PorkChopExpress

I didn't cheat at all. In fact I took the sample diet my nutritionist gave me and that's basically what I ate every day for two weeks. I took a lot of pride in not having screwed up, that two weeks...and the scales the morning of surgery made it worthwhile, when I saw I'd dropped over 30lbs before surgery.

It's just a disciplining of the mind, I guess...it's the same thing you'd have to do if you were trying to diet normally. We can't expect anyone around us to change, we're the ones who need the changing. Over time, our lives will become more normal and we'll be accustomed to eating far less than we once did, and our choices will start getting better, and our indulgences will be "once in a while" and not every day...and most important, we will never overeat again. It's a commitment, for sure...but you know, it's one meal. It only lasts for an hour or two, and it's over. You can get through an hour or two

If you can't get it paid through your insurance, you may want to consider going to Mexico for it. There are a lot of reputable surgeons and facilities there, and your out of pocket will be FAR cheaper. Look into it, because it's better than dropping $30,000 on it. You will probably find it difficult to raise money through a GoFundMe or similar crowdfunding type of site, but you'd have a better shot at finding $5,000 or so than you would $30k. It sounds like you're ready to get this done, so best of luck to you!

Crazy that they used staples instead of sutures or glue strips. Also...don't make what you're craving. That's kind of exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Go ahead and ask your surgeon if they think it's a good idea to eat a bunch of sugar now. I mean, unless you're just eager to get your first case of dumping syndrome, and don't plan to change your habits and behaviors post-surgery, and just see how it goes.

Three weeks post-op, I was into clothes that I hadn't worn in over five years. I'm currently on my second new hole on my belt. I'm about to phase out some t-shirts because they just look way too baggy now. I lost a bunch on my pre-op diet, and I'm sure I've lost a lot post-op (don't know for sure because I don't weigh, unless I'm at the doctor's office).

Barely get to 500 calories, on my fifth week post-op. Add the 30 minutes of elliptical I've been doing and I'm at like a net intake of 300 calories. It's ridiculous, but there isn't really any way I could do more, unless I started putting a bunch of refined sugar in my body, which there's no way I'm doing again. I'm detoxed from it, so I'm not going back.

No. If you are averaging 5 pounds a week there is no reason at all to change anything that you're doing. That is an awesome pace.

Yeah, you really have to make a conscious decision to stay away from the foods that you know were triggers to overeating, and chips are one of them. Pure carb and fat calories, very little nutritional value and it's impossible to stop, once you start. So it's a little like being a recovering alcoholic...those things that you know have been triggers for you, you just have to give them up...because they will trigger relapses.

Just remember that you still have adipose fat in your skin, concentrated in that area...that's why it looks the way it does right now. The lower your bodyfat percentage goes, the less pronounced it's going to be. As you get closer to goal, it'll require fine-tuning your diet to hit that last stubborn fat, and zeroing in on your exercise. Weight training can really help a lot, in that regard. When you see people who have lost all of their fat and get really lean, the skin just looks wrinkly around the abdomen, loose but not thick. So don't get discouraged, just realize that this is where you start to zero in on that perfect balance of protein, carbs and fats, and your exercise regimen, to get the bodyfat percentage down. It's exactly what people have to do in order to get their abs to start showing, too. They only show when you get the BF% down.

I went to a local Thai place and picked up an order of chicken satay today, now that I have finally graduated to "whole pieces of meat." It's one of my favorites. I chopped it up into small pieces, tossed it in the peanut sauce and then separated it out into 1.5oz servings with my little ziplock containers. What came with the satay was fried rice with shrimp in it, which I didn't realize (I should have just ordered it alone, but apparently they misunderstood and gave me the dinner order). First of all, looking at that giant portion of fried rice and then the 8 skewers of chicken, I found myself going, "This is a dinner...for how many frickin' people?" As it is, the chicken alone is going to last me three days. My how times have changed. So I decided I'd eat the shrimp and the egg in the fried rice, which was good. Shrimp seems to be agreeable. I took a couple small bites of the rice, and realized that I wasn't very interested in it. Another change...because I really used to like fried rice! I just knew that it was only going to swell up in my stomach and rob me of space for "the good stuff." It's weird how bread, Pasta and rice have all sort of fallen into this category of "pointless foods" to me, now. It's great, it feels like I'm adapting, but it's a strange feeling. Or being at the stores and knowing that in the checkout aisle pre-surgery, I'd have been tempted by a candy bar or something...and now I look at them and think, "What is the point of these things?" I'm surrounded now by stuff that makes me realize how much food = entertainment in our culture, now. Go to the movies and you HAVE to have treats, right? Candy and goodies, and wash it all down with a sugary soda or a slushie. But for what reason? It's not for fuel, it's not to feed your body...it's just to entertain yourself. I'm realizing that I'm not just the product of my youth and low self-esteem, but I'm also a product of conditioning...social behaviors and marketing have helped create an environment where you will really struggle to succeed without help, as an obese person. Now that my eyes are wide open, I can see how we're doing all of this to ourselves in American society...the messaging and the culture are all creating an environment that encourages obesity. It's hard to fight against that machine.

I didn't, actually...I had chosen the RNY. The problem is, the surgeon who had repaired my umbilical hernia years before used a mesh that allowed the intestine to grow into it, creating adhesions that made the RNY impossible. So the surgeon opted for the sleeve, with me. In my reading post-surgery and discussing it with a few people who had RNY, I feel like I might have ultimately gotten the better procedure, at least in terms of long-term health. One of my mom's friends who had RNY about 10 years ago said the malabsorbtion aspect is only really a positive for the first couple years, while you get to goal. After that, it's a hinderance and she said she actually developed celiac disease as a result of it. She wishes she could have had the sleeve, but at the time apparently it was not covered by her insurance. I feel like, for me, the combination of the restriction and the lack of hunger are enabling me to get my mind right and start establishing better habits, and that's really what I needed from the surgery...I needed it to enforce the portion control, and ease the impact of hunger pangs so that I could focus on the task at hand. It was the combination of the mental and physical issues that made it so hard for me to lose weight, long-term. I've taken the physical part off the table, to a large extent...so now I can just focus on the mental. So I would say, as someone who got unintentionally switched to a sleeve, I now think it may be a better option, long-term.

You're going to miss some things. That's just part of giving something up...but do a list of pros and cons, when it comes to having "whatever you want." I think you'll find the "cons" far outnumber the "pros". None of what you will miss is anything you can't live without.

You will wade into it, don't worry. You'll start on liquids only for a couple weeks, then they'll gradually work you into more solid food, until after about 6 or 8 weeks (varies by surgeon and patient) you'll be left to your own devices. But in that six week period, you'll start seeing where your priorities need to be with the food, and how small your stomach's capacity is. So you'll be better equipped to make appropriate choices. Basically, you're going to discover that breads, rice and Pasta are not a priority because they swell up in your stomach and don't leave room for Protein...and protein is your biggest priority. You focus on that first, every meal. You'll probably focus on complex carbohydrates that aren't super filling, like the breads are. Beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc... Let's just say that if you've got yourself squared away mentally, you won't be thinking it's time for a burger and fries. You don't have the space in your stomach, and you will have new priorities when it comes to food. These are good changes. Don't panic, it doesn't happen all at once. Let yourself get used to the changes. Also, you probably aren't going to have to worry too terribly much about calories until you get closer to your goal weight. The sleeve is so restrictive that you probably will struggle to exceed 500 calories a day for quite a while...and that means if you are doing a reasonable amount of cardio, you're going to be in a steep calorie deficit. Unless you start drinking a bunch of sugar drinks all day and whatnot.

Stop weighing. The surgery is going to do its job, just follow the plan prescribed by your surgeon. Weighing all the time is only going to drive you nuts. The body loses how it loses and you can't affect that very much right now. Fat cells absorb water before they expel their contents to be excreted by the body, you are going to be retaining water in the fat cells a lot and it'll make your weight fluctuate from day to day. At most, weigh like once a week...and since it clearly affects you a lot, I'd consider weighing every couple of weeks. Myself, I don't weigh unless I go to the doctor's office, because the scale has always been my enemy, mentally. Consequently my weight on this site isn't going to be updated nearly as frequently as most peoples'

For a good week, all I was doing was Protein shakes and Water. Are you sticking to just water Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

Yikes man, too expensive. I'd almost buy a used exercise bike and some free weights instead...after one year at that gym, you'll have already spent $600.

It's a self-esteem thing. Nobody's looking at you...and even if they do, whatever. I mean, everyone gets started somewhere, right? Nobody walks through the gym doors and "poof" they're fit! I avoid the "meat market" chains where it's more fashion show than workout (like 24 Hour Fitness or Ballys, etc...). I'm a member of Planet Fitness and they make it a point to establish a culture of "fitness for everyday folks" there. I like it pretty well...you get people of all fitness levels there.

I was back after a week (technically around 9 days with the weekends) and no problems, but it's a desk job. I had to...like you, finances wouldn't really permit more time off.

It'll be like that for a bit. For the first three days mine was orange and contained an almost sediment-like grit, for lack of a better term. Irritated my urethra a little bit. But the more I drank, the more it cleared up.

Initially after surgery, you're gonna feel like crap. Different people have different tolerances. For me, the pain is totally manageable with the medication, it doesn't bother me at all. The surgical gas is the real delight, and I can usually get that all worked out of my body after 3-4 days. By the seventh day post-op, I was walking 2 miles a day, getting up and down easily, no problems. Now I'm going into week 5 post-op and I feel very good. Don't let yourself get psyched out by horror stories, they happen sometimes (mine was with my gall bladder, about four years ago) but you survive, you heal, and you put it behind you.

Did you drink a lot of caffeine before? If you drank caffeinated soda a lot before the surgery, that would account for a LOT of your peeing, because it's a diuretic. It makes you drop Water...so you were probably dehydrated, if that was the case. You aren't, now. Also, bear in mind that part of the process of reducing fat is water retention. Fat cells absorb water and then expel contents with the water, that's how they shrink. So you're in a constant state of retaining water in your fat cells right now, more or less. That accounts for weight fluctuations from day to day. You may want to get a test for kidney function, just in case...but I think you're probably okay. I'm peeing a lot less, but that's because I am not on caffeine and I'm struggling to get above 50oz of water a day right now, five weeks out.

@@Dub I have been a reader of the comic, it's been cool to see the show purposely try to "swerve" people who know how the story goes in the comic book. They surprised me a few times in this episode, which was great. I still can't get over how asinine it is that they won't let Negan be as foul-mouthed as he is in the comic book, but they'll show graphic violence that would usually only make it on premium cable channels. We are a weird people lol

I thought that episode was awesome, gut-wrenching and grueling...loved it. But only people who have already succeeded with WLS and got fit would survive that world. Right now, I'd be zombie meat. I can't run lol