Rev Me Up!

Its cool to see everyone checking in. I'm coming up on 3 years next month. All of the "old timers" were inspirational to me as well. As a revision from band to sleeve, I was glued to the forum and all the fantastic support. I, personally, found that the boards became a little less positive over time. I have been away for a very long time, but I try to come in around my anniversary date and give a long term perspective. Life is good - nice to see some familiar faces. Take care all---Revmeup

Hi Capt! Thanks for checking in and congratulations on your success!! I must say, my neck and boobs were looking very sad in the first year!! I have noticed recently, though, that both areas look much better. I was low BMI to start, so I may not have the same concerns as someone who lost 150+ pounds, but the skin is getting better. It's such a slow process that you can't see it as it is happening. My stomach is still a mess, but I was huge during my pregnancy 9 years ago and there is not much I can do about that. I look like most moms, I think :-) I also keep in mind that I am nearly 40 and my neck is bound to be less tight than a 20 year old. Plastic surgery is a presonal decision, but give it another 6 months or so. If it really bugs you - go take care of it. I have found that I don't like the boob / neck / stomach thing, but it isn't enough for me to have another surgery. I have surgery fatigue at this point and I am rather hesitant about going under the knife again. Good luck to you!!

I am 2 years out and here are my answers to your survey: What contributing role would you say your sleeve (reduced stomach) plays in your ability to successfully maintain the weight loss (e.g., 25, 50, 75, 90 percent)? Seriously 100%. Now, I can eat more than in the beginning, but it is all about portion control for me. I do still have to deal with emotional eating because I can lose control, but there is sstrict limit with how much I can physically put in my body. My big problem is eating every 2 hours. in the beginning I had to, but now I don't and it has been trying making that mental shift. If I didn't have the sleeve, I would be completely lost. Related, how much conscious effort does your continued weight loss require? That is, must you deliberately monitor your food intake on a daily basis or does the restriction of the sleeve necessarily limit how much you can eat so that maintenance is relatively effortless? It does take some effort. if I eat as often as the urge strikes, i would slowly gain weight. however, I don't find it too difficult to eat mostly good things. If I track my eating, I can see that it's the 6th snack and/ or the one alcoholic drink that will put me over the limit. If I am in a good frame of mind (not recently because of family suicide) I find it pretty easy to cut out the one serving that is keeping me from losing. Right now I am struggling, but my struggle lands me in the 135-140 range without too much effort. I am not upset about it. How has your relationship with food changed, if at all? Related, do you still enjoy eating or, currently, is food just something you must consume to sustain life? I love food. I wish I could eat more of it sometimes :-) I have settled in to loving the things that I can eat that are mostly good for me and keep my tummy from hurting. I eat a little cheese every day. I eat meat every day. I eat at least one serving of green veg every day. I have started eating alittle bread, but it hurts my stomach so I can't eat too much of it. I still can't eat more than one piece of pizza, if I include the crust - but then I get heartburn or my tummy is painfully full, so I don't eat pizza very often. Compared to the type of hunger pains you had experienced pre-surgically, while on a calorie-restricted diet, how would you rate the degree and quality of your hunger pains now after the surgery? That is, do you still feel hunger pains and, if so, how is your hunger drive different now than it was before the surgery? I still have no hunger pains. I get an "empty" feeling when I am hungry. It is more of a low blood sugar feeling (speedy, woozy, lack of focus). My tummy rumbles from acid, but not from hunger pains. In fact, I keep forgetting that I used to have that sensation - it's just completely different now. Maybe I'm lucky. Maybe becuase I was low BMI when I started, I don't have the same experince post-op. I can say that I could gain weight if I was totally out of control. The sleeve buys me a little more control in my daily habits. I have had some very dark emotional times this last 6 months that has lead me to drink a lot and have zero focus on what I was eating. I was trying to lose a couple of pounds when my world started falling apart and it was working very well. My lack of focus only cost me about 5 pounds - even through the holidays. Good luck to everyone.

Hi All, I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away. Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now. I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful. And, of course, I was wrong The sleeve was everything the band promised and more. On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management. That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl. The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!). I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed. At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone. It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-) So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness. I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!! I could never have done this without the sleeve. I am completely happy with the result. My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside. I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it. My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months. Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June. My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady. With gratitude, Lara

Hi All, I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away. Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now. I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful. And, of course, I was wrong The sleeve was everything the band promised and more. On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management. That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl. The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!). I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed. At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone. It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-) So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness. I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!! I could never have done this without the sleeve. I am completely happy with the result. My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside. I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it. My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months. Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June. My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady. With gratitude, Lara

Hi All, I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away. Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now. I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful. And, of course, I was wrong The sleeve was everything the band promised and more. On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management. That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl. The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!). I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed. At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone. It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-) So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness. I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!! I could never have done this without the sleeve. I am completely happy with the result. My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside. I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it. My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months. Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June. My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady. With gratitude, Lara

Hi All, I rarely come on the forums anymore. It seems that, once I got past the really tough times with my band to sleeve revision I just drifted away. Anyway, I realized that I will be 2 years post-revision in a couple of weeks and I should probably report in and let the newbies know about my experience. If you want to know specifics about my surgery, you can look through my profile posts - it is hard for me to remember all the details now. I had a lap band for 4 years and it sucked. I got my lap band at 215 pounds and ended up at about 195 pounds and was gaining slowly on top of that. I couldn't eat chicken (did I mention the band SUCKED?). I wanted the band out, but I was afraid I would baloon up higher than ever. For me, the sleeve was an insurance policy. I did not expect it to work because I had already been through weight loss surgery that did not work. Why would I expect anything different the second time around? I was 100% afraid to dream that it might be successful. And, of course, I was wrong The sleeve was everything the band promised and more. On surgery day I was somewhere between 195 and 200. I went to Dr Aceves and would recommend him without hesitation. Band out and sleeve in, took less than 90 minutes. No complications. Good pain management. That's when the tough stuff really started. I couldn't drink the Protein drinks because I couldn't handle the smell or taste. Because of this I barely ate or drank anything for weeks. Everything tasted so weird / bad. I was significantly fatigued for 3 months because could barely get any food in. I chewed my Vitamins and took my omeprazole like a good girl. The apex of my weight loss occured after about 9 months. I got down to about 127 pounds. Mind you, at no time was I ever "trying" to lose weight. In fact, I was "trying" to get enough quality calories in my body. Since I ate so little, I couldn't mess around with junk food - I only ate food with good nutritional value. I also found that Certain foods were just harder to eat. I craved chicken, but I had a hard time eating carrots (they stick!). I would say I didn't feel completely normal until about a year had passed. At this point I have levelled out in the 135-140 range and I am thrilled about it. It is easy for me to get down to 135 (and lower if I wanted to) by just cutting out one snack a day or quitting drinking alcohol altogether. I weigh myself maybe once a month and if I see myself creep towards 138-139, I start cutting out a couple of things and get back to my comfort zone. It has been hard in the last 6 months because my father committed suicide leaving me with a contentious legal battle with his wife. I started drinking a couple of drinks every day because of the stress. That has kept me in the upper end of my range, but it is still easy to maintain. I find as time goes by, I stopped drinking every day and only a couple of times a week - it made me less puffy :-) So, my lifestyle now: I don't exercise. Yes, I know - that's bad. I do have tons more energy and I walk more in my daily life than I ever did before, but I do not engage in regular exercise. I try. I do my best. I'm just being honest. I still have a hard time getting even 30 ounces of Fluid every day. The taste of Water changed for me the day I had surgery and I have had a terrible time replacing it. Sometimes I have fizzy water. Strangely, beer goes down very easily. I developed a Starbucks mocha habit after the first year, but I limit it to one a day and get nonfat most of the time. I also started drinking iced coffee. I eat 5-6 times a day (I limit it to 5 if I am actively trying to manage my weight). I eat protein and veggies. I just started liking sandwiches again, but find bread and rice both expand in my stomach and make me very uncomfortable after I eat them. Even now, I eat too fast sometimes and can be in terrible pain from fullness. I still can't drink after I eat. I drink as much as possible up to the point where I put food in my mouth and then no liquids for an hour or more - PAINFUL!! I could never have done this without the sleeve. I am completely happy with the result. My life isn't "normal" because I still have to think about carrying Snacks with me so I can have good choices while I am out of the house. I still have to eat slowly. I still have people in restaurants badgering me about why I didn't finish my food. The difference is that I wear size 8 jeans and size 4/6 dress. I can walk / run around Disneyland for 10 hours with my daughter without major breaks to sit down. I rode a bike with my kid just this week and it was awesome. I finally feel like I fit in with my world. The outside reflects the inside. I feel much happier now, also, because people are used to me being this size now. Before people were always making a big deal out of the wieght loss. I don't like talking about it. I hated the attention during the loss because I was very guarded about the surgery. Now I have been the same for a year and a half or so, people don't comment about it as much and I love it. My future: well, the biggest surprise for me is that my husband and I are thinking about having another baby. My daughter is 8 and I had my tubes tied 6 years ago. I scheduled my tubal reversal with a specialist in Beverly Hills at the end of March. I will be 39 in a couple of weeks, but the doc says my FSH level is that of a 25 year old and my husbands sperm count and motility is off the charts! I used to be super-fertile before my tubal (just look at me sideways, and I was knocked up!) so we will see if that is still the case in a couple of months. Also, I finally finished my Bachelors degree 21 years after I started :-) I graduate in June. My life rocks! I was already lucky to have a good man, a great child, good job, and overall good health. The sleeve and weight loss are the icing on the cake for me. I'm a lucky lady. With gratitude, Lara

The first couple of months are HARD, but I didn't regret it for a moment. I had a lap band that was useless and replaced it with the sleeve. Now I am so relieved to be "normal" again. Every journey is different, and every journey is difficult. But, for me, it was a journey worth taking.

My band was a waste of time and the sleeve has been amazing! 17 months since surgery and I am maintaining around my goal weight. I am up or down a couple pounds here and there, but I hover around 135.

One year (minus 21 days) I am doing my one year sleevaversary post a couple weeks early because I am going to be very busy with travel and projects over the next month. So, here’s what the last 344 days have been like… If you have followed my posts, you know I was a band to sleeve revision. I was a low BMI (31) and my original goal was to lose about 60 pounds. At this point, I have surpassed my goal and lost 67 pounds. In all honesty, it is probably even a little more because I didn’t weigh myself the week I went in for surgery. But, who’s counting? :-) Weight progress to-date: 195 (probably closer to 200 in reality) to 128. The first 2 months, I was so exhausted I could barely hold my head up. It was bad. No real pain after the pesky drain area healed up. However, I have never had a Protein drink through this whole process. Just couldn’t do it. And I probably suffered for it. Energy didn’t get back to normal levels for several months, but the first 8-10 weeks was seriously bad. It was depressing on a lot of levels. I ate a lot of mashed sweet potato, yogurt, ricotta cheese with mashed chicken in it, runny oatmeal, cream cheese with deli meat, mini-brie bites from Trader Joes, and TONS of cottage cheese. Another deficiency on my part: never drinking enough Water. I still don’t. It has tasted terrible ever since surgery. At this point I drink Arrowhead sparkling water almost exclusively. Something about the bite of the bubbles is very refreshing and easy for me to handle. I burp a lot, but it is the only way I get any fluids in. I drink about 30 oz of Fluid a day. Around the 5th month, the hair started falling out. I had cut my hair short because I was too exhausted to hold a blow dryer, so no one could notice the difference. I have very thick hair. I only noticed because I had tons of hair coming out in my hand when I washed it. It has stopped without any supplements or change in diet. I took a PPI for about 6 months and then stopped. Haven’t needed it since I took Vitamins for about 4 months and then stopped - I am Vitamin D deficient and the MD wants me to take Vit D tabs. I do my best :-) All other bloodwork is consistently good. Although I moved on to more normal foods over time, I found that I couldn’t eat just anything. Right around the 9 month mark I found I could eat whatever was in front of me (bread, rice, Soup, etc). This has been great for me because I used to have a lot of anxiety about needing food and not being able to find something. My daily eating habits are a bit different from most of the folks on the board, from what I have read. I still have to eat 6 or more times a day to get in enough calories to function. I do not limit myself on sugar, carbs, or anything – but I do have certain foods that make me feel better. I always have protein because I feel good when I eat it. I keep myself from getting low blood sugar that way. However, I do eat a dark chocolate covered graham cracker from Starbucks most days as well. I get a tall mocha / no whip with 2 packets of sugar in the raw most days too. The sugar doesn’t seem to bother me, but I do always have Snacks / meals with protein throughout the day. Things that surprised me after surgery: my taste buds are COMPLETELY different. I used to hate dark chocolate, now I love it. Never drank coffee before, now I have a daily mocha habit. Most sweet things are way too sweet. I can’t really eat spicy food anymore because it makes my tummy feel bad, which sucks because I love spicy food. I used to be a vodka martini gal, now I only drink wheat beer or anything with rum in it. Weird. Things that I will not eat: ice cream or Peanut Butter. I tried ice cream a few times over the past several months and, boy did I regret it. I got the sweats and felt like I was going to throw up for 30 minutes or so after eating it. I have no idea why. Can’t be the sugar content because I eat sugary stuff every day, in some form. Can’t be the lactose – ½ of my diet was cheese and yogurt for months. Whatever it is, the reaction was so bad that I am not even tempted to eat it again. Peanut butter (by itself) gives me the worst gas / stomach aches. Like, doubled over, feel like I am being stabbed kind of stomach aches. I don’t like to eat rice because it expands in my tummy and makes me uncomfortable. I can eat a giant bowl of tortilla chips (major slider), and it doesn’t bother me a bit. I still have to remind myself to wait a minute or two after I take a bite because I don’t really know how a certain food is going to feel in my stomach until it makes the journey. I do still have the “one more bite” compulsion and it is still very uncomfortable. What else can I think of? I want to be detailed for those of you just starting out… I haven’t vomited once since surgery, for any reason. At 5’6” and 128 pounds, I wear size 8 pants and size small / 4 top. Bra size is 32 DD/DDD, but the boobs are pretty sad when I take the bra off. Most of my excess skin is in the pregnancy areas. My stomach is a mess and my boobs are pretty sad. But, I can finally see my c-section scar without assistance, so that is pretty good J On a more personal note, I can say that this journey has totally been worth it, even though it was difficult mentally. The hardest part for me was feeling like I was fragile. I felt like I was vulnerable about what I could eat. I also was exhausted a lot of the time and I still have a fear of vigorous exercise because of it. I still get anxious if I don’t have food around because I am afraid my body will get “empty” and that feels terrible. I don’t have real hunger pains or rumbles. I just feel empty and if I wait too long, I start to shake and get light headed. I finally feel like myself again. I am the same weight I was when I was in my early twenties. Looking at my body comp, I could probably lose another 5-10 pounds (I weighed 112 in high school and was perfectly healthy). I am not looking to lose weight. In fact, I was happy at 150. At this point, I don’t think I could gain weight if I tried. I literally eat all day long and stay the same or lose .5 to 1 pound a month. We’ll see how I am holding up in another year… My advice to fellow sleevers: Don't weigh yourself every day!!!! Seriously, once every week or two will do it. I only weigh once a month now. You will drive yourself crazy with the scale, and you don't have to. Also, keep coming to this forum. There are some great people here that are very supportive. Good luck to all of you. And, especially for the former lap band folks: keep your chin up. There is hope after that band fails you. I know because I have been there, walked through it, and I am really happy on the other side.

I don't feel hungry, but I have a desire for food, if that makes sense. if I am busy, it is easy for me to go several hours without eating and then I start to get the low blood suger blah feeling. I might start shaking or just feeling bad in general. I try to eat every 2-3 hours just to prevent that from happeining. if I am sitting around the house, I will eat every 1.5 to 2 hours just beceause I can. Either way, it doesn't seem to harm my progress. Setting an alarm would be a good thing. I know if I let myself get to the point where I feel shaky, I kind of feel crappy for a while even after I eat. I buy a rotisserie chicken, strip it, and put it in a storage container in the fridge so I have an easy chunk of Protein whenever I need it. Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

Hello there! As a fellow low-BMI patient, it is great to see a continuing success story. Congrats to you!!!!! And, good luck finding your ring :-) I have some very nice jewelry that I can't wear at all until I get re-sized. I'm waiting, though, because my body is still shifting.

Well hello, gorgeous!