Oregondaisy

Thanks for all the good ideas. I will definitely look for the steak bites at costco. I made a mistake there and bought some Jerky and it was delicious. I should have checked the carbs before I bought it. Way too many carbs for jerkey. it's turkey jerky but it must be cured in sugar. Where do you get the Ostrim? Thanks so much about the tip for boiling eggs. I boiled a bunch of them and could not get the shell off. I like egg salad and my daughter has chickens. I was so mad when trying to take the shell off most of the egg got ruined.

Can you share what's working? I am so fed up. I am tired of all the good things I know I should eat. I am tired of all my exercises. I am trying to to learn new things. Such a life long battle. I am very happy to be battling it at this weight though, than over 200 lbs and gaining like I was.

56 lbs divided by 7 months is 8 lbs average per month which equals to 2 lbs a week. You may not have lost it that way, but it's still averages out that way. Give yourself a break. You're losing. You're not losing as fast as you would like, but you're not gaining. If you're eating a lot of carbs, that's the first place to cut, and get in as much exercise as you can. Then just tell yourself you're doing the best you can !

Sometimes I so dread the thought of going to the gym. Then I picture that number on the scale and how it never changes if I miss my gym time, and then I trot off to get my gym clothes on. Believe me, the farther out you are from surgery, the easier it is to gain.

Sweets are definitely my downfall. It's so hard to pass them up when someone offers something, like a cookie.

Go to the food forum and there is a huge list of Protein Drink recipes. There are a lot of sugar free syrups you can buy that make a huge difference in the taste. the only person who should tell you if you can advance your diet is your surgeon.

I've gained back 10 lbs and it could easily be 15 if I didn't watch it carefully. You asked how hard I have to work to eating healthy food and exercising. I work just as hard now as I did before I was sleeved. The difference is then, I could eat right and exercise and not lose and get frustrated. Now I eat healthy and exercise but if I eat one wrong thing, I'll gain 2 or 3 lbs immediately. It takes all week to take off some splurge from the weekend.

There's a very long thread in the food forum where Protein powders are rated and people lists which ones they like. There's also a place where all the numbers are listed where you can call and order samples. I like Matrix by Sytrax. it's low calorie and low carb and has all the right protein we need. you can get it at vitacost.com

Mine is plain ordinary head hunger. It's for the most part, only at night. There's a lot of good healthy snacks, but they add up in I snack all evening long. It's like after dinner, even if I am full, my mind wanders and starts planning snacks for later.

It's really hard to accept too, as you get farther out, regain is a real threat. You're right about having a life time of experience on how to gain weight. It's all too easy to slip up too many days in a row now, and freak out while I am trying to take off the results of slacking off.

I will be sleeved 4 years at the end of next month. I sill love my sleeve . I just wish that it helped more with junk food which goes down way too easy. It still takes a lot of willpower not to graze, but I still can't eat large portions for my meals.

Sleevers can most definitely dump and i have done it more than once. It's horrible and it's more than diarrhea. It seems to go away after a few years though, and then you're stuck with gaining weight from eating those wrong foods. You need to learn to eye ball what you sleeve can hold if you're not going to measure.Measure out a cup of food and spread it on a plate so you can see what one cup on a plate looks like. If you eat too much, your stomach will hurt and you will gain weight so you're going to have to learn willpower. The sleeve still involves willpower,.

I have to have my snacks. I love the cocoa roasted almonds in 100 calorie packs. Then I can't eat more than I am supposed to . they are only 4 carbs.

Weight gain is always a worry. It's so easy for me to gain weight now. In the beginning, I was always so full, just looking at food made me feel sick. Now, I am not as full, and everything looks good. I have to be really careful. It's so easy to snack now too, because i am not so stuffed all the time anymore. It's a life long battle I am afraid, but it should be an easier battle with the sleeve. I can definitely eat more. Yesterday, there weren't a lot of choices where I was. I ate a whole McDonalds cheeseburger bread and all. I know I could have chosen a salad but it really sounded good and I haven't had one since about 2 years out. At that time, I could only barely finish it with a couple bites of bread. This time, I ate the whole thing, bread and all.

Have you gone in to see the urologist? I thought that was Thursday but maybe it's this coming Thursday.

I am glad to hear you'll be seeing a urologist! That is who took care of all of my problems!

I like the Oh Yeah pb chocolate Protein bars. They are fairly low in carbs and don't have sugar alcohol. That stuff makes me sick. I also like Power Crunch bars. They also are pretty low carb for Protein Bars. Most protein bars have way too many carbs. If you go to the food forum, there is a thread ''Places to get samples" You can order all sorts of samples of Protein drinks.

The drive over was good. It wasn't raining so that makes it easier. I would send a pm to Alex about your profile. Alex or Ken. Ken does tech support . It should say admin when you message and have another alex or ken show up. It was so much fun shopping today.I love coming here cause I have no good stores over there in the middle of nowhere. Are you still in terrible pain today?

You know it's actually comforting to see that I am not alone. At first when the issue of regain starting coming up here around VST, all I kept reading was "Oh I have changed my eating habits and I only go up and down 2 lbs because I have found a new way of life" Yeah, that was me in the beginning too. Between 2 and 3 years is when the 2 lbs turned into 4 and they were not going away no matter how hard I tried, and pretty soon, here came 3 more of their friends! Like I said, I know it's going to be a life long battle. At least I have a fighting chance though with the sleeve, and I look better than most of my 60 yr old friends.

My feelings are not hurt at all. I definitely got side tracked. Vets is definitely a maintenance issue. It has nothing to do with number of posts. Suppose someone just found this board who has been sleeved longer than me, and is having trouble with weight gain. They would be starting out with very few posts. I don't think being at goal should be a requirement either, because some people never make it what ever goal they wanted or their doctor wanted, but they still lost a lot of weight. I'll leave it up to the board administers to decide this issue.

It is not easy that's for sure. Even with the sleeve restricting our portions, it's very easy to graze and get out of control. I hate that it's a life long battle!

Bariatric Advantage has great calcium citrate choc chews that taste like tootsie rolls. The are 9.99 if you put them on auto ship. That's only 500 of calicium citrate and you will need more. I get capsules from vitacost.com . They have chewables there too, but I find them to be too sweet. I get everything there, my D3 B 12 sublingual, and my Protein powders that I make shakes. have you checked out the places to get samples? It's in the food forum under Protein Shakes. Bariatric advantage has a whole sample package. Tell them you're getting the sleeve because I think they give different stuff to gastric bypass patients. '

Sannah, aren't you in Portland? I am confused because your doctor says WI. I am in Hillsboro right now in a really nice motel by the Intel Campus. I hate the drive from the coast but I love coming to the big city. I hope you're feeling better and all of these kidney stones are gone soon. I'll be looking for the update after wed. when you see the doctor.

I can't eat 4 oz of dense protein at 4 years out. If I want veggies or side dishes, I have to work that into the volume I am going to eat. If I have about a cup of food on my plate including veggies or whatever, there is going to be less meat.

I will start a new thread about over eating and the sleeve. I agree I went off topic rather than start a new thread. What makes a vet is a very good question. I have a friend who was sleeved a week after me, eats candy and junk all the time, has no clue about restriction ( because all she eats are chips and sliders) and has never posted. She has been sleeved over 4 years, and I would not like her posting in here. ( this is just an example) She has plenty of time, and could have actually been posting all over the board (Recipes, the powder room, my story, etc) and could have enough posts, so she would be considered a vet. Maybe it would be better to say what topics we don't want discussed here. Like is it normal to stall? What is a soft food? Is constipation normal?