Lissa

Thanks, Coops! I know I'll have some rebound on the tummy skin, but it's in pretty bad shape after 2 c-sections with over 9 lb babies both times. I had stretch marks bleeding during my first pregnancy and my stomach has never recovered from the second c-section. I'm not even sure what the result would be after surgery, so that's one question I'll definitely be asking! I'm not 100% sure if my insurance will pay for a tummy tuck, or if it's actually good for a pannulectomy (sp?) or something else entirely. I have been talking to a couple of IRL friends today and I've decided to do a couple of things in anticipation of my plastics appointment. I'm going to add in a dedicated ab routine (more than I've been doing), up my cardio and my weights, especially the weights for my arms, back and stomach areas. I know none of that will magically change my skin issue, but I want to be in the best possible physical shape I can before I have surgery. If surgery is the decision I make, that is. No matter what, I think I probably have 4 or 5 months before I could possibly be scheduled for surgery, so I have a little time to work on both continued weight loss and toning.

Tiffany, My primary is a joke. He's been seeing me since I was 11 years old and his answer to every problem, from acne to ammenorhea, is "lose weight". Well, now I've lost the weight and that's still his answer to everything. @@ Sleeve of Steel, I don't think "thick" is my preferred body style, but I definitely don't see me as one of those skinny little ladies. Likasulema, Even with the consult, I won't be having surgery within a few months, I'm sure. I have exercised like crazy and will continue to do so, but it's not making a huge difference for my stomach area. I'll keep working on it, though. Foxbins, I should have been clearer. I have not been losing 15 pounds a month consistently, although I did lose 15 pounds last month. I'm not sure why that happened. I am steadily losing inches and clothing sizes, though, even when my weight isn't changing. One thing I should have mentioned is that my surgeon now has a BMI calculator that measures muscle to fat and gives a readout of what/where the fat distribution is. I am right on target for how much muscle I have, which means I've done an amazing job of creating/maintaining muscle (no heart damage! Yippee!!). I now know how much each of my limbs weighs and, according to the calculator, all of my fat is now concentrated in my abdomen. The machine is really interested. You have to stand on it barefoot and hold onto handles while it does it's calculations. It also tells you whether you are properly hydrated, both inside and outside your cells. I'm right on target there as well!

I'm still losing, but VERY slowly. I dropped 15 pounds last month, but now it's coming off ounces at a time and not consistently. I'm personally happy with my appearance except for my stomach area. I'm mentally and physically happy with it, although my head doesn't always realize that I've lost over 100 pounds. A few weeks back, I realized that I can do everything I could do before I got so big and that makes me happy as well. I'm healthy, too, which is another bonus.

You're welcome, but I learned that information right here on VST!

search for the 3 week stall. Nearly every sleever has a stall between 3 and 6 weeks post op. It's our bodies readjusting to our new diet and hydration. It will end soon, just keep following your plan. The good news is that most people's stall breaks dramatically, with a large amount of weight lost seemingly overnight. Mine was 5 or 6 pounds, IIRC. A good thing to keep track of is your measurements. Even when I stall, I see dramatic drops in inches lost. That's when I "shape shift".

Kay, yes, you'll still have the stretch marks, but they will look some better. I use body oil every day and am using the brushing technique to try and help the loose skin. Good luck!

I can only find one of my scars at 11 months out. All of the others are gone, or are so blended into my stretch marks from babies that I can't find them anyway.

Go into Cardio and add "Strength Training" (it's already there) and the number of minutes you performed the strength training. It will add calories for the category.

LOL! Love the new picture, Pipula! And, congrats on leveling up to VSG Addict, Chad.. .and to Sleeve Guru for Pipula!

I love red meat and nuts. I buy a bag of pre-cooked steak fajita meat just about every week and eat that as a snack or turn it into a quick stir fry for dinner. I prefer cashews, but tolerate all nuts fairly well (including people who are nuts). I dont eat popcorn often, maybe once or twice since surgery, but I had no problems with it. I am totally decaffeinated since surgery and will likely stay that way. I had a horrible time giving up my diet coke addiction pre-op, so I'll leave caffeine to others, thanks. I've eaten a couple of small ears of corn on the cob, but only for the taste. Corn doesn't have enough nutritional value for me to make it a regular part of my diet. I love brussel sprouts and broccoli these days, though. Veggies have to be well-steamed for me to tolerate more than a bite or two, though. I'm lactose intolerant and can't drink regular milk at all. I can eat cheese and yogurt without difficulty, though. Good luck!

MrzSongbird, I'm not You Tube proficient. I do have a blog that I really need to update, but VST is my biggest place to post. I like it here and I like getting positive feedback. This is my support group on a daily basis. I'd be the one who lost their cool if someone left a negative comment on a YouTube video I made, I'm afraid. I do owe one YT video, though. I need to figure out how to record myself happy dancing for my 100 pound mark and then post it.

I'd do a sleeve over RNY any day, which only makes sense because I have a sleeve. A good friend had RNY 10+ years ago. I watched her lose weight very quickly, but she had huge trouble eating. We'd go out for lunch and she'd eat 3 or 4 bites of food, then be running for the bathroom to puke. Her weight came off SO fast that she required major plastics to look "normal" again, even though she was in her 20's at the time. She also has malabsorption issues with Vitamins and literally couldn't take more than 1 pill in half an hour, like vitamins. In contrast, I've been sleeved for 11 months now. I have gotten sick 3 times, all related to eating bread, drinking Water too soon after eating. I can take all of my vitamins/meds in just a few minutes every morning/night. My labs are stellar as far as Vitamin absorption and, after my initial 75 pounds lost in six months, my weight loss has slowed to a more normal 8-10 pounds a month. That means fewer skin issues, plus enough energy to actually work out and help keep muscle tone. I like the fact that the sleeve doesn't require re-routing of my intestines and that it leaves my options open for future surgery if I can't reach my goal weight with the sleeve. However, I don't think that's going to be an issue either.

MFP=My Fitness Pal. It's an online or phone application that you can use to track food and exercise. It's free and doesn't require any monthly fees. FitBit's online app doesn't require any fees either.

Atkins pretty closely mimics the post-op diet anyway. I suggest you use My Fitness Pal and aim for 70 grams of Protein daily, along with 64 ounces of Water. Give yourself a calorie cap as well, something like 1200-1500 calories, at least for pre-op. You should drop weight like it's a bad habit if you follow that! There are several posters here who did self-imposed pre-op diets and lost incredible amounts of weight. Paola and Patrick Curl come to mind right off the bat. Paola dropped 80 pounds pre-op doing a liquid diet for several months. I dropped 13 pounds on my pre-op two week, doctor-required, liquid diet. You will probably drop that 10 pounds in a huge hurry if you do liquids pre-op, but every pound you drop is a step in the right direction. Good luck!

I use my Fit Bit every single day/night. I barely take mine off. It tracks my steps, my sleep, my activity levels over the course of a day and I find that it inspires me to want to do more, just to earn badges. I think it's the best $100 I ever spent. I use it in conjunction with MFP to track my food intake, weight goals, and exercise goals. I bought it around six or seven months out from surgery, just when I hit that dreaded slowdown of weight loss. I'm still losing fairly slowly as far as the scale goes, but I'm losing sizes, which is more important, IMO. In my opinion, Fit Bit has the best customer service of almost any company I've ever dealt with. My original Fit Bit stopped displaying or tracking after a couple of months. I emailed their customer service department, expecting to get blown off. Instead, they contacted me with several suggestions for resetting the Fit Bit. When those didn't work, I emailed them back, and they replaced my Fit Bit within a week! I am totally impressed with them! I know nothing about the Body Bug, but the Fit Bit is easy to wear, doesn't require an arm strap, and has great customer service. I'm sold on Fit Bit.

I started out walking up and down the hallway in my apartment and doing 10 reps with 2 pound weights for arm exercises. After a few days, I added in walking around the shorter end of my apartment building, then the longer end and adding a few reps at a time on the arm weights. At around 3 weeks out, I managed to walk around the lake in my apartment complex, about 1/4 mile. I slowly added distance and reps until I now go to the gym every day and do at least 30 minutes of cardio on either the elliptical or the recumbent bike. 3 days a week I do some kind of weight training as well, including one day where I lift weights on every machine in my gym (Planet Fitness). I'm a firm believer in low weights, high reps, and my arms/legs are developing great definition, which tells me this is the right way for me to weight train. You don't have to join a gym right away, so long as you start incorporating some kind of exercise into your routine and keep doing what you can, adding a little more as your ability to exercise increases. I was barely able to walk pre-surgery, had horrible health complications, and had no energy. Nowadays, I can keep up with almost anyone, can walk the length of the mall several times without feeling like I died, and my doc tells me that my new EKG is "the sexiest thing (he's) ever seen"! I'll be 11 months post-op in a few days. I didn't join a gym until about a month and a half ago, although I did use the little mini-gym at my community center for several months for their recumbent bike and treadmill. Most of my exercise program has been done at home using 2, 5, and 8 pound weights and walking. As for time, try adding in 5 or 10 minutes a day of exercise. Once you get used to that, add 5 more minutes. I don't care how busy you are, 5 or 10 minutes is easy to find. You're not going to work up a hard-core sweat in 5 or 10 minutes, so there's no real special preparation. Just do a few minutes a day. You'll soon find yourself adding time, a minute here, a minute there. It doesn't take a huge amount of time or a formal program to start making positive changes. You don't even have to/need to join a gym to start seeing results, both in your body and in your health. Once you start seeing those results, it's much easier to continue adding little bits of exercise to your daily routine. Buy a cheap pedometer and use it daily with a goal of 5,000 steps each day. Add steps to that goal as the first goal gets easier. A cheap pedometer at walmart is around $5 to $7, so not expensive. The bonus of all these little bits of exercise is that it will make your post-op weight loss increase and it will help with your energy levels. It's as simple and as tough as "Just Do It". We're not looking to be triatheletes, especially not with the simple beginning exercise routine, but we can all get in better shape by doing just a little bit more today than we did yesterday! Doing the above has given me good muscle definition in my arms, legs, and stomach. I still have loose skin and some fat pockets (tummy), but I feel a thousand times better and the muscle is helping me drop sizes in clothes very quickly. We can all find a reason not to exercise. I know I could find one every day if I wanted to do so. But, I find that I feel better and have more energy when I do something daily. Once I got that endorphin rush the first time from a good cardio workout, I wanted that same rush every day. It doesn't happen every day, but boy is it awesome on the days I manage to get it!!! Good luck to both of you! I wish that endorphin rush on everyone who is just starting out! It's fantastic!!!

An occasional day of rest is required to let our bodies heal when we work out... and you're doing an amazing workout every day that you go without the chair! Don't take the rest days as setback. Instead use them as days to allow your muscles to heal and grow stronger. When we lift weights, we're supposed to give our bodies a day of rest in between. You ARE doing the same with forcing your legs to work... I'm totally thrilled for you and proud of you! You're determined to reach your goal and I have faith that you will reach that goal. I've figured out how you could do a ticker, too. You could either track "days out of the chair", using a 6 or 8 hour "day" and log each one as you complete it. OR you could track how many miles/feet you've walked and pick a destination. I believe Lil Miss (Stronger) Diva did that with her workouts. As she racked up miles she listed how much closer to a specific town she'd come. Maybe you should do something like football fields or the local mall that have specific distances. Even if you don't do a ticker, it's still a HUGE NSV. If you do, maybe it will be motivational for you on days you don't want to walk. You're doing great! Keep up the good work!!

You look fantastic! Congrats and welcome to the Century Club!!!

Congrats on your loss and welcome to VST!

So, I finally broke down today and went shopping for some clothes. Specifically, I was looking for jeans, work pants, undies, and a couple of tops. I've floated through six different Goodwill stores, but hadn't found anything in an 18 I even wanted to try on, much less buy, even at discount prices. So, today I went to the Outlet Mall near my house. I tried on several pairs of size 18 pants and jeans, but they all fit way too loose in the seat area, although they were comfortable at the waist. Finally, the saleslady suggested that I go down a size to 16s... and they fit. The waist is a hair tight, but they fit perfectly in the butt/thighs. That was the jeans! For work pants, she brought me a 16W and that fit perfectly as well! So I totally skipped 18's!! Even better, I bought undies in a size 14. I bought 5 pairs because I know this size won't last long and the 14 is a perfect fit. I've always bought one size smaller than my pants in the brand I prefer (Cacique) and it was the right choice today as well! So, from a 24/26 pre-op to a 16 today. I think I'll happy dance a little bit! Join in, please!!!

I'd NEVER tell someone they're being irrational in so many words. I just know that our hormones are way out of whack for a while after surgery and we must be cautious not to do something we can't undo later, like murder!

How far out are you? What food stage are you? How much Water are you drinking daily? Are you taking any meds besides Vitamins? Have you had a bowel movement yet/recently? My full signal very early out was pain in my shoulder. Others have reported different sensations, but my shoulder pain came and went...until I realized that my shoulder hurt every time I took a drink of water. As soon as that pain subsided, I'd take another drink, until I made the connection. I slowed down a little on the water and my shoulder pain went away. Could the same thing be happening to you?

I'm 8 days shy of 11 months post-op. And, I feel like a million dollars AND change!

Yes. Ignore him! He's having to adjust to your changes and you're dumping hormones like a crazy person right now. Those hormones will make you insane for a bit. If he wants to eat hot dogs, let him. He's only hurting himself. Once your weight loss starts showing and he sees that you are serious about adopting new, healthier habits, hopefully he'll get on the healthy bandwagon. But, you don't want to make any significant changes until you know that your hormone levels have evened out. At that point, I'll be your cheerleader if you smack him upside the head, but family members have a tendency to irritate the tar out of us, especially in those early post-op months because WE are out of whack. Good luck!

You are an amazing writer!!! I'm sorry I can't find a better superlative, but you have a wonderful way with words. I just relived your childhood while reading. If you aren't already a blogger, or planning to write a book, you should plan to do both!