Australia - Melbourne

[Bellarose100 74]

Hi everyone

Sorry have been away sunning myself my big self lol.

Nerms 22kgs is fantastic congrats Hun!

Darwin girl that's so exciting you have your date and so soon!! Can't wait to follow your journey!!

Leanne your so close I hope it happens fast for you!!

Sweetcaro I have been waiting out the private health insurance as well since jan last year it's good in a way gives you 12mths to really think about your decision I did try a few more times this year to lose weight but just didn't happen helped me to decide I need this tool to help me! I am also going with Simon Banting :-)

[Pilbara Girl 4]

I love seeing everyone's success!! 11.5kg down now and 4wks out. Meant to be on soft food now but not too sure what I can have so have still been on puréed food. Went for a bike ride last night towing my two kids in the trailer, almost died I am so unfit lol!!

[Dislexicon 10]

Hello all, new comer from Melbourne here.

I'm booked for early Feb and as it gets closer I want to feel really well prepared (mentally and physically!).

I'm 28 and 120kg plus or minus 2kg.

I have PCOS with the full sha-bam of symptoms (excess hair everywhere i dont want it and losing hair where i do want it, that's the worst one) and I'm hoping that the sleeve will rid me of the condition and maybe reverse this?

So... What are your top tips pre op?

Would you do anything differently with the benefit of hindsight?

What helped you get through the thought times?

[Dislexicon 10]

Tough times, not thought times.

Oh, autocorrect...

[Dislexicon 10]

I also wanted to share some info.

I know a lot of people (if not all!?) Talk about addressing your underlying relationship with food, that just because there is a physical restriction in place, it does not mean that you have had a personality or habit transplant.

The Swinburne Psychology department run a 3 months program (10 sessions then some over the phone follow up) called the Mindful Moderate Eating Group. I attended one session but due to a personal issue I had to defer until Jan 2015.

The group is small 6-8 people and 3 PhD psych students. They encourage discussion and exploration of our thoughts, patterns, habits and relationships with food. They use cognitive brain therapy, self awareness, guided meditation and food journaling. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you have an open mind I'm sure it could be very complementary to surgery.

The waiting list us quite long and it costs about $400 but if there is anyone out there who is waiting around for their insurance to clear 12 months and wants to be proactive with their time, give it a go.

[steveelea 61]

Hi @@Dislexicon and WELCOME!!!!

Congrats on making the big step to have weight loss surgery....are you being sleeved??

It is such a great idea to be prepared....you sound like you are ready.

As for tips on pre op dieting....yes its hard but you don't seem to mind doing it because you know it's only for 2 weeks and this is a long term thing that is happening so its almost exciting as it's the beginning.

I found out only a few days before my surgery that I could eat sugar free mints jubes and chewing gum so that was handy but just a warning.........extreme moderation with them.

I remember eating a handful of jubes as I was so excited that I could finally eat something sweet and I spent all night with pains in my stomach and an upset stomach....not great the day before surgery but oh well you live and learn.

The post op diet seems to go so fast compared to the band post op diet (I had band 4 years ago and went to sleeve Feb of this year) and it was for me easy to stick to as you are not hungry.

It is important that you keep up your fluids and this can be very hard because you are only able to take "fairy sips" as I called them

A great way to keep hydrated is to have icypoles during the day (I loved frosty fruits but I am sure you could get diet icy poles or make your own)

My nurses were not worried about calories at the first post op stage as you can't really get enough down to matter in the scheme of things. I also sucked on a lot of ice cubes

Being that you are being done in Feb it will most likely be very hot so just be mindful to try to maxamise your Fluid intake and have things ready for when you get home from hospital.

Also post op when you are able to go onto puree I think that they baby food jars (the ones for 4 months or whatever the youngest age is so that it is runny puree) are the best and easy to have.

You won't be able to eat a whole one so I used to just put some in a little bowl of what I would be able to eat and put the jar back in the fridge for my next meal.

That group sounds fantastic and thanks for posting about it.

I know that there are a couple of people on here that are waiting on insurance so that may come in very handy.

As for eating habits after the sleeve, yes you have to be careful not to just fill up on the wrong things.

This is a tool to help us and I find it works really well for me.

I make sure that I eat my Protein and veg first then my tiny bit of carb if I have room left.

The beauty of having weight loss surgery is that if you are mindful and think about what you are putting on your plate, you will fill up on that and won't feel the need or have the room to eat the wrong thing, and beleive me that has made a massive difference with me.

I know my family (they are all thin lucky them) will eat a big meal and then dive straight in to look for sweets.

I am lucky in the fact that when I have eaten my teeny meal that fills me up very well, I lose the urge for something else to eat as I feel so full.

Mind you I still do have my Snacks....I love the mini magnum ice creams and I probs have one of those a week but its only a sometimes food for me now so I think its ok....so different than before as before I just never felt full so I would look for something else to satisfy me.

Anyway thats enough from me I could talk about it all day.

Hope some of this info helps you out

Leanne

Oh and I too have been diagnosed with pcos and even though my hormones are going a little haywire with all the weight loss thats going on, things are better than they were so thats a positive.

I am more hormonal I think because of my age too or so the gyno says (I'm 42)

[Dislexicon 10]

Hi Leanne.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Yep, I'm going for the sleeve!

I'm hoping to try scaling back my portion sizes a bit as it gets closer (and the devil on my shoulder keeps banging on about living it -or eating it- up while I can).

I am vegetarian so I suppose I will have to get creative about Protein intake but what do you recommend on the Vitamins front?

[wombatski 4]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum and forums in general. Have never used one. I'm not in Melbourne, I'm in Europe. But I'm originally Australian and looking for a support group which is in English. I'm getting plication November 18 and a little terrified. Not of the op. Of failing or not coping afterwards. I'm a full time mum of 2yr old twins with no family here or child care so I work part time at night (often until very late) and I'm also an MA student writing a dissertation so I have a lot on my plate (no pun intended). Normally I turn to chocolate when things get too much and I'm stressed. I dig at my desk until 3 am writing assignments of working devouring whole blocks of chocolate and copious amounts of strong milky sugary coffee. I desparately want to change my behaviour but I know the surgery won't do much more than make it harder for me to eat large quantities in one sitting and the rest I need to do myself. Half of me is self talking saying 'come on, you can do this, you have to'. The other half is saying 'but what if you put your family through all this and still stay fat and it's your own fault because you end up doing something stupid like eat chocolate'. Did you suffer from this kind of self doubt? How did you self talk and motivate yourself to get through. My husband bless him isn't the most supportive. He says things like 'I'll still love you fat or thin, I don't care, do whatever you want, as long as you look after the kids and don't involve me'.

[steveelea 61]

@@Dislexicon I don't know if this is the correct advise or not, but even if you don't scale back your portion sizes before hand it won't make any difference to the outcome of the sleeve.

The sleeve makes it so you can only eat very little amounts so you won't physically be able to eat large amounts any more so I didn't worry about portion sizes before the op. I only started at pre diet and post op.

Of course you don't want to gain any more so just be mindful of calories and type of food I guess.

Put it this way, you will not be able to go to an all you can eat or sit down to a big main meal again so without going overboard my advice is make the most of it while you can...as I said this is just my opinion and I am not condoning pigging out all the time but you wont be able to eat a regular size meal again after the sleeve.

Its handy tho as I just have a little of everything and I am happy so I love the sleeve.

I take Elevit for pregnancy multis as reccomended to me by the dietician, and also get Vitamin B injections instead of taking the tablets.

I wrote something on Vitamins a few pages back and will try to find and repost when I get a chance as I am just about to run out.

Welcome @wombatski

I am not sure what plication is so I am unsure on how it works but I can say that the lap band or sleeve will not stop you from eating chocolate.

It's a cheat food that slips through the lap band, but with the sleeve I can't eat as much of it but not sure what everyone elses experience with overeating chocolate is with the sleeve.

With the band you can eat slider foods very easily that are full of calories so you need to be dedicated.

I am all for weight loss surgery but I guess it depends on your situation and how much you have to lose and if you can also change your mindset.

Weight loss surgery is a tool to be used with your efforts in weight loss.....it won't do it on it's own and I'm not gonna lie, it is still hard work, although these tools make it a lot easier for people who eat larger portions.

Have you spoken to a surgeon about it?? What did they say??

[Dislexicon 10]

Hi @@steveelea thanks a lot for your advice, I'll have a look into elevit. Great.

My aim with the portion sizes was more aimed at adjusting to what life will be like post op, trying to get used to the smaller portions on a mental level because currently my mind looks at small servings and says its still hungry before I've even started.

My biggest worry is trying to prepare mentally and emotionally, because they are the true culprits, not my stomach.

I sometimes see vlogs of 'cheaters' and I'm scared of going down that road.

What did you do to prepare yourself?

[nerms 237]

Plication is pretty much folding the stomach in half and sewing it that way, completely reversable.

I have a band WITH plication... I don't want to rain on your parade or anything but I honestly think the plication doesn't do much at all.. I could easily gain weight right now, and I have.. I've gained two kilos and now stepping my game up again.

The band obviously will be filled more and more until I'm happy with it, but if I only had a plication I don't think I'd have any weight loss with it. Right after surgery I was all swollen and could hardly eat anything, I was over the moon.. I had no fill so no restriction from that.. as soon as the swelling went I could eat anything and everything. Plication didn't stop me.

chocolate is a pretty dangerous one, no surgery will stop you from eating it, it melts and doesn't take up space at all. It has to be will power with chocolate, overeating bread and Pasta is harder but chocolate.. I ate a whole block the other day and felt so bad.. I have to stop socializing with food crazy people, because I can't say no.

[nerms 237]

I don't want to be a negative Nelly, but maybe consider a different surgery. If you have to go through all that pain and pre op, make it worthwhile!

[Dislexicon 10]

Hi @@wombatski

I'd never heard of plication before. Very interesting.

Although the sleeve is not reversible, one benefit is that the part of the stomach which produces ghrelin (hunger hormone) is removed, a big reason I finally settled on that decision.

Everyone needs to reach the decision which is best for their needs and expectations.

As for your current habits, I am concerned about the same things for myself and goal gas been to get as much of the psychological and emotional aspect of my food problem addressed prior to surgery.

As others have mentioned, surgery is a tool. To use it well we need to learn some new skills, erase old patterns, create new habits and essentially make huge and fundamental life changes. Surgery is only part of it, the rest of it I'm anticipating will be a lot of hard work and adjustment.

I hope you get what you want from it

Where in Europe are you, by the way?

[Dislexicon 10]

Oh gosh.... So many typos. So sorry!

[wombatski 4]

@steveela thanks for your reply. My surgeon said pretty much the same as you 'it's only a tool, you need to not eat chocolate'. Plication is when the fold the stomach in a sew it. It's very similar to the sleeve in that it's vertical and leaves a punch of 150mls. In a fantasy world I'd like to lose 70kg and be super slim like my sister but I know 50kg is most realistic and would get me to "healthy". I know the statics are an average of roughly 60% lost. Does anyone ever lose 100%?