Véronique

What you class as lacking a spine may just be the knowledge that they don't want to engage with someone as insufferable as you. Considering your aggressive attitude thus far, it does wear on me too but I have the fortitude to deal with people like you. That's what you seemed to laser focus on. Your allegations make no sense and you just seem to be trolling.

Where did you say someone couldn't participate? When you started bullying people FOR participating when they didn't have a higher education in psychology. I have seen no behaviour from @jaminator that could be construed as him "attempt[ing] to assert [his] 'manhood' on women who have no desire to know them". If I did, I would likely join you in your criticism but I do not see your point. You would need to cite evidence to substantiate your claim and thus far, you haven't provided any. Considering your usage of the word "following" in this thread thus far, I have serious doubts about the veracity of your statement. Again, I cite your previous behaviour on this thread against you. Yes, by your bullying and antagonism against anyone who dares to espouse an opinion you don't like, it has the effect of making people feel unwelcome. While you have no authority as an administrator of the forum to make a formal decision of someone's rights of participation, your behaviour has the effect of alienating participation from this forum. Hey, some people don't want to engage with your drama. In fact, I would say most people don't. It is frustrating, but I am able to and willing as I don't want your bullying to go unanswered. I do not tolerate bullying.

No, you didn't say ONLY but you ACT like it and actions speak louder than words. Your actions make no sense unless one assumes that you want to piss and moan at people and bully them for not having an education in psychology, never actually addressing the arguments made. It's difficult to grasp because your actions contradict your words. Do you not understand that here on a forum open to the general public, there won't be experts in your field? Okay, so maybe your program isn't to blame - it's a personal failing attributable to you and you alone. I apologize for besmirching your programme. At my university and even in my college, there were people like you who lacked humility and a willingness to understand and work with others. I think that's even a larger problem at the oldest and most prestigious universities. Though, I didn't see this at L'École polytechnique, but this is probably due to it being a grande école and you have to pass your bac with distinction to attend. So, it's unfair to blame your programme for your failings and I apologize. ... I know the feeling. Yesterday, when I got the good news I could progress to soft food, I've thought about getting a soft taco from Taco Bell. A single soft taco. And halve it for both my snacks. There is nothing saying you can't have Taco Bell after surgery, you just have to be mindful about it. Like all things. There was an article in the WLS Magazine section of this site about fast food which should be an interesting read. Don't feel discouraged, there are still those of us who feel that straight talk is the best course for those of us who consider that it is OUR responsibility to make this surgery work. Funny, I've found @jaminator's comments to be insightful and interesting. Okay, I'm going to say this as simply as I can: THIS IS A PUBLIC FORUM. Anyone can participate.

Between Sunday and Monday, I gained one kilo and between yesterday and today, no change. I don't know if this is a stall I should worry about but I know it's still probably a good idea to keep tracking it.

I'm asking if anyone else did, because when I was being wheeled in, I sang the first verse and chorus of La Marseillaise.

I would say that you don't as you entered this thread of your own free will. If you "prefer to deal with my equals who are fellow professionals in the field", then your actions seem to contradict that. Furthermore, your desire to talk down to those who you perceive as having less knowledge than you makes me wonder about the academic rigour involved in your degree programmes. I may not be an expert on psychology, this is true. But I am an expert at working with professionals across disciplines to achieve common research goals. I have worked with biologists, chemists, anthropologists, historians, endocrinologists, and zoologists and one thing I've noticed is that the ones who tend to have the most bluster and ego are the ones who have the poorest quality of research. The ones who keep an open mind, who are willing to look at an issue from all sides, the ones with empathy towards their subject and their fellow man... THOSE are the people who do the quality research. My hypothesis is because they have an open mind, they are more able to see the results clearly and not try to justify away failures or get angry when they are disproven.

If you prefer to deal with actual professionals in your field, then why not join a forum where they require you to be a professional in your field instead of slumming it here with the laity, oh miss high and mighty?

Being newly post-op (almost two weeks out), I notice my hunger sensations haven't seemed to return yet but I'm wondering, doesn't mindfulness in eating also allow us the ability to plan our meals with intention as well? To try new things, to experiment, to see this as a lifelong journey rather than just a means to an end.

I'd say that to a certain extent, addicts are pathetic based on the definition of the word. There's a reason why terminology such as "rock bottom" and "lowest point" are used in so many stories about and by addicts. Maybe addiction is a disease, but we don't catch it without our own behaviour being a catalyst. We all came here via different paths, but I'll say my eating habits had hit a point where they became unsustainable and I made a choice to change that. To varying degrees, we all have or are about to. The way you are behaving here and now, I think you're projecting. As someone with a doctorate, one thing I've learned in the process of getting it is humility. The specialization of research and the breadth and depth of what we already know is fundamentally astounding and as someone with her doctorate, I stand in awe at how much I don't know. However, I know that just because someone has come to a different conclusion than me doesn't make them "rude, lonely, bitter, uneducated, uninformed, judgmental[, or idiots]".

When I was waiting at the transit centre after my follow-up appointment with the surgeon, there is this snack bar with all sorts of junk food and when I saw a can of Dr. Pepper, my thought was "I'm so going to miss that".

That's not bullying, @jaminator gave some pretty sound advice. We all have our ups and downs, our highs and lows. Hell, my emotions could come crashing down tomorrow. This is why I've set myself up with resources. I have two therapist appointments set up for this month (the first being tomorrow), my therapist's practice has a walk-in clinic I can access if need be, I have access to my GP, and I have a nurse line I can phone at the surgeon's office. I prepared for this surgery because I knew I was going to have it and my surgeon, his office, and the staff at the UCHealth Bariatric Centre of the Rockies properly prepared me for this surgery. But even if they didn't, it's still my responsibility to know. Even if they just told me what I needed to do to satisfy the insurance requirements and sent me on my way, it's still my responsibility to educate myself on what I'm about to do. I have been on this forum for over a year despite having had my surgery almost two weeks ago and this isn't by accident. I wanted to make sure I had multiple perspectives on what could go wrong; I took notes; I asked my surgeon, GP, and dietician questions; and I formulated a general plan as to how I would live after I got out of the hospital. That plan is subject to change, but I did plan.

Just keep in mind that the surgery is a tool. It can take you to a place where it is easier for you to do the work needed to be done, but in the end, you must do that work. I know this will be said by people smarter and more articulate than I, and it may sound pedantic, but it bears repeating. Yes, the surgery isn't all roses. I got my clearance today to advance to the soft foods stage of my diet and it was kind of embarrassing having my lunch (which consisted of baked chicken) come up. I know why it likely happened (I ate a bit too fast) but it is still embarrassing all the same and it is crucial that we remember that our habits must change after surgery as well. One of my goals with the surgery is to look good naked. But I'm not going to touch that goal if I don't make a plan on how to ramp up my exercise once my surgeon says yes. Tonight, I resumed skating with my roller derby league... but as a non-skating official (a referee) in our league's internal bouts. I think it would be best for me to wait four more weeks before I return to the full contact in the rink... but that's the decision I'm making. I'm being more conservative than my surgeon (he seems pretty confident that I could resume being a skater, even knowing this is a contact sport) but it is my body and I will live with the consequences. The TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version? Fail to plan and you plan to fail. How dare you chastise this poster? Sure, people who have not had the surgery may not have perspective but lots of us lack perspective in lots of areas in life! Some people, after getting fit, may contribute to the culture which stigmatises fat bodies - thereby engaging in a loss of perspective. The post you quoted is neither horrible nor cruel, just misguided.

Yeah, I'm really thinking about exploring more of Fort Collins and Loveland while I have this time off, as I have already seen a lot of Boulder and the other cities south of me.

I just ended my walk and I'm still 964 steps short! Gah!

Honestly, I don't see the regret in myself yet. Maybe it's because I know rationally that I've exhausted so many other avenues that this became reasonable. If this doesn't work, then I am at a loss to understand what would and I would need to have a conversation with my surgeon and GP to figure out next steps.

I'm waiting for sundown to get ~3,600 more steps in to reach 10,000 today. I'm going to make it my personal mission to get 10,000 steps every day this month.

I think they might have given me some Oxycodone prior to surgery. ... Which reminds me. The book they gave me was wrong about PCA. I didn't have PCA. If they came by and had pain meds, I had the option to say "yeah, I want that" or "nah, I can go without".

Well, I'm going to be lacing up my roller derby skates, putting on my roller derby pads and my roller derby helmet... ... To be a freaking NSO (Non-Skating Official). Seriously, even though my surgeon thinks that I should be fine to be in the rink with the rest of my teammates, I think he's nuts. I went to a support group the night before the surgery and Dr. Roller (one of the other surgeons in the practice) said he thinks I should wait six weeks before any contact sport and you know what? I kinda agree with him on this. I've seen enough incidents on the track to know that I'd rather be an NSO right now and ease back into derby.

I had my two-week post-op today and I get to move on to soft foods! We even scheduled my six-week check, for Friday the 13th of October!

Well, they gave me a local anaesthetic to put in the IV port, but on anything else? No, they made it pretty clear that they test your urine before the surgery for those things and if your urine isn't clean of drugs, they won't do the surgery. ... Though, they didn't test my urine before the surgery, which I felt made all the warnings beforehand kind of a tease. Yeah, I don't remember much of the PACU (the place where they put me after surgery). I do know that I was having trouble remaining awake, which held up the process of getting me my own hospital room, but when I was able to stay somewhat awake, I got wheeled into my own room on the surgery floor. I know the bariatric coordinator from the programme swung by to congratulate me. My last memory pre-op was four breaths and then lights out... which is great. While I'll admit to personal curiosity, I'm quite satisfied I wasn't awake for that. Yeah, at the hospital I went to, the ER is on another side of the hospital which, given the building layout, makes it tough to get to ER when your goal is to try to get to surgery. I actually tried to get to the front desk of the hospital through the ER and it took more walking than I would have thought.

One thing I've been noticing is that the app for BariatricPal is awful. It has very limited functionality and doesn't even keep you signed in. Also, I noticed that when people use emojis on the mobile app, they get turned into non-parsed BBCode on the web version of the forums. Why is this?

Well, this is one of the advantages a well-designed app could have: push notifications to help supplement the e-mail notifications. That way, people can review and change their orders as needed. Also, not app-related but maybe you should integrate notifications via Facebook Messenger as well?

I haven't received anything like that from my surgeon's office yet (I received a BA pamphlet with a discount code), but I'm going to have my first post-op follow-up appointment roughly two and a half hours.