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Or when you get on an airplane and low and behold you now have 6 inches of seatbelt left and don't have to ask for an extender. Or when you sit in a booth at a restaurant and you not only fit but have a lot of extra room. Or when someone takes a picture of you and your shocked by how thin your face looks! I love being shocked! And taking pictures now. Or when your husband tells you to slow down you are walking to fast. Or you have to turn around and ask if they are ok because your cruising and they cannot keep up! Thanks for starting this thread! It reminds folks do all the good things going on in their lives because the made a decision to have weight loss surgery.

It is interesting how surgeons have different protocols for their patients. I don't believe there is a complete list o things to stay away from but for my surgeon, the bigs ones are NOcarbonated beverages or drinking through a straw. No fluids 30 min before and after you eat. I can pretty much eat whatever my body tolerates which could be dangerous because I don't seem to suffer from dumping. I am smart enough to know what is good for me and stay away from those things that are not. The reality is, if you focus on getting healty Protein and some vegetables in first, nothing else really fits. That is how the tool is supposed to work. If you go off plan and do things to stretch your pouch, you will be right back where you started. Surgery still requires will power on your end. The most important thing I have noticed is you really can do most everything in moderation and what feels fantastic about that is you actually savor your food instead of wolf it down. Good luck!

Hi there. Smoking is one of the hardest things to quit but so worth it when you finally do. I quit many many years ago so I did not have the pressure from my surgery as you do. I will tell you I tried the cutting back thing several times but always had the excuse that smoking calmed my nerves. That approach only caused me to fail time and time again. For me what worked was simply saying I am done with this no matter how difficult. I smoked 2 packs a day and then one day I said I am done. I still had a pack left, it was my way of saying I don't need you and I am in control of my own health. I never touched another smoke again. I made sure I had mints and chewing gum on hand and I did it. The first 3/4 days were the worst but then things got better. That was 27 years ago but I still remember the feeling of kicking that horrible, expensive habit. Unfortunately there is no and should not be a replacement. You seem to have already taken steps to better your health but you need to do this soon if you really plan to have this surgery. Let me tell you, this surgery is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I am grateful for this gift every single day. After the first few weeks of getting through all the recovery and learning to eat differently, it becomes a whole new healthy world! Good luck to you!

I am 3 months out and never felt hungry until I started working out. Now I actually get hungry but my stomach does not growl for that reason. My stomach actually makes noise, I would call it growling every time I put anything in to it. Sometimes it is loud enough for my husband to hear it. It is almost like it has a mind of its own. The good news is when I am hungry it does not take much to fill be up. About 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of food and I am full again.

Hi there. The advice you are getting on going to a seminar and speaking with a surgeon about your particular health concerns is absolutely the best advice. If you go in with your heart set on one approach and then find out there is a better one because of your situation, it might take you a while to get your head around it. Once they know your medical and emotional situation, they can make an excellent suggestion for you. Don't be afraid like some about rerouting your stomach or removing part of it. They have been doing these procedures for some time now. Be open to all of your options and most importantly the best option for your situation. An example would be, if you suffer from reflux or Gerd, you do not want the sleeve as it can make that situation much worse. There are a lot of revisions form the lap band to either a sleeve or RNY. If you have diabetes and other comorbidities you really need to understand all of your options. Go to a bariatric center of excellence team and attend a seminar. That is going to serve you best. Good luck on your journey! I hope u have a great new year!

Great topic! This last year was exciting for me and 2015 will be even better! Last year we went on a few family vacations and my family is extremely caring about me. I have psoriatic arthritis for years and it has damaged some of my joints. At my largest weight I was 310 and in horrible pain everyday. I refuse to take pain meds because they simply amplify that pain and have horrible side effects. So, if there was something I could not do, they refused to do it without me. That meant many times I would try things I shouldn't be and end up in so much pain it was hard to enjoy my vacation and they spent the whole time asking me if I was ok. That is no longer the case after dropping over 60lbs. I move so much faster that I find myself having to slow down and ask my hubby if he is ok. In February we are taking my family to Hawaii! We have a lot of activities planned and I will not be the one that holds everyone up. In the spring I want to be able to ride a bike again and have been building stamina and balance in my exercise program so I can accomplish this. I am going to get to my goal weight before my surgiversary. I was layed off last April from a job that I had been at for 25 years as a sr. Director. That job created so much stress in my life. Another goal will be to move my family from its current location in Minneapolis to Nevada. Once there I will land a good job doing what I love most. Cannot wait for this next year, it is going to be a great one! Happy New Year everyone!

I weigh daily mostly because I use fitness pal to track my progress. When you do that, you have to not allow yourself to get upset if the scale doesn't move because that will happen along the way. There have been many days where I remain the same or even gain a pound back. Now of course I realize that many things can cause that but it is surely not my diet or lack of excercise because I follow the pla and the plan works! I did however have a stall that lasted 3 weeks and that I would call a real stall. I learned by talking to my nutritionist and trainer that I was not eating enough and working out too much so my body went into starvation mode. I made a quick adjustment and within a couple of days my stall broke. Never in my life have I been told to eat more and excercise less! LOL What it taught me was that your body is a funny thing and it requires you to change things up. If you do the same thing or eat the same things everyday it gets stagnant and you end up in a stall. I notice if I have a week with no loss I change up my excercise program a bit and change the foods I am eating a little and then I am back on track.

I totally agree with selecting samples of protein powder vs. buying the large expensive containers. Even if you taste them before and like them, you may not or should I say your tummy may not after surgery. I spent over 100.00 at GNC on protein powder only to find out my tummy could not handle it. I ended up giving it away and then trying a premade that I love and still use every morning for breakfast. Good luck and congratulations on your upcoming surgery!

My year has been fantastic! I started the process in early January, had my bypass in September and have been feeling better every single day. I have more energy and ultimately more drive to continue to towards my spring goal. I suffer from psoriatic arthritis and my main goal was to be able to ride a bike again this coming spring/summer. In order to do that I had to lose enough weight and get rid of swelling in my joints. I Also got rid of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure! I exercise every other day and I feel great. I will be on that bike this spring and I will reach my weight goal this year!

I sure hope so. My tailbone hurts so bad that I cannot get comfortable. I am ordering a coccyx pillow on line because I thought it might help.

I am 3 months out and still only getting about 750 to 800 calories per day.

Thanks for sharing your stories! I already know that sweets do not cause dumping for me and I had a huge sweet tooth before surgery. The good news for me at this moment is I hate the taste of anything that has a lot of sugar or even artificial sweeteners in it. I am hoping this lasts forever but I am guessing not. Anyway, I just wanted to say it is important that you forgive yourself immediately, it was the holidays after all. Get yourselves back on track immediately so you don't go down that road. We all know what we have to do to leverage this tool. Don't be so hard on yourselves! Just time to pull up our boot straps and move forward. Good luck!

I am not much of a drinker, before surgery I would have a cocktail once every couple of months so this has not been a big deal for me. I was told by my surgical team and actually had to sign a contract that I would not use alcohol for minimum of 1 year post surgery. I was wondering if that was the norm for most surgeons? I have seen quite a few folks mention they have had alcohol even weeks out of surgery and I have wondered about this topic. I am a rule follower by nature so I will refrain for any least the year, but I am curious.

Nothing. Stalls happen. They can be very frustrating but if you follow the plan given to you by your surgical team, your body will begin losing again. I have been told that your body actually thinks you are starving it temporarily so it holds onto the fat storage until it knows that you are going to feed it appropriately, once it realizes everything is ok, you will start to lose again. This potentially will happen often enough to make you crazy if you are a scale watcher. (Which I do weigh in everyday) I have just learned that there are days when I am not going to lose. If it goes on for a while (my longest stall was 3 weeks) I have learned to change things up as your body does not like the same routine. I either change up exercise or even how many calories I take in. When I went through my last stall I was told to eat more calories and exercise a little less frequently. I broke my stall within two days.

I did have to do a stress test but it was not the bariatric clinic that required it. It was my general doctor. I also had an ekg. No stomach ultrasound. Lots of blood work. I had already done 2 sleep studies and am on bi-pap so they just wanted my records. I did not have to do a pulmonary test for this but I did have one and they just have you breath into a tube a bunch of times. Very quick and very easy. Then of course the pre-op physical.

Wow! Congratulations and thanks for the great inspiration!

@@kittykat But the way, I don't eat dessert any more at all. My taste buds simply do not like sweets. That was a huge win because I definately had a huge sweet tooth. I have tried a bite of my hubby's just to see and the sugar tastes horrible to me. Every Christmas we have a tradition that has been passed down for many generations. We have Strawberry Schaum Torte. I now make it because everyone else on my husbands side of the family who knew how has passed on. I am now teaching my granddaughter how to make it and it is her very favorite dessert. She waits all year for a piece. Anyway, it has a lot of sugar in it. I was so very proud of myself that I did not even taste nor did I want to and I did not even miss it. I would rather have some nuts or cheese.

@@kittykat, I have not experienced any dumping. I sometimes with get pain in my chest if I eat too fast or nauseous if my pouch does not like a particular food. I can tell usually with a bite or two if that is going to happen and then I stop wait til it passes and get something else a bit later. I will tell you the first couple weeks of eating regular food (still high protein, low/no carbs, low fat) that are a bit tougher because you really have to learn how to eat all over again. Sometimes you go to fast or don't chew well enough you can get some discomfort. That usually happens when you are not paying enough attention. I never over eat, I measure everything at home so when we do go out I have a pretty good idea of the portion size I can tolerate. You will have to keep us posted on your surgery date and recovery.

@@DuchessD I am so sorry to hear you had complications! I hope you are now on the road to recovery. Incidentally that water weight should come off fairly fast. In fact 6 weeks from now, you will be wishing your weight fell off as quickly! LOL. Good luck and take care of yourself!

I do think it has a lot to do with age and where you held your weight and if you had children. I unfortunately was blessed with my grandmothers large (fat) upper arms. I have always been very self conscious about them. In the heat of summer you would see me in sleeves that went past my elbows. I am losing weight rapidly and I excercise a lot, in fact I have been told to back off a little because I could not take in enough calories to offset the exercise. Anyway, I will definitely be looking at plastics when I finally reach my goal. I am also 51 years old and my skin will not bounce back as well. I am expecting to have to pay out of pocket.

Congratulations on your success so far. You look fantastic! You should be very proud of how far you have come in such a short amount of time. Isn't it fun to watch the changes and they happen so darn rapidly!

Nope, I believe that is pretty typical.so you must look like you were shot too! LOL. My husband is so weird but funny.

The clothes thing is really a challenge but one I am very happy to deal with! I haves dropped 4 sizes and am close to needing a smaller size in pants already! I have gone out and purchased a few pair only because I travel so much lately. I just don't want to buy too much because I know I am going to keep losing. My calorie intake is between 650 and 800 and I exercise every other day but stay very active on the days I don't. No sitting my behind on the couch all day! Congratulations on your progress and good luck with your weight loss goals!

I had RNY gastric bypass. I have 6 small incisions. My husband says it looks like I was shot with a machine gun! LOL. They are still red but I am told they will turn white with time.

I second the vote for premier protein which is sold at SAMs or Costco. It is already mixed and sold by the case. In the first couple of weeks I did have milk it down a little because it was a bit heavy for me but in my 6th week I found that I could drink the whole 11 oz. 30 grams of protein drink. I have one every morning and it boosts my protein for the day. In the beginning before I could eat real food I drank 2 a day. The chocolate tastes like good chocolate milk. I cannot do the vanilla, for me it tastes a little too sweet.