Caribear

My team is also having me build healthy habits vs. losing weight. However, my program is 9 months instead of 6. I also look at this time as a chance to practice the behaviors that will help me succeed with my sleeve. The weight loss is more of a bonus.

It sounds like you are in the infamous 3 week stall. It is very, very common and it will pass.

Keep in mind, I am pre-surgery, not a medical professional, and all that fun disclaimer stuff. But if I were her, I would keep up with the Probiotics, and also would see if activated charcoal or chlorophyll might be something that would cooperate with her sleeve. Those two things are very good at deodorizing the latter portions of the digestive process. Edited to add: is your friend lactose intolerant? It might be worth cutting out dairy and seeing if that improves her symptoms.

Here is an entire page of Protein ice cream recipes from The World According To Eggface: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2008/08/protein-ice-cream.html

I really don't think @@Bufflehead was trying to be nasty with you, she was just being blunt. I know you have been through a lot since surgery, and sometimes we can get a little emotionally tender during this time, but I am sure she didn't mean it that way. And I would echo her advice - it's really not a good idea to try to rush things while you are still healing. I know it is tempting to skip ahead, but your surgical team has these guidelines in place for a reason. Just hang in there for the next two days, it will be here before you know it.

Can I ask why you chose the HCG diet? Is it through a clinic, or is it supervised by your primary care physician? Just curious.

I have to say that this is not always true for all managed care programs. I have Caresource in Ohio. Ohio Medicaid requires 6 months of doctor supervised diet, and comorbidities if your BMI is below 40. Caresource, however, requires 9 months of supervised diet, and will only approve you with no comorbidities if your BMI is over 50. BMI 45-50 requires one comorbidity, 35-45 requires two or more. The bottom line is that your Managed Care Plan dictates what you are required to do, and that it is always a good idea to get those requirements in writing if at all possible.

I second the ginger tea. You might also want to try mint tea. Hope you feel better soon!

My insurance requires that my doctor supervised diet involves the doctor counseling me on exercise and diet, specifically. I would call them and tell them that you are planning weight loss surgery, and that you need them to help you with the supervised diet. It is also a good idea to get your insurance company to send you a written copy of your coverage for bariatric surgery, if possible. Some companies are picky about what your visits entail, some not so much.

Are you planning on being self pay, or are you going to see if your insurance will cover the surgery? If you are trying the insurance route, you may have to choose a surgeon that is within your network.

I use this one, and it is pretty accurate. It seems like the Eatsmart scale brand is fairly reliable. https://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Bathroom-Capacity-Technology/dp/B001KXZ808/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1466722652&sr=8-3&keywords=eatsmart+scale

I don't think freezing would affect the protein. The World According to Eggface site has recipes for protein ice cream, and she doesn't seem to have any issues with that. Let us know if you try it, and how it works for you!

Thank you for this!

Praying for you!

I have an extremely hard time with this. I have been overweight since I was eight years old, so I have absolutely no clue what I will look like. The best guess I have is that I will look similar to my mom.

I am also pre-op, but I also had my gallbladder removed laparoscopically, and I can hardly see them anymore. I think it depends on your skin type, but generally I think they are not very noticeable.

You will be swollen for a while after surgery. They pumped you full of IV fluids, and you will have a lot of swelling because of the actual surgery itself. Keep sipping fluids, you will be fine.

I have not had my surgery yet, but I have heard a heating pad helps a lot. Feel better soon!

My mother's reaction was "well, couldn't you just write down what you eat? I am sticking to protein and vegetables and I am doing ok." Keep in mind that she is only about 20 pounds overweight, and that I have been logging my food into myfitnesspal for about five years now. So I know how you feel. I think when most mothers disapprove of this surgery, they are doing it from a place of love. You are her baby, and you are telling her that you are going through surgery and making a huge life change. I would give her a few days to let her get used to the idea. Explain to her that you need her support. Hopefully she will come around.

I can't tell you how much this statement resonates with me. I have never been thin, not since I was about seven years old. Being heavy is just part of who I am, and I have no idea how I am going to wrap my head around being thinner. I sent you a friend request. I am quite a bit behind you so far as the process goes, but maybe we can offer each other some support.

HI all, I thought I would come in and introduce myself. I just started the first steps toward getting sleeved today. Several years ago I was pretty active on here in the lap-band forum, because that was what I decided I wanted. When I went to my first meeting with the surgeon, he tried to talk me out of the band and insisted that I should do bypass or RNY instead (I was about 380 pounds at the time) but I had my heart set on the band. A few months into the process, several of my friends on the band forum passed away suddenly from erosion-based complications. I had already lost some weight and decided that maybe I should just try to do this on my own. And to some extent, I was successful. I lost 120 pounds on my own. But now I have gained half of that back, and I have decided that I am really tired of trying on my own and failing. I went in to see my primary care physician today and told him that I was interested in pursuing WLS again. His reaction was that he would help me through the process, but that he was hesitant because I had "proved that I could do it" on my own. I responded by reminding him that even when I was "successful", I had only gotten down to the 260s, which is far from a healthy weight. I told him that I had at least 9 months of physician supervised diet required by my insurance, and that if I did somehow manage to lose the weight on my own during that time, I would not have the surgery. I also reminded him that even though I am "healthy" (read: no co-morbidities yet) at 330 pounds, that I have a family history of heart disease, and that hauling around this much weight is a huge strain on my heart. He agreed to help me through this process. Anyway, it is nice to meet you all! Like I said, my insurance requires 9 months of physician supervised diet, so I will be here for a while.

I'm quite a ways north of Dayton, about halfway between Dayton and Lima, but going to Premier Bariatrics (Good Sam/Miami Valley) for my surgery. I saw a thread from a while ago by some Dayton people, but it doesn't look like any of them are still active on here... I would love some local folks to talk to!

Hi all, I am just starting this whole process. I go to my informational seminar in January. The doctor's office sent me a packet of paperwork to complete, and they asked me to call my insurance company to find out the requirements for approval of the procedure. I have Caresource Ohio (medicaid) and when I called to ask the requirements, they told me I must have, among several other things, nine months of physician assisted/supervised diet within the last 24 months. Has anybody else had to do nine months? I thought it was six? I'm not too put off by this, because I know this is what I need to do, and any weight loss is great with me, but I was just surprised. I have one more question, and it may be a dumb one, but I have to ask. Does the bariatric doctor's office do this supervised diet, or is this something that I have to do with my family doctor? Or is that something that just depends? Sorry so many questions, I'm just a little confused. Thanks for any help you can give me.

:.( She will definitely be missed here. I will be praying for comfort for her family. <3

The story you are about to read may be hard to believe. It is the kind of story that would occasionally make it into my email inbox, and I would scan it briefly before clicking delete and muttering about how this kind of junk gets past my spam filter. If it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't believe it. But it did happen to me, and I pray that you read this and consider what it says. A few weeks ago, I was watching my favorite Christian television station. The show was a talk show-type discussion about hormones. I almost changed the channel, but something (Someone) made me stop and listen. The woman on the show was named Dr. Barbara Hoffman, and she was talking about her line of bio-identical progesterone creams. They discussed how progesterone balanced estrogen, and how it was very important to choose bio-identical over synthetic. Synthetic progesterone can do all kinds of awful things in the body, because the body just doesn't always know what to deal with it. This includes birth control pills and shots. I began to think back over the past few years, about how my health began a downward spiral after I had my son. Then it occurred to me that it was after I had him that I started on the depo-provera shot. I started to research progesterone, and came across all kinds of literature that talked about how progesterone deficiency can cause all kinds of problems, including some that were hauntingly familiar: fatigue, weight gain, mental fuzziness, painful periods, cravings for carbs and sweets, and body pain, to name a few. And on other pages, I read that depo-provera will cause the body to stop producing its own progesterone, since it is a synthetic form of the hormone and causes the body to think it has enough. After about a week of research, I decided to go ahead and order the cream that I had seen on tv (Better Heath Naturally ProHelp Moisture Treatment Cream). I figured that I would try it out, and if it made me feel bad I would stop, but hopefully it would help me with some of my fibromyalgia symptoms. When the cream arrived, I went ahead and put it on as per the directions on the container. That day, I didn't feel any different. The next day, I used the cream again, once in the morning, once in the evening, as the directions suggest. I thought I could notice a little bit of a difference, but brushed it off as being psychological. The third day, I woke up, went downstairs, and started making breakfast for my son before I realized that my body didn't hurt. At all. I went through the day without saying anything, because I again thought this must be a psychological thing, or I was just having a good day, or something like that. But my boyfriend noticed that I was much happier and seemed to be in less pain than normal. And after a few days, I had to say something. I had almost no pain. I was able to play with my son for the first time without hurting. I had tons of energy, and I just felt good. It just felt so good to feel good again. Then I noticed that I was starting to go longer between meals without being so hungry. While before I was counting the minutes until the next meal, now I could go for hours past "meal time" and not even notice. But what really got me was when I passed up chocolate. My son brought home some Easter candy, and was trying to feed it to me, but it just didn't sound appetizing. When it hit me that I had just passed up chocolate, I had to run and tell everybody I knew about this stuff. I have gone about a week now with no cravings at all. When I eat, I actually feel full before I am done, and it has helped me cut down on some of the high-processed carbs that are so bad for me. I sleep better at night, even though I have stopped taking my sleeping medication. Plus, I am cutting down on the meds that were previously keeping the pain in check, and am still feeling great. I feel happier, and my son loves being able to play with me without being afraid of hurting me. The scale has been going down steadily, but I have noticed that my body seems to be changing a lot more than it was. However, I'm confident that it will start going quicker soon, since I am more active and eating less. I know that no single thing is a "magic bullet" for everyone, but I just had to tell you all about how this cream has helped me. I am including a link below to the site where I bought it, and also the site of the manufacturer where you can read a little more about it. If you are considering trying this, please do some research first. Some women do fantastic on this stuff, but some don't. But if you are one of the ones that are helped by it, then it is so worth it. http://shop.daystar.com/ http://www.bhnformulas.com/