Forsythia

@@une nouvelle vie I posted something similar earlier. All throughout the 80s and 90s and early 2000s we had LOW FAT LOW FAT LOW FAT drilled into us and I don't think low fat is the way to go. I've done low fat and it never really got me anywhere. But low carb seems to work so much better. I think a lot of medical organizations are slow to realize change and still recommend a low fat diet as the way to go.

I'm not *too* stressed actually. I'm more stressed about whether or not I have any money left on my flexible spending card to pay for the $50 specialist copay! It's just funny, I always know that his scale is going to be 4lbs higher than mine. So I wanted to be in the low 240s so that his still registered me as being in the 240s. Ya know?! Being in the 240s for this visit is a personal goal of mine based on where I feel I should be progress-wise. Also, I'm sure we all weigh in on our at home scales post morning poop when we are the lightest! My appointment is 4pm, post brekkie and lunch!

I don't generally buy diet foods - especially low fat stuff - low fat foods are usually full of sugar to make up for the loss of fat. But I do try to keep my sugar consumption low. I'm diabetic. I'm completely off my meds and want to stay that way. So empty carbs are things I try to avoid. I have no issues eating full fat cheese, but I don't want to drink my calories (other than my morning Protein shake) for the most part. Just make sensible choices.

Often when someone asks for me to keep them in my prayers will frame my response as "I will keep you in my thoughts". I don't pray - I am not religious. But that doesn't mean that I'm not wishing someone well or hoping for swift recovery or whatever. Prayer is just not my thing. No beatings from me

I'm not a big selfie person (I much prefer pictures of me with other people). But I will say that now that "Let me take a selfie" song is stuck in my head. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, SANDY!!!

I'm starting to feel and see bones. Like, collar bones, and I can feel my spine in the neck area (I seem to be losing from the top down and from extremeties - fingers toes lower legs and arms). My wedding rings no longer stay on my fingers. And my calves, which were already pretty muscular and not fat, have gotten an inch smaller - from 16 inches to 15 inches. It is such a weird sensation, feeling bones and seeing results. I guess the swimming is really working my shoulders/upper body and legs. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of flesh around my bones, but the weight loss is getting noticeable. People who don't know I had surgery are asking what I am doing. I tell them I log everything I eat and go to the gym 5x a week for anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on what I am doing that day (this is all true - they do not need to know I had a surgical assist!). I'm creeping up on my lowest adult weight - 239. I was 244 this morning. The smaller clothes I bought are getting too loose. I have a couple of work out tops I got from Old Navy that used to cling to my tummy which now drape gracefully - it won't be long before I need to get an XL instead of an XXL.. Hell, the concept of clothes draping gracefully on me is whole new sensation. When I was 312 or 320 or 335, there was never graceful drape. There was tugging and layering. Looking in the mirror and feeling like crap. Now, there is possibility. I know I've got a long way to go, but I feel like I've come so far already. Tomorrow is my 3 month follow up with my surgeon. I am interested in seeing how is going to assess my progress. I think he will be pleased. I've lost right around 70 lbs from my program start weight. He thinks I can lose 100 due to the surgery. I have every intention of surpassing that number.

I've spent 31 years being fat. Since I was six. That is a long time being fat and seeing that fat girl. And even though I am down from a size 26 to an 18, I still see 300 plus lbs in the mirror. My dad, also a big guy was all like "OMG ANDREA YOU DON'T EVEN LOOK THE SAME!!" He's very funny and straight to the point. But he's never lost a lot of weight. It is just difficult to reconcile less fat me with the super fat me I was used to. I might go see the psychologist at my program to work some of that out as I get even smaller.

To add on to this, as a collective nation, we have been "Low Fat-ed" death. Over two decades of people pushing low fat diets. Low fat foods which were stuffed with sugar and carbs to compensate for the loss of flavor. I also do not bother counting fat content at all. I eat a high Protein diet, and try to keep the carbs down. Fat falls somewhere in the middle and you'll find will moderate itself if you are keeping high protein/low carb. I'm not saying it's cool to eat a bucket of lard, but the way our brains have been conditioned to see fat in foods as bad is mind boggling to me. Fat in food does not equate to weight gain.

Take care to stir the powder in AFTER you take your liquid off the stove. If the soup gets to a boil the protein powder will curdle. So heat your soup up, let it cool for a minute, then add in your unflavored powder. Also, the unflavored powders really do taste like nothing. I use Jarrow labs (I like to put a scoop in my iced coffee), but there are plenty of other brands out there.

So tomorrow I go to my surgeon's office for my (belated) 3 month follow up (Not my fault, the man only sees patients on Tuesday afternoons). As of this morning I am at 244 lbs. Which means his scale will weigh me at 248 because it is a jerk. LOL. i plan on wearing the lightest clothing item I can find in my closet to counteract this. I don't know what it is about the official weigh ins/office visits that turns me into some kind of paranoid freak. But on the bright side, I get to leave work early and can make it to the gym before the PM rush.

Only 40?? You started at a much lower BMI than a lot of us. Don't knock your loss!

I was on liquid for two days in the hospital. Purees for a week, soft solids for a month and cleared for general food after that. So yes, this depends entirely on your surgeon's plans.

The first couple weeks post sleeve I would get a pang that hurt. Not, double over and cry hurt but it was uncomfortable to say the least. After awhile it went away. Things are swollen and angry in there. Give it a little time. Once the nerves heal a bit that pain should diminish and then go away.

I have fine curly hair. I've not noticed any unusual loss. I'm 3.5 months out so far. I do eat a lot of red meat. But I don't know if it's that or just luck. I do not take any special hair/nail pills nor have I changed my hair routine. If anything I am harder on it since I swim in a chlorinated pool 2x per week.

Touch base with your nutritionist. I know sometimes it is hard to eat with the restriction of your new tummy, but you need to make sure you are following your surgeon's guidelines. At one month my nutritionist suggested I should be eating between 800 and 1200 calories a day. On the days I go to the gym I get closer to the 1200 calorie range. One rest days, closer to that lower end. I think we all have days of doubt where we get on the scale and see it go up because of Water retention due to hormones or we slip and have a bite of a cookie and think it is the end of the world. And we think if we stall out that the sleeve must be broken. The sleeve isn't broken and will do what it is supposed to do. Your body just needs to adjust and sometimes resets itself by holding on to weight for a few days (or even a week or two - I had a 12 day stall two weeks after my sleeve). Keep on drinking your water. Walk as much as you can every day, get your 60 grams or more of Protein.

If you eat chicken, go for thigh since it is juicer than breast. Breast has tendency to be dry sometimes. I did a lot of lunch meats. Graduated to a chunkier chicken salad. I don't eat tuna salad but that is also an option if you like it. eggs, cheeses, Eggs with cheese (okay in my life anything with cheese really). Protein cheerios/multi-grain cheerios (my nut said you could eat your Cereal with milk, but check with your program to be sure).

It doesn't taste like anything. It will make things thicker though. So for example, if you add it to a glass of milk or a bowl of chicken broth, its going to be thicker once you stir it in. But taste wise, they aren't bad because they literally taste like nothing.

I get Jarrow formulas unflavored protein power from amazon.com

My nutritionist had no issues with caffeine intake pre-op or post-op. I'm a rare bird though in that caffeine has no effect on me at all. I can literally quit anytime with no withdrawal symptoms. Drinking it does not give me the clarity or stimulating boost most people get. I can literally drink it before bed and fall asleep just fine. I drink it because I enjoy the ritual of it more than anything. I make an iced coffee at home with sugar free vanilla syrup, and a dash of half and half, which is only 40 calories. I also put a scoop of unflavored Protein in it to get in some extra protein in.

I was on the fence the whole time. I was all like.. "well Andrea, you don't have to go through with it. You can quit any time." But I kept going to meetings and doing the requirements. LOL. It took until I got the approval letter from BCBS for me to realize I was going to go through with it for reals.

sugar free Powerade, gatorade, crystal light, sugar free kool aid. For me, plain Water was hard to swallow cold (and was terrible lukewarm) but crystal light made it better.

What kind of shakes are you drinking? Something like a slim fast has a high sugar content. While tastier than other brands, they can also spike your blood sugar. My surgeon was not concerned about a one off spike as much as he was the overall HgA1C. In fact they would not do surgery if your HgA1C was over 8 at my hospital (but some places do not care about that either). Also, maybe you just had your last shake too late in the evening? Sugar levels cycle up and down as we sleep so maybe if you drank a shake at 10 pm or something right before bed the lateness of it might have triggered your sugar cycle to be at a high point when you tested in the morning. I have no idea what my sugar level was the morning before my surgery. I forgot to test. But as I said before, some surgeons are concerned about the overall HgA1C, not daily fluctuations. Ask your doctor's office if they are concerned about it.

People get on the scale before they go poop?! Anyhow, congrats!

I love to cook and bake, but I'm too busy to do so on weekdays. I go to the gym after work so my husband is on his own and he is cool with that. Still, I tend to eat the same things every day. Greek yogurt for Breakfast, a shake, grilled chicken for dinner, or a steak. And my lunches at work are a carousel of lean cuisines, weight watchers smart ones or atkins meals. Not a whole lot of variety. What I miss is baking. I was so good at Desserts. But they were all sugary, calorie laden desserts that were carbtastic, which is what got me in the condition I was in. So once a week I like to find a healthy recipe from cooking light or some other magazine and try it out. That way the hubs and I can have a nice meal that isn't going to be a calorie bomb. And in the process we both broaden our horizons.

Hello, Jason from VA... What's done is done. You can't really undo it, so you might as well work with it. . If you are having regrets that are bringing you way down, you might want to talk to a therapist to work through them. But if you are just reeling from surgery and need reassurance, all of us have lots of advice to give. Also, it helps to give us an idea of what you are asking about in the title of your post. You have started at least two threads with "Jason from VA" as the topic in two different forums. Maybe a topic like "Need advice, feeling depressed" or "Post op exercise question" as topics so we know what to expect going in..