LadyIvy

You absolutely should not compare yourself to your husband. All my husband has to do is add water to his diet and he loses 20 lbs. I work out 5 hours a week and count every tiny thing that passes my lips and it took me MONTHS to lose 20 lbs (before surgery). It is difficult to get in 2000 calories a day with our small tummy if you are eating the good stuff. Did you know that simple carbs eaten regularly actually makes us hungrier? Ladies in general need less calories then men, (it is totally unfair, but true). If you got off the weight in the beginning you just need a jumpstart and you can do it again! We believe in you and you came to the right place to vent. You should google "the 5 day sleeve test". It will help you get back on track quickly.

Laci, where did you have yours done?

Both Killeen and Corpus Christi here.

You have to talk to your pharmacist and surgeon because I had to either crush mine or take them liquid for 4 weeks.

I have never been to a psychologist that had a scale in their office.

Mine changes. First it was neck and shoulder, then I would hiccup right when it was time to stop, now its a feeling just under the diaphragm and the middle of my chest. Every time I think I have it figured out....

Ha. I should have read the posts below before posting. Sorry for the redundancy.

It may not technically be called dumping, however, the body gets used to not having the high quantities of fat and sugar. Eventually, you could readjust your body to handle it, but why would you want to do that? Also, anyone who has had food poisoning, gluten intolerance, or other food allergies knows that it does not necessarily take 24 hours for your system to react. The 24 hour rule is for food that your body does not have an adverse reaction to. Diarrhea is the body trying to get rid of toxins. If it took a day that would negate the purpose.

My pre op liquid diet limits were 70-90 grams of protein and no more than 30g carbs a day for a week before. I went with 8 days, but I wound up losing 13 lbs before surgery. (My weight loss always starts off quick and then slows down significantly). I love the EAS but found that the Pure protein has good flavor, lower cals and twice the amount of protein. The carbs are really addictive. If you can steel yourself to a few days of grumpiness, as you come off of them you will realize that not only do they not fill you up well for long, but you are much less hungry when you keep them low. I pretty much had to swear off all simple carbs, (they were one of my favorite things in the world). You have to figure out your triggers and keep those in the forefront of your mind. You are doing great. This is a learning process. Now you have learned something new about yourself and you need to not just forget it, but incorporate it into this life change!

Remember, what you see here are the group of people who had surgery and are responsible enough to still be a regular part of their support group. The people here will be representative of the more successful sleevers. However, it is great you are fighting to keep yourself healthy. I hope you make the choice that works best for you!

My body does not like straight sugar or high fat foods any more. I ate half a cookie on mothers day and had was in the bathroom all that day and half of the next. Now when I see the really sweet stuff, I don't have a desire like I used to. I know it will make me sick (it doesn't really taste as good either does it??).

You will be fine. I accidentally swallowed a small piece of vit c drop 4 days post op and never felt it. I was horrified though!

I usually take about 20 minutes. I don't have time in my day for 30 minutes every single time I eat. When I am alone, I will eat about a quarter of a cup and then just wait a few minutes. I do chores or other things and generally distract myself. However, I haven't really had the pain that others describe if I eat too fast. It is important to take the time to chew really well or it is rather uncomfortable though. It takes some adjustment but comes a bit easier post op I believe.

I give it a 9. The only reason I wouldn't say a 10 is because I have a lot of questions that came up post op that research can't yet fully answer. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is a big adjustment and should be done in a point of your life where you have time for self reflection and adjustment. I am so glad I got my sleeve!

Glad you vented here Lu. It is a major life change and once its done there is no going back. I think that moment of panic happens for most everyone. It will be hard, we all wound up here because we are food addicts. Unlike something like cigarettes, we all still need to have a little bit of our addiction every day to survive. It makes it difficult. Hang in there, it gets so much better!

It does have to do with psychological adjustments, but your body is going through a lot of physiological stress too. It is trying to re-regulate after surgery and adipose tissue tends to hide pockets of hormones. As you lose weight, these hormones are rather randomly released back into your body. The combination of the two can have some very strange effects!

I am a very A type personality and have been obsessed with making sure I do everything the right way. Between this site and sparkpeople.com, I kept track of every tiny little thing. I do believe this is important, but I am an all or nothing kind of gal and have a tendency to go overboard. I was working out 5 hours a week and eating between 600-900 calories daily as my NUT recommended. I had lost something along the lines of 2 lbs in 3 weeks, and although I was losing, needless to say, I was rather frustrated. Last Saturday, two good friends of mine got married. The next morning, I woke up and left with the family for a 5 day camping trip (which included apartment searching, meeting with my grad advisor etc.) to the beach. I decided that I was going to take the week, not do any more exercise than I would naturally get on a camping trick. Jot down what I ate for when I got home, and just trust my tool. I followed the rules about drinking and listened to my pouch. We carried a lot of proteins but we did eat out 4 times on the trip (everyone who hadn't seen us in a while insisted on taking us somewhere). When I went somewhere, I didn't order what I used to, even though it was vacation, I paid attention to my new lifestyle. I moved food around a lot on my plate and pawned lots of stuff off on my husband (who still managed to lose some weight on this trip). The only junk I ate during the trip was a smore I made when we did a midnight camp fire on the beach. I felt a little guilty, but allowed the feeling to pass. I also found out that I get very frustrated when I cannot snack and drive. It is the first time since surgery that I had to give myself an attitude adjustment about food. I felt successful when I couldn't get snacking out of my head, and literally purchased and apple (which was a major NSV because I was completely pleased and satisfied). I stopped eating when I felt full, ate slow, kept people distracted from my intake with conversation and did my best not to obsess. The results: When I weighed myself this morning, I found that I had lost 4 lbs in 5 days! I used my log to plug everything in to sparkpeople and found that I was managing about 1200 calories a day (all those times we had to go out). I found that when we did have to go to a place that was not so healthy, listening to my pouch and making smart diet choices led to a 300-350 calorie meal, vs the 2000-4000 that I could have easily consumed at a restaurant before!! What did I miss the most? Vegetables! I knew I needed my protein, so I got them whenever I could. However getting veggies in while camping can be quite difficult. I learned so much on this trip and need to keep reminding myself to just listen to my body. It knows exactly what it needs!

BTW. I don't know why I keep calling it a pouch. I guess I have just seen it so much from my FB groups that have had other types of bariatric surgery

Well Said!

I had a drain so really had to wear something loose. Also, the smallest incision on me was close enough to a bra strap I had to be a bit careful and not wear anything too tight.

No, but it does feel very strange. There is no way to describe the sensation, but it isn't pain.

Keep up the great work!

About a week in my case. I had to hold my tummy still until about week 3 though, the shaking made me sore. Everything had to stay rather "vanilla" for about a month though.

I was soooo hungry for the first 10 days of mushies. When my stomach growled it hurt like crazy. I dropped everything to get to food. Then it went away for 2 weeks and I was never hungry. After that time period it sort of crept back in. I have decided that if it has not been at least 3 hours already since my last meal, the first thing I will do is drink something. This serves two purposes: #1 Lots of times my stomach now growls when I am actually just thirsty. #2. If I was not just thirsty, I have to wait at least 30 minutes. Since I have the time on my hands anyway, I take the time to prepare something really healthy and yummy. By the time it is ready, I am good to go. I do still feel hunger, but not the way I used to. I feel it more above my diaphragm and less in my stomach. Often now, it feels like I want to burp and that really isn't the problem. Good luck figuring out your body. For me, it is beneficial that I feel hunger because I only ate once a day pre-op and hardly ever felt hunger. This is keeping my metabolism up so that I don't fall into old habits.