MegInNOLA

Now guess what I'm craving--thanks! LOL Seriously, aren't they yummy? :-) Enjoy!

Congratulations!

Thanks, y'all! GT, I think we definitely all have the double standard goal. LOL I have the quadruple standard goal--layers of goals that I can Celebrate as they are met. I spent years not celebrating, even on festive occasions, because I was too self-conscious to feel right about it, so I'm making up for some lost time and past celebrations now. But I also think that the surgeons/nutritionists tend to set our goals based on a formula--some offices decide that their patients can pretty much plan to lose 75% of their excess weight, for instance, so that's what they consider an attainable and reasonable goal. Like my dietician--her "goal" for me would actually have kept me in the overweight category. And it's not like I have a lot of control over losing or not losing, at least I don't feel like I do. I can make smart choices in food, but with my sleeve the way it is, it's basically a matter of just eating what it will allow me to eat in the amount it will allow me, and most of the tolerable foods are pretty healthy and relatively low-cal (although not all--popcorn, corn chips, and jellybeans are WELL-tolerated, unfortunately).

I'm thinking you're going to blow past size 12 on your way down! Congratulations to you on your successes so far--and way to GO!!!

Y'all, I hit goal!! Seriously! I hit it on Friday but decided to see if it was just a low bounce or dehydration or something--but it was still there yesterday (my 11-month sleevaversary) and this morning, too, so I'm going to officially declare that I have reached goal! I just posted in the success column. NOW, this goal isn't really my goal. This was a sort of "secondary" goal--first was to get to my dietician's goal, which was 212 and would have left me in the "overweight" category. My current weight of 190 was something I set because I remember being that weight, and it's comfortably within the "normal" BMI for my height. Now, I'd like to attain my size goal--I want to be a comfortable 10/12 (I'm currently a 12/14) and see about moving to "medium" clothing. I plan to get into exercising--really I do. I just hate it so much!!!! But I know that's what I should be doing, and I know I'll feel and look so much better if and when I just do it. On the up side, it's getting much warmer, and summer around here means excellent produce available, so continuing a really healthy, veggie-centric diet is pretty easy to do (and tasty!). I'm hoping that over the summer, I can maybe drop 5-10 pounds and then see what my body wants to do. So I'm going to keep posting here, if y'all don't mind, because I definitely have unmet goals that I'm still working on and still need/want encouragement on! (Have I said how much I hate to exercise?)

Yeah, I'm pretty much doing the lacto-vegetarian thing. Eggs don't sit happily in my sleeve--I keep trying the occasional bite of egg, and sleevie keeps telling me to stop. Milk and cheese and yogurt, however, are YUMMY! I'm on a kind of pimento cheese kick these days--love it on cucumber slices (stole the "cucumber slices instead of crackers" trick from Eggface).

Yes, mostly dairy and nuts, occasional beans. But I'm thinking of upping my soy and dropping a bit of the dairy to see if it helps my stopped-up nose/ears that I've had since surgery!! I like soy milk and I really love tofu. Just experimenting, really. I should know (from your previous posts), but I'm zonked tired right now--are you a vegan?

Congratulations on your sleevaversary! You look amazing!!

:-) And it's quick and cheap, and really super low sodium, which I personally prefer now--which makes me laugh, since I was quite the salt queen pre-surgery!! I'm at a legit 191 now, so really only one pound from goal--DANG IT!! I've been eating a lot more vegetables since my recent visits to farmers' markets, and I plan to keep doing that, mostly because I LOVE how they taste! I did eat some bacon yesterday that did NOT sit comfortably in my sleeve--a first for bacon--and had a couple bites of chicken with some hummus at one of our favorite Mediterranean restaurants, and that chicken HURT--I seriously thought I was going to have to go be sick but happily it resolved after around 15 minutes of pure agony. Ridiculous amount of pain over a couple bites of chicken. Lesson learned--I don't know if I ate too fast or if it was the chicken, but I'm wondering if maybe my not eating much meat/chicken/fish is having a negative effect on my ability to digest it when I do eat it, if that makes sense. Can you work your way out of being able to digest particular foods? I don't know. I'm pretty happy being an unintentional vegetarian; I didn't set out to eat this way, but it's how my sleeve feels good, and I love the foods in a vegetarian diet. Plus I also like the "green" side of vegetarian eating--eating local, fresh-grown food and supporting local producers, etc. I'm flirting with jumping all the way into it, back to vegan. I think I probably will do that this summer, maybe not every single day, but I can totally anticipate eating that way during the hot muggy days down here on the Gulf! Cool, crisp salads, fresh fruit and veggie, no heavy food--sounds kind of fantastic! It's already hit 80 degrees here, and it's March.... imagine July or August.

Fantastic! It is a kick, isn't it! At 11 months out, I still sort of pause before sliding into a booth--and then I remember I can fit!

Orange vinaigrette: Whisk together with a fork: juice of 1 orange (around 1/2 cup) 1 teaspoon of mustard (creole, Dijon, or hot/sweet) If you're going to use salt and pepper, put it in now--I didn't use it, and it was still delicious! Then whisk in 1/8 c of good-quality olive oil. YUM!! You can add any sort of herbs to this that you want--I like it straight up and with tarragon and/or a few finely chopped chives. You can also finely chop or grate a shallot and add, but I sort of like the flavor of the dressing with just the orange juice and olive oil--it's really tasty.

I had my gallbladder out a few years ago and I have to say that it did not stop me from losing with the sleeve at all. I also noticed that I had issues with fatty foods pre-sleeve, but since I don't eat a lot of fatty foods now anyway (sleevie hates them), no more problems. The pain is just not worth it--that is the worst pain I've ever experienced... I had four serious gallbladder attacks and that was more than enough. That surgery was a lot easier than the sleeve to get over, too.

I've never even thought about counting carbs, so another vote for "moderation" here, too. I eat way too many vegetables to go low carb, and my primary sources of Protein are dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt) and vegetable sources (Beans, nuts, tofu), all of which contain carbs. I definitely avoid most sweets and most flour products, but I do not avoid fruit or vegetable carbs. It has worked for me. There are people for whom carbs shut down the weight loss, but I personally function best with healthful carbs as part of my diet. You should follow your doctor's guidelines, however, since they will be in the best position to monitor your health. Best wishes!

Agree with Sara on all of the above, except that when I overeat or eat something that my sleeve doesn't like, it's not just one bite that comes up. Mine preferred to totally empty, which isn't pleasant, but it's not like being sick from before. It's actually not as bad as the pain involved in trying NOT to be sick, if that makes sense. It's been several months since I had to throw up, by the way--eventually you learn how to eat with and for your sleeve, and the issue resolves.

Y'all, I just posted in another place about visiting my local farmers' markets this week--WOW! I am sitting here eating the best salad I have ever made--it's roasted beets, homemade orange vinaigrette, microgreens, and feta cheese--good for me and completely healthy, AND I know where all the food came from!! I think this is fun, and it feels healthy and tastes amazing! What are some foods you eat that make you feel especially good?

You look fabulous! Congratulations on your success!

I had the same issue and started looking at InStyle magazine--some cute ideas, even for me (age 49). I also like People Style. I looked at other fashion magazines and enjoyed them, especially Vogue, but I'm never going to wear that sort of thing and couldn't afford to even if I wanted to. :-) I like InStyle for practical fashion ideas. Another thing I did was just go to the mall and look, really look, at stores I had never considered shopping in. I didn't buy anything for the longest time--I just window shopped. I discovered that I'm kind of a Gap girl--I like classics, comfortable but cute. I like Eddie Bauer. I like jewelry and shoes and red pants--who knew??? I think this is one of the most exciting things about being sleeved--getting to be on the outside who we are on the inside for the first time in decades!!

I take my jeans out of the dryer and laugh--can't believe they will actually go on my body, and they do.... so very strange!!!

I like going out to eat--my husband and I go out regularly. I have developed some strategies that make it work for me. 1. My husband and I sometimes share. When we eat Mexican, I usually get a big forkful or two of refried Beans off his plate, and I dip a few chips in there with some salsa. Perfect Meg-sized meal, and he doesn't miss the beans. (My husband is also a sleever, but his capacity is a LOT more than mine!) 2. I order an appetizer as my entree. Nobody thinks twice about this--I have yet to have a waiter even blink when I say something like, "I'd like the shrimp cocktail appetizer as my entree, please." I still usually have food to take home, but not as much. 3. I order Soup. Brothy soup goes down really easily--I can actually have 2 courses at a restaurant if I order soup for an appetizer and then another appetizer as my entree--yay! I don't ever finish the soup--just eat most of it, then I enjoy a few bites of my "main dish" and take the rest of that home for another meal. 4. I order a small salad--especially in a place that has a Greek salad with feta cheese or yogurt dressing--LOVE that I get Protein in a non-meat form (my sleeve has problems with meat), and I eat the "good stuff" off the top of the salad and leave most of the lettuce. Just be sure you're chewing thoroughly, or a few bites is all that will work! When you eat concentrated protein like meat, it definitely fills you up faster; that's why the "protein first" rule works so well during the losing phase. You get FULL when you eat a couple of ounces of chicken or meat. If you don't eat those, you don't get quite so full quite so fast. The "get full" scale ranges all the way down from those great protein foods to what are called "slider foods," foods you can eat that don't fill you up at all--for some people, popcorn is a slider. For others, chips or other junk food are sliders. Finding those foods that work somewhere in the middle can be a big help when you're heading out to eat! Good luck!!

I eat between 5 and 6 mini-meals a day. My sleeve is really restrictive, so that's the only way I can manage it. :-) Mini-meals I regularly eat: 1. Half a Protein bar. 2. Four shrimp with cocktail or remoulade sauce. 3. A cup of salad (greens and tomato with vinaigrette) and 2 TBS feta cheese or 1 ounce of fresh mozzarella cubed in. 4. An ounce or two of sliced cheese; if I want a cracker, I don't eat as much cheese. 5. Yogurt with a pack of those Bel Vita Breakfast cookies; this is more of a "full" meal, logging at 360 calories, but it's a good size to totally fill me up--usually I can't quite finish the last cookie or all the yogurt. 6. A few corn chips with refried Beans and salsa to scoop. 7. 1/2 c. steamed or roasted veggies. 8. 1 c. grapefruit segments and juice. 9. 1/4 c. almond/dried cranberry mix. I feel better and I think my brain and body run better on several small meals per day. Everyone is different. :-) Cheers!

Debi, my advice is do what you can and don't worry. This early out, focus on hydration and let your body heal. Take protein when you can, in whatever form is tolerable for your body. You'll find you can do more in just a bit, but just get in as much fluid as you can now. Congratulations for joining the losers' bench!

Hey there! I'm almost 11 months out. I still have really tight restriction, but it's a lot better than when I was first sleeved (I have a 32-french sleeve). Today for breakfast I had 1/2 a scrambled egg and 1/4 c. grits with 2 TBS cheese. I can eat 5 saltines with Peanut Butter or cheese. For lunch, I ate about a cup of green salad and steamed vegetables--I have to remember to chew these things well, but if I do, I can eat more volume of these "watery" types of food. I can eat 4 shrimp if I don't eat anything else with it--kind of the medium-large boiled shrimp. I can eat a 6-ounce container of yogurt--this is a big deal, since it took me a LONG time to be able to finish a yogurt! Volume really depends on the type of food. I can only tolerate very small amounts of concentrated Protein, but I can tolerate salad pretty well now--just salad veggies and 1 TBS cheese with vinaigrette-type dressing. My husband eats quite a bit more in volume than I do, and always has. He was sleeved a year ahead of me. At this point, he eats what I consider "normal" meals--like those a person might eat who has never had a weight issue. I eat small meals, 5 to 6 a day, and that works for me.