Cervidae

We just got back Monday from a three week vacation in San Diego! During that trip we also spent 4 days in Las Vegas. We did SO much - the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, the Birch aquarium, at least ten different beaches, artist markets, lots of eating out, exploring the desert and mountains at Red Rock Canyon outside Vegas, swimming and hot tubbing, and a ton more. It was just a whirlwind of amazing, fun, and beautiful experiences. And now I'm back in cold, rainy Rochester NY. :'( Still, it's been an amazing three weeks. San Diego, particularly Ocean Beach/Newport, is my favorite place in the world. I have family there and I plan on moving there when I finish school. Edit: also, I suspect this is because of all the walking we did, but I somehow managed to lose 9 pounds on vacation, despite eating a LOT of cheat foods and generally relaxing, officially cementing this past month as the best month ever.

I was around 400-500 at that time, but my shakes were less calories than yours. Every nut and doctor I have spoken too agrees that the more calories you can get in, especially in the beginning when your body is taxed by surgery the most, the better! I think you're doing just fine. Especially since most of your calories are in liquid form. I honestly wouldn't worry about it at all. 700-800 calories was the goal that was given to me and I was nowhere near it.

I think about this a lot while I'm swimming and focusing on my breathing. It is pretty fun.

I lost about 15 pounds the first month. You've lost almost a pound a day and your body is dealing with a HUGE trauma that has just been done to it. It's completely normal to obsess and worry about your weight loss progress but trust me when I tell you that you are only harming yourself by worrying about it. I worried about it, along with pretty much every other wls patient ever. Now here I am 8 months out and down 140 pounds. I was nearly 400 pounds, had the bypass, and still only lost 15 the first month. I've NEVER lost 30 in one month. It all adds up, and the amount you lose is not what having this surgery is all about. It's about regaining your health. So focus on your health, getting in your water/protein/vitamins, and the weight loss will follow. As for exercise: I didn't do a whole lot for the first two months. I was one of those who had a tough time recovering, and it wasn't until a few months ago that I started getting any of my old energy back. I don't even make it much of a point to exercise purposefully. I walk a little extra in the grocery store, I run up the stairs a little faster than I normally would, etc. I also see a trainer/physical therapist about once every two weeks. I occasionally (like once or twice a week) use my recumbent exercise bike for 45 minutes-an hour. That's a LOT less than many people aim for, and yet, here I am, down 140 since surgery. You will get there too, just take amazing care of yourself and all other goals and dreams you have for yourself and your body will come too!

As for the when, well, that's different for everyone. I took longer than most. It was almost two months before I felt even remotely normal, and only now at almost 8 months can I go the whole day without even remembering I had surgery. Then again, I had a couple months where I was anemic, so I was tired all the time and sort of miserable. But that's over now, and I'm actually enjoying my life and feeling great, finally. Keep in mind that it can take an entire year to fully heal inside, so it's not that crazy to think it could take that long to adjust to this HUGE life-altering change. Give yourself some time and in a year you won't even recognize yourself or your life. Feel free to message me or friend me or anything you want if I can help in any way.

I promise it gets better! It ALWAYS sucks right in the beginning, and we all have that period of "what the hell did I get myself into? Why did I do this to myself?!" Then, six months later, a year later, 5 years later, and you're at your goal weight, you feel amazing, you're living your life and you're happy, and you have no regrets, and you barely remember this short, miserable period. Gotta slog through the crap to get to the good stuff. Hang in there!

@@BarrySue oh wow, I'm so sorry you had to experience that. Something like that happening was a HUGE fear of mine for a long time. Glad you're okay!

I'm all the way up in NY but I love making new friends and I like to help. I'll be 8 months post-op on Sunday, down 149 since surgery and 194 overall.

Congrats! You'll do great. If there's anything I or anyone else here can do to help, ask away! I'm excited for you.

I would have been in serious trouble without someone to help me for at least the first 3-5 days or so. Then again, I was nearly 400 pounds and I carried most of my weight in my belly, so moving around was downright miserable and extremely painful in the beginning because the weight of my stomach would pull on the drain/stitches. I also have noticed that I generally have a tough time in the beginning after a surgery, as I had a similar experience when I got my gall bladder out a few years ago. So it definitely depends on the person! If I didn't have my wonderful boyfriend here to take care of me, there's absolutely no way I would have been able to drink/move/pee by myself.

konyaku noodles - noodles made from yam flour, very low carb and high fiber. I ate about half a cup of them, and for almost three hours afterward had intense intestinal distress and then a VERY strange and painful bm. Not an experience I would like to repeat.

my instagram name is belly.laugh

preach!

Yay! That's coming up very soon, congratulations! How do you feel? any questions we could maybe help you with?

we all love you, @devillynn. Don't ever hesitate to come here for support! <3

http://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-XL-550-Talking-Bathroom/dp/B0014ZQH84 I've been using this one for over a year and it has always been extremely accurate. Plus, you can set it to tell you your weight out loud, which is fun. When it turns on and says "hello!" I said hi back to it. XD But yeah, very accurate, very durable.

I wish I had something to offer you besides my sincerest love and condolences. I'm so sorry for your loss.

hi, and welcome you'll find a lot of really awesome people here. Feel free to ask any questions you may have, and there will almost always be people able to share their own knowledge and experiences. See you around!

Cool, sales are great. Though I am very saddened to see that you guys no longer carry the non-spinach quest pasta... I'm allergic to spinach. :'(

you'll do just fine! All you need is an open mind and a willingness to learn and change, and you obviously have those things. It's mostly going to be a short little class telling you to lay off soda and bread and eat more Protein, drink more Water, etc.

You're a big girl and can make your own decisions, but keep in mind that the stages are there for a reason. At four days post op, your sutures on your stomach are extremely new and delicate. Most likely the pain you are feeling is inflammation of these sutures. It's only "dull" because most of the nerves are still numb from being severed, so most likely you aren't feeling nearly as much damage as you may be doing. You could be seriously harming your new stomach! Not to mention, a progresso can contains 18.5 ounces of soup. So over a cup of non-strained soup... most people can't do that for a few months post-op. You didn't go through all this pain and effort to sabotage yourself now. You could damage your new stomach beyond repair or worse... much worse. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but you've just undergone huge abdominal surgery and you are putting your life at risk for a can of soup. You are better and stronger than that! Please take care of yourself and remember why you went through all of this and worked so hard in the first place. Good health is yours if you are willing and able to work for it. Everything leading up to the surgery was just the tip of the iceberg, and now the real work of healing and maintaining is ahead of you. But you won't ever get there if you never heal. I wish you the best! You are strong, and you've made it very far. You can do this. Don't give in to your head hunger.

you may have PCOS! Sounds exactly like what I go through. I'm almost 8 months post op and my periods are nowhere near regular yet, but I have hope. The fact that I've been getting them at all is a big improvement. I have truly never had a normal cycle, even when I first got it at age 10. Following! I would like to read others' experiences. I really want to believe I will someday have relief from these cramps and a somewhat normal cycle.

I think we can sometimes take for granted what a huge, mind-blowing gift we are given by having the means and opportunity to have wls. I think we sometimes forget, when all is said and done, that not only are we losing weight and becoming healthy, but most of us avoided death that had been lurking just around the corner. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of this woman, and it grieves me to consider the enormous amount of people who never had the chance that I've been given, or never will. It's humbling. I'm going to cherish this gift and live my life remembering every day just how incredibly lucky and grateful I am.

stalls are completely necessary while our bodies are healing. Also, you've gone through a huge trauma, and now your body thinks you are starving and dying, so it's going to occasionally fight to retain what storage it has. It's completely normal and you should be more worried about never stalling. Yes, losing a lot very quickly is the norm for wls patients, but it is in no way normal for our bodies to lose this much this quickly. I'll give you the same advice the wonderful people here gave me when I was here worrying about stalls in the beginning: - stalls are necessary and normal - worrying about it is completely futile, because you can't control it. - worrying about it is actually harmful to you because your state of mind affects the state of your bodily health. - this journey is not about how fast you lose weight. It's about regaining your health. You must focus on your health, and the weight loss follows naturally. - it's normal to obsess about this, but the best advice for your health and long-term success is JUST DON'T! - also 24 pounds in two weeks?! Actually less than a week and a half?! You've lost more than two pounds a day. And you're really worried about a stall? That's just silly! I did the same thing in the beginning, and I lost less than half what you did in the same amount of time. Yet here I am, less than 8 months later and down 137 pounds. It all adds up and evens out in the end. This is about you and only you, and your health. Losing weight is a wonderful side effect of getting healthy, in our cases. Make your main goal self-care and health and everything else you want (like the weight loss) will come too!