Inner Surfer Girl

@@LipstickLady, this is the first time I have read the information in your signature because I usually post using my phone app. I love your words of wisdom and observations!

Your friend gave you some very good advice. Embrace the Stall!

Best of luck with your surgery. What to take to the hospital? Here is what worked for me. I agree about the heating pad. I was freezing and it also helped with my shoulder pain. Your CPAP or BiPap machine, if you need one. An extra pair of underwear. Otherwise, I just wore home what I wore to the hospital with the change of underwear. A firm pillow, for the drive home. I used: Chapstick and biotene. The hospital had other toiletries. Take your phone and phone charger. I gave my mom my phone so she could keep friends who wanted to know about my recovery updated. Plus, I really didn't want to risk calling or posting while loopy! The best "thing" I took was my mom! She stayed with me the whole time. My dad and my sister came right before my surgery. I didn't expect that so it was nice.

Congratulations! What an inspiring post. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and encouragement.

How about a virtual hug from me? I don't think I could get my foot up high enough to kick you in the pants, nor would I if I could! I'll fall back on my usual questions. Are you getting in all your Protein and Water? What does your NUT recommend? Your positivity and practicality are inspiring to me. I hope you will extend yourself some of that positivity.

I definitely agree that both pre-and post-op, the stall is discouraging. I certainly remember many times hearing my doctors and weight watcher people questioning why I wasn't losing weight when I was following the plan. That is definitely when I would give up and say, if restricting my food and enduring this deprivation doesn't work, why even try. Thankfully, now, for me, giving up isn't an option. Now that I have learned so much more about how my body works I have more patience. It makes me so much more willing and able to see a stall as an important and necessary part of the process. Not something to be feared or avoided. Plus, I don't weigh often enough to actually observe many stalls. On retrospect, if I knew this 30-40 years ago, I MAY have saved myself from decades of yo-yo dieting and super morbid obesity.

Thank you so much for sharing your doubts, fears, and hopes with us. Be sure and save this post so you can look back at today and see how far you have come. Best of luck with your surgery and recovery. Soon you will be sipping and walking and sipping away! One of the places on my list to travel someday is Ireland. (I live in Kentucky, the horse capital of the world). Now that I am on the road to regaining my life, dreams like this are becoming more of an option. Best of luck with your surgery. Keep us posted on how you are doing.

I don't have one multi-Vitamin that has everything like you are looking for. Bariatric Advantage has bariatric Vitamins that may but I don't like big horse pills so don't mind taking individuals. I take a multi and a D3 in the morning. I take Iron and chewable C with a meal when I am not eating dairy/calcium. I take the rest (D+K, B-12, B-1, and calcium chews after another meal or snack. I follow my surgeon's guidelines as to amounts. I have taken all of these, in pill form, since a week after surgery.

Way to go! This is so great to hear!

I agree, a little too much like a sales pitch. But, I do agree that the obesity epidemic is caused in a large part by the fact that our modern world is completely different from the world we evolved in. The differences are numerous. Now, unhealthy food is plentiful and cheap. We don't experience feast and famine cycles. The industrial food complex is geared to feeding large numbers of people for a profit and without regard to need or nutrition. Our brains are wired to prepare for famine. Etc. Etc.

Congratulations! Very inspiring!

Why not talk to your NUT? Are you getting in all you Protein and Water? Are you exercising? Your issue may/or may not be the number of calories you are eating. If it is, the solution may actually be to eat more and not less. Why not make an appointment with your NUT? Embrace the Stall!

I swim and do water aerobics. Once my incisions healed, I got back in the water.

I think "will power" is a fiction myself. Do you have a therapist you can talk to? Have you talked to your NUT? about your struggles? You need to try to come up with some practical strategies that will help you stick to your plan. Some ideas: -Read and participate on this site. -Write and journal about why you want this surgery. -Consider joining a bariatric support group and/or 12-step group like OA. -Take a walk. -Find something to do with your hands (knit, color, paint your nails, pull weeds, clean the toilet). -Take a bath or shower. -Call a friend. -Do housework (I know I am in bad shape when I have to resort to this one!) -Don't go to KFC. I am sure others have more suggestions. You have to plan to follow your plan and not just rely on "will power". As my NUT kept reminding us, the pre-op diet isn't forever. It will end.

Early out, I didn't weigh myself. I waited for my doctors appointments. Now, I am almost six months out, I weigh no more than once a week (sometimes less frequently). This works for me. Everyone has to find his or her strategy, For me, weighing early in the process gave me no valuable information. The numbers on the scale don't change what I am supposed to do: get enough Protein and Water, walk, and stay off the scale! The benefit, is you will most-likely have a very pleasant surprise when you finally do weigh.

Go back to basics. Focus on getting in your Protein and Water. Eat protein first and avoid or minimize starches. Track your food -- weigh and measure everything. If you are really concerned, then make an appointment with your NUT. Embrace the Stall!

Why not just ask your surgeon?

I would definitely say you are on the skinny side. Do you do any weight lifting? You look like you are at a healthy weight, but maybe if you do some firming up you won't feel like you need to lose more.

Congratulations!

What other choice do you have but to follow your pre-op diet? My surgeon made it very clear that if my liver was too big, he would close up the incisions and not do the surgery. Do you really want to risk that, or worse by not following your surgeon's instructions?

My Protein goal is 100 grams a day, so now, even at almost 6 months post-op, I still supplement with a protein shake on occasion, Do what you need to do to get in your protein and Fluid. When I was on soft foods, I ate a lot of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, and refried Beans. I still do because they are tasty, easy, and high in protein.