Just now finding out about this place! A few questions.

 I never knew OH had an age specific section until about 2 minutes ago! AHHHH! Sooo I was just approved for surgery March 23rd and my surgery date is for April 6th! Yay! I'm so happy!
Buuuut I've been doing a lot of unnecessary worrying and thinking! For example,

What happens when you reach goal? How are you supposed to maintain?
What if I can't maintain!? OMG.

I just saw a post in the regular forum for the VSG and the woman had her surgery in 08 and made a post about how hungry she was all the time now and that she had to join weigh****chers! Is is because her bougie was a larger size? Did she stretch out her sleeve somehow? Or is it just head hunger? I just thought this surgery had lots of restriction, because THAT IS WHAT I NEED! I just don't want to somehow fail with this surgery! Idk... just a bunch of "what ifs" and tooooo much thinking. I stress myself out I guess! haha

Thanks!

-Ashley

 Congrats on the approval!
I had VSG in December so i'm not in maintenance phase yet, but i've learned a lot from support groups.  I definitely recommend going to a support group because you can learn so much from newbies and from oldies.  From what i've heard, the sleeve will stretch a little over time.  After a year out, we will be able to eat more than the amount right after surgery.  I think maintenace is 100% up to you.  It won't be as easy a year out, but hopefully during that year you can develop new eating habits and a new relationship to food.  Good luck and I hope this helps a little! :]

 Major HELP! (: Just needed some reassuring and need to stop worrying about every little thing!
I'm just super scared of failure. I'm definitely going to look into support groups. I'm meeting with my nutritionist this coming Tuesday and also for pre-op, maybe they will have some info on support groups for me! Thank you so so so much for your words! Every bit helps right now!


-Ashley 

Hello Ashley, and welcome!  Congratulations on your upcoming surgery.  First and foremost, focus on the task at hand.  You have absolutely no reason to be worried about maintaining right now.  You need to start exercising and sipping your water.  That's it.  That woman's journey is not your journey.  Also, many of the older sleeves were made bigger, and that woman could be referring to head-hunger, carb-induced hunger, who knows?  We like to blame "being hungry" when we let bad habits creep in.  All sleeves stretch out somewhat with time, and you will not have the same restriction at 12 months that you had at 3 months because the swelling of the sleeve takes some time to go down, so you will have a lot more restriction at first.    Also, I think it's really important that you stop panicking and examine your feelings about the lifestyle change you're committing to.  The VSG is not a quick-fix, sure-fire thing.  It will help you lose weight, lots of weight, but you will still need to exercise and make healthy food choices.  I am almost nine months out and in a size six/S, so there is some debate about whether I'm finished losing or not.  I don't let it bother me much.  I eat a healthy diet and exercise every day.  That is what is required for both weight loss and weight maintenence.  You need to stop worrying about maintenence for now!  You will have plenty of time to think about it later!

 Thank you NursieGirl! I have been practicing chewing my food and sipping. For some reason my doctor doesn't require a liquid diet. I also joined a local gym and am psyched to start doing Zumba and BodyJam! I'm just a worrier. I shouldn't be, but I do. I know I need this for me and I plan to follow the rules and diet after my surgery and during the weight loss period and also when I finally do reach maintenance. Thank you for all of your help and input! (:


-Ashley

 Welcome!! I can't reply to anything with the VSG just wanted to welcome you :)

 Thank you! Thank you! (:

 I'll be honest with you, I'm not even a year out, and I sometimes get terrible hunger. Now, whether it's head hunger or real hunger, we might never know. All I know is that sometimes I get quite RAVENOUS, but thank God, I still have great restriction. My "hunger" is easily fulfilled by just a few bites still.

Recently, stress and quite possibly hunger have been making me extremely nervous: I chew on the inside of my lip almost non-stop. It's just this terrible nervous habit I've always had, but gets worse when I'm dieting (especially detoxing) or extremely stressed out.
For the first time since surgery, I took a phentermine (appetit suppressant) and it really helped. I didn't think about food, feel hungry, or anything. It's like I was taken back to the 1-month post op--where you barely think about food much less touch it. And the even better news: it helped me feel less stressed and I quit biting on the inside of my lip.

PS I'm 10 months out, 15 pounds from my original goal (145) and 25 pounds from my revised goal (135). 
I am 5'7", and my pre op weight was 261.
Oh, and I'm 20 :)

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 This is what I'm talking about! I always see post and people say that they are starving and then they are so easily satisfied by just eating a little. As I said before I'm just really scared of failure. My surgeon told me it would be pretty hard to gain the weight back. That you would literally have to sit on your butt all day and eat nothing but ice cream. lol He makes his sleeves a tad bit tighter so after the swelling does go down, your sleeve will still have lots of restriction. Posts like that just get my non stop mind going and I get a case of the "What-ifs". I also took Phentermine for about 6 month about a year ago, I lost like 40 lbs and felt so great and then the effectiveness of the Phentermine wore off and didn't do anything for me. That was depressing! lol I bite the inside of my lips and cheeks also and bite my nails when they aren't done! Ahhh! Not good :( 


Sounds like you are doing amazing! I tried looking at your profile buuut it's private! Add me as a friend! It seems like we have a lot in common! I'm 20 also! (:


THANK YOU SO MUCH!

-Ashley

 Oh, like Nursiegirl said, what happens to others won't necessarily happen to you: for the good or the bad. Basically, you write your own success story. 

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