Linda E

I agree fully with Canadian, I am on month three and have only lost 6 pounds this month but everyone notices my weight loss and I dropped another whole dress size. It's not just about the scale. My back side is noticeably slimming (and that is saying a lot!)

Hi 123andhappy- It sounds like you have it all together! With a name like HAPPY, you'll be at your first goal in no time! Thanks for the pick-me-up post. BTW, can grandma tell us how to make that soup? Linda

On my blog

I loved your post about your journey too! You are an excellent writer! Keep it up! Linda

I think I just found it.... Reply to the thread at the top??? Testing testing.. I'm a little slow. L

On my two month anniversary I wanted to give an update and share some of my experiences. Month 2 was very different than month one. The lesson I learned was that if I want this journey to result in weight loss, I'm going to have to DIET. I might have secretly hoped that this surgery was magical and that the gastric plication gods would bestow upon me a brand new body in a matter of weeks but I knew better. The first month was easy weight loss as i couldn't get over 700 calories a day while only drinking or eating soft food. After 6 weeks I could eat more regular food. The surgeon told me that I would only be able to eat 2-4 oz at a time and he was right. I do feel hungry every 2-3 hours and that requires more calories. I was stuck at 213 for about two weeks so I decided to track my calories with the myfitnesspal app. OMG, mystery solved, I was eating/drinking 1600+ calories a day and more (who knew alcohol was 70 cal an ounce and protein bars can be 300 cal each). When you eat small amounts, they can add up! I moved the scale down 5.5# within 5 days by making better choices and staying under 1200 calories. Do I feel restricted? YES. Do I feel deprived? NO. Do people I eat with know I'm different? NO. Do I feel normal? YES. Do I miss my old stuff-your-face lifestyle? NO. Do I exercise? NO. Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY! I can eat everything but to give you an example of restriction, I can only eat 1/2 to 3/4 of a lean cuisine entree, depending on the density but I can eat almost a whole can of clam chowder soup. I can only eat 3 pieces of a sushi roll and if I wait 20 minutes I can eat a fourth. I can drink as much as I want (just not with food) and a half bottle of water will take away my hunger for 30-45 minutes, sometimes more. When I feel really, really hungry, it usually means I need to burp. 5 hours without food is my limit, so I have to plan accordingly. Watching other people eat large quantities of food does not make me wish for my old stomach back, it makes me ill. So, grand total I've lost 42 pounds, 22 since the surgery two months ago. For me, the plication allows me to DIET comfortably. In the past 1200 calories would have been serious deprivation, today, 1200 calories is comfortable. They say you shouldn't diet, you should make a lifestyle change. I feel this surgery allowed me to make a lasting lifestyle change.

While everyone scars differently, I can tell you that I only have one incision that I think would leave a scar and that is only one inch long. I have scars that came from tree branches that look worse than this. The others are tiny!

It's my one month anniversary! I am so excited that I am finally doing something about my health that is working! I have lost 16 pounds since the surgery but don't judge that lightly. I have a diagnosis of hypothyroidism and PCOS ( poly cystic ovaries). Both diagnoses made it impossible for me to lose weight in the past because my diet had to be extremely restricted to lose even small amounts of weight. I resigned myself to be happy with losing 5 pounds a month with this surgery (and maybe that will still happen) but #16 in the first month!! I did minimal exercise so that will be phase 2 for me. I have good energy and have resumed my 12 hour a day schedule which is very physical. Right now I still drink a Protein shake daily (over many hours) which has all my Vitamins in it (called Alive from Whole Foods). I eat a hard boiled egg in the morning which fills me way up for a few hours. For dinner I can eat 2-3 oz of fish or chicken (cut up and chewed very well). Then an hour or so later I have some steamed squash or even a small russet potatoe. I eat a cup of yogurt or 1/2 cup of keifer in the afternoon too. I stay pretty full and haven't had any trouble with hunger (unless I go more than 3-4 hours with nothing.) When I'm hungry, just a few spoonfuls is enough. So I'm currently feeling VERY restricted. I have learned one thing. If I drink within a half hour of eating, I can get hungry again. So, I actually look at the clock to determine when I can drink again. I wait a whole hour. The one thing I did that I'm tremendously happy about is that I took a few months before the surgery and genuinely dieted. I lost 19 pounds, so when I hit a two week plateau, which usually makes me give up the diet, it was time for surgery. I think I gave myself a big head start both physically and mentally. So, sitting here one month later I'm down half a shoe size, two dress sizes and of course two cup sizes and I still can't believe I did it!

I'm almost one month out and I rarely feel hungry but rather I feel light headed and get a headache which is more a blood sugar reaction. I have to get something in pretty quick when I have that feeling.

I met two patients that were at OCC for tummy tucks. One was down 100 pounds in a year and the other had lost 120 in 16 months. My neighbor also had plication done a year ago last August and he has lost 165#. He says he still can't eat much. I also have patients who had gastric bypass who lost and gained. One of them lost 250# and has gained back almost 300#. You would think that a bypass would be hard to stretch but it happens all the time. For me, if I can use this plication to go from morbid obesity to mild obesity, I would have won the health battle I couldn't win before. For me it is not about that ideal number, nothing about me has ever been ideal, it is about moving the needle closer to healthier.