LilMissDiva Irene

Hi cowgirl!! Welcome to VST! J I'm so glad you found us!! I agree with you, I was NEVER addicted to sugar pre lap band. It was rare for me to eat candy, Cookies, cakes, ice cream, etc. In fact I probably drank maybe 1-2 sodas per week. Of all the sugars I’d say soda was the one I had most. I was more of the salty/crunchy type snacker. I’d choose a bag of Doritos over sweet biscuits any day! After banding however, I was addicted to all these and then some. It was such a miserable time for me. I hated being in pain, so I did everything I could to avoid it... thus, leading me to “soft food syndrome”. Then once you become addicted to these foods, IMO it’s pretty much all over for the lap band experiment by then. I did gain ALL OF MY WEIGHT BACK that I’d lost with the band. Thank goodness I had the good sense to start over before I’d gotten back up to my highest weight ever or even higher. I know it was more than possible to do that at that point. Imagine my shock as that happened since so many blindly would think it was not easy to gain weight back with the Lap Band. What a joke!!! I know better now, and I’m better off for it too as it will help to keep me in line with my sleeve. The difference now is that I CAN eat healthier foods!! I’m once again slowly but surely getting back to the old me. I can eat good healthy dense Protein, lettuce, cheese, all fruits and veggies, even lightly steamed broccoli!!! I never have ANY issues with these foods what so ever. The only issue is that I can’t eat a lot of it… which is the point of the surgery to begin with, so I’m ok with that. I’m just glad that one bite doesn’t make me feel like I have a whole grapefruit stuck in my chest and I’ll have a heart attack at any moment. Another great thing I’ve gotten from my sleeve is that my hunger is pretty much gone! Of course I feel hunger from time to time, but it’s usually when I *should* feel hunger (it’s meal time!!). Not like my band where I’d feel hunger pangs immediately after or even DURING eating (no one would know how this feels unless you’re a previous lap bander… its crazy stuff). It’s usually 3-4 hours later and really depends on what I’ve eaten in my last meal. If I eat majority of dense solid protein I really don’t even get hunger pangs for nearly 6 hours or more later. Sometimes never, I just happen to have my next meal and I’m good to go. I did get reflux with my band too. I did have my band pretty tight because that’s honestly what I thought the sweet spot was supposed to be. The reason is that not only but the previous “fill” was less than a quarter cc and I could still eat too much. I kept it like that for about 6 months I think, and with never losing my true physical hunger I ended up getting the soft food syndrome at that time. Anyway, back to the reflux, I would get what is known as “night cough”. It was awful… ugghhh... The leaks is a real concern with the sleeve. Make sure you do your research on it. Our chances as revision patients go up too, so know your risks. I didn’t have a leak THANK GOODNESS!! However I did struggle a little bit more than the average virgin sleever. I had pain when I swallowed and it took me a little longer to fully recover than others. I did have a fair amount of scar tissue so my surgeon really had his work cut out for him. However, I didn’t have any real major complications so I’m very thankful for that. All the best to you in your new journey!! It for ME has been the BEST THING I’ve ever done for myself regarding my health and weight loss. Right now I’m just starting to get into Size 6 pants and Small shirts. At my very heaviest I was wearing 28W/3-4X. I can run for an hour straight!! I can keep going and going and never get tired. The sleeve has given me my life back!! Keep in touch and let me know how you’re doing. J

WHOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!! Welcome to Sleeve Land! I'm overly positive you will love it here. Keep on sipping, walking and of course resting. Hugs to you, and LET THE WEIGHT LOSS BEGIN!! :bananahuge:

Agreed with Kelly. We should not forget to eat! It keeps our metabolisms running at full steam. Set him some timers on his cell phone or find out a way to let him know its time to eat. If he's too busy at work to remember to eat, then he really needs to step away for a moment. You don't want him to get sick! That said I have personally forgotten to eat on several occasions. However, I do my best to make sure I'm putting something in my belly every 3-4 hours at least. Good luck and let us know how you two figure this out.

If your Dr. said to take it 1x per week, then I think you should do that. Everyone is going to be different. My last panel showed my B-12 is mid-high level which is excellent for me as I was diagnosed with B-12 anemia. I'd never even heard of sublingual until I started to look into being sleeved and finding out our stomachs don't process B-12 like a normal stomach does I needed to do more investigating. I think I should have been taking my B-12 sublingual the whole time. Anyway seeing my results come i so excellent I decided to go 5X per week with my sublinguals. I take them on the mornings I do my workouts. It gives me an extra pep that I like just before. I pretty much get mine anywhere I can find them on sale. Rite Aid brand tastes really good! It dissolved in about 10 minutes. Kind of on the slower side. I also found a great deal on the Members Mark brand from Sams Club. I'm going to be good for probably a year!! This one dissolves in about 5 minutes. Like Tiffy I also don't swish the pill around. I place it under my tongue and just let it dissolve until gone. Good luck to you!

Okay, why is this the first time I hearing about this Dreamfields ??? Sheesh!! I catch myself looking at all the Nut Facts on pastas all the time!! Always the last to know... As far as squash, I don't hate it. I really do like it - but to use it for spaghetti, I have been hesitant on it. I will give all the ideas a try. Thanks ladies!

AWESOME!!! Great job so far!!!

Hey Candace, looking GREAT!!! I love your positive attitude too... YOU ROCK!!!

CONGRATS!!!!!!!

This is a great philosophy to have! I've had this same WL Mantra since day one. I was previously banded for 2.5 years, and had great struggles with it. I guess that's why I can feel so humbled in my progress. Comparing our rates to others I think is the worst mistake anyone can make. Most of us will NOT lose as much as top 1%. I'm certainly not up there. I however am very much OK wiht that. I'm SO HAPPY to be where I am!!! I can do more today than I honestly ever thought possible, and to me that is what matters most! I kept some of my old big clothes. Largest size 28W. I also kept one 3X shirt. OMG it is humongous on me. I just can't believe it.... I have taken pictures a few months ago of me fitting in one pant leg of my 28's. Crazy huh? Other things folks can do are keepting track of our weight on spreadsheets. I do and I love to go back and look at my trends. I'm doing good!! Also, keep a log of all your NSV's. You will be so thankful to have done this. I didn't and wish ever day that I had. Ah well... Good luck to all!! Cherish your journey, it is YOUR OWN!!!

Hi John! No worries, I felt the same way when I was about to get my revision. The whole lap band experience for me was a miserable failure! I didn't tell anyone unless they needed to know. I wanted to make sure this one would actually work out for me first. Now pretty much everyone knows which is fine. I wrote this even a few months ago, and my story is even MORE TRUE today!! I LOVE MY SLEEVE!!! I believe you will too!

No kidding! I always think maybe WLS is involved anytime anyone mentions the Greek Yogurt... hahaa!! This is so true! I just recently seen the most updated episode. I really hate how they make them originally weigh in on a freight scale. These people are not 1,000+ Lbs!! They DO make scales that can accomodate these folks. They have them at the Obesity Clinics, so that weight in is total BS. Of course WE all know this stuff... the average american Joe Schmoe does not. Regardless though I do still like watching this show. Also on the very last show the man who they showcase failed miserably and had to be admitted into an addiction rehab clinic. This would be true for me too if I didn't get the sleeve. I love to eat! Anything!! Good healthy food, and some not so much. My sleeve literally makes me physically ill if I eat bad foods, and I can only eat no more than one cups worth of the good stuff. So... I think I'm doing fine. All I know is that through the whole show I kept thinking this guy would benefit so much with the sleeve!!

Okay here is the best story with photos I could find on this story through google search. It doesn't look to me like she lost 110+ Lbs. Maybe more like 60 - but what do I know? http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43676767

Ugghh how rude!!!! My job "access denied". Booo!!! Oh well, I'll just have to check it out at home. Or I'll do a google search on her and see what I can find.

LOL We do have "like" buttons. It is the little box on the bottom right with the + / -... Re: WLS on celebs. I see it like this, if they say it's not, then I just assume it's not. Yeah sure, some have gotten caught in fibs but that doesn't mean they are all fibbing. Do you have a link to the article? I'd like to check it out. Also, there are many surgeons who can do WLS without scars these days so most likely if the Celeb doesn't want anyone to know and shows off their physique in a bikini we still may never know.

To this day I have never given spaghetti squash a try. What does it taste like? What is the consistency like? If it's really mushy I probably won't like it, I'm more al dente here. I have been meaning to give it a go but when it comes down to it, I've not looked for it when I'm grocery shopping. Also, that is an excellent idea - doing half/half with the lo-carb noodles!!

I really didn't create my own post, what I meant was I had a huge reply here ready to go and the website deleted it... :-( Sorry for the confusion. Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I don't make well thought out sentences. I do try not to post thing like this out in the open either. I mean, I'm sooo happy over all my weight loss and I really do love my sleeve. However, maybe it's that we have it ourselves that it's never enough. I say to myself that I like how I look, then the next moment I feel like I want to lose more. Honestly I don't know WHAT I want. Maybe years down the road we'll both be settled in nicely and be happy. Hugs!! I think you look fantastic and really I don't see that you need to lose anymore weight. But it doesn't really matter what *I* think though, it's really all about you. I hope your brain can catch up to your outside very soon! Remember too that the new vanity sizing, they didn't make size O, OO, or OOO back then either. The sizes are just "different" now. I'd much rather be a 4-6 than a 10 for sure!! Just know that you aren't a 10. Those are old outdated clothes don't really exist anymore. My original goal was a size 8 of today. I'm that now so in reality I have hit my goal. But just like most others I want to try for some vanity pounds now... nothing wrong with that!

Awesome thanks! It's nice having folks here that live close

Which store did you find this? I've never seen this brand before... thanks for that!!!

Wow yes that is a great find! Do you have a direct link? :-) Thanks!!

OMG I wrote out this huge post and the website just ate it!!! AAUUGGGHHH!!!!! Anyway what it basically was saying is that, I get you. One minute I'm happy where I am and the next I start thinking of a million reasons to keep going. Likely my body will keep losing anyway since I do run a lot, do many workouts and of course I eat very healthy most of the time. I'm just going to let my body settle where ever it may. I probably won't Celebrate much as the pounds drop, and I probably will drop quite a bit more. Hugs!!! It's tough... and I just don't think many will uncover this truth until they get here. Where ever "here" is... LOL

Whhhoooohooooo!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!! :party4: