Pookeyism

You answered so many of my questions along the way! A week after my surgery, my Mom died. You were one of the first to respond with sympathy and encouragement. I have never forgot that. I am so glad you are doing well!

Onderland is such a awesome place to be - it is kinda funny that for so many of us with so many different goals and such that is a magic number! keep it up!

In the last couple of months I have come off maintenance with the intention to lose some more, only to really, really gain. It took awhile but it got there. I am not sure how much but it is at least 15 lbs. I have in the past tried to share my sucess in the hope it would help, and have hesitated to share this. Embarassed I guess. I have realized I can eat alot more now, and being absent minded about everything other than work, it was easy to do. Plus I am a depressed eater and my Mother passed away in January - it has really hit home as the holidays approached (Saturday was her birthday). So now my goal is to get back on track. I know I have "stretched" my stomach, but as to what that means exactly, or if it is permanent, or enough that it has to affect my goals I don't know, but it is going to be hard. I realized, in an odd way, that feeling of of fullness was a big pull to me. Once I let that back into the picture it went down hill from there. I am going to do the boot camp, and then hopefully a lesser liquid diet, and then a full yoga-based fast. The fast is not for weight loss, it is for cleansing, and it is a reward for the rest, more than anything. I really did not want to post this, but again I did. Hopefully for me the slip will make me realize more how important daily maintenance is, and if necessary I will get another job before it affects me this way again. I will do everything I can to resolve this. If anyone is in the same position maybe this will let you know you are not alone. I am a reader - I dig and research, its just how I deal - so if you have links, books, etc you could cite, that would be really helpful, too. I thought it took a tremendous amount of effort to get this far, but I now understand in a way I never did before that this is just the beginning. It never really ends - this is the disease, I guess. We keep it in remission but it is always there, ready to claim our progress. I have alot of thinking - and doing- coming about. It can linger and hover, but I not want to ever let it take over again the way I have over the last several weeks.

office is ordering Olive Garden...I have not ate there in sooo ling...recommendations? chicken ceasar salad?

PS - fruit is good but I find I have to be super careful with it due to how fast is passes. I measure my grapes carefully because I remember one outstanding fact about grapes in my head - competitive eaters use them to bulk eat and prep their stomachs...sad that I would let that stick in my head but I do. lol

There are times that you are not going to be able to get around the munchies, even if it is just head hunger. popcicles, Jello, grapes, grapefruit cold climate apples are all good choices. edamame, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds. Don't eat the same thing over and over either, in my opinion that makes it easy to get "tired" and not feel satiated. I have done that to myself a bit right now Muchies can be tolerateable - as long as you are still chewing well, and walking away once satiated...measure your munchies just like you would measure anything else. If you do have an activity to get away from the munchies, try and make it something you can get really lost in, so you arent thinking "this is what I am doing not to eat". What ever that is, use it, or find it...I make foam swords and get my pet snakes out to play (you cannot eat with glue on your fingers or a squiggly guy wrapped around your hand), and I literally have begin to go fly a kite...and for the days it isn't windy I have a giant shark with a remote control...freaks my neighbors dog out, lol. now with that said, I have gained a bit in the last two months - it snuck up on me. I am aware and working on maintaining because I want to kinda observe my habits. One is the munchies. My small meals progressed to slightly larger meals and munchies...at the same time work increased and I broke my foot.

I was told to continue vitamins, and take my last dose right before I hit my "do not eat" window.

I went with the Mussels di Napoli...almost straight protien, so I think I will be good. thanks!

I am not on here much right now, not enough time, and once I am on I stay on longer than I should. I did see the message but originally decided I was over reacting, but the hormones are set aside again for a few weeks, and the thought still lingers.

I dont use it alot I am afraid, but mine is custom also...it is 1100 cal, 42g carbs (as a max not daily) and 85g protien minimum - I aim for 100+. At lease that is what I think I have it set at my name is pookeyism on that also. Well, not been aiming for much other that wake up, work, sleep and ibuphrophin for my broken foot...I need to get back on track!

Dont laugh - Mary Jane's Mint Julip mudd - all over!!! lol Mine has been doing the physical things I couldnt before...I still feel overwhelmed! I will be on the field with my swords and fighting 25 year old men and holding my own - and I sometmes want to just cry. I just look around and everything is like it was when I was 20. I am older but I don't give a damn, because I am back...

Welcome! play around the site a bit and get familiar with all of the tools available. Yay for new members!

No miracles. Science. Surgery. Now: patience, learning, and going on with life. Don't let this consume you or you will crash. You really don't want too much too fast. But that is alot of weight to lose that soon. Good job! Keep it up, and just remember - what size would you be if you had not lost the 20 lbs or 25lbs? If you lose 5 lbs a month (and you will probably lose more) that would be 60 lbs in a year...that is like losing a child, but you don't go to jail! Perspective can be a friend or foe in this journey! Good luck.

Absolutely - and dont underestimate the value of a hobby!!!! When I am in the middle of an intense project, I actually have to set alarms to go drink Water and eat! Don't laugh but I do swordsmanship - I am a LARP! but it gets me out, I get to be aggressive and work out for hours and hours not even notice. I get to the field at noon and we leave at dark...I would do it every day if I could draw a paycheck from it, lol. Find something you love, and it will replace your desire for food.

I can now but solids were very hard for me at first...my body craves animal proien sources now...and does much better with them. When you do start to eat, thin quality sections are important, cut WITH the grain to cook, against after to chew...it is much better in my opinion, when I pay close attention to that.

You may have developed a restriction, or had one that had went unoticed - mention it to an eye, ear and nose specialist - not your surgeon. You may need an endoscopy.

Take them up on their slinging, or let it go - but dont let it hurt you... I had a waitress comment to another waitress in a pub I was dining in when another customer (a younger man) flirted with me. "he just really likes them much older"...I said "either that or just very successful" put a twenty in my waitresses hand and walked out... Yes, it was worth the extra in the tip to stare them down. >.<

Do the diet, do your best. Use the search engine here and the information from your medical provider to begin to understand what will be expected of you as far as information (history) to have. Get every little duck in a row that you can. Now - this is financial advise and I am in no way an expert, nor do I know you - it is just a suggestion. Do not start putting away for a college fund, bo not buy the new car - cut every corner you can and literally put it all away - check with yoru 401k and see if you can take a loan againt it, etc... If in a year you are still denied or it looks like you are going to still be a long ways away from getting approved, you will be that much closer to being able to afford it on your own without the insurance. For every dime you can put away in advance, you are going to save about 1/3 to 1/4 that much again trying for a medical loan or putting it on cards, etc. Sometimes the feeling of making an effort, other than just the diet and "jumping through the hoops" seems to have gone along way twords making people feel less depressed during a long medical insurance battle - it isn't a statistic, it is what I have gleamed from people via blogs, posts, and conversations. Good luck.

Your progress is not slow or fast - it is yours. It is not the worse thing to lose at a moderate pace. Make sure you are getting in water, exercize and sleep. Sleep is so underrated at in this process. You need a daily, even, consistently timed sleep to do your best. I have sleep issues (narcolepsy - contrary to popular misrepresentation you do not sleep all the time, sometimes far from it) and it affects my metabolism alot. I also find fatigue leaves me open to goof ups, slips and such...it also affects my mood. Water is key just because we are supposed to be, at any size, a certain proportion water/body mass (non water materials). without it we can do noting quite as well as we should. if you do not have enough water in your body, even if you break down fat your body will hold onto other materials...it is a complicated process. I constantly keep a tshirt just too slightly tight to wear - not that would burst at the seams and distort the size, but tight enough that I try it on, take a pic, put it away for a couple/few weeks. If I ever have to wonder if I am losing - or see that I am not so I can adjust - I can see it in the tshirts better than I ever did in the scales. If you did only ever lose an average of 4 lbs a month from here out - that would be 48 lbs a year. that is 100 lbs in two years - where would you be if you didn't lose it? It is excellent progress, and the final goal weight is a big deal (pun intended), but not the only thing. I have learned this lesson well. Good luck. God bless.

If you can avoid adding your shake to the soy milk, consider doing so...if you need it for taste I would go ahead. It is hard to asnswer your question, since I don't know how many carbs you are having overall. I could go as low as 10 carbs a day on the pre op diet. Hard, but worth it - however, felt pretty good after a few days.

It is such a onderful feeling!

1) At rest, muscle burns 6 calories a day, while fat uses 2. 2) Being even slightly dehydrated will slow down your metabolism. Stdies have shown that people who drink 64 oz of Water a day burn more calories that people that burn 48. 3)Energy drinks DO work, but you have to carefully monitor your heart rate and it is of no benefit if you lose sleep, since sleep is much more important. 4) small, healthy Snacks in 3-4 hour intervals will keep your metabolism going better than big meals with nothing in between, and skipping meals decreases metabolism more. 5)Spicy food, specifically those flavored with chilis, speed up metabolim, but it is unsure how much. 6) It takes more calories to burn off lean animal based protien than it does to burn off grain (and most other sources of) carbohydrates.

Bryan you are welcome to message me also, but I had my surgery only after they found a tumor in my stomach that would need to be removed anyway. The decision to proceed with the full sleeve developed after I discovered that partial stomach removal has almost no long term effect on weight loss. This surgery is only "new" in light of safer procedures, newer instruments, a bit more advanced tech, and such along those lines...partial stomach removal to various degrees occur due to cancer, trauma, loss of blood flow, benign tumors, necrotic conditions due to blockage of valve or ulcers, etc. In the long term, even just the time it would take you to reasonably lose the weight, it provides no difference. There are many theories on this but mainly that you just have a smaller tummy. You do not have a sleeve. if you leave more than a tube you have more than a tube. If the extremem aspect of it all is unappealing, it seems perhaps you should re-explore this, while maintaining a modest diet, because from what i researched last year it takes a sizeable loss to distract the gerhlin reaction, among other things. Seriously, though, I dont want to blast you - and I wll message yo or talk to you over the phone...I want you to understand my sincerety - underlying yo uare not basing your choice on anything other than yo dont want complications, and you wan to be able to eat without the effort you are hearing is involved. But here is what you are doing: you are taxing your body, costing yourself and/or others time, resources and such for something you will still have to heal from, still have to go through the liquids, still eat less and yes, still have to take smaller bites - the reference to how fast or how long does nt have to do with the pouch size as much as you just had your stomach cut out - you still have to do all these things. You are doing math on your tummy - you need to think volume. Think a circle, and its circumference, now, what you are going to do is nto just add a "little" to your ability to eat. It will be much more.

which oddly enough I cannot pull up her post through our search engine anymore??? that was two minutes ago! the link now lists as cached on yahoo - really, truly odd http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/11680-beliteweight-in-house-financing-issues/

I could not find much info...what I found seemed, calculated...brandynd on this forum has a post (use our search engine and 'beliteweight') where she seemed to be having issues with communication after she paid her deposit.