fletcherette

Maybe I'm just unknowing but how do you know? You speak with an awful lot of authority in these dr. Luna posts and I'm just wondering if you really know whats going on or just know things through the grape vine? If its the latter than I don't think we should put much stock into your claims of whats going on.

Well its been a little over 3 months since I made the lifechanging trip to mexico and had surgery with Dr. Garcia. As of today I am down 41 lbs. I just wanted to say I am doing GREAT! At this point I can eat most anything without problem (although plain water still makes me sick) IF I wanted to I could easily eat quite a bit, HOWEVER having the surgery and seeing the weight loss has become an AMAZING motivation to stay on track. I now actually LOOK forward to exercising, it's become a time for quiet and to destress. I exercise at least 3x a week doing strength and cardio. As for food, I found myself eating too many carbs these past few weeks and decided it was time to go back to basics and focus on protein. I've been following the Atkins phase 1, BEFORE surgery giving up carbs would have been a nightmare and I would have been unsuccessful. NOW though I am half way through my first week on the low carb diet and feel fine, and havent had any struggle to do it or stick to it I wouldnt say the sleeve FORCES me to eat right, or exercise, or stay on track. It instead MOTIVATES me to do so and gives me that little extra push I need. The sleeve has been my catalyst to get my eating under control and live healthy. I am posting pics of my month progress (Please note the change in back fat. I was a low BMI to begin with, but decided on the surgery because I have scolisosis and have steel rods attached to my spine and the weight was causing me pain and discomfort. Now that I am carrying less weight my back feels SO much better) ETA: also notice the short changes in the pics, The shorts I wore in my pre op pics dont fit any more and I've had to wear the bra on a tighter link

Thanks There's a lot of amazing surgeons in Mexico, dr Garcia is just one of them

Thanks everyone!

You can, I did

I say get the gatorade for the added vitamins and such

Sw: 197 Cw: 155 Gw; 140 I hear you about the belly fat, I tried to start doing ab exercises but had pain similar to what I had after surgery so I'm going to wait a little longer.

I suppose I should clarify. I do have restriction but it is possible to eat around it. The sleeve doesn't magically force me to eat the right foods or right portions, it encourages me to stay on track. And I think people are misguided in thinking that they can have the sleeve and still eat whatever they want. For this tool to be effective you have to change the bad eating habits that made you overweight to begin with and make better choices. I have consistently lost weight with no stalls, even when I was taking it a lot of carbs and very little protein. I noticed my eating had gotten out of hand and chose to go atkins for the week to regain control. And pre sleeve if i attempted atkins i was lucky if i could manage it for a day. but this time im not hungry and not craving the carbs because my sleeve is supporting me in making healthier choices. That's it, I don't consider this a diet but a lifestyle change. The sleeve does work if you want it to and put it to good use

I started doing light walking as soon as I could after surgery. It was only a few weeks ago that I really felt like I could exercise for real

When did you all begin doing serious ab exercises? I'm 3 months out and tried doing crunches and mountain climbers and my stomach hurts, not like the ab muscles but the same kinda pain I had immediately after surgery. I'm thinking I'm not ready for ab work yet but was wondering when everyone else was cleared to?

How's everyone doing? How many calories a day are you averaging? What's your weightloss each week? I'm getting about 900 cals a day and averaging about 1lb loss a week. Wish it was more but a loss is a loss

I like Atkins ready to go shakes they are similar in taste to the popular Costco premier shakes

I'm a daily user, username is gracefullyloved

Can you post a before pic?

It's probably because on the vst app signatures don't show and you can't update them n the app, so out of sight out of mind

In the hotel the day before surgery

I spent many months researching my dr but i don't think I hero worship my surgeon. I am thankful for what he did and am glad with my choice but I'm not a fanatic for him however I DO hero worship the sleeve, I will defend this form of wls to the death. Lol. When I hear people talk about other forms of wls I'm always like "oh no, the sleeve is the best way to go" so in that way I am biased, just not with my surgeon because of this forum I see mannnnnyyyy people having success with many different surgeons.

I am 7 weeks out and have this red bump on one of my incisions. Anyone else experience this? Any ideas on what it is and how to treat it? It doesn't hurt or itch wondering if its a stitch

I started a dream thread over in the self pay forum. I had all kinds of wacky dreams in my first month post op, but now they've been less frequent.

I just experienced that for the first time tonight, it didn't last long thankfully but I immediately knew it was due to eating too much

I wish I had, I now have to pay hundreds here in the states to have my teeth cleaned and wish I had done it while in Mexico. Once I was released from the hospital I felt good and totally would have been ok to go for a dental cleaning

Surgery 3/11 Ht 5'3 Hw 197 Sw 195 Cw 169 Gw 130-140 A loss of 26 lbs. feeling great!