JamieLogical

I always just have a protein bar for breakfast. I know it's not ideal, but it works so well for my schedule. I was eating Quest Bars, but they recently switched to soluble corn fiber, which makes me SUPER gassy. So I am now having a Combat Crunch bar every morning.

Before my sleeve, I used to donate blood pretty regularly. I had this whole routine of drinking a bottle of apple juice and eating some pop-tarts before hand in order to be well hydrated and make sure my blood sugar wasn't low. I decided I would wait until I was 12 months post-op before donating blood again and that is about a month away now. The Red Cross calls me a couple of times a week wanting to schedule an appointment, so I am thinking the next time they call, I'd like to schedule something for September. I'm a little worried about not being able to get enough calories/sugar in before and after donating now that I've been sleeved. For one thing, I hardly ever have sugar anymore and I'm worried trying to load up on it before I donate might actually make me a little sick. Has anyone donated blood post-op? If so, what did you do to prepare and recover?

Just wanted to post a quick update. I gave blood for my first time post-op last Thursday. I did it right after I ate lunch, so I didn't have to worry about low blood sugar or anything. Afterward I had a 4 oz. can of apple juice and two oreos. Made it through the rest of the day without incident. However, I have been having more issues with dizziness over the weekend than normal. For a long time now I've gotten dizzy when I stand up from sitting or lying down. I've had all my levels checked and spoken to my doctor about it. The only conclusion she came to was that my blood pressure is now very low (for me, not technically in the low range medically). She told me to "liberally increase my intake of salt." Anyway, I'd gotten pretty used to it and it had actually gotten a bit better more recently, but after donating blood I was definitely getting more intensely and frequently dizzy upon standing over the weekend. I suspect it will get better on its own as I replenish my blood. Overall, I think it went well and plan to get back to giving blood every 8 weeks or so like I used to.

This past weekend I bought my first pair of size 12 jeans since I was in college. I'm pretty close to goal now (6 pounds to go), so I doubt I'll be getting down to a size 10. But then I see people who are still over 200 pounds fitting into size 10s. So I was thinking about how different body shapes and heights really affect clothing sizes. I've been in a size 10 dress since I was over 180, but even at 170 I'm only just NOW fitting into size 12 jeans. I carry so much of my weight in my hips and thighs! So for the sake of curiosity, please post your stats and what size pants you are wearing now. If you have photos, that's even better! My most recent gallery pics are unfortunately pretty outdated. I think I was 185 and wearing size 16 jeans in those pics. Weight: 170.2 Height: 5'6" Jeans: Size 12

Good point! I don't know what my starting body fat percentage was, but it was 48.2% the day of my surgery and is now 23%.

@ Welcome!

How long ago was your procedure? A little over 13 months. Surgery date was 9/1/14. What was your starting BMI and what is it now? Starting BMI was 42. Surgery date BMI was 38. Current BMI is 26. if you could magically go back in time and revisit your decision, would you still get the sleeve procedure? Absolutely!!!! I reached my goal weight right at my one year mark. I've been "maintaining" for the past month, though I've actually lost a couple more pounds. I feel and look great! The first few weeks were REALLY rough. The first few months took some serious mental/emotional adjustment. But now I am happy and healthy and feel completely "normal"! I've fully adapted to my new ways of eating and my new activity level.

Wow - I'm so worried about the whole move in together phase, that part was easy peasy for you! Talk about smooth transition! I'm glad it all worked out so well. Yeah, since we went from roommates to romantically involved, we already knew what it was like to live together. So it was an easy transition for sure! That was almost 10 years ago now... 14 years since the first time we were roommates. We're in the process of buying our second house together! And he's still the best roommate I've ever had!

@ What you are going through is completely normal. I experienced the same emotions and I have read COUNTLESS posts on these forums of people going through the same thing. I remember making many of those posts myself in the first couple of weeks... even into the first few months really. It is such a MAJOR mental shift that has to happen, as well as a physical change. Literally the day after my surgery, I would see a commercial for pizza on TV and want it SO BAD. Even though I knew eating it would probably kill me. My body didn't need pizza. My body couldn't handle pizza. But my brain was like "PIZZZZZAAAAAAAA". Even once I was allowed solid foods at 40 days post-op, one of the very first things I ate was pizza. I was SO DEPRESSED when I didn't enjoy it and it didn't satisfy me the way it had before. I had a good couple of months where I was really grappling with how to handle my emotions now that I could no longer turn to food for comfort. And it was this crazy catch 22, because my instinct was always to turn to food when I was depressed, but not being able to turn to food was the SOURCE of my depression! The good news is, eventually my brain did catch up to my body. I'd say around the 4 month mark, I had adapted to my new reality. I not only felt normal physically (which happened much earlier), but I began to feel normal emotionally. Even now, a full year out, sometimes I'll see a commercial for some food and for half a second I'll be like "OOH! I want that!" But my brain kicks in much more quickly now and realizes I don't actually need it and I probably wouldn't really enjoy it that much if I tried to eat it.

It is very very dangerous to deviate from the post-op plan. Even if you feel like more solid foods are going down fine, you have no idea what they might be doing to you internally. It's not just about your ability to digest them, it's about your healing along the staple line. food getting caught in the staple line can cause ulcers or leaks down the road.

I had regrets in the first few weeks. That seems to be pretty common. When you are miserable and frustrated and wondering if you will ever feel "normal" again. But now, over a year out, definitely no regrets! Every once in a while, I will hear/see something about foods I used to love and have a brief moment of sadness that I can't enjoy them anymore, but that passes quickly. Notice I said "enjoy" them. That's because I am physically capable of eating anything at this point, but much of my enjoyment of things like pizza or Pasta or eating large meals out came from the sheer VOLUME of food I could eat, not necessarily the taste. So while I can eat those things now if I choose to, I don't enjoy them the way I used to, so I usually just skip them. As for cocktails, why couldn't you have those in the future? I was allowed alcohol at 3 months post-op and I do occasionally partake in social situations. I miss beer (can't have carbonation anymore), but I can have mixed drinks. I do get drunk VERY fast now. I'm a SUPER light-weight now. But, I also sober up really fast.

I always use the "Notifications" link/icon in the upper right corner to see if there have been any recent replies to topics I am following. I use the desktop version of the site though. Not sure if that link is in the same place on the mobile version or the app.

You have to shift your mindset in these early days to eating for fuel and not for pleasure. Do the shakes get old? You bet they do! The minute I was allowed solid foods, I switched to Protein bars. Water was a real challenge for me in the early weeks. Even the tiniest sip caused my esophagus to contract painfully and produced a bunch of gurgling and burping. But I sipped, sipped, sipped anyway. You have to just stay focused and determined. It's all temporary, I promise! Every week will get easier. As you are allowed more foods you will be able to have more variety and it won't seem so monotonous. You'll even eventually get to a place where you can ENJOY eating again! Hang in there! I know when you are in the moment, it seems like it's never going to end and 3 weeks seems like 3 years, but I promise it gets better. It really really does!

Welcome and glad to hear things are going smoothly for you so far. Sounds like you are making fantastic progress. It gets so much easier week by week and it sounds like things are already going pretty well for you.

I have to imagine that she was talking strictly pre-op with the emphasis on veggies. I can't imagine ANY post-op plan that would allow 1/4 of your food to be starches! That's complete craziness! While every plan is different and every nutritionist/surgeon has their own timelines for moving through the food stages, emphasis on Protein seems to be pretty across the board. It's true that most nutritionists and surgeons ultimately want you to get your protein from real food instead of shakes, though it's common to have to rely on shakes in the early days post-op, since it's the best liquid source of protein. I moved away from shakes once I was on full solids, not only because I wanted to focus more on real food, but also because I found shakes didn't keep me full for long the way solid foods did. Now when I supplement protein, I use bars, not shakes. When I WAS drinking shakes, I found the EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Controls Rich Dark chocolate to be my favorite ready-to-drink shake. They are available at my local Walmart and Target.

I'm over a year post-op and i haven't vomited once. I had two bouts of dry heaving the day after my surgery and nothing approaching vomiting since then. Not everyone reacts the same way to overeating or eating the "wrong" foods.

I had four incisions and a drain port and have pretty noticeable scars. Edit: I posted a pic initially, but it's a little risque. I can post a link to another thread with it if people are interested.

The fundus... the part of the stomach that is MADE to stretch to accommodate more food is removed with the sleeve. But the rest of the tissue of your stomach also has some stretch to it. It will contract back after food has passed through, but if you overstretch it continuously, it will lose some of that elasticity. Imagine blowing up a balloon. If you blow it up to it's full capacity over and over again... eventually it's going to be permanently stretched out. If you blow it up just a little over and over again, it continues to contract down to its initial uninflated size every time you let the air out.

Yikes, these stories make me feel super lucky with my online dating experiences. Granted, I think I on maybe 5-6 dates that started online. All except one of those went well enough to warrant second dates. My husband and I met online. We only went on those first two dates, though. Then I ended up getting serious with another guy I had met through online dating around the same time. That guy and I were together a year and a half. Meanwhile, the man who is now my husband became my roommate for a year or so and we stayed good friends, even after I moved into a new apartment with the guy I got serious with. I eventually broke up with that guy, then dated/lived with another guy for two and half years. So something like 4+ years after I'd initially met my husband and gone on two dates with him, we once again found ourselves both single and in need of a roommate. It wasn't long after he moved in as my roommate that we got romantically involved and the rest is history!

I had to do the exact same thing around my 2 month mark. 20mg just wasn't doing it for me, so I've been taking 40mg/day ever since (20 in the morning and 20 before bed). @@KarenLoh It's fantastic that you are already getting in 100 grams of Protein per day at two months. I pushed really hard to reach the 100 gram mark ASAP too and I think it benefited me in MANY ways. I only had hair loss for about a month and a half and it never got so bad that anyone else noticed. And I lost significant amounts of fat and actually put on muscle, whereas a lot of people lose significant amounts of muscle while losing weight. I don't think your loss is all that slow. I lost under 15 pounds my first month and only 8 my second month and about 6 per month for a while after that and I made it to goal and I'm happily maintaining. This isn't a race. The rate of loss slows down, for sure, but as long as you stick to the plan, you WILL lose the weight.

Over a year out now and how many ounces I can eat is still very dependent on WHAT I'm eating. If it's a solid chicken breast, I can maybe do 4-5 oz. If it's a cup of chili, I can eat the whole cup now. I can drink fluids completely unrestricted. At two months, I think 900-1100 calories is perfectly reasonable, especially if you are working out (which you should be!).

Nope. You have to overeat pretty consistently in order to permanently stretch your sleeve.

Maybe her husband's credit would have been better if he wasn't paying her $70+ bar/restaurant tabs all the time....

@@donnag53 @Dub @sherabear @bibleajosc Thanks guys! So far so good with maintenance over the past month. I've lost a little more weight and I hope to slow that down or stop it completely. It's trickier than you might think to stop losing weight after a full year of losing!

Today is my one year surgiversary and as of my weekly weigh in yesterday, I have surpassed my goal by one pound. My starting weight at the beginning of this process was 260. I was 236 on my surgery date. And I am now 164. It's been a long road. The early days/weeks/months were rough. But for a long time now, I've just felt "normal". I eat 5-6 times a day. Always Protein first, but I occasionally have some treats. Juts yesterday I shared a piece of cake with my husband. I love not feeling deprived. If I want a treat of some sort once in a while, I have a little bit of it. I don't track my food or calories. The big thing to really get my head around through this whole process is that this is not a "diet". This is the rest of my life. I don't have any deadlines to meet with my weight loss. The goal was just to eventually get down to a healthy weight and stay there. Were I on a "diet", I would have been tracking every calorie in and every calorie out. Sharing that piece of cake with my husband, I would have tracked those calories eaten and then tried to make up for it in calories burned so as not to "fall behind". I would have to "make up" those extra calories. Now... if I eat half a piece of cake, I don't sweat it. If it takes me a week to burn off those "extra" calories, what does it matter? What's a week in the grand scheme of things? It's definitely been a real change in thinking for me. As for exercise, I've been killing it in that department. I've run several 5k races over the summer and plan to continue with my running and working on improving my time. I was pretty hard-core about strength training as well until my sister and her four kids moved in with us temporarily. That makes getting time to myself to SAFELY do strength training a real challenge, but I plan to get right back to it once they move out later this month. So now, what you've all been waiting for: PHOTOS!