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@@Kathy Coop I've been thinking, and after I decided to come back here, and read your follow-up, a couple things occurred to me. Yeah yeah your family are vets, and glad to have them as company, but you, sadly are not. You are at the least a very poor writer who's posts exude a sense of "I am better than you, look at how much I weight and look what I have been through!" That and a dollar will get you a cheap cup of coffee. I see from your whopping post count that you are always posting helpful comments here (lol 12) and your sterling reputation (3) means that the folks who read those golden nuggets of information really do like you. NOT. In a public forum you attacked me, a safe place as it were where I do not have to worry about attack. Good job being the first hag to come along and ruin a nice place to post. My posts are intended to be humorous whenever possible, I find that if people are laughing, then they keep reading, and allow whatever it is I am saying to get through. No I am not two years out, but in 18 months I will be. And you know what the difference is: I'll still be here sharing my journey with these wonderful people, while you will still be a miserable person. I would hate to have to live around you. What could you possibly have hoped to accomplish by attacking me? Here are two good examples what should be happening, first, I am exercising my 1st amendment rights by posting here. You similarly have the right to NEVER READ ONE OF MY POSTS AGAIN. Really, forget I exist. I made a choice, 1.5 years ago to live a different kind of lifestyle, yeah almost 2 years ago. Oh wait, but I am a noob! I gave up sugar nearly 2 years ago, along with corn and processed foods etc. Long before I had surgery. You judge me, and that is wrong. Essentially you are a troll. And as a policy of mine I do not feed trolls. This will be my last post regarding you. Personally I don't care what you have done, do or will do. Live, die, whatever. Just don't be stupid enough to come after me again. I've been posting in forums and dealing with trolls like you for well over a decade. This is the nicest I can possibly be, further attacks will cause my tone to change in a dramatic fashion. So go take your selfie, put on your size 4 dress, and if you should forget to look both ways while crossing the street, I will personally nominate you for a Darwin award.

@@Kathy Coop And in one fell swoop my desire to post on these boards is gone. Well done. Oh and I have dealt with stall(s) and have hanging skin, but I guess I am do not meet your requirements as a "veteran" unless of course you mean from the military, in which case you are sadly mistaken. So well done, one less poster to worry about. I have better things to do than to respond to negative critics who apparently know everything as they have been a board warrior for a longer time than I. All I ever tried to do here was to motivate people and share my personal experiences as a guide or to help, I can clearly see that this is counterproductive. I never laid any claim to being a "super weight loss expert" however you seem to have labeled me as such. Goodbye

@@Kathy Coop I find it better to avoid it like herpes. Hollow calories, no reason to eat it. Splenda works fine in my coffee. Asides from coffee and yogurt I do not eat anything sweet. I signed up for a lifestyle change and I am going to stick to it. Weight loss has been amazing this past month, nearly a pound a day. My NUT will faint on the 6th when I see her.

@@Kathy Coop I have come close 3 times now. I have a firm understanding of what is okay, and what is too much. And by close I mean one more bite, and I would have been gone. I got sweats and a rapid heartbeat. A bit of nausea, and the desire to lay down, but no vomiting or volcano ass! Phew! I do not imbibe sugar, however some things contain natural sugar, like an apple. 1/2 an apple is my limit. The yogurt I eat Oikos Triple Zero has Stevia in it, which apparently the body thinks is sugar, one I can get away with, two and I am right on the border. Plus full, so I never went for a third, lol. Dumping as I see it is a blessing. I CANNOT eat sugar. That is a good thing. Although my NUT said the oddest thing to me last time I saw her. She said after a year or so, dumping is not as bad, you might be able to eat like a 1/2 a cupcake. I nearly exploded at her. I was like do you tell everyone who comes in here to eat cupcakes after a year? WTF is wrong with you? She tried backpedaling, but by then I was all over her. I nearly stormed out of her office and complained to the staff that this moron is telling RNY GB that Cupcakes are okay after a year. I was FUMING. She is new and I told the desk staff to never schedule me with her again.

@@sharowna I found the key was to apply it to everything. Like when I measure out ingredients for a recipe, I am always at least 1% under. 1% less cream in my am coffee. I leave the last bite of every meal on the plate. I walk in right angles, no diagonal walking. Every little bit adds up. When I walk home, I do a lap around my block before I go in my house. Just little things that add up to amazing results. lol I sound like a fanboi.

@@sharowna I would, if not inappropriate, to suggest, incorporating the Aggregation of Marginal Gains into your life. It's just 1% at a time, but it adds up. Read the link a couple posts above, about Team Sky and what they were able to accomplish 1% at a time. It is a lifestyle change, but a very positive one. If you really want to chance, this is a fairly easy way to do so and the results over time and unimaginable. Oh and us Italians gotta stick together! Link here

I will toss my hat in this ring. The concern I have with the sleeve, it is a fairly new option. Remember everyone jumping up and down and touting the band as the greatest thing ever. In 2014 there were more band > bypass revisions than band installations. Why? Long term data. The Bypass has been around since the 1960's! It has gone through so many revisions it is hard to keep track of them all. This is why the complication rate is so low. It is one of the most well understood procedures you can have. The sleeve, while very easy surgically (comparatively) lacks 10 year studies. It also lacks head to head studies at 5 and 10 years against the bypass. If I were going to wait 10 years, I would look at the studies and make up my mind then. However, after the debacle that was the band, I went with "The Golden Standard" the Bypass. And I do not regret it for even a moment. Surgery October 5th, weight in before surgery 295.9, weight this morning 234.4, 61.4 pounds in 9 weeks? I'll take it. And I feel great. But, to each his own. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

@@sharowna Thank you for the kind words, I am but a mortal man, with a highly analytical mind. Before I retired I spent my career fixing cars. I solve problems. That is how my brain is wired. Everything is a problem with a solution. The more challenging, the better. I have many of my own faults, I just choose not to share them, lol. If I can help even one person be successful, I would be thrilled. Many many people have helped me, and my posts here and other places are my way to pay it forward. Happy New Year!

@@NovaL Be sure to come back and let me know if it was as eye opening to you as I found it! Happy Holidays from this side of the pond!

@@Dar200 How much MOM did you use? Worst case, for me, has been 4 tablespoons for 2 days, then all hell breaks loose. Perhaps the Sqatty Potty will help. I too suffer from a familial ass issue, my mother has always had ass problems. She in turn gave it to me (nothing diagnosed, I used Senna Lax 8.6mg X4 a day for the last decade or so) and I gave it to both of my children. Neither could poop when born. They were both 6 weeks premature, and neither has had any long term effects, but both required prune juice mixed with 1 or 2 bottles a day at a very controlled dose to be able to go. My niece had Hirshprongs disease, she required 3 surgeries to remove sections of her intestines. That poor girl. She is fine now, but it took years. Given what I have seen in my family I am perhaps a bit quick to jump to the gun given my personal and family history of ass malfunction. Amusingly enough, the only strange thing I ever developed is the inability to use any toilet to poop in other than my own. I mean I just do NOT use any other toilet other than my own. No idea why, but I have been that way since I was a kid. The Army was very hard for me, training was one thing, but being in combat out in the field, sleeping in a defensive formation and shitting in a plastic bag and carrying it around with you, or shitting in a little hole dug in the ground was the worst. Sand is evil btw. It's the war no one speaks of. But you get sand in your ass, man, it takes a damn power-washer to get that out! Horrible. *** Edited as I realized I got way off topic and touched on a very sensitive subject that has nothing to do with asses or bariatric surgery. No offense was intended. ***

@@Leesa926 Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, busy busy with the holiday and all. As for your ass, everyone is different. There are a myriad of different things that contribute to what comes out of your ass. Likely when you are freshly post op, your diet consists of mainly liquid type foods. The offset is the Protein. Excess protein takes a lot of Water to break down so even though you are getting enough liquids, which is good, how are you doing protein wise? Remember not all protein sources are equal their is a lot of bullshit in that industry. whey Isolate is the best (that is most used by the body) protein, it has a PDCASS score of 1.00. Others like Soy are much lower. Research PDCASS and see what the protein you are taking gets for a score. If you are active I recommend, especially if you were not already active, your body needs to build a lot of muscle and needs a ton of protein, at least 80 grams of protein a day. I shoot for 100 grams, but I have a very big frame. Hope this helps! @ Chalk up another happy pooper!!

@@cherri2082 I'll add your ass remedy to the original post. Thanks! Happy Holidays! POWER TO THE POOPER!!!

@ Very good, Remember if you are not planning to succeed you are planning to fail! Happy Holidays!

@@sharkgirl If someone came to me and said, "listen I want to incorporate the aggregation of marginal gains into my life, how do I start?" My reply would be as follows: As the definition in this case is to improve everything within your sphere of control by 1%, start out by sitting down and defining everything that is within your control. If you did it properly you will have one HUGE ASS list. Because you will realize that there is a lot more within your control than you thought. For example, I live on the second floor of my building. I walk up the stairs, then back down then up again. When I am waiting for someone, I am walking. There is an observation made in science that reads as follows: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, objects that are not in motion tend to not be in motion. I want to be an object in motion. So if I am waiting for a bus, I am doing laps around the bus terminal until the bus shows up. When I go grocery shopping I do the equivalent of wind sprints. I start on the right side, then I make a loop around the first row, then a loop around the first, then second row, then the first, second and third row. I am a full time student, so time I have. I spend an hour in the grocery store and get about 6K steps. And the great part of it is, while I am actively exercising I make better food choices. Log everything that goes into your mouth. Everything. Even a Vitamin. You'll be surprised at how many calories you eat without really thinking about it. A Fitbit is a must. For two reasons, first, it allows to you keep track of how many steps you take, and you can see yourself improve, this is a big reward. Secondly it makes you accountable. You want a lazy day, keep track of your food and you'd be surprised at how motivating knowing that you are going to have to look at your step count. A REALLY big motivator is to add your friends who have Fitbits to your friends list, and let them see everything. I have six friends on Fitbit, and we constantly egg each other on, and challenge one another. Reduce your food intake by 1%, reduce the bad things in your diet by 1%, park further from the door. In fact park as far away from the door as you can. I have a friend who has taken this to the max possible. When we go out, we park down the road from wherever we are going. The list is endless. Start small, 1% at a time, do not become overwhelmed. I got to where I am 1% at a time. And I look for additional 1% changes I can make. The gains really stack up when you take something you already improved by 1% and improve it again, then again then again. Look at Team Sky. Look at all they were able to accomplish, 1% at a time. Like any change, I would suggest to take it slow, make whatever you do meaningful, and measurable, make sure it's something you like doing, or at the least it's not something you hate doing. I would not eat 1% more okra. That crosses a line. Don't think of this as something you are doing to lose more weight, this is a lifestyle choice. Pay it forward. Explain to people why you park so far from the door, get the word out. The more of your friends you introduce this too, the more likely you are to wind up with a friend who does it as well. Then you have support. You and your friend(s) can share new and innovative ways to improve something by 1%. That is the advice I would give someone if asked such a question.

@ Thank you for your kind words. As for your ass, excess Protein can cause constipation. Protein is a very complex molecule to break down, it takes the body a lot of effort and Water to break protein apart so the body can use all the goodies inside. The best way to make sure you are not taking in too MUCH protein is to workout hardcore. Me, I walk. A lot. In fact I do not drive, I walk everywhere. I do a 7.57 mile walk in the morning, and log anywhere from 1-5 more miles each day. The biggest muscles in the body are your legs. My constantly pushing myself to walk further, faster, keeps my legs under a constant strain and thus they are being upgraded all the time. This makes use of a great deal of the protein I take in. As for Probiotics, the only advice I can give you is to ask your Surgeon or NUT. I cannot prescribe or recommend a medical treatment. That being said, a number of people have posted in various threads that they were instructed to start Probiotics before surgery and to continue after surgery. My NUT told me to hold off until the two month mark, I retorted with, why don't you get a case of uncontrollable diarrhea and wait another four weeks to take a natural substance that may help. She relented and as she was unaware of my ass problems suggested I start taking the probiotic I was already taking, now. At the end of the day, your Surgeon will give you advice, but the decision is ultimately up to you. Have a very Happy Holiday Season! @@sharkgirl Nothing like a good poop to get the scale moving! I love it! POWER TO THE POOPER!! POWER TO THE POOPER!! Have a very Happy Holiday Season!! @@cherri2082 By little things I hope you were not referring to ass pebbles. You know when you strain for like 1/2 an hour and pass a little pebble. Worst thing EVER. I get the biggest kick out of MOM when I pass the colon boulder that has been acting as a plug. It comes out under force, with a lot of pressure behind it. I have actually learned to get up off the bowl when that is about to fly out, as it makes a big splash, followed by several pounds worth of now liquid poo. Have a very Happy Holiday Season!!

@@sharkgirl It takes some time to get used to thinking in terms of 1%. But being true to the philosophy you only need to implement it 1% at a time. See how easy that is? Just think of one thing within your sphere of control and improve it by 1%, and you are off and running. How easy is it to do? Here is a great example. I improve my dietary intake by leaving the last bite of food on my plate. Just one bite. I don't make any changes to the food I log, but I know I am on the low side of what I logged for a given meal. Another way, I put 2 oz of Fairlife (If you are a milk drinker, here is a HUGE improvement, get Fairlife milk) whole milk in my coffee. I measure the milk and measure on the short side of 1oz so it's more like .9 oz. I log 2 oz, but only use 1.8. Small changes that at the end of the day add up. Thank you for the holiday wishes, And I am wishing you, and those in your life a Happy Holiday Season. @@TinyTink Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed the post. It was a bit wordy I thought, but I said what I wanted to say. I am not a doctor, but I think I made some valid points. The last thing I want to see from anyone, is a failure to continue succeeding. As for my ass, we had it out a couple days ago. I broke out the MOM, it had apparently forgotten I hold the magic trump card. It is back in line now, thanks for asking. Have a very Happy Holiday Season! @@rking Thank you I am glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully you learned something, or at least think of things that you were not thinking of before. Reading for the sake of reading has never been my thing. I like to walk away with something. That was my goal in creating this post. As mentioned before, have a Very Happy Holiday Season!

@@talking mountain While it is big, once you have read Alex's book, you'll be back here to thank me again. It is truly an eye opening book, and will fill you in on a million things you had no idea about. Happy Holiday's and your join date is far enough away that I wont' refer to you as a noob anymore!

@@Dallas Powell I have been meaning to get around to replying to this post for like a week, sorry Dallas. However, the Doctor is W-R-O-N-G about revisional surgery. Here is a link to the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset Long Island, they advertise two revisional procedures right on the website. Link here, Note the two bottom choices the StomaphyX procedure and the ROSE procedure. When I was in NY I lived about 3 miles from this Hospital, it is where both my children were born and I have been a guest several times, lol. Not sure where you are, or your resources, but the North Shore-LIJ Health system, is a world class hospital, they are cutting edge, while I had my surgery done here in NH where I live, if practical there is no where else on Earth I would rather be than the North Shore Hospital. Plugging for them was not my intent, my intent was to show you that there are very simple and low risk almost outpatient procedures to fix with is wrong with you. Your surgeon was correct, 10 years ago revision was a VERY big deal. Reducing stoma size was not so difficult, however reducing the size of the Antistomosis was a VERY big deal. Now it's done with an endoscope through your mouth with conscious sedation. So again, don't buy into that ass-wholes BS, look into the procedures listed and then comes the hard part. Getting your insurance to pay for it. Best of luck and keep us posted! Merry Christmas and lets all pray for Dallas to have a great new year!!

@@60&goin4it You are most welcome. And here is to wishing you a Very Happy Holiday Season!

@mk2766 Awe shucks. Just trying to help. The pre-op diet, that everyone complains about, is actually very important. Yes, the goal is to shrink your liver so the Surgeon can get it out of the way, however there are a lot of side benefits that no one ever really talks about. First, likely your surgeon is going to weigh you again before surgery, and you are expected to have lost a certain minimum amount of weight. This is how the surgeon ensures compliance with the diet. Not all surgeons do this, wise ones do. If you are not being weighed, it is not a license to cheat on this diet. This diet, can be, quite literally the difference between life and death on the table. Before surgeons started doing this diet, my surgeon described a typical liver as having the same consistency as a brick. It was impossible to bend it out of the way. A great number of people suffered and even died due to cuts and nicks and other assorted problems related to the surgeon having to try and work around the liver. Do not cheat! Secondly, the diet you are on now, is the same one you will be on post op. Usually. Phase one diets can last anywhere from a week to three and I have heard of four weeks out. However, if you are having a RNY GB guess what? Likely you won't be hungry. This is where the sleeve and the band differ from the GB, in addition to the mal-absorptive feature the chemicals and enzymes that control hunger; Grelin, Leptin, GLP, GLP-1 which in obese people are low when they should be high or high when they should be low, tend to correctly operate after a GB. This is a really big deal. I am rarely if ever hungry. Sometimes in the middle of the night i'll get up, and feel hungry, that is about it. So this diet you are on that is so shocking to you now, will in all likelihood be just fine post op. It is the starting point. Successive dietary stages add more foods to your diet, however failing to plan in advance will lead to trouble incorporating these next diet stages. Alex talks about them quite a bit in his books. Again I advocate, that EVERYONE should be FORCED to read the Big Book on whatever procedure they are having. There is so much information, it will blow your mind. For me, I wanted to know everything, and I mean everything about the GB before I went under the knife. I knew what to expect post op, what the risks were, the percentages of different complications, I had a very complete picture of the entire process. Including the earth shaking revelation that it takes six to eight months to fully heal from this surgery. Yeah, six to eight MONTHS. Anyway I am rambling. Get the book, any book, but I like Alex's the most out the 4 I read. Two were very technical, but I read them after reading the Big Book, and was able to follow along. One was written seemingly for those with an IQ less than 60 I am surprised it did not have coloring sections in it. Alex's book strikes that perfect balance between being technical and being understandable. That is what makes it pretty unique as far as books on these topics go. Have a very Happy Holiday season!

@@c37king HUA!

@@Threetimesacharm I wrote it this afternoon. If i was quoting someone I would have used citations.