Cecilia

So SoccerMomma, your name is Christie? Nice to meetcha! When you mentioned that in a post I thought "who is she talking about?" LOL! Glad your mood is more stable, sorry about the queasy. Have you heard of Quease-Ease? I wonder if that would help? I've worked three 12-hour shifts in the past week and I'm handling it as well as before the surgery. Maybe better. People tell me I don't just look thinner, I carry myself like I have more confidence. Maybe I do? Either way, it was a nice compliment.

Okay, here's what I don't get. You and I are about even when it comes to starting weight, goal, etc. We've lost 30% of our weight in the first month, how could you *not* reach your goal within the first six months? I mean, weight loss would have to slow to a crawl, wouldn't it? Or am I confused? C

Are y'all sick of my long posts yet? LOL! My ex used to say I have diarrhea of the mouth. Evidently of the fingers as well. A short little post: I started incorporating running into my walks today. Got the app Zombies, Run! and it's a blast. Highly recommend it. That, and I wanted to add that I'm still shocked that I can cross my legs. It feels so good! I do it all the time!!! LOL!

I feel for you. Every time I read your posts. I had no pre-surgery shakes or post-op dietary restrictions except for on the texture of the food. My dietitian did say to try to get the proteins in first, but that's about it. I wonder... the idea of a ketogenic or an all-protein diet sounds admirable, adding extra oomph to the weight loss which will take place due to the surgery, but I still have my ketostix from ages ago, and I've been in ketosis ever since surgery. Not because I've eliminated carbs, but because I'm just burning fat no matter what. Also, it's probably a good idea not to crowd out the protein with other nutrients, since you don't want to waste muscle tissue as much as possible, but such a strict diet seems like the kind of thing that would make me flip out once the restrictions were off. Also, I was told that most of the weight would come off in the first six months. Whether you like it or not, things start to slow down afterwards. I don't know that you could make yourself lose more weight in the first six months than you would not eating only protein, or that you would even want to? I dunno. Just some rambling thoughts. My personal opinion is that if you want to do the best possible thing for your body as you are losing weight, it would be to add exercise. I'm very interested in what other doctors have all of you to do. It's so different for everybody!

Hi back atcha! I plan on walking tomorrow. Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota!

You look fantastic!!

Alright! We'll be weight loss buddies!

When is your birthday? And just curious... how tall are you? I'm 5-7 (wannabe 8). I already feel like I could live with my shape on top, but my bottom half still has a ways to go!

Chin up! I'll bet it's not even that! Damn it feels good!

OMG! Got on the scale and I'm down to 201!! I'm so excited!!!

LOL!!!

Slow learner, I guess: I have finally figured out that the minute a bite of food feels the least bit uncomfortable, I have to stop eating until the pain stops. And if it doesn't, my meal is over. Having figured this out, I learned that the first bite of just about anything that isn't still pureed hurts a little. If I wait 5-10 minutes, I usually can finish my meal at a more normal pace and everything feels fine and stays down. I wonder why *starting* to eat is so uncomfortable, but whatever. I can live with this. At work it's been amazing. I was so afraid of criticism, but 99% of people have been supportive, complimentary, etc. DAMN it feels good to lose weight!!

A - flipping - mazing!!! Today I was in a patient's room talking to them and I looked down and suddenly realized that I was sitting with my legs crossed and a) I hadn't grabbed the pants leg of one leg to help it over the other It didn't hurt c) It was staying there all by itself. Yaaaaay!

Not sure about other tickers, but the ones on this site are under that little downward pointing arrow by your name. Look under the drop-down menu.

Day 6 status post roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. The past five days of a clear liquids diet has made it abundantly clear to me that if I thought I had turned a new leaf, I definitely hadn't. Me: I'm hungry Ed: Oh, that food smells so good, doesn't it? It would be so good to take a bite. Look at it, just sitting there. Me: I'm going to turn away and not look at that Ed: Yeah, but whoops! There it is again. One of your kids left a perfectly good bowl of noodles drenched in Alfredo sauce just sitting there. Oh, the thought of eating it! Me: Distract! I'm going upstairs! Ed convinced me to just try purees a few days before I was supposed to. I did. It went okay, so he talked me into advancing the diet to purees a day early. I countered and decided on full liquids (liquids you can't see through but that still go through a strainer, like milk). Except he talked me into cottage cheese at night, just for fun, and I struggled to resist him. Me: One cup, and that's enough. Ed: Fill you up! Fill you up! Oh, it feels so good to fill you up! Don't you love that stuffed feeling? Don't you feel better now? Go take another cup. You can, you know, it's legal. Me: But I felt sort of full even before I finished the first one. I won't have a second one. Ed: DOOOO IT! Get up! That's right! Go over there and get another one, and make sure you pack it tight too! Level it off so it looks legal. There. Make an excuse now. Me: (to my daughter) "And I even get to have seconds! To think that this would have been two bites in the past -- haha! -- sigh." I don't want to eat another. Ed: But it does look so good. Really savor it. That's how you can justify it. You have 30 minutes to eat and it's only been 15, so you may as well. Me: But it doesn't taste so good any more. And I feel full. Ed: EAT IT! Me: Okay. And then later when I was in my daughter's room: Ed: Look! It's those powdered rice crispy things. What are they called? Puppy chow? There's three on her desk -- no SIX! Jackpot! You can take them without her looking. Do it! Me: I am not going to take them. They are soooo not on the diet! Ed: Take those three! There. You got them. Now the other three, right back there. She can't see you. Me: Why am I doing this. I'll throw them in the trash can. She noticed I'm doing something. Ed: No you won't. Walk out. Hide your hand. Real casual like, by your side, as if nothing were in it. Me: I'm going to dump them in the trash when I get out. This could really hurt me if I eat them. Ed: Eat them. Just chew them up good. Me: But the carbs! It's pure refined flour and sugar! Ed: Eat them! Good, good, now another... and another... Chew them slowly if that makes you feel better. Me: God. I hope I don't get dumping from this. How can I have cheated the first day I'm off clear liquids? Ed: Except you weren't, right? We ate that baby food meat for two days now, didn't we? Me: I feel so awful. Ed: There you go. You blew it. You didn't need any more food, but you had it anyway, didn't you. Didn't it feel good though? Me: No. It didn't. I feel horrible. Ed: You should. You never really will learn. You're going to start a blog, aren't you! You think you'll stick to that daily schedule you made today? You won't. You'll get bored like you always do and walk away. Sure, sure, maybe you'll get published some day, or maybe you'll just help someone. But really, you're going to quit like you quit everything else. You probably just gained back some of those pounds that you lost. And you didn't exercise today either. Hah! Fat lotta motivation you had for that, right? Me: But I thought... I was at least trying... Ed: But you failed as usual. Put it off. Screw this. Go to bed like you always do. Me: Okay. I'm not trying to shift the blame. There is no other person who is "forcing" me to eat the way I do. These are conversations I have in my head all day long. However, I've begun to read a book called Life Without Ed (Jenni Schaefer, 2004). In it, the author describes how she became the patient of Thom Rutledge and conquered her eating disorder by process of separating herself from these thoughts that had become so very internalized to her and later, as a separate "being" was able to end the relationship she had with the eating disorder/ED/Ed. I'm hoping that by blogging along as I read the book, I can experience some of the recovery that she has. Although the author describes a cycle of "starving, bingeing, then purging," it is just as easy for me to substitute the words "eating until I can't feel any more." Too easy. I have sought help for the craziness that causes me to eat when I'm not hungry, to eat until I'm stuffed, and then to eat more, but I'm told this is not an eating disorder. Like hell it isn't! So for now, those of us who don't binge and purge or starve ourselves, those of us who just have a problem with "poor food choices," or "portion size" and "not enough exercise" can go through the motions and get ourselves weight loss surgery. But why do so many of us not reach our goal, or gain so much of the weight back, eventually? Because we still are in the grips of disordered eating, or whatever you want to call the process that makes us want to eat when we're not hungry. I didn't even know that another way of eating existed until I had my third daughter. If she is not hungry, she will not eat. Plain and simple. She "saves up her hunger" when she knows she is going to her dad's for visitation, because she doesn't want to disappoint him by not eating. You see, if she forgets and has a snack after school, then she literally cannot eat dinner at his house, and ends up having a late dinner with me when she comes home. Or she will just skip dinner altogether, since she doesn't like feeling full at bedtime. One time I found a third-eaten Reeses Peanut Butter Cup laying on the counter. I had just enough restraint to ask her what that was all about before I devoured it in one bite. Her answer? "I took a bite and then I wasn't hungry any more." I gave birth to this child? Seriously? She definitely has her dad's genes, those of the calm observation that "If you just stopped eating after supper, you'd lose a lot of weight. It worked for me!" And of course it did. He snacked out of boredom or because he liked the taste of the food, but he really could take it or leave it. So he left it, and reached his goal weight within a month. If only it were that simple for the rest of us. But I see that I've gone on a rant, so I'll just shut up now and go to bed.

Same here! I found out, sadly, that my body which cannot yet handle scrambled eggs, can do just fine with chocolate chip cookies. It was such a wake-up call, I have decided that for me it will be better to just learn to say "I don't eat that" to certain things. I did have a piece (about an inch by half an inch) of pizza the other day, and could honestly say it did nothing for me. Also, I've discovered that I prefer my coffee with cream and nothing else, rather than with sweetener. I don't really miss the sugar. Which is amazing. I'm sorry I'm rambling. We each have to make our own choices, but we can't go back to the habits that brought us here! I hear ya, but don't beat yourself up. As I recall, it takes about 3 days to get back into ketosis. Hi! Welcome to the group!!

Fun but not so fun? I have one of those huge plastic tubs in my room. It used to be filled with the clothes my mom outgrew when she had her surgery a year ago. I was so happy to get some new clothes! Well... Now it's full of those clothes again, plus a bunch of my regular clothes that I'm outgrowing. It's fun to say "I can't possibly wear these baggy jeans any more!" and toss them, but then you're down to one pair of jeans. I should be happy, right? As my slow weight loss continues, I'm down 24 pounds, just about 1/3 of the way to my goal. I'm also 7 pounds away from the lowest I've weighed in 8 years, and that's super-exciting! I hope I'll break into Onederland by the end of the month, and from there on out it's practically uncharted territory. The last time I weighed less than 198 was thirteen years ago!!! I've sadly discovered that my pouch has no problem whatsoever with two Nestle Tollhouse freshly baked Cookies. I was hoping the sugar/fat content would make me violently ill and I'd never want one again. All I did was succeed in having an 1100 calorie day. I'm going to have to just flat-out swear off sweets, because they will be my undoing if I allow them back into my diet. Between the sugar and fat that often goes with them, they pack a WHALLOP of calories! That's my update for today. Off to physical therapy! How are the rest of you doing? Check in and give us your updates!

I thought you'd like that one!

Yaaaay! Good for you!! I've been rummaging through my box of "smaller size clothing," and surprised myself to find that some smaller things fit, and others most definitely do not. My mom says I'm starting to look "lumpy." She said it happened to her (she had RnY 14 months ago) and that she'd go through phases of losing weight in one place, then another. First one area looked saggy, then it would firm up and another area would look funny. Oh, the joys of weight loss!

Awesome! That is good advice (not to compare yourself to others).

I am so, so, so happy for you! It was high time things were headed in a positive direction for you!!

You know, it's so unfair. In Minnesota we get both extremes. You'd think with such cold winters we'd have mild summers, but nooooooo! It gets up into the high 90's with beastly humidity up here as well. Plus we have mosquitos. Right, "one day at a time?"

I'm down here in Rochester. LOL!

No fair! Where do you live, and can I come hang out with you? We've got snow and freezing rain and highs in the 20's for the next week or two. Spring is nowhere in sight.

ONE MONTH POST-OP DOCTOR VISIT REPORT: (feel free to skip if not interested) I thought I'd share with you guys. I've lost 21 lbs by my scale, 18 by the doctor's. She said this is on the high end of normal. (?) She described a bell curve where at one extreme you may have someone who only lost 5 lbs. This might be due to it being a revision or something, she explained. Then on the other end you may have someone who lost 40, and she said that was too fast for her taste, but could be expected in people who have had the sleeve surgery. Finally, in the middle, she said she has typically seen people lose 15 to 21 pounds in the first month, so I should not fret about losing slowly. I'm right on track according to her. I wanted to share this with you all so if there is anyone else out there losing slowly, they don't also lose hope! I also told her that if I tried to take another Flintstones chewable, I'd probably barf. She told me that although the surgeon prefers that I take chewables for the first three months, that I could switch to Centruum Complete, twice a day. Thank GOD! They started me on Actigall today, to take it for the next six months. She said that if I didn't take it, my chance of developing gall stones was one in three, and that even patients who do, sometimes pass the stones with no pain; however, taking the Actigall would lower my chances to 4 in 100. She did explain that I could have side effects (constipation, loose stools, nausea) and that if that were to happen, to cut back the dose, then slowly ramp up again. All lifting restrictions were discontinued today (waaah! I can't make my kids do all my work for me any more!) within reason. She said that whatever I was used to doing before, to start out at about half of that. She said hernias at the sites of my (now healed) incisions were very unlikely, but to come in right away if something suddenly hurt really bad. She also strongly recommended Pilates, which I actually might try in another month, when I have less belly in the way. Finally, I was looking forward to graduating to mechanical soft (soft foods, and meats that have been flaked or ground ahead of time), but I told her how I can't handle scrambled eggs or flaked fish. She said my surgeon makes the GJ junction (gastro-jejunal, where the pouch meets the intestines) a uniformly small size to prevent overeating and weight re-gain. She said it was about as big around as my finger (take off your ring and that would be about the size). She said some people just have trouble with eggs because they're too rich, and to try an egg white omelet, or to just wait another month and try it again. She also said not to worry; that everyone heals at a different rates, and I might just have more inflammation than others at this stage. However, she did say that it is possible to develop more-than-average scar tissue at the GJ junction, and this would cause pain and vomiting any time you tried to consume anything other than fluids. This would typically manifest itself around this time (3-5 weeks out), and that if I continued to have trouble with "textures" I should call her and they may need to go in and "take a look." I'm not worried, because I can eat other textures, like almonds of all things, but I thought I'd share. The more you know, right? Thank you all who had sympathy for my bruised hip and sore shoulder. I am feeling better today and may even go to the gym and do some much-needed sit-ups in addition to walking.