jessiquoi

you still have 2 days, right? today and tomorrow? drink a lot of extra water, and stick to the diet. if it was me, i would call the doctor's office and ask "what would happen if i only lost 9 lbs instead of 10? is there a cut off where the doc won't do the surgery?" without giving any specifics about how i was doing. don't be afraid, just call them. it's not knowing that is the scariest.

Today is my second follow up with the nutritionist, my second of three weigh ins. Getting closer to the goal!

So, everything came back normal after the mammogram and ultrasound on Friday... I'm sorry I didn't take the time to update this thread, I was too busy doing the happy dance. Except the breast center just called me, and the radiologist wants me to come back in to have more films and an ultrasound on the OTHER breast, cause it looks different than last year. They said it's not an emergency, which is good cause I'm out of town on biz until the end of next week. I'll go on 9/3. Wow, I can't believe it's almost September already. I'm almost sleeve-ready!!!

Are you feeling any better today? I hope you are healing and soon see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Yum! What will you have there?

Congratulations! And great wishes to you for the rest of your journey.

Yay!!! congrats!

I know exactly what you mean. The thought of giving up anything that we love is always hard to bear. And we do love our food! We depend on it for comfort probably more than just nutrition, which is how we ended up this way. You know how there are people in your life that, no matter how important they are to you, are toxic? How those relationships just make you feel less, feel bad? These favorite foods of ours, the ones that offer comfort but really steal our health, are toxic friends. If we can't learn to modify our relationship and keep ourselves strong and healthy while staying in the relationship, we have to cut them out. The sleeve is the tool that we will use to modify our relationship with these foods. If we find that we can learn to live with them in a way that's healthy to us, we can keep them in our lives. If we can't, maybe we will have to say goodbye to them for our own good. I'm trusting in the sleeve, and letting go of the worries about mourning food for now. I believe that the sleeve, combined as needed with group support and individual therapy, will help me conquer these toxic relationships once and for all. Be confident, look forward with anticipation to freeing yourself from toxic friends!

Sounds like you really have a handle on this! Congratulations, and thanks for sharing.

Good work on tracking your food intake. Just wanted to say that 15lbs/month is awesome! Congrats on your weight loss to date.

I'm out of the 270s and I just wanted to pat myself on the back out loud. I've been really struggling with this 3 month pre-op weight loss. Every day I fight the demons that tell me it's ok to eat more, I deserve it/I need it. Every day I battle with hunger, something I've never let myself feel for very long in the past. It has never been so very hard for me to lose weight before, because I always did WW, and if I was hungry I ate something, even if it was veggies or a fruit. Now I'm working so hard on getting the habits my nutritionist told me I need for post-op, like not eating between meals, and limiting the volume of the food I eat instead of stuffing myself with veggies. I woke up this morning knowing that last night's intense struggle with my demons would pay off. I hopped on the scale, naked, before Breakfast, after pooping (I know, tmi, sorry) as I always do, and eureka! 269.8. I started the journey over 280. I am blessed with a man who has gone through his own weight loss battle (lost over 100 lbs w/o surgery) and is filled with patience for listening to me as I go through my own private war. I would not have gotten through the night without ordering Pat's Pizzeria's turkey club sandwich with extra mayo, waffle fries and a Pepsi without him. Talking it out helps me tremendously. I am in this to win this, and now I'm convinced I'm going to do it.

I hate to cook! I don't have the patience (my daughter used to accuse me of constantly serving undercooked meals) and I don't have a natural talent for it. I can really relate. Here's what I did to get around it... I DO love to entertain, as in performing. So I decided to make a series of youtube videos of me (trying/learning to) cook. I bought a flip cam and set it up in the kitchen, and filmed myself giving a running commentary of what I was doing. (Like, when the pot boils over, saying "oh THAT'S why they want you to use a large pot".) Occasionally a friend would be a guest star if I invited them to dinner. It made me laugh to do this, and it got me to cook new things, and eventually got me over my loathing of the kitchen. I never even posted the things. Can you think of a creative way to make cooking fun for you? Inviting a friend and cook together also works well for me; we'll cook two or three Entrees and portion them out and split the results.

Congratulations!

@@VSGAnn2014, that's a good question. I am not usually swayed by opinion... I'm a strong and confident woman in most every thing. But I know that my view of my relationship with my mother is colored with my own emotions, and nobody would have a clearer view of it than my daughter. She pointed out that, since I'm planning on telling her anyway, I should tell her sooner rather than later because this is the time of year she buys her plane ticket to Florida (she's a snowbird). Mandy suggested that my mom may want to hang around up north until my surgery is over, and will worry more from Florida than Brooklyn. It made sense to me. My relationship with my mom has improved over the years, and maybe this will be another growth point. I don't know, but I am hopeful. Worse case scenario, it's just an extra month or so and in the long run, that's nothing.

i'm going for a mammogram and ultrasound this morning. wish me luck!

so now I've got the other half of my sandwich (my daughter... I call her and my mom the bread of my sandwich, they come at me from both sides) telling me I should tell my mom about the surgery NOW and not to wait. I want to laugh... she's very opinionated and strong willed, and has absolutely no problem telling me what I should do. I don't know where she gets that from, as I still don't feel comfortable doing the same with my mom. I think I will plan a trip to visit mom next weekend (i'm in MD, and she's in NYC) and tell her. what the heck, I've got caller id... I can always choose not to answer if she starts making me crazy about it!

In my life I have gone back and forth between weighing myself every day "to keep on top of it" and only weighing in monthly "to avoid obsessing about the daily ups and downs", and every option in between. Obviously, it made no difference to my weight loss (I'm here, right?). I'm trying to imagine how I will be after surgery. Right now, following my three-month supervised weight loss, I am weighing myself daily. I find that doing that usually leads to me playing games with myself. I eat more than I should/plan/want to on some days, and then make up for it on other days (the ones just preceding my weigh in sessions). But I can't seem to stop yet. I picture myself not weighing in daily... finally getting rid of the obsession with the scale and accepting that the weight will come off when it's ready to as long as I follow the plan. That's a beautiful picture in my mind to me. But I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do it. How do you handle the scale? Why did you choose to do that? Is it working for you?

@@redskins1 check out this post

i really like what you both have said. i think learning to trust our bodies (by listening to hunger and eating intuitively) is a goal, and a sign that perhaps we are cured (or at least in a long term remission) from the disease of obesity. sigh. i'm such a work in progress.

your mom is very lucky to have you on her side.

i have been thinking about this as well. i've been working more vegan meals into our week. i have the feeling that after sleeving, it would be so much easier because there will be so much less eating, you know? do you think that's a fair assumption?

i have a weigh in on Tuesday, and knowing that i am all of a sudden being very very very good. i hate that i'm still playing games like that! i just want to show the nutritionist that i've lost some weight, and then again next month some more, so i will be approved for the surgery. i have yet to stick to the food plan (1200 calories/day) for more than a couple of days in a row. i keep telling myself that after the surgery i will not veer off the plan... i'm just so hungry now!

thank you for all your responses! i suppose if i have to be obsessed, this is a pretty healthy one.

oh, geez, this is making me nervous about telling my mom. she's a consummate worrier, and i had decided to tell her right before surgery, when i get my date. like you, i can't imagine not telling my mother i had surgery (god forbid something happened and she found out after the fact, she would kill me if i wasn't already dead lol). but i figured i would give her the smallest allowable window to express her worries to me. mom will be supportive in her way (offering to come take care of me, or most probably sending me a check), but she will do it with a frown on her face and a catch in her voice as she struggles to keep her fears from me. i know it all comes from love but i hate having to listen to it and see it. actually, i resent having to worry about my mother worrying! so i try to choose not to. anyway, just wanted to say i get what you're going through. remember that when people worry, it's their choice, and not your responsibility. there's a quote i have taped to my desk: "worrying never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy." i try to remember that when i worry about her worrying.

that is such a MAJOR head change! congratulations!