DisneyAddict

I had to quit smoking for 3 months before my surgery. I'm at day 66 now. My surgery is tentatively scheduled for later this month. Believe me, I understand the quitting thing. My first appointment with my surgeon was back in April I guess. I'd been trying to quit constantly since then. Cold turkey. Didn't work. Finally I decided to try the patch (target brand) and it actually worked for me. I've been smoking for 18 years and quite heavily 14 of those years. It's been rough but I have to say after the first few days on the patch, I've had it in mind that if I want the surgery, I have to quit. That's been my motivating factor. If I sneak a cigg, I've screwed myself. Believe me, I'd love a smoke right now. I've nearly tackled friends and random people out in public I see smoking for their ciggs. I've gotten the mind set of "it's really NOT an option for me right now". That's helped. I don't want to lose all the time and good work I've had since I've been free of ciggs only to have to put off my surgery even longer. I can deal with it. Now after the surgery? There's no guarantee I'll stay quit. I'd like to think I'm just having a hard time on the last step of the patch and once the nicotine is out of my system, I won't be so possessed. I rather like not stinking, having the extra money and being able to taste. It's quite nice. I also was able to go see the first half of the last Potter movie without fidgeting or going outside to smoke. Never in a million years did I think I'd be able to quit. EVER. The stars just aligned for me perfectly and my intense desire to finally lose all this weight was what did the trick. Good luck. It's really rough. One day at a time

I haven't posted since last summer because my progress was kind of stalled. I was told to quit smoking for 3 months before my surgeon would touch me. I quit on Halloween and my surgery is tentatively scheduled for January 25th. I've been using the patch (2nd day on the 3rd stage) so I'm having a bit of an antsy moment. Needing something positive to think about rather than sitting here writing out what I'm jokingly calling my Last Will which reads something like... "enchiladas, alfredo, fajitas...." LOL Yes I did that...srsly. This is the PERFECT thread to get my mind off everything so here's what I'm looking forward to: Crossing my legs Not feeling like a side show freak at 300lbs when I venture out of the house (on that rare occasion) ESPECIALLY at restaurants Not huffing & puffing going upstairs Not shying away from the camera Being able to wear sleeveless shirts LOL My dogs outweighing me (I have 3 saint bernards) Not feeling like an embarassment to my husband (when I know he doesn't feel like that but I'm embarassed for him) owning a DVF wrap dress!!!!

Well I've been quit now since Sunday night/Monday morning. LOL It's the darndest thing that it's been relatively easy going except for a few cravings here & there. I guess I'm ready to make all these positive changes in my life?? Crazy =o) I thought I'd have a worse time of it this time around.

Thanks for all the input guys. Last night I kept an eye on myself while I had my straw drink and tried to make myself aware of how I drank with it. I don't think I'd have any problems. In all honesty, I feel like I inhale LESS air when I drink with a straw rather than drinking directly from the cup or bottle or whatever. I rarely burp with a straw, but I can burp like a champ without using a straw. BTW I love Sonic's ice too! I call it "chewie ice".

You know, I went to Starbucks earlier this week for a meeting. I ordered a Tall Caramel Frap w/ no whip. While I was standing there waiting for them to make it, she told me they were out of the regular caramel (I guess mixer?) and only had Lite. I said that was fine. I swear to you, the Lite Caramel Frap tasted like Aquanet fumes. Bleh! LOL Back on topic, I'm going to have to kick my Big Red addiction. I drink 1 20 oz a day usually from lunch onto bedtime. Sweet Tea is another thing I'm going to have to get used to giving up. That shouldn't be a problem though because I tend to go in cycles with Sweet Tea/Unsweet Tea (aka dirty Water as a friend calls it!)

Thanks for the tips Wannalise. My Big Reds are definitely gonna have to go. I've been playing with "alternative cokes" that aren't cokes or fizzy. I found the Fuze Slenderize decent enough. A friend of mine has also recommended a few others as well. I'm also trying to drink more water during the day too. You know, I don't feel like I'm saying good bye to food. I'm honestly not worried that I'll never be able to have X Y or Z again. I chose the sleeve so I could learn to have a healthy relationship with food and to me, that doesn't mean saying sayonara to everything I love. It just means, in my mind, we'll become "acquaintances" rather than "BFF" :tongue_smilie:After I'm at that checkpoint where I'm cleared to have those things within reason (on that blue moon) of course. I know I'm going to gain some weight with quitting smoking for the next few months but this time around I'm not worried about it because we'll be taking care of that later. I just need to quit and focus on getting healthy in that respect so I can have this surgery. (Which translates to: now is the time I rot my teeth out of my head using DumDums Kojak style to help me quit smoking again!) I was planning on starting my boxing work out again soon since the weather has pretty much leveled off. I was doing that last summer and fell in love with it. Since you mentioned that it does help complications, I will definitely be getting back into it with a passion. I feel lucky I've found something that I love doing and have no problem doing it nightly. That definitely gets you breathing hard & sweating! :redface1: Thanks again for the input Wannalise! I'm glad to know I'm on the right track.

All of this makes sense. I'm a straw addict. Every drink I have is with a straw. Granted, I do feel when I'm "chugging" from the straw but most of the time I'm sipping all day long. I guess what I'm trying to do NOW before I get sleeved is getting used to the every day adjustments (like no straws.. Proteins first.. etc etc) that have to be made while sleeved. Trying to do them now while I have the wiggle room so they'll be already in my brain by then if that makes sense. Any others yall think would be good to try to get into place now aside from kicking my straw addiction?

I was reading the board last night and came across one of the long diet links that had been posted here. I can't remember which one it was. It said straws are a no no. Can anyone tell me why please? Is it because of not being able to control the "gulping" of drinks and overpowering your stomach w/ liquid? Right now I'm in the learning/reading phase. I had my first appointment on Wed and my surgeon won't touch me until I've quit smoking for 3 months so I'm looking at a surgery date of sometime in July. *sigh* I've already got my appointments for all the pre-screenings with the different drs..psych eval & medical so I'm at least on the path now.

I've been reading the boards for about a week now. My parents have been offering to pay for LapBand for about 3 years now and I've always said no. This last time I agreed to make an appointment with every intention of going and just saying "Nope not for me" and hopefully being done with it. There was just something I either didn't trust or didn't appeal to me with the lap band. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time but after reading a lot of the band war stories on here.. it's kind of obvious now why it didn't appeal to me. Anyhow, I stumbled across this board in my reading up on the lap band and I have to say I think this is something I can live with. It goes with what I think intellectually about how I *should* be eating (but can't since the demon in my tummy that says "FEED ME" is running wild and can't be controlled anymore). It sounds like you guys have taken control of mind over matter when it comes to food. I have my first appointment to see the dr on Wednesday and I couldn't be more thrilled and excited (and hopeful too). What should I expect for the first visit? What does he do? These boards have been a wealth of knowledge and I have to thank yall for opening my mind to the sleeve. I'm 32 and I've been REALLY heavy since about..2000? Before that, all through jr high, high school and my early 20s I was relatively thin (thought I was fat though.. oh hindsight how you shame me!). I'm tired of being heavy and making sound effects whenever I get up lol. I'd like to go to Disney World and buy whatever tshirt I darn well please rather than looking all over the place for that elusive 3/4x. I want to ride Space Mountain and not have visions of needing the jaws of life to pry me out of that itty bitty car. I also just want to feel good in my skin again and I've not felt that way in a VERY.LONG.TIME. Sen