Sara51692

I've been thinking about WLS since I was 16, and for me, one of the big things always holding me back was the loose skin. I kept saying "I'd rather be fat than have a big thing of loose skin" and I couldn't even imagine it. Then, at the end of last year, I knew I was ready for WLS because I got to the point where I was thinking, "I honestly don't care, I just want to be healthier, I can't be like this anymore. Anything's better than being like this." Once I got to the point where something as benign as loose skin (yes, it's hurtful for self esteem and confidence, but it won't kill you) didn't matter to me anymore, I knew I needed to pursue it.

I'm having fairly similar pain too and am planning on asking my surgeon about it at my follow-up tomorrow. But I'm going fairly regularly too and stool softeners haven't helped the pain. When the pain wasn't as bad last week, I asked my surgeon and said it was probably just exertion-related because I had been doing more housework and bending over a lot - it hurts below my lower stitches, mostly on my right side.

Well, I'm not that experienced, but if you're tracking, have you looked at your diet lately? Has anything changed majorly? From what I've read on here, everybody has their good months and bad months. You're going to win and lose some battles, but you're winning the war! You've lost tons of weight so far and you should be proud of that.

Congrats! 35 lbs is great! Keep up the good work! Are you on soft foods or solids? I'm moving onto soft foods tomorrow and my 4 week follow up appt is tomorrow too.

I have an event that I told a friend I'd go to a while back. Tickets are bought and I want to do something fun. I was 100% prepared to cancel when I asked my surgeon when I could have alcohol again, and I was surprised when he said it was okay. I'm planning on having a non-carbonated drink, maybe two, and that's it. I'm sure it's not going to help me, but I don't think it's going to hurt either. For me, it's worth it. The point is I discussed it with my surgeon first and am adhering to my own plan set by my surgeon and NUT. I trust him completely and if he says it's okay, then I feel comfortable drinking in moderation.

Sounds good! I love making zucchini lasagna with fat free cheese and homemade or low sodium tomato sauce - you use zucchini instead of pasta! You can do the same with with eggplant too.

Where are you in the process? If you're not on liquid diet, there's definitely tons of options without the carbs and calories!

All surgeons and NUTs are different. For instance, I've heard a lot of people say they were told to avoid alcohol for a year or even forever, but I just recently asked my surgeon and he said I'll be fine to drink this week, just one month post-op. I only start soft foods this week and "regular" food in a couple more. Good luck with your stall! I had a bad one last week and finally broke it this weekend.

Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

I've lost 22 from my pre-surgery weight, 28 if you count the 6 pounds I gained in the hospital! I hit a stall last week and it was horrible. I was checking the scale constantly! Don't worry about the day to day weights, the scale WILL budge. Just have patience and do your best!

I ate a pureed meatball and indulged in maybe three or four bites of rum cake (which was soaked enough that it melted right in my mouth!) for Father's Day -- so it wasn't bad! I just got to Twohundredtown (or Twoderville). You'll make it to Onederland soon enough! Just keep up the good work! Wow! Another four weeks! It's going to feel AMAZING when you finally do get to have something real!

I wish I liked tuna or cottage cheese! =( I've been doing pureed chicken salad though, and it's not too bad. I can't do cheese sticks, but I'm moving to soft foods on Wednesday so maybe I'll be able to then!

I totally agree with you that it can be risky to have the surgery at a young age. That was probably what I struggled with the most. Hell, I've been thinking about this since I was 16 and kept holding it off. I'm 23 now, and I think that's it's a "big risk, big reward" situation for young folks getting the surgery. We have the potential to give ourselves a whole better life, 50, 60, even 70 more years where we're happy and healthy rather than frustrated and fat. But that means we have 50, 60, or 70 years left to screw things up majorly and regain a lot or fall back into bad habits. The risk became worth it to me when my depression started affecting my daily life and I was in a really bad place. This surgery gave me something to look forward to and work toward. I'm out of college, and honestly, I'm not sure if I could have done this in college. It was just a year and a half ago for me and I remember the parties and drinking like it was yesterday. I wish I had done it earlier though, because I probably would have enjoyed college even more if I was in the process of getting happy and healthy. Plus the free gym, intramural sports, beautiful campus to walk around in, dining halls with tons of healthy options (granted, there's also not-so healthy options) and outdoorsy-type extracurricular clubs? It's like a WLS paradise.

Thanks everyone!! I'm loving all the support on this site. It's been a great help for me since surgery! I wish I had just stepped off my scale for the week I was stalled and given it a break - would have been a lot less stressful! Good luck to you both! You'll be here with me any day now, so don't worry too much! Yes! SO true! When I was trying to hit 320 (because I started at 340 and wanted 320 to be my SW), it was ridiculously hard to get the scale to hit that!!

That's awesome! Your fluid and protein amounts seem great! I'm struggling there a LOT. My best day for protein was yesterday and it was around 50g. My Water has probably been about half of what I need. I find I get busy or distracted at work and can't focus on drinking water between meals, and I know not to do it DURING or right after meals so I'm struggling. What sort of things are you eating often to get all that protein? I haven't been doing a ton of meat because I'm not really interested in pureeing them, but I'm becoming more open to it...otherwise there's no way I can do TWO Protein shakes a day to reach 60g. I already do one a day and I don't like it sometimes. My calorie count has been around 400-550 most days, occasionally higher or lower. My NUT said not to focus on the calories right now.

Now I'm going to be obsessed with that 25% variation!

Boston, MA!

@@AvaFern @@proudgrammy @@JamieLogical Thank you all!! Haha, I've heard it called a few things - Twoderville makes me laugh when I read it! Doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Onederland. Guess that's more motivation to get there!

@@jordantaylor I haven't really felt hunger, persay, but I'm definitely having trouble breaking old habits. For instance, while watching TV, I notice myself sometimes go "oh, I'm hungry, I want a snack" and even if it's just me wanting to go get a sugar-free popsicle, I have to fight the part of me that's saying that, because I know I don't actually want or need the popsicle, I'm just conditioned to eat while I watch TV so it feels weird not to. And while I can convince myself one sugar-free popsicle won't hurt because it's so little calories, I know I need to stop myself now before I'm able to eat things that will hurt. It's a daily struggle, for sure.

I'm doing badly with protein and water. My NUT and surgeon said 60g protein and 64 oz. of water. I hit one of my highest protein days yesterday with about 50g. I had to go back to Protein shakes to even get close. And I'm not even getting HALF the water I'm supposed to! I keep getting distracted or busy at work and have trouble making myself focus on water consumption during the day. I also weigh myself every day....sometimes twice a day. I like to see my morning and night weights - haha! It's terrible, I know!

That's what I've been trying to do lately - overestimating when I'm not sure. I just bought a kitchen scale though so I've definitely already been more accurate!

This looks like oatmeal or quinoa or something, but it's not! So I found out when I put frozen banana pieces in my Ninja food processor, it comes out like powder type pieces. You can add a bit of skim milk to make it like ice cream (or invest in a yonana machine), but I added PB2 powder and ate it like it was Dippin Dots! Melted right in my mouth. I feel like you can't go wrong with banana and peanut butter for breakfast. I'm in the pureed phase, my NUT OKed both bananas and PB2, and I'll definitely keep eating this long after I'm out of pureed. It's a great treat too because you can just make a little bit at a time.

Yeah, my NUT hasn't expressed any concerns yet about the carbs in fruit - then again, I'm only 3.5 weeks post-op so we'll see what she says later on. I plan on incorporating fruit into my diet, because I love it. I'll never stop eating bananas!

Thanks! It's very filling, even if bananas are a little carby.