AvaFern

I'm only 28 months out so not as far as you, but what works for me to stay at maintenance weight is to weigh myself every single morning and to log everything into MyFItnessPal. The scale keeps me accountable because I know if I eat too much the day before I am going to hate having to weigh myself in the morning. I yo-yo'd a lot in the past and the times I gained weight were the times I stopped weighing myself. The scale is an unpleasant morning ritual, but it is a daily reminder that actions have consequences. Also, I use MyFitnessPal because by the end of the day sometimes I'm like..oh crap, I wonder how many calories I had today, and then I can just go look. Also, I started gaining a little weight after the summer and now I'm on something like 95 days of not missing any days in MyFitnessPal, so while right this second I'm back where I want to be on the scale I still use it because I like having all of the information and like seeing how many days I can go before I screw up and forget to log something, lol.

I had steristrips on for about 3 weeks after my plastics procedures. They will stay on in the shower and eventually start to come off. At a week out from surgery the surface of your incisions is mostly closed, so whether you leave them on or take them off won't matter much.

He doesn't make money off of you being billed for an echo, and even if there is a referral fee, it is nowhere near the $800 you would be paying out of pocket, which let's be honest, to a cardiologist is pocket change. When they ask for more tests it is so that if you die on the OR table your family can't come back and sue them later. He was well within his legal rights to deny you clearance, although to be fair, he didn't have to. All he has to do is document that he requested an echo, you refused, and if you do die during surgery from a condition that would have been picked up by an echo, he is liability free. I wouldn't have wanted to pay for an $800 echo either, but he wasn't requiring it to make money off of you. He was asking you for it because whether you have it or you decline, all he has to do to shield himself from liability is note that he asked for a procedure that potentially could have saved your life, you as the autonomous patient declined, and as such your family cannot sue him. He doesn't care about your $800, and to be fair he doesn't care about you. He cares about his practice and his income and he made sure both were protected.

I've been in maintenance phase since April. I think the one thing that has helped more than anything else is weighing every single day. I started gaining a little bit back in October but because I knew about it right away, I could fix it right away. It took me almost 2 months to lose 5 pounds, so that makes me even more motivated to not gain again. Also, clothing...I love clothing and if I gain weight my entire closet will not fit me, lol.

Tequila does help me lose weight...from all the puking the next morning, haha.

Woohoo! I had a pair of skinny jeans in a size 12 that were really exciting when I fit back into them. Luckily for me mine have so much stretch to them that I could fit in them again at around 170 and after they've been freshly washed I can still fit in them now at 130, haha. Congrats!

I was also a low BMI and I also felt like I was cheating and taking a shortcut. To be honest with you, I have been at goal since April and I can say that yes, having a sleeve, is a great big cheaterhead decision and one that I am very happy I made. Before the sleeve I could diet down to about 140 and then back up to about 200 and I did that 4-5 times. Finally I ended up being like 210 and I just kept gaining. Because of the sleeve I cannot eat more than I should, which is a huge benefit over someone who has a full stomach. Statistically when you are overweight the chance of losing weight and keeping it off long term is very low. Even when you've had bariatric surgery, long term maintenance is not easy. It is simply a tool and for me, yes I could have starved myself back down to probably around 150, but I could never maintain where I'm at now (129-132) without feeling completely miserable. My sleeve has saved me and I love her.

I'm not entirely sure which surgery killed my libido, but something did. I didn't date for a long time, so I don't really have a frame of reference other than "spending time with myself", however this summer when I did end up dating someone for awhile, I put out everyday, sometimes multiple times a day (because he was 27 and I was 31 and it seemed like loads of sex was something I should be doing) but I really would have been good with a lot less. Also, I take Benadryl to sleep, which does this lovely drying out thing with mucus membranes which probably also contributed to not really enjoying things much. Overall, I'm 32 and for the most part I am sex-drive-dead, which was never the case before the sleeve. I also had three plastics procedures which took awhile to recover from so that may have contributed as well. I figure I'll worry about it if I ever date anyone again and until then it really isn't something I much think about one way or another. I think I read on an earlier post that some women have found Welbutrin helpful for sexdrive. Also, from a medical perspective if your Iron levels are off, that can contribute to fatigue because your tissues aren't being oxygenated how they should be so all your vital organs get preference over others. Any Vitamin deficiency can contribute to a reduction in sex drive as well, so maybe have your doctor check out your blood work and hopefully any issues can be recognized and resolved and you will be back to feeling more like yourself.

Lol, I would assume you were referencing the fast food options as potential food you might eat in the future when you are back on solids? I am 28 months post-op and this is what I ate today: Breakfast- Pack of instant oatmeal mixed with Water, heated, drizzled with honey and 1/3 cup granola mixed in. I ate about 1/3 the bowl and tossed the rest. I eat this pretty much every single day. Lunch- A Hillshire Farms small plate...it's basically an adult lunchable. I used to only eat half which is 9.5g Protein and 185 calories, but lately I've been eating roughly 2/3 or sometimes the whole thing. Dinner- 1/2 chicken salad sandwich from Chik Fil A Snacks: 1 Fiber One bar, 1 bag of goldfish crackers, 1 grande skinny iced caramel machiatto This gives me 48g protein, 150g carbs, 11g Fiber, 40g sugar, 46g fat and 1,193 net calories. Most days I am between 1400-1600 calories. Some days I go for a run and burn about 300 calories, other days I don't. I have been at goal since April and I fluctuate 1-3 pounds upward and back down. Sometimes I will have 1/4 of a subway sandwich....the good kind with marinara and American cheese and turkey. Sometimes it makes me barf, because my stomach is picky. At Chik Fil A, sometimes I will have half the grilled chicken sandwich or a 6pc grilled nuggets with BB sauce. The chili from Panera is really good but there have been points where I would eat half a Panini for lunch (the cheesy, fatty, kind). I did it very infrequently and now it makes me puke so not something I do very often. I almost never have sweets because I have found that this is the one way that I will gain weight pretty quickly. I also avoid Wheat Thins because they are a huge slider food for me and I will eat the whole box in a day. Fried food, food with oil, eggs and a lot of fish make me barf- my sleeve just doesn't like certain foods. Overall though, at over 2 years out I eat what I want to, just in vastly smaller serving sizes than I once did. I have pretty much done that the entire time from about 3 months to now. I was self-pay so no one harped the nutrition program for me. As long as I put my food into MyFitnessPal everyday, weigh myself every single day, and stay on top of my calories, I have not had a hard time maintaining. The trick though is you need to weigh every day. I started gaining a little in October and it took me 2 months to get back down to where I am now, which was literally a 5 pound loss and it was miserable. I had my blood tests done this summer and all of my values are almost right in the middle of the normal limit spectrum, so not eating your butt off in protein everyday, which I have never done, is not going to hurt you as long as you are staying within normal daily levels. Don't skip 500 calories in protein because you want to eat 1200 calories in crackers. Use the time you have now as a honeymoon, lose as much as you can in the first year to 18 months because that is when the restriction is the greatest. It is very possible to eat like a normal person and still stay at a healthy weight that you have accomplished with a sleeve. When I feel like having a Frappucino, I have one...with skim milk and whip cream. If I want a cookie, generally I avoid them, but every few months I will have a few. I eat Chik Fil A usually about once a week and usually about half a serving size, I eat Panera chili about once a week, I would eat Subway salads more often if it was closer to my house, and when I go out to dinner I order what I want (excluding stuff that is fried- puking at dinner is bad) and usually I only eat maybe 1/3 of a serving. So, moral of my very long post, you are not going to starve and you do not have to swear off the food you like to eat forever. You get to a point where a few bites is all you need to be satisfied and this lets you maintain your loss. Do what works for you. Plenty of people on here would skewer me for this post because what works for them is totally different than what works for me. My thing is that I got a sleeve so I could be normal and normal for me is not eating cottage cheese, Protein shakes, broccoli and turkey for the rest of my life for every meal. Normal for me is what I'm doing right now...drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper (also something I've done since about 2 months out from surgery) and getting ready to go grab another snack pack of Goldfish crackers while I finish up the last of my work for the day.

I don't think this is bad advice at all, particularly since you noted that you pay it off every month which gives you all of the benefits and none of the interest. I don't love most store cards because the interest rates are high, so like at Home Depot, I spend $300+ and you get 6 months interest free financing automatically. I used that card recently to build myself a new closet, hehe. I do however have a store card to a place I shop at to the tune of a few hundred dollars at least a month because not only do you get additional percentage off of orders multiple times a month, but you also get access to better sales. So, while most months I pay the full amount off with cash, I save a whole lot of money because I use the card and I use their sales. As an example, this week over the course of a visit to the store and a few online purchases I ended with 3 new skirts, 2 new dresses, 2 new coats, several pieces of jewelry, 3 sweaters, and 6 tops..the retail for all of those purchases is around $900. I combined their store sales, with their email discount, and added in an extra 10% for being a card member and my final price for all of that was roughly $220, give or take about $30. So sure, while $90 saved as an add on to a few hundred dollars saved from coupons and sales that customers without cards have access to isn't really that much, given I shop at this store a lot, that 10% they offer a few times a month combined with other perks of the card totally save me a TON of money. As such, I agree...a credit card to a store you love when you will shop a lot, when you can pay it off every month, and where you get good perks for being a card member is an excellent way to save money.

I eat breakfast every day. I start out with a packet of instant oatmeal mixed with Water. When it's heated I drizzle a little honey over the top and mix in about 1/3 cup granola. I then stir it all together and eat about 1/3-1/2. It's a carby way to start the morning and the only Protein really comes from what is included in the granola and oatmeal, but it keeps me full for a few hours and it's pretty much the same breakfast I've had everyday since I hit goal 8 months ago. I appease my stomach by not feeding her more traditional protein breakfasts (egg, chicken, yogurt) because this tends to result in puking almost instantly and I make up for it later in the day when my temperamental stomach is a little more awake and tolerant.

Your procedure is usually less than an hour. The best way to handle it with the least amount of involvement of others is to use a tampon. Put a new one in when you arrive at the hospital, tuck the string inside, and replace it later in the day when you're conscious enough to do so. In the event they use a catheter, which they generally don't, the tucked in string prevents anyone from even noticing. Honestly, even if they do, they aren't going to mess with it for a short surgery. The other commenter is right that no one will care and it is a very common thing, however as someone who has worked in the medical field and had surgeries, it is just so much easier and less of a pain in the butt to pop the tampon in yourself, not mention it, and then replace it later. Really, no one cares, it isn't going to impact your procedure in the slightest, and this way, you don't have to worry about the potential mess.

Well, technically you can still use a mind altering substance as long as you smoke it or snort it and bypass the stomach. Lol, just kidding! Being newly post-op is difficult, especially when you didn't have a pre-op diet. I only had a 1 week liquid diet and adjusting to no longer having food as a comfort took awhile. You will begin to feel better once you are further out from surgery and can slowly eat solid food again and when you start to lose weight. Until then, smoke and snort away...lol, still kidding.

Yes, I said that for the first two weeks. I was convinced I had destroyed my life. Once you get back to eating normal food and you start losing weight and feeling better, the fear goes away. I can say now that at 28 months post-op my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

Happiness is...ordering the designer size 2 and the 4 dress this week (because they were almost out of stock and I figured at least this way I would end up with one of them) and finding out that while the 2 fits ok, the 0 would have fit a lot better. My closet is a big room of happiness and for the first time in my life, the shoes and the purses (the stuff that always fits) is not my favorite part. Oh I hear happiness is also world peace, but hot dresses in a size 0 are close enough for me.

Lol, you're right, you are allowed to ask anyone, just make sure you also ask your lady-doctor. You probably should not start taking oral contraceptives before surgery because they pose a risk for blood clots. After that it depends entirely on you. I would also personally not advocate for condoms that are non-latex- the failure rate is high and they are just not as effective. Some people are good with taking a pill everyday at the same time and never missing a dose- I am not. As such, I have been on depo, the shot, for my entire adult life (14 years-ish). I have a healthcare background so my doctor just writes me an annual prescription, I pick it up from the pharmacy every three months, and inject it IM in my glute. Easy, peasy, and you never have to have a period again. It can though take you up to a year to get pregnant after you are on depo for awhile and you should make sure you stop taking it for at least one year at some point before your mid-30's whiile taking Calcium supplements. Depo interferes with calcium absorption, but one year off of it, is enough for your body to catch up and you really have no long term related issues then. I love depo because I haven't had a time of the month in years, I only have to remember it every 3 months, and I have had no issues with it. Some people say it causes weight gain and mood instability. It makes you gain weight if you eat more, so if you don't eat more, you don't gain weight. I have been anywhere from 125-237 on depo and most weights in between- it has had nothing to do with gaining or losing weight for me. I have been at goal since April and still taking depo without a weight issue. Some people get cranky and depressed- I am just a general b*tch, so not sure if I have that side effect or not. Overall it's easy and you don't have to remember it often. You then have implant options, depending upon whether you've had kids in the past or if you want to have them anytime in the near future. You can also use the NuvaRing, which is just something you place yourself for 3 weeks and remove the last week during your time of the month. I have a friend who loved that. I believe they still also make the patch, which I have never used. There is also the female condom, which is a mess, not effective and generally a pia. I think you can still get a diaphragm, although I don't know anyone who uses them anymore. Also a mess and not very effective. You then have your array of spermicides and foams which combined with other methods are ok, but not good on their own. Overall, the best way to prevent against pregnancy is to use either a pill, patch, ring, or shot combined with a condom, every single time. Plenty of people swear by consistent use of only the female portion, but I like to make sure it's doubled up, lol. I don't need a crying baby anytime soon!

Lol, I love pantyhose. I live in Florida so I generally don't get to wear them, but the new Spanx version at Kohls does fantastic things for your butt. I also like tights because they make my legs looks far slimmer and less flabby than they are so I can wear shorter dresses. Weirdly though I've noticed since surgery the compression band that comes to the rib cage makes it almost impossible to eat when I'm wearing tights- it's like it finds the one spot of my stomach where it can squish my sleeve to a point where eating is uncomfortable. Although, to be fair, wearing them after stomach surgery sounds terribly uncomfortable, both around the incisions and the squishing in general.

Have you had your blood pressure checked? I can tell when my BP is high because I get a splitting headache, and in some instances exercise can cause that effect. Take a portable BP cuff with you to the gym, and check your blood pressure when you get the headache or right before. If you take it at other times in the day it may not show as being high because your heart has had a chance to chill out and get back to it's normal resting rate and output levels. Also, a far simpler solution, are you staying hydrated? Dehydration can also cause a pretty nasty headache and you could be especially depleted after exercise.

Yes, you can eat cereal. With the sleeve, after you are healed (6-8 weeks) you can technically eat whatever you want. I went through a few phases where I ate Honey Nut Cheerios, because it was one of the few things that didn't make me barf, and last Christmas I ate like 3 boxes of Reeses Cereal- it was good. If you want to have cereal, eat it, just make sure that you are accounting for it in your calories and it isn't making you miss out on Protein or things that are good for you. Now that we have established you can eat it, if you want to lose as much weight as possible during that 18 month honeymoon period where you have the most restriction, probably stay away from it. As a note, I ate a serving of granola every morning without milk for probably 6 months from the time I was a little over goal, to the time I was under goal from roughly 16-22 months or so. I counted my calories, I liked the crunch and the sweetness in the morning, and it did nothing to hurt my weight. I hit goal and maintained with granola everyday. Now I have maintained since April, and I make a bowl of oatmeal (the bad instant kind with sugar and nuts that everyone says you shouldn't eat), I heat it with Water, when it's done, I pour in a little honey, and I sprinkle about half a serving of granola over the top. I eat about half the bowl and then I am not hungry again until noon. I've been doing that for several months now and it hasn't hurt my weight at all. I fluctuate between 1-4 pounds above goal and my granola consumption has not contributed to my weight one way or the other. The whole point of the sleeve is so that we can be like normal people. If a normal person wants a bowl of Lucky Charms, they eat one. Sometimes I get the single serving size and I eat that too. If a normal person wakes up, wants a bowl of Reeses cereal and milk, they enjoy it. The point is we were fat because we ate the whole box of cereal in 2-3 sittings and we did it everyday over and over. For me, cereal isn't a trigger food, so I can happily have half a bowl and be good. I cannot however eat a handful of Wheat Thins. I will eat the entire box in a few hours, so I keep them out of my house. If you get to a point where you think you can have an appropriate single serving or half serving of cereal, then there is nothing wrong with doing that, even if you do it everyday. If, however you then eat the rest of the box over the course of the next few hours, then probably something to stay away from.

It was my first ever surgery, so I was pretty freaked out about it. I also told no one before I had the surgery, so I think if I had the option to talk about it I might have been less stressed. I was self-pay so from the time I decided to go to a consult to the time I was on the OR table was about 2 weeks, so I didn't have much time to process. The first 1-2 weeks for me was horrible. I was convinced I had ruined my life. I was super sick in the hospital, my doctor was a jerk, and I didn't start to feel a little less sick until I got back to mushy foods. The pain was pretty much non-existent, but the nausea and the fear that I had destroyed my life made me a sad girl for a few weeks, lol. I wish I could go back and tell pre-surgery me and immediately post-surgery me that everything would work out wonderfully.

My surgery was 28 months ago and I did not date until I had both reached goal and completed all three of my plastics procedures. My logic is that if you put your house on the market, you make sure your kitchen looks nice and your floors are clean so you attract the best buyer possible. The same is true for weight loss. If you want to have the most amount of options, be at your best when you start to date. Also, I viewed dating as a distraction. I used the time I had to workout and eat well, and I find that when I am dating someone there is way too much emphasis on being happy and comfortable which then derails weight loss. You have a limited amount of time while you are in the honeymoon phase after surgery. Use that time to your best advantage by focusing on yourself. You can date later, but if you lose the year after surgery messing around with dating when you should be focused on weight loss you are going to have a much harder time hitting goal. At over two years out I can eat way more than I should and there is no way I could lose weight now. I can however maintain fairly easily, so I'm glad I took the first year and a half to get to goal, because that is the time where you are most restricted and you can lose the most weight the fastest. Use that time for yourself and be selfish with that small amount of time where you can make the most of a very expensive, lifelong procedure. Men will come and go, but once the first year or two after surgery is gone, you lost the one time you have to really get to goal and if you spent that time with some dude who probably won't be around in a year anyway, you will likely regret it. Good luck with your process!

I have never been to a support group. I considered them to be a waste of my time. Having to sit in a meeting for an hour and hear people complain would annoy me, however I have used Bariatric Pal as my support group, which works out great because I can participate as frequently or infrequently as I want to. The hospital where I had my surgery offers the support group once a week I think at the hospital.

Nope. I am over 2 years out now, but I never had any issues. For the first 6-8 weeks after sugery I believe they generally suggest you avoid taking larger pills, but I would discuss that with your doctor.

I had a drain. Whether you have one or not really doesn't make a huge difference one way or the other. The drain is almost always removed before you leave the hospital and it is only used to help drain out any residual Fluid that accumulates in your abdomen, which give you basically cut out your stomach, is a lot of fluid that reacts to what your body sees as trauma. I had drains for all 3 of my plastics procedures too. It is basically just a negative pressure suction ball...the tube is in your abdomen, the ball is on the outside, and before the suction ball is closed, you squeeze it so that the pressure pulls out the extra fluid. Removing the drain is as simply as cutting the suture and pulling the tube out. So, don't be worried about whether you have a drain or not...you won't notice it much, the nurses will take it out for you, and it's not a complicated device at all.

@Elode Do you want to have cosmetic procedures done? If you are within 15% of the lowest weight you might want to be, you can have cosmetic procedures done now. I was 157 when I had my consult for my first set of surgeries (tummy tuck and boobs) and 153 the day of surgery. My two other procedures were done when I was around 147 and 137 and they also look just fine now that I'm about 20-23 pounds thinner than when I started the procedures. I don't think I would have any better results waiting and I think I actually would not have hit goal if all the extra skin hadn't been removed. I can run so much faster now, lol. Also, not pulling away skin is really motivating to stay thin. I read a study that people who had plastics after bariatric surgery were more likely to maintain at their goal than those who didn't, which was another contributing factor for me. I know this is shallow, but I wake up everyday, weigh myself, and check my naked self out in the mirror. My boobs and stomach are my favorite procedure and everyday I love how they look. So...you're pretty small now according to your profile, you could totally go get your plastic consults out of the way and be ready in 6 weeks or so to have the procedures done without having to really lose much more first.