Sosewsue61

You look grand!

Best of luck, quite a difference

Take a short walk, then a nice bath, condition your hair, if you have a partner ask them for a massage, sip some tea.....you can do this. Everyone is nervous.

Looking good!

Yay! Send us pics!

Just check, each insurance is different.

You sound so happy and motivated and it shows!

I think the recumbent bike would be good, it's to get things circulating. Maybe pump your arms up and down some while pedaling.

Exactly what everyone has said here. Chances are you sent some of those negative messages about your body to your husband before your surgery. We do it and don't even realize it sometimes. Your friend may think you will judge her on her weight or what she eats or maybe is afraid you don't want to do 'lunch' anymore. So call her up and get a mani-pedi together at lunch time instead. You should hear me b!tch about putting pantyhose on my fat arss before a square dance, I'm surprised my husband ever wanted to go after my tirade. It's because there is a group of 'Barbie dolls' at our dances and I am mega insecure and mega jealous of the way they look. Dammit I want to look like them. They are nice ladies every one of them. Relax and enjoy your time with your husband. Have fun! Go dancing.

Do you have a nutritionist? Regular Dr appointments? A bariatric team? You need to address what proper nutrition is needed. Write everything down that you eat in an app like Baritastic - it's easy to use and you need to aim for at least 80 grams of protein, but shoot for higher. Ditch the ice cream, chips, and empty calories. You need nutrition to heal - protein first, then steamed veggies. If you must have a treat - try sugar free popsicles or sf jello, or greek yogurt with a little all fruit jam stirred in BUT only after meeting the protein goals first. You have a 'habit' of night eating - maybe it is anxiety or stress eating and not real hunger. Protein and some full fat cheese will help with being satisfied more than ice cream and chips - those items are slider foods and go down in huge quantities easily. Dense meat will keep you full feeling. Your head hunger will do you in if you let it. Go for a walk before your evening snack.

Ok. You say you ask people with experience - what do you mean by experience? You need to have your head in a place where food is not your 'comfort friend', 'purpose'. And that takes concerted effort and sometimes therapy. AND surgery is not magic, it's a helpmate.

I can only attest to when I lost 70lbs some years back and unhampered by the big belly could move easier on top. But I have always been very bendy even heavy. I look forward to the changes and especially after maintenance and plastics.

There appears to a couple of circular arguments. One presentation is that obsession with food made us obese and that during/after the journey to be a normal weight we must be ritualistic about controlling food intake forever to the extent that there is a new obsession that is almost as harmful. This is the eating disordered mind that exists for many people and food is the symptom. Some people want to stick a knife in the person's side and twist it because 'intuitive eating' was the solution to this disordered thinking. There are therapies out there that advocate this type of eating so the obsession ends, Geneen Roth is one of those proponents. There is another section that adheres to an AA-like model that the addiction cannot be tempted with carbohydrates or all h*ll will break loose and obesity will reign once again. The vigilance must be adhered to. I don't think we need to fight over right or wrong but realize these are two sides to the same coin, and that we all have some head work to do involving trust and peace.

http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/06/understanding-bodies-serotonin-connection-between-food-and-mood/ This is a great article on the mood/food issue.

Welcome. Just jump around on the various boards and comment or ask questions. There is a board for regional outreach, age groups, etc. I have seen other people from Louisville on here posting. Explore and ask someone you connect with to message you. You can put Louisville in the search box. And you could share more info about yourself as well like - married, single, kids, degrees, interests, work, hobbies, fun stuff like that because talking only about issues gets a little old after awhile. Good luck.

Well this has been a fun thread!!!

I am going on a cruise 4 months after surgery. It is a 9 day cruise for square dancing. We dance every evening and any afternoon we are en route to a port in the southern Caribbean. I plan on booking port excursions, swimming, seeing a broadway show, and shopping. I also plan to eat lol. We even dance at a hotel in Miami the night before the cruise. I am really excited as it is the first cruise I have ever been on. I hope to have to alter all my square dance outfits or sew a few new ones before that. Yeeha!!!

I was a serious diet coke addict, have quit a few times over the years for 4-5 months, then slam a bunch and crave that 6AM burst that clears my throat (allergies) and gives me the caffeine boost I love. I quit diet coke in March of this year in preparation for this surgery, I drink ice tea, was never a coffee drinker but love the smell of it. I slowly changed to half caffiene ice tea (I make my own). I have had 2 diet cokes since March and it doesn't seem to be as fascinating as it once was. I don't intend to go back to drinking it regularly, I will however not give up the occasional glass of champagne after I am healed. The trouble with self-reporting studies is that it is highly inaccurate science, and correlation is not causation. Obesity is complex as we all are living proof of that and all answers to it are not yet discovered. We can only use the current information until it is solidly proven or disproven - as we have all witnessed the ever changing nutritional guidelines, suffered the addage 'just eat less and get off your lard azz and just lose the weight already' crowd thinking, the lapband is the answer, the endless commercial weight loss program$, ad infinitum. On this forum we need the straight dope. I applaud everyone that takes ownership of their own journey and makes it work for them. Tea and sympathy is good when someone is facing a heartbreaking issue, but eating a pizza two weeks after surgery does not qualify as a heartbreaking issue. The message doesn't require rudeness but bluntness and rudeness are not the same thing. (Just like craving pizza and EATING pizza are not the same.) Climbing off soapbox.

Crazy good changes!

Take a bath, learn to knit, take a night class and learn a foreign language, join a book club, take up painting, quilting, pottery, buy a bicycle and join a meetup to bike, etc. Keeping food centric thinking won't help you. Post a physical calendar and cross off days for each day you make it on plan, put a diff colored star on each stage start day and reward yourself with a new bracelet, or a mani-pedi, or something when you make it to that stage. Hang in there, it's short term.

@AZLoser your advice is ill advised, there is no way a 5 week sleever can consume adequate protein requirements in 3 meals only. The stomach is still swollen and no where near healed making it impossible to get more than a couple ounces in at one sitting.

Do you live near any federal government facilities? Federal gov jobs usually contract diff insurance companies and may not follow FL guidelines but follow federal. Change jobs to get it, you will have to wait for enough benefit time to taked med leave, but it might be worth a shot.

http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com This site has some ideas for you. Do you have existing comorbidities? Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea - maybe you sleep fitfully and don't know you have it, do you have cardiovascular issues? All these lab tests and pre- approval tests for bariatric surgery can be coded for regular medical care of your conditions if your primary doctor's office codes it correctly. Shoot go to your doc monthly for 6 months and record your weight, discuss your weight, discuss your other issues for purposes of billing (ear wax removal, in-grown toenail, allergies). Then go to surgeon's office and ask what cash discount rate is, finance with your 401K, or reg finance company. Maybe during the 6 month time for supervised visits you get a part time job to sock away for paying cash. Just ideas here.

I have the same concerns. I am still getting the sleeve. I had TKR in the right knee 7 years ago and the arthritis flares up there sometimes and in my left shoulder daily. Tylenol does zero for me. I can't sleep w/o an aspirin or an Aleve if it is really bad. I will take reflux meds if I have to and get 'scoped' to keep an eye on it, but I am not totally giving up meds for arthritis. I can get a shot for my knee, but Dr never suggested it for the shoulder as he said it was mild.

@OutsideMatchInside I applaud your success and cheer you on for your final goal. You worked at discovering how to succeed for your body and mind. I hope the rest of us discover our paths and follow it as well as you did.