2goldengirl

Don't get me wrong, I love spinach, too - but iceberg and romaine crunch. There is not much crunch in my life these days. I have been making mini taco salads with taco meat I do in the pressure cooker. I freeze the meat in single portions. I also froze black Beans and brown rice in single portions. Huz can make himself a taco bowl any time he likes.

Get a copy of your health plan's criteria for WLS and put your mind at ease. Also find out what your out-of-pocket will be and whether there is a cap on benefits for WLS. Then you will know for good and for certain.

No, lettuce does not expand in your stomach. I never heard such rubbish. When lettuce gets wet, it WILTS. Especially in the presence of stomach acid. I had salad for lunch today - one of those ready-packed salads, so a small portion. Probably two cups of greens, mostly iceberg lettuce. I know that iceberg and romaine work OK for me. I was able to eat the entire salad, and I added a hard-boiled egg to it cause there wasn't enough chicken in it. And for dinner, I'd made lamb stew. I was able to eat only 2 oz of lamb, one slice of carrot, and a half-slice of parsnip. No, I did not stretch my sleeve out eating lettuce for lunch. I'm thrilled to find out lettuce works as a slider for me. I love salad, and I love growing lettuce. There are so many kinds to grow that you never see in stores. They're beautiful, and tasty, and have names like "Frizzy Haired Drunken Woman" and "Flashy Troutback".

First, you likely won't feel much restriction while you're still on liquids, as they pass through the sleeve very quickly. Second, this soon after surgery, between swelling and a big incision down the side of your stomach, you likely won't feel much from it, unless you try eating something not on your postop list. An insulted sleeve makes itself known very quickly and vehemently. Just keep following your postop instructions and you should be fine.

I think we need to stop policing other's choices unless they are asking for input. There is a big difference between the occasional hot dog at a baseball game or on the 4th of July and making it a regular part of one's choices. The OP was illustrating his post with volume he could consume. I'm a huge baseball fan. My husband works for the SF Giants. I get to two or three games a year. Someday I'd like to have a hotdog or half a bratwurst at a game. That won't happen this season. In the meantime, the Giants actually have a vegetable garden and adjacent food options that are organic, grown right there in the Park, and including vegan choices. It was the idea of one of our players, actually. It started out as an avocado tree grown from a pit by one of the grounds crew. True story. My point is, not everyone wants, needs, or enjoys eating your way. Or mine. And that's fine. What we all need to do is keep an eye on our own choices, making sure that they're volume-appropriate, nutritionally dense, and enjoyable. There is room in everyone's life for the occasional different choice so long as we're mindful of how often "occasional" is.

It isn't about shame, it's about personal privacy. Huge difference.

It doesn't work that way. Denials have to be based on the criteria. If the criteria doesn't specify no loss or gain, then that isn't grounds for denial.

I'm in the early days with veggies, so my fiber has come from a daily serving of Beans, usually refried. I am not carb-phobic. What @@rickm said is spot-on. Carbs aren't evil, but highly processed foods are problematic on several levels. First, their glycemic effect (which is mitigated to some extent when eaten with protein), second their nearly complete lack of nutrition, and third their lack of satiety. I have always done better with food I can recognize as food, as it's come out of the ground, so to speak. I do make exceptions for yogurt and cottage cheese, as their nutritional value is huge. I don't worry about the carbs in dairy. My daily carbs hover in the 40-60 range and it hasn't slowed me down.

You need to sit your husband down and have a serious talk with him about teasing and bullying. He needs to know in no uncertain terms that this is NOT OK and you won't tolerate it. Then the two of you need to sit down with your kids and explain why teasing and bullying is NEVER OK and that talking this way about anyone, under any circumstances, is not tolerated. Period. Especially kids making fun of parents. Never. Ever. Respect for one another is essential. It is never too early to start teaching and modeling this for your kids. There are consequences for kids when they start this kind of thing at home and then take it to school or out in public. As a society, we've all but forgotten our manners, which start from the notion that the people that we live with and the people we live alongside deserve respect simply because they're fellow human beings. Getting off soapbox now...

It's your muscles swelling/rataining Fluid because you've stressed them. They inflame as the result of that stress. It's just Water, keep running and move on. It takes months to add actual muscle mass, and it's rare to add muscle mass during a weight loss period. You need a calorie surplus to add muscle mass.

Don't lick any icing, not at three weeks. I have a dear friend who had a bypass a year and a half ago. She got a craving at four weeks, ate a couple bites of her craving, and ended up in the ER because the pain was so bad. Hang in there. Your son will have other birthdays!

You can call back and ask to speak with a Supervisor. Explain that you got two widely different answers on two phone calls and ask for clarification. If, in fact, your particular policy excludes coverage for bariatric surgery, that means it won't be approved for anyone, under any circumstances. That's what an exclusion from coverage means. If it's covered, then ask to be sent a copy of the criteria that need to be met for surgery to be approved. I hope this helps!

You know what's funny? My immediate postop weight came off my top half - one of my friends said "you're emptying from the top down!". And then it evened out. Just in terms of inches, my greatest loss has been round my hips. I have no idea what is going on with this, but hey, losses, is losses. And yeah, the boob lift will be first, but the way this apron is drooping, that can't be far behind.

You can Google your health plan's requirements and find out for yourself. Knowledge is power. You've taken responsibility for making a positive, life-changing decision. Take the responsibility for knowing what the requirements are and you won't be at the mercy of your imagination.

I'm going to play with your head a little. You're on a restricted number of food choices right now (both what you can have and amounts). Surprise, this is exactly what you will be doing postop. This is your dress rehearsal. You're hungry. That makes you uncomfortable. I get it. You know what? Postop, you won't be able to soothe your uncomfortable feelings by eating. You won't be hungry, not physically hungry. And you'll have to learn another way of dealing with uncomfortable feelings than eating to cover them up. Dress rehearsal again. Sometimes I think this is the real benefit of the preop diet.

FYI, ABFMBS released a position statement in non-support of pre-op diet/weight loss requirements. That's why Blue Shield (of CA, anyhow) changed their position. I'd expect other health plans to follow.

Really? Then why did Blue Shield eliminate this requirement in July 2015?

No, that isn't the truth. The truth is that psychiatric evaluation is a standard set by the American Board for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The health plans use national standards like these for virtually all their medical policies, not just for bariatric surgery, but for things like heart disease, cancer, and arthritis, for example. It's been their standard since 2004: https://asmbs.org/resources/pre-surgical-psychological-assessment

I hate to say anything bad about someone's surgeon's advice, but this is just not enough food for someone 7 weeks out. I am 8 weeks today, and my surgeon doesn't dictate amounts, she knows each sleeve recovers differently and everyone's capacity will vary. She does say to get in a minimum of 64 gm of protein and 600-800 calories a day at this point. That's twice what you're getting. I have two Snacks a day in addition to my meals - usually yogurt and a cheese stick during the week. I change it up on the weekends. Just the yogurt and cheese add 20 gm or protein to my day. I would urge you to consider adding a couple snacks to start with, and maybe a half a Protein Drink after dinner.

...iceberg lettuce! I'll be eight weeks out tomorrow, which means I'm tiptoeing toward "regular" food textures. And Like many of us, I've been missing crunch. I'd made some chicken taco meat in the pressure cooker, so I got a bag of shredded iceberg leffuce. I put a pinch of lettuce on my mini-taco bowl. It was delicious. It crunched. And it didn't fill me up! I've cautiously gotten to where I can put nearly 1/4 cup of lettuce shreds on my taco meat and still get all the meat portion in. And I get to crunch. Bliss! Something that really made me hesitate over getting my sleeve is my love for salads. Now I have hope that I can adapt my love for salads in a way my sleeve can live with. It's the little things.

I haven't had any hair loss yet, and as for loose skin? I'd rather deal with that than the extra weight. I do plan for a boob lift after I get to goal, not sure, but will probably also need a panniculectomy.

I'm highly amused that I've found a slider that isn't also kryptonite. I don't care for sweets but I do love cunchy/salty. My cubicle is adjacent to the cart we have at the office that always has Snacks on it. Knowing that something like goldfish crackers are my kryptonite, I've stayed ten paces from the snack cart. I just don't want to go there.

I did try a few bites or romaine a few days previously when at a work lunch. Worked fine and I loved the crunch. Mind you, the iceberg is completely for texture, not for nutrition. For Mexican food, shredded iceberg has the right texture for me. I love romaine, but it isn't for taco bowls, even taco bowls that fit in a custard cup.

If you've been eating fast food 2 or more meals/day, your body is reeling from the shock of not getting all that fat/sodium/carbs. It will get better after Day 3-4. Then you'll be amazed at how good you feel shortly after that. Really!

Clearly everyone has their own internal definition of what is affordable. I'm fortunate that I can spend $100 on a pair of pants if I like, though most of the time I work to find that $100 pair of pants on sale/consignment/Nordstrom Rack for $30 or so. I know this isn't true for everyone. Back in January, I did some trolling of online end-of-season sales. I scored two pair of high-end jeans and two of the same brand of dress slacks for work in two consecutively smaller sizes. Four pair of pants that at full retail would have cost me about $500. I got all four for a little over $100. I've been wearing the larger size and in the next month will graduate to the smaller of those. I got Talbots long-sleeve T's for under $20 apiece including shipping, also in consecutively smaller sizes. They wear like Iron, wash like a dream, don't pill, and my favorite feature - the necklines dont get all wavy. I went consignment shopping with a friend on Saturday, and found two Talbots 3/4 sleeve T's in the next size down from what I'm wearing now, brand-new, for $20 each. Sold! I'd loved the Target LS T's, but the fabric doesn't hang as well, and the necklines do get wonky after being through the wash a few times. And my very favorite pair of yoga pants are Danskins. I bought them at the Hanes outlet more than 10 years ago and they're still going strong. I couldn't wear them for a couple years. If it weren't for the elastic waist, they'd be miles too big now, but I still wear them a couple times a week.