4ALongerLife

IDK if it's fear or what, but my 'tude isn't where I'd like it to be right now. Part of it is this freak'n leak that I am dealing with. Then to come here and read someone's post that hasn't even had surgery yet that says most ppl with leaks/complications have either caused them themselves or their dr's have or a botched surgery, I'm sorry, but it really pisses me off. And why? IDK this person. And I don't care to. Doesn't matter a hill of beans what she thinks nor says. So why's it incite something inside of me? Because I am scared. To the point I find myself crying the last few days on occassion. I rarely cry anymore. Well unless I talk of my family, then that's a whole other ball game (you'd have to know the players to understand the game! so's to speak... anywho, I digress, shocking huh?). I AM scared. What if I never heal? What if I have to have surgery AGAIN? What if this new job that I just got fires me for something minor/contrived if I take off time to deal with all of this? What if I did something wrong to have caused this? What if I put it off the fix for months, will I continue to be in pain so much that I could slap someone? (as was the case today, which worries me since I have a high pain tolerance according to my last two hospitalizations) What if what if what if.... AHHHH just hush. I need to center and just quiet it all. Sometimes, as hard as it is to "believe"..... **** JUST happens. It just DOES. In this highly litigous society, where everyone is a "celebrity" and "entitled" to voicing their opinion via statuses on fb/twitter/etc, I just get tired of the lack of common courtesy in the things ppl say or do, as well as the judgements that goes along with it. No one wishes to have that treatment, so why is it so quick to be dished out? Sometimes things JUST GO WRONG. Etiology undetermined, aka no identifiable root cause. I have spoken to enough dr's and other professionals regarding my health status to know this statement to be fact as it pertains to me. But I get tired of a large percentage of the world that speaks of what they don't know or ask questions that are rather crass in the manner in which they are worded (omg what did you do to cause this?) ......... really, I am struggling enough here. Perhaps MIA for a while is best. I hate that I'm being quite this emotional and even moreso admitting to it, but hell, I am a realist. So MIA? IDK if that's best for me. Hiding under a rock with all of this crappus floating around in my head... IDK. So ending point is.... if you read this, and if you care, please say some prayers for me. I hope God isn't disappointed in what I feel in my heart. I am honestly struggling right now. I've been fighting so much for so long, I'm just tired and... I am scared, I am frustrated, I am tired. It's a foolish waste of energy, but it is what it is. Rambling rita out.... xxx

Well Liz, I had complications from surgery and am still unfortunately suffering with them. So, per your post, does that mean I caused it? I don't believe that is what you were trying to say; however, you haven't even had surgery yet to know what it's like afterwards. One part of this journey that I know you have to learn, or it will be a hard lesson, is to keep an open mind. For me, unfortunately my body rejected a staple in my suture line. The suture line was redone a few weeks later, but my body still has small leaks to which my dr. keeps saying "protein" and 6 months later, unfortunately it's still there. I'm rather scared ****less, but I know I've had at least three different dr.'s tell me I didn't do anything to cause this, nor did my surgeon who is very well respected, it just happened and now it's getting it all fixed. I'm fed up with it at this point as I have done EVERYTHING possible to do "right"... I'm rather impatient with at this moment. So reading your post just wasn't what I needed. And some newbies don't understand why protein is needed. Please keep in mind some people are still educating themselves and come here to do that and hopefully find support if/as needed. Some things just GO WRONG sometimes. You can't control it, your dr. can't always control it and with my being a self pay, let me tell you, it really sucks. But with the grace of God, I am overcoming it all. I just wish my body would hurry up and heal. I don't wish complications on anyone. But here's the facts people. Get your protein in. You do have to have it. If you can't stomach one thing, try another (unjury is good, nectars are ok as well, premier protein shakes yummy, cytosport whey isolate rtd's IMHO rock, clear protein drinks w/o much else in them? yeah, they rock!). After surgery, you won't want to eat and when you do, it's so little it's HARD to get anything much in regardless of it being protein or anything (so don't freak whenever you lose hair, it will stop). THIS is why they say protein first - listen to them. Additionally, your taste buds will change (so one day protein powder A that you loved will taste like a monkey's backside... so don't buy anything in bulk before your surgery IMO). Follow your dr.'s directions. Don't take anything seriously from this message board, certainly not over your dr's instructions. Proceed with caution and do what you are told. Every dr's different, but if you follow their guidelines, you will more than likely be fine. But everyone that has complications... doesn't cause them to occur, nor is it a 'botched surgery" .... nor is it always the dr'.s "fault"... sometimes, **** happens. Speaking from experience, you have no idea until it happens to you, so please keep that in mind whenever you are making statements to the contrary.

If you figure this out, will you enlighten me? I play much of the same things in my head that you said. We should TALK!

Do me a favor? Get someone to hide your scale. Then go measure yourself. Naked, measure the neck/arms/bust/belly/thighs, every inch. Write it down for reference. Keep doing what you know are 'the rules" and working out/etc. In 2 or 3 weeks, weigh yourself ONCE. Do NOT obsess. In 4 weeks, measure yourself naked again and compare. Add up the difference in all of the inches, then look at the total inches you have lost. You will be happily surprised. Now relax. It will happen. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimmmming, swimmmmming (hello? finding nemo/dory)

3 week stall is common. Hang in there!

I don't want to be included on your list of ppl with issues please. thank you

Woo hoo! That makes it EVEN better! And I agree - not bad for a "treat"... awesome work! Thanks for letting us know too!

oh darn they took the arseless chaps picture down... sorry moderators, i just HAD to do it lol

oh pardon moi, I should have quoted you first....... (see my prior post)... *still chuckling*

ROFLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL which part of "lifestyle change" do you not understand????????

Hey guys and gals, I just found this group and thought what the hey, I'll join. I had surgery 3/5 and am now about 97 lbs down as of 9/1/12. I would like to lose about 7-10 more lbs, but we'll see. Hope you all are great!

Go to the search bar and input "three week stall"... if you are at four, consider yourself lucky. The "three week stall" is one of the most common ones almost all sleevers experience. Hang in there and do what you are supposed to and it will subside. More stalls to come eventually, but be patient!

I don't keep chocolate protein powder either, so believe me... I wanna know too pls! he he .. it actually was purty taste too! (with reg cocoa powder anywho)

I buy bags of shrimp from the fish section of walmart each week. I take one bag and leave it in the fridge, eating on the shrimp here and there as either Snacks or as my main dish. Or I cook something with them. By the end of the week, minimally, I am done with the bag. Can you just eat on the remainders for the rest of the week? IDK on refreezing but I bet you can..... just as another poster said, it degrades the quality each time you refreeze. Good luck (you aren't alone in the newbie parts of the kitchen either!).

I was wondering about the protein powder too but IDK... try it and let us know if u do!!!

and THAT is what the journey is about! Weight loss isn't a magic wand or a magic pill. It doesn't mean all of the sudden you will feel love or be "in the club" . . . that's why sometimes weight loss is so slow. There is so much that we need to catch up with and learn from. Don't be embarrassed anymore on what you weighed because you took steps to change it. Work on those insecurities because 140 lbs lost (I think that's your goal right)... you are gonna ROCK! And obviously you are already well loved. Congratulations sweetie, u r rocking this, continue on and enjoy the journey!

JFAB! You are going to get there. It took time to gain it, it's going to take time to lose it. You don't want it gone too fast because skin will hang worse. So be patient ok? You are doing superbly! Just keep the nose to the proverbial grindstone and BE PATIENT. It WILL happen if you do what you are doing, with a few tweaks here and there, which you are working on. EIGHTY SIX POUNDS LOST!!!!! WOW in a short time. Better than 1/2 way there. ...... it's all about perspective! YOU GOT THIS!

Congrats gorgeous!

Reese's shake 1.5 scoop vanilla Protein powder 1 TBSP creamy Peanut Butter (I used crunchy) 1 TBSP hershey's cocoa powder (I used swiss miss hot cocoa mix) 8 oz. unsweetened almond milk (I used FF braums milk) 4 ice cubes (I used crushed and to my liking) Put in a blender and enjoy! IT'S GOOD TOO! I wonder how it'd taste with PB extract instead of PB JenniJune! Hey it'd save on calories (but does cut some protein out too, oh boo). I have quite a few other shake recipes if you want them, but that is one that I used just the other day and it was good - the whole family thought so. And protein bullets are nasty to me... but try Cytosport's Whey Isolate drinks <<for any phase in the diet plan (i.e. clears TO full). They are RTDs that I bought from Vitamin Shop and they are Clear liquids. If memory serves me correctly, it's 38 g of protein per 16 oz. bottle. The best two of the three flavors that I liked were tangerine and tropical. You can buy them individually from Vit Shop's refrigerated section. If you don't like them, return the opened container with the receipt w/in 7 days and you get a full refund! (love vit shop for that reason alone) As you progress to real foods, it's much easier to get your protein in via real protein sources (i.e. fish, meat, shrimp, etc.). I eventually cut most of my protein additions (like shakes/RTDs/protein puddings) out (as they add in quick calories and it slowed me down in losing/reaching my goal).

I use my fitness pal dot com.... you'll see it referred to as MFP. It counts it all but I focus on calories mostly (what calories I am intaking daily and what I am burning through exercise). I can access it on my phone and the MFP appl has quite a large database of foods already existing from grocery stores OR even some restaurants. Easy peasy to keep up with! I highly recommend it!

snack: 1 min individual molten chocolate cake (i was jonesing for cake, forgive me ... hey it was only 86 calories! but too many carbs, c'est la vie)

I am a 'recipe collector' - I tend to graze at night and my way to get out of that habit is instead to look for new recipes and drink more Water. I keep a notebook of new recipes and once we have them, if they are deemed 'do overs' then they get transcribed to a 3 ring binder that is going to be my 'go to recipes.' Some great sites for recipes are: http://www.emilybites.com/ http://theworldaccor...e.blogspot.com/ kalynskitchen.com skinnytaste.com cookinglight.com myfitnesspal.com (look in the community section, they have recipe threads and suggestions there) and any weight watchers sites - just be cognizant of any non-bariatric site, that you have to pay attn to the carbs and what not. I have some other sites bookmarked in my netbook, but I hope some of these will help you! Feel free to add me on MFP and I publicize my diaries. Anything you see on there, I'll send you the recipe if you want it. And many ppl who said "food is just blah/nourishment only to me now" yes, I agree with you. I struggle with it many a times, but let's change that perspective. Challenge yourself with new recipes, new plates (hey alot of eating is the environment/appearance of things), new cooking utensils (who all has a wok? who knows how to really use it? can you make a sludge? eggface introduced me to that!). It's all about perspective people. When you are feeling blah, it's time to reach out for motivation and we'll pull you out of that as we have to eat every day. Let's make it fun, low calorie, healthy and move on to goal! Best of luck! xx