Miss Mac

Tell them that not only do you feel healthy, you are probably healthier than they are!

None. Too many carbs for me. Breakfast is usually an egg with bacon or leftover steak.

The best thing you can do is to be yourself, that way you know he likes you for yourself and does not expect you to be anything to the contrary. I agree that the third date means that he is definitely interested. Don't worry so much about does he like you. Let HIM worry about whether or not you like him. Like Steve Harvey says, you also should not give up your "cookie" too soon, even if you come to like him a lot. Make him earn it! That said, I think you should not hone in on one man too soon, although if he is charming and likeable, and you feel safe around him, by all means, go for date #4. In the mean-time, until he puts a ring on it, date like a man - a pair and a spare!

I agree with fezik23. My sisters, cousins, and myself have all had / are having bariatric surgery in our 50's and 60's after decades of misery with orthopedic conditions and other serious medical conditions brought on by obesity. When we were your age, bariatric surgery wasn't even available to the public. We have lost several family members of our generation to heart attacks in their late 30's and 40's and morbid obesity (300-400 lbs +) runs rampant throughout our clan. Good for you to address this now. Hopefully, your family will be supportive. If you cannot find strength there, you can find it here. You will surely have questions as you go through the different stages of your weight loss journey. We may at times, steer you right back to your bariatric team, but as people who have "been there, done that, got the shirt" we would love to share how our experiences may provide encouragement and support for you. Welcome to the forum. Feel comfortable to come visit often.

I do not remember seeing one here, so I am going to start a thread on what we can come back with a sting when someone makes a derogatory comment about our weight loss or accuses us of taking the easy way out. We can keep it tame, like Say, "If you're not on board with my weight loss plans, let's change the subject." Or we can go after them hard with something like "Well then, you should never get on an elevator or drive your car ever again! Oh, I just found a three page thread on this topic from 2012. Here is the link. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/202970-need-comebacks-for-easy-way-out-crack/ What else can we add to it?

Last week I came across a thread from bodybuilding .com dated 4//23/2007 that addressed this same issue. A poster on that thread, PeteB claims from a previous article on bodybuilding.com he read "that 10 minutes of moderate cardio will purge about 50% of the accumulated lactic acid, and another ten minutes will purge 25% more." This was apparently suggested with the expectation that light easy cardio for a cool down will be sufficient - nothing aggressive. So....I went back and did not see a link to articles, and the science may have changed in seven years.......but food for thought and further investigation.

Glad to hear that you are doing better. Anytime you feel a lapse coming on, go to YouTube and watch a few videos with surgeons performing a sleeve gastrectomy. If you are a visual learner like me, it will remind you of what actually happened to your stomach while you were taking a nap. Your new tummy needs to be your new boss. Eventually, your taste buds will respond to what real foods (not made in a factory) taste like. Your body systems will respond with happiness for good natural nutrition. Look at it this way......before you take a bite or sip of something, ask yourself if you can pick it or catch it. For example, you will not find bagels hanging on a tree like you would cherries. You won't find rivers of soda pop flowing through a canyon. You can't go out to the garden and pick some fresh macaroni and cheese for dinner. As the food industry developed during / after World War I, we were told that margerine, Pop Tarts, and Ramen Noodles were good food to be eaten. And the reason they spent so much effort and money marketing these flashy commercials every day into our brains is because they made the stuff and now they have to sell it to us before it rots in the warehouse. Those of us here who have had the surgery have a great responsibility in trying to find a delicate way to be direct when folks ask for advice. The best advice we can always give is that the sleeve is one tool, and your doctor or bariatric team is the next tool. Our responses are based on our personal experience. We surely do want you to be healthy and happy, so be kind to yourself. I call my new and improved stomach "Miss Tummy" and she is the boss of me. If I eat slowly, she will let me know when enough is enough. She throws me a resounding tupperware burp to warn me that if I take another bite or sip, she will see to it that I am miserable and repentant for the next four hours. I am not perfect. Miss Tummy has humbled me many times. So, give your new tummy a name, and let her run the joint (and tell the family that they need to be considerate and not bring junk into the house, eat it in front of you, or expect you to cook it for dinner). Some people get the hiccups or other gastric signal when it's time to put the leftovers away, give them to the dogs, or throw them out. The new you is trying to escape from it's old, tired, sick, achy shell. The fact that you spent the money, made the trip to Mexico, and (allegedly) had the proper surgery shows that somewhere inside you, you really want to have a successful recovery and weight loss. Please come back for encouragement and continue to make posts as concerns come up. Even if all responses are not gentle, look past that and see if you can take away any useful information to help you along. I wish you good luck and good health. Please come back and visit us often.

I just saw a mouthwatering commercial for Denny's Red, White, and Blue pancakes. So, since I don't eat at restaurants hardly any at all, I thought I would look up their alleged nutrition. An 11 ounce serving has 490 calories of which 80 are fat calories, 1280 grams of sodium, 94 carbs, and 36 grams of sugar. In my pre-sleeve life I would have so gone for that without even considering the nutritional values. I am so glad for my new post-op plan. I am not sluggish from sugar or ready to fall asleep at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I do not mind at all to eat at home where the ingredients of any meal can be controlled. That's not a burden - it is a release from the influence of advertising.

Back in the day, Dear Abbey offered a generic response to nosy questions: "Why would you want to know?"

So true. My boyfriend and I went to explore a Gordon's food Service store for the first time today. We left the cart and came out empty-handed. We are so used to eating clean fresh food and high quality Protein, that all of that factory-made, flash frozen, stored in a warehouse and then in a truck overpriced crap had no appeal.

The day I made the call, I was told to go to their website and do the on-line seminar. They called me the next day and set an appointment for about three weeks out.

Look at it this way: you are two weeks away from a new birthday. The pre-op is worse than the post-op, once you get past the first couple of weeks. As you get the hang of this, it gets easier and besides that, you become an expert on bariatric nutrition.

My experience is that my 600-800 calorie diet does not support anything intense. I can walk slowly for fifteen minutes or so on grass, but in combiniation with orthopedic issues and a back brace, that is probably pretty good. When I try to get thirty minutes of strength training in, I am wiped out and useless for three days. I am hoping this will get better when I get another forty pounds off and I can go into maintenance. Even at that, I am here because I could not lose weight on 1,000 calories. Sorry if this doesn't help, but at least it validates what you are experiencing yourself.

I couldn't find the source for the quote "Confession is good for the soul" so I 'll go with this one: Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession. Mahatma Gandhi I am so glad you came back to visit us. There is strength in numbers. Welcome back.

Just a little side comment to Daliamay.......did the doctor glue you together?????/

Oh, I just thought of one myself. Tell her that your other option was a tapeworm.

I eat an egg every day for breakfast, sometimes with bacon, sometimes with steak, less often with ham or sausage. Or I will eat a 1/3 cup of omelet with a dribble of cheese, and onion, pepper, mushrooms, avocado, and a bite of fresh tomato. It may have a few calories, but I eat it in the morning and have the rest of the day to adjust my food choices. Haven't tried oatmeal since I have a strong issue of stalling when my carbs go over 20 per day.

I am in to my eighth month post-op and still at 600-800 calories per day, and 80 grams of Protein. It is so hard to squeeze 80 grams of protein in without drinking at least a couple of shakes, which I am not supposed to do. I have had many stalls where I would bounce around the same number for at least three weeks. I have tried all of the tricks, and I am here to tell you that what worked last time may not work the next time. Your fat is going to go out kicking and screaming. Your body will try to outsmart you in spite of your best efforts. Go to the thread on stalls and see if you can find any help there. I can gain three pounds overnight and then it takes three weeks to get rid of it. Stalls will test your patience. I have even tried 600 calories for three days and gained two pounds! Go figure. You have engaged in a battle for your life and you are going to have to stay committed. The best advice I can give for any post-op issue to get those fluids in. Being dehydrated will derail your best efforts, too. When you log on to this website, go to Forums - Gastric Sleeve Forums - and scroll way down to DON"T SWEAT THE STALL STUFF" You may find some good suggestions there. Good luck, sleeve sister.

It's been a long time since I had my babies, but from what I know about our post -op diet is that baby will appreciate the Protein and clean eating. Hopefully some other post-op mommies can help you out. Congratulations!

I am not a stomach sleeper, but when I went to get my quarterly epidural for spine issues, I was concerned about laying on my stomach. But being 40 pounds down at that point, I got up on the surgical bed like a pro. I am glad you could bounce back so quickly. You can add that to a long list of victories yet to come.

One of the reasons that I did not like many veggies growing up is that my dear mother was not a good cook and only enjoyed being in the kitchen if she was making something with cream cheese. If we had a veggie, it was green Beans, carrots, or tomatoes. For myself, I was a decent cook, but I was cooking with things like Kraft macaroni and Cheese. Oh Boy, did I love Spam. The only fish I ever liked was tuna salad (which I figure now was mostly Miracle Whip) and Long John Silver's. Eight years ago, I met the most darling gentleman that I am still with. He is from Malta Island in the Mediterranean Sea, so his style of cooking is definitely in the Mediterranean style. He is an outstanding chef in the kitchen and has introduced me to what fresh vegetables taste like. I had never had many of the veggies he has introduced me to, like sun chokes and Portobello to name two. I had never eaten avocado and did not know what creamy yumminess I was missing. We are now bringing in veggies from his garden and eat them the day they are picked. Today he made cucumber Soup which was awesome. So, I am one to agree that your taste buds will eventually respond well to your surgery, because our post-op diet will definitely detox us. If veggies are cooked as fresh as possible, by someone who is handy around a stove, you may find that veggies are not so bad after all. I do eat fruit, too, but in smaller amounts than I used to. sugar free Jello is a good emergency substitute if I want a fruity flavor but can't afford the carbs that day. Being at 600-800 calories a day, I have to watch my numbers like a hawk. Also, I have grilled steak twice a week. I just eat two ounces instead of the ten ounces I used to. No more eggbeaters for me either. I eat the whole egg fried in scant real butter (I rub the stick around the pan) with bacon some days, with real cheddar cheese (not Velveeta) on other days. Now that I am eight months out, food not only tastes different - it tastes better!

I put my liquid in the microwave for about 1/2 minute, just to get the chill off, then whisk it in a mixing bowl. Then...I pour it into my shaker bottle (that has that little wire mixy thing in it) through a strainer. Then I put ice in it to get it cold again. Then I wash up the bowl and whisk right away because whey Protein dries like cement. I was a hospital, hotel, and industrial housekeeping manager for 35 years, and the most important thing I learned was the first rule of custodial science......."Get It Before It Dries!"

.Yesterday I ordered a 12 bar variety pack from Quest Nutrition's website, so that I would have something for the road. Some of my doctor appointments are not close to home. I hope I like them. And I like the idea of the class experiment, too

If you were a Hollywood Star, I would say you were PhotoShopped, but since I know and appreciate the effort you went to to get so cute and petite, I will say Awesome job! I hope I can reach my goal as successfully as you did.

Go figure. It's exhausting to keep up with all of this. Being my own human guinnie pig, I have taken it down to an austere 600 calories, just barely getting my Protein in, carbs under 30, no salt...you know...all of that, and today on the scale I have gained 2 pounds overnight! I about cried. I certainly did not eat 7,000 excess calories, so it had to Water and/or poo, but I am not constipated at all. It's hard being my own hall monitor, but I volunteered for this. So, if you gained 3 pounds, you know you did not consume 12,500 excess calories. keep you head up and stay on your program.