BlackBerryJuice

I'm also an atheist. Best movie ever - "The Invention of Lying."

I discovered Joy Nash's vids a few years ago and a recent post reminded me of them. If you haven't come across them, enjoy! I think a lot of us will be able to relate to what she's talking about.

SN............Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.........Lbs to Goal Avilda..............275.................187..............177..............10 BlackBerryJuice 208.............153..............145..............8 Brendasgonnalose..335.....236.............225...............16 Cwalker..........250.................180..............170..............10 Drysdale .........202.................186..............174...............12 Ibejjo...............249..................249............229................20 Juliarh.............230..................230..............215...........15 Kimmes............239..................222..............200............22 Kgremmy.........225.................210..............199..............11 LeslieH...........212..................212.............199..............13 LilMissDiva.......235..................235.............220..............15 MINI-Me...........203..................125.8...........125.............0.8 & holding Mommy2Girls....275.................240..............228..............12 Moni luv..........190.................190..............178..............12 MRSKOUBIK....317..................283.............267..............16 PamelaAM . . . .250. . . . . . . . 200. . . . . . .190. . . . . . . .10 pattimomof3nj..203.4..............167.1..........155...............12.1 Sailorgirl...........240.................220..............200..............20 Sleeve 4 me...166..................166.............156................10 Yolanda240.....236.................203..............170..............33 I hope to hit goal by then (145). 8 lbs in 1.5 months should be attainable.

I'm interested, but it'd depend on the time/place. Unfortunately, flying from Canada is expensive, so the prices would also play a role. I also vote for the summer (June/July) - I will have some free time during those 2 months, but I won't know when exactly until later in the spring.

Ha, my mother asked me the exact same question my first day in town (she hadn't seen me since the surgery). NO WAY! I got to 165 on my own last year (I am now 153) and it was a BATTLE. I found it basically impossible to get to my goal weight because your weightloss slows down so much when you get close, and you are SO hungry and stressed out all the time, you just can't power through a plateau anymore. Now if I plateau, it doesn't bother me, because I'm not torturing myself. I eat what I want when I want it, so I don't feel like I'm killing myself for nothing if I don't lose fast enough or whatever. I have so much more free time now that I don't need to exercise like 10 hrs a week to maintain my weight like I had to last year! Oh and did I mention when I got to 165, I also got back up to 208 in under 6 months? While no one is safe from the threat of regaining some weight years after this surgery, I can tell you right now that you won't be packing on 10 lbs a month after this, you'd have to get a feeding tube with frappucinos in it to make it happen.

I eat more than most people on here. It's not really a skin issue for me (I agree with everyone who said it'll tighten up either way in the end), I just didn't want to lose muscle mass and become malnourished. I also didn't want to slow my metabolism so much that I'd experience the same struggles I had pre-surgery, where I'd pack on 5 lbs each time I ate a candybar. I seem to have avoided all these pitfalls. It's hard to assess the speed of my weightloss at this point, as I'm almost at goal and once people get close, they lose a lot slower, anyway. But when I look at the overall loss or the loss I had in the first 3 months, I've lost weight at the same rate as the average person on here around my starting BMI. As I'm getting closer, my weightloss has slowed down to about 1 lbs a week. But considering how close I am to goal and the fact that I haven't been able to work out at all for 2 weeks (out of the country), I was quite pleased getting on the scale this morning and realizing I lost 2 lbs during these 2 weeks of drinking champagne and eating pate. Food here is also quite different, I'm drinking 6% milk instead of the 1% I drink at home, and EVERY meal involves copious amounts of bread and baked goods, so I was surprised to see any weightloss at all. My family and friends have already all told me not to lose any more weight, and I'm pretty content with how I look now, even though losing a few more pounds off of my thighs in particular would look better, so I don't really have any pressure to lose lots more weight coming from any direction. It's more the vain desire to be able to wear booty shorts one day just to say I did and wanting to jump higher during my ballet class, haha.

I'm also from Canada, with a relatively low starting BMI, and also ended up going to Dr. Aceves. I had briefly considered the lap band before, but never really had the money. This time I happened to have access to a large line of credit and my worries about repayment are minimal, so having WLS actually became a realistic possibility. The things that really triggered my decision to go ahead were: 1) having lost 50 lbs with tremendous effort for like the 5th time in a row and then regaining like 5 lbs every time I'd have one candy bar - I just couldn't fight that battle anymore, I felt that my whole life revolved around food - whether consuming it or restraining myself from consuming it 2) learning more about obesity in medical school and realizing it's MUCH more complex than plain willpower (which I often suspected - how come I had the willpower to hold down 2 jobs and go to school part-time but not to resist a candybar?) and that there's a huge physiological aspect to it Thankfully, I somehow stumbled upon this forum and noticed Dr. Aceves had sleeved many people on here, and then someone (I believe, OregonDaisy) recommended that I contact him directly. I spoke to one of his coordinators and she strongly suggested the sleeve. I dwelled on it for about 2 weeks, doing lots of research about the side effects of the band, the benefits of the sleeve, and reading the experiences of other Dr. Aceves patients. Altogether, it took me maybe 2 weeks of good hard thinking to decide that I wanted WLS and another 2 weeks to realize I wanted the sleeve. Once I made up my mind, I was dying to have the surgery ASAP! Unfortunately, due to my own schedule I had to book 1.5 months ahead. I definitely had lots of time to rethink things during those 6 weeks, having never had surgery before and being worried about travelling to Mexico, but in the end it always came down to the fact that I KNEW I would never get my weight under control on my own - and I'd only get fatter and more miserable if I waited any longer. I didn't want to have to worry about getting tummy tucks, arm lifts, and what not, so I wanted to have the surgery before I got to 300 lbs and grew like 50 lbs of extra skin everywhere. I'm definitely very happy that I had the surgery when I did, even though I didn't have any disposable income at the time, so I do have to repay the debt eventually when I start working.

Exactly, like someone above said, according to these, almost any obese person has an eating disorder. And every North American between Thanksgiving and Christmas! I actually had serious eating issues as a teen and onwards - bulimia with binging/throwing up as often as 4 times a day at its worst, and binge eating so much, I'd pack on a steady 10 lbs a month. In fact, I had put on 50 lbs in 6 months prior to my surgery, right after losing it over the course of a year! So I'm sure if I had disclosed all this during psych eval for insurance, I would've been labeled a basketcase and ineligible for surgery, as well. Mind you, I did have to fill out a lengthy health history the day before my surgery, and I was honest about my prior history with bulimia (I hadn't thrown up for almost a decade by then) and binges. My Dr. just asked how long since I had last made myself vomit and once I said it had been a decade, he said he wasn't worried about me. I did get some therapy for my bulimia back in the days, but it was absolutely terrible and I don't credit any of my recovery to it, it was all my own initiative and my own hard work. Re: binge eating, I read many books about it, etc, and while the principle of treatment is great (#1 tenet is to never let yourself get hungry), when you are obese, it's awfully hard to follow it. I mean, how can you lose weight without ever getting hungry? It's impossible, your body's not stupid and the leptin and ghrelin are going to kick in and rise until you finally give in and overeat/binge. I shadowed an eating disorder psychiatrist back in 1st year medicine, and she saw some very obese people with major BED issues, as well. One woman had gained 100 lbs in a year! I asked her how she deals with very obese pts who obviously need to lose weight and she said she puts them on a 2500-calorie diet so they don't get hungry and encourages them to lose weight through exercise - the hunger from food restriction just triggers more binges. Well, good luck losing 100+ lbs via exercise only! It's an awful lot easier treating someone who's underweight, in my opinion, you can't just tell an obese person with an eating disorder that she should keep eating, because it's not healthy, either. Anyway, the rambling tangent aside, I've experienced a binge drive TWICE since my Aug. 9th surgery and both times found it fairly easy to overcome. I've been seeing a good counselor since my surgery, but recently we've both discovered that we rarely talk about eating these days - I simply don't have these issues anymore. I do find myself eating mindlessly by the computer sometimes, but who doesn't - as long as I rein myself in and choose things like fruits or vegetables, I don't stress about it too much. It's truly amazing how much of this "binge eating disorder" I had must've been triggered by hunger and messed up gastric hormones. I really do think that this surgery has the potential to cure this illness, which makes me wonder if BED is truly a mental illness or if it's primarily based on physiology. I even saw an obesity specialist about a research proposal re: bariatric surgery and emotional eating/BED, but he said that while the topic is interesting to him, I'd have to do a master's to pull it off, and at this point, I'm not ready to make a commitment (maybe after I graduate medical school in 2 years). But I really do think that this surgery cures some people of their eating issues - obviously not all, as I've seen some people on this forum really struggle, to the point of making themselves vomit after surgery - but I do think that the psych evals they have now may be overly stringent. It's one of the reasons I wanted to do that research project - to see if the results would make it possible for more people to become eligible.

Just keep doing it, you can never get it right the first time around, it takes a couple of tries.

Did your doc say anything or did they just rehydrate you and send you home? I'm assuming they've ruled out all serious issues, e.g. leaks. I had some issues with nausea right around week 2-3 and both the emerg doc and Dr. Aceves told me it was likely due to acid overproduction and suggested I take my Nexium 2x/daily instead of once a day.

That's ridiculous! I lived in the US for a while, and one time I got a doctor's bill by mistake (it was supposed to go to insurance) - was shocked to learn that my visit for a stubborn sore throat had cost $1200! That didn't include a SINGLE test, either! I think here we bill the government about $50 per visit, depending on the province. I blame the lawsuit culture in the US. I was blown away when I found out how much docs pay in malpractice insurance there (upwards of $250,000/yr for a young doc with no lawsuits on record). Here it's only about $2000-3000 a year, no more than $25,000 in high-risk specialties like obstetrics. It's very hard to sue a doc frivolously here.

That looks really good! I can't interpret some of them, as our measures are different (e.g. mmol/L for glucose rather mg/dl or whatever it is they use in the US), but the ones I can, look great!

Couple of tips that help me with exercise: 1) find a time that works for you - I CAN'T stick to a morning program, for example, it's gotta be in the evening. 2) Sign up for a class - bootcamp is great. I've also signed up for a couple of dance classes - that way I'm actually learning something practical. I've always wanted to try ballet, but my weight made it challenging - even though I wasn't the biggest person in my class when I first tried it at around 175, it was just too tough on my feet. Now it's much easier. I got inspired by a male classmate who started ballet at 19 and went on to have a professional career, which defies everything they ever tell you about professional ballet. 3) Find a buddy. My boyfriend wanted to try ballroom dancing with me. He has 2 left feet and is completely tone-deaf, so the laughs alone were a good enough reason to sign up. 4) Try a sport. I used to play for a community soccer league. Now my boyfriend and I play badminton sometimes. If I had an elliptical at home, I wouldn't be terribly motivated to exercise, either - it's just too boring. 5) If you live in a place with a harsh winter, get involved in some winter sports. It's my 2nd year cross-country skiing and I find it to be great exercise. Plus it makes me feel slightly less miserable about winter. We also go skating on occasion. 6) Set a goal. I loathe running, but in the past, I'd sign up for 5Ks and 10Ks to get myself to train. Having a race to train for should give you that extra push. 7) Find a gym that's close to your house. I've got a 1-month bootcamp pass and I just know that there's no point in using it until school ends, as the gym is about a 20-min drive from my house, and during the school year, I'll have all kinds of excuses (both legitimate and illegitimate!) not to go. If it's too much of a hassle to go work out, you just won't do it.

Stop skipping my ballet ballet classes. I skipped like 1/3 of them in the fall semester. Exam weeks are particularly bad for it, but this semester I think I only have 2 exam weeks during ballet.

I also started with salads and fruit about a month out, they never caused me any problems. I tried nuts (pecans) about 2 months out, and I felt rather uncomfortable...however, recently I've eaten some and it didn't bother me, so maybe waiting til about 3 months is a good idea. Portion control is an issue, though, as nuts are really high in calories.

UnderArmour compression clothes are pretty potent.

Tuna....LOVE canned tuna!

I remember someone posted that you are not allowed to have pumpkin seeds, coconut, and one other thing (something equally obscure). Apparently, the cellulose can ball up inside your stomach and cause an obstruction.

My nails have been breaking off and splitting at the tips for a good 2 months now - only on my index and middle fingers so far, but originally I only had that problem on my right hand (my dominant hand) and now it's started on the left, as well. I get enough Protein and eat a pretty varied diet. I take a multi and Calcium + vit D almost daily, and B12 on most days. I haven't been taking much Biotin, though - the pills I have bother me because of their coating. I choked on one a few weeks ago, which was a terrifying experience, and today I took one and I can feel it sitting in my esophagus, which feels disgusting - I don't want to end up with pill esophagitis. I've tried putting nail polish on my nails, thinking maybe it'd help hold the split layers together and prevent my nails from getting traumatized further, but it hasn't helped. I live in a dry climate, so I've been making an effort to put body butter or oil on my hands, including my nails, every day, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Am I the only one with this problem? I'm really starting to think it has something to do with my VSG. It's just a minor nuisance, but if I could fix it, it'd be nice. Do you think it's just because I'm not taking enough biotin?

Any chance you could be pregnant?My weight doesn't seem to fluctuate as much post-VSG as it did before the surgery. While my weight will occasionally go up a pound for a day or 2, it's never more than that (and usually I can link it to eating a bigger meal right before bed or not going #2 for a few days). A 6-lbs gain seems to be worth investigating.

Darn, US only! Anyone know a Canadian site like this? My boyfriend and I eat out daily, so it'd save us a ton of cash.

Just read this in the most recent issue of Allure magazine: Thoughts? Do you feel that your goal has changed since you've had the surgery?