SerendipityHappens

I used to use a whole chicken but now I use mostly backs because they're cheap and give fantastic broth. I boil a bunch of chicken backs and leg quarters in a pot of water with bay, onion celery and carrots, salt pepper and garlic cloves. Boil for 1 hour take the meat off the bones. save the meat for another use. return the bones and skin to the pot with veggies and simmer for 5 hours. Strain the broth but do not try to squeeze out the veg/bones just let the juice gently drain from them. refrigerate until it sets up. I scoop off ALL the hardened fat from the top. This makes quite a concentrated stock, I thin it down with water and add a little adobo seasoning (or garlic salt) before drinking. for a nice different flavor, I'll sometimes add a bit of ground sage. How ever you make your broth, homemade broth is soooooooooo much nicer than canned! BTW, if you've roasted chicken legs in the oven for your family, you can scrape all the drippings into a pot (especially the really sticky brown bits... TRUST ME on this one you want to scrape ALL of those fabulous drippings), and save the bones and add those to the pot too.. add some veggie scraps and boil for 5 hours. then skim the fat. The resulting broth is dark in color, but has an AMAZINGLY delicious taste

YAY! Congratulations on your weight loss. Looks like you're just about 1/4 of the way through this journey... I'd say that's pretty darned encouraging!

Most doctors recommend everything from all liquid Protein shakes to an Atkins(ish) approach. My diet is two or three low carb Protein Shakes per day plus one "lean and green" meal. (lean meat and a salad or side of dark leafy greens) No other carbs than what might come from a bit of skim milk that I use to mix one of my Protein drinks or the greens.

^ This! Suffered for YEARS.. With attacks growing more severe and frequent. (at first only one or two mild attacks every few years.)Finally I had an attack that never went away. I literally thought I might die and made my unlicensed 15 year old sister drive me to the hospital. (yeah, in my feverish state I wasn't thinking clearly!) Then after several hours of waiting in the emergency room, I started just wishing I WOULD hurry up and die because the pain was so severe. My gallbladder had turned gangrene and ruptured and that's why the pain had turned from bad to worse. Sepsis is NOT FUN. The surgery was much longer than it should have been because the doctor had to search inside for pieces of gallbladder and pockets of infection. He had to scrape pieces of gangrene grossness off of my liver. I spent several days in the hospital for what should have been a quick and easy in and out procedure. If you think you are having gallbladder pains, get it checked by your doctor. Don't be stupid like me.

Every area of the country is different... Where I live it nobody would touch me for under 20K.... I could have traveled to Las Vegas, Texas, or Lousiana and had surgery for just under 10k... but since those places are all very far from me, I'd have to travel to get there and stay in a hotel, etc and pay 10K for it PLUS hotel expense, I'd rather go to Mexico and get it even cheaper.. There is nothing about crossing into Mexico that is scary to me and the doctors are perfectly competent so I see no reason to go to a US doctor when I can save thousands in Mexico.

I purchased jobst brand knee high from amazon.com.. I believe I paid around 15.00. Just be sure to measure your ankle and calf carefully to ensure proper compression on the right areas.

Yup, yup yup.... I'm in the midst of losing weight presurgery too and I HAVE to make 290 by March 13th. It got so bad that I had to get a new scale. I can handle it being a little off if it's within a pound. but mine was off by 10 pounds at times... and I had no idea what my actual weight was. New scale is SO much better... now I complain that it never moves! (I seem to be stuck temporarily) but that's better than the crazy weights my old scale used to give me!

Yes, I'm counting the days too! I only have 27 days left to go! I feel like I'm pretty relaxed about the surgery, but a part of me must be nervous because I keep having food night mares... Last night, I dreamed I was eating a big huge sub. About half way through I remembered that I was just sleeved and was supposed to be on a liquid diet... and I started freaking out.. And a few nights ago I dreamed I was in the hospital and I pulled fried chicken from inside my pillow case and started eating it... then I had to go for a leak test and I was trying to stall the doctor because I didn't want him to see the fried chicken in my belly. Ya. I'm trying to play it cool but the dreams don't lie!

Grazing is popping something small in your mouth every time you pass by the kitchen. A handful of nuts here, a few grapes there. a squirt of whipped cream directly into mouth... It's eating little things all day like grazing animals like cows do... as opposed to say, Lions, who eat until they're satisfied and then stop and don't eat anymore until their next kill.

You're right. Kale has TONS of protein. I did a 30 day juice fast once and everyone was like "omg, where are you going to get protein" I averaged about 50 grams of protein per day on my fast which is adequate intake for a woman... I went through a TON of kale though... and toilet paper... and sometimes several changes of clothes.. ok, I digress.

There is a mexico sub forum... just go to the main page and scroll way down near the bottom. LOTS of mexico sleevers there.

You can't judge an entire airline's seats based on one route.. most airline have planes with various size seats. That's why you need to go to seatguru.com and check the seat size of the plane that is used on the route you want to book. Find out your flight number and then go to seatguru.com and figure out seat size. I was able to get the lowest rate by booking directly through Jet Blue.

You can absolutely make it. The first three or four days are the worst and then it gets so much easier from there! I'm currently in week eleven of a similar diet.

My paperwork says coffee, regular or decaf is fine, but limit to two cups per day.

same here.. sometimes I even take it and hit snooze!

Ahhh... Nope. No soy.. it's made from milk.

Why must your protein drinks be full of soy?

I told my boyfriend and my sisters. I'm not telling anyone else unless they ask. I told my sisters not to tell anyone unless they ask. So if someone ASKS my sister why I'm getting so skinny, I told her she can go right ahead and tell them that I had VSG done. I'm not ashamed of it.. I just don't want to advertise it ahead of time and then have people have expectations of what I "should be" losing. I figure at my size by the time anyone notices I've lost, I'll be down a hundred pounds

My doc told me that it was likely a result of some low calorie/low fat dieting I did in my 20s, Shortly after going off the diet, I started having attacks. He said that going low fat can start the problem and then reintroducing the fat, causes the attacks.... I had mine out years ago so thank God I don't have to worry about this post sleeve.

That's terrible to hear. Who was her doctor, what town did she go to? Was this due to negligence on the part of the doctor/hospital?

I am 40 years old hypothyroid and 5'5". I'm currently 299 pounds and 49 BMI, At my heaviest I was 360 pounds and a 60 BMI.. I've been obese since around three years old. My goal is to get down to 150 pounds and allow myself to slowly gain up to as high as 170 if necessary in order to stabilize at a new weight somewhere between 150 and 170. It is quite natural to gain weight after a significant loss even when eating properly and exercise so that's why I'm trying to get down to 150.. originally I had set my goal at 170 but I figured it might be smarter to get down to 150 to give myself some wiggle room. 170 would still be a very healthy weight even though it's in the "overweight" category of the BMI charts.

This is just my opinion.. and keep in mind that I am PRE-SLEEVE.... but in my opinion, in order for me to lose all of the weight I want, I need to track my intake and control the carbs. Doctors estimate that VSG patients will lose 50-65% of their excess weight.. I don't want to lose 50% of my excess weight, damn it, I want to lose ALL of it!!!! So I'm going to focus on making every calorie count and not eating empty carbs.. (carbs from veggies yes.. carbs from grains and sugars are OUT!) Once I can eat more and have reached my goal and am trying to maintain my weight, I plan to begin introducing starchy vegetables and grains back into my diet. Tracking my food also will help me ensure adequate Protein and nutrition. After a few years, I'm hoping that this will become a way of life and I won't have to constantly track and control everything as strictly and it will just become second nature to eat in a way that will maintain my health. Edited to add: I've also been in the painful process of identifying my "trigger foods" Honestly, I know I need to avoid certain foods because I know that I cannot enjoy them in moderation.. this is not something physical that will be "cured" by my sleeve, this is a mental thing. Perhaps at some point in the very distant future I will be able to enjoy a 100 calorie portion of nacho cheese doritos, but for now, I know that for me this is something better avoided all together.

Makes perfect sense. I'm in a similar situation. I don't expect drastic results after getting the sleeve either. I'm hoping for 10 pounds a month.

I just wanted to clarify, it is Dr VICTOR Cabrera, Dr Garcia's anesthesiologist who suffered this terrible tragedy, not Dr Ismael Cabrera the bariatric surgeon.

For everyone with "Mexiphobia" there certainly is cause to exercise caution when visiting Mexico since there are numerous travel warnings regarding safety in Mexico. Fortunately I feel 100% crossing the boarder in the shuttle, traveling to the Marriott, then taking the hotel shuttle to and from the hospital, then back over the border. Am I going to be wandering down dark alleys at night? No. Now there ARE some mexican border towns that are extremely dangerous.. and guess what? THESE dangerous towns are not hot spots for Medical Tourism.. Go figure. Personally I've traveled in Pakistan without incident, and passed through Armed Hizzbollah roadblocks in Lebanon regularly while I lived there for a short time... I just learned WHERE I could go and WHERE I should avoid. The same goes for Mexico, there are places that are safe and places that should be avoided... Heck, the same goes for Harrisburg, there are neighborhoods here I won't venture into either.