Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum (VSG)

happyteacher’s Posts

happyteacher
on 8/2/12 7:12 am

Topic: RE: Lightheadness upon rising, equals low blood pressure

Dang, my blood pressure is a whoooolle lot lower than what is posted here. Maybe time to talk to the docs...

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

1Mo: -21 2Mo: -16 3Mo: -12 4MO - 13 5MO: -11 6MO: -10 7MO: -10.3 8MO: -6 Goal in 8 months 4 days!! 6' 2'' EWL 103% Starting size 28 or 4x (tight) now size 12 or large, shoe size 12 w to 10.5 150+ pounds lost

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happyteacher
on 8/2/12 4:43 am

Topic: RE: Walden Farm Products- no calorie dressings, sauces, dips...

The ranch and bacon ranch dressing did not have very good reviews. Reviews were much better for the chocolate peanut butter than the regular flavor too. Some were saying with the regular that if a smidge of splenda was added it was ok, others said they put a smidge of pb2 in it. One poster said she froze the peanut butter drizzled with the chocolate to make reese's cups for no cals. I am thinking I am buying it just to try that :)

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/2/12 12:19 am

Topic: RE: Walden Farm Products- no calorie dressings, sauces, dips...

I have not tried the bbq, but the reviews posted on the site are very positive. I will have to look for them in Walmart- thanks for the tip!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/2/12 12:18 am

Topic: RE: 1 Year surgiversary ... not as happy as I should be..

But you did lose 93 pounds!! That is a wonderful thing!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 11:02 pm

Topic: RE: Walden Farm Products- no calorie dressings, sauces, dips...

I have no clue how they do it, but I have now tried a few of the products and they are all decent so far. No joke, dressings and such have 0 cals and 0 carbs. I just checked the Netrition site to see if they offer it, and they have much better selection than what I can find locally and good prices. They do a flat rate ship of $4.95. I already buy Torani syrups, kays natural protein products, protein snacks, etc. there. Here is a link showing the products and prices. If you click on the blue titles it will describe the product.

http://www6.netrition.com/cgi/prices.cgi?manu_id=394

Totally worth checking out!!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 10:55 pm, edited 8/1/12 10:55 pm

Topic: RE: OMG awesome hungry girl alfredo recipe- vsg friendly!

Walden Farms has several varieties of the no calorie dressing. Thus far the three that we have tried have been all decent and we can easily substitute them for the bad stuff. I am not a huge dressing person anyway, but it is saving a crap load of calories for my husband. If you go to the Walden Farms website you can type in your zip code and see if you can find it locally. I doubt I will buy any other brand from this point forward, except maybe the marzetti lower cal coleslaw dressing.

*wow, you are reeaaallly close to goal- congrats!!!!!!!!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 10:42 pm

Topic: RE: Hit my Century mark . . . in 7 months and they consider me a lightweight

Wow, wow, and wow! Congrats!!!!!!!!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 10:40 pm

Topic: RE: Newbie question on lightheadedness post op

600-800 was very satisfying and did not leave me feeling like I was wanting more in the beginning. I struggled with low blood sugar during the first two months because I was trying to keep the carbs down. Once I came to my senses I adhered to the (general) rule of 15 grams of carbs at snack or less and 30 g at a meal or less. I also need to eat right before I go to bed, or I will be low in the morning. I also noticed early on that I would be light headed from lack of fluids/low blood pressure. I need to drink far more than the 64 ounces to avoid this even now. Fortunately, my sleeve is awesome and I had no problems getting fluids in from the onset.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 10:33 pm

Topic: RE: Any post-op'ers willing to talk about skin?

I am 43, lost a little over 120 pounds, and have about 10 more to get to my goal bmi. Skin issues were not an issue for the first 70 or so pounds lost at all for me, other than developing a bit of a turkey neck. Something about going from 70-100 changed everything, and I completly deflated. I have the stereotypical abdomen of a person who has lost a massive amoung of weight, particularly from the belly button to the bottom of the panis (spelling??). My inner thighs also have noticeable droop, but bermuda shorts covers everything easily. I have been terribly fortunate with the arms- no bat wings to speak of. I never carried a lot of weight in the arms though, as I was always a belly girl. My neck just plain bothers me because I really can't cover that up easily, and that will be the first to get plastics. I am hoping to do plastics including a body lift and face lift and whatever it takes to deal with the neck thing. Thing is, I am totally broke so no idea when that will happen. Happily, I look good in clothes overall, so the skin issues from the shoulders down do not bother me too much, and the husband has no issues either- he is just relieved i am so much healthier!

Now he lost 90 pounds too. He only has loose skin in the butt, sides of the belly, and some in the neck area. His neck area does not have a turkey neck thing going on, I can just tell the difference. People who didn't know him would not notice it. He is my age.

We are both careful to get the water in and I am super careful with nutrition. I do not do the 800 calories or less thing, so my overall nutrition is rock solid. I range 1000-1200.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 11:34 am

Topic: RE: NOT Pasta Salad Recipe

Destringing celery... I am so not a cook. I never did that before!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 11:29 am

Topic: RE: OMG awesome hungry girl alfredo recipe- vsg friendly!

The hubby and I were going to do that, but when you use light sourcream it was barely any calories. We decided to just go with that, but next batch I will do one with the fage. Not a huge difference in the nutrition, but hey every little bit counts :)

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 11:18 am

Topic: RE: What do you do for exercise?

6 days a week, minimum 30 minutes a day. Typically I either do an hour on the elliptical or a 4-5 mile walk. I need to add in weight litting. I occasionally do 10 minutes of upper body, but really need to be doing that at least 3 times a week.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 8/1/12 9:48 am

Topic: RE: How Often Do You Eat?

I usually eat 6 times a day. 3 meals at 200-300 and 3 snacks at about a 100. There is some give and take there... if a meal is low then usually a snack is high. I try to feed the metabolism without over doing it. Snack carbs under 15, meal carbs under 30 and this avoids the wicked insulin/craving cycle.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 9:40 am

Topic: RE: OMG awesome hungry girl alfredo recipe- vsg friendly!

Glad you posted that... we were going to make that on Friday. I was wondering about the soup thing, as I am not a big tomato soup fan. I think I will go with marinara. Thanks! Oh, the name of the dish is called "slaw and order" and you can google the recipe too.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 8:04 am

Topic: RE: OMG awesome hungry girl alfredo recipe- vsg friendly!

This is from the HG website and no way could you eat all this:

Fettuccine Hungry Girlfredo
PER SERVING (entire recipe): 99 calories, 4g fat, 376mg sodium, 9.5g carbs, 4g fiber, 1g sugars, 5.5g protein -- PointsPlus™ value 2*
Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 5 minutes

Ingredients: 1 package House Foods Tofu Shirataki Fettuccine Shaped Noodle Substitute 1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss cheese 2 tsp. reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping 1 tsp. fat-free sour cream Optional: salt and black pepper
Directions: Use a strainer to rinse and drain shirataki noodles well. Pat dry. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave for 1 minute. Dry as thoroughly as possible, using paper towels. Cut noodles up a bit, using kitchen shears or a knife. Add cheese wedge, grated topping, and sour cream, breaking the cheese wedge into pieces as you add it. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir well and, if you like, season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy! MAKES 1 SERVING HG Alternative! This recipe could also be prepared in a skillet on the stove, over medium-high heat, until hot and well mixed.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 7:58 am

Topic: RE: OMG awesome hungry girl alfredo recipe- vsg friendly!

Today I watched an episode of Hungry Girl (food network) for the first time. She had a VERY low cal version of alfredo on there- 100 calories for a serving, and it is a normal size serving so too much for me. Anyway, not only that but you can have it done in under 15 minutes. I made two versions tonight, 1 with tofu shirataki noodles (find in the tofu section at the grocery store) and 1 with regular whole wheat penne. The "sauce" worked awesome on both. The tofu version only added calories and just a gram or so of carb. The other version noodle was 200 cals and loaded with carb.

Tofu noodle- empty the bag in a colinder and rinse very, very well. Pat very dry with paper towel. Microwave for 1 minute. Pat dry again... get them as dry as you can. Add sauce ingredients and stir. The heat from the noodles should break down the cheese enough to spread around.

"sauce": 1 wedge laughing cow (I used garlic, hungry girl uses swiss), 1 tsp light sour cream, 2 tsp reduced fat parmesean. I creamed this together in a bowl using a spoon. Then dumped it on the hot noodles and tossed.

We had left over grilled chicken so i chunked that up and added it in- goodness, it was an honest to goodness pasta meal without any guilt at all. I only ate the tofu version, but my kids adored the regular noodle. My youngest loved the tofu version too.

Another great product that we used for the first time- Waldon Farms No calorie blue cheese dressing. Yep, no cals. It was a very acceptable substitute too- even my picky husband liked it! Our salad had hardboiled egg and bacon in it on a bed of lettuce. Yum!

I have been craving a comfort food style dinner and this totaly fit the bill without killing the cals and carbs!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 6:37 am

Topic: RE: Exersise

Ahhhh.... I was in the exact same spot as you prior to surgery. Here is what i did preop:

Started walking 20 minutes a day a few times a week, and gradually increased. I started about 2 months before surgery and just prior to surgery I remember telling my NUT that I was exercising about 1.5-2 hours a week. And let me tell you I was feeling proud of that- in one week I was doing more than I did the entire year before.

Post op: I played around with combinations and about the 6 week mark or so finally came across a goal that did wonders for me. I finally realized that the hard part was always getting started. Once I started, I always found I would exercise longer than my minimum goal. So here is my golden rule... drum roll please, as it was truly that good for me:

Exercise 6 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each session.

This way there was no excuse to not exercise- even with my horrible work schedule I could always do 30 minutes. I rapidly improved to 1- 1.5 hours a day. A normal day for me now is either elliptical for about an hour or a 4-5 mile walk.

Don't get too caught up on what exercise to do. Just move your mass!!! Try to go with something you enjoy, as you will be more likely to do it. Log your exercise daily... I use myfitnesspal.com for both food and exercise. You will love seeig the calories rack up, especially compared to the low amount of cals we eat.

A few days after surgery I started walking with the husband. At first maybe 10-20 minutes. As I recovered I got it up to 30 minutes fairly quickly.

I am idateacher2 on mfp. You can friend me and view my diary to see what I was doing for exercise. Just know that I just had some surgery a few days ago to remove some cancer, so no exercise for 2 weeks- totally not normal for me now.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 6:25 am

Topic: RE: Exercise Suggestions?

A friend here on Oh has rhumatoid arthritis. Our hospital support group suggested to her a class offered at the hosptial gym that was done in the water and geared toward arthritis patients. I believe it went really well for her.

I use the elliptical a lot. I have a weird allergy to vibration so any type of impact requires me to take antihistimines. Even drugged, higher impact causes problems. On the elliptical is is super duper easy on the joints. I blew a knee out a few years back skiing, and it doesn't bother the knee at all. it also burns a boatload of calories too!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 6:21 am

Topic: RE: SLeeve Size

Mamia-

Are you taking a ppi like prilosec or something similar? Acid absoutely can mimic hunger. Just in the last few weeks my hunger got out of control so i tried the ppi suggestion. Hunger reduced dramatically. I had no reflux or heartburn issues so I did not think for a long tme that acid was an issue for me.

Yes, you can ask your surgeon. They have to write it down in their super secret doctor notes. :)

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 8/1/12 12:31 am

Topic: RE: HELP What Can I Do -- Who Can I Turn To????

What a difficult situation, my heart goes out to you. I think that if something like that happens again simply name the emotion that he invoked. Do this in a non-confrontational manner... something like "your comment is hurtful towards me... I am not looking for rewards, but neither am I looking for you to make this more difficult than what it already is." Don't make the mistake of rewarding his crappy behavior- he must be getting something out of it if he is doing it and it is a persistent pattern for him. Try to identify what he gets out of it and take that away.

Maybe with your morning coffee go over a mental list of 10 positive things about yourself. I think taking the time to acknowledge the small details in ones life is a powerful thing. Be kind to yourself!

I am idateacher2 at mfp if you would like to friend up.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 7/31/12 12:50 pm

Topic: RE: Clothes!!!!

I used goal clothes- it helped in many different ways...

The first time I picked up a size 20 tall. I started at a size 28 so this was a huge drop and I thought for sure it would take months and months to get there. About once a week or so I would try them on. It was shocking how quickly I got into them, and if I did not have them there I would have never realized. They don't carry talls in the store so it is not like I can just go try stuff on and play at the mall.

After that, I would pick up one pair of the next size down. Again, I would try them on once a week so I would know when I was ready to order more. It seems weird, but it is a common problem for us to buy clothes that are too big- it just doesn't seem possible the smaller stuff will fit.

So yea, get 1 pair and try them on every so often!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 7/31/12 12:39 pm

Topic: RE: SLeeve Size

Many have a 32 and do well. I have one up in the 40s and do well too. The question you should really be asking is how does your surgeon do with the size sleeve used? What is the safety record, the stats of weight loss for his patients? I can out eat my smaller sleeved counterparts for sure, but not at absurd levels. But, I also have no side effects- no foamies, no vomiting, no reflux, etc. I also now eat a normal amount for a person with a small appetite- makes eating with friends or coworkers easier. I am not far enough along to comment on the regain issue. For sure though, you can eat around any sized sleeve. In the end it comes down to making the right food choices- just know that having the sleeve makes it a whole lot easier to make the right choices.

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 7/31/12 8:56 am

Topic: RE: Success is more than just the number on the scale

Awesome post

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

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happyteacher
on 7/31/12 8:53 am

Topic: RE: My first post....25 days till surgery!

You are really off to a terrific start! Welcome aboard!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

happyteacher
on 7/31/12 8:51 am

Topic: RE: Cannot stop crying!

So glad your post ended with a happy cry fit... had me worried at first!

Surgeon: Chengelis Surgery on 12/19/2011 A little less carb eating compared to my weight loss phase loose sleever here!

Join the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker group for recipes and tips! Click here to join!

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