VSGAnn2014

Sleeved 9 weeks ago. No runny nose here. Odd.

Another great post, CGJ. Thank you.

And about that potato ... It's your choice, of course, but if you're eating a small potato and only two bites of chicken salad you're not following nutritional recommendations. Post-VSG surgery meal guidelines: Protein first. Then "good" veggies. And only then if you have room, a small amount of more easily processed carbs. But as I said, your choice.

What Curvy said. 100%.

@@lexie, that sounds like an awesome preparation and bariatric surgery support program. Congrats to your surgeon and his entire team.

I was on the boards for over a year pre-op, and inhaled all kinds of stories. I was (I believe) adequately prepared for how the VSG would be a tool, would offer a brief time (1 year) to build new skills, deal with surprising upsets about not being able to soothe myself with food. I also realized I needed to be in therapy, during my journey -- I call it my Year of Losing Weight, my Year of Maintaining my Weight, and Boring Real Life. That's my therapy commitment -- three years. I'm old enough to know that life isn't an endless honeymoon. Boredom, habits and real life end all honeymoons. And then the marriage begins. So I was well prepared. I do see those who are starstruck and want to wake up 365 days later and find themselves Cinderella at the Ball being chased around the floor by The Prince. I see some who are, frankly, not smart enough to appreciate what they're doing to themselves and what it will mean. I seem some who thought they were ready, but find it so much harder to adapt than they'd dreamed. Some of those adapt. Some of them don't. I see some who can't be compliant because they're too food-addicted or simply unable to follow directions or those who can't let anyone be the boss of them or those who think they're too special to do it the boring way everyone else does. I see the perfection puppies, the alcoholics, the ones whose lives are a train wreck with no space in it for self-protection, the wounded adult children, the smart ones who can fix everything but their weight. I see those with bad surgeons and inattentive care. I see those with no support at home or outright antagonism and hate disguised as nagging. People who are desperate enough to have weight loss surgery are not all in mental spaces or physical spaces that are safe enough for them to undergo WLS and its aftermath. Of course, I see people who do well. A lot of them are older. They know it won't be perfect, but they're patient. They have seen tough times, and they aren't shocked by some tough things about WLS. They're a bit long-suffering and don't bitch about every new food that doesn't thrill their palate. They can tolerate temporary discomfort to get to the easier times two months out. In a word, they're just compliant -- or as compliant as they can be. They don't beat themselves up when they're not perfect and they are resilient enough to get back on the path without being a drama llama about it. They don't start threads with titles like: "Oy vey ist mir!" or "Will I ever be happy again?" or "Please tell me this won't last forever." They already know they'll be happy again, that this won't last forever, and that ein bischen vey doesn't require a clickbait thread title.

I wasn't trying to be mean. I meant to say exactly what I said: They will slow their weight loss program. Here's a juicing recipe taken directly off google for all the things the OP said she/he wanted to include. Here's what My Fitness Pal says it contains: berry Spinach Blast 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries 1/2 cup frozen strawberries 1/2 cup kefir 1 cup spinach 1 tbsp flax seed agave to taste (1 tbsp) MFP calculates this recipe's nutrients as: 182 calories 37 gms. carbs 4 gms fat 6 gms. Protein That is NOT the kind of food I'm eating on my weight loss program. Which is why I don't understand why people would switch from their regular food prescribed by their surgeons to eat a menu like this.

No, it's not a leak. A leak goes outside your intestinal system. That's not good. You have diarrhea from the stuff that is inside your gastrointestinal system. So that's good, eh? Diarrhea is common enough for WLS patients that there's a saying for it: "Never trust a fart." I'm two months out on a week-long biz trip and had a little episode of this yesterday. Thank goodness I was near bathroom. If it starts happening all the time, call your surgeon and see if something odd could be happening. Chances are, your tummy's just getting used to all the many changes you've had done to it lately and possibly also to the "new" foods you're putting through the "new" system.

Well, juicing is exactly the opposite of what every surgeon tells their patients to do. They say: Eat Protein first, then veggies, then (if you have room) a little carbs. They hand out plates showing what proportions of protein, veggies, grains you should eat ... and that's when you're able to eat when you're farther out than the first 2-3 months. So instead of following that program, you're going to mix up natural sugars (I assume berries, bananas, things like that) and, essentially, start violating another thing we're not supposed to do, which is: "Don't drink your calories." So, yeah, I think you're going to blow your weight loss program. Here's what I don't understand: Why do people who've never done this before (this is the first time any of us have had our stomachs cut out, right?) decide they're going to make up a different way to lose weight after having had VSG surgery? Beats the hell out of me.

You are amazing. And so inspiring. Thanks.

Well, that's a bummer. Because eating a high carb / low Protein menu is going to slow your weight loss down fast. You're also burning daylight, because the first 6 months is the fastest weight-losing portion of the journey. You asked, "Why is this happening?" Simple. You crave carbs now because you're eating carbs now. Not the other way around. The only way to kill the craving for highly processed carbs is to stop eating them. Cold-turkey. However you can manage it, get back to Proteins, healthy veggies. If you can't do that, you're probably going to be one of those patients who, a year out, thinks WLS failed them. Good luck.

So now it's a character issue. S.M.H.

I wore a waistless maxi dress (chic and cute). Big advice on the pre-op bowel movement scene: Do NOT have surgery when you're already constipated! The anaesthetic and surgery trauma will make you doubly constipated. Don't combine those two horrors.

Love this thread. Thanks, all.

Queen, I am thrilled to hear this news. I've been wishing you would start up the blog again. I read your blog before surgery and then reread the whole thing again when I returned from the hospital after VSG surgery. It was like reading a favorite fairy tale with the happy ending. Next time we come to Amsterdam, I'd love to meet you. In the meantime, I bet we can handle anything you want to throw at us.

Judging. Shaming. One-upping. Self-righteousness. We all suffer from it. It's a toughie. Over the last 15 years, while caring for family members with health issues (like many of us have) and being caught up in some attendant family conflicts, I came to realize that no matter how anyone is acting or responding at the time, they are probably doing the very best they can manage right now. In the future, they might and probably will be able to do better. That's probably true of each of us here, too.

The lessons and learnings keep coming, it seems. Thanks for sharing this, CGJ.

Kindle, your lifestyle and personality are such that you aren't harmed by others' opinions about either WLS in general or your own WLS. Your decision to be transparent about WLS works for you. But your situation isn't the same as mine. Looking only at our work situations, you work in veterinary medicine, and I work with people who wear suits six days a week. My clients and yours probably couldn't be more different in terms of what is considered appropriate to discuss when the meter's running. "Buttoned down" only begins to describe how formal my work world is. It's also a judgmental culture, in the sense that judgment is what my clients pay for and what their clients pay them for. Very few (if any) of my clients and work colleagues are overweight, much less obese. They are fit, fashionable and lead mostly healthy lifestyles. The comments they've made over the years about people who are heavy make it crystal-clear that they have zero understanding or empathy for those who are not like them. And trying to convince any of them that WLS is the proper response to obesity would be like trying to convince them that ... sorry, but I can't even think of a suitable analogy. One of my motivations for WLS was to be able to become even more successful in my career. I'm not looking to be perceived as even more different from them. So in response to your thread title, I am very honest with myself. But I do not see any upside for me in being honest with them. Does this put a barrier between my work colleagues and clients and me? To some extent, yes. Is it possible I could change my mind and become more transparent with them? That option is always available to me. But while I'm going through all these WLS changes myself and sorting out my own feelings about so many aspects of weight, overweight, health, and other things in my life, the last thing I need or want is to struggle through difficult conversations with people who have no understanding of the problems I have struggled with since I was six years old. So this is why I think the decision to tell or not tell about WLS will always remain a very personal decision. There is no universal right or wrong about this decision. In many ways, this ongoing debate about WLS transparency reminds me of my all-time favorite bumper sticker (seen 30 years ago on the back of a San Francisco taxi): "Opposed to abortion? Don't have one."

Although this thread doesn't reflect it so much, having read hundreds and hundreds of posts about this topic on several WLS boards and forums, it seems to me that a disproportionate number of people who are obese / very overweight have set some very different personal boundaries about what are essentially private issues. In short, there is a strong sense among many WLS patients that they don't have the right to withhold information. There's also considerable confusion (and misunderstanding) about what information WLS patients are obligated to tell employers about the nature of their surgeries or any medical conditions. In my very personal opinion, unless you are being questioned by federal investigators or have sworn to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in a deposition, hearing or trial, you have no obligation to answer anyone's questions about anything. You have the right to ignore their questions, deflect their attention, or lie to them. Of course, you may choose to tell anyone anything. But if you share information with others because you think you HAVE to satisfy their curiosity or you just feel guilty about being untransparent or they wormed it out of you, you are the kind of person who's liable to be easily manipulated in numerous circumstances.

No, but I"m thinking about using them. Where did you buy / find yours?

Has he attended a WLS introductory lecture, typically 2-4 hours by a bariatric surgeon who describes EVERYTHING -- risks, surgical techniques, the high value of family support, complications, post-op compliance, long-term success stats. If not, I think that could make a big difference. (Sorry if you already mentioned this above.)

LOL! No, I do not worry about catching Ebola on planes. I'm flying internationally next week.

Outstanding intervention. I wish for you the best possible outcomes for surgery, recovery, and your new life.

LOL! The "three week stall" term refers to the first stall many people experience, which happens (typically) when people are around Week Three post-op. Honey, that's what you're dealing with. Ignore it. Just keep doing your program. And if it bothers you, stay off the scales. There are no other solutions.

First off, I despise "The Biggest Loser." It's not real. It's edited to hell and back to fit some goofy writer's imagined storyline. But worst of all, it sets up everyone on that show (and any marks who imagine it's real) for future failure -- because dieting and exercise don't work long-term for 98% of those who lose weight that way. Moreover, I'm disappointed to read the comments above by those who have deconstructed their own eating problems and determined that they became fat by overeating simply because they love food so much. However, I'd be totally fine with their statements about themselves -- if they didn't then insist that no one else could have other underlying reasons for their overeating / overweight. Why in the world do you think the cause of YOUR XYZ must also be the cause of OTHERS' XYZ? And why do you think the causes of OTHERS' XYZ can't be valid for them because they're not valid for you? S.M.H.