I got down to 176 this last week!  I have pretty much stayed there, but happy to see another number on the scale every morning!    I guess I am a stair step loser, I tend to stay around the same weight for a week or longer, then will notice a couple of pound drop.  I can live with that, as long as I don't start CLIMBING the stairs!  ha ha ha!!

I didn't get in very much exercise, in fact, I think I only went on one lunchtime walk, but I have stayed active, and busy.  We planted a garden this weekend and have been moving the last of Enrique's stuff out of his house and in to mine!   Until we get a storage unit, some of his stuff is staying in his garage...so we aren't through moving boxes quite yet! 

I am still taking 2 prescription strength prilosecs a day.  My acid and the bubbling in my stomach is nicely controlled.  My hunger is still there a bit.    I guess, that is something I will just have to live with.  My plan to deal with that is to try and make sure I have access to good, healthy, protein-rich snacks to get me through until my next meal.  Easier said that done, I know. 

I have slipped up a few times this past week and had some bad carbs, I didn't let that stop me, and I didn't allow myself to have a totally carb-filled day.  The all-or-nothing attitude I have had in the past: "Well, I blew that one!  Might as well pig out on chocolate and pizza tonight!!". 

So far, I really love my sleeve and I am very thankful that I had a chance to get this surgery!  Have a great week!!

  I am soooooo happy to report that my INSATIABLE HUNGER was just acid!!!  I am so relieved!  I put a post up on the Sleeve Board and got a a lot of responses of people saying it probably was just acid and that I should up my dosage of Prilosec.  It didn't kick in fully for about 2 days, but by Thursday, I really noticed that the bubbling up in the stomach did not happen after I would eat anymore.  The bubbling never hurt, and REALLY mimicked hunger, so I doubted that it was acid that was causing it all.  Gladly, I was wrong!!

I know another thing that is helping me is that I am staying very low carb.  I talked with my sleeve sister, AnneMarie, and we discussed what made me successful with the band when I was losing with it.  One thing I did back then was allow myself to go carb crazy the first few days of my period.  I was able to resist temptation all month, knowing that I *could* have those chips and cookies, I just had to wait until my period started.  I even looked forward to my period quite a few times! LOL  That means I have to white-knockle it during PMS, but I can do this.  I know I can, I have done it before.  If I find that allowing myself a carb day or two just makes me go crazy and off plan, then I will have to re-think this.  I was able to do it before, so I am thinking this will work for me again.  

I am down to 179 this week!  New ground with my sleeve and I am very happy about that!! 

AnneMarie and I went to a support group meeting on Thursday that is sponsered by my doctor's office.  They have it here once a month.  It was nice, but I didn't find it too particularly helpful.  I will keep going, however, because I want to take advantage of every opportunity to succeed that I can......and, it doesn't hurt that it's at Sandia Casono!!    Sandia is a very nice Indian Casino here in town.  AnneMarie and I had dinner there afterwards.  We split some broiled chicken.  It was delicious....and we also had a few sweet potato fries.  They were delicious....but we left most of them on the plate! 

I didn't make time to exercise at all last week.  That will be my major goal this week.  I will continue with the upped Prilosec dosage, eating low carb and at least adding my lunchtime walks.  I need to get my butt to the gym also, so I will try to incorporate that, as well.  

I made some of Elena's Green Chicken Soup this week. I found it very delicious and love that it is so low carb and low calorie!!  I will definitely be making this a staple in my diet.  AnneMarie made it and said it looked like she killed Shrek.  So, we lovingly call it Shrek Soup.  

I hope everyone had a great week and prepares themselves for the upcoming week ahead.  Staying on track is so much easier when you take the time to plan your menu for the week, and to also have healthy snacks available.  Good luck!!

  So, my period came and went.  The week before my period, I had massive PMS cravings......during my period, it did get better.  HOWEVER, *I* didn't get better.  I was still bad too many times.  Let me be more specific.

I still have some dietary limitations, being one month out from surgery.  I am not supposed to have crispy or crunchy foods.  I can not have any raw veggies, nothing with seeds (veggies or fruits). Also, no red meat or nuts are allowed at this point, on my journey.  Items not prohibited, but frowned upon, would include: ice cream, sugary anything, high fat, high carbohydrate....basically all of the stuff that gets us in to trouble.

I know not all people that have weight issues have problems with carbs.  I do.  I am highly addicted to carbs, sometimes, I can't even eat some complex carbs, without the foods triggering me to binge on more and more.  I KNOW this about myself, yet., I too often I give in and eat some trigger foods. 

So, this past week, I am trying to fight my carb cravings.  I would do okay until the afternoon.  About an hour after eating my lunch, I would feel like I was STARVING!!  OMG, strong hunger.  It was pissing me off because I thought the sleeve was supposed to really quiet my hunger.  WTF?!?

When the hunger hit, I didn't have any "good" foods left at my desk....so, a few times last week, I went hunting for something to eat.  That left me with candy from people's desks at work, basically.  One day, the hunger was hitting pretty hard.  I had gone to run an errand with my BF and we went to a convenience store to get a snack and a drink.  Well, try finding a healthy snack there!!  I ended up getting some peanut butter crackers.......I know, crap....AND definitely on the frowned upon list.  I would have gone for the beef jerkey, but all they had was beef.  So frustrating to be starving and only having access to crap foods, that I love.  LOL 

One lesson learned last week?  BRING LOW-CARB, LOW-CALORIE SNACKS TO WORK!!! 

Another lesson, I learned long ago, but am too stupid and stubborn to live by, is carbohydrates MAKE me hungry.  Some of my hunger episodes happened without any carbs to make them happen, but I know if I just totally detox from them, my hunger will get better.  I know this, yet I can't seem to get all of the way through detoxing, which would benefit me greatly about now. 

With my slip-ups last week, my weight is at a stand still.  I am still weighing in at 182. 

I did go to the gym last week and did a few power walks at lunch time.  So, I wasn't TOTALLY bad.  ha ha!

I am just having a very hard time knowing what is normal for my sleeve.  I lived with my LapBand for 4 years and felt very knowledgable with it, even if the sucker was acting up, I knew what to expect.  The hunger was a surprise with the sleeve.  Well, I realize that not all VSGrs lose their hunger, but I was sure hoping I was one of them.  Oh well, move on.  The other thing is that I seem to have varying restriction.  Some meals, 1-2 ounces of solid protein is all I can fit in...but some meals I can eat about 3, maybe 4 if it's something really squishy, like fish. 

I am not trying to consistantly eat to my capacity.  I sure don't want to stretch out my surgeon's handiwork.....but I also am trying to figure things out.  I am just confused.  My surgeon's office is having a support group meeting on Thursday....I will be there.  I want to see if others are having a  hard time figuring it all out (the revision folks).  I know AnneMarie is  having some of the same questions and problems.

While the LapBand helped us by training us to eat slow and take small bites, I think it also trained me very well how to eat around WLS.  Eating around my band was a necessity more often than not with the weird tightening at the most inoppertune times. 

I DO want to be successful at this.  I don't want to make excuses for myself. I am hoping that this week I can get a grip on things and get the weightloss started again. 

Wow, last week was a booger!!!  Starting on Monday, I had HUNGER, real hunger....and I felt like nothing I ate satisfied me for long.  Then it hit me......PMS!!    The entire week before my period starts I want to eat a house, and then a house dipped in chocolate, then a house rolled in salt. 

My band would magically open up during PMS and allow me to eat much more food than normal.  I have had a few VSG'rs tell me that the same thing happens with their sleeve.  So, I am sure since my hormones did this to my body with the band, what I experienced last week is the same thing. 

I really kind of freaked when I portioned out 2 oz of meat, and 1/4 cup veggies and I was able to eat all of it...well, almost all of it.  I thik I had a couple of bites left on my plate.  I tried to stick with protein, but I am not going to lie.  My hormones kidnapped the good Melanie, and replaced her with a sugar and salt whore for part of the week.  Bad hormones!!

I ended up raiding the cupboards and getting in to the fried onions (the onions usually put in green bean casseroles), and I bought a few Hershey's chocolate bars.    Yeah.  I guess the good news would be that I did NOT go buy some cookies.  I did NOT get the giant bag of M&M's.  I also avoided purchasing and consuming a huge bag of Cheetos.  Those are usually my PMS necessaties. 

I did briefly get down to 180 , but as soon as I started eating more food and carbs, I saw my weight soar back up to 184.  My period finally showed up yesterday, and today I am at 182 on the scales.  That's still a pound lower than my last check-in...so, not too much damage done. 

I am praying that my restriction is back and that my hunger is gone.  I believe it is, as yesterday, I didn't have any uncontrollable hunger or urges, really.  Keeping my fingers crossed!!  Onward and forward!! 

We had a busy weekend, moving furniture from the boyfriend's house, to my house.  There is still a lot of work to do at his house to get him completely out, but we got a lot accomplished.   

I am heading back to the gym this week.  I am actually looking forward to it!   Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!  Mine should be better than last week!! 

  Ahhhhh, got rid of that annoying JP Drain!!  Yay!!!

Tuesday, I woke up and felt some pretty bad pain in my muscles around the tubing for the drain.  I called the nurse and she asked if there was a bad odor, any kind of puss, etc., and the answer was no.  Knowing that I was coming down on Thursday, she basically just advised to wait it out.  She surmised that my muscles were trying to heal around the tubing and causing pain.  So, I started counting every minute until we drove down to El Paso for my check-up.  

Thursday got here, and I was still in a lot of pain, but I was happy to be going down to El Paso.  I met with the nurse.  My BP was great, and the scale showed that I had lost 10.5 pounds.  

Next step was to meet with the nutritionist.  This was a group meeting with the other two that had surgery the same day that I did.  He went over the foods we would now be allowed to have.  He also went over some of the blood test results before surgery and let anyone know if they were needing to double up on vitamins.  My tests must have been good, as I wasn't required to take any extra vitamins on top of my regimine. I am taking a multi vitamin, B-12 sublingual, Vitamin D, probiotic and 1500 mg of Calcium.  I am supposed to take iron also, but that can cause constipation....already have enough trouble with that right now!!   No thanks!  ha ha

We were released to eat sott foods now.  Here is a list of foods I am allowed to eat now:
Fish
Chicken
Turkey
Cottage Cheese
Yogurt*
Soft Cheese
Soft Cooked Veggies (no high starchy foods, like potatoes)
Soft Fruit, except fruits with seeds, like strawberries
Oatmeal*
Cream of Wheat *
Cold Cereal that has gone a bit mushy
Corn and Peas can only be consumed if blended
Eggs

I will be on this diet for 4 weeks.  After that, I can add beef and some other items.  I will have to be six months out from surgery before getting to eat any kind of seeds, nuts or popcorn.  Noooo!!  Not my popcorn!!  ha ha ha I absolutely love it.  I make it homemade with lots of butter....*sigh* Moving on...

I asked about any kind of alcohol consumption and the nutritionist said to wait until 6 months out.  Okay, no worries.  A long summer ahead with no margaritas, long island iced teas or othe drinks.....It's all worth it.  I don't need those empty calories right now.  The nutritionist told us to stay under 60 grams of carbohydrates and keep our calories between 800-1,000.  These numbers are a tad higher than what I have seen most people on the boards report they were told by their surgeons.  However, I trust Dr. Acosta and will go with it.  If I find that I am not losing well, I can always revisit these numbers with the nutritionist.

I then met with Dr. Acosta.  He took the drain out! He then went over some more numbers with me.  His numbers show that a person with the sleeve should lose an average of 8-10 pounds a month.  He also said that a Sleever should lose 60% of their excess weight by one year out.  According to his calculations, he thinks that I need to lose 82 pounds.   I weighed in at 187 on his scale.  So, that would put me at 105 pounds.  Okay....I realize that I am only 5' 2", but I have a large bone frame and have been obese most of my adult life and some before being an adult...my bones and muscles are thick and strong from carrying all of that blubber around.  105 pounds would put me at anoerexic looking.  I figured he was going straight off of the BMI charts.  Those charts show that I would have a BMI of 19 if I weighed in at 105. (women's chart)  Uhhhh, that's the low end of the BMI chart, but I don't much stock to it. 

What to do?  I love Dr. Acosta, I trust Dr. Acosta.  I did the onlly thing I COULD do.  I smiled and nodded my head.  What I want to do is get down to MY goal of 150 pounds and then ask Dr. Acosta....do I LOOK LIKE I need to lose 45 more pounds?  Not in a rude way, not at all....just to see his reaction.  Numbers on a paper are one thing, but seeing them applied to all different shapes and sizes is another thing.  He has been doing this for years, so I don't presume that any of this is new to him.  I am thinking that he might be giving me a challenging goal to go for, thefore I might achieve more than even I think that I can.  He doesn't know what my personal goal is.  Truth be known, I AM hoping to get lower than my personal goal, but I set one that I thought would be achievable when I got my LapBand.  Now that I have a Sleeve, I am thinking I can achieve greater weightloss.  Time will tell!!  

So, it was a good appointment.  My doc also said to have one meal a day that IS a protein shake, since I won't be able to consume enough real food and get my protein goals met.  I have my follow-up in August.  Dr. Acosta would like to see my 22 pounds lighter by then.  I think that's doable.  My muscles around the where the port tubing was still hurts quite a bit, but I am sure that will start to feel better in a few days as my body heals itself.

On the way back from El Paso, we stopped in to a Ruby Tuesday's.  I was FINALLY going to get to "test" out my new tiny tummy.  Enrique and I ordered a seafood platter to share.  It had tilapia, salmon and shrimp scampi.  The sides we chose were rice and mashed cauliflower.  Enrique at the rice.  I ate a few bites of the cauliflower...not bad.  I didn't have a scale with me, so I am not sure how much I ate.  I took a bit from all three protein portions, eyeing what I felt like was proababy 1.5 ounces.

The part that made me nervous was wondering how I would now when I was full.  With the band, when the food didn't get stuck, I felt a bit of pressure, or felt that food was starting to stack up in my esophogas, which told me, I probably ate a bite too much, but nonetheless, full.  I would sometimes also get a weird hiccup/burp or a runny nose.  Fill signals are pretty cool things.  But what will tell me that I have eaten enough??  

I ate very small bites, I chewed very well and ate slowly.  I ate what was on my plate and then a feeling of satisfaction washed over me.  I felt like sighing.  Kind of hard to explain....It wasn't full like I felt before WLS, and it wasn't the same lump in my chest the band gave me.  I then decided to stop.  

We got back around 9pm last night, so I didn't have time to go to the store and get things for lunch today.  I just went to a store at lunch and picked up some string cheese and also a pouch of tuna.  The tuna was 4.5 ounces...again, no scale with me, so I tried to judge it by eye.  I ate all of the tuna I portioned out (my guess was 1.5 to 2 ounces) and I ate the string cheese, which was one ounce.  Again, I felt the satisfied feeling wash over me.  HOWEVER, I felt a bit hungry.   I really haven't felt hunger yet...so I was disappointed.  The hunger went away, and of course my body was okay with what I did consume.  So, for dinner, I decided to have something a bit more substantial and weigh it out to know for sure.  I carved up a rotisserie chicken and weighed out 2 ounces and put 1/4 cup broccoli on my plate.  I decided to eat all of the chicken first, then eat my veggies.  I got about halfway through my chicken and felt like the last bite was a bit in my esophogas.  Hmmmmm, so I stopped.  I was good.  So, maybe I DO have about 1 ounce capacity right now, which will probably get larger 3-6 months out like other sleevers.  I will keep a close eye on it and keep track. 

For my personal records, I weighed in at 183 this morning!  Okay, that was my week.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!!