Daisee68

Wow! Congrats! That's incredible!

Too soon for you but yes, I am able to eat spicy foods now. You really need to be gentle on your new stomach.

Woo-hoo!! Congrats!!

You could find one of those portable arm bikes so you can sit and get movement that way. Maybe even some small weights to use doing some arm work? There are some exercise videos all done from chairs. Check out collagevideo.com. they have lots of those.

Takes a few days. Keep walking. Try a heating pad and Gas-X.

Wow! Sounds like a great idea! I have sometimes walked with the idea than an average song is around 3 minutes (in my world) but I never really had a specific track. I just listened to random music. I want to try your way now! Thanks for the idea and keep it up!

Lots of people here have Cigna - including me. Not all of their plans cover WLS. It will depend on the plan. If your plan does cover WLS, then yes, they have a 3 month supervised diet - 4 visits (the 1st visit starts the first month). Visits 28-30 days apart. Also requires a letter of recommendation from a doctor other than your WLS surgeon. There is a link to their requirements but I cannot get it to paste here for some reason. I will find it and post it in a few minutes.

What they said! Try this (it is the only thing that helped me) - set a timer on your phone for 1 1/2 minutes and only take a bite when that timer goes off. Don't eat past 30 minutes either. Good luck! You will get used to it! (Though at 4 1/2 months, I still deal with it occasionally if I am not careful!)

Woohoo!!! Congrats! What a great feeling! I think it depends a lot on how your surgeon submits and who in the approval dept you get. Mine was submitted on a Friday at noon and I got a call from surgeon's office Monday morning at 10! There are a few others on this board having trouble getting approved by Cigna.... Your new life will be here before you know it!!

Wow that seems a bit harsh, BUT my NUT does want me to limit the fruit for sure because of the sugar and I didn't do it until more than 2 months out. It definitely isn't a primary part of my diet (and the skins on many of the fruits can be difficult to digest - apples and grapes specifically). I think the key is to eat it with a Protein - i.e. apples with Peanut Butter or apples with cheese stick, etc. Having said that, we all preach that you should do what your doctor says, so at the very least keep it out of your diet for a while.

All that is great! It made me think that I know some furniture stores actually will do design consult for free when you buy your furniture there. Not sure where you are but look and see if you have a Bassets Furniture. Great transitional stuff and free design. My house is mostly transitional. I redid with muted blues, greens and tans and some white mixed in.

I used 1 oz of banana in my shakes. Then I tried frozen berries in my shake. Not sure those count for what you are looking for. My first just plain raw vegetable was cucumber (no skin). I eat it nearly every day and have no issues (though some do). My NUT said they are mostly Water so not that much nutritional value really but I sure like them and their freshness! I have also had small bites of iceberg lettuce with no problems. Apples have worked well - again as long as you remove the skin. (You can see I haven't progressed much in this area, so looking forward to others answers.) I really miss grapes but I don't want to peel them....

WOW! Congrats on your rededication and taking control! (I actually wondered if that is what your earlier status update was.) Your post is firing me up! I had make some crap choices last week (albeit better than I have made in the past while at the same conference), so I am joining you! Great post!

@@lauraellen80 - I agree that BMI chart seems off. I don't know what the doctors will say if I don't get to the top of the "healthy" range, but I will worry about it when I get there. @@winklie gave SUCH a good example of that! I posted about this earlier this week because I had a conversation with my NUT about it. She said (and this is the first time I heard this) that if you have loose skin (and let's be honest - most of us do), then they say to aim for 27 BMI (instead of 24.9 which is high end of "normal") before plastics due to the excess skin. I thought this made a lot of sense and made me feel a bit better about goal. I am trying desperately not to focus on a number, but I do know that is hard. I like what @@winklie said about when your body gets to a point in 18 months and stops, then that is where you should be if you feel good at that number. (Of course, you have to worry about Body image issues and not overestimating what you actually look like.) Also a great post by @@VSGAnn2014!

I have done lots of remodeling the last 2 years - master bath, then kitchen and guest bath and then living / dining room (all in stages). I had a decorator help me, but I started by searching Houzz.com and Pinterest and just pinned anything I liked the look of. Then I went back and looked at that board (I had one for each room) and realized my "style" was revealed by seeing all the similarities in the posts. Hope that helps!

Not much. Maybe 20g. It takes time to work up to their goals. Don't get discouraged if you cannot get there right away.

@@Blueeyes66 - don't give up. I was just talking to another poster who filed an appeal with Cigna and got approved.

15 g is too low for what else you can get. Premier Protein ready made shakes are great and is 30g for 11 ounces. I also use Precision Engineered whey isolate powder - chocolate and vanilla. (The vanilla even smells amazing.) Both have 30g per scoop. I have mixed 1/2 scoop in 1/2 container of yogurt or 1/2 scoop in a sugar free Jello pudding snack in addition to using them in shakes. FYI - supposedly your body only absorbs approx. 25g per hour, so if you are going to go the route of something with 40g +, you will have to split it into different servings.

Amazing! Congrats! I was only on Metformin, but they sent me home without it and I haven't taken it since. My sugars the first month or so were still a little higher than "normal" (i.e faster was around 110), but my last fasting blood sugar at dr was 75!! Used to at 75 I would have felt horrible, but my body has gotten more used to it. Cannot wait for my A1C next month! You will be amazed at how it continues to improve!

Senokot-S and Colace. This is the only thing (aside from prescription med) that has helped me. Colace alone wasn't doing the trick. Added 1 Senokot-S per day and it is much better.

It is almost always the acid. PPI or Zantac will definitely help.

Well said @velvetelvis. I was just thinking how shocked I was it didn't hurt to take that second gulp that I probably shouldn't have done and how easily I can get up off the floor now (at least compared to 85 pounds ago). It is truly amazing.

I am really struggling with this too. I have started shopping once a week instead of once a month and try to buy smaller portions which has helped but I have just tried to resign myself to being ok with throwing food away. As a lifetime member of the "clean your plate club", I am just having to adjust my head to know that I am doing the best I can.

How cool!! What a great option! I hope they have that here soon!

I think I am going to get one for work too. I wanted to try it out and can't believe I waited so long! Again, sure could have used that with broth in the early phase when I could only barely sip and it would get cold. Blech. Cold broth. Makes me shiver just thinking about it....