SpaceDust

I'm with you, Vixynne. I'm normally a pretty laid back sort of person, but that just pushes my buttons.

Crab rangoon would be EASY to do, minus the wonton wrapper and frying. Try this (based on a crab rangoon recipe that I really like) 8 ounces light cream cheese, softened 5 oz crab meat, crumbled (canned is fine for this, but drain it!) 1 green onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced (do this to taste - I happen to like garlic in my rangoons, but you can totally skip it if you don't like it) 1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce Blend this up until smooth. Voila, the insides of the crab rangoon! If you want it a bit thicker, add more crab and it should become less cream-cheesy and a bit more crabby

Good luck!

I second emilybites.com - I don't like everything there, but there are some really great ideas!

A little treadmill is fine as part of your warm-up, I suspect - following the logic here, it wouldn't be enough to deplete your muscles, and it would benefit you by warming you up. In fact, I'm supposed to start with 15 minutes on the treadmill or bike before I go start my strength rotations. It's probably more of an issue to try and do an extended cardio session. But then, I'd never heard of this particular thinking before, so I'm no expert by any means!

Congratulations, Alaina! I hope that I have the same success when it's time for my surgery!

I second this 100%. It's much the same as the ex-smokers who become the smoking police. Please, people, have a little compassion and understanding! Not only is it a place you COULD have been, it's a place you HAVE been! Why would you do to someone else what hurt so much when it was done to you?

It seems to not be terribly unusual to have the sensation of hunger in that time frame. One of the things that has been suggested is that it may actually be acid - did your doctor have you taking a PPI post surgery?

The online ones may be your best bet, then. You could also try MyFitnessPal.com - it can be customized quite a bit to focus on what you care about.

I use shakes for Breakfast probably 5 days out of 7, and I have been for a while now. The biggest reason why I do is I am SOOOO not a breakfast person. I like breakfast foods just fine, but I'm just not ready to face eating until I've been up for a couple of hours, usually. However, I have no problem getting in a shake and getting my metabolism awake within that first hour after I wake up. Some days the shake is plain, and some days I add fruit (frozen berries or a frozen half banana blended up in my ON Gold Standard vanilla Ice Cream powder, yum!). Either way, I know I'm doing right by my body to give it something to rev up with. I don't expect to stop doing that post-op. Additionally, now that I've finally got my butt back in the gym, I'm with Butter (and so's my trainer!). I need to have a Protein shake as soon as possible after my strength training. I don't want to waste any of the effort - I am not to the point of considering exercise fun, so it's work for me and I want every molecule of value possible from it! However, I'll be having two normal meals a day, with real food, and a snack in mid afternoon. I'm not using the shakes to bypass that, just doing some appropriate supplementation to keep me at my best.

Thanks, that was the biggest reason for starting back now. I figure that if I am reasonably fit when I go into surgery, I'll hit the ground running, so to speak. Plus, I think it's easier if I have the habits already established to get myself back on track once I'm released to exercise. Hey, no reason I can't go in and use the treadmill even if I'm not up for weights yet the first few weeks after the surgery!

I had my first official visit back at the gym today, and worked with one of the trainers. I have to say that I have now been reminded of some muscles I haven't thought of in a year or more. Umm, ouch. I have to say it's a good ouch, though. I think we pushed hard enough, but didn't go over the edge into "Trish will not be moving for the next 24 hours, thanks - all muscles are on strike". And now I have my fitness plan set up for the next month. It's fairly wimpy, but hey, I am fairly wimpy Not for long, though... I *WILL* be in decent shape when I have surgery.

I was irritated when I found out about the 6 month supervised diet, as well, but honestly, it ended up being a good thing. I had the opportunity to think it through in detail, and work with my dietician to understand what I'll need to do and what it will be like.

What, specifically, do you want to see in your journal that isn't covered in the general ones you've looked at?

I'm so glad you posted! I hope not to fall too far down a cliff after I'm sleeved and get out a year or so, but I'm also a realist and I know it's all too possible for life to impact us in unhealthy ways. It's great to see someone say "Hey, enough - I need to get back on track". Please keep us posted on how it's going, because I think it will be inspirational to others who have had a bit of a lapse to see that it CAN be done!

Excellent choice, Fiddleman! I don't get to Azteca much anymore, but that was always one of the dishes I found tasty.

Meanwhile, how often are you getting your protein? I'd try to get some every three hours. Are you using broths? If so, maybe use some unflavored protein powder in the broth to change things up if you've been doing all sweet shakes - I don't have a real sweet tooth, but I love savory foods, so I find myself needing to do the broth with protein drill quite a bit to make me feel like I'm having a real meal.

For the nausea, you might try a ginger tea - there are a number of them out there. Ginger naturally settles the stomach for many people, including me.

Great to hear! They're on the list of shoes I'm considering right now, but I haven't had a chance to try any or get fitted yet.

I'll have measurements without having to remember to do it, at least reasonably current ones - I get measured once a month at my new gym. Granted that it's over my workout clothes, but as long as I take that into account, it's all relative. But I'm really glad I'll have that - it will help me stay mentally in the game if I can see the progress even when the scale doesn't move!

While I hear what you're saying, I think it is ultimately better for the patient if they are honest and don't "pretend to be normal for 45 minutes". Done correctly, this evaluation is part of determining whether you're really ready to do the surgery from a mental perspective. I've seen too many people come through here who clearly weren't ready, and I feel so sorry that it wasn't caught before. Perhaps if they hadn't been basically telling the evaluator what they wanted to hear rather than being honest with the evaluator and themselves, they could have gotten some more support to be better mentally prepared. ANY surgery is stressful enough, but when it involves the kinds of things that you have to do to come out on the other side, I want to be as physically and mentally ready for the challenge as I can possibly be. I need to be tough to do this right.

I knew one person who didn't pass the first time, and was told they could come back for another evaluation in 3-6 months if they had therapy for the issue with someone who was familiar with bariatric issues.

Good to hear, thanks!

Don't get too hung up on the scale. I know it's "weight loss surgery" but why is it we want to lose weight, really? Some of the common reasons: 1. To be more healthy 2. To be more active 3. To look better So, is it really about the weight? Not so much as we sometimes think. It's about the balance of body fat and muscle in our body, combined with the nutrition and exercise we're providing to our bodies to keep it healthy, in my opinion. Therefore, if the scale isn't moving, but the inches are, I think everything is golden, and here are some reasons why: 1. Healthy: building more muscle improves your strength, endurance and metabolic rate, while dropping a much more important number - body fat % 2. Active: If you're dropping the inches and gaining muscle, activity becomes easier, and the more you do, the easier it becomes. 3. Looking better: Well, we KNOW that if your body is reshaping, losing inches, becoming better toned that we're most likely looking better, fitter, healthier. I'm not saying that the scale isn't important at all - of COURSE we want to get weight off, it's easier on our joints, among other things. What I am saying is notice and give appropriate applause to the progress you're making. Eventually those pounds will start moving again because these other things are happening. Now, that said, I think that you might find it worth trying bumping your calories upward as Imabeskinny said - more Protein, and if you aren't doing much in the way of carbs, maybe introduce some complex carbs back into your diet. I'd also suggest tracking your diet pretty closely for a couple of weeks just to make sure you get dialled in, even if you don't track all the time normally. I have to applaud you for being able to get so much exercise in, and those Insanity routines are intense! Based on conversations with my trainer a couple of years ago, though, you might want to change up your exercise routine now and again to shake things up, too - it seems like you focus primarily on cardio. You might find it useful to do a little bit more strength training - get some resistance bands and learn a few exercises to use those effectively for working the major muscle groups. This will help give you longer lasting metabolism boosts. My trainer had told me that if your body gets too used to a certain set of activities, it tends to get more efficient at them. To get things moving again, you have to throw in new challenges periodically

Has anyone had a laparoscopic appendectomy to compare it with? I ask, because I was back at work on the 4th day after my evening emergency appendectomy a few years ago (surgery on Friday night, back in the office on Tuesday). I'm just curious if the recovery time is similar in your opinion.