roundisashape

I think you look great! That dress fits you perfectly!

Nice! I have a friend with a Costco membership, I'll get her to let me tag along one day.

Ooh, thanks for the tip! I'll have to see if I can find some of that!

Hi, I'm still at least 3 months pre-op (I have 3 months to go to fulfill my insurance requirements) but I have been trying some Protein samples. Thought I'd share my opinions! Atkins Daybreak Creamy Chocolate: This is my favorite prepared drink so far, but of course lowest in protein! Not much aftertaste and a good texture. Atkins Advantage Milk chocolate Delight: Not as good as the daybreak version, but drinkable. A little "watery" tasting. Atkins Advantage Strawberry: Chalky, tastes like medicine. Very artificial strawberry flavor. Not good. Muscle Milk Chocolate (powder, not prepared): This, so far, is my very favorite of all of them. Least offensive smell, but a slightly gritty texture. It's better with milk than Water, and tastes a little like a melted Frosty from Wendy's. They sent me a sample of regular, not lite, but the stats on the regular one didn't seem too far off of most other Meal Replacement Protein shakes. I liked it enough to buy a whole jug of it to use pre-op. It's also good with PB2 added, and makes tolerable Cookies. Sets up like cement if you don't wash your glass immediately. Muscle Milk vanilla Creme (powder, regular): I just don't like the taste of vanilla as much as I like chocolate, but it wasn't bad. Same gritty texture and a little too sweet, but I could drink it again. Also better with milk than water, and I'll bet it would taste good with crushed ice and a little McCormick's root beer concentrate. Maybe I'll try that with another brand of vanilla. Syntrax nectar Strawberry Kiwi: I wish I'd known not to mix these when I'm already dressed for work - as soon as it hit water, it turned "Radiation Red". They all do that - turn shockingly bright colors. Anyway, it tasted like a cross between Hawaiian Punch and feet. Oddly enough, it was fine just eating the powder like a pixie stick. Can we do that after surgery? I know it wouldn't go towards our liquid requirements that way, but it wouldn't hurt anything if that's the only way to get it down, right? The Syntrax flavors I've tried so far seem to have the most offensive smell, and that's hard for me to get past. It could also be that I'm mentally psyched up to drink juice, and it just doesn't taste like juice. Syntrax Nectar Fuzzy Navel: I really wanted to like this one. In fact, the first sip, I was in love. The second, I wasn't so sure. The third, I retched. It wound up going down the drain. I have no idea why I reacted this way, but I just couldn't force it down. Has anyone ever tried freezing these? For some reason I felt like I might be able to get it down if I froze it into cubes, then shaved it and ate it like a snowcone. I still have samples of other flavors left, I might try it just for giggles. Syntrax Nectar Chocolate Truffle: Mixed this one with milk. Tasted kind of like chocolate milk - not as good as Muscle Milk, but tolerable. Lower in calories, for sure. Chike Orange Creme: I've never really found anything orange creme / orange sherbet-y that I could get excited about. I mixed it with water, and it stayed a little lumpy but not gritty. Toothache sweet and had a strong smell (I wound up pouring it in a cup with a lid and straw), but the taste wasn't terrible. I wouldn't buy any quantity of this, but might not mind having a few packets around just to break things up later. That's it for now, but I'm sure I'll have more later - I still have a bunch of Chike and Nectar samples at home, and just ordered the

Thank you! Seems like a trivial thing to get excited about, but now that this particular unknown has been dealt with, it feels real

If the nutritional evaluation is a blood test, depending on which lab you use it could take a few days. I used to work for a lab and some samples would either have to be shipped to other locations or only set up to run on the instrument once or twice a week for tests they didn't do as often. I hope things go quickly and smoothly for you!

That has to be one of my favorite before/after pants pictures ever. Fantastic job on your loss - very inspirational!

Can I just tell you how excited I am? I've put off surgery 3 times in the past - once because I lost my job (and my insurance), and twice because my insurance changed to one that didn't cover surgery during open enrollment or only covered a band or a bypass (which I knew I couldn't live with). I'm almost 4 months through my 6 month pre-op weight management program and we just got our open enrollment packet yesterday. FINALLY getting to go from one year to another without a change! I might actually get to have the surgery this time! Yay!