une nouvelle vie

I've gotten the go ahead from my surgeon that I do not have to use chewable or liquid Vitamins anymore and I'm anxious to move on. I have about a month's worth left of my chewables so I have time to research and comparison shop. I'm really interested in hearing from those of you who've had labs done already (I have not) and have good numbers. What do you take? Would you be so kind to tell me the brand and where you get them? If you have a link to it that would be amazing! Thanks!

It may be that you're not healed, like you mentioned. I hate to say it but it also may be that you're like me. I had the sleeve 11 months ago and I very rarely ever feel the restriction so many talk about. Don't get me wrong, I can't eat the massive amounts of food I used to eat, but I don't feel restriction as it's described by so many people. I have to rely on weighing and measuring and making myself stop when I've had my allotted amount. I hate to be Debbie Downer by saying that and I hope it's not the case for you, but I'd love to have restriction. I didn't have it right after surgery and I don't have it now.

I'm all about working it as best as possible, but I have to question your "while you can" addition. It's great for you that you were a low BMI to begin with so with hard work you hit your goal, but you're effectively taking away hope from those people who didn't start this journey at a lower BMI. Add that to the fact that sleeves don't really stretch much, so there's no reason someone can't keep on using their sleeve correctly far after 1 year post op. There are quite a few people right here on this message board who are several years post op and they're still using their sleeves to full effect. It seems that you're buying into that idea that after 1 year the magic is over. My surgeon explained to me that one of the *many* reasons the one year time is given is that that's when a LOT of surgeons quit monitoring their patients so one year of data is all they have. So honestly, yay for the idea of making the most of the tool we've been given but I can't agree with what you seem to be saying about some magic one year mark where Cinderella's carriage turns instantly into a pumpkin and I heartily disagree that the first few months of rapid weight loss are the key. Our bodies are all different. We all lose differently just as we all gained differently. This tool and the lessons we learn about eating and exercising are FOREVER if we work them right. Those who gain and stop losing are those who stop working them.

Thanks for this. I grabbed what I needed to make it at the store today. I'll be giving it a try tomorrow!

Thanks for this info. I'm not quite a year out and thought I was done with shakes, but I'm starting back to college this summer and there aren't healthy options (for the most part) on campus so on my long days I'll need a shake. I bought a tub from GNC and it tastes great but this brand looks a bit cheaper with more Protein to boot!

I'm hurt and angry on your behalf. I'm so sorry this happened and I do hope you report it before they do it to someone else

Okay, I've never been terribly fashionable because I figured when you're fat you may as well forget it. Well, I'm still fat (for now!) but I'm down 150 pounds and I'm fitting into clothes I bought, never got to wear, and stashed away. I have two pairs of pants that are the same style but different colors. One navy/white stripes and one is khaki/white stripes. They're a cotton blend. I'll attach pictures. Soooooooo. What color shirts would be okay for each and what color shoes could you wear with them? I know this is probably simple stuff but I'm unsure and don't want to look too stupid Anyone have ideas?

I'm so glad I found this forum, you all are so helpful and great. Thank you all @@Inner Surfer Girl, I have dark brown hair with some light brown highlights and my eyes are hazel. I'm fair skinned. Seriously, you guys are so awesome

I didn't use one for about 3 months postop but I do now. I know I wouldn't get all of my fluids in without using one.

One step at a time is how you get there. I'm excited for you!

Oh that could have been me if I'd have waited any longer. Right around the time I first went to see my surgeon I got a gym membership because I knew that at 450 pounds the ONLY exercise I could attempt was walking in the water/dog paddling. I would walk back and forth across the pool for about 25 minutes and then tread Water for 35 minutes in the deep end. The first time I went to get out, I was scared. I was wearing one of those bathing suits with the skirt so (of course) it was soaked and not helping by holding me down that much more. Luckily I was able to grab the ladder (this pool has steps at the shallow end that are not nearly as gradual as they should be) and pull myself up step by step. I remember thinking that had I been just a tad older or with a little less muscle tone or a little bit heavier I may have needed help. Like you, I hope she keeps coming back and doesn't let this set her back.

When you're exercising so much that you're barely netting any calories a day you're most likely not doing your organs any favors. It can also cause your body to burn more muscle than fat which in the long term hurts. Since you still seem concerned about it after so many comments here, you may want to contact your surgeon's office to see what they say. I have to say your "mathematically speaking" hits close to home because I spoke that exact phrase to my surgeon and nutritionist during a stall. I laid out every calorie I'd consumed and gave them every minute of exercise I'd done along with my results from my resting metabolic rate test and told them that mathematically speaking it was impossible I wasn't losing more. My surgeon, who has thousands of surgeries under his belt, sort of chuckled and informed me that all bodies are different and that some lose slower than others and it seemed I was believing the calories in/calories out fallacy as absolute truth. Maybe your doctor can look at your unique situation and come up with other answers for you.

Wow, I think you're being overly snippy with Lipsticklady but I'm going to chalk that up to frustration and hope that's all it is. Your loss of 20 pounds in 2 weeks after surgery isn't going to be your normal at all. In all likelihood, not even close. A lot of what you lost was Fluid they pumped you full of during surgery. Even after weight loss surgery most people don't see a 10 pound a week loss. I'm not a doctor but I'm going to guess that would be highly unhealthy for your body to lose at that rate from start to finish. You started at almost exactly 100 pounds over your goal weight. At that weight you're much more likely to fall into the 2 pounds a week expectation and even then you're going to have stalls. Your body is constantly adjusting and readjusting after surgery and as it settles into your new way of eating and digestion. There's a whole subforum here devoted to stalls so you can see that nearly everyone has them. Keep on doing what you're doing because it sounds like you're doing all the right things. The only thing you need to change is, in my opinion, your expectation of weight loss. Celebrate the 2 pounds a week you do lose and bid it good riddance. Good luck to you!

I was a BIG momma before my surgery journey. My surgeon does his sleeves outpatient for the most part (inpatient would have cost me another $5K and I did self pay) so he wanted me to lose quite a bit of weight before surgery. I cut out starch (no potatoes, no bread, no Pasta, no rice, no corn) , no dairy, no sugar, no alcohol or soda and no fast food. I ate mostly lean meat and green veggies. Hard boiled egg whites saved me when I was really hungry and just needed something to eat. One large egg white only has about 17 calories and 3g of Protein. I also would make a cabbage based Soup that had about 40 calories a cup that I'd eat. You can do it! Eat slow and and chew a lot because you'll need to get used to that for after surgery anyway.

When I say starting, I mean JUST starting. I've applied to my local community college for a 2 year certificate program and I have an orientation coming up in a few days to give me my next steps. I'm nervous! Scared! Why scared? I tried college right out of high school and I blew it off. I foolishly cared more about having a good time and hanging with the wrong people and never got an education. Now here I am, in my early 40s and I think I want to try again. I was in that super obese category for SO LONG and I'm down 150 pounds from where I was a year ago and still losing so why not try to improve the old job situation? It's been over 20 years since I was in a classroom. Obviously MUCH has changed since then. Since it's been so long since my college testing I'll have to take placement tests. So there's something else to be nervous about. That voice in my head that tells me (all the time) what a failure I am is trying to tell me to forget it. It's telling me to either forget this completely or take the "easier" course which would be 100% online but would be for a job that would earn me about $10 less per hour. Before starting my weight loss journey I would have never, ever thought seriously about doing this. I've lived so many years trapped in that enormous body and it held me back from so many things. I'm party posting this in hopes that someone else has been through this and has advice and partly because if I put it out there, maybe I won't quit. NERVOUS!

Hi there! I thought I'd check in with an update. I got perfect scores on both the reading and English parts of the COMPASS but, as i expected, I didn't quite make the math portion I was 3 points away from placing where I needed to be. I considered retaking the test but I know that a few of those right answers were guesses and I'd rather take the remedial class to get myself up to speed than to be placed into a class I may not be able to handle. I'm enrolled for summer courses (only 3) which start later this month. I'm nervous and excited! I'm meeting with an adviser next week to talk about which program I'm going to go for. Some of the programs are competitive so I'm a little disheartened there but I need to just keep going forward.

Oh that sounds awful About a month ago I realized that I was only getting about 10g of fiber a day via the veggies I eat (I don't eat Beans or bread products of any kind) and figured I needed to add a supplement. I found that the original Fiber One cereal added 14g of fiber for a half cup for only 60 calories and 25g of carbs so that seemed as good of a deal as any supplement. I've been eating a half cup a day (on occasion a whole cup split throughout the day) with no issues. It may be that I am the oddball though because I haven't had any food issues (or really any issues) with my sleeve at all and I'm 10 months out.

Some here have said their program specifically told them they were fine. My program had them listed on the "do not use" list.

Count me as someone else who was shocked when I dropped weight after increasing calories. My surgeon also told me that at under 700 calories a day you're as likely to lose muscle as you are fat an that's definitely not good for the long haul so he's advised me to stay above 700 calories on a regular basis. I usually end up around 800-900 daily and I am 9 months out.

I think it will really depend from person to person. When I started my weight loss journey I was 450 pounds and I rarely ever had a period. I might have maybe 2 a year and they were never a "full period" like when I weighed less. My doctor said that like anorexics, my body was so messed up I didn't have periods anymore. Now I'm down 145 pounds (allllmost below 300) my periods are back with a vengeance. I have one almost every month and every other one is HARSH. I am literally changing my super tampon every hour on the hour. It's awful. I hope yours get better!

I continue to be grateful for your nice comments. I truly mean it, I'm so grateful. My next step is to take the COMPASS tests. I feel confident with the reading, writing, and English but ohhhh math. Math, math, math. Math and I are NOT friends. I just joined https://www.khanacademy.org/ to do some brushing up. They'll let you select any grade level and work your way up. I'm embarrassed to tell you what grade level I started with, but I'm banging through it! I gave myself permission today to fail. I need to place at a certain math level to enter the program I want to study and I've been so stressed about the math I feel stuck in fear. I gave myself permission to NOT test into that level and to have to take a "lesser" math this summer to work my way up to it. I'm committing to an hour a day on Khan's website and I'll take the test (probably) this coming Thursday. I hope I place where I need to but if I don't, I don't.

@@FLLyssa, preach that! I started at 450 pounds so I had a LOT more to lose than many who've gotten the sleeve. I figured I wouldn't have to exercise much at all until I got to a lot closer to my goal weight. Then at 330 pounds I got stuck. STUCK. Worse than lazy, I was stupid! I kept thinking "This is scientifically impossible!" My BMR (basal metabolic rate) was supposed to be about 2100 calories a day which meant that since I was eating around 800 a day I should be dropping a pound every 3 days without any exercise. Guess what? I wasn't. I logged every bite of food so I know it wasn't that I was eating more than I thought. It just wasn't happening no matter what science said should be happening. Did I mention I was being stupid? Well, I was. I dug in my heels and thought "It's a stall, the scale will move soon." and kept right on not exercising. I did this for THREE MONTHS. I finally bought a treadmill and had to start out really slowly because I'd been 450 pounds before I started this journey, exercise obviously wasn't part of my life. I started by walking 2 miles an hour for 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a day to get my 30 minutes in. That was a month ago. I'm still only at 30 minutes a day but I do 15 minutes at a time at 2.4 miles an hour and I've lost 25 pounds. Almost to under 300! Let's keep going!