jeaniebobeanie

Just throwing this out there... When I was getting close to my heaviest, couldn't seem to stop gaining, and HATED HATED HATED the way I looked in clothes, I bought a sewing machine and taught myself to sew. I won't say it was quick - lots of stuff to learn! machine basics, garment construction, fitting, learning to do CAD drafting and grading, then on to serging and other stuff - it took a good 2 years to get to the point where I can comfortably say that I sew my own clothes (and no one at my office would suspect.) I won't lie. Sewing machine, serger, coverstitch, Craftsy classes, yards and yards of fabric, patterns, software, all this stuff isn't cheap. I've invested hundreds of hours and I feel like the more I learn the more I understand how very little I've mastered. I've run out of space in my living room because I've got way more projects and materials than I have free time to actually sew. HOWEVER: I feel like I have a superpower. Not only can I make pretty much anything I can think up, in exactly the cut and fabric I see in my head, but it will fit better than anything I could buy RTW. I can do quickie alterations at home (careful who you tell) and I've found about a billion applications for sewing I never thought were possible at home (SHOES! Swimsuits! Bras! Jeans! Upholstery! Stuffed animals! Insulated lunchbag! Curtains! Custom accordion trick or treat bag for the kid's Weird Al Halloween costume!) I get that I found my passion kind of late in life, and sewing isn't everyone's bag...but it can absolutely be worth the time and money if you have the patience to work through being a beginner. Learning something new HAS to be good for your brain, right? The worst thing that can happen is you screw up an article of clothing that wasn't working for you anyway! So...promised my mom a new swimsuit coverup for her birthday, need to get it done before we leave for vacay for spring break in two weeks.

JICAMA, baby!

Unless you're used to eating them, I'd avoid for now. If you haven't become accustomed to inulin, even if you have a normal-sized tummy, you might have (ahem) digestive issues with that volume of insoluble Fiber shooting through your GI track. With the surgery? You might as well be eating styrofoam packing peanuts. If you decide in a few months that you're willing to brave them (because you need the bulk?) make absolutely sure that you rinse and rinse and rinse them, and then dry-fry them in a pan. Otherwise, they have a sort of unpleasant slimy texture and a weird fishy taste to them. They work OK with chilis or stir fries where you've got other strong flavors to mask them, but I dunno...I just can't imagine they'd be worth it. If you're really hurting for that Pasta feel, I'd go with a Paderno spiralizer and a zucchini. Boil that in salted Water for 30-45 seconds, rinse, and then use right away. You can get really close on texture, and the taste is bland enough that whatever you're eating it with will be the dominant flavor. Also, easy nutrition!

I...yeah.

@@jeaniebobeanie This is one of the hotly debated issues of sleeve patients and surgeons. I was never told that carbonation would stretch my sleeve (I was never told a sleeve COULD stretch), but I was told to avoid carbonation because it can cause gas and discomfort. Probably some patients have more trouble with that than others. I also think it's because surgeons and nutritionists don't want us drinking our calories and most carbonated beverages have calories. Even if it's diet soda, artificial sweeteners have their own host of potential problems. So a blanket "no carbonation" rule is probably just the easiest way for surgeons and nutritionist to avoid the potential issues of gas, discomfort, liquid calories, and artificial sweeteners all at one time. I suspect you're on to something here, and I totally agree with you re: artificial sweeteners - but seriously, every pre- and immediately post-op diet I've ever heard discussed here, and even the ones I was given, were stupidly heavy on artificial sweeteners delivered through every conceivable form factor. The lack of consistency from NUTs bugs me. If it's bad in Coke Zero, isn't it equally bad in protein shakes and popsicles? And the blanket recommendations - again, I get it. It's easier to just lay down sweeping laws. It's also patronizing - I mean, we're fat, we're not stupid. Give us some freakin' credit for being able to differentiate between high-calorie drinks and plain water that's had pressurized CO2 added to it. Explain the difference for those who aren't aware, but please treat me like a grown-up. @jeaniebobeanie http://www.provostbariatrics.com/weight-loss-surgery-success-life-after-carbonated-drinks/ Thank you for this center's perspective! It doesn't really address my questions, though. They say that sodas can increase hunger, and the carbonation expands in the stomach, potentially causing stretching. So, yeah. Sugary sodas could cause increased hunger in the same way that sugary anything can trigger carby cravings, and diet sodas use fake sugar, which in some people triggers insulin production. I get that! I also get that CO2 under pressure will increase in volume suddenly when the pressure is released. However, the basic physics of drinking carbonation includes releasing the pressure PRIOR to putting it in your body. Once you've taken the bottle off the Sodastream, poured it into a glass, poured a fraction of that into your mouth, increasing the surface area exposed; swallowed, and pushed it all the way from your mouth into your stomach, you've given the bubbles plenty of time to expand (otherwise, there wouldn't BE any bubbles.) And then, assuming you're not doing this during or immediately after you've eaten solid food, your stomach immediately passes it into your small intestine. Haven't heard any concern from anyone yet about stretching the small intestine. I wonder if the "ban on carbonation" issue has to do with GBP mechanics. An awful lot of the diet guidelines for sleevers are adopted directly from guidelines for GBP. It's possible that gas/bloating are more an issue for GBP patients. This is an interesting idea. More in the vein of what @@JamieLogical was referring to (albeit more tactfully than I would) that the messaging we're getting from the professionals tends to be a little lazy. SImplest message, applicable to the lowest common denominator, without doing the work to actually educate and allow patients to make appropriate decisions based on OUR understanding of how our own bodies work - including specifics for the actual surgery we had. Makes me also wonder what else I was given as post-op gospel that is in fact completely appropriate - for a different procedure. Before anyone has a hissy fit, know that I did and do respect the training and knowledge of the many excellent people at the center where I had my surgery (except for the PA, he was a total ****** canoe.) I also know that I'm not a "typical" patient - I've spent years working with all kinds of specialists to figure out why my body wasn't responding to diet and exercise like everyone else's, and in the process, I've become pretty well-versed in all sorts of minutiae about nutrition, digestion, auto-immune conditions, the microbiome, micronutrient absorption, and a host of other things that bore the crap out of my husband but make for super-interesting conversations with my NUT. But it also makes me a lot more hair-trigger to react to out-of-date advice about things like artificial sweeteners (really, really bad for you, even if they come in protein shake form!) and what fats are healthy (don't eat saturated fat? in egg yolks and pastured lard and grassfed butter? replace them with freakin' bleached, HIGHLY processed, estrogenic, incredibly-inflammatory-omega-6-heavy SOYBEAN OIL? in 2016? SERIOUSLY?). So, yeah. I'm thinking I'm going to dust off the old Sodastream and do my little N+1 on that sucker. Water is water and gas gets burped. If it feels weird, I'll put it back in the pantry. If not, I'm drinking it.

LOVE LOVE LOVE The Paleo Women! So much on self love. Also, a ton of great stuff on hormones (Stefani is a PCOS expert), hunger, all the things. They're funny, too!

All right...I've just spent the last I-don't-know-how-long getting all caught up on this thread, and (ignoring the squabbling - what the HECK?) I keep having the same question. What's the big deal with carbonation, anyway? As a lifetime lover extraordinaire of fuzzy liquids, I went through the whole 5 stages of grief on the lifetime carbonation ban, eventually making my peace with it. But I'm wondering, if liquids won't do diddly squat to stretch out my sleeve, WHY is there a lifetime ban on them? Does the gas itself not get moved into the intestines along with the liquid? Does the carbonation somehow manage to expand itself like grains in Water once it's in your tummy? How on earth would that even happen? How would it "stress" the staple line if you're more than a month or two out from surgery? It's not like the total volume would actually change, so if you're drinking it at the same pace you'd drink other liquids, why would the carbonation be problematic? I get that the good folks at my center don't want us drinking sugary sodas, or non-sugary diet sodas (something something fake sugars seem to affect weight loss so don't drink diet soda, but have all the fake sweeteners you want in sugar-free Jello, pudding, popsicles, or Protein shakes HUH?) BUT: I like plain carbonated water. Used to make it myself with my beloved Sodastream. Wha??? What gives?

@@robbie&kaitlyn - so glad! Just out of curiousity, where in Poland? I was in the Peace Corps, and my best friend there lived in a mountain town called Poprad that was just on the other side of the border from Zakopane, a ski resort town we used to go to all the time. We also went clubbing in Krakow and had the most amazing blowout weekends there...ah, to be young enough to stay awake past 10:00 pm... Seriously, though - will you have time to sight see? The Tatry mountains are stunning, and some of those old cities have unbelievably beautiful medieval castles and churches. Beer's awesome, too (although you probably won't be doing a lot of that, what with the surgery and all.

So, don't know if this will help or not...I also had a very, very slow metabolism. Diets that worked for everyone else just didn't work for me, no matter how religiously I weighed and logged every gram, or how hard or often I hit my Crossfit box. Low carb? Check. Weight training? Check. Massive calorie deficit? Check. Protein-sparing modified fast? Check. Moderate deficit? Check. Strict paleo? Check. Tried vegan? Check. Coaching? Cognitive behavioral therapy? Meal delivery? Integrative medical plan? Yes, yes, and yes. NOTHING WORKED. I had the sleeve done in early December, and discovered a couple of things: I have actually managed to lose some weight. More than I have in a long, long time. Enough to make my clothes fit better. I feel better. I'll be able to fit on roller coasters when King Island opens in a few months. Yay! I'm happy about this! HOWEVER: It's come off really, really slowly. Like, in two months, I've lost what a lot of people lose in the first 3-4 weeks. And my BMI was solidly over 40. I'm short. I had well over 100 lbs to lose. It's not like I was just on the edge of not qualifying. Weight stays put for a few days, bounces up, goes down a little, stops moving, rinse repeat. I didn't just hit a week three stall...I hit a two week stall, then a three week stall, then a four week stall, lost a little, lost a little, then another few days of stall. This is on 700 calories a day, walking 8000 - 10,000 steps, carbs below 30, drinking 60-70 ounces of Water, lots of Protein. ALSO: I have other medical crap going on. Shortly before surgery my new and brilliant GI specialist diagnosed me with a small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Short version, have probably had it for years, and it's wreaked havoc in my digestion and subsequently my endocrine system (hello thyroid!) Also, another specialist I've been seeing pointed out that my temperature has been dipping ever downward for the few months he's been looking at it. This means that my metabolism is screwed up. Apparently, my body, when presented with magnesium, has no clue what to do with it. So. To make a long story short, if you have metabolism issues, surgery MIGHT help resolve them. This, of course, depends on what they are. And even if you have metabolic problems and the surgery doesn't fix them (like my case), you CAN still lose weight. It won't be like everyone else's, and this is a huge, huge bummer. I'm also hungry on my tiny little portions. Yes, VSG gets rid of ghrelin production for the first few months. However, if your problem is leptin resistance, your brain will never get that message that you've had enough and you can stop eating. I don't know why everyone gets so fixated on ghrelin and think that that's the only hormone responsible for hunger. Makes me nuts...just like everyone who says that if you just follow the program or do X, Y, or Z (cut carbs, cut calories, drink more water, exercise in a particular way, do interpretive dance under the full moon, WHATEVER) it will work for you, because it worked for them. My advice...treat the weight like any other symptom of a disease state in your body. The surgery will help you manage that symptom, but if you're not looking for the root cause, it'll always be a THING you'll be dealing with. I don't know if I'll be able to correct whatever's causing my metabolism shutdown. It might be related to some MTHFR genetic mutations I tested for, in which case, we won't be able to fix it, but I will eventually figure out how to manage it. Or maybe once my intestine has healed from the SIBO (which appears to be gone, huzzah) things will get much better. Don't know. Weight MAY continue to be an issue post-sleeve...but I'm doing everything I can. I've got that going for me, even when I'm so frustrated I want to scream. Don't know if that helps or not...I really wrote a long post, didn't I?

I used to live in Slovakia and we'd go to Poland for skiing and drinking weekends...it's a beautiful country! Not that you'll have a ton of time for shopping, but they've got the most gorgeous ceramics there...

There's nothing store-bought that you're gonna find that'll be chemical-free, at least in my experience. I ended up making my own stuff from scratch (I have all kinds of interesting food allergies and sensitivities.) You can make popsicles and jello from water, plain gelatin, and fruit juice (which won't be sugar-free, just no sugar added, but you can control that.) I used beef collagen peptides and homemade broth instead of shakes, and ate cod and chicken liver to supplement my supplements, as it were. It did sort of amaze me that all these health professionals were telling me to subsist on things that were absolutely terrible for me! Soy protein isolate...aspartame...gut-irritating gums like xanthan and arabic...gross!

Yeah - my inches lost are from my surgery date (Dec 8). I'm going to see what hyper-supplementing with magnesium does, if anything. Seeing that chart with my temperature slowly dropping over the last 6-7 months was an eye-opener. There's clearly something really weird going on with my metabolism.

Barely. I've dropped an inch from my bust, and an inch and a half from my hips and waist. About what you'd expect for losing 17 lbs.

So met with a doctor I've been working with for the last year on micronutrient deficiencies, and he showed me a graph of my temperature over the last year. It's been doing what I HOPED my weight was going to do - straight line down and to the left with a significant slope. He seems to think that my super-duper low levels of magnesium are a major part of the problem (since apparently magnesium has a hand in every one of the 17 million mechanisms involved with metabolism.) I've been supplementing with mag for months and months, but my numbers don't seem to be getting any better. He's asked me to double my current dose...will titrate up and see if that has any effect at all. I gotta tell you, it's discouraging. I get that BMI and BF% play into how quickly you can expect to lose, but I log every d@#&ed thing I put in my mouth (I mean, like, I keep a small digital scale in my purse and weigh my food before and after every meal to make sure I know EXACTLY what I'm eating) and I wear not one but two multi-sensor fitness monitors (take an average for calories burned, because their algorithms are different) I log my food, my sleep, my weight, my Water, everything. I'm averaging about a 1700 calorie a day deficit, but I'm losing MAYBE a pound a week. This has been going on since week 3 after surgery - I'm closing in on 9 weeks now. The surgeon and both NUTs have shrugged their shoulders and told me to talk to the doc, which I will, but not until next week because she's a very popular lady. And the one who suggested surgery to me in the first place because I tried every diet known to humanity and could not take the f@(*ing weight off. No one seems to have any explanation. My macros are solid. My micros are solid. My water, sleep, activity levels are solid. So unless my body has figured out a way to photosynthesize without my skin green turning green there's something really, really insane going on. I'm 100% sure that I'm not actually an exception to the laws of thermodynamics. If I walk my 200+ lb body around 22-25 miles a week, eating roughly 800-900 calories a day, that deficit has to come from SOMEWHERE. It just does. But where? At what point do I see it? (Just an aside...I don't keep these kinds of records out of neurosis. I really don't. I don't actually enjoy weighing my food at work or in the occasional restaurant. I need to 1) make sure I know how much I'm REALLY eating, and not just guessing, because I don't want to under-estimate, and 2) keep all the data on the off chance that someone will figure out what's going on.) Rant over. Thanks for your patience, everyone! I'll be under my desk, curled up in the fetal position (at least until the timer on my phone goes off and it's time to walk the loop around my office parking lot.)

**blushes** I work in IT, and have been using these types of tools for...forever, so I've had some time to think about it. I love the idea of incorporating meal planning - ESPECIALLY if the tool could 1) have enough back and forth with the recipe/food database to suggest recipes or meals based on goal macro/micro goals ("Hey, user! You've been a little low on manganese and potassium lately...here's a great recipe for garlic mussels and braised white Beans that'll get you back to sufficiency for both those nutrients!"), 2) allow you to constrain it with ingredients/foods that are problematic for you (I can't have about a zillion things and it KILLS me when every recommendation includes tomatoes/eggs/corn/soy/etc) and 3) integration with shopping list apps (kroger.com, I'm looking at you:) One more thing, while I'm thinking about it, because apparently I wasn't quite done...I do this already, but having a sandbox to play around with planning ahead for the day/week/whatever and then being able to either shift things into some sort of "I ate this" state or "I didn't eat this, I ate that instead" would be super fancy. And a nice tie-in with the meal planning.

I currently use Cron-o-meter, but have used MFP, Lose it, and some others attached to devices (like BodyMedia and Up.) Here's my wish list: Detailed micronutrient tracking. Cron-o-meter is FABULOUS at this and I appreciate it more and more as I transition to solid food. It tells me if/when I'll be ready to drop particular supplements. Along with this - a real blue-sky dream - an app that can suggest particular foods that will help me meet my goals. For example, if I'm not getting enough Iron, suggest liver or other foods that are super-dense in that particular nutrient(s) Goal ranges instead of discrete ceilings or floors A way to log my hunger at the beginning, middle, and end of a meal (a simple 1-10 scale would be fine) A place to keep notes on how I'm feeling (stressed, tired, bored, celebratory) and some way to mine that data back out (see reporting/exporting) A good recipe builder. One of the things I appreciate about Cron-o-meter (and I hated about My Fitness Pal) is the fact that it keeps a running weight log for any given recipe, so when I eat it, I can just weigh my portion and put that in (as opposed to determining set portions.) The ability to translate and move easily between measurement units (g v. ounces, volume) The ability to scan barcodes The ability to sync bi-directionally with my fitness apps (see: Jawbone, MapMyFitness, etc.) so I only have to log things like biometrics (weight, fat %) in a single place Robust reporting and exporting so you can see patterns and make connections (e.g. changes in macronutrient ratios when you're tired, etc.) I'm not a huge fan of crowdsourcing foods...UNLESS they include ingredient lists with amounts. Otherwise, how do I know what's in that chili, or if it's nutritionally similar to MY chili? That's my main beef with MFP (but not my only one.) I don't trust the data.

The issue is the impact long-term, massive calorie deficits have on the endocrine system. Think permanent thyroid hormone dysregulation...resistance to satiety hormones...super-efficient energy storage. Our bodies aren't stupid. If you starve them long enough, they fight back. They'll take energy from all kinds of places we don't want them taking it to preserve essential functions - like breaking down muscle tissue to preserve energy stores. Can be a pretty big deal when the muscle tissues that are left include important ones like the heart.

Four years of undiagnosed SIBO raging out of control. Created a waterfall of sugar cravings, micronutrient deficiencies, sleep deficit, autoimmune flares, GI disfunction, food sensitivities, endocrine dysregulation, cravings, binging, dieting, lather, rinse, repeat.

Thanks. I'll do that...NUT said to get back in touch this week if nothing happened last week (it didn't.) Will see if the smart people here have any ideas.

Just chiming in with you...currently closing out 8 weeks since surgery with a grand total of 15 lbs loss. (Sigh.) The thing that's absolutely KILLING me isn't that is seems like everyone is losing faster than me (although it does seem like that but I was really, really, really hoping for my physical hunger to go away. It hasn't. So while I'm doing everything right (800-900 calories a day, 60-80 g of Protein, 70-80 oz Water, getting good sleep, lots of walking, rinse, repeat) I'm freaking HUNGRY ALL THE TIME. Not head hunger, not cravings, but real physiological hunger. My surgeon was actually HAPPY about this - he thinks it indicates that I'm healing very quickly. Well, that's great, but remind me why I did this again? So, slow losers, tell me this - have any of you had hunger that got better months in? (Sorry to hijack!)

I couldn't find a powder I could tolerate (ridiculous number of food allergies/sensitivities) so I used collagen peptides dissolved in homemade bone broth. For a couple of weeks, it worked. Not a strategy you can use long term though.

Yep, sometimes it takes an icy stare that lasts a minute or two too long, a drawn-in breath, and a head shake while saying, "WOW - did you realize that you actually said that out loud?" to point out how NOT OK it is to say things like that. My mom used to say that the world was full of children wearing super-convincing adult-looking bodies...

KK, right there with you. I'll be 8 weeks in a few days, and I'm down a whopping 15 lbs. Eating 800-900 calories a day, 70-90 g of Protein, drinking 70-90 oz of Water. Logging everything to the gram in Cronometer and wearing a Jawbone UP3 to track my calorie burn. Loss should have been faster...but it's just not. Both my surgeon and NUT sort of shrugged their shoulders and - this is the kicker - the surgeon just said "the human body is such a mystery..." AAAAARGH!!! So while I KNOW I'm creating a solid deficit, and I should be losing more, it just ain't happening. Which is why I had the g$#mned surgery in the first place. Nothing to offer, except just to let you know you're not alone. Also, I needed to vent too, apparently.

I was sleeved on Dec 8, and as of today, nearly 8 weeks out, I've lost 15 lbs. That's it. So yeah, comparing yourself to others seems like a ticket for the fast train to Crazyville. I'm not doing anything "wrong" (e.g. Water, Protein, walking) but I'm losing slower than pretty much everyone else. NUT and surgeon can't find anything to tweak. I can't let it get to me or I'd need to be fitted for a straitjacket.

I wanted to like MFP because it syncs so beautifully with my Jawbone...but while it does have an enormous database, the micronutrient breakdown I can get out of Cronometer is SO.MUCH.BETTER I don't mind not having the sync! Cronometer also calculates the total weight of a recipe, so I'm not stuck with a random serving size I have to fiddle with if I can only get down 70 grams of chili instead of whatever the "regular" serving size is. I just put in 70 grams and it figures it all out for me. ALSO - while I appreciate MFP's recipe crowdsourcing, I generally don't want to use those anyway because I have no idea what other people are putting in their chicken saag...or carnitas...or whatever. The micronutrient totals are 100% what I want. They'll tell me when I'm ready to start weaning off supplements, if ever. It will export to CSV, but it's kind of messy. That would be a great problem for someone to solve! Haven't used a Fitbit, but I had a BodyMedia band (blast them for getting sold) and am currently using an UP3. LOVE the automatic-ness of everything but particularly the sleep monitoring. Plus the mobile app is lovely. I also have a Basis Peak which is nice during workouts for heartrate, and it's got a slick watch interface. But if I had to pick, I'd go with the UP3.