blackfalls

even skim milk has a lot of sugar. i used it in my first week for my shakes but by my second week of pre-op diet i went to just Water to maximize weight loss. check with your surgeon!

Calicojack, definitely take the word of your surgeon (or respiratory therapist who set you up with the cpap machine). If it's not a leak it definitely could be too much pressure (centimetres of Water pressure, not pounds per square inch though). You would suffocate or maybe your head would come off with 20 PSI. lol If you're losing weight in your neck area then the pressure to keep your tongue off the back of your throat/airway needs to be lessened. I hope you are able to come off it completely within a few months!

Maybe it's just too early for you? Your surgeon's program is obviously different but I had surgery this past Tuesday and I am not allowed to start protein shakes or even vitamins until Wednesday, so 1 week post-op. So for now, water, apple juice, gatorade, broth!

Wow, that is quite a spreadsheet! If you don't mind making a empty copy available, I'd love to download it too.

Asthma is an obstructive lung disease while obesity contributes to a restrictive lung component. If you are removing part of the restrictive process (all the weight on your abdomen pushing up against your lungs making it harder for your to breathe, then your asthma may feel as if it is improving. However, asthma is an internal process. When triggered (environmental, animals, emotions, etc), your muscles around your bronchioles (air passageways in the lungs) tighten and make the passageways much smaller. Ventolin (Salbutamol, Albuterol, the blue inhaler) is required to loosen the muscles tightness on your lungs and make it easier to breathe. So no, reducing your obesity will not make your asthma go away. But it will make it easier for you to breathe in general.

Are you sure it's coming from your gut? To me it seems like you've lost weight and the mask no longer fits you properly and the sound is a large leak.

SparkPeople is quite good and it tracks a lot more vitamins/minerals. I used to use it a few years ago and it worked very well for me.

I looooooooooove my Protein shakes and they have no aftertaste. I get them from a local store called sugar free and More but you can get them online here: http://healthsmartfoods.com/chocorite-protein-shakes.html My absolute favourite is Peanut Butter. French Vanilla, chocolate Fudge Brownie, and Cappuccino are also quite good. A serving has 24g of protein, 5g of fibre, and 3g net carb. Also, 0g of sugar. It mixes very well with Water if you have one of those magic shaker bottles you can get from GNC or any place that sells protein powder: http://i.pgcdn.com/pi/72/81/70/728170488_260.jpg

Just paid the rest of my balance! Everything is a goooooo. Also just found out that my friend and I don't check into the Marriott in Tijuana until 3 pm and we get to San Diego a few hours before so we're going to make a mini vacation out of it and go see the zoo. Never been to San Diego so this will be fun!

I don't know. I have to do it for 4 days starting this Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and surgery on Tuesday.

I'm curious, because I see people blame everything on Obamacare and it just befuddles me. You got sick because of Obamacare? The insurance wouldn't have thought you would have gotten a brain aneurysm if you weren't overweight without Obamacare in place?

I want surgery to make my body hot. Yep! I'm flying into San Diego one week from today and get picked up from there to go to Tijuana for surgery the next day.

Yep, 20 minutes. http://oilpulling.com/oilpullingmethod.htm

I don't know if it will work but I plan to do it when I'm post-op. I used to do oil-pulling before bed (basically you take a tbsp of sesame seed oil, sunflower oil or coconut oil into your mouth and swirl it around for 20 minutes). It helps to whiten your teeth and it really improved my morning breath. I haven't done it for a few weeks but I'm definitely going to do it after post-op if I get bad breath!

I suggest you either find a new PCP or show your current PCP the research sourced by this article I quoted in my blog: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/blog/2630/entry-6709-100-of-people-with-bmi-30-who-lose-weight-with-diet-and-exercise-gain-it-back-and-more-within-3-years/

Just reading that made me feel very calm. Thank you

Does anyone have the pre-op requirement to lose weight but not to lose more than 4 BMI points of your original weight? I am with Mexico Bariatric Center, my surgeon is Dr. Valenzuela, and that is their requirement. I weighed my highest -285 lbs- when I was approved. 4 BMI lower than that would be 262 lbs. Well today I am 269 lbs and I have 11 whole days left. I have been losing at a rate of 3.8 lbs per week and I'm worried I am going to be under that 262 lbs! I have been following the prescribed pre-op diet exactly. Maybe they shouldn't have made me do 3 weeks of it instead of the regular 2 weeks. Ay yi yi. Maybe I need to eat more calories but at this stage I don't feel that hunger and carb craving any more.

If I had known about it when I still weighed 255 lbs in 2007 (I'm 5'3) and how cheap it was to get it done in Mexico I would have done it then. Of course, I have the luxury now to look back and see exactly how I yo-yoed all the way up to 285 lbs in 2013. It would have been much easier to do this surgery as a student during a summer and not a full time employee.