*Lexie*

Good feedback on the gum. Not a fan of gum myself so I'll probably not chew it.

Congrats on making it through the first week. Sounds like it's the toughest. It's all downhill from here (little weight loss pun for you)!

So sorry you feel crummy. Hang in there and remember that this is temporary. Just like the flu, something you have to get through but will feel better. There does seem to be some magic around posting on here how bad you feel. Seems like every time I read a post like this, shortly after the person re-posts and says that they suddenly feel a lot better. A superstitious person would find a correlation between those completely unrelated things. Just sayin, you should probably listen to @@Comeflywithme, she's providing a lot saner advice than me. But I hope I at least made you smile. :-)

you are doing great! you just made me think of something though. I've heard this before about wanting to chew something. Would chewing gum help? Are we allowed to chew gum?

You look great! Such an inspiration.

The Labor Day Challenge helped me lose ther required pre-op weight that my doctor wants me to lose before surgery. I'll be getting surgery in the middle of this challenge so I think it's a great time to join again and set another goal. Starting weight - 245 My Halloween goal is 215.

246lbs. Probably won't hit my goal of 240 but I'm a lot closer than when we started this.

Best of luck today. Can't wait to hear how it went. Great advice @@Saramarie1023 I'm going to keep that in mind to help me through those first few months.

I Will Survive... Okay, just kidding. shake It Off by Taylor Swift

My surgery was approved today and my surgery date will be the week of September 22nd. I feel like Clark Griswold when he was about to jump in that pool.

Thank you for sharing your story. You look so healthy. My post op goal is to run the Honolulu marathon in Dec 2015 so your post is so inspiring to me. You have reinforced everything I've been told by my dietitian.

That is so exciting! I hope I feel the same way. Did you have any nausea?

I want to join this kick a$$ September group! I just got my approval today and they are in the process of scheduling me for the week of 9/22. I am excited with a side of terrified (little food humor there...)

My dietitian said that your weight loss will slow and gradually stop as you get close to goal. But you are so active, that may not be happening. You are training for a half marathon, do you feel strong and good? If so, you're probably fine where you are. If you start feeling weak during those long workouts, then you may want to increase your calories a bit. Seriously though, it's a great problem to have. I hope I have the exact same problem. :-)

Wow, what a bad situation. My surgeon's office is very organized and structured and it gives me a lot of confidence in them. It's a tough call because I would be excited to get the surgery and wouldn't want to wait through the process of finding a new surgeon and jumping through all the hoops again. But aftercare is important too so you likely won't stop dealing with this office after your surgery. If I was self pay, I'd be checking to see what sort of discount they're going to provide for the mistake they made, especially if they don't want me taking my business elsewhere. That might seem taboo to some but you'd never tolerate this service in a restaurant or hotel and pay full price. P.S. Great profile picture!

246 today

No HD?? I can't believe they have you in such wretched accommodations. Keep the updates coming. They're like crack to us pre-op peeps.

This is a great thread to read. It's so bizarre, my surgeon's staff has said that recovery is really tough and almost everyone has nausea. When I read posts on here, it seems the opposite. For most recovery is easy and for a few, it's really tough. Wondering if they are trying to prepare us for the worst. I've had gall bladder surgery, a c-section and a tummy tuck. Recovery from a tummy tuck was very difficult, to me any other surgery should be a walk in the park in comparison.

248 today. 8 more to go.

I'm doing all my pre-op homework and making healthy changes. Of all the changes: exercising regularly, no snacking, staying away from processed foods, etc., the one change that gives me pause is giving up my delicious Diet Pepsi. I confess that I don't want to stop drinking it. So I ask...do any of you that are post op drink soda?

Very exciting! When I first got on here and would read posts where people would say they had submitted to insurance, I would think, uh okay... But my doctor's office should submit to insurance this coming week and I'm so excited. Now I understand all those posts. I hope you hear back quickly.

I hope it tastes like beer after surgery. That'll make it easy to never drink it again.

Mine will be Pasta with chicken and roasted red pepper sauce, bread and spiced oil and maybe a little ice cream for dessert. Now I'm hungry...

I felt like you. I got down to 150 and ran a half marathon. After a few years of starving just to maintain my weight, I eventually started gaining. Unlike you, I gained it all back and then some. I hated myself, felt weak, felt like I was a complete failure. I was ashamed that I turned to surgery (am getting ready to turn to surgery). Then I decided that it's unproductive to keep punishing myself. Who cares how I am successful as long as I'm successful. I could hold out and try to show my strength by trying to do it without any tools like surgery or pills but likely I'll just stay fat so that's a dumb idea. I'm going to do whatever it takes to lose weight and keep it off and I'm not going to feel one bit bad about it. Everyone who goes through this works their tush off (literally) so it's not the easy way out. Stop wasting time on feeling bad about yourself and start thinking about how great it will feel to easily keep that weight off next time.

249 today