4me4them

Congrats! Sending hopeful thoughts your way...

Welcome and congratulations! This is an awesome site full of cheerleaders, task masters (only when needed) and folks who can truly say 'been there done that". Me I'm in the cheerleader role right now as I'm just starting my journey...so I'll say "GOOOOOO YOU!" Rah Rah and all that jazz...

Congrats! Here's to an awesome next 6 months!

Good luck! Hope you had fun competing! Be sure to update so we know how you did...

Best wishes! See you on the other side...

Welcome to the forums! My brothers are 18 months apart and I know growing up they were a handful for my mom...so kudos to you! Lots of good information here and good support as well. I'm in the early stages of getting the paperwork ready for insurance myself. My psych is this Monday, and then almost everything else is on 04 August (I live about 1.5 hours away from the hospital so wanted to do them all in one day). I'm hoping for a late November/early December surgery because that is a really slow time at work. Looking forward to getting to know you and following your progress! Beth

Welcome! You have come to the right place! Lots of folks here to give good advice and a shoulder to lean on if things get rough.

I look at it a little differently. In a lot of cases the sleeve is a first step towards the bypass anyway. You could get the sleeve and keep the bypass an option for down the road. I do NOT mean that you will be unsuccessful...just that if your grandkids are older, your health needs determine it or your situation changes, you could potentially have the bypass later...

My nut is a hoot...lots of energy and she wears a "Eat Beef" button (no foods should be taboo...only moderated is her motto). At my first apt she weighed me, took a weight history, asked about exercise and then laid out my first months targets for Carbs (120-140 a day), Protein (80-90 g a day) and total calories 1500 a day. We talked about label reading, her requirements for a Protein Drink (low carb high protein), and the habits I should start practicing now for after surgery (chew each bite 20 times, no drinking with meals). She said my weight goal was to lose...no specific number. Hope that helps. It will be interesting to see what YOUR experience is...let us know how it goes!

Welcome to the site! You have come to the right place, lots of good folks with awesome experiences, a willingness to share and a sympathetic ear when needed! Good luck in your continued recovery!

Welcome to the site! I think most folks can only share what their dr tells them....I've noticed that there is a lot of variation. I'm still in the preop supervised diet phase so I can't comment specifically on your question. I want to share what a personal trainer once told me when I was asking a lot of questions similar to yours...she told me to turn each one into a positive question and write them down somewhere where you will see it. So... What will I do when I get flabby because I've lost so much weight, What will I feel like when I accomplish this, How will I go about loving myself....just calorie free food for thought...

So I work for a government training organization and there are many hails and farewells (welcoming and saying good bye), monthly observances, formal balls....you get the idea. I am responsible for two organizations, that are not collocated and while their missions are complimentary, there really isn't a lot of joint events between the two. All of this is to set the stage for the food gauntlet I had to face at work this week. 1. Wed. Farewell for the senior protocol officer....formal luncheon buffet style. So my strategy going in was to use a salad plate only, get a good amount of salad, and the put small amounts of whatever else I could on top. (I'm just in the 3 month diet phase now). So not too bad, salad, mixed veggies, small amount of roasted potatoes and a pitifully small roasted chicken thigh. Put one in the win column! 2. Thu. Farewell to two of the tech nerds in organization number one. This group had the bright idea to have an open "snack area" from 1000-1400 so I took some olives and mozzarella cheese. No one brought salad, but this one went pretty good as well, had fresh veggies, some fresh pineapples, 2 small meatballs and two fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella on small bruschetta with balsamic vinegar. Ate socially and then had meetings the rest of the day so I was out of the office. Put a second one in the win column! 3. Fri. Farewell to one of the instructors in organization number two. This one was a "comfort food casserole" potluck....ugh. So I made a big salad with lots of veggies and brought a bottle of dressing. Plan going in was to use the same technique as Wed. But there was a giant problem here....there was very little protein and lots of potatoes, pasta and cheese (melty kind). I took very small portions of three things on top of my lettuce and then I went back (first mistake) and got more of a couple of the potato dishes (mistake number two). I've been thinking about why Friday was so much more difficult to navigate than Wed and Thu because I truly did not feel deprived/upset/anxious at either of those two. I think there were two important differences. A. the first two events were controlled...the lunch was one time through the line and then the program started/I left the scene of the second one. On Friday, since I don't get to see these guys that much (I used to work with them daily but then got promoted and am now located with the other organization even though I am responsible for both) so we sat around chatting, people kept going back to the buffet line, passed out cake... B. I knew going in what was going to be available at the first two...not the third. So you may be thinking, but Beth, Friday doesn't seem like such a big deal...and lunch wasn't...but for whatever reason, it led to lots of snacking/eating while I was making dinner which hasn't been a problem for me in the past few weeks. I'm still working on why one triggered the other....right now I'm blaming the carbs! I guess my takeaway from this week is that I will always have the social aspect of my job and I've got to use this time before I have surgery to keep experimenting with what will work for me. I'm also taking a good lean protein to the next potluck in organization number two....they really need it. Beth

Hi Wndyyy, I hope to have my surgery the first part of December as well. Welcome!

Welcome to the forums! Many US insurance companies require a supervised diet period of either 3 or 6 months. It seems that most people can get all the pretesting stuff done during that time and then submit the insurance paperwork so another couple of weeks for that, then getting on the surgeons calendar. I'm guessing it would be much shorter if you are a private pay person...

Congrats! We are on almost the same track...my first month is over 04 August. Love the "shop it off" approach to get started. Would help here in AZ this time of the year because it is freakin hot right now...lol Good luck in month 2!

Welcome to the forum! I hope your recovery goes well... You will find lots of support here as you start your journey!

There are very different long term management issues between the bypass and the sleeve...just be sure you are really ready to accept them all so you have no regrets later...sorry it got messed up!

I don't have words of wisdom because I'm just starting the process, but you are in the right place! Lots of good folks with good ideas to share on the forums. Good luck!

Hey you, we are about in the same time frame...I'm a couple weeks ahead of you in that I had my first nutritionist apt on 07 July. I'm hoping to have surgery the first week of December because that is the best time for me to be off work. I'm also a former classroom teacher...high school science and math Good luck and I'll be looking for your posts!

Maybe you are dreading it because of the limited choices you remember from your previous size....I bet you at least double your choices....unless you don't like a lot of choices then that would be bad...

Awesome! I have my psych apt on Monday so I like hearing that yours went well...

So I'm only two weeks into my 3 months supervised diet and things were going good. Then this past Sunday I slipped off the health bandwagon....big time...it was a quick slide back into the old smorgasbord habit. It was a carb laden, coma inducing 2hr fest of bread, peanut butter, popcorn, some appetizer thingys hiding in the back of the freezer and fat free milk.....and then I had dinner . Times like this before would very likely have resulted in a week(s) of beating myself up, eating poorly and basically giving up. But I'm rewriting that storyline one word at a time. I did two very different things this Sunday that lead to what I'm calling my Magical Monday. 1. I logged EVERYTHING I ate in my fitness pal. I'm not proud to admit it, but even a month ago, I would have avoided logging the food I consumed as if that somehow made it not real. This time though I logged it so I would know how far off my plan I was. (FYI it totaled over 3500 calories), so I could acknowledge it and MOVE ON! 2. The second thing I did was post on my timeline on this very site that I had a meltdown and felt sick. The support I received from others here is a big part of the reason that this time....for the first time....Monday came, I ate my plan, the planet kept turning and other than writing about it now, it is in the past. Here's the takeaway from my point of view. We are so much harder on ourselves than we are on others struggling through this weight loss journey...other people's support reminded me that I should be at least as nice to myself as I am to other people. I'm going to have slips, slides and smudges on my nutrition and exercise records, it's what I do with them that will matter. I've never been an athlete but I love me some football. I think my Sunday was kind of like Ben Roethlisberger throwing an interception for a touchdown, and having to immediately get back out there and try again. That's what we need to do....keep getting back out there, that's what I did Monday and that's why it was Magical. Beth

"Oh My" "Well" "Oh My" Those were my moms first three comments, in order. Mom is a total worrier and I expected to hear..."I just don't know..." which is what she kept repeating after my current husband of 29 years and I told her we were getting married. Then came the "are you sure?", "are you really ready". Then came the stories of the people who she knew (or thought) had had the surgery....all from the late 1980s...lol. Once we got over the initial shock of it, she came around in her own way, told me she loved me and that she thought I would do well with it. Then hoped that maybe my doing it would spur my brother to do it...I really hope she doesn't go there because he never did like being compared to me. I am 6 years older, a girl and was pretty much a nerd. He is the opposite of a nerd and every teacher from 3rd grade on told him that...he never lets me forget it either! So I've told my folks and I'm glad I did. It will put me under a microscope with them when we are together and if they do come to AZ for the winter it could get interesting but they both thanked me for telling them and both support my decision, so it doesn't get much better than that. Beth

Welcome! You have come to the right place, you will find lots of support, ideas and friendship here. It sounds to me like you have hit a rough patch....and not at all like you are a "hot mess". I haven't even had the surgery yet and I'm kind of in the same place. I'm going to focus this week on moving more...I too have not wanted to do it most of the time....WE.CAN.DO.THIS!