12 Weeks Post-Op!

Hello everyone!! Tomorrow morning I will officially be 12 weeks post-op, 3 months exactly. It feels a little odd even. In total I have lost 47 pounds, which is almost half of my weight goal. My doctor says i am doing fantastic given the fact that it has only been 3 months and im supposed to loose 100 pounds in a year. He says that as long as i do my exercises I will be great. The gym is a daily thing for me and it will be for the rest of my life. But i like it. It makes me feel full of energy and like I'm really progressing. Each day week I can do more than the week before, and that is a really good feeling. I tried doing the Insanity workout with my brother-in-law and I almost fainted. LOL. ADVICE: DO NOT EXCEED YOURSELF BEYOND REPAIR! My butt was hurting for a total of two days and today it still hurts, so , three days. 

However, today the focus is not my derriere but GIRDLES! I finally received my colombian girdle. It took a total of 3 weeks to arrive and i have a week wearing it. This is the description for the model:

Super High Compression Controls Waist Line, Abdomen, & Hips. Helps reduce backaches. Abdomen Control, Back Support, Lower Tummy Support. Adjustable Straps, Lifts Bust. Strong Compression ExtraLayer Powernet. Recommended: Daily Use, Post-Lipo, Post-Partum, Tummy Tuck, Shaping Girdle. Mid-Thigh Length, Derriere Enhancer Laced Design. Frontal Zipper, Inside Eyelet Hooks Closure. Reduces and maintains the firmness on your waist line. Corrects and helps your posture. Enhances the gluteus, busts, and shapes your silhouette body.  Many women wear this garment on a daily basis to tone and instantly reduce cm's on their waste, hips and legs while in use. Open Crotch convenient for bathroom use.


The crotch part is hilarious just because one would not wear the girdle without underwear. Going commando on something you wear on a daily basis is NOT an advisable thing to do. The high compression controls help keep the muffins on check, improve your posture, and reduce backaches, which you will get. The adjustable straps make it more comfortable and yet it makes it hurt a little. At the end of the day you wil have marks on your shoulders and they will ache somewhat. RECOMMENDATION: Ladies, adjust your bra straps to fit you tightly because after you wear the girdle , your bra straps will feel loose. The opening at the crotch feels a little funny but its no biggie. Just make sure that you wear a belt with the pants that you'll wear on top of your girdle. Your pants will feel loose. 

Another recommendation: drink a lot of tea. It helps with the detox process and your skin will look and feel great. 

7 weeks post- op

7 weeks post-op, 40 pounds less and 2 sizes. I have gone from a size 18 in jeans (fitting very well and a tight in the waist) to a 14 stretch. In 7 weeks i have lost 40 pounds. I feel I have lost less weight than I was supposed to. 7 weeks is 49 days and i'm supposed to be loosing 1 pound a day. My doctor did tell me though that during the first 3 months there is this stopping process after loosing a significant amount of weight. No one knows why it happens, it just does.

However, I cant help but feel frustrated with the fact that I haven't lost 49 pounds. Although that would be  highly optimistic, It would also mean that i would have already lost 50 pounds, and I have as a goal to loose 100 pounds. My parents are a bit skeptical about me loosing 100 pounds or even having lost 40 pounds in such a short amount of time. My mother is worried it might have some consequences but my doctor ( the surgeon and my general doctor) says everything is fine. I am having general check-ups regularly so that he has a control of what is going on in my body.

For now, my general doctor has changed my vitamins. Instead of drinking Flinstone's vitamins with extra calcium, iron and vitamin D (I am highly iron and vitamin D deficient), I am drinking liquid vitamins, the kind you buy in GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe (it is disgusting!!!). Despite the fact that the bottle says "tastes great", it does not taste great. In fact it tastes similar to how a pill tastes when you happen to leave it a little longer in your mouth than your supposed to, which is not very pleasant. Aside from that, im still trying to assimilate food. I DO NOT eat rice, potatoes, yuca, yellow or green plantains, red meats,  (for those of you who know Dominican people, know these are essential to our regular diets) DEFINITELY NO SWEETS (although sometimes its really hard because I do have a soft spot for them), bacon (not even turkey or at least not yet), and bread (although the cooking books that I bought for Weight Loss Surgery patients says I can eat bread after 6-8 weeks, it depends on your nutritionist). It has definitely been hard. It has not been easy to block everything I have learned with my mother cooking dominican cuisine and having to learn this whole way of cooking.

As for what I am eating now...Well, protein is very important in my diet so I eat a lot of turkey, chicken, mainly ground because the turkey soaks the flavors of spices more and it makes eating the same foods less dreadful. I know there are some various options that I can eat because there is a wide range of poultry dishes I can do however, i have yet to lear hoe to modify them and still make them taste good. The side dishes are mainly salad and or vegetables. I also eat a lot of cheese, cottage, cheddar, mozzarella, all low fat, they still taste great. Today for example, I was going to try and doing a modified vegetable lasagna, without the pasta, instead of ground beef use ground turkey and vegetable tomato sauce, low fat, and low fat mozzarella. So, you learn how to play with the dishes and at the same time you learn how much you can and cannot eat. I am still working up to eating 8oz of food. Currently, I can only maybe eat 5 or 6 oz max.

The exercise is going well, although my exercise machine came broken and as a result I had to return it and keep going to my school gym, which is very good. I still haven't bought another exercise machine because I have noticed that all the good ones are very expensive so instead, I decided to keep going to my school gym and get signed up for planet fitness and go there.

On the personal side, lately my family has noticed that I am extremely sensitive. Apparently, I am getting overly dramatic and I'm crying all the time which is weird in me. If you know me personally you will know this is weird and odd and not normal, at least not or me. I am not a overly sensitive person and yet I am very irritable and touchy, to say the least. Also, again, I am a female, so guys if you are reading this, I apologize in advance for the next few lines. Ladies, my periods have become longer. My last two periods were of 8 and 12 days and they were painful. I could barely wear jeans, I was extremely bloated and had a very heavy flow. As a result, next week I will be attending a doctor's appointment to get a prescription for the pill. My doctor said he would do a hormone check to see which is more adequate for me. Also, next week is all about GIRDLES. But not just any kind of girdles, Colombian Post-surgical girdles. Stay tuned.

The first Month

After the first stage of liquids and non solid things comes the semi-solid stage. I can tell you with all honesty the food isn't the best...baby food is better. I was to eat creams, like brocoli cream, yam, yautia, cabbage,  lentil, green bean and regular beans. of course these were to be prepared with spices and all blended. The thing I was not aware of is that I had to include half a chicken breast (obviously cooked) inside the mix. The results are that, most likely than not, I have been under-eating. I have, however balanced it out with a Whey Protein. At first I was drinking the vanilla flavor but to be honest it made me nauseated and I couldn't stomach it. I wanted to throw-up half the time, instead of drinking the 8oz, I usually drank the thicker 4oz version and tried to drink it as soon as possible. When the drink finally finished I bought a another flavor that doesn't make me nauseated, the mixed berry. I've always been a berries kind of girl. this semi-solid stage lasts from the 1st week after your surgery to the 4th week after your surgery. I think this is the hardest stage because of how tired you get of the food. However other nutritionists may have more options for you. Mine just decided that I had to be disgusted half the time.

After the semi-solid stage comes the third and final stage where you learn how to eat for life. You will be allowed to eat the mushy food but also (everything you eat must be low fat or non-fat) greek yogurt and cottage cheese, non fat non sugar jello, cream cheese, non fat puddings (there are certain amount of carbs you need to eat in order to keep you healthy) vegetables and meats. The only meats you are allowed to eat are pork, chicken, turkey, basically every poultry and meat as long as its not red meat. The meat must be eaten in very little peaces. It can be cooked with your regular spices as long as you DO NOT use regular oil, or butter or sugar, always pam oil, butter flavored spray non fat oil and if you need to use butter, use butter substitutes as well as sugar substitutes (stevia and splenda are the best specially because there are various recipes available with the correct measurements).

Right now, I am in my 5th week after surgery and learning what i can and cannot eat. My current, as off this morning (February 7th 2012) is 206 pounds. I was 233 pounds on the day of my surgery. In total I have lost 27 pounds. It is still hard for me to want to eat or much less remember to eat so I keep a calendar on my phone to remind me when i have to eat and drink my protein. My exercise machine will be arriving today and I cant wait to start exercising and loose more weight and sizes. Wish me luck.

Bisous! Baisers!
The Gastric Sleeve Patient

The beginning of the journey

Hello everyone!!!

I had the Gastric sleeve surgery done at 21 years old. My operation was performed on January 4th, 2012. I was 237 pounds, the highest weight I have ever had,  and after three weeks and three days post-op, I know weigh 215 punds, 22 pounds less. It is currently January 28th, 2012, 7:21 pm and I am trying to figure out how on earth did it occur to me to write a blog. The truth is I have never done this before and the most "blogging" I've ever done has been Facebook, which is not much, so please go easy on me. So, history...

According to my parents, I was always a skinny child, at least until I was three years old. I suffered from chronic asthma, which meant I was in and out of the hospital, and that was on a good day. Otherwise, it was usually inside the hospital for a day or two. As a result of my condition, I was administered various regular dosis of steroids, the treatment at the time - I had no idea how it helped but supposedly it did. My mother had given me every dominican home remedy for asthma in existence, and i mean everything, to give you a preview, I even ate snake meat, but I don't remember any of that. My parents shipped me off to my grandma's in DR when I was three because NY temperature was a bit harsh on my health. My grandma also gave me every home remedy possible but at the same time she was very keen on keeping me extra well fed. She used to say that fat kids were the pretty kids and well she started to get me fat during the year I spent with her. I also stopped having asthma attacks. I was chubby all throughout my childhood. At the age of 12, I reached a weight of 193 pounds and I was put on a diet with a nutritionist. I lost 24 pounds with that nutritionist in 4 months. However, that same year, i got stones in my gallbladder, and after the surgery and my gallbladder was removed, I gained the weight back. I maintained myself for a few years in the 190's and then at 20 yrs old, my GYN told me to take contraceptives to regulate my cycle and I gained 20 pounds in 3 months.

After that it was really hard to loose weight because of my hormonal imbalance and anything made me gain more weight. I ended up at 230 pounds when i decided to do the operation, my BMI was 39.5, and i was a good candidate. I started investigating in October of 2011 whether it was better to have the operation in the States or in DR and It was determined that in DR was more convenient because it was half the money and better attentions.

The day of my operation I weighed 233 punds and the operation lasted 3 hours. I spent 2 days in the hospital under constant anesthesia, so there was no pain. I had a device that pumped anesthesia into my system for the 2 days stay at the hospital. During that time I ate nothing, only drank water the last day, 1 ounce every 15 minutes and that was the beginning of the first stage.