Globetrotter

I know! Thank goodness!! That would, uh, help things.

Excellent ideas, I had totally forgotten about almonds! Peanut brittle? Oh yeah, I could suck on one piece for a long time!

Yeah, that's not nice! Tell them to go fork themselves. And BTW, I have a great big stomach, even when I was thin my tummy was rounded, so plastics will most likely be needed eventually! I've often thought I should just buy my pants from maternity stores so that they would fit in the legs AND the stomach. And Diva - consider yourself lucky to be a hipless wonder, especially as you get slim - that body type is who all the clothes are made for! I was born in the wrong era, my body would prefer to wear peasanty clothes circa 16th century: a boned bodice to hoist the girls and support the back, plenty of skirts that turn hips into an asset and underneath it all, a great big shirt that doubles as pyjamas! For the span of human history the womanly shape has been celebrated until this last century. Fashion, apart from the decade of the 1950's, has not been kind to the womanly figure since WWI.

Aha!! See!! at 275 I couldn't pour myself into 22's, I was still a 24. At 264.4 I am only just now comfortably in 22's. I think even after all is said and done I am still going to need to go to a tailor to take in the small of the back in shirts, the waist in pants, and all sleeves and lengths shortened!

I'm 7 weeks out and I can moderately chug beverages, eat raw vegetables (just a little I'm testing), and take regular size bites. I had a 32 bougie. If I eat plain high protein like chicken or steak and chew thoroughly I can get in about 3-4 ounces.

I am 7 weeks out and suddenly this week I have been having knife-in-the-uterus, drop you to your knees cramps that come out of nowhere,last 5 seconds, and go away. I had a normalish period in the normalish time when it would happen the cycle following surgery. I should be having it here pretty soon but these cramps are unreal and unlike anything I've experienced before. Long painful cramps that had me popping ibuprofen 24/7 the first 3 days of my period are what I'm used to, not this ninja-attack style. Plus, I don't know what I will do when I have to take ibuprofen, when can we start taking that again after surgery? I'm waiting on my surgeon's response on that one. In the mean time, oowwwwwwwwww.

nah, that would be the case if we were talking french fries but sugarless candy I'm not afraid of.

My hair was already thin from PCOS, I am 7 weeks out and just this morning in the shower I realized that there was hair in my hands after running them through my hair while rinsing out conditioner. Is there nothing we can do to prevent this? To be perfectly frank, it is the thin hair that always "gives away" wls folks that I have heretofor spotted. If I wear a kerchief people will think I have cancer! If I wear a wig, it would be super super obvious, unless I start incorporating wigs and pieces before the thinning gets noticeable ... hmm, maybe that's what I will have to do. But it's really hot here, a wig would be miserable. I'm taking coQ10 vitamins and trying to keep my protein intake high, is there anything else we can do?:lol0:

Fen-Phen, when a friend of mine was 15 her Mother put her on it, her desire to have a thin daughter meant more to her than her daughter's health. Oh my friend lost weight all right, and has never been the same since. The drug caused her to not sleep (hello-speed) so what did her Mom do? Gave her sleeping pills. Once she went off the fen-phen she gained weight at an astonishing speed, before the drug she was merely a healthy chubby, a few months after the drug she was morbidly obese. It is my opinion that using fen-phen kicked her bipolarism into gear, though I suppose its emergence at the same time could be a coincidence ...

What about TVP, Texturized Vegetable Protein? I tried a hemp protein shake from my local co-op when I was home (N. Cal.) and I nearly keeled over from the horribleness, which is saying a lot considering how horrible the other more typical shakes are, this was the worst!

What I've got available to me that isn't fried/breaded/white carbs/sugary: baked chicken breast steamed veg medley canned tuna/turkey steamed fish raw salad fixings ribeye steak/fajita steak/swiss steak snacks: Peanut Butter beef Jerky cream cheese/laughing cow cheese drink: plain Water herbal tea (tea bags from home) Protein rtd shakes It's a responsible menu but sorely lacking in flavor, variety, and deliciousness. I think this is the reason I am finding it so difficult to stick to 600 cals lately, I keep ending up with a daily total nearer to 700. Send me something? :huh0: wahoo!! That would be fantastic!! But I don't have access to a kitchen, only a fridge and a microwave.

I believe you Jane, or I desperately want to believe you, but it's like telling a crack-head that crack no longer has addictive properties.

I'm 6 weeks out. At four days post-op you are still a cocktail of drugs and anesthesia and gas so that is what you will be feeling right now. Once you start sipping anything stronger than clear liquids you will most definitely be able to"tell" when enough is enough, for me I felt that with clears too. I suppose every person's signal is different but for me that early out it was very painful pressure in the spot where the new stomach is. If I took too large a gulp I would feel that same pain but instead it would be in my esophagus. If you are worried that you will find a way to "cheat" the sleeve because there is no real dumping, don't worry, pain is a VERY good behavior modifier! And once you are on solids there is the risk of "sliming", a hideous experience I recently had with a food I have already eaten post-op.

Wow. I won't cry because I'm at work but Christie, you said it all sister! I am so impressed that you are halfway to goal at only 15 weeks, gosh I want that to be me! Every worry, every action you mentioned, you were voicing my worries, my actions. You are so lucky to have an April in your life! I hope to connect in person with fellow sleevers when I return to the States.

Yes, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Tea "pearls" are traditionally jasmine but with tea experiencing a vogue in the States right now, wider varieties can be found. Jasmine is still the best tho, imo. The leaves are folded and rolled and stiched into a ball. It's done by tea artisans and they have the technique of doing it so that when the pearl is covered in hot water, it unfurls or, "blossoms". I first had one served to me in a glass teapot in a teahouse in Boulder CO. A good tea pearl is relatively expensive compared to a box of teabags. One pearl can be about $1.00 whereas a box of 20 bags can be just $3. FYI however - when you are buying the average teabag of black tea in the US what you are buying is tea dust, the leftover dregs and remnants of good tea. This inferior tea is then doctored up to give it taste. I'm not badmouthing teabags, just saying make sure you get your money's worth by reading the ingredients on the box.

I'm afraid to even try french fries ... afraid I won't be able to stop!

Yes, I also thought that to a great extent, chol. is genetic.

Ha, make that the three of us! I stalled from week 3 to 6 and then lost almost 3 pounds in less than 2 days, so I have no idea what's going on.

I am using a new food tracker, fatsecret.com, and as I input my foods throughout the day it tells me what percentage of my daily total of 600 cals worth of food is coming from fat-carbs-protein. I am ridiculously low carb, less than 10 a day, but that's just because the carbs on offer here are all superbad - fried and white flour. It's my fats percentage that is upsetting me, I haven't even had dinner yet today and my fat grams are at 35!! I'm well under on total calories, low on carb, but thus far 55% of my food today has been fat, 37% protein, and 8% carbs. I'm distressed because I'm not eating fatty foods - plain tuna, boiled eggs, lean ham, hard parmesan. Is this high fat the reason why I'm not losing? I've only lost 5 lbs in 3 weeks. :001_smile:

I was fine with meatloaf 4 weeks out, I'm in week 6 and I'm ok with chicken and tuna although they don't digest comfortably. At the end of week 5 I tried to eat some hamburger patty and in the words of Pretty Woman, "big mistake. huge!" That was the only time I have ever "slimed" - the pain was something awful.

All these opinions have been super helpful, thanks guys! I've decided to not focus on the fat, just keep my carbs down. Also, instead of concentrating my fats in one intake I'm spreading them around. So instead of having one "big" serving of pb, I'm having a little cream cheese here, a vash quiri there, etc. Plus I've switched out the morning sausage patty for a serving of A-1 jerky nuggets which I heard of here on the forum. 12g's protein for one ounce, oh yeah!!

umfff, Jared Leto has been hot since I first saw him in My So-Called Life, mm-mm, that man never stops being good looking!

Two teas I relied on in the week after surgery and still drink regularly are "tension tamer" and "tummy mint". I think tension tamer is by celestial seasonings and tummy mint I think is by stash. I also bought some beautiful tea "pearls" by Numi, they blossom in the pot/cup and are as visually appealing as they are tasty.

It's not the final digestion so much, the exiting from the stomach and breaking down in the intestines, for me it's more the entry into the stomach and initial digestion. If I eat chicken, tuna, or eggs I can only eat an ounce maybe ounce and a half comfortably and even then it feels like I just ate a ball of concrete. I'm 6 weeks out. On the other hand, I think greek yogurt is the sleever's best friend.