steelmagnolia1977

I'm in the process of scheduling my surgery with Dr. Alvarez for July 30. A friend of mine used him for her surgery in 2010 and has nothing but praise for him, his staff && the whole process. So far, I've been very impressed with Susan, my contact person.
Is this around the time you will be going?

Oh, boy.
Guys, you're forgetting that marijuana is used medically in many states, and is used to treat many chronic pain problems as well as an assortment of medical issues/diseases.
Please educate yourselves and get out of the dark ages.
Many, many people who you never would suspect use marijuana do. I'm one of them. I've got two degrees, run two of my own businesses, and have debilitating chronic pain issues that I *might* wish on my worst enemy but certainly not anyone else. I've been a stoner for many years, and have been using it to treat chronic pain issues (metal rod fused in my spine) for several years. I'm grateful it's an option. You don't just have to smoke it-you can vape, do edibles, use a tincture drop under your tongue.
I'm 7 years out with my LapBand, and don't have much of an appetite these days. It actually helps me eat. It helps me sleep. It helps with so many things, and I wish people would stop being so closed minded about it because they're not educated about it.
I'm not sure I would recommend it on a regular basis as a new bariatric patient, because of munchies, that I will agree on. You're trying to learn new habits over years of developed bad habits, and I could see that as being detrimental in some cases, but certainly not all.
Once a week is not a frequent user. Not a bit.
If it helps you relax, and you can retain control over the munchies, you go right ahead.

I'm scheduled for July 30 in Mexico!! Very excited but nervous!!!!

So glad I saw this! I'm going to Mexico at the end of July and was wondering the same thing. Would love to "see" some of Mexico, but didn't know if I'd really feel up to it.

Mine is July 30!!

I've been do food
Funeral every chance I get. I live on an island with no fast food so every time I go to the mainland I shamefully hit several fast food places trying to get on all my favorites. ..but so upset none of my skinny clothes fit. Had to buy 2 pairs of fat pants to have clothes for work. Can't wait for July 14.

I have heard your tastes change for some... but hoping I'm not one of those. I'm already a horribly picky eater (I literally like nothing but cheese, potatoes, noodles and bread! And only eat chicken/turkey in the way of meats... yea, this is gonna be SUPER HARD on me!) I have always liked SlimFast shakes for Breakfast though so I plan to keep the shakes at least for 1 meal even after I am on normal foods.

As for food funerals: Yep. A couple times a week I have been 'splurging'... I just got back from lunch with my mom at Chili's. (Mmmm chips and queso! ) And since I will just be getting out of the hospital on my birthday my husband and I are going to my favorite restaurant - The Cheesecake Factory - and celebrating my birthday a couple days before my pre-op diet starts... that will be thee biggest pigout/food funeral of them all! (#guilty)

Trying to not gain 100 lbs..not even kidding. This time between sucks

80 lbs down since December (:

Most recent ^

Thank you all for your responses.
I feel like the climax of a 33 year war is coming to a head and sometimes it feels hard to not doubt the outcome.
Your encouragement, support and tips will be the armor i will wear into this battle!!
I am ready to kick butt!

I'm almost 8 months post op and I finally had a little breakdown yesterday because I realized I can and will meet my goal weight.
I thought, "Once I get under 200 I will be happy." While I did a little happy dance, I wasn't truly happy or convinced. I thought, "When I get to 180 I'll be happy." Then I got to 180 and it was very anti-climactic.
I mentioned to my mom my size 14's were starting to get baggy so she went through her closet and laid out a pile of 10/12's. I tried them on yesterday and they all fit. And I don't mean barely zipping up with muffin top. They looked great. My butt looked great. I finally got tears in my eyes and realized how far I had truly come. I'm only 18 pounds from my ultimate goal weight and if I decide to get a Tummy Tuck I could very well end up a 4/6. That blows my mind.
If you truly go into this understanding your success depends on the right mentality and use this surgery as a tool to help you reach your goals you WILL lose the weight. You will be successful. But you have to completely change the way you think about food. You don't live to eat, you eat to live.
I still struggle, and probably always will, with some trigger foods. Cake is one. Ice cream is another. They are a slippery slope for me and it's best (for me) to stay away from them.
If you need any help, advice or a listening ear along the way I'd be glad to help!

I just can't imagine being a normal weight (having never really been there), so I do have a hard time believing that it might/can happen.
I look at before and after photos and I can relate to the befores, but just can't believe I'll ever look like the afters.

I tried to picture success and I kept working toward it even though I didn't completely believe it was possible. For me the reality that my life was completely changed didn't happen until I shopped for the first time in the "normal"/misses section of a department store instead of in the plus/women's section. And I tried on clothes and they fit. And a sales person came over to help me wtihout acting like I must have gotten lost on my way to the supersize clothing. I almost had a breakdown in the store that day because the reality of it hit me so hard!

If your 5'9 with a BMI of 42.8 then that puts you at 290 lbs. your BMR (the amount of calories you burn in a day even if your just laying in bed and don't move ) is roughly 2,241 calories a day. Now, with that being said if you take 400 calories away from that That means your still losing 1841 calories a day. How is your body going to function For a year (healthily) when you are negative 1,841 calories? This just doesn't make any sense. AND why the one year date? If you could even possibly pull that off You would (without moving) burn 671,965 calories in a year. 1 pound is 3500 calories. You divide that into the calories and that would mean you would roughly lose (based on calculations) 191.99 lbs. soooooo Your DR wants you to weigh 98lbs? And that's on just 400 calories God forbid you do 300. This my friend is why you would be deathly ill if not dead.

Geez, you guys sure have a lot of assholes in your life! I tell everyone that asks about my weightloss that I had surgery.....friends, family, clients, acquaintances. The responses I get are support, congratulations, and curiosity. I answer their questions and they share some of their weight loss stories or how they "knew someone who hasn't done as well as me". I'm proud of my accomplishment and they are happy for me. Then we move on to other topics with warm fuzzy feelings about going to Mexico for WLS.
Thumbs up for conservative, rural redneck eastern Idaho!

wish I had the BALLS to say that!! when people ask me how I lost the weight I'm honest about it b/c enough people at my job know the truth so I don't want to deal with lying to them...they are always so disappointed when i tell them i had the surgery! its like i just told them that Santa was fake!! LOL. the way i look at it, if there was a "magic pill", OPRAH would have found it already! and if she is still curvy then it hasn't been discovered yet so surgery was what was best for me....so SUCK THOSE BALLS! ;o)

LMAO! Ha, ok that totally made me laugh. I feel like that all the time. People are like...what is your secret? I reply...oh I just workout more and eat less, when I'm really thinking, well I cut out 80% of my stomach because I couldn't manage to eat like a normal person.
It's ok, we can be big fat phony failure liars together, I'm good with that, lol.

I would hardly call once a week an addiction? So someone who has a glass of wine or a beer once a week is addicted? Your ignorance and prejudice about Marijuana is showing....

Just about to finish my 3rd week post op. The good news is that I don't miss any of it. I thought how horrible I won't be able to eat this or that etc. The truth is that after my Doctor cleared me to start eating things like chili and eggs, I don't even think about other foods. I am not hungry. I can only eat 3-4 ounces of food until I am full.
The fun part is that I went through my closet yesterday and got rid of my "fat pants". Since I really started focusing on my weight at Xmas, my waist is down 6 inches. I can fit into XXL shirts instead of 3X and 4X. Fried food can kiss my....well you know!

food funeral? More like a wake for me! I celebrated all my favs like it was my job...now I'm on day two of liquids and I can't believe how much emotional unnecessary eating I really do! Well, did. That was then....The mental funeral is a lot harder than I thought already! Every day one at a time and never forget why I'm-we- are here in the first place! Stay strong ????

I didn't have one. If you consume too much during your "food funeral" you'll just add more weight and have to lose more.