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I hope you have a safe and speedy recovery!

@@jrp12365, Congratulations! I am green with envy. I have 16lbs to go to get there myself and I feel like I have been battling them for the last month. UGH! I hope I get there soon. It has been more than 25 years since I have seen a number on the scale that begins with a 1. I cannot wait!

Great job!!!! The liquid diet is the hardest part in my opinion and you are doing fantastic. I too found that good chicken broth was the thing that absolutely saved me during that phase. You get tired of all of the sweet Protein drinks and need something savory. A good home cooked chicken broth is absolutely a life saver! If I had to do it all over again, I would make lots of chicken broth and freeze it before the liquid diet begins. You will use it for the liquid diet and post surgery for at least a week if not more. Good luck to you and I wish you a safe and speedy recovery.

Everyone loses at different rates. Think about losing 30lbs! Have you ever done that so quickly before? Remember that every pound you lose this time, it will remain gone forever if you follow the plan. You also have to remember at about 3 weeks post op, your body starts to push back because it goes into starvation mode. If you follow the plan and continue the weight will continue to drop off. Remember you did not gain it all in a month, it is going to take time to lose it. This time is different because those pounds will be gone forever. You are doing great!!!

@@KalelsWifey, It is normal to have the anxiety you are having when headed to this surgery. I can tell you that I had my heart set on the sleeve and then found out that it could make my reflux/Gerd issue much worse. I researched like crazy and got a second opinion and in the end decided that I would move forward with the bypass. I was very excited once I made the decision to be moving forward but honestly I was nervous to have the surgery. I think everyone is. Here is the thing, I used deep breathing exercises to help me remain calm, listened to a lot of calming music and just took great care of myself the weeks leading up to my surgery. I was able to calm down and remind myself of all of the reasons I was taking this route in the first place. Turns out, it was the best thing that ever happened to me outside of marrying my husband and having my children. I have not regretted it for even 1 second. When I woke up in recovery, yes there was pain but it was tolerable. I have never had any complications and I believe it is because I followed the plan laid out by my bariatric center of excellence. You will do great! You just need to take some calming breaths, listen to some music or read a book and try to relax. You are about to have a whole new life and you are going to be amazed when you realize you can do things you could not do before. There are so many more positives to having WLS than things to be concerned about. Please be good to yourself!

Congratulations to both of you! I wish you a safe and speedy recovery!

Usually if you are over a 40 BMI most insurances will cover with no comorbitities. If you are at 35 with comorbitities then you would qualify as well. You will need to check with your specific insurance for their requirements. They are all so different.

@@Fat_Tony, Honestly the best place to start is with your insurance company. Many require that you use a center of excellence for bariatrics. They will even give you a list of centers you can use. At the same time, they will provide you with their list of requirements. My insurance which was medica required a six month supervised diet, that I use a center of excellence, that I had a BMI of 40 or 35 with commorbitities. Most centers of excellence have both online and onsite free seminars. My advice would be to get yourself into a live seminar as quickly as possible. Once you do that, the ball will be rolling for you. I am very excited for you! I remember how I felt after going to my first seminar. My surgery could not come fast enough. Now, I am 50 lbs from my goal and feeling fantastic!

The biggest thing is making sure you get your Protein and Water. I have weighed myself everyday since I had my surgery at the end of September. If you are going to do that, you have to remember that your body weight fluctuates everyday. You probably did not gain a pound but it is water weight. It takes an excess 3500 calories to gain a pound. I can almost guarantee you that you did not do that. If you are going to weigh daily you have to make sure that you don't let it freak you out. There will be times when your body takes a break, it is likely in starvation mode. My longest break was 3 weeks and that was very hard and a bit frustrating but totally expected. The body is actually fascinating, it trys to control you. You are testing it and it is testing you. If you go a couple weeks without losing then you need to examine what you are consuming but for now, you really need to focus on getting your water and protein in. It is the most important thing. Use your scale only as one tool in your tool box. Use your clothes and how you feel guide you as well. Good luck! You are going to do fantastic!

@@ShellMilliner, crackers work well at this stage for a vehicle to chicken salad, tuna salad and cheese. The reason it works is because you cannot eat very much at all. 2 or 3 crackers and you are full. I always made sure that I would put a lot of Protein on those crackers so I would not eat more of them. I still prefer crackers over bread of any kind. Bread simply wastes space in my stomach and does not keep me satisfied for long. Now, I just have to make sure that I pile them high with protein and don't eat more than I should. I will usually limit myself to no more than 5 and if I do well with protein, I am full by the time I get to that fifth cracker. I am 7 months post op.

At 6 weeks I was on the soft food diet. I remember it well because I was so darned excited to get off the puréed stage. I personally did not do well with that stage at all. Here is an example of my typical day at that point: I would always start my day with a premier Protein shake - back then I had to milk it down because it was too thick for my stomach. 50/50 skim lactose free milk and Protein Shake. This gave me a jump start on protein Yo plait light yogurt for Breakfast ( I do not tolerate Greek yogurt, it makes me gag) Mid morning I would either have a cup of lactose free skim milk or the other half of my protein shake - 50/50 lunch - cottage cheese 1/4 cup with very small amount of canned fruit like pears or peaches Mid afternoon I would have the opposite of what I had for mid morning. Either a cup of milk or the other half of my shake from the morning. Whichever I did not drink for mid morning snack dinner - my favorite was Greek chicken or fish. And veggies. 2 bites of protein for every one bite of veggies. Veggies need to be cooked until they are very soft. For me cauliflower was my favorite. I have also fallen in love with carrots. About once a week I would have a spoonful of sweet potatoe or mashed potatoe. Evening snack - a cup of lactose free skim milk The further I got down the road, I would try new Proteins. Also at this stage it helps to have some type of sauce or gravy with your protein. It helps it to go down a lot easier. Good luck!

Water consumption plays a huge role in weight loss but so does a higher Protein low carb food plan. I would recommend tracking your food and water intake on an app like my fitness pal. If I were in your shoes, this is exactly where I would focus my energy. It holds us accountable to everything we put in our mouths. Lastly, what does your exercise plan look like? You have come so far! You know what you need to do to get back on track and you can do this! Clearly you have done it before. Good luck to you!

Different foods fill you up differently so it is important to measure. Also, it definitely sound like you over ate. I hate that feeling worse than any other. it just means you need to pay attention and measure until you get the hang of knowing when to stop. sometimes one extra fork full can really cause havoc.

I have to remind you that you did just have major surgery. You need to be a little easier on yourself. In terms of the weight loss, you body is likely in starvation mode fighting the weight loss. I promise if you stick to the plan it will work itself out and the pounds will start to drop off again. You are not doing too bad on Water and Protein but if you could get some more in, it would give you more of the energy that you are looking for. I also think that going back to work might just be what you need to get past the afternoon sleepy time. I remember going through that and You just have to build your stamina up again. but it will be very important for you to focus on your liquids and protein while at work. I wish you the best of luck!

Honestly if you have gerd now, the sleeve can make that much worse. I would spend sometime with your doctor and go on line and read about the statistics of each surgery before making a decision. You will get a lot of opinions on here but you still may be left with confusion over what to do. I was originally scheduled to get the sleeve done. After meeting with my surgeon and going over my history, he suggested that I change to the RNY. I was absolutely devastated because I had my heart set on the sleeve. For some reason I was scared about the rerouting that happens with RNY. Then, I went to see my gastroenterologist who told me that if I had the sleeve and my gerd got worse, there was nothing he could do with medications as I was already at the max. He suggested that I go on line and do some additional research but his recommendation to go to the RNY was very clear. He was concerned I would be looking at a revision down the road. I only wanted to do this surgery once. After spending many hours reading on line and books I decided to go with the RNY. I have not regretted it for one second. I can eat anything I want, I do not have to take meds for gerd/reflux prevention and I have never had a single episode of either. Research until you feel comfortable...... good luck!

You will make it through this. If you are having a hard time eating you must get your Protein in. That is what will make the weak feeling go away. Also, because you are dizzy and lightheaded, I suspect that you are not get enough fluids. That can make you literally feel week, nauseous and dizzy. No matter what you need to focus on getting enough fluids in. If you do that I promise you will start to feel better. It is the hardest thing about this new life. Focus on fluids, protein and finally Vitamins. The food will come along. Good luck and if you continue to feel this way you need to call the doctor. You are going to have a tough time making it through work dehydrated.

For me, daily weighing gives me information I need to continue on my path. It is one of my barometers that lets me know if I am still on track. I also use tools like my Fitbit and my fitness pal to keep me moving forward. It is way too easy to simply stop tracking and suddenly I will have gained weight and not know why or when it happened. This is what works for some of us. Now, I totally agree if in fact I could not handle the stalls/breaks my body has taken along the journey. If I would freak out, I would have to stop weighing daily. But I don't, if I don't lose anything for 10 days to 2 weeks I know I have to really look closely at why and make some adjustments. I can do that with a logical approach and move forward. I now have a number goal I would like to get to. That number goal puts me at a healthy weight for my height and age.

You have now learned a very rough lesson. Your tummy needs that time to heal. You must stick with the plan or risk complications that you most definitely do not want.

Please search for 3 week stall on this site and you will find how common this is. Also one week with no loss is not really a stall. When you go several weeks with no loss then I would suggest your body might be taking a break. Just keep following the plan and the break will end. Your body is just waiting to see what you will do next.

Oh my goodness! Thanks so much for sharing your great accomplishment with us. You look like you are in heaven. Keep up the great work and you will hit your goal soon! Congratulations!

@@TinyMamiOf3kids, nice work! I cannot wait until I can get the plastics going. I am a ways out, still have another 53 to go and then need to maintain for a while. Wish I could get my arms done sooner. I have such terrible loose skin there, my arms were soooooo big when I was 315.

Hi Amy and welcome! Thanks so much for sharing your story. As I am sure you already know, you are not alone in your journey. It is so exciting to get to the post op phase so you can begin a whole new life. If there are any questions you might have, feel free to throw them out here. I am guessing someone has experienced the same thing and might be able to help. You mentioned you are having a few complications related to eating...... Good luck on your new journey!

Well, I wish you all the best with your upcoming surgery. I started with the RNY because I already had uncontrollable reflux and my surgeon had so much experience with the sleeve making that problem worse. I have not had a single episode of reflux since the first day post op.i can eat pretty much whatever I want and thankfully I do not get dumping syndrome. Good luck with your upcoming transition. Hopefully you will feel better soon!

This topic comes up just about every day on this site. You can search for it and fine hundreds if not thousands of posts that should help you. For me, the band was never an option to consider. My surgeon feels unless you have really great exercise habits in place, the band will not succeed long term. Banders had to work even harder. Given I have psoriatic arthritis and degenerative spine disease, we felt that was not going to be as successful for me. So my decision was between the sleeve and RNY gastric bypass. We then had to take my health concerns into account. I suffered from a lot of things, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, reflux/herd, diabetes and stage 3 kidney disease. As soon as my surgeon realized that I suffered from reflux, he immediately recommended that I go with RNY. I was devastated. I had my heart set on going with the sleeve. I was told the sleeve can make reflux much worse and that many folks will go the sleeve route and then have to get it revised to RNY anyway. I got a second opinion from my gastroenterologist and he immediately confirmed for me that RNY was the way to go. I had RNY on 9/29/14. It is the best thing I ever did. I am down 95lbs, all of my issues: high blood pressure, diabetes, reflux/gerd, high cholesterol and even my kidney disease have resolved. When you go for your consultation, they should go through your medical history and that should really help with your decision. Good luck to you!

I am seven months post op and just in the last 4 weeks I have finally been able to tolerate raw salad and all the veggies that go with it. Prior to that salad was not a good experience for me. Now I cannot get enough of it. I especially love to throw a scoop of cottage cheese on it for that extra Protein. Fruit I have been able to tolerate since the beginning. My nut had me eating raw fruit at 4 weeks out in very small amounts but peeled. I still cannot set an apple peel.