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Definitely a no no. The pre diet is to shrink your liver before the op and alcohol will have the opposite affect. It could even prevent you having the op. Might have to wait a couple of months p.

I find it hard to believe, but I DO KNOW you can drink your calories via alcohol, cokes, milkshakes.....I guess if someone came out of surgery and did every possible thing WRONG....it's possible. Anyone that stupid is destined to fail. 50 lbs in six months is good. I lost 23 prior to surgery and another 55 in six month. I continued to lose, ending up at one time, 18 lbs below my doctor's goal weight. This is a GREAT "tool" - forced portion control. The perfect solution!!

Beautiful post. You're right - a food addiction is tough- you can't quit "cold turkey" because you need food to live - you don't need alcohol or drugs or other things people get addicted to in order to live. You can't just remove the temptation, you have to beat it. Congrats to everyone that continues the battle against food addiction and wakes up the next day to fight it again!

Had my psych eval yesterday. I feel like I might of said to much about my personal history.. just family issues. I have no prior drug or alcohol issues. Do u think it could cause a delay at all. I already have been in therapy for a while now. When I asked the psychiatrist what he thinks after all was said and done. He said I did fine and I should be all set and he was gonna have to go over everything and if he had questions he would call. Was just wondering if anyone felt this way and what happened. Thanks!

Hi! We share the same band-date. Change is hard sometimes, especially when it comes to something this big. I have been on the other (thinner) side and you are going to be SO happy. Not only are you going to look great but more importantly you will FEEL GREAT!!. I have hid behind my weight because I fear the unknown. I can tell you it will be a rebirth of sorts. Surround yourself with only positive things and people. You deserve this and all the good that follows. It may be like some who, when they give up a bad habit, find they have to move on to healthier relationships as well. A recovering alcoholic shouldn't hang around "friends" who hang out in bars. Whoever doesn't support you doesn't understand. Aside from your family being scared for you, embrace everyone who supports you. And give it time. This is a mental thing as much, if not more so, than a physical thing. Keep us posted!!

I personally feel being overweight and eating to excess is harder than kicking drugs because you need food. You have to eat to survive. Drugs and alcohol you dont. But overweight people are always the easiest targets to attack because you cant hide weight. You can hide drinking, smoking and drugs while walking down the street, but being fat youre screwed. Sent from my SM-G930P using the BariatricPal App

VerticalSleeveTalk Newsletter Hey, Sleevers!Thanksgiving is behind us and the holiday season is officially underway! Filled with holiday shopping, festivities at work and spending time with friends and family, this time of year is can be the most rewarding. It can be hectic, too, so paying extra attention to your diet and health is even more important than usual. Use this newsletter as a reminder and some motivation to be extra cautious with your choices so that you can keep seeing the results you want from your weight loss journey. Here’s what’s coming up in this newsletter. Member Spotlight: Meet Ms skinniness! Tips for the Season: Thriving at Holiday Parties! Member Challenge: Activate Your Party Action Plan! A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends We know the hustle and bustle of this season make your life busy, but we hope you spend part of your holiday season with us at Alex Brecher Founder VerticalSleeveTalk.com Member Spotlight: Meet Ms skinniness! This month, we’re delighted to feature Ms skinniness in our member spotlight! She decided to get the gastric sleeve after developing diabetes and hitting a high weight of 223 pounds at a high of 5’6.” Her surgery was in October of 2011, and she’s only 4 pounds away from her goal weight of 140! The journey’s been worthwhile for Ms skinniness! Her blood sugar is within normal levels each day, and she’s able to keep her hunger in check. She has tons more energy and is a lot happier now! Ms skinniness loves being able to fit into smaller clothes. She went from a size 1x to a size 8 – and was even forced to return some size 8 Gloria Vanderbilt jeans that were too big! Getting enough Water in each day is still a challenge to Ms skinniness. She’s also working hard on avoiding mindless eating and only eating when she’s hungry. She reminds us that food is an addiction that can take a lot of effort to overcome. Ms skinniness uses VerticalSleeveTalk.com for support and information, and she loves the positive people on the board. She suggests following your surgeon’s instructions, gathering information from VST members and also doing your own research on everything so you can be confident that you are making the right decisions for yourself. An example of something she learned from VerticalSleeveTalk.com is to use a PPI to reduce stomach acid and make her less hungry. Ms skinniness also uses VerticalSleeveTalk.com as a reminder not to slip into bad habits again. With her weight loss and satisfaction, her advice seems to be working for her! Thanks, Ms skinniness, for being in the member spotlight! Congratulations on your success! Please post in the Protein snack or two for yourself and eat it when it’s time for your regular meal or snack. You can also take a healthy dish for the host to serve at the party. Sip water. Carrying a glass of water around gives you something to do without adding any calories to your day. Another benefit of drinking water is that you know you shouldn’t eat solid foods when you’re drinking fluids. Avoid alcohol. Alcohol is a source of calories that you just don’t need. Worse yet is that it lowers your inhibition. That means that you’re less likely to resist unhealthy holiday foods. Member Challenge: Activate Your Holiday Action Plan! This newsletter’s challenge is related to our advice on holiday parties. The challenge is to choose a specific strategy designed to get you through the holidays without interfering with your weight loss goals. You can take one of the suggestions listed above, or choose your own. Some other ideas are to keep healthy Snacks at work so you’re not tempted by unhealthy snacks and to record each treat that you eat in your food record instead of pretending that it doesn’t count. Tell us in the Member Challenge Forum how you complete the challenge! Was it easy or difficult? What tips do you have for other VerticalSleeveTalk.com members? We also want to know anytime you go back and complete an old Newsletter Challenge, which you can find in the archived Newsletter Forum. It’s never too late to try a Newsletter Challenge! A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends As we close out 2012, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank each member. We truly appreciate your support. We value each member, whether you post many times a day and use all of VerticalSleeveTalk.com’s many features, or whether you log in infrequently to read just a few posts. You, the members, are essential to VerticalSleeveTalk.com’s success, so a heartfelt thank-you to each of you! 2012 has seen rapid increases in the number of members, the beginning of regular newsletters and the launch of mobile apps to access all of the forum’s features. Big plans are in the works for the coming year, and it promises to be an exciting ride. We’re glad to have you on board! Of course, we’re always open to member suggestions, so please feel free to contact any board administrator. That’s it for this month’s newsletter. We hope it was inspirational and helpful. Have a safe and peaceful holiday season, and take care of yourself and each other, 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}

Hi QueenMichelle, The general thinking about alcohol post-banding is that there's no MAJOR reason to avoid it, but as Gunn said it's just empty calories. I've also heard people say that they can eat a lot more after a drink or two, and besides all the extra calories it's also a path to pouch damage or band irritation/slippage. For my money, not drinking just avoids a host of potential problems.

I say no time like the present to start adjusting your mindset for social situations...choose something else to drink that is non-caloric...will prove to yourself that you can do it, and post-op you will have to get comfortable with how you navigate both eating and drinking in social situations...if it is helpful, imagine yourself pregnant...you wouldn't feel "pressured" to drink alcohol with everyone else because you would know that isn't a healthy choice...or if you were on medication that couldn't beiges with alcohol...you wouldn't take a drink then, right?

I have heard many similar stories, but the hair loss was due to people taking powerful drugs affecting their new hair. You need to take a vitamin complex to strengthen your hair. I also recommend using olaplex 0 and 3 as these shampoos work well and have been proven to work many times. In addition, you need to start eating right and get rid of bad habits, such as smoking and alcohol. By doing all this, you will definitely be able to stop hair loss.

so i have read posts about when it is ok to drink alcohol post surgery but when do you need to stop pre surgery? with the holidays coming up and parties to go to, i don't want to mess anything up before surgery.

So I'm guilty of being worried if I can drink again after this surgery. I'm pretty much a social drinker but I am super social. I pretty much go out drinking with my friends every weekend being that I'm in my college/party part of life. I hate beer and I don't really like fruity cocktails I'm more of a straight liquor drinker like ciroc, grey goose, absolute, etc. And while on my pre surgery diet I would even chase with crystal light. I'm hoping I can continue drinking what I drink after, just much less lol. If you have any experience let me know!!!

Yeah alcohol lol...

Hi everyone I'm Lala, this is my first post. I'm hoping to get some support from people who have already had the gastric sleeve. I'm really scared about having this surgery done. At first I was excited I was pumped and ready to go but know that my surgery is less then a month a way i'm terrified ( April 2, 2014 to be exact ) I'm worried that I wont be able to stop eating starch ( Pasta bread things like that ) those are the foods that I love. I'm also afraid that my alcohol intake is not healthy ( as of recently I have quit drinking, but its difficult ) I don't know if I should push my surgery date back or what? I will not cancel it because I have givin them 8,000 ( im a self pay) and they aint keeping my money but I could reschedule it nfor a later date ( like 5 years later lol ) I'm open to any advice that anyone has for me. Thanks Lala

Uh huh but if your pre op that may not be it it may be the protein powder or the sugar free mix I have major issues with a lot of sugar free stuff sugar alcohols don't like me and let me know in no uncertain terms I have learned to listen... The hard way I'll leave at that...

WOW! They asked about sexual abuse and alcoholism for yours? Mine was much more laid back. None of those questions were asked.

Yess. So after all this preparation I have been scheduled for June 14th❤️. I am so excited. New chapter coming soon. I'm relieved I only have a 1 day clear liquid prep day. Do you think I can tolerate alcohol by the 4th of July? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Instagram: @bsweetness snapchat: @b-sweetness

As for the alcohol, it's important to cut it out as much as possible because the surgeon wants/needs you to shrink your liver. Not drinking will help you towards that goal. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using the BariatricPal App

Thanks for the replies! I know you are both right about making sure I get my Protein in and just cutting sweets and white flour out completely and limiting other starches. It is so weird to me that it is relatively easy to not eat those things if I just stay completely away from them, but if I have one single bite I end up on a binge. I was using a food tracker before, so I started that up again today. I don't know why it didn't occur to me before to log my Water intake in the food tracker, but I'm doing that too, starting today. The other tough thing for me to cut out is alcohol. I know that it is considered empty calories, but it seems silly to quit drinking now when I don't even have a surgery date yet. Did any one else here decide to wait until you actually have surgery to quit drinking? I mean, I guess I would actually quit a week before, when I'm on the liquid diet. Sent from my Nexus 5X using the BariatricPal App

From what I can gather they are looking for a few red flags. They want to know you have support, that alcohol addiction is not an issue, that financially you can afford Protein shakes and Vitamins. They want to ensure that is you have depression that you are stable and on meds that are working. They also want to ensure you are mentally ready for change. Sent from my SM-G900W8 using the BariatricPal App

Good Evening all, I was told on Wednesday evening i am to have my sleeve on the 3rd of January, this caught me completely cold as ive been waiting that long. I immediately started my pre op diet and in 4 days have lost 7 pounds which is crazy. Obviously we have Christmas coming up and well...my 30th birthday (new years eve). Now I get the deal with alcohol but how long before surgery should i stop ? For the record i haven't had a drop for 7 days now but i wouldn't mind a couple of drinks at Christmas and here or there, not so bothered about my birthday as i appreciate its very close to my op day....would this be an issue ? I wouldn't drink 8 days before surgery however i havent had direction on this, i see my nutritionist on Wednesday :/. In regards to my pre op diet, at the moment it consists of this daily : Breakfast : Meal Replacement shake, low carb, high Protein lunch : Same again however i may add half a chicken breast for bulk Dinner: Tonight i have chicken breast and stir fry, tiny tiny tiny bit of mint sauce Obvs i am having sugar free fluids (mainly Water but pepsi max every now and then) Does this seem ok ? For what its worth, im 6ft tall, male and im weighing in at 19st 10, i hope to be 19st flat for surgery. Not sure If this makes any difference, figured id put it. p.s on a last note, i was so against this surgery yesterday but i came on here and m view point has just dramatically changed, i am looking forward to living again, thank you.

When is it ok to have a drink? I'm 10 wks out. I know every dr has their own opinions . What do you think? How have you done, if you've had it?

Some will some won't it depends entirely on your insurance and surgeon. My surgeon is known for putting people "back on the bench" for 6 months if they gain or test positive for tobacco or alcohol day of surgery. They understand that we have a difficult time losing weight, they love to see te scale trending down no matter if it's .2lbs or 50lbs, or they at least want to see us maintaining (staying the same). They consider us not ready if we gain. That's my particular program though, all are different. I'm guessing if they say it, they mean it.

Its pretty structured - memory/iq(ish) test, vocab test and a true/false(ish) test. then a discussion about your support system and alcohol use. Not much to prepare for.