aliekat55

I am exactly six days behind you. wish you the best

Day two of liquid diet and surprise, it is going far better than I could have imagined, no cravings for food, no hunger. the optimist shakes and bars are fully filling and satisfying, the soups are awful! I would rather skip those than eat them. Thank good ness I only got a few of those. My only accommodations are coffee in the morning with nutrasweet and low cal creamer and a lettuce 'salad' late in the day with no dressing. tomorrow may be harder since i do not work and have no schedule to keep me busy--but I do have a dentist appointment. six days from now I will be on my way to the hospital.

perhaps they mean 'emotionaly better'. I certainly hope that after huge weightloss like you, that I feel better about life. IMHO

FYI--Not from minnesota but my daughter is now there. she was just married in Lutsen resort two days ago on the shores of lake superior.I had several great hikes-- wonderful place, .although probably not in the winter. She loves it out there, despite the winters. good luck

Dr. Heider in Lake Norman, NC charges in the 12,00o range. His office is easy to deal with, I am having it done in one week. he has great reviews, I am impressed with him so far. there are a few other charges so it probably ends up closer to 13000

Seems to me that simply getting up each day and getting on with life after such a devastating loss requires enormous inner strength, whether you ate or not.

Non Scale Victory. any great thing that happens because of weight loss not related to a scale number.

my surgery is in 7 days, but i am looking at my list of goals to help me stay focused on this liquid diet. I am starting now and actually I dont really know how bad it will be. I just anticipate it being horrible.

Wedding went off well, I did not eat to fullness and avoided great swaths of food. I exercised like a fiend, hiking mostly. acording to MFP for four days i was in the 1000 negative calorie range for all those days. yet there was no change in weight! I needed that reminder of how the scale is not my friend. I think all my victories will be non scale, for I go a bit crazy whether the scale shows a loss or not. one week from this moment I will be wheeled into the OR. I will have to warn my dear long suffering wife about how grumpy I may get.

I am crabby this morning and I start my liquid diet, i am sure that is simply a coincidence.

I did not expect this. in learning to eat differently for my post sleeve life, i have evidently decreased my intake even more than i expected and have lost some weight. big deal, everyone here can lose weight, however today when i went hiking in the wilds of northern minnesota my gymn shorts kept slipping down. WTF? I have not had that happen to me in years and i was much lighter then. Perhaps the elastic has worn down, but it felt good anyway. I am heading to my surgery with a full head of steam, aiming to make the most of it right from the start. ten days to go. My daughter is getting married tomorrow and there are all sorts of people here, family people. the same ones that I tend to eat over. but so far i still have little interest in food. very strange, very welcome. We fly back on Sunday and i can get into the security of my routine until surgery. I have told a few chosen people and they have all been highly supportive. perhaps I need to expand my inclusion list.

During my visit with my surgeon, I discovered that they dont do the morphine pump. I had not even asked for I have had many orthopedic disasters and can generaly deal with pain. however, on Youtube so many patients are pressing the pump and even stay awake to press it regularly. I dont know what to make of it. this doctor says that he can manage the pain with either oral or IM meds--of course that means waiting for the nurse to bring the shot or pill. I guess I will find out if I really have the high pain threshold I think i have. My wife has become my biggest supporter. I had blogged that I wasn't clear whether she approved or not, but in the last few days either she has come to terms with it or it is now clearer. An amazing transformation, she comes up with ideas, I can tell her about my anxieties. She does keep asking about adverse events and perhaps that is on her mind. I told her that the life insurance was all paid up but somehow that did not ease her mind. alex

taking this to the logical extreme, why weight at all? one blogger says she only weights for doctor visits. that is my goal. I will have to take my .45 and blow a hole in each of my five scales though. I like the other recommendations and am already following most of them, getting ready for surgery.

I come from a long line of committed carnivore so I do not understand the subtleties of vegetarianism. How is seafood ok on a vegetarian diet? just curious

they arent his weights. I use weights as soon as they walk away from them. it is called sharing, i learned how to do that in kindergarten alex

when i was training i was so surprised about the number of relationship breakups when an alcoholic began recovery. not implying you are that, but that long term relationships are in balance and when a big perturbation happens sometimes the balance is irrevocably disturbed. nevertheless it does not mean that anyone needs to remain in their disease to keep the relationship. Guilt doesnt enter into it. you did what you had to do. I have been married for 35 years and my wife has never seen me at a good weight. I have no choice but to move forward, if it disrupts our relationship we will deal with that when it happens, but guilt is not an option. If I have to remain unhealthy to keep her, then that is a problem in itself. IMHO Alex

I am so jealous. he wants two weeks of optimist even though I have already lost 12% of my weight. Alas, such is life. alex

I wanted the flex but they were out of it, so I got the 'one' and it is all i wanted. it is a bit easier to wear a bracelet but they are hard to find. there is no cost after you purchase it is all free apps. I was very pleased with the first nights reading and surprisingly acurate as to when i got up to pee. the wake functionis great a very subtle vibration when you are in light sleep, it avoids deep sleep. dont know about swiming with it, i dont swim so i did not look.

I got myself a fitbit yesterday. A friend had a Nike product and i loved the idea that it would track my daily routines and I could see how much i was really exerting myself. with food we can count calories, carbs, whatever but with exercise it is harder to quantify. I researched it and these seem to be quite accurate, certainly consistent so I can compare day to day how active I really am. I am really good at fooling myself into thinking i ate less than I really did, or worked out more. Of the three products fitbit, jawbone and Nike/apple I like the nike best except that it did not monitor sleep. Since i have always had trouble with sleep i picked up the fitbit and besides it was $50 cheaper. For those of you interested, it was dead easy to set up and gives me exactly the feedback i want. It syncs with an iphone easily. it is supposed to sync with MFP but i have not managed to figure than out yet. I love to work out so i use it as motivation to do more, for those people that hate working out I could see this being a great tool to keep yourself honest. I am two weeks away, actually minus 5 hours, but who is counting? Being a doctor I am mostly concerned about the complications, well actually just about leaks, the others I deal with on a regular basis and perhaps irrationally feel i can control. But a leak is such a difficult situation, particularly since I am self pay. the chances are slim, i know and the chances of a bad one are even slimmer. Nevertheless the path I am on is unsustainable, so no regrets, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I a starting to tell the people closest to me. My daughters are supportive, my wife becoming indispensably so. I will tell a few coworkers this week, my mother (not ever?). For some reason this past week has been easy food wise, i am not particularly attracted to it and have managed to stay well below my goals, with only some mild head hunger before bedtime. Of course now i head into the fast dangerous rapids of the preop liquid diet. I intend to follow directions even though my research does not support this (IMHO it is silly) liquid diet before the surgery. Sure people do well with a 5%-10% weight loss prior to surgery, irregardless of how it is accomplished. I have already lost over 12% and am still losing even prior to the liquid diet. In my cynical days i wonder how much of a money maker it is for them and whether that colors their decision. But i do not want to think bad thoughts about the surgeon who will be operating on me, so i hush that cynic, probably until i am well past the recovery. Probably by then if successful i wont care so much. By the way, did I mention my daughter is getting married this saturday? that I have to travel 1200 miles to get there? No matter, I plan to practice my new life, focus on the fun, the people, the activities, not on the food. Kind of like a dress rehearsal.

loosing too much weight? what me worry? being too tall? ( i am 5'8"), too young? (57), too handsome? ( mirrors break-- that is why a cat is my avatar) I dont think so. I should have such problems. check back in a year or two and with luck I will have to fight that battle.

I am 15 days out and am counting the hours until then, I can barely tolerate the wait. Yet, that said, I am expecting a freak out or two prior to the actual procedure. I dont think we would be human if we did not freak out about an irreversible process even if it is the only way to manage my health. IMHO alex

I am traveling alone also, although not to mexico. My hospital has no problem with small stuff, phone, charger, kindle. did not bring up laptop but it would be nice to have. easier than using an iPhone. Yet even if they can keep it safe during surgery, who will watch it while I am asleep? i cant handcuff it to myself. A phone i can put in a pocket. I am open to ideas. alex

Two weeks from today I will be in NC waiting for monday surgery. My schedule this week is avoiding telling my mother about the surgery ( she is visiting from texas) go to my daughters wedding in Minnesota while remaining on my pre surgery intake ( not liquid diet) and immediately on returning from minnesota start the optifast torture...I mean prep. Glad it is a busy time. alex

Personally, with my experience with insurance companies, I dont think they have the capability of putting those bits of data together. They will look at your BMI, any chronic conditions and then either approve or try to deny depending on the insurance company. I think you timed it perfectly, unless of course you are planning to have another child soon. alex

Historically, weighing myself leads to problems--all in my head of course. I have tried daily weights to keep my eating in check, weekly weights to keep my brain in check, never weights and going by my clothes size. So does any one not weigh themselves after surgery? I can see getting much too obsessed and it seems to me I would not know about a stall if I did not weigh myself. alex