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So 4-1/2 years ago, I had the sleeve. Within 3 months, I dropped 60 of the 100 pounds I wanted to lose. I was off all blood pressure meds (and still am). Within the year following my sleeve, I developed abdominal hernias that my bariatric surgeon repaired. At that point, my weight loss stopped and I never reached "goal". Also at the time, I was working a 12 hour, physically demanding (not with heavy lifting but with a lot of walking), night shift 7p-730a which was one of my first saboteurs to my weight loss success -- I wasn't getting enough sleep. I also didn't exercise at all because of my physically demanding job. I decided to leave my night shift job, which I loved very much, for a "day job" but there was a 1 hour commute each way to this job. Exercising was now an even bigger challenge, but I got a gym membership near my home and I would drive my hour commute to the gym, work out and by the time I got home it was 8 p.m. 3 nights a week. Then I was eating dinner late. Enter REFLUX. I started with 20 mg of omeprazole, which didn't quite do the trick with my symptoms. Moving on to 40 mg was better but as time went on even the 40 mg of omeprazole wasn't cutting it so I supplemented with OTC omeprazole 20 mg for a total of 60 mg a day. That's where I am now. A recent EGD revealed I have yet another hernia. Lessons Learned: 1) Lifestyle matters. Prepare a lifestyle to accommodate your surgery so that you can take care of you. I didn't do this. I tried to be superwoman. I am humbled. 2) Follow up with your doctor's office more frequently than your program requires. Accountability is everything. Don't wander off and think you don't need follow up because you most certainly do. 3) Bloodwork. I can't emphasize this enough. I always keep my bloodwork in check -- I didn't want to lose my hair -- and I didn't. 4) Get plenty of sleep. Sleep needs to be as necessary as water to your well being. With these lessons learned, I will be getting the Roux-en-Y revision surgery to end my GERD and hopefully put me back on track with the 70 pounds I want to lose. I have created a lifestyle now that allows me to take care of me. I have a gym membership that includes a pool. I work a day job that allows me to work at home one day a week. I finally realized that being good to me is not a selfish thing, but a necessary thing.

Oh thank you SO much for saying this!!! I meant to bring up this point in my preaching above!!! That there are SOOOO many in the IF thread who have walked the walk for months now!!! Any one of us will be happy to help. And that the best thing is to jump into the thread, and start posting and asking questions!!! We'll all be thrilled to help! Not singling anyone out, but especially peeps like @GreenTealael, @sillykitty, @matt, @sheribear68, @AZHiker (don't know why these aren't highlighting) and so many others!!

For the past few weeks the scale has been going back and forth between 198-200lbs. I refused to count it until I was under 197-today is that day😄😁 1st goal get under 200lbs met!

Thanks for responding, Fluffy, especially with such a well-thought out post. I understand now that I may be 'too early' in the process. I'm such a slow loser and am hitting multiple stalls...that I was looking for anything I could do that would help. I have started tracking my food/water/liquids intake in the myfitness tool now that I was given macros by my dr's office but their plan has me consuming more carbs than I am comfortable with as I'm a big keto devotee and I lose better when I keep carbs low as a general rule. I did 'Atkin's' way back in the day and lost 80 lbs and kept it off for a decade. I restarted a keto WOL 15 months before having surgery as this way of eating helps my body feel better. Now I'm wondering should I follow dr's plan & not attempt to modify to be lower carb...unsure if only being 2 mos post op if my body would prefer that...but having had this body for a number of yrs (lol), I have such a difficult time losing weight...period. Usually it comes off much faster when I keep carbs below 20 ideally...or 30 for a stretch. Below is your list and I just wanted to put my responses in but I get what you are saying about it being too early for me to do IF. I'm hoping some of the things on your list that I'm already doing will have me better prepared should I go down the IF route later in this process: 1. FOLLOW your doc's and RD's plan for you and the stage you're eating at. You MUST be able to easily get the required protein in per day that they prescribe for you. And the amount of fluids you're told to consume. 2. Follow the rules of WLS. No eating drinking 15/30 or 30/30 depending your doc's plan. 3. Get ALL of your daily Vitamins in without skipping a single dose. I've been fortunate that I haven't had an issue with this even directly after surgery 4. Get to walking. And maybe even get to doing core strengthening exercises. Started hiking with youngest daughter several weeks ago. We've been consistent to this day. We currently do 2 x's a week and are looking to increase this but waiting for temperatures to cool down so we can do so..I also swim in my pool a couple times a week. 5. Protein first at every meal/snack >> al dente veggies >> a tiny bit of healthy fats (and that's it). Protein always first, especially since I'm only 2 mos post-op. If protein goes down ok, then I eat whatever veggie if i have one. 6. Cut out ALL C.R.A.P. (google it)--that means no sugar, grains, starchy root veg, starches, refined products, fake stuff, "treats" such as Protein Bars or Water drops. Severely limit the use of sugar substitutes. Did this 17 mos ago when I embraced keto WOL although I never believed in enormous intake of fat so my version had fats limited to ones that are healthier. I tended during this time to stay away from protein bars but if in a desperate pinch as I had a bad habit of not eating regularly (working so much I'd forget to eat, etc.) I might have one. I was a big user of artificial sweeteners during this period although I kept an eye on the research about them possibly causing hunger and many other things about them. Currently my limitation is 2 to 3 packets of splenda (or another fake sugar) a day in my post-op world. 7. Start drinking green tea now (I use decaff) and look into Earl Grey Tea. Ironically I just got a tea brew bottle and a pack of..I think it is green tea in a subscription box that I get. 8. Try to keep your carbs to <30g net per day (subtract Fiber grams of carbs from the total carb count to get net carbs. Yes, I'm a big believer in this! Trying to figure out how to fight myfitness pal as it does not have food listed in its DB, from what little I've seen, with net carb count. I may have to hand add all my stuff 9. No "snacking". Eat 3 meals + 1-3 small mini meals per day in order to limit meal portions to the volume recommended by your doctor and to reach your protein totals each day. A mini meal is an organized, orderly, planned event. Snacking is not. Snacking is hedonistic and reckless and it's possible to do a lot of damage with a single snack event. Since I'm 2 months post-op..this is usually covered although I am not yet this structured as I'm still having occasional issues at mealtime. My mini-meals are not yet planned, thought out events. Well, it's more like I know I will have a carbmaster yogurt in between my breakfast premier protein shake and my next 'meal' which is always an intake of real protein (i.e. meat that I can tolerate and is not a fatty meat). I also will parse out 7 almonds, etc. I think where I'm at is more like 'practicing for where I need to be'? I DID find myself recently..and it is always late at night as often don't eat my 1st meal of the day until almost 11 AM...going to get sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles but I was NOT hungry. It is old habits trying to creep back in. Was really upset that I started to 'go there'..this is a very slippery slope for me! 10. Aim to get 2-3oz of protein per meal (lean dense protein, no casseroles, no deeply satisfying gooey cheesy high reward meals. Keep is simple: grilled chicken, sauteed chicken, poached or sauteed fish, etc. No meat lube or stuff that adds to the pleasure of the food experience. My protein meals are much like what you said. Haven't had a casserole yet...wait, I did. It was shredded chicken I made in crockpot with chicken broth,fat free cream cheese and salsa..but no cheese involved. It is one of the few ways I can get 'moist' chicken. The macros do fit into my keto version including keeping the fat down more than most keto plans.

Hey! I’ve done my six nutrition sessions and am meeting with my surgeon in a week. I was wondering what everyone’s timeline looked like after you finished your nutrition visits. (ex: 2 weeks for insurance approval, 4 weeks until surgery date). I’m trying to plan my time off and don’t know when I should start requesting time off. Thanks in advance! ❤️

Ok, great response. So you should try to follow your doc. But you need to make notes for yourself. How does a "meal x" make you feel. Do you get hungry quicker? Do you feel tempted to eat off plan afterward. Does it interfere with your weight loss goals? How quickly are you losing per week? In general post meno women will lose much slower than others. How many calories are you eating per day and what macros are they suggesting? You need to switch over to My Fitness Pal (free). You will just eat your carbs then mentally subtract out your fiber. It allows you to track up to 5 macros. I will post a day of food below for you to see. I just mentally know if I eat around 40 total carbs with most of the carbs coming from veggies/dairy/eggs/nuts-seeds/a bit of fruit, then I will be between 15-30g of net carbs roughly each day. I don't stress about anything in my diet (except getting in enough calories with higher fat foods--cuz I don't do well with them). Ditch the powdered sweeteners and replace with liquid stevia drops. I use some flavored and the original. I like Vitacost, SweetLeaf, and Better Stevia brands and our HEB brand is also pretty decent. But I keep the use of these pretty low cuz of the cephalic insulin response. You MUST do something EVERY DAY to move!!! This isn't negotiable in my estimation--especially if you are in a hormonal deficit/challenge and have PCOS. It's hotter than hell here. I walk in my house. Seriously. I walk laps around the interior of my house. I walk/run for 1+ hours a day everyday. (if at all possible). I do miss some days, but it's a big deal if I do. I only lost on average 1-2lbs per week. In the early days I lost 3lbs per week but that didn't last long. There WILL be stalls. The are inevitable. I had to be between 650-850 (towards the lower end of that range) to lose those amounts each week. I had very few treats or cheats during the super active losing phase. And I didn't believe in everything in moderation when I never had moderation before. So you will have to decide how many carbs and how many cals you're gonna follow from your doc and how it actually nets results for you.

Gosh no idea, but how miserably scary!!! Be sure to go back a stage for the next couple of days to allow your body to heal. No more pulled pork or salad for a couple of weeks. Ok? ((hugs))

Sounds like things are moving along for you. The big day will be here before you know it. Keep it up! Wishing all good things for you!

Great to hear that you've got your date and lost some weight by eating healthy. Keep doing it. Wish you success with upcoming surgery.

Slow squat with hand weights. They’re soooooo much more difficult and I can actually concentrate more on the muscles I want to work out when I go slowly. Also don’t feel as if I’m one wobble away from blowing a knee out when I go slow and heavier.