Butterthebean

Good luck to all you May sleevers. May 10 will be my one year sleeve anniversary. It's been a wild ride, it hasn't always been easy, but I wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China. Best thing I've ever done.

I actually think even the high protein cereals have too many carbs and not enough protein to make them worth eating. On the other hand, I think all sleevers should eat a serving of fiber one every day. Best dietary fiber source known to man. It will certainly keeps things regular. Trust me on that.

Actually, all 7 of those descriptors reminds me of a bad relationship or 2.

There are as many answers to this question as there are people on this forum. I told everybody. And I have no regrets. There was no way I could have kept it to myself. Everyday (even now, 11 months post op) people's first question is "how did you do it?" Like there is some secret bean I bought at the health food store. It's everyone's favorite question. Total strangers ask it as soon as they figure out I've lost weight. A friggin car salesman asked me the other day after taking my license so I could do a test drive. He just said "my you've lost a pound or 2...how did you do it?" They are going to ask this question alot. I wasn't prepared to sidestep it, so I answer that I had gastric surgery and now I eat right and exercise everyday. I need to get business cards made saying this cause I'm tired of repeating it. I'm lucky that I've surrounded myself with the kind of people that none of my friends or family have given me the least amount of grief over it. I expected to hear some ignorant remarks from my coworkers but I haven't heard a word. Now what they say behind my back I don't know or care. I think this is one area where men have it better than women. Men do not try to talk each other out of these kinds of things....generally speaking. Or maybe it's just that I carry myself like a person that sends out a message that I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and I don't give a flip what anyone thinks about it. Either way, I totally get why people don't tell. But I don't think my life would have been any easier if I had kept it a secret. I'd still be getting the weight loss questions daily, plus I'd have the stress of always giving an answer to that question that I'm not entirely comfortable giving. But....to each his own...or her own. We all must do what we must. In the end it's about your life, your health, your sense of happiness....and nothing else.

Very sweet of you to say. Yes I think we all struggle. And we all deal with our struggles in different ways. And somedays we can conquer those struggles better than others. Knowing we are not alone certainly helps.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the most important thing. In my search for alternative running fuels, I came across a product called Pocket Fuel. They sell them at Luke's Locker now, I don't know what running stores you have around you but try them, or order on line. It's basically a nut butter based snack. Much less sugar than your average runner's gel, environmentally friendly and all natural. I carried them on our hikes and they really hit the spot several times. I highly recommend them. The chocolate haze basically tasted like chocolate peanut butter...yummy.

Hiking was one of the first activities I did after surgery. By the 3rd week I felt fine to hike. Heck I was chainsawing down trees at 3 weeks. I just came back from a week long hiking trip in New Mexico. Wow was it beautiful. It was an adjustment because my mind still had me packing a ton of food, way more than I need now. By the end of the week I pretty much had it figured out. My favorites ended up being almonds and baby bel cheeses. The energy squares Fiddleman mentioned are also good, and I also packed some small containers of PB2 which was a great treat and a good energy source. If you must carry Protein bars, my personal preference is the Quest bars. Lots of protein, very low in net carbs. But I didn't really care for them while actually on the trail. A good scrambled egg Breakfast every morning got me powered up, and then the other things I mentioned got me through the miles quite well. We even hiked up to 9100 feet one day....I'm super proud of myself for that one. My old legs and lungs have never carried me that high. I also highly recommend a camelbak. We bought new North Face packs for the trip. I've never had a good one because I could never utilize the waistbelt before, but now I can. I have a 100 oz camelbak bladder that I carried and it was fine for most of my hikes. We did filter some Water a couple of times when it was available. I usually use propel powder in my water as it has 0 cals and adds a good deal of electrolytes.

Just curious why they don't need to be gelled? The purpose of letting them gel is because of their tendency to absorb so much liquid. Not for ease in digestion or ingestion. You don't want them absorbing all that liquid in your GI tract. That causes constipation. Do the ground seeds not absorb Fluid the same way?

I don't think they have any taste whether ground or not. I've gelled them in just plain water and it has no taste whatsoever, just like water. But they certainly change the texture of whatever you put them in, and that can affect your taste buds certainly. I like them in pudding/yogurt. But as Fiddleman said, best if soaked in your favorite beverage/protein shake for 20-30 minutes before drinking.

NGM....I'm not attacking you, or doing any of the other things you said I did...but I am suggesting that you've been eating high carbs every since you've been posting here. And you've been a slow loser. Predominantly, people lose better on lower carbs. It might work for you. You may be a slow loser, and it's not a race. But you could possibly help yourself by lowering the carbs. If you want to follow your NUT and Doctor's advice to eat higher carbs, I cannot fault you for that. But from many many months ago, you've been posting about your higher carb intake AND losing very slowly. Perhaps the 2 are connected. You may have upped your carbs last week and had an immediate loss, but I have my doubts that it will continue to work in the long run. I think if it did, you would be the first. Varying calories and macro content can lead to immediate short term losses with anyone, but long term success is a pretty straight shot and it rarely involves higher carbs unless you are doing alot of exercise. That's not me being negative or attacking you in anyway, just an observation from someone who paid attention in class and I won't apoligize for not being a dumbass...even though you will call me a know it all.

Speaking for the men....if you women dumped us everytime we said or did something stupid or insensitive, you wouldn't have a man around very often. We need your understanding and forgiveness, and you need to give it or you will be lonely and frustrated looking for Mr. Perfect.....cause he's gay. Now of course, there is a huge difference between just being a knucklehead...and being a jerk. If he's a jerk, you don't need him.

Okay...I have what...2000+ posts? You don't get that many by having a bunch of other hobbies. But yeah, after a while you slow down a bit. You start seeing alot of the same posts. Plus as you lose weight, hopefully you start new exciting adventures in life that you were not able to participate in before.

Oh how I wish it were true. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can't eat. I've eaten pecan pie, ice cream, donuts (I'm so weak around donuts) and candy bars. No problems whatsoever. How I wish for some projectile vomitting once in a while...maybe some slimes or dumping. But no...nothing.

I don't have kids or parents....but I do dread going to my inlaws for family functions now because the food...and especially the home made desserts are everywhere. They spend all day and night preparing one huge meal after another. People sit around waiting for enough food to pass so they can get up and eat some more. Home made pecan pies are just falling off trees there...my favorite. I almost can't wait to leave now, I used to enjoy spending time there. But when you're trying to eat right and not indulge those bad demon behaviors, it's so hard when the temptations are all right in front of you. And relatives (especially the older ones) don't see any reason to change anything. You just can't get it through their heads that it's about your health and living longer as opposed to dying young.

Congrats Cheri.....very happy little bundle of joy.

Yes....a big second on PB2. I eat plain, or on energy squares. I've had a small PB sandwich a time or 2 but I no longer care for bread....except Popeye's biscuits. They still call to me everytime I drive by.

See my long post several posts above....then go to www.chirunning.com and www.runbare.com My knees are trashed as well, I have a torn ACL still. But I run with no knee pain. It does work. A change in form and shoes may be all you need.

A full cup has only 8 net carbs...and trust me, you don't want a full cup everyday. I still like my chia seeds for the antioxidants and other reasons, but the fiber one helps with "dropping off the kids" even more than chia.

It does sound like a blood sugar crash. What are you eating before and after your workouts? You need to fuel your body for the workout and refuel for recovery afterward. Now you can run on an empty stomach, and if you aare keeping your heart rate below your cardiovascular threshold, you can train your body to burn fat instead of carbs while you run, meaning you don't have to carb up before the run. But you do need some carbs and definitely protein afterwards...especially we sleevers who are on such a calorie restricted diet. You need them and you have a limited window to get them in to aid in your muscles recovery. Most estimates are 30-60 minutes after workout. I frankly don't like to wait that long.

Nicolanz beat me to it...but I was going to bring up caffiene and tobacco. Many people are addicted to one or both of those substances, but I doubt all of those addicts steal, cheat and lie to get their fix. Some may lie to their spouses about not smoking, but who lies about coffee? If you do, you've got bigger problems than just being addicted. But the point is, addiction can certainly exist without these behaviors. I know more than one functioning alcoholic. They don't think they have a problem because they've never missed a day of work, or had a DWI, or wrecked their car. But they can't leave the house without a beer or 2. Where ever they go, they are drinking. They may never admit to "needing" it, but you won't catch them without it. Is that an addiction? I think it is but I'm no doctor. As for eating, here's what my life looked like for over 20 years. First of all, I never hid food or sneaked around eating food behind anyone's back. I never lied or cheated. But I ate all the wrong stuff. Basically, I ate fast food for every meal. I never cooked. If I bought groceries, it was cereal, cookies, chips, peanut butter and bread...not much else. The oven was for pizza box storage, not for cooking. I nearly set my apartment on fire once because I attempted to preheat the oven too cook a frozen dinner, but I forgot it was full of old pizza boxes. When I bought my meals at whatever drive thru I went to, I bought way too much. It was extremely carb heavy. My blood sugar must have been through the roof, and after a few years, I was on my way to being insulin resistant. If I tried to restrict my calories, I had massive blood sugar drops every 3 hours like clockwork. Anyone who has ever bonked knows exactly how that feels. That negative reinforcement trained me to eat before that happened...and specifically to eat carbs (sugar) because that was the surest way to avoid that awful feeling. I know now that eating those carbs caused the rise and fall of blood sugar, which caused my feelings of temporary satisfaction, followed by increased insulin production which lead to the inevitable crash...unless I ate again before it happened (which I trained myself to do). It was a self inforcing pattern that lead to massive weight gain and overall poor health. I made some poor decisions, in part because I didn't know any better...which is my fault, nobody else's. As the weight piled on, it became ever more difficult to give a crap about my health. After a while, you get to the point that you feel you're too far gone so why try? Again...I don't know if this was an addiction. It certainly fits the description of damaging behavior that I couldn't stop. Even when I made up my mind to have VSG I was still in the dark about this stuff. I thought I could have surgery and it would only allow me to eat half a whataburger per day. That 6 months with the nutritionist really paid off for me, she opened my eyes and lit a fire in me to educate myself on food and the damage certain foods caused. Now....if I could only have one....the knowledge or the sleeve, I'd take the knowledge. But there is no denying that the sleeve gave me a push over that insurmountable hump that I couldn't see around before surgery...a push that I continue to ride into a better way of living.

My favorite is a half cup fiber one dry cereal. Very filling because it's so dry...it's mostly fiber so it has that extra added benefit. I think it's even better than the chia seeds in regard to preventing constipation.

Very light. After several miles I start to feel the cushion but not in a positive way. It's like I'm not used to the cushion being there so it gets to be like walking on a mattress. Maybe just my imagination. Still a game time decision but I was planning on wearing these on my half. Maybe not. I'll wear them again today and see how it goes. But for someone who wants a little cushion though, these would be a great choice.

Check out this book if you haven't already... http://www.amazon.com/Never-Wipe-Your-Squirrel-ebook/dp/B00C2CGS8W/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top It's by Jason Robillard who is a barefoot running blogger. The book is all about running trail ultras. Not a literary masterpiece, but straightforward with a touch of humor.