CraftyChristie

How did your appointments go today?

Hey everyone and thank you so much for the feedback... it's nice to know others have experienced the same feelings! I got away for the weekend and really helped me calm down... but now my appointment is TOMORROW! So I am feeling nervous but luckily not quite as nervous as I was feeling before

Welcome Edie! Thanks for sharing your story. I am the same way and I only weigh myself once in a while. After surgery I will weigh no more than once a week and I may even stick to only at doctor's appointments. The scale can easily affect how you view your progress and I plan to focus on what **I** am doing right, what I can improve upon, how I am feeling, etc without letting the # on the scale affect everything. I see too many people (including my former self!) obsess over every little action because of what the # on the scale says. I think it's fantastic that you are teaching this to your daughter, too!!! Glad to hear you had such a speedy recovery - that gives the rest of us some hope that maybe it will be the same for us!

I *KNOW* you are not alone because I think MANY of us have the exact same problems. I am fortunate enough to have been seeing a therapist specifically for food issues for the past six months and that has really helped me to face a lot of things. Also the book Intuitive Eating really helped me with a lot of the emotional baggage and I would HIGHLY reccommend this book. Although it is about a way of eating, it has a lot of amazing stuff in it that allowed me to let go of some of the guilt. I read that in Jan 2008 and it changed my life and since then I truly came to love and accept myself even at 300lbs. Now I know when I loose weight with my sleeve, it won't be just the weight loss that will make me love myself, I already do and I can just truly enjoy what happens. I won't be waiting for a certain weight or certain clothing size to make me feel good about myself because I already do. I really hope this might help you, it helped me more than I can say. I even stopped biting my nails (a lifelong problem until that point) and my gum chewing addiction (sounds silly but it was fairly serious.) That book allowed me to somehow let go of those things and I haven't done them since, in about 2 1/2 years now. Best of luck and all of us are here for you when you need to talk!

This is good to know - so I am guessing these breath strips as well as gas-x strips are things to arm ourselves with LOL! Tiffy, where does one find a tongue scraper? I haven't heard of that.

Hi there and welcome!!! You will be sure to find lots of support here in these forums! I don't have a surgery date yet but it will be sometime in early June I think so I will let you know and we can be buddies and go through this together! I am using a doc here in Denver so can't help you out in that department but I've heard the name a lot so I'm sure plenty of others here have used him. Wishing you all the best on your journey!

ooohhhh claim jumper has THE best mozzarella sticks... but.... guess that's not a good idea LOL. I think the chicken idea is a good one, you can bring the rest home and use it in any type of dish.

Hmm I don't know how refinancing might affect it... but good luck and I hope you work something out! I will definitely be updating when I have my surgery date :thumbup: :wink1:

Just to throw this out there, from what I have heard it is not only about it being uncomfortable.. the air bubbles of the carbonation can stretch out your stomach and allow you to eat more. Over time this can be pretty damaging to your ability to eat small portions. So that's what I'm going to focus on to try to get myself not to have any!

Hi there! Just wanted to tell you that my husband and I are doing this together also! Hoping June for me and July for him!! I totally agree that doing this with your best friend is the way to go. We are going to be a great support system for each other. I wish you all the best and let's keep in touch!!!

Hey there! I don't know if you own your home or not, but if so a home equity loan is a good option, that's what we are doing!

Great list! I have been compiling a list like this in my head lately. The shoe thing you mentioned is a big one for me, I can NEVER find shoes as my feet are extra extra extra wide. I hope that changes. Here are a few things I am looking forward to... - Crossing my legs (something I've never done in my life.) - Wear boots (they never fit me width wise OR around the calf) - International travel without worrying about the smaller sizes in other countries (plane seats, bus seats, train seats, elevators, bathroom stalls, etc.) and actually being able to buy clothes as souvenirs if I would like. - Arms of chairs not digging into me. - Eating in public without my choices (good or bad) being judged by onlookers. - Lots of hiking - Snowshoeing (right now I exceed the weight limit for all the snowshoes I've seen.) - Fitting comfortably into all restaurant booths - Less pain in my back, feet, and knees!!

I thought I would post this little update. I went to Target last night and found some great stuff!!! The dark blue bowls in the front are actually from the same set as our current dishes so that was awesome, and they call these "dipping bowls." I am estimating they hold about 1.5 cups so they are too big for early on but I still bought them since they go with our dish set. Then I found these four clear bubble glass dip bowls - they vary slightly as they are hand made glass but they are about 1/2 cup in size (measured them with Water last night.) Then I got the white melamine stuff - the small plates are appetizer plates and the other ones are dip bowls (1/2 cup capacity). (the glass ones were $1.99 each, the plastic were $0.99 each). I also scored some rubbermaid storage containers. The small ones are exactly 1/2 cup and the larger ones are 1.25 cup. I figured these would be great for measured portion control on the go. NOTE: My husband is having the surgery also so that's why I bought so much as both of us will be eating this way. He also works and will have to take his meals to work so I figured the rubbermaids would help him with that. :wink0: Sorry I don't remember the price on the rubbermaids.

Welcome Maddie. Yes I think what you're feeling is totally normal! I don't have my surgery date yet, but when my doc told me I should consider having this surgery I went through those emotions about going through this surgery for something "self inflicted." Then I went to the seminar put on by the surgeon, and the things he said made me feel so much better. Namely, the fact that 3 things come into play - genetics, environmental, behavioral. He said genetics loads the gun and environmental fires it, and then we develop these behaviors that are extremely hard to reverse. He also shared statistics that when it comes to those 100lbs overweight or more, even with a combination of diet, exercise, pills AND counseling, you still only have a 2% chance of succeeding at the loss on your own and keeping it off. 98% will never succeed. When you hear all of that I think it takes away a little of the guilt over what have YOU done to yourself because there are so many with this problem, and so few succeed... so obviously it's not just you. I tried to start looking at it as a life-saving surgery. Even though I am not sick enough that I will die tomorrow without surgery, that's kind of like saying I don't need to stop smoking because it won't kill me tomorrow (I'm not a smoker, but just sayin'). This life is unhealthy and is slowly killing me. Also look at it as improvement... what I mean is if you had only one foot and it made your life harder and you could get yourself a prosthetic foot and get your life back, wouldn't you do that? Now what if you lost that foot because of diabetes caused by your weight... does that make you any less deserving of getting yourself the prosthetic foot and getting your life back? I don't think so :wink0: I am rambling but... I know how you are feeling and wanted to tell you some things that helped me to get over that guilt. I have realized that by doing this I am FINALLY doing what I have never done before, which is deciding that I am worth it and I deserve a better life. Also every since we set the consult date with the surgeon hubby and I have both been going through the mourning the loss of food. We've been eating all of our favorite bad stuff and sort of saying goodbye. It was worst the first week or two and kind of wearing off now but I expect I'll probably go through it again when my surgery date gets set. I think it's only natural. This way of life is what we know and it's scary to change it... but it is all going to be so worth it in the end!

Your experience does sound "textbook" in a good way :wink0: I've heard the same thing from many people about their first several days post op... you should be able to drink more soon! And the weakness is really common because of being on liquids and not eating. People seem to feel a lot better 3-4 weeks out and regain their strength. Thanks so much for sharing. Wishing you all the best and looking forward to your 1 week update.

Thank you for the info it is really helpful. I'm so sorry to hear that your hubby's hip is doing so poorly... will he be able to have the hip replacement? I hear you on the leftovers, we've been thinking about that part too since we don't have kids yet to feed the rest to lol. But we have family members who never cook and would probably appreciate the leftovers, Thank you again!

Hi... I'm Christie. My husband and I both want to get the sleeve this summer. I am SO THRILLED that he wants to do this too, for so many reasons. I was wondering if anyone out there is post op and has been going through this journey with a spouse or significant other that also had surgery! I am wondering does it make it easier to keep on track? Are there challenges about doing it together? I think overall it will be a great thing because we will understand what each other is going through, and we will have to make the same changes. But I also worry there will be that 'partners in crime' feeling if we want to cheat or skip exercise and whatnot. I would just be very curious to hear some insights if anyone has done this journey together! Thanks!

Tiffy, have you had your thyroid tested recently? Maybe it's possible that you have developed hyperthyroidism? I don't know what can cause it to develop but maybe all the changes could have brought it on. If it was that it could be as simple as adding another pill to have you happily maintaining.

that must be a great feeling!

Barbara, I'm in Colorado too!! We should just get together I've been talking to another woman who also lives in Monument! I am up in Northglenn. Anyhooo... if you REALLY want to give them away I would take them!! hehe! Of course it will be quite a while until they fit me (I'm a size 26 right now). I am fairly short too, 5'5", so they might work for me but would have to try them on to know, so I gotta be that size to try them on lol. But I don't want to buy too many clothes as I'm on my way down so I will take you up on it if you really don't mind. I think we should totally start a clothing trade on this board... to be able to send bigger things to people who need them... and then when that person is done with it they pass it on to another, wouldn't that be cool? Maybe I'll post a thread about it:thumbup1:

Zephra... welcome!! :thumbup: