Daydra

I don't wanna hear my feet will shrink!!! Lol. That is the only part of my body that doesn't need to shrink!!! I have spent so much money on shoes. Ya know fat girls have tons of shoes and handbags cause they don't like to shop for clothes. Lol. Oh well, the hubs will just be paying for news shoes right along with clothes. Hehehehe.......

Exactly! They don't have all the "fit" problems that clothes have and you don't even need to look in the mirror at anything above your knees! :-)

USAJobs.gov

Sorry, shoulda finished reading posts before duplicating.

My hubby spends a lot of time surfing USAJOBS as he's federal and we've been through the process many times. Gotta move to move up, so to speak. He could answer questions if you want to PM me.

Ha! Hate when I do that!

There are only about a million variables! :-) Your body will eventually come to a point where it has learned to complete all it's functions on the number of calories that you regularly give it. At that point, to push it to go further you have to change something, usually increase/change your exercise. If I were in your position, I would reevaluate what I'm eating and look for areas to make my diet cleaner and I would increase my workouts, mixing in a significant amount of weight work with my cardio. There are a lot of people here that have done more research and have more experience than me, but this is where I'd start to work toward dialing it in to get to your goal. (This is of course, assuming that you aren't built like an ox (like me) and have little to no business inside your prescribed bmi bracket, or that you have pounds of excess skin causing you to be a higher weight and not necessarily remaining fat.)

Best of luck! Congratulations on all your hard work! I know that you will succeed in reaching your goals!

I totally did it for about a month and 1/2. However, I tried to do it consciously. I didn't eat out every night, and I found that when we went out for my favorite things, I didn't have the desire to eat nearly as much as I had previously, so over the six weeks, I gained 1.5 pounds before starting my pre-op diet. That kind of free-form eating could have easily gained me 5-10 pounds in the past, but with trying to strategize frequency and my subconscious desire to stop eating earlier, I felt totally okay with my small gain. Some docs will have some preconceived notion that if you engage in this kind of behavior, you're not ready, but others believe it's emotionally useful to "say your goodbyes" if you want to call it that. It just depends. It appears to be completely normal and my experience felt reasoned and healthy and had no effect on my performance during my pre-op diet, and post-op, I'm having little to no head hunger or cravings. (other than the liquid diet getting old fast, but it's not like I was craving cheeseburgers )

Best of luck to you!

This may be a silly question, but how does one go about applying for a federal job? ☺

Generally USAJOBS.gov Be aware, though, it's your typical governmental website, with a ridiculously complicated required password that you have no hope of ever remembering without a photographic memory and you'll be required to change it so frequently, you might consider dedicating an entire spiral notebook just to keep track of your current password.

Good luck!

My feet shrank in width so now none of my old shoes fit, luckily I had some smaller sandals in my closet, but had to buy new ones for work, and new sneakers for the gym/walking/workouts..... along with some new clothes.

I took 6 weeks off for surgery, will return to work on Monday, down 37# and 46 total inches so far overall!!! Plus I got a new, short and sassy haircut to go with the new me!

Loving my sleeve and new life!!

First, Congratulations! You've done great work!

Second, NOOOOOO!!!! Say it isn't so!!! I love my shoes! I've invested so much time and money collecting good, comfortable, high-quality shoes! (notice I didn't say "cute" or any of the various expensive brands! :-) I'm so "function over form" that it's not even a little funny!)

My concentration in school was adult substance abuse/mental health/criminal justice. I went to school at 40, have a buttload of loans that I will be paying for until I die. It took me 5 years of applying with the VA to get hired but after years in the social services field, I can tell you that working for the Feds is the only place you will make good money with good benefits unless you want to go into private practice. If you are still in school, I would suggest you attempt to get an internship. My supervisor came on as an intern 23 yrs ago and has never worked anywhere else. You will be able to work in any state anywhere regardless of where you are licensed.

Your comments on compensation are so true. I have a BS in Environmental Science and I work in Public Health (also not known for being a particularly high-paying field). Of my closest friends, one has an MSW and has been working in the field 2 years longer than I have and I make more than $10/hr more than she does, and another has been a therapist for a public agency for about 3-5 years longer than I've been in the field and I make about $5/hr more than she does. I don't have anything special in my background that would explain the pay discrepancy and I view the work as being roughly equivalent in level of responsibility and technical expertise. Both with MSWs. At least with the Feds, compensation is comfortable, benefits are good, and it's generally very stable employment (not withstanding the last few years).

Uh oh, that's totally not cool. I missed that part. No one should build themselves up by putting others down.

I assure you, nothing was directed at any one, group, or condition in particular. Just general ridiculousness... I would not survive without my dark, dry, wry sense of humor. It's an occupational hazard

Hmmm... I was going to post a study about nurses, shift work and obesity rates.

But it looks like you guys have moved on to making fun of people you perceive as being not as intelligent as you?

It's the only thing I'm really good at...

I agree. I am 33 as well and can't believe I didn't do this sooner. I am 41 pounds down from my highest and loving it!!

I'm 36 and I'm actually glad I didn't do it (at least much) sooner. I looked into wls about 8 years ago and got scared off (RNY was my only option at the time). The big difference for me was that in the last 4 years, I've made some very big life changes for the better. I've picked up triathlon as a hobby (apparently I don't do things 1/2 way...), I've finally managed to find doctors that are helping me address my sleep issues so I can be healthier and have more energy, and I've finally managed to find the "right" antidepressant (although, it's already seeming like the sleep/energy issue was more of a problem than I thought, and I may not even truly have depression). I believe that if I had gone through with surgery in my late 20's, I would not have been nearly as successful as I expect, plan, and will work to be now. I think that there are a lot of things surrounding when and how we make life changing decisions. Don't give yourself a hard time for not doing this sooner. You probably just hadn't hit the point where you were truly ready. Congratulations on your hard work and best of luck on future health and happiness!

Stace, could you do humanity a favour? Could you please use your formidable skills, in line with the project you're already undertaking, to develop an 'idiot detector', too? A geo-locating tool that allows you to see the idiots around you and remove yourself from their presence accordingly! I dunno, you could base it on the types of Cookies stored on their computer/smart phone after using Google as their search engine. In a 1984 Orwellian fashion, if individuals have a certain pattern of surfing behaviour, you could give them a social ranking. Anything around the 1-3 is green and 'normal'. 4-6 is amber, with evidence of weirdness present. 7-9, okay, these dudes are starting to get a bit freaky. 10, they're in a league of their own - run for the hills! I know I'd pay a fair amount of money for a service like that! How COOL would that be - particularly if you're in the dating game?! You got skills, girl, get on it!

Birth control blow darts... 'nuff said

My hero! I rely on gmaps heavily

Me too! I've lived in the county I work in my entire life and know where pretty much everything is, but using it saves me time in the office by setting up an efficient itinerary and by finding the most efficient routes between inspection sites during the day.

I'm considering telling people I ate a tapeworm. Just because I bet their reaction would be entertaining. :-)

That's great! Congratulations!

No idea if you're on a narcotic, but whenever I take Percocet (Roxicet in liquid), I can't sleep that night. I was even awake all night in the clinic the night after I had my surgery. Other than that, it could be a million things, excitement, your thoughts not slowing down, just about anything.

Good luck!

I'm a public health nurse in Maryland ....for 17 years and counting. Public health rocks!!! Love it.

Heck yeah! Let's hear it for Public Health! I never want to leave my job!

I work for an airline in the customer service field (I know crazy) and am a mom to an 8 year old boy who thinks he's 20. :-)

No worries! When he's 20, he'll act like he's 8!

I just want to take a minute to throw out a general thank you to all that are willing to share photos (particularly the gritty, unclothed, saggy skin photos). I think that most of us are going to face some really serious sagging skin and feel just as body conscious, or even worse, than we did about our weight. Seeing that we aren't the only ones that have to deal with this undesirable side effect really helps the negative self-talk where we feel like we're defective or have destroyed our bodies. We don't have to feel like we must be the only one that has skin this saggy, yada, yada, yada.

Heartfelt thanks for being so brave!

Thanks both! I'm glad I took the time to look at the menu and make some initial decisions beforehand instead of having to figure it out there.

Okay, so I am required to attend a dinner at a local steak and seafood place Friday evening and I'm still on a soft food diet. I'd hoped to find a basic grilled fish on the menu. No such luck, of course. The choices I'm considering are as follows:

1 - crab cake appetizer (I'm guessing not the wisest choice, due mostly to the breadcrumbs that are sure to be crispy, though it might be okay if I choose really well.)

2 - clam chowder - sometimes has fairly tough clams, and I don't want to spend 1/2 the night spitting out the bits that don't chew down well enough. Also, I'd end up with more potato, cream, and flour than Protein...

3 - Broiled prawns - should be tender enough to be well enough chewed to be okay, but they're basted and served with melted butter (although, I'll probably only get through a prawn or two, if I'm lucky...)

4 - Fish n chips - I'd plan to only eat the fish inside the breading.

5 - Shrimp and avocado sandwich - I'd plan to eat only the bay shrimp, swiss, and avocado inside the sandwich.

It actually looks like there are several possible options, but what do you all think is the smartest choice? I think I'm leaning toward the shrimp and avocado sandwich or the fish n chips (at least the sandwich has 3 flavors instead of one, and I might get a little Tomato too.).

My surgery was the same day. I asked my clinic to write my auth. to go back to work for 1/2 days this week before going back to full time next week. I don't think my fatigue is quite as bad as you describe, but I take a nap when I get home from work, when I get home from running errands, etc. I've seen a lot of posts here regarding fatigue. It's pretty normal following surgery to take awhile to get back to normal, but we're also only eating, like a third? of the calories we generally burn in a day and that's going to create some fatigue too. Just keep working on getting your fluids and Protein in, and don't forget to give yourself the rest you need. It should get better as time goes on.

Best of luck!

I'm in Public Health (Environmental, Registered Sanitarian)

I'm just over 2 weeks out and am doing great. Had no complications, incisions are closed, and I started back to work this morning (1/2 time for a week, back to 100% on Monday) Down about 8lbs since the morning before surgery (around 17 if you start counting from after surgery with all the IV fluids on board)

Glad to hear your wife is doing well and I wish you the best as you work toward a better and healthier life!

I had a sleep study this spring before I was even thinking about surgery. It took a few weeks to be submitted to my PCP.

Don't go by what your primary care provider says. By all means, take it into consideration, but your PCP is not a surgeon, and particularly not a surgeon that specializes in weight loss surgery. To tell you that you have too much to lose for the sleeve is complete bs, as previously mentioned, it started out as the first stage of the duodenal switch. They did the sleeve on super obese patients that they didn't feel were healthy enough to have the full procedure at once and frequently did not have to go back to finish the second part of the surgery due to such good weight loss with the sleeve alone. Don't make a decision until you consult with a weight loss surgeon. I would highly recommend that you seek out a surgeon that does the duodenal switch in addition to the other surgeries. That way, you'll get a better breadth of information over all the surgeries. Weight loss surgery is largely about personal choice and what procedure each patient is most comfortable with. I personally have a hard time putting too much stock into a nutritionists recommendation of a particular surgery. You're best off waiting to weigh pros and cons that are particular to your situation until after you have selected a surgeon.

Best of luck to you as you decide and work toward a new and healthier you!

As far as Protein supplements, that leaves you with hemp and pea Proteins (I haven't found either to be palatable). Good luck!