Arabesque

We’re your ears burning, Jake? I was on,y thinking yesterday that you hadn’t posted in a while. So lovely surprise today to see you looking so very dashing in your suit. You both look gorgeous. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who becomes frustrated by bad driving. I’m the one in her car shouting at people who don’t indicate or indicate incorrectly on road-abouts. It’s not hard people. Oh & don’t get me started on slow drivers in the overtaking lane, going 20 below the speed limit & overtaking no one. Get out of my way!! Grrrr!!! Am also a bit of a get where I have to go, get what I need or do what I have to do & go home person BayougirlMrsS. Especially at shopping centres. Can’t stand them or all the zombie like people aimlessly wandering.

What a fabulous friend you have @GreenTealael. I only have a ‘don’t do it in the air fryer’ experience - crumbed lamb cutlets. One of my most favourite things. But they were very anaemic & unappetising looking. Plus no crunchy coating. Waaah! Think I needed to add more oil than I did but that was the point of the air fryer - less oil.

My teeth are fine but I recall a few posters have commented on tooth decay. But I wonder if it’s the surgery or long term poor diet that’s contributing to the problem? I haven’t drunk soft drinks/sodas for decades & the last time I needed a filling was when I was in my 20s. (I think sodas are very acidic plus the sugar of course.) Not that I’m saying that’s why you’re experiencing problems. There are lots of possible causes. Genetics do play a big part in the strength of your teeth & general dental health as well. Oh & I wonder if the calcium loss you may have in your jaw could be affecting your teeth too?? Hot flushes & mood swings sent me to my doctor to ask for HRT. The day I got really cranky with my boss was the day I made the appointment - lol! Then a colleague admitted she’d noticed I had become rather ‘feisty’ when dealing with the public. Feisty is better than saying I was being a real b*tch I guess. 😆 Actually reducing the calcium loss menopausal & post menopausal women experience is a benefit of HRT. Have you had a bone density scan recently? Getting older suxs big time.

Usually my second serve of fruit for the day - grapes, red paw paw, rockmelon... and sometimes a protein bar before the fruit if I think I’m a bit below my goal. I usually have these about an hour after I finish dinner so around 7:30 - 8:30pm. Nothing after then to reduce the chance of late night acid. I tried yoghurt at night but for some reason I didn’t enjoy it then so it went back to its afternoon snack time slot.

That white boob sling dress?? OMG. It’s what I’d call a slapper dress. Gonna add skankification to my vocab now too. I don’t take pxts of people wearing ‘what were you thinking’ but I am guilty of rolling my eyes or doing the nudge & head nod if I’m with a friend. I do feel sorry for them cause they obviously don’t have a mirror in their houses. I have been known to take pxts of people who don’t know how to park. You know those who park over two spaces, a metre from the gutter or think it’s ok to park so half their car is over my driveway. I avoid jumpsuits too @BayougirlMrsS but mainly because of the whole going to the bathroom thing. Maybe there’s a trick. I know you love a good jumpsuit @ms.sss. How do you deal with sitting 2/3 naked in a public bathroom while keeping the jumpsuit off the floor??

My mother who is 81 still suffers menopausal symptoms too & continues to take HRT. I worry that may be what I experience as well especially as all my menopausal symptoms came back after I stopped losing. More fun days ahead I guess. Damn hormones.

My surgeon was fine with me taking nsaids too but it was because I took them randomly: one or two tablets maybe once every couple of months for tension headaches. They are the only pain meds that worked. I have oozing discs in my lower back so I know that pain. Losing my weight certainly helped but honestly, if I stand for an hour the discomfort returns. It’s like the weight of my upper body puts pressure on & squeezes the discs. I try to get off my feet as quickly as possible which will ease it. Over the counter nsaids don’t help me though. Thankfully, the pain hasn’t been so great or prolonged that I’ve had to seek stronger anti inflammatories from my doctor since my surgery. Fingers crossed. Hope your weight loss eases a lot if your pain. But have a discussion about taking nsaids in the future with your surgeon. Your surgeon may have a different response than mine & @Creekimp13. Every case is different.

Always contact your medical team if you experience strong or unusual pain or symptoms. Better to be safe & sure than sorry.

The hair loss is a very common & temporary side effect from the shock of the surgery & weight loss. Your natural hair loss cycle has been accelerated. It will stop - usually after about 3 months but some take longer. The hair you’re losing is already dead and would have been shed anyway. It’s just falling out more quickly. Supplements won’t change that - fertiliser can’t save a dead plant. Your new hair is growing but it’s growing at it’s usual rate. Losing hair or losing weight? I’ll take losing the weight everyday. As you’re losing weight a lot of hormones that were stored in your fat are being released into your body. The increase in oestrogen causes a few issues for we women. Many experience heavier, more frequent or more painful periods. My menopausal symptoms disappeared. The pimply bumps on your shoulders could be from the oestrogen surge too. It is temporary & once you’ve stopped losing weight it stops. Oh & too much vitamin B7 - biotin - can cause skin irritations. 10 000 mcg is what B7 deficient people are prescribed. If you are concerned, check with your medical team. Good luck.

I am with the others & don’t think this is a sensible thing to do. The goal is not to eat until you are full but until you’ve had enough. It’s one of the reasons we ‘re advised to eat slowly so the message we’ve had enough gets through. By the time we realise we ‘re full if we’ve eaten too quickly, we’re had more than what we actually need. We were all guilty of eating way more than our body actually needed to function in the past. It’s why we were obese. This time is to learn about appropriate portion sizes & the difference between needing to eat & wanting to eat. Oh, and don’t worry, you soon will know if you’ve had enough or eaten more than you need. And it may be different from one meal to another. Never be afraid to put your cutlery down between bites or push an unfinished meal away & get up from the table. Good luck. PS @WickedPissah529 - vomiting is different post sleeve - well it was for me. No more of those awful gut retching, muscle spasms. More lots of saliva (foamies) & gently bringing up anything you may have eaten. Sometime you can’t predict what will make you vomit. I ate carrot one day without an issue but the next day one piece & back it came. Your tummy is sensitive to begin. Honestly, I haven’t vomited since about 4 or 5 months after surgery & most of the time I did it was just the foamies & not food. The cause was usually my multivitamins.

Is it like a tightness across your chest? That if you thump your chest it may pass & let whatever is stuck get through? If it is this is your restriction. It’s likely kicked in because you’re eating or sipping too quickly or you’ve consumed enough. I still have to leave a couple of minutes between bites of food or sips of liquids or I’ll feel my restriction. And I can only now have two swallows of a liquid at a time.

I take it you’re referring to that post in Food Befote & After. What was that? You think we were past most of that sort of thinking but then there it is again. Such a narrow minded, backward thinking comment. We should only dress for ourselves & not a small number of Neanderthals. If it makes you feel comfortable, confident & happy it’s perfect for you. Smock tops always make me think of my dear, dear friend Pat, who often wears them. They always look so pretty, cool & fresh especially your blue & white one @WishMeSmaller. And I like your new slim line dress. If you feel a little self conscious about your loose skin, though I can barely notice anything, try a pair of full brief knickers with a little more Lycra in them than your usual knickers. I find they get me through those days when I feel like I have a little pooch in dresses like this & I just need a smoother line. Remember when we’d have those heavy duty ‘suck-it-all-in’ underwear like Spanxs, Nancy Ganz, etc.? I took great delight in tossing all those out of my cupboards.

Calcium is absorbed in the body via our tummy & small intestines so even though a lot of your tummy has been removed you should still be absorbing calcium through your intestines which weren’t altered with your sleeve surgery. During weight loss I had about two serves of dairy a day. Now I have almost three. Before my surgery I barely had 4 serves of dairy a week. I was never told to take calcium tablets or any additional vitamins than a multi vitamin. And I’m a menopausal woman so you’d think they would have pushed the calcium. I stopped the multi vitamin a month into maintenance with my surgeon’s approval - they make me nauseous. However we all absorb nutrients differently. I think I’m naturally a good ‘absorber’ & get everything I need from what I eat. Some people don’t. My blood work is fine & I have super hard bones. It is challenging to get all the nutrients we need in during the first few months when we’re losing hence the vitamins. How are your bloods? Is there anything that is low? Have you had a bone density test?

It will pass. My surgeon called the first week pre op diet as hell week. I was so glad I only had to do keto but I have friends who could only have three meals a day: three shakes or two shakes plus one meal. You’re fortunate you are on 4 shakes + a meal. A lot of the effects you are experiencing are ketosis - fat burning. Plus you’re experiencing some withdrawals. You’ve reduced your calorie intake so until your body get used to it you will feel a little weak. The weakness will continue post surgery though too.

The change to our tastebuds make these first couple of months challenging. So many things simply taste disgusting. Even things we used to enjoy are revolting. It does pass. I ate/drank the same couple of things for a while - talk about a limited. & repetitive diet. Creamy soups were my saviour - pumpkin, potato & chicken were the only flavours I could stand. I strained & diluted them. A friend swore by the broths in pho, wonton soup & ramen noodles. She ate them breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Contact your medical team. If anything seems odd or wrong for you, is causing pain or has prolonged symptoms always call your doctor. Your pain should not be worsening.

This is a fabulous idea. Such a positive way to start your weight loss. Make it a regular thing. Once a month book in for some beauty treatments. Pampering always makes me feel fantastic. Put yourself first for a change. Good luck.

My pre existing tendencies for low blood pressure & hypoglycaemia occur more often. The low blood pressure drops which used to occur a couple of times a month now happen a few times a day. The hypoglycaemia used to happen a couple of times a year now about once a month but I have better control over that now. Sometimes i find it hard to find clothes that fit - they’re often a size or two too big. Reverse of what I used to experience. In Australia size 8 or XS is usually the smallest size stocked but I need an Australian size 4 or 6 or XXS. If they do have a size 6, I usually need the 4. It happened again with three things I tried on today - their smallest size is too big. Shopping online is frustrating cause I don’t know what size I’ll need.

I’m sorry you are going through this. What is your surgeon telling you as to why this is happening or what you can do to get past this? What are they doing to help you with your fluid & food intake (dehydration must be a real concern) or reducing the nausea? What tests have they done? If they haven’t, start demanding something be done. My multivitamins used to make me nauseous & I often threw up in the morning but after that I’d be fine. But that’s nothing like you’re going through. I’m also surprised by your surgeon saying 10lbs a week is slow. It wouldn’t t even be considered slow if you were in excess of 500lbs. At your starting weight it’s a pretty darn fast rate of loss especially at three months out. I never got that chew, chew, chew thing. Just chew & swallow naturally. At three months you’re fully healed. I hope you can get some answers & a solution soon. All the best.

I agree with @ms.sss, @BayougirlMrsS. The self tanner seems to be a subtle match to your naturally tanned skin & it’s a lovely tone. Those orange ones look so fake. Oh no, @GreenTealael. Why does this sort of thing always happen to your favourite pants, dress, shirt, etc. Sometimes if you spray hair spray on the paint stain it will help it come out in the wash if it’s a water-based paint. If you can’t get it out you can always say you bought them as hand painted leggings. 😁

I like to think this is a pretty supportive group. There have just been those odd few who make it uncomfortable or unpleasant for the rest of us. Have to admit I have reported a couple of posters. It’s those who don’t respect that others may have a different opinion or experience who annoy me most.

I’m presuming because I can still read your posts & respond it wasn’t me, Tim. 😆😆😆 Or maybe it doesn’t work that way & you just can’t see what I’m posting to you. Mmmm... thought provoking.

Did you start maintenance naturally i.e. you reached a point that you weren’t losing any more, or did you &/or your team decide it was time for you to to stop losing & maintain so you increased your intake? You may find it difficult to lose more if you had reached the point of equilibrium (your calories in equalled the calories your body burns) without changing what you were doing. To lose more you’ll have to reduce your calories to less than what you were consuming up to that time. If you stopped losing at say 1000 calories you will have to eat less than that &/or be more active to lose again. A reset may help in this situation. Remember, to maintain at a lower weight you will still have to consume less than you are eating now &/or be more active. It’s something to consider from a sustainability perspective - can you maintain this diet & activity level long term? Of course if you deliberately started maintenance, losing more should be easier. You’d have to go back to what you were eating before you increased your food intake to maintain. If you had been losing at say 1000 calories you should only have to reduce your intake back to 1000 calories to start to lose again. But I’m not an expert. Have a chat with your nutritionalist & your medical team. They’ll be your best source of information & guidance. Good luck.

Same. The loose skin wins over being obese everyday. And there’s always skin removal surgery if it’s excessive, impacts your activity or if you just don’t like it. A lot have it removed but I haven’t but I don’t have that much really & it doesn’t restrict what I can or want to wear. You do have age in your side - all that lovely, bouncy, elastic skin. How long you’ve been at your highest weight, genetics, all factor into how much loose skin you’ll have too. Congrats on your surgery.

Oh yeah. I experienced that too. I got up to go to the bathroom on day 3 just for a wee & suddenly ... Yes, embarrassing, totally unexpected & very dark & smelly. My friend was advised to wear disposal incontinence pants for that very reason. I wish my surgeon had told me would have saved the knickers & pyjamas from the bin. But he did advise to have Imodium on hand if I had frequent diarrhoea in the first week. Fortunately, I only had the one attack but my friend had diarrhoea like that for a week. Her surgeon said it’s a combination of the liquid diet & the gas with the surgery & it affects people differently. I had no gas pain but my friend had a lot which may explain why she had a lot of attacks. If it continues, contact your medical team. Dehydration is a concern post surgery. Good luck.