Bluesea71

Nfute

I am a master's level clinician in private practice and my fee is $150 per 50 minute session. This is the standard fee in my large metropolitan area and many clinicians charge as much as $210 per session. I do have a contract with the county and take on some medi-CAL clients at a reduced rate of $63 per 50 minute hour. Other than that, I'm not on any insurance panels so clients who choose to see me pay out of pocket and may choose to utilize their PPO benefits and handle reimbursement from their insurance companies on their own. Clinicians who agree to accept insurance (Blue cross, Blue shield, etc) and want to join those specific insurance panels, agree to a lower fee. Often it can be as low as $50-$70 per session. It doesn't sound like this poster was utilizing her in-network mental health benefits and was paying out of pocket. I've also sat on review boards for the Board of Behavioral Sciences and I can tell you that this clinician hasn't done anything that will get her license suspended or yanked. Did she allow her personal opinion to interfere with doing good work with her client? Absolutely. Just be thankful you are only required to do three sessions and move on. I would encourage you to be open and honest about your experience with both the therapist and your surgeon. It sounds like bariatrics may not be her niche. I have to ask... Why are you traveling 180 miles round trip for therapy?!? There weren't any clinicians closer to you????

I'm 11 months out from surgery. I have found one of the most useful things I have implemented is to have a weekend where I cook a few of my favorites and freeze them in individualized containers so they are there and ready to go when I need them. In a pinch, I do have a few frozen meals on hand, but they are high protein/low carb options. I will post one of my favorite brands that I found at Safeway. My favorite (cheesy chicken) has 26 grams of protein and 8 carbs. At 11 months out I can eat about 3/4 of a container.

I carried weight in my midsection too and chances of it "snapping back" are slim to none! I do consider myself one of the "lucky ones" as my skin could look much worse! It's snapped back everywhere except my gut. Standing upright, outside of a few wrinkles, I actually look pretty decent. But I can grab handfuls and handfuls of skin starting right under my breastbone all the way down to my waist. It becomes the most obvious if I'm down on all fours. It just.... Hangs. Sigh. It's an expensive surgery. $10,000 where I live. I only want to do it once. If I was experiencing any kind of discomfort, I may consider it early. At this point it's more of a vanity issue. I wear a size 8 jeans but I typically elect to wear my looser 10's because I don't have to worry as much about tucking in the muffin top skin of fat! Regardless, from the reviews I've read on real self, the more belly fat I can lose, the more the excess skin I have can be stretched down and removed. That's what is keeping me focused. Good luck. I think you need to make a decision that feels right for you and go for it!

It's hard for me to get a good idea of what were talking about with just the picture you posted. Lol. Hold on, let me take off my "fake" plastic surgeon's hat now and put on my "fellow Barriatric gal obsessed with her gut" hat. I would suggest going on the real self website and look at pictures of people who have body types similar to you. That is what helped me realize that I want to be as close to goal before I even consider getting a tummy tuck. There are people on there who are candidates for a tuck (and get it done) but I look at their after pictures and know I wouldn't be happy with the results. If I still have flab to grab, then I still know I have fat to lose in my gut. I'm 11 months out and I've been amazed how my skin transforms every month. I will lose weight and there's times my belly/thighs look horrific. Then awhile later the skin snaps back. I read somewhere every-time you have a loss, it takes your skin anywhere from 2-3 months to adjust. At 5'7" I'm currently 153. I'd like to get to 140- 145 (or whenever my belly fat is almost gone) and maintain for awhile and consider surgery summer 2016. I had two very large babies and for me, the tummy tuck would repair the torn abdominal muscles (goodbye mommy pouch) and remove the Freddy Krueger stretch marks I have on my lower abdomen below my belly button. I can't even blame this damage on being overweight as I was fit before I had kids! Don't get me wrong, there is excess skin to loose, but I actually get excited as the "fat" disappears and the skin is left because I know if I keep doing this, the surgeon will be able to remove MORE skin at surgery time and the better the results. This encourages me to keep truckin along.....

I took two weeks off but could have easily gone back in a week. I have a job that isn't physically demanding though. I was also very lucky and have had zero complications.

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I had my surgery at a kaiser in northern CA. My intro class was in February and my surgery was in April. I could have had it in march but I had to wait until I had time off from work. There were about 3-4 classes/visits in between with a psyc eval, etc. Many people starting the same time as me were required my their surgeons to lose 20 pounds pre surgery. I wasn't required to lose anything as my BMI was already below 40.

I'm 154.2

I prefer to cook and freeze my own portion size meals ahead of time, but these high-protein meals have come in handy in a pinch. I found them at Safeway. All of them are high protein/low carb. My favorite is the cheesy chicken. It has 26 grams of protein and 8 carbs. At 11 months out I can eat about 3/4 of one package.

They don't taste like Vitamins at all. That's why I like them! They are tiny and melt in your mouth so you don't even have to chew them. The Biotin one tastes like strawberry lemonade (my personal favorite!), multivitamin tastes like tropical fruit, energy (b12) berry and Vitamin d is vanilla. I also ordered zinc which is honey. I have never been able to tolerate vitamins. Even prenatal vitamins made me puke when I was pregnant. I am not exaggerating when I tell you I actually LOVE taking these as they don't taste like vitamins at all. No chalky vitamin consistency like all the other endless chewables I tried.

I know those with a higher BMI will lose a higher percentage of weight in the beginning compared to someone starting out with a lower BMI. Your weight loss seems a tad excessive though. Have you consulted your doctor? As you mentioned, rapid weight loss will likely do a toll on your hair and doesn't give your skin time to adjust. Your skin may have a hard time bouncing back. You do have youth on your side, so don't completely freak out though. I found my skin took an average of 2-3 months to adjust every time I lost weight. There were times my thighs (in particular) looked horrible and now at almost 90 pounds down from my heaviest, I have almost zero lose skin. Granted, overall I consider myself a slow loser - especially these last 7 months. The closer you get to your goal weight, the weight loss WILL slow down. I lost most of my excessive weight the first 4-5 months post-surgery. I now lose at a snail's pace. Typically 5 pounds per month as I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary. I am 153 today. My surgeon predicted at 5'7" I would get to 160. I'm aiming for 145. Losing these last 8 pounds is taking more effort than I could have ever imagined. Remember all of those skinny friends that used to complain about losing 5-10 pounds and you wanted to say, "try having to lose 80?" . I have become one of them! Grrrrr.

Caution: don't spend too much money on clothes as they will be too big for you soon enough! Invest in some cheap staples and save the expensive purchases or when you're at goal weight! Isn't this a great problem to have?!?!?

I feel your pain. I researched and picked out vitamins pre-surgery. I even preached to those on BP who were taking children's vitamins telling them they weren't going to get the nutrients they needed. Then guess what? Life happened. I had surgery April 2014 and every vitamin made me so sick. I even stopped taking them months 2-5. Thankfully my labs always came back normal but I knew long-term it would end up catching up to me. I now subscribe to the anything-is-better-than-nothing-theory. I found a vitamin that melts in your mouth that I LOVE! I actually look forward to taking them every night because they are that good! I take the multivitamin, hair.skin.nails (biotin), energy (b12) and vitamin D. I found these at Target but now I order them on amazon online.

We travel to Mexico on vacation a lot (cancun, Isla mujeres, Puarta Vallarta.). The cheapest option is to use an app such as Viber. The other party also has to have the app installed on their phone to use it. The problem is many of the hotels (at least where we have stayed) have had really poor wifi in the rooms, so It's limiting where you can make calls. Sometimes I've had to go down in the hotel lobby. If you have an iPhone, you can also text another iPhone for free over wifi. It costs about $30 to add an international plan to your regular cell phone plan when traveling if you want to make calls without wifi. If you know where you're having your surgery, you can easily connect with others who have stayed at the hotel you're considering and ask about their wifi connection.

Welcome back! You're here and that's all that matters. Come join us in the "Easter challenge" if you want some accountability. You check in your weight every week. It just started and its not too late to join! Those challenges help me stay on track! There's a saying - if you're depressed, you're thinking too much about the past. If your anxious, you're thinking too much about the future. It should be a sign to focus on the present. Stop beating yourself up and congratulate yourself on taking steps to take back control of your weight loss journey. You can do it and you have a whole community on BP to support you!

Queenwendy - I have been recording my loses in a journal since the beginning and went back so I could give you an accurate report of what's been going on. The closer I get to goal, the more painful and slow the process gets. Forget those days of losing 5-10 pounds a week! You may have noticed in the latest Easter challenge that I'm hoping to lose 5 pounds in the next 6 weeks. I will be lucky if I actually make that goal! I'm currently 153 and I went in my journal to see how long it took me to loose weight the last several months. I weighed 170 on 10/17/14. That means it took me 4.5 months to lose 17 pounds!!!!! I lost over 60 plus pounds the first 4.5 months post surgery! It's frustrating for sure when things start slowing down but it does happen. I now know I average about 5 pounds loss per month. What's even more frustrating is after every 1-3 pound loss is typically a stall that lasts a few weeks. I've just learned to accept it and roll with the punches!

Dmkaz - I can't view your weight stats from my cell phone. What is your starting weight and how much do you need to lose? I guarantee without knowing this information that you are a lower bmi. Here's my advice. RELAX. Follow the program and the weight will come off. I have been a slow looser this entire journey and it used to really bother me. Once I stopped comparing myself to other people and realized that my journey was mine alone, I was a much happier person. I have averaged 1 - 1.5 pound weight loss per week almost the entire time. Some weeks I lost Nothing! And guess what? All of a sudden here I am 11 months post -op 11 pounds LESS than where my surgeon predicted I would be! It will happen. Unfortunately you may be learning a wonderful lesson on patience. We didn't get chunky overnight, right? Besides, one perk of slow weight loss is I have almost zero lose skin. How's that to motivate you to chill out? . Slow weight loss does wonders for giving your skin time to readjust.

3/2 weight: 152.8 (down 1.3 pounds)

Hi Queenwendy - I got your message. I'm not sure if you put 2:2 together and realized I'm the same person who you have been chatting with in the "April 16th" thread this past year! Here's the thing. I've had plenty of stalls along the way. I think the longest one has lasted 3 weeks. And yes, it messes with your head. During this whole process, I have been a sloooow loser. I typically haven't lost more than a pound a week the entire time! At first I used to get upset and compare myself to others. I then realized that I am on my own journey and the weight would come off on its own. Here's one thing I will say though - of those on BP who have lost over 100 pounds (with more to lose) did they do it in less than a year? The few that come to mind that I can think of took around 15 months or more to do it. Maybe it's time to reevaluate your goals. The fact that you have lost the amount of weight that you have is a HUGE accomplishment that you should be SO proud of!!!! Isn't it funny how we so easily downplay what we have lost and focus on what we still have to lose? Look at your before/current pictures?!? You're smokin' hot! For me, I think there's still that fear that I won't be successful at this journey. I think it's important for us to remember that maintaining our loss is just as important. As far as specifics you can do, try tweaking what you're eating. Reduce carbs and up your protein uptake. I actually find that I lose less weight when I exercise. Go figure. I am adding muscle weight but boy, it sure messes with your head when you put in the effort and see ZERO results reflected on the scale! You may need to increase your calories if you're exercising a lot. I think this is where focusing on fitness is more important than what the scale says. Weight wise I'm smaller than I have been since high school but (I think) I appear much heavier because my fat/muscle ratio is out of ratio to what it was when I was last this size in high school. I'm trying to focus more on fitness and less on what the scale is reporting at this point. Which is REALLY hard to do.

It's normal to feel nervous - you're about to do something that's very important to you! There's a reason why this process is a minimum of 12 weeks away and not 12 days away. You have time to gain all if the information you need and make the best decision for you. You can change your mind at anytime. . I'm almost 11 months post-sleeve (through Kaiser Northern CA) and I can tell you it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. No complications. Top notch care. I weighed 152 this morning (5'7") and my surgeon predicted I would get down to 160. My personal goal is 140-145! Good luck with your own journey with wherever it leads you!

Best thing to have post surgery - those small Dixie paper cups. They hold just a few ounces and can easily be tossed away. Constantly washing dishes becomes really old, really fast when you only use them to hold a few bites! Helps with portion control too in the beginning post surgery!

I bought 6 huge bottles pre-surgery and maybe mixed them into yogurt a few times. They have sat unused in my kitchen the last year since my surgery.

Before surgery I drank 1-2 cups of coffee in the morning. Rarely drank coffee outside of my house unless I booked clients late, I may grab a coffee at Peet's in the late afternoon, but this was very rare. Post surgery I didn't drink coffee for about three months. I then starting drinking a few sips here and there. Now almost 1 year out, I typically drink one cup in the morning. I've never had any issues with heart burn or any other complications with food/drink post surgery. Knock on wood!

I'm looking into activity trackers now and have a questions for those of you who currently have Fitbits. Why did you personally select one Fitbit model over an other? Surge vs Charge vs Flex? For example, I'm wondering why anyone would want the Flex model when you can't even view any of the detail reports from the actual band? It just shows dots. Is that a pain? It's a smaller band, so likely more comfortable. Maybe that alone would guarantee more wear? Help! Right now Im leaning toward the Charge with the heart rate monitor. Pros? Cons? I'd like to hear more from actual users. Thanks!