FrankyG

Thanks so much for the information! I'm doing the Couch to 5K app right now (very poorly but trying, and it's making me laugh every time it says at least I'm doing better than those people still on the couch... it's like they know me!) I won't ever be a runner unless I duct tape my ginormous boobs down (they defy every sports bra/combo I've tried so far), but I think I might make it to a slow jogger.

Those things always tasted nasty and I saw no point in drinking them; they are pure chemical crap. You're supposed to be looking for more "whole" foods after surgery. I was told if it's something your great-grandparents wouldn't recognize or understand, then you shouldn't be eating/drinking it. I'd got with green tea or even coffee if you need something with a bit of caffeine in it. At least those are better for you than the absolute nasty crud in energy drinks. Or try a Protein bar since that would also have some carbs in it for quick energy too.

Funny but true!

Don't discount the hoops either. Being self pay, they'll definitely fast track you through the program if you want, and you could miss out on some things like the psych/counseling and learning about how to eat properly. I took about 3 months just on my own learning all I could about the after care and food and nutrition because I wanted this to be a long-term lifestyle change, not a quick fix. The sleeve is a tool not a cure. If you don't use the "honeymoon" period to change your eating habits completely, you could easily regain all the weight after a year or two. I was self pay and with a hernia repair it was around $13K total with all the hospital/anesthesiologist/radiologist extras (they say it's all included but then you'll get bills for the hospital copay, and the radiologist might not be included, and so on...).

I am so sorry about the cancer. BIG hugs. I get the being so depressed you're just eating whatever. This type of thing will test you and all of those new habits that are still being put into place, and it is so easy to fall back to using food as a comfort. But please please don't give up on yourself and your health. You'll need to be eating healthy and keep your strength up to deal with the cancer. Be kind to yourself but don't give up - keep fighting!

53 pounds in 5 months is a very decent loss, so don't panic too much about the time its taking... after all, I'm sure it took you years to put on the weight (just like most of us on here) so taking a year or so to get it off isn't terrible! Without knowing what exactly you're eating and whether you're hitting all of your daily requirements, we can't help you much tho. Are you eating healthy foods - Protein first, veggies next and complex carbs in moderation after that? Are you tracking your calories, carbs and fat - every bite of food that goes into your mouth - to really know how much you are eating? Are you getting your recommended levels of protein and Water daily? Are you doing moderate exercise? Can you clarify what you mean by eating all "the stuff I want" - meaning stuff that is bad for you (sugars, simple carbs, high fat, or heaven forbid junk food or fast food restaurants and crap in a box type prepackaged meals from the grocery)? (goodness I do hope not!!) You will lose some weight in the beginning even if you are eating absolute crap due to the restriction and the loss of appetite. But if you haven't thrown out all the crap food habits and taught yourself how to eat healthy, whole foods during the year or so you have before your body adjusts to the sleeve... then you will regain the weight. The sleeve is not a magical fix that means you don't have hard work ahead of you. It is a tool. It won't do all the work for you, you have to use it correctly and work HARD at it if you want to succeed. That being said, you are losing weight, and sometimes it just goes slowly. If you are tracking your food, eating healthy, and getting all of your daily requirements in, then you just get to be one of the "lucky" ones that will take longer to get the weight off - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But yeah, it sucks just the same to not be one of those types that gets to drop 100 pounds in 3 months and be at goal weight in a year. So do give us more details to work with and I'm sure there are many others here that can give you more ideas on things to look at and try.

I've got a followup appointment in April with my bariatric doc. I was self-pay and had visits included in that cost out through 1 year, but April is going to be about $60 since I am well over a year out now. I get nothing from the visits at this point. I am OCD about what I eat (record every bite of food every single day), exercise (training for a 5K currently, yoga, bodyweight), still losing weight but not at my goal (it's gonna happen this year, but not soon). My doc wanted this coming appointment because he felt I was still not a successful WLS patient in his eyes, so the way he made it sound, this appointment is to hopefully get the success box checked off as far as weight lost (he wants to have all patients lose 70% of their excess weight to consider them a success, and I'm technically just 5 pounds away from that right now). But he's also not good about the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and discounts my measurements compared to actual poundage lost. Which is a bit discouraging considering I am really proud that I've lost so much fat and gotten some lovely sleek muscle stuff going on now. And it's been mentioned every single visit about how he considers the patients that come in regularly for the rest of their life (like 2-3 times a year) to be more successful than the ones that disappear after 1 year (but then, how would he know if he never sees the ones that disappear?) But in any case, he's been setting up the keep coming in for checkups thing since the beginning, which if my insurance covered it and/or I felt I was really getting value out of it, I could see, but I don't have a checkmark in either of those categories. I am still working towards my goal. I am consistently losing weight, albeit slowly, but I'm putting on quite a bit of lean muscle too. I am still tracking everything, not letting stuff slide or neglecting anything. I don't care a bit about the surgeon/NUT approvals or "atta-girls" considering I'd have to pay for the privilege. So do I really need to go? Is there any reason I'm not thinking at this point other than wasting my time and money to get approval or non-approval depending on what arbitrary level they think I've achieved?

I'm thinking I'll be cancelling the appointment come Monday. I do not think there's anything else I need from them at this point. I can always go back if I need a refresher and can't find answers out on the interwebz.

Take the weight out of the equation: Your husband is in poor health, unable to do things he once enjoyed, you're now in a sexless marriage, and he's in denial about a serious health issue that he is doing nothing to remedy. Your husband is so deep in denial about his health, he's allowed it to make his world smaller and smaller, and at some point, he will withdraw from life so much that he abandons his family and his spouse. He's already begun this with the sex/intimacy - and it only gets worse from here on out. He needs to change; but he is the only one that can make that happen. I agree you both need marriage counseling, but he also might need the doctor flat out telling him that he is fooling himself right now, and without doing some DRASTIC changes regarding food/portion control and exercise, he will not only suffer and die early, but he will chase away the only people that truly love and care for him. If it was me in this position, I would tell him that I love him, that I am willing to do whatever it took to help him, but if he makes no effort himself, I see that he doesn't love me, or himself, or our relationship enough to do the hard work necessary. Saying he's working on it and actually working are two different things. He's shown you that he'd rather stay the weight he is and blame everything around him (weak wood? Breaking a CAR seat? OMFG no that's serious denial) than make any real effort. He's given up on having sex with his spouse - that is physical and emotional abandonment right there... what is your line in the sand? At what point do you tell him "I love you, but this is not what I thought our life would be like and I'm not willing to accept this any more." If he persists in this path after counseling and serious, blunt discussions on what you deserve in a marriage as well from your spouse don't wake him up, then he needs to walk the path he's chosen alone. I personally wouldn't be a party to the self destructive, fantasyland behavior he's participating in (and I am coming from a slightly similar background with a husband that had a serious health issue he was in denial about, that caused some marital issues, and came down to a serious "I love you, but we're looking at divorce if you don't make changes" discussion). I am so sorry you're going through this. I hope somehow he can see the light and make the changes necessary to get healthy and become a true partner in your marriage, but you have to also take care of yourself. EVERYONE deserves to be in a relationship with a loving, happy partner that cares about the state of their relationship enough to make changes when possible. Yours is not, and it will slowly poison everything around you unless he changes or you leave.

Your hormones are going to be crazy during your weight loss. Fat stores hormones, so as you lose fat, the hormones will get flushed back into your system and cause things like weird periods, mood swings (REALLY crazy ones - there are tons of thread on here about the mood swings!!), and increased fertility (so make sure to use birth control if sexually active). Many women that have had no cycles or irregular cycles for years see them start back up and become regular once they've had WLS. In your case, I would just monitor your cycle for a few months and see if things don't even out on their own. That is supposing that you're not pregnant - so take a test if you are late. I do hope your doctor told you BEFORE surgery that fertility will be all over the place and to take proper precautions - and pregnancy within 1 year of surgery is not good as you are going to be low on nutrients/vitamins in the beginning, and are still learning how to eat and allowing your body to adjust to the changes!

I eat Snacks. I eat 3 meals a day and 1-2 snacks in between. My snacks are things like a carbmaster yogurt (60 calories, 4 g carbs, 9 g protein), a string cheese stick and 3 grape tomatoes with a sprinkle of olive oil, a glass of Mootopia milk (or Fairlife if you're not in Texas), or some hummus and carrots, or a half cup of broccoli/cauliflower with a slice of lowfat cheese melted over. I stick with things that have either high Protein, high Fiber or both, and always try to keep the carbs down so when added to my daily carb totals the snacks don't pop me up over my max. I also count calories (will do so probably for the rest of my life) so I know when I can and can't have a snack. If you can't make smart choices on snacks or you don't want to count calories/carbs, then snacks might not be a good idea, but if you are keeping up with all of that, they do well to make sure you are fueling your body with healthy stuff and not going too long between meals so you forget to eat healthy during actual mealtimes.

Totally agree. I also love red pepper slices with things like chicken salad.

No food is going to stretch your sleeve unless you stuff yourself so full you explode. That's a stupid thing some docs/NUTs tell you to scare you into not eating bad foods because they think most people are not able comprehend how to eat properly without scare tactics. Sigh. Crackers are a bad food to eat in general. Any food that will turn to mush if you put it into a glass of Water is going to end up being a "slider" food, and crackers are all carbs. My doc told me not to eat them at all and if I had to have one, only after I was about 6 month out (triscuits that are whole wheat if I eat them at all are less bad, but still bad - no saltines or ritz) . The reason for the wait is to get your head straight on eating correctly - Proteins, veggies, complex carbs in moderation. Eating things like bread and crackers too early just get you hooked back on the crap foods you were eating before surgery. You have to use this time to throw out how you used to eat and learn how to eat healthy, whole foods. If you don't get it figured out before the honeymoon period is over with, you could regain weight after your metabolism adjusts (about 12-18 months after surgery).

Maybe, but it really depends on how long you smoked, how much you smoked, your continued exposure to second hand smoke... if they do the test looking for the metabolized chemicals of nicotine (cotinine) then you might still show it in your system up to a month after quitting. And nicotine replacement (gum/patches/vape) will cause you to test positive so you must be done with all of those at a minimum of a month out to be really sure you're not cancelled the day of surgery. Quit now. Smoking is horrible for you and you're having this surgery to improve your health and overall outcome for surgery too. It sucks quitting (I've been there, still miss it even a year out) but it is one of the absolutely best things you can do for yourself right now health-wise. Good luck!!

Your circumstances are different than most stalls; you're on medication (steroids) that cause weight gain and you're eating foods you should not be eating. Regularly consuming bread/tortillas and fruit has never been recommended, but especially if you're unable to move much with an injury. (and so sorry you're experiencing that! Sounds just awful and very frustrating!!) Carbs are not evil and should not be eliminated from any diet completely. You just need to use common sense and stop the empty/simple carbs - like fruit, sugar, Cereal, bread, etc... and make sure that carbs you do eat are complex (fiber-filled) ones (steel cut/old fashioned oatmeal, broccoli/cauliflower, etc). A stall of a month is normal in regular WLS sometimes. It isn't always that you're eating too much (but can be, so everyone should be monitoring their food intake). Your body can be losing fat while gaining muscle, and if you're not taking measurements and aware of how your clothes fit you, then you wouldn't know this otherwise because it would look like a stall on the scale (or a 1 pound up/1 pound down type of thing).

So sorry you've had some complications but hopefully it is all resolved for the better now! The mood swings and sadness and depressed feelings (and even rage, joy, irritability) can be chalked up to hormone swings because of the fat you're losing (fat is a very efficient hormone storage medium and as you lose fat, the hormones are flushed into your system to cause all sorts of mood changes). It is normal to feel down after having this procedure, especially the "what the @#! did I just do" type of depression and I imagine it's multiplied by having complications. Be kind to yourself and just know it does get better and once you start really improving weight and activity wise. Good luck to you!

I'm a year and 3 months out, and I eat around 1400 calories and around 50-100 carbs (I try to keep it around 75 tho). I have a high activity level however. Yoga 2X week, body weight routine 2X week, walk ~5 miles 5X week, and soon to be biking and swimming 5X week (all of this is in addition to regular errands/chores and I also do my own yardwork/gardening). The honeymoon period where the weight is "easy" to lose is around 12-18 months according to my doctor. But if you're watching your calories and keeping your activity level high and throwing in some curve balls periodically you can continue to lose weight like normal people do - 1-2 pounds a week (like having an occasional higher carb day if you're eating lower carbs or having a super low carb day every once in a while or having a day of high intensity exercise followed by a very low activity day to change things up). I've always been a slower loser, and the last 4 months I've lost around 5-7 pounds per month. My doc believes my high activity level is causing a slow down and told me to eat more (ha!), and I'm building muscle and losing fat so it doesn't show up on the scale as much as in my clothing sizes.

Fat stores hormones and it the same hormone mix that causes PMS. So you will experience bouts of extreme irritability, anger, weepy/sadness, all quite possibly in the same hour. Even more fun if it's a guy who has no idea what PMS feels like! Just warn close friends/family that you might be moody for the next couple of months as you lose weight and remind yourself when you start seeing red or feeling like bursting into tears - this is a hormonal reaction and to adjust how you react towards yourself and others. It's not them or you - it's a biological process your body is going through - so try not to let it get you down or take it out on others. Excuse yourself and go scream or cry in the bathroom if that helps, but keep calm and remember it's just your body breaking down fat and clearing out stuff it doesn't need any more!

unjury made me sick every time. I can't even stand the smell. It was the unflavored but it had a weird taste to me and like I said so nauseous and threw up every time. I had to try a few different types before finding something that worked for me, but I would absolutely not waste that much money on something to sample. My NUT gave me a few scoops of Unjury so I could try it - might try asking at your doc's office if anyone has a single serve or small sample pack for less (or free).

It is never "just one smoke" is it? I'm so very sorry you are going through all of this. I hope things work out both with your kids and with your health. BIG hugs, and stay strong!! (and I also liked your post in sympathy) I freaking loved smoking and was really depressed about having to quit for surgery, but I managed to do so about three months out. I've had some pretty awful things happen since, and felt drawn to smoke many times, but somehow resisted. I realized that I'm healthier now than I have ever been in my life, and despite still occasionally missing the whole smoking thing (I even loved the smell - so gross, but I think that is why the vape thing never appealed to me so that's a blessing anyway) I never want to go back... only forward, and having a cigarette would be a huge step backwards.

Thanks! You're right, can I ask what you were told your calories and carbs should be? Like I said, the NUT that was there and went through the surgery left and I'm not sure the new girl is 100% knowledgeable about all this. Sent from my SM-N920T using the BariatricPal App Here's the thing: my NUT didn't tell me to hit a certain number for my carbs. I had to figure out how my body reacted to them on my own. Some folks do great on super low carb and have no problems. Me, I like food, and I figured out how to read labels and also the difference between good carbs and bad carbs and started testing how much I could eat of (healthy) carbs and still lose weight and feel good (both eating things I liked and overall feelings). I know now that my "sweet spot" is around 50-75 carbs daily. So that is what I use as my guide. If I notice I've stalled out for a few weeks or am feeling bloated, I know it's because I let my carbs creep up and rein them back in. You will have to figure out how your body works with carbs and fat and such once you're cleared to eat all food - but in general, most people do better when they keep their carbs below 100 grams, so definitely start working on things from there and see how you do. I remember at about 3 months out, I was lucky to be hitting 700 calories a day and getting around 60-70 grams of Protein and no more than 50 carbs a day. I had no energy for the first 3-6 months and worried about ever getting real exercise in, but as I got the hang of eating healthy stuff, I also started feeling like moving more. And I have a neighborhood pool, so I started going to swim several times a week and by the end of summer, I was riding my bike round trip there and back (~1 mile) in addition to swimming for a few hours. So that kickstarted me getting active, and I slowly started upping my calories to support the increase in activity. Now at a year and almost 3 months, I'm hitting 80+ grams of protein and 1400-1600 calories a day. I try to keep my carbs around 50-75 grams daily (net carbs, which is the total carb number minus the amount of fiber) but I have had it pop up a few times to 100 grams like when I make a pot of Beans (complex carbs, but they'll still run that number up). Low carb is usually considered under 100 grams a day average, and I definitely try to make that my absolute cutoff. I make sure that the carbs are high Fiber (complex) so at least I know they're the good carbs. But I am also doing yoga twice a week, bodyweight routine twice a week (pushups/squats/dumbells) and ~5 miles walk/jog 5X a week in addition to regular activities like grocery shopping or yard work (and swimming/biking a whole bunch as soon as the pool opens!). I was told at my year appointment back in December that I was eating too few calories and needed to up it due to my activity level. I eat a whole lot of chicken salad since it is easy to make a big batch and eat on it for a few days (I put red grapes, green onions and curry spice in mine and it's fab). I use red pepper strips instead of bread or crackers - tastes super with the chicken salad and give me a nice crunch too. I also make lots of baked fish and chicken with aromatic spices and cook with real butter - I make a side of broccoli/cauliflower or sesame green beans to go with and it's a very nice meal. For Snacks, lots of yogurt (I like Kroger's Carbmaster line as they are only 60 calories and have 4 grams of carbs and lots of flavors), or cheese sticks or hummus and red peppers/carrots. When I do eat a sandwich (a few times a month), I use the Aldi Fit & Active whole wheat bread - 45 calories for two slices with 16 carbs, but with the 5 grams of fiber, that's only 11 net carbs for the two slices and it tastes just like soft wheat bread. I'm still losing weight and gaining muscle so I am definitely not done at this point, but even if I don't lose another pound, I'm thrilled with where I am now and anything more is just awesome.