Rootman

Congrats - expect more of the same as you progress!

Yep, ketosis, no CURE only treating the worst of the issues. Get a tongue scraper and mouth wash for the taste. It lets up in a few weeks or months. Incidentally this is NOT peculiar to the sleeve and happens when cutting back calories drastically by any diet.

They are referring to the whole seed, black and brown in color and pretty heavy for their size. Any health food store and maybe even a well stocked grocery store will have them.

Yes, I to got the dreaded "ultra hiccups", they would be so loud and intense that I would actually tense up by back and arms and cause myself a lot of pain. They do settle down a little although I've had one or two bouts in the last 6 months or so. Gr8rlove4me, sorry but this is NOT the "gas settling" in your arm. All the gas that was pumped into your abdomen during surgery was removed or adsorbed din a matter of a few hours, now the IRRITATION from the gas and being stretched all out by being pumped up - YES - that can have lingering effects for days or even weeks afterwards. Warm compresses and activity help alleviate it but TIME is what really does the trick.

Yep, been there too. I was always the fat guy that would eat anything. Reminds me of the old Life Cereal commercial, "here give it to Steve, he'll eat anything". It takes a while but you begin to see the new you and accept it as the REAL you. One thing I've noticed is how critical I feel towards others who are fat when I used to deeply resent anyone who felt that way towards me. All part an parcel with the WLS I guess.

In many cases it can as well as drop blood pressure but, as stated aboce, your results may vary. I had a resting heart rate in the 90's pre-op, now it can be as low as the 50's. I have lost so musch weight and become so much more fit. I wish you luck friend.

Generally as you lose wight the amount of alcahol that is required to make you drunk will DECREASE becasue your body mass is less. There is also the fact that possibly more raw alcahol is being dumped into your intestinal tract becasue the stgomach holds less.

Kewl! Keep up the good work, it only get's better from here!

Either that or simply create a bookmark in your browser.

DOH!

As stated but remember Protein is still CALORIES, and too many of them will not allow you to lose as much weight. The liver is principly involven in matabolizing protein and it can only handle so much at a time so so when presented with WAY too much it will just not process it and allow it to be passed in the waste.

Well I'm going on 2 years out and the initial pain is fading into the distant memory. I guess they had me pretty doped up at first, the overwhelming feeling I had was just a crappy feeling - something I almost always feel post anesthesia. I don't really remember any real pain at all other than just feeling crappy, drug out, tired and nauseas. I had my surgery Monday and was back to work Thursday so it wasn't that bad - and believe me I'm a wuss when it comes to pain and discomfort. And NO I don't recommend going back to work so fast, I had no vacation or sick days I could schedule for the weeks immediately following the operation because of everyone else squeezing their own vacation into that same December. I had just enough money on medical expenses that I needed to have tis done in December to take advantage of the tax break - something I seldom have any more - so waiting till January or later was not feasible.

You can never be on TOP of the world if you allow the weight of the world to rest on your shoulders.

Hi Chris and welcome! Just jump in and ask questions and contribute - all are welcome.

Congrats! It's won't be long till the 20's are baggy too!

This has come up a lot before and I say IMHO that the "no straw" rule is total BS. The fact is that when you suck on a straw you suck the Fluid up the straw and into your mouth where you typically exhale through your nose and minimize the air in the liquid and then swallow, so I would say there is LESS chance of getting more air with a straw then with drinking with a regular cup. If you chug the liquid through a straw then MAYBE it's not for you. Do what you want, I started out drinking through straws and have been for the almost 2 years post-op with no issues.

While I swim I appreciate the silence. When I bike I like the sound of nature, my day is so full of sound from work I appreciate the time of quiet.

Most likely it's ketosis. If you know about cars think of it as an engine that is burning oil producing a cloud of smoke out the tail pipe. As we start to burn a lot of fat rather then the more clean burning calories from food our body goes into ketosis. The "dirty" fat that we burn produces "smoke" and we taste it in our "exhaust" - our mouth. It slacks off after a while - how long depends on your caloric intake and metabolic rate and needs - so anywhere from weeks to months. Bad taste, bad breath and stinky sweat are some of the symptoms. Here's some more info about it at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

Mine too at about 10 months and has taken a few leaps since then too. Sometimes I really scare myself. For lunch last Saturday we got two of those new Arby's BLT's and I all of mine along with 1/3 of a large curly fry order and a cherry turnover. I was shocked at how much I ate. That morning I didn't have anything more than a Kashi bar for Breakfast and had just ridden my bike 20 miles so I was hungry. I ate a bag of popcorn for dinner too so the whole and was good AND bad

Yeah, wait a few months. For most popcorn is a slider - that is it slides right through the sleeve and if you don't watch it you can eat a LOT of eat and never get full.

I was on a roller coaster ride too, so it affects the guys as well. As pointed out, stored hormones in the fat, caloric limitations and ketosis all effect your blood chemistry and therefore your brain and mood. On top of that I was on testosterone replacement therapy and had to cut WAY WAY back on my dosage as I got smaller. It too contributed to my frustration level. If it's real bad go see the doc, perhaps an RX is in order. It DOES seem to level out but so far at closing in on 2 years it hasn't totally evened out for me.

Same here, at about 10 months and 160 pounds gone it slowed way down and stopped at one year. I got down to 202, pretty far from my original goal of (pretty unreasonable in retrospect) 180 and my second (more reasonable) of 190. I got down to 202. Since then I have put on about 7 pounds back up to 209. I suspect MOST of it is muscle as my clothes fit as good or better than they did at 202. I've been biking and swimming a LOT this year.

No, just pedantic, I really like to KNOW things rather than just guess or assume them.

Wow, I'm with you there. 2 years ago I was picturing being showed and buried in sweats because I would be too fat to wear anything else I had in the closet. I also imagined the undertaker having to postpone the funeral while he special order a "fat" casket to fit me. It's funny the stupid stuff your mind thinks up when pressed with something like this.

Yep, nearly all of us were there too. At one point I could not imagine life without, as you say, filtering all my life's experiences through my "fat me" filter. I just couldn't fathom exactly WHAT I would even think about. I'd look in the mirror "Gee, I'm fat", Try and sit somewhere "Geez, my fat ass barely fits in this seat". See someone I thought was slim and fit "Man, I wish I were even CLOSE to that". It's a never ending conversation with yourself because of being fat. In a few months I'll be two years out. I never reached goal but I am far, far closer than I have been in my entire adult life. I now see things totally different. I now think "I CAN sit there", "I CAN do that now", look in the mirror and see a thinner individual staring back - I'm still surprised at times by my new "me". And oh, by the way, those people whom I admired before? Turns out most of them are a bit tubby too, they just didn't have mounds of fat suffocating them the way I did and in my "fat" eyes they looked thin back then. Make no bones about it, it's a big change PHYSICALLY and PSYCHOLOGICALLY.