JamieLogical

Apparently, I'm not alone in my thoughts on the finale. I saw some tweets in a NY Daily News article that pretty much summed up exactly how I felt. It was a tedious and frustrating episode. Let's watch them drive around in an RV for an hour then listen to this Neegan guy just enjoying the sound of his own voice for 20 minutes.... fun! And the cliff-hanger ending was just SO unnecessary. It's not like any of us were NOT going to watch the season premier next year. You don't need to resort to soap opera tactics to keep us tuned in.

I feel the need to point out that there are 4 calories for every one gram of protein. So to get 30 grams in one sitting, you would have to be ingesting a bare minimum of 120 calories, assuming no carbs or fat are involved at all. Since it's unlikely anyone is consuming pure protein, then you are probably looking at closer to 200-250 calories to get in 30 grams of protein. For me, post-sleeve, that's about the top end of how much I can physically eat in one sitting anyway.

You are a crazy person. As unsatisfied as I was with the season finale, it's an AMAZING show and definitely worth watching!

I guess my problem was that I found him WAY more obnoxious than scary. I was like, "seriously, is this guy EVER going to shut up and just hit someone?"

30 grams at a time is what I read/heard long ago. I don't know about the whole converting to fat thing, but it's definitely bad for your kidneys to ingest more than 30 grams at a time.

My guess is Michonne, but that whole scene and the hype leading up to the episode left me REALLY not caring. I felt like the whole episode was dragged out too long, was frustrating, and had no resolution. A very unsatisfactory ending to what was otherwise a really strong B Season. I didn't evne bother watching the Talking Dead after, and I LOVE that show. So happy they are doing it for Fear the Walking Dead this season!

8 ounces is not very much. A normal coffee mug holds 10-12 ounces. 8 ounces is more like a tea cup. If you want to use more Water, you can. Water has no calories and there is certainly no harm in drinking more of it!

First of all, there is nothing you will never be able to eat again. If you are getting VSG, then you will eventually be able to eat all the same foods you can eat pre-op. Whether or not you will choose to eat those things is a different story. food funerals are common, but you need to remember why you are doing this.

I did. I hated it. Worst episode in a long time as far as I was concerned.

Never crushed pills. I was allowed to swallow small pills immediately and larger whole pills at 7 days post-op.

There's no "supposed to". Especially this early out. 90% of WLS patients experience a slow down or a complete stall around the 3 week mark. So you have that to look forward to. The stall can last as little as a few days to a few weeks. Right now I HIGHLY recommend you stay off the scale completely and just focus on hitting your water and protein targets each day, taking your meds/vitamins, and walking a little every couple of hours.

Weight loss doesn't magically switch off right at the 12 month mark. I reached my goal right near a year, but if I chose to keep losing weight, I would have. As it is, I ended up about 6-7 pounds below goal without even trying and now I have to track my food to make sure I'm eating ENOUGH calories not to lose any more weight. I'm 19 months post-op now. As long as you work to lose weight, you will continue to lose weight. Does it slow down for some people? Sure. But it's still a mater of burning more than you are consuming. You can control both of those things.

Some surgeons recommend no alcohol at all post-op because of the risk of addiction transference. Many WLS patients are at a high risk for developing other addictions post-op, once they can no longer maintain their addiction to food. If you find that it is hard for you to control your drinking or stop drinking, that might be some cause for concern. Physically, there's no real risk to your sleeve from alcohol. You may get drunk faster and your impaired judgement might cause you to eat more or eat the wrong things. Plus, as you pointed out, it's empty calories.

Don't feel bad about not tracking. I didn't track for the VAST majority of my weight loss phase either. Tracking is just a tool to help figure out what's going right or wrong. If things are moving along, I don't see any need to track daily. I started tracking again recently because I'm training for a half marathon and started losing weight again (I'm in maintenance), so I'm using tracking right now to make sure I'm eating enough. Like I said, just a tool to help assess when assessment is needed. Were you told by your surgeon or nutritionist not to snack? If I didn't snack, there is no way I could get in enough calories to sustain me. At best I eat about 200 calories at a time. If I REALLY push the carbs or fat I could maybe get up to 400 calories in one sitting, but I would have to sacrifice Protein. Eating only 3 times a day, even if I could get in 400 calories each time, that would only be 1200 calories day. Over the past 37 days (since I got my FitBit Blaze), I have averaged a calorie burn of 2366 calories. Remember, I'm training for a half marathon. Snacking is the only thing keeping me alive! But even in my "rest" days from my half marathon training, I burn a good 1800-1900 calories. So 1200 still would be nowhere near enough. My nutritionist initially told me to eat 5-6 times a day. Now, I'm eating more like 7-8.

Double post.

So you are what, 9 months out? Sounds to me like you aren't eating enough. First of all, I know that when I go more than 2-3 hours without eating, I start to get hungry. At 4 hours I start to get hangry. By my vague calculations, that's only about 1000-1100 calories of food. Do you track your food to know exactly what it's coming out to? 1100 doesn't seem like much at 9 months out. I think I was close to 1400-1500 calories a day by then.

Thank you for sharing this. I think a LOT of people get hung up on a number here and trying to reach an arbitrary goal weight. The truth is, just losing as little as 10% of your body weight can have a HUGE impact on your health. The main reason any of us have this surgery should be to live a longer, healthier life.

I was allowed to swallow pills, including my Omega 3, at seven days post-op.

Everything will go great. Be sure to post back here once you're on the losers' bench!

For sleeve I think it's under an hour. I honestly wasn't exactly looking at the clock before and after. Pre-op they gave me happy pills so I didn't have a care in the world. Post-op, I was coming out of anesthesia, groggy and confused.

I guess I fall under #3. I definitely don't abstain completely from anything, except soda. I learned long ago that the second I tell myself I absolutely can't have something is the second I start desperately craving it. I do MUCH better lying to myself and saying, "oh you can have that tomorrow or next week". Most of the time I never end up having it, but if I do, then I can move on and be content. I'd like to aim for #2. The vast majority of the time since my surgery, I haven't tracked my food. I've tried to eat intuitively and just put Protein first and let that kind of dictate my eating each day. However, I was losing weight in "maintenance" once I started training for a half marathon, so I've gone back to tracking food in order to make sure I'm eating ENOUGH, which is kind of weird and mind blowing. And even in maintenance and trying to force myself to eat enough, there are some things I can't help but try to avoid or I feel guilty if I eat. So, I guess it's ultimately just trying to strike a balance every day still.

Yeah, my surgery wouldn't have been covered by my insurance anyway, but I liked the freedom of picking any surgeon I wanted, deciding when I wanted the surgery on my own schedule, and not having to jump through so many arbitrary hoops for insurance.

I wonder why you need to eat so few calories in maintenace. Maybe a slow metabolism is how you got big to begin with? At least you've figured out what works for you.

GasX strips, chap stick, wet wipes... I also brought some syntax nectar protein powder packets, and a colapsible funnel, since I was allowed that in my clear liquids stage post-op.