sillykitty

This is so me The upside is leftovers for days and days and days!

BBQ Chicken Breast & Brisket - 1 oz each (before) After - 1 oz left (total) This was a bit of an experiment. I have been away from a food scale for two weeks, and discovered a lot of slider foods while I was on vacation. I was curious how much restriction I have with solid protein. Clearly, A LOT, lol. This was one bite past my restriction, so I had a few minutes of nausea, uncomfortable-ness until it all settled.

Oh, I wish this were true for me. I still crave crap food!

Hmm ... I wonder if an acid stomach would mute the full sensation?

It's both. But it's more real hunger than head hunger right now. I sometimes have trouble telling them apart. But one way I can differentiate is what will satisfy me. For instance yesterday after eating the various "salads" plate I posted, getting full, then feeling hungry again, I was happy to eat the chili. Even though there were lots of other less nutritious, more crave-able options available. So I knew it was real hunger. A few hours later I was hungry again. I was satisfied with eating some cheese, when again there were a lot more delicious options available. But making good choices still takes a lot of thought and effort. I suspect that will always be a struggle for me.

Interesting @Orchids&Dragons! I wonder if that is related to your faulty esophagus?

I really can't complain, like @Orchids&Dragons I've been fortunate that overall I haven't had a lot of hunger. There have been days when I've had none at all, and just have two protein shakes. I struggled with head hunger in the first few months, but that subsided as well. Now I'm just dealing with the consequence of going on vacation and eating whatever I damn well pleased, and eating a lot more frequently than I otherwise would. It seems to have woke up my hunger monster. I have a few days at home to hopefully get back into the routine of eating healthfully, less frequently. Hopefully that will reset my hunger.

I'm not going to deny that I love my restriction. But I need to get my hunger under control for it to be effective. An hour after I ate this, I was hungry again and ate some chili ... ugh! I want my lack of hunger back!

I have a Brit ex and came to love UK candies and cookies. Pre WLS me would have loaded my suitcase with sweets to bring home. Now I just inadvertently have a half pack of Hobnobs and a Crunchie bar here with me. Meant to leave those with my traveling companion . Must be strong!

Back two days, and still struggling with hunger, both physical and mental. I can only think it is a consequence of eating without any limits while on vacation. I had been relatively hunger free the weeks leading up to vacation.

Airport lounge food .... chicken salad, cheese cubes, edamame salad, black bean salad This I ate until I felt my restriction

You guys made me literally lol On the antipasti plate, you guys all missed the artichoke hearts on the right! I actually only ate the antipasti plate until I was sated, not until I felt my restriction. It just wasn't very good . The gyro plate was HUGE, and I couldn't have made much of a dent in it even pre WLS. The fruit and cheese platter is a good example of my average capacity. The scallops and bread are an example of my capacity with slider foods.

Losing 3 lbs at an all inclusive is a great outcome! Congrats!

Gyro plate

More airplane food .... Antipasti plate

Scallops with Chorizo and homemade bread This was one of the meals I began to realize soft bread is a slider food for me. This is way more food than I can normally eat.

I'm terrible about remembering to take before pics ... but here are a few over the last couple of weeks. Airplane food .... Fruit and Cheese Plate

Thanks, I'm good with it Unfortunately on this trip my travel partner had a bum ankle, so the amount of walking was minimized. Old fat me would have been fine with that. But new me really wanted to get out and hike and walk more. Which surprised me, I don't feel any more fit in my day to day life, but I had so much more energy on this trip. My next two trips my travel partners are super fit, so barring any injuries, I'm sure they will walk my feet off!

Back from vacation! Weighed myself first morning after my return, in 12 days, total gain of 4.5 lbs. I'm okay with this. It is manageable for me to get that back off. It was worth it to be able to fully experience the food culture. (I was in Scotland, btw) I think the biggest contributing factor to the gain was the liquid calories in beer. I have a lot of restriction, so even eating recklessly my food calories aren't terribly high. But add a couple of pints of beer a day .... yeah .... The hardest thing is getting myself mentally back on track. I have to make good decisions about what I'm eating, not just because I want it. For instance I ate a pack of airplane peanuts without really thinking. I wasn't hungry, I don't even love peanuts, but I ate them. I regretted it when I logged the 170 calories though. I also found a new slider food. Soft untoasted bread, like sandwich bread, I can eat a lot of without feeling much restriction. I also learned that eating fast is a benefit for me. Slow leisurely meals allow me to basically graze, and I end up eating a lot more. I knew this from tapas style meals at home, but with slow European service at restaurants, this happened meal after meal on this trip. In two months I have another vacation. It will be pasta, gelato & wine, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it

I lost about 30%-50% of my volume between months 3 and 5. But even at that amount of loss, it is only noticeable if I pull my hair back, and the thinning around my hairline and temples shows. At first I was super self conscience about it. But now I realize that 99% of people would never even looks closely enough to notice. I pull my hair back whenever I want now, except for meetings or dates, or any other time I want to look my "best".

My Dr. had me take Misoprostol the night before in order to dilate my cervix, for a less painful insertion. I chose the Mirena IUD because it is highly effective, more effective than tubal ligation https://www.optionsforsexualhealth.org/birth-control-pregnancy/birth-control-options/effectiveness

So I've never written about why I chose VSG, but this applies to me. I specifically wanted VSG over RNY, because I wanted to remain flexible in my diet. I didn't want to deal with dumping, and to a lesser degree malabsorption. I've written quite a bit about my job requiring a lot of dining out, sometime alone, but very often with colleagues and customers. I absolutely don't want to deal with dumping while "on the job". I also don't want to be "that person" altering or ordering off the menu excessively. I feel very uncomfortable doing that, and the corporate culture where I work strongly frowns upon it. What I really haven't mentioned is my career is in the food industry. I have to be able to eat the product I sell. Dumping very likely would be an issue with my current company's products. And who knows where my career will take me? I wasn't willing to risk or cause serious complications with my career by choosing RNY. I also wanted the ability to "cheat", for personal reasons. International travel is hugely important to me. Experiencing a country's and culture's food, is a big part of my enjoyment of traveling. This may sound crazy to some, but I'm not willing to give up gelato in Rome or sticky rice with mango in Thailand. It's only 3-4 weeks a year, and I value it highly. Finally, I was non-compliant early on. I started eating all foods, except fibrous vegetables, at week 3 post op, plus drinking. I didn't do so because I necessarily wanted to, but because I started back at work travel and dining out. I wanted to attract as little attention to myself and my surgery as possible. I knew I had little time off and I would have to push the boundaries of my diet because of it, and I knew it was likely that the VSG would be more forgiving.

Silicone tape, gel, sheets, are what cosmetic surgeon universally recommended. It has been clinically proven to be effective https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486716/ I used silicone tape soon after I was healed over and kept the tape on consistently for about 3 months. They are now tiny white lines surrounded by a faint pink area. I don't think most people would notice unless I pointed them out. This is what I used: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VE9AL8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Still a mosquito magnet too!

I was on vacation and missed this! You look FANTASTIC! Congrats, congrats, congrats!