Bufflehead

That sounds like a money-making scam. I bought vitamins on my own. I had vitamins/minerals I was taking on my own before surgery: iron, B12, D3, folic acid. I generally buy those wherever I can get them cheapest. The important thing with iron is to not use time-release or slow-release formulas. I did use liquid iron for the first four weeks after surgery. Post-surgery I added in a multi-vitamin and calcium. For the first four weeks after surgery I did liquid forms of each (Wellesse - purchased through Amazon). After that, I switched to Trader Joe's chewable High Potency Multi-Vitamins and Citracal Petites (or the generic version my supermarket sells). For the first year after surgery I took a double dose of the multi's, then switched to a regular single dose. My surgeon's office also tried to sell me a huge, terribly over-priced vitamin package. I refused. I've had my labs drawn regularly since surgery and they have always been great.

I agree that you may have to do the six month supervised diet in any event. But if you are bound and determined to gain a lot of weight fast, these things are your friends: --liquid calories. Go to Dairy Queen and get a Moolatte, or a giant Frappuccino from Starbucks. McDonalds milkshakes pack the calories, too. Better yet, make your own milkshake with full fat milk, full sugar flavored syrups, and super rich ice cream. --put butter on everything --eat a lot of things like quick breads and cupcakes -- things with lots of flour and sugar and fat --your heaviest clothes (wear to weigh-in) --I've heard about people doing things like wearing ankle weights, stuffing rolls of quarters in their pockets, etc. for weigh-in. Not that I would ever advocate or endorse insurance fraud, even though insurance companies are evil and deserve it.

My mother struggles to maintain a normal weight -- she has a tendency to be underweight, and has to really try to stay a healthy weight. Her doctor told her that if she added a protein bar to her diet every day, she would stop losing weight and either maintain or gain and be healthy. So she did start eating protein bars, and they keep her from losing weight. Having witnessed that myself, I stay away from protein bars unless I am traveling. Plus, they are not permitted under my program during weight loss.

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I use Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable Multi. Fir the first year after surgery, I did one in the morning and one in the evening. Since then, just one per day. I have my labs drawn regularly and they have always been great. It has a very mild taste and is lower calorie, lower carb, and lower price than most other chewables.

It's not so much which insurance companies cover it, as which plan includes it. Each insurance company offers dozens to hundreds of different plans, some for individual purchase and some for employers. When employers purchase a group plan, they have to affirmatively include a special rider for bariatric surgery coverage. So my employer offers plans through Cigna and Blue Cross that do cover bariatric surgery. Someone else I know works for a different company with a Cigna plan that does not include bariatric surgery. Most plans for individual sale do not include bariatric surgery. I think your best bet is to work with an insurance agent and tell him/her up front exactly what you are looking for. Make sure you see the plan documents (member benefit handbook etc.) up front before purchasing so that you can see for yourself whether weight loss surgery is included, what the requirements are for approval, and whether there is a waiting period. If you purchase insurance through a government exchange, some states require that bariatric surgery be included. However, I see you are in Alabama, and Alabama is not one of those states as far as I can determine. http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/obamacare-weight-loss-surgery.html Good luck!

You are experiencing the three week stall. Virtually everyone experiences this, including everyone who got to their goal weight. Don't believe me? Use the forum search function and search for "three week stall." Or just use Google and search for VSG three week stall. You aren't doing anything wrong, your body is not destined to be obese forever. Keep your chin up and keep working your program. I promise you, the weight will start coming off again.

If you make a polite request for a smaller portion, most places will honor it. Restaurants don't have to honor those cards, and as others have pointed out, usually the children's menus are full of crap. I just order an appetizer, or a regular size meal and take the leftovers home. But when I do order just an appetizer, I tip as though I ordered a full sized meal. It isn't the server's fault that I had bariatric surgery, and they need those tips to live.

I'm boring, I have almost the same lunch every day: 3 oz grilled chicken breast, chopped 1.5 oz green veggies (asparagus, artichoke hearts, or green beans) 1 T. light salad dressing (Trader Joe's light champagne vinaigrette) Put in a small plastic food container and shake. Stick it in my bag and have it for lunch.

Hi Madeira, if you haven't found it yet, there is a specific sub-forum here for self-pay and Mexico gastric sleeve surgery. You might want to post there, as well as reading the many posts from others who have traveled to Mexico for surgery. Good luck!

Don't be scared. Keep sipping and just slow down a bit if you start to feel painful or nauseated. You can't really hurt your stomach with liquids, as they go through the pyloric valve and don't really stay in your stomach. Some people have a lot of inflammation in the stomach tissues after surgery, so that may cause you a bit of pain, which would be your signal to back off for a while.

Potatoes are full of carbs and have little protein. I wasn't permitted to eat them at all (or other starchy veg) for the first six months. But what is important is what YOUR plan allows. Did your surgeon or dietician give you a list of approved foods? I didn't have a "mash" phase. I had purees and "soft" foods. On purees, I was allowed high protein foods only - meat, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts, things like that. On soft foods, I was allowed to add in green veggies and fruit, but I still had to meet my protein target and stay within my max carbs for the day, and whatever I ate had to be soft enough to cut it easily with a fork. So, veggies and fruits were a very small portion of my diet.

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I took mine to Goodwill. I know some people will sell their old clothes on EBay if they are in good condition.

I only eat back a maximum of half the calories burned. That gives me a way to ease some of the hunger from a heavy workout day without just canceling out any bonus weight loss effects from the exercise. It also gives me a safety margin, since I absolutely do not believe the usual calculations for calories burned are correct. And I only do any "eating back" of serious, purposeful exercise. I see people on MFP with entries like "burned 800 calories walking in mall" or "burned 300 calories washing dishes" and I would never do something like that!

It took about 60 lbs before people started noticing for me, but I started out at a higher weight than you. So, my guess is that you will start hearing from people when you get below 200 lbs. Also, when you have lost some but not a huge amount, many people will be afraid to comment in case they are wrong, or they are just being too personal. And actually, it is kind of rude to comment on someone else's body for any reason. So, just tell yourself that you work with a lot of polite people who have good manners In my experience, once you start wearing clothes that fit better, more people will notice. Loose clothes do not make you look smaller, they actually make you look bigger than you are.

I wasn't allowed salad until six months out, when I went off soft foods and into "normal" foods. I lived. This may be a good time to practice *not* giving into food cravings.

@ I get DermMatch from Amazon or Dermmatch.com.

@@madferitchick yes, I actually still use it occasionally to blend the space between my natural hairline and the topper hairline. It takes a little practice -- once you apply it with the sponge brush, you may need to use your fingertips to gently kind of push it back into your hairline and make it look completely natural.I love the stuff.

You might want to check out products like Nanogen, Toppik, and DermMatch if your hair loss is showing. They work really well -- I used them before surgery because I already had terrible hair loss due to bad genetics. Using something to conceal the hair loss can make you feel a lot better and more confident. Good luck to you!

It was about two weeks for me. It helped to have a body pillow to use as a prop, something to lean against while sleeping,

Try eating less and eating more slowly. 3 ounces is a lot, too much for many people on puree. Try maybe 1.5 ounces and eating very slowly and see if that helps. Good luck!

@@sbagby1960 rest and work on getting in your fluids and protein. Walk a little bit each day. That's about it.

IMO, yes, it is a big deal.

37 lbs is far more than I had lost at 8 weeks out and I was pretty pleased! You are far too hard on yourself and possibly have unrealistic expectations about how fast the weight is going to come off. I looked up the protein powder you are using in Myfitnesspal and the numbers look really good -- 123 calories, 2 grams carbs, 26 grams protein. That's better than most protein powders I have seen and would definitely fit the guidelines my medical team gave me.