Stevehud

a lot depends on the soup as well, for example during my liquids stage I had cream of broccoli, and I strained out the actual pieces of broccoli because you don't want small pieces of vegetation in your sutured area of your sleeve. now in the pureed stage I just removed any bigger bits so little small things I didn't bother much with. but that's just me.

I assume all profile information is available to anybody. on the brighter side, you look awesome, Well done indeed!!

Heres something to try there is a company called aboutttime yes it is one word, ill get the link in a second. They make the gentlest flavored Protein mixes around. they literally have no more than 5 ingredients in the entire product, whey isolate, xanthan gum, natural flavors and stevia. the flavor is sooo mild in some cases its almost barely perceptible. I recommend them to people with hyper taste sensitivity or the over sweetness issues. heres is a link for their single serving pack, you can also get them through amazon, ebay and walmart.com they also make a product called fill shake and go, its a pre filled plastic bottle with one serving of mix in it you add the milk or almond milk etc and shake it up and voila, great for on the go or work if you have the need. http://tryabouttime.com/shop/single-serving-pack/ You can also see my video taste tests on my blog at http://cuttingthefatwithaknife.blogspot.com just scroll through the olde entries to see them. They have very mild flavors the chocolate vanilla and strawberry are excellent, especially the strawberry its so mild it taste like a light strawberry shake, very smooth and easy. the birthday cake is ok, I had one on my birthday but more as a special thing than everyday and I haven't tried the new flavors yet, cinnamon swirl and mint mocha. They also have a new vegan line called abouttime VE , made with coconut and stuff. I hope you find something you like. Personally the Syntrax nectars work for me, another hint is Water in the fruit nectars and milk or almond milk etc in the chocolate, strawberry vanilla type.

Ill be honest, this really isnt the place to ask for money. Many many of us are in debt over our surgeries anyway. We also have to find creative ways to fund our own plastic surgery. Secondly, you dont have a profile set up, no name, no whereabouts, no pictures, no email surgery dates, surgeon, nothing , so as far as we know you dont really exist as a WLS patient. Even your go fund me page has no name or contact information. The picture on your go fund me page looks great but it shows no skin issues. I would suggest talking with various plastic surgeons in your area, they do much work at cost or for free to needy people on a regular basis, also you can lok into contact the WLSFA ( Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America, they give grants for WLS and for Plastic surgery as a resultof WLS. They help a lot of people every year. Your doctor can read about it below. at http://www.wlsfa.org/looking-for-help/faq-about-our-grant-referral-program/

heres a tip, for those who drink Protein shakes. If your mix says one scopp try using 1 1/2 or even two, while anything over 40 at a time ( grams of protein that is) wont get absorbed, theres no reason you cant take in more protein up to the max/ SO for example i use 1.5 scoops of Syntrax fuzzy navel in 5 to 6 ounces of Water. that way i get about 39 grams of protein in a 5 to 6 ounce serving, which is seriously great and if you have a hard time getting all your fluids in, this is a way to get your protein with minimal fluids ( but keep drinking fluids please!) anyway just a little tip, also use a blender or nutri ninja etc to mix your shakes, they blend better and taste better well blended. hope this helps! You Can Do It!

Syntrax nectars fuzzy navel, twisted cherry, etc and cuappuccino. Worst for me was any of teh readys made shakes, like premier, rtd30 etc. If your interested you can see my video taste tests of many flavors and brands on my blog, the videos are spread across the posts, so you have to go back a little. but im brutally honest about the tastes etc. i will be moving them to you tube probably this evening and ill post a link to them then as well.

when i first looked inside myself, ( introspection not surgically) i realized that i never saw myself as fat, one of the coping mechanisms is our mind trick us into just being ourselves, not a fat person. Sure we feel the weight etc and the results of it, but the changes while i can see it in clothing sizes, in energy level, in health, but you stilll feel like you and you always will because who else can you be? I do believe in the side by side picture thing. My wife keeps a pic of me from went i graduated after going back to school two years ago when i was at my heaviest and we splice in a pic of me now, so i can see the true difference. i do notice it in my face, at first i thought, who is this guy its nt me, but i do like him. so i get used to it. and i look forward to meeting the skinny me inside this guy. When my surgeon told me my weight loss goal, ( down to 170 pounds from 374 , he said " you're going to lose a whole person, and since he isnt paying rent, lets kick him out." it was meant as a joke, but it was very perceptive. We do lose a whole person in becoming the new us.

great advice on this one! way to go all.

it would be nice to facepalm yourself and say "gee i never thought of that." in a very sarcastic voice. But people would think you were the rude one. its a no win situation. although there is a great deal to be said for sarcasm!

stalls aren't fun my first, the dreaded 3-week stall was 6 days long and drove me nuts but when it broke it was nice. i just beat a 4-day stall this morning. They happen. i recommend , that if you tok measurements before surgery that you re-measure your self now. you will see that many times, even though the weight isnt changing, your body is. Keep at it.

to add an avatar or picture go to the top of the page on the right click on your name and select my profile. Once opened click on the empty space where your picture should be. To add someone as a friend click on their name and when it opens their profile at the bottom of their profile is a link that says add me as a friend. Simple. Welcome abaord.

pI had to lose 18 pounds pre op, i did two shakes a day one for Breakfast and one for lunch then a big salad with Protein in it ( hard boiled egg, pepperoni, chicken breast or tuna. no sugar, in 1.5 months i lost 30 pounds. I do question why someone would eat a meal and follow it with a Protein shake unless youre trying to gain weight. protein shakes have calories so to add them to 3 meals a day seems very off. I reccomend Syntrax nectars shakes, you can getthe variety pack of flavors for cheap. you can also watch my video taste tests online on my blog at http://cuttingthefatwithaknife.blogspot.com Good luck and You can do it

Jeez where di you gals find these guys??I would never forget an anniversary, birthdate, heck if i dont tell my wife i love her at least 10 times a day i feel bad. I cannot imagine not being attentive and supporting. were going on our soon to be 17th anniversary in april, and ill never stop being good. im sorry for you gals.

I feel everything you said exactly. On my day of breaking the 300 barrier since, around 1998 or so, i was elated. everything you said is correct my clothes suddenly stopped fitting, thankfully we have no need to wear anything special in work, so i wear all my pants have elastic waists like workout pants , sweats etc. I for fun put on a dress shirt i used to wear that i used to have to wear a collar extender button on just to fit my 23 inch neck and it fits me like a tarp, just huge on me now. lol it is an amazing journey so far, keep it up man.

from another guys f point of view. I played football as well, i was a lineman but at 5 foot 8 a lot of my bulk to plug the holes was from fat which got worse as i got older. I remember telling a coach i wanted to lose 75 pounds in the offseason and he questioned why i would do so knowing i wouldn't be a lineman anymore. lol Like you i have/had a lot of health issues, asthma, chronic pneumonia, leg vein problems, back issues, sleep apnea, GERD, joint issues, arthritis, neuropathy etc. anyway, my high weight was in January 2013 i weighed 408. i got that down to 374 in March of 2014 my pre op diet weight was 362 and now 48 days post surgery im at 284 pounds. The health difference is amazing. Im a little older than you at 44 but not too much and yes i too had that im so young why remove parts of me...thought. but is it worth it? man, if i knew now...i would have done this ages ago. The changes in body and in health are drastic. always used to laugh when i heard people who lose weight say they have moe energy, but I most certainly do, i dont linger in bed anymore, i go to the gym and i used to ride the bike for 15 minutes in physical therapy and get off and almost die from fatigue and being out of breath, now i ride for 1/2 hour with no obvious discomfort ( except my ass from those bike seats, dang) but i also started a half hour circuit training program after i finish my bike work 4 times a week. My leg vein issue is all but gone, i can stand now for about ten times as long as i used to, walking as well. my sleep apnea is extremely lessened, i havent had an asthma attack since surgery, my GERD is gone, my back pain and joint pain is much lessened. I actually feel like a human for the first time , since i was young. Is it easy? Hell no. Is it worth it..Hell yes. Hit me up if you have any private questions. Good luck, and You can do this if you decide to.

The sex thing is already q huge difference for me and the wife. Honestly im looking forward to walking, jus plain old being able to walk, and be able to walk around places like disney, or go away and see places. maybe europe. those are the things i really want to do. to be able to fly without people seeing me walk on a plane and thinking oh god dont let him sit near me, or have to ask for the seatbelt extender or buy two seats. that and i want to run a 5 or 10k

There are lots of differing opinions on this. some people and nutritionists say calorie count is not a valid measurement as long as your eating primarily Protein and low fat, low/no sugars / carbs. Personally if i stay away from junk i dont think I could take in that many calories in a day(1100 that is) i had my surgery 6 days before you, and i take in about 600 sometimes 800 but thats rare. i literally had a handful of doritos and some potato chips and pretzels during the superbowl and i was instantly put in a stall for 3 days i lost zero, finally broke this morning with a .8 pound loss. I guess id say this as well, the way to make the sleeve fail, is to graze that is eating constantly many little bad meals. I would talk to your nutritionist, and remember protein first and foremost always. You can do it!

Keeper. i do almost no sugar in my dailylife now post op sleeve. thats my goal. i do zero carbs if i can help it, and I usually can. my carbs come from things like green Beans, but so few its not enough to worry about. other than that i only do monkfruit in my coffee which is no sugar. paleo doesnt work for me because there is too much fat, but what i eat would fall into that category. im just tighter than they are and of course its hard to get in enough doing paleo if you can eat more than 3 to 4 ounces.

yes at two weeks there was too much going on for me to have considered travel. just not good for me and my sleeve too much to think about Water Vitamins, Calcium, puree foods, liquids, Protein shakes ad infinitum. But to each their own. i hate traveling before im hoping to love it now that im not taking up so much room lol.

yes it is amazing isnt it. Great job!

excess skin unfortunately, is a function of age, amount of weight lost and speed of loss, and age. yes I said age twice as it is doubly important, as we get older our skin loses collagen and elasticity that helps skin to bounce back so to speak. The older we get the less likely this can happen. This is why so many WLS patients opt for plastic surgery 18 to 24 months after surgery. it is very inevitable in many cases. although some people who are younger will have a much better chance of tightening up.

i just cant eat them, i know many swear by them but the texture is just so...well i cant describe it. Just not for me. people have told me to throw them in the microwave for 10 seconds, but id rather just drink a shake. But thanks for posting that, im sure people will take advantage.

i had the pleasure of watching my Patriots win after i swore we were about to lose. but I cheated food wise and i shouldn't have. i brought good things to eat, and yet i still had about a handful of doritos and a few chips. sigh, oh and i stuck my finger in some frosting. as a result ive been in a two day stall. could be a coincidence but probably karma or whatever ( hmm weight Karma, that a scary thought) anyway. the champagne ( 1 small glass) probably didnt help either. Of course we did the shaved head party after the super bowl. so maybe i lost a half pound of hair lol. but i need to be around my friends, they help me with my weight loss, the ego boosting and confidence build i get from people saying how good i look is a big help. It also helps my friends all drink beer and i have never been a beer drinker, i can not imagine one of my friends had 14 beers. i do not even want to know how many calories that is. Probably more than i have in two weeks. Unfortunately we have also had 3 feet of snow over the last ten days, so its been hard to get to the gym. although shoveling snow, when the wind chill makes in 15 below zero, is very much a workout.

salty crunchy things, potato chips, doritos, heck they came out with these special k cracker chips, only 120 calories for like 28 chips and low in carbs and sugar, and have like 8 grams of Protein, but i still should not indulge. i ate some doritos and some chips the other day for the super bowl, and now im stuck in a stall for two days, sigh, gotta learn the hard way i guess. also on that homemade creamer, sweetened condensed milk is made by putting corn syrup or in some cases cane syrup, into heavy cream. You might as well drink pure sugar. That's the single worst thing i can think of besides just chugging cane sugar lol. be careful out there.

extreme couponers drive me up a wall. we were at a grocery store once and my wife went to reach for a coupon out of one of those pop up machine things, and a woman jumped in pushed her arm out of the way opened the machine and took all the coupons, said " too slow" to my wife and strolled off. My favorite is people that sell coupons on ebay. they will say ten 50 cent coupons for 2:50. more power to you for buying ten 16 ounce dish detergents. whoop dee do. Evidently though extreme couponers break a lot of laws. they use coupons with glitches built in, the dumpster dive to get newspapers when they are thrown out. they steal the inserts out of papers at stores. When i was much younger my parents picked up a 150 paper, paper route that we did each day for extra money, and we always had to fight off people that would come to where the papers were dropped off and try and steal all the inserts. The paper we worked for now has Zero of those machines you put in the money and take a paper because people always took every paper on insert days. i guess having been in a food addiction i can understand an obsession. but feeling good about a big mac was never against the law.