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Hey folks - I tried to post a thread on the Success board in an attempt to stave off some of the frantic "I'm a slow loser" posts. But what I meant to be a motivational thread that invited OTHER slow losers to share (so it could motivate everyone else) instead got picked up by just a small handful of newbies and turned into a "Yay Cheri!" post. Not my intent at all. If any of you are also slower losers (as in, you didn't drop 110 pounds in five months) I'd ask you to please share your story there so people can find it. If we get enough good posts there, the thread might merit pinning. No, it won't stop the frantic slow loser posts but it might give reassurance and help adjust the expectations of people that research. I know a number of people that could post there (where are you, coops!) but the thread was quickly buried. Here's a link if you're willing to share. I know a lot of you are at/close to goal after just a year. I'd be happy if you'd share a more moderate experience, too, but I'd love to see the folks that took 1 year + to reach goal posting. Too many people have this idea that there's a magical window of loss when it simply isn't so. Hungry and hormonal people are already crazy...add in a scale freakout and people lose their heads altogether. ~Cheri http://www.verticals...w-loss-success/

Hey Vets - I really need to snag some shut-eye while I can but I wanted to drop in and say I posted a birth announcement for our daughter in the pregnancy board. I hope everyone is doing well and once this overseas PCS nonsense is finally over and we can rest a bit I'll be back to post my usual helpful, sarcastic or just plain mean posts. In the meantime, we're enjoying our little one immensely and can't wait for our new normal to finally start. ~Cheri Oh, here's the link to make life even easier. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/75022-shes-here/#entry762158

Check with your OB if you're concerned but I took: Prilosec, B12, Calcium and prenatals in the morning. I then took a prescription Iron supplement in the afternoons and evenings. For the first few months I was also on an additional folic acid supplement but they dropped that somewhere between four and five months out. My daughter is just two weeks old, so while nursing I'm still taking the B12, prenatals and iron supplements. My acid reflux and lactose intolerance disappeared as soon as I delivered, so I'm getting plenty of calcium from food again. Hooray for cottage cheese! I'm so happy I can eat dairy I could do a little dance. Oh, and because I'm exclusively breastfeeding, the pediatrician put her on a liquid Vitamin that I put in her first bottle of the day so she gets enough iron and Vitamin D. I tend to be borderline with my iron levels even with a prescription supplement so for us it's necessary. I'm sure you'll do just fine and your weight seems right on track. Update us after your ultrasound! ~Cheri

I'll be three years out in July. I was sleeved by Dr. Aceves in Mexico, but now live in the D.C. area again. This is the first time I've lived stateside since having my surgery, and I'm curious about the support groups in area and how they operate. Are they open to anyone or just to the patients of a specific surgeon? Are they a good mix of vets and newbies? I live in Alexandria but would consider a drive to a meeting worthwhile. Did anyone ever put together a social group for this area? I think something once every few months could be fun and informative for a lot of us that don't have other sleeved people around in real life. ~Cheri

In the loss phase I ate no more than 900 calories a day. In maintenance I aimed for 1,100-1,300 a day. While pregnant, I aimed for 1,400-1,600 calories a day. I'll be honest, there were times when that was a real challenge due to either restriction or morning sickness. And there were times when the hormones were flooding my body and I felt like I could eat all day long. But overall, that's the window I tried to stick with throughout. I gained 32 pounds, a perfectly normal weight gain that actually worried my OB. This is the same OB that saw me during my twin pregnancy and the fact that I gained so little this time had them worried. However, my daughter was born at a normal weight (for our family) - right in between the weights of my previous children at 6 pounds, 7 ounces. She was born perfectly healthy, at 39 weeks, 3 days so there were no problems with her size or health due to my surgery or my diet. A huge thing to consider is Vitamin supplements, though. I had very real issues with both lactose intolerance (it reared it's ugly head again with my pregnancy) and morning sickness every time I consumed meat. I had to find ways to make up the difference, and I turned to Protein shakes for a while. I also took a number of Vitamins to help ensure the baby was getting enough of what she needed, too. By one week postpartum I had already lost more than half the weight, so try to shelve any concerns about a normal pregnancy gain and focus on the baby. Good luck, and wishes for a healthy pregnancy! ~Cheri

Does the nausea start before or after you eat? Dairy, dehydration, or your Vitamins could all be the cause of persistent nausea. ~Cheri

I'm glad you shared your story. I think that disordered eating, from either end of the spectrum, is just that. You didn't develop a new habit or way of thinking - it just shifted from the bad habits of an obese woman to what might be an unhealthy preoccupation with your weight/diet in a thin person. I think that to some extent, dysmorphia really IS a normal thing for us to experience post op. The weight loss happens quickly (even in slow losers it's faster than without surgery) and we make a lot of drastic changes in our lives. After seeing something that makes us unhappy in the mirror for so long, I think it's difficult to stop nitpicking and trying for perfection. Especially when woman-focused media is constantly selling us the idea that it's never quite enough to be thin - you have to have the perfect figure, a pretty face and be well educated, too. Oh yes, and the perfect mom who balances a high powered career while somehow maintaining her sanity. We also get an almost immediate gratification from seeing our hard work show results in our mental health, our bodies or on the scale. Once we hit goal there can be a sort of void where that preoccupation and dedication resided for however long it took to reach goal. I think the line between fairly normal for a post op and potentially harmful comes when you reach that point where you realize it isn't enough - when you do keep going and when you see that you'd tell a beloved friend to stop losing if it were her, but because it's your reflection and your weight you continue onward in the hopes that ten more pounds will make you happy. I think you're on that line, but you're cognizant of that fact which helps immensely. Weight loss didn't make me happy. I have a number of real-life WLS friends and guess what? WLS didn't make any of them happy, either. We think it will before surgery. We have whatever issues are in our lives that helped make us unhappy, obese, disordered eaters and we're sure that if we just lose the weight we'll love ourselves, forgive ourselves and be happier. And in my experience, at least, that simply did not happen. I had to find the problems that were there BEFORE the weight loss and address/resolve them as best I could to find some peace and yes, eventually some real happiness. I am not by any stretch saying you are anorexic, but I purchased a book for my teenage stepdaughter last year that seems to be helping her a bit. Believe it or not, this book took a different approach to her illness (she is an anorexic) and instead of body affirmations the book is a diet-based approach to adjusting your body and brain so they're in sync. In her case, it has helped - her weight loss has stopped and while we haven't seen much regain, she IS eating and her blood panels show closer to normal nutritional levels. Most importantly, she seems happier with herself and more peaceful about her relationship with food. That's reassuring and it's the first time in three years we've seen anything that's come remotely close to "working" with her. The book simply addressed Vitamin deficiencies and suggested what foods to eat to correct imbalances. I doubt in your case it's worth purchasing, but perhaps visiting a library to see what the book outlines and see if you can apply it to your diet might help? It sounds crazy, but so many times I see these women posting that are unhappy or struggling in some way with food and while I know that a huge part of that is whatever food demons they entered the game with, I also feel that some of it is due to the way a lot of people super restrict their eating for long periods of time. I think diet plays a role in our mental health, too. In any case, the book is called "Answers to Anorexia" by James Greenblatt. It might be a waste of your time, but it might also include a few ways to adjust your nutritional intake so you feel a bit more balanced. Whatever you decide, I'm sure you realize you aren't alone in this. Many people simply don't post about it, much the way we don't see a lot of posts about real struggles in maintenance or while losing. It's easy for this site to be full of cheerleaders when all is well, but break out the negativity or a real struggle and people fall back on telling you how to eat and to exercise more. Good luck, ~Cheri

I think this is a really complicated issue. It's not just habits or emotional eating here. I see a common theme that a lot of folks never got to their visualized goal and were forced to compromise even before beginning the lifelong struggle of maintenance. I'm one of them! I got far closer than I thought I would, sure, but I never did reach that ideal window for me and even "at goal" I'm overweight on the BMI chart. I don't know a good answer. What I do hope is that many researching and newly sleeved people read this thread. I think many (even some of us!) don't truly grasp the idea that the sleeve really is just a tool, and that the mental/emotional/physical struggles that helped us reach obesity in the first place might never go away or be fully resolved. I'll be three years out in July and yes, I'm currently horribly stressed and I'm currently pregnant. But those old triggers and habits are still there, under the surface. If I had put an ounce less work into my mental health while losing, I have no doubt I'd be up forty pounds in this pregnancy rather than the twenty six I'm up. And all of this bad diet temptation reared it's really ugly, convenient head as soon as I got back to the states, where I'm positively bombarded with bad choices and temptations every where I go. And yes, it's STILL a struggle sometimes. I STILL have to stop myself from grabbing candy. I STILL have to say, "No, I will not go through the drive-thru and eat absolute crap today." It's STILL a temptation. Right now, I'm resisting about 90% of the time. But no mistake...it's still there and I have no doubt that it will always be there. And I can see that if we do stop tracking and we do get complacent (or injured, or sick, or put on a new medication, or have a great deal of stress, or hey, LIVE NORMAL LIVES) that it could possibly get harder and harder to maintain the farther we get out from surgery. Maybe, at the heart of things, this is the real reason we see almost nobody 5+ years out and why the stats for long term maintenance (even with our awesome sleeves) are so dispiriting. Please keep this thread alive. And maybe starting a similar one in the Vet Forum would be beneficial and attract more people that aren't sharing their struggles. ~Cheri

First of all, congrats OP! Are you ladies still taking your PPI? I ask because almost immediately after getting pregnant my appetite increased and I felt like my stomach was rumbling day and night, encouraging me to continue eating. I found out that my doc would okay my Prilosec once daily while pregnant and as soon as I was on it my appetite, while actually present for the first time in two years, was far more controllable and easier to manage. If I don't take my PPI at the right time every day I will feel absolutely RAVENOUS until I do take it and the acid is under control again. I gained more than half (15 pounds) of my pregnancy weight by three months but have slowly put on the last bit (11 pounds) over the remaining six months. I am due in less than two weeks and have gained 26 pounds, almost every bit of it in my belly, upper arms and bust (where you'd expect it to be with a healthy pregnancy) so I am not concerned or worried about it being an issue in the long run. I've actually lost a couple pounds at my last few visits, though the baby is growing just fine. Good luck, ~Cheri

I had to do this, too, but I didn't consider it anything but a necessity. I lost that last five pounds but went down a full pant size, bra size, shoe size, etc. and had to have all of my rings resized, too! ~Cheri

I guess I didn't really celebrate. Or maybe I did, and that's why I'm due in two weeks? Nah, I think I'll celebrate re-achieving goal with my plastics. I'm thrilled with how much I can pull off with hidden shapewear, but think it would be lovely not to need it. That, and being pregnant reminded me exactly how much I missed my chest. It reminded my husband, too, though, so the odds of me talking him into plastics in the next year are pretty darn good. ~Cheri

Hey, I knew that injury was good for something! And I suppose I should say I walked like Frankenstein's creature, not Frankenstein. ~Cheri

Well, I can understand a lot of what you're talking about. Most assuredly you're in a better place for pregnancy (at least as a doc would view things) being more than half a year from surgery. And some doctors will let their patients try to conceive even sooner post op. My twins were nearing the same age when we decided to get pregnant, too. I didn't want too much of an age difference, so I really do understand that part of things. If there isn't a fertility concern I would wait one year post op but that's me. I had issues eating for more than a year post op. It wasn't until the six months prior to my two year anniversary that I could eat more normally, skip shakes if I didn't want them and had my Vitamin deficiencies under control. Would a healthy and happy pregnancy prior to that time been possible? Absolutely. Other people have done it and had no real problems or complications. A lot depends on where you are in your diet and overall health. As far as baby weight, unfortunately, very few folks have come back to update post op. It could be that they're too busy or that they're ashamed because they haven't been able to lose it. I do know that of the handful of regain posts I've seen, some of them were ladies that had babies post sleeve. But I think that the same principles that apply to maintenance/loss prior to a baby apply afterward and that a lot of this can be avoided if you're healthy, don't develop bad habits or go completely off track because you're pregnant and if you've got the emotional food issues under control. I've had a perfectly normal weight gain with my pregnancy and anticipate no real issues shedding the weight afterward, though I do expect it to go slowly much the way losing my last twenty pounds to goal went before I got pregnant. This is really something you should weigh and consider after seeing both your OB/GYN and your surgeon, to see what they have to say. Good luck, ~Cheri

Even as a young woman I had so many back and knee issues prior to surgery. They weren't even serious enough that they were my main motivators for surgery (getting my diabetes under control was more important) but not needing weekly adjustments or pain pills all the time is a huge benefit to losing weight. I no longer wake up aching and sore before even starting my day. The leg/ankle injury I had in 2005 used to hurt and swell every single day, and on particularly bad days I'd wake up walking like Frankenstein. Now it only twinges or aches right before a storm. It's made a huge change in my quality of life, and it's one you can almost assuredly look forward to post op. Good luck, ~Cheri

My Mirena fell out post op and had to be placed again (ultimately I had it removed and there are posts about my experience on VST somewhere) so it's possible. If you are able to check your strings you can at least have reassurance that it's still there. It is possible to get pregnant with Mirena but many more of the IUD pregnancies we see here are Paraguard ones (no hormones) but I still encourage everyone to discuss their birth control with their docs post op. There are ladies here very happy with their Mirena post op and there are others like me that had to change to something else. ~Cheri Oh, and my pregnancy was planned and had nothing to do with IUDs or birth control at all, so don't get worried by my pregnancy ticker.

I was already on hormones at that point so my situation is different. I did feel more hungry but I was injecting progesterone daily, too! It's likely the stress/anxiety as you wait out the 2WW. Try to find healthy options and stay on track. It's perfectly okay to take a look at your nutritional intake now, too, and consider a small increase. I added calories/carbs in around 6-9 months post op and was surprised by how much more I could eat (close to double calories/carbs, actually) without negatively affecting my weight loss. Track your intake and stay calm during your wait to test. Best of luck! ~Cheri

Absolutely true! I tend to get stressed at the end of the day as I recap what I need to do, the various issues my stepchildren have, our hectic military lifestyle, etc. I tend to be a planner and uncertainty makes me anxious, which leads to more stress. If I'm in a stressful point in my life (like now) I'd find that I want to eat those junky foods at bedtime - chips, pretzels, Cookies. Now if I really can't shake the urge to eat I do a small plate of raw veggies with hummus or I do a small bowl of a crunchy Cereal with lots of seeds before I head upstairs. It really does help with both the desire to eat and the release of some of that stress. Once upon a time I loved to run and would "run out" all of that tension. Now I'm a lazy slug but attacking my food really does seem to distract my mind and help me not only feel more at peace before bed, but also relieves that emotional attachment to snacking when I'm stressed. I always try to find other ways to relax first, because I'm reluctant to go backwards and encourage a habit of nighttime eating in myself. But for those nights when it just won't shake, it really does seem to help a bit. Thanks for sharing, I'm glad I'm not the only one! ~Cheri

Shoes? Shopping? I love it now and cannot wait to get this little baby out so I can get back to goal weight and buy some new clothes! I HATED shopping for clothes and only owned two or three pairs of shoes prior to surgery. Pretty soon I'll be competing with my husband for closet space. But really, it's not an addiction. I'm not out of control and I don't have to shop. In fact, just doing an online version of window shopping is pretty satisfying, even without buying anything. I also listen to completely different music now - pretty mellow and relaxed music instead of angry rock music - and I find that it's mostly because I'm happy and want my music to reflect that. I suppose I could say that I transferred my desire to eat food into a desire to create food...that I then feed to other people. In my normal life (ie when I'm not living in transition without my husband and preparing to have a baby) I bake several days a week and I entertain on a small scale several times a month and on a large scale (20-40 guests) about once a month. That's new and something I never did prior to surgery. It's also kind of stressful for me but incredibly rewarding and enjoyable, too. If only I'd been able to cultivate a transfer addiction to exercise, though. I'm a small person and in good shape but I secretly dream of being super fit. Ain't gonna happen, though! ~Cheri

I don't think there's a single "formula" that applies to any of us post op - fast or slow losers. Approaching this surgery like our previous one-size-fits-all diets leads us to feel frustration and also like we have absolute control over what our bodies will do in a particular time frame. The reality is that all we really get to control here is our diet, our habits and our feelings (to some extent) about our progress. I started a slow loss success thread on the success board - you might find interesting stories there that reassure you. I think that in reality, many that feel unhappy with "slow loss" are losing at the normal, medically suggested rate of loss. It's the comparison with people that manage to lose more than a hundred pounds in less than a year that has us feeling like there is something wrong with our pace or success. Take heart in the fact that there's no window of opportunity that closes with the sleeve, and that many of us reach goal well after one year post op and are no less happy with our results. ~Cheri

I didn't read any replies here so I hope I don't repeat anything. It's up to you, honestly. And there are as many varied answers to this as there are surgeons and nutritionists. You know soda is junk and bad for you and that it's addictive, right? But if you want to drink it and will also be accountable and record it in your daily intake, there's not a thing in the world wrong with that. I have two trigger foods that make me want them daily: soda and popcorn. That's it. I still consume these foods in moderation, but I do it knowing that moderation is harder for me with these items. But that's just me. If you record it and count it, and can control your desire to consume it (instead of being controlled by the need to have it daily) you'll be fine. ~Cheri

I would phrase it much more nicely now that I'm not feeling as frustrated, but everything in my rant about ridiculous expectations applies here. 1) Surgery hurts, be prepared for discomfort. 2) Losing weight doesn't happen overnight, so please try not to weigh daily post op or you'll make yourself insane. It should take a lot less time to reach goal than it took to pack on enough pounds to need surgery, but it doesn't all fall off in just a few months, so try to be patient. Also, I'd add that it's important to scrap any expectations about the pace you'll lose before you even have surgery. You'll lose at the pace your body sets, and it's unlikely that you can affect that pace much. 3) Eating will be a challenge for a while. You'll lack energy until you can eat. You might feel like you're "hungry" when you're stuck on a liquid diet. This will all pass eventually and it's normal. 4) PPI, PPI, PPI. Take one. Be proactive. Lots of "hungry" folks just need better acid control. 5) Remember that the sleeve will help you lose weight, but only you can choose to overcome whatever obstacles or issues in your life made you obese in the first place. It's fully possible to graze and binge post op if you want to, so you have to keep that in mind and work on those issues right out of the gate if you want an easy time in maintenance. VST is here for support and advice. Joining a group of people sleeved at the same time will be beneficial as they'll be right where you are in your journey. You shouldn't be afraid to ask questions or look for support, but remember that every question you have has also likely been asked before, so don't be afraid to search out old threads, too. Trust me - the three week stall was the same for us sleeved years ago as it is for folks sleeved last month. Don't miss out on a wealth of useful information that's out there because you might only get two or three quick replies to a question if it's a common one, but you'll have hundreds of answers to choose from if you go searching. Most of all, good luck. I do not regret my surgery at all, even if the journey took a bit longer than I thought it would and had it's moments of frustration for me. Do the work and you get to enjoy the results for a lifetime. ~Cheri

I had real plateaus - nine weeks apiece - at roughly six months and one year post op. Both times they occurred when I hit a previous "happy weight" that my body had trouble moving past. And of course, the last twenty pounds were brutal but I hesitate to call those periods "stalls" or "plateaus" because I did lose weight...just at the poky pace of less than a pound a week. My honest opinion is that many people get frustrated by "stalls" or "plateaus" that don't really fit that description. Daily weighing immediately post op and in those initial months leads to many people feeling terribly frustrated with a short adjustment period (often less than even two weeks) where the scale just isn't moving. Weigh weekly or monthly and a lot of that can be avoided, and save the daily weighing for maintenance, when it's necessary to stay accountable. ~Cheri

I had no crazy post sleeve energy, either. It took me a long time to get in enough calories/protein per day to feel totally up to par again. I was able to chase my twins around post op (they were 2.5 years old at the time) but when they rested or were occupied with a task I'd often doze on the couch while watching them. I was pretty tired for a while, even though I was technically able to function pretty normally. I was just draggy for a while, you know? Best to you and I think that really pushing shakes will help with the energy. It takes a while to recover from major surgery and the low cal diet doesn't help. Remember that carbs give us energy, too, so now's a great time to indulge in a higher calorie/carb profile Protein shake like the BSN Syntha-6 ones. Congrats on that new sleeve, I'm happy to see you on the other side now! ~Cheri

I can relate to the overfull thing because I really had to "relearn" my sleeve capacity once our lifestyle changed. In Bishkek we were constantly invited to dinner events and if you know anything about Central Asian hospitality that means HOURS long meals (and vodka fests, thanks to Soviet influence) and it's terribly rude to decline food. And it's not as if you're serving your own portions to yourself if you're a respected or honored American guest. They'll show respect by dishing out your portions for you and refilling your drinks...and the parade of food is never ending, with plenty of bread as well as rice and noodle dishes there to stuff a sleeve well past capacity. It was actually a real challenge for me to learn how to eat only a few bites and claim whatever reason for not eating. I'm sure I offended many a host unintentionally. And yes, more than once I had to delicately excuse myself because my food had swollen up and I was desperately uncomfortable. When you're so full that all you have to do is bend over and you slime, it's bad. ...I think this is the only time I ever appreciated Turkish toilets, though. I had finally navigated my way around that issue and learned to simply eat a bite of everything, share my food with my husband and politely decline food when I got pregnant. And then I COULD eat more food but it took me forever to discover just how much that was, and I went through another learning period just like when I was freshly sleeved. I certainly wouldn't say it's perfectly normal for us, but then, after years of eating a certain way and establishing habits it's not too difficult (especially when involved in socializing) to forget what just a few years of sleeved life have taught us. It definitely hit home that we really have to be careful forever and that bad habits could slip back in for all of us if we're not mindful about our eating. A lifetime of overeating and mindlessly grazing doesn't just disappear for good after a few years of being sleeved, apparently! I do drink but not too much as I experience the same very strong reaction alcohol as Oregondaisy - one mixed drink, if sipped too quickly, could have me falling over! One drink with a sip here and there will get me through an entire evening nowadays. And I try to beg off the vodka shots (gotta love living in the former Soviet Union!) whenever possible. ~Cheri

There is no good reason to eat a mechanically processed fake food. I do not eat foods with words I cannot pronounce on the labels. Eat real foods. Real fat. Real sugar. Real, good quality grains and carbs. It helps with satiety and it helps you avoid that deprived feeling that leads to binges and grazing. You aren't exactly eating a portion so large that it's going to hurt you, and in my opinion, if I'm only eating a few bites of something I want them to be wonderful. The idea that certain food groups are "bad" and to be avoided is a dieting mindset reinforced by years of trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to lose weight. Ditch that idea the same way you ditched 85% of your stomach. You'll feel better and your body will thank you. ~Cheri