Fluffnomore

I think "cheat" is a faulty word. I may be an outlier here but to the extent that a food is trackable, it is just a food with nutritional values (or the lack thereof.) I didn't "cheat" on my pre- or post-op requirements, including the 5 days of liquid before and the 8 weeks of varying progression to solids after. Now I eat a large variety of foods, focusing on the basic rules. If I eat something less nutritiously sound then I just put it down in my log and move on.

I do CrossFit, so we have a lot of lifting and a lot of other stuff... I started CF in August and my surgery was in October. I had a strict 6-7 week recovery with no lifting and working out other than walking. And then, I was weak for the first month or so that I came back. Started to really feel myself getting back in the groove in February and March. But the funny thing is, even though I've been sick a lot of the last month and haven't worked out nearly as much as I should (averaged once a week) I haven't lost a huge amount of definition. I just love it and would recommend it for anyone. In fact, I can't wait to progress up in heaviness.

Hunger is a basic biological urge. Some people have LESS hunger after the sleeve, but very few have no hunger. That's the first thing. What I will say about my hunger, six months out, is that while I feel compelled to deal with it when I am hungry, it doesn't really take very long to get full. But I think that is because I get better every day at figuring out the difference between true hunger and just wanting to eat. It is also normal for your bile production to be out of whack. With your BE I would hope you are on some kind of proton pump inhibitor or antacid but if you are not you should request one. I can't say the rest any better than RJ. You have the power to get yourself back on track. You're maybe not as "in control" as you want to be, but you owe it to yourself to start out each day and try to follow the plan. If Greek yogurt works for you, then eat more of it. A couple of weeks out is not the time to be experimenting with different foods. I was on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks, full liquids for 2 weeks, and pureed and mushy foods for 4 weeks after that. Every surgeon varies in this timetable, but crisps really have no place in your eating plan right now, if ever. Please be careful and treat this as the crucial post-surgery time that it is. If you had surgery on your leg, you wouldn't put all of your weight on it after two weeks.

I didn't have any issues like this but at my follow up appointment my surgeon mentioned that a huge sneeze is one of those things that sometimes hurts the scar line/muscles. So it must be common.

My favorite meal to order in a Mexican restaurant is carne asada or salmon. At our favorite place it comes with a side salad, refried or black Beans, salsa, guacamole, tortillas. Plenty for at least 2 meals, sometimes 3.

I have liquid stools almost every day (really, since gallbladder removal 5 years ago!) but it never makes me feel weak. Annoyed, yes. Weak, no. Definitely check with your doctor, although I will say (sorry) that no doctor has been able to really help me with the "explodo poo" as we refer to it in my house.

Hi, I'm 6 months out and having the same issue. Although I haven't gotten as low as you! :-) There are several things at play for me. I've been sick this month and haven't been to the gym nearly as much as before. I am hoping I am finally on the upswing and can shake things up there. The other thing is that while I was plenty upset about it last week and even had a temporary bloat regain of 2 pounds (back off now) I can see for the first time in my weight loss life that even just following the basic rules and not straying far from my plan I can maintain! I'm choosing to look at it this way; I think we get very caught up in the mind games involved and forget that it's supposed to be a lifelong thing. I'm just as guilty as anyone of that. I am hoping that the overall loss each month sticks around the 3-4 pound range; this may be the first month I don't achieve at least that. But, stalling is not gaining, and I take some comfort in that.

I'm a singer and without thinking took a couple of sips of Diet Coke yesterday between masses. OMG, the first part of that second mass was a mess for me. Lots of gas; lots of burping. I'll stick with the unsweetened iced tea when I am somewhere and want to get a fountain drink. Stopped having sodas pre-op and haven't really had any since. Except yesterday. Not worth it.

Okay, and I can share yesterday's meals with you. It wasn't a spectacular day, but it was fine: Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with 1-2 oz ground beef. Sounds kind of gross to me, even now, but I needed the extra Protein as I was singing all day. This is what NothingUpMySleeve is referring to: I was regarding that meal as fuel. Nothing more, nothing less. I was out of a more "palatable" meat and had some ground beef leftover from the night before. Lunch: 1/2 a roast beef Jimmy John's sandwich at the church. Not a typical choice for me, but what was available. Dinner: 4 ounces calamari, 1 glass red wine. 2 bites of tiramisu. Snack: 1 oz cashews. I ended up around 1100 calories for the day, which is typical for me. And to me, it doesn't seem like dieting, which is something Kindle referred to. It's just…life. At lunch, which was with the church staff, I was looking around. The two "naturally thin" women ate half of their sandwich and a couple of chips. The bigger people ate the whole sandwich, a bag of chips, and finished the chips that were leftover. And had a cookie. That is how I judge, sometimes, whether my mindset is in a healthy place.

I had GERD ahead of time. We went ahead with the sleeve because I had lost a great deal of weight being sick in the past and the GERD disappeared then. I still take a daily dose of Dexilant. But I can honestly say I haven't had the GERD flare up since the surgery…maybe a tiny bit of reflux feeling if I've eaten too much, but that is it. There are plenty of people who have had the opposite experience but I don't think you can predict GERD any more than you can predict who will have a leak or another problem.

The other thing I've observed: we kind of fall into three camps on the "giving up food" thing. There are those who really can't touch any of the carb-y foods because they operate better when they don't open that door - some of them, because those foods make them sick, and some because they do better when they regiment themselves. There are those who, like Kindle's friend above, don't observe the basic rules and do what they want, when they want, particularly when hit with a stressful situation. And then there are those (I fall into this camp) who don't have such strict rules, either because things don't affect them as much physically or because we aren't as extreme. Here is what I do: I log EVERYTHING, religiously. I try to always get my Protein in; there have only been two or three days I haven't hit 60. I hydrate religiously. If I have a week where I make bad choices, I don't then whine about not losing weight. For me, it is about taking responsibility and following the rules about 90% of the time. You will sometimes find that you do everything to the letter and you don't lose weight. You will sometimes find that the weight seems to just drop. The other "scary" time that a lot of people have trouble with is the strict liquid phase, from pre-op to whenever your doctor allows post op. I had a fairly strict practice in terms of reintroducing foods. We were liquid for 4 weeks, mushies for 4 weeks. What I found was that following the rules gave me the confidence that I could live with this long term. And really, now being 6 months out, that amount of time was really small. Ultimately I haven't given up any food, except carbonated beverages. I rarely eat sweets; and never more than a bite or two. chips (something I really like) aren't worth the space and again, I rarely eat them. and never more than one or two. (Are you sensing a theme?) I have a glass of wine almost every night, but I watch that carefully and always count it. My psychology means that I need to feel that I have some wiggle room. But when I feel that I do, I don't really take advantage of it. Everyone is different in how they approach this.

Look, being six months in after surgery, all I can say that I have observed is that many of your issues around food will continue if you don't address them. For me, surgery was a helpful "re-set" and gave me the gift of several months of very reduced eating and a chance to change my habits. Many of the vets will tell you that it isn't until around the 6 months- a year point that things change. I have always been able to eat a little bit more than some others I know, and so it's ultra-important that I choose the right foods. Period. I also have tried to really re-set my exercise habits. This is not a permanent fix. But, I'm guessing most of us have some version of your story: multiple serious attempts with varying success, only to gain back more. At the time that the surgery became a possibility, I didn't want to wait another 6 months and have another failed attempt behind me. Then again I am 45 and really, how many times did I want to do this cycle? The best part? The restriction really does help keep me on track. But it has to be the day to day choices that come first. I don't hold with the whole line of reasoning that I hear on here a lot, "I didn't cut out 80% of my stomach to…" Look, It is body altering, and you need to recognize that there are varying degrees of success, and there can be complications. Taking all of that into account, and also feeling like I am a slow loser compared to some, I am doing my best to keep my head in the long term game. I am pretty convinced that losing around 60 pounds on my own in 6 months would have been almost impossible. The closest I've gotten in any attempt in the last 5 years is about 30 in that timeframe.

You need to figure out why you're doing this. Basically, you could seriously harm yourself when you're not healed and eating this way. Your staple line is still healing. You're playing with fire.

I've been sitting around this weight for the last month, and I think it's both things for me. I am eating a larger variety of foods and that means that more carbs sneak in. I don't have any issues with "thunking" or getting sick so that means that I have to be really careful about those foods. But also I think that as I look back at my weight over the last 15-18 years, I'm sitting right around a relatively "normal" weight for me, meaning that it's a few pounds lower than where I was when I was pretty healthy and got pregnant both times, and in terms of sizes on the low side too. I wonder if it's possible that my body has reached one of its previous set points and wants to hang on to it for now. I'm right about 6 months out and I know that's contributing to this too. I know the answer is to increase exercise and pull the diet back to be a little stricter. I have been awfully sick on and off for the last three weeks so I am hoping this will straighten itself out when I can get back into a routine. It's so funny. One year ago I would have been thrilled at the prospect of being in the low 180s. Now my mindset is that I have 20-30 pounds to go until I'm really done. And probably when I get to that point I won't be satisfied either, based on what I'm seeing around me.

But, in one sense I think that is the issue of relying too much on the boards. It is between you, your surgical team, and no one else whether the surgery was necessary; whether you are losing at an appropriate rate; eating the appropriate calories; dealing with this entire surgical situation, whether it be pre- or post-op, in the appropriate way. My issues starting in the 238-243 range maybe weren't the same as someone who had more weight to lose. I don't know. But I've certainly run across the attitude here and IRL that my health issues weren't sufficient to merit surgery. That's fine. My insurance company felt otherwise. And even if they hadn't, that would have still been between me and my surgical team. In the end, I do not want to let someone else's behavior influence how I feel about myself or I might be losing my mind about the way I have chosen to approach this and my relative success at this point. But that's just it. My success is not relative; it is entirely a personal call if I have been successful.

I have a good friend who was sleeved 4 months before me. She has lost about 50 pounds, out of 80 or so that was her original goal. She exercises constantly and is good about her diet. We have no answers as to why she hasn't lost more. But she wouldn't change things; she figures she has still lost 50 + pounds! It will just take her longer.

I don't know if it has slowed my weight loss, but I do know that the last time I was this weight I was 1-2 sizes bigger. It's a reasonable trade-off, in my opinion. And yes, yes…I suppose you could call me a slow loser. But I'm strong.

I don't know if it's fair to say that everyone who is overweight who is unhappy but I think many of us are/were. My experience is that I didn't realize to what extent I was numbing or ignoring certain things until I had that enforced period of time when I couldn't be up to my usual tricks. As I mentioned above, I have a friend who had the surgery 4 months before I did and she was the first to tell me, "I don't WANT to be feeling my feelings" because once she couldn't go have a cookie or pour a glass of wine she found that she was frequently much angrier than she remembered being prior to surgery. Even though I was expecting that, on some level, it was still hard to be dealing with it once I'd had the surgery. Finding good coping mechanisms is so important, and it must be incredibly frustrating to also feel like the tool for weight loss is giving you trouble.

I measure and track online as well (use mynetdiary) and the thing is, it doesn't seem to take very much time at all. I don't know if it's just that it's so habitual at this point?

I could probably do 4-6 oz of dense protein at that time, with a couple of bites of something else. I can definitely do up to 6 oz now, or a small dinner plate's worth of food. A third to a half of a restaurant entree. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. My friend and I who were sleeved by the same doctor have a theory that we don't have quite the restriction that others have. I lose slowly but I lose, so that is good.

I'm six months out and honestly, I feel pretty normal. The first 8 weeks are tough depending on your surgeon's food restrictions. Now I am used to eating 1/3 to 1/2 half of a restaurant meal and simply eating less. I also have a 28 ounce water bottle attached to my side and I am able to drink 3-4 of those during my work day with no problem. In other words, except for a short period of time at the beginning of the journey, the eating habits we have to adopt really don't look like anything to the outside world…even the no drinking and eating at the same time just seems strange to us; I've never had anyone comment on it. The only thing that sometimes happens is if I go out to a place that serves enormous portions and it appears I haven't eaten much of anything. Sometimes a server will be concerned that I didn't like it but once I start packing up my to-go box that disappears too. I don't miss eating too much. I never binged so I don't really know if that makes a difference, but I certainly overate. And I guess I feel like I overate plenty; enough that I don't really need to do that now. When you're at this point in the process 8-10 weeks feels like forever, but there is a lot of uncharted water past that timeframe as well. You can do this.

I didn't tell a lot of people but most of my closer friends know. I have told a couple of people who have asked. What is interesting to me (as a slower loser, I guess) is that between not seeing people as much during the winter and the fact that this has happened gradually, I'm getting many more questions now than I was at 4-6 weeks. Mostly people want to know how much (about 60) but not what I'm doing. I don't know why. There are people to whom I simply reply "Quite a bit" when they ask me how much weight I've lost. Most of the time people tell me they love my new hair, or that they think I look younger or pretty. It's odd. (My hair is the same, btw, if a little thinner.) You don't owe anyone an answer, when it comes down to it.

I didn't have a coffee restriction. I felt like drinking it again around week 2 or 3. Everyone's doctor is different on this one.

I have absolutely no problems going out to eat. I like having leftovers.

I spent most of my first day to day and a half back sleeping and I also had an amazingly easy recovery. I didn't need constant help or supervision. But it might be nice for you to have someone there, especially if by chance your recovery doesn't go as well.