gmanbat

Excellent, RJ! My wife had the bypass, I had the sleeve. Both reached goal, both doing good. Outside of her having to watch Calcium and Vitamin intake closer, not much difference for us. Barring complications, success has more to do with diligence in following guidelines on a long term basis...like as long as you live. When you are dead you can slack off.

You may be on to something, Recycled! I may be part of some covert government study and my group was the placebo group! I never would have thought my mind was that powerful!

I am also gagged by overly sweet things. I got unflavored whey powder and put some natural peantut butter in before mixing it in my Ninja blender. It worked for me.

I was excited when I went through that...25 years ago!

Happy Birthday, youngster! I feel not only like your big brother but a huge fan. You are a sure bright and warm place of refuge in this grateful forum. Love to you!!!!

I know I am a virtual stranger but I feel your post very deeply. I am proud of that brave girl too. Consider yourself hugged.

Good work!!!! **gives a manly slap on the back** hooorah!

This forum's founder is a man...and, most importantly to me...I am a man. Granted, there are many women here. They are, for the most part, easy to get along with. It is natural to be nervous, you would have to have delusions of grandeaur not to be. You can do this. I was 340 to start, 210 now. It's a life changing release!

Welcome!!! I had a hard time traveling to the top of the stairs pre-op. My granddaughters pushed me around Universal Studios in a wheel chair. Too big for any of the rides. Now I can outrun anyone in my family. I push my large brother-in-law around in a wheel chair. I ride the rides all day with my daredevil granddaughter, easily fit into all of them. I am 65. It was a life changer, CWCW! You can easily reach your next year goals!

Destring! Destring! Thank you, Tattoo!

Beware of rice, Take my advice, Dear sisters and brothers, It doesn't play well with others.

It came back to haunt me in a much less appealing form. Some comebacks are not inspiring.

2 years out here. I feel hunger but it is not even close to the overwhelming compulsion I had before the sleeve. I can easily defeat it. Before it was a charging Grizzly, now it's a 3-legged Shiatsu.

I think maybe you're right.....but not all of it is legal.

Wow, I never knew! I love celery...tomorrow there shall be celery in the house....and some natural peanut butter to keep it company.

Wanna high five ya! Outstanding!

An exercise for us: Get a meal ready, sit in a silent room, no distractions. Eat very slowly, take a lot of time between bites, concentrate on what you feel. You are training yourself to listen to the feelings, to catch the signals. Keep asking yourself as you go whether you are full. A few times doing this may make you more sensitive to the work of the sleeve. Too much sensory input clouds our judgement.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/anesthesia/basics/definition/prc-20014786 Always one to take advantage of interesting situations I told myself before surgery to remember what the docs in the operating room were saying when they worked on me while I was "out". I also had a joke ready for the recovery room nurse which I would ploy her with at the first moment that I had recovered any control of mind....( "Was it a boy or a girl?" ) . Counting down from 100 in the room...99..98..9------------------------ "C'mon, Gary...breathe!" Said the nurse in the recovery room. I checked my memory banks for doctor conversations. No nothing. Not even a sense of passing time. This most definitely is not like sleep. It is a venture into oblivion. The closest conscious equivalent in my experience was a time when smoking grass in the 60's when I was far away from where I was a second ago....apparently. I said OK to the nurse and when I realized I could talk I hit her with my hilarious birth joke. Not even a polite chuckle came out of her. Either she had no sense of humor, too professional to laugh, or she had heard it way too many times by men who thought they were oh, so original. I have relived that time warp feeling many times in my mind. It is like that missing tooth area that your tongue can't help going into after extraction. It is certainly a very interesting experience.

ya...don't get your hopes up...

We have fake flowers out of our love of vegetation...we are lethal as gardeners. I never had dolls as a boy, just dug in the dirt and blew up G.I Joes with firecrackers like any normal kid. It sure is fun dressing up this little doll though. I used to dread going shopping with her. She normally came out of the dressing room and bought nothing and was very depressed. Now she shops with a smile on her face...trying stuff on is just a formality. I actually don't mind watching her purse.

I am 65, wife is a kid of 62, these operations and using our heads with food and exercise took decades off of how we feel and put many years on to our lifespans, I am sure. We are having a ball...we went from near stop to ludicrous speed! Yeehaw!

Fantastic! You're doing it! You look great!

Here ya go: Before: After: Gained 240 pounds between us. Sorry...kidding....reverse everything.

old joke> If you dream about a giant marshmallow don't eat it...it's your pillow! I had an opposite dream last night. I looked down in my dream and it was an absolute straight shot to my feet....no belly, no loose skin, what I used to look at when I was a skinny kid. Without big bucks for plastics...dreams do remain just dreams at times.

Maybe time gap would be better wording. It is what you wished you could have had in school to skip that last torturous hour before the liberty bell rang.