CowgirlJane

I considered the DS myself. When I did plastics consults, i was told by surgeons that the worst complications they had was with DS patients. Take the nutritional deficiencies seriously. I second the recommendation to join the obesity help forum - there are many happy DSers there. I have been sleeved awhile and can totally see the potential for regain. I am maintaining fine - so far - but the tool becomes less powerful over time and it is more and more and more on ME. Good luck on your journey. (good luck to all of us!)

You are a patient woman... i could not deal with that. Julian Micheals, and others, combine strength with aerobics and abs/core work. Dont discount the benefits of pushups, lunges, planks etc. Really this is an important part of being healthy!

I was sleeved Dec 2011 - and yes i can definately eat more then I could the first 6-12 months. I continue to work on making sure i am eating the right things, avoiding carbs, avoiding sliders and avoiding grazing. It is a lifelong struggle. I believe what you are experieincing is normal. Check out the veterans forum on here where these kind of topics are often discussed - longer term life with the sleeve.

It is an individual thing, but the worst pain I experienced was actually having a lapband! The surgical pain for the sleeve was nothing compared to the port area where the band was. It was weird feeling too. Fear that it won't work is legit - but I am a believer that we make our own luck. If you have really thought about this, and really thought why the band didn't work and asked yourself how YOU will do things differently this time - now that you are getting a rocking good tool - you WILL be successful. I was banded in 2001; removed sept 2011; sleeved Dec 2011. Now I am half the size I was and am so so so glad I did this! I love my sleeve.

oh yeah.... if I thought i had a prayer of losing weight any other way I would have backed out. Now, 150# plus lighter... quite literally half my former size - I am so glad I didn't back out! It is normal and healthy to feel some anxiety and I will tell you, the road ahead won't always be easy... but talking from the otherside, it is so worth it!

Benisa, I learned more about this from my horse vet then ANY human doctor...LOL I ride an older horse - age when many start heading to retirement, but mine still climbs mountains and gallops beaches with the best of them. My vet counseled me many years ago to keep him STRONG - build and maintain muscles through great nutrition and appropriate exercise. He told me the day that I stop riding him is the day he will be lame and need to go out to pasture. The best protection for joints is strong muscles so they can do the work instead of the skelton doing it. Anyway, I have applied this principle to me too. I am surprised to hear that so many of you report being able to lift less now. I can manhandle bales of hay that i wouldn't have even tried when I was 300#. I am much more stable/better balanced too. the ONLY case where I can't manage something is that i move hay by putting it on the cart. I have 95# and 135# bales. I can get both onto the cart by rolling, flipping them on. The 135# bales I cannot manage the cart -we are too close in weight - I need to have one of the guys move the cart/handtruck for me. So, very rarely, weighing less has caused me to have less "umpph" - okay, sometimes heavy commercial doors put up a fight too...lol... but for the most part I am definately stronger and more capable now. Does your hubby object to the cost of gym membership or is it something else? Julian Michaels DVDs cost $10 at Target and you get as good of a workout with her as any gym I have gone to. I use the "ripped in 30" DVD but there are of course lots of other choices.

Thanks all - Cheri my inner thighs are terrible - no way will working out fix that. I guess I just enjoy being fitter and have this dream that a fitter body will make the plastics that much more successful. I have never been prone to starving myself, I have very good self preservation instincts - so no worries there! It is more like I am content and maintaining. I do have dinners out, I do eat bigger portions now, I do allow in some carbs etc. The "suffering" involved is more like just getting back to fewer "extras". Like, i don't really need a weekly latte, right? Intense exercise drives hunger. My NUT counseled me on that and she was right. IT is a tradeoff because I LOVE how I feel when I really sweat and work out. It is better then any therapy session..LOL. I also try to just stay "active" in day to day stuff, but it is hard with a desk job. I am working that balance out and it is a difficult time because i quit the gym and am switching to my summer routine which is much less disciplined then my bad weather gym routine... I recently started seeing a counselor who does a technique called LifeSpan Integration for trauma resolution. I have had several family members go through horrible medical experiences and I think that my "normal" anxiety actually triggered an exagerated response/recall of that trauma. Reason I say that as i could go through every rational fear about my surgery and feel okay with it, but still had an overriding anxiety. Well, and I woke up one morning in a complete, elephant sitting on chest anxiety... when I touched myself on the chest and felt my bones I flashed back on my little sister as she lay dying, completely emaciated and wasted from the cancer. for a split second, that memory rose to the top. Then, when i got myself to the point where I was "ok" and could accept that some anxiety is normal and I could still proceed - well, my support person asked me to postpone. I think it just wasn't meant to be right now. I gotta tell you though, it was depressing trying on swimsuits. Even the little skirts don't cover that inner thigh madness. The surgeons tell me I am lucky because my thigh problem is up high, inner thigh, the very area that surgery can actually help with. My calves, outer thighs and lower inner thighs are pretty good - I can wear dresses above the knees even now and look toned so i am counting my blessings there. I am EXCITED about having that fixed, as well as my torso and arms and have alot of positive thoughts about how normal I will someday look, even in skimpier clothes. So, my conclusion is that for people who have been really really heavy for a long time (and i lost and regained many times too) - exercise just gives you a toned body under the skin. It is not realistic to think that skin for two will shrink back to skin for one person... at least at my age.

I had some anxiety over the surgery i had booked for May 9 - tomorrow, but what tipped the scale is my support person going "off the rails". His brother is near death and the whole thing was just too much stress. Lets be honest, i had big time anxiety and realized that it wasn't actually entirely about the surgery, but my anxiety triggered some past traumas to rear its ugly head. I decided to postpone by about 6 months and spend the summer enjoying life! And I am going to do EMDR treatment again to deal with those old traumas a bit more. I hit goal back in February and so have been toying with the idea of trying to lose another 5-10# over the next 4-5 months since my plastics are delayed. Sounds easy, right? sheesh. I don't track food but just have been cutting back a tiny bit and man am I hungry! LOL apparently a small change makes a big difference. I also started crossfit and that seemed to have triggered appetite. I had been at a good equilbrium and maintaining so that is my top priority. Dropping a few more is a "nice to have" and more important for me to keep a good stable maintenance. I wish my good nutritionalist was still around - she moved away - as I would like to have a sanity check with someone I trust. When I saw her replacement (once) nice lady ended the meeting by saying "I have learned so much about sleeve patients from you!". I was thinking... i should be the one learning here.... so didn't go back. I don't really need to lose more weight, I just sorta hoped that the problem areas (inner thighs, belly) would improve in spite of surgeons telling me I just need plastics...sigh

Besides the bum padding... even my spine hurts when I lay on a hard floor. I need to double fold a mat to do situps/ab work. Apparently extra skin isn't that good of padding...lol

Another thought is that some of the group exercise classes I do (also my Julian Michaels DVDs) have a balance component. I was amazed at how hard that was for me. I suspect that losing alot of weight quite literally throws us off balance since center of gravity keeps shifting around. I can do the balance stuff alot better now, I think it is an important component of exercising. I heard from a nurse friend that is one of the key problems with older people if they don't exercise, they lose the muscle that makes them quite literally "steady on their feet" the good news is that the body responds very quickly - the muscle rebuilding is exponentially fast when you first start. I think it is worth a try to see if that doesn't make you feel more secure and steady.

I cannot relate to this. I am so strong now; I feel like wonder woman...hahaha Okay, I am not really that strong, but I can do pushups (well,not many but more then zero!) I have survived 2 crossfit classes! I can do spinning classes that last an hour (wow, I have never sweated so hard in my life though!) I can do more of the heavy work around my little farmette I can climb in and out of things like the bed of my truck or whatever I can mount my tall horse from the ground I did some mowing and raking and didn't wear out in 10 minutes I feel like it just took all my energy before to move my 300# around. Now, I can use that strength for other things plus I have more strength I think!!! I have lost 150# and i am sure I lost some muscle, but I have worked out through this whole journey and I think that helped alot. I am still not a featherweight, I wear size 8 pants so not a skinny person - but normal sized - and concealed under a bit of a loose skin, I have a muscular frame.

I don't eat crackers, bread, Pasta, carby veggies like potatoes and while I do eat fruit, it is limited. I mostly eat berries as fruit. I eat alot of meat, cheese, low carb yogurt, green/low carby veggies. I do eat nuts which have a fair amount of carbs Since I am in maintenance - I do allow myself carby foods sometimes, but on a daily basis, try to keep it moderate.

I watched the show "what not to wear" for years...LOL What I learned is how to dress for my body type. I think that is more important then being 100% on trend. I have gotten many compliments on dressing to show off my figure. For example, you cannot hide flaws, but you can emphasize positve attributes! I don't have much of a waist, but create that illusion with clothes very successfully. I am a big fan of stores like Ross Dress for Less and Marshalls. I get really cute stuff for cheap! I buy shoes at DSW - I have become a high heel maven.

There are a few people who legitimately lose too much. Many of the people that keep losing too much do it because they are scared to stop losing... for fear of regaining. That is an emotional challenge. Personally, I think a more realistic concern is that you don't lose enough. I hit goal, and all it took was adding back some carbs to stop the weight loss.

Banded in March 2001 Removed Sept 2011 10.5 LONG years!

I am a goal oriented person too, but one thing to be careful of is not self yourself up. I think it can be hard on the spirit if you set an aribitary goal and timeline, are wildly successful but then feel like a failure for not making it. I set a goal initially to just get under 200# Once I was in the low 190s, i set my end goal at 158 which is high end of the BMI normal range for me I have maintained that weight for 3-4 months now and while most people think I am more like 140 (being obese so many years gives you heavier bones, internal workings and of course a little extra skin). I have decided to go down another 10# and am resetting my own personal goal at 148. I just think a certain amount of "playing it by ear" is a good idea so you don't wind up disappointed is all.

I do her Ripped in 30 days - and let me tell you, it is hard! I don't follow the instructions though, I don't do it daily - more like 1-2x a week and I do other activities and exercise too. I just started crossfit for example.

You are experiencing a normal "body changing faster then your mind is" Time ... will improve this.

I have to wear pants too big or i get a muffin top of extra skin. work slacks I use shapewear to avoid that. No wonder I like dresses! So wear good under garments - bras and anything else you wear. Bring a friend and try on different sizes.

Dr S, the mexican doc I was researching, has you stay pretty much 12 days before getting on a flight. Even then, alot of people get help at the airport with a wheelchair etc. I haven't had surgery yet, one of the reasons I postponed is I had somehow thought "cleared for activitiy" at 6+ weeks meant I could actually return to normal activity. I have since come to understand that it will likely take longer as the previous poster mentioned. Of course, I have more extensive procedures then just a TT, but I am told that the TT is the killer because all those ab muscles.

So, it isn't the sleeve that causes this. It is two things in my opinion. #1. the emotional rollercoaster that comes with massive weight loss. Honestly, I think that situation just requires tightening your seatbelt and riding it out. That is the example of women especially wanting the "attention" all of a sudden. I think that phase passes quickly and is a bad reason to end a good relationship. I notice how much i have changes (from some inner chaos) to feeling so much more comfortable and happy in a few months time - this is a temporary state of mind! #2. and this is the serious one - without food to bury your emotions, you start to notice the unhappy ones. you start to realize you do have options, including just being alone as that is sometimes better then how a partner has been treating us for years. I have no idea how any of this relates to your situation Capt, but i guess a question to ask is this "if you had been a normal weight guy all along, would you have considered this a quality relationship?". If not, well, maybe that is the answer.

I didn't run hot like you, but i sure did sweat excessively at times. Then, losing weight, I am more prone to getting too cold. I sweat normally - like when I am doing crossfit or spinning classes - I sweat alot but no more then the other fools in there with me.

When i started doing spinning classes combined with bootcamp style workouts my shape chamged alot!

Well, it only took me 2 months to get around to asking HOW to do this, but i finally know how to post before and after photos in the profile! I had put in a gallery before, but this the spot you see when you first click on someones profile. Go to edit profile -> My Surgery -> My Photos I know not everyone wants to share their photos, but I know for me, at the depths of my fears about getting this surgery, seeing people's transformations inspired me and filled me with hope. There are before and after threads but I think it is so nice to have it on the profiles so people who are new and wandering around the site might stumble across it!

Okay, I had done my julian michaels DVD in the morning of the same day so that is part of my excuse, but it was HARD! I loved it. Found out that it works in a cycle and I joined on the hardest day of the month - so I was doing the "modified" version of most of the exercises. The next class is starting a new cycle and I am excited to see what progress I make in the next 30 days. My thing is I want more upper body strength. I can do knee pushups pretty well now but I about die trying to do them from my toes. A woman in that class was doing them one handed - can you imagine - a woman being able to do that??? Anyway, it is fun to find something new and mix it up. I got tired of my YMCA so quit it a few weeks ago and am looking for new adventures.