I'm not training for anything except life in general, but I continue to commute by bike every day.
~15 miles around trip (5 days a week).  Some days I get home and put in another few miles with the ol' lady.

It's not alot, but my rides to and from work include numerous hills and I pull them better every day. =)

and I stay sore.  Which bothers me a little... my quads are continually sore.  I usually give them at least 1 days rest.  I'd give them more... but I can't convince my boss to let me work from home :D

I know I'm ringing in late... but last June I quit with Chantix and had been a smoker of about 1-2 packs a day for 10 years or so.

I had no trouble with it or anything.
You really just need to make a decsion... what's more important.... taking the easy route and not stop smoking or grit your teeth some and work through it.

if it matters... after quitting smoking (my program made me quit 6 months before surgery.. i.e. I had to be totally smoke free for 6 months before they would operate), I realized how much money I was wasting.  1 Year later, I was able to purchase a house (something I previously thought was unattainable).

Good luck and let us know if we can help. 


Last thought...  18 months after entering my program, I've had surgery, down 100+ lbs, feel great, my live has improved about 400% since starting this journey.
So far, it's all been so worth the effort and stuff I had to push through.

ok bro.  Take a breath. You sound like the same "type" person as me.  I was in a very familiar sounding situation right before my surgery.  And here's how mine went: I never got a recliner or access to one, yet I got plenty of sleep. I let my bosses know and they were fine with it and had no problems.  ( I had no vacation time at that point in my job tenure - I had just started the job!....  but they were awesome about it) I went out and bought several different kinds of protein drinks and tried them.  Some were the **** others just tasted like **** and others just made me ****  LOL  Just make sure this is something YOU want to do and YOU are committed to.  Everything else will fall into place!

Anyone had trouble with the gall bladder after surgery? I'm having trouble with something.  It's not real bad yet or anything, thus I've not gone to the doctor about it.  But there is a pain just under my right rib cage.   Kind of below it I guess.  It the general vicinity that the gall bladder resides, hence my question. It's sort of a burn (and not all the time) that reminds me of a muscle burn.  If ya have input about a similar type event you've had, let me know. I will be scheduling a doctor's visit soon to medically diagnose and take care of the issue, but I'd like some information before hand also.

Gonna be honest Marc... I didn't read the other posts here, because I wanted to just tell you my thoughts on this.  First time I've posted in awhile.  Had some majorly kewl stuff happening and alot of just normal stuff...  I'm only 4 months out.... so here goes: What I "deal" with now: 1) Loose / extra skin - I got it.  Even now. I knew it was coming and it's not so bad.  But it's something to deal with.  Not very noticeable with normal clothing on, but it's a bothersome thing for me. 2) Clothing costs - I wish I had prepared a little more for the buying of new clothes.  I owe alot to Kohl's department store.  Their clearance racks / sales have been SO awesome for me.  Working in the professional enviornment that I do, I have to make sure that my clothing meets the requirements.  Has cost me a little... but then again... learn to shop for bargains.  (and don't try to guess how long you will be or won't be able to wear a certain size) 3) the FARTs - ok, this isn't so much as a "deal" with thing.. but it is for me.  I'm still having to learn how to take someone saying "holy hell man!" or one of the office ladies saying "You are looking SO handsome!"  Learning how to deal with compliments is something that's fun, but can also make you feel uncomfortable. 4) Learning Curve - I'm still trying to learn how to eat.  Like I read in a previous post today, I too have trouble "feeling full".  I'm eat by the clock or weight right now.  I found that I can eat an enormous amount of peel & eat shrimp (did a pouch test with this and ate damn near a pound), but only 4oz or so of chicken breast (baked).  I don't think I've eaten anything on the bad list, but I have overeaten and it's not pleasant.  (which is GOOD!), but I don't want to do it again. 5) Side pain - I'll write a post about this later, but I'm having a pain in my side, kind of under my rib cage.  My research tells me it's most likely my gall bladder, which is a common problem after RNY surgery.  I've not approached the doc with it yet, but that'll come very soon. 6) Thinking about food - I think more about food now than I did before.  This part scares the hell out of me.  I'm thinking about food now because I have to eat on a schedule (per my program) and of course eat the right stuff.  So I'm spending alot of time trying to make sure I've got something that I can eat (to prepared or already prepared).  I hate this part. 7) Hormones(?) - Something I've read about that I think effects me as part of this surgery.  I hope other read this post far enough to give some info here.  I found myself having a very short temper, being very emotional (on GOOD and bad things).  So I went looking to see what this was about.  It appears hormones are stored in fat.  Losing weight = burning fat = hormone output.  Hence, more testastrone in the system (especially early on) which leads to a bit more of a roller coaster of emotions at times, etc.  That's about it for me.  But let me tell you.  Even with "dealing with" those few items..  I can counter each one with about 5 per of PROs.  My only regret is that I waited as long as I did before moving forth with surgery.  A few points of change in the last year for me: - lost 90lbs - quit smoking - off ALL my medicines (diabetic, blood pressure, cholestrol) - bloodwork came back as a normal person - A1C level was 11.2 in Dec07, was 5.5 in May08 - able to purchase a new vehicle and house (mainly because of the money saved from lack of medicines, fast food, cigarettes, large food portions, etc

The program I am in does acknowledge that you can have a drink down the road.  But you need to be very careful because of how the body processes the alcohol.  I don't know which surgery you had, but with the RNY, we don't have the "stomach" we used to that would hold alcohol and let little bits in at a time.  With our pouch, it'll just zoom right into our intestines and be absorbed right away.  Now this may sound like a good thing, but in the big picture, it's very very dangerous because it can lead to alcohol poisoning. Another thing to watch out for is switching one bad habit for another (can't remember the fancy name of it).  Basically, people who were previously food addicts have a higher tendency to become addicted to something else... in this case, alcohol.  I've read about others (on this board recently actually) that have had similar problems.  Not preaching or anything.... I just feel every choice should be well informed. =)

Bro... see this only as another hurdle. It happens when it should and what the hey bro...  keep up the liver shrinking diet for the next two weeks too =) My doc had me on it for 3 weeks.  Hang in there man... two weeks is NUTTIN!

I was told to ask about B12 and Iron (by my insurance RN). The program folks advised that I didn't need to take them yet.  I think they're waiting for that first 3 month blood labs.

ok, so I just replied to a post below and am thinking more about my own personal journey. Here's the basic breakdown thus far: Highest: 319 Surgery: 290 Today: 256 *** Total Lost = 63 lbs *** My ponderments around all this are as such: 1) I've not had any problems eating anything, however, I am not one of those guys that has tried many things.  I keep my road narrow and to the doctor's orders.  No dumping, no restriction feeling (except maybe once... but not even sure about that).  I never feel full.  I do like the program folks say and eat for 20 minutes and then stop.  This being eating stuff only on "the list" which basically just changed to include a few fruit and veggies, but mainly chicken, fish, turkey (red meat just added also), cottage cheese, refried beans, lentils, etc.  The only swaying I've done on the diet is including some Tabasco (about 4 drops) on my eggs or whatever.  I've tried to get in alot of fish (or shrimp) to keep the nutrition level up.  But I've also been able to sit and eat about 8oz of boiled shrimp.  (in my 20 minutes and chewed at least 30-35 times per). 2) Speaking of Doctor's orders... one thing is lacking somewhat.  The exercise.  I'm 8 weeks out and do walk as much as I can find time to, however it's not very consistent, but falls well within the 30 mins a day, but way outside of the mileage and regimen I've heard talk of on here.  I try to get away from work long enough to walk one lap around the block (1/4 mile) at break, 4 laps at lunch and 1 lap at afternoon break.  What I can say is that I try to stay a lot more active than I was before (which might be leading to issue #4  below). 3) Depression..  I think these things are causing some depressing or something.  I just don't feel like myself (yah I know.. cause I'm not... I'm a much lighter me... some 20% or so of me is gone). 4) Energy.  WTF happened to my energy?!  It's gone.  I have none.. zero.. nilch.  I've discussed this with my nutritionist and she advised to eat more legume protein in the morning (so more carbs basically... ) to carry me through until the afternoon.  The "program" I'm on is pretty strict and does not allow for any snacking (snack = anything with flavor and/or calories between meals), 3 meals a day, 4 Optisource vitamins a day, 1 Calcium citrate (petite) per day (morning first thing).  I sort of 'challenged' my Nut about eating/drinking 4 meals a day in order to drive up my protein intake.  This didn't go over very well and her main reason was because it leads to snacking and I'd end up where I was before. So those are my basic issues right now.  PLEASE... don't get me wrong, I'm happy as hell to be where I'm at and wouldn't change a thing (unless it was to do it a few years ago), but I need to figure out IF something is not right or if I just need to get my head wrapped around this better. Any of you guys that remember being only 8 weeks out that can help me out here?  I could (and maybe should) lash out alot of farts along the way too... but the slowness has me majorly concerned.

the way I was told about the protein thing: " Your body doesn't produce protein, so you have to keep feeding it protein.  Because you are now malabosorptive, you will also need to take certain vitamins.  Your body can go a very long time on the stored energy (fat) that it has already and a decent time on the vitamins that are stored" So basically... you don't make protein, so you need to add it =) it also feeds muscles... and the brain =)

I've been kinda MIA myself since getting back to work after surgery.  Mainly because I'm tired as hell and since then it's been madness around the house with 'events' happening left and right. If it's not my SO's mom passing out at her birthday party (due to medical conditions) and being rushed to the ER, it's some crap at work that raises my stress level.  Then there's the whole "It's Springtime" thing.... ya know... mowing, yard fixing up, etc. So by the time I get to the weekend, I can't seem to catch up.

Hopefully I'll get to see this one. I subscribed in late November and still haven't seen a copy. Congratz Chad!