BigViffer

Damn dude, I am over two years out and that sounds good even now!

Actually, it would probably be quite the opposite. They would either be completely disinterested and apathetic, pushing their products, or preaching "muscle confusion" to keep you coming back over and over to line their pockets. Regardless of the personal trainer, I hope you started lifting weights.

Wait... are you serious?! What does he consider heavy? And what lifts is he referring to? Even attempting to perform a squat, deadlift, overhead press, or bench press 1 month post op is insane IMO. Jesus, they just went through the abdominal wall!

What a coincidence, I am somewhat of a bean counter myself. Spreadsheets all damned day. I took two weeks off and in hindsight I wish I had taken 3. The first week you are home, you are going to have a pain ball and a drain. Your follow up appointment is usually a week post op. You will not want to go back before that just because of the stuff hanging off you. After those are removed, barring any minor complications you could probably go back then. But you will be a zombie. I remember the day after I had the pain ball removed, I actually fainted like a dame in a old black & white movie. Not fun at all. I also had a hematoma which was nasty. Nothing serious, just gross. I was on blood pressure medicine at the time and man can that stuff make you feel like crap if you no longer need it. With our reduced caloric intake, a significant drop in sodium intake happens as well. With that, BP comes down. Add the BP medicine to it and it plummets. Bathroom trips will be frequent, whether to sit there straining for naught or to once again pee because of the hopeful fluid consumption. If you can afford to take the two weeks off, I heartily recommend it. I cannot comment on waitressing though. But if you are the least bit lightheaded after 2 weeks of a lounging and then a desk job, being on your feet will be tough. The good thing though is that you will be getting lots of walking in once you are ready to go back to work.

Don't set expectations on weight loss and time losing. You will only set yourself up for misery. The thing you want to mentally prepare for is the "pain". No I don't mean the physical discomfort, that is a different level for everyone. I mean the mental anguish that you will inevitably go through. Unreasonable crying and emotional outburst are completely normal and very common. Be prepared to be very difficult to be around. Have your husband prepare to take the brunt of your attacks. Let him know what to say before it happens. We men are generally "fixers" and don't quite get the need to just say something without wanting to fix it. All that being said, you will lose a lot the first month. Then you will stall. Then you will think something is wrong because you are basically starving and working your @ss off but nothing is happening, etc... And it will be slow for you since you are only 210 SW. You are going to have to think of this as a long term process. You just won't get the instant gratification we all say we aren't expecting but deep down we just know that there is a greek god(dess) hiding under our fat.

Not really, all we did in there is lie about how many boobies we touched.

Literally the best thing I have ever read on this forum. Bar none.

Allow me to quote myself: I am a heavy coffee drinker. Coffee, not latte, mochaccino, espresso or any foofy coffee beverage. I like those once in a blue moon, but not as my every day vice. I remember my first cup of coffee post op at about week 2. It was maybe 2 fluid ounces. Pure bliss though. Now I am back at about a pot or two a day.

Tink is always kicking @ss and taking names!

@CowgirlJane - I tried OH as well, but that platform is just awful. Very difficult to navigate and then Guy's section was literally a weekly weigh in. This place of course has a more traditional forum layout. It seems like the majority of vets that have stuck around or pop in from time to time are either not active, failing or struggling and trying to get back on track, or batshit crazy and looking for attention. Me personally I am a creature of habit and check all my forums in the morning. This place is like that car accident in the lane next to you. You can't help but look.

Unbelievable. Just utterly amazing. Good Lord, I look haggard with only 2 children. Sent from my phone. Please forgive brevity and spelling.

Holy crap... that's a typo right?! I refuse to believe you have a "child" that is 25 years old when you barely look old enough to order a drink in bar!

Most of us vets that were fairly prolific in the past just aren't wanted by the new members the past year and a half. When putting out fact, not feelings, brands you as a bully or insensitive, the incentive to contribute diminishes. More and more it appears as though people are more concerned with feelings and popularity rather than actually living better. I think the straw that broke the back was the marshmallow peeps conversation. There are very few topics that I bother commenting in anymore. People are just not worth the time to type out the information. Oh, and the vets that are gone aren't coming back even if they wanted to. They were banned. Some with good reason though.

Just realized there was a second question. In regards to dried beans, I eat them all the time. They were really only a concern in the beginning in regards to gas. Now I just soak them over night and prepare them as directed by whatever recipe I am using. This is my standby as I emailed it to my wife long ago: I tried just pasting the recipe, but the format kept getting screwed up. Here is the link from when I posted it long ago.

I used to chew gum a lot while on long motorcycle tours. I tried it again once I was back to riding post op and the heartburn was horrific. I didn't think anything of it until the next time I had some gum and it happened again. I asked my surgeon about it and he even looked at me strangely and reminded me that it was in my information packet why I wasn't supposed to chew gum. Lo and behold, it was there. I could probably chew it now, but it is no longer a habit so it rarely occurs to me.

It is most common to RNY, but it most definitely is not regulated to RNY patients only. Even people who have not had any gastric surgery can have the symptoms of dumping syndrome. The only thing that qualifies it explicitly as dumping however is someone who has had a procedure involving the stomach. Anyone who has an adverse reaction to simple carbs/sugar and/or fats can experience all the misery of "dumping" of these things into the blood stream. A diabetic who eats anything that spikes their glucose levels and starts sweating or racing heart, that is a form of dumping. As for being useful as a training tool, oh yes... it'll put the fear of god in you if you experience it just once.

Gum will not plug anything up for more than a few minutes. The hydrochloric acid in your stomach will make short work of it. The reason that gum is frowned upon is that the act of chewing signals the brain to release digestive juices. That is why you start salivating when you start chewing gum. This also happens in the stomach and it leads to heartburn many times. Increased acid production is because your stomach is preparing to break down food that is not coming. That can lead to an increased sesnation of hunger as well.

There is nothing you can do to prevent or lower the chances of loose skin. Once skin has stretched past its elastic limit, it tears and stretch marks happen. The only thing that can be done once that happens is skin removal. It's like the balloons you inflate to their max, then after a day or so you let the air out and the balloon is now misshapen and wrinkly. Same thing with skin. It's not too difficult to have the removal procedure approved if you keep records of the rashes and other complications common with excess skin. BUT, skin removal is not the same as cosmetic surgery. The scar is not as nice as it would be if a plastic surgeon were to do that procedure.

Just looked, appears as though the first posts in the guys room was in 2007! Sent from my phone. Please forgive brevity and spelling.

Guys room has been here since I've been here. Don't know when it started really. Sent from my phone. Please forgive brevity and spelling.

Couldn't watch Napoleon Dynamite. Just couldn't understand what was supposed to be funny. In The Big Lebowski, John Goodman was the scene stealer.

That movie is awesome!

I know it used to be, but since most of the members I used to talk to are gone I am pretty quiet these days. The guys may still be supportive and close knit, I really don't know.

It's been a while since I have seen this topic, but there has been some really good discussion on this forum about it. Shocking I know! I don't remember who said it, and I am not saying that it is applicable to you Stephers, but would you be attracted and have romantic thoughts about this guy if her were bigger than you? Many times people only see these things from their point of view which can be narrow. Not because of any selfish reasons, but merely because they cannot think the same as someone else. An overweight person may have all the personality traits that an athletic person is looking for in a significant other. However, if their passion is rock climbing, odds are the overweight person is not going to be a good match. There is so much more to a relationship than just being a nice person and getting along with people. After you get to know each other so well that there is nothing to discover about each other, the challenge is to discover new things together. If one cannot do that, then the relationship may not work out. It doesn't make him/her shallow or an @sshole. All of that being said, if he says "Thank goodness you lost that weight, now I can be seen with you in public!" Write him off. Not even worth having as a friend IMO.

Most of the threads I start are in the Guys Room. I'll post there to build content up in that subforum even if the content is applicable to both men & women. I don't mind when women chime in. However, if the subject is something that is strictly soliciting a man's POV or is only applicable to men, I add the prefix of Guy's Room in the title. Though I don't think I have ever created a "racy" topic.