Hi friends! I was sleeved on 4/20 and doing great! Down 57lbs so far and haven't had too many bumps in the road. Right now I'm pretty much avoiding carbs as much as possible (no bread, Pasta, rice etc) and trying to get in my 60 grams of Protein and Water every day. I've started taking Biotin proactively before the hair loss starts. I'm not cleared for working out yet but I will likely be soon and will get back into the gym. I'm not really actively tracking my food right now outside of protein and just casually keeping it low far/low cal. I've been thinking about using an app, but I haven't really been given very clear guidelines on everything yet.

I know the first 6-12 months are the honeymoon period. You're supposed to lose the most and easily during this time. So I am doing whatever I can to not cheat myself out of this time. I'm wondering from vets, what things did you not do until later that you wished you had started sooner, especially in the honeymoon period?

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Measure. Measurements of my arms, legs, waist... Anything and everything every Monday when I weigh in. It would have been a great data series to plot.

Sent from my phone, please forgive brevity and misspelling

I have a Fitbit scale that I bought from Brookstone. It helps to track my weightloss since it sinks with the Fitbit app

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You have the correct mindset, avoid the carbs as much as possible. I was losing weight pretty well until my six month anniversary, this was around the time I got laxed and started adding back the carbs.

I wish I had stayed away from carbs until I reached goal ( I am almost two years out and still haven't reached my personal goal). Carbs are my weakness.

I recommend myfitnesspal to log your intake & also take pictures to see your progress.

Best wishes

Take my measurement like @@BigViffer said. They really help with getting through stalls. I still don't take them on a weekly basis only when I am ordering clothes. I wish I did them every week and kept them in an excel chart like I made but never used.

Other than that, my biggest regret is starting to date at 3 months but you know hormones.

Also early on I used to measure some foods and weigh others. Now I weigh everything because I realized how off measuring can be and you can add so many calories using volume measurement instead of weighs.

I always logged all my food everyday. I have a year of it.

I wouldn't have done anything different. What I did worked just right for me.....avoided those no-no foods, exceeded Protein and Fluid goals, learned to eat just until satisfied, not full, established new eating habits and a regular Vitamin schedule. I never did measure or track my food (besides protein and water) because I knew I would never keep it up. No sense trying to implement a plan I would not stick to. Instead, I just taught myself to eyeball my portions and learned the limits of what would let me lose vs maintain vs gain. That turned into a new lifestyle I can easily maintain. Likewise, I knew I would not keep up with an excercise program so I never bothered with that either.

Basically, I would start doing now whatever you think you will be able to do forever and be very mindful of what foods you need to consume to lose weight vs foods that could cause weight stalls/gains in the future. Also make sure you have a plan in place for dealing with stressful events in your life. Those seem to be the trigger point for when many people start to regain weight. For me, seeing a therapist and getting on antidepressants was what I needed to help me cope since I refused to use food and alcohol as a crutch like I'd always done in the past.

Take my measurement like @@BigViffer said. They really help with getting through stalls. I still don't take them on a weekly basis only when I am ordering clothes. I wish I did them every week and kept them in an excel chart like I made but never used.

Other than that, my biggest regret is starting to date at 3 months but you know hormones.

Also early on I used to measure some foods and weigh others. Now I weigh everything because I realized how off measuring can be and you can add so many calories using volume measurement instead of weighs.

I always logged all my food everyday. I have a year of it.

Can you elaborate on the dating part? I've been curious about post-op dating and I'd love to hear your experiences. It seems like now that I'm less than a month out, I've got men chasing me like never before!

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I would shoot for a higher Protein target for my hair. More like 80-100. There isn't anything we can do to prevent the loss but the extra protein helps regrow lost. Im losing so much hair..that's the only thing I wish I'd started sooner

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Take my measurement like @@BigViffer said. They really help with getting through stalls. I still don't take them on a weekly basis only when I am ordering clothes. I wish I did them every week and kept them in an excel chart like I made but never used.

Other than that, my biggest regret is starting to date at 3 months but you know hormones.

Also early on I used to measure some foods and weigh others. Now I weigh everything because I realized how off measuring can be and you can add so many calories using volume measurement instead of weighs.

I always logged all my food everyday. I have a year of it.

Can you elaborate on the dating part? I've been curious about post-op dating and I'd love to hear your experiences. It seems like now that I'm less than a month out, I've got men chasing me like never before!

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It is just a distraction, I don't really have anything negative or positive to say. I never had an issue with attracting men before surgery and I don't post op. The first 6 months there is a lot get used to and you are still adjusting and learning your new life. Now that I am almost a year out, I wish I had waited until this point, because I have a better handle on everything and I am basically completely "normal".

Just because I physically look different it doesn't really make anything different about dating, men and relationships are still the same.

@@OutsideMatchInside response struck home.

I wish I'd managed my post-op "crazy time" much better. I was very quick to draw conclusions and demand a change......when I should have served myself an extra dose of "shut the hell up" each day and remained steady, calm and centered.

The hormone rush and desire to break away from sources of perceived lacking fulfillment would have been best tempered with more careful planning out an overall 3-6-12 month plan and adhering to this. The plan would include basics: goals, food consumption measurement, exercise planning, budget for new clothes and new activities.....etc....etc.

I don't regret any of my actions, but I do think that I would have been better served by thinking long and hard before I acted. It was like I relived my teenage years all over again.....but in fast forward.

In summary, wisdom has come well after the fact and consideration of the impact your actions will have on others should be thought long and hard over.

Moving forward now out of my teenager years.....and into my second go'round at 20'something again.

@@cindyw41 I'm loosing a lot of hair as well I need to increase my protein and aim to meet that target daily. I tend to get laxed on the wk-end

I'm not an old timer but there are couple of things that I wish I had done and prepared for. I wish I had practiced eating and sipping before my surgery. By that I mean not drinking 30"-1hr before and after I ate. I am a Water girl and I always drink during meals. This is been extremely hard for me to break and I wish I'd started earlier practice thing. I also wish I had practice sipping fluids. You don't think that's a big deal, but it is because your stomach is so much smaller and I was used to taking big swallows. After surgery I could only do small sips and I would feel full and burpy.

I can now take bigger swallow, but still get burly if drink too fast or too much.

@ I have been avoiding this. I guess it's time to practice.

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@@KristenLe, I really really regret not practicing this.

If I had, I think I would have had a better grasp on when to eat and when to drink. Right now even though I am three months out , I still do not and have never gotten in my 64 ounces of Fluid per day.

It's funny because you really don't think about sipping, I mean really everybody knows how to sip! Well evidently, I didn't. LOL

I think the 30 min wait is what bugs me the most.

As an overthinker and analyser type person i always think of scenarios which this would be an issue. . Eg choking, ultrasounds where you have to drink lots of Water, high tea, etc

I contacted my surgeon and they said if i need to have a small amount of liquid during a meal for a REASON its okay... just not to make a habit of it.

What i do now is have a schedule... i eat.. check the time... then decide on the time of my next meal.. and then i drink as often as i can during that allocated time.

Eg.

Breakfast. . 8am

lunch ........11.30am

I can drink from 8.30am-11am

This way i know i am getting all my fluids in... and not being caught out unexpectedly too close to my meal... the schedule works for me.

Edited June 22, 201610 yr by AussieGirl81

@ExcitedAt55@KristenLe

I stand by my opinion it is pointless. What was a sip to me before surgery, and what is a sip afterwards are different as night and day.

My very first "sips" were barely enough to wet my mouth. I would have never sipped like that before surgery. And I tried, but you have no idea what a small tight healing stomach feels like until you have one.