4me4them

WOO HOO FOR YOU! I'm glad you are on the other side and feeling good! Remember, the forums are just as good at providing support (as in the scale hasn't moved what the heck panics) as they are for celebrating.

"I am slowly feeling better."... To be clear, that's the part I liked...not the other parts...

Congrats! Sounds like you are working the program and the program is working for you I just made that up

First....welcome! You've come to a great place with lots of friendly people who will do what they can to support you in your journey. I didn't face that exact situation, but I had a visit from my granddaughter, my 50th birthday trip, and in October I have a trip to the East coast to visit my/hubbys parents. My 3 month diet got a little more restrictive going from 1500, 1300, 1200 with 2 days on the preop diet a week. The first two events were not perfect, but I definitely did better than I would have without being on the program/prepping for surgery.

Congrats! Glad it is over for you and you are managing...hopefully it will get better soon...

Welcome and congrats on being on what I call "the other side"! I hope to join you in November. You'll find lots of good info here and lots of friendly folks to provide advice...

So be bold! If you aren't his "volunteer" anymore look him up see if he wants to get a cup of coffee...You said Seattle right? Don't spend time wondering what if...sometimes it is better to know...either way...

So glad it seems you have turned a corner! Hang in there...

So my NUT wants me to start taking all the Vitamins I'll be taking after surgery...2 chewable multis, 2 Calcium citrates and 1 B12 that goes under the tongue. My question for the group is...do you take your vitamins all at once or spread throughout the day? Does it make any difference if you take them in the AM or PM? Just wondering....

The only thing on my list from doc that's not on your is calcium citrate...I'm supposed to do 1,000 mg daily.

Thanks! Fear of the unknown is so much worse than understanding the reality. I appreciate your sharing...

Congratulations and good luck! We'll see you on the other side!

PS...I used my insulated coffee mug with ice to keep the shake cold while I drank it...can't chug those things and they are nasty when they warm up...

So I had my final NUT appointment on Monday. She has put me on a two consecutive days a week liquid diet...like the one that I will have to do prior to surgery. The other 5 days I am eating my surgeon's "Stage 4" diet, which is basically back to whatever foods you can tolerate. I did my two days yesterday and today. Here is my doctor's/NUTs schedule 0600 (I go to work early) Protein Shake. no more than 130 calories, no more than 13 Carbs and at least 20g protein 0900 4oz apple or cranberry juice, 6 oz plain or vanilla greek yogurt (no more than 100 calories) 1200 Protein Shake 1500 (3 in the afternoon) 11.25 oz low sodium V8 (or 4 oz V8Fusion) and 1/2 C cottage cheese 1800 (6 in the evening) Protein Shake 2000 (8 in the evening) juice and yogurt if needed. Up to 2 cups low sodium broth, 5 sugar free popsicles and unlimited non calorie/decaffeinated drinks. So day one was not to bad. I cruised actually. Planned to do day one on the day I do yoga at night so I was out of the house when my hubby and brother (who lives with us) ate. I did make one mistake....I tried to add a little sugar free jello powder to the vanilla shake and it was totally disgusting...got clumpy and was way overly sweet. Couldn't even get it down...lol Lesson learned...don't try to go all Chopped on the protein shake! Today has been a bit more of a challenge...but still not as bad as I thought it would be. I ate a popsicle while fixing dinner so my mouth had something to do. As I'm typing I'm drinking my first Unjury Shake...strawberry and not too bad...not overly sweet. I have my tennis shoes on so if it gets to be too much when the guys get home and have dinner I can go for a walk. I'm going on vacation 14 October for two weeks...I may continue the shakes for bfast and lunch...then when I get back I have about a month before I start the pre-op 14 day diet...may try to up my 2 days to 3 just to get ready.

Ultimately you can't control what others think....keep your eye on the prize and remember WHY you made your choice. For me it is so I can play with my grandkids and do the things I want to do in retirement.

Congrats! I know how hard you have worked for this...be patient with yourself and we'll see you on the other side!

So I'm a believer in the night time routine I learned about at Miraval Spa. I've been using it for the past week and my sleep is deeper, and I can get back to sleep quicker. Some pre-stuff before the routine: 1. Make your room as dark as possible. We moved our phone chargers, turned the clock so that it was not facing the bed, and stopped leaving a light on in the main living area...we now use a night light out there. 2. Create a cozy place to do your routine. If your spouse is on board, the living room is just fine. I have an old recliner in another room that I'm using when hubby doesn't want to get zen with me About an hour before you want to fall asleep: 1. Put on pjs (even if you don't sleep in pjs, put on clothes that you can begin to associate with sleep. This becomes a signal that you are going to sleep. 2. Wash face, brush teeth, take meds... 3. Find some relaxing music that you can listen to...or use fan to create white noise. I found a couple of cheap massage music things on I-tunes. 4. Light should be very low...I had to wrap a lamp with a scarf to get it low enough even with a 40W lightbulb 5. Take a few really deep breaths. Breath out should be longer than breath in. Think about pulling your belly button back to your spine on your exhales. 6. Sit quietly and notice what you are thinking about. 7. Use a journal to record what you are thinking about, any action steps you want to take the next day...the point is to get it out of your head and onto paper. You can also write about your day, include things you are grateful for...really anything. 8. If you like to read before bed....use the remainder of your time to read....not in bed. (this was hard for me at first, but the results speak for themselves!) 9. When you are ready for bed, move to the bedroom, using as little light as possible. If you can't fall asleep within 30 minutes get up and repeat....or if you wake up and can't fall back to sleep repeat. Let me know what you think and/or if you have any success with this! Beth

Wow. That's all I can say is Wow. And not the good WOW either. Do you have to use her? Maybe the surgeon can recommend someone else? At least someone who is more available if you have to do sessions...hang in there, you will overcome this bump in the road!

Congrats on being so close to your surgery day! I would follow the DRs orders, stay off the scales and ride it out. There could be a bajillion reasons why your body is not doing what you think it should be...but you can't control those Good luck!

Congrats and good luck!

This may be way off the mark...but maybe you are kind of going through the grief stages for the you you are or the life you are leaving behind...I'll bet that by the time the 20th or 21st rolls around you will be where you want to be emotionally...

So this entry is an "OK news" bad news one. I wasn't able to pull it together last week. The stress kicked my butt and the result was a 3 pound gain on the scales. Now I'm under the gun because the only thing my NUT said on 07 August was....don't gain! Ugh. So I have two weeks to get down 4 pounds so that I can go in at least one pound lighter on 08 Sept. It was a very humbling experience. I thought I had this. I thought I had turned a corner on my relationship with food...but yeah....not so much. Looking back I can even see that I was a bit cocky... So what did I learn? 1. For me white flour is my gateway drug. I can not consume bread, pasta or other things made from wheat flour and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Maybe I never will and I will have to get over it. 2. I still have the "all or nothing" mentality. Yes it was a very stressful week, but my job at times is stressful and I need to develop stress coping skills that do not involved food. I need to figure out how to rebound sooner...one unhealthy day can not become one unhealthy week! 3. The biggest thing I learned is that I do need this surgery. I had 5 healthy weeks, hit my NUTs calorie, carb and protein goals, logged all my food, exercised, felt great...the whole nine yards....and I started to think maybe I COULD do it without surgery....but yeah....not so much. So my goal for today is no flour! My goal for tomorrow is to start using myfitensspal again and start exercising again. I'll let you know how it goes! Beth

Many thanks! I've rebounded! Yay! It's really hard to break out of when it is happening though...your good wishes definitely helped!

So my husband of almost 29 years booked us a long weekend at Miraval Health and Wellness Resort this weekend...a place I have wanted to go to since moving to AZ over 20 years ago. Why didn't we go before you might be asking...2 main reasons...1. It is kind of expensive and 2. I always thought I'd go when I was skinny (not healthy mind you but skinny). He is supportive of my weight loss surgery and he booked it as a 50th birthday celebration, and as a way to learn some tools that might help through this life changing journey I'm on to have successful weight loss with surgery. This is the first of a few posts to share what I learned. The first class we did was called Better Sleep. I know my sleep struggles are neither unique nor are they as severe as some, but when I have a bad stretch it really screws up a lot of things. I was reminded that sleep is the ONLY time the body is in repair mode. It is doing all the maintenance stuff it needs to do to keep me going. Even one night of too little sleep messes up the body's ability to repair itself. The RN who taught the class (you can access her Better Sleep Blog at the Miraval site here: http://www.miravalresorts.com/blog/post.cfm/6-myths-facts-on-adequate-sleep ) gave us what a "perfect day" designed to promote sleep would look like. Yep I said DAY. Many of the things we do all day long, including first thing in the morning can interfere with a good nights sleep So here goes: 1. Get up within 1/2 hour of the same time every day...even weekends. The body likes to know what is going on. Having wildly differing wake up times keeps it guessing too much so it tends to make you feel sleepy because it is worried that you wont give it enough. 2. Get some AM Sunshine. The color of light in early morning sunshine shuts off the body's natural melatonin production which is good because melatonin is a hormone that regulates the body's clock. 3. Get some AM Exercise. This is not to short those of you who like to exercise in the afternoon, but most people get an energy boost from exercise so it makes sense to time it early in the day....even better if you can combine numbers 2 and 3. 4. Confine caffeine to the morning. Double steep your tea to reduce the amount of caffeine you get from it (steep for 1 minute, throw that away and then steep to desired strength). 5. Carve out some time daily to drop your "hyper-aroused state" which is totally NOT a sexual thing . When we try to multi task, the body can interpret that as a danger...which engages the fight or flight response...which triggers cortisol...which is the stress hormone...which in an overabundance can do bad things . Some ways to do this: Set aside one hour in the AM and one hour in the PM when you will NOT MULTITASK. You will focus on one thing at a time for that period. Use a calming "breath walk". Breath in through your nose for four steps, then release the breath for six steps and repeat... can be used when you are walking down the hall to another office, walking to your car... 6. Stay hydrated....I didn't write down why and now I can't remember....but I underlined it so it must be important 7. Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed time. Food energizes body functions which is not what you want when trying to wind down. I had a hard time with this next part....Bed is for sleeping and sex only! I LOVE to read in bed before turning out the light....have done it since I learned how to read. When I asked her about it after the lecture, she said to try the other things first...but to realize that reading may be too stimulating and if the other things don't work I may have to change that habit. Tomorrow I'll post about creating a night time ritual....something I'm trying for the first time tonight...so I'll let you know how it goes! Beth

Take a drink bottle where you have secretly put one scoop of your favorite vanilla Protein powder and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Order a plain grande iced coffee (15 calories ). Put the iced coffee in the drink bottle (because it is easier that way right?) shake an voila you have a pumpkin spice latte...full of protein minus the calories. Or you could order what everyone else said which would be way simpler Have fun!