joatsaint

I found one of my trigger foods. It's spaghetti or more specifically pasta. My mom made some homemade spaghetti on Sunday (homemade as in, homemade from a jar, you know, the same line of thought as Olive Garden treats you like family). Really, Olive Garden treats you like family, I don't recall my mom ever presenting a bill at the end of a meal. But I digress. Any way, I took the leftovers home with me. For supper, I ate my normal portion, and a few minutes later wanted another portion - even though my stomach was telling me I was stuffed to the top. I wanted it so bad that I would have cage wrestled a bear for another bowl. It wasn't easy, but I stopped myself. The hardest part - and I can't believe it was so difficult to do - was to throw out the spaghetti. I kept telling myself that I could space out the spaghetti into several meals during the week. But, I knew if I left it in the house, I'd find some way to convince myself to eat more that eventing. There is a dog that trots through my yard daily, so he may be going into insulin shock today! Only 1 other time have I wanted to eat something so bad - it was a banana laying in the fruit bowl. So adios spaghetti noodles, I'll eat you at mom's house, but you won't be coming home with me anymore.

I'm beginning to wonder if the post-op diet forced our taste buds to go cold turkey from all the processed foods. It may be that the taste bud detox is the reason behind our new food likes and dislikes. :-)

Well, this is embarrassing to admit, but for the past 2 years I've had to sit down to pee. At some point my gut and the fat pooch above my junk got too big and it was a real hassle (and messy) to use the urinals. So it was just easier and cleaner to sit on the toilet. So it was a happy surprise when I realized yesterday that I could use the urinals again. My job requires a dress shirt. I hated having to drop trou, tuck my shirt tale back in, and fight with my belt every time I went to the bathroom. Now I can go back to hosing down the back of the urinal and destroying the cigarette butts at the bottom. :-P P.S. They must think guys are pretty dumb around here. I saw a sign above the urinal that read, "Please don't eat the big white mint!"

Gone through it and still going through it several times over the past 7 months. 27lbs in 6 weeks in incredible. Almost 5lbs a week! Just ask yourself, "How fast was I losing weight pre-surgery?" I bet it wasn't 4lbs a week. You are going to go through stalls, we all do. It's part of the process. :-)

For the 1st week I had to be propped up like in the hospital bed. I rolled up one of my comforters and used it to lay against and keep me at the right angle. I think I was able to stop using it after the 2nd week.

Wow, imworthit, too bad you got this message just a little too late. If you had gotten it before surgery, it would have been so worth it! Think of all the money, time and pain you could have avoided if only you'd passed this message onto 14 friends in 10 minutes. Life's a b***h, right?

Visiting the psychiatrist was on of my pre-requs for getting Sleeve surgery. I was pretty nervous about the interview. Who wouldn't be? Knowing that the whole approval process could come to a screeching halt based on the opinion of one guy who only spends 15 - 20 minutes with me. From talking to a fellow sleever, I knew that there was going to be a 500 question multiple choice questionnaire. I could tell right off that it was a personality test. The questions covered the whole gambit - from how did you feel about childhood, how do you feel about being an adult, do you have depressed thoughts, have you ever stolen anything, how do you feel about being in crowded situations ... ect. The kicker is that each type of question is repeated 4 or more times throughout the questionnaire - only it's asked in a different way each time. I can only assume the point is to see if you answer the same way each time - to get your true feelings. It took over an hour to complete everything. The most annoying part was - THERE WERE NO TABLES! Maybe it is part of the test to see how you react, but have you ever tried to hold a clipboard and mark answers with one hand and hold a list of test questions in the other???????????? Now this wasn't their first rodeo. They do these tests for $400 a pop. You'd think they would be a little more considerate. I felt like I was Will Smith in the 1st "Men in Black." The part where all the candidates were sitting in the egg chairs trying to take a test. And Will is the only one smart or brave enough to pull the table over to his chair. So I pulled the same thing. I spun one of the other chairs sideways and used the arm to hold the clip board. The other 2 poor schmucks in the room doggedly mustered on, trying to finish their questions the hard way.

I didn't get any feedback directly from the head shrinker. He gave the results to my surgeon's office.

I cut back when I got to the full foods stage - about week 6. I still occasionally drink them - mainly after exercise. But I try to get all my protein from real foods now.

You know, de nial is not just a river in Egypt. :-P Seriously though, I guess I was lucky my 1st month. Only had one mood... I hated the world!

Well, the main reason I chose the sleeve was that it was the least creepy feeling of the barbaric surgeries. I really didn't like the idea of having my intestines rerouted. As well, I have a friend who had the lap band 4 years ago and he was not successful at losing the weight - he found ways to eat around it. Plus he's had complications along the way, both with the band and getting it filled to the right size. As for shakes, I don't add anything to mine. I drink the Premier Protein chocolate shakes and they taste very good. I've also tried EAS and Muscle Milk, they are okay, but Premier tastes the best to me.

Sorry, but I can't find any way to say this that doesn't sound mean - cause it's not meant to be. It's only a reality check. Buuuuut, Really?????????? Two weeks post op and already stalling? You might want to consider having a sleeve revision.