VSGAnn2014

@@Madea61 ... I'm pulling for you! You have already shown great courage by choosing WLS for yourself.

I love your answers! When I get intrusive comments in social settings, it's important to keep things pleasant for everyone's social comfort. Unless people are insulting or just won't shut up, I try to respond (with a big smile) in ways that turn the topic immediately to my improved health, e.g., Random Person A: "Wow, you're so skinny!" Me: "Thank you. I'm healthier than I've been in decades. It feels great!" Random Person B: "Wow, how much weight have you lost?" Me: "A lot. And thank you. My doctor is so proud of me. I'm proud of myself, too." Random Person C: "Wow, how did you lose all that weight?" Me: "It was pretty radical -- I ate less and moved more. My doctor says I've added years to my life. Thanks for noticing." Random Person D: "Are you OK? You've lost so much weight! I'm worried about you." Me: (Laughing) "Don't be! My doctor thinks I look great, and so do I. I appreciate your support." Random Person E: "Be careful you don't gain all that weight back." Me: "Thank you. Being healthy is all about following a healthy lifestyle, and that's what I'm doing now." Random Person F: "If you eat all that, you'll gain your weight back." Me: "Thanks for your concern. My nutritionist says that eating in moderation is the key to weight control and good health. That's how I eat now." Of course, if someone is socially clueless and causes a more awkward scene in a social setting, I'm willing to raise the Defcon level. But that requires you to use humor in a way that shuts the person down. Not ideal. But sometimes necessary.

@@PissiChrissi -- as I recall (?) you posted about a dozen times (in multiple forums) identical threads about wanting to form a FB group. I believe it's against the forum rules to post duplicate posts in multiple threads.

I'm with @@Inner Surfer Girl -- WLS patients' medical situations vary considerably. Therefore, their pain management needs vary. What works for one person's needs could be quite wrong for another's. This is definitely a topic for your medical team to address. Best wishes.

Right after surgery, your new sleeve is traumatized and swollen and inflammed beyond belief. (Think about what it's just gone through. It hasn't even begun to heal yet.) With all that traumatized tissue that's held together with new staples and edges that haven't grown together yet, there's very little room in your stomach for anything. That's why you have to sip-sip-sip. But that's not a permanent situation. As the post-op weeks go along, the inflammation and swelling subside. Your sleeve is starting to heal. The stapled-together parts are starting to grow together. Blood vessels are forming, nerves are knitting together. It takes months for this healing to complete. And as that happens, your sleeve's capacity is growing because the swelling is going down. The first month post-op, you will be lucky to eat a quarter of a cup of food at one time. A few months out, you'll eat half a cup. Six months out you'll eat three-quarters of a cup. A year out, you'll eat a cup. What kind of food you are eating (Protein or Cookies?) determines how much you can eat, too. Protip: Don't eat to get full. And don't eat until your stomach tells you to stop. Measure your food and eat that much and no more. Just because you can eat more doesn't mean you have to or that you should. Protip #2: I'm sorry this wasn't explained to you pre-op. This should have been part of everyone's education prior to being sleeved.

Gord, sounds like you're flirting with an eating disorder. You do need to eat solid food at some point. Have you ever struggled with an eating disorder before?

P.S. If you're eating sugar and slider foods, those can stimulate your appetite. So you should cold turkey those.

Uh ... It took me 8 months to lose the last 15 pounds. Why so desperate? It sounds like you're doing fine. Weight loss does slow down. And your stomach is healed, so restriction has eased. Now is when you must continue to use your behavioral tools you've learned.

No intolerances here.

@@OKCPirate ... been there, lived it for decades. My work life sounds very similar to yours. The only difference between you and me is that I just retired. Did I mention that I'm newly retired? But the last year and a half post-WLS (while I was still working), the deal I struck with my shrink was that (at his insistence) I did not track my food / drink while I was on the road. He insisted that, although (like you) I'm a master food tracker, I also needed to develop some instinctual eating skilz. When you're the consultant leading a wagon train through strange territory, sometimes s**t just happens. Therefore, my take is that this last trip you were on was particularly fraught with cray-cray and that you didn't do so badly. Of course, we can usually do better. And having Plans B and C and D are better than only Plan A. But sometimes we just have to say, "That was interesting!" P.S. BTW, if the scales are up, blame the sodium in the extra jerky and drink lots of extra Water. Jeez, that salty jerky makes me swell up like a poisoned pup!

The actual research on thousands of patients (not random comments by NUTs or others who "... have a brother-in-law who had WLS ....") says that gastric bypass and sleeve patients lose the same amount of weight, but bypass patients lose faster. A couple of years out, neither group has lost more than the other group. Google is your friend.

Safety pins?

I've heard of Shakeology, but never had any of their products. Just went to their Web site and explored pricing. Jeez Louise! Unless I'm misunderstanding everything, they cost $5 - $6 per shake -- for a 150 calorie shake that has only 16 grams of Protein. Next lifetime, I'm coming back as a healthcare protein shake-down mogul.

^^^^ love it!

I'll do a quick catch-up here about my maintenance story ... After I reached goal (150 pounds) and calculated I could eat 1700 cals to maintain, I continued to lose 15 pounds over the next 8 months. I'm now maintaining (these last 5 months) at 135 while eating 1700 - 1800 cals/day. I'm still using all my other behavioral "tools" learned and practiced these last 21 months since WLS and even before then as I was awaiting my surgery date. Everyone's maintenance calories vary a lot, depending on so many things. I have been a devoted My Fitness Pal user, so I know how much I'm eating and what kind of macronutrients my foods contain. Makes it a lot easier for me to be both mindful and accountable to myself. This is just one big ole science experiment with a sample of one -- you. Good luck to all.

Elode, You did so good!

Ah, crackers! They're much more challenging for me than alcohol, sugar or chocolate combined. Most crackers are unnutritious, processed slider foods that do not promote either weight loss or weight maintenance and invite me to keep nibbling on them. However, once I'd lost my weight and wanted to add nutritious calories for maintenance I found a few nutritious crackers with more Protein and Fiber (fewer net carbs) than others, including: * Wasa crackers (although not all Wasa-branded crackers are nutritious -- read the labels!) * Doctor Kracker Three Seed Crackers -- my fave. One big cracker has 100 calories, 11 grams of carbs, 4 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber. I pair one of these crackers with 1 ounce of very sharp thinly sliced full-fat cheddar cheese and a little sugar-free Smuckers strawberry jam. I swear, it's better than cheesecake -- so satisfying and, best, I never want a second helping. Then there are those nasty crackers so popular because ... yeah, they're slider meth with little nutritional content: * Wheat Thins * Saltines * Club crackers And then there's the destructive chips / crisps transfer addiction! I can't even type those words without shuddering.

For the first time in decades (and I don't know why) during the last 4-5 months I've been using a single envelope of raw sugar (Turbinado brand) in my morning home-made skinny latte. It "costs" me only 20 calories. I have no illusions that I could remove *all* additives to my foods. But I'm looking for ways to reduce those things here and there.

There are a gazillion threads here about alcohol (pro/con; when; what; how; risks; benefits; etc.). People can get exercised about this topic. Just enter "alcohol" into the search field at the top right part of this page (if you're on a laptop or tablet).

Chirp, chirp! Based on my experience, groups of all kinds -- whether they're centered around work, socialization, ideological beliefs, athletic activities, behavioral support, or whatever -- work or don't work NOT because they're an "X group," but due to the group's leadership, the competence and dedication of its members, and a number of other things, including serendipity. They're sort of like "marriage." A bad one doesn't mean there aren't good ones. And vice versa.

Four years -- what a great success you've made of your WLS. Congratulations.

That's what happens when you live in Tomorrow Land.

I, my NUT and my exercise consultant all did the math and agreed that 1700 cals/day would be my maintenance calorie budget. (I'm a 70 year old woman.) So over a period of a couple or three months I very gradually raised my dieting calories (1,200/day) up to 1,700 cals. Then, surprisingly, during the next eight months I continued to lose another 15 pounds. Today I'm at 135 pounds and have been maintaining easily for the last 5 months at 1700 - 1800 cals/day. I kept my macronutrients (Protein, carbs, fats) at the same percentages as when I was dieting. I can give you more details if you like, but that's basically what I did. Congratulations! And best wishes on maintenance. This is when it gets *interesting*.

Yes, do it. I lost 10 pounds pre-op in 2 months on my own 1400 calorie/day diet. I made a lot of other changes pre-op that nobody required, but that gave me a real leg up on the changes required post-op, including: * Planning and tracking my daily menus / food intake * Drinking 64 ounces of Water daily * Cut down on caffeine * Cut out all sodas * Started eating / chewing more slowly * Used smaller plates, forks, spoons * Started walking / moving more * Stopped drinking with meals (I forget all the other stuff, but you get the idea.) I could not WAIT for the ball to get rolling. I actually was worried about being disqualified for surgery due to a too-low BMI. So I bought a bunch of half-pound weights and stuffed 'em in my pockets, bra, underwear, shoes so I'd not weigh in too low. I don't think it really mattered though, since my initial weigh-in (without weights) and high enough to qualify me for WLS was the "official qualifying weight." Still ... I was very goal-focused and wrung all the risk out of that situation!

Teapot -- you're used to what you're used to. But you can get used to new things. And that's what WLS success is all about -- doing things differently in the future. IMHO.