IncredibleShrinkingMan

I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with my big clothes. Even leaving them with somebody else can be a jinx on your efforts. I put them in boxes at a relative's house, and then needed to ask for them back a year later (I didn't have any surgery at that point). Likewise, I never did anything with my small clothes from back then, and now I don't have to spend all my free hours in department stores looking for stuff that I don't even know how long I'm going to need. I've never understood why people do anything with their old clothes, other than give them away as gifts or charity. Even the biggest stuff I have still fits fine to wear around the house in a sloppy manner. Not that I would wear them out on the town any longer.

I think everybody has stalls without exception. Many people stop taking vitamins, but that's not a good idea. I hear a lot of bandsters say they regret it, but that's probably because they see more dramatic weight loss in people who've had other surgeries. If you are happy with your results, that's great, and try not to let that get in your head.

Best of luck. I think liquids will do wonders for your mindset and stop any cravings. It will make the early post-op go extremely smoothly for you!

You've made a great decision, and your reasons align very closely with mine. I thought about food during school, work, the movies, going to bed at night, and even if I never lost a single pound, that would provide reason enough to go ahead with it IMHO. You are also very disciplined to have chosen the date you have chosen...that means pre-op Thanksgiving to Christmas and a very tough New Year's Day. It is so worth it though.

I take the Vitamin Shoppe's calcium citrate, each containing 600 mg of calcium and 1000 IU of Vitamin D3. My instructions say take 4 of these per day, with the additional 5000 IU D3 only tablet somewhere in the day.

If you have been faithful to your clear liquids, the carb cravings should be gone any minute now. Best of luck!

@@fluffytofit Not to be pedantic, but I think everybody has some history of a BMI under 40, because none of us were born at this weight. If you mean you have a recent weigh-in under BMI 40, then I'd also say you're fine, because if you're not there now, you had an attempt and it was not successful, so that should enable you to meet the requirement. @@VSGAnn2014 That is pretty hysterical...what about weights you can tie around your ankles? Some of those are 5-7 lbs each!

Wow, wonderful to read an actual positive relationship story on this forum. Good luck to both of you, and many happy lean years!

@@BLERDgirl When I went for my first post-op visit in August he told me that he tests the sleeve for leaks with a liquid instead of with a gas. I also don't think we were pumped full of CO2. I think that definitely helped during the hospital stay. He also uses a 38 fr bougie, and perhaps that is the most favorable for not experiencing bloating or pains later on. I did come home with 8 extra pounds of Fluid in me, so I got distressed, but those quickly went away.

Anyway, I would like 4.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day), and be 179 on Christmas Eve (down 20 lbs from today's weight of 199)

I have always sworn by Trader Joe's cream of tomato, cream of mushroom, carrot ginger, and butternut squash. They are affordable, filling, and low calorie. I also highly recommend them for when you are the full liquid stage of post-op. Best of luck! I don't know what your own surgeon's view is, and I didn't have a liquid stage pre-op, but if you feel you have to get a carb or two in, oatmeal was fine as a full liquid. For a higher protein source, so was small curd cottage cheese. Good luck!

It took a while for me to experience any gas whatsoever, let alone pains. I think bypass patients encounter more issues relating to excess gas than we do. Today, it really requires some carbonated beverage or something extremely high in fiber or difficult to digest proteins to produce gas. It is really a blessing that we don't dump like the RNYers.

Anybody care to add Fitbit/Tomtom steps/goals to this challenge?

You are very fortunate, glad to hear. My first day post-op was absolutely miserable. I was nauseated from the morphine, and the water exacerbated this. I was so thirsty and sore in the throat that I drank it anyway, and unlike before surgery, I couldn't manage to throw it up. So the awful nausea just persisted. I also couldn't tolerate the broth given to me in the hospital. It was just a really awful experience the first day, but I felt great the second day and was able to do all my clear liquids no problem when I went home that day.

I would relax, as it doesn't sound completely healed. I would take some time at home and do anything you need to do to get stuff in order before your busy stretch begins. Are you OK to lift heavier things yet? If not, hopefully you have some help. Don't sweat the exercise (no pun intended) today, as you want to be sure you don't go back with an unnecessary injury. That will come in time. Also, unless there is something you are absolutely dying to do recreationally, I'd put it off until your next off day, just so you have as much energy entering this high-intensity work period as possible. 13 hr shifts with your current energy levels will be challenging. Make sure you get your protein, even if you need to use liquid supplements to combat this, and this will also contribute to fast-tracking your healing. Good luck!

There are, unfortunately, limits to what psychological evaluations, info sessions, nutritional counseling, patient education, and even Bariatric Pal can do to ready a patient physically and mentally for the demands of this journey. We appear, in this instance, to have an all too familiar case of a patient who was ill-prepared to make any lifestyle modifications and who likely believed surgery was a quick fix for all the world's hardships. This was not necessarily discernible in the evaluations or in any conversation the OP's MIL may have had with the surgical staff. Whether we are successful with the surgery or not, we all have quickly come to learn that steps to lose weight and use the tool we are provided are FAR easier said than done, just like losing weight without the surgery. I don't think the OP's MIL has voluntarily made a decision to "waste" her surgery. She was just not prepared to take advantage of it, and I am not convinced that any amount of professional help, short of placing her in a hospital and letting the institution create her diet, could place her in a better position to take advantage of the surgery.

Inner thighs...65+ lbs lost since surgery, and there is so much bagginess down there that causes horrible chafing on runs any longer than a 5K. Upper arms, as well, are seeing some early batwings. It is seriously time to hit the weights.

How far out are you? I lived outside of Philadelphia for many years and it is a staple. It was one of the first cheeses I went back to, and I believe I had it at the pureed stage (two weeks out) for the first time. Unless you are even newer than that, it shouldn't be a problem. I had clearance for all cheeses from my NUT as of the late full liquids stage, in fact!

I hope she appeals successfully. I don't know either of you, but I would think seeing you succeed would make her very proud, and even mobilize her to do even more on her own before ultimately getting approved one day (if the world is good she would not longer need it then). Was she rejected because she gained weight during the pre-op? That is very correctable...she should finish the last suppering before the pre-op starts next time!

@@kimmyco Congratulations on the transformation, and even more so for embarking on your Ph. D.!

Think positive. You made a wonderful decision, and the positives will in time overtake the negatives with a little help from your own efforts. Your pre-op probably hasn't begun yet, but now would be a great time to kiss some of those old "necessities" goodbye and start clean eating...mainly because this will help you with the much stricter pre-op diet you will follow and then of course with the early stage post-op diet. The surgery will help you beat back the cycle of retaliation your body (and all of our bodies) has programmed to prevent us from attaining health. Meanwhile, the mental changes need to occur on your own, otherwise, you'll be left with a thinner version of your old self. Years down the road, if these outside factors aren't addressed, then coupled with the fact that some eating capacity will have returned (though nowhere close to current levels), you risk falling back into old patterns. Exercise helps clear your head as well, and will eventually be required for you to maintain your weight once you reach your goal. Happy trails, and a warm welcome to the community!

The OP came here asking for honest, non-judgmental help, and even though it is easy to form an opinion, I think we owe a response that is something a propos. That said, I don't think these are questions and but the OP can answer for herself. To the OP, I applaud the courage you had to solicit this advice on a public forum. I believe a well-trained professional can help you sort this out.

You will eventually want to come off the Protein shakes so that you are getting your protein from solid foods that produce satiety and fend off hunger. Once you can have mushy or solid, you should emphasize those sources of protein, and only use the shakes if you are not getting enough or need to restart weight loss after a stall. The liquid Protein is a proven stall-buster. The other thing that is lifelong is the separation of Water and solid food. The game is to get all your water despite the fact that you can't drink it with your meals.

I had scrambled eggs at two weeks myself. Every bite seemed to cause me some problems, so I shelved eggs for about a month, and then they went down fine. Two whole eggs does seem like a bit much for two weeks out portion-wise, but virtually all pureed plans give the green light to eggs. You need to overeat on a regular basis for several months to stretch. You will not gain weight because you can't possibly be getting enough calories to maintain a 50 BMI right now. The early going is a virtual guarantee of weight loss unless you are drinking thousands of calories worth of sugary drinks. Once you've lost a bunch and entered maintenance, you will be able to tolerate more even though your maintenance requires less, and I think at that point you'll want to be careful, but just consider this experimentation that you needed to do to test your limits. Anything that doesn't sit well, just give a two week moratorium to and try again.

@@Babbs I didn't mean that literally, it was a personal decision to just blend in instead of drawing attention to myself. I didn't feel like being asked if I was dieting or doing P90X or crossfit or something when we were just trying to Celebrate the nuptials, and then being told "oh but this is such a special day just take a break..." by 500 different sixteenth cousins of my old schoolmates' new spouses. And yes, these were receptions at which it would've been quite hard to fly under the radar. I was able to say I quit drinking (and that would be true I guess with the sleeve) so I didn't have to explain to everybody why I wasn't having champagne or commuting every five minutes to the open bar.