LilMissDiva Irene

Welcome Andrea!!

Congrats!!! Question: How do you feel about your sleeve now?

As always - AMAZING!! I think what you are feeling is quite normal actually, and if not then I think there could be the risk of you keeping whatever you gained after you deliver your baby. You'll be fine, I'm sure you'll get back into your cute stylish clothes fast. Also, I'm not sure why anyone would accuse you of not eating healthy for you and your baby. That would be rude!!

Well you're not annoying me Meggie! It's really really tough in the first few months after surgery. You almost have to become obsessive with everything you put in your mouth. Unlike pre-surgery it's that you NEED to eat/drink instead of that you don't. It's a very hard concept! And with a tiny tummy, it can just be incredibly hard to accomplish this. I right now at nearly 9 months out I don't really have a hard time getting over 120 Oz of Water in and including around 900 to 1200 calories per day. Getting higher than that is a bit tough as my surgeon carves a very very tight sleeve, but IMO I think I needed that. I do try to keep my calories up, and especially on the days that I'm doing my hardcore cardios. I will do my hour workout and immediately after I'll make me a Protein shake bomb. It has over 40 grams protein and adds in about 200 calories to my daily total. It helps me a lot and I feel really good once I have it. I think sometimes Dr.'s worry with "drinking the calories" simply because they don't want us to abuse it. They'd rather we didn't do it at all, but I think if we are responsible about it and our drinking of calories is for nutritional purposes I really don't see any problem with it. Sometimes I just don't have time to eat, and I need the extra protein! What am I supposed to do? Anyway, that's my contribution to this thread. It's good to try to keep the calories moving about. Staying at one degree for too long and your body does get used to it. It's one of the ways I keep my scale moving. Hugs to all!!!

That is fantastic Amanda!!! Congrats on the great interview and I've got my fingers X'd for you! I hope you get the promotion! You sure went through heck for it... wow 13 person panel??? Yuck!! LOL

Yayyyyy Raine!!! Congrats!!! Rock that sleeve missy!!!

Whooottt!!!! You go girlie!!! You work so hard, of COURSE they fit!!

I agree Vitamin Shoppe is amazing! They have every single thing you can ever imagine you would need in your journey and every brand under the sun (save for a minor few). They are my nutrition store of choice and often have B1G1HO sales. Saves tons!! Especially since I go through tons of supplements. If anyone has a VS in your area, I urge you to check it out. The sales staff is super knowledgable too and incredibly helpful!

Hi Karen, I had a "best friend" like this for many years. We met when we were 7 years old, and we would remain friends or BFF's as long it would suit her needs. I was never allowed to have any other good friends or hang out with anyone except her or she would give me heck for it. She was always jealous of me, where guys are concerned and me being very flirty type, pretty, popular... all that. As I think about it now, I was everything she ever wanted to be and knowing this she tried to keep me locked away so she could shine. She would even go so far as to start terrible rumors about me so no one would like me. It didn't work of course... We also had this very strange competitiveness thing too. More like she would always compete with me, especially when it came to weight loss. I started losing weight when we were younger so she had to as well. We both got extremely thin!! We also went on a hiatus for nearly 7 years until about a few years ago. I had to cut my ties with her because she was just too much for me I'd learned. Well I'd wanted to see how she was doing hoping she'd changed, especially knowing she was a mother now. I was hoping that would have matured her some. We were good for a few months but much of the old weirdness she showed when we were younger started coming out again. It was then I'd decided it was time to cut her loose and for good this time. I still have not spoken with her and it's been nearly 2 years now. I don't regret this one bit and I never will. I don't need people like that in my life!!! To be honest I don't even miss her. How could I?? All she did was make me miserable. Anyway the reason I'm telling you this is because this type of scenario is all too common. It just comes down you... do you deserve to be treated like this? If you answered no, then it's best you not keep her in your life. She really sounds like an albatross, and with WLS you need to stay as far away from these types of situations as best you can. If you answered yes, then I feel for you because that cannot be further from the truth. Hugs!!!

Okay so yesterday early morning I did my 60 minutes on the treadmill and that got me 5.5 miles... whooo!! I'm telling you this workout really gets me TIRED!! It's working though, my legs are shrinking big time! This is my target area, I really don't have any more weight to lose on my upper body. This last 25ish Lbs is gonna have to come off my thighs and butt. I'm workin' it though!! Just now I pulled 30 minutes on my spinner and 30 minutes on my elliptical. I push myself to get between 130 and 140 bpm - and I really have to push myself hard to get there. I guess I have really good heart rate. It's usually around 60 bpm rhr. From what I hear that's a good athletic persons resting heart rate! This makes me smile! Tonight I wanna push myself a little further so alongside my 30 minutes of calisthenics, I'm going to do some yoga too. I really need to start doing that for stretching and strength. It's good for the mind too! Tomorrow I will do my 60 minutes on the treadmill again. Until next time folks!! Keep working those bodies!!

This is our Ticker Tutorial... HTH!!! http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/13516-ticker-tutorial-for-vst-lbt-with-pictures/page__view__findpost__p__115605

Cludgie, DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP!!! Simply put, the closer you get to goal the harder it is to get there. The weight loss for me has slowed down a lot! I have to workout 2x as hard as I did in the beginning to continue to get results. I too only lost 6 Lbs last month - so in the last few weeks I've bumped up my workouts. It's coming off better this month now and I have already lost 5 Lbs this month (I mean in the last 2 weeks). So with one more week on my good time to lose part of the month I will surpass the 6 Lbs lost from last month by all accounts. It's probably just time to shake things up - workout harder, or longer; be more diligent with eating habits or whatever you might be able to improve on. For me I really haven't changed much in the way of my eating. It's been the workouts that have been the difference. And most of all *love* yourself, for you really have traveled a long road. You deserve to be kind to yourself for that reason alone!!!

Yes I'm a real person and yes I am/was a patient of Dr. Aceves. The reason I felt it was a good choice and safe was that a few of my long time lap band friends had gone to Dr. Aceves to have the revision done. I trusted their stories and recommendations. It did take me awhile to finally take that step (as it is a scary one) and do it. Now I'm 9 months out down 90 Lbs and feeling amazing. Only about 25 to goal and working my way into size 6 - when I started a size 24W. I even used to wear a *tight* size 28W at my highest weight ever. Life's Good!!!

Big hugs and well wishes for your surgery tomorrow!!!! Please check in as soon as you feel you're up to it! Whoohooo you are 24 hours from being a Sleever!!

I totally agree with doing this. That's why I always have 3 sets of starting numbers. My highest, My pre-op diet starting weight and my surgery weight. We own them all!! So in totals, my Sleeve Journey totals are I'm down 89 Lbs - but from my highest I'm down 138 Lbs. Whoot!! I started my Pre Op Diet Sept. 1st so I lost that 89 in 9 months. Around 10 Lbs per month average. Not bad! That's exactly where I wanted to be and how I wanted to do it.

Yep I agree with S4M, that is beyond just a heavy flow - that is crazy heavy. Def give your Dr a call on this one. I hope you feel better soon!

I'll try to get everyone to sign up. Seems the invite option is having issues. I'll also be deleting the Yahoo! Group now that we have this. Happpyyyy!!! Can't wait to meet all of you Saturday. That is going to be so nice