NtvTxn

I was three years out on June 11th - I still don't get hungry, and I pray that I never will. We'll see!!! What I call my 'new hunger' is an empty feeling. I can ignore it if I need or want to though. It started at about 12 - 18 months out.

I would love to know from any of the vets that are 2 years or beyond - does the hunger ever return? Has yours? If so, is it at all like before and WHEN did it return? At three years, I'm still not ever 'really' hungry, empty, yes, really hungry, no. I can eat less than a cup of food and Dr. Davidson doesn't want his patients to ever eat more than a cup at one meal. Can we eat more the further out we get, or does it 'cap' at some point, is there a stopping point? So what is your experience, what have you heard from professionals, do we continue to have the ability to eat more, or are we pretty much where we are going to stay, at three years out? I am still paranoid about waking up with that ravenous hunger we all use to get when we were "starving" - when can we stop worrying or is it possible from now on? I heard from a PhD doctor recently at a support group and also from MY doctor at my 3 year check up 'A little paranoia is good'. I'm clinging to that!! What are your thoughts about these things?

I love your posts and your support!!! You're doing great!!!! What an inspiration!!

The first week after surgery, I didn't like cold drinks, room temp was better, even with milk. YUCK!!! I always ask for extra ice, so this was bizarre!!! By the middle of week 2, I was back to normal, and wanted iced cold again. This is when, for the first time, my husband came up with the idea of keeping glass glasses in the freezer for me. I LOVE my milk in these frosted glasses!!!! I am still doing it now, three years later!!!!

I suffer from migraines, between 8 and 12 per month, so coming off caffiene was alarming. I am not a 'coke' girl, but coffee is my drug of choice! We went and bought a little 4 cup coffee pot, so we'd have two. It took a few weeks, but I slowly but surely switched from caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee. First I dropped to 3/4 caf and 1/4 decaf. I did that a week. Week two was 1/2 and 1/2 and week three was 3/4 decaf and 1/4 caffeinated. Week four, I was totally on decaf. Amazingly enough, after surgery coffee didn't taste good to me. I had to have decaf for the first six weeks, but I had none, at the end of six weeks, coffee still didn't taste good. What the heck??!!! At three months, all of a sudden, I loved it again. I know some doctor's say no caffeine at all, ever, luckily MY doctor is not one of them!! I am sure I drink WAY more than I should, 3 cups in the morning, and many times I'll make a small 2 cup pot in the afternoon. I didn't have a problem getting off sugar, in fact, I never gave it a thought prior to surgery and after surgery I was so focused on my new life, I had nothing sweet, not one bite of anything sweet when I was losing. Now, in maintenance, I feel like I eat like a naturally thin person. I do eat sweets, and love them, but in limited quantities. Good luck!!!!!

At three weeks out I was on full liquids, "nothing that won't go through a straw" is what I was told.

This post made me giggle!! The OP "asked" and I am guessing she wants honesty! It would be real boring if everyone got on here saying I exercise 4, 5, 6x's a week for 90 minutes and I absolutely love it, I can't imagine my life without blood, sweat and tears!!! ** yawn ** Sure, sure - and everyone else is destined to fail. It is what it is, some of us are gym rats, exercise gurus....whatever you want to call it, and some of us would rather have a sharp stick in the eye!!! I don't sit on the couch all day, eating ice cream and claim to lose weight, but I don't go to a gym. The last time I "went" to anything that resembled a gym was when I signed up for Curves back in about 2003. They drafted money out of my account for a year and I went 'religiously' for less than six weeks. I will never again do that. I have a weighted ball here at the house, I have a band that I work with occasionally. I go up and down the stairs ON PURPOSE, more times than I need to every day, I walk the mall shopping a time or two a week......and I park as far out in the parking lot as possible, even when it's 102 degrees outside. It isn't a treadmill or lifting weights but nobody can poo poo my success....so far. I say so far, because each of us lives day to day with the same worries, we have to be mindful of what the scale says, we have to make choices on what we eat. We can eat so little, I MUST love it if I'm going to use space and calories and eat it. I do not recommend NOT exercising to anybody, a year ago I wouldn't have told anyone that I lost it all, 100% of my excess weight, without exercise. I wouldn't want to be a bad example for anyone, but then I figured, I need to be honest, I am what I am.....and I made conscious choices, conscious lifestyle changes that I KNOW I can do forever and I've been maintaining for over 2.5 years now. So far, so good, but I do NOT ever want to be complacent, I am looking at my 'dashboard' every single day. Dr. Ashmore said last week at a group meeting, "A little paranoia is good". Good, because I am a 'little' paranoid about waking up 25 pounds heavier and starving to death. Don't punch kittens, be patient with us bums, we're all in the same boat, but some of us 'tread water' differently. I admire those who are hitting the gym most days, I really do. I AM going to sign up for a 5K when it cools off this fall. I know without a doubt I can do it, but I'm a sissy, I don't want to sweat!! LOL Don't say nasty things about me, I'm just being truthful!!!!

I know it, I think I do the same thing now that you mention it....and YES, we do have "fat" days. I remember how I'd want to roll my eyes when a thin person would feel fat or have a 'fat day'. I would think "GIVE ME A BREAK" Now I get it!!!! No matter what size we are, we do have 'off' days when we don't feel up to par and it's ok!!!!

The most exciting NSV to date.....all of a sudden I had a collarbone!!!!

I concur - good post.

Not one regret, not for one minute. Use the honeymoon period to make life long, lifestyle changes and make the absolute effort to get the most bang for your buck during this time!!!. That is my advice.

I'm thinking "Kiss my a$$" would be appropriate, but I've been accused of being a little harsh at time.

I love both, and in fact have a THREE POUND BAG of almonds in my pantry!!! My dad sent it home with me, a "find" at Cosco!!! I do eat cheese, American and mild cheddar, mozzarella once in a while, but for the most part, I am careful and I always buy 2%. Nuts.....I love these almonds, pecans, walnuts......but the calories, I seldom eat many. Yesterday I had 7 (SEVEN) almonds and I think it was 73 calories. Seriously!!!! I could have eaten three times that many, I'm sure!!! Anyway, love 'em and love cheese....but I'm cautious with both!!!

I wish I'd thought that, I thought they were horrible. Whatever flavor was like magnified 100 times!!! LOL No matter what form it comes in, the whey just stinks and tastes bad. The small amount is what did it for me, it's the only reason I could do it. Like I said, I just held my nose and then rinsed my mouth out....tricks I used when taking liquid penicillin when I was a kid.

IDS is the brand I drank from GNC. You won't belly up to a bar and order this stuff, it isn't yummy, it's just much less to choke down.

BTW, if you do want to try and find a protein powder, go to GNC, they will take back and give you a refund on opened containers, but keep the receipt. I returned THREE, the fourth one I kept and my husband "enjoyed" it. Well, he added all sorts of GOODIES to it and finished it up for me!

I know they aren't considered as 'good' but if you aren't able to choke down those shakes they're better than nothing. I had a 'going away bag' from Forest Park when I was discharged, one of those little protein bullets was in there, that is how I initially started using them. I learned after much trial and error prior to surgery, "unflavored" Protein powder ONLY means it it not choc, strawberry or vanilla. It is still nasty!!! I tried the powders, even though it tasted horrible to me, I did it the first several days.....and was spending 3 hours to get ONE down and never finished it, it kept GROWING!!! It would warm up and I'd add more ice. It was never ending. All I can tell you is how it was for me.....I NEVER lost my hair, it never even thinned out. I was healthy, felt good and my labs were always very good. It was NOT on the top of the list of what the good doctor likes, but it was ok, and better than not. I did what I had to do and I recommend it to anyone who cannot do the Isopure, or as some call it, Isopuke, the different whey powders.....it's only 3.5 oz and I did get a free one from the hospital, along with a lot of other goodies! Protein broth, Isopure, different whey powders.....a tape measure,vitimins and SF things to add to Water. It's just my story, everybody needs to do what is best for them. I just found what it was I was sipping...at GNC -IDS Whey Protein Shots. 42 grams of protein, 180 calories, sugar free. I preferred the Blue Raspberry, I found them LEAST offensive! LOL It does have collagen. It says it's a proprietary blend of collagen protein isolate, whatever the heck that means!!

Three years last month, June 10, 2010 is when my life changed. I hang out here on VSG and am headed to one of my 'in person' support groups today at 12:30 here in Plano. I attend three others. I love them, I WISH I'd run across others as far out as I am. We are few and far between......once in a while there will be someone else that is three years out, I don't know if I've run across anybody further out than I am. I like to answer questions and play 'cheerleader'. I love encouraging these people to continue to attend the meetings, there is always someone who wants to pick your brain. I figure I'm paying it forward. So many people HERE and in the support groups that are doctor sponsored, answered MY questions, gave suggestions and were just NICE!!! I'm lucky, my husband, who is my biggest cheerleader go with me to all these meetings. He gets involved, takes notes and even asks questions when we have a speaker or if someone is struggling. Good luck and keep posting, you never know who you might be helping.

this is why we stay on top of it, losing a few pounds is much easier than six - ten. I had a re-gain of just two pounds, I had my sister here for a week, we had a BD celebration and this past Monday when I weighed (I weigh every morning) I was up two. I purposely cut back calories by 100, but some days it was 200 or a little more.....and as of this morning, I'm back to 145.5, within my comfort zone, which is 144 - 146. Less than a week, but it's because I look at my "dashboard" every single day, without fail. You're doing great, keep up the great work!!!

We go out to eat waaaay too much, I'm sure of it. The first time we went, we were in Dallas, killing time before heading home after spending two weeks for my 1st and 2nd checkup. We went to El Fenix and i ordered the tortilla soup, I asked for extra broth, less 'stuff'. I didn't NEED to explain, but told our girl that I'd had surgery and didn't want to 'eat' much. It was heavenly.....I only sipped the broth and only about an eighth of a cup, but it was great!! Now days, we share or I order ala carte. If I WANT to have left overs for lunch or dinner a day or two later, I'll get my own entree. Otherwise, it is NOT a big deal. So many people share today, and nobody really pay attention to what other folks are eating....except WLS patients, it seems we tend to look at people's plates at near by tables and think OMG, I really did use to eat that much!!!! Go and enjoy, it's not hard at all.

Get a Protein bullet or protein shot, they're the same thing. Only 3.5 oz and you can hold your nose and sip a little morning, again at noon and finish the darn thing off in the evening. They are just as bad as the shakes, but ONLY 3.5 oz!!! Rinse after sipping, it helps!!!! Do NOT eat more than you should!!!!!! My go to foods when I was losing: eggs 1% cottage cheese shrimp ( I always had a bag in the freezer) Tuna fish in Water lunch meat, ham, turkey, chicken....whatever, make sure it's lean. I started and ended each day with 1 cup of skim milk, I still do this I started getting in ALL my protein with food at 2.5 months. My calories averaged 450 - 600 per day for the first six months after surgery. I reached my goal in six months. I never went over 800 calories and that was only the last month that I ate that many. I felt good, never lost my hair, it never even thinned out!!!! This is what worked for me.

You don't have to apologize for posting. It's was a honest question.....not a big deal. Good luck to you and hang in there, you're just getting started. It's fun, really!

ABSOLUTELY, brilliant post!!! I'm three years and 1 month out. I've been maintaining for 2.5 years. I'm still bright eyed and bushy tailed....every day IS STILL a new day for me. I've never lost weight, kept it off, been thin, some times the smallest girl in the room. It's all new and I'm still excited as all get out!!! I have boughts of paranoia, where I'm scared I'll wake up 25 lbs heavier with that ravenous hunger we all experienced when we had a full, fledged tummy.....but a doctor recently told me "A little paranoia is good". I'm running with that, I'm not crazy after all!!! Like you said, I still weigh and / or measure my food. I weigh myself every morning, I log it all on my fitness pal. This is my new life, as natural to me as breathing. I know me. There is no doubt in my mind, that I could still gain fifteen pounds in a month if I don't stay on top of things, I also know losing fifteen pounds is NOT as easy as gaining it. This was not a quick fix, but it beats the hell out of popping pills or counting points with WW's - only to gain it all back as soon as I go back to 'real life'. As of right now, today, I am successful. Tomorrow is a new day. Time will tell but I do know, this is a life long commitment, not a magic bullet. The doctor did his job, the rest is up to me. Attitude, you bet, a good attitude, "my glass is half full" is necessary!!

There is a fine line and we all have to find it. Those are healthy choices, but all at one, every day for a while. Calories are calories, not matter how much lipstick we put on that pig, it's still a pig, isn't it??!!! Sucks, big time. Early on, I realized that I couldn't have nuts and cheese for snacks, because of the high caloric content. In the beginning when I was maintaining and need a couple of snacks a day to maintain, a laughing cow string cheese or a few nuts were fine, but as I could eat more, when I got between 12 and 18 months......I could eat a fourth cup of nuts, sometimes that was close to 200 calories. With that amount, nuts no longer fit into my 1300 calories a day limit. Cheese, the same. Sure, healthier than a Twinkie, but I didn't do that either, 200 calories is still 200, so I had to find other ways to get in my 1300 calories but not go over by much, or else I would gain. It is much easier to put on a couple of pounds than it is to lose a couple of pounds, or so it seems. I just make sure that if I need to nip something in the bud, I catch it early. It's easier!! As time goes on, you'll get the hang of it better!!! Good luck!

As far as going to the bathroom. OMG - I've had issues for three years now!!! Start with Miralax and see how that goes.....it drove me nuts, now I've gotten use to it. Less in, less out.