MacMadame

I agree! //

My surgeon's sleeve patients lose as much weight as his bypass patients but with less complications. Plus the surgery cost less. So, as a self-pay, getting the sleeve was a no-brainer for me. :smile2: If you want to know more about the sleeve, come by the VSG subforum and we'll talk your ear off. There are a ton of band-to-sleeve revisions there.

No one knows what causes erosion. It's something that "just happens" to a small percentage of people. If a doctor has a higher than average erosion rate, then maybe it's something about his technique, but if he doesn't, then it's just one of those things.

Oh, FFs. I was at McDonald's today and Mini-Mac and Mr. Mac ordered french fries. I was thinking I'd have ONE. But I couldn't find one that looked right. So I didn't have any. I think an alien has taken over my body?

For me, it's laziness combined with not really buying into societal mores on this one. (There really is nothing wrong with body hair when you look at it objectively. We are meant to have it and it often serves a useful purpose.) I really only shave because I feel like I have to conform not to be labeled as something that I don't want to be labeled as. IOW, shaving is the lesser of two evils for me. :thumbup: :crying: This is why I have rule that only Monday's weigh in counts. It makes life simpler.

I wish I could do this. I live 20 miles away from my work! I'm thinking about doing it once a week anyway, maybe on Friday so I could go home early and get home before dark. I'm definitely going to bike to work on Bike to Work Day though. Who else is going to do that?

I wish I could do this. I live 20 miles away from my work! I'm thinking about doing it once a week anyway, maybe on Friday so I could go home early and get home before dark. I'm definitely going to bike to work on Bike to Work Day though. Who else is going to do that?

Heh. I never know what to think when people post about exercising 2-4 hours at a time -- during the week! Should I admire them or think they are lunatics? Can't decide. Anyway, I decided to see how long I could run in 45 min. It was about 4 miles and I did it on 5.2 and my heart rate didn't go over 160 once! Which means that was a slow pace for me. I remember when I couldn't do 5.2 the whole way and now it's SLOW. Woot, woot! This means that I think I'll be okay at the Olympic triathlon next weekend.

Of course, as soon as I said that, my iPod didn't work for my run this afternoon. So no credit for the Nike+ challenge. Pout. Can I steal that? Congrats to everyone making their way through this program. I'm so proud of you all!

My goal is to be the oldest woman to do Kona. But, of course, I didn't start out with that goal. I was happy with going to the gym a few days a week. A friend of mine who had bypass and does triathlons posts his goals on his web site. Right now his goal is to do an Ironman and he plans to do that next year. But his first list of goals, which is also up there, including things like being able drive his truck without his belly rubbing the steering wheel and being able to bend over to tie his shoes. Oh and to be able to run for 1 mile. We all start somewhere, IMO. That's why it's important for people at all levels and at all different stages in their journey to post in the Exercise forum!

I always tell people that I didn't have WLS to lose weight. I had it to keep it off! If you have to have your band removed, of course you need something to replace it. Too bad your insurance won't cover a sleeve - I love mine!

Have you tried water aerobics?

re: the gym... we have a free one at work. That makes a difference. :thumbup:

The only thing that bugged me, for sure, was milk. I ate cheese and yogurt like crazy. I could also have milk in things -- baked and cooked. I did suspect that some of the 100% whey shakes were not helping but I could get them down. I eventually switched to a shake that was a whey/soy mix and that never gives me a tummy ache.

You can also get swings in your weight due to Water weight loss and gain related to exercise. There is a long technical explanation for it that I can go into if people are interested. Alcohol also slows your weight loss down because it inhibits fat loss. Bottom line: if you lose or gain a couple of pounds in *one day* water had something to do with it. :rolleyes2:

I didn't do anything today. So there. :rolleyes2: And I think running for 30 min. at a time is great! I've only been able to do that for a month or so. For a while there, I thought I'd never get there. It's a amazing accomplishment, IMO.

I think it's great that you guys want to post too. I remember when I was posting my "30 min. on stationary bike" 3x a week and feeling SO intimidated by people doing hours a day. But I think you guys should infiltrate the regular threads as well. It will help the pre-ops and newbies to see that you can exercise at all different levels. Otherwise, the triathlon and marathon people will seem like the norm!

You should walk right away. It lowers your chance of getting blood clots! I was cleared to go back to the gym at 2 weeks but had lifting restrictions for the first two months that precluded doing a lot of ab and core work.

Watch out everyone... I've decided to train for a half marathon so my miles will be going up in the challenges!

One is more interesting! I love it when we run in the park more than the track for the same reason.

Dr. Huacuz is on the top of mine and he's the first 10 entries too. :wink2; But I'd also avoid anyone associated or formerly associated with a Betancourt clinic, particularly: Contreras, Pompas, and Lopez. I'd also avoid verboonen because of his arrest for insurance fraud. If your doctor has no integrity, then how can you trust him to cut off most of your stomach? Then I'd eliminate anyone who hasn't been doing the sleeve for at least 3-4 years and has done less than 250-500 of them. Let someone else be their learning curve. Oh and anyone who uses a 40 f boughie or bigger.

Food intolerances are common with VSG, DS and RnY. Lactose intolerance is the most common. But once your stomach settles down, they tend to go away. I couldn't drink milk for a while but I can now, for example.

Actually, it's "excess" weight loss.

No, what happens is that everything gets so expensive that people making 6 figures can't live in the area either. Or everyone moves to a "cheap" place to live and then that place suddenly isn't so cheap any more and it's certain less attractive in other ways (traffic and pollution increases, harder to get your kid into a good school, etc.) The local economy is an ecosystem. It needs all it's parts to function. This includes unskilled labor. It is not in our best interests to tax unskilled labor to the point they can't function on their salaries because that only increases the welfare rolls. There is something kind of sick about a system where your quality of life is better on welfare than working. In order to guard against that, we need minimum wage laws, and lower/no taxes for the lowest paid workers.

I can't find the post I wanted to quote. Darn. Anyway, here's my answer. I have often been "active for a fat chick". When I was overweight and even obese, I still did things. For a while, I mountain biked with some guys from work a couple of times a week at one job. Then I figure skated for over 10 years. But I didn't do them to the level of a truly athletic person either. Also, when I get close to 200 (and then over), it gets really hard to move and my exercise slacks off and I turn into a couch potato. This is part of what got me to consider WLS. I stopped figure skating after 2 years of only doing it about half an hour a week. (You can NOT make progress in figure skating with that little time commitment.) I realized then that I was in big trouble and it was only going to get worse. When I had my surgery, I hadn't skated or been to the gym in over a year. I started back to the gym to get ready for surgery about a month before and was going 1 or maybe 2x a week and riding the stationary bike for 30 min. only. IOW, it was a very marginal effort. So I would say I have had periods of activity in my life and periods of total couch potato-ness. But I never looked on thse activities as "exercising." I did them because I loved them. Too many people look on exercising as something they "have" to do and think of exercising as going to the gym or going running. Exercise is moving your body and there are tons of ways to do it that are fun. Maybe taking a ballroom dancing class or going bowling isn't the best aerobic exercise in the world, but it's more exercise than staying at home and watching tv. So I think we all have to change our attitudes about it. Otherwise, you see people dutifully going to the gym, hating every minute of it, until they get to goal and then they stop. At which point the weight starts coming bakc on. I admit, there are times in my life when that was me. But now I go to the gym because I love the stuff I do there and I have goals that keep me going on days when I don't love it so much. I'm not going to stop when I get to a particular goal weight because my goal is to do an Ironman some day. I can't do that if I don't bike, swim and run at least 2x a week. It has nothing to do with weight for me at this point in time. Hope that answered the question. And sorry to be so serious in the PJTP thread.