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VerticalSleeveTalk Newsletter Hey, Sleevers!Happy New Year! It’s time to leap into 2013. You might have slipped a little during the holidays, but January is a great time for a fresh start! Of course, VerticalSleeveTalk.com is here for you as you work to lose weight and get healthy. Allow the January Newsletter to motivate you to get back on board if you lost your focus in December, or to inspire you to keep up the good work if you were able to stay on track during the holidays. Here’s what we have in this newsletter. Looking Ahead to 2013! Member Spotlight: Meet Velena! New Year’s Resolutions that Work! Sleever Challenge: Make Your New Year’s Resolutions! Casting Call: Looking for VerticalSleeveTalk.com Members to be in a Book! As you get back into the swing of everyday life and your commitment to your health, we hope you continue to make VerticalSleeveTalk.com a regular part of your day. So, enjoy the newsletter and then talk about it or anything else on the forums! See you there! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder VerticalSleeveTalk.com Looking Ahead to 2013! 2012 was a phenomenal year for VerticalSleeveTalk.com. The forums grew tremendously and we came out with mobile apps for the Android, Kindle and iPod, iPad and iPhone. We have plenty more changes in store for 2013! Keep watch for even more improvements. We’ll be sure to let you know in the newsletters and on the forums, too. 2013 will be an exciting year! Thanks to you, our members, for continuing to support the community. Member Spotlight: Meet Velena! We’re delighted to start off 2013 by shining the spotlight on Velena from Madison, Alabama! She says she spent most of her adult life obese. She didn’t want to spend “second half” of her adult life obese, too, and set the goal of weighing under 200 pounds by her fiftieth birthday. She lost about 25-30 pounds through dieting, doing fitness DVDs and taking weight loss pills, but was still 30 pounds short of her weight loss goal. She wanted to lose weight to be able to enjoy life instead of being limited because of her obesity. Velena wanted to be able to ride a motorcycle and enjoy hiking with her husband; the final straw for her was on a hike when she couldn’t follow him down to the falls because of the steep stairs. She had high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In addition, Velena has diabetes and needs to eat well to control it. She says she always ate healthily, but portion control was a problem. When Velena started looking into weight loss surgery two years ago, her insurance didn’t cover it. This year, she attended another seminar and found out that now her insurance would cover the sleeve. She didn’t like the idea of bypass “rearranging my plumbing,” and a friend had had a bad experience with the lap-band. Velena did like the idea of the gastric sleeve, and got her surgery in September of 2012. Her top weight was 264 pounds. Now, Velena is down to 197 pounds! She feels light on her feet and her balance is much better after losing so much weight! Velena now has her own bike to ride around the neighborhood. Some of her great moments have been buying a jacket in the Misses section, instead of the plus size section, and trying on a winter coat at costco and finding out that it was too big. Of course, stepping on the scale and seeing a number under 200 was a thrill for her! She faced some challenges along the way, such as having trouble swallowing right after surgery. She got dehydrated and had to get hooked up to an IV! Eating slowly enough and ending her meal before she’s too full are still challenges for Velena, but she’s working on them and it’s paying off. Velena uses Vertical Sleeve Talk daily to catch up with friends, get ideas and encouragement and provide support. She says the forums keep her focused on her nutrition. We’re sure that you’re keeping up with your nutrition because you even managed to lose weight during the holidays! Congratulations on your success so far! Thanks for being in the Member Spotlight, Velena! Welcome to 2013 and the second half of your adult life! The Member Spotlight Forum is the place to go to nominate another member to be in the spotlight section of the newsletter. You can also nominate yourself – everyone on the boards will be pleased to meet you! You can even send Alex Brecher a private message telling us that you want to be featured. Everyone has a great story to share. Thanks! New Year’s Resolutions that Work! What are your New Year’s resolutions? Whatever else you’re resolving to do in 2013, your resolutions almost certainly include losing weight or maintaining your goal weight. Too often, we stop following our New Year’s resolutions pretty soon and fall back into old bad habits. How can you make New Year’s resolutions that you’ll stick to so that you can meet your goals for 2013? Try out these simple tips as you make your resolutions. Make them specific. You want to get healthy and lose weight. Those are great goals, but those resolutions aren’t specific enough to be helpful. Instead, choose resolutions that will help you meet those goals. Resolutions to help you get healthy might include exercising at least three days a week and choosing olive oil instead of butter for your servings of fat on your bariatric surgery diet. To lose weight, you might resolve eat at least 80g Protein per day so you feel more full. Make them doable. Keep your resolutions realistic so you’re not setting yourself up for failure. Nobody’s perfect, and your resolutions’ success shouldn’t depend on you to be perfect. Instead of resolving to drink more Water, resolve to drink an extra 8 ounces of water in the morning at least 5 days per week. This resolution gives you some room for error just in case you forget your water a couple of times in the week. Plus, the resolution is specific, so it fits with the first tip! Make them controllable. You can’t control whether you lose a certain amount of weight within a certain amount of time. What you can control are resolutions such as sticking to your diet or exercising to burn off an extra 300 calories per day, 3 days per week. Keep these tips in mind when you’re making your own New Year’s resolutions. Solid resolutions together with your best intentions can help you make 2013 a great year for your health, weight and happiness! Sleever Challenge: Make Your New Year’s Resolutions! This is the part of the newsletter where we challenge VerticalSleeveTalk.com members to take a step forward by doing something new. The experience can help you grow and gain confidence when you do something you hadn’t even thought about before, or you find out that you can do something you hadn’t even realized that you could do. This month, we’re sticking to the theme of New Year’s resolutions. The challenge for this newsletter is to make one or more resolutions based on the advice in this newsletter. We challenge you to make your resolutions specific, doable and controllable – and we’re eager to see what you decide to do in 2013! Tell us about your resolutions in the Sleever Challenge Forum. We’d love to hear about why you chose those resolutions and how you think you’ll do on them. When you post, you get to help other members who may need ideas for their own resolutions. Of course, if you ever miss a challenge, you can always go back to the archived Newsletter Forum to check out the old ones. It’s never too late to try – or retry! – a Newsletter Challenge! Casting Call: Looking for VerticalSleeveTalk.com Members to be in a Book! Are you eager to have your gastric bypass story published in a book? This is your chance! Our first book was focused on the lap-band, and it is called “The Big Book on the Lap Band: Everything You Need to Know to Lose Weight and Live Well with the Adjustable Gastric Band.” It was inspired by our sister site, LapBandTalk.com, and we’re so pleased with its success that we’re going to add a vertical sleeve book to the series! If you want to have your story published or you have advice, tricks or recipes to share, let us know! All you have to do is contact Alex Brecher (username Alex Brecher) via VerticalSleeveTalk.com’s private messaging system. We’d love to hear from you no matter where you are in your sleeve journey, even if you’re just thinking about the surgery. Thanks! That’s it for this month’s newsletter. We invite you to head on over to the forums and get a head start on a healthy 2013. Again, Happy New Year to you and your loved ones! May 2013 be the best year so far. 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}

I only weigh myself every 3 weeks. Then when I have those stalls I don't know about it. My clothes continue to get bigger, even though I shrank some in hot Water. I hold so much emotion on what the scale says, I can be in a bad mood outwardly for hours, inwardly for 2ish days. I yell, how can I be eating like a bird and not dropping pounds? I did kick up my exercise after 1 month, I decided the weight loss was not as dramatic as I wanted. Now I wald 3 miles every day, plus use a pedometer, that really helps, have been going to water aerobics FAITHFULLY, 2 days a week, and a week ago I started using the bowflex. I hear PROTIEN helps burn off pounds cause it takes our body more energy to digest, drink the 64 oz of water most days if you can. I have experienced that phenoman where a person kicks up their calories for 2 days and then reduce to what we should be doing on WLS. For me I would have to be careful what foods I used to increase calories. I do believe some foods intentionally have stuff in them that make anyone crave more, and then there is me who starts to think about potatoe chips as I type this & all of a sudden feel hungry when I' m not really. Imagine a sick puppy like me weighing in with advice!!!

Are you joining a gym? Many gyms will give you a few free personal training sessions, they can help you to set up a exercise program thats right for you. As far as weight limitation I don't know, but you can def. hurt yourself if you do not know what you are doing.

The hair loss is simply due to the rapid weight loss. No matter what method you use to lose weight, some people will also lose hair. That's just the price we pay. HOWEVER, from personal experience, I know that the hair will grow back after your weight stabilizes, that is, unless the hair loss is genetic in nature. Nothing is proven to improve your odds but you should always keep up on your Protein, Multivitamins, and Biotin (get the cheap capsules at Walmart and sprinkle in your shakes). God Bless and Keep up the Good Work.

Hello! I am about 3 months post surgery...and losing the weight really well! BUT! I noticed today that my hair seems to be falling out faster than normal. Like, ALOT is coming out. Not in chunks or anything...but just a lot. Is it from lack of nutrition or what is it? I dont wanna bald at 20 years old! Josh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Band Date: July 9th, 2008 Surgeon: Dr. Jeff Baker Insurance: Medica Heaviest Weight: 314.5 Current Weight: 235 lbs. Goal Weight: 185 lbs. Freedom is only a word until it is upheld by the roots of its meaning….. CONGRATS TO ALL THE JULY BANDSTERS!

Congratulations on your paperwork being submitted. It really is an achievement in this process. The next goal is getting that yes and you are close to getting it. I understand why you can’t wait. I love my sleeve. Surgery went well for me as did folllowing the post-surgery diet. My surgery was 12/28/17 so I’m about 3 1/2 months post-surgery. The weight loss has been slow and steady for me. Yay! What a great day for you - soak it in. 💐

Lyrics by LittleBill, with apologies to Burl Ives. Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas, And skip drinking egg nog Cause if you do, I'm sure that you, Will have your weight loss bog. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, Eat your Protein dontcha know? If you eat carbs, and things with lard, You're waistline's bound to grow! Ho, ho, the mistletoe, at least that stuff's fat free! You can indulge in it, without a calorie! So have a Holly Jolly Christmas, And behave yourself this year. Stay on your course, it could be worse, But better things are near!

I was wondering if anybody has used www.wlsfa.org to help pay for your weight loss surgery or and plastic surgery? If you have a patient who needs financial help or are a patient looking for financial help to get weight loss surgery or reconstructive plastic surgery you might be eligible to apply for a grant from the Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America. This is a little bit of a description of www.wlsfa.org: If you have been medically approved for weight loss surgery or reconstructive plastic surgery after weight loss surgery and have been denied surgery for financial reasons you might be eligible to apply for a grant from the Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America. I was wondering if anybody had applied for a grant for weight loss surgery or reconstructive plastic surgery? I wanted to know if these people really do help financially! I am asking because I will need help paying for my reconstructive plastic surgery. Vanessa

These first few weeks are really a rollercoaster but I'm sure 6 months from now this will be a blip. The weight will come off! After all of the preparation and excitment for surgery it is hard not to see progress right away but it is coming. The weight will come off!

The weight will come off. Everyone is different, that being said the fact that you'll eat less will eventually cause you to lose weight.

Hate to say it but stay off the scale. Some people can handle the ups and downs without it impacting their mood but it doesn't sound like that's you. If you follow instructions the weight will come off but be patient. I am a year and four months out and moments like these are a distant memory!

You're being vague when describing your food choices, but the mere mention of oyster crackers jumped out like a sore thumb. Many of us who are/were obese remain in perpetual fat-storage mode when we don't curtail our carb intake. For some, carbs stimulate a continual stream of insulin production, thereby preventing stored body fat from being burned. The end result is you don't lose weight. Here's another way of approaching the topic...carbs are the easiest, preferred fuel/energy source for your body. Therefore, why would your body expend precious effort metabolizing your stored body fat when it is getting all the energy it needs from any carbs you may be feeding it? My advice is to curtail your carb intake ASAP. Even a few oyster crackers need to go. Good luck to you.

Anna, As soon as you can start doing some weights for your legs, do so. I started on the exercise bike for my legs and today I got complimented on the muscles in my legs. I'm deliberately working to strengthen my thigh muscles now and the work is paying off. The bike made a huge difference in those leg muscles for me, though. I've had a dislocated knee 3 times, so I'm pretty careful about what I do as far as leg exercises.

Hey guys...im abigail i will be getting sleeved at nyu langone medical center by Dr.Ren Feilding. Im nervous but more exciting than anything. I have been big all my life n im ready to make a change because my weight has held me back for most of it.... so let me tell u a little about me im 18 like i said 250lbs and 5'0 tall... im kind of scared about to weight loss process years ago my mom had the.gastric bypass and had so much excess skin that after she had to lift her boobs and get a tummy tuck her legs,back and arms need doing to but there isnt enough funds. But im saying all of of this to say what was your experience with skin was your journey hard?? Im looking forward to hearing from u sleevers!!

i have a weight watchers scale from Costco. Works perfect ~$20. Its glass and stainless steel.... very pretty!

I'm also a slow loser but the main thing that keeps me from grazing is getting in my protein and literally after that my cravings or need to eat constantly is gone. Also making sure you are getting in your fluids will help. I love water but after surgery I'm finding myself having to mix it with something because it helps my body digest it quicker and I can drink faster. I mix my water with g2 gatorade. I also exercise and this takes away my appetite. My advice is make sure you're getting 60+ grams of protein, drinking lots of fluids, and exercise. When I do those 3 things I tend to feel better. Once I started getting in my protein I stopped stalling. I may be losing slowly but week to week I'm losing. I weigh every single day because it keeps me accountable. I use a iphone app called "target weight" and I'm able to see my weight loss in a graph form, it's also good to see a trend.

I say all of this with understanding and support so…. 1) Stay off the scale…. 2) According to my doc (and yes, they are ALL different)…the first 6 weeks post surgery is for healing and getting your new eating mechanics down…they are NOT concerned about any weight loss….so any loss is a bonus. 3) You had surgery 5 days ago….come now…if I may ask…how long did it take for you to get to the weight that made you choose WLS….it is NOT going to come off 5 days after surgery. 4) This is not a magic wand…it is a tool and it will take you time to find the perfect spot for optimal weight loss for you….. 5) Everyone IS different….you could be retaining Fluid from surgery…give yourself and your body time to heal….its not even one week yet! 6) I agree with @@dawalsh your body has had a big shock with just the surgery alone…then it had the pre-op and now you are giving it very little calories/nutrition. Your body may be holding on to everything you put in your system because it does not know exactly what is going on yet. 7) If you are concerned check in with your doctor or nutritionist…they are the ones to help most right now! Of course we are here to help….but please cut yourself some slack!!!!!

Hey, all I can say is congratulations on your 70lb loss... that is amazing in 6 months ... good for you... stay positive and decide if you WANT to lose anymore, or whether you are contended where you are... I agree with Maddie... you ain't gained and this is excellent!! Good luck and let us know how you are... =]

I was able to do that but now I need to change my weight. that field is not available for editing.

I use MyFitnessPal to log food, make sure I'm getting my protein; weight; and exercise.

Hi mikee, I read your profile, you and I are very close in age and height. Im almost 56 and im 5' 3, and 160 lbs. As I calmly explained to my lap band surgeon 2 weeks ago during a 6 mo checkup," I think im done losing weight as ive been at this weight for a year now. I would love to get to 140 lbs, but im 55, had a child and at the end of menopause, so im not expecting to have my teenage body back, because things have changed !" He calmly looked at me and said " You can do this if you really want to, just cut back a few more calories and exersize a bit more! " I love him to death, but seriously ? Did you not hear my reasons ? Anyhooooooo.......... I think you have to listen to your Dr, but just as important, listen to YOUR body ! You' ll know when your weight is "right"!

as long as you're following the plan, I wouldn't worry about it. There could be a number of factors affecting your weight loss (hormones? Constipation? Water retention?). The goal of this pre-op diet is to shrink your liver, so you're good..

Ok..I may have found something that will reignite my passion for the sleeve and working it to the fullest. Last night I was watching "My 600 lbs Life". In the first episode the lady was over 600 lbs and she wanted to lose weight more than anything. It was hard, but she did it. She had the sleeve and, after a year, weighed 248lbs!! It was amazing because she kept fighting. It wasn't easy for her, but it was possible. Then the second episode I watched made me MAD as h-e-double hockey sticks! I couldn't believe I felt so strongly, but I did. A Maryland woman who was in her 40s, married, and mother of a young son weighed 530lbs when the show began. She was bed ridden and her husband could not work, so they had to live off her disability benefits. ( I am sorry but that sort of bothers me too..but that is another topic entirely.) Anyway they begged and borrowed from family and friends and got money to travel to Texas for her to get WLS. First they admitted her for a month to do a medically supervised diet to ensure she could lose weight. She did. After a month she was down 40 lbs and was ready to have the surgery. ( sleeve) After surgery she did NOTHING!! She refused to even try to get up and walk. She complained non stop yet did nothing to help herself. She had her husband sneak things into her at the hospital. ( he was slightly overweight and a total enabler) They kept her in patient for 4 months because of her non compliance and during that time she lost NOTHING!!! They finally released her because she wasn't progressing there, and she went home. ( to an apartment they had rented in TX) Over the next three months she failed to go to any post op appointments. You watched as she started eating and eating, everything we are NOT supposed to eat! She claimed she was never told about any special diet or anything before surgery. So the doctor sent over a nutritionist. But the lady refused to cooperate with her. They sent a therapist to try to get her up and moving for exercise, but she refused to do it and made excuse after excuse. The surgeon finally had her readmitted to check her out and she had GAINED 5 lbs! Anyway, she continued to refuse to do anything to help herself. They followed her for a year and she lived in complete denial the entire time. Ate with abandon, anything and everything. She even tried to say they must have misweighed her initially because she KNEW she had lost weight, the scales were wrong. It was sad and pitiful and made me MAD!!! She was given such a powerful tool and she wasted it. She is the embodiment of the stereotype people think of who are negative for WLS. I would hope it would serve to show you HAVE to work on weight loss after surgery too, it isn't a quick fix. But I thought it would just make people feel the opposite, she was fat and lazy and made excuses. I think it made me realize I want to fight harder and not be like that. I don't want to fail and then lie and make up ridiculous reasons as to why I failed. I want to succeed. I want to be the example of a WLS victor. To tell everyone it IS still hard work that gets you there, that the sleeve is just a tool in the fight. IDK...it just seemed to put a little fire back into me.

Lots of people (most people?) don't lose once they go back on solid food, until they get their first fill. I was banded 10/10 and lost 15 pounds over the next three weeks, then went on solids and didn't lose anything more until my first fill November 29. I've lost 7 pounds since then, in less than 2 weeks. Even when I am losing weight, I don't do it steadily. I stay at a weight for a week, then drop 5 pounds overnight. Don't get discouraged; just stay on track and it will come off.