kellyw74

My starting weight was 280, I weighed 262 when I seen my surgeon and he wanted me to get down to 240. So I had to lose 22lbs. So, not quite 10%. I really don't know how many calories the diet is. I don't think it tells you that. It is just very high Protein, low fat and low carb. 3 meals and no Snacks. It is really easy to follow and after about a week, I was NEVER hungry!! It is very well balanced and easy to follow. Start it as soon as you can. I exercised, just walking and the weight fell off me. Kaiser Richmond does not have a liquid diet. Thank goodness!! Kelly

congrats and good luck on your surgery!! Kelly

WOW!! look at you!! GOOD JOB!! Kelly

Hi Bryn, I was able to take pills the same day as my surgery. I could NOT take Vitamins becuase they were TOO BIG!! until week 4 when I could eat soft foods. I say if you can eat soft food, then you can take vitamins in pill form. I had to go to pills because the chewables made me sick too!! I take Centrum because it is complete and even has Iron in it. I also like the BA chewy lemon, chocolate and carmel calcium citrate. They are YUMMY!! If you haven't tried them, get some. I also have the Citracal + D and take that too. I alternate chews and pills. I reallly like the chews, but have to have 5 daily, so I have a few and a pill. Calcet also has Lemon bites that are yummy as well. they kinda taste like lemon cake. The BA lemon ones are like a Starburst kinda and the caramel are like a Werther's. The chocolate is just like a choclote chew. Super, super good. Kelly

Hi Bryn, I was able to take pills the same day as my surgery. I could NOT take Vitamins becuase they were TOO BIG!! until week 4 when I could eat soft foods. I say if you can eat soft food, then you can take vitamins in pill form. I had to go to pills because the chewables made me sick too!! I take Centrum because it is complete and even has Iron in it. I also like the BA chewy lemon, chocolate and carmel calcium citrate. They are YUMMY!! If you haven't tried them, get some. I also have the Citracal + D and take that too. I alternate chews and pills. I reallly like the chews, but have to have 5 daily, so I have a few and a pill. Calcet also has Lemon bites that are yummy as well. they kinda taste like lemon cake. The BA lemon ones are like a Starburst kinda and the caramel are like a Werther's. The chocolate is just like a choclote chew. Super, super good. Kelly

I think that is REALLY LOW calories for your weight!! I know we put our trust in our dr's. and want to believe what they say, BUT my dr. wants me to eat 3 times a day and NOT to snack. I AM sleeved and when I do that, I can only consume about 300 calories a day because I can only eat about 3-4 bites of anything at once. I told him I wasn't losing and he said VERBATUM to me "If you are not losing, you are eating too much!!!!" Are you kidding me?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? I took it upon myself to switch things up because I KNOW my body was starving!! Which is what I am sure yours is doing!!! I now eat 3 meals a day and a few Snacks to get my calories in. I make sure to track everything I put in my mouth too using myfitnesspal.com and i try to stay around 800 calories a day when I don't exercise and 1000 day when I do. My point is, dr.'s don't know it all. Not everything works for everybody!! Everyone IS different and the 3 meal a day trick was not my bag. As soon as I ate more, I started losing again!! Find out what your caloric needs should be to lose and go from there. You can still eat right and exercise, but I GUARANTEE you need more food if you aren't sleeved yet. Just my 2 cents. Good luck! Kelly

I had my surgery May 9th of this year and the only person that knows is my husband!! I didn't feel it was anyone's business and I really did not want to hear all of the negative b.s. from people. I lost 55lbs pre-op, therefore, as I continue to lose nobody really questions my loss. It really is a personal choice to tell or not. I choose not to. kelly

GOOD FOR YOU!! KELLY

I agree the staff at Kaiser Richmond is AWESOME!! I too was sleeved there May 9th of this year. My surgeon was Dr. Fisher and he is THA BOMB!! Start your pre-op diet that is in the binder as soon as you can. It really sets you up for success! Good luck to you and keep us posted on your journey. Kelly

WOW!! GOOD FOR YOU!! You look AWESOME!! Kelly

Nobody except my husband knows. NOT EVEN my mother!! Thankfully, she lives in another state and I have not had to tell her yet. I will when I see her, obviously she is going to see the difference!! LOL I had went on my pre-op diet and lost a lot of weight before the surgery and so afterwards I just kept losing, so at work, nobody really questions me. That is nice! Kelly

i can only speak for myself, but i wanted to tell you that I HAD a BMI of 43 last year. I did my pre-op diet and lost 55lbs before surgery. my surgery was a breeze for my surgeon and i did not have one complication, was not sick and went back to work on day 7 after my surgery. i believe that losing as much weight as you can makes it easier on you. i also exercised a lot and became stronger before surgery that helped too. i have lost 43lbs in 13 weeks, so I believe I have lost a fairly good amount of weight, about 3.3lbs a week on average. I really don't think my recovery and down time would have been so great if I wouldn't have lowered my BMI before surgery. I am perfectly happy with my loss this far. I would not want to lose it any faster than I am. I also am very close to goal and that makes me Kelly

Congrats and welcome to "the other side" Sounds a lot like me in the begining. You are doing wonderful, keep up the good work! I couldn't stand the protein drinks either and still can't for the most part. The only 2 that I can handle are Pure Protein Strawberry Cream in the can, Vitamin Shoppe has them and Whey Extreme 60 Chocolate from GNC. I have tried just about everything and they all make me GAG!! Good luck to you!! Kelly

Good job!! This is only the begining!! Kelly

My arms suck too!! What book are you all talking about?? Kelly

thank you so much for this!! this is great. i will definatley try to do this. Kelly

I was wondering when will I ever be happy with my weight loss?? When will it ever be enough? I mean, I have lost 96lbs and have less than 20 to go till my goal, but I still don't feel like I am the "skinny" person that I should be. Does it just take a while for my brian to catch up or will I ever be satisfied? I know that I look different than I did 100lbs ago, but I still don't feel like I look as good as I should. Will it ever be enough? I still feel very self-conscious and try to cover myself up like I did when I weighed 280!That is scary! Kelly

I just voted for the 17th or 24th. Kelly

i had kinda the same experience a few weeks ago when i went to get my blood drawn. i have kaiser and you have to show i.d. when you give them your card. i went to the back to get the blood done and the girl that was taking my blood said "WOW, you don't even look like the same person in your photo, you are really skinny NOW!!" i took it as a compliment at the time and thanked her, but afterwards, i thought, did she just say I was a big fat ass before??? I mean i know i was, but man, that was RUDE!! some people just don't have any cooth!! Kelly

My thoughts exactly!! I will not get fat from one or two Cookies, but surely will from 10!! Also not from 1-2 pieces of pizza but will from 5!! That was my reasoning for the surgery too! PORTION CONTROL!! Don't beat yourself up over a few bites of something. You WILL NEVER be able to eat like you did pre-sleeve again. If you have a few bites of something "bad" once in a while, it will not wreck your plan. Just don't do it everyday!! Hugs, Kelly

BOOO!! Kelly

I will definatly save you a spot on the loser's bench next to me!! Kelly

Thanks everyone! Just like this morning, I got dressed for work and put on size 10 pants and a M top and when I looked in the mirror, I felt like I looked 250lbs still. NOT GOOD!! I figure that one day it has to "sink in", I just wish that it would happen soon! Kelly

Hey!! I was slighly anemic before surgery too. After you have your pre-op class (it is the last class b-4 surgery), you will also meet with a nurse practictoner. She will go over all your labs with you and ask you a lot of questions. That is when I found out that I had this issue. Dr. Fisher was not concered at all!! He just said that it could become worse after surgery. AND IT DID!!! I was a mess for about 2 weeks afterwards until I got a handle on it and I take 650mg of ferrous gluconate daily and 2 BA Iron chews. It also got better about week 4 when I could actually eat food!! I feel a lot better now and my labs are great!! I do feel really tired when it is TOM, but that is what made me anemic to begin with. I will probably always have this issue because my periods are HEAVY!! and i refuse to take birth control. I highly dobut Dr. Fisher is postpone your surgery. If he didn't mine, why would he yours??? He knows what happened to me and how I am dealing with it and he tells me I will be just fine! Don't worry too much about it, I am sure you will be fine too!! Hugs, Kelly

You are sill really early out and I would not have been able to eat potatoes that early either!! When you have something that doesn't feel great or agree with you, just wait like a week or two and try it again. I am sure that you are just too swollen to have that right now. Potatoes sit really heavy on your sleeve and with you still being early out and swollen, that many bites was just too much I am sure. At that early out, I did the same thing with grits and felt the same way. 3 bites and I was DONE!! As soon as that swelling goes down, things will feel much better. I could not do tuna salad and was so bummed, but in 2 weeks later I could. Just try it again in a week or so and only like a bite or two. Maybe do some thinned mashed potatoes or thinned refried Beans. Thin the potaoes with milk to make them a little runny and wait 2 minutes between bites. That way if it is not going to work, you will know in between bites and wont have 3 bites in there hurting. Good luck. Kelly