joatsaint

Could be worse. :-O Like this auto-complete message post.

Fast loser, slow loser, I am a half-fast loser! On average, I lose about 3 lbs each week. But on the other hand, I'm eating good and haven't really had to exercise hard. I walk 5 days a week and am working my way up to 5 miles per day. I've managed to get to 5 miles only 2 times since I've started. Knee and hip pain sometimes interfere with my walking. How I wanted to be one of those posters who could say they lost 100 lbs in 6 months, but it doesn't look like it's in the cards for me. But I try to be satisfied with a steady down tick of the scale. If I can maintain this downward pace, I'll be down 150 lbs in 10 months. That would be freakin awesome! That would put me at my lowest weight since high school - 27 years ago! And at 190 - my ideal body weight. Jeeze, until I wrote that last sentence, I hadn't taken time to do the math! 190 seems like a weight someone else is, not me. I don't know if I can handle being normal. It seems like one of those daydreams that only comes true in the movies. Ok, back on topic - the one thing most fast losers don't mention in their posts is, what they had to do to have such fast results. Did they workout 7 days a week on the treadmill for hours, living on Unjury and water? Or do they have a naturally fast metabolism? Or are they just attention whores, looking for approval and praise? ***Disclaimer, I know of no one that has lied about their weight loss! And no animals were harmed in the writing of this post. But my cat thinks I'm starving him!*** Anyway, the whole point of this post was supposed to be, be satisfied that you are losing weight - whatever the speed! If you want to lose faster: move a little more, eat a little better, and stick with the guidelines from your NUT. Oh, and don't forget to have a support group like the good folks here on verticlesleevetalk. You don't have to post anything, it helps me just seeing that others have the same questions and concerns keeps me from feeling alone.

I get almost everything off of Amazon. The competition between sellers keeps prices fair. Most of it qualifies for free shipping, but be careful to note when it doesn't qualify - sometimes the vendors charge almost as much for shipping as the cost of the product. Amazon.com

Or my favorite, tell'em - Not all aliens burst out of the chest! Best scar excuses

My 4 small incisions have faded to the point where I can pass them off as freckles. The big one, could be mistaken for a birthmark - it's about 1 1/2 across and fading slowly. If I decide to wear a bikini, I think I could do a comb-over with some of my belly hair and hide it. ~:-)

I think I'm coming out ahead in the long run. I'm cheap and stick with the Sam's Club/Walmart brand Vitamins. I probably spend about $1 per day on supplements. If I drink a shake, that's about $1.50 - nowhere near what I was spending per meal. It was normal for me to eat 2 lbs of meat in the evenings and that's at least $6 bucks, when I can catch meat on sale. I was spending about $100 per week on food. Now it's around $45 or $50, including Protein drinks and vitamins. 2 lbs of ground turkey and 2 cans of refried Beans is enough for at least 2 days of meals - roughly $6. I figure the money I save on food will pay for my surgery in 3 - 4 years.

The EAS and Premier Protein shakes were on my approved food list - starting on the 2nd week. I found them a little thin but good, for my taste. But you should ask your doctor when you're allowed to drink them. I tried a sample of Spark last week - I'm 6 months post-op, and Frankensleeve did not like it at all. I drank about half a glass and had to stop. And it did not taste good - kinda bitter. I tried the fruit punch. But VSG'ers are told not to drink caffeine the first few weeks after surgery, as it is a stomach irritant.

I know where you're coming from. Being fat is easy. It's something I'm used to. Change is scary! I actually got scared and caught myself thinking - "What if I can't eat as much after surgery?" Then I had to roundhouse b*tch slap myself and say, "Dummy, this is WHY you're having the surgery." Then I thought about how people would start noticing my weight loss and complimenting me. - I'm used to being invisible. And then I thought about how I wouldn't have an excuse to stay out of social situations if I were thin. And God Forbid! Girls might notice me! And on and on ... I just said to myself "F it!" I'll take it as it comes and learn to deal with it.

I love that, I may have to steal it and tell to my friends. LMFAO

The thing I keep in mind with the Low Fat/Full Fat options is that sometimes the low fat option has sugars in it to make up for the flavor lost. So I tend to go with the option that has the fewest grams of sugar. When looking at LF/Full Fat I also look at the total calorie count. In the case of my refried Beans, the difference is only about 10 calories more a serving if I go with regular refried beans and I think they taste better than no fat refried beans. So it's a matter of taste sometimes. Overall, I'd rather go with a full fat option with few carbs than low fat with high carbs.

I can detect a faint vanilla smell when I open the HUGE barrel I have. I've tried putting some of the powder directly on my tongue - I can't taste anything. I have tried it in my Crystal Light lemonade - it made it very smooth and creamy. And I mix in a couple of scoops into my chicken/refried beans mixture. Refried beans hide the flavor of anything mixed in. :-P

Here's my review of the Premier Protein chocolate drinks. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/blog/2115/entry-6226-premier-protein-drinks-review-chocolate/

I take a sub-lingual b12 tablet that I get from Walmart. It tastes very good. Just pop it under the tongue and let it dissolve. http://www.walmart.c...g-45ct/17325185 I was taking a liquid sub-lingual from Walmart, but it just tasted too horrible. As for the rest of the B12 complex, I get those from my Multivitamin tablets - from Sam's Club. I've never had to take a liquid or chewable multivitamin. Starting about my 3rd week post-op, I swallowed a multivitamin table and had no trouble with them.

I don't know about you, but the 2 most important work rules I know of are: 1. Don't take another man's tools without asking first. 2. Don't F with another man's food. Violating either rule can put you in dire jeopardy of losing blood, skin, hair or at the very least, finding a nasty surprise in your lunch kit the next day. But my current workplace is a bit looser about those rules - being that it's mainly ladies and has more of a community atmosphere compared to the construction sites I worked in the past. So it's not uncommon to find that your friends have raided the fridge and at least part of your lunch was donated to the cause. It was one of those serendipitous moments yesterday that I learned exactly how to protect my food in the community fridge. My director had stashed a piece of Italian Cream cake in the fridge - leftover from the previous day's birthday celebrations - in between two balloon print paper plates. The top plate had a simple message printed in bold black Sharpie on it, "Please do not eat me." "P.S. I already licked it!" - Kyle Pure genius! Have you any tips on how to protect your food/stuff/things from being "borrowed"?