4ALongerLife

i just heard of noosa today... i'm gonna hafta try that one! the blood orange chobani is good... but their apple something is better. takes like a freakin' dessert! lol

ditto! cherry and blueberry in these are my favs

They used to have two of these in my gym. They broke down all of the time ... ppl at gyms are hard on machines though! It was a good work out from what I remember but the one at my gym only would go up to 4.0 mph I think. IDK if you buy one from them if it's limited, maybe that was just applicable at the gym? (so no one got hurt) It does take some coordination to do!

no ma'am, i'm sorry, i didn't catch the nov 2013! so sorry!! and dayumn girl, kudos on the trapeze!!!!!!!!! idk that i would ever have the guts, but how freak'n cool is that?!?!?!

OMG i chuckled at so many comments. I also need to look up some places on the map. Lessofmeismore... now i'm going to picture the wild dogs every time I'm bored on the stair monster! (which used to be every other day, which I'm trying to get back to after dealing with a leak, specificially since November). I avoid the boards so much now. I prefer MFP. The drama here just gets to be too much and my energy is better spent elsewhere. I know I don't know everything, but I do try to respect that fact and others opinions. However, I too get tired of "i've 'only' lost 56 lbs in 7 weeks.. what do i do with this stall? (of three days)... why no, i don't work out in any way shape or form.. why no i don't track my calories, what's mfp?" sigh.. I chuck my crabbiness up to being on a purely liquid diet from 9/4 to probably 12/31 ish. Talk about testing... so no, I surely am not a super vet ..... Just a chick trying to make it.. and yeah can probably be called an idiot too, lol.

well 24 hour fitness is opened just that: 24 hours. and they have them nationwide. so if i had all of the health issues you described and traveled... but still loved to be on the go/not having the items in my house, then a membership there would be perfect. but hey, to each his own. the point is to "just do it" ... whatever way you DO prefer/have to do due to your own body limitations... just get active! and good luck!

oh and btw, you all have given me a new way to appreciate the flag

cowgirl jane... why not give yourself more time to mentally adjust to your new body? i thought i'd read somewhere to wait up to two years to have plastics? is that the general "consensus" of doing something like that? i'm sorry i don't remember... i know that i have a few areas just as you described. the worst one that i worry about ... well there's two. one the boobs. i'd love to have a nice plastic rack like the porn stars or chris jenner lol. but what stops me is how my body responded to surgery for the sleeve and having them redone every 10 or so years (or so i've read). i need to do more research on that, so edjumucate me if you must (pls). but second area for me is the butt, where it meets the hamstrings/back of the leg. to me, i look like the wicked witch in the wizard of oz.... "i'm melting" ..... lol. hubs says he can tell that my body is already adjusting and tightening up but idk. i had my first gastric sleeve surgery 3/5/12. my bariatric dr. says with my not smoking, being well hydrated and young (pff why do i feel old then? lol) he says the body will come back, it just has to have time. idk how much time, but again that loops back to my prior statement (yes there is rhyme or reason in my verbosity) statement of isn't it two years to wait to have plastics done? i totally adore cheri that posted a reply earlier in this thread. she is one lady that posts insightful and helpful tips. pls re-read what she said. then on the other hand, i have to applaud you for at least going in for a consult though too. getting naked in front of someone and honestly telling them every piece and part of your body that you question if you like or not... and taking pictures of it... wow, that takes a lot of guts. why don't you have a couple of consults, then wait another year and see how your body's changed in those pix? reason i suggest this: i just hope that you have given your brain enough time to absorb all of these changes and that you've given your body enough time to rebound. i know it's a daily struggle looking at the creepy arm fat (i have it too), the little piece under my chin that when I hold my head a certain way looks like a tiny turkey neck, the parenthesis around my mouth where the fat of my cheeks used to hold things up... yes, I have all of it too. but i'm giving myself time to absorb the changes. i got down to a size 4 but girl, it was through 9 months of complications from my sleeve and a rather limited diet of 5 of those months (hello total liquids, bleyak). have you looked up anything on bone size and what you should weigh? for instance, http://www.ehow.com/...weight.html��is just one article that perhaps you should consider. do whatever makes you happy. i personally am a bit scared of having so much surgery, but then again, the sleeve is supposed to be relatively easy peasy and wasn't for me. so maybe it's just a personal issue for me. i do wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide and overall, i hope you are just happy and pleased. you've come a long way .... congratulations!

Why not a gym membership instead? I don't want the contraptions in my house and I love to get out and go. Plus the gym, to me, I can ramp up through treadmill to elliptical to stair master and then there are weights there, pools, trainers. A myriad of ways to challenge myself. But if you don't use it, try finding a place that doesn't hold you to a lengthy contract. I think places like Anytime Fitness are month to month, I just don't know about cancellation of a contract or if they make you sign up on a lengthy contract. Just get active. If you will use the thing, get one. It's a long time commitment... maybe get a used one instead of brand new just in case you don't use it long term? Either way... you are preparing yourself to improve. Kudos to you - I hope you do it and are very successful!

Back to basics.... Are you tracking what you are consuming? I use myfitnesspal and if I didn't, I'd easily fall off of the band wagon. Are you getting your Protein in first? Are you getting in your Water? Are you working out? My WLS group class, the dr. that leads it, says the latest research shows you have to do 60-90 minutes of pure cardio a day to lose and or maintain your weight loss. It doesn't have to be all at one time, but the overall point is be active, active active. If you add these few things back into your daily life, I think it will push you to losing again. And activity helps with depression. Best of luck - and congrats on your pending nuptials!

I love this thread, thank you for posting it! CLK (Cheri), I totally respect your responses on threads, especially on this one. Thank you for posting your reply.

I go to Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshall's or Target. I can usually find some great deals!

Congratulations!

I am interested in what you will do.. I'm in the same situation. Thanks for posting!

At most 4 oz, but being so newly sleeved, I doubt you can get that much in honestly so don't worry too much that you will go over. My dr. has told me the tummy, once completely healed, should not have more than 4-6 ozs in it at a time. Or 3-4 golf balls (I'm visual). As you get further away from surgery, you will be able to eat just a little more so I try to keep this in mind. Remember to SIP SIP SIP and be slow about it. You are going to begin learning the difference now between head hunger and true hunger, if you were a true food addict like I was/am. Good luck to you!

Ahem, vodka martinis ARE a clear liquid. You CAN have those directly after surgery. If you are in full liquids, even add a bit of Protein powder, you'll be fineeeeeee. (WARNING for those that question it.... said in total sarcasm, please do not proceed with this advice)

Well I'll tell you, I was strict about my diet after my 1st surgery, my second one, then the 2 months of liquids that I was on, then I may have stumbled after my 3rd surgery but it was ok'd by my dr. first (as some of my friendly nazis would remind me not to do x, y, or z according to their dr's) and now I am trying to be as good as possible after my 4th surgery. But I finally closed my food journals on MFP because I got tired of anyone asking me why I was eating what I was eating. I am doing what my dr. has said I can do. I am limited in so much due to the stage of foods that I am in and trying to keep my calories up to STOP losing weight due to a persistent leak that I had contracted through no fault of my own. My carb rate stinks and I hate it, but I'm struggling with where I'm at in my 4 surgeries of my journey and trying to battle it out amongst my own food addict demons. But after 9 months of dealing with this, jeeeshus, anyone cracks. I especially understand whomever posted about the effect of a freaking McDonald's commercial after being on liquids since 9/4/12. Try being on liquids since then and see how you respond. I can totally empathize; however, I'm doing it. So when I stumble... does that mean I lack "common sense"? I don't think so, and I defer to my physician who has to remind me how strong I have been in the 9 months of holy hell that I've had in what should have been an "easy surgery"... but pls note that question is a rhetorical one and I don't need you to answer me The most I can say is I've seen it all here on this site and one thing I feel like I have to say is this: don't let anyone run you off from being here. I've seen people who jump on others, people who support others, some who are dependent on many things and seemingly have changed it from food to other means, those that are enablers, those that are co-dependent, you name it, the flavor is here. And it can get ugly here. But please don't let that run you off, which slowly throughout time, it's been doing to me. However, I still venture out to read some threads and this one, IDK why I'm responding to but I am. The point to remember here is this: It's the net ppl, anyone can be anyone and do you trust anyone to tell you what to do instead of the surgeon that you PAID good money for (or your insurance did) to cut out 80-85% of your internal organ that helps you sustain your life? If you have questions, proceed with caution on the advices you receive here please. Serious questions, defer to your physician or nutritionist. Remember every person's journey IS different as are their chances for different things to happen (like my body rejecting a staple which caused my leak; once a leak starts, it can be a bear to repair depending on the aggression of the tactics taken, the time in which it is found and the damage thus done to your body and other internal organs and how they react... albeit why you need to refer to your surgeon who has gone to school to understand how the body functions, knows which tests to do to determine the damage and then can determine the response). But this site should be a place anyone can come and pose a question to. On the flip side, to the newer persons here... once you have been here a while, you get pretty irritated with questions like "Can I eat a hamburger a week out from surgery?" It's best to be kind when possible, but the world isn't kind is it? I saw someone last week eating a hamburger 10 days out from their surgery. The way I responded whenever they complained of being "stalled"... is how far out are you again? And you are eating hamburgers? (as well as where's your Water intake and exercise, but I digress) We all have our moments and we all remain to lurk the boards in our different places in our journey to learn. We all want to be a part of the 80% that are success rate sleevers.... All I can say is stick around, ignore some of the posts (I mean are they really worth it?), defer to your doctor or nutritionist on more important health/nutrition questions ... and I wish the best of luck for you in your journey to success.

Atul, I inboxed you and then came back to this thread. My apologies if the following is a bit scattered, but... I think once we speak, perhaps I can help you? I had a drain once and a chest tube another time in my 4 surgeries to address my leak. I had brown drainage from both the 2nd and the 3rd time I was hospitalized. Supposedly it was the leaked contents inside of me. The color was dependent on what I ate from my understanding. The drains stayed in me (the 2nd surgery I had a pigtail drain placed in me by IV radiologist, guided by a CAT scan) and I had that thing in me for 2 weeks after my discharge. They removed it once the draining contents decreased and finally stopped. I kept record of it daily during that time (how many cc's were coming out, the color, etc). It changed colors based on what I ate in honesty (red jello=red drainage). The 3rd surgery (Nov 2012) it was a bigger tube and was a chest tube inserted in my back to drain the fistula that had begun from my lungs/diaphragm/tummy. Once those leaked contents get out inside of you, they cause damage to your organs and tissues. That damage has to be stopped asap or it floats around inside, aggravating your tissues/organs and eventually puts a hole in them from what I was told during my experience. The 3rd surgery that I had corrected the leak and they sewed the fistula apart, but due to the leaked contents still inside of me (I was on IV antibiotics during my 9 days in November, then came home on IV antibiotics), which they tried to suck out thru the tube and had me on vanco during my hospitalization (I think) and other IV antibiotics... but they had so enflamed my insides that within 7 days of my discharge of my 3rd hospitalization, those cells had re-enflamed the lung/diaphragm/tummy fistula and it grew back together. After the 3rd hospitalization, my complications (and continued issues) showed in my diet - I would ingest 3 oz of a Protein drink and cough up 5 oz. And I started a low grade temp off and on I think. That's been the story these last few months for me (until now). It started on a thursday and that weekend it got worse. I called my dr. on that Monday and he wanted me to go asap to the radiology dept. Upon chest xray and barium swallow test at the hospital, they saw the fistula had regrown - as well as a second one had begun from my tummy, the pus wrapped around the spleen and had eaten a hole into my colon. Thankfully it was only a one way fistula or I could have had fecal matter coming back up into my tummy. I know that's gross... but it's honestly what could have happened. I had my 4th surgery (an open surgery) to take a piece of the small intestine, patch it up on the hole (the hole was at the part of the esophogus that meets the tummy, right before the suture line starts), removed a foot of my colon and resected it, then placed a feeding tube inside of me so that I don't lose more weight. I am struggling now to get enough calories so I stop losing. I'm also on home IV antibiotics since my discharge on 12/15. I have two more weeks I think to go on those, they just changed them to a different prescription (flucanazole and invanz) as the last ones I was experiencing nauseau and vomiting (merepenum and mycamine). I see an IV nurse every friday for my PICC line changes (the bandage around it) as well as for blood draws to see what cultures are like. I had a NG (naso gastric) tube during my hospitalizations 2, 3 and 4 for TPN. I am now home doing a feeding pump and on osmalite per the DME company that supplies my tubings. Home TPN is too costly so that's why I have a feeding tube. My dr. said I can put my Protein drinks through my feeding tube, so I've been trying that the last few days in order to try to keep my diet "balanced" (and trying to get my protein in). From all of these leaked contents, I now have a lower left lung abscess due to my body trying to encapsulate it into my diaphragm and protect me. But it pushed my lung up out of the way and has now not reopened with any of the breathing exercises that I ever did. I hope that it will resolve, but IDK. I will have to see a pulmonologist in a few months on that one I am sure, but right now, I've quite got enough on my plate medically speaking. I have had several CAT scans and chest xrays and barium swallows during all of this experience. We are trying to no longer do any more CAT scans in order to limit my exposure to more radiation. So I will have another upper GI (barium swallow and chest xray) in 2 months if I keep proceeding well, then repeat that in another 2 months. I am thinking I want one before 2 months, which my dr. is agreeable to. I want to see my insides and KNOW it's progressing according to plan. I also ran a low grade temp a lot of the time .... and that has finally stopped now. (yay!!!) I never did a stent as what I read and saw on it, I was scared of it. I was told by the IV radiologist that if it doesn't work this time, that is what they will have to do next. (yeah my reaction was WTH do you mean "if it doesn't work"????????). Leaks aren't easy to get under control.... oh well hell, I'm living proof of that buddy. I'm not sure what else I might be able to help you with, but pls inbox me and I'll be happy to help if I can. (not that I know everything, but I can share from my own experience if you need it) Best to all, always. oh and btw, I had 3 opinions this last go around.... one dr. said I was one of 12 cases he's seen this year like this and it's like 1 in 1000 supposedly. as many as they are cranking out lately, i suspect we shall see that number continue to increase as they milk the system for these surgeries....they are becoming more and more common to do.

They have a spiced caramel apple cider right now. And yes they do have protein shakes ... strawberry banana, mango banana and something else banana. It's not advertised, but they do have it. You can look them up in mfp for the nutritional shakeout. The strawberry banana one is decent. Their tea is good too. But caffeine you are supposed to stay away from so it doesn't cause ulcers in your tummy I believe, more important I think at the initial part of your journey and as you move away from your surgery date, you will be more able to get back to coffee as you liked previously. Good luck!

I would think you are probably fine, but get it checked for peace of mind. And perhaps you should up your calories to more than 800 a day. Not more than 4-6 oz in a sitting, but more calories a day could be why you are hungry. I have to eat between 1400-2000 calories a day. Yeah I'm eating all day long.... but I worked my butt off to lose the weight, now I gotta work on keeping it up a bit (due to complications as my signature shows, I've not be a "normal" sleever and lost too much this last go around due to complications, so now I'm working at keeping my weight at 135, which I am below this week). I know at one point in my journey, 800 calories wasn't doing it for me. Perhaps you are just at that stage, but I hope to read you are fine and all is good after getting it checked. Best of luck, always.