Mus****ch! For Noobz and Vets

This guy was one of my inspirations for getting VSG. He was/is the epitome of success in my opinion. He had his surgery in 2008. He posted this video about a year ago. This video talks about what can happen after. This is one more example of how VSG is just a tool and like any misused tool can rust in the garage if not used and taken care of. For you noobs watch all of his videos. They are great and inspirational

http://youtu.be/vzHaFiqBCNA

 

What an articulate, sincere person. Thanks for the link. I will be watching more of his vids for sure.

Keith, thank you for sharing this.  He is honest and his observations mirror what I see with many people further out.  When I say that I have gone out to dinner with some VSG friends and seen them eat a full entree and a basket of chips plus a margarita, I am not kidding.  This stuff is real.  I could not eat all that, but I can eat more than I could at six months, there is not doubt.  For those that say, well, just eat healthier foods and you will be just fine, I say, "How did that philosophy work for you pre-surgery?"  It eventually becomes just as hard as before surgery, or at least pretty close to it.  That is why many of the VETS here post and say what we say, even though we often get bashed for it.  It is still the best truth I know.

If it becomes just as hard as before surgery, then what makes it possible for you (I mean you specifically, and you in general) to maintain? If the change does not happen in order for the philosophy of eating healthily to work post op then we are all doomed to regain in the end. Is that it? Or am I missing something?

You are not missing anything and yes, it does eventually become almost as hard as before surgery.  Just imagine this, any part of the fundus that was not removed does stretch, so the larger stomachs continue to get larger.  You will never be able to eat a whole pizza like I could pre surgery, but you will definitely be able to eat three or four slices or maybe even five or six.  The hunger that goes away early out, comes back at least half way and so do the cravings.  Is it exactly the same? No, it is not, but it is nothing like the first year.  What keeps me from gaining my weight back is the work I did on my habits and staying mindful along with eating protein first at most meals and keeping carbs down.  Exercise becomes a much bigger deal in maintenance than in weight loss.  Keeping your stomach from stretching too much by not overeating over and over again also helps.  Our stomachs tend to get longer when we overeat regularly.  Keeping an eye on the scale and staying mindful is the big deal here.  But the truth is that the further out you get, the more it is all you, just like the other skinny people.  So if you haven't made the changes that other skinny people make in their lives, you will regain.  Find people you respect that are successful and do what they do.  Even if they never had surgery, their eating habits are most probably the same as what yours will need to be long term.  Think about this, I eat the same number of calories as other thin woman my age eat.  That mostly means that I do what thin woman who have never had this surgery have always done.  Not much is different.  That is why so many VETS are adamant about using the early period to maximize loss and to learn new habits.  The truth is that without this, regain is going to happen, just look at the stats.

You are right, I am not missing anything. I understand what you are saying now. This is what I always thought. One year or so the sleeve does 80% of the work and that's when we have to ride the wave...then it will be 80% us and the rest the sleeve. It is what I am expecting. And preparing for.

Yup.  It did seem longer than a year to me though, I really felt the "honeymoon" lasted for a good 1.5 and slowly faded out around the end of the second year.  Then around year three, it got much harder, still doable, but harder and I suspect that this will continue to be the case.  I have a guy friend who is two years ahead of me from the same doctor.  Every time I see him, which is not that often, I ask him if he thinks things have gotten harder than last time we spoke.  Around the end of his sixth year, he stopped telling me that things were harder and told me that they were about the same as last year. I have gone out to dinner with him and he can easily eat a full sized sandwich.  Now, he would leave the fries and dessert alone, but still, the first time I saw him do this, it shocked me as I was only three months out and couldn't eat more than 2 ounces of food.  He exercises every single day and he is still about 20 pounds away from goal.  He looks normal to me, not heavy or obese in any way.  But I know that he works at this. 

I have a friend that had the same doctor and is now 8 months out.  She has the tiniest stomach and I am seriously jealous of her.  I think she could eat cheese and peanut butter all day long and still be tiny.  Of course this means that she has to eat quite often or she will get too thin and she can never sit down to a normal sized meal the way that I can.  Still, if you asked me now, I would trade places with her in a heartbeat.  She agrees with me and tells me the grazing is not a hardship for her at all.  She loves the fact that she doesn't really have to think about what she eats and I am pretty sure that this will last.  I could eat much more at 8 months than she can eat.  I guess there are trade offs to everything.  Of course anytime I complain to her about this, she points me to a mirror and there is not much more to say at that point.  :)  In the end, I really am quite happy with what I have and this sized stomach makes my eating totally normal, that is both good and bad.

Its all good Elina! After all we all strive to be normal. So I think you sitting down to a normal (healthy) meal followed by a couple of days in the trenches is totally normal. There are few lucky people out there who can eat what they want when they want in the quantities that they want and stay thin and fit without setting foot at the gym. The rest of the world is just normal and does what you do. So the surgery didn't make you a freak. It made you just normal. What more can we ask for?

Ultimately, you are right, that is exactly what the surgery did, it just reset things back to normal settings.  If I was to be honest, I really don't work at this any more than my skinny girlfriends do, I just think and moan about it more.  :)

Which is good. Its what Tom is saying too...we bought ourselves the promise of success at the price of life time vigilance. That is what all "normal" folks do. I was at the gym today and I love to observe people as they work out, and make up stories about them. There are some very fit nice looking men and women, young and old, and what are they all doing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? Gym. That pretty much says it all. And whereas before, I would have been having a crepe or a fondu around the lake, now I am where the normies are...at the gym. I have zero illusions about how hard it will be later on. Its already hard and already now I know how to eat around the sleeve. The difference is that I won't. My resolution is just never ever again to open that door even just a little bit. Its to be....ummm...militant I think is the word?