disneyteach

I had a psych eval, but it was a 500 question test. You can read about it on my blog and I have pictures of it. I laughed so hard, it took me two hours to finish the test.

I had United Healthcare and they held up my surgery for three months. Here is the deal, you have to have a co-morbidity and you have to have a doctor that is pretty high standing in this community. I gave up and my doctor's office pushed it through by getting in touch with the right people at UH. Honestly, they were happy that I had the surgery, because they are saving money on not having to buy me diabetic supplies. It is up to your doctor's office to push it through.

I am 2 months Post-Op and my biggest problem with my sleeve is eating out! It is not ordering food, because I am on regular food. It is telling the wait staff I do not want a drink with my food. I am treated like a space alien, when I say "I do not want anything to drink." The wait staff will circle back around and check to make sure I do not want anything to drink and look at me like I am crazy. I love it! On Thursday, The Olive Garden waiter felt I needed a water, so he brought me one, even though I did not ask for a drink. I think I am going to start telling them I have a water/soda allergy! Lets see how they react. Honestly, other than throwing up a few times from accidentally overfilling my pouch, that is the only problem I have. Pre-ops, feel comfortable knowing life goes back to normal pretty much after six weeks, but your stomach limits you and I love it. I just finished eating 10 wheat thins with cheese and I feel satisfied. Before, I would eat the box. So feel confident that the sleeve works out. Read my blog, if you want more tips! Happy Journey!

This is so true. That is why my wife and I split an entree now and I have my credit card out right away. Mainly, because my son has a 30 minute limit. Portioning is where it is at and the smaller dish thing works, though I rolled my eyes at it first.

Anything I want, but only what I can eat. I try to remember to eat the Protein first, then vegetables and lastly, other stuff? It is hard not to dive into the fries first. Like I went to Olive Garden Thursday, I ate a bowl of salad slowly, two bites of breadsticks and a few bites of my main dish. My wife and I split a dish. My son had the kids' pizza, which I finished off later. My wife finished my leftovers. Our bill was 24.00. The other tip I give to you is: Stay away from grease. We were at Magic Kingdom and I thought a taco salad was a good idea minus the shell. It had meat, cheese and vegetables. Perfect! Oh no, it wasn't. The grease had me outside waiting to throw up. That was my mistake.

Hi everyone, It is my 2 month anniversary and I am 74 pounds down and feeling great! I am learning about my sleeve and thinking I have it mastered. I tell you this clothing thing is taking me for a spin. I started buying clothes too small for me, so I can fit into them in a month or two. I have dropped from a size 54 pants to a size 48 pants and I am still dropping. Shirts are easier, because I like them baggy. How did you guys deal with this? I want to look presentable, but I am losing weight so fast, I can't keep up.

Eat Taco Bell. It is a natural laxative. Trust me, i ate some last night, within an hour, I was in my second office!

We are on the same page and same surgery date! I have GERD badly, depending on what I eat. Triscuits were thrown in the trash this week, because they did not do well at work. I ate four and thought I was going to die. Also, grease will upset my stomach. Again, those are things I probably should stay away from anyways. Being 74 pounds down was worth every throw up spell possible!

Your taste will change, so do not overbuy. I like the Lean Shake from GNC. Very popular at GNC!

So I tried out for Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition and made it to the finals. Only 8 people made it. Today, I received a VIP pass for Biggest Loser in Chicago. Should I tell them sorry, I found a better solution. Please read below, I made a correction to this statement. I tried out for Extreme Makeover in January and by the time I received a letter, I was in the progress for WLS. I had surgery last month. So far, I am glad I chose WLS.

I think I should have explained better. I went the WLS route in lieu of a reality show. I would have had to sell my soul to be on a reality show. If you read my blog, you will find out all the stuff they asked me to do. WLS was the route I chose. I wish I could give it to someone who could use it. I lost 53 pounds in 5 weeks and I walked 5.5 miles in the last two days and I didn't have to expose my life or sell my soul for it! Feeding my son McDonald's and getting him to scream he wanted chicken and French fries into the camera is where I draw the line.

I am lost at how my new body works. I have lost 53 pounds in 5 weeks, but I stall for three days and then lose two pounds in a day. I am eating 800 calories some days and 1,200 other days. Usually, I am burning 1,000 calories through exercise. I think I throw my body into starvation mode when I eat less than 900 calories and don't eat all day. I am 5 weeks post op, so I am doing good, but I guess I am expecting to lose 1 to 2 pounds a day, like I did pre-op and the first two weeks.

I have to agree with you on a larger scale WLS population view, but everyone should decide for themselves who to tell. That is a private issue. As a WLS community, if we all told people we did it through dieting, then a person who admitted to having the surgery, would feel like a loser. I know I did, when I originally went to the intro session about WLS. I thought I am a loser, because I can't lose weight and keep it off, like other people. Just like the guy at the gym the other day, who laughed that I ONLY WALKED 2 miles or the skinny people all my life thought if I just put down the spoon, i would be skinny. When all my friends, Facebook friends, family and co-workers came out and admitted that they had the surgery and lost a ton of weight. I felt like a winner and it was normal to get this done. Honestly, I do not know an obese person who has not had WLS surgery to help them lose weight long term. With these stupid weight loss shows (Biggest Losers, etc.), who has six months that they can take off of work? I am sorry I work for a living. Those shows make weight loss look EASY! If I had a personal trainer and personal chef, I would be skinny. Then again, look at Oprah. My whole point is that as a community, if we do not stand up and tell people we had the surgery, other obese and overweight people will be embarrassed that they had the surgery or not consider it at all. I know I was not considering it, until my cousin and my co-worker told me they had it. It is just like Casual Male for me. I hate going to that store, because it is for big men and everyone is watching you go into that store. As there are more and more obese and overweight men in America and we are screaming for name brand clothing, stores like JCPenny and Dillard's have wonderful big & Tall clothing. This makes the clothing company produce hip clothing for Big & Tall clothing for us (Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Dockers, etc.) That is just my take. Again, it is a personal decision. Please everyone do not jump on other people for not telling people about their surgery. Thank God there are forums to help people feel safe, get suggestions and feel loved. You are all great people!

This is a very hot and controversial topic, but it all comes down to you. I agree you should keep it private, tell a few important people or blast it out to the world like me. Again, I blasted it out, because my wife told her family and they will gossip about a dead squirrel and I barely like any of them. So why shouldn't people I like know? It was a wonderful decision I made, because everyone wants to know about my surgery. I have a ton of big friends and they want to know everything. Most likely, they are considering the surgery. My biggest thing is if I kept it private and I died on that surgery table or a few weeks after, like some people have. I wanted to tell everyone I loved them. My major reason for telling people is that the same reason I have a blog and I am writing on this forum, if it were not for people stepping forward, admitting they had surgery and giving me helpful tips, I would have never gotten the surgery. Maybe I would be died a few years from now or had a stroke. The amount of support I get from this forum, a support group, family, friends and co-workers, who have had bypass, lap band or sleeve, is amazing. That is my life, not yours. I have worked with pain in the ... co-workers. So I feel your pain. Do what makes you happy. Remember, every overweight and obese person is probably sitting at their desk googling about this surgery and reading the horror stories. They need support, too. If it means a few people laugh behind my back, go ahead, I rather support other big people and I am doing it 50 pounds lighter and exercising every day! Like I tell people or a former student, who made fun of me because I was fat: "There are solutions for me losing weight. There is no solution for being a jerk!"

People will figure it out. Here is the kicker. I just started a new position and one of my employees already knew I had the surgery. Google will tell your life story. If you do a google search, all these forums that you are apart of will show up. It is your business. Since outing myself on Facebook and at work about the surgery, three people are considering it. I lost 53 pounds in 5 weeks, plus I was out for almost two weeks. Do what makes you feel comfortable.

This is the best secret no one buys. I hate protein powder, but GNC has a pre-made shake called Lean Shake. It sits in the front of the store, because it sells so good. It has 25g of protein, lactose free and is YUMMY! By the way, it is pre-made. I knock one down driving to work every morning after walking two miles. I will have another for a mid-morning snack. Check out my blog, if you want to know what they look like. I drank these pre and post op. Awesome!

You know you can drink those shakes warm or cold. I just drank one I left in the car all day.