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This summer, my eight year old niece came to visit, and my daughter was home, too. My daughter is in her early 20's, and has been my biggest cheerleader for weight loss surgery. She's a microbiology major (microbiologist study viruses, bacteria and fungus) pursuing entomology in grad school....entomology is the study of insects...but with microbio she can apply this to medical research, insect vector spread illness, microbial food science, pharmaceuticals, etc. We had her for a month before she left for her internship this summer:) So anyway...My little niecey was coming and I was loading the grocery cart with "kid food"....spaghetti O's and Captain Crunch and pringles and ginger snaps and pizza rolls...and a dozen other crimes against nutrition.....and my daughter.....put her foot down. "Mom, why are you buying that crap?" "Because little Chickadee isn't on a diet, I am." "Um...we all share genetics, Mom, this isn't a kindness. And watching her eat junk could be a weird pathological transference of food addiction." "So, I shouldn't buy any kid friendly food?" "You're on a serious diet preparing for surgery. You don't need to buy this crap. No, you don't. Why don't you let me handle getting things for her?" I'm always amused when my daughter puts her foot down with me...so I conceded. But my daughter didn't buy anything....which worried me. A couple days later, little Chickadee came for her week long visit, and we went grocery shopping. She adores her big cousin. Two peas in a pod...both biology nuts. They go canoeing and hiking and look at pond water under the microscope and collect bugs and play weird genetics games online together. So we're at the store and my daughter goes..."Chickadee, pick out three things you'd like to try. Any three fruits or vegetables that you want." Chickadee thought this was fun...so she picked out....an eggplant (because it was purple), a starfruit (because it was cool), and a hunk of ginger root (because she wondered what it was). After we got home, my daughter showed Chickadee a bunch of recipes using the three ingredients, and asked her which ones she'd like to try. They decided on a Thai chicken dish because it used both the ginger and the eggplant, and the starfruit could be part of a sweet salad. Chickadee was thrilled with ginger tea. Slice the root up with a little honey and lemon....she was all about it. Yum! Then, they got in this huge discussion about plants and bugs and coconut milk.....and how kitchens are really laboratories....and that tons of chemistry and physics and biology goes into cooking. And they made an Amazing...Healthy...Dinner. Chickadee was proud of it. She learned all sorts of stuff...had a wonderful time with her big cousin....and no one ate spaghetti O's. For the rest of her visit we planned our meals around the produce that Chickadee picked...(with a few gentle suggestions from her cousin) At the end of the week we all went to a farmer's market and Chickadee fell in love. She brought home all sorts of healthy foods to try, and got some succulents and flowers....and spent way less money than I would have spent on junk food...half of which would have been thrown out. I'm humbled by what a cool kid I raised and what an awesome mom she's gonna be someday. Or professor, or researcher, or maybe all three. And I stayed on my damned diet and really loved watching the girls make better choices for themselves.

Just to let you all know, I chose the surgery! I need to better my health. Need to look forward and not in the past!! Sent from my SM-G930V using BariatricPal mobile app

Anyone else get one of these? We each got this weird stuffed bear with instructions on how to hold him against our bellies to brace for coughing. He's made to kind of fit against you and provide support. He's kinda fun....wears a little teeshirt that has illustrations of your procedure on it so you can show people with a visual. Weird, but kinda sweet. He has no butt. LOL And he's kinda ugly.

Sucks, I never received one! Sounds weird and cute.

Isn’t there some kind of law against calling a teddy bear ‘kinda ugly’? 🤣🤣🤣

I couldn’t do the protein shakes so I bought protein soup and protein fruit drinks which went down much easier. I bought them in the BariatricPal store. Have you tried those?

Haha. Made me laugh, I say that all the time. I don’t weigh often at home, but like you there was a five lb difference from the last doc visit. I’m guessing I should change the battery for when I do. Thanks for that!

Ha ha! That's awesome Creekimp!

IVe been asking this question a lot too since my BMI is right at 40. All the answers I’ve received - even from the Bariatric program coordinator at my surgeons office - tell me no, the BMI they look at is your starting BMI. That being said, I’ve had a couple people recommend that you don’t lose any more weight than the insurance company’s required percentage. Good luck!

My nutritionist said to make sure to keep calories up to 1200 a day...that it will help with the severity of hair loss.