SerendipityHappens

If I could lose a pound for every person who has said to me "How are you not skinny? You eat so healthy" , I'd actually be skinny!!! Yes I do eat healthy most of the time. I cook from scratch, don't use obscene amounts of fats, don't fry stuff, Don't eat white breads/pastas, Avoid any drinks with sugar, Don't eat fast foods..... blah blah blah blah blah.. But still I'm over 300 pounds. Now while my meals were quite healthy, I do have a weakness for some junk foods like Doritos and snack cakes but I resist MOST of the time. During my last push to lose weight I was logging my calories faithfully and sticking around 1600 calories and STARVING ALL THE TIME and doing over an hour at the gym four days a week and losing only ounces.. OUNCES a week. It was maddening.I even was being supervised by a nutritionist. I just gave up because I was still feeling like I was starving and not getting anywhere. Like you, I have no comorbidities. my lipid panel is awesome, my blood sugar is awesome.. Blood pressure is on the high side, but has been this way since child hood and has never increased and it's not considered actually high.. just borderline. I'm getting sleeved in March. I pray that it is the tool I need to manage my weight. I've been obese for 40 years. I NEVER remember a time in my life when I wasn't fat. I am pretty sure I'm going to be a "slow loser" but if I can lose more than mere ounces per week I will be happy! I have been on a a high protein 800 calorie a day diet since December 3rd. I'm down 20 pounds already which is shocking to me given my weight loss history, but have already stalled.. and even crept back up a few pounds without even cheating once. I am figuring maybe I'm retaining a bit of water and I'm NOT QUITTING. I'm staying on this pre-surgery diet until March. This stall has to break eventually and I want to lose 40 pounds by surgery date..... See? already the Sleeve is inspiring me to do better and I haven't even gotten it yet!!! I honestly believe we can do this. I have failed many times because I got frustrated in quit.. and because I was STARVING. I have been blessed with an efficient metabolic rate. Soon I will have a teeny appetite to match it.

YAY!!!! I felt awesome when I bought my airline ticket.... I do my deposit in two weeks. And surgery March 13

Well the first 5 or 6 days I did shakes only. Now I do two shakes and then a piece of lean meat and a salad and an ounce of nuts for dinner... oh yes and I can have half a fruit. This is all under 800 calories. After day 4, I went into Ketosis and was not as hungry. I experience a bit of hunger here and there, but nothing terrible.This is definitely easier than 1200-1500 calorie diets I've done in the past. I haven't cheated once since I started. I've been tempted plenty.. I came very close to eating a slim jim today at work (i work in a convenience store surrounded by deliciousness!!!) but I resisted. I HAVE to do this. I HAVE to get 40 pounds off of me before surgery.

Great job! I'm on day 21 of my pre-preop diet and doing still hanging in there... 9 weeks to go on this diet, then my actual preop starts!

You are at the age when your fertility will begin to decline. If you feel comfortable waiting the year, then do the sleeve first and have your baby when you are at a healthy weight. It's perfectly safe to get pregnant a year after being sleeved. If you think your biological clock is ticking loudly and don't want to wait a full year before you even begin trying, then lose 30 pounds quickly on your own, have a baby and THEN do the sleeve. See your gyno for advice.

At 15 I weighed in the 230s. Personally I feel I would have benefited from doing the surgery during my teens. I know the Bariatric program near me is accepting patients at age 16 now.

Ahhhh... can't wait until we can be nipped, tucked and lifted! And I'll be going to either Mexico or India when it's time for that!

Awwweeee sorry about that. Glad you found out what was wrong though. I've been there and Gallbladder pain hurts like crazy. Have a speedy recovery!

All depends on your body. When My5'5" sister was 170 she was in a medium top and 12-14 jean

I don't think it's going to mexico that's the problem.. it's if they cover complications from surgery or not. If you went to Las Vegas for surgery you'd be in the same boat.

YAY! OMG, that's SOON. Congratulations!

I'm sticking to my 12 week pre-preop diet. No cheating for me! I have plenty of time in the future to sample the culinary delights of the holidays.

I have lost my vacuum cleaner... but I hope to lose my boyfriend before I am done! Yeah, this does sound bad. Sorry Sweetie. :wub:

Talk to your nutritionist. I wanted to do the same thing but she gave me the diet as outlined in my post above. I'm on day 18 and still feeling great and not cheating at all... I've lost 20 pounds... but I know a lot of that was "water weight" since I retain a LOT of water and what I've been eating is low sodium. I have no doubt now that I'll meet my pre-surgery goal even though I'll be losing a lot slower now that the waterweight is gone. Good luck!

Not religious.. but sending you lots of positive thoughts and good wishes!

There are other threads addressing Dr Almanza.. Many had good experiences but there were some very negative experiences reported as well. (leaks) Also some don't like that he does a lot of surgeries in a day. I do not have any personal experience to share, but please look at the other threads with his name in it for the info.

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my long term diet. Right now I'm sold on eliminating all wheat from my diet permanently. I've been off wheat for two weeks and my joint pain has vanished so I'm sold! I'm not necessarily looking to be "low carb" forever just no wheat and minimal starchy carbs.

Awe, I'm sorry you're feeling so sick. I know when I've had a UTI it feels like I'm peeing glass. Also are you on an acid blocker? Many doctors recommend an acid blocker for 6 months after surgery. I hope you get answers soon as to why you're feeling poorly. Please keep us informed.

I also won't miss doing the "fat lady shirt stretch"... ya know putting your arms inside your shirt and stretching it out so it's not sticking to your belly.... I won't miss doing step aerobics WITHOUT the step. I won't miss having to stop and rest after two flights of stairs. I won't miss being a human dam in the bathtub.

Having to plan all of my travel arrangements so that I can TRY to go during a time when I have a chace of having an empty seat next to me.. and then being worried that I'll be told I need a second seat... and once I get on the plain being worried I'll have to ask for a belt extender. Not being able to sit in those white plastic lawn/party chairs. Never finding good stuff at thrift stores. Finally finding cute shoes that look good on me and then totally trashing them in a matter of weeks because they can't handle my weight. Having a pannus. Yeah I know I'l stil have it after I lose weight but I'm getting that sucker cut off if I have to do it myself with a swiss army knife!

My expectation is similar to my expectation when I had my gallbladder removed in my local small town hospital. Clean facility, doctors that care, nurses that pay attention to what they're doing. My hometown hospital is NOT fancy.. the beds are old, you have to share the TV with a roomate who hogs the remote, there are sick people in rooms next to surgery patients... and any complications and you get sent to a larger better equipped hospital. This is what I expect from where I'm going to have my surgery..... except for the sick people being next door.. I believe the entire floor will be only bariatric patients so my expectation will be that there will be NO sick people around.. only fat people.

It's very inspirational to see how well you've done. I'm starting at a similar weight and hope with every ounce of hope I have in me that I can have similar success!

I wear compression knee high stockings. I have VERY fat legs that taper a lot down to a relatively normal size ankle and the drug stores don't carry my size. I ordered from amazon. Jobst is the brand that fits me best and they are reasonable in price. I wear them for long shifts or if I'm traveling. When you buy them just make sure you measure exactly. If you get the wrong compression on the wrong leg parts then you may wind up doing more harm than good.

My preop paperwork specifically says NOT to use slimfast so just be sure that whatever you are getting meets the protein and caloric requirements your doctor requires.

I have always been one to err on the side of caution. The malabsorption aspect of bypass is nothing to fool around with, ESPECIALLY if you don't actually NEED IT. My thought is if you find after a few years that you can't get down more with the sleeve, you can always opt to make it a full Duadenal Switch.