southernsoul

I'm a big fan of Chobani yogurt. I love the apple cinnamon, pear, coconut, and lime flavors. One thing I do is add in about a tbsp of Jello SF instant pudding mix, usually either the cheesecake or white chocolate flavor. It changes the texture to be more like mousse. Also, Trader Joe's has pumpkin greek yogurt right now & it's delish!

I have had broken ankles three times & also broken bones in my foot twice. A couple of those times I thought I just had a sprain, but it turned out there were breaks/fractures. I didn't help matters by delaying the trip to get X-rays. Don't be me, honey...go get it checked out.

I've been using the word balance a lot. I feel like this surgery helped me to find some. Yes, I am not always perfect... in fact I am sitting here eating a small lasagna right now as I type this but I don't feel bad about it. You know why? Because I know when to put the fork down (in most situations anyways). I feel like I've been on nothing but diets for the past 15 years. Now I can eyeball what foods will work and not work and usually which ones I can eat and which ones my sleeve doesnt like. I'm getting better at it everyday.
Balance to me is 3 chicken nuggets instead of a 20 piece. There are days I eat really really well and days I don't. BIG DEAL. I hate "diets". Some folks need that restriction because of food addictions but I needed something to slow me down and make me THINK about the food I was eating instead of being a bottomless, never satisfied, pit of culinary despair. Everyone does this for their own reasons. That's mine.

That is an excellent idea. Especially now that I have a whole bag and can't use it as a Protein snack. Thinking along those lines, it would probably be good atop baked cauliflower and cheese.

I would get on the phone with the insurance company & make sure I understood exactly what the requirements are in order to be deemed "medically necessary". Is it being above a certain BMI? Are certain comorbidities seen as more serious than others? You need to understand what kind of coverage your company has chosen, because it's up to each employer to set the rules for what's covered, not the insurance companies. Also, you might want to check with your HR department, since the new calendar year will mean policy changes for a lot of people. And I agree with Beach Lover...your surgeon's office should be more helpful. Check your policy to see what other bariatric surgeons are covered & consider going to another one.

Woo hoo!!!!! Great job, both on becoming overweight & also for not breaking your ass on said crack!

As of today, I am officially 'Overweight'.
That's not 'Obese', or 'Morbidly Obese'...
But 'Overweight'.
Take THAT! Christmas and your calorie rich food which I have thus managed to avoid so far...
(Large-scale Guinness consumption being thoroughly overlooked)

(Before it all went horribly wrong and I fell over in my four inch heels due to an 'unforeseen' crack in the pavement - Classy 'till the last )

I was sleeved in June & my old summer stuff is still hanging in my closet. I packed up all my winter stuff & took it to the thrift store operated by our local battered women's shelter, since I figured the winter stuff is needed now. I will pack up the summer stuff soon to donate to the same place. The few clothes I am actually wearing right now take up only about 2 drawers & a foot or so of closet space.

I am sorry that you are having so much trouble with your insurance company. Do you have the coverage on your insurance policy to have bariatric surgery? If not, there is no amount of comorbidities that will make it happen. If this is the case then you would have to be a self pay as I was. If you do have the coverage and your surgeon's office isn't willing to help then you need to seriously get a different doctor. That is the start of a surgeon's office that I wouldn't want to deal with. Look around for a different doctor and see if they are willing to work with you. If you have the coverage don't stop looking! Best of wishes!!

For me personally, feeling full has made a big difference as well as being able to eat full fat foods. I usually was always hungry when I was on a diet & that would wear me down eventually. Also, most lowfat or fat free foods have sugars added to replace the fat removed & that screws up your body with increased carbs. My postop eating plan is built around fresh whole foods that I cook myself. I don't eat a lot of processed foods, but I don't feel like I have to avoid fats like olive oil, nuts, or real butter. I feel full & satisfied when I eat & my progress is keeping me motivated. Yes, I have to make good choices every day, but it somehow seems easier to do with my sleeve to help me.

One way that I have used Pork rinds post op is as a substitute for bread crumbs in meatloaf or meatballs. I knew that the Protein in pork rinds was mostly collagen (& therefore not absorbed), but when you crush them up they make a great low carb filler or breading for recipes that call for bread crumbs.

One way that I have used Pork rinds post op is as a substitute for bread crumbs in meatloaf or meatballs. I knew that the Protein in pork rinds was mostly collagen (& therefore not absorbed), but when you crush them up they make a great low carb filler or breading for recipes that call for bread crumbs.

One way that I have used Pork rinds post op is as a substitute for bread crumbs in meatloaf or meatballs. I knew that the Protein in pork rinds was mostly collagen (& therefore not absorbed), but when you crush them up they make a great low carb filler or breading for recipes that call for bread crumbs.

For me personally, feeling full has made a big difference as well as being able to eat full fat foods. I usually was always hungry when I was on a diet & that would wear me down eventually. Also, most lowfat or fat free foods have sugars added to replace the fat removed & that screws up your body with increased carbs. My postop eating plan is built around fresh whole foods that I cook myself. I don't eat a lot of processed foods, but I don't feel like I have to avoid fats like olive oil, nuts, or real butter. I feel full & satisfied when I eat & my progress is keeping me motivated. Yes, I have to make good choices every day, but it somehow seems easier to do with my sleeve to help me.

Missed one. Did not know Jonathan Edwards.

So puresouthernsoul and I took this quiz. Two devout agnostics...and we both got just one wrong (And I don't think I got mine wrong at ALL, I think they are confused )
So two godless heathens basically outperformed most of religious America How did you do?
http://pewrsr.ch/1jquoj9

5 pounds of fat:

Fat vs. muscle....why you stay the same or gain weight at times but lose inches:

100 pounds of fat and a bowl of cereal:

Welcome to Heathen Hall!

Lol so glad to see this forum.

I read this piece recently posted on the "Daily writing" blog...thought the line on " I am coming around to a sugar-agnostic position" might tickle you all (since we can hardly take such a position ourselves)....of course I had no idea I could be agnostic about more than religion!
"I thought I knew the meaning of the word agnostic until I read this in an article about the Common Core State Standards:
Some teachers were angered, not by his pedagogical vision per se but by the fact that the author of the standards seemed to be telling them how to teach, even when the standards themselves are agnostic about pedagogy.
Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) coined the word agnostic to describe his attitude towards God and religion. He felt he lacked sufficient knowledge to determine if God existed or not. He formed the word by adding the prefix a- to the word gnostic. The prefix added the sense of “without, not, -less.” Gnostic means “knowledge.” Agnostic means “lack of knowledge.”
The word agnostic can be a noun or an adjective. An agnostic is a person who withholds an opinion as to whether or not God exists. As an adjective, agnostic means “relating to the belief that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (as far as can be judged) unknowable.”
The use of agnostic in a nonreligious context led me to uses I’d been unaware of. Here are some examples:
Progressive adherents defend the Common Core State Standards Initiative as culturally and morally agnostic.
I had to [think of] a recipe that would be apple agnostic—it had to work no matter if they were sweet or tart, red or green, tender or crisp.
“Political agnostics” are people who ignore politics and current events.
“The rescues I knew that did foster homes were mostly purebred rescues, like for collies or Persian [cats],” says Wootton,…”I didn’t know of any that just took dogs, or just took cats…We are breed-agnostic — we don’t discriminate.”
I am coming round to a sugar-agnostic position.
The burgeoning use of the word agnostic in nonreligious contexts may derive from its use in the world of technology. A software program that will run on any computer operating system is said to be “platform agnostic.”
In extended use, agnostic can mean “not committed to a particular point of view, “non-partisan,” or “equivocal.”
To me, the use of agnostic to refer to apples, sugar, and dogs seems more than a little inapt. And a word that can mean “equivocal” doesn’t seem the best choice to describe educational standards."

I love the post above. I actually use the phrase "media agnostic" quite often. We create predictive models that help clients figure out where to put their media dollars to get the best results. While a lot of companies are affected by client decisions, (eg large ad agencies make money when people buy TV ads), we don't care where the client puts their money, we just try to help them make a data-driven decision.
So Media Agnostic, as in, we are not partial to any one particular medium, is quite common. I suppose that's another way of saying "we don't believe one medium is inherently superior to another"...which is the same thing as religion agnostic, yes?
Very interesting point of view.

I'm exactly two weeks from my surgery 1/6/14.
I've noticed that the closer I get, the more "crazy" my thought process towards it becomes.

"Maybe I don't really need this."
"This is irreversible and I love my stomach!"
"I know lots of people said they have had it done... but what if they aren't real?"

Yes, I need it.
Yes, it's irreversible, but my stomach is causing a lot of problems. Begone, vile demon.
Yes, I know you people are real.

It's all anxiety and stress (wheeee holidays) but logic doesn't stop the panicky thoughts.


Have any of you gone through or are going through anything similar?
Did you do anything to relieve the stress?
Any suggestions or helpful/hopeful comments?
Are you SURE you're real? *eyes you suspiciously*

I've told everybody. I've been very lucky in that I've not heard one negative word from anybody, but even if I did I don't think it would bother me much. However, it's definitely a personal choice & what works for one person wouldn't necessarily be right for someone else.

I bought Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients by Colleen Cook, and Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery by Patt Levine. I will confess I haven't made much out of the cookbook, but I like the way it's laid out & it has a lot of diverse recipes.
I've also bought a few paleo cookbooks, since that approach fits in well with a high protein/low carb style of eating. One of my favorites is Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan.

I've seen quite a few people around these parts talking about people they know who have lost weight "on their own" while they personally had WLS and I must say, this mindset makes me a bit pissy.
Before having VSG, I tried every freaking diet out there. I exercised like a maniac. I tried drugs I knew were potentially harmful to my long term health. I resigned myself to being fat every single time I failed before slapping myself around and trying something new or trying something old again and again. I saw nutritionists, I saw gastro specialists. I considered a hypnotist, but I waved that off as hogwash. (No offense to anyone who tried it, just not my cup of tea.) I lost weight, I gained weight, I lost weight, I gained weight, I lost, I gained, I yo-yo'd myself right into a flucked up metabolism and mass frustration for myself and my family.
I finally decided that I had no other options and settled on the Vertical Sleeve after researching my WLS options for almost a year. I went through 4 months with one surgeon before realizing there was no way in H E double hockey sticks could I let him cut me open before starting the process over with another surgeon that I felt comfortable with.
I did all the pre-op work with a nutritionist (whack job!!) figuring that if I could concentrate on losing for those 6 months, maybe I wouldn't need surgery after all.
I saw the counselor (WHACK JOB!!!) and never got to the root of my troubles other than the fact that I am a greedy piglet. (She swears I am repressing sexual abuse in a past life -- no REALLY, a PAST life, not just in my past. Uhmmm...)
I did my pre-op diet for a month instead of the required two weeks because I wanted to.
I exercised my fanny off (literally) over the last 7 months.
I weigh, measure and log my food.
I read labels.
I make good choices putting my Protein needs first.
I make sure to get in my 10k steps every single day even if that means running in place for an hour at 10pm when I know I have to be up, bright eyed and bushy tailed in 7 hours.
I look for recipes that are healthier for my family that I can eat as well but I often cook two meals so they can eat what they like and I can eat what I need to eat.
I put the fork down before I want to so that I don't spend the next 30 minutes bent over the toilet even when it took me an hour to prepare a meal and I've only had two or three bites because ,my tiny tummy isn't tolerating more than an ounce instead of it's usual 3 or 4.
I read menus days in advance if I know I am going out so that I can order seamlessly with everyone else.
I attend parties and conferences and work functions and eat mindfully so I can enjoy the event without calling attention to myself.
I suffer through stalls in my head so that my family doesn't have to hear my incessant whining because I know they've suffered enough of my nonsense over the years.
I appreciate everything my changing body has allowed me to do over the years despite the abuse I put it through and I appreciate how much it's thanking me as I am relieving it of all the excess weight.
I went to kickboxing even when I don't feel like it and now I teach it so I don't have a choice but to go.
I joined a high dollar gym and hired a high dollar trainer, not because I am a high dollar girl but because I am now forced to go.
I look at my saggy skin and my floppy boobs and my melty thighs and my squishy bum and my hangy arms and while I regret that I didn't do this 5, 10, 15 years ago, I smile that I did do it seven months ago.
I am losing this weight ON MY OWN. If you honestly think I'm not, please tell me who is doing it for me. They owe me a whole bunch of money, time and heartache for all the things I've put myself through over the last year+ and I owe them a HUGE amount of thanks for getting me where I am today.