SerendipityHappens

Add a bit of garlic powder, salt, minced green onions, onion powder and paprika.... yummy veggie dip Add a dollop to taco meat Mix with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions mint and a bit of fresh dill.

I've lost 28 pounds in two months. I'm down 58 pounds from my highest weight.... and I'm still pre-op. I'm hoping for another 12 pounds in the next 5 weeks to meet my surgery goal weight. Unless you need to keep the weight on because you're so low bmi that you're afraid you won't qualify for surgery, there's no reason that you have to wait until surgery to start losing the weight!

Wear compression stockings and point and flex your toes while seated on the plane. also get up and walk frequently. It's not the actual flying that's dangerous, it's sitting with your legs down without moving, but YOU are in control of how much you move about.

I bought mine 4 months in advance. Typically you can get better deals when booking far in advance.... also less chance of getting stuck in a middle seat!

Size of seats and distance between myself and the row in front of me is very important... I go to seatguru.com before booking flight and put in the flight number and airline and it will tell me how big the seats are... if the seat is smaller than 18 inches, then I don't book since an 18 inch seat is the smallest I can squeeze into with the arms down! I chose jet blue because the seats are large enough and they have lots of leg room compared so some other airlines. Also, they don't serve meals... and since I'm flying for surgery and can't eat a meal anyway, I don't care a bit about that missing perk!

It's usually only a problem in the first six weeks, but achy legs in the absence of another cause is a sign of DVT. A call to your doctor might not be a bad idea just to be on the safe side.

Make sure the carnation instant breakfast is the sugar free kind.. you ABSOLUTELY don't want to be using it if there is sugar in there! (it's not about the calories, it's about the sugar, since sugars/carbs are the #1 most important thing to avoid on a preop)

LOL... I try to "play it cool" too, but even though surgery is still 5 weeks away for me and I'm about ready to jump out of my skin with excitement! I'm sooooo happy for you... you're ALMOST there!

I make dr fuhrman's cashew-orange-sesame dressing in my nutribullet! I also like to just toss some ice and milk and chocolate Protein powder and a handful of spinach to make a nice frozen protein smoothie. For a treat I'll do a half a cup of blueberries instead of the ice and OMG, tastes like harry and david's chocolate covered blueberries! I'm more of a juicer than a blender though. I like blending for fruits, but I do a lot of straight veggie juices and for those I use my juicer becasuse, I don't care HOW awesome the blender is.. there is simply too much cellulose in a pound of kale to make it drinkable!

I was concerned about losing all the weight I want to lose because my highest weight was 360 and I'm only 5'5" tall. I was reading about people can expect to lose 60% of their excess weight and I was like.. man if I lost 60 % of my excess weight, I'll still be FAT. Then someone explained to me that there are people who don't follow the instructions that drive the averages lower. Remember it only takes one "zero" to bring down an average significantly....So if you follow the post-op diet and also exercise, you can lose most of your excess weight. I have seen 400+ pound people on this board lose over 200 pounds and it's very encouraging to me! I am using Myfitness pal to log calories and Protein in order to make sure I'm in compliance . and I'll be getting a membership at the YMCA once I'm 2 months post op (right now I can't afford it since I'm self-pay so I'm spending ALL of my money on surgery) I don't have grand visions of being 135 pounds... but I really think I can get down to 170 which is my goal weight. And I think you can get down to your goal weight too!

This is just SAD. I wonder if these people just don't care, or if they're really trying but just feel THAT powerless over food? Personally I am petrified of making a poor choice after surgery. I am doing all that I can to fortify myself against messing up. I even arranged to take time off of work at the store in order to avoid the temptations there. It's one thing that make a choice that will inhibit weight loss... it's quite another to make a choice that could cause DEATH!

I researched this a lot before deciding to have this surgery too. Even with RNY patients their "pouch" does not stretch, it's the connection between the pouch and the intestine that stretches and the food goes too quickly into the intestine. I have a good friend who had RNY years ago and could eat HUGE portions just a few years after surgery. Her pouch was not stretched, but rather the connection between her pouch and intestine was too relaxed and was going everything was going straight into her intestine and the upper part of her intestine was acting like a huge stomach! With VSG, this isn't a problem because our plumbing is not rerouted so we are left with our original connections which will remain in good working order.. so VSG'rs don't have to worry about this issue.

Old ranges used to be .5-5 for "normal" TSH... Some labs will still point out a TSH of .5 as being "low" but most endocrinologists now consider all the way down to .3 to be normal unless you're presenting with other symptoms. On the other end of the spectrum, many endos are treating for subclinical hypothyroidism starting at a TSH of 3.5 if presented with other symptoms.

I'm on 800 calories a day for 12 weeks prior to my actual "preop". For me, no, I haven't worked out. I work on my feet all day and I do some light walking ( about 30-45 minutes at 2.7 MPH)

My thoughts exactly!

EXACTLY RIGHT. I make yogurt by the gallon. it's much cheaper than store products and tastier too. If you're really worried about doing it right you can even buy a yogurt maker that will keep it at just the right temperature, but I've never had a failed batch just making it in a huge pickle jar, setting in a warm Water bath in a crockpot and covering with a towel. It takes a long time to make yogurt but it's not labor intensive at all.

Although they are fairly new at working with booking agencies and treating americans/canadians, they have done many procedures , they are well trained in bariatrics. studied under dr lopez-corvala. There have been a few very positive reviews on the boards and I haven't read anything negative anywhere.

You can do it! Check out my tickers below, I've been on 800 calories a day since Dec3rd and loving it.. I haven't always been perfect, but it's definitely giving me the confidence to know that I can be successful with the sleeve. It's been a nice way to help me prepare mentally.. and of course I've lost quite a lot of weight! Best of luck! See you on the loser's bench!

You've not seen crazy until you've seen an entire family of SIX, including the grandmother on the back, sitting side-saddle holding a live chicken... all on a little motorbike weaving around donkey carts, motor-rikshaws and begging monkeys. This is NOT an exaggeration, saw it with my own eyes in Lahore, Pakistan.

Pffft, I'm pretty sure you're the MAYOR of Sexytown!

Good for you for getting this exercise under your belt before surgery. I'm trying to do the same they say it will really help us with our recovery!

This post put a huge smile on my face! I'll meet you in sexytown in six weeks!

Get an MFP account. You can pre-log your food for the week and have everything all planned out. You can even customize the meal names/meal times if you want. I frequently do this and it helps a TON to make sure that I'm getting adequate protein and staying under my calorie goal.

I've read some mention that they use a good quality unflavored in Soups or vegetable juice. I have not tried this yet, but I'm getting some unflavored this week and ready to start experimenting. I CAN tell you that you don't want to add to super hot liquids.. or the Protein won't mix in. Also someone on here mentioned that you should give it a few minutes to let the flavors blend and it kind of takes away some of that "protein" flavor.

I use jay robb chocolate in my coffee and it's enough to sweeten up the coffee, but not overly sweet. Also a few have mentioned that they buy unflavored and use in soups or v8 juice. I'm going to start experimenting with unflavored next week and see what I can come up with... My surgery isn't for 6 more weeks but I'm on a high protein-low calorie diet until then so it gives me LOTS of time to get used to the protein... and I'm SO GLAD I am doing this now.