leslie1958

Hey there !! - it's Kay ! - don't worry I'll be there, and Bobbi and Donna (and Joy) good grief we've got enough to be the Spice Girls !! - I think I gave you my number and email - I know how you feel though, it's not the same as family - but honestly, while we're all over there - we're family !!

Hey there !! - it's Kay ! - don't worry I'll be there, and Bobbi and Donna (and Joy) good grief we've got enough to be the Spice Girls !! - I think I gave you my number and email - I know how you feel though, it's not the same as family - but honestly, while we're all over there - we're family !!

Hey there !! - it's Kay ! - don't worry I'll be there, and Bobbi and Donna (and Joy) good grief we've got enough to be the Spice Girls !! - I think I gave you my number and email - I know how you feel though, it's not the same as family - but honestly, while we're all over there - we're family !!

Hey there !! - it's Kay ! - don't worry I'll be there, and Bobbi and Donna (and Joy) good grief we've got enough to be the Spice Girls !! - I think I gave you my number and email - I know how you feel though, it's not the same as family - but honestly, while we're all over there - we're family !!

Well said - couldn't agree more - There isn't a person alive that could either guilt or talk me out of it. I know that some opposition is borne out of concern and love but oh boy until they are in my skin they simply will not know what it's like. I told only one friend who I knew would not oppose it and of course my husband but no one else. Then there are the friends who are utterly clueless - I was out with a group of pals a couple of months ago - we all got chatting about weight as a few of them are pretty husky too so I put my two cents worth in and said how I couldn't find anything to wear for today because I'm so bloody fat, to which one of my friends replied loudly - "but you're happy though aren;t you" - I was mortified !! how on earth can this otherwise well educated woman actually think that I am happy like this ?? - good grief, nothing fits me, I ache all over, I'm miserable and yet this seems to have completely gone over her head so I can only imagine what her reaction would have been had I chosen to announce that I was having wls in Mexico soon !! - no I choose to keep it quiet. !!

I love masala curry - anyone vegetarian can always substitute meats with chick peas or squash (squash by the way with it's natural sweetness is wonderful) but masala base works with a lot of veggies.

I love masala curry - anyone vegetarian can always substitute meats with chick peas or squash (squash by the way with it's natural sweetness is wonderful) but masala base works with a lot of veggies.

My husband and I are going to California next weekend for his 50th Birthday. I went shopping yesterday because I have no jeans that fit me as we don't need them here in Texas in the summertime. I actually bought a size 8!!!! I can't believe it!! From a 22 to an 8!!! I'm SO loving my sleeve!

Yes, best wishes and I cant wait to hear as well. I will be there Friday!

New recipe with pictures at http://sleevers.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/high-protein-paleo-gluten-free-fish-masala-curry/
As many of you know, I’m not a professional cook so there’s a lot of trial and error going on for me. One of the hardest things since being sleeved, is knowing how much to cook and getting the proportions right. I struggle with this, and this recipe is a classic example of it.
You’ll note that I made twice as much of the “masala” as I should have. Since the masala is the most time-consuming part of this recipe, and since it keeps very well, I thought I’d leave the recipe as is, and let you save half the masala as I did. Tomorrow, I will show you how to re-purpose that into something else. So here goes.
Ingredients
1 lb firm-flesh fish (I used a combination of halibut, shrimp, and scallops because that’s what I had!)
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
2 in piece of ginger
1 medium tomato
1/4 c of shredded, unsweetened coconut (if unavailable, use some coconut milk instead of water)
3 tsp oil
2 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1 c water
4 tbsp chopped cilantro for garnish and flavor
Method
1. Marinate the fish with 1 tsp oil, 1 tsp turmeric and 1/4 tsp salt
2. Meanwhile, pulse the onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor or chop finely. Do not liquefy.
3. Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan. When it starts to shimmer, put in the mustard and cumin seeds and let them sputter. This sounds like popcorn popping.
3. Add in the onion/garlic/ginger mix and cook over medium heat. This is a labor of love so do not rush it. It may take 10 minute and that’s just the way it goes.
4. Add in the chopped tomatoes, all of the rest of the spices and the coconut and mix well.
6. Realize that you have no idea how to make small quantities. Take out half the masala and save it in a tupperware container.
7. Into the remaining masala, add in half a cup of Water, and the fish that has been marinating.
8. Cover and let it come to a boil. When it boils, take it off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes so that the fish cooks gently. This keeps it from over-cooking.
9. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!
While the rest of your family might enjoy this over rice, we gave ourselves two pieces of fish and a little sauce. Then we shredded the fish and ate it semi-moist. It was moist, but not soupy and therefore not a slider.

Yes!!!! I cant wait but nervous too

Okay - ditto for me will give you all contact info. OMG this is for real now isn't it ??

I have been doing the same thing! I made it a choice to go ahead and start eating low carb so I can get used to it slowly and also jump start weight loss. Of course, cutting out most of the carbs has kept the cravings at bay. I also started taking my Vitamins again and taking magnesium (which cuts my chocolate cravings). Now I haven't thought I could fit in any old clothes yet so that is just you LOL!! I do agree though that since I made the decision to do the surgery my mind has started to prepare for it plus I am not stressing about my food choices now. I know its gonna come off with my efforts! Normally I would stress over it. We bought holloween candy last night-2 big costco bags. Normally I would have opened it and had at least one but nope! By the way, I just gave alma my deposit and I am looking at flights so I officially will see you next week!! My date is officially the 4th so I should be sleeved by the time you get to the hospital Yay me

As some of you already know - my surgery date is October 5th in Tijuana with Dr Illan. I plan to start my pre op diet Sunday.
Approximately 10-12 days ago I started experiencing some really unusual stuff.
First and foremost, my appetite has gone, poof - outta there - disappeared. This is HIGHLY unusual - I am an emotional eater so you would think pre op stress - eat eat eat - but no, I get up in the morning, not hungry, lunch, not hungry and on and on.
I cooked myself my fave meal (curry) I did not eat any of it - packed into a rubbermaid and in the fridge, simply not interested. I also have an unopened bag of Kit Kat chocolate in the fridge keeping the curry company.
This is utterly baffling to me - believe me, I am not consciously doing anything to be like this.
While I'm confessing to weird behavior, here's one more thing - when I go to my closet, I have a split second of thinking that one of my smaller pairs of jeans will fit me (as if I have already had the surgery) no kidding - I know that's odd isn't it.
Has anyone had any of these weird things happen to them pre op ?

It's an intensely personal decision. I didn't tell my family or friends because it's not about them, it's about me. It's about me being better, feeling better and looking better. This will affect every aspect of my life and I'm damn well worth it. I don't know if I'll be one of the lucky ones who have little or no complications, but in the long run, anything I do for myself to live is worth it. I don't want to die and if I don't do this (for me), I'll either die from co-morbidities or wind up in and out of the hospital with one illness after another.
Bottom line - you have to decide what it is you want for your life. Not what your family or friends want for you. What's going to make you happy? Healthy? Confident? Content? This is all about you - no one else. It's not just about losing weight. That's my wooden nickels worth
Take care and I hope you find peace whatever you choose to do.

Yes it's super hard if you don't have the support of family or friends or both. But you will see a lot of us have chosen not to share our choice with friends or family because we know the response might not be supportive. But wls is such a deeply personal choice and anyone not going through it cannot begin to understand what it means to us. You do have a lot of support here, have you for some sleeve buddies who are having surgery the same time ? that always is really helpful and find a local group from this forum and you can meet up every month and have a chat and share stories !! where are you having surgery ??

I didn't feel the need to know all the gory details of possible complications. I knew what the most "common" complications were, and I knew what the signs were. I asked my surgeon if it was possible to have a complication and NOT be aware of it...not have pain, or fever, or swelling, or some sign to alert me to a problem. He said not really...if something were seriously wrong, my body would let me know. I guess I tried to be informed enough, but not get overly caught up or freaked out by the details of bad outcomes. I trusted my surgeon's skills & I knew the statistical probabilities were on my side. I'm just over 3 months out & have had a great recovery. Good luck to you!

Just took a deep breath and entered the dark world of the complications forum and quite soundly wish I hadn't.
And before any of you "moral of the story" folk get on your orange boxes to say the usual stuff like "you need to be aware" and "it's best to know before" to a certain degree you are correct of course but realistically how does that help me pre op ?? - does it make me any safer ? - does it make me any wiser ? (well okay maybe I'll give you that one) I'll tell you what it has made me - thoroughly and bloody scared.
Like a lot of you - I have had my share of health dealings in the past and quite frankly, if it wasn't for utter ignorance and denial, I might never have had some of the important surgeries that I needed because I might have read something scary and then ran away.
Tell me I'm not the only one here that thinks a little denial is a good thing !!

It was a certainty that I was soon to die if I didn't deal with the fat...and quickly.
I did it.
The odds of complications seemed an acceptable risk given the circumstances.
I won.

No it's not.. I'm more of a full disclosure kinda gal. Stop reading horror stories if that's going to affect your mood and attitude towards having this procedure. Be positive you'll be ok..

hahaha, whatever works, I guess. Me, I have to know everything and then weigh the odds. I am fine. My estimate was spot on.

I am so curious to know how you all came to the decision for surgery. I want to know, was it a single day ? a light bulb clicked on over your head ? a careless comment ? a photo ? or like me, the end of a long long journey.
I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I always felt that wls was for everyone else, definitely not for me because I could lose weight on my own and to get surgery to lose weight was absolutely NUTS and truly it NEVER entered my head. So with this mindset the last 20 years have been an endless stream of different diets. pills, potions, contraptions, books, videos - well you get the idea. And the grand result is, I am almost back to my heaviest weight ever and the only thing I lost was money and hope.
But throughout all of this I still always firmly believed that the next new thing was really going to work. I am by nature an optimist, I usually choose to see the glass half full and so I absolutely astonished myself one morning as I got out of bed, stiff sore and fed up. My mind immediately saying "I really need to lose this damn weight so what do we try now" and as I went to answer my own question, I realized I was done - I was FINALLY dieted out , the well was dry, the tank was empty. I could not have started another diet if Dr Oz himself had ran in and held a gun to my head (I know he wouldn't do that)
And there you have it - that morning I sat down at my laptop and started researching surgery. I had never heard of the sleeve and immediately knew that was my choice. I found all you fabulous people on the amazing forum (thank you Susan) and realized this wasn't a crazy choice, it was a valid, sane decision, I just had to get to it in my own time.
I truly do know that the sleeve is a tool, it is your friend, it is on your side, it has your back.
My day is coming up - October 5th (I found some sleeve buddies too yay)
So please share with me and everyone your story

When I get out of bed in the morning I look like the evolution picture - I start off hunched over and gradually get upright halfway down the hall. I'm starting to do the fat girl waddle - not cool. what is my motivation ? all of the above that everyone else said and let me add that it would be nice to not automatically decline an invitation out because I hate how I look, I have no nice clothes to wear and I usually feel like "pooh" most of the time. I'm only 54, I'm not ancient so yes, I'd also like to be "hot" again !!

Dr. Fernando Garcia/Florence. I need to send her my money tho before its official

Fantastic !!! congratulations