nyxa

you poor thing! just have to try to calm yourself down.. find something else to think about & focus on that.. cpap determines if you have sleep apnea & if you need a machine.. it measures your oxygen levels & they see if you stop breathing & stuff while you sleep. i don't like wires, either.. i kept ripping my heart stuff off when i was in the hospital for my liver.. i even had a panic attack & cried.. just listen to some music or something if you can.. and try to relax.. and ease your way into sleep.. i know that i had an anxiety attack & could barely sleep at all.. it's no fun.. wish i could give you a hug or something to help, if that would help. :/ poor thing. bless your heart. edited: had to fix my glaring spelling mistakes... now that i've had some sleep.. lol xD

COsleeveDude.. you sound like the lady from The Hunger Games... May the odds be ever in your favor! lol you're right, though. also.. if you got the sleeve & then got to goal & then moved away.. how cool would that be?.. you'd have a totally new life!

too bad it doesn't boost your eye sight and hearing.. lol i'd be like hells yes, where do i sign? lol wls makes you superhuman! lol xD thank you guys for your honesty.. and for the lol's! some of you trying to phrase things politely was so funny.

ohhh.. you poor girl, NDN_RN... *smh* jeez.. that must have been really embarrassing.. you poor girl! lol it's nice to know that we're not alone in having these horribly terrible embarrassing moments.. kinda feels like a relief to tell someone about 'em & get it off your chest. lol

lmao @ "make those shakes your b***h" xD butterthebean.. rofl. xD

bless your heart! i'm sorry you got embarrassed like that. but you know.. it'll be over soon & you'll never have to worry about being too big for anything again. you have already hit the bottom of the barrel & things can only get better from here on out! by next summer you'll be riding the single slide & no one will even remember that, that was you. i know how embarrassing it is, though.. similar stuff has happened to me, too.. i have one "friend" (i use that term lightly) who constantly likes to tell new people in our group about how i broke a chair at a restaurant at my 27th birthday party... he thinks it's the funniest thing ever & it kills me every time he does that.. i get so embarrassed & my heart just sinks.. at least that won't happen to you, cause no one at that Water park knows you. lol and i'm sure a lot of other people on this board have had equally embarrassing (to them) moments.. that's part of what lead every single one of us to this site & to either do the surgery or at least research it.. because we all know that we HAVE to do SOMETHING & we all want to be normal! so... at least you've done something to correct your problem with weight & you're never going to be 300 anything ever again!!!

oh.. also.. what about slow cooker recipes?.. you can look up some recipes or go to amazon & get some recipes for all kinda stuff.. and you don't have to do much other than wash the stuff, cut it up & throw it in the pot.. then come home to a perfectly cooked meal.. i saw some recipes for asian & indian slow cooker recipes.. so it doesn't have to be just roast beef. there's also recipe books and sites out there that have lots of recipes for just 2 people, so that could help with portion control & variety for you & your hubby, or if you wanted to make something & save one for later. in regards to you only being able to eat the same thing so many times.. i totally understand & am the same way. lol but lasagna freezes pretty good & you can make individual portions, just by choosing saller eggplants and making enough for 1 or 2 meals for yourself, if your hubby doesn't want to eat leftovers. the good thing about freezing stuff.. when you're hungry, you'll have an assortment to choose from! lol you can freeze pesto, Soups, stews, chili, sauces, etc.. i dunno if you like asian food or not, but you can look up some korean food (maangchi.com, aeriskitchen.com, etc).. a lot of those are pretty low carb & good for you- like the doenjang chigae, bulgogi, etc.. bulgogi, you can wrap it in some lettice leaves & dip it in some soy sauce/sesame seed oil mix & go to town. you can also make or eat some kimchi (low carb & has probiotics).. they make cucumber kimchi, radish kimchi, cabage kimchi, etc.. you can replace the sugar with swerve & cut back on or omit the rice flour/mochiko powder.. japanese food is awesome, too (http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog/).. they're 2 of the healthiest types of asian food... miso Soup would be easy and delicious to make. and they even sell it in packets where you just add Water & microwave it. those would be great if you're in a rut & just need to eat something.. it's mostly broth, with a few chunks of tofu & some seaweed in my house, we have a rotiserie chicken and bag-salad as a stand-by.. cause everyone has lazy days.. where they don't wanna cook. if your hubby doesn't wanna eat leftovers, then just swing by the grocery store & grab a chicken on the way home, so it's fresh.. it tastes good & will fill the hole, as my mom would say. now if only i could follow my own advice...... *looks guilty and ashamed* lol

in regards to things that are "sugar free".. you may not want to eat them, either.. aspartame is poisonous to your body & is actually made from genetically modified ecoli poop. yep. google it! lol none of the words in that sentence were good! "genetically modified" "ecoli" and "poop".. YIKES! sucralose & splenda are 1 molecule away from being bleach.. so try to avoid those, too.. best "alternatives" i've found are stevia or swerve. swerve is expensive, but tastes like sugar.. it's made from fruit FIBERS, not the sugary part of fruit.. and it's safe for diabetics and has no calories, just like stevia... without the funky aftertaste. they make powdered swerve, too.. so you can still make stuff that uses powdered sugar.

i'm feeling a lot the same way as you.. also sorta feeling like... "i can do this on my own, i just need to get my head right." but i figured i would still learn all i can about this, just in case i fail... AGAIN... lol and then at the same time, i am like "if you could do this on your own, you'd be skinny and gorgeous by now! not fat and flabulous!" lol and then i think.. as fat as i am, i can't really afford to fail again.. so.. maybe i DO really need this surgery. it can help me where i've failed all my life.. then i go back to making up reasons why & how i can do this on my own.. and back to this.. and so on.. lol unlike you, i am scared of not waking up from the anasthesia.. cause that's happened to someone in my family & i wonder if it'd happen to me.. i'm weird (or at least feel weird) because i wonder what they will do with my stomach if i have the surgery.. and as weird as it may seem, i also think "can i take it home with me?" lol not to have a weird keepsake or anything, but because it's mine.. damnit! i was born with it, i wanna take it to the grave! not have it in some mysterious place that i have no idea what will happen to it or who's body parts it'll be mixed with... lol i think wondering about all this stuff is normal... and put it into perspective.. at least you're not the one who said she wants to take her stomach home with her... so.. i guess you're pretty well off. LOL

LOL Jenny.. well at least you don't have to go shopping for depends, too. also.. don't forget your friend.. amazon.

i'm just curious.. does your stomach heal completely after you've had surgery?.. like.. the stitching dissolve?.. or will you always have the stitches? i know it seems like a stupid question, but after reading someone else's comment on a different thread, it made me curious.. i just assumed the stomach would heal.. thank you for your time.

animal protein also contains casein, which is known to cause cancer (watch: Forks Over Knives, or read The China Study).. which is why i want to avoid animal products as much as possible.. (but currently don't, because i'm in the process of weening myself off of them).

maybe it's your body detoxing & caffeine withdrawall?.. i hope you get to feeling better ASAP! <3 my heart goes out to you

i think a Protein shake would be great when you are in one of those times where you need to eat & your blood sugar gets low. outside of that.. maybe plan your meals a bit better?.. spend 1 day making your meals for the whole week or figuring out what you can make from the leftovers of one of your meals... sorta like what rachel ray does on one of her tv shows... she'll take a couple chickens & make 'em last for the whole week & it only takes a few hours to prepare everything. you can get bento boxes to help with portion control.. or maybe that STAX system from reshapethenation.com. another thing you could do is keep a rotiserie chicken on hand, along with some salad mix, so you don't have to make poor choices. but i guess that goes back to meal planning.. if you wanna go back to your veggie thing.. one meal that could last for a long time would be eggplant lasagna.. eggplants are really low in carbs and you can use seitan or some other meat substitute if you want to & make a yummy lasagna... all low carb. have a side salad.. and you've got several meals there. stuff like turkey meatballs & zucchini Pasta could be good, too! by zucchini pasta, i mean you get your potato peeler & make "noodles" from your zucchini with that. no actual pasta! cause you can make a lot for the whole week. my ex boyfriend used to make a giant salad mix & eat that throughout the week.. and.. again, if you wanna do the veggie thing, you can make "green smoothies" and those can be a meal. there's lots of recipes for 'em, but most are banana & a handfull of spinach & some berries of your choice, sweeten with stevia to your taste & there ya go. you can add Protein powder, too... or whatever you want.

what about nut milks?... like almond milk, for example?..

if you buy vanilla, you can make a "green smoothie" type thing.. where you can add a banana and some berries to it.. like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.. and you get a lot of "banana & berry" flavor.. but to be honest, i usually go for chocolate or strawberry. i normally wouldn't pick strawberry, but if you REALLY don't like how the powder tastes, strawberry seems to have the strongest flavor to mask the taste out of the 3 (no matter what kind of protein powder i've tried) & you can also add a banana & more berries to it to make it more palatable. or another option would be to use flavorings from mccormick or whatever brand.. like they have vanilla extract, pinacolada, jamaican rum, lemon, orange, etc.. maybe add some of that to your flavor of choice.

a lot of the complications people think of are from folks who've had an RNY/gastric bypass... my aunt works for hospice & says that there's a lot of weight loss surgery people who are in hospice centers, even young ones (20's & 30's) because they can't digest food properly... and they dump everything they eat & are dying because of it. at least with the sleeve you won't have that, or won't have it AS MUCH.. i guess it is possible to dump when you have the sleeve.. but at least your intestines are still intact. if your mind is made up to have the surgery, and if you're anything like me at all.. then of course you're going to fail and end up just wasting your money on another diet. i would suggest just going through with the surgery & tell your friend thank you for caring about you enough to try to offer you another option, but you know yourself & you have your mind set on the surgery. on the other hand, if you try medifast & it works & you feel better after you've dropped some weight, you may be inspired to start eating right and exercise and just lose your weight that way. maybe it could work for you. only you will be able to decide what's best for you. but if you really believe you're just going to mess it up, i'd just go for the surgery.. it's a permanent solution & you can deviate from the diet, but it will be a LONG time before you can stretch your stomach out and hopefully you'll feel so great & look so great that you won't want to.

if you don't like stevia, you could try swerve.. http://www.swervesweetener.com/ outside of that, it's a great recipe! i'll have to try it. thank you!

it means that it still tastes gross, but it's all of the bad flavor with nothing to make it remotely palatable whatsoever. at least that's been my experience. the closest thing that i can think of in regards to what i've experienced is... chewing all of your Vitamins up at once and wishing that there was some sort of flavor to make it not taste so terrible.

^^^ explains the differences between the sleeve & plication. plication is an unknown, experimental procedure that folds the stomach.. it can cause scarring, ulcers, and other stuff & if you have complications, they don't know if they can fix it or switch it over to a different surgery (like the sleeve or bypass). it also sounds really painful, because the doctor said that the stomach can get so inflamed that it rips itself open from the sitches which requires another surgery. i'd rather have the sleeve.. the sleeve also helps with dealing with physical hunger. hope that helped. but to answer your question.. you're not crazy to want help with your weight problem.. but i don't think that you're very big.. you could eat healthy- which you would have to do if you got surgery anyway- and exercise.. and your problem would be taken care of.. but there are people who have this surgery that are 200lb.. i mean.. i dunno your specific situation, but if i weighed 200lb, i would be pretty happy & look forward to exercising to get the rest of it off & not having to worry about excess skin & stuff.... but you know what they say.. different strokes for different folks. one thing you may consider, instead of surgery, would be going to mexico, canada or europe & having that gastric balloon thing put in your stomach.. http://www.obesitysurgerycentre.com/procedures-right-for-you/gastric-balloon/ << there's info on that procedure. what they do is put a silicone balloon in your stomach & fill it with saline or air & it makes your stomach small, like if you were to have had a gastric bypass or sleeve.. it's fully reversable, too.. only down side that i've read is that it can only stay in your stomach for 6 months.. but.. you could be to your goal by then & it'd be easier to maintain your weight... so something to consider! good luck to you, whatever you decide to do!

wow that's amazing! i can see a difference, i especially see it in the belly area! it's so awesome to see your progress! you may not notice it now, but you're probably still seeing yourself as you were or have been the past few years. lol maybe it's just taking some time for your mind to process what's happening to your body, cause you're so used to being bigger than you are now! i'm proud of you & wish you lots more success and triumph! keep up the good EXCELLENT work! can't wait to see how you'll look in a month from now!

wow, you really look awesome! that was a very inspirational post! thank you!

no drinking with food doesn't make sense to me... because what happens when you decide to eat soup? it's got liquid... as well as "food" in it... so... what do you do? avoid soup forever?... if you're sticking with the no spicy food and no drinking while eating... my response would be eat spicy food with soup or broth... so you can slurp the broth/soup/stew/whatever. or just train yourself to get tough and handle the heat. there's also other things you can do to deal with heat.. eat more vegetables or a fruit.. like an orange.. that's another thing i don't understand.. how are you supposed to stick to no drinking anything while you eat.. when you eat a citrus fruit or melon?.. they're mostly water.. what does drinking while you eat something do to your stomach that they forbid you from drinking?.. cause just by eating certain foods (melons, citrus fruit, soup, stew, etc) you are breaking that rule. :/

I'm curious because my doctor has me on a beta blocker to slow my heart beat down.. he says it sounds like my heart is going to beat out of my chest.. resting rate is like 100-108 beats per minute.. so i'm at high risk of stroke & whatnot. just curious if anyone else has something similar to me & could answer my question. thank you for your time!

looks yummy! do you have a recipe?