Lissa

I didn't have a salad until 3 months out. Mine now are usually heavy on the protein items (eggs, cheese, chicken) then some veggies (tomato, cucumber) and last I worry about the lettuce part. I use cottage cheese sparingly as the dressing sometimes, although I do have several different kinds of salad dressing on hand. I just don't really like to have my salad doused in dressing like I did pre-op.

This is the hardest part, but also the most important part. This preps you for surgery and recovery. The better you do on this diet, the easier it will be for you to recover afterwards and to avoid trigger foods. BTW, one of my favorite quotes is: "Do or do not, there is no try". You CAN and you WILL do this. Good luck!!

I self-paid in the US. $12,500 here in Florida with a local doctor who, IMO, is amazing! Mexico wouldn't have been an option for me at all because of pre-surgical complications, but many people have had great experiences there. My insurance doesn't touch WLS at all, so it was self-pay or nothing for me.

I second the nomination for PDXMan. He's always got great advice for fitness and exercise questions and he's a straight shooter. LilMissDiva (or Stronger Diva or Fitness Diva, I can't keep up! LOL) is another great choice. I know she's admin, but she's at goal and still going strong on exercise and supporting others, both here and in other forums. There are tons of posters here who would be great as a spotlight. I'd love to see a member spotlight on many of the old-timers, if only so that new people could see their stories and journeys: Sleeve4Me, MassIndex, Tiffykins, MeginNoLa.... I could probably name 50 people off the top of my head for a variety of reasons. Someone who had complications yet was successful with their sleeve would be great. I'd also love to see some of the exercise gurus highlighted. It would be great to have someone who had a really high BMI, yet managed to meet their goal. It would also be great to see a spotlight of the admin team. For me, Alex is just a name. I know he's the founder of the forum, but I don't know his story. Has Alex been sleeved? How much did he lose? How long did it take? The same for a couple of other admin people. I know Susan's story because I haunted the site looking for it. Sorry Susan, you didn't know I stalked you, did you? Perhaps Member Spotlight could become a forum of it's own once there have been a few done.

Sorry, Teach. I just saw this one. Mass Index and PDX Man are both long-distance runners. There's another guy who walks long distances with his dog, but I can't recall his name. He posts sporadically, but it's always something like "X months out, walked XXX miles". All of them are great resources for marathon type endeavors.

I was terrified of surgery as well, but I was more scared of the possible complications down the road IF I survived to have those complications. I watched my aunt have 20+ surgeries for complications of obesity and I decided that have ONE surgery to help cure my obesity was worth it to avoid all those bits and pieces she's had done. She's had 11 surgeries on her eyes alone to try and save her sight, plus surgeries to help her be able to use her arms (not good), and had toe amputations, almost lost her foot (spent 4 months in the hospital for that one alone). I'll take the sleeve, thanks!

You go to sleep, then you wake up. I've never dreamed while under anesthesia.

I lightly smacked my incisions when they itched. It's what I did after I had my tattoo done as well. Something about mild pain causes the itching to go away, especially in areas where you definitely don't want to scratch!

I have obstructive sleep apnea, plus I had DVTs and pulmonary embolisms prior to surgery. My doctor took a ton of precautions for me, which irritated me a little pre-op, but proved to be life-saving for me. I had to have a filter installed prior to VSG and removed after my VSG was done. It caught two clots in my vena cava that could have possibly killed me. I also had to take my Bipap machine to the hospital with me and use it whenever I was sleeping. I admit that I had a tough time using it in the hospital because it pushes so much air and I barely got 4 hours on it the night after surgery. I also took Lovenox shots before and after the surgeries to prevent more blood clots and experienced the horrible bruising. But, I had to be responsible to use the shots and the bi-pap once I went home. My surgeon was very good about stressing the importance of using those medical tools. I wonder if this woman was just unlucky that the tools didn't help her or if she didn't use them well because her surgeon didn't stress how important they were for her? It is tragic that she died. I would never wish that on anyone.

aleach, I'm glad you found a therapist that you like who is also a good bariatric support person! I don't like the one who leads our support group, but I can tolerate her for the length of the monthly meeting. I found someone else who is a better fit for me, which is what we all should do, IMO. Find the person who makes you comfortable.

Almostthere, are you already using the elliptical at home? It's definitely a learned motion, not natural, IMO. If you start using it now, you'll be ahead of the game on recovery after surgery. Make sure you're breathing deeply and not panting and it will be much easier.

Pookey, You're so right on the breathing. That's one thing the trainer at the gym told me, that I have great breathing. I exhale while I'm exerting myself (with weights) and inhale as I slowly relax the movement. I also breathe deeply, which is something I learned in high school choir. Since he said that, I've been paying more attention to how I breathe when I'm doing cardio and it seems to help me get through when things get tough during intervals on the bike. The more attention I pay to breathing deeply and not panting, the easier it seems to be to do those high resistance portions. I'm using it on the helliptical, too, and that's getting easier. I may actually try the treadmill again soon! LOL

I'm religious about waiting 30 minutes after eating before drinking. My first incident with getting sick happened because I ate pasta and bread, then took a drink right after eating. It was a shame to donate that good food back to Carrabas' parking lot!

I use my Fit Bit in combo with my fitness pal, but whatever works for you is good! I just accepted your friend request on MFP as well.

Well, he's great at marketing, eh? Copy your post and show it to him. He's not the one who has had to deal with your struggles and his fad diet gimmick isn't what you think you need, so just tell him NO THANK YOU. If he continues, let him know to cease and desist or you'll have to put limits on the friendship. Good luck!

Walking is great, but slow down a little. If you're feeling faint or dizzy, you're overdoing it a little. Keep walking, just ease up on yourself. You're not going to get the benefits of the jump start if you injure yourself right now!

I know that keurig makes a decaf that tastes pretty good to me.

Some of the mio flavors do that to me. I really like the strawberry watermelon and the orange tangerine flavors myself. However, if I put too much into a water bottle, it definitely isn't a pleasant feeling. Kellog's makes a protein water mix that's also good to some people. I didn't care for it, but others swear by the pink lemonade and it's got 4 or 6 grams of protein in it, which helps with the protein intake.

Switch to decaf, thinmymind. You can still enjoy the flavor, just avoid the caffeine.

Recommended amounts are probably best received from your doc or nut. I take a regular multi, plus B12 daily (most docs recommend weekly), plus Calcium and Biotin. Others take various Vitamins depending on their body's needs. I've seen and heard all kinds of regimens from various sleevers and I take more/less of various vitamins because of other medications I am or have taken. It's really hard to say there is an across the board recommended Vitamin routine. But, good luck with the project!

I really don't count anything but protein grams and water. 70g of protein, 64oz of water. As long as I'm getting those, I'm cool. On MFP I have 1000 calories marked as my goal, but I seldom reach that.

Dandra, MassIndex isn't trying to bring you down. He's pointing out that apple juice is a choice you can make, but he's also saying that you may want to keep an eye on it. Right now you're losing weight almost effortlessly because you are early post-op. However, once you're a little further out, you may want to revisit whether apple juice is something you want to keep in your diet. It does have sugar and carbs, which might cause a problem later. Crystal light and Mio drops will both give you that sweet taste you're looking for without the sugar and carbs. This may be important as you get further out from surgery and the weight loss slows down. Also, for many of us sugar causes bathroom issues. I know that most fruit juices send me to the bathroom very quickly and it's not pleasant. Now, with all of that said, there are some things that many of us do while on liquids and mushy stages that we don't do later. I ate a lot of instant mashed potatoes during my mushy stage, but I threw out the box once I was back on solid foods. I despise instant mashed, but it was a big help during the mushy stage. It's all about where you're at in the dietary stages post-op and you'll figure out what works for you as you move forward. Good luck.

Have a cup of decaf. Caffeine is a diuretic, so it robs your body of the water it needs. In order to make up for it, you'd have to drink twice as much water as coffee, which is often hard to do post-op. Also, you've just detoxed your body from the caffeine, why not stay detoxed from the caffeine? I drink decaf everything these days.

Bikerchick, you just gilded the lily! I adore sliced cucumbers! That would be a great combination!

PEvette, I totally agree with you. IMO none of us became obese without having some kind of major food issue. I used to eat my problems rather than deal with them. Instead of confronting someone about how their behavior made me feel, I'd eat something to feel better. Food was my drug. A lot of folks aren't real happy with me IRL these days because I now stop those same people and call them on it when they attempt to treat me like they did before. Some days it's really hard to change the habits of a lifetime, but it's definitely worth it.