NtvTxn

At 3 months out I have lost 62 lbs:
Starting weight: 240
Current weight: 178
 
I still have quite a bit to go (as my height is 4' 11").
 
I'm so happy with this progress! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my sleeve.
I've learned and lived through quite a bit in the last couple months....
 
THE GOOD:
 
- Doing 175 squats will not kill you
- I can see my clavicles! (This was a very happy NSV for me)
- Eating at restaurants and parties is more manageable than I thought (just remember: protein first)
- While shopping one day, I looked down and realized I couldn't see my belly, just boobs
- I reached my surgeons first goal on 7/22/13, which gave me even more motivation to keep on track
- NSV: I can wrap a bath towel around me!
- I entered ONEDERLAND on 7/31/13
- This, to me, is by far the most exciting... My resting heart rate went from 120's- 130's down to the 70's!!!
 
THE BAD
 
- "Hunger" during your time of the month: oh wow, I feel like a monster! Lol. Just a tip: don't weigh yourself during your period, it'll just lead to frustration that isn't needed!!
- I've come to terms that negative people will be negative. No use in trying to please or understand these people.
 
THE UGLY
 
- CONSTIPATION... Def never had this as an issue before surgery. My norm before was a couple times a day. Now, a couple times a week. Um, ouch. But I recently starting taking Colace. Hopefully that'll help.
- Hair loss: Ok, I knew hair loss is a side effect, and it usually happens around month 3 or 4, BUT I wasn't really prepared for what it'd actually look like... Like a horror movie! It's quite disturbing to look have hand- fulls of hair while washing it or to look down in the shower and have a hair ball the size of a chinchilla near your drain! I'm lucky I have such thick (and long) hair to begin with, which is why I think it looks so disturbing.
 
WHAT I'M DOING:
 
Well, what I'm supposed to be doing. Protein first, lots of water, low carbs, and exercising. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I find following this plan pretty simple. I don't feel deprived and I rarely feel hungry. It requires work, but the results are so worth the sacrifices.
Just working towards and hoping for continued success!!!

My NUT told me that a good bite was the size of a pencil eraser and I have been studiously working at making every bite that small. Hard to do, I always felt like one of those dogs that inhaled the food, I could not get it in fast enough.
Interestingly, although it took much conscious effort, it is becoming much more natural to eat tiny little bits. when I saw others eating and saw the size of what they put in their mouths I was aghast! was that me in the past?
the twenty chews still needs work but I am close. I need much work on the timing between bites. I need to learn to pause. However, the effect it has already had on me is dramatic. My stomach has time to tell my brain it is full, I rarely get that horrible pain from overeating. I feel satisfied easier with much less food. So far I am continuing to lose prior to the liquid diet.
They want 12 more pounds lost by surgery date, my plan (shhhh dont tell) is to lose a good portion of that prior to the start of the liquid diet and shorten the period of time I take the Optifast. I have already lost 30 pounds in preparation for the surgery! The research regarding the preop weight loss indicates that 5% of body weight helps a lot, I am already over 10% lost.
OF course if i gain weight over then next week I will do the full two weeks of Optifast, but I am quite motivated. I figure 12 pounds is 12 pounds, it does not matter how it came off.
 
BTW- it is amazing to me that my dear wife of 36yrs who has seen me struggle with food all my adult life ( since we met 39 years ago) still suggests things that are so unhelpful. I know she is one of the chosen few that can keep her weight within a few pounds of goal with very little effort, but suggesting that one day of overeating ( at a party one week prior to surgery) can't hurt, is rather unenlightened ( sounds better than dimwitted).

First, let me say honestly and with all my heart – I hate telemarketers.
 
I believe that anyone that is a telemarketer is an undiagnosed sociopath and should kill themselves.
 
Seriously, if you are a telemarketer – KILL YOURSELF! Really, I’m not joking…KILL YOURSELF, NOW… I’ll wait.
 
Now, this may sound like a conversation right out of sitcom, but it happened to me.
 
A telemarketing firm was trying to gather information about our company to include us in some kind of “green” business directory. My office was bombarded with literally dozens of phone calls.
 
Basically they wanted to know what we did, how many employees we had, the amount of our budgets, and the who’s who of our executive staff.
 
At the time, we had over 120 employees and everyone’s phone number is published on our web site. So it was very easy for the telemarketers to get ahold of us.
 
Apparently they had a team of callers, each with a copy of our phone numbers. We were getting repeated calls to the same phone numbers over and over, from different telemarketers.
 
Now as we are a service oriented business, we are trained to be polite and courteous to every caller, no matter the situation. They would call, we would politely tell them that we could not give them the information they wanted, 30 minutes later -a new telemarketer would call, rinse and repeat.
 
We had so many repeat phone calls that it was interfering with our regular business operations.
Finally, our executive director sent out an email telling us, next time we get a call, please tell them politely to stop calling us.
 
Day one was irritating, day two was annoying, and on day three – they finally picked my phone to call.
 
The first call I received, I politely told the sociopath on the other end that we could not provide them with the information they were requesting. Two hours later, I told the next sociopath, politely, that I was not allowed to give them (and I was not privy to) information regarding our payroll and budgets and to please stop calling our offices. The third call, I recognized the number on the caller ID, I was ready for them.
 
The conversation goes as follows:
 
Me: “Thank you for calling ______. This is Randy”
 
Sociopath: “Hello, I’m calling from ______. Can I ask you for some information about your company?”
 
Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t give that information out over the phone. What information we do give out is posted on our website.”
 
Sociopath: “Can’t you tell me who your director is and the approximate budget size of your department?”
 
Me: “No, I’m sorry, but I can’t provide you with that information.”
 
“Your associates have been calling our office for the past two days asking those types of questions, and repeatedly calling the same phone numbers over and over.”
 
“Our director has told us to ask you to stop calling our office. I have had two other calls from your company in the past few hours. And I have asked each caller to stop calling, but your staff will not stop calling.”
 
“We cannot give out the information you want.”
 
Sociopath: “Hold sir.”
 
At this point I’m transferred to a manger or some higher up sociopath.
 
Sociopath Manager: “Hello, my name is ____. Don’t you want to be part of our “green” business directory? We are creating a business directory that features companies like yours that recycle and operate in and environmentally manner.”
 
Me: “I’m sorry, but we cannot release the information you want over the phone. If you want a list of our staff, it is on our website, but I don’t have access to or permission to give out financial information about our office."
 
“On top of that, your people have been calling us for the past three days, calling the same person multiple times, even after being told that we were not allowed to give out the information and please stop calling. Some of our people have gotten a dozen calls in one day.”
 
Sociopath Manager: “Maybe you don’t understand. Don’t you want your company to be listed in our “green” directory? I’m sure it would be a plus for your company to be recognized as being an environmentally friendly business.”
 
At this point, an evil thought entered my head. (Picture me sitting there with an angle on one shoulder and a devil on the other – scratch that, there was a devil on both shoulders! :-P)
 
Me: “I’m sorry, but maybe you don’t understand. We are an information business. And information is valuable. We charge for providing information.”
 
Sociopath Manager: “Yes, sir. But what has that got to do with being in our directory?”
 
Me: “Well, we charge for answering questions. We charge $25 for each question we answer over the phone.”
 
Sociopath Manager: “That’s a lot, to answer a question.”
 
Me: “Yes it is, but information is valuable. At this point I must inform you that this phone call is being recorded and if you ask one more question, you accept our terms and conditions and agree to pay $25 for each additional question.”
 
Sociopath Manager: “You’re kidding?”
 
Me: “Thank you for asking a question and acknowledging that your company is agreeing to pay the $25 per question fee. Please feel free to ask anything you want.”
 
CLICK!...
 
He hung up!...
 
The nerve!
 
When I hung up and turned around, my director was standing there with a horrified look on her face.
 
I asked, “What’s wrong?”
 
And she asks, “What if they file a complaint against us?”
 
I asked, “File a complaint with WHO? They called me, I didn’t call them. I was polite and treated them with respect at all times. They have been calling all our departments for three days now, repeatedly calling some of us, even after we have nicely asked them to stop calling.”
 
“Obviously, they do not care what we want or that they are costing us man hours and interfering with our operations.”
 
She says, “You lied to them. We don’t charge for answering questions over the phone.”
 
I replied, “They don’t know that. And how would they find out?”
 
At this point, my director gives up and walks away. With a worried look that said, “Somehow a telemarketing company is going to lodge a complaint against us.” Because I lied to a telemarketer!
 
But we didn’t get any more calls from them – ever.
 
P.S. I’m still trying to figure out who the telemarketing company would complain to and how the conversation would go?
 
I imagine it would be something like this:
 
“Hello, we would like to register a complaint against a business that lied to us.”
 
“Yes, sir. Could you describe the situation?”
 
“Yes. For three days, we have been repeatedly calling every phone number at a business, asking them for their financial information, budgets, names of staff, names of their directors and executive staff. And they have told us that they can’t give us that information and to please stop calling them. As our phone calls are disrupting their normal operations.”
 
“Yes, sir. Go on.”
 
“Well, on the third day of calls, I talked with a gentleman that informed me that THEY charge $25 per question. I was so perplexed that I hung up, told my staff to stop calling, and have been afraid to call them again – as we might get charged. Since then, I have been afraid to make probing calls to other businesses! Afraid to ask questions that even I realize no sane business person would answer over the phone.”
 
“It’s really interfering with my staff’s ability to continue normal business operations.”
 
“Since that time, I have learned that gentleman lied to me. They in fact, DO NOT charge $25 per question. I want to lodge a formal complaint!”
 
Pause
 
“Thank you for your call sir. I would be happy to register your complaint. But first I must tell you that this phone call is being recorded and that we charge $25 ……………”

I wrote a pretty long post about my surgery and experience on my blogger blog, which you can find HERE . But for the reader's digest version:
 
Surgery went great with Dr. Aceves and his staff down at Hospital Almater down in Mexicali. The hospital beautiful and clean, the staff super friendly and the language difference wasn't an issue. My "final meal" the night before was a fantastic italian dish of chicken and tortellini with tiramisu for dessert.
 
The day after surgery was the worst and painful with the gas pains and drain site discomfort, but by day 3, I was much better. Day 4 we flew home, and today I have done 3 loads of laundry and put them up, walked 30 minutes on my treadmill, and put up everything from traveling, and feel almost back to "normal"...ha!
 
I didn't reach my 64 oz liquid, 70 grams of protein, but I'm getting closer every day. I did make some "protein infused sugar free jello" and with a dollup of coolwhip, it rocked. I've also had the unjury chicken broth, and diluted gatorade today...both good. I have found my Tiny Tum doesn't really care for the artificial sweetners added to water (like vitamin water zero and the syntrix necture stuff), but hopefully that will change.
 
I even made a big spaghetti dinner for my husband with roasted yellow squash and garlic bread, and didn't even crave it...it was very odd. Like perhaps I wanted a taste, but didn't want it in my stomach if that makes sense. It was the weirdest thing... but I'm thankful!
 
Still happy I made this decision, and I plan to wait until Friday morning to do my first post surgery weigh in.
 
And so...Life begins with Tiny Tum

Try this . NEW WHEY liguid protien shots. They are 3.8 oz tubes with 42 gr of protien. I do one in AM one in PM for a whopping 84 gr without all the mixing and drinking, They are thick and minimal after taste but I like getting it over with quick and spend my time drinking water . I can handle better than the rest. Walmart cheapest I have found by a dollar.

I know this may sound crazy but I am struggling right now and have asked this question before. Does anyone feel like they have lost too much weight? I am having body image issues/concerns. every time I look in the mirror I see a sickly skinny figure. I am now trying to figure out how I can gain back about 15 lbs to feel comfortable in my own skin and fill out my clothes better. I started out at 219 1 yr ago. I am now 136 and looking too thin. any suggestions on how to gain with the sleeve? it's hard for me to get in decent size portions. Hope this doesnt offend anyone.
 
 
Thx

I am 7 days away from an 8 mile hike up to LeConte Lodge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 8 days away from hiking 5.5 miles down from that mountain, 9 days away from a 7 day vacation in Hawaii, and 32 days away from being sleeved. It is going to be an exciting month.
 
However, I have really struggled with the "food funeral". I have had binge like behavior for the past couple of weeks, and have basically let my "inner fat girl" have everything she wants, and the result of that...the added weight, the bloat, the heart burn, the sluggish "I just want to be lazy" feelings, etc have taken enough of a toll on me, and I have finally decided that enough is enough. It's time to start preparing my brain for what my body is about to go through.
 
Today I kind of gave the following talk to myself...
 
Dear Food,
 
You have always been there for me. You were there for me when I was alone in the evenings after school, you were there for me when people hurt my feelings, you were there when I was alone, you were there when I was rejected, when I was awarded, when I was celebrated. You were there through the loneliness of my teens when I didn't have any "real" friends..during the long hour and a half drive from my mom's to my dad's house when I started driving alone. You were there through my college years when boys rejected me, when the school work got hard and continued on into the night. You were there in my lonely apartment in my early 20's, and there when I went through the financial crisis which landed me back in my parent's house feeling defeated. You were there when I moved to a new state at 28 with my fiance' and I was stressed about leaving everything I knew and loved behind other than this one man. And you were there when my dad died of a heart attack at 57 (obesity related) one week after that move, and through the months that followed trying to get his estate finalized while living 500 miles away. You were there in the nervousness of my wedding, and of being a new bride. You were there through the stresses of every long day of every tax season, and then when I went out on my own as a bookkeeper. You have been there every evening to help me alleviate stress lately. You have been what I've looked forward to at the end of the day. You have comforted me, you have praised me, you have distracted me, you have brought me pleasure.
 
But you have also brought me pain. You have brought me "weight", literally. My bones hurt, my body aches, my feet are killing me, my back feels like it's in knots. My heart races these days with the slightest hill or stair case. You have made me depressed which caused me to ponder that death might be better than life when I feel I can't overcome your power. You are holding me back from my passions of the outdoors. I can hardly hike up hills these days without feeling like I'm going to die. My heel pain is just getting worse with every pound you add to my body. I don't feel sexy anymore... You are tearing apart my life and I'm only 32.
 
I thank you for having been there for me, but I think in order to have the best life I can, I'm going to have to part with you, or atleast part of you. God has brought other things into my life to take over the work you were doing all alone. I have a husband who can comfort me and celebrate me. I have friends who can help me to not be lonely and a bible study group to strengthen me when I'm feeling bad. I have a bike, a kayak, hiking boots and a backpack that will keep me entertained. I have a fantastic gym membership and a mini home gym that can keep me distracted from work when need be. I have kitties who can sooth me on lonely days when I need "love" (okay, my husband can do that too if he's not working late)
 
I will be okay with out large quantities of you. Our relationship is changing, and while I'll still partake of you, I need the best you, you have to give.... things that will make me strong and healthy instead of weak and lazy. The sugary things that I let sooth me have to go...perhaps one day I'll be able to enjoy a bite or two, but since you've turned me into a sugar addict, that day will be far away when I'm at goal and am finally in control.
 
Here's to change!
 
 
Tomorrow, I will start a low carb, 2 protein shakes a day (I have plenty of sample packets to choose from), and one protein + complex carb + either 1/2 a sweet potato or 1/2 cup cooked quinoa meal a day, food plan. I will get out of this sugar fog, and back into "the light". And I'll flush out the funk with lots of water and green tea. I'm ready to start my new life even though I am 32 days before surgery and am only required to do a 7 day low carb pre-op diet. I'm just ready! With my hike before Hawaii, and lots of hiking/walking planned in Hawaii (and fresh pineapple!!) I can stay on track until my surgery.
 
Wish me luck fellow pre op and post op sleevers! I appreciate you and your stories and questions more than you know!!
 
 
Edit: No need to suggest counseling...I've already been doing it for 5 months and will probably continue after surgery. I wish I could say it's helping with the mental stuff...but I don't see it.