Globetrotter

I'm having it today in the form of a cold salad with feta, red onion, fresh herb vinaigrette, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and mint. I'd say I've had about 3/4 of a cup. I stay away from nut butters, they are too easy to od on.

I know a woman who has been a personal trainer in the past, taught pilates, and has her phd in metabolic studies. She is about 5'5" and a size 2/4. Yet, every time we hang out, she inevitably brings up how she has recently felt fat/bloated, how she is cutting out this or that from her diet, how her patients in a weight loss study she is conducting don't do very well, etc. etc. Basically I am starting to get irritated with her. Is she so flipping insecure that she needs constant positive reinforcement about how good she looks? That's revolting. Am I being used (AGAIN) as the fat friend so when we are in public she can feel good about herself? F*** that S***. The next time she says anything like that, I am going to say exactly those above sentences to her. >=I

I am 20 months out and still 40 lbs from goal. I only ever saw satisfying scale movement when I ate 600 cals, nearly zero carbs, walked 30 min. a day, and drank 60+ oz water. That was in my first 2 months post op when I lost about 45 lbs. I recently tried to eat 600 cals and I felt so ill and weak that I just couldn't do it. I have been stalled since New Year's and have tried super low cal and high cal (1400) and no change.

So I've been ranting about this for awhile now; I went on "high" calories (800) for awhile and thought I had found the sweet spot, losing a pound every two days like clockwork. Then I finally get in touch with my nut, tell her what I'm doing, only to have her tell me that I really should be at 600 or less like I was. She completely ignored the data in front of her, that I was barely losing a pound a week at 600 and at 800 was losing almost 4 pound a week. But, being the dutiful good girl that I am, I went back to 600. I IMMEDIATELY started to gain weight!! It has been 3 days of around 600 and I have GAINED a pound and a half. I take daily miralax so it's not a BM issue. WTF!!!!!!!! W!! T!! F!! Now I just don't know what to do. I'm afraid that this is a backlash to my high calories a week ago and am gaining as a result, I just don't know what to do. My surgeon is MIA (in the colloquial sense, not militarily), my nut is not listening to me - HELP ME VST, YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE!!!!

Hey Meg, I'm going to be at Ft. Polk for 10 weeks, in high summer, any tips on how to cope with the hideous heat & humidity & mosquitos?

I have okay/decent insurance, when I was hospitalized for the gallbladder attacks (3 days in hospital) total costs were north of $25,000 ($#%&!!) but my out of pocket costs (still receiving bills 4 months later ...) has been a couple hundred dollars. So, does anyone know how much the GB removal will be? Also, can I look forward to some immediate weight loss as a result? =P

My energy levels are directly tied to my caloric intake. I am 20 months out and I recently tried to eat like a post-op, 600 cals <30g carbs and I felt horrible, heart palpatations and could barely blink I was so exhausted. 1200 calories and I am bouncing along a 2 mile run, followed by and hour and 15 minutes of intense yoga, followed by an hour of tango, and I feel awesome!

Teehee, I'm making up for lost time! I lost my 20's to being fat, it was like being in a social coma. I'd say I'm currently about "23", but I started out last summer at "17" so, progress! =P =P

Coops - eh, I thought there would be another date (3rd date), until the goodnight kiss =X. I might as well have been kissing my elbow. Nothing, zip, zilch, nada. And he had hard pointy lips, how does a person have pointy lips?! That's okay as I have a ... roster to choose from A different guy made me korean kimchi and pork soup last night and didn't even bat an eyelash when I barely touched the tiny bowl's worth he gave me, and put the rest in a little tupperware I had wisely brought. =) As for the Eggface, you can google it, "The World According to Eggface". If you have never read her blog before you are in for a real treat! In 2006 she had RouxnY and she has been a diligent food blogger and wls advocate ever since. You can go back all the way to right before her surgery, when she started the blog, and watch her progress. She's also a bad-ass cook and has never let wls stop her from being a real foodie. She's the one, btw, who invented the ricotta bake we love here on the forum so much! Like I said, you are in for a real treat. =)

@ Coops, the date was eh, alright. We ended up going to watch live Jazz instead, I had a few bites of his calamari salad, claiming I was full from an early dinner (which was true, he just didn't need to know it was a half cup's worth of food), but then in what I'm sure he thought was a romantic gesture, while I was in the ladie's room, he ordered two ramikins of creme brulee. =/ Luckily, due to the construction of creme brulee, I was able to destroy it visually and make it look like I had really dug in when I actually had less than one dessert spoon's worth. Sigh. And as for the cake inevitability Coops, take a leaf from Eggface's blog and make yourself a Protein cake! She has all sorts of examples of luscious looking protein cakes, truffles, ice cream, doughnuts ... All the yum, minus the loathing. Plus frosting!=)

I LOVE using romaine lettuce hearts for anything that might have used a tortilla or shell. I make chicken salad or tuna salad, put a few teaspoons in the "boat" of the romaine heart, fold the top down and the sides around to make a tamale-style shape, turning them into salad cigars, love it! Satisfying crunch without the space-waste of carbs!

I have lost 125 pounds, gone from a 24/26 to a 12ish what is that, 8 sizes? I still have 40 lbs to go which will probably only equal 3 more sizes but after plastics, maybe I'll be a 4.

@ Emily, actually I think this all the time about myself, I'm amazed that I have lost 125 pounds (!!) and know that people who don't know my story probably see me on the street as an average chubby woman. Far from making me feel bad (maybe frustrated sometimes), it serves to remind me that we all have backstories and you never know until you know a person, so don't judge.

Didn't those three pot-stirrers share one eyeball? Or am I thinking of the Greek Fates?

AHAHAHA Blackberry, love it!! Man, I sorta want someone to try to be passive aggressively mean to me, just so I can use some of this! =P

I'm sort of jealous that people notice how little you are eating! Either I am not eating little enough =(, or am strangely good at hiding how little I eat but nobody ever notices or says anything. That friend of yours sounds super toxic! And passive aggressive. On dates I choose places that offer tiny portions like sushi and it gets viewed as romantic when I suggest we share a dessert (um okay). With friends I just get to-go boxes. Maybe because I am not really thin yet people just assume I am a normal woman on a diet so they don't say anything.

I posted this same set of questions, nearly identical, a month back and only got a few responses, most of which said it is no problem, but none of those people still had a lot to lose like me (and you) do, I still have about 40 lbs to lose. I have one non-VSG friend who had her GB removed and she blames everything on it, her weight gains, her getting sick more often, everything.

Eeheehee, how fun!! You can really f*** with them and feel good about it, these b****s have it coming!

Oh my gosh, guys, you are so awesome! Coops, FYE, Lila, thank you for your words of solidarity. I don't always understand how harsh I am toward myself and one of the wierd aspects of my life is that for some bizarrre reason everything that I am involved in are populated by really tiny people, not "average" sizes. So, even though I can now run a mile and a half and get told how sexy I am, all the other participants in my yoga, TRX, tango etc. are all size 2s and 4s so it is easy to get frustrated. I also had a revelation yesterday in that I am a sugar addict. After reading the transcripts of the 60 minutes expose on the way sugar affects the brain like cocaine, I added a sugars column to my food tracker. I would have done excellently well at only 9 grams for the entire day, but I binged like a crackhead on a dark snickers and some fritos and bean dip. Although that was NOT awesome I am not right now beating myself up because this has led me to truly grasp the level of brain addiction. So, today is a new day and I have had 2 eggs, a cup of tea with no caffeine and no added sweetener. Lunch will be some greek yogurt with walnuts without sweetener, which will be tough, and dinner will be chicken with sauteed vegetables. I'm going on a date though, to the movies, and that will just be walking right into the lion's den, gulp!

If a person is not financially stable, has no plan or support network in place, has not come to terms with the side-effects (antacid pills for life in some cases, eventual gall bladder removal, bowel issues in some cases), then they are not ready for this or any bariatric surgery.

I guess I just don't understand, now that she has had her babies, why wasn't she able to just lose the weight, by "working her pouch"?

Why though, of all the surgeries, would she go with the one with the lowest rate of success and highest rate of complication (lap)? Did she have the original "classic" gastric bypass?

I haven't lost in 3 months.

You ever have one of those days where you wake up, and you just feel swollen and heavy, and you just know the scale is going to have bad news? Yeah, that was today for me. While watching the NCAA championship last night I ate a small piece of pepperoni pizza, one meatball, and about 2 tablespoons of bean dip. I weighed myself this morning and? Up five pounds since a week ago, 9 pounds from my all time gall-bladder induced lowest. I may feel awesome at 11-1400 calories and have awesome energy at the gym but my fucked up body (excuse me) gains weight apparently if I do anything other than starvation 600. I am so miserable frightened angry upset right now, I have no words.

So, give us the contact info Dooter!