I am scheduled for February 18th. I will be first in. Wow, this process takes forever.

On 08/28/2019 at 00:08, sjemle said:

Hey everyone, I posted recently, but am always keeping track of the conversation and topics. So I kinda hit a stall and was discouraged, and on top off that I found out I had gallstones. Didn't even make it the scheduled MD appointmentto discuss treatment. I ended up in ER this weekend and had to have gallbladder surgically removed. Has anyone else had the gallbladder removed, and if so how was it afterwards? Could that have caused my 3 week stall prior? I am still tracking food and exercise, and based on that I should be losing weight. I try not to focus on that to much, but it is hard. Well I did just have a NSV, I was able to wear XLG scrubs..[emoji4]

Hello.
Well since you had surgery in February, I’m assuming that you’re right there with us on the slowing down portion of this journey.
I’ve read where many people hit a bit of a stall around this time.
I myself have hit 1 minor,and 2 major (lasting over a month) stalls since surgery. It happens, we just need to keep on program and it sounds like you’re doing everything you can.
If it lasts a total of 2 months, then it might be time for a consult is what I’ve heard.

On 08/28/2019 at 08:49, Everythinganna said:

Uuugghh. I think this is what I did to her with those cinnamon apples! She was doing so good and then I walked in her room this morning and found this bag almost completely eaten. I asked her and she told me she just got it yesterday. There are 1500 cal in this bag so I’m estimating she ate 1200 cal of candy yesterday. She got really really angry with me and accused me of lying to her about a multivitamin that I bought ( she accuse me of slipping her a diet pill, which I would NEVER do). I just don’t want her to go through what I did my entire adult life. It is such a sensitive topic.... teenagers!!

Okay sweetie, please do not blame yourself for that. It wasn’t the cinnamon apples, it’s something else deeper and these are the head issues we all have to come to grips with.

As the only “fat” kid out of a trio of siblings, my heart breaks for your daughter.
I also had a skinny mom (and kudos to you, you are now a skinny mom also) and that compounded my shame. I felt like I had somehow failed the family and the irony is that I wasn’t actually fat, fat. I just felt fat compared to everyone else.

IMO, the best thing for your daughter would be to see if she’s interested in working with a registered dietician and quite possibly a therapist specializing in adolescents and maybe even weight loss.
My experience in being a daughter and having had a daughter (mine is 22) is that mother/daughter relationships—even the very best of them— are fraught with pitfalls and can be a veritable minefield in the best of times.

Please please please do NOT blame yourself in this though.

Well in typical form I’m going to turn this into a forum about myself. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments Sheri. My heart hurts for her because of something happened last week which I truly believe has to do with her weight. She’s a varsity cheerleader but she is the only one who is bigger than the size of a pencil (she’s 4’-10”, 150-160 pounds). They pulled girls for a “best of best” competition team to represent the school for Florida and national competition. It was supposed to be based on how well the girls could tumble. My daughter worked for months and months (even with private coaches) to get a standing back tuck (which is commonly called a backflip). She got it. Then when they announced who was on the competition team, they picked girls who did not have the standing back tuck but that were thin and cute. My daughter was totally devastated.

I went out to lunch the next day with the parents of the other girls. We were watching high school football on the TVs in the restaurant. They were showing some cheerleaders on the sidelines and the ones they were showing were overweight. One of the other moms started making fun of them. I’m thinking; I’m right here!

Anyway, She did a program at the Scottsdale weight loss center a few years ago but it wasn’t the right fit for her. They put her on Optifast and even started her on an appetite suppressant. She lost about 6 pounds but couldn’t tolerate eating all of those shakes and soups. I felt bad for her and I would’ve felt the same way. Ultimately we moved to Florida.

We have spoken to several pediatricians as well. I feel like a nutritionalist would be best for her But it’s difficult for her to go to regular appointments because of her cheer conflict. She stays after school four days a week for practice. So I basically bought her a bunch of little goodies to kind of get her started on the same plan I am on. We picked out some snacks and things we would both like to eat and I bought groceries, meal prep containers, two dozen Evian waters, I even bought her some little fun things like body spray and clothes just to kind of make her feel better about herself.

Very hard being a parent and also a moderator of her meal plans. In particular it’s hard because her brother and sister are both in the 5% weight range and are actually under weight. So she feels much like you described.

I had hoped that my weight loss would be motivational to her and I know she can do it. I hope it hasn’t made things worse. She is so active and she just needs to cut back her calories a little bit. I do believe there’s some psychological stuff going on. Since having the surgery I couldn’t imagine eating a bag of M&Ms like that. It’s like I have totally forgotten the problems I had and why I couldn’t lose the weight before....

ahh how soon we forget...

Bariatricpal = Free therapy for me! Haha

Did you have weight issues too growing up Anna?

I wonder if you helped her divide sweet treats like the candy into tiny portions and have her see if she can have control over portion size. Maybe 10 M and Ms? We all know that the first bite or 2 are the best and after that you just mindlessly eat the rest of a serving or bag.

Initially my doctor and Nutritionist counted protein shakes and even yogurt towards my 64 ounce goal. I don’t count the yogurt now but still count the shakes and milk toward my fluid ounce goal. I still barely make 50-60 oz/day.
Do you count all fluids or only water?

On 08/28/2019 at 13:56, 2Bsmaller18 said:

Initially my doctor and Nutritionist counted Protein Shakes and even yogurt towards my 64 ounce goal. I don’t count the yogurt now but still count the shakes and milk toward my Fluid ounce goal. I still barely make 50-60 oz/day.

Do you count all fluids or only Water?

This is where different clinics and surgeons really are apparent.
We were all told that protein shakes never counted as water because they counted as “food”. Not even protein broth was to be considered fluid.
Therefore we were told to have an absolute minimum 64 ounces water or else we wouldn’t have as much success.
In the hospital, SF popsicles got counted as 1 ounce water, but besides that and zero cal sports drinks that was all we could count.
And they watched... if you didn’t consume 64 ounces water in 24 hours, you weren’t allowed to be released.
I was told by my insurance company that I was approved for one day only so i really felt the pressure to get the water in.

Now though it feels weird and I feel really bad if I don’t have at least 80 ounces.
I get so thirsty and headachy and I get cramps. I have no idea how people can drink so little bc I feel absolutely horrible unless I’m drinking all of the time

7 hours ago, Everythinganna said:

Uuugghh. I think this is what I did to her with those cinnamon apples! She was doing so good and then I walked in her room this morning and found this bag almost completely eaten. I asked her and she told me she just got it yesterday. There are 1500 cal in this bag so I’m estimating she ate 1200 cal of candy yesterday. She got really really angry with me and accused me of lying to her about a multivitamin that I bought ( she accuse me of slipping her a diet pill, which I would NEVER do). I just don’t want her to go through what I did my entire adult life. It is such a sensitive topic.... teenagers!!

Looking on the bright side, at least she chose a snack with a lot of protein! I once heard that peanut M&Ms were the best choice from a vending machine because of the protein--much better than pretzels. Having said this, my BFF is BONE THIN and adopted a girl with weight issues. She also hides food. She is 19 now and orders from Uber Eats when her mom isn't home. It is very hard on my friend to see her daughter struggle but I know the girl feels as if her mom doesn't know what she is going through because her mom has always been very thin. This is such a tough situation. I wish I had some advice but I don't....just a story that relates to your struggle. Sorry!

16 hours ago, sjemle said:

Hey everyone, I posted recently, but am always keeping track of the conversation and topics. So I kinda hit a stall and was discouraged, and on top off that I found out I had gallstones. Didn't even make it the scheduled MD appointmentto discuss treatment. I ended up in ER this weekend and had to have gallbladder surgically removed. Has anyone else had the gallbladder removed, and if so how was it afterwards? Could that have caused my 3 week stall prior? I am still tracking food and exercise, and based on that I should be losing weight. I try not to focus on that to much, but it is hard. Well I did just have a NSV, I was able to wear XLG scrubs..

smjeie--sorry you had to undergo another surgery. I just finished a 6-month course of taking Ursodial (Actigal) after surgery to prevent gallstones from developing. Just curious--did your surgeon put you on Ursodial after the surgery? Hope you are recovering well!

smjeie--sorry you had to undergo another surgery. I just finished a 6-month course of taking Ursodial (Actigal) after surgery to prevent gallstones from developing. Just curious--did your surgeon put you on Ursodial after the surgery? Hope you are recovering well!

No, they checked my gallbladder prior to surgery and everything was great so they left it in. The surgeon said if was due to me losing weight fast. I am getting better everyday, but the pain is worse than the gastric sleeve surgery..lol

Hmmm....my doctor prescribed the Ursodial specifically because he was leaving my gall bladder in. Since I had a healthy gall bladder, my surgeon left it in and said I had to take the Ursodial for the next 6 months because otherwise, I would have a high risk of developing gall stones. He told me to stop taking it my 6-month checkup last week. Yes, rapid weight loss can cause gall stones. I'm very surprised your surgeon left your gall bladder in and did not prescribe the preventative medicine. Perhaps you never would have developed the gall stones if he/she had done so. So sorry!

33 minutes ago, sjemle said:

No, they checked my gallbladder prior to surgery and everything was great so they left it in. The surgeon said if was due to me losing weight fast. I am getting better everyday, but the pain is worse than the gastric sleeve surgery..lol

It is due to weight loss. When you lose weight very quickly, your body chucks out cholesterol into your system, and that's what can mess up your gallbladder. I had mine out in '95 - I was only 25 years old. But, I had gone on a really strict diet and lost 70 lbs pretty quick.

On 08/28/2019 at 17:09, froufrou said:

It is due to weight loss. When you lose weight very quickly, your body chucks out cholesterol into your system, and that's what can mess up your gallbladder. I had mine out in '95 - I was only 25 years old. But, I had gone on a really strict diet and lost 70 lbs pretty quick.

I’m quite surprised I haven’t had issues.
Moment of complete honesty: I took my ursodiol for all of 2 weeks PO.
It made me nauseous and I was barely eating 80 calories/day so decided I was just going to have to take the risk of my gall bladder needing to be removed.

So far I’ve been lucky, but maybe that’s where me having a slow and steady loss has been a blessing rather than a curse.

Now watch.... next week I’ll probably have an attack from out of the blue and need to have it taken out

1 minute ago, Sheribear68 said:

I’m quite surprised I haven’t had issues.
Moment of complete honesty: I took my ursodiol for all of 2 weeks PO.
It made me nauseous and I was barely eating 80 calories/day so decided I was just going to have to take the risk of my gall bladder needing to be removed.

So far I’ve been lucky, but maybe that’s where me having a slow and steady loss has been a blessing rather than a curse.

Now watch.... next week I’ll probably have an attack from out of the blue and need to have it taken out

I just read in an article about elevated cholesterol and rapid weight loss that exercise can help, and I do seem to remember that from many years ago on some other weight loss journey (there's been too many to count). It kind of mops it up. I haven't been too concerned about exercise, but I think I might start now just for that reason alone.