Here's my intro...

I am really glad to find this forum, and hoping it will be as much help to me as my RnY support was.

I need to get BOTT, because I've basically stopped following any plan, it's been months now. I eat whatever my pouch will let me get away with, and haven't tracked anything in a long time. With no weight gain to speak of, I've been lucky, but that's all it is - luck. No credit to me.

On the other hand, while I haven't had regain - yet - I never really made it to goal, either. As I slacked off on following plan, my weight loss slowed and then stopped completely. (Naturally)

So I'm here because I hate not finishing a project. I set that goal myself, and after coming this close, I'm not going to walk away with the job incomplete.

I have two goals here, actually. The first requires that I make a really baffling, embarrassing confession: first, I am almost two years out, and I have never once had any blood work done. I lost my health insurance two months after surgery, and so I never went back to my doctor's office because I wasn't going to be able to afford the lab work out of pocket. Then, when I got coverage through my new job, I asked my pcp if I could get the blood work done, and she sent me a referral - to my weight loss surgeons office, where I still have a large balance of my co-pay  that I'm chipping away at, much more slowly than their billing department wants. So.. too embarrassed to go there and ask for more work. 

All of which is a lengthy explanation for why it's so important that I get real about my vitamins. Along with slacking off on plan, I've also gotten super-haphazard with supplementing. Like a Flintstones here, a sublingual there, some iron if I'm feeling particularly weak.  If I'm not going to do the dang blood work, then at the very least I need to take my supplements. Anything less is just asking for trouble.

So my two goals are to get the best info on general supplementing post WLS that I can, and to first start tracking again, so I can begin adjusting. I weighed 162 pounds a couple of days ago.  To get to a normal BMI, always a dream of mine, I need to lose just eight pounds. I say "just eight pounds" but the days where I could lose eight pounds by dieting hard for four days are long, long gone, and I know that these eight pounds are going to take time and, above all, persistence.

And persistence starts today.

Any advice, encouragement, nagging, or butt-kicking all comes under the heading of "support" and is much appreciated, and I'm really glad to have this space to read up on others wresting with success.

Koko

Hi Koko:

Welcome aboard.  I understand about trying to get to your "normal" BMI.  I am just a few pounds away but sometimes it seems like it is 25 lbs. away in trying to get there.  I am an advocate for taken my vitamins.  You need at least 1200 mg of a good multi vitamin and 1500 mg of calcium citrate not carbonate.  I take one 50,000 mg Vit. D and 7500 mg of sublingual vit B12 per week and take 65 mg of ferritin iron everyday.  These are the vitamins you need daily and you can add to them as needed when you do have labs and see what you are lacking.  I take vit A, Zinc and vit. K to feel in areas that I am short on.  Good job on not gaining any weight back and taking a stand to keep it from happening.  Come here daily for advice or just lurking.  Glad to have you.

Thanks!

I started tracking again today on fitday.com, and I took my iron pills, and I'm about to do my sublingual. I'll print out your post, along with a few other guides I've seen here at OH, and do some vitamin shopping tomorrow.

I am going to lose these eight pounds.

(HUGS).....
as for vitamins - well... I would like to remind you that some vitamin deficiencies may cause permanent damage.. you may not know you are deficient until the permanent damage is done. And that means that even when you start taking them later - it can't be reversed.   That scares me enough to take my vitamins and minerals.