Vixynne

You had a Cinderella moment--okay, I know, Cindy was LEAVING the party, but still! Great excuse to go shoe shopping!

Sorbitol and xylitol, two sweetening sugar alcohols that are often used in sugar-free gum and candies, can give people stomach cramps and diarrhea if overused, as well. There's also a thought out there that gum chewing--like straw sipping--leads you to swallow extra air, which can cause gas and bloating.

This makes me SO happy. I'm sick of never being able to wear truly gorgeous "eff me" shoes (sorry, it's what I've always called them), because they never seem to come in wide withs!

I love the idea, as long as both of you are able to recover together without being too run down--you'll each need to be just a little extra self-reliant while healing, unless there's someone else at home who can lend a hand till you're both back to 100% energy levels. If you can get a "two-fer" discount, go for it!

"Good" carbs were defined by my nutritionist as things that are high-Fiber and not highly processed. Beans, vegetables, whole grains--with the bran and the germ left intact--unprocessed/unsugared fruits, milk; these are preferable carbohydrates. "Bad" carbs are easier to quantify. Is it processed? (Ex: white flour, white rice) Does it have added sugars? (Ex: Check out the label on a loaf of Wonder Bread. Sugar is the second ingredient after processed flour.) Be cautious of foods where an added sugar, like high fructose corn syrup, is in the first three ingredients listed on the label. Another generic rule of thumb for plain old healthy eating that i learned many moons ago (but didn't always follow, of course) is to count how many layers of packaging are between you and your food. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but the foods which are least processed are also closest to their naturally farmed/fished state when you eat them.

You had me at avocado. Yum!

Jiggly Puff totally hit the nail on the head here! You've been hit with a setback, true, but in the next couple of months, you will just become that much more prepared and ready for the Big Day. It will happen--and that is a victory in itself! Just ask some of the folks here who've been told flat-out "NO" by their insurance, or who don't know how or when they'll save up the money needed to do a self-pay procedure. Look at this time as an opportunity to get all your ducks in a row, and try to keep busy by preparing. It's a speed bump, but you'll power past it in no time--and in a year you'll be a brand new you! I'm most likely going to be a July sleever too, so welcome to the home stretch!

Now THAT's a real "slider" food. Nonstick all the way!

Very well-said indeed. Add in a completely out-of-whack sense of portion control, and you have many of my worst food related "land-mines". Thank you for sharing this!

Wowzers, girlie, look at you go! That's a fantastic achievement, congrats!

Congratulations! I'm most likely going to be a July sleever, too--depends on the last few pieces falling into place, but my surgeon anticipates a July date. So happy for you, I'll bet you can't wait for July to get here!

You're welcome! Good luck--your surgery is less than a month away, you must be excited!!

Are you thinking of shopping online or in "real life"? Online, the company "Celebrate Vitamins" has a website<---here, where you can enter in all of your stats and they'll tailor a set of vitamins to your needs--and they specialize in bariatric vitamins. Amazon. com might be a place to shop for the best buys, if you know what you need. If you have a GNC store nearby, they're usually very familiar with bariatric patients and can advise you in person, so that you get the vitamins your doctor wants you to have. Me, I take a Flintstones chewable, Celebrate calcium w/vit. D, 3 sublingual B12 tablets and 10,000mcg of biotin a day; I'm still waiting on my surgery date but I'm trying to get in the habit of daily supplements so I won't forget them post-op!

I'm making a resolution not to weigh every day (ha, we'll see how that goes). Considering how often I broke every New Year's Resolution I ever made, mmmmmaybe I should resolve to weigh myself daily, then break that! I can understand wanting to check the scale often--you just got the best gift ever when you got sleeved, it's natural to constantly want to make sure it's working, and how well it's working. Pre-op, I've lost just a little so far, but it was done without ever checking the scale unless I was at a pre-op visit. Kind of a nice surprise to see it go down, and in a substantial amount. If I had checked every day, I doubt I would have celebrated .3 lbs. one day, and .19 the next, or whatever it was. For myself, those tiny little scale movements would have frustrated me even more. I think I'll try not to weigh more than once or twice a month--but it will be rough!

I'm still pre-op, and I've mentioned this before, but my favorite indulgence every morning used to be a full 20-oz. coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Light (with cream), flavored with Butter Pecan syrup (NOT sugar free) and 2 Splenda, to make me feel like I was making a "healthy" choice. I actually asked the girl behind the counter how many cups that size could use up a full pot of coffee, and she said "Oh, about two." Some days I drank two cups. I told myself it was "two cups" but it was actually more like one POT of coffee a day. Waaaaay too much. Logging in to MFP and finding out there were a whopping 350 calories in each of my morning and afternoon guzzles gave me the shock I needed to quit cold turkey. If I'm taking in that many calories, I want to at least CHEW them! Eventually I'll let the caffeine monkey climb up on my back again, but for now, no cuppa joe for me.

I could make do with just one cup...

Thank you both. It's definitely a whirlwind of emotions. We had a rocky relationship at times, but he was still my dad. Right now I'm trying to reconcile myself to the idea that he's gone, in addition to understanding that what he wanted (no funeral, simple cremation, ashes to go to relatives out of state) trumps whatever idea I had about what his end of life arrangement should be. Easier said than done, but I'm working on it. One way I'm doing that is by putting a lot of thought into what it is I would want to happen after my death--which are really the only arrangements I have control over anyway.

Holy cow! Did she think hearing you might bleed out would LOWER your blood pressure? Gah! The stoopid, it's everywherrrrre. Glad you had her written up, she needs to think carefully about saying that kind of thing out loud. Hopefully she'll think twice next time. Congrats on your success so far!

Depending on your surgeon/hospital's guidelines (which are always across a wide spectrum), clear liquids will probably be what you take in during your hospital stay, usually a couple of days. broth, tea, Jello, Water, sugar-free Popsicles, etc. If you can see through it, and it's a liquid (or like Jello, turns into a liquid easily), that's a clear liquid food. My surgeon will have me on clears till the afternoon that I leave the hospital, and then I will be allowed full liquids. I'll be upgraded to things like milk, cream-style Soups (without lumps or chunks) and Cream of Wheat. If you don't have a list of foods on hand from your doctor yet, Art is right--Google is your friend! Plenty of resources out there for you. Good luck!

For me, it wasn't any one particular "straw" that I can identify. I got tired, I guess. Tired of being "the fat friend". Tired of being told what a "bubbly personality" or "pretty eyes" people thought I had. Tired of shopping in specialty stores to buy clothes I could fit into, tired of passing by all the stylish/cute clothes I wanted in the regular stores. Tired of being exhausted all the time. Tired of averting my eyes when walking past a glass surface so that I could keep my mental illusion of what I looked like intact, rather than face the disappointing reality. I want more from life, and I want more life for myself. I want to live a healthy lifetime with my kids. I want to ENJOY wearing clothes instead of choosing them to strategically hide my flaws and hope I'm fooling anyone. If there's one "straw" it would be watching two of my really good friends have WLS and realize that it was within my reach to be just as happy and transformed as they are--so I'm going for it!!

I can totally understand the need for a place where spouses can talk, question and vent their fears and frustrations--but if it were an unlocked thread in this forum, it would exist for about 2.4 seconds before it imploded, I think. We'd have people arguing pretty darn strongly on both sides of the issue, things would spiral out of control, and the banhammer would wear out. If there were a way to keep everyone separated so the spouses/significant others wouldn't worry about having their threads seen by sleevers, then maybe it would work. ...Maybe.

Another poo-dle! (I was going to add "Go, you!" but you already did, LOL)

I just wanted to add: my father passed away two days ago, and it is the worst thing in the world for mourning family members to feel "out of the loop". Everyone who's taking steps to eliminate drama or bickering, or even to just make sure paperwork is easy to locate, is definitely doing the right thing, IMO.

I'm from New Bedford, Massachusetts; a.k.a. "The Ahmpit of Cape Cawd"!

Have you found any powdered form that you can handle the taste of? I know they seem like a pain, but I take mine to work with me every day and it makes a great Breakfast substitute. When you're out on the road, you can use quick-dissolving Protein powders with a blender bottle--a sippy cup for adults with a flexible wire ball inside to blend the powder into your Water or milk. The powder can be stored in ziploc bags and taken along with you. (One type of Blender Bottle link here) If you really can't stand powders, Isopure makes liquid Protein drinks that are totally clear and premade--but they are pricey in my area. Almost $4 a bottle, which is a lot more cash per drink than a powdered version. The up side is that they look just like a Vitamin water type drink, and there's no washing of a blender bottle needed between meals. I like their coconut flavored RTD, but I can't make myself spend $44 for 12 drinks. Here's a link where you can buy them by the case--12 bottles each.