JamieLogical

I am almost 18 months and I feel like my sleeve is one of the best decisions I've ever made! I reached my goal weight at about one year and have been maintaining the past six months, actually weighed 159 as of this morning, so technically 6 pounds below goal now. I would say the main challenge I've had in maintenance is getting enough food in now that I'm training for a half marathon. I'm burning a lot of extra calories and struggling to eat them back sometimes. The main thing with my food now is just still putting Protein first. As long as I make sure I get my 100 grams of protein in, I pretty much eat whatever else I want for the rest. I have to eat 5 times a day to get all my protein, so if I want something other than protein, I have to fit it into a snack between my regularly scheduled eating. I definitely don't advocate that during the weight loss phase though, and you have to be concious to avoid grazing.

Not sure how it works if you are using the app, but if you are using the Web site you can click on my profile pic, then click on "send me a message" on the right hand side. If I don't here from you, I'll go ahead and write up some details to send to you later today.

Make sure you really drown the tuna in mayo. My first time eating tuna was my first time really struggling with not being able to drink and eat at the same time. It was so dry!

If your activity level is high, then it's likely your diet that is the culprit. What are you eating on a typical day now?

I have heard/read that it;s not safe to go below 1000 calories a day for women and 1200 calories a day for men without medical supervision. Obviously you'll be closer to only 400 or 500 a day on the pre-op liquid diet and the liquid phases post-op, but that will be under medical supervision.

You should be doing whatever your surgeon is requiring of you.

Awesome that your visit went well and that you are feeling so great! You've made a lot of progress in a short period of time and it's hard to imagine you won't make goal at this point. Keep up all the good work and the positive attitude!

I was allowed diluted juice (50% juice and 50% water) in my early days post-op, just because it's impossible to get enough calories in those early days, but advised to cut back as I moved onto other food stages. It's not possible to eat "too much" of any liquid. Aside from the swelling that some people experience immediately post-op, you there is no restriction with fluids and they pass right through your sleeve. So you aren't going to do any damage to your sleeve by drinking "too much" in these early days. You should be grateful if you can get in the minimum amounts of water and protein right off the bat!

Some people seem to be more sensitive to carbs than others. I have seen people posting that they can't lose weight on more than 40 carbs a day. I didn't track for most of my weight loss phase, but I suspect I was probably more around 60 net carbs a day while I was losing? Now in mainenance, 70-100 net carbs a day seems to work just fine for me. I just always make sure to get my 100 grams of protein in and it the rest of my macros seem to work themselves out from there.

@It's Time During my full liquids phase, I was allowed any kind of strained cream soup, but advised to stay away from tomato soup because of its acidity. Have you tried any other cream soups? My favorites were Campbell's condensed cream of shrimp and Progresso's chicken cheese enchilada.

I had my sleeve in on Sept. 1, 2014 with Ariel Ortiz. It went great! I received great care at OCC and great follow-up support from the nutritionist and other doctors (Dr. Jimenez and Dr. So). Feel free to PM me if you want more details on my experience.

I definitely had issues with certain brands of shakes and protein powders. If you are allowed to switch brands, ask your nutritionist for some guidelines and then find other shakes that fit within those. I ended up using EAS AdvantEGDE Carb Control ready to drink shakes (got them at target and walmart) and adding half a scoop of unflavored whey isolate to them. That worked best for me, but everyone is different.

What "food" are you eating? If you are eating foods that are high in protein, there shouldn't be a conflict.

My "flab" in my upper arms and elsewhere is due to loose skin at this point, not fat. So this wouldn't be any help to me, unfortunately.

Yay, you!

As the others have said, you just have to live minute-to-minute and hour-to-hour for this first little stretch. It will feel like eternity, but then a couple weeks from now you will look back and think it went so fast! Hang in there.

My pre-op diet was about 450 calories a day, I still had to go to work every day, I still had 100% of my stomach, and I was told to continue working out. Of course I was completely exhausted. I got to where it was hard for me to lift my arms to wash my hair in the mornings! I eventually cut out the exercise and just went to bed earlier and earlier every night. You are not alone.

I don't actively count carbs but I tracked all my food for a month recently, just to get a sense of where I'm at since I started half marathon training and needed to increase my calorie intake. I seemed to be right around 70 net carbs a day most days?

@@NewSetOfCurves Thanks for the words of encouragement and it's great to hear you are happy with the results of your spiral lift. I don't know how I'll ultimately proceed, but I had a good cry on my lunch break and I'm feeling slightly better now.

Well now I really don't know what I'm going to do. My surgeon is recommending a spiral thigh lift. I didn't even know what that was, but I looked it up and now I think I have a good understanding of it. This PDF has some good info, photos, and diagrams for anyone who is curious: https://www.elpasoplasticsurgery.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/spiral-lift-3.pdf It is a much more significant surgery than I was planning on and I assume comes with a corresponding increase in recovery time. It also means new scars and that is the part where my husband really pitched a fit. A lot of it would replace/tie into my existing TT scar. But there would be new scars under my butt cheeks, in my groin crease (we were already planning on that with the medial thigh lift), and at the front of my pubic triangle, basically making a full triangle with where my TT scar already comes across the top. It's those new scars in the front my husband is most concerned about. And he really kind of hurt my feelings when we were discussing it last night, admitting that he doesn't like my existing scars and he preferred when I was just misshapen, pretty much. It was kind of a shock, because it's been 4.5 years since my first round of plastics and I never knew he felt that way about my scars. Now I am second guessing my plans to have any more plastics at all. I really feel like it's what I want to feel good about myself and confident, but if he thinks it's gross or unattractive, that might be a deal breaker. I don't really know how to proceed at this point. I'm feeling pretty defeated. At least I don't have to make any decisions for a while, because I know I won't be getting any surgery done until after my half marathon in April, and possibly not until the running season is over sometime in the fall.

First off, don't panic! It's only 14 pounds. Think back to past weight loss attempts and I'm sure you've regained far more in the past. 14 pounds is doable. You've caught it in time. You are determined to turn it around. So you are already off to a good start. Now is the time to evaluate what has changed for you. What behaviors have led to the weight gain? Where could you do better? Where are you already/still doing well? How can you get back to a solid foundation to rebuild your healthy habits on? You could start by tracking your food and making an effort to increase your activity level. Doesn't have to be anything extreme, just a few minutes a day to start.

I think it's very normal to fear failure at this early stage. It's hard to wrap our minds around the idea that this isn't just a "diet" like all the ones we've tried and failed in the past. Your sleeve is forever! It will be there as a tool for you forever! Yes, you have to learn to properly use that tool to your greatest advantage, but you have plenty of time to learn. Right now, in the early weeks, just focus on the day-by-day living. It's hard to balance getting in all your Protein and Water and walking and Vitamins and sleep! Work on finding that balance and you don't have to be perfect right out of the gate. You can stumble through it a bit until you get it figured out. And as long as you keep working on it, you WILL get it figure out. I promise!

Glad you found a surgeon you are comfortable with! Hope all goes very well. Be sure to post back and let us know once you're on the losers' bench. And of course feel free to post with all the normal pre-op questions, concerns, anxiety, etc.