My secret for losing weight on the sleeve

I've really enjoyed reading other people's posts about how they lose weight with the sleeve, so I thought I'd add my own story.

First I will tell you that I do not stick to anything that strictly. There've been too many years of deprivation and diets for me, and I tend to rebel and do the opposite if it feels too much like a diet again. What I've learned to do on the sleeve is to avoid the food that I used to binge on and embrace new foods that still feel like a treat, so I don't feel deprived.

For instance, I never ever bring potato chips into the house, but I let myself have chips when I eat out and they come with the meal. And this is working. I don't feel deprived, I have a little bit of chips, and the calories are fairly minimal. I also never bring sweets, desserts, pizza, or any of my old binge foods into the house. I even have to watch parmesan cheese. (Hey, I'm Italian, it was a staple in our house.)

I don't feel any kind of carb craving after I have carbs. I can overeat all kinds of things that don't have carbs in them. So I don't count carbs. I don't go looking for them, but I don't try to restrict them either. I was never a bread eater, so that's not an issue for me either. If I want half a sandwich for lunch, then I pull a slice out of the freezer and have it with my lunch meat. If I want pasta, I get a Lean Cuisine that has a bit of pasta in it and have it for lunch. I've stopped cooking pasta because it fills me up too much, and it's an old binge food, which I'm avoiding.

I've also learned that I can be reactive hypoglycemic. It's not dumping, but it's had the effect of causing me to think twice about having something too high in sugar. I had one of those Easter egg chocolate things about two months ago, and a couple of hours later, I was really shaky. Now I look at those and remember the shakes, which is a good thing.

In the beginning, while I was still learning, I actually tried to do mini-binges. I told myself I would bring home a tiny bit of a bunch of my old binge food for my birthday or "just this once." But here's where the sleeve worked its magic. After I got home from the grocery store, I found that I could hardly eat anything. Half a cup of food later, I was done. I literally couldn't force another bite into my mouth. I ended up throwing out the rest of the food. Bye-bye mini-binges.

Where I struggle is with burn-out. I'm really ready to be done. I'm socializiing more now, which means wine for me, and that has calories. So I'm trying to avoid wine until I go on vacation in June. I also struggle with getting enough water in during the day.

My NUT always told me that I needed to exercise at least an hour a day while losing weight. I've never done that, but recently I'm trying to up my exercise, and I do think it makes a big difference.

Finally, I've joined Weigh****chers to give me some accountability and a place to get an official weigh-in. Their program is about 1200 calories a day, which is a good amount for me right now this far out. And they encourage you to eat more protein and less carbs, so I like that about it. So far, I've lost 2 pounds a week, which I'm happy about.

And sometimes, I just need to learn patience! The weight comes off very quickly, and seemingly easily, for some. It will come off for me, but I'm a different person and shouldn't compare myself. It's hard not to feel like I'm in competition here on OH or that I'm being graded and failing for not sticking to 40 g of carbs of day, but that's probably my issue that I need to deal with. I'm off all meds, diabetes is gone, CPAP is gone, I walk two miles quite easily at the gym. My life if radically different from a year ago. Eventually I will be a size 12!

Fantastic recap!  I ditto most of what you said.  I was never a binger, more of a grazer so I don't have the past grazing things in the house.

I joined WW in Dec '08 and lost a whopping 22.6# in the 17 months pre-op (and that's including the pre-op liquid diet!) BUT I stayed @ WW for the accountability.  Didn't tell the whole group about the surgery 'til 2 weeks ago.  I was very excited when they changed the program 'cause it is basically how I've been eating since my surgery last May.

I too am not so great about exercising every day.  I plan to up that as well now that the weather is hopefully turning nicer.

Thanks for summary.  I like reading what others are doing/have done.

It sounds like you've found what works best for you - a recurring theme I am seeing in these "secrets" posts.

Congrats on losing 160+ pounds! That's freakin' amazing! It sounds like you're setting yourself up for success to reach goal.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. You have done so well!!! 162 lbs lost!!! That's phenomenal.
Congratulations on your continued success.
We're rootin for ya.

Carol

wow!!! You had your surgery 1 yr ago same day as me. I hope that in one year I will be as successful as you have been!! Congratulations!!!

Actually, I've only lost 103 pounds since surgery. The other 60 was from the pre-op liquid diet and from when I did Optifast the year before surgery. (It's when I started gaining weight back from Optifast that I decided to get the surgery.) So I'm a relatively slow loser, at least compared to the stars on this board. But as someone else said, a hundred pounds is still a hundred pounds. :)

Thank you for your post. It is nice to hear from someone that has the same ideas that I do and is still losing weight.  For me, I decided right from the beginning that this is for life.  Every diet I failed because I "dieted" and wouldn't allow myself anything off plan.  Then when I would stop dieting I would fall hard and gain everything I lost plus more.  So, when I told myself that this was for life I decided to eat the way I am going to eat for the rest of my life. That includes having a bite of chocolate or a chip now and then. Like you I do not bring anything into my house that is a trigger and I still stick to the VSG rules of protein first, veggies second, try my darndest to get in my water,I limit my carbs  watch my calories, fat, sugars, everything.  I am a faithful  with my food log and log every morsel that I put into my mouth. I exercise almost daily ( I take weekends off, but occasionally hit the gym or ride bike), I walk the treadmill on my lunch break everyday and it the gym for weight lifting and stationary bike at night after supper.  I can tell I am getting healthier and more fit everyday.  But should I eat that bite of chocolate or skip my walk I don't panic, I don't beat myself up, I just keep going on.  I may not lose as fast as if I was stricter with myself, I may not even lose as much, but I am more confident that what I lose will stay off this time. I would hate to be one of those that gets to goal and gains it all back. I would rather lose 50lbs and keep it off for life than lose 150 and gain it all back.  I am settling into my new life and it is comfortable and more importantly for me "doable". I still have to work on saying "no" to the treats, but it is sooo much easier now!  I still have to push myself every lunch hour and every night to exercise, but once I am there I am fine and feel better after for doing it.  I have learned to not compare myself to others on this site, but compare myself to the former me.  I could go on and on, I should have done my own post :)  Anyway, thank you again and we will get to that size 12 and we will stay there!  Congrats on your success thus far!!

Great post! Thanks for being honest. You have done great and are a great example.
This whole experience is about changing our lives. I have got to make changes that I can live with. I'm not always perfect but I'm still losing and can live with what I'm doing. Thank God for my sleeve that gets me right back on track. We can do this!!!

thanks for sharing!