princesstia

Been a while since I've last posted, and lots have been going on! Stepped on the scale this morning and i am officially 155 pounds! hooray for me. never thought I'd make it to that goal but I surely did. In other news, I'm 14 weeks pregnant. Complete shocker I know. It's been hard, but this pregnancy is pretty much treating me like im 3 months post op. Slow and steady has been winning the race. I hope everyone can continue to be inspired by all that I've come thru. There is life after the sleeve, and a much more rewarding 1!

hey there! I am 14 weeks pregnant and 10 month post op! I was 256 pre surgery, 180 at the time of conception, and currently 155. the baby is really messing up my eating and ability to keep things down. I just take it 1 day at a time and stay with the basics.

thank you!

Many of you may or may not know that i'm a hairfanatic! Not in the usual sense, but a serious, can tell you the chemical breakdown and properties of hair and all type hairfanatic! I had the surgery on Thursday, December 20, 2012, and because I am such the hair fanatic I am, this was the one downfall that almost turned me away from this awesomeness I'm experiencing. With that said, I did tons of research on different supplements and their properties and have figured out how to keep our hair after WLS. I'm almost 5 months post op, have followed the below regimen to a tee, and have about 2 new inches of hair growth. No thinning and no shedding at all. Before I begin, please visit my hair blog thehairyfairy.blogspot.com for more in depth info, but here's the skinny on how hair works! Understanding You Hair: Hair grows about 1/2 in per month. In order to keep and maintain hair, one must do things: Increase growth rate and prevent shedding. The hair strands in your head are in 1 of 3 phases at all times: the Anagen phase is the growth phase. Most hairs are in this stage. Short hair usually results from short Anagen phases. The Catogen phase follows this stage and its sort of the transitioning phase that prepares the hair follicle to shrink and allows the hair strand to enter resting phase. Finally you have the telogen phase which is the resting stage where no hair grows at all and the old strand is pushed out and the new strand re-enters the anaogen phase. This is important because the tendency for hair to be in each of these stages influences how long the hair will actually be able to grow before it sheds and starts a new cycle. With pregnancy, many women experience hair growth because all hairs kick into the anagen phase and hair is growing continually for the duration of pregnancy. Protein is what keeps this cycle going. For WLS patients, many experience hair loss because the reduction in protein slows this cycle and much of the hair is kicked into the Telogen (shedding) phase. Fortunately for us, the solution awaits... MSM First and foremost everyone should add some form of MSM (METHYLSULFONYLMETHANE) into their diets after weight loss surgery. You can google it and find a wealth of health benefits, but in short it's a sulfur compound that our body needs but can only take in from food sources. Unfortunately because of the way food is processed much of the sulfur contained in it is broken down so we don't get the proper amount we need. MSM has been used to treat joint and arthritis pain, alergies, digestive disorders, etc. But it is also the miracle beauty drug as it helps to synthesize Proteins in the hair skin and nails. In hair particularly, it increases the anagen phase of hair allowing hair to grow longer and for a longer period of time. A truly great hair supplement will have some amount of msm in it for this reason. MSM helps us WLS patients to keep our hair strands in that growth phase and out of that dreaded shedding phase. Collagen Collagen is also another key item we should all have in our diets. Collagen increases skin elasticity, smoothes away scars, and regenerates hair and nails. Collagen makes up 25% of the body's protein and is used particularly for hair loss because it supports the body's hair building protein. It is also one of those beauty drugs that targets many of the problems associated with WLS including hair loss, saggin skin, and protein loss. If your looking for something to help hair growth and keep your skin in snap-back mode, this product will not let you down! Garlic Oil I cannot stress enough, garlic oil is the key to our problem! Garlic oil is great for a healthy heart, but unknown to many, is the number one natural product people with alopecia use to combat hair loss. Garlic oil prevents shedding. GARLIC OIL PREVENTS SHEDDING. Every product I own contains garlic - shampoo, conditioner, and hot oil treatments. The garlic extracts increases the blood flow in the scalp, thus allowing more oxygen to circulate the proper amount of nutrients to the hair follicle. Msm and garlic working together allows for hair to grow longer and stronger without shedding. Use garlic oil as a supplement and topically. There are great odorless garlic supplements and I take about 4000mcg daily and you would never know it! I also give myself garlic hot oil treatments monthly, and wash my hair bi weekly with garlic shampoo and conditioner. Biotin For obvious reasons, Biotin should be included. Everyone has a wealth of information on Biotin, but why many people fail using Biotin is because they use it as a standalone. Biotin works well with other supplements as far as growing the hair, but alone, they do little to keep hair from coming out. Hair will grow, but the strands due to shed will shed. Every hair supplement you buy if its worth anything will contain Biotin and MSM. But they are best used as stand alone products together because the dosage of each is so much higher. I'm not the expert.. don't get me wrong. This is my approach to combatting hair loss during this incredible journey, and thus far, it has worked! If anyone is interested in specific brands for the items above or regimens, PM me. I'd be happy to help. I love hair and would do anything to help my fellow WLS friends keep theirs too!

So excited this morning. I have been working out daily as well as really watching my diet. However, for 4 weeks straight i only lost a total of 1 pound, and last week gained 7 pounds. Of course I assumed TOM was here and this was probably due to that.. but i knew i wasnt due. So I continued to work out, upping my cardio an additional 15minutes pass the hour i usually do but instead of my normal diet, began a full liquid (sorta like the preop diet) on Sunday. I was reading up on the 5 day pouch test and figured I'd give it a try. I stepped on the scale Sunday and was 192.5.... Yesterday evening after my workout i was 188.5... This morning I was a flat out 186 pounds. All i kept saying is that i have 3 more days of this and tho i do get the cravings (and will snack on about 10 cheez its), the benefits of it are definitely worth it and my pouch definitely still works. hopefully I can get to 180 by this Sunday. *Fingers crossed*... If anyone is dealing with a stall, I highly recommend the 5 day pouch test. it has re-motivated me!!!!

So today i did some shopping and have recently been purchasing larges and 11/12 in bottoms. I began waist training and wearing compression garments throughout the day and when i workout. i use a brand called Squeem which is a compression garment made of rubber and cotton. it is sooo comfortable and the rubber (for some odd reason) has done wonders in fading my stretch marks and tightening my abdominal skin! I have been stuck at 180 despite my continuous efforts at the gym and the scale hasnt moved in two weeks! but today when shopping all the larges and 11/12's were too big. that's right, i've gone down another size. im now a medium (even in leggings which are already tight) and an 8/10. this is such a wonderful feeling. dont be discouraged when the scale doesnt move. inches are coming off! i think i can attribute some of that to the compression garments. my waist is now a 30 and waist training works!

compression garment is just another name for shapewear but the compression is a lot stronger and designed to contour the waist area. most of them using a strong fabric called powernet. many people wear compression garments after liposuction to contour the body.. I recently began considering lipo and got into research on compression garments and figured if i wear them around the clock, i should get a good contour without the lipo (i mean im losing weight anyhow). there are many different kinds. the number one brands are Vedette Shapewear, Squeem Miracle Vests and Body Panty and Fajas Columbianas. Im sure there are tons more but these are the ones i currently have, and i use the squeem around the clock. they are uncomfortable but the more you wear them the loser they get (inches are coming off) and as you train the waist, you move to smaller and smaller sizes. i started off in a large squeem now i am in a medium. i sold my large on craigslist and it went so fast. people really are obsessed with squeems. makes a huge difference and looks great in clothes. hides unnecessary rolls and things like that. i've become obsessed and i even sleep in them.

Cardio gets the fat off! If you’re in the early stages of this weight loss, I just want to share and point out, that the best thing you can do to see inches lost and pounds keep coming off is Cardio! And tons of it. Cardio can be boring. I’ll agree. But it’s soooo effective in getting the heart rate up and also building the endurance required to get through those intense weight training sessions when they are added into your exercise regimen. I have been doing some tests on myself just trying to figure out my body. I am a gym rat at this point nearly 7 months post op. I do a lot of strength training and cardio. I notice some weeks I just don’t have the energy reserve to weight train, but because my endurance is so great I just go cardio crazy just to say I didn’t sit on my a** all week. This usually happens about 1-2 weeks before my menstrual comes along. I notice during this period I lose pounds (somewhere between 4-6 pounds in a week if I go consistently 5 days straight at 1 hour each day). Then when I jump back into my weight training, there is no loss, but rather a small gain (usually about .5-1 pound) but inches are loss. I’m guessing this is because muscle is replacing fat, and a pound of fat is much fluffier than a pound of muscle, thus why weight stays the same but body looks and feels smaller. Unintentionally I have been playing this game with my body, and it happens to work! Bodybuilders would call this cut and bulk phasing. Where they’d do massive weight training and eat like crazy to bulk up and gain some serious muscle, then do massive cardio and cut calories to cut some serious fat. They play this game alternating week by week sometimes longer, and this is what creates that chiseled ripped look. You bulk up for muscle, and cut to get rid of excess fat! In spite of it all, if you’re beginning to work out, don’t overwhelm yourself trying to weight train. Leave that for later when you’ve plateaued and want to switch up your regimen and jump start your metabolism. Just get into cardio for now. Your intake is already limited. The cardio will do its job for you. Become comfortable (not bored) with it. Switch it up. Try walking 30 minutes a day. When that gets easy, try a treadmill at the same pace but with an incline. You’ve doubled calories burned that quick! When that gets easy, jump on the elliptical (low impact and easy and burns a ton of calories once you get your breathing right). When that gets easy, add the stair master. Incorporate programs like 0 to 5k to increase endurance. Just work on that heart! It is essentially what burns fat and boosts the metabolism. Once you’re good with that, start weight training. You’ll have the endurance necessary to get through the workouts, and you’ll begin to tone and build muscle. The best thing for your body at this stage in the game is to get active. Don’t just sit around because your stomach is the size of a tennis ball and wait for the weight to fall off! Be proactive! Nothing worse than a skinny fat person! Meaning a person that is in the ideal weight range as far as BMI but has a body fat % of over 30%. Believe me, most skinny people are fat! Also don’t get bogged down with BMI charts. They are very misleading. For example, a man 5’8 at 200 pounds is considered to have a bmi of 30 which is obese. But what if he is only 8% body fat (like most bodybuilders)? Is he really obese or unhealthy? Or in vice versa, a female that is 5’5 at 130 pounds and 38% body fat. Her BMI is 21 which is in the normal range, but she is unhealthy. Build muscle, burn fat! And the best way to jumpstart that is cardio. You will look better and feel better.. hope this helps you guys, especially the beginners!

I would get medical clearance first! for me, I was cleared to start walking lightly 2 weeks after surgery. It also helped me heal and keep from being stiff longer. from that point, i worked my way up as my body was able to adjust.

Cardio gets the fat off! If you’re in the early stages of this weight loss, I just want to share and point out, that the best thing you can do to see inches lost and pounds keep coming off is Cardio! And tons of it. Cardio can be boring. I’ll agree. But it’s soooo effective in getting the heart rate up and also building the endurance required to get through those intense weight training sessions when they are added into your exercise regimen. I have been doing some tests on myself just trying to figure out my body. I am a gym rat at this point nearly 7 months post op. I do a lot of strength training and cardio. I notice some weeks I just don’t have the energy reserve to weight train, but because my endurance is so great I just go cardio crazy just to say I didn’t sit on my a** all week. This usually happens about 1-2 weeks before my menstrual comes along. I notice during this period I lose pounds (somewhere between 4-6 pounds in a week if I go consistently 5 days straight at 1 hour each day). Then when I jump back into my weight training, there is no loss, but rather a small gain (usually about .5-1 pound) but inches are loss. I’m guessing this is because muscle is replacing fat, and a pound of fat is much fluffier than a pound of muscle, thus why weight stays the same but body looks and feels smaller. Unintentionally I have been playing this game with my body, and it happens to work! Bodybuilders would call this cut and bulk phasing. Where they’d do massive weight training and eat like crazy to bulk up and gain some serious muscle, then do massive cardio and cut calories to cut some serious fat. They play this game alternating week by week sometimes longer, and this is what creates that chiseled ripped look. You bulk up for muscle, and cut to get rid of excess fat! In spite of it all, if you’re beginning to work out, don’t overwhelm yourself trying to weight train. Leave that for later when you’ve plateaued and want to switch up your regimen and jump start your metabolism. Just get into cardio for now. Your intake is already limited. The cardio will do its job for you. Become comfortable (not bored) with it. Switch it up. Try walking 30 minutes a day. When that gets easy, try a treadmill at the same pace but with an incline. You’ve doubled calories burned that quick! When that gets easy, jump on the elliptical (low impact and easy and burns a ton of calories once you get your breathing right). When that gets easy, add the stair master. Incorporate programs like 0 to 5k to increase endurance. Just work on that heart! It is essentially what burns fat and boosts the metabolism. Once you’re good with that, start weight training. You’ll have the endurance necessary to get through the workouts, and you’ll begin to tone and build muscle. The best thing for your body at this stage in the game is to get active. Don’t just sit around because your stomach is the size of a tennis ball and wait for the weight to fall off! Be proactive! Nothing worse than a skinny fat person! Meaning a person that is in the ideal weight range as far as BMI but has a body fat % of over 30%. Believe me, most skinny people are fat! Also don’t get bogged down with BMI charts. They are very misleading. For example, a man 5’8 at 200 pounds is considered to have a bmi of 30 which is obese. But what if he is only 8% body fat (like most bodybuilders)? Is he really obese or unhealthy? Or in vice versa, a female that is 5’5 at 130 pounds and 38% body fat. Her BMI is 21 which is in the normal range, but she is unhealthy. Build muscle, burn fat! And the best way to jumpstart that is cardio. You will look better and feel better.. hope this helps you guys, especially the beginners!

no problem! the best thing about this site and the overall experience, is how much you learn, can motivated, and be motivated. just doing my fair share

Soooo.. As i approach my goal weight (40 pounds away), I'm seriously considering plastic surgery.. well a brazillian butt lift to be exact. i've spent many hours doing squats and situps and working out... and my body as a whole has really benefitted from it (i really see results).. my only problem is my breasts are starting to shrink (and sag unfortunately which i have been trying to combat with heavy bench presses) and all my butt has left the building. may sound a little self conscious of me, but when your a woman, curves make you feel sexy.. they are the essence of a woman.. and the stubborn fat can go, but i want my curves back. anywho, i went and had a consultation with a popular surgeon here in LA and he pretty much told me he could make me a work of art.. i was ready to lay on the table and head in operation right there! but i said to myself.. give yourself a least a year to work hard and transform yourself. Be at least 1 year post op and at goal weight before making any changes.. and thats what i'll do. my goal weight is between 140-150. but at 180 i am already in a size 10/12.. 40 more pounds and i'll probably be a 4/5 or something lol so i think 150 is in a normal bmi range and will probably look best on me because i am so tall with lond legs. the doctor assured me however, that even at that weight, he could successfully transfer 1500ccs of fat into each cheek and 200ccs of fat into my hips.. and possibly removed 5 liters of fat from my body total. i havent decided totally if this is the route i am going to go, but i definitely will give working out and eating right an honest hard shot before i do this. all i want is my bum bum back

wow this just got me excited all over again!

i have a lot of mixed reviews about this surgeon. there is a great site you can go to and find out everything you need to know about any procedure your looking to have as well as the top surgeons who do them. Cardenas has loads of reviews on the site as well. Realself.com great site!

there is a site called realself.com that gives great reviews on plastic surgeons all over the country. not sure what procedure your interested in but this is a great starting point!

wow! can't wait to reach that milestone!

happy to report another 2.5 pound loss from yesterday

http://5daypouchtest.com/ here's more info!

happy to report another 2 pound loss from yesterday

http://5daypouchtest.com/ here's the link to give you more info!

I am officially 6 months post op tomorrow and i am down 71 pounds. Starting weight: 256 Current weight: 185 Goal weight: 140-150 (depending on how i look at 150) I said i wanted to get into a bikini by 6 months.. and honey I did. Didn't say I would wear it... just wanted to get into it! At a terrible stall however. I've not recorded a lost in an entire month. I'm working out every single day (even see my abs starting to form) and the scale just won't move. At first I thought it was Water weight. Now I just have no clue! Anyone have any suggestions on how to jumpstart this weight loss again?!?!? If not, I'm going to have to try the pouch test.

keep it up.. pretty soon you'll be up on incline slightly jogging for 5 miles

thanks very informative! I have a book called burn the fat, feed the muscle that is based on some of the same principles. interesting read!