PdxMan

Like Sarsar suggests, be sure to be well hydrated prior to working out. You should be carrying a water bottle with you all throughout the day. Also, be sure to be hydrating well all throughout your exercise. Even in the middle of Zumba while everyone else is bouncing all over the place, stop, take a drink and resume. It would be a pretty poor instructor who would criticize someone stopping for a drink, so just do it. You need to take care of yourself. Don't worry about other people's perceptions.

Try doing a site search for the word dizzy. There are many threads about it.

Try some form of aerobic exercise. Walking, perhaps some jogging. Try getting your heart rate up there for at least 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week.

Oh no ... just like a real family, we all have to vent. I think we just ask to vent in the appropriate places Just like if my brother used the living room for a bathroom, I would be like, "Hey! We have a place for that!" He may think I was harsh for yelling at him, but, that would be my initial reaction. Then, as he explained he didn't know I had a bathroom, I would direct him to where it was, and we would all go back to playing cards. (said with a Wisconsin/Minnesota type accent) BTW, someone with a BMI well in excess of 60 might easily be considered a slow loser if they lost 40 pounds in the first two months ... it just does nobody any good to compare. We just are not equal in body composition and weight loss and we ALL do each other no good to compare.

I will be 2 years on July 8th. It has been an incredible journey, for sure. I have to say I don't worry too much about what I eat after I have my base, balanced nutritional needs met. I'll have a yogurt and banana for Breakfast. About 8 oz of one of a great varieties of Soups I make: turkey chili, veggie chicken, smoked ham and bean ... many others. For dinner I'll have a salad with tuna or chicken. I will snack on some CheeseIts occassionally and have a bowl of ice cream a couple times a week. I have been able to maintain for one year now with this routine. I have found what works for me. I think that is the most important thing. Find a routine that is doable for you which doesn't feel like a diet. That is not why I got sleeved ... to be on a diet the rest of my life. I love my sleeved life and everything it has helped me achieve.

Go to the Gallery under my profile (use a web browser, not a mobile device) Have you been HERE?

I think we are a family. We have our issues, surely, like all families do. But in the end, we try to support each other. We all have had our struggles with weight loss over the years. Most folks would consider VSG a very radical step and there is so much fear that, like other diets in their past, this may not work for them either, after taking such a radical step. Since they have undergone this radical procedure, they set expectations which are not based in reality. They don't understand why someone with a BMI of 40+ loses weight quicker than the person with a BMI of 35. They grow anxious and begin to feel like a failure. Just like being criticized for their previous weight loss attempts, many folks here get defensive when a post like this arrives as it just re-enforces this negative thinking which most of us have been plagued with our entire lives. It is hard to keep positive all the time, so I find we I feel like you do regarding someone's thread, it is best if I just move on ...

Wow, 3 years out. Would love to hear your struggles and inspiration. There is a thread HERE which has a TON of MFP users. Welcome to VST! BTW, I'm Pdxman there, too, but I have to admit I don't track that much since I got to goal ...

I just wish you would have posted this over in the Rants and Raves forum instead of the Tell Your Story forum ... People looking for encouragement are instead greeted with this ... Another pet peeve of mine ... folks not posting their threads in the appropriate forum ...

My pet peeve is when someone makes a post and then gets bitchy about the responses. If you can't respect people's posts, then don't create a thread. Ms Skinnines has nailed this one, BTW

Yes, it is important to remember the surgery was on our stomach, not our heads.

Check out the equipment section under my blog for all my ramblings related to clothing and whatnots. You can get them at any sporting goods shop. Amazon, of course, too. Under Armour and Nike are the ones I recommend.

Before she cursed the obese women for purchasing all the cute plus sized clothes, now she curses all the skinny women (rib cage) who buy all the cute skinny clothes. Right?

Four weeks out, I was doing purees and cottage cheese. Some pudding on occassion, but that was it. I slowly pureed my soups less and less. It just takes time. Some of us take more time for our swelling to go down. It will happen.

Yes, I also did at least 4 Protein shakes a day, but I was allowed a salad with lean protein for dinner. It's hard, no doubt about it. But it is so worth it. Also remember, what goes in, must come out. Imagine having to push a couple of McDoubles out after stomach surgery ... not going to be fun.

Nice! I was in the same boat. Couldn't have dreamed of running pre-sleeve. It has been a wonderful journey since. Congrats!

Every person is going to be different. Every surgeon is going to be different. It just does us no good to compare. The bottom line is if your surgeon has asked you to do this, they are basically telling you they feel more comfortable doing this surgery with a shrunken liver ... do you really want to battle them on this?

Uh ... IMO, you NUT is absolutely correct. Everybody is going to be different depending on their tolerances and how quickly their stomach heals and the swelling goes down. What works for one person is not going to work for another. Some folks have no problems getting in all of their liquids and Proteins a week post-op. Others, such as myself, took a lot longer. Some folks become lactose intolerant, have reflux issues ... etc ... Think about it. Weight loss is going to happen. It has to. You are going to be consuming far fewer calories than you are expending. Are you looking for weight loss or fat loss? It is my experience, when I see posts such as this, the expectations for weight loss far exceed what is reality. You have made the decision to have WLS and all you are concerned about is losing weight. Do you have any interest in feeding your body what it needs? Is your plan to do a low-carb diet like we all have tried a half dozen times before we had the sleeve? Since the low-carb diet worked so well for us before we had the sleeve, do you think it is going to work now? Sounds like your NUT is telling you something you don't want to hear, so you are going to fire them. You will always be able to find someone who tells you what you want to hear, so why even bother? Same thing here on VST. Someone will always validate what you want to do whether it be good or bad ... Remember, it was our best thinking that got us to this point, so why do we believe we really know what is best for us? It might be time to be willing to do what the experts suggest ... at least for awhile.

Yeah, early out. it does take forever to eat what used to take just a few seconds. It will change ... but not much ... and that is good.

I shopped at Goodwill for the first 6 months because I couldn't justify spending the money on clothes I knew I was only going to be wearing for a few weeks. That gave my mind time to catch up to my body. I love not having to look through the racks for the 3x or 2x clothers anymore. Looking at a manikin wearing size medium clothing and knowing I can have that look makes me smile from ear to ear. But you gotta purge the closet. Take it down to Goodwill and then go shopping there. The new clothes store will be there when you reach your body's goal.

Well, buggers to the onlookers, IMO. I wear compression garments when I work out because it simply is uncomfortable with the jigglies. Then, I caught myself in the mirror and I was like, "Hey ... this stuff really pulls everything together. I've worn it under shirts occassionally and it helped me to feel a little bit better about myself and what I was doing with this whole WLS thing. I felt good and that is all that was important.

I recall a thread about a year or so ago about a lady who was so upset. She had gone in for her surgery and during the post-op report with the surgeon, he told he when he got in there, her liver was too big to work with and he cancelled the surgery. He just didn't feel comfortable doing the surgery with such a large liver. She said she struggled with the pre-op diet and didn't follow it. The title of the post was something like, "Don't let this happen to you" or something like that, if you want to try to search for it. Bottom line ... the pre-op diet isn't to lose weight in as much as to shrink your liver (which sits on top of your stomach). So, depending on your surgeon, know that when they get in there, if they don't like what they see, they could pull out and cancel.

Oh, come on ... we're just getting to the good part of kissing and making up ... And sadly ... this very topic will be hashed out again in one form or another in a new thread in just a couple weeks.

Again, it goes to the your own moral compass. If you feel your privacy has been invaded ... perhaps the person asking is notoriously nosey ... maybe it's a person who always has to one up you. Who knows why, it doesn't matter. You have made the decision at this time, you just don't want to discuss it with anyone. Perhaps you have been shamed for years going home from school in tears because of the way people made fun of you. Perhaps you have never had a date in your life or the last 5 dates have told you how much better looking you would be if you just lost a few pounds. Even if you have never been the subject of ridicule, surely you know others have. And perhaps you have been ridiculed because of your weight, but you have always been able to blow them off. Not everyone is as thick skinned as everyone else. Some folks are sensitive and insecure about their weight. I don't know your friends history of being overweight. I wasn't their grade school friend, nor did I comfort them if they were ever made fun of ... I don't know their journey. What I do know, is they made a decision to make a change in their life to get a tool to help them start doing things different. How they choose to respond to people is their own decision. Perhaps if I had led a more righteous life, I would be justified in judging them, but I haven't. Have you? If they feel the need to respond in that manner, that is their decision. Like I point out in earlier threads, I have stretched the truth on job applications to help me make more money. I have perhaps exaggerated my assets to woo a woman and I have kicked a ball onto the fairway to better my lie (pun). Have you seriously never done anything of the sort? Why do you get to judge, anyway? It is a touchy subject for me because I know the pain obese folks have to endure. If we want to protect our privacy by telling a white lie, I am not going to judge them and I will defend anyone who feels this way. I understand what you are saying. I do try to live a life of rigorous honesty now. But i am by no means qualified to judge the reasons why somebody either tells or doesn't tell people about their WLS. Just curous, have you read my other posts on this thread? How would you respond to the infertile couple? Just curious ...

Wow! You also lost about 5 years, too. Congrats!