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Love Gman's post. When you find that diet that lets us lose while sitting on our cans, do be a dear and post a link for all of us here. We'd love to sign up! ~Cheri And kudos on the lifestyle changes! That's the biggest part of long term success.

Full liquids mean that you should be be blending those soups into puree, but otherwise they'd be fine. Sounds like you ate a bit too much - it happens, so just try to keep an eye on it and eat very slowly. In the very beginning, taking a few bites and waiting a few minutes worked better for me. Our full signals aren't the same and it's easier than you'd think to miss it. For me, it's a runny nose followed by sneezing but pay attention to anything that feels different as you're eating and stop if you even suspect you might be full. Good luck, ~Cheri And soup ideas? I've got lots and lots of them but the best thing I can recommend to break up the monotony is to go for spicy or flavorful - so curries or peppers or anything with zing is going to make your diet infinitely more interesting than gruel (what I call the cream of wheat - who eats that stuff?).

I'm just curious and want something kind of like a roll call to see where we're all at. I'll be three years out in one month and I'm five pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight and eight pounds away from my original goal. If you're at goal, how long have you been maintaining within a 5 pound window? If you're not at goal, how far do you have to go? How do you transition your mind and eating from loss to maintenance or back to loss from maintenance? Do you go back to basics, restrict calories, get more active, etc.? I'd like to see some experiences shared here. I'm finding that I just don't make the time to come to VST much anymore. Sure, there's a small measure of burnout (I just avoid most of the topics when I do come around) and sure, I just had a baby a few months ago. But I think a major thing is that I don't like being here as a vet and not at my goal weight. It's silly, because this is exactly where I should be as I'm trying to lose. I'm struggling. Eating isn't that bad. I'm very fortunate, because I've read a number of threads lately where even vets are having trouble with non-stop hunger or food thoughts. I'm not dealing with that. But I maintained so easily. I'm not bragging...it's just how it was, and I honestly feel like I deserved it after struggling for 17 months to lose 107 pounds a tenth of a pound at a time! Transitioning from maintenance to pregnancy to loss again SUCKS. I hate it. I log my food and I track and no, I don't feel hungry (thank goodness) and I don't really want to graze or binge (thankfully) but I feel like the SLOWEST LOSER IN THE UNIVERSE and I'm really struggling with my body image and with the idea that I have to eat 700-900 calories a day, and skip the extra cups of coffee and actually pay attention to what I eat. I want to be lazy again, honestly. I want to be back in maintenance, back at goal and I want my size 5/6 pants to fit perfectly, without being slightly snug. I want to go back to hopping on the scale each morning and not minding if I see the number go up a touch one day and down a bit the next, because I'm already in my maintenance window and a small change won't hurt. I want to see progress again! I cannot wrap my head around making this transition smooth. It's not a huge amount of stress but there is a very real underlying fear that if I don't manage to get back into loss mode mentally, too, that I won't ever lose the weight and I'll slide into regaining. Where are the rest of you on this? ~Cheri

Where in MD? I'm in NoVA - D.C. area. There's a regional thread for each state, though some just aren't as active as others. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/83865-any-depanjmd-sleevers/ http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65932-where-are-my-maryland-sleevers/ http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/20836-dcmdva-sleevers/

Oh! Can I contribute the shakshuka I made the other night? YUM. I ate the leftovers for dinner the other day without the pita for fast day. Modified from the recipe on smitten kitchen: 5 Anaheim peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped 1 Jalepeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped 1 small yellow onion, chopped 5 cloves of minced garlic 3 Tbs olive oil 1 tsp ground cumin 1 Tbs paprika 1 28 ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes (I use no sodium Trader Joe's), undrained 1/2 cup Water 8 eggs 2 oz diced haloumi cheese 2 oz soft feta cheese 1 Tbs fresh parsley Salt and pepper, to taste Warm pitas (on non fast days!) Saute peppers and onion in oil over medium-high heat. Use a large skillet with cover or dutch oven with cover. Cook until soft and golden brown, about six minutes. Add garlic, cumin and paprika and cook an additional two minutes. While cooking, break apart the tomatoes with your hands by gently squeezing them in a bowl. Add the tomatoes with their liquid and the water to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened - about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Gently break eggs over the sauce, spreading them out in the pan. Cover pan and turn off burner. Let eggs poach in the hot liquid for about six minutes. I prefer my eggs runny so turning off the heat makes me happy. If you prefer them hard, leave the heat on low for those six minutes. Sprinkle with haloumi, feta and parsley and cover again for a minute to allow the feta to start to melt. Serves eight - each person gets an egg with a goodly portion of the sauce. We serve with salat yerakot (Israeli salad), warm pita (on non fast days) and hummus. Per MFP, one eighth without any sides or pita is 185 calories, 10 carbs, 13 fat, 10 Protein

So, I just went back to my old weight loss tracker (from 2010-2011) and saw that I had a massive problem breaking into the 130s last time, too. Huh. I think I feel a little better about it. It looks like I logged between 141-145 for seven weeks last time. That merits a frowny face for being bad news but a smiley for reassuring me that this is something I overcame before. I can definitely do it again. Not sure if I'll do it with a smile on my face, but I'm doing it. ~Cheri

Congrats on your fast day ladies. Mine was a fail. It was a conscious choice...urg..I'm just definitely not feeling it. I will do better tomorrow as my "make up" fast day. I hope. scale isn't my friend lately and the carb demon has come calling. I'm about to hit my cycle and I'm just...blah. Very very blah lately. Furthermore, I would like to say that there'd be a lot less blah in my world if people would just accept that I'm always right and quit disagreeing with me. Having ex-wife/stepkid issues on top of everything else and now is not the freaking time, I tell you! Adds to the blahs, of course. Should have word today about whether or not hubs is deploying in the very near future. If it's a negative, we could have as long as six months or so before the call comes down, so that's good. Everyone else seems to be doing so great! I know that I am doing well and I also know that I can't compare myself. I am just plain slow at losing but it gets irritating to see things it go in the tenths of a pound, you know? Drop, bounce, drop, bounce...net - 2 tenths of a pound. Blah blah blah. Laura, it's good to see your lovely face as your avatar again but I'm sure that unicorn is a reminder of the other kids in the play yard and helps you keep it friendly. I'm keeping it friendly. Barely, but I'm totally doing it. Alright, enough negativity. I've got things to do. In positive news, baby spawn is now sleeping through the night, which means Mama gets more zzzs, too. I'd forgotten what eight whole hours of sleep felt like! ~Cheri

Looking good, Georgia! ~Cheri

Really? If she's never once even tried to adhere to a strict diet, NOT ONCE, should her first try REALLY be the time that messing up can cause complications or leaks?! Do you even have teenagers? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get them to listen? The best way to teach a child is to SHOW a child. Do I think diets are the way to long term successful weight loss? No way. But I do think that learning rules and following them is critical for long term maintenance, even with a sleeve. And I'm against voluntarily slicing a major organ out of a child - one who isn't even fully developed yet - because she wants to be pretty and popular and fit in. Do you even realize how that encourages her (as I said before) to place the number one importance on shallow and fading traits like physical beauty and size? As a woman, as a mother (and yes, as the mother of an obese little girl myself) I want my daughters to REBEL against society's idea that we can only love ourselves if we look like everyone else. What's next? If she isn't naturally beautiful with a perfect nose do we sign her up for rhinoplasty? So yeah, I view a diet (though not necessarily following along with mom's) as the first step here. Hell, even insurance will not pay for the surgery on most people without a trip to the nutritionist, psychologist and a proven history of attempting to lose the weight. There is a small percentage of people that do manage to lose weight and keep it off through diet and exercise. Why should the first attempt be a major, life-changing and absolutely irreversible surgery? One, I might add, with a very small complication rate but when complications occur they are SERIOUS and LIFE-THREATENING. My opinion? OP had her mind made up before posting. At the very least, we've offered other points of view and given her things to think on and watch for. I can tell you, as an experienced parent myself, that there is no way to make your children happy all the time. You cannot fix everything for them. By doing so you rob them of the chance to develop themselves. Do I wish I could just swoop in and fix my stepkids? Amen to that. But I cannot. I think that you're going to fix an immediate issue your daughter has: her insecurity about her weight and her size. You will not be "curing" or "fixing" anything else, and I am afraid you will see the repercussions of this choice down the line. I stand by my earlier post - I really feel that the biggest thing you can do for her is teach her by example, to work on herself and her body second. We have dozens and dozens of skinny women hating themselves on these boards, many of them not able to find happy relationships and many of them still having all the same issues they had prior to their surgery when it comes to dealing with other people and loving themselves. Why? Surgery does one thing: it makes losing weight easier. There's a lot more to being a good person, to being a happy person, than your size. Good luck, OP. I hope that you at least take the many, many warnings here to heart and keep an eye out. I have a very troubled teenager with serious emotional and body image problems. I have done everything over the years to help her and make the path easier for her, and it took six years to finally see that all we were doing was robbing her of the chance to learn how to cope. Because all that work, and money, and effort didn't save her or make her better or make her love herself, and her four parents sweeping in to clean up the path and make it easy for her didn't make her happy like she thought it would. Counseling is still the number one thing I recommend - and I recommend it for the long haul, not just temporarily. Give her the tools to make the sleeve work and deal with the emotional aspects, at least, if you're determined to do this now. ~Cheri

In your case, I think it's purely a "check the box" thing! I'm pretty sure the other drastic changes you've made and your fitness level now put you in a far better place than many of us! ~Cheri

First, go watch that YouTube video of the applesauce and funnel. Second, even at three years out there are a lot of times when I simply have to choose if I want to eat or drink with my meal. I usually don't have room for both. And when I make room and do it anyway? I definitely eat more and I definitely feel the desire to eat again sooner. ~Cheri I want to add that I'm not nearly as strict about the 30 minutes rule now but quite frequently find I simply don't have room for at least that long, anyway.

Don't give up, Ms skinniness! I have felt the same way at times, too. Lately there's a reluctance on fast days and I'm getting sloppy with sticking to the 500 calorie limit. In part, it's due to plain old laziness. But part of it is that all told, I don't seem to be losing weight any faster on 5:2 so I find myself eating more like my old maintenance routine and shedding those pounds slowly. Oh dear, I pray I'm not one of *those* people that needs instant scale gratification to feel happy. I ran in to the same mindset last time I slowly slogged to goal. Those last fifteen pounds? It took me FIVE stinking months to lose them. I only have one more pound to be back in my maintenance window, another four after that to be at the bottom of that range and another three after that to be back at my original goal weight. So, top end, we're looking at eight pounds. Yeah...it's totally going to take me three more months to painfully work my way back there and I know it. It's discouraging...but I guess I'm being ungrateful, because at least I'm not gaining and at least this still isn't challenging. It's not that it's hard, it's that I just don't feel like doing it. Anyway, you stick around and hang in there and I'll stick around and hang in there. And eventually, we'll both see the numbers we want on the scale. Then we get our free unicorn prize, or so I hear. And it's all rainbows and sparkly sunshine after that! ~Cheri

Clearly it's a difficult decision. As a vet, three years out and here on this forum for four years, I can say that I've seen maybe FIVE people come back a couple years out and say they're still easily maintaining with no regains and no issues. Will the sleeve help your daughter lose weight? Indubitably. But as many of us determine after life at goal, being thin does not equate with being happy, even if we convince ourselves it's the one thing keeping us from loving ourselves. We're talking about a number of issues here. I say this as a mom/stepmom of six daughters - there is absolutely no right or easy answer here. Things to consider: 1) Has she done other methods to lose weight? There are a few reasons I ask. Did they work for me? NO. But they built a foundation and forced me to exercise willpower. Few people succeed with traditional dieting but WLS should not be the first time she actually tries to lose weight. Instant gratification in this can lead to issues everywhere else in her life. 2) Why is she obese? Is it solely genetics? There is more here than just food. Being skinny and all of a sudden being accepted by her peers will be just as damaging as being rejected by them, and will reinforce the idea that beauty/thinness equates with love/happiness/popularity. 3) Teens are the most impulsive and irresponsible creatures. Truly. Consider transfer addictions like drugs and alcohol. Experimenting with these things is now the norm, not the exception. I am not saying whether or not it's "right" to do this. I think no matter what you decide that counseling is imperative, and lots of it. I think that at fourteen as a morbidly obese teen myself I would have wanted this surgery. As the mother of an obese little girl (age five) who has four older, attractive and yes, svelte sisters, I can absolutely understand and relate to your concerns. I posted about it at length in the "VSG as a preventative" in the Vet forum. If being obese as a teen is damaging, so is having the idea that your entire worth and likeabilty as a person is tied up in your appearance. Adult women post here all the time about being treated differently and the trust and confidence issues it causes once you shed the weight. I say wait at least until she's sixteen and reevaluate then, but that is what I would do with my own daughter. And I would keep her in counseling until that age, too, because there are underlying issues here if she has social anxiety. I would be sure she really understands - not just the challenges and the diet - but that this is FOREVER. That's not a very easy to comprehend thing for some of the grown ups here, and many of them struggle in maintenance as a result. And what if it DOESN'T resolve her obesity? There's a vet here sleeved the same time as me who still has sixty pounds to lose and is still (I think) considered obese by the BMI chart. She's having big troubles reconciling that and trying to figure out a way to shed the weight. There are other vets here that are still trying to lose the last thirty pounds or so to goal, too. We're talking THREE YEARS out. If your gal thinks this is an easy fix, it's really not. Best of luck to you. I'd wait but I know that it will be a challenge if she's excited and wants it right now. Sometimes we have to do what's best - and this really isn't the easy solution I'm pretty sure she thinks it will be. Just follow a diet and eat less and be skinny - I wish it were that easy! ~Cheri

True! A sedentary lifestyle will pack on the pounds. And I want to add that exercise doesn't necessarily mean classes or treadmills - just being a more active person will help immensely. I walk everywhere, take stairs, spend hours on my feet, actively play with my kids (instead of watching from the bench) and make small choices each day to stay moving. But I still hate "formal" exercise so I do what I can to avoid making my bootay bigger while also avoiding the gym. ~Cheri

M2G, I'd move my fast day. That's why 5:2 is super awesome..flexibility, baby! Good luck and enjoy lunch! ~Cheri

Vets forum, for sure. But quickly: 1) Not addressing the "why" of our obesity and kicking those habits (or learning how to live with them) prior to goal 2) Not learning a way to eat forever that keeps you satisfied, helps you feel more "normal" but also doesn't go too far and make you gain 3) You must remain accountable to yourself and remain vigilant about the scale 4) Some "forget" they were fat people and eat like they don't have food issues or like they don't need to watch the scale, or they fall into denial about how much they're really eating or drinking. 5) Maintenance is just plain hard and we don't really acknowledge that when our eyes are on what we think the big prize is: goal ~Cheri

Hang in there, Laura! I think it must be going around, I'm having a blue week, too. I noticed your avatar change, too. Don't go getting so frustrated you bail on us! Fast day today. Oh, and since there was a pie contest at hubs' work, I had to get up early on my fast day and bake an apple pie. Bleh. Well, I shouldn't complain. I don't even like apple pie. It's the principle, though. Like I want to play with food hours before I can eat any! I'm not sure if the gals at the playground are jealous or what. I think it just makes them feel bad that I'm still putting in effort and they've stopped. I know my husband hears at work from the other boys that this is a problem for a lot of them - like they feel their wives just sort of quit trying once they have kids. I don't know. In my case, I wasn't trying when I got married and I'm not trying to do anything for anyone else now. I just want to feel pretty, so piss on the passive aggressive or rude comments! Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday. I'd say I'm avoiding the main forums today but nah, it's an addiction. I totally need to change the part of my profile that says registered user. But to what? Sarcastic little mean person? That fits my mood lately... Laters! I'm off to go tend a fussy baby that just had immunizations yesterday. It's just plain ridiculous how many needles they poke your kid with by the time they're five. ~Cheri

Ah, but there's the rub! Tricare isn't covering the surgery though the traditional channels and they will ONLY do so if the MTF has a bariatric clinic that performs the surgery. The distinction is small but necessary because we get a lot of folks here that don't have a MTF that will do this flabbergasted or frustrated because they're not referred off post for the procedure even though other people get it done at their local MTF. Also, we have seen more than a few people get that off post referral only to be denied after jumping hoops because Tricare won't cover the sleeve. Same goes for vasectomy reversals. Not traditionally covered by Tricare. But if you go to a MTF where the urologist needs experience, they'll do one. Same again for IVF treatments. You can only get them at specific MTF locations - you cannot get an off post referral for this and have Tricare cover treatment. Good luck! I'm sure you'll do fine, and hopefully you'll get some good feedback. Unfortunately, many of our spouse sleevers aren't very active here. ~Cheri

Girl, you're way ahead of the curve here. Most folks that post take months just to get into the clinic to be seen by a surgeon, so I think you'll find that you're doing alright. I'm pretty sure that the stories I've read required a six month supervised diet OR proof that you'd given it a real shot in the past, a nutritionist visit, a psych eval and a whole battery of tests to be sure you're up to surgery. Good luck! ~Cheri

There's a group. It's not very active but the old threads have some useful information about Tricare. http://www.verticals...pouse-sleevers/ First step is to see your PCM to ask about WLS. If the hospital on base isn't doing the surgery, there is not a way to have it done unless you can get special permission to travel to another MTF. I've seen some folks post about this but can't recall if anyone was actually successful in getting approved to do this. Tricare does not cover sleeve at all. However, MTFs do procedures that aren't Tricare covered all the time. If the MTF near you doesn't support this procedure, however, they will not refer you off post. If they do, you will wind up jumping hoops only to be denied. There is hope that Tricare will begin covering this surgery (they currently cover bypass and band) but they have not yet and with budget concerns I do not see them actually expanding coverage like this with the next year, either. Good luck. Perhaps one of those threads will have relevant info for Campbell. I was self pay because there was no way to get the surgery where I lived at the time. ~Cheri

I've done both. I started tracking in the beginning to be sure I was eating enough. Later, I stopped. Now, I track pretty regularly as I'm in loss. When I'm in maintenance, I track occasionally and rely upon the scale and my clothes for accountability. Some people never track and have success. But do yourself a favor and search out the regain threads. A common theme? Failure to be accountable about your actual food intake. We can slip into denial and easily consume too many calories and experience a regain. That restriction? Works great at controlling your diet for about six to nine months. I got a full year where I couldn't eat more than a single scrambled egg. But now? I can eat 1,800 calories AND NOT EVEN REALIZE IT if I'm not careful. You're looking for a reason that you've experienced slower loss, but this isn't it. Even tracking you won't be able to control your rate of loss - that's decided entirely by your body. But for long term maintenance it's an incredibly useful tool to stay on top of things. Go read the vet forum. Very few people lose, stay at goal and never once experience any regain. And of those you'll see very few that never track. ~Cheri

Beef got me forever. Ground, steaks, thinly sliced lunchmeat - any variety, I just couldn't do it. Iceberg lettuce is still my enemy. Something about it causes me problems if I have more than one or two bites. Same goes for flour tortillas. I hate them. They gum up and get stuck and I'm left with a plate full of food because I only managed two bites. I also avoid rice for the most part because it does the same thing. ~Cheri

I change my goals manually. On the website (not the app, not sure how to do it there) go to the goals section under the My Home tab and you'll see the option to change your goals. I set mine manually. I get the fine print from MFP about consuming too few calories, etc. but this helps me track to my own goals rather than the automatically generated ones. ~Cheri

It does, thanks. I know that recently when she had another surgery they had to lower her dosage to be able to do the operation. She spent three days in the hospital under care and being monitored before they could slice her. I hope to hear some experiences that I can share with her before pursuing this as an option. Thanks again, ~Cheri

As a general rule, people that do a pre-op diet experience less loss their first month. Your surgeon should know this. This means that in roughly seven weeks you have shed 40 pounds. That is not slow loss by any measure. You're losing nearly six pounds a week if you average things out. I lost nearly six pounds a month when I average it out. My advice? Your surgeon might be experienced but is clearly not a good source of support. There is no need to panic or be concerned or feel like a failure. You have a higher start weight so you have a long road ahead of you. Trust me when I say that if you continue to do the right things you will shed an enormous amount of weight. Look to the boards - we have a few folks that have shed well in excess of 150 pounds and some of them took nearly two years to do it. Loss is loss - be thankful for it at any rate and please, don't let your surgeon's insensitivity get you down. There is absolutely no need to fiddle with your diet or increase exercise more than you're ready to at this juncture. Everyone stalls along this journey - many of us more than once and for extended periods. Remember that a stall is three weeks with zero movement. More than five pounds a week is a shock to the body. You don't get to control your rate of loss, only what you put in your mouth and how much you move. You're doing fine, keep it up. Keep in mind that hormones play a part for the ladies, too, and I even gain a few pounds each month, so be prepared for that if it happens. ~Cheri