Dub

Guilt ??? Faggida'bout dat noise. The past is gone. The future is your focus now. Work hard in the gym and stick to your surgeon's plan and profit from the results. We don't get merit badges for how many pounds we lost on diet xyz in the past. Push yourself in the right directions and be active in your Quest to get healthy. Leave guilt behind along with the larger cut clothes and old bad habits.

I'm two weeks pre-op and two days into the liquid diet. I've lost 40 lbs so far on preparing for this and I'm guessing another 25-30 will drop by surgery date. The whole objective all along was for me to lose the weight and get some relief on an injured back and bad knees. I didn't want to hijack things with a bunch of foolishness getting to this point. The goal for me was to lose the weight asap......not party until surgery. I went out to eat with my family last weekend and had two of the best salads and slab of salmon I've ever had. I also indulged in a farewell couple slices of pizza. I maintained the calorie goal each day, though. I want out of this fat suit. I really want to go hit the go and rack up some daily treadmill miles but I'm being very cautious. Already have an back that's healing and I don't want anything to occur that may delay my wls. Just being cautious and riding out these next two weeks.

No more "pack of hot dogs" on the neck !!!! Very cool. Have razors.....will entertain Mr. Clean look for a while as the hair growth slows for a while.

I know, right. It's gonna suck.....but it'll roll along. Diet Snapple is my new friend. Gonna stay busy. Thank you !

Yup. I was told the same thing, too. Available everywhere, low cost and taste great.

Looking great and making awesome progress !!!!!!

Thank each of you. It's been a wild ride but it's settling down now. I'm indeed ready to join you guys on the other side........save me a seat on the loser's bench. I'm really pumped up and ready. These next two weeks are going to go pretty quick......I hope.

Sounds great !!!! When I bought my current Trek several years back.....the 29'ers were just starting to come out. I also saw some bikes in the store with rear suspensions that looked liked they were tremendously shock absorbing. I'm really intrigued and look forward to the times ahead. I imagine by the time I'm ready to bike shop I'll be camping at the bit for some outdoor cardio as the dreadmills and ellipticals of the gym will be growing old.

This is going to be some fun money to save up for and spend......a new bike. Looking forward to maybe this time next year to be looking into the matter seriously.

Amazing progress. You have done really well !!!!!!

You look great !!!!!! That's gotta feel really good to look back and see the wonderful progress.

I involved my family and sought advice from them. I decided to tell the closer associates at work as they would certainly figure it out anyway.....that I'd gone out for hernia surgery and came back 3-4 weeks later much a great deal lighter.......weight loss continuing at a rate they've never seen anyone loose at...... It seemed silly to conjure up some type of cover story. Heck, that would most likely have even more questions being asked, "Oh, you are on a serious diet.......wow, you've lost 100 lbs and are losing 100 more ???.........wow, what are you eating.....how does it work.......etc......etc.......etc.". Being upfront may just stop all the questions.....or many of them at least. If they tell other folks, then so be it. I'm not doing this for social reasons but for my health. Folks will either understand and support me or they won't. I do know of 3 folks at work who struggle like I do and each has the financial means to do the same thing I did. Maybe they'll be the ones asking the lion's share of questions which I will gladly answer for them. They each could benefit hugely from weight loss.

Well.....I wiped out the balance of my HSA card and spent money that was intended to go towards a new vehicle soon. The new vehicle really appealed to me.....was going to be the answer to all my problems, etc, etc. Funny how my priorities changed immediately after screw up my back in April. My regular doctor and my spine surgeon both said the same thing.....a bariatric surgeon could do more for me than they could and I'd be feeling great soon after the weight loss started. My old truck suits me just find for a few more years as I get smaller and feeling better.

Howdy folks. I hope all are doing well today. I've had a lot of activity leading up to today and now it slows down for a short while. I had my pre-op with my surgeon yesterday, pre-op with the hospital yesterday and my EGD this morning and it went really smoothly. Seems like it's been a whirlwind of activity.......checklist items completed.....one after another after another. NUT, Physche evals, appointments, workshops, education and etc. Now I'm done with all that and can relax. I started my 14 days of liquid diet this morning after the EGD. I can tell it's going to suck.....but, that's just part of it. The NUT guideline says I can have 5 Protein shakes per day (from the approved list of protein powders and ready-made shakes), however my surgeon is sticking to his guns.....he says only 3. I've lost 40 pounds since deciding to do the surgery......it wouldn't surprise me to lose 20 more during this next two weeks. The whole time I was seeing my first surgeon it was a foregone conclusion that I would have bypass (my choice). I chose this thinking it would offer the most benefit long term and I'd make biggest changes with it. He supported it. As things progressed...and my insurance really started to present delays and roadblocks.....I switched over to the other local option. It's another bariatric center.....a center of excellence and is much larger than that previous program I was in. More insurance delays after switching over the center of excellence finally made me made enough to tell them to piss off. I self funded the procedure and things began moving at a very fast pace. I'd completed 2 of my required 6 months diet when I made this decision. I'm able to have the surgery in the 4th month vs waiting what was actually going to most likely take several months more. My employer is dropping our current insurance provider and doing open enrollment now for our new provider.....things were being delayed to the point where I could see my late December surgery being pushed back well into next year.....new deductibles to meet with a new provider to work with........arggghhhhhh. At best they were going to pay only 50%. The decision to self fund actually was cheaper for me in the long run. Crazy, insane scenario but a testament to the games played by insurance companies. Anyway.....the new surgeon has been good. He's been upfront and consistent in his message from the first time I met with him. He's sees my very pronounced umbilical hernia and knows that is going to be a large repair to work around. Today he also found the hiatal hernia that he's repairing at the same time. He's concerned over my high bmi and doing the bypass at this point. He said it could be very tight having to pull it far up to reconnect it. He reserves the right to make a decision once inside to go with the sleeve after looking around and evaluating. He's done many of these and I trust his judgement. If it's not safe, then its just not safe. The options were for me to delay the surgery and keep dieting for a couple more months and burn off some of the internal fat to provide more room........or do the sleeve now. He maintains that he's seen equal effectiveness with each procedure in terms of weight loss in his 8 years of practice. He also is aware of my poor knees and back injury situation and prior surgeries as well as the fact that nsaids are a source of relief for me. I don't have reflux trouble. There were other reasons he went into as well that everything in his opinion was pointing me towards having a sleeve not bypass. So......after a long night staying up reading, studying, evaluating......I told him this morning that a sleeve was what I wanted to do. Ordered my Vitamins, Iron, B12, D, Protein powder and Calcium. I know what I'll be taking to the hospital. Have my script for post-op pain meds. Recliner and extra pillows for the bed are ready.... A couple more weeks.....

I think that I'll be holding off until I reach the goal weight, too, @shriner37 When it occurs......I'll be looking into something fun to drive.

Everything in the pantry is still the same as my family foods are the same. I just have added a shelf that is for my stuff....protein powders, permissible Chike iced coffee Protein powder (so tasty that I can't let anyone else in the house know how good it tastes as it's too expensive....will be my own indulgence), Water additives, various bariatric supplements. I share my Flinstones chewable with everyone, though.

I can't tell you how cool that is to hear from you both. We are STILL in the month of your surgeries and you are having this level of success already. This is highly encouraging to me as I'm beginning the pre-op diet today. I know it'll suck....but the benefits are going to be great. Looking forward to cleaning out my section of the closet....one oversized piece at a time.

Another vote for Quest bars. I've held off on buying them before my surgery because I wasn't sure how well I'd do limiting myself to just one at a time. They are that dang good. I do have a specific favorite flavor, too. It is : all of them !!! The flavor is so good that you almost don't trust the nutritional label. Great source of fiber, too.

Doubts are normal. There is a lot to consider. Every single one of the doctors I've been seeing over the past year for various maladies have all said the same thing...WLS is what you should consider. I listened to them and got things in motion. This time next month should find me healing up from my bypass and losing at a great pace. Positive outlook will be needed to get through the no fun liquid diet I'm starting tomorrow. You'll do great. Lots of great advisors on here

Sorry to hear this. Did you ever have similar pains prior to your WLS ? Just looked at the progress tracker in your sig line. You are five weeks out of surgery and almost halfway to goal !!!

I had a much longer reply typed above but the page stated an error occurred, refreshed the page and deleted everything. This site is not friendly with my iPad. Never a problem with the MacBook.....just with the iPad.

Thanks everyone. EGD in a week. Surgery in 4 weeks. Super pumped up about it.

Lately I'm just resuming handgun target shooting. I want to do more trap shooting and sporting clays. 3-Gun competitions look like they would be fun. My local range had an IDPA style handgun comp every month. My birthday gift to myself was a sweet 1911 that I'd love to use in the local stuff. Glock offers the GSSF events. Obviously, you have to run Glocks in their events, but I'm fairly well covered with those. I'm really looking forward to getting back into a steady diet of trigger time.

I'm scheduled for late October and also self funding my surgery. I worried about using the funds on myself......but I got past that really quickly when I realized how much of a burden my weight related problems are on my family. Having your spouse being supportive is tremendous. Workhard on the diet up to your surgery and good luck with everything.

Both the surgeons I consulted were strict on no coffee for a period of time immediately following surgery. The surgeon I ultimately went with allows two cups a day after the first 6 weeks. I also like Splenda and cream in mine. My sister had bypass15 years ago. She is a big fan of her daily trips to Starbucks. I was talking to her on the cellphone yesterday and she was waiting in their drive-thru. I was glad to know that I wouldn't have to fight for coffee.