Cape Crooner

I haven't been here in five years, but I thought I should share what I've learned on this journey... 1. My sleeve was a very minor surgery. Less than 30 minutes passed between being knocked out and the recovery room. Quite frankly, I think this option should be more widely available for marginally obese people. Unlike the other bariatric surgeries - which change your plumbing, this is simply the removal of the stretchy part of the stomach. 2. Think long and hard about who you tell. I told a handful of family members and I think that was a mistake. I suggest you either tell everyone, or just the absolute minimum (spouse or care giver). Within the first year I was sure everyone knew and I felt I was being dishonest. 3. The honeymoon is real. For 18 months it's virtually impossible to gain weight, but after that, you most certainly can. My smaller stomach can hold 8-10 ounces of food and get refilled after about an hour. If you fill it with sugar or fat and keep refilling it, you can certainly get back all your weight. I initially lost about 90 pounds and that was too much. People kept asking me if I had cancer. I've since put 25 pounds back on and while I wish it was 15, it's fine. My weight is what it was when I was an athlete in college. I have used my reduced weight and energy to excercise and I think that has helped. I generally do 100,000 steps a week. Again, eating/drinking the wrong stuff and not exercising would surely lead to more weight gain. 4. I no longer count calories, but I do have a few tricks to keep things in check. I have designed a menu with a lot of 200-500 calorie meals and I have 3-4 of these every day. I burn enough EXTRA calories a day exercising to offset the calories I drink (I only drink 100 calorie cocktails - nothing sugary). 5. There's a lot of good and bad information on alcohol on this site. I waited 6 weeks (the European guideline) and the eased in with weak cocktails and wine. I don't think it hits me harder, but since I'm likely to have less food in my stomach, the effect is to be hit harder. I can see no reason to wait 6 months or a year other than minimizing caloric intake. The Sleeve is a timeout from your bad lifestyle, but it's not a permanent timeout. At some point you'll create a new lifestyle that will include birthday cakes, pizza, French fries and booze. You need to manage around all of these risky consumables. You should think about it ll as you enter your journey, never stop reevaluating, and constantly adjust. I hope this helps someone...

Sleeve 2 years ago today. 281 HW 197 CW. Pretty much no more hunger suppression. 90-100,000 steps a week.

This has been a topic of misunderstanding in other posts. When I say "burn 2500 calories a day", I'm talking about what my fitness tracker reports. I think I burn 1800 by just being alive. I do cycle 5-6 days a week for and hour to an hour and a half. I average 90,000 steps a week.

Pouches and sleeves are different. The pouch is created from the soft tissue esophagus. The sleeve is what remains of the stomach after the stretchy section is removed. I don't anything more about pouches, but I know sleeves aren't stretched by bubbles. All that said, I believe diet soda is a "consume in moderation" food. The same as Chrystal Light.

Thanks Sara and good luck, but I was asking@arringtonc49

How long ago were you sleeved? I tried it after about 9 months. I can't drink much, but other than that, it's just another drink with artificial sweetener. If you think it's bad - don't drink it!

Not true

I agree. I big part of this process is "forgetting" all our old bad habits and building new ones as we emerge from a successful weight loss. Time is the only way to do this. Truth be told, the post op through goal attainment point diet is much easier than maintenance. The more time that passes between your old eating habits and your new eating habits,?the better!

I don't buy that processed and fast foods are poison. No evidence (other than cheap movies) suggests that to be true. My mother and mother-in-law are both well into their 90's and both drink diet soda daily. That said, we are what we eat. I try to make most of my meals out of Whole Foods. I don't waste money on so-called organic foods. I do enjoy 1-2 In N Out burgers a year and 12 ounces of diet soda a week. We do not know that Type 2 diabetes is generally linked to obesity - not processed food unless that's all you eat. No own knows what causes cancer, but most of the women I knew who had breast cancer, were on birth control; lung cancer and smoking, liver cancer and alcoholism. Remember that the worst poisons on earth occur naturally; plan your diet, count your calories, and major in Whole Foods. You'll be fine!

I was sleeved a year and a half ago. There is nothing I can't eat that I ate before. Oh yeah, I cannot eat more than 8 ounces of anything! You'll never be deprived of a "taste", so there's no reason for a food funeral. Now, if you're wanting a pig out overeatingathon - what good will that do?

I don't dispute that most programs say no soda during the weight loss period. It contains acid which is to be avoided during healing. It also leaves you bloated for the first 6 months. That is not the myth. The myth is that it somehow stretches your sleeve, it does not. Go spend an hour or two on google and look for any research that disputes this fact, you won't find it because it does not exist. That said, I don't I'll ever drink more than 6/8 ounces at one sitting. It simply doesn't go down as fast as flat liquids.

I agree with smg. I'd also suggest a fitness tracker and a food logging app. Between the two of them, you'll be able enjoy the efforts of your hard work before it shows up on the scale. Burn 2500 calories a day and eat 1200 low carb/high protein and those 70 pounds will melt away!

I asked my surgeon and she said it had a lot of acid in it. Bad early on before your stitches heal. Potentially bad if you have or develop acid reflux. I took 6 months off and drink 2 cups in the morning and an ice coffee every day.

Don't let it get you down. I was forced to attend two as well. The pre surgery folks said almost nothing. The meeting was dominated by post surgery folks who had no life before WLS and have been reborn thru the process. I'm guessing that they had become insignificant obese "faces in a crowd" before and now they're filled with confidence - which is great, but now they're persona as a "WLS success story" defines who they are. I'm not saying we don't have to eat healthy post sleeve, I'm just saying it's much easier to do when you can barely eat 8 ounces of solid food at one sitting and you can exercise without lugging the weight of a small person on your back. WLS has its own social world. If you want it or need it, it'll be there for you. If you don't, it'll be in your life's rear view mirror before you know it! #zeroregrets

Interesting, I have researched this extensively and it's simply no true. The sleeve procedure removed the stretchy part of your stomach. There is absolutely no medical research that suggests a post vsg stomach can be stretched by a few bubbles. In fact, if you overeat (which is how our original stomach got stretched in the first place), it still won't stretch, you'll just throw up!