VSGAnn2014

You're welcome, @@Daisee68 . Here's a typical day's macronutrient proportions: Protein - 100 grams Fats - 75 grams Carbs - 175 grams Yes, it varies. But less than you might think.

Short tracking testimonial coming at you .... I don't think I could have been successful with WLS without My Fitness Pal. It's the second most valuable tool I have -- the first being my sleeve. Good luck. You can do this. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

I so love this thread! Cannot respond to OP now, but will when I get back to my laptop. Such interesting people you all are!

The decision to tell or not tell about your WLS is a big decision. Its worthy of careful consideration because of its implications for your personal and professional lives. I am not a "teller." I don't care whether people tell or not. More pertinent to the last half of this thread, it's really not my business to plow through and approve or disapprove of the complexities of WHY those who tell tell and WHY those who don't tell don't tell. I don't think their reasons or circumstances or personalities or values are translatable to my own. BTW, the story about how some PCOS sufferers feel pressured to "be transparent" (code language for "don't lie") about having become pregnant through IVF suggests to me there is a bigger phenomenon here than applies only to WLS. What it seems to boil down to is that it bothers some people that everyone doesn't think or decide like they do. Yeah, those folks are a pain. But worse are the shit-stirrers in every community. They are seldom the most verbose people in a debate. They drop in like wasps and sting someone and then flit around chuckling. In my book those folks are the most destructive in any community. They take joy in pitting folks against each other. Once you recognize them, it makes life online easier. Protip: They're often quite sanctimonious. We won't always agree. We don't have to. My decision for my reasons probably isn't one you should copy because you're not me. Finally, if you're looking for agreement on the internet you won't find it on any message board, including Bariatric Pal. Sorry if you thought that was an option here.

Friend of mine just finished her last alimony payment (5 years' worth) to her husband. She is so glad that's over. It really is the final end to the marriage, she says. P.S. I had to pay my first husband alimony, too. I know what she means.

Don't want to beat this horse to death, but I'll add one more comment and then leave it be: I could not agree more that we all want to reach our desired goal(s). And our first goals should be to ensure that (1) our surgeon actually operates on us and (2) we've done everything we could to minimize our risk from surgical complications. FTR, my surgeon also runs an ASMBS-certified bariatric center of excellence. Also FTR, here's what the ASMBS advises about the pre-op liver-shrinking diet: Will I have to go on a diet before I have surgery? Yes. Most bariatric surgeons put their patients on a special pre-operative diet, usually 2 or 3 weeks just before surgery. The reason for the pre-operative diet is to shrink the liver and reduce fat in the abdomen. This helps during the procedure and makes it safer. http://asmbs.org/patients/bariatric-surgery-faqs I've read online that some surgeons make very high-BMI patients go on a liver-shrinking diet for longer than 2-3 weeks, since their livers are very likely to be much larger than small-BMI patients. Bottom line -- to be on the safe side I'd do everything my surgeon tells me to do.

@@NYTeacher ... if my surgeon were your surgeon, he would cancel your surgery if you didn't actually do the liver-shrinking diet. Surgery cancellation for that reason happens not infrequently, btw. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

Respect and big congrats! Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

My Fitness Pal. I've been using it for 2 years. Love it. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

Summertime plans here include: * Gardening and mowing my ass off! First time in years I've had the time and the stamina to stand up, bend, kneel like this. Maintaining property is hard work. * Yoga -- I recently found a great yoga class that's kicking my butt. So glad to find this teacher/class. * Weekly hiking and canoeing trips with family and visiting friends. * Summertime travel plans include road trips and air travel to three US coasts.

I second @@Inner Surfer Girl 's recommendation: Plan your day -- and everything you're going to do re hydration, Protein, medication, supplements. That's your full-time job right now -- sipping and sipping and sipping. Because it really is a full-time job to stay hydrated and to heal after this very major surgery. Best to you. And yes, this does get easier. A lot easier and really rather suddenly.

It's hard for you to understand this at this point in your WLS career, but your worry really is for nothing. Yes, for several months post-op while your new sleeve heals your sleeve's capacity will be ridiculously small. But that's not what it will be like long-term. Certainly by next year's anniversary date you'll be able to have a nice meal at a nice restaurant -- although you will either take home a doggie bag or leave some food on your plate. Still, you should definitely expect your relationship with food to change. At least I hope that it does -- because that's the only way you'll maintain your weight loss. In my case, food is just as delicious and interesting as before. But I don't eat as much as I used to. And I sure don't eat as impulsively as I used to. If you wind up being a WLS success, you will learn how to plan your menus so they're nutritious and portion-appropriate for your goals (whether you're losing or maintaining). And you don't have to continue those ridiculous pre-op food funerals. Those foods are neither leaving the planet nor will you be unable to enjoy appropriate portions of them down the road. Pigging out on them now is only adding more pounds you'll have to lose later on and disrespecting yourself. Ultimately, your WLS success depends on your desire and ability to care well for yourself. You can do this. But only if you choose to.

Jeez. Your expectations are ridiculously high. All that matters is whether you lose your excess weight and maintain that loss -- not how fast you lose it. FTR you are losing faster than most WLS patients do when you take into account your very unusual pre-op weight loss.

So what happened?

Uh ... the longer out you guys get, the more you're going to appreciate just how "diet and exercise" the WLS journey really is. Just sayin'.

For me (a year into maintenance now), calories continue to matter. In fact, all macronutrients (Protein, carbs, fat) and Fiber, sodium, etc. matter to me. There are a bazillion stories in the naked city about WLS patients who've regained weight who have no frickin' idea how many calories (or Proteins or carbs) they're eating. If I start gaining weight I would at least like to know why. Therefore, I track all my food / drink in My Fitness Pal. My therapist would like for me to become a more "instinctive, healthy eater." By that he means that my instincts about what I want to eat and what I do eat should magically equate and result no weight loss, no weight gain. Yeah, that ^^^^ was written in sarcasm font. I'm so not there yet.

That's a good point about being disadvantaged by not having many prior / fat pictures. I recently saw two pictures of me taken some time in the last 10 years that I'd never seen before. Not sure how I missed seeing them, but that's another issue. And the point is -- I was GARGANTUAN then! I had no idea I was that huge!!!!!!!!!!! Honest to God, my self-perception back then was really bad. Really, really bad.

First, I am not a shrink. Second, I've lost 100 pounds -- from 235 to 135. I've maintained for over a year now. I think all these so-called perceptions (or misperceptions, if you will) are pretty common. The advice I'd give you is to just relax and keep losing weight. It takes a while for our minds and feelings to catch up with our body's rapid changes. And believe you me -- no matter how slowly you may think this is all happening it is happening FAST. Interestingly, my *misperceptions* went like this: 1. I am fat, and I look fat to myself. 2. I am losing weight, and I see the weight loss. 3. I am still losing weight, and I think I'm losing weight too fast. (This is when I was losing 6-8 pounds/month -- ha!) 4. I have definitely lost too much weight. I look weird to myself. 5. I'm still losing weight -- I'm a skeleton (I was 145 pounds and 5'5" about this point -- ha!) 6. I'm down to 135 pounds -- this is cray-cray. I don't look like myself. I should gain 5 pounds and see how I look then. 7. Many months later I still weigh 135 pounds. I think now that I look a little plump. I don't -- ha! Honestly, I think most of this is just us trying to reconcile all this disparate information (mirror reflections, selfies, other photographs) with our memories of ourselves fat. BTW, I've been seeing a shrink for 2 years now about bariatric, self-care, self-image and identity issues -- he's very helpful. And believe me, he's never expressed any concerns about my misperceptions as I've lost and then maintained weight. In other words, I think everything I've gone through around this old/new body reconciliation process is pretty normal for WLS patients. tl;dr We're not crazy. Our bodies are just changing a lot in a short period of time. It's no wonder we are having a hard time recognizing / understanding what's going on and seeing ourselves in this new light.

I don't care for Protein bars, although I've used them in travel emergencies. Frankly, Quest bars taste pretty wretched to me. Not my thing.

It did for me. My butt has toughened up. Probably a combo of muscle and nerve changes.

@@gina171 ... thank you. But I think you deserve your own Batman cape.

So glad for you, Sharon.

Your body is going to go through so many changes in the coming months -- so don't assume much about causes of these change and certainly not that any changes you go through are permanent. Just watch for patterns. And then be open-minded about those patterns changing.

Keep dating.

Don't believe a thing your body says right now. You're just a few days out of surgery. Right now your sleeve is a traumatized, stapled together, swollen sliver of a stomach and cannot hold very much at all. Everything that's happening now is a very temporary and artificial situation that won't last long. In the meantime, your body still needs 64 ounces of liquids a day. So that's why the instruction "sip, sip, sip" is the correct instruction. So for now sip, sip, and then sip some more. In a few weeks, as the swelling of your new sleeve begins to relax and your sore throat feels better (they stuck a plastic tube down there during surgery) your ability to drink more at a time will return.