Ms skinniness

I have done that a lot.....Now I call a friend or a family member, take a walk, or just get busy doing something. You are on the right path by seeing a professional therapist that can help you adapt healthier coping skills.

This is the scariest part of this whole process. We've all been in your shoes and have felt the excitement and the fear at the same time. It will come and go in waves. Try to keep yourself busy for the next few days so your not focusing on it. Clean your house, talk with friends and family just keep as busy as possible....Time will go fast and soon you're be sitting next to us on the BIG LOSER'S BENCH worrying about stalls etc.....Can't wait to hear your journey that's soon to come.

My trigger foods are candy. i don't buy it anymore but my head hunger can do quite a number on me. i too choose not to have foods with carbs in my house. My new addiction is Quest Protein bars now and I realize that they have a lot of carbs in them. So when I'm finished with the protein bars that I ordered, I won't be buying anymore...... But on a good note, i love my body and I am so much more healthier now....I love my clothes and only buy the clothes that I absolutely love......No more being satisfied with what's on the clearance racks...

Don't give into eating sweets. It is habit and your mind will sabotage your weight loss. Try to eat proteins first and then veggies. I know that I am addicted to Quest Protein bars even though it's a protein bar, I can still gain weight on it. So I am working on getting it out of my house..... Get all the sweets out of the house and purposely avoid the grocery isles that have unhealthy foods and candy. you and still gain weight on SF stuff too. In fact it can make the craving for sweets even stronger. Plus the sugar alcohols can give you really bad gas.... :ph34r:

A NUT can help by discussing food choices but they can't help with the choices that you chose to eat. This would be a good time to seek a therapist that specializes in bariatric weight loss. This is your thought processes and the inability to control the impulse to eat poor choices in food. Go back to basics and eat protein, protein, and protein and some veggies. Detox from the carbs. Look up LilMissDiva's Basic Bootcamp, it is posted here under food and diet I believe. You can do this and the weight will start to come off........

You are so lucky to not have skin problems..... Good job!

I've had no regrets. I haven't had any complications bc I followed all my doc's directions and took good care of myself.

This makes me so mad. This is so stupid too. Go to a different PCP if u can he/she will give u a referral just by ur records.

I had surgery on Oct 4, 2011 and I'm doing great. I'm pretty much at my goal and working on issues relating to head hunger.... I love my sleeve...I have had no complications at all and my Doc used a size 34 bougie.

Can you call your NUT or surgeon's office? You might try going back to basics of protein, protein, and protein. However, you have lost about 100 lbs so congrats! That's a big success. Weight loss does slow down after the 6 month mark. Have your eating habits slipped and your eating more carbs? Reevaluate diet and eat dense proteins. Sometimes I feel really hungry too but It's not hunger, it's my head hunger. Let us know how your doing.

Those are not very good reasons for not planning. I say, just do it. Others opinion don't really matter when it comes to your health and happiness. This is a life changing procedure and I doubt that you will regret it.....

I was told 85% of my stomach was taken out. I can drink an 11oz protein shake or 1 quest protein bar. I can eat 2 oz of dense protein with a couple bits of veggies. Love my sleeve. My head hunger I do not like very much.....I can eat every couple of hours and try not too. I've heard of the sleeve being the shape of a banana, not a the size of a thumb..... LOL

I had my surgery in Fountain Valley with Dr LePort's office but I live in Fullerton, next to Brea.... What a small world...

Why would we need a Fobi Ring? I have the vertical sleeve gastrectomy and from what my doc said, it doesn't stretch because the fundus was removed. How did they fit it to your sleeve? Just curious.......

I gave up fried chicken....The other day my cousin's husband was eating a piece of fried chicken and we discussed how it was par fried before reaching the restaurant and how they refried the chicken. So i told him that was fat on top of fat and a lot of salt.....He still ate the chicken. I won't, I don't need it.

CONGRATS! In a little bit, your be sitting on the BIG LOSER'S BENCH next to us! Yep, and on your way to a new healthier life style with the fringe benefits of being sexy and skinny!

I am finding myself with Water retention in the AM;s and ran across this so I thought I would share this every one. Thursday, January 21, 2010 How to Deal With Water Retention: Part One 1:03 PM | Posted by Martin Berkhan In an ideal world, weight loss would be perfectly linear. You'd lose weight in a predictable manner, seeing small but consistent changes each passing day. But this is rarely the case, which my experience has proven me many times over. If you've ever been on a diet and tracked your progress with the scale or the mirror, you're probably familiar with water retention and long weight loss plateaus. Even though your diet is on point, nothing seems to be happening. Stalling at the same scale weight for weeks is not unheard of - I've experienced it myself. Fortunately, these phases are followed by rapid weight loss seemingly over night. This delayed weight loss is often referred to as the "whoosh"-effect. Nothing for weeks...and then whoosh, 2-4 lbs lost over night. What triggers a whoosh? No one knows, but Lyle McDonald offered a hypothesisbased on something his old exercise physiology professor said. So what's the big deal here? The issue with water retention is the frustration it brings while waiting for the whoosh. Waking up every morning to see no progress on the scale can have profound effects on your motivation to maintain your diet and training regimen. Why put in all this effort when nothing is happening? Doubt creeps up. Maybe you're eating too much? Maybe you're not doing enough cardio, maybe your carb intake is too high? So you cut calories and increase cardio in the hopes that it will get the scale moving down again. If we're talking water retention (and not an actual stall), this has the potential to actually worsen the situation. Dumbfounded you watch as your weight creeps up even higher despite your ambitious attempts to set things right. So at times like these, it's no wonder that people are likely to say "screw this ****" and go off their diet for a day. Or two. Or a week. In the worst case it triggers a binge that sets them back several days or weeks. Not good. Given the negative impact of water retention on your morale, knowing the causes for water retention, and how to deal with it, can be very useful when you find yourself in this situation. Water retention - what is it? Water retention (or edema which is the term used by the medical establishment) is a common, concrete phenomenon that occurs during calorie restriction. It's not just some trivial vanity issue unique to the fitness crowd. The magnitude of water retention varies; most often it's mild, but enough to obscure your fat loss results on a short-term basis. Sometimes it's more prominent, giving you the impression that nothing is happening for weeks. More severe types of water retention are a common characteristic of malnutrition and life-threatening starvation; it can be so extreme that people will appear to lose no weight at all, as greater amounts of fluids accumulate under the skin. Jewish doctors often observed this phenomenon in the Warsaw ghettos during World War 2. Water retention can take many forms, such as swollen watery tissue or as an accumulation of fluids in the stomach, chest, lower body and in between joints. You might notice it in the form of fat that feels "squishy" or in the form of red strech marks when waking up in the morning. You can also notice it on your ankles when taking your socks off in the evening; the pressure from the socks leaves an indentation, which might be barely noticeable (no water retention) or big enough to fit half of your thumb in (an extreme example as told to me by a competitor after three days of post-competition binging and gaining 35 lbs). The latter is called pitting edema. During starvation, inadequate nutrition depresses the pumping mechanisms within the cell that keeps excess salt and water out. The cell deteriorates and the distinction between in and out is lost. However, for the average Joe out there, water retention is more often related to daily shifts in water and salt intake. Lessons from The Minnesota Experiment In the Minnesota Experiment during World War 2, men willingly embarked on a semi-starvation-like regimen designed by Dr Ancel Keys. Yes, that's the same Keys who "discovered" a connection between saturated fat and cardiovascular disease - a controversial figure. But I digress. The objective of this study was to observe the effects of semi-starvation and to establish guidelines for properly refeeding war prisoners (this is critical, since refeeding victims of starvation can lead to cardiac arrest due to massive mineral and electrolyte fluctuations). His findings were later published in two books: The Biology of Human Starvation: Volume Ihttp://www.assoc-ama...=1&a=0816672342 and The Biology of Human Starvation: Volume IIhttp://www.assoc-ama...=1&a=0816672334 A lot can be written about this fascinating experiment, but at this point I want to highlight some curious happenings related to the topic at hand. First of all, this wasn't quite starvation per se. The men were getting 1500-1800 kcal per day, while engaging in moderate amounts of daily activity, and that's not too far off from the usual diet fare today. The main difference being that this was done in a controlled setting lasting six months, which is longer than most people would endure a dieting stint. At the start of the study, the men were losing weight linearly, dropping about 2 lbs per week. However, after some time the weight loss became erratic and unpredictable. No longer was it linear, but rather it occurred in "bursts" with long periods of plateaus. The researchers overseeing the experiment noted that water retention was noticeable in most men and in some cases quite severe. Half-way through the study the men were allowed a relief dinner to Celebrate their progress. One big meal of 2300 kcal was served; roasted chicken, potatoes, gravy and strawberry shortcake. That night everyone got up more often than usual to urinate. The next day they discovered that they had each lost several pounds. This was not a one-time occurrence. When the experiment was over and the refeeding phase began, the men continued to drop weight at an accelerated rate until calories were increased substantially. What I want you to take away from this is the following: * Refeeding can cause rapid weight loss, a whoosh. This seems counter intuitive, but it's a phenomenon observed in the scientific literature and retold by many dieters. My clients experience this, and so do people embarking on diet regimens where planned carb refeeds are integral parts of the plan (for example, The Ultimate Diet 2.0). * In my experience, the more severe and rigorous the diet, the higher the likelihood of retaining water. In simple terms, higher calorie deficits usually result in more erratic, non-linear weight loss. This is not a proven fact, but rather a hypothesis based on what I have observed throughout the years - and it has some backing if we look at the weight loss curve observed in starvation and studies like The Minnesota Experiment. * The hypothesis has credibility if we look at the hormonal response to starvation diets. "Starvation diets" in this context simply mean any diet approach that results in a very high weekly caloric deficit created through diet and/or exercise. This is perceived as a significant stress to the body, to which it responds with chronically raised levels of cortisol. Some cortisol is great, but too much of it is very bad; and studies suggest that cortisol increases in a dose-dependent manner related to the calorie deficit. Prolonged elevations of cortisol can lead to massive water retention. If you've ever been treated with hydrocortisone, a pharmaceutical form of cortisol, you know what I mean. * The above makes me wonder if the myth of "starvation mode" is actually perpetuated by extreme dieters who find themselves not losing any weight on starvation-level caloric intake (due to severe water retention obscuring weight loss). While some metabolic slowdown occurs during any diet, it's never so profound that it completely negates a substantial calorie deficit. For example, during The Minnesota Experiment the researchers noted a 15-20% reduction in basal metabolic rate at the end of the study (it was actually 40% compared to the start of the study, but this was due to a higher body weight; a large percentage of the drop could be explained by the simple fact that they weighed less and not due to any hormonal impact). Now you know a little bit about the erratic nature of water retention and the impact it can have on your body weight and diet adherence. In part two I will get a little more practical and tell you about some effective strategies that can help you deal with it if it rears it's ugly head. Also, feel free to comment, e-mail me or share your own strategies if you have found something that works for you.

This would be a good time to call your PCP and ask to have some blood workup done. Bruises can be a sign of something being off. So I believe it's better to get it checked out......

I tell everyone who asks because I know that I get really angry and offended when someone lies to me and besides if you have gone down in 2 to 3 cloths sizes, those people will put 2 and 2 together and know anyways. What if what you did to better your health can help someone who is struggling with their health and weight make a decision on wls. Wouldn't that be awesome. And the nay sayers, well they can just go to he**! We got this and will be so much more healthier to boot!

I try to buy the nuts in portion size packages because i can eat way too many nuts. The portion size bags work very well for me. I buy salted nuts because of my low blood pressure. The salt helps retain water which keeps my blood pressure up.

I'm finding myself buying a lot of TV's lately on ebay. I just bought a 50" Samsung with wifi and I really want to put it in the front room but my hubby will oppose due to some stupid big TV cabinet we have that it won't fit in. LOL But I am thinking about putting it above the fireplace and removing the cabinet anyways........It will make my front room look so much more spacier......Oh and couches, I am collecting couches......Of all things.......I need to stop this.....LOL It is still better than eating, just more expensive.

I just lost my cousin and my daughter in law's father had a horrible accident and was found dead. My client is having a really hard time and I am trying to get her to go to the hospital. So I have been eating due to emotional stress and have gained a couple of lbs too. So tomorrow it's back to proteins and Fiddleman's 12 day challenge to help gets me back on track. I have to leave my work at work and not turn to food.

I totally happy withy weight loss. I would five or a 10. I love eating some amounts. I have a 10 even though it really sucks dealing with the head hunger. But I got this.

I am on my iPhone so will look at pics tomorrow. Thank u so much for all the help. BTW congrats on ur success!

Ok I really need to kick my a** and Start tomorrow however can we drink premium proteins and peanuts. Oh and what about the quest bars. Can't wait.