Dub

No more "pack of hot dogs" on the neck !!!! Very cool. Have razors.....will entertain Mr. Clean look for a while as the hair growth slows for a while.

I know, right. It's gonna suck.....but it'll roll along. Diet Snapple is my new friend. Gonna stay busy. Thank you !

Yup. I was told the same thing, too. Available everywhere, low cost and taste great.

Looking great and making awesome progress !!!!!!

Thank each of you. It's been a wild ride but it's settling down now. I'm indeed ready to join you guys on the other side........save me a seat on the loser's bench. I'm really pumped up and ready. These next two weeks are going to go pretty quick......I hope.

I briefly dabbled with it years ago......looked like a freaking circus act, though. My big arse balancing on a seat made for a much smaller hombre. There is a nice path to ride less than five miles from the house. Along the path there are several exits where riders peel off onto technical trails. I always stayed on the easy riding flat path. Hopefully by this winter I'll be a much lighter post-op version of myself. A buddy told me that I'll want to sell my very lightly used five year old bike and buy a new "Twenty-niner" Evidently the market is now moving from 26" to 29" . He said it'd make a huge amount of difference.......I don't know. It'll be fun wheeling my current Trek into the shop for them to go over everything and make sure it's ready to ride again.....soon. Any of you ride at all ?

Sounds great !!!! When I bought my current Trek several years back.....the 29'ers were just starting to come out. I also saw some bikes in the store with rear suspensions that looked liked they were tremendously shock absorbing. I'm really intrigued and look forward to the times ahead. I imagine by the time I'm ready to bike shop I'll be camping at the bit for some outdoor cardio as the dreadmills and ellipticals of the gym will be growing old.

This is going to be some fun money to save up for and spend......a new bike. Looking forward to maybe this time next year to be looking into the matter seriously.

Amazing progress. You have done really well !!!!!!

You look great !!!!!! That's gotta feel really good to look back and see the wonderful progress.

I involved my family and sought advice from them. I decided to tell the closer associates at work as they would certainly figure it out anyway.....that I'd gone out for hernia surgery and came back 3-4 weeks later much a great deal lighter.......weight loss continuing at a rate they've never seen anyone loose at...... It seemed silly to conjure up some type of cover story. Heck, that would most likely have even more questions being asked, "Oh, you are on a serious diet.......wow, you've lost 100 lbs and are losing 100 more ???.........wow, what are you eating.....how does it work.......etc......etc.......etc.". Being upfront may just stop all the questions.....or many of them at least. If they tell other folks, then so be it. I'm not doing this for social reasons but for my health. Folks will either understand and support me or they won't. I do know of 3 folks at work who struggle like I do and each has the financial means to do the same thing I did. Maybe they'll be the ones asking the lion's share of questions which I will gladly answer for them. They each could benefit hugely from weight loss.

Well.....I wiped out the balance of my HSA card and spent money that was intended to go towards a new vehicle soon. The new vehicle really appealed to me.....was going to be the answer to all my problems, etc, etc. Funny how my priorities changed immediately after screw up my back in April. My regular doctor and my spine surgeon both said the same thing.....a bariatric surgeon could do more for me than they could and I'd be feeling great soon after the weight loss started. My old truck suits me just find for a few more years as I get smaller and feeling better.

I'm still a couple months away from surgery but thinking about recovering already. One question I had is concerning ways to enhance comfort once returning home from the hospital. Is it advisable to not lay fully flat but slightly elevated on both ends ? I also wondered about simply buying a recliner now since our downstairs chairs are rigid wing backs. It may be easier if I recover a couple days in the recliner vs having to go upstairs to the bedroom.

I think that I'll be holding off until I reach the goal weight, too, @shriner37 When it occurs......I'll be looking into something fun to drive.

Everything in the pantry is still the same as my family foods are the same. I just have added a shelf that is for my stuff....protein powders, permissible Chike iced coffee Protein powder (so tasty that I can't let anyone else in the house know how good it tastes as it's too expensive....will be my own indulgence), Water additives, various bariatric supplements. I share my Flinstones chewable with everyone, though.

I can't tell you how cool that is to hear from you both. We are STILL in the month of your surgeries and you are having this level of success already. This is highly encouraging to me as I'm beginning the pre-op diet today. I know it'll suck....but the benefits are going to be great. Looking forward to cleaning out my section of the closet....one oversized piece at a time.

Another vote for Quest bars. I've held off on buying them before my surgery because I wasn't sure how well I'd do limiting myself to just one at a time. They are that dang good. I do have a specific favorite flavor, too. It is : all of them !!! The flavor is so good that you almost don't trust the nutritional label. Great source of fiber, too.

Doubts are normal. There is a lot to consider. Every single one of the doctors I've been seeing over the past year for various maladies have all said the same thing...WLS is what you should consider. I listened to them and got things in motion. This time next month should find me healing up from my bypass and losing at a great pace. Positive outlook will be needed to get through the no fun liquid diet I'm starting tomorrow. You'll do great. Lots of great advisors on here

Sorry to hear this. Did you ever have similar pains prior to your WLS ? Just looked at the progress tracker in your sig line. You are five weeks out of surgery and almost halfway to goal !!!

I had a much longer reply typed above but the page stated an error occurred, refreshed the page and deleted everything. This site is not friendly with my iPad. Never a problem with the MacBook.....just with the iPad.

A back injury in April of this year is to thank for getting me focused on permanent weight loss. I am grateful and thank God that this happened. I was humbled and had plenty of time to think of how I needed to get started. It was the first time in my life that I couldn't simply cut carbs & calories and hit the treadmill hardcore for a few months and make improvements. Nope, the old back wasn't allowing that. I tried working on the calories but being limited to sleeping, sitting and hanging out really helped me find my resolve to pursue wls. My family physician, doctor at the hyperbaric wound care facility kept after me about it (treating a leg wound that wouldn't heal on it's own), my back surgeon (who said wls could do more for me than he could) and a persistent younger sister (who had bypass 15 years ago and has lift a get and fun life ever since) all finally made sense. I started in a program that had a great surgeon who came highly recommended. I was about 3 months into it and my insurance started throwing up barrier after barrier. All along it was known that I needed to be at a "center of excellence" which I wasn't. They'd been very understanding upfront and said that all the referrals I had would make it okay.....and that due to the comorbidities would push it through and I'd not even need to complete the full 6 months pre-op plan. Time passed and then the bullcrap started. They started throwing up every penalty flag they could. I even switched over midstream to the center of excellence credited facility they required. They still kept throwing flags. It appeared to be a stall tactic to push my surgery approval back and the date into early 2016. I found out why two weeks ago.....my employer is going to BCBS. It all became clear. No matter what I did would result in a stall tactic. Screw 'em. Done with them. I decided to self-fund this. It's that worth it to me. I'd been saving up for a new car.........oh well. My old vehicle is going to have to keep on chugging away for a few more years than I'd planned. It was an easy decision.....a leaner and healthier body that's allowing the aches and pains to ease off vs sporting a new ride. Easy call. I went to the surgeon's office yesterday and paid for the procedure. Done. I have completed my pysche eval, nutritionist's workshops and counseling, surgeon appointments and etc. I have 4 hour surgeon workshop next week, and EGD and then pre-op. The date of surgery is looking like late next month. The relief that this brought is immeasurable. Huge. Tremendous. I didn't realize how much of a dick I'd been around home and probably at work, too. Ill tempered and cagey. Now, it's like a huge weight has been lifted.....no pun intended. My resolve to do this has never wavered from April to now. I've been through a lot of coaching and education about the wls and feel really good about what is going to happen from this point forward. Hopefully I'll be disguised as a recovering bypass & hernia surgery patient by the time the trick or treat candy shows up. Things have fallen into place and prayers answered. I am so grateful. Gotta head out to work, but wanted to share this. Hang in there folks......a way will be provided for you when you are truly ready.

Thanks everyone. EGD in a week. Surgery in 4 weeks. Super pumped up about it.

Lately I'm just resuming handgun target shooting. I want to do more trap shooting and sporting clays. 3-Gun competitions look like they would be fun. My local range had an IDPA style handgun comp every month. My birthday gift to myself was a sweet 1911 that I'd love to use in the local stuff. Glock offers the GSSF events. Obviously, you have to run Glocks in their events, but I'm fairly well covered with those. I'm really looking forward to getting back into a steady diet of trigger time.

I'm scheduled for late October and also self funding my surgery. I worried about using the funds on myself......but I got past that really quickly when I realized how much of a burden my weight related problems are on my family. Having your spouse being supportive is tremendous. Workhard on the diet up to your surgery and good luck with everything.

Both the surgeons I consulted were strict on no coffee for a period of time immediately following surgery. The surgeon I ultimately went with allows two cups a day after the first 6 weeks. I also like Splenda and cream in mine. My sister had bypass15 years ago. She is a big fan of her daily trips to Starbucks. I was talking to her on the cellphone yesterday and she was waiting in their drive-thru. I was glad to know that I wouldn't have to fight for coffee.