OutsideMatchInside

Dated, no one has dared to comment on my skin. They are mostly into the T and A. I'm guessing you were born in 76. If you are dating men your own age or older, they aren't going to expect a perfect body. Some men care more about how you appear in public, meaning other people find you beautiful and men look at you, than worry about what you look like in private. If you can look like a trophy in clothes, that is most of the battle. This is just my opinion. I don't have your bathroom or gas issues. Have you tried a probiotic? How much Water do you drink? Have you became lactose intolerant since surgery? I notice this week my skin is slowly getting better, even though I am still losing. My arms are still tragic but not as tragic a they were. I can wear sleeveless stuff without thinking I am going to scare small children. I still need an arm lift I think, but there is hope for the skin. Other people don't see your flaws as clearly as you see them.

I was swallowing pills after I passed my swallow test, so within 24 hours.

@@WLSResources/ClothingExch Dude is not a petty question. Keeping your nails up is a costly investment, a lot of us spend $1000-2000 a year on it. Having your gel polish or your full set off can cause all your nails to break off and you have to start over. Being pretty is serious business. @@still_dna Just check with them. I took my gel polish off the night before, I had surgery on a Wednesday and when I got home Thursday night I put my gel polish back on (I have a light at home), and I went on that Friday and got a pedicure. If you have to soak them off, you might be able to have them right back on a couple days after surgery if you are recovering well.

You are the same height as me and you weigh a little less. Your resting metabolic rate is probably 1800-1900 a day, that is if you don't do anything at all and just lay in bed. If you add in your activity, you are burning over 2000 calories a day. And you are only eating 800-900, that is over 1000 calorie a day deficit. Try increasing your calories to at least 1200. Eat another portion or meat, a Protein bar or a shake. Try it for a couple weeks and see what happens. Your surgery date says 1999. When did you have surgery?

21 pounds.

@@stephyr Are you losing inches? If you are going to the gym twice a day, are your calories keeping up? You can't create a huge calorie deficit and not fill it. If you are working out more you need to eat more, or your body will think it is starving.

@@AnaLaura85 My weight loss didn't pick up until after week 6 and I lost weight the fastest in months 3-5. Your body is working on healing, not losing weight. Your body has had a major trauma. You are starting at a lower start weight so your weight loss is going to be slower than most people. Stick to your program and the losses will come. If you aren't meeting your Protein goals, you can't expect to lose weight if you are starving.

Well it isn't new, it has been around a long time. I guess they finally bribed enough people to get it approved. It will be totally abused in the US, the same way they are abusing and misusing the ballon with people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Gb6389Um4 It is disgusting and doesn't teach proper eating habits.

Just get a Keratin lotion and then add Vitamin E oil to it and mix it up. My Dr recommended Vitamin E oil and it really helped. If you can afford it and you have a Sams membership, you can get a big bottle of bio oil from Sams. You will probably use a bottle a month or every 3 weeks, so you have to think about it you want to spend that much.

This is probably too late because of the time frame, but I met my deductible and out of pocket doing pre-op testing. Since that testing was with the hosptial, they offer payment plans. Have you done all your pre-op testing? If you could get in for tests this week, and work out a payment plan with the hospital maybe your surgeon can still squeeze you in.

@@atlmag Most BCBS don't have weigh insurance anymore. I have BCBS and I went from first visit to surgery in 8 weeks.

@@Krystenaj If I still lived in the city and had the free time for their trillion pre-op appointments I would go to the program at Northwestern. They were well organized and rigid. They do provide good results. They were on my list of places I could go but time is money and I didn't have the time to waste that they require. Univ of Chicago is expensive and overrated and not a very good member of the community to their surrounding neighborhood. I could write a book about what is wrong with them, but... Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.

At 2 months I was eating 3-4 ounces of fish 5-6 times a day to get my Protein in, something like that. A really moist baked fish turns to mush in your mouth. Maybe give that a shot. Have you tried Syntrax nectars?

I can't remember but I already knew about them pre-surgery from doing my research. The IV thing is just common sense though, I don't get why that baffles so many people. The 3 week stall is like the most infamous thing about WLS surgery. My nurse was 6 months post-op with the sleeve and most of my questions were more long term and all of them were answered. I was well prepared by my staff, but that is also why I picked them. I wanted a smooth streamline process. Making a thread like this asking people is pointless because most people won't read it, just like people don't use search and just as the same question that has been asked hundreds of times. I get that searching on the app might not be that intuitive, but Google is easy you can type in any random question and get an answer. Lately is seems that we have had an influx of people that went to XXX doctor that is only in it for the money and people have no education or very little education. Especially this new crop of people that had surgery in Mexico. I don't know how people last on here for years, at 11 months, I am about all burned out on answering questions. I want to answer questions and help people because I feel it is important to give back, but it is getting ridiculous.

238 Scale not moving, but I am getting smaller, so sigh, and yay!

The biggest hold up is usually your doctor office, not insurance. Since Obamacare they can't deny surgeries like they used to so as long as you meet the requirements they have to approve it, so that makes for a more streamline process, well for the good insurance companies anyway. There are a few that seem to still drag it out, like Aetna.

Have they explained to you why? My insurance approved in less than a week. The longest part of the whole process was completing the pre-op testing, and that took 4 weeks. I went from first Dr visit to surgery in 8 weeks. I wanted to have surgery at a very specific time period since I run my own business. I pushed and made my surgery happen within the time frame I wanted. If you want your surgery to happen sooner, you might be able to force it faster.

Why can't you have surgery sooner? At 4 months, you will be able to eat pretty decent, if you eat seafood moist foods, you should be good. You can take small sips of alcohol at your wedding toasts you should be fine. Your dress though, that is going to be a real mess. It is not even likely they can take the dress in and keep adjusting it as you lose weight. Its is easy to drop a whole size in 7-10 days in months 3 and 4. The schedule for wedding dress alterations, means it that they will do the last alternation a month to 2 weeks before your wedding date. If you buy your dress from a shop, try to find another seamstress, hopefully a family friend, that can take it again if needed the week before the wedding.

A lot of surgeons are moving away from it. It doesn't seem to make logical sense to starve someone and weaken them, then operate on them. It seems very counter intuitive. People with a high BMI that likely have large livers, are the exception to this because the liver reductions is needed.

People that don't like Protein shakes seem to suffer the most in the beginning. I loved them before surgery, so I didn't have an issue afterwards. Then the people with crappy friends and family seem to really suffer a lot. Lastly the people that plan and plot early to eat around their sleeve long term fail. Short term they do fine, long term they regain. These stories often start with crackers or chips. Avoid these things, follow your plan, win.

I use almond over soy because of all the hormonal issues with soy. Almond milk is great, I just wish there was a better way to grow almonds. I feel so guilty every time I use an almond product.

Almonds are also terrible for the environment since it takes over a gallon of water to grow just ONE almond.

Not really, a properly formed sleeve does not stretch hardly at all. Honestly most of it is people being ignorant about how the surgery and their body works. People think the restriction they have at the beginning is the restriction they are supposed to have forever. The restriction at the beginning is from swelling and your body trying to heal. As you heal and as time goes on that restriction relaxes, to a normal rate. People that depend on their restriction to tell them when to stop eating, instead of weighing and measuring their food and relying on proper portions. The restriction in the beginning is there to teach and train you that smaller portions, and make that a norm to you. The restriction exists to make the mental changes easier, but you aren't supposed to depend on the physical restriction forever, because it changes as you heal.

I take pictures everyday, but I took pictures almost every day before surgery. I track my weight in a couple apps. I'm supposed to be tracking my measurements and weight in a spreadsheet I made, but I honestly don't care too much. I see so many people documenting things on IG and Youtube and they seem to let that, and the people that ask them things take over their journey to the point that tracking it is more important than what is going on. There is a reason I don't take a lot of pictures on vacation, I would rather enjoy the moment than document it.