Globetrotter

I'm surprised this isn't a hot topic ... I have regained from my lowest, even though my lowest still wasn't at goal. Advice I would give to someone who has yet to experience the regain is - don't. Don't let yourself regain. Don't let your habits change because what you see in the mirror looks so good and you are so grateful to just not be what you were. Stay tracking the food, stay weighing/measuring, stay away from all processed junk food, and never stop exercising. And don't get lulled into a sense of comfort by the term "bounce range" JMPO, but I really hate that phrase, it get's used a lot around here and I feel that, especially for the "younger" sleevers/ not vets, because it lets you think oh, those 4 pounds I just gained (that haven't gone away yet) are just my bounce range. And then you are saying, oh Im at the top of my bounce range so Im okay ... then it's I just have to get disciplined again and I'll be back in my bounce range, etc. etc. etc.

RTD (Ready to Drink) shakes are so pricey if bought single or in four packs, I think it would only make sense to buy them in bulk from a place like Sam's Club or Costco. That said, I love the Muscle Milk mocha latte RTD, and the EAS vanilla lite and the Oh Yeah!s

The hunger will most likely be a completely different experience then that of the band. I did not have the band, only VSG. the rule we all live by in the first few weeks after surgery is sip, sip, sip, to get your hydration in, and it's not so much the teeny mouthfuls, it is the overall teeny portions. Also, for a few weeks after surgery you *should* be on a liquids only diet, then a "mushies" for a few weeks, then soft foods, then regular. So, you won't be eating "regular" food until 3 months out and even then there is a list of foods to avoid because of danger of complications, and "slimes". You stay away from starches because they make you feel like a pidgeon about to pop, you stay away from obvious carbs to enhance your "honeymoon" phase, and certain vegetables like celery (the strings) can be dangerous while your internal stitches are still healing. Also, nothing acidic while healing and total healing will take 3 months. The food scale and an online tracker will become your friends, as will the recipe page in the "food & nutrition" thread here on VST. Really, when it comes down to it, VSG and the band cannot be compared.

Um, it goes away, sort of, and everyone is different of course ... but I am over 3 years out and if given a choice, I will just slurp warm drinks until well after noon because I just don't care to put hard food in my tiny tummy. I don't get hungry hungry anymore like normal people but I do get cues that I should eat (irritability, trembling, inability to focus, an empty twisting sensation) But I feel none of that in the morning. Use this to your advantage, use the mornings to get all your hydration in.

I will ask/beg someone to put those in a care package for me (I'm deployed in Afghanistan).

Thank you Swizzly, new information coming to light IS encouraging and on days when my grief is overwhelming I try to focus on that. Speaking of which, today I went to our PA to get some meds for the deep pain that happens with spasticity during an exacerbation and she happened to have an MS drug, which is totally bizarre and random. Seeing that bottle sitting there, as she explained to me how to take it, it was too real and wrapped my heart in sorrow and I began to cry. I thought, this must be what AIDS patients feel like the first time they are sat down with their new meds - the heavy cocktail of drugs that will be with them for life, or the first time the cancer patient sits down gets the iv put in and stares at the bag with the label "chemotherapy". CGJ - if you are still on any pain meds those can affect your mood over time and it has only been a few weeks since major surgery so your emotional chemicals etc. are still going to be in upheaval while you are readjusting. I don't know what your release/therapy situation is but I recommed getting some and as I've said before, get yourself a hobby that you can pursue with your hands and mind alone, while sitting. Meditate, journal, talk to yourself about what you are feeling and why. And drink sweet hot tea:) Got some kinda virus, hot knives in the throat, exhaustion, etc. yay. So fasting is easier yay because I only really want to drink warm liquids so I made soup last night with the last of the organic beef bouillon my Mom sent me; bouillon, onions, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, cabbage and a little bit of leftover steak shredded. I also smashed one of the cheese rocks with a giant hammer and added the cheese gravel to the soup - it was AHHmazing! Also, considering I made it in my electric water kettle, rather MacGuyverish of me Today was weigh in for the month-long challenge the ex-BF and I were doing, he won by 3 measly pounds!!!! He was gracious and going to say that I won because we had decided on a 5 pound lead for me (to make up for him being young and male) but I said no no, you won but we are going to do a lightening round with the added bonus/pressure of who makes it through Turkey Day without gaining Since my Turkey Day will consist of green drink and whatever sadness the difac offers, and he will be at his Grammys house in Kansas ON THE FARM, I think I have the advantage

if they made a full body suck-in suit, ankles to wrists like a superhero, I would totally buy one!

Until this thread, I had never heard of Vanicream. Where do I get it and the other one you mentioned, EltaMD?

when I was living in Bulgaria I became spoiled with fresh amazing real yogurt, after all as I was told MANY times, Bulgarians invented it (don't waste your breath telling them otherwise) and the bacteria is Bulgarensis, which is true. So after I finished the Peace Corps and came back to the States, the "Greek" yogurt craze was only just beginning and I was like, hey, why are they calling it Greek?!! It's Bulgarian!! And I was already used to the thick consistency. Making your own is the best but what is this no-lid stuff you guys are talking about? you must mean the little tiny individual servings like yoplait, (which I would NEVER eat because its pure sugar). Maybe I just eat more of it than most because I buy it in tubs and those tubs come with lids and I never have it long enough for it to go "bad". My favorite hands down is Brown Cow Organic Plain Greek. Low sugar, low carbs, good level of protein.

Every product mentioned ^ makes my skin worse, I must just have the most sensitive skin in the world and yet, if I don't wash it with a product, I get pimples from that. Also as a dermatologist once told me, nose and above is hygiene, below the nose (bottom of face I mean) is hormonal and it doesn't matter what product you are using, that is internal hormonal.. I was really interested in this whole coconut oil thing so did a quick Google search and got horrifying results, 9 out of 10 responses in the various pages I went to said the exact same thing - first few days amazing smooth lovely, then suddenly, covered in bumps that take a very long time to go away. coconut oil is comodogenic no matter how virgin. I wish it weren't so, because it seemed like the perfect answer. I also have rosacea and need anti-inflammatory products and I'm on an autoimmune protocol now and all of those products, yes even neutrogena and aveeno, contain all sorts of methyl ethyl tri sulfate etc etc.

Ya know, you can go ahead and make those muffins and still have them be nutritious and protein packed - just use the Eggface recipe, it ROCKS!!!!! I will also fast tomorrow in solidarity although I am fasting today too. These hard cheese rocks are eaten like snacks, like gobstoppers, lol. Last night I smashed one with a hammer and sprinkled it on a salad.

I imagine that a lot of the success comes from having a partner in aftercare, having a helper probably makes all the difference!

BTW - has it been said how impressive your shoulders are? that pre-plastics photo from behind, I don't know if you are flexing or what but the whole bridge of muscles across yourback and shoulders, wow!! Is that all from crossfit?

Yes please, HappyCamper, keep us informed, this is all very timely information for me.

All, I do enjoy writing, being a social science analyst for the last 5 years has given me the opportunity to use my words. I do have some ideas for writing fiction and have begun some stories but that takes concerted time where all you have to do is write. I am aware of Montel Williams, I hate to sound bitter but, like Magic Johnson doing so well with HIV, it's *amazing* what having money can do for your disease ... food today, flaxseed, protein shake, salad, vitamins, tea, green drink, a quest bar (for the fiber) and whatever protein I can find, probably some leftover steak. Or I may not bother with the salad etc. and just dump all my veggies into my kettle and make soup. They have a savory snack out here, rock hard balls of dried goat cheese. Seriously, you have to smash them with a hammer, but if you pulverize them I've heard they are great in soup so maybe I'll add that. CGJane, I highly suggest you get yourself a sedentary hobby that isn't eating. Just like a smoker who is trying to quit, I have to have something to do with my hands. So from 6pm till bedtime I am sewing, sketching, painting, journaling, gotta keep those hands busy. And meditating, truly focusing on meditating can really help fight the urge to eat, and better then fight it, understand it, acknowledge it, respect it, and move on.

Hello all, I forgot that this thread is visible to everyone in VST ... oops, guess I'm out of the neurological closet now! I have a lot of fear, anxiety, sadness. I'm mourning the loss of my life. Yes I am still here and I will do what I can but the me I thought I was, the future I thought was mine, down to the most mundane details, is gone. dead. Getting thin now seems irrelevant, because on what date do you tell someone that you have an incurable degenerative disease that will slowly rob you of every single aspect of quality of life? At what point do you tell someone that you can't bear their children? I guess I'd better hurry up and get that doctorate, while I've got the cognitive ability, right? How will I earn money when I can no longer string a sentence together? How will it feel to watch dancers when I can't walk? Will I lose my dignity, will someone care .... will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmare...? I urge every single one of you to watch Dr Terry Wahl's TEDtalk on Youtube, it will answer a lot of questions you may have. Well, there's no reason to live life by the rules now ... there will be no reward waiting for me, for living a neat and check-marked life. No golden years of feisty cronehood, what's the point in working jobs and buidling up time at companies etc., do I even have a good 10 years left to accrue some kind of retirement? And insurance ... how do I pay for insurance, for the long term care insurance I will need about 40 years sooner than my friends? When I found out, my first thought was, I would rather have cancer, and honestly, I would. Because with cancer, you either win or you lose, you have an option a choice, hope. There is no recognized cure for MS, just a slow loss of everything that made you You. For a cerebral dancer, there is truly no crueler fate. As for food, 5:2, etc... You already know what I eat, now you know why. I need grass fed organ meats, cruciferous veggies, sulfurous veggies, seaweed, omega3s, vitamin D and B, pre and probiotics and sleep. They say stress brings on an exacerbation but believe it or not, I would be more stressed if I were in the States. Here I have a team, a support network, healthcare, free meds, a roof over my head ... Tradition has it that Lapis Lazuli, the sacred blue stone, is the stone of healing. Afghanistan is the source for Lapis in the world, always has been. I'm covering myself in the stuff.

When I was recently in Germany it was Rhein wine season, a lot of festivals, and I got this one white ... Steinbauer or something, it was simply the most delicious liquid I had ever put in my mouth, it was like drinking pure February sunlight over a frozen fjord, surrounded by the first snowdrop flowers. Seriously.

Thanks Jane! It actually looks comfortable, no seriously! You look very ... snug. How long do you have to wear the whole shebang for? Will you switch to a longline bra or corset and spanx?

*shudder* this thread is bringing back some bad spring break memories .... I'm seeing a toilet bowl, close up, full of out of focus gold sparkles ........

Yikes this is frightening stuff, I too have low potassium, they noted it on a recent blood panel. But how to get in the potassium? don't say bananas, they make me hurl.

@ CGJane - yeah it's a tradeoff for me at the moment, I don't want the carbs from a Quest bar, but I can't pass up the 20g fiber I get from a single bar, I just have to have the fiber but I'm not pleased about it.

Yeah muscle milk is good, I especially like their mocha latte or their lite vanilla with a spash of chai syrup.

I love me some hummus but the carbs are just too high.

I can never ever ever ever. ever, ever, ever ever. EVER EVER drink anything cinnamon flavored again, after an .... incident with Goldschlagger in college. Never. Ever.

Just reading this thread today has been a journey with so many emotions. It just goes to show, everyone has a story. And as I read each response, especially about the fatsuit, the use of food, I think, "we sound exactly like recovering alcoholics or drug users" Avoid people and situations that we frequented in our "using" days, avoid triggers... fall off the wagon, get back on, abstinence ... This VST support group, you guys, are invaluable. So much awful has happened in the last year and a half; lost my job, broke up with my boyfriend, lost my father, lost my home, audited by the IRS, deployed to Afghanistan, death and destruction all around, fear, and now my health. There are 6 people in my world who know this, you will be the 7th en toto. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, also known as MS. That is the real reason why I went to Germany, we don't have MRI capabilities here. I am 31. Devastated is a paltry word, not nearly covering what I have felt since the soft diagnosis July 17th or the confirmed dx on September 23rd. Bereft, grief-stricken, angry, depressed, hopeless, angry, sad, flat, scared shitless. While I was in Germany I had good commercial internet access, wifi, and I was able to spend a lot of time on YouTube, looking up people's video diaries about life with MS, treatment, etc. That is how I discovered Dr. Terry Wahls and her protocol. I encourage you all to look up her TedTalk on Youtube. It's not just that she started eating salads and voila her MS is gone. No. But being a Dr., and being willing to experiment on herself, and having nothing to lose, she started doing her research. She wrote a book called Minding my Mitochondria (god how I wish I could get that book). Long story short, she was confined to a tilt recline wheelchair and now rides horses through the rockies and rides her bike to work every day. So, I'm stuck here because if I were sent home, where would I go? I have no home, I truly am homeless. If I were sent to the US, I would be unemployed, which means no health insurance. Because of the IRS I now have no nest egg to fall back on. Bizarre as it may seem, I am getting better support and care out here than I would be in the US. And so I do what I can to attempt to follow the Wahl's Protocol. It calls for 9 cups of veggies a day, all colors, sulfurus. No wheat, dairy, soy, or corn. Obviously no sugar. Lots of omega 3 rich foods, B6,B12, and D, grass fed hormone free etc. organ meats, seaweed or other iodine rich foods, and electrotherapy for muscle stimulation. MS is a neurological condition which, more and more, Drs are starting to realize a link between neuro and autoimmune disorders, which in turn they are discovering are linked to gut health/permeability. So it may all have started with Leaky Gut Syndrome, I don't know. All I know is that at 31 yrs old, I had only just one beautiful year of living, post VSG. One year of being a real woman with potential and a future and life and beauyty. The song from Rent, "will I lose my dignity" keeps running through my head, ..."will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmare?"