IncredibleShrinkingMan

Are you weighing yourself at the same time each day? This is the second thread I've read today in which somebody is freaking out about a slight increase on the scale. My go-to response is that if it is three pounds or less, stop sounding the SOS. That is easily accounted for by either Water retention (ironically caused by not consuming enough fluid), glycogen build-up, or just the fact that you weighed yourself at a different time of the day than when you got the lighter reading. Try and keep it consistent, and remember that your weight after a hard workout (if you are cleared by your surgeon) will be more consistent than weight after any particular meal (not too consistent from day to day).

List of people I let know:
Immediate household (not feasible to hide it from them, and didn't care to either)
Boss
Best friend
Best friend's roommate who, as luck would have it, works as a NUT for a local bariatric program (not the one I used)
To me, that's a complete package. However, anybody on this list who wouldn't be supportive should not be told just because they are in one of these categories. It is probably best not to tell people who would try to talk you out of it. Especially if they aren't heavy, they have no reason to know about the grim data facing old-school weight loss hopefuls.

Are you weighing yourself at the same time each day? This is the second thread I've read today in which somebody is freaking out about a slight increase on the scale. My go-to response is that if it is three pounds or less, stop sounding the SOS. That is easily accounted for by either Water retention (ironically caused by not consuming enough fluid), glycogen build-up, or just the fact that you weighed yourself at a different time of the day than when you got the lighter reading. Try and keep it consistent, and remember that your weight after a hard workout (if you are cleared by your surgeon) will be more consistent than weight after any particular meal (not too consistent from day to day).

I heard 50-60% average excess weight loss for sleeve, and 65-75% for bypass. As to pace, I am not sure.

People often discover willpower and fortitude when embarking on pre-op, as opposed to diets in the past, as surgery is nigh and psychologically they are already in an entirely new place living a new life. I think you need to trust that you can do it. Nobody said the adjustment would be easy, but I believe you are discounting the fact that the more you do something, the less steep a climb it appears to be. Our heads are in our way, and our heads are what got us here, not our bodies. I got on the treadmill yesterday thinking I was going to collapse after running a mile and ended up running a 5K because it felt so good. And I am still obese. Temporary suspension of disbelief can very well become permanent, and should.

For Halloween I went to Six Flags just to go on one roller coaster that was size-prohibitive last year. We spent the whole day there and went on old ones as well and stayed for Fright Fest.
I don't buy new clothes unless they become worn enough that they need to be replaced. Nothing gets thrown out or purchased on account of new size.
I reward myself with exercise. Plain and simple. food just can't happen in the way it did before, so it wouldn't be a reward anyway, and I don't really like most slider foods.

I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with my big clothes. Even leaving them with somebody else can be a jinx on your efforts. I put them in boxes at a relative's house, and then needed to ask for them back a year later (I didn't have any surgery at that point). Likewise, I never did anything with my small clothes from back then, and now I don't have to spend all my free hours in department stores looking for stuff that I don't even know how long I'm going to need. I've never understood why people do anything with their old clothes, other than give them away as gifts or charity. Even the biggest stuff I have still fits fine to wear around the house in a sloppy manner. Not that I would wear them out on the town any longer.

Note also that the maximum follow-up was 9 years. Chances are things go awry for traditional interventions much sooner than that, and I've read studies that say 90% of people put every pound back on within 3 years. These are grim statistics, and I would hope it would only cause more insurance to cover bariatric surgery, and above all, I hope that in time the "eat less and lose more" rhetoric becomes as backwards as racism and gender discrimination.

There are, unfortunately, limits to what psychological evaluations, info sessions, nutritional counseling, patient education, and even Bariatric Pal can do to ready a patient physically and mentally for the demands of this journey. We appear, in this instance, to have an all too familiar case of a patient who was ill-prepared to make any lifestyle modifications and who likely believed surgery was a quick fix for all the world's hardships. This was not necessarily discernible in the evaluations or in any conversation the OP's MIL may have had with the surgical staff. Whether we are successful with the surgery or not, we all have quickly come to learn that steps to lose weight and use the tool we are provided are FAR easier said than done, just like losing weight without the surgery.
I don't think the OP's MIL has voluntarily made a decision to "waste" her surgery. She was just not prepared to take advantage of it, and I am not convinced that any amount of professional help, short of placing her in a hospital and letting the institution create her diet, could place her in a better position to take advantage of the surgery.

Anyway, I would like 4.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day), and be 179 on Christmas Eve (down 20 lbs from today's weight of 199)

For Halloween I went to Six Flags just to go on one roller coaster that was size-prohibitive last year. We spent the whole day there and went on old ones as well and stayed for Fright Fest.
I don't buy new clothes unless they become worn enough that they need to be replaced. Nothing gets thrown out or purchased on account of new size.
I reward myself with exercise. Plain and simple. food just can't happen in the way it did before, so it wouldn't be a reward anyway, and I don't really like most slider foods.

I think everybody has stalls without exception. Many people stop taking Vitamins, but that's not a good idea. I hear a lot of bandsters say they regret it, but that's probably because they see more dramatic weight loss in people who've had other surgeries. If you are happy with your results, that's great, and try not to let that get in your head.

Anybody care to add Fitbit/Tomtom steps/goals to this challenge?

Congratulations. I don't want to influence you too much, but I am from outside Philly too and I went with Noel Williams at UPenn. All the other surgeons there (Korus, Cha, Schuricht, etc...) are marvelous as well. What procedure are you thinking of having?

Plenty of hunger pains, no gas pains at all. As soon as I started trust the Liquid Protein a bit more, those abated to a manageable level.

Anyway, I would like 4.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day), and be 179 on Christmas Eve (down 20 lbs from today's weight of 199)

Anybody care to add Fitbit/Tomtom steps/goals to this challenge?

Anyway, I would like 4.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day), and be 179 on Christmas Eve (down 20 lbs from today's weight of 199)

There are, unfortunately, limits to what psychological evaluations, info sessions, nutritional counseling, patient education, and even Bariatric Pal can do to ready a patient physically and mentally for the demands of this journey. We appear, in this instance, to have an all too familiar case of a patient who was ill-prepared to make any lifestyle modifications and who likely believed surgery was a quick fix for all the world's hardships. This was not necessarily discernible in the evaluations or in any conversation the OP's MIL may have had with the surgical staff. Whether we are successful with the surgery or not, we all have quickly come to learn that steps to lose weight and use the tool we are provided are FAR easier said than done, just like losing weight without the surgery.
I don't think the OP's MIL has voluntarily made a decision to "waste" her surgery. She was just not prepared to take advantage of it, and I am not convinced that any amount of professional help, short of placing her in a hospital and letting the institution create her diet, could place her in a better position to take advantage of the surgery.

Anybody care to add Fitbit/Tomtom steps/goals to this challenge?

@@BLERDgirl When I went for my first post-op visit in August he told me that he tests the sleeve for leaks with a liquid instead of with a gas. I also don't think we were pumped full of CO2. I think that definitely helped during the hospital stay. He also uses a 38 fr bougie, and perhaps that is the most favorable for not experiencing bloating or pains later on. I did come home with 8 extra pounds of Fluid in me, so I got distressed, but those quickly went away.

How far out are you? I lived outside of Philadelphia for many years and it is a staple. It was one of the first cheeses I went back to, and I believe I had it at the pureed stage (two weeks out) for the first time. Unless you are even newer than that, it shouldn't be a problem. I had clearance for all cheeses from my NUT as of the late full liquids stage, in fact!

It took a while for me to experience any gas whatsoever, let alone pains. I think bypass patients encounter more issues relating to excess gas than we do. Today, it really requires some carbonated beverage or something extremely high in Fiber or difficult to digest Proteins to produce gas. It is really a blessing that we don't dump like the RNYers.

I would relax, as it doesn't sound completely healed. I would take some time at home and do anything you need to do to get stuff in order before your busy stretch begins. Are you OK to lift heavier things yet? If not, hopefully you have some help. Don't sweat the exercise (no pun intended) today, as you want to be sure you don't go back with an unnecessary injury. That will come in time. Also, unless there is something you are absolutely dying to do recreationally, I'd put it off until your next off day, just so you have as much energy entering this high-intensity work period as possible. 13 hr shifts with your current energy levels will be challenging. Make sure you get your Protein, even if you need to use liquid supplements to combat this, and this will also contribute to fast-tracking your healing. Good luck!

@@Babbs I didn't mean that literally, it was a personal decision to just blend in instead of drawing attention to myself. I didn't feel like being asked if I was dieting or doing P90X or crossfit or something when we were just trying to Celebrate the nuptials, and then being told "oh but this is such a special day just take a break..." by 500 different sixteenth cousins of my old schoolmates' new spouses. And yes, these were receptions at which it would've been quite hard to fly under the radar. I was able to say I quit drinking (and that would be true I guess with the sleeve) so I didn't have to explain to everybody why I wasn't having champagne or commuting every five minutes to the open bar.