Fiddleman

Sorry you had a bad training week and sleep issues. It will get better. One foot in front of the other. It is hard to get the initial oomph to go work out sometimes, but once you do get started, it is as if energy turns on. One benefit about training with a trainer is that you can leave baggage at the door and just focus on what the trainer asks you to do. Impressing the trainer is sometimes a motivation if you lose it internally for a short term. I know you have it. It is just you and your hour of "get it on" time. And no matter how you feel going into the hour, you always feel 100x better leaving the hour. I have trouble getting out the door sometimes (excuses start popping up earlier in the day), but by the time I am going through the cross fit warm up with my trainer, my doubts are erased. The nagging doubter is gone. The key is to make a promise to yourself to always "show up" to a workout no matter how much you might feel like sitting it out. This week will be better for you; I just know it! As for sleep, I too have been getting a lack of sleep for a while now (see the dark circles under my eyes in the avatar?). It is a bit unfortunate. I even take sleeping aids to try and get some sleep, but I always wake up in the night and have trouble falling back asleep or wake up too many darn times. Anyways, it is not about me. I just wanted to let you know I understand how all these physical feelings can add up and make it hard to show up to a training session. Good luck this week and give yourself a break for not being 100%. We all hit those periods.

You might true lime, true lemon or true orange. I just started on some true lemon raspberry lemonade. 5 calories a packet and made of all natural ingredients. It is also sweetened just a touch (which makes it better than true lime in my opinion) with a tiny bit of sugar and stevia. I use one packet for 32 oz and that seems to be enough flavor for me. If you are looking for a good water enhancer, but do not want artificial colors, flavors or chemicals, you might give these true products a try.

Yup - everyone. You can take all the biotin you want, eat all the protein you can and take all the vitamins you can swallow, but it will still fall out. Month 3-6 are the heavy shedding months. Most people stop losing after that. The hair that falls out is usually the dead or weaker hair follicles. Do not worry. It is just a phase. Your hair will be stronger, longer and more beautiful by month 9.

Lol - indeed. Poison is an accurate description for most water enhancers (mio is pretty bad also if you check out the ingredients). Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil until you can tolerate plain water again.

Overeating is really easy to do and something you have to evaluate at every meal until the physical response from the sleeve stabilizes. This is really important once you move onto solids. I believe that the physical response of being full stabilizes by month 3 or month 6 at the latest. Before then it is important to remain vigilant in portions size. After a while, you develop an intuition to be able to distinguish the physical response from being satisfied versus being full. Eating a portion size to being full is a precarious habit to get into because it leaves you very close to sliming or uncomfortable feelings in the chest or lower in the digestive track. That is where the power of the sleeve as a tool comes in. It will force you to eat within clearly defined boundaries. The boundary of being full is different for every individual, depending on anatomical make up and size of bougie used for sleeve. It is important to listen to your body closely to understand your own boundaries. Most people will receive full signal by either small burps, hiccups, runny nose or something else. My full signal is a series of small burps. You want to stop eating before receiving this signal and that takes time to develop a natural intuition. However, once you key in on what it means to be satisfied, then eating is indeed pleasurable and there should be no shame in not being able to finish your portion sizes. That leaves more food for another meal or perhaps some scraps for the dog. After month 6, I find that most days I can eat 3-5 ounces of dense Protein and 1-2 ounces of veggie. However, some days I will stop eating within an ounce of protein left or all veggies still remaining on my small plate because being satisfied is so much better then being full and having to deal with sliming or pain. You can divide up your meals during the day to be every 2-3 hours in order to eat smaller portions to satisfaction and not get hungry in between meals. The body is designed to respond more efficiently in terms of overall health and especially metabolic rate when meals are small and do not cause any major rise or drop in insulin levels. For example, I eat on average 7-8 small meals a day where 2-4 are consisting of real food and 3-5 are consisting of Protein shake, bar or some other supplement.

Yes, I stopped being cold about 7 months post op. However, I suppose everyone is different.

OK it has stopped after an hour. Boy, was that torture! I might have to raise an olive branch to get the neighbor to close their window. Lol. I work at home and I definitely had waffles on the brain and my stomach was nudging me, begging me to satisfy it. Being a post op is always going to be a challenge and requires a strong defense. Been good so far!

That is so fascinating to hear about the correlation between obesity and the inflammation of this organ. I have always known obesity and inflammation is highly correlated, but this study takes that understanding to new levels. Keep us updated!

Yes, I was the same way for a good part of the last 6 months. Just as I am no longer so cold at post op 13 months, room temp water is also tasting better or should I say normal as I remember it from before surgery. Just something newer post ops may be able to look forward to.

I second Cash and Carry. This is where we pick up our SF flavors. It is cheap, convenient (close by) and a really good selection. No shipping costs!!

Try and sip through 64 oz from rise to bed.

Fecal transplants? Now there is something you do not hear about every day. As for repairing a "sick" digestion system, there are many flora supplements out there. One that I used many years ago with success is called Dr. Floras. It is a fairly expensive product, but probably one of the better ones out there on the market.

Oh and flavoring water might not last forever. I just had some tap this morning without any flavor and found it OK just as is. I think drinking plain water is becoming easier over time (13 months post op). It was also interesting because I had a moment when I drank the tap water and thought "am I cured from having to flavor water?" I hope so! It would be nice to enjoy plain tap water again as I did before surgery.

It is also interesting the range of different types of pre op diets there are. For example, my doctor had us doing simply high protein, low fat and low carb ( less then 20 g). In other words, it was a modified Atkins. Others on VST I see have to do all liquids. I can see eating the modified Atkins would be far easier then all liquids when it comes to not cheating.

According to americanfitnessindex.org: The top 10 1. Minneapolis, MN 2. Washington, DC 3. Portland, OR 4. San Francisco, CA 5. Denver, CO 6. Boston, MA 7. Sacramento, CA 8. Seattle, WA 9. Hartford, CT 10. San Jose, CA The bottom 5 1. Memphis, TN 2. Louisville, KY 3. San Antonio, TX 4. Detroit, MI 5. Oklahoma City, OK Is your city on here? What makes a city fit? I am surprised to see my city of Seattle, WA on here at 8. I suppose it helps to have a lot of biking, walking, running and hiking trails around the region. So that begs the question: if Seattle is so fit, where did us VSG Seattleites go wrong? Bariatric surgery business is booming here and it seems like everyone is always on a diet. Do you agree with this list? Let's hear your thoughts and theories.

Yes, crystal light gives me acid if I have more then 1-2 Water bottles full. It is very acidic and a little hard on your stomach and esophagus. We need to be drinking minimum 64 oz a day, but 120 oz is ideal. Try and drink as much as you can to stay hydrated and being well hydrated also helps with weight loss. Over time, I found some alternatives which do not cause me irritation: Dasani Drops, propel and hiC flavors. All can be fund at the standard grocery stores like Safeway, albertsons and Fred Meyer. Infusing water with slices of fruit, such as orange, lemon and lime, is also a very good alternative but does require more preparation above and beyond squirting drops in a bottle of water. Whatever you choose, make sure it is something you can stick with day after day and month after month. You and water are in a relationship for the long haul. Good luck!

Nice! I guess you can't wear the slow running is my superpower shirt any longer...

You will probably be able to enjoy pasta again, but let me offer you a tasty alternative. Zucchini can be made into a pasta for something like lasagna by using a mandolin to cut thin flat "noodles". It tastes really good. We had a zucchini lasagna a week ago and I swear it was like real lasagna once you bake in the meats, cheeses and spices. There are also other tools you can buy to make spaghetti noodle out of any vegetable like squash, carrot and more. What do you think? Edit: just noticed above poster made similar suggestion to make zucchini noodles.

It is really not good to cheat for several important reasons. The first is you do not want the surgeon to open you up, see that your liver is too large and then sew you back up without doing the VSG. It just means you have to wait for XX amount of time before the doctor will see you again. The second, while not a deal breaker, is still very important. Preop diet gives you the rigor of preparing for the challenges of following the surgeons eating plan post op. It is better to be mentally prepared for it by following the preop diet. Now, you are only on day 4 so you have the time to get back on the wagon. Do it now for the reasons enumerated above. If you wait to get the cheating under control, it may be too late to correct any physical or mental issues before day of surgery. Good luck and know you have all of VST to turn to for support.

Statistically, the occurrence of a gall bladder issue after significant weight loss from VSG is much higher for women then it is for men. I am not sure why this is the case. Does anyone know?

The best Peanut Butter / chocolate Protein bar I have had is the Pure Protein brand. Quest bars are very good, but I have only tried it twice and that was lemon and chocolate chip cookie dough. After hearing how addicting they can be, I do not want to take the chance by having them around. Typically, I might have 1 pure protein bar a day or 1 every few days. Not a big deal; it is just a 180 calorie snack and fairly low carb (2-3 g). Oh and the worst protein bar of the same chocolate / peanut butter flavor? That would be think thin. Considerable more calories at 270 and cardboard taste. Not worth it.

For the same reason we got the sleeve to teach us how to control and form new eating habits. Do you see both are just different approaches to solving the same problem with eating too much?

I do not know about you, but does rain and gloomy weather make you hungry? It is almost bringing out the SAD in the middle of summer. Up here in Seattle, WA we have had awesome weather (best in the country) from mid June to yesterday. Sunny every day, temperatures in the mid 70s, afternoon breezes. It was perfect. Now it is all rainy outside and for the first time in I don't know how long, it is making me think about eating. Must be a trigger for me. Do other vets ever deal with gloomy weather and wanting to snack? Need to turn the happy lamp ( tricks your body into thinking it is sunny) on or something.