JamieLogical

When I told my bosses I needed time off, I just told them I was having surgery. I didn't say what for and they didn't ask. It's none of their business. I did have to have my surgeon's office fill out FMLA paperwork so I could qualify for "catastrophic leave" pay, but only human resources saw that paperwork. My bosses never saw it.

This article really helped me understand bougie size: http://tinyurl.com/pu2fv2d

I agree. That's exactly why I had the surgery. I was a binge eater and my sleeve will no longer allow me to binge. I would think the people the sleeve won't work for long term are people who graze and snack, since those things are still easy to do with the sleeve. Also, there are people who are just prone to self-sabotage, so if you have that mentality, I doubt the sleeve would work for you, because there are ways to eat around your sleeve. If you truly want to sabotage yourself, that's possible to do with the sleeve. Edit: To the OP, you are better off sticking to the pre-op diet. Don't mourn food. Eventually, with the sleeve, you can eat all those bad things you enjoyed before. You just might not enjoy them as much and you won't be able to eat as much of them.

I tried a whole bunch of flavors in the beginning, since I could buy one at a time from my local Vitamin Shoppe. I am completely addicted to the chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor. I eat two a a day! I know that's probably bad, but I don't see any way of getting to my 100 grams of Protein per day without them, I have one for Breakfast and one as my evening snack. They are seriously almost TOO good. I keep waiting for them to get busted by the FDA for false labeling or something.

In the full liquid stage, it has to be strained. Once you move onto purees, you can blend it.

You need a passport, passport card, or enhanced license to cross back into the US on your way home. A birth certificate is no longer accepted by US border agents. I was told that I would need a passport or passport card to cross into Mexico due to a newer Mexican law (they would not accept enhanced licenses), so I went and got a passport card prior to my trip. Turned out they never asked me for any ID at all when I cross into Mexico. But I did need to show my passport card when coming back into the US, as expected. I was still a little miffed by the whole thing, as I had to physically go to a passport office in order to get my passport card in time, plus it cost over $100 and it turned out I didn't even need it! I already had an enhanced license.

By 10 weeks I was cleared to eat all foods except crunchy things. I had switched to protein bars instead of protein shakes (was SOOOOO over shakes by then between pre and post-op diets!). I basically ate the same way I eat now. Cheese sticks and/or greek yogurt for snacks. A few ounces of meat for lunch and dinner.

I dreaded telling my parents, but when I did, they were incredibly supportive. Maybe your mom will surprise you.

Nothing has made me sick and everything tastes and smells as good to me as it did before. But I've been super committed to the concept of "protein first" and by the time I eat my protein, I just don't have room for anything else. The few times I've eaten carbs or sweets, it's been at the expense of not getting my protein in so I don't allow that to happen often.

Were you able to eat an entire scrambled egg? The first time I tried to eat one it took me 45 minutes and I still didn't finish it. I never felt nauseous or threw up even once since my surgery, but I have definitely felt overfull MANY MANY MANY times. It's something I'm working very hard to avoid, as it is quite unpleasant. Edit: As others have said, the full feeling I get now is nothing like the full feeling I had pre-op. It's more in my chest/esophagus and is very uncomfortable. Not so much painful as just very constricted feeling.

Jesus, that seems excessive! I'm 5 MONTHS out and only down 42 pounds. And while I know my loss has been slower than a lot of people's I haven't heard of anyone dropping over 100 pounds in 3 months.

Even if that 120 pounds hasn't caught up with you yet, I still can't help but think it is just a matter of time.

Congratz! I like to think that goal is when my REAL journey begins. I've lost significant amounts of weight lots of time in the past, so losing weight after my sleeve isn't really a big accomplishment. Though I will say that adjusting to this whole new way of eating has been a challenge and an accomplishment, the weight loss itself is not. However, I have NEVER been able to maintain weight loss for any significant period of time. So, once I'm at goal, the real work will begin!

I don't really have any room for bread still (5 months out). A few times recently, I have made myself an open-faced egg sandwich with one piece of Pepperidge Farm Light Style Whole Wheat Bread (it's teeny tiny... thin sliced and only maybe 3x3"?). I haven't been able to eat the whole piece of toast once. Best I've done is about 3/4? And I feel SOOOOOOOOO full after. The only other bread-like thing I've attempted is a mini whole wheat pita with peanut butter. They are about 3" diameter, but I cut them in half. Haven't even TRIED to eat a whole one.

If you mean excess skin, there's not a ton you can do. Strength training will help build muscles in those areas that can help "fill out" your skin a little, replacing the fat that used to be there. But, as the previous poster mentioned, surgery may be your only option for excessive loose skin. Definitely be sure you are getting enough Water, moisturize daily, and you can try supplementing with Vit. C, Vit. E, and beef Gelatin, which are all supposed to help improve skin elasticity. If you still have fat in those areas that you are trying to lose, there's nothing you can do to target those places. You just have to continue to reduce your total body fat percentage and hope the fat eventually comes off in those areas.

I was dizzy often too. I honestly felt like complete crap those whole two weeks. I was only getting about 400 calories a day, I was supposed to keep working out and going to work every day, and I still had 100% of my stomach. It was miserable and I was tired and dizzy often. I finally cut back on my workouts for fear of just falling off the treadmill.

I went alone and had no issues. In fact, I think it was better/easier going alone, because then I wasn't worried about another person's comfort and happiness. I could just focus on myself.

6 weeks for this surgery seems very excessive, assuming no complications. I was only scheduled to be out for 4 weeks with my plastics and that was WAY more major surgery.

I was off work for 15 days. Sleeved on September 1 and back to work on the 16th. I wouldn't say it was "easy". My main issue was just fatigue. But, barring any complications, 2 weeks is pretty doable.

@@Edavidson Have you called your surgeon? That should be your first step. Are you on a PPI like omeprazole? That might help with the "burning" you are feeling. Are you on anything for the nausea?

What a great site! I'm going to go ahead and upload my progress pics to that site in the hopes of helping other women.

I was told to do 60-90 minutes of walking per day immediately post-op and begin more intense cardio and strength training at 2 months post-op.

This article might be of some interest to you: http://www.bariatricpal.com/page/articles.html/_/support/post-op-support/my%E2%80%A6-how-the-focus-changes-r337

Heart rate monitors are only accurate when you are actually working out. The algorithms they use to calculate calories burned factor in "vigorous activity", so if you wore one all day, it would be woefully inaccurate.

Thanks! I was thinking about it more this afternoon and I might try adding some granola to my afternoon greek yogurt. It's the last thing I eat before I work out after work, so maybe the extra carbs before my workout will help? Since the yogurt itself goes down really easy now, I think I could probably handle a little granola with it without feeling overfull.