I can't eat more than 1/2 cup or so at a sitting. Bread gets stuck, Pasta and rice come back, ice cream makes me dump. I want to nibble all day because I can't seem to get in more than 1000 HEALTHY calories a day and wine gives me horrific heartburn. I am either constipated or have poop Soup - usually the first leads to the second -- and I still can't have even a small glass of Water with a meal or I will horf it all back up. Regular water sits like a lead brick in my stomach still (after 2.5 years!!) and I still sit on the potty before I pass gas just in case.

That said...

I wear a size 6/8.
I can shop in ANY store.
My teenaged daughters now borrow my clothes and I borrow theirs. (Wait -- is that good or bad?)
I can fit in any seat AND cross my legs.
People don't look at me like I am Satan on fire when I sit next to them on the bus, the theater, the airplane.
I can put junk food in my grocery cart and not feel judged.
I can (and do!) walk 6-10 miles a day without pain the next morning.
I can keep up in Zumba class and still do another workout after.
I can dance all night without feeling it the next day.

I hike, bike, kayak, and play outside with my kids comfortably.
I no longer sweat like a horse the second I walk outside.

I am healthy. No longer pre-diabetic, no longer morbidly obese, no longer ruining my knees, hips, feet and back with excessive weight.


If this was the "easy way out", so be it. It damn sure was the SMART way out.

EDIT TO ADD:

It seems that some of you are taking my "litany of complaints" as real hardships and I want to correct that. None of the things I listed above are the end of the world nor are they even more than little blips on my radar.

When my ass hurts, I get up. When I'm cold, I grab a blanket. I choose not to eat bread, rice, pasta or ice cream and as much as I loved them before, they make me feel so urpy, I no longer WANT them. The poop soup/constipation, along with the juicy toots kind of sucks, but I think some Probiotics would correct that issue. I don't drink when I eat, nor do I drink for an hour after and it's not killing me. I don't need regular water, and while I miss it from time to time, a squeeze of flavor drops or a splash of fruit juice works for me. My inability to drink wine sucks the most, but it's a small trade off in the grand scheme of things.

I carry a change of clothes and wet wipes just in case.

Yep, part of the emergency kit.... unfortunately... sigh..

So I am in school last night, Applied Statistics, the hardest class, ever, I just (along with I think everyone else hate it). My tummy got to rumbling, and I thought I was going to have a blow out sitting there. It was funny though at one point, the teacher paused so we could sort of grasp what she was saying, and all anyone could hear was my stomach rumbling, even the teacher looked at me (and she knows what surgery I just had) and was like, do you need to step outside, and I was like, oh no I'll be fine (stomach growls) then one of my classmates said "dude, you better go to the mens room and get that out, cause if you pass that gas in here, we're all gonna die" I fired back there is a 50% chance it's gas, therin lies the problem. Then I had to ride the bus home and walk a mile from the bus station to my house, I spent a good hour on the toilet afterwards, what a nightmare! I did eat a couple Dannon light and fit yogurts last night, hoping for some of that probiotic love I keep reading about.

Lipstick lady, loved your post, funny but not funny !! I have a question though ! Is it just gastric bypass patients that have the loose bowel problem ? I noticed the ones that had the same problem were all gastric bypass people . Im banded, none of the major digestive problems unless I eat something like raw peanuts , cashews etc. Just curious !! ( Also, if had to carry an Emergency Bathroom Pack, Id include a couple of Depends , and a small bottle of hand cleaner. Can't hurt !!! )

Sleeve here!

Great post and o oh so true. Enjoy your life you deserve it.

@@pink dahlia I had the sleeve and have that problem but also have IBS so that may not be a good indicator.

This morning, after my morning coffee, I felt it coming on and knew I had to run to the bathroom....

Yeah, I didn't make it. Luckily, I work from home, so the only people who saw and smelled my poopy pants were my 3 Basset Hounds.

You are and continue to be an inspiration to me. Like you, I wouldn't change a darn thing. Except my poopy pants.

Oh God! I'm going to start bringing an extra pair of underwear to work I think. My scrubs are provided and unlimited thank goodness. I'm a labour and delivery nurse, do you think I could get away with blaming the poopy smell on the babies? Nah, probably not, newborn diapers don't smell unfortunately. I haven't experienced the desperate bathroom sprint yet. Not naive enough to think I never will. Still, I dream of being healthy, it will make everything worth it.

Congratulations on your weight loss and all the hard work you put into this weight loss journey. The key to the "Maintenance" phase is to be happy. Try to figure out fixes for all the many little problems you encounter.

"I can't eat more than 1/2 cup or so at a sitting." That doesn't sound normal. Could you have an obstruction?

When you lose weight, you lose the padding on your rear end. It can make sitting for a long time painful. I use gel cushions and that helps. Also when you lose weight the fat that normally insulates your core is gone, thus you are more sensitive to the cold. When I work outside in the cold shoveling snow in the winter, I began using hand warmers, otherwise my fingers froze.

"I can't eat more than 1/2 cup or so at a sitting." That doesn't sound normal. Could you have an obstruction?

I do have a small stricture that I do not want corrected. It keeps me honest.

1/2 cup or so at a sitting is totally normal for me. My surgeon is happy with it, I'm happy with it, I'm getting adequate nutrition and I'm healthy as a horse! I'm just not as big as one any more.

I'm sleeved since this past February and I have this issue as well mostly the running to the bathroom part with an occasional plugged up incident can't seem to find a normal I have noticed that I cannot tolerate sugar free foods as they make me so sick and they don't taste bad but my insides revolt my nutritionist said I likely cannot tolerate the sugar alcohols also noticed nuts and peanut butter can't have either even tried a lower fat type nope not happening however the upside is I'm healthier can buy clothes in regular stores and have to keep getting new pants as they keep getting too big

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

I have been taking a probiotic for the last five days and I am THRILLED to say that I have not one

I'VE.GOT.TO.CARRY.MY.ASS.TO.THE.BATHROOM.RIGHT.NOW incident since.

If you aren't taking them, and you regularly have poop emergencies, try them. I am cautiously optimistic, but so far, so good. I think I may be reclaiming my bowels.

I did some research on which brands are the best (found a couple of independent labs that do that sort of stuff) settled on the #3 rated one across multiple tests, ordered from Amazon, talked to NUT and she was like, WHOA there, bring it with you next Wednesday for your one month and we'll discuss it. She said I usually don't allow supplements until the 2 month checkup. I retorted, um, not to be disrespectful but you do realize what is in all this yogurt I eat.... daily.... Probiotics. She said we'll talk about it. So one more week of unpredictable ass, at least. It's actually been pretty good for the last couple days. No Volcano Ass to speak of, had a few emergency runs, but it was gas, and had it not my hallway outside the bathroom would look and smell quite different now.

I did some research on which brands are the best (found a couple of independent labs that do that sort of stuff) settled on the #3 rated one across multiple tests, ordered from Amazon, talked to NUT and she was like, WHOA there, bring it with you next Wednesday for your one month and we'll discuss it. She said I usually don't allow supplements until the 2 month checkup. I retorted, um, not to be disrespectful but you do realize what is in all this yogurt I eat.... daily.... Probiotics. She said we'll talk about it. So one more week of unpredictable ass, at least. It's actually been pretty good for the last couple days. No Volcano Ass to speak of, had a few emergency runs, but it was gas, and had it not my hallway outside the bathroom would look and smell quite different now.

That's interesting because my nutritionist is the one who insisted I start taking probiotics daily on my pre-op diet and continue them forever. Once again, just goes to show how different everyone's program is and how you eventually have to figure out what works for you.

"We'll talk about it."

Yeah, right.

@@JamieLogical

You are so correct, I too am finding it funnier and funnier how different people are told such radically different things from people who profess to be all about bariatric nutrition.

@@VSGAnn2014

I had a little lol, yeah we'll talk about it. You talk, i'll shake my head, but the probiotics will be here today and I'll start taking them then.

Then next Wednesday, she can say whatever she wants, I'll just yes her to death. She may even be like, okay go ahead, whatever.

What brand/type of probiotics are people using that work well?