SerendipityHappens

To those of us who were researching surgery in Mexico, having the NAME OF THE DOCTOR/FACILITY/COORDINATING COMPANY in the posts was very valuable.. We want to know what the experience will be like with a particular doctor and also the coordinating company and hospital.... Heck, I have my doctor information in my signature. I assure you they didn't pay me for it.

Pffft.. I recounted my experience several times on these boards. I've had people PM me with questions.. I've even had people call me on the phone to discuss my experience/doctor. When you're traveling outside the country for treatment, you want to read about every experience with that doctor you can get your hands on. I know I did.. So after I had my treatment, I paid if forward and recounted every detail of my experience. Choosing a doctor in MEXICO is not the same thing as choosing a the doctor in your city who accepts your insurance... heck when I had my galbladder removed, I didn't check into that surgeon at all. I just laid on the table and let him operate. As to why the entries are so long.. perhaps that is because the Mexico sleeve journey is a bit more complicated than just driving to the hospital. There's border crossing, fear of the unknown as far as neighborhoods, language barriers, dealing with the hotel, dealing with coordinators, etc..

2-6 ounces is what my paperwork considers "normal" I was/am up in the 6 ounce region because I have a long stomach and never had much inflammation. I'm still "normal" and so are you! As for drinking your calories/skipping meals, etc... Some plans advocating supplementing with liquid Protein drinks and other plans discourage it. Personally, I eat meals and supplement with protein shakes/bars.

It's so hard to even imagine having a "normalized" relationship with food.. if I'm not eating everything in sight, I'm counting calories obsessively.. (right now it's the latter) I hope eventually to get to the point where you are.. where I can just kind of make good choices and eat intuitively.... but for now, yeah, it's pretty much logging every bite that passes my lips.

Just did some "during" pics today. I try to do them every 20 pounds or so.. Before is me at 335.. "during" is me today at 256

Yes it is free of both carbonation and caffeine.. It is also very low or no sodium and the "revive" flavor is an excellent source of potassium which some sleevers have a hard time getting enough of. I love VWZ! Drinking the revive flavor of VWZ had helped increase my potassium and eliminated painful leg cramps that I was getting!

I tried everything except bread since I'm wheat intolerant. I tried fried chicken, rice pasta, rice, candy, tortilla chips.. Course I don't eat these things regularly, I just wanted to give everything a try when I was going through my reintroduction phases. Yeah, nothing I can't eat! Pretty much have a sleeve of steel!

OMG, this would help me so much!

when I'm doing very low carb (under 20 net carbs) I do high fat.. When I do semi-low carb, (under 60 net carbs) I do medium fat... The only product I do low fat is Cottage cheese and that's just because I like it better. I use half and half in my coffee, I use whole milk to make yogurt, I leave the skin on my chicken, I use real oil and not Pam for cooking. I eat bacon and nuts weekly. I eat avocados daily. I have room in my diet for all these fats because I'm not eating any kind of grains or root vegetables of any kind.. no corn, rice, wheat, Beans, potatoes, etc... My only carbohydrates come from vegetables, low glycemic fruits and dairy. Lower carbohydrate and higher fat just works better for me... and yes I account for every calorie! .

Nope.. not weird at all.... Being a fat girl is part of WHO I AM.. I have been fat for 40 years. I actually never agonized over being fat and it wasn't until I started being concerned with the health aspect and certain things that I felt limited by.. that I seriously considered this surgery. Fat IS part of my identity.. just like ethnicity, or height might be for many people, it's just what I have always been and it has shaped me. I have absolutely NO idea what it will feel like to be normal weight or who I will be then... It's scary.. but kind of exciting too.

Breakfast: coffee with 4T of half and half and a scoop of protein powder Lunch: Quest protein bar Snack. half a cup of banana-boysenberry "icecream" (ok, it's just a frozen banana and frozen boysenberries run through my juicer, but it tastes like ice cream to me!) Dinner... haven't eaten yet, but I'm having 3 wheat free meatballs with cheese and maranara sauce Snack: A glass of mean green juice (kale, cucumber, celery, grannysmith apple, lemon and ginger)

If you want to tell then tell.. if you DON'T want to tell, then don't.. Just remember that once you tell one person.. you can't "untell" so choose wisely! Personally I've told my sisters and my boyfriend and that's it. I'll let the cat out of the bag to the rest of my family in August when I see them at a wedding I'm invited to. By then I'll be around 240 pounds (hopefully) and it will be pretty hard for people not to notice a 120 pound weight loss! I'm proud of the fact that I'm sleeved...I just didn't want to tell people in advance because I don't want them to have unrealistic expectations.

I continued to log my calories and exercise and tried to be patient... I honestly think that most times when people "break their stall" it's pretty much just coincidence.

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You are setting a fantastic example for your children.. You are facing your problem head on and putting your health first. You are not caring what everyone else thinks, you're doing what's best for you! What you are doing takes both courage and humility.. I know many people who are too afraid of what people think.. I know others who are too prideful.. "I can do it myself, I'm not going to do it the easy way" ... of course they never do.. but they are too proud to admit that they need a little help. Yup, I'd say you're setting a fantastic example for your kids.. Do what's best for you, don't worry about what others think. Stick with it and don't be too proud to accept a little help if you need it!

Hello everyone. I've been obese since child hood. At age 6 I weighed 65 pounds and subsequently placed on my first diet. At age 10 I weighed 122 pounds. By age 12 I was up to 172. By Freshman year of high school I was up to 230......I continued to gain throughout my life, except when I was on a very rigid and strict diet. At 25 I got all the way up to 280 and then dieted down to 230 but couldn't get below... and then started gaining again. My highest recorded weight is 360... I may have weighed more than that. I currently weigh 330 or a little less now since I've been on the VLCD Preop for a week already. ANYHOWISE... When doctors say that you can expect to lose half of your excess weight, it kind of freaks me out because that would still put me at a whopping 240 pounds! (I'm 180 pounds overweight half of that is 90, 330-90=240. Any childhood fatties here can share their experience with VSG?

It's not that I just feel that way.. It's fact. I've always been the fattest by far....Weird thing is now that I'm losing so fast I'm afraid that I'll get thinner than my younger sister, I'll call her sister number 1. There are four of us and she was always the second smallest.. sister number 2 recently lost a lot of weight and got smaller than sister number 1 and now with me losing, I don't want my sister number 1 to be left behind. I'm only 10 pounds heavier than her now and I think it will be really uncomfortable for both of us if I got thinner than her. I live in a different state and sister number2 says sister1 has been losing a bit lately. I just don't want to come back and be smaller than her.. I'd love for us all to get smaller together.

You'll likely be fine to just sit around and visiting for a few hours Just get plenty of rest beforehand.