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ok I had a totally freak out moment at walmart on Sunday. So far, I havent really bought any new clothes or anything since me weight loss. yes, I am a saggy clothes wearing mess. I dont have any spare money. My hubby has been in and out of the hospital for 2 months now and money is tight. Soooo... I went to walmart on Sunday to get a few things to eat and wondered over to the clothes section just to see what they had. I had a serious crazy moment. I was looking at pants in my usual plus size section and pulled a pair from the rack that said 2x, but then stopped and looked long and hard. These pants were huge. Thinking it was the brand I moved on to another pair. Size 20, ummmm....huge. I went thru about 6 racks of pants and then it hit me, I cant fit this stuff anymore. Am I that small? I dont feel that small. I feel like a fat moo cow. How can this be? I ventured over to the jr's section and saw a size 15, It looked about right, but no way I'm that little. just no. So i tried them on. I stared for about 10 min first and I'm sure the other customers thought I was mental as I muttered to myself and stared at pants for a long time! lol! Went to the dressing room and to my shock I could fit a size 15. A SIZE 15!!!!!!!!!!!! That means In stretchy pants I can wear a 14. 14!!!!!!!!! WTF!!! How can i be that small. I'm still not convinced. maybe its walmart, I dunno. I snatched up the cute sweat pants with princess on the legs. Size 14 then rethought it. What if they dont fit? So I got the 15/16. I got home and my husband wondered what took me so long. I couldnt explain. I tried on the 15/16's and they are a bit big, but still fit great. I guess i could have gotten those 14's! Oh well....maybe next month! tee hee! So do i have body issues?? I just thought maybe I was trippin. I dunno., This has really shook me to my core. I dont understand. I still see myself as huge. Will this always be even if I get down to 200lbs???

Thanks ppasjm for sharing your experience, that's exactly what I was looking for. I know there are plenty of people who have been working out (even if not consistently) before surgery and their experiences would be very different than mine. I'm definitely taking your and JohnLatte's lesson to heart. I'm going to plan in small 5 or 10 minute increments at a time. I'm going to push myself but not bc I want to reach a "time" limit, as I get in better shape I'll be able to push like that. The idea is I want to be sure I can return to the gym and go regularly so I'm going to avoid being too fervent my first few days out. Just gonna start to get the hang of things. After I go today I'll be sure to report back and let you guys know how I did! Thanks again.

Sooo, I've been cleared to exercise (I'm entering my 6th week post op). I found and joined a local gym, very small, but with all the basic machines. Here's my problem, I haven't worked out (at a gym or otherwise) in over three years!! When I say I'm out of shape, I mean, dreadfully lol. A flight of stairs leaves me winded and a walk around the block makes me tired. BUT i am determined. I have only lost 20lbs since surgery and I'm sure my super slow metabolism is a factor. Can anyone give me pointers on where is a good place to start today? Not sure what to do or for how long. I obviously want to challenge myself, but not to the point where I push so hard I injure myself of something. I was thinking to do 10 mins of full body stretching (using the Sworkit app for pointers), 20 mins on the elliptical, and 15 mins on the bike. What do you all think? Too much, not enough? Would love pointers from those who began their fitness journey after surgery as well! Thanks in advance everyone

I'm not doing well. I've cheated on my pre-op diet everyday. I feel guilty about it, but after struggling with food all my life, I find it really ironic that I'm expected to go solid free for 10 days. Oh well, hasn't happened yet, and I'm scheduled for Tuesday the 10th. Nutritionist told me that they would still go through with surgery but that I would find it more difficult after surgery. Nothing about this has been easy, and I'm still considering backing out.

09/14/17 333 pre-op program start 03/07/18 306 - surgery day 12/10/18 220 - this morning

My name is BinkieGirl, but you can call me Bink. I was banded on July 10 2003 by Dr. Bradley Needleman in Columbus Ohio. So far I've lost somewhere around 20 pounds thanks to several complications including having my stomach swell shut for several days. All in all, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I look forward to meeting all of you and getting to know you!

I am finding that I am eating more and more lately also. My surgery was 7/01 and I have lost 64 pounds, with which I am very pleased. I am also off all diabetic and blood pressure meds since surgery so am much healthier than I thought possible this soon. But.......I am now reaching the point where I always get bored and revert to bad habits and am having to fight harder each day to stick to the program. The last time I lost any weight, about 30 pounds in 2004, I lasted about 3-4 months and then the holidays came and I gained it all back plus a few. So I am concerned. :smile: I wish to luck and success with your efforts! :biggrin: Leigh

Anybody? I know it can be really rough for some in those first few weeks and I want to give them some hope. Also, did you struggle early on but love it now? I'm 4 months out and was terribly exhausted for at least 10 weeks, which I didn't expect, but I'm 101 pounds down and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Congratulations on 10 years! My surgery is June 14th so we are real close. How about a romantic carriage ride in the park? Gondolea? I am not sure where you live. Comedy show? (not as romantic) Concert in the park? Go see a play? Couples massage? I am not sure if that was helpful but just somethings I , myself might consider if I were in your position.

I had an awful bout with the flu a couple weeks ago. I couldn't keep water on anything down or in. After about 10 hours I was able to keep down saltines and gatorade and then slowly to more real food. At that time I had no restriction. I asked my surgeon about "throwing up" and the band and he said "Once someone has true restriction they are unable to throw up, that is why some people need an unfill or require nausea meds".

I agree with the virtual model thing it's so accurate!! Again being that we are similar in stats and I (as I have been told) are big boned...I remember being 200 lbs and in a size 10 jeans so when we are tall and large framed we tend to carry our weight better than someone with that weight and shorter. The funniest thing for me was when I went into do my presurgical upper GI and the technician said wow you look great how much weight have you lost so far and I told them I havn't even had the surgery yet and they had to go check the paperwork LOL. If you are like me I am very muscular as well so I tend to weigh more because of that but look like I weigh less. My best advice i could give you is not to compare yourself because as you lose weight your body looks much different. I just had a "guy" friend of mine who hasn't seen me since my surgery tell me I looked Fantastic and I am thinking in my head I weight 233 lbs how can I look fantastic LOL but you know what I am a size 14 now so that's much better than a 22-24 so I must look better right? Keep doing what you are doing...stick to the band rules and one day you are going to be like OMG look at me !!!!

I do not get banded until October 4th. I am obsessive, in my defense I have waited for this for 10 years... However it is darn near all I think about, read about and want to talk about. I am a planner so I am planning. I think my husband is getting annoyed with the constant lap band chatter. But, school starts tomorrow and he will miss me and be happy for the chatter. Lol Pre op - found shakes and recipes for shakes I find to be yummy after taste testing, even found how to make Protein pudding and ice cream so I can feel like I am eating. I got this way because I love food, so soon I can eat healthy and enjoy my food more by making it with more thought. The term I heard used was "Thoughtful Eating" and that is going to be my mantra! (I am currently a speed eater). NEED to work on eating smaller bites slower. Post op - I have made homemade Soup stocks and broths added whey protein to them and froze 1 oz individual servings. I have beef, chicken, and a cabbage/ham for the clear food stage. Any other get ready early ideas would be great. Thanks!

I was told that your puch can only handle 2-3 oz of liquids. Drink plenty of fluids, but You should know (or are getting to know) the "full" feeling. And to space out your "meals" over 20-30 mins. I too didn't get it until I got sick and almost passed out on my kitchen floor and then immediatly dumped (instant diarreah) DO NOT EAT AND DRINK AT THE SAME TIME, and, I was told to stop drinking at least 10-15 mins before you know your going to eat. using a Teaspoon, actually helped me slow down on eating the broths too quick. and distract yourself if you think your eating too fast. I ate applesauce yesterday *puree/mush stage* while I was in the middle of cleaning my house, so I would stop every few mins and take a spoonful. Hope this helps.

The reason you find more people with RNY is because more people still get RNY. My guess is you will see that tide turning in the next 5-10 years. I agree with this statement. I believe that insurance companies are more likely to pay for RNY, but I see that changing too. I know medicare pays for RNY, but last I heard, didn't cover VSG.

DH is gone till Wednesday nite, I'm alone with all my food thoughts, Oh my what will I do.:help: I'm going to go to the movies with a friend this afternoon. Tomorrow I will watch my grandson for awhile and take a walk I hope. Tuesday my sister wants me to come up and see a couple of our cousins. Then its Wed. and my DH will be home in the evening. I never get a chance to be bored or alone very often, always something going on. I weight this morning and was done a couple of pounds hope it stay down. I seem to like to play around with a couple of pounds before they are really gone. It was been raining again and talk that it will rain off and on all week long. Hope it nice in the mornings so Dana and I can walk. I really don't mind going if I have some one to go with me. We don't even walk together, she is much faster than me. Shes also twenty years younger than me. I'm thinking some of clothes are beginning to be to big, but I hate tight clothes so will wait for a few more pounds to come off before I go down a size. They were way to tight before I started this journey, so I must be patient with myself. It is going to be a great week. Hoping to get some more scrapebooking done. Not feeling so hungry today, hope that stay with me for a long long time. Have to work on drinking more water or crystal light. Just have a problem getting fluids down. Never have figured out why I don't drink like other people do, but sometime I figure out that it has been serveral hours and I haven't drank a thing, I don't really feel thristy most of the time. I think its a problem and I need to get in tune with my thrist. Almost time to go to the movies, that will be two movies and two play within one month.:clap2::clap2::clap2:

I am an ER nurse and took off 10 days. I could have gone back sooner. I felt great by day 3. I just took the next week as my me-week, got my hair cut, nails done, gardened, shopped, etc.

I am not on ANY Protien right now... just Clear liquids, Apple juice, SF Popsicles, SF/FF Jello, crystal light... but this afternoon I heard back from teh clinic and she said to drink somePedialyte... as I have had a nasty headache yest and today... This seems to be doing the trick as I am feeling better as I write this... I can make it until Sunday at noon.... down 10 lbs.

I went shopping this morning and picked up size 12 because my 14's were getting a little big. I tried them on and had to go back and get size 10's!!!! I did a little happy dance in the dressing room!!!! I am so happy and feeling so much more like living life finally!!!! I am going on 12 months and am down 98 pounds trying to hit the 100 pounds by June 16, my dr's appt. I just wanted to celebrate with someone and you guys are so supportive!!!!

Preach it! I don't know what to do with myself either when food is not the focal point of my life. I'm 10 days post op.

Thank you all for your responses. PdxMan and LindafromFlorida you are right she is not done with me. She texted and called me all day. I ignored her. True to form she even asked me to try again and that was very painful for me. It was a difficult day. I did start the morning by clearing out my refrigerator of all leftovers and sweet drinks. I don't buy snack or junk food and keep it in my house so that part was easy. Fortunately for the first day in awhile I didn't feel like eating and I guess that is the emotional part. I had been on an emotional roller coaster and eating every feeling that I had: happiness, sadness, pain, you name it, I ate it. Fortunately I do have someone to talk to but I spent a lot of time focusing on her and I need to shift the focus back on me and what I need. I had my gastric sleeve on December 2, 2013 and lost a lot of weight because I was afraid to eat anything. I had a lot of problems with keeping food down, especially Protein so the food I was eating were those soft slider foods and by February 14, 2014 I went from 368 lbs to 281 lbs. I was tremendously excited and perhaps overly confident about my success. My surgeon was happy albeit concerned that I really wasn't eating and losing 8-10 lbs per week. We talked about developing an eating disorder because of my food aversion but I didn't care. I thought the sleeve had solved my problem - eating - and I would deal with the fallout later. So when I met my ex and began to eat small amounts of food, I was relieved not to be throwing up any more after about 2 weeks. I was on several nausea meds that made my throat dry and I couldn't seem to quench my thirst. That's when I started drinking sweet drinks like lemonade, it helped. No excuse. Eventually I could eat anything including small amounts of steak. Of course, I have to take Miralax everyday to digest what I eat so that is stupid but technically I could eat. Before I could barely eat chicken breast. We were going to different restaurants 3-4 times per week and each week the pounds started to slowly climb back on. I remember when I first tried alcohol, my stomach couldn't handle it. Then I tried again and it wasn't so bad. I have never been a drinker really 1-2 drinks socially maybe once or twice a month, but I was drinking a couple of times per week which also contributed to the weight. I stopped drinking two weeks ago on my birthday. Things were strained between me and my ex because I decided not to be around her at all when she was drinking and took all alcohol out of my house. I took some time reading other posts yesterday where people talked about the sleeve being a tool in the weight loss journey. I realize I need to find a happy medium with eating and develop a healthy relationship with food. I know I can't go back to not eating at all or eating everything there is so just figuring out where that place is will help. I will try listening to my body and trying to see when I am actually hungry or just filling a need. Also making sure I am not eating too much. I will go back to my small plates and see how that works.

This might seem really odd... and maybe unrelated to the band but the only way to know is to ask. I was banded on 10/20/08 and since banding I have been having absolutely bizzare dreams...almost everynight. I don't know if its because of the diet changes and cutting out sugar or what! But has anyone else experienced this? Its not seeing myself at a lower weight or anything its been weird...like moving to a farm was friday night, last night I dreamt about a cousin's wedding that see showed up and it was the wrong groom... truly weird stuff... Hopefully I'm not the only one! :thumbup:

Thanks for all the words of support and encouragement. It is 10:00pm, and I am now an official member of bandland. The procedure went smoothly and the doctor said I had a fine smooth liver, guess those 12 days of Optifast hell did the job.:clap2: The gas pains aren't too bad, not yet anyway, it's the nothing but Water on the first day that has me down. Maybe I'll call midnight tomorrow and have some juice, low acidic of course.

I am 10 1/2 po..still only getting 4 to 5 bites and get full. They scared me with the dough ball getting stuck line so I don't go there. Point being I do get full after few bites..

Gastric bypass patients have pouches...whereas gastric sleeve patients have sleeves. A sleeve is not synonymous with a pouch. Anyhow, your sleeve will relax over time to accommodate a higher volume of food as it heals. This is the natural progression of things although it saddens some people. During the first few months postop I could tolerate about 3 ounces of food. Nowadays I'm almost 3 years out and can easily accommodate 8 to 10 ounces (more than half a pound). A fully matured sleeve's normal capacity is anywhere from 8 to 12 ounces. At this point I wouldn't worry about stretching your sleeve. Just focus on high protein foods and meeting your nutritional goals. Good luck to you.

Did you check your policy if it includes WLS?? If it does, make an appointment with your PCP and let him or her know what your goal is. I had to quit my awesome Doctor of 12 years, cause he has always discouraged me to have WLS. I finally made a wise choice, and switched Doctors, I really like my new PCP, he is really supportive, and if he would have told me no, I would have kept on until I reached my ultimate goal!! It took me 10 months to get here, but it's here, I'm on my 2 week pre op diet and scheduled for the 24th!! Good luck to you!! Let us know how your progress goes!! Sent from my iPhone using VST