LindaS

Sleeved 8/9/2011 at 255 pounds. Currently weigh 172 Loss 83 pounds

I am over 16 months out. I can eat pretty much anything in SMALL quantities. This means I can have a bite of some things without bothering me. I have restriction. There aren't any foods that I can't eat, but I do have foods that I tend to avoid because they can make me feel uncomfortable (breads do this). I eat Protein first, so this makes it hard for me to eat too many calories. If I were to eat sliders and skip protein, I could increase my calories. I can't eat 1800 calories. I tend to eat around 800 to 900 calories in a day. I think the only way I could get 1800 calories in is to eat something that is liquid and high in calories like one of those eggnog shakes at McDonalds. It blows my mind that a medium is 600 plus calories. I have not tried to do this; I am just thinking of how I would be able to do it.

One of the best things that I've found that helps me not slip up is that I look up the calories and carbs of something before I eat it. This helps keep things in perspective for me and less likely to indulge. It isn't worth the 160 plus calories.

I had a drain for a week, and I was thrilled to get it out. It smelled and was a pain to hide and clean out and deal with but removing it wasn't why I felt better after a week. It was just a bonus.

My arms got flabby within the first 20 pounds I lost. I started lifting 3 pound weights, and I saw improvement and muscle definition within two weeks. I now use 5 pound weights, and my arms look good if I do say so myself. It might not take care of all the flab, but it can really help to lift weights.

Try mixing up your Water temperature. I had trouble drinking cold water, but when I warmed my water up a little bit (not even room temp), it helped me. I also added flavors to my water to help make me more likely to drink it. A shot of cranberry juice or something like Crystal Light or Mio can make the water more appetizing.

If you haven't already, I recommend joining MyFitnessPal.com and adding friends from this site. There are a list of people in the exercise area I believe. By doing this, it lets you check in on the food diaries of others, which can give you ideas for yourself. You can also check out blogs like According to Eggface or Bariatric Foodie for ideas on what to eat.

I try to stay under 6g of sugar per serving. If it is the only sugary thing you have all day, it isn't so bad, but it can be a problem if you make them a regular part of your diet.

You can also stop at a gas station. There you can buy jerky or Muscle Milk protein shakes.

I used the powdered fiber that you can add to water. Metamucil or Benefiber.

I do that all the time! I try them on just to see if they will fit.

Great comparison photos! Thanks so much for sharing. You look wonderful!

The muscle spasms sound horrible! Congrats on losing 19 pounds. Remember that you get a lot of Fluid pumped into you when you have surgery, so you probably gained what you had lost pre-op and have had to lose it again. Try Fiber and lots of Water. Sometimes things get plugged up, and fiber can help get things moving again. You are definitely keeping the right attitude. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend taking measurements as well. I stalled from May to September, but I saw changes in my inches, which helped me from being discouraged. Plus, it was exciting to realize I lost 10 inches off my butt.

I bought some oatmeal from Bariatricchoice.com, so it has 15 grams of protein in it. I add a little normal oatmeal to it to add to the flavor. It fills me up.

You are looking awesome! I love the smile. It looks like you were in a dressing room. Did you buy the clothes?

Nursedel, don't let the scale get you down. Have you measured yourself? Sometimes you lose inches and not pounds. You can't let the movement on the scale stop you from doing what you need to do and should be doing. Also, you might need to take some Fiber to get your bowels moving as well as drink at least 64 ounces of Water. As long as you are doing what you need to be doing, the weight will come off. Things will change. I stalled from May until September. In September, I started losing again and am down another 12 pounds.

What a great photo! You look wonderful.

It isn't impossible but it doesn't mean it happens for everyone. Also, this process isn't about just losing pounds. Your body also changes in muscle tone and body fat percentage, which doesn't always show up on a scale. The longer you stick close to the plan, the better the odds you will reach that goal. My surgeon originally suggested I have a goal of 140 pounds, which I thought I could reach in six months. That didn't happen. I started at 5'7" and 255 pounds. At the end of 6 months, I weighed 185 pounds. This was a 70 pound loss, and I felt fabulous. Feeling good about myself made me much less likely to want to continue dieting to lose weight. I also realized that 140 was just too low of a goal for me. I readjusted my ultimate goal to 155. From February to September, I was exercising regularly (a lot) and eating about 1,200 calories and not getting all my Water in. I didn't really lose any weight despite all of the exercise. However, my overall body composition was changing. I was losing inches and gaining muscle. My body fat composition changed from 40 to 26 percent. In September, I lowered my calories to less than 800 and upped my water, and the weight has started coming off again. Since September, I've lost 11 pounds. I am still losing.

Don't shop yet especially for any "in-between" sizes. it is impossible to know how your weight loss will go, and you never really know where you will end up and when. You may skip sizes, and it would be horrible to look forward to wearing something and then realize by the time you tried it on, it is too big. Also, clothing sizes vary so much between manufacturers that it is almost impossible to buy something that will fit a shape that you don't know. I pretty much try everything on now. There is just too much variety to know what really fits me. You could end up buying something and then skip right over that size and never get a chance to wear it. For me, I went from a size 20 to a size 14 and skipped over the sizes in between. I am now wearing size 12 and just starting to fit into 10s. I am 16 months out. If I had bought size 8/10s when I was still large, they would still be sitting in my closet and might have gone out of fashion by the time I can wear them. And anything in a size 16 would never have been worn. I really like Delta gir's suggestion -- use pinterest to figure out what you like and then wait to buy those things.

Congratulations! I love NSVs, and I too find that I smile much more than I did before surgery.

Congratulations on the pregnancy! And the future flat belly.

I am 16 months post-op. 1) is it a totally different life style? It isn't totally different, but I have made changes. I have a job that requires me to sit at a computer for big chunks of the day. I recently changed my desk to a stand-up desk in order to help myself move more. I work out (and make time for working out), which is something I didn't do in the past. The rest is pretty much the same. Do you go out to eat and just eat less, or totally avoid it? , I do still go out to eat, and it is something we do pretty frequently both pre and post op. I just make good choice and don't feel compelled to eat everything. Do you eat differently from the rest of the family? Yes and no. I can eat the same things my family eats, but I eat much smaller portions. But just because I can doesn't mean I do. I tend to modify my meals. For instance, if my family has spaghetti, I just eat the meat sauce and only a few noodles. If they have pizza, I might eat the toppings off one piece and then have something with Protein in it. I am still in the weight-loss stage, so I am still drinking Protein drinks for some of my meals. I usually do this when I am working or my family is gone. I sometimes just have a bite or two of something like potatoes. My eating isn't strange enough that people comment on it when we go out to eat. Can you do everything physically that you did before? I can and actually I can do so much MORE than I did before. This summer, we went on a very physical vacation, and I was able to do all of it including a very steep, hilly four-mile hike that I wouldn't have been able to do before my surgery. I was also easily able to go up into a lighthouse, and I think I would have had trouble fitting in the tight spaces before my surgery. Has your life changed drastically in any way? No. I am still happily married, employed and mother of four kids. 2) how has your life changed mentally? Before my surgery, I had this voice in my head that constantly brought me down mentally. It would be the voice that told me I was fat and couldn't do this or that or would notice my butt overflowing the chair I was sitting in and that my waist band was cutting into my belly and how big my thighs were and how hard it was to bend over to pick something up off the floor. I would hear myself breathing heavily when climbing stairs and dreaded seeing someone at that point that expected me to talk too. After my surgery, the voice in my head shut up. I don't have the negative self talk constantly in my head, and I am happier because of it. I'm quicker to smile and laugh and am not afraid to try something because I'm worried I won't fit. Of course, the obvious, looking and feeling better. Anything else? I'm more flexible, which can be handy in certain rooms of the house. Has it been worth it? Yes!

There are a couple of sites online that let you see people who are the same height and weight and how different they look. One is here: http://www.mybodygallery.com/ Here is another one: http://www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.html

I love reading NSVs. Thank you for sharing yours! How great!

Temptation bothers me the most when I eat too many carbs and don't drink enough Water. If I keep my water intake good and avoid things like chips and popcorn, it is easier to say no to temptation. Another trick I use is to check out the calorie count BEFORE eating something. This has stopped me more than once because what I was going to eat wasn't worth the calories that were in it.