theother_onefoot

@@MzB - unfortunately I learned my lesson with the shaker too late! I don't know why I didn't realize that would happen.. But I, too, was cleaning up a mess all over the kitchen, haha

I couldn't find a thread anywhere that related to this topic specifically, so I have resorted to my own. I know everyone is different and heals differently, but how long has everyone willing to reply had to wait after surgery before they were going up and down stairs again? And not just four steps, I'm talking at least twenty. Thanks!

@@brenda1949 - Non-Scale Victory, I believe. I had to do some thread searching before I found it typed out when I first came around, too! It is any kind of weight loss victory someone experiences that has nothing to do with the scale or what weight you may currently be at

Are you getting all of your required/recommended amounts of Protein and Water during the day? Have you tried sipping water when those feelings occur? 10 weeks out, what all have you reintroduced yourself to food-wise? Are you able to tell if any of these things are high in carbs? I've found I only crave carbs when I eat carbs, it's a vicious cycle.

@@Dawn306 - yes, the office told me I should limit sodium, though I didn't have any weight loss requirements during this liquid diet. And they still allowed a sour pickle or half of one a day, so maybe they just didn't want excessive sodium besides what they allow because of water retention?

Surgery on the 17th for me as well, and I'm with Tinana on the Chinese food but but I take solace in the hopes of still enjoying egg drop Soup once I get to that phase. I've done pretty well with the liquids, losing 6.5-ish pounds, but I'd say I still have a concern that I'll get in there for surgery and the surgeon will say my liver is too fatty and close me up again. I've worked so hard, I would hate to be turned away at that moment.

August 17th here

@@Bufflehead , as in use an emulsion blender perhaps?

I have surgery in a couple of weeks so this past week I ordered the sample package of powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury products and bariatric Vitamins. I'm on my two-week liquid diet right now (this is day 6) and while the headaches the first few days were uncomfortable, I'm feeling great on all of these liquids and I'm already in ketosis. But the low/no sodium chicken broth I use to try and break up the Protein shake regimen is just...just awful. I miss the sodium! Any flavor, really. So today I decided to try mixing my boring broth with one of the Unjury chicken Soup flavored powders. On the packet it says to mix with 140 degrees Water and they sent me a thermometer, so making sure it was the right temp was easy. But when I mixed the powder and started stirring it, it didn't seem to be dissolving very well. So I tried pouring it all into a blender shaker, which seemed to help a little, but a lot of the powder was still separating on the top no matter how hard I was shaking it. I tried drinking it...but chewing through the clumps of powder was not palatable texture-wise. Which led me to straining the mixture back into my bowl. There was a lot of the powder left in the little strainer! Fortunately, the broth was delicious and had much better flavor, and I could see smaller particles of the powder had made it in, but it seems unlikely that all the protein of the packet made it in with so much powder left in the strainer... So what happened to keep it from mixing all the way? Am I only supposed to try mixing the powder with water? Is the broth too different for it to dissolve in? Or could I possibly have lost too much heat between all the transferring and straining for it to dissolve completely? Any help with this would be great!

From reading through various threads, I had come to think that having insurance cover WLS meant that they would almost for certain require a 3-6 month mandated nutrition monitoring program. Is thinking this incorrect? I am currently in the process of switching over to BCBS of Texas, and while I was planning on being self-pay with the hopes BCBS would cover part of the cost on the finding of a hiatal hernia.... Is it possible that they could cover the entire surgery without requiring a 6 month stall? I've planned the surgery with a timeline in place between school semesters and my final Pre-Op appointment is supposed to be on July 31st where I make my full payment... There have been unforseen holdups with getting the insurance switched over but they for sure have all of my paperwork now and I'm just waiting on receiving my member information so I can give it to the surgeon's office.. I'm concerned that there is just not much time left now -less than a month until the surgery date- but is there at least a chance it could be not only approved in time but not require the extra stuff? The cash price is not cheap, but as far as my health and getting my life back on track, even if insurance could cover the procedure I can't afford to wait another six months beyond what I already have. This isn't about impatience any longer. My mental and physical preparations have been made and I think I'd completely break down beyond a therapist's help if this was put off. Any hope?

@@swoman2 @@rwoods200 @@LoreLu @@TXTinana Well ladies, we've got less than a month left now. Hope y'all are as excited as I am!

@@Lapbandster , you say that, but I'm afraid I don't agree with all of it. I'm not his mother and I'm not his doctor, but I am just shy of being his wife which I still feel holds a lot of stock. I can't support him getting his lap band out if he is completely unwilling to change his eating and exercising behaviors. I have loved him no matter what weight he's been since we were both 16, and he was heavier then than he is now. Yet I was having conversations with him then about my concern with his weight and if he removed all restrictions for eating what he wants, then I know we'd be taking steps backwards and having those conversations again. I want him to finally be my husband and I want us to have a life and family together. Therefore, I cannot find it in myself to support him removing the lap band to eat like he used to before when it will increase his health risks all over again. I don't want to be widowed by his health. I wouldn't want our children to lose their father to his health. When he could go for any numerous reasons out of our control, his health -which can be taken into moderate control- shouldn't be one of those reasons. I want him to be around for a long time. Similarly, my Aunt is struggling with being an alcoholic. Should I support her alcohol addiction with the same tolerance you're saying I should have for my boyfriend's food addiction? They're both real, out of control problems, and because I love these people I can't support what they're doing to their bodies...

If only.

As though my body and mind are preparing for their very big changes and rollercoaster of emotions, I have found myself in the eye of the storm, so to speak. When I first decided on WLS I went through my phase of sleepless nights and constant researching and reading. I scheduled my consultation with a surgeon. And now I am in a period of calm that is only frustrating when it isn't otherwise uneventful. I had my consult, scheduled my date. I have my NUT appointment on the 18th, which I am sure will rejuvenate the excitement, but... I just really dislike this in-between time. I was supposed to be switching insurance by July 1 and from there would be able to set up the EGD and blood work, but here it is a week and whatever unforseen holdups later, and the switch hasn't gone through yet. And while I still have a month, I have this nagging worry that it won't change soon enough and the additional expenses (EGD, blood work, possible hiatal hernia) will be lumped on top of the cash price I am already paying. Then my surgeon also told me to try and lose some weight between our meeting and surgery, even before the two week liquid diet. Of course I told him I would try, and I've been eating better though I already ate fairly well before and I've even been replacing a meal or two or even a snack with a Protein shake and still the scale sits at the exact same number as if mocking me. Which doubles my frustration, leading to thoughts towards my surgeon's request like, "If it were that easy for the weight to come off, I wouldn't be seeing you" or "Great, what if not being able to lose enough weight pre-surgery really messes things up and my liver is too big and he doesn't even perform the operation?" Perhaps I am just keeping myself busy enough not to feel the excitement right now, and the quiet of the storm's eye will pass and then I'll be thrown about with energy and anxiety and anticipation, and then I'll finally be on the other side...! But right now? This in-between time sucks..

Hey all. This post is being made made me in the search for information by my boyfriend and myself. I'm just the more tech savvy of us, haha He has had his band for about five years now and since we have been back together the last two, he seems to be exhibiting all of the symptoms of having his band too tight. He wants to get the band removed, but he's still paying it off. So he says money is too huge of a factor there. I have asked him about getting an unfill and he says that costs money he doesn't have right now either. However, he says he HAS tried calling his surgeon's office to talk to them and they seem to constantly give him the run-around (i.e. calling with no one answering during business hours multiple times a day any day of the week he's tried -- I honestly don't know what their answering machine situation is, but if he's left messages, they still haven't called back). So he's wondering what it takes to switch doctors. Will other Lap Band doctors take over another patient fills/unfills and all?

I saw this and I couldn't stop laughing. Though, my thyroid has issues with not producing ENOUGH, so maybe there was a coup d'etat my body failed to let me in on. ETA: Oh wait, I found the one about Hypo! -- It cracks me up just as much.

@@pantherbyhabit , what doctor are you using/where are you located??

August 17th for me! Had to schedule between summer school and the fall semester.. Sheesh!

@@702layla Thanks for that input!

Funny as it might be, it's pretty tasty when it's done the right way! May I ask what kinds of foods you were pureeing that you had a texture problem with? I, myself, have a pretty picky palette that way.

Do you like egg drop soup at all? Sorry to hear about the struggle so soon!

Surely I'm not alone on this one! I love my nieces and nephews to bits, but sometimes the no-filter mouths of children can swing the biggest hammers to my self-esteem.. My brother-in-law lost a lot of weight a few years ago and he got into this really terrible habit of looking at all of his old photographs and saying something to the effect of, "God, look how fat I was!" So of course the kiddos were bound to pick up on that like the sponge-parrot-hybrids they are, and I can remember being over there one day and I said I couldn't do something, possibly some activity where you need to NOT have a torn ACL like I did at the time, but my then 6-year-old nephew pipes up without missing a beat and the biggest smile on his face asking, "Is it because you're fat?" I just stared at him. I wanted to cry or disappear. But my brother was in the room with us and quickly corrected him with a, "Don't say that, that's rude!" And after that, my brother told me how he'd gotten into a phase of saying things like that and he had even asked out loud in public about some woman sitting in a chair and being "too big" for it because her butt and thighs were hanging off either side of the seat. Gee, I wonder where he could have gotten such a complex from... :\ And just a month ago, my sweetheart of a niece who is now 4, in the happiest know-not-what-she-says way, greeted me and pointed at my stomach saying, "Is there a baby in there?" And finally, tonight, I was babysitting my cousin's kids and her little girl, I believe she's 5, was talking up a storm and somewhere in there told me I "was squishy like a ball, like mommy and daddy, but balls don't have arms." At least I've gotten to a place where I can laugh, hahaha. I can't wait to not have a tummy for them to talk about! So has anyone else gotten accidental insults from a child?

@@ShrinkingPeach What is the difference between the Whey Isolate and the Whey Concentrate that makes one better than the other?

@@Sharpie I'd really like to try and build a habit of a Protein shake a day before I get to the all liquid phases pre- and post-op, and maybe even longer so I can keep calories to a safe range from putting weight back on. That reminds me. For stalls, is it recommended to increase or decrease calories temporarily to get over the hump or am I just wrong on that completely?

@@Stevehud Thank you for the input! Yes, I've read at least half a dozen articles about how the body can't absorb that much Protein at one time, so my intentions were to get the Isopure and just use one scoop which would be 105 Calories to 25g protein, still coming out over the plexus's 100 cal to 15g. But I was just quoting off of the isopure's marked label as my reference. I know as far as the ready-to-drink shakes, I'm definitely going to try the Premier Protein one. I know my mom is only trying to help out of concern, but the fad diet products just never seem to be a good match with me.