LumpySpacePrincess

If you're referring to post-op, as Fireflea says, you should be focusing on getting in your Protein and Water FIRST. I avoided any fruit (other than the occasional strawberry or two chopped up in my high protein yogurt) for the first 9 months post-op. Fruit does have nutritional value, but to your body it is basically candy that grows on trees. Stick with non-starchy vegetables and you will get just as many nutrients without the sugar load.

My sleeve is pretty tough and can handle every food I eat regularly. The things that used to bother me don't anymore, which is great. But every once in awhile I dump on a food I've eaten many times before, and it lasts for DAYS. I'm currently on day 3 of everything just shooting through my system. Every time I take a bite of food, I need to poop right after, and its not solid. It does hurt, but not in my "sleeve" stomach area, more like my lower intestinal area near my belly button. Anyone else have this? This time it was a small bowl of Life Cereal. Also wondering if the fact that I increased my Fiber by a lot recently is adding to it? Is it something I just need to ride out and it will regulate and get used to more fibrous foods? I called my surgeon and waiting for a call back, but when I mentioned it at my most recent appointment, she wasn't concerned. Hm.

That is a long time to be on the pre-op diet. Off plan eating is going to happen. I did my pre-op voluntarily over two months (they really only required a few weeks) so I could learn what it was like to eat sensibly the majority of the time but still have moderate treats thrown in here or there. You haven't messed anything up...yet. But be careful not to let the slip turn into an avalanche. Forgive yourself and move on and do the best you can until surgery. Only a few more days to go!

I'm 18 months post-op sleeve. My surgeon recommended this product to me because my gas is awful. I'm not even exaggerating. It smells like hell's rancid meat pile combined with a landfill of dirty diapers stranded in the Sahara. Does anyone know if it is available in stores? I don't want to wait for shipping. Its THAT BAD.

...I don't feel like I can share it with many of my other sleever pals. Most of them are still considered obese, even though we were sleeved around the same time. I feel guilty posting about my success in our groups, because I don't want to make others feel bad. At the same time, they are the only people I know who understand what this process is like. At first we were all united and very supportive of each other. Now I just feel like every time I share a success, they get upset about it. Anyone else have this experience?

Any recommendations? I was originally going to go with Dr. Capella, but it seems a lot of his patients have issues with stuff not healing correctly and him leaving lumps of fat by the pubic area. I am now ready to consider plastics in Mexico as well if I find someone that people have had good experiences with. I will need a lower body lift and a breast lift. I haven't decided on an arm lift yet. Also if anyone can tell me about what they paid for these procedures, I'd appreciate it!

The weight loss will definitely help make workouts easier. When I was at my heaviest, I could still do my workouts, but not nearly as well as I do them now. I can do a whole minute of jumping jacks without my fat slapping me around, without my knees hurting, and without feeling like I'm going to die (unless I'm doing HIIT, which is kind of the point! lol). Your endurance and capabilities will expand dramatically after the sleeve starts working.

The only other suggestion that I can make (as someone who has also been on xanax before), is that the xanax is relaxing you to the point that you are not waking up to your body's signals that you need to go to the bathroom. Its possible you may have been mostly asleep and unaware you pushed out a fart, and coupled with the broccoli possibly being the cause of the loose stools, it created a mess. Sorry to hear you are going through this. I did this twice within the week after surgery and my poor boyfriend insisted on helping clean it up both times. So embarrassing! Hope things start getting better for you!

Yes, your taste will come back. I had almost zero taste until about 6-9 months out (I don't remember exactly when it came back). The good thing about having no taste is it helps with making better food choices. When all food tastes essentially the same, the allure of richer, fattier, or sweeter foods just isn't there. Use it to your advantage and fill your body with good, lean Protein. The weight WILL come off, I promise!

I'm about the same amount of time out. I had a post-op appointment today. My surgeon and nutritionist were both thrilled with my weight loss, which was really great to hear! I asked them what I should be eating at this point. The nutritionist told me 1200 calories per day is considered optimal for maintenance sleevers, and around 60g Protein per day, 25g of Fiber from vegetables, fruit (she wants me to have two fruit servings per day), and some whole grains like oatmeal, nuts, etc. She told me in terms of fat and carb content per-se, as long as I keep it in the 1200 calories per day, it shouldn't be a problem to maintain my weight. As far as exercise, she told me 30 minutes per day of moderate to strenuous exercise four times per week was all we need. Right now I'm eating pretty much whatever I want, but I always make sure to get my protein in first and foremost. Hope this helps!

YES! My mom recently told me I was too skinny. My therapist gently reminded me to pay attention to where these comments are coming from. In my case, usually other women that might feel threatened that my role in the friendship or familial relationship has changed; i.e. I was always overweight and they were always smaller or "better" than I was. Now that I am smaller than my mom (she's never been overweight but she's now a size 10/12 and I'm a 6/8), she feels that the balance in that part of our relationship has changed. I try not to internalize it. I don't care what anyone says, I'm a size 8 down from a 32/34 and I feel fantastic! I simply tell people I will stop losing when my surgeon tells me to. After all, they know the post-bariatric body better than anyone.

I used to feel like that. I kicked the idea around for years but always said "Well, it would be great to lose it without surgery!" but I always knew in my heart I'd need it. Now I can walk into any store and buy whatever I want. I'm a size 6/8 (originally a 32/34!) and how I got here doesn't matter a lick to me now because I feel fantastic!! As others have said, this is a medical condition, and you are being treated by a medical team. If this was something that people could do on their own without medical intervention, no insurance on earth would pay for it! If you find these thoughts pervasive, I'd recommend seeing a therapist, even if just for a short while, to sort out your emotions. Actually, I recommend long-term therapy for all bariatric patients. We didn't get to our heaviest because we have a good, easy relationship with food!

Nope, but you must make sure you are drinking enough water before and after. I drink a homemade cappuccino every morning and have no issues as long as I drink one bottle before breakfast and one shortly after my coffee.

Can you give us a sample menu of what you are eating? That might help greatly.

They are similar but also very different. The c-section is open, so a larger portion of your muscle is cut, and cut in an area that assists with sitting up, standing, bending, etc, so your pain is going to be mostly related to those activities. The pain from the sleeve, which is a laproscopic surgery, is going to be mostly due to the air they pump into you while they are performing the procedure. The intensity of the muscular pain was less with the sleeve than with my c-section, but the overall pain was worse with the sleeve. Take heart, though, that after about 5 days you'll be mostly recovered from the sleeve, as opposed to 2+ weeks with the c-section. The pain might be more intense but it is shorter lived.

When I got those it was because I was dehydrated. Drink more Water and they should go away. If not, you may need to double your reflux/heartburn medication, which is also a common cause.

Anyone else? I've been doing a lot of weight training over the last few months, and I can tell I've built my muscle back up, but the tighter they get, the worse my skin looks. The only thing I can think of to describe it would be to say that it drips and puddles. Ewww. Wondering if this is just me?

@@Sweet Pee How much did you pay for your surgery? I contacted him for a quote, but he wont' give me a price until I send him my blood work (which will take awhile). I'm just trying to get a ballpark figure because I have to save up for this and it might take awhile.

I did have a bit of hair loss around months 3-6, mostly on the right temple. I have been taking 20,000mg of Biotin per day for about three months and have noticed my hair thickening in every other place except that. Now I've even noticed that hair is starting to fall out from that area exclusively again. I have been wearing wigs for the last year because the bald spot looks really bad and is so noticeable; I have super fine hair to begin with. Is this normal, and is there a way to stop it or something I can do to stimulate growth? I do the whole Nioxin thing already. I would really like to be able to have long hair again but that side of my head just doesn't grow. Advice?

That's not necessarily true, and you could be putting your body into starvation mode. You should be talking with your nutritionist and or your surgeon about what you can do to drop your last bit of weight. Good luck! Starvation mode doesn't apply to people who have extra fat on their bodies, and certainly not for people who are obese. Its a weight loss myth that has been beat to death. I know giving up our food is hard psychologically, but you need to give up control of it at least a little bit to make this surgery work. I got to my goal weight because I kept my calories low for the whole first year (around 650 to 800 per day), while those in my cohort (support group) who were of the "starvation mode" mindset and increased calories and exercise are still considered overweight, and not by a narrow margin. You will not die, you will not starve to death. Your fat is there to feed your body in times of famine. If you want it to come off your body, you have to decrease intake and force your body to use its energy stores. Your calories need to come from your body, not from your plate.

When the episode originally aired, I was just a few months out of WLS. I was yelling at the tv. I was so f-ing angry at her. I know so many people who were turned down for WLS after multiple appeals and who really truly needed the surgery and would have been excellent candidates, and I feel like she pissed her opportunity away. The episode stuck with me for awhile, though, and slowly I started to realize that could have been me. She has an eating disorder, no questions about it, but so do I. What's the difference, though? Well, I feel I am fortunate enough to be a psychology student (now in graduate school for counseling psych), so I had access to so much more information than a lot of people did on assessments, abnormal psychology, etc that through my training I was able to recognize my own eating disorder and seek help. For years (my therapist and I place the start of my disorder around the age of 3) I honestly didn't know that I was any different than anyone else. I thought everyone ate the way I did, I was just unfortunate enough to get fat. She is wife and mother to her disorder, not her family members. She is so deep into it that I honestly think only inpatient care would help at this point. I don't think she wants to be the way she is, and I think she probably senses something is wrong, but for some of us having a food attachment that strong can be the same as someone trying to get off heroin or narcotics. Your disorder will convince you of all kinds of things, mainly that you don't need help. Its incredibly difficult to live with. I fully empathize with her, not for her choices but her lack of ability to make good choices due to her disorder. It must be hell living inside her head.

Lowering carbs is never a bad idea, especially if refined grains and starchy veg (potatoes, etc) have creeped back into your diet. However, you will probably need to lower your calories as well. We tend to stall out because we forget that as we lose, our bodies need less. If we keep eating the same amount, we aren't creating a big enough deficit to lose fat. If you are going the low-carb route, just remember to keep your daily fat at or below your Protein in grams so the fat you're burning comes from your body, not from your diet!

You will NOT gain muscle that quickly, so don't buy into that. At most, people who train might gain about 2 pounds of muscle per month at the very most, and we're talking serious athletes. The average person might gain a quarter to half a pound of pure muscle per month, but usually not more. It took me three months of intense weight training to gain a pound of lean body mass. Most of what you are experiencing is probably Water gain, but you also have to take into account when you up your activity, your brain will tell you to eat more. Make sure you are not grazing throughout the day or developing the "I worked out hard so I can have extra" mentality. Keep your calories low, lean, and non-starchy and the water weight should drop away and take some fat with it.

Try lowering your calories. As you lose weight, your body requires less to live on, so you need to reduce how much you are taking in per day to make sure your deficit is big enough for weight loss.

No, she has no problem with it. She knows i'm not taking it to stop eating completely, just as a helper. She's called my doctor to explain this but my doctor just doesn't think its necessary. She's also one of those doctors who thinks I should just go for a walk every day and the fat will melt off without dieting, etc. She almost didn't fill out my physical for my WLS because she said it wouldn't help me at all. I'm trying to get a new doctor, but my HMO is very stubborn.