smile121

Hi! I am may 4th too! Can't wait!

I am may 4th too!!!

Hi All! I am so excited right now, i just got all of my clearances and I got my surgery date! it is May 4th! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! My liquid diet starts April 19th!

Linds! That is awesome. We will go through this together!

Hi Everyone, I just got my date it is May 4th! who is with me?

Hi, my insurance is a 3 month wait. And there have been times that it was sooooo long! But now i have my last appointment April 10! It feels like it flew by (if that makes sense). Since I decided to get surgery in November, I went through a lot of different emotions, food funerals, weight gain, and acceptance. Looking back I think I really do need this time to prepare myself for this transition. I know what I want, and I am figuring out ways to deal with my emotional eating habits before the big day. I am hopeful it is going to help me tremendously. Take this time to focus on yourself and really deal with the issues you personally have with food. The time goes by faster than you think : ) good luck!

I love the variety of responses on this topic! It makes me glad that I commented early on to see them all.. haha. it seems like some people are very passionate about logging, and definitely annoyed at the thought of it being a frustration to others. To me, logging my food was equal to the obsession with losing weight. I personally don't think that it takes long at all to log food, I am used to the weight watchers mentality of you bite it, you write it. I love the accountability of it, but sometimes it felt like it turned into obsession for me. I do understand the flip side, and saying that you have to be accountable no matter what, and if that is the way that works for you, do it, and don't complain about it. I will definitely be logging my protein/calories, before surgery and after... then I am hoping i will get to a point where i can just log Protein and know what to eat.. if not, the logging will continue. either way, this is a great thread... lots of great responses!

I think that, for me, I want to stop my obsession with food. I want food to work for me, not me working for food anymore. I have talked to my nut and therapist about this and they say that my thinking is really good. The problem is making the "skinny person" mentality my own. I have conditioned myself to think that food is love and comfort, I have also conditioned myself to think that to lose weight I have to deprive, or log or count everything. See what I do there, eating is freedom and dieting is punishment. Because I recognize this, I know I am ready to make the change!!!

So I have been attending the support groups that are lead by my surgeon. In the meetings he mentions that gastric bypass is the way to go if you want to lose a lot of weight and keep it off. He literally says that gastric bypass is first choice and second is the sleeve. I have always wanted to do the sleeve but I have around 150lbs to lose... Now I am totally confused!

Hi all! Thanks so much for the comments, I know that this is such a personal decision, but it always helps to get a little guidance. I am overweight but I don't have any co morbidities YET. I wanted the sleeve because I don't want to re route my intestines and risk malnutrition. I think you all are right, it really depends on the person and how much work they are willing to put in. My surgeon talked about some people that got the bypass and only lost about 30lbs. I don't think I can go wrong if I am willing to put in the work and make this tool work with me. I am definitely not going into this blindly thinking that it is a miracle and I can just sit back and do nothing and watch the weight fall off. I think having this site and seeing all of you that have lost weight with the sleeve and the work you put in helps a lot! Thanks again!

Good luck to you!!!!

Hello! I am right there with you. I was extremely successful with weight watchers, but eventually got burnt out from logging all of my food. It gets exhausting!!!

Hi All! So i am still in my pre-op, insurance requirements phase, which is long and annoying in itself..lol. I have Cigna, and they require a 3 month pre op supervised diet with a nutritionist, I have only one more visit before they can submit to my insurance. So i have been working really hard at getting all of my pre-op appointments/tests completed before my last NUT visit, which is April 10th. I have been in contact with my surgeons office, and LUCKY ME, they have a brand new coordinator there. I spoke to her for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and let her know that i am definitely ready for surgery (i made my decision back in November) and I want to have everything done before April 10th so that they can submit to my insurance and I can get my date.. at that time she stated that I could possibly have a date of April 13th, I thought that was very strange, because i need my insurance approved first, but it got my hopes up a little. I have completed all of my bloodwork and tests, and called yesterday just to ask some general questions about when i can have a pre-op appointment, and if it can be before the last nut visit, and also if they will submit to my insurance immediately. I really need to know for work purposes, and also I have a lot of social obligations in April, and May (christenings, parties, communions, baby showers, and weddings) i just want to be sure that if i can't attend i will give enough notice. I think that she may have been having a bad day, because she stated i was still missing things that she had confirmed were done on our last call. Then she said well nothing is going to be done with this until you are closer to being done with your NUT visits, so I can't tell you anything. I only have 1 left and it is on April 10th, so she rushed me off the phone and said i need to complete my requirements, and call closer to my date of being completed. Hmmmm, Now i feel bad calling again today, after re - faxing everything i had already faxed over. I don't mean to be pushy, I am just ready, and want to do this as soon as I can... Sorry to vent guys!!

So I wanted to record my journey somehow, i was thinking about starting a blog, but because I am still on the fence about that, I am going to log my journey here. This way I can look back and see the struggles, and the rewards. I have been overweight for a lot of my life. I am an emotional eater, I use food for love, for friendship, for boredom, for social purposes.. pretty much for everything. Food is definitely a drug for me. Well, let me rephrase, sugar, high fat foods, and salt, are a drug for me. I am most definitely not addicted to veggies. Lol I have dieted for most of my life. I have gained and lost hundreds of pounds. I have tried pretty much every diet there is, and I have been successful in losing the weight… now keeping it off is another issue all together. My issues with food are primarily emotionally driven, and fear driven. I believe that food provides a certain high for me, and I turn to it whenever I start to feel scared. Let me explain that point a little bit, so I am 34 and single. I have had a good number of boyfriends and dates… but I have realized with dating, that I don’t have a lot of “self-worth” which leads me to date emotionally unavailable men, where I am over-compensating their lack of effort. When I come across an emotionally available man, I find something wrong with them, like if this guy is so great, why would he want me? There must be something wrong with him.. So I run from them. I find that when I “diet” lose a significant amount of weight, and start getting attention from men, I go for the “safe” man, the one that isn’t willing to give too much.. and when that inevitably fails and the relationship starts to fall apart, I EAT… I eat to protect myself, to make myself invisible again, and to keep myself safe. It is a vicious cycle!!! It is almost as if, I attract these men to prove to myself that I am not good enough, and like every self-fulfilling prophecy, when it happens, I want to protect myself from it ever happening again. In the back of my mind, I think… if I could just convince this man, that definitely likes me, but doesn’t want to fully commit, to commit to me – well then I have won, and then I will know I am good enough. Yeah, not so healthy, right? Now don’t worry guys, I am in therapy, and have been for the most part of 10 years. I am working through these issues, I know where they stem from (an unavailable parent, and rocky childhood) and I really want to move past them. In the past few years I have turned to spirituality and meditation which has helped me tremendously!! Last April, after losing 50+ pounds, I started dating a man who really liked me, and was extremely attractive! I really liked him, we started a relationship, and although there were red flags about some commitment issues, because they were not as BRIGHT red as past relationships, so I still moved forward. He cared about me, and showed me, he was there for me, and wanted to be a part of my life, but when push came to shove, he didn’t want the commitment that I wanted. Even though I knew it wasn’t my fault, this time, and even though I had evolved enough to realize that his fears had nothing to do with my self-worth.. my old friend, food came back into play. I gained 70 pounds since April of 2014. I know why I gained the weight, I wanted to “protect” myself from being hurt again. In the process of gaining weight, and in the process of losing hope that I will never lose weight and keep it off, I did some serious inner work. LOADS of self-reflection, and I am really grasping the concept of self-love (which is not coming easily…lol) I was working with my therapist on all of this, and truly feel like I am grasping these things and accepting myself with my flaws instead of constantly trying to be something that I am not. So we started talking about the next step, how can I get the outer me to match the inner me? She suggested that with all of my work over that I have done over the years, that I should consider weight loss surgery. I started doing research and I decided that at this point in my life, I think I would be mentally and emotionally ready for that kind of change. I think it would be a great tool for me to use so that I don’t turn to food for comfort, and I am forced to use the methods that I have been working on over the past few years. I want to take the first 18 months like I am a baby learning new ways to cope with life, and not relying on my “false friend”. So that is where my journey started, since then I have found a surgeon and I am working on my preop requirements. I am hoping to get sleeved in May. I am definitely scared that I will fail, and I am scared of long term results, but I am ready to try. Being the size I am now, is not only hindering my confidence, but it is hard to move! Joint pain is real! And I am tired of not being able to run around all day without getting tired. I feel like a 50 year old woman at 34. I don’t want to worry about not being able to fit into a seat, or a booth. I don’t want worry about not fitting in an airplane seat. I don’t want to think about how I am a hop skip and a pound away from having diabetes. I don’t want to think about the fact that I may not be able to have children because of my size. I don’t want to worry about summer coming, and how I need to really lose 20 lbs before I will wear a dress. Or looking at all the clothes in my closet that range in sizes that do not fit me. I don’t want my life to revolve around food. I don’t want to worry that I will not have enough to eat. I don’t want my world to revolve around a number on the scale. I want to feel good about myself, and loosen, if not completely remove the shackles that are my weight. I am ready for this. I know it is going to be hard work, I am not afraid of working hard…. But I am afraid that if I keep gaining weight, I will never be able to lead the active life that I want. So this is it, this is my most drastic and final attempt at significant weight loss. I know I can do it! Here we go!

Thank you! Have you had the sleeve? If so how is it working for you?

Thank you for all of your replies. I feel bad bashing her, because i am sure this is a very overwhelming job, but I think we just want these coordinators to realize that even though they deal with the same issues everyday, this is the first time we are going through it. We don't know how it works, and frankly, this is probably the most important decision i have ever made for myself. I just want to understand the process and be sure that i am doing everything I can on time, and that she is doing everything she can to help me. I am going to call back again today, and risk looking like a "stalker" hahaha. @@lynneanne - I can't believe you had to go through that! WOW! yes def Water under the bridge but that is super annoying!

Hi all, my last nut visit will be on April 10th, I have almost all of my requirements done, just need the clearance letters : ) I am hoping for end of April beginning of May ... I am so ready!

Hi all! I spoke with my surgeons office today, they called to be sure I am on track and see if I needed any help. I have Cigna which requires 3 month nutrition visits. My last one is scheduled for April 10th. The woman at the surgeons office said that if I completed all my tests before that I can set my date for as soon as April 13th!!!! I thought I needed approval before setting the date?

I will keep my fingers crossed for you!!! Did you have required visits to a nutritionist? When did you complete those?

Thanks so much!

I absolutely did not! I apologize , the app kept telling me that it could not be posted, then I went on the actual website and saw the multiple posts, but didn't know how to delete them.

Hi all! I spoke with my surgeons office today, they called to be sure I am on track and see if I needed any help. I have Cigna which requires 3 month nutrition visits. My last one is scheduled for April 10th. The woman at the surgeons office said that if I completed all my tests before that I can set my date for as soon as April 13th!!!! I thought I needed approval before setting the date?

Hi all! I spoke with my surgeons office today, they called to be sure I am on track and see if I needed any help. I have Cigna which requires 3 month nutrition visits. My last one is scheduled for April 10th. The woman at the surgeons office said that if I completed all my tests before that I can set my date for as soon as April 13th!!!! I thought I needed approval before setting the date?

Hi all! I spoke with my surgeons office today, they called to be sure I am on track and see if I needed any help. I have Cigna which requires 3 month nutrition visits. My last one is scheduled for April 10th. The woman at the surgeons office said that if I completed all my tests before that I can set my date for as soon as April 13th!!!! I thought I needed approval before setting the date?