4me4them

Congrats! I know how hard you have worked for this...be patient with yourself and we'll see you on the other side!

So I'm a believer in the night time routine I learned about at Miraval Spa. I've been using it for the past week and my sleep is deeper, and I can get back to sleep quicker. Some pre-stuff before the routine: 1. Make your room as dark as possible. We moved our phone chargers, turned the clock so that it was not facing the bed, and stopped leaving a light on in the main living area...we now use a night light out there. 2. Create a cozy place to do your routine. If your spouse is on board, the living room is just fine. I have an old recliner in another room that I'm using when hubby doesn't want to get zen with me About an hour before you want to fall asleep: 1. Put on pjs (even if you don't sleep in pjs, put on clothes that you can begin to associate with sleep. This becomes a signal that you are going to sleep. 2. Wash face, brush teeth, take meds... 3. Find some relaxing music that you can listen to...or use fan to create white noise. I found a couple of cheap massage music things on I-tunes. 4. Light should be very low...I had to wrap a lamp with a scarf to get it low enough even with a 40W lightbulb 5. Take a few really deep breaths. Breath out should be longer than breath in. Think about pulling your belly button back to your spine on your exhales. 6. Sit quietly and notice what you are thinking about. 7. Use a journal to record what you are thinking about, any action steps you want to take the next day...the point is to get it out of your head and onto paper. You can also write about your day, include things you are grateful for...really anything. 8. If you like to read before bed....use the remainder of your time to read....not in bed. (this was hard for me at first, but the results speak for themselves!) 9. When you are ready for bed, move to the bedroom, using as little light as possible. If you can't fall asleep within 30 minutes get up and repeat....or if you wake up and can't fall back to sleep repeat. Let me know what you think and/or if you have any success with this! Beth

Wow. That's all I can say is Wow. And not the good WOW either. Do you have to use her? Maybe the surgeon can recommend someone else? At least someone who is more available if you have to do sessions...hang in there, you will overcome this bump in the road!

Congrats on being so close to your surgery day! I would follow the DRs orders, stay off the scales and ride it out. There could be a bajillion reasons why your body is not doing what you think it should be...but you can't control those Good luck!

Congrats and good luck!

This may be way off the mark...but maybe you are kind of going through the grief stages for the you you are or the life you are leaving behind...I'll bet that by the time the 20th or 21st rolls around you will be where you want to be emotionally...

Many thanks! I've rebounded! Yay! It's really hard to break out of when it is happening though...your good wishes definitely helped!

So my husband of almost 29 years booked us a long weekend at Miraval Health and Wellness Resort this weekend...a place I have wanted to go to since moving to AZ over 20 years ago. Why didn't we go before you might be asking...2 main reasons...1. It is kind of expensive and 2. I always thought I'd go when I was skinny (not healthy mind you but skinny). He is supportive of my weight loss surgery and he booked it as a 50th birthday celebration, and as a way to learn some tools that might help through this life changing journey I'm on to have successful weight loss with surgery. This is the first of a few posts to share what I learned. The first class we did was called Better Sleep. I know my sleep struggles are neither unique nor are they as severe as some, but when I have a bad stretch it really screws up a lot of things. I was reminded that sleep is the ONLY time the body is in repair mode. It is doing all the maintenance stuff it needs to do to keep me going. Even one night of too little sleep messes up the body's ability to repair itself. The RN who taught the class (you can access her Better Sleep Blog at the Miraval site here: http://www.miravalresorts.com/blog/post.cfm/6-myths-facts-on-adequate-sleep ) gave us what a "perfect day" designed to promote sleep would look like. Yep I said DAY. Many of the things we do all day long, including first thing in the morning can interfere with a good nights sleep So here goes: 1. Get up within 1/2 hour of the same time every day...even weekends. The body likes to know what is going on. Having wildly differing wake up times keeps it guessing too much so it tends to make you feel sleepy because it is worried that you wont give it enough. 2. Get some AM Sunshine. The color of light in early morning sunshine shuts off the body's natural melatonin production which is good because melatonin is a hormone that regulates the body's clock. 3. Get some AM Exercise. This is not to short those of you who like to exercise in the afternoon, but most people get an energy boost from exercise so it makes sense to time it early in the day....even better if you can combine numbers 2 and 3. 4. Confine caffeine to the morning. Double steep your tea to reduce the amount of caffeine you get from it (steep for 1 minute, throw that away and then steep to desired strength). 5. Carve out some time daily to drop your "hyper-aroused state" which is totally NOT a sexual thing . When we try to multi task, the body can interpret that as a danger...which engages the fight or flight response...which triggers cortisol...which is the stress hormone...which in an overabundance can do bad things . Some ways to do this: Set aside one hour in the AM and one hour in the PM when you will NOT MULTITASK. You will focus on one thing at a time for that period. Use a calming "breath walk". Breath in through your nose for four steps, then release the breath for six steps and repeat... can be used when you are walking down the hall to another office, walking to your car... 6. Stay hydrated....I didn't write down why and now I can't remember....but I underlined it so it must be important 7. Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed time. Food energizes body functions which is not what you want when trying to wind down. I had a hard time with this next part....Bed is for sleeping and sex only! I LOVE to read in bed before turning out the light....have done it since I learned how to read. When I asked her about it after the lecture, she said to try the other things first...but to realize that reading may be too stimulating and if the other things don't work I may have to change that habit. Tomorrow I'll post about creating a night time ritual....something I'm trying for the first time tonight...so I'll let you know how it goes! Beth

Take a drink bottle where you have secretly put one scoop of your favorite vanilla Protein powder and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Order a plain grande iced coffee (15 calories ). Put the iced coffee in the drink bottle (because it is easier that way right?) shake an voila you have a pumpkin spice latte...full of protein minus the calories. Or you could order what everyone else said which would be way simpler Have fun!

OMG...your post could be me except I haven't had surgery yet...5 really good weeks and then whamo blamo a horrible stressful unhealthy back to old habits week. UG. I agree with the suggestion to look for the why....but I would add at some point you have to shake It Off! I'm not trying to rationalize being off the program (so to speak) I'm just saying for me, I can let a day of unhealthy behaviors become a week of unhealthy behaviors...and before my commitment to this life changing tool a week would have become months. You can recover your big Mo (momentum). We can do it together...

I read all the "success" stories I could before I decided to have surgery...they are certainly inspirational. One thing I would consider is if I could whole heartedly recommend the surgeon/practice because being a success story for them will be a kind of advertisement. Those are the things I would consider... On the other hand...congrats for creating a success story...it didn't happen because you wished it...it happened because you worked it!

This is just my two cents...I would tell my friend that I'm bothered by her lack of support and would prefer not to discuss weight, fitness or food....but really want to continue the friendship (if you do) as long as those topics are off the table. It might be that she is jealous or there could be a bajillion reasons she is not able to be supportive...key thing is you don't have to figure that out...that is her problem... On the flip side...you go girl! Rah Rah for you! You are an amazing person and will do things in your own time and your own way. As long a you are following drs orders you are accountable only to yourself! Consider me a cheerleading squad...but please don' ask me to do a literal back flip...it would be dangerous

Yep, been there doing that! I have one month left to go on the supervised diet. Things were humming along, I was losing weight and really wasn't "suffering" too much and I started to think...hey maybe I could do this on my own. Then, ran into a particularly bad week at work, totally went back to habits I thought had conquered (as if 40 years of habits can be changed in 6 weeks)...anyway, for me...I proved to myself that I need a tool that I don't currently have to successfully reclaim my health. That tool is surgery.

Yep, perfection is never going to happen. Take a look a the WHY you did it more than the WHAT you did....and then shake it off and move on. I'm seriously trying to take my own advice...I'm preop and totally fell back into every bad habit I've been working on since August last week... Trying to regroup for the week to come...WE.CAN.DO.THIS!

So this entry is an "OK news" bad news one. I wasn't able to pull it together last week. The stress kicked my butt and the result was a 3 pound gain on the scales. Now I'm under the gun because the only thing my NUT said on 07 August was....don't gain! Ugh. So I have two weeks to get down 4 pounds so that I can go in at least one pound lighter on 08 Sept. It was a very humbling experience. I thought I had this. I thought I had turned a corner on my relationship with food...but yeah....not so much. Looking back I can even see that I was a bit cocky... So what did I learn? 1. For me white flour is my gateway drug. I can not consume bread, pasta or other things made from wheat flour and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Maybe I never will and I will have to get over it. 2. I still have the "all or nothing" mentality. Yes it was a very stressful week, but my job at times is stressful and I need to develop stress coping skills that do not involved food. I need to figure out how to rebound sooner...one unhealthy day can not become one unhealthy week! 3. The biggest thing I learned is that I do need this surgery. I had 5 healthy weeks, hit my NUTs calorie, carb and protein goals, logged all my food, exercised, felt great...the whole nine yards....and I started to think maybe I COULD do it without surgery....but yeah....not so much. So my goal for today is no flour! My goal for tomorrow is to start using myfitensspal again and start exercising again. I'll let you know how it goes! Beth

I haven't had my surgery yet...my go to breakfast for workdays is a Protein shake...usually with almond milk and maybe some blueberries. I can drink it on the way to work and hit the ground running...

Congrats and welcome to the site! There are a lot of good folks here and lots of different opinions, advice and at times just plain silliness! Let us know how things are going for you!

Congrats on getting home! Good luck with your "voiding"...couldn't resist

I had to give up Muscle Milk because my NUT said it had too many carbs for the protein...

I actually felt more reassured after reading the threads. I feel like I have a good idea of the risks, the behaviors that will set me up for success and how to deal with the inevitable stalls/slow downs. For me, I have to weigh the possible complications (which are statistically small) with the almost certain diabetes, knee replacements and so on that are in my future if I don't get the weight off. Having said that, if you need to meet with the surgeon and then take more time to make your decision...please take it! You have to be sure for yourself.

Oh my. So sorry to hear of your complications. I have not been sleeved yet so I can't comment on the issues you are having...and I'm writing to let you know that you are not alone! I know there will be folks who will be able to share with you. I will keep you in my thoughts and hope that things improve for you soon.

So my Progresso soup victory (see previous post) was very short lived. My stress overwhelmed me the past few days and well...lets just say I resorted right back to unhealthful eating habits. I'm not even going to try to put a positive spin on it. After 2 weeks clean eating...no flour products...bread, pasta...I have binged to the point of feeling woozy on carbs. Bread in particular...lots of bread. I work in the education field...I've taught high school math and science and now work for the Army where I am in charge of about 55 people doing everything from teaching Soldiers how to teach, to designing curriculum, to building educational technology. Once every three years we get accredited which means a bunch of people descend on our organization and tell us whether we are doing a good job. This is the first year I am responsible for so much (last time I just had the teaching Soldiers how to teach part). I mention this because as I've prepared for this visit, I've been looking at what the Army believes about training and education and one of the key beliefs is that Soldiers should be "self-directed learners". That is an awesome phrase and I understand what it means...the problem is, we don't do a good job teaching the young Soldiers how to be that....its as if we expect them to be born with the ability. That's how I feel about stress management. I logically understand that my stress reactions are not helpful, that I should "shake it off" and "not let it derail me". The problem is I don't have a clue how to do that! I know how to eat. I've found myself thinking this afternoon that I just need to survive the week and then I can get back after it...after all I will still have 2 full weeks before I have to go weigh in again...sigh...I'm tired of just surviving. So here's what I'm going to try...no I'm going to channel YODA and say here is what I'm going to do. Before I eat a meal, I'm going to walk for 5 minutes. I can do that, I can do it at work by walking through the halls to the other end of the building and back, I can do it at home rain (on the treadmill) or shine (outside). It might not solve all my unhealthful eating reactions to stress....but it IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT! I'll let you know how the experiment goes. Beth

I'm thinking about Arabella....it makes me think of light happy things...we'll see though...from what I've read the first few weeks "demon child" might be more appropriate.

Guys can be so clueless Congrats...hopefully I will join in you the non burrito towel group some day!

First let me say welcome to the forum! You will find lots of good folks with lots of good experiences to share. Congrats no having a date! I'm still working through the insurance requirements. I imagine it would be very difficult not to have the support of the ones closest to you...but realize...you are not alone! You have us now!