MlkPas

That's fantastic! Congratulations and keep up the great work!!

I agree with the others. If possible, I'd suggest putting off the surgery until after the sleepover.

As of today, I weigh what it says on my driver's license! Which is hilarious because it was a HUGE lie when I gave them that weight in the first place!

If you leave a ready-to-drink Protein shake in the trunk of your car for weeks, it will eventually spring a leak and your car will small like a dead skunk. That is all. :biggrin0:

I went through a phase at maybe 3-4 months out where I was eating more carbs, and I also felt hungrier and wasn't losing as well. The best thing to do is just concentrate on the protein and avoid the "white carbs." It's not the veggies or brown rice that will cause you problems -- it's the bread and chips and sweets. If you continue to avoid those, you will do fine. I have learned I can't have white carbs in the house, and it's a small price to pay to have the scale moving again!

I go to business events all the time, and the reality is nobody notices that I'm not eating much. I put some food on my fork, wave it around a little, put it back on my plate, pick it up, wave it around a little more, eat a bite, talk a little, take a tiny sip of my drink, nibble on a tiny bit of my dinner roll, put a little more food on my fork, wave it around a little, put it back on the plate, wave it around a little more, put it back, repeat until dinner is over. If anybody says anything, I say "it's very good but I'm just not very hungry tonight," and that's that. But I make it a game to pretend to eat and it almost never comes up!

I have a video of mine, and from the first incision to actually pulling my stomach out of the largest incision, it was about 35 minutes.

I've been noticing something kind of sad lately. I have several friends online at non-diet-related forums who have been posting about how they have gained weight, or regained weight they've previously lost, asking for tips about how to lose weight and keep it off. And you know what? It just makes me sad, sad, sad. I've known most of these people online for years, and all of us have been dieting unsuccessfully, or losing and regaining, all that time. I feel so freakin' lucky that I was able to have this surgery and that my weight is finally coming off for good (and I've been open about it with these friends and they have been very supportive), but I honestly have no idea what to say to people asking for diet tips. The reality is, diets don't work unless you stay on them forever. You have to eat way less than you want to, you have to be hungry, you have to bust your butt in the gym, you can't ever let up even a little, and then if you are very very lucky and are able to make your diet and exercise program the main focus of your life FOREVER, you may be able to lose your excess weight and keep it off. And if you're not able to do that near-impossible feat, then you hate yourself for being weak. Man. I guess I'm just rambling at this point, but I have been there and done that for so long that it just makes me all kinds of sad to see the people who are still stuck in the diet trap. I guess the best thing for me is to just keep my cyber-mouth shut when the topic of diets comes up, huh?

Holy guacamole! You look incredible! You are rocking that sleeve!! Congratulations!!!

I take it on a case-by-case basis. I haven't told most of the people I work with, because it's private medical information and it hasn't come up. Also, I have a fairly high-profile job and I don't want people gossiping about my health and my weight. I have told all my close friends and they have been almost entirely supportive. I have had a few people ask me point-blank "what have you done to lose that weight," and I've told a couple of them about the surgery and been vague with a couple of them. I guess my line in the sand is I don't volunteer the information willy-nilly, but I won't lie about it. If somebody asks what I was doing and I didn't want to tell about the surgery, I say "I'm exercising more and eating less," which is true. If somebody came right out and asked if I'd had WLS (which is honestly unlikely because I started out as a lightweight) and I didn't want to tell them for whatever reason, I'd smile and say "that's a very personal question and I decline to answer."

I don't have a card and wouldn't use one if I did -- for some reason it just seems "TMI"-ish to me and kind of makes me twitch. That said, I don't hesitate to order an appetizer instead of a full meal, or share with my DH, or order off the kids' menu. California Pizza Kitchen has a great grilled chicken breast and broccoli item on their kids' menu, and I just say "I'm on a very strict diet and would like the kids' grilled chicken," and they take my order without a problem.

As for the question about requirements if you're self pay, it's really between you and your surgeon. My doc told me there are FDA requirements for the band because it's a device that's regulated by them so you have to meet their BMI requirements and so on, but for the sleeve it's up to the doctor's medical judgment. I started out with a pretty low BMI (32) but with my history yo-yo dieting and the fact that I was gaining weight as I got older he didn't require a higher BMI or any co-morbidities. He did require a psych clearance, but I was able to provide a letter from the therapist I'd been seeing for a while for other issues and that was fine with him.

I'm so happy to see you bouncing back so nicely and so quickly!! You've got a great attitude and you are going to do better and better from now on! You go, girl!!

It's not the insurance company's fault. Your husband's employer decided not to offer a WLS benefit to its employees. Its choice, not the insurer's. Seems like you have two choices: Pay for the sleeve yourself (like many of us here did), or find a job yourself that offers bariatric insurance benefits.

I'm doing better, finally. I joined the gym, too, and have been working with a trainer twice a week. Closing in on 35 pounds lost and a "normal" BMI. Fitting into my smallest clothes, which is great. I finally feel like you could pass me on the street and not think "fat" as your first impression of me. Good luck with 6 more by October, kalew!

I took a week and a half off work. Had my surgery on a Wednesday, took off the rest of that week and all the following week. I could easily have gone back to work the first Monday, but was glad to have the extra time to get used to my sleeve. I took vacation time because I wanted to keep my surgery private.

I'm 5-1/2 months out and I can eat a whole taco, but if I do I know I will feel Thanksgiving-dinner full! I feel like I eat pretty normal amounts of food, but it is WAY WAY WAY less than my DH or DS eat, and I couldn't even begin to eat an entire restaurant meal. (Although I can, on a good day, polish off most of a 240-calorie kid's grilled chicken breast and broccoli meal from California pizza Kitchen. Again, though, Thanksgiving-full!) As for drinking, my surgeon said it's not the end of the world to have a few sips of a beverage with a meal, and I did at first, but I've gotten out of the habit because the liquid takes up space in my stomach that I'd rather use for food at mealtime! If you're eating slowly and chewing adequately, there's really no need to "wash your food down," anyway. I am surprised every day by how little I can eat and how satisfied I am with that little. I feel amazingly normal -- in fact, I feel more normal than I ever did before surgery, when I wanted to eat everything in sight and was never satisfied until I had done just that! And I had one piece of Papa John's pizza for dinner tonight and it was just awesome.

I am generally in the "don't borrow money for anything except a house no matter what" camp, but let me tell you, this surgery is so life-changing that I would advise anybody to do whatever it takes to make it happen. For me, being fat and feeling hopeless about doing anything about it was just so awful, on a truly moment-by-moment basis, that having this surgery and finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is just a miracle. So... chin up, eyes front, keep your eyes on the prize, and don't let the jerks get you down!!

Breezy is totally right! I went through a period about 3-4 months out when I was eating a lot of "slider" foods like popcorn and cupcakes and Cookies. My calories were still low, but I was getting pretty snacky. And guess what? My weight loss slowed to a crawl and I was going nuts!! When I cut out the junky stuff and concentrated on getting all my Protein in, my weight loss started to speed up again, even though my total calories went UP! Go figure, huh? I also got serious about exercise and now I'm working out with a trainer twice a week, which is doing wonders for my mental state as well as my body. And this month is shaping up to be my best weight-loss month since the first month, even though I've gone from under 900 calories average per day to over 1000.

I eat out a lot, and I have a hard time finding anything even remotely reasonable to eat. Fortunately most of the chain restaurants have nutritional information online, so I can prepare ahead of time. The people I work with like to go to California pizza Kitchen for lunch, and my go-to order there is the grilled chicken breast and broccoli plate from the kids' menu. It's a total of 240 calories, and usually I can't even finish it! When I go out with DH, I just eat a few bites from his plate and am extremely satisfied. Generally between the two of us we can't even finish a restaurant-sized meal!

I'm a lightweight like you with just 60 pounds to lose. I am losing slowly, no doubt about it. I'm 5-1/2 months out and have lost 34 pounds, which by weight loss surgery standards is losing very slowly indeed. In my fourth month I only lost about a pound and a half and thought I would go crazy! But I took myself down to the gym and got myself a personal trainer and now the weight is coming off nicely again. I'm just a pound away from 130s, which I haven't seen since I got engaged to my DH, 12 years ago! Bottom line for me is that I've been struggling with my weight since I was 9 years old -- that's FORTY YEARS of being obsessed with weight, food, and dieting every. single. day. This surgery has been a miracle for me, and even though it's taking longer than I'd hoped and expected for the weight to come off, I expect to be at my goal within a year of surgery and, more important, I expect the weight to stay off. I could never, ever, have done it without the surgery. Best money I ever spent.

Nobody at my workplace has even mentioned my weight loss, much less asked about surgery! LOL If and when it comes up, I have decided that I will not lie if asked a direct question about surgery, but I will not volunteer the information. If somebody asks, "What are you doing?" and I say "I've drastically reduced my portion sizes and am working with a personal trainer," I've told the truth even though I haven't volunteered the fact that I've also had surgery. If somebody asks "Did you have gastric bypass?" and I say "No," that's also the truth, although at that point I may or may not clarify that I had a different surgery, depending on who's asking. If somebody asks, "Did you have weight loss surgery?" I will either say "yes," or I will smile and say "That's a very personal question and I don't want to get into it."

I'm among the few who had very few fears about the surgery. Probably because I yo-yo dieted for FORTY YEARS and knew, deep down in my heart and soul and down to my toes, that I would never, ever, ever in a million years be able to diet down to my desired weight and stay there. Never, ever, ever. I had lost significant amounts of weight in the past by literally making a career out of it -- working out for an hour or more every day, spending hours planning and preparing and logging my meals, passing up social events so I wouldn't be tempted to overeat, and so on. Oh, and I'd been in therapy for three years, too. (During which time I lost 20 pounds and regained 30!) But the weight always came back, plus some, whenever I let up even a little. And I just. plain. wasn't. willing. to. do. that. any. more. I knew that for me it was either resigning myself to being overweight, or getting the surgery. I'm five months out now and I love my sleeve and my new life. I know for a fact that I WILL lose all the weight I want to lose, and more important, that I will be able to keep it off. My compulsive eating urges and behaviors are 98% gone, and it feels incredible to be a light eater and to be satisfied with tiny portions. It's normal to be apprehensive, but the upside is SO worth it! Good luck to you!!

I'm a lightweight so my numbers are naturally going to be smaller than everybody else's. But I want to let you know that in my fourth month I only lost 1.6 pounds and it about drove me crazy!!! I just went to FitDay and figured out my losses for each month, at it looks like this: March (2 weeks): 8.6 April: 5.6 May: 5.8 June: 1.6 July: 6.6 August (so far with a week to go): 5 Total: 33.2, which is more than halfway to my goal, and just 5 pounds away from a "normal" BMI. I noticed that after things slowed way down in June, they really picked up again and July and August have been much better. I did up the exercise -- I started working with a trainer at the gym twice a week in addition to taking tap dancing classes twice a week, and I also try to get in a good walk another day or two a week. I have actually INCREASED my calories to an average of just over 1,000 per day, making sure to get all my Protein in, and I think that's helped, too. I think almost all of us, no matter how much we have to lose, feel like we're losing too slowly! I know I started out thinking I was going to lose ALL my weight in six months, and now I realize it's going to take the better part of a year. But the point is, the weight is coming off (I'm a week or so away from seeing the 130s for the first time in YEARS!), and more importantly, I know that this time it's going to STAY off!!

I have a protein shake for breakfast every morning. I get the premixed ones from Costco, and at 30 grams of protein they give me a good head start on my protein for the day. I do have to drink them slowly because otherwise they upset my stomach, so I just take one to work, stick a straw in the container and sip the shake at my desk over the course of about 45 minutes to an hour.