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Hi. I was sleeved on 7/31. I lost 43 lbs in the 4 week pre-op diet, gained 7 lbs while I was in the hospital, lost that and then gained 9 lbs during the full liquid stage (that was a heartbreaker!). I finally lost that. I have lost a total of 58 lbs since July 1. Rationally, I know that I have never lost 58 lbs in 10 weeks in my long history of dieting and I should be thrilled. I am measuring, counting, exercising and following the plan religiously and have only lost 13 lbs. since surgery. When you have a lot to lose, this is a little defeating. Just need some encouragement. Thanks!

Hi everyone been a while. Earlier this tear i was aiming for the Lap Band .I had everything they asked me.So there i was in the Doctors office and they said we don't deal with your insurance anymore??? I said screw it and left.A little depression and new insurance later and here i am.Going to my doctors 10/27.08 And will tell him to start the paper work to getting the lap band,again.I am not complaining but that was messed up! My insurance said ,they would cover it if the doctor ,deems it necessary and he does,yeah.So hello once again,to everyone.Part 2 of this journey.Hey i got Tylenol.

Hello and welcome. I have Kaiser as well and went through Richmond Kaiser. I got referred in early November. Had orientation in December. Orientation was a 4-5 hour program and very full. YOu can't be late at all and that is when they take your starting weight. Wear extra clothing and shoes to weigh in on this appointment:tt2: at this appointment they give you options of RNY and lap band.......also you get the pre op diet. Start it right away!! If your strict with the diet the weight comes off pretty quick. Next is the psych evaluation. Pretty easy appointment as long as you don't have a mental health history. Than you get a surgeons appointment next. At this appointment they give you a goal weight for surgery. If you have already lost 10% since the orientation weigh in (which is possible-lots of people have done it) than you move forward towards a surgery date Next appointment is when your at goal weight with the case manager. They will meet with you and give you a sugery date usually 4-6 weeks out. After that you get lots of blood work and lab tests and you will meet with the surgeon one more time. Than you go to pre op which is half day class. Half nutrition and half pre op prep. Usually the same day you get a surgeons appointment, a physical and final lab tests. Than on to surgery.............. They say it takes 6 months usually but alot of us made it in four months......................depends on how fast you lose the weight. I could have done it in three but I went overseas for a month and delayed the surgery until I got back..........but that was my choice to delay surgery a month. Staff at Kaiser is great!! strict but once they know your serious about getting healthy they are supportive. They say that 90 of people that come to orientation don't make it to surgery.................so they do try to weed people out in the beginning but if your one of the ones to stick around they are supportive. I had Dr. Baggs and he is GREAT. Love him!! But also heard great things about the other doctors there. Dr. Fischer, Dr. Im and Dr. Fishcher. Dr. Baggs is the chief of surgery and does alot of the procedures. Richmond is not the greatest part of town. But the drive over there is not bad. I live in Sacramento and went over there about once a month during the process...........now I will be going every six weeks or so to get a fill and check up. I lost 25 pre op and have lost almost 10 this last week since surgery. It is alot of work and it will continue to be alot of work. We have a very active support group in the sacramento area that meets regularly. I say go for it and ask for tips from those of use who just went through it.

I am scheduled as the first case on 1/20/10. I am so excited, not really nervous at all. Hope all goes well with your surgery!!!!!!!!!

My friend had the bypass back when it first came out... It was really dangerous back then... but she was life or death... Anyway - fast forward 10+ years and she's put on at least 60-80% of her weight... but her health is alot better. Also, when you have the bypass, you can't ever drink again! You need to research any surgery you are thinking of having. And ask alot of questions to your doctor.

The main thing I have heard is to keep hydrated. I had my week post op visit on Monday and he said right now my body was eating itself. Which was fine with me! Just keep trying to sip and get as much down as possible. At first I made a 4 oz protein shake it took me an hour to get down. Now it takes about 30 minutes. Just keep trying. Take it easy. Your body will know if it is too much then stop. You don't want to get sick. Also try to incorporate your vitamins as you can. Good Luck! I lost 10 lbs in 6 days. Hoping it continues:) Robyn

It will be two weeks Monday since I've gone I had surgery on 10/23. I called the doctor's office and they said if I'm not taking pain killers anymore and passing gas, it will happen. It is kinda freaking me out. ????

I usually have a hoodie on in the house while working and my electric blankie has been on 19 all week. It’s been a bit chilly here in Seattle this past week. I also have fingerless gloves and a blankie at my desk!

I also have uhc. I was told I us to be on a 6 month supervised diet. I did lose each month 30 lbs total. But I loose and gain that last 10 lbs of that 30 lbs and the doctor did not say anything. I guess it is up to your doctor and insurance plan.

I had my colonoscopy/upper-endoscopy last Thursday, and the prep for that was a struggle - I think my body registered the Miralax solution as a poison because I could not keep it down, and I got a migraine from not eating. But the procedure went fine, except... and this is so embarrassing... I think I ended up singing during it! I know I was all drugged up, but I am so mortified about singing a love song while there was a camera in my colon! Anyways, ever since then, I have been eating like a crazy person again. Just always feeling that deep, deep hunger, and I'm struggling to control myself. The other day, I ate more than double the amount of calories I was supposed to, ugh. I think it may have to do with the fact that I'm feeling very depressed lately, and I have always tried to use food to comfort myself (like many of us here, I'm sure). I'm also struggling with the exercise portion of this diet. At the beginning, I took a 30 minute walk, and my lower back seized up after about 10 minutes - and, of course, I had just gone down a steep hill, so I HAD to continue around the loop to get home via a much easier hill. That was very very painful, and I've been afraid to walk more than 10 minutes ever since. I do, however, go rollerskating twice a week, which is AMAZING exercise, low-impact, and it doesn't hurt as much even when I skate for an hour. But there is a huge fire happening in my area, and the fire department is using the parking lot of my local skating rink, so they're closed for a few weeks. What will I do? I love to skate. Hopefully I can knock this depression soon and just get on with life. Just wish I could skate it off.

So many things change when we lose weight. Things we don't even realize until it's been going on awhile. For example, the way I sleep next to my husband. I no longer take up the majority of the bed. I can lay with my head on his shoulder and my leg wrapped around him without worrying that I am going to kill him with my weight. Or how about hugs. My husband's arms wrap so far around me, I feel like he's holding a different girl than he used to. There is also the shower and being able to reach areas I couldn't get to before. And let's not forget underwear...yes, underwear. Befoe surgery, my uderwear was too small for me. I mean it fit, but it didn't fit correctly. I just refused to go up in size. Now, it all hangs on me. There is nothing like putting on a thong and having the crotch flap around becasue they are just that big on you but, the big one for me is laundry. Yes, laundry. I know it sounds strange, but hear me out...or at least read me out. Now being fat, we learn little tricks to help us feel a little better about ourselves. We learn that wearing black and other solid earth tone colors helps us feel better about ourselves and can take off a few pounds. We learn what styles work with our bodies and how not to wear a light color up top as it makes us look bigger all around. There are so many little tricks that we learn from magazines and friends and to be honest, i am not sure if any of them work that well. Another HUGE one is to lay on the bed to get the hanger to hook into the zipper of the jeans to pull them up and button them. The key was if you were able to sit up after you did this. Sometimes i couldn't even bend at the waist and would have to roll off the bed and get help to stand up. I'm still not sure how I thought I looked good in pants that tight and painful but at least the number on them said size 10, 12, 14....or where ever I was at the time. Sure they may have been a size or two too small, but i didn't care. Funny thing is, that once you wedge yourself in pants like that, you end up with a huge fat roll in your mid section. This can not be hidden so you must wear a very baggy shirt and hope no one tries to hug me or that I don't get caught in a big wind where it forces my shirt back and my roll to be seen by all. Oh the fun times of being over weight and aiming to look thin. But the biggest most used trick in the book comes during the cleaning phase. As we all know, bigger people don't dry clothes on the dryer. Or at least we don't dry most clothes in the dryer. I can't recall the last time before my surgery that i dried my shirts in the dryer. We all know shirts shrink in the dryer!!! So, why would I put them in there when i could hang them up on a hanger and allow them to air dry....but only after I have stretched out them out with my hands. That way, when i put them on, i can feel as though they are getting to big for me for me even though I KNOW that's not true. So, imagine my surprise after surgery when I started noticing that the clothes i was hanging up were getting too big for me! So, I decided to take the plunge. I decided to dry the shirts and sweatshirts that have NEVER seen the inside of a a dryer. I figured that of they didn't fit when they came out, I could always re-wash them and stretch them back out again as they dried on a hanger. So, I took the step from the washer machine to the dryer and placed my wet shirts in there. After what seemed liked forever, I pulled them out to inspect the damage. To my shock and awe, there was none. Not only did they still fit, they were still to big for me. Another crazy thing I noticed was that even my new jeans weren't tight after they were washed and dried. That has never happened to me!!! They fit me just like they did when I bought them. So, is this what it's like to wear the correct size for you? How crazy is that? I never knew this is how the other side lived. LOL To be completely honest, there are a couple of things I can't bring myself to dry. They are new sweatshirts. I don't know if it's just habit or if it's becasue I like the way they fit and I don't want them to shrink. I do know that I don't stretch them out at all when I hang them up and I've even thrown them in the dryer for a few mins to warm them up prior to wearing them with out any issues. But I still can't make that step from the washer to the dryer with those things. Maybe once I lose a few more pounds and they get a little bigger, i will be able to do it but for now, i am happy with the progress I've made. I am also happy with the lack of sore, red marks around my stomach from squeezing into those jeans i was talking about earlier. That is one thing I will never miss!!! So, what major changes have you noticed that have surprised you? I would love to hear about them. Come on people, comment and let me know you're actually reading these things I'm writing....also, let me know I'm not the only one going through these crazy changes and you can relate. I need to know I'm not alone here.

Well, I had yet another bad night last night! Not sure what happened. I was fine all day until about 5:00 p.m. then all of a sudden I got all nauseated again. The only thing I had all day was a 1/2 cup low cal tomato soup, a snack pack size of sugar free pudding, and a cup of chocolate soy milk. Plus water to drink through out the day. OK, so what of those things made me sick??? I was nauseated, vomiting mostly stomach acid type stuff, and had to keep using the bathroom because I still had lots of gas, and loose stools. I felt awful from 5:00 p.m. until probably 2:00 or 3:00 am! I went to bed at 9:00 p.m., but was up and down several times during the night. Why is this happening to me??? Do you think it's the dairy as in the pudding, or the dairy in the tomato soup? Has anyone else had this problem? I'm 10 days out since my sleeve.

I just wanted to intruduce myself and say hello to my new friends. My surgery is Nov 3 and I'm so exited:biggrin:, anxious :unsure:and scared :confused_smile:all at the same time. My surgeon is Dr. Patters and we are both from Delaware. I'm 29 years old and I been overweight for the last 10 years and I'm ready for a change and I'm also ready to work hard and see the pounds drop off. I'm so happy that I found this web site and I hope we can all help each other. Thanks!!!!:Dancing_biggrin:

La Madam!!!U made me cry. You are so awesome! Always an inspiration to this forum!!!! Thanks. I agree 200% with the saying, Just because u can doesnt mean u should!!! I try to drink a Carnation Instant breakfast and it does great for holding hunger. Been doing Boars Head Sausalito Turkey and Fat free cheese, tuna, chicken salad, yogurt.....I even started doing situps yesterday, did 20 and 10 today. 8) AND i bought a Tae Bo DVD....havent been brave enough to try that though!! I have to remember to NOT snack!!! Thanks again!!!

OK, I'm in another country so I cant advise you about where to find stuff but I've had to be a bit creative with low impact exercise because I have a bad ankle. I've been having a look around at www.collagevideo.com, they have a wealth of exercise DVD's and can provide some guidance. You can even view a clip of any DVD you're considering purchasing. You can get cycling DVD's to use with an indoor bike both here and at www.spinervals.com. too. So you can do a spin type program at home if you hire or buy a spinning bike. I'd recommend this, interval training such as spinning (which is basically an aerobics program on a bike) will give you better and faster results than just hopping on and peddling away, trying to remember to keep the pace up. I've also been using a rebounder, there's rebounder specific workouts you can get or for lower impact I've been adapting Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds series, it ups the intensity but lowers the impact. I've also been swimming which is fantastic all over exercise, if you have a local pool and my pool runs a deep Water running class which is mega-fun! But of course you'd have to brave the cold for that, I have trouble doing that in a Melbourne winter and it never gets cold enough to snow here, doesnt go below about 9 or 10 degrees celcius as we have a really temperate climate. Perhaps you could look at hiring or buying an elliptical machine too - and yes, you can get stuff for that too - www.cardiocoach.com!

Leslie - Thanks for the tip on mydailyplate.com. I have been doing fitday for a couple of months, but checked out mydailyplate. It seemed like a hassle at first to move to another site, but I am very impressed with their food database. I'm still trying to figure everything out. I was getting irritated with fitday so your suggestion couldn't have come at a better time. Sorry to hear about your flipped port. I hope it all goes smoothly and you'll be ready to roll again in no time. Good luck. gdf - I had my 2nd fill a week ago. This time was kind of weird. At first, not a whole lot of restriction, but as the week has gone on I feel more restricted. I'm sure I'll loose it again in a few days, so I'm a happy camper for now. I go for #3 in three weeks. I'm hoping and praying that it will be the one that lasts longer than 7-10 days. I had gained a couple of pounds two weeks ago. I weigh in tomorrow and hope it's back off. Good luck!!

I love this blog entry! You go girl! I was sleeved on 10/26 - haven't lost a ton of weight but 16 pounds so far. The other day I put on a pair of jeans that I tried to put on before surgery but they were so very uncomfortable that I stopped wearing them. Well, I wore those jeans three days in a row! OK - I am taking a few weeks off so I only wore them when I went out so 3 straight days is OK!!! (Smile). I finally washed them yesterday - and dried them but I am kinda scared to try them on again....I plan to do that tomorrow when I go in for my Dr. visit! Unlike most....I am a dryer junkie (The dryer is my iron) but have not worn jeans in a while..just pants with stretchy waistbands and when those started to get uncomfortable, I knew I had a problem!

I started with WW last June as I was in the process of getting approved for the band. For me, I really needed something to kick start me into committing to the journey. I personally needed the accountability of going to meetings and getting on a scale in front of somebody (no matter how geeky - I was even proud of the gold stars) :ohmy: I haven't been going to meetings since the surgery (September 07), but I am still following the plan, keeping a food journal and counting points. Like Julie, I am going with 20 to 25 points per day (although I am still allowed 29), for the most part. What I do like is that I can feel reasonably confident that I can go up some points and not gain weight! Would I go to meetings again if I was struggling - ABSOLUTELY- I want to do everything I can to continue with my success. I have 6 cc's in my 10 cc band, but don't really feel any restriction. I really am doing well with following the WW flex points plan - it helps me feel accountable, helps me keep my portions reasonable, helps me choose healthy foods and best of all I am losing weight (so far I have lost a total of 75 pounds since June). One of the things that I am most proud of (besides the actual weight loss) is that I have been choosing a relatively healthy diet at least 80% of the time (probably closer to 90%) for over 6 months now. I have never done that in my life and I have been obese my entire life (including childhood). My doc is so impressed with my progress that we have decided to not do any more fills until I start to plateau or I find that my hunger is getting too difficult to manage. I won't claim that I don't have head hunger - I do just about every day, but I am able to recognize what it is and cope, for the most part. Even my "slips" are relatively innocuous. I go back and forth on my feelings on not being filled to my sweet spot - then I read about people eating only 1/4 or 1/2 cup of food at a time and think maybe I shouldn't be so anxious to get there . I do think that the band is working for me by keeping me "satisfied" for longer periods of time, but maybe that is just me too. Who knows.

Hi all Just after a bit of advice since I am relatively new here. This subject has probably been done to death, but I am going to jump in and ask anyway. :eek: I was wondering if anyone had done a pre-Optifast diet before their banding? For example, I have 8 weeks until I get banded, which means I have 6 weeks until I start the Opti. I am considering starting the Opti now and having one meal Opti and the rest normal food. Then with 4 weeks to go I will change to 2 Opti's per day and one normal, with the two weeks (or 10 days for me) prior to surgery having 3 Opti per day. Does this make sense? Is this a good/bad/indifferent idea that will assist me prior to surgery, or would I be beating myself silly doing this? The other question would be which one of the meals would be best replaced first? dinner, Breaky or lunch. Too much to think about! All opinions greatly sought as you guys have all the experience. Thanks all

You are doing fantastic!!! 10 pounds in three weeks?? over 3 lbs. a week!! You can't hope to do better. I understand what you are thinking. For the most part we've all been there. It will come off if you do the right things. And 10 lbs. in three weeks certainly seems like you are already doing the right things. Best of luck!!!! Keep your head up.

10 pounds in less than a month sounds pretty good to me. What did you expect?

My hubby had RNY 10 years ago and lost 130 lbs. When he complained to his surgeon at his year appointment about people telling him he was too thin, or looked 'sickly', his surgeon said this: "There are so many overweight and obese people these days, nobody even knows what a normal weight looks like anymore. Ignore them."

I had done really well on the pre-op diet.. i had lost 25 pounds in the first 10 weeks so I was starting to think I could do it on my own. The last 2 weeks ....I have lost nothing. I was reminded as to why I need weight loss surgery. I am not sure what I have done wrong in the past two weeks as to why I am not losing but I am starting to lose heart and want to give up trying. Lucky for me my three month trial is over on Tuesday so I just need to make sure I don't gain wait between Tuesday and surgery day. If I was closer to the 40 BMI then to 50 I might would consider to keep trying but I have so far to go and getting close to that menopause age which makes women gain weight. I need to action now.

I am also 22 and had gastric sleeve on April 5th. I actually posted concerns like this on here about a month ago but have had not one complication since my surgery. The only thing that happened after was I threw up from all the pain meds and anaistesia. I don't do well with pain meds. I will be straight honest with you that it will be a very big challenge for you in the beginning but I am 3 months out and struggled terribly in after but am now doing better and do not regret my decision. I did horribly the first couple months but I truly know I would of ate myself to death if I did not choose this option. The struggle is all mental and I still deal with anxiety and depression but I have always had it but masked it with food. I am now forced to face my demons head on and not hide behind food but I feel like that I really did need that. I have lost 35 pounds so far and already have so much more energy and no pain in my back and neck. It will be scary at first but I promise you will make it through. 4 members of my family had gastric bypass and are 10 years out with no complications. If you ever need someone to talk to you can message me ❤ Sent from my 0PM92 using the BariatricPal App

OK OK I CHEATED!!!! I feel so guilty, I have been on this diet now for 10 days and I have been doing everything I am suppose to be doing and then I got really nervous and started talking about all the stuff I am not going to eat anymore then it happened we went out for dinner and I ordered steak fajitas I didn't eat the beans, rice, sour cream, or guac. but I did eat some steak, green peppers, tomatoes, and of course tortillas!!! I only ate about 1/4 of the meal but I felt so guilty afterwards. I am starting to doubt myself.... Can I really do this?! Am I cursed to being FAT forever?! I am praying for strength!!! 4 days until surgery!!!!