SerendipityHappens

Butter the bean is post op and has been doing some green smoothies and he loves it. I am preop, and I can say I'm hooked on juicing. I have an Omega 8006 horizontal slow juicer and it is very efficient at everything except carrots. Carrot leave a lot of damp pulp behind but I'm ok with that because carrots are so cheap to begin with and I don't juice a lot of carrots anyway. a 20 ounce portion of mean green takes the following: 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 cucumber 4 celery ribs, 1 chunk of ginger, 1/2 of a big bunch of greens. For me living in Harrisburg, PA, that works out to 2.50 to 3.00 for a 20 ounce juice It's very nutrient dense and I don't feel l like I'm wasting money. My juicer rocks and as a plus, I also use it to make banana "ice cream" which is just a frozen banana run through the juicer.. yum. and also almond milk. My biggest concern is that postop I'm not allowed lemons for a very long time so I guess I'll have to quit juicing while my belly heals (I CAN'T drink it without the lemons, cuz it tastes like lawn clippings when I do)

Typical day for me on my pre-preop diet (like amanda, I started early due to BMI concerns) Breakfast Protein shake made with milk, Water or coffee, 110-200 calories 25-30 grams of protein lunch- same as breakfast but lately I have been drinking half my shake for breakfast and half for lunch and not wanting the second protein shake I'm still meeting my minimum protein intake for the day so I've been skipping it. Dinner: salad with lots of leafy greens and vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, etc with a small amount of low calorie dressing, a portion of lean meat (tonight was 4 ounces of 95% lean beef that I seasoned up with my homemade taco seasoning, but often I'll do 6 ounces of flounder) Snacks: choose from the following but stay under 800 calories total 1 egg ounce of nuts half of a piece of fruit lately I've been enjoying some juice as a snack.. before you get too excited, it's cucumber, celery, kale, lemon and ginger juice that I make myself and I add a bit of stevia for sweetness. I find the juice helps keep things "moving along" and I'm still able to stay under my calories with it.. Plus my nutritionist wants me taking in as much dark leafy greens as possible... my juice had 8 cups of raw kale in it!!! Once my actual 2 week preop diet starts it will be similar except I won't get the Snacks... Just two or three shakes, a lean meat and a salad. Then after the two week preop, I'm on clears for three days. They said no protein in the clears, just clear or translucent sugar-free fluids.

I regularly gain 7 pounds in anticipation of aunt flow. SEVEN POUNDS. Also, I'm not sleeved yet, but I'm on 800 calories a day and I lost a lot of weight rapidly, then gained back a few pounds and then stalled for two weeks and I HAVEN'T been cheating on my diet.. The scale finally started moving again and I lost the pounds I gained plus another one. I've read through these forums I KNOW that stalls happen I know that it's normal.. but it's something that is supposed to happen to OTHER PEOPLE.. NOT TO ME!

AMEN.

YAY for you! Your big day will be here before you know it. I started a modified preop diet 12 weeks early. I'm currently nearing the end of my fifth week and I've lost 21 pounds and feel great. I know the NEXT 20 pounds won't come off so easily, but I'm hoping to be down a total of 40 pounds by my March 13th surgery date. I think I would go out of my mind if I hadn't started this preop diet already, It makes me feel like I'm doing something and not just sitting around waiting for my life to change.

It's NOTHING like doing a Ramadan fast. I've done both liquid diets and I've fasted during Ramadan and fasting during Ramadan is WAY easier.. You wake up and have a nice Breakfast.. go back to sleep for a while.. Go about your day.. then after sunset eat a nice light meal... then a few hours later eat again. And there's always someone inviting you over to eat and they always have LOTS of AMAZING FOODS. I've never eaten better in my life than I did during Ramadan! The only part about doing the Ramadan fast is if it's summer and you're someplace hot because you get SOOO THIRSTY.

It's especially rough when you are heavily dependent on refined carbohydrates like flour made from wheat or other grains. Most Americans have some sort of wheat product at every meal and snack. It reacts in our bodies JUST LIKE A DRUG.. that is why you feel like a crack addict. That's why you pass by a half eaten, ant covered, rotten sandwich on the sidewalk and think.. "oh, hey, That looks kind of good actually" And yes, on most preop diets you are allowed sugar free non-caffenated, non-carbonated beverages and sugar free Jello, but every doctor is different... My preop diet even allows for one meal a day (if you can call 4ounces of chicken breast and a salad of dark leafy greens a meal)

You GOT this! The first few days are rough, but once you reach day 3 or 4 you'll feel energized and you'll feel almost like you've come out of a fog. The BEAUTIFUL thing about these preop diets is that after the first few days the hunger does subside substantially.

The predisposition to eat at night time may be genetic. https://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/eating_disorders/night-time-binge-eating-disorder.htm I feel SOOOOO fortunate in that for me my hunger shuts off after my evening meal and It doesn't even cross my mind to visit the kitchen in the middle of the night. I can imagine how difficult it is to deal with the desire to eat at all hours of the night. I hope that in addition to your therapy, having the sleeve will help you with curbing your desire to night eat.

I'm march 13th too. I'll be traveling to Mexico for mine. Are you on Myfitnesspal? if so, I'm missjulesdid there. It would be great have a friend on there who was sleeved on the same day.

YAY for onderland! Congratulations!

Weight and calorie conversion is NOT an exact science. It does take 3500 EXCESS calories to equal a pound lof fat however the rate at which you burn calories may reduce a bit since you are eating a very small amount. Also of course as you lose weight, the rate that you burn calories reduces since you are not lugging around as much weight.

You are going to get that on just about any forum, I'm afraid. After a while you'll figure out who to ignore! Also, do remember that you can't always detect tone the way you could in person so I always try to assume that the person had positive intent.

Ugh.. I feel you! I once went to a PCP and I was really concerned about my weight as I was 360 pounds and gaining. I tried to talk to him about it and he looked at my blood work and he told me I'm the picture of health and that losing weight was optional, if I really wanted to do it..... A month later I visited an endocrinologist who said my thyroid, cortisol, progesterone and estrogen were all a disaster. Yeah, I never went back to that PCP again!

You should check with your nutritionist for the best plan for YOU. I'm on 800 calories a day... 200 calorie 30grams of Protein shake for breakfast, 200 calorie shake with 30 grams of protein for lunch (30 grams is from the powder and the milk both, if you don't use milk it will have less protein and fewer calories). and mix and match the following for dinner/snacks so as not to go over 800 calories for the day: 1 egg 1 portion lean meat a large salad with lots of greens and various non-starch salad vegetables and a small amount of low-cal dressing (TRY to have a salad EVERY DAY and focus on dark leafy greens) 1 ounce nuts 1/2 of a piece of fruit or a cup of berries. I also sometimes mix my Protein shakes with coffee or Water instead of milk and that reduces them by 90 calories so I can have enough calories to enjoy an egg later. I also sometimes mix up a batch of "mean green" juice instead of my salad and fruit servings. I'm doing this plan for 12 weeks and I have 7.5 weeks to go, then I start my ACTUAL preop diet before my march 13th surgery date. I am trying to get my BMI below 49 prior to my surgery. I'm half way to my goal so I think I'll make it!

I'm not even sleeved yet and I'm enduring a long stall. I'm on 800 calories a day and lost 20 pounds during the first two weeks.... Then GAINED a couple back and now I'm just sitting at the same weight for the past two and a half weeks. I'm praying for this to end soon. I KNOW it's normal but I don't have to LIKE it!!!

I saved like crazy for the surgery. I'm not gonna lie, cost WAS a factor in deciding which doctor to go to, but I didn't just go to the cheapest doctor I could find. If money was no object, I would have gone to Dr. Alvarez... but I realized that there were many well qualified and competent doctors in Tijuana that were about half the price of Alvarez. You'll find that many of the doctors who using the major booking companies (R4C, ALM, MBC, MT) are well qualified and have done a LOT of surgeries before they are accepted by a booking company and begin working on American/Canadian patients. One of the single biggest determining factors of complication rates, is number of bariatric procedures that the surgeon has performed. Higher volume surgeons/hospitals have lower complication rates. (no a point, you don't want a doctor who does 15 surgeries a day, but you don't want one who only does two a week either) on average, a doctor who has done fewer than 200 bariatric procedures has more than twice the complication rate of a doctor who has done more than 1000 procedures.

My grandmother was english and she loved that stuff... She'd use it for anything from treating constipation to inducing labor... I'd run the other way when I saw her break out the bottle.

This is "the one" I turned my nose up at lap band and at RNY... This is the surgery that makes sense to me. In 20 years I hope they come up with a better surgery than this, but I'm done waiting. And I'm totally ok with losing 85 percent of my stomach.

Let me entertain you with a little story about a girl who was afraid to have her gallbladder taken care of..., I was awake every night pacing the floor and vomiting.. Sometimes bile, sometimes blood, sometimes both. By the time I decided she should visit the hospital, I had a high fever and was virtually unable to move. Upon visiting the emergency room I was admitted for emergency surgery. I didn't get to ask the surgeon questions, I didn't get to pick a good surgeon or hospital... The surgeon didn't have a chance to make sure he had extra long instruments to fit through my big fat belly... there were no antiembolism stockings in my size so I had to do without. Everything had to be done quickly as the gallbladder had already ruptured things went septic. The gallbladder was gangrene and in several pieces. My liver had to be scraped of bits of rotten gallbladder and infection. A surgery that should have been done as a quick and easy procedure, took hours as the doctor had to search around internally for bits of rotten gallbladder and infection. Sounds yummy right? Seriously. I was an idiot. I NEVER should have let it get this far. The doctor told me my gallbladder was the grossest thing he's ever seen. Now he's a doctor so I assume he's seen a lot of gross things. PLEASE don't wait.. Just get it out. If it ruptures, there is a very real possibility of death .DEATH. Though by the time you reach that point, the pain is so bad that you don't even care if you die. Don't be stupid.

Uh, I'm preop and they look like little deflated baloons already I've never had nice full breasts, I have pretty much accepted that I will get them medically lifted and stuffed at some point in the future.

Switch things up. Try many different types of shakes. Try them with SF pudding, try them with ice, try with coffee, try them in juice. Try them in a box, try them with a fox.

I haven't tried JayRobb unflavored yet, but I'm getting it on my next order. I can say that the chocolate and the strawberry, don't clump at all and they're very thin. I pour a large coffee, and put 1/4 cup milk and then stir in a scoop of chocolate protein powder and it tastes GREAT. The trick is you can't add it to VERY hot coffee. So I would imagine that the unflavored are also very nice to mix in to stuff. I do expect that it will have a taste though, I just plan to mix it in with stuff with a STRONGER taste.

Have you considered booking an extra day or two at the hotel? Your coordinator can get you a good rate. I had the same concerns and decided to stay an extra day.

That is AWESOME that you are taking this journey together.