heidikat72

My insurance requirement is the same - I don't have to lose weight in the 6 month period but I absolutely cannot gain during this time. So my strategy for not gaining was to go ahead and adopt healthier eating habits now and gradually reduce my calorie intake over the 6 months. That and gradually increase exercise. The insurance company wants to see that you are commited to making a life-style change.
I would suggest talking to the nutritionist you are seeing for the monthly visits and discuss your PCOS condition and ask for suggestions about how to insure you don't gain weight during this time. Journal your food and exercise for a couple days and have the nutritionist look over that too and make suggestions.

are you kidding? you have earned way more than an "atta girl"!
You have worked so hard and your journey/posts/insight are truly inspirational to those of us just starting out.
time for a happy dance!

I am truly very sorry for what your family is dealing with now. In 2013, my boyfriend committed suicide and 4 months later my dad died from prostate cancer. I was devasted and spiraled out of control and into a deep depression that only started to lift late last year. I did not seek grief counseling at the time but should have. What did help me was talking things through with a friend who had lost her son to cancer 10 years earlier. So I highly recommend you find a counselor or support group or both. Being able to talk through it will help.
Also, acknowledge your feelings right now, it is ok to feel them and accept them. It is also ok to still experience joy so don't feel bad or like you shouldn't when you find yourself laughing at a joke or enjoying a moment. I wish I could tell you that one day you will wake up and feel great. For a while you will just be going through the motions of life, and it is important to go through those motions and not complete retreat into the depression. You will never "get over" the loss of your son. However, you will be able to go on and live a good life still. Gradually as time passes, the overwhelming grief will dissipate and you'll be able to remember your son fondly of all the good times while still being sad that he is no longer here.
Most importantly take care of yourself right now. That means get the counseling and support you need, nourish your body instead of trying to comfort yourself in junk food, take time for yourself, etc. Honor your son by continuing to live and your granddaughter is going to need you, but most of all do it for yourself because you deserve to live a good life.

Nothing much I can't have if I so choose now at 6 months.
If I were to lose my desire to lose weight.....I could entertain virtually any menu item from any restaurant.....however the quantities involved would be on a very limited scale. For instance....I probably couldn't finish a BicMac or such sandwich....no more than a slice or two of pizza......etc. My restriction would kick in and stop me from doing large quantities.
I have no desire or any cravings to do such damage, though.
I really just have the "want to" for the stuff I now really enjoy: fish, chicken, steak, pork, eggs and some greens & salads. After being away from sugary mess for a while I no longer give any interest to their direction. There was a time when Snickers bars held high sway over me. Now, I could walk past a sea of them and not have a desire to eat one.
It is nice to only eat what is needed to sustain and fuel my body. It is super nice to not think more of food than what I should. It's something your body needs......but shouldn't be something that your mind craves.
I'm so damn grateful for my sleeve.

Nothing much I can't have if I so choose now at 6 months.
If I were to lose my desire to lose weight.....I could entertain virtually any menu item from any restaurant.....however the quantities involved would be on a very limited scale. For instance....I probably couldn't finish a BicMac or such sandwich....no more than a slice or two of pizza......etc. My restriction would kick in and stop me from doing large quantities.
I have no desire or any cravings to do such damage, though.
I really just have the "want to" for the stuff I now really enjoy: fish, chicken, steak, pork, eggs and some greens & salads. After being away from sugary mess for a while I no longer give any interest to their direction. There was a time when Snickers bars held high sway over me. Now, I could walk past a sea of them and not have a desire to eat one.
It is nice to only eat what is needed to sustain and fuel my body. It is super nice to not think more of food than what I should. It's something your body needs......but shouldn't be something that your mind craves.
I'm so damn grateful for my sleeve.

While getting dressed a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a hard lump in the sternum area between my breasts. I had my 3 month post op visit coming up, so I figured maybe it was from my hiatal hernia repair and I'd ask about it at my post op visit. I went yesterday and told her about the bump. She said that wouldn't be from my hernia, so she'd better take a look at it. The hard bump is my sternum, I just had so much fat tissue there for so long that I had forgotten what it felt like. I practically had myself signed up for chemo after reading WebMD! The internet can be the devil lol
Sent from my XT1565 using the BariatricPal App

Exactly one year ago today I got my sleeve.
As part of my process of losing weight, I have decided to post my story. Warning, emotional dump below. Thank you to everyone who reads. I am so grateful to BP and to everyone who has the courage to share as I learn and am inspired by your stories – so I decided to post my own. I cannot imagine going through WLS without BP and you all.
Figuring out why I got fat – and how to heal myself
I have literally spent the past 30 years in different types of therapy trying to figure out why I do not take care of myself, love myself or feel worthy of love. Through the process, I have learned a lot about myself, done some hard work yet was still very overweight (high 421) and struggled daily with basic self-care.
I am a social worker and have also spent the past 25 years working in the helping profession, yet I was not helping myself. I am so grateful to be able to say now that I am taking care of myself, really for the first time in my life of 44 years. Thank you WLS.
I have been in talk therapy on and off since I was 14 when I tried to kill myself because of nightmares and flashbacks from childhood trauma that scared the hell out of me. I was in a group for sexual abuse survivors for many years because of the sexual abuse from my grandfather - a known sexual perpetrator that my mother moved into our house for free babysitting. I have done focused healing work on my abuse from him and the immense abuse and neglect from my mother. I have done somatic body work and EMDR for trauma, couples therapy with my husband to work through how my trauma and his trauma trigger each other, a formalized emotional eating disorder program for my binge eating (and of course Weight Watchers numerous times, nutrisystem, South Beach, Optifast, you name it) and copious amounts of psychoanalysis, CBT, solution-focused therapy, hypnosis, acupuncture, psychotropic medications, self-reflection and journaling, self-help books etc…
And I weighed 421 pounds.
Enter my decision to get the sleeve. I had been resistant, buying into the myth that if I tried hard enough, I would figure out how to take care of myself and not overeat. After struggling with enough energy at 421 pounds to run a non-profit, take care of my family and go to school for a masters in social work, I took a year off from school and signed up for the weight loss program at Kaiser. I always heard that in order to take care of others you must take care of yourself, but for some reason I thought I could be the exception. I was finally motivated enough for WLS.
A year later I got my sleeve at 385 pounds, and today, exactly one year after my surgery I am at 253 pounds with another 100 to go. I could never be here without WLS and my learning to finally and truly start taking care of myself. I realized that the solution was inside me the whole time – realizing that at my core, I felt I was a bad person and had to show everyone else this by my weight. I was using my weight as a boundary because I couldn’t say no or take care of myself.
In addition to WLS, I have started mindfulness training, worked hard on self-compassion (based on Dr. Neff’s work) and letting go of the shame that kept me big (Brene Brown’s work). I still have a long way to go, but today I wanted to honor how far I have come from the scared little girl who was traumatized to the adult I am today who finally is not scared to be healthy and take care of herself. Happy one-year surgiversary to me!

I think the venerable Betty White said it best:

no doubt a frustrating process. I have BCBS (a different plan than yours) and have a 6 month medically supervised period. The day I had the ECG (which was normal) the cardiologist said he wanted me to have a stress test and echo. It was scheduled for the following week. A two month lead time seems utterly ridiculous! Plus it makes absolutely no sense to have to do the echo on a different day. Here's how my stress test/echo appt went (note I did the pharmacological stress test not a treadmill test)
Appt was for 10:00am, I arrived early and was called back at about 10:05am.
I answered a few history questions, they took my blood pressure and weight and explained in detail how the test would be done.
Then I got an IV line put in and they injected the dye used for contrast for the stress test. You have to wait 45 minutes for the dye to work it's way through before they take the baseline pictures.
So DURING that 45 minute wait, I got the echo done.
Then the baseline pictures.
Then they injected the more contrast dye and the drug to 'stress" my system. They monitored my blood pressure and heart rate for 5 minutes while the stress drug worked it's magic. Then I got to have some juice and a snack. about 20 minutes after injection, they took the final pictures.
I was completely done within 2.5hrs. I met with the cardiologist again 3 days later to go over the results (I could have opted to just receive the report and not meet with the cardiologist).
Note that the cardiologist recommending the stress test and echo does not necessarily mean there is anything of concern. Mine for instance, simply does it for ALL bariatric surgery patients to have a complete picture to make the risk assessment. He even told me there would have had to have been something majorly wrong for him to not recommend the surgery. He just wants to make sure the real risk level is known so that all parties (him, the surgeon and YOU) can make an informed decision.
All that being said, in the long run - yes this is frustrating, but the end game is worth all the pre-op frustration. Hang in there and keep jumping through all the hoops. You'll get there.

I recently did some roasted chick peas - satisfied my urge for a crispy snack. You can use whatever spices you like and I only used half the amount of olive oil
http://www.chowhound.com/recipes/spicy-oven-roasted-chickpeas-30368

Exactly what KristenLe said. Use this time to start adopting healthy living habits. Adjusting what you eat - start to journal your food and see where you can make better choices. Start exercising more - slowly and gradually increasing your activity. Also with all the pre-op testing required, you'll be surprised how quickly the 6 months will go! I too was disappointed when I found out I had a 6 month pre-op requirement instead of 3 months. But now that I'm having my 5th appointment next week, I'm glad for the extra time. It's letting me get my head in the game and really make some important changes in my life.

Exactly what KristenLe said. Use this time to start adopting healthy living habits. Adjusting what you eat - start to journal your food and see where you can make better choices. Start exercising more - slowly and gradually increasing your activity. Also with all the pre-op testing required, you'll be surprised how quickly the 6 months will go! I too was disappointed when I found out I had a 6 month pre-op requirement instead of 3 months. But now that I'm having my 5th appointment next week, I'm glad for the extra time. It's letting me get my head in the game and really make some important changes in my life.

Exactly what KristenLe said. Use this time to start adopting healthy living habits. Adjusting what you eat - start to journal your food and see where you can make better choices. Start exercising more - slowly and gradually increasing your activity. Also with all the pre-op testing required, you'll be surprised how quickly the 6 months will go! I too was disappointed when I found out I had a 6 month pre-op requirement instead of 3 months. But now that I'm having my 5th appointment next week, I'm glad for the extra time. It's letting me get my head in the game and really make some important changes in my life.

My appointment went great. My surgeon wasn't there of course (I figured I wouldn't see him again unless I had complications) but I did see him a few weeks ago at a book signing and he seemed happy with my progress.
The good news: of my labs come back ok I can drop most of my supplements except for the Multivitamin.
The other cool thing is that I have lost enough for my BMI to actually be on the chart on the wall.
I want to thank each of you for the kind words and encouragement. It means a lot to me. I couldn't do it without you.

I am within 5 pounds of scheduling my next massage.
I think my one year anniversary gift to myself is going to at the very least be a mani pedi.

I know it probably isn't going to help to say it, because it only made me angry when people said it to me, but I am truly sorry for your loss. I have lost 3 children. 2 before birth and 1 at birth and there is no right or wrong way to deal or not deal with that loss. It's a deep pain that never completely goes away. If you are lucky, you manage to eventually get it into a box enough to go on with your life, but it's never gone. You will have days where you cry and scream and wish you could have died with them and you'll have days where life feels almost normal and then later that night you feel guilty for almost feeling normal again. It's a long process and for some it takes years to get to the place where they can handle living again. Grief counseling can help, but I didn't feel helped by it. I felt like they wanted to rush me through my grief to where they wanted me to be and feel and I just wasn't. Talking about it helps. Maybe talking to your grand daughter about her dad and the fun things he did as a kid or the funny things he'd say or just whatever. It can give you both something to heal with. My babies were so small when they died that I didn't have that memory to fall back on to get through to where I am. Am I "over it"? No, you never get over losing your child, and I still have days where I cry and miss them but I'm functional and I have come to the conclusion there is a reason I'm still here and I need to focus on that purpose until the day we are reunited again. You can't find the comfort for your pain in a bottle of booze, a bottle of pills, or like I did, a box of ice cream sandwiches daily. All it does is make you sicker and will eventually lead to your family mourning you sooner. Hang in there [emoji173]️

I can't even imagine what this has been like. I hope you can get some grief support for yourself. I am so sorry you suffered this tragedy.
It isn't the same at all - but I lost my younger sister to cancer in 2007. She was also my best friend and confidant. I carried that grief for years - and one day I finally woke up and realized that while she lost her life way too young, she would never have wanted me to waste the years I had left focused on what I had lost rather than living a full life. It took me a long time to get there, but I finally got my act together, had weight loss surgery lost 150# and built a new life. I can honestly say that i have a better life than ever. I had alot of survivors guilt but was finally able to let it go and live the life God gave me, followed the path God gave me and I often feel like I have my sis as the angel their cheering me on.
Grief happens on its own timeline, and its own way, but do seek support/help so you can slowly rebuild this new life.
I am so sorry for your loss.

I am truly very sorry for what your family is dealing with now. In 2013, my boyfriend committed suicide and 4 months later my dad died from prostate cancer. I was devasted and spiraled out of control and into a deep depression that only started to lift late last year. I did not seek grief counseling at the time but should have. What did help me was talking things through with a friend who had lost her son to cancer 10 years earlier. So I highly recommend you find a counselor or support group or both. Being able to talk through it will help.
Also, acknowledge your feelings right now, it is ok to feel them and accept them. It is also ok to still experience joy so don't feel bad or like you shouldn't when you find yourself laughing at a joke or enjoying a moment. I wish I could tell you that one day you will wake up and feel great. For a while you will just be going through the motions of life, and it is important to go through those motions and not complete retreat into the depression. You will never "get over" the loss of your son. However, you will be able to go on and live a good life still. Gradually as time passes, the overwhelming grief will dissipate and you'll be able to remember your son fondly of all the good times while still being sad that he is no longer here.
Most importantly take care of yourself right now. That means get the counseling and support you need, nourish your body instead of trying to comfort yourself in junk food, take time for yourself, etc. Honor your son by continuing to live and your granddaughter is going to need you, but most of all do it for yourself because you deserve to live a good life.

I see a possible business opportunity: healthy food for long haul truckers.

I would definitely suggest the pouches of tuna and salmon. They have some great flavors, no refrigeration required and no can opener needed! Most of the ones I've tried have about 13-15 grams of Protein per 2.6 oz pouch.
Keep some bottled Water with you and maybe the Syntrax nectar Protein powder - fruity flavors that go well dissolved in Water?
And the cooler sounds like a great idea for keeping some cottage cheese and greek yogurt, maybe some laughing cow cheese wedges etc.

are you kidding? you have earned way more than an "atta girl"!
You have worked so hard and your journey/posts/insight are truly inspirational to those of us just starting out.
time for a happy dance!

My co-worker, and very good friend, went through the same experience a year and a half ago. Her son was shot and killed and the murderers got away with it. They said it was self defense, and who knows, maybe it was, but it doesn't matter. He was 17 and my friend had to bury her son. She was lost, just as you are now, in the shock and pain of it all. Those first weeks and months were awful. Watching her grieve was heartbreaking.
She went to his grave all the time and would put huge bouquets of flowers out there on the 12th day of each month, because that was his monthly anniversary. It was terrible to watch her go through all of that and I asked her why she was having another funeral each month, and she just said because she needed to do it.
At the one year anniversary of his death, the family gathered at the cemetery and they had a celebration of his life and she finally decided that it was ok to start to move forward. I reminded her that she has her daughters and that they lost their big brother and they needed her to focus on them, and not the ghost of their brother, because that is what she was doing. Her grief was heartbreaking, and it is absolutely true that nobody can imagine that kind of loss and pain unless they experience it.
Give yourself time and do what you need to do to make peace with what has happened. All of this is still so fresh for you, I know that you can't see how life will ever get better for you. My friend tells me that the best advice I gave her was to find a new normal. Life will never go back to the same way it was before this horrible thing happened. But that doesn't mean that you can't find peace and acceptance at some point in your future. One day you will be able to sit with your granddaughter and tell her funny, happy stories about when her daddy was a little boy, and you can talk about what happened and then work on putting the bad memories to bed, and replacing them with the ones of happier times that you will always have.
I'm so sorry that this has happened to you. I will keep you in my thoughts, and I've lit a candle for you to try to help keep you out of the dark places. Peace & Strength to you.

I am truly very sorry for what your family is dealing with now. In 2013, my boyfriend committed suicide and 4 months later my dad died from prostate cancer. I was devasted and spiraled out of control and into a deep depression that only started to lift late last year. I did not seek grief counseling at the time but should have. What did help me was talking things through with a friend who had lost her son to cancer 10 years earlier. So I highly recommend you find a counselor or support group or both. Being able to talk through it will help.
Also, acknowledge your feelings right now, it is ok to feel them and accept them. It is also ok to still experience joy so don't feel bad or like you shouldn't when you find yourself laughing at a joke or enjoying a moment. I wish I could tell you that one day you will wake up and feel great. For a while you will just be going through the motions of life, and it is important to go through those motions and not complete retreat into the depression. You will never "get over" the loss of your son. However, you will be able to go on and live a good life still. Gradually as time passes, the overwhelming grief will dissipate and you'll be able to remember your son fondly of all the good times while still being sad that he is no longer here.
Most importantly take care of yourself right now. That means get the counseling and support you need, nourish your body instead of trying to comfort yourself in junk food, take time for yourself, etc. Honor your son by continuing to live and your granddaughter is going to need you, but most of all do it for yourself because you deserve to live a good life.

I can't imagine how you feel but I am so very sorry for your loss. Counseling will not unbreak your heart but it will teach you how to cope with such a terrible loss.
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

are you kidding? you have earned way more than an "atta girl"!
You have worked so hard and your journey/posts/insight are truly inspirational to those of us just starting out.
time for a happy dance!

I am truly very sorry for what your family is dealing with now. In 2013, my boyfriend committed suicide and 4 months later my dad died from prostate cancer. I was devasted and spiraled out of control and into a deep depression that only started to lift late last year. I did not seek grief counseling at the time but should have. What did help me was talking things through with a friend who had lost her son to cancer 10 years earlier. So I highly recommend you find a counselor or support group or both. Being able to talk through it will help.
Also, acknowledge your feelings right now, it is ok to feel them and accept them. It is also ok to still experience joy so don't feel bad or like you shouldn't when you find yourself laughing at a joke or enjoying a moment. I wish I could tell you that one day you will wake up and feel great. For a while you will just be going through the motions of life, and it is important to go through those motions and not complete retreat into the depression. You will never "get over" the loss of your son. However, you will be able to go on and live a good life still. Gradually as time passes, the overwhelming grief will dissipate and you'll be able to remember your son fondly of all the good times while still being sad that he is no longer here.
Most importantly take care of yourself right now. That means get the counseling and support you need, nourish your body instead of trying to comfort yourself in junk food, take time for yourself, etc. Honor your son by continuing to live and your granddaughter is going to need you, but most of all do it for yourself because you deserve to live a good life.