university. Normally I'd walk - it's about 3 miles - but I'm still not sure I can handle it at 2 weeks post-op.

Well, that's a relief - the way you were describing it, it sounded like a staph infection, but I didn't want to post that and freak you out before you saw the doc. At least it's simply uncomfortable rather than dangerous.

??? Wasn't starting anything, just don't want my sleeve sisters to fall for scams when there's a proven way to fix things! Sorry you misinterpreted my message.

Dude, why'd you waste your $ on that scam, just buy some dumbells and do the exercises I mentioned. Here's a pic of my arms from last year at 15 lbs lighter than I am now, to show that my suggestions will actually bring results: http://i1006.photobucket.com/albums/af188/ABmed/Armz1.jpg

This is my 3rd week post-surgery and while I'm really looking forward to starting weights again in a few weeks, right now I have to settle for swimming. Yesterday I went for my first swim - took it easy with only about 300 meters. Felt fine! My challenge for the next 2 weeks is to swim every other day and add a lap or two every time until I'm back to my normal swim distance of 1000 meters.

Dr. Aceves sends everyone home with a 3-month prescription for Nexium. I take one every morning and feel fine.

The first week post-op, anytime I lay down on my belly or side to read or whatever, I'd put a soft pillow or a folded comforter underneath my belly and it helped a lot - it seems to distribute the pressure on the incisions so there's almost no pain. After about a week, I could sleep on my side quite freely.

As a bona fide exercise addict, I've got all kinds of advice for you! First off, subscribe to a magazine such as Oxygen. They have great weight-lifting routines there for every bodypart. You can also buy something like the "Women's Health Big Book of Exercises." Last but not least, there's the very in-depth Bodybuilding.com which has a directory of exercises for every bodypart - I believe you can pick a muscle group and the site will give you a list of dozens of exercises for it, including videos to make sure you know the proper form. Over the years, I've put on a good amount of muscle on my arms by doing lots of bicep curls, assisted pull-ups (if you go to a decent gym, there should be a machine there), assisted dips (if you work out from home, chair dips work, although not as well), tricep kickbacks, and overhead tricep extensions. The key is to use heavy weights - 5 lbs dumbells won't cut it. I'm obviously not lifting anything now, but before the surgery I would curl with 25-lbs dumbells. I believe I started out with 15s eons ago. To get a nice arm shape, it's also important to train your deltoids (shoulder muscles). I usually do shoulder presses, lateral raises, and front raises for that. My arms got their biggest/leanest when I took up boxing and spent a significant amount of time doing push-ups of all sorts and punching the heavy bag. My abs also got quite defined - you could see the outline even though I had a BMI of about 30! So I'd definitely recommend boxing to lean out your arms and the rest of your body.

So I want to do a race with my boyfriend on Oct. 2 (about 8 weeks out from my VSG). There's a choice between a 4k and an 8K. Before the surgery, I had done a number of 10Ks, but I haven't run in a few months and obviously won't be able to start for at least another 2-3 weeks - in the meantime, I've started swimming so I'm not completely out of shape with cardio. So while I want to do an 8K, I'm hesitant to sign up with less than a month to train for it, starting essentially from 0. For those of you who've run before the surgery, how soon did you start running again? How quickly were you able to get back into pre-surgery shape? Do you think an 8K is realistic 2 months after the surgery considering I was a regular exerciser before? I have to sign up in the next 2 weeks, so before I can try running for the first time.

OK, let's see...you took yourself out to have some fun and you ate a small movie bag of popcorn...lots of fiber! You ate pot roast and veggies (all healthy foods!) You're what, 2 months out? So "until I made myself sick" was probably at most a cup of pot roast and veggies - this is probably 1/3 of what my boyfriend's normal dinner would involve. So if you look at it rationally, it's no big deal! To prevent future mindless popcorn consumption, I'd suggest taking up knitting as a hobby. Knitting a simple scarf or baby blanket doesn't require you to look down at all, so you can still enjoy the movie while your hands are kept busy. If that's not your thing, bring a drink. I've gone to the movies twice since my VSG - granted, I KNOW popcorn could hurt my sleeve at this point, so I have a bit more drive to resist temptation - and I avoided popcorn without a problem. On both occasions, I brought something with me to sip (Protein shake or juice box).

Try kefir, it's a fermented milk drink. You should be able to find it at a health foods store, and possibly your grocery store, as well. I grew up on it, but I understand it's a bit of an acquired taste, so I'd start with a flavored one. I'm having a peach one right now, it's like yogurt with a tangy kick. If you like the fruit-flavored ones, you can progress to unflavored kefir, which has fewer carbs. It's a drink that's rich in bacterial cultures, too, so it's good for your gut flora.

I don't think this is a prejudice thing. I usually won't sit down next to someone who's big enough to be spilling over into the 2nd seat, because I know both of us will be uncomfortable. If I was a size 0, maybe I wouldn't care, but I personally feel very uncomfortable if I'm squished by another person, I need a certain amount of personal space otherwise I start feeling mentally uneasy. When I lived in Asia, it was very difficult for me to adjust to the smaller seats on public transportation and the constant contact with strangers' bodies.

I'm looking forward to crossing my legs comfortably. I can still do it now, but it was definitely easier when I was 165 lbs - and I'm sure it will be even easier when I'm at my goal weight of 145. My NSV today is that in a week, I've lost 2.25 inches off of my waist, 1.5" off of my hips, and 1.75" off of my thighs!

Did you eat anything high in fat that day? Do you or your family have a history of gallbladder stones?

I agree with you. When I was a kid, sweets was something to be had at birthday parties and on New Year's Eve - maybe 5-6 times a year. My mother described similar things about her childhood - my grandmother would buy a chocolate bar, cut it in 4 pieces for the members of the family, and everyone had one piece on Sunday at dinner. Then our country was infiltrated with Western influences and Western "food" and gradually it no longer seemed so weird to snack on a Snickers bar. That's when I started to gain weight. I also developed major GI problems and needed to be hospitalized for several weeks, but that's another story. You are not doing your kids any favors by feeding them crap, you're just setting them up for a lifetime of health problems and obesity.

Granted, I'm just about 2 weeks out, but I have not had any desire to eat anything unhealthy. I've been hungry on 2 occasions, but both days I didn't have very much protein and craved things like eggs, yogurt, and fish (so protein sources), which makes sense. Then again, I also ate EVERYTHING I wanted for the 5 weeks before I got my sleeve, so I might have also simply gotten it out of my system - the chocolate and ice cream got pretty boring by the end of that free-for-all.

Are you allowed to have milk yet? Protein shakes are a lot better with milk. I also really struggled with protein in the first 10 days, but now that I can have milk (or, in my case, Lactantia, as I'm apparently lactose intolerant now :thumbup1:) and drinking yogurt, 50 grams a day is not a problem. I think once I'm onto soft foods and can have soft-boiled eggs, egg whites, and soft fish, I should be able to get 70-80 grams. The biggest hurdle for me right now is taste-fatigue. There's only so many strawberry-banana and chocolate protein shakes you can have day after day several times a day.

I'm a med student living mostly off of bank loans and an occasional grant here and there. I used to be an EMT. Dropped out of paramedic school, but it was all good cuz I got into med school a few months later.

Darn! Can you have lactose-free milk or do you have to use soy or rice milk?

OK, so I've heard some people become temporarily lactose intolerant post-surgery. It appears that I may be in that category. Yesterday I first tried milk (as part of my protein shakes), and I felt pretty crappy the entire day - extremely gassy on both ends, rumbling stomach, and generally feeling like my stomach was filled with rocks. This morning I drank a 200-ml drinking yogurt (with active cultures, if this makes a difference), and felt fine. Now I'm drinking a protein shake with Lactantia (lactose-free milk) and the rumblings and weird feeling of pressure is back, although so far it seems a bit less intense than yesterday. What gives? How long is it gonna stay that way?:thumbup1:

It's better to cry when you're upset than to self-destruct with enormous amounts of food! At least with crying, you are not going to have a heart attack, diabetes, bad knees, and a shorter life expectancy! Hopefully your therapist can help you come up with other ways to deal with your feelings. I'm on day 11 and haven't missed food or had the urge to binge so far - I've only experienced serious hunger once, and I believe it was primarily physical hunger, as I didn't feel upset and there was no bad news or conflict preceding my feelings of hunger. My therapist suggested I read "Overcoming Binge Eating" by Christopher Fairburn - I guess it's the gold standard for self-help books for binge eaters AND basic information for therapists. Am reading it now - so far I'm still in the "what is binge eating" and "who binge eats and why" phases, but I'm looking forward to the next part, which suggests techniques to address binge eating. OA didn't help me much - I've considered them before and as an atheist, felt that a program that required me to acknowledge some sort of higher being was not the right choice for me. Moreover, I disagree with their approach of NEVER eating the trigger foods again. I want to be able to have 2 pieces of chocolate and STOP, like a normal person, which is one of the reasons I got the sleeve.

Explain. Lol.