M2G

Best wishes for an easy surgery/recovery!

My surgeon is big on plastic surgery...I'm not sold...yet. It is worth thinking about, but I haven't gotten any farther than that yet. My surgeon says to him having WLS and not finishing the job with plastics is like driving around an awesome car with no paint. He said I was "too pretty" not to finish the job...lol, bet he tells all the ladies that! I definitely want to wait for at least one year at goal before considering anything...my mind still tricks me and thinks that I'm as fat as I used to be once in a while...need time to adjust to the mental shift.

Definitely do not use an orange as a 'capacity' test. And definitely DO NOT EAT MORE just because you can. The size of the bougie is really just a measuring device, and as someone else said anything less than 40 should be fine with restriction. But definitely to not get hung up on the bougie number! Measure everthing! Do not just eyeball it...you are retraining your brain to recognize an appropriate sleever amount. Use a good food scale or measuring cup or some way of measuring your food. If you follow the rule of Protein first I'm guessing you won't have room for an entire orange after 2 or 3oz of dense protein.

WOW!!! Incredible! Congratulations on knocking it out of the park in your first month!! I totally agree with what you say about the food no longer having control over me. Amazing what not having true hunger can do to our relationship with food! LOVE THIS!

What a thoughtful gift, and I would vote yes on the carriage ride too...cliche or not it's a nice touch. :rose:

Yep, love the camis too! I find the mid-priced ones (like Flexees NOT the expen$ive Spanx) at Ross and TJMaxx. I keep looking for Spanx but so far none have turned up in the discount stores. I will keep looking though! Yay on the smaller panties... I wear 7's now too!

WOW, Paul, that is just amazing! You already know how I feel about the warp-speed that you have lost weight at...it is just jaw dropping amazing and I'm so happy for you! Keep up the good work and you will make that second goal in no time flat!!! Here's to your first goal being met! :Banane02:

Congrats on your loss! I still maintain that having NO HUNGER has 100% made this journey easier...who would have ever thought we could go from thinking about food constantly to feeding our bodies because it is necessary. :lightbulb:

Awesome NSV!!! Love this!

Congrats, you are doing so well! May it long continue...and it's okay to be checking yourself out...we all do it, hey it's part of the fun stuff!

WOW! You look INCREDIBLE!!! Look at your flat tummy! Woo hoo! Congrats!

Hot Mamma! Love this photo!!!

WOW, I bet it feels AMAZING to be DONE! I can't wait for the results, and I'm so happy the pain on the second go-round isn't as bad. Also, um, YAY for free...OMG you are going to look so great! So happy for you!

Congrats, you look great!!! Is all of that post-op loss? WOW, that was FAST girl!

Those are some VERY TRUE WORDS right there! YOU are doing fantastic and you are sooooooo right about the attitude. Makes a world of difference and you are living proof my friend! I am so happy for you, you are totally rocking that new body...you've earned every inch of it. Thanks as always for sharing your journey with us.

http://www.5daypouchtest.com/plan/theplan.html It's like a back-to-basics plan designed for RNYers but it works for sleeve as well (we just don't call it a "pouch") It's going back to where you were right after surgery, starting with liquids and moving through the steps, but condensed into 5 days. Sugar = crack. I am fortunate to be a person who can have a little bit and NOT overdo it, but the more I eat the more I want for sure. So I do have to be careful about the little "bits" of sugar that enter my mouth. Maybe try giving up the coffee and see if it helps. If you can have surgery and lose over 130lbs, then you can elimiate coffee for a few days and see how you feel. YOU CAN DO THIS! Hang in there!

Anyone who is less than 4 months out and hasn't lost hair ...I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn't usually start falling out until 3-4 months post-op. When it stops just depends on how much weight you lose, how quickly you lose it and other factors. It is AWESOME to keep up your Protein and Vitamins (Biotin will not prevent loss, only help grow new hair) but just because you do doesn't guarantee you won't lose your hair. It is extremely common to lose hair after any type of WLS, bypass, band, sleeve, DS, etc. Most people just lose volume, etc. Mine was mostly noticable to me (and my family and my vacuum!) But I would rather lose my hair than be morbidly obese any day of the year!

YAY Coops...I just saw the proof pictures...love this! And yes, I HATE being between sizes so much that it will actually help me determine my actual goal weight. When I'm solidly into the size that I feel most comfortable at I know I will be "done!"

Incredible! You look like you've never spent a day in your life overweight or obese! I do think though that in your second photo, it might be time for new jeans...those are a bit baggy on you! :wink1:

Beautiful!!! You look so fabulous and petite!!! Slow and steady is the name of our game! Love ya Coops!

Wow. Double wow. That just rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are sleeving supa star...congrats! What an incredible milestone!!!!!!! :first:

WOO HOO! See it pays to keep clothing that never goes out of style! I was a good yo-yo dieter and had clothing in every size in my closet from 16-24. Now I'm wearing 12's woo hoo!

WOW! Tremendous difference!! Congrats!

See this is where it gets SO confusing...my insurance (UHC) told me that my approval would be BASED on the very last WEIGH in of my 6 months of nutritional counseling. They said none of the other weigh-ins would be considered. So they told me if that last weigh in calculated me less than 40.0 I would be denied (again since I had no co-morbs.) SO you need to find out exactly what they require. Do you have a case manager or someone assigned to follow you through the hoops? That person would be an excellent resource for you for exactly this kind of reason. I didn't pre-op because my surgeon didn't require it AND my insurance also didn't require it. He felt it was mean to make us struggle to lose weight when we have obviously tried to lose in the past. I did do 24 hours of clears just before surgery but there was nothing said about having to 'shrink my liver' etc. My actual surgery was video taped and used by my surgeon so I got to watch it and later he said my liver was "beautiful" so I'm not sure...I think this varies from dr. to dr. on the whole liver shrinking thing. I think my surgeon actually has a tool that holds the liver out of his way so I guess maybe that is why he doesn't reqire a pre-op diet. Having said that, I wish I could go back and lose some before because that would put me that much further along, but oh well, what is done is done, I am happy with my loss so far, but of course still wanting to lose more. Good luck, I hope you get all your questions answered by the right person at your insurance co!

Only your insurance plan administrator or bariatric case manager or nurse can answer this question. My plan specified since I did NOT have any co-morbidities, that my BMI was NOT to slip any lower than 40. It was part of the reason that I didn't do a pre-op diet. My surgeon ALSO did NOT require me to lose weight for him to operate on me. Even though my BMI was 44.4 I didn't want to get anywhere close to 40. My bariatric case manager spelled it out specifically that my BMI was not to go lower than 40.0 I just calculated your BMI based on being 5'2" and 216...it came up with 39.5. Definitely time to find out exactly what the insurace company requires!!