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Haha, as LilMissDiva said every milestone does deserve it's own thread. Good luck to you pcos_chick... Have you noticed any improvement in your PCOS symptoms with your weight loss?

Happy Birthday!! and congrats on your weight loss!! I can't give u a gift, but I can give you advice, just keep posting haha :-D have fun!!!

You will see that you are eating more, you will know you need a fill. For me, i am eating alot more than i should, so i know i need to get a fill. Congrats on the weight loss!!!

I had my surgery 6/12/12 and have lost a little over 75 lbs. I have not noticed that my energy level has gone up at all. I haven't started an exercise program and am leaning towards doing zumba. I just have to wait for the next classes to start. I am at a stand still on my weight loss and I am getting depressed about it. I had noticed that since I am able to eat pretty much any type of food, I had been making poor food choices. With the holidays, it was very hard on me with all the sweets! I am conscious of this, so I went to the store yesterday and purchased more healthy foods for me. What type of exercise program for beginners do you recommend?

SleevePlicationTalk Newsletter Hey, Sleevers!Spring is a time of renewal and rebirth. Better weather is here, and summer is just around the corner, so April is a perfect time to fulfill or renew commitments to your weight and health! Let the fresh air and green plants inspire you to try new recipes and get outside for some calorie-burning fun! First, though, why not read through this month’s newsletter for some inspiration? These are the contents of the April SleevePlicationTalk.com newsletter. Sleever Poll – Would You Have Weight Loss Surgery Again? Claim Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame! Stay Hydrated and Healthy! Enjoy the newsletter. Then log onto SleevePlicationTalk.com to talk about it and anything else on your mind! As always, we welcome your comments and feedback, so get in touch any time by sending a private message to Alex Brecher. See you on the boards! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder SleevePlicationTalk.com Sleever Poll: Would You Have Weight Loss Surgery Again? Knowing what you know now about weight loss surgery, would you do it again if you had the chance to make your decision again? Yes, without a doubt! The surgery has been everything I’d hoped for. Yes, probably. The journey hasn’t been easy, but I’m losing weight and feel that this was my best option. Yes, but I would have chosen a different type of weight loss surgery, not the lap-band. No. I’ve had complications and my health has suffered and/or I haven’t been hitting my weight loss goals. I haven’t had the surgery yet, but I’m looking at the results of this poll carefully to help me make my decision! Other...read my response below! Choose your option, and then explain it in the discussion forum using this link! Staying Hydrated after Weight Loss Surgery If you’re having trouble getting enough Water after weight loss surgery, you’re not alone! In fact, meeting your Fluid recommendations is one of the most common challenges that weight loss surgery patients report. You wouldn’t expect that staying hydrated would be a major concern compared to challenges of eating right and exercising, but it is. Why? You can’t drink fluids during or around meal and snack times. You might not like the taste of water You need more fluid than before because you’re trying to be healthier You can’t drink caloric or carbonated beverages, like juice, soda and sugar-sweetened drinks, such as coffee drinks and sports drinks You need at least 1.5 liters, or 6 8-ounce cups, of fluid each day. If you don’t get enough water, you can become dehydrated. This can delay your recovery from surgery if your procedure is recent. Even if your surgery was long ago, dehydration can give you headaches and make you tired. It can also interfere with weight loss by making you feel hungrier. These tips can help you stay hydrated. Get in the habit so it’s natural! Drink 1 to 2 8-ounce glasses when you wake up in the morning, and 30 minutes after each meal or snack. Drink an extra glass of water before and after you exercise. If you sweat a lot, drink a cup of water each 20 minutes during exercise. Instead of plain water, try ice water, water with lime, lemon or a sprig of mint. Decaffeinated coffee and tea and non-carbonated diet drinks, such as diet Fruit Drinks, are good alternatives to water. Claim Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame! You know we’re always busy around SleevePlicationTalk.com. We already published The BIG Book on the Lap-Band: Everything You Need to Know to Lose Weight and Live Well with the Adjustable Gastric Band and The BIG Book on the Gastric Sleeve: Everything You Need to Know to Lose Weight and Live Well with the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. The book has practical advice for anyone thinking about the lap-band or any weight loss surgery. It’s packed with information from the earliest stages of your weight loss journey through your lifelong diet. It’s available in print and ebook from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Soon, we’ll have Big books for the Gastric Bypass and Gastric Sleeve! Sleeve plication patients can benefit from them, too. The overwhelmingly positive feedback has convinced us to work on another book! This one’s going to be a lifesaver for life after weight loss surgery. It’s dedicated to all types of WLS. The book will have diet tips, food lists, meal plans, recipes, exercise and tips for preventing and dealing with complications. It’ll be a motivational book, too. We need your help to make the new book great! We’re asking SleevePlicationTalk.com members – that’s you! - to share your favorite recipe or recipes to publish in the book. You can submit your recipe by sending a PM (private message) to member Alex Brecher (the board’s founder). Include the name of your recipe, the ingredients and quantities, how many servings it makes, which stage(s) of the weight loss surgery diet you can use it for and how to make it. Also let us know when you use it, how you learned or created the recipe and any other stories you have related to the recipe, such as the first time you tried it. Thanks! We’ve loved reading the recipes that you’ve sent us so far – keep them coming and don’t miss your chance to be published! That’s all we’ve got for this newsletter, but there’s plenty more to talk about on the boards! Thanks for all of your support and feedback – you, our members are what make SleevePlicationTalk.com the great community that it is. Don’t forget to send us your recipes and give us any other feedback! Take care of yourself and each other. Sincerely, Alex ==============================================================If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, you may unsubscribe by going to your Control Panel and clicking on the Newsletters tab, or clicking on the following link: {unsubscribe}

What you are experiencing is not unusual. You do not yet have adequate restriction--so you are, indeed, hungry. The key to loss during this period of bandster hell is---well, discouraging. If you want to lose, then you have to eat as if you do have restriction. And that translates into dieting. The good news is that it is the LAST time you will be hungry in the name of weight loss. Right now, it's a great idea to practice eating the way you will eat when you do have restriction. Small portions, small bites, chewing carefully. Make wise food choices, stop before you're full, etc. As you approach restriction, you will find it SO much easier---I promise! But the discouragement is really typical of the stage you occupy. It will pass!

I was banded last year in January. I was 100 lbs overweight, with a BMI of 41.5. That put me in the delightful medical category of "morbidly obese". I live in New York City, and I was referred by a friend to the Weill-Cornell Langone weight-loss center. They have a great staff and they offer lifetime consultation with their nutritionist and their nursing staff. The surgeon was George Fielding, who is well known in the field. He was banded himself about ten years ago, but you would never know it to look at him. He's a poster child for his own specialty! They require a six-week all liquid diet prior to the surgery to de-fat the liver. I lost about 20 pounds before the surgery just from that. He confided to me that he has had patients who decided to forgo the surgery after the liquid-diet weight loss. My previous experience told me that without the surgery I would certainly gain it back quickly, and add some more. The surgery involves only a minor incision and the patient usually goes home the same day. (I had to stay overnight because I have sleep apnea) Since then, I have lost a total of 80 pounds, and I'm a new man. I just had a checkup yesterday, and my doctor took me off my blood pressure medication I have been taking for 20 years. I plan to lose another 20 lbs and then go on maintainence. I had some minor problems along the way, but they were temporary. I had a long plateau after losing 60 lbs. I had to find the "sweet spot" for band tightness. I went too far, and I couldn't eat much of anything. I was losing quickly, but not getting enough nutrition. Once we worked it out, it has been smooth sailing. One of the things I really like about the band is that I just don't feel hungry very often. I went to a restaurant recently and I could only finish about half the portion. (Normally, I would be licking the plate before my wife finished her appetizer ) What I found interesting is that most of the issues which had be worried before getting the band turned out to be either non-issues or a minor nuisance, at worst. There are some foods which won't go down the band at all (e.g. soft doughy bread) but I find I don't miss them at all. It is such a different orientation not to be thinking about food all the time. If you have already had your band, and seem to be in a rut, just hang in there. It took me over a year to really hit my stride.

I'm so sorry for your loss. But you seem to be doing so well! You're young and you have a world ahead of you- God bless and good luck! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm sorry for your loss, first of all we are all here to support each othe4. Good luck with your journey. I start my journey on Dec 7 and I start my liquid diet tomorrow. Praying I loose so my liver will shrink. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using the BariatricPal App

I need help, I'm at work and I'm so nauseated, I've been for hours. I try going in the restroom and hang my head over the toilet hoping to just throw up. i hope it would make me feel better. Now i have done very well without soda, dont need it don't want it. I don't want to ruin my sleeve, I want to take care of it the best I can, but I'm in a bind, there is nothing here but bending machines full of crap. I don't feel good at all. in one machine there is some finer ale. if I let it go flat can I drink some. I'm desperate. all that sugar, ugh I don't want it but I'm at a loss of what to do. also, I cant go home sick, I just got written up for being over my quota. so that's out of the question. any advice. I'm in tears

go girl go...thanks. and good luck on your continued weight loss.

Hi Kaye, my doctor does fills 2 weeks apart. Maybe you could get in earlier than February for yours. Don't worry too much about the weight loss. You are still early out in the process. You will do fine.

OK, I will admit it. I am a electronics junkie and I love to have all the new toys! But - have any of you seen or possibly have the Withing WiFi scale? If so tell me how you like it. This scale is very cool - it takes your weight, BMI, fat content and other things and sends them to you computer where it creates graphs for you so you can see your progress without having to hand enter everything. It will even twitter your weight loss for you if you want! It hooks right into your existing WiFi system at home. A little pricey at 159 but still really cool. You can see it at Withings - The WiFi Scale (weight, BMI, fat mass & lean mass) - Home[/url]

I hope what I have to say will be helpful to you and other pre-ops. I was banded in June 2009. First I would like to say that if you are an emotional eater (i.e., eat compulsively, eat because you are happy, sad, depressed, angry, lonely, tired, etc.), then the fact that you paid good money for the surgery won't really matter. When your emotions control your eating -- YOUR EMOTIONS CONTROL YOUR EATING. BUT, don't lose heart because the lapband can help. I know it has helped me. I am/was definitely a compulsive eater. After years of yo-yo dieting I got to my highest weight of 307 (when I went in the hospital for diabetes BG 917), once my sugar was under control I got down to 294. 294 is what I weighed on surgery day. Some people get the lapband and are pretty much "perfect". By that I mean they follow all diet instructions, exercise, journal, etc. Then there are others (like myself) that are not quite as focused and have stressors (i.e., teen/young adults in the home, stressful job, health problems, etc.) that conjure up old eating habits. So, suffice it to say that my weight loss has been slow. But, the important words here are WEIGHT LOSS. I am consistently losing (with a stall every now and again). I am getting exercise in (though not as much as I should). But the biggest thing is that the way I think about food has changed! I am no longer a slave to food. I credit my band, I really do. I credit my band because, with proper restriction, I have not been able to binge when I am overwhelmed by life. As a result, I am able to get back on balance and eat properly before I have done severe damage. BUT IT GETS BETTER. I have stopped reacting to stress in my life with food about 90% of the time! This is HUGE for me! I credit the band. Last night my kids made me very sad/mad. I was still thinking about it as I drove to work this morning. I had my Protein drink for Breakfast and had the forethought to bring another just in case my band was too tight for me to eat food at lunch (my band gets tighter when I am stressed). By the time lunch time came I was in the tank, on my way to being depressed -- a sure sign that Cookies were in my future. You know what I did instead? I put on my sneakers (I keep a pair at work - no excuses for not exercising while at work LOL) and took a good long walk. When I got back to my office building I sat in the sun (it's a beautiful day here) and tried to decide what I should eat for lunch that was healthy. In the end I went back to the office and drank my Protein Drink ... wasn't in the mood for food. Before the band, I couldn't have done that. The thing is, the band is a tool. You can learn to use to your advantage. Learn everything you can about the band. Be prepared going in ... and you will still be surprised. Know that you lose as fast or as slow as you are willing to work. ALL the power is in your hands, the band is just there to help you do what you really want to do. If you REALLY want to lose weight the band can help. If you don't really want to lose weight, the band won't stand in your way (ice cream and cake go down with ease). There are a few people that have problems with the band, but the vast majority of people have a tool that works. All the best to you on your journey! ~Fran

If I were you I'd go see a nutritionist for six months only because it seems like your insurance is going to give you a hard time about this. I have Kaiser and they require six months of supervised weight loss with a nutritionist and to me its the best way to get a accurate/official log. Just a suggestion, but good luck!

I have blue cross through my husbands labor union. and I have tried everything but don't have documented dr notes or anything. I went so long without having health insurance I wasn't able to see a weight loss dr in the past. and I see that some women have a start to sleeve process of like 6 months, does this mean ill probably take much much longer?

I stall roughly every 3 weeks, but then I will see a 2-5 lb. loss. I have started to notice that my body likes to stall at old set points. I'm really looking forward to 197 😁

The dreaded 3-week stall strikes again!!!! Only weighing once a week, jumped right on this morning hoping to see a nice size loss.....only a .3 weight loss??? How can that be?? My calorie intake is only about 400-500? The Laws of logic don't match up. Bummed. [emoji20]

Hi everyone I’m 31 and over weight. I have been battling being over weight most of my life. Until recently it has been an issuse due to all the side affects of being over weight.. DIABETIC..HIGH CHOLESTEROL..HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE..SLEEPING.etc.... Like most of you I have tried it all.... I have gotten to the point that every time I tried another diet or exercise plan I lost weight but it all came back and some. NO BUENO!! Have been thinking about weight loss surgery for the last past 2 years. I finally step into a doctor office but only to be turned away... Time went by and I meet a doctor that would finally refer to someone that would help me... So my journey began January 2011 with Dr Lyass (my surgeon). There where some few bumps in my road to get approve. But I was approved.. My surgery date is 4/8/11.... I’m excited, nervous, but at the same time just in disbelief like is it really going happen...my other thing I haven’t told my family...8( just been to scared. They are all thin and don‘t know what it is to walk a mile in my shoes. That's my biggest secret...

I picked a surgeon that had a follow up program - including monthly NUT visists the first 6 months. I credit her with helping me be so successful, she really made a difference. I needed the support, but in truth just going back to sleever basics is what gets you on track. Protein low carb veggies plenty of Water, but not with food exercise Vitamins Small portions eaten 4-6 times per day! I still eat off a tiny plate and use appetizer utinsils and I am over a year out! It helps me keep portions small. It is hard to really accept it, but other foods will derail or slow your losses.

Agreed - liquid for 2 days with focus on getting water and protien. Then move to clean meals with scheduled snacks. After the huge loss you have the next 15 to 20. Ready set go.

Hi everyone! I'm Natalie and I have my consultation with a bariatric surgeon on June 5. I am considering VSG however I have 200+ pounds to lose and RNY may be my only option. I'm just curious by experience who has had which surgery and what are the pros (besides weight loss:)) and cons. I'm interested in hearing from all WLS patients - not just what I've listed here. Thank you and I look forward to getting to know you! Natalie

My PCP told me he doesn't support surgery for weight loss if it's not life threatening.....

I was taking a BP bill and one for GERD and a mear 2 1/2 weeks post op they have already taken me off the BP pill and I only take the one for reflux as I need it. My advice is weight loss is a major way of healing th ebody. My BMI was also low and I had to fight for the insurance to pay but they did and it took appeals and frustration, so if your not banded get banded ! Good luck.

I have actually lost more quickly this time around. I had my band placed in 2008 and fought it for years only ever losing about 60 lbs. I had my revision on May 7 and have lost just shy of 50 lbs (including my pre-op weight loss) I am now at my lowest weight since I was 19, I am currently 36. As far as restriction, with me it isn't the same. I don't feel restriction like with the band. I just get full (really quickly). I had to stop myself from looking for the same feeling because it is totally different.