Now that VST has been around awhile, there are a lot of us at goal who are learning to maintain.

I would like to discuss maintenance. Is it easy for you? It is not easy for me.

I fight it every day. I can eat so much more than I could when I first had surgery. I don't feel really full all the time the way I did a year ago.

I used to be able to eat a meal and feel so full for hours that I had no desire to eat again until it was meal time again.

I would say that Head hunger is more than 75% of hunger for me. I can eat a meal and thoughts of junk food enter my mind an hour later.

I am so thankful that I do have this tool to help me maintain, but it will always be a battle for me to not eat chips, candy and all the rest of the stuff that could easily pack on 20 lbs in a short time if I gave into my head hunger.

How are the rest of you at goal doing? Is eating healthy such a habit now that you have no desire to snack?

Beware Sliders! Lol. Very easy after maintenance to fall into slider carb foods! And once begun, like before, you just crave them more!! I speak from experience. Lol

Actually, yogurt is a slider food too. There are foods that are good for us that are complete slider foods too. There are way too many slider foods. The only thing that really fills me up fast is SURPRISE, dense protein. Meat is about the ony thing that I eat when I can really tell I have a sleeve.

Just reading and not close to maintenance yet. Soup is a slider food for me as well, but my tummy just loves it so much. The worst slider food that I visit is wine. If they could just make a wine that stayed in the stomach, I'd be all set. I kid! I kid! Sorta

Nannie G, wouldn't eating little then eating a lot just make the body think it is in pre-aggrarian times of boom and bust, therefore hang on to every little bit o fat it can?

At nearly 2 years out the only real non-slider foods I have left are broiled chicken breast no skin, and raw greens. Eggs are still tricky, sometimes they slide right down and I can eat 2 or 3, other times one bite and I feel the danger. Worse than slider foods is my acid production, if I don't take my prevacid then I will subconciously eat/graze to stave off the acid pain and when I do that I can eat a LOT.

Interesting how we define slider differently. I went to breakfast yesterday and had 2 scrambled eggs w spinach. I ate all but a bite or so, but I don't consider eggs a slider food for me. Before I had this surgery, I could've eaten a 4 egg omelet with cheese, so 2 w/o cheese seems reasonable. Carbs, especially sweets, are true sliders for me because I can easily eat a couple servings at one sitting if I let myself.

I too will eat like crazy w/o my PPI.

For those who still take the PPI what kind of symptoms do you have when you stop taking it?

My 3 year anniversary will be August 13 so my goal is to drop 10 pounds. I've been reading on here again here and there and it's been an encouragement. Makes you remember what it was like in the beginning. Our family is headed to the beach in another week and it hit me that 4 years ago I would have NEVER taken a vacation at the beach. Now I'm so excited.

Have an awesome day everyone!!!

Nanna509, I'm interested in what you are experiencing with your Sleeve at 3 years out. How much did you lose? Pocked back up any? What is your regular diet like now? I'm a little over 2 years out and love reading from "old timers". Lol. So encouraging. Have fun on your vacay!

OBgyn just put me on HRT. I need it because of insomnia, mood swings, lack of libido, the whole 9 yards. I've been on for 5 days and I'm ravenous. It's scary. I surely hope it's temporary.

OBgyn just put me on HRT. I need it because of insomnia' date=' mood swings, lack of libido, the whole 9 yards. I've been on for 5 days and I'm ravenous. It's scary. I surely hope it's temporary.[/quote']

I am on hrt and i dont find that it does that. I hope its temporary too!

Well, as of this morning just 7# til I hit my final goal ladies and gents! It's been weird but every # loss after 130# has just been surreal. I don't ever even remember seeing the scale in this series of numbers. It probably happened sometime in 6th or 7th grade. I steered clear of the scale for the most part as a kid. It would just make me more depressed and then I would go eat more. Pretty stupid, I know...

I so love being thin!!! I so love wearing size 3/4 jeans, or 5/6 depending on the maker, size 8 petite business suits. Now where is that magic wand to make the loose skin disappear. *** KAZAMM **** LOL!!!

I've tried to go off of my PPI . I was off of it for 6 months and decided the acid wasn't worth it. Now I take it every other day. I can sure tell when it's time to take it. I take protonix.

I've been experimenting with going off my PPI (Prevacid) over the past week and a half and it has been painful! I went almost 4 days without and by the end I felt like a hole was being slowly burned through my chest wall and like my throat was swelling shut. So I took one, then waited 36 hours to take another one and it has now been ... 4 days? since and although I get some uncomfortable burning sensations in the late noontime, if I eat my greek yogurt around that time it helps. I'm wondering if I feed my stomach foods that require a lot of acid to break down, thereby giving it something to do (lol) if that would help?

I've tried to go off of my PPI . I was off of it for 6 months and decided the acid wasn't worth it. Now I take it every other day. I can sure tell when it's time to take it. I take protonix.

Just a word of caution- not saying it applies in all cases, but check with your Dr. for your situation. When I was preparing for surgery, I had an endocscopy done as most people do. I had had heartburn off and on for years, but I'm really stubborn about taking medicine because I have such a gag reflex issue with pills. Well, when they did the endoscopy, it was found that I had Grade C Esophogitus (sp?) on a scale of A to D with D being the worst. It was because i was ignoring that heart burn feeling I was experiencing all that time. The surgeon wouldn't do surgery until it was healed.

The issue aside from delaying my surgery was that it could have turned into cancer of the esophogus if it hadn't been caught. So, my point is that be careful about choosing not to take your PPI if you are still experiencing heart burn. Fortunately I was prescribed a dissolvable PPI tablet and I take it as needed which ends up being about every 2 to 3 days.

Just food for thought.

scary!!

Well I've been on HRT for a couple weeks now. Things are evening out. I no longer feel like I could eat the paint off the walls. Unfortunately my weight is up to 125. It could be water weight from the progesterone or perhaps real weight gain for the week and 1/2 that I was eating like crazy. Now to take it off. My goal is 119.