aliekat55

I asked my surgeon about this and he said that the only worry he had was during the first three months. after that he felt there was little risk and it was my choice. My GI doctor concurred so i have decided not to wear a bracelet and advertise to world that i have some serious medical condition.

did the best i could. made a huge effort. not perfect. it is not about the weight i lost but about the emotional and mental place i was at. in short, was i willing to do what it took for the surgery to work. note that fully 40% of sleevers do not reach a minimal success! i was determined not to be one of those. that said, it is easier after the surgery but IMHO you have to give it your all, a full court press, including exercise. i read here how only after months of failure do some people decided that perhaps exercise will help. if you query vets they will tell you that the first 6 months is the honeymoon phase, where the weight comes off easily. that is when the exercise will accelerate your weight loss.

I hope so. So far it has been a great help but i am only 5 months out. i managed to keep weight off for 5 years once but it was so much harder than it is now. I feel i can easily keep doing what i am doing.

probiotics, fiber, colace and fluids-- in large amounts. I had a problem before surgery which got worse afterwards--perhaps because of the smaller amount of food. through much effort i have found i need all of the above to stay regular.

I am in the same boat with you. I am smaller than i was in 7th grade! and only now am I beginning to see myself as small. I find it easier to see it in a picture of myself dressed in clothes that i would not have normally worn ( case in point- halloween costume) So there was no old 'tape' for the brain to put in the place of reality. this is now the fight of our lives. I have on advantage in that i see patients all day long and when i get a man about my height I look at his weight and then reset my brain by noting that i am either bigger or smaller than the person in front of me. almost always smaller these days. my brain responds by "no f--- way!" but i keep trying.

don't give up on exercise. it is winter and cold and there will be food all over the place--rich food. personally i pick it up a notch during this time of year. congrats-- you have done a great job to lose so fast.

I make sure i only serve myself about half of what i can easily eat. then when i am done i wait for at least 5 minutes to evaluate cues from my body and stomach. Only then do i go get a small portion, wash rinse repeat. even so, the amount of food that sends me from feeling nothing to getting full blown full feelings is razor thin some days. It wasn't a problem when i was trying to lose but i am trying to maintain and can't get enough calories in. my wife says i should stop the low cal foods but I can't emotionally do that right now.

I met a friend at SB to catch up on our lives. we both independently brought our own low cal creamer! i brought low fat french vanilla coffee mate (powder) and he brought something similar. with nutrasweet a small cup of coffee is around 60 calories or less! I sip liquids now so a small lasts me longer than a venti used to last me.

After four months since surgery and after one month since reaching goal i decided to go out to eat with my family for my birthday. I scoped out the best place to eat, where there would be good choices, my wife agreed to share a plate. It was so much easier than it used to be. i had half a cup of french onion Soup (none of the bread, a bit of the cheese, most of the broth and onions) One half of the steak cut up into tiny portions and did not even finish it (ate 3.5 oz) and my extravagance: two of my daughter's french fries. I was not only full, but satisfied! that never happened before, even if full i wanted more. i ate less than everyone at the table and they are all tiny people. I took a good 30 minutes to eat my food. i did not think eating out would work and don't want to do it again for quite a while. but it was fun! i even joined in the conversation which used to be a problem because the food was always talking to me. i love the sleeve. it has given me my life back.

for some reason the one that bothers me the most is when they tell me "STOP losing more weight!" I have no doubt it has to do with their own feelings about their weight (no one thin or normal says this).

wow! way to go.

I developed some weird inflammatory disease in my early 50s which i fought off for years. i thought that if i lost a lot of weight it would ease it up. Although there are numerous benefits of the 100+ pounds i have lost, the inflammatory problem is not one of them. i don't feel any worse but not any better, as if carting around all that weight makes no difference. rather disappointing. I am only four months out and hope springs eternal. i am just starting to work on maintenance and building back some of the muscle i lost during the weight loss, so perhaps it will improve. Nevertheless the benefits of the weight loss are legion and my only focus is on getting the maintenance part of this process right. tired of the weight Yo Yo.

hard to say. I grew a beard at the same time and it came in black, unlike the little hair i have on top. most people say i look younger. but peoples estimate are highly influenced by non visual cues, such as how people act and move. the confidence and mobility that we can get with weight loss can make us seem younger.

never had trouble drinking. but eating, that is different; i could eat yogurt anytime and at any speed, but other things took time and besides i was practicing for later. now with real food i have to be conscious about chewing and waiting between bites.

somedays i could do a lot, other days not so much. not to worry, keep plugging away. congrats