Hammer_Down

I am so friggin' pleased! I suffer from horrible period cramps, and I have to be hyper aware of oncoming periods to get in front of the cramps with LOTS of pain pills or I am left playing "catch up" and stay in a moderate to severe amount of pain. This is the first time in 20 years (since I first started) that I haven't had my period like clockwork. I'm sure it's because I've shed 18% of my total body weight in 6 weeks, although I did have a period about a week after surgery. This has been the greatest motivator for me yet! I'm seriously ecstatic!!

Please delete my account. I have implored you by post, by PM and now for the third time - please delete my account and cease sending me emails about the store. I have no interest in being censored or being "allowed" to read only what you decide I am allowed to read.

2 things: Animals are provoked. They lack the cognitive faculties to weigh their decisions against the consequences of their actions. People's actions should never be justified by turning the tables around on their "provoker". We ARE all adults, and if someone picks a fight - it's on us to walk away. It's no one else's fault if you got mad and lost control. Second - It doesn't necessarily follow that the only adult thing to do is to message someone to discuss their grievances. Would I start a thread about it? No. But they're not mutually exclusive options, either. I'm not interested in having a private conversation with every person with whom I have disagreed with. If someone wants to bring it up on a thread dedicated to me, as long as they aren't name calling and being ridiculous I don't have an issue with it.

If you've been off coffee so long, why would you re-addict yourself to it? I have wanted a cup of coffee a few times since I was sleeved in Oct, but I've been on decaf since I paid for my surgery in August. I was a big Diet Coke drinker and also consumed between 50-64oz of thick truck stop coffee before that. After the headaches and withdrawals were gone, I vowed never again. And every time I've planned order a coffee, I end up with tea instead. I was never a tea drinker really, but it's really grown on me (and yes, it's decaf tea whenever possible)

We wouldn't have gone on well if you were my prof. I purposely avoided any classes that tires more than 10% of my grade to attendance or had in class quizzes that assured attendance. I had professors that I couldn't pick out of line up of 5 people because I literally picked up the syllabus on day 1 and left, bought the books, wrote the papers and midterms and showed up to finals. One prof called me out during my final exam because he had never seen me before.

More perplexing is if she's eaten all of that, how is this considered her "first meal"? Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App Good observation! I was thinking to myself while reading this: "If I wanted to get a good chuckle, and role up all my pals at BP, how could I do that?" I can't help but feel that if anyone really did eat pizza, fried chicken, a shrimp and Pasta extravaganza chased with some cocktails 3 weeks after a stomachs surgery, they probably wouldn't be bragging about it on a surgery forum to people who actually take it seriously. Someone's yanking our chains here.

@@LipstickLady I'm ready to watch! http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=eating+popcorn+gif&view=detailv2&&id=ABA84A436B12CF7F2696D0EFA27C7B6D9469E8FB&selectedIndex=60&ccid=ZOMYIDdi&simid=608003418261753331&thid=OIP.M64e318203762d9c03a00a0c16ed00e2do0 I don't know how to post a picture or gif in the body of the message, so i'm just gonna leave that there.

@@LipstickLady Alas, I'm afraid so. But don't distress - you're on my short list if it all goes south!

Most doctors aim for 2 lbs of weight loss per week on their reduced calorie diets. Following low carb, you can expect a loss of Water and inflammation during the first 2 week since equalling about 10% of total weight to lose, then slowing to about 2 lbs a week after that. There are hundreds, nay, thousands of posts about the 3 week stall on here. Many people will experience a stall on weight loss during that time frame, and periodically thereafter. A monthly cycle will affect scale weight, as will things like sodium intake and the time of day you weigh, wether you've had a bowel movement and stress levels.

This is a response to a thread started about someone's first real meal 23 days after surgery containing fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, creamy shrimp Pasta, rice and an alcoholic beverage. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App Dang. That sounds good, although it would 1 of each shrimp and i'd be too full for pasta, rice or any beverage.

My mom is a pharmacist, and I recently also experienced a bout of constipation. I had been using magnesium citrate capsules, but stopped at her urging. Apparently these are no better than senna laxatives and will ultimately compound the problem. She recommends Colace (or generic) as it is safer for long term use. It will not cause the same muscle laziness that senna laxatives are famous for. If far immediate relief you seek, a glycerine suppository and a mineral oil enema are your best bets. If you've had any painful, dry BMs recently DO NOT use a saline enema (ask me how I know) as your neighbours will end up dialling 911 when they hear your shrieking. Basically, we don't eat enough substance to produce BMs as we did before, which can lead to stools hanging out too long in the large intestine and becoming too dry to move on their own. Drinking Water and eating fat will help BMs move smoother, but if you are already backed up you likely need some help to get things moving first.

I was self pay in Mexico. I read on here and dozens of publicly accessible medical journals through NIH, NHS and Health Canada before even making contact with the surgeon in Mexico. I started receiving preop emails around the time I was to begin and have received weekly post op care emails each week since surgery. I also fortunately had a long history (of success) with low carb and ketogenic diets, and unfortunately also with drug and alcohol addiction and other self destructive behaviours. The latter contributed to my weight gain, and I made a decision to get totally clean and chart a new path for my health and sanity. Perhaps that's why I don't mind straight advice. I can't get down with Jesus or higher power BS and thus 12 step programs were never on my radar. I indulged myself in information and tried to educate myself as well as possible about any and all possible outcomes. This has always been my approach, and I totally accept that it's not for everyone. Some people want information presented to them personally on a silver platter and some of us need to be muckrakers and find it ourselves to believe it. What I can't accept is anti-informational people. People who don't want the truth and are happy subsisting in an echo chamber of what they want to be true instead of what is true. People who want sympathy instead of empathy.

I was BMI 36 staring preop and 33 the day of surgery. My wife was 32 preop and 30 the day of surgery. I am down nearly 60 pounds, and 6.5 points on the BMI scale in 9 weeks. She is down 31 lbs and I have no idea what her BMI is now. She has about 20 lbs to goal left, I am closer to 50 to go. I expected to lose much slower and have long stalls due to our relatively smaller size. We eat a strict ketogenic diet, which I believe is responsibility for the accelerated weight loss.

I've been called much worse. I'll wear "snarky" as a badge of honour.

My wife is 5'3" and was 180 at her heaviest sometime last year. She was around 175 when we started, and hopes to get down to 115-120 (we both lost a significant amount of weight 4 years ago, and that's where her weight stayed on a keto diet with regular weight lifting). Her mom has a BMI of 50, type II diabetes and some hyper tension issues, so she was concerned that the constant up and down weight struggle would ultimately lead her down that path. Her BMI was 32 starting preop, 30 the day of surgery.

Enabling is really the most troublesome behaviour I see. Rather than simply comforting someone who has made a mistake, it lends the impressions that those mistakes are just fine. I read on this site for 6 months before my surgery and only joined after, once I figured I had something to contribute. I am a discerning reader (cynical, really) so I never took it seriously when people fudged their plans and came looking for sympathy. My mother in law is considering the surgery next fall, and I'm reluctant to recommend this forum to her because I don't want to be putting out fires all the time. "So-and-so said she heard from her aunt whose neighbour's cousin's friend knew a lady whose daughter's boyfriend's mother had such-and-such a problem" Or "Can I eat ______ at 1 week? So and so did!"

I flew from eastern Canada to Mexico the day before my surgery and back (almost 24 hrs of flying/airports) 3 days later. I was home for 2 days and back to work. I work 70 hrs a week, away from home for 7 days at a time and I was fine. No pain meds allowed (drug test for work). Seriously, my period cramps are 10,000,000,000 times worse than this surgery was, and I can't even take a few hours off for those.

I guess this all boils down to why we are using this site. I choose not to treat random strangers as a support group. I have my spouse, my family, my friends and my pets to listen to me vent, rant, whine and complain, I choose to use this as an informative tool, and as such, I look for (and try to provide) the best information possible. Even if it's unpopular. Even if it's blunt. I draw the line at ad hominem attacks, since I'm just not emotionally wrapped up in the site to lose my temper and name call. I don't bother reading posts anymore for people looking for vindication or justification or moral support or medical advice from total strangers. I'm mining for information and experiences, not fuzzy wuzzy feel good moments.

@@redsonia80 It depends on what it is. I like salty food, so adding salt and lots of pepper to almost anything will make me want to eat it. I no longer look forward to eating, it's kind of a chore now. I don't snack between meals either, so when I eat it's really just a few bites of something and that's it. At 2 months out, I'm more than halfway to goal and so far i'm not sick of the same foods day in and day out.

Hey now, don't curse us all just because there's a few undesirable specimens amongst us! I'm half Gen X, half millennial. The last generation to both play outside in the woods building forts, climbing trees, skinning knees on our BMXs but to also grow up with an NES and SNES in the house. We had the internet in 1994, but there was only like 200 websites on it (199 of which weren't suitable for the well under-18 Hammer_Down). We learned penmanship as well as typing in school, and I graduated from university without owning a laptop (surely a dying breed when I was 22 in 2006). My point: I know there's a lot of petty jackasses, but pretty pretty pretty please don't make me sit with them at lunch just because we're closer in age.

I work as a long haul trucker with my spouse. So our food costs were higher than most. We could prepare meals on the road, but we both work 70 hours each in 6.5 days and don't have a whole lot of ambition for meal prep during that gruelling regime. Unfortunately, I also have expensive tastes. Hamburgers and sandwiches aren't my thing, I'm more of a blue rare steak and salads person. So our food costs have gone waaaaay down. I make a pot of Soup or chili and portion it for the week, freeze the rest and it lasts almost a month. We inherited a bunch of ham and turkey leftovers, and I'm willing to bet we'll live on that for more than a month. So, a 12-15lb turkey or 7-8lb ham where I live is about $25 bucks. Cook it, portion it and add the cost of buying 2 large salads a week (about $9 each), and for 2 adults to live we're looking at a monthly food bill of about $100.

There's many factors that will affect your weight loss after surgery. I won't pretend to know what all of them are, or why some people lose quicker than others. I am at 2 months today. I haven't weighed for about a week (just returned home from holiday travelling and I'm still in bed). However, at 7 weeks out I was down 56 lbs. I'm 32, female, started at 250 and a BMI of 36. So my BMI was on the lower side for bariatric surgery, which would usually mean slower weight loss. However, I lost more than 50% of my total weight to lose in less than 2 months. I don't work out. I eat ketogenically, meaning not simply low carb but ultra low carb and high fat. (Obviously high fat only as a percentage of my total intake, I really don't eat enough of anything to be eating high anything). I eat meat. My diet is about 80% meat, 20% low glycemic index vegetables. I eat no fruit, and no packaged frankenfoods. I am not diabetic and have no known health conditions other than being overweight.

A few posters have summed this up really well: 1) It's your post op plan, not theirs. 2) We can't expect the world to accommodate us at all times. Only we can control the circumstances of our lives, and must learn how to navigate the world. 3) If it bothers you to see other people eating, the onus is on you to stay home and not on them to be hungry for your sake. 4) We can't expect others to read our minds because we aren't comfortable being honest. If it sounds bitchy in your head, there's a good chance it is. To avoid seeming bitchy, refer to #3.

There's a very real possibility of damage to your newly healing sleeve. The best thing to do would be to call your surgeon (if there's anyone to get ahold of on Christmas Day) and ask them about your next steps. Unfortunately, guilt alone will not always be enough to curb a food addiction. If it were, most of us would have lost the weight without surgery as guilt and shame go hand in hand with yo-to dieting and all addictions. This may be the time to recognize that your will power could use some shoring up by way of a counsellor or psychologist and a support group. In the meantime, you should seek medical advice from a doctor and not the internet.

I LOVE those chips! They sell them at 7-11 Sent from my SM-N920T using the BariatricPal App All Dressed and Ketchup chips are the 2 most notable missing items from most US shelves. Philadelphia also makes special chip dips (not just flavoured cream cheeses) that for some reason are MIA. And Smarties. No, M&Ms are not the same thing.