highfunctioningfatman

Stress can be tough! Mom died in 2002, 20 pounds. My son was born in 2009 and he had multiple problems, my wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer a month after, 30 pounds. My wife had a brain tumor this year, no weight gain but suddenly I had a blood pressure problem. When she was in the hospital I went to my doctor because I was feeling bad he prescribed a blood pressure med and made me promise to take it before leaving the pharmacy and call him in the morning to make sure that I was alive. My blood pressure was 222/111.

Travel was fine. The only thing was difficult was finding sugar free drinks in the airport. I finally found vitamin water zero in San Diego so I bought 2 of them. In San Francisco I found a "diner" that had chicken noodle soup. I asked for just the broth and they were good with that.

On the topic of tipping. A buddy and I were in a Dennys in Portland Oregon about 10 years ago. The service was fantastic! About halfway through our meal the waitress says that her shift is over and asked if we wanted anything else before she left. We tipped her $10 each. The waitress afterwards was horrible and smelled of pot. When I signed for the bill she asked if I was going to put a tip on the ticket. I pulled a nickel out of my pocket and asked her for change. When she came back I put 2 pennies down and said this is more than enough for your service and walked out. She was screaming and cussing at me and followed us to my truck. As I was leaving she tried to open my door and kicked the bed. I called for the management the next day to complain. She had already been fired.

I personally didn't take anything special to the hospital other than my wife. Day 1 surgery Day 2 recovery Day 3 return from Mexico Day 4 Walmart kicked my ass but soup broth in a travel coffee mug was heaven Day 5 intensive Walmart and Safeway shopping Day 6 busy around the house, smoked chicken, bbq and made-up a nice dinner for 12 friends and family members Day 7 was crawling the walls and trying not to start working on projects in my garage Day 8 salmon fishing on the Rogue River Day 9 back to work! Your results may vary. My piece of crap bed went bye bye 2 weeks after surgery. IT was replaced with a sleep number bed. Ahhhhh Best advice? Research. That and don't cheat!

Here is a planned thanksgiving "hack". Sugar-free lime Jello doesn't have much of a lime flavor but it is a pretty green. We experimented with adding mint extract and you would never know that it was lime to start. We are going to layer jello, sf cool.whip, jello, sf cool whip, jello and sf cool whip topped with a great local super low sugar chocolate that will be grated on top.

Here is a planned thanksgiving "hack". Sugar-free lime jello doesn't have much of a lime flavor but it is a pretty green. We experimented with adding mint extract and you would never know that it was lime to start. We are going to layer jello, sf cool.whip, jello, sf cool whip, jello and sf cool whip topped with a great local super low sugar chocolate that will be grated on top.

We love Thanksgiving! It is our favorite holiday. We always do at least three turkeys. We typically have 12 to 20 people in our 1300 sqft house and we love it. I always take the entire week off and I spend a couple of days before prepping the minor stuff. Yes I will have some turkey but I will also have a couple of things that have always been family traditions.

I hated my old scale. It was a super fancy pile of crap. I was soooo tired of it and what it represents. I took it out about a month pre op and shot the thing to pieces with a .357. Mentally that was exactly what I needed at that point. Just before my pre-op diet I was teaching a defensive driving class. I was talking about using backup cameras. I was stressing the importance of using mirrors and The Back-up Camera together as tools. I always stressed that a mechanic doesn't use just a screwdriver, he has an entire box of tools. That is when it hit me right between the eyes that I needed a scale. I don't hate the scale anymore. There are days that I don't like what is happening but I know that the number on the scale is just that. A number. It doesn't define me. Keep up the work you guys, we'll all get there if we do!

After losing 60 pounds I finally had someone this week who hadn't seen me in awhile go "damn you lost weight!". I just came back from the grocery store and I ran into a patient, he immediately asked if I had lost weight. I wasn't looking for validation but I had literally said to my wife and my boss (who had vsg) that I was disappointed that nobody except people who know about my surgery have said anything about my weight. I'm no longer disappointed! It encouraged me to look at my food journal and realize that I was making some mistakes. Those mistakes weren't bad choices, they were too little protein and calories.

I wish that I was losing weight in my top half as well as you are! My arms are now quite small and any flex has the muscles defined. My calfs look amazing. My thighs could lose just a little. My stomach and chest need to go though! I've got moobs, yep, man boobies and that just ain't right! I know that my "kegerator" won't ever be a six pack without lots of work and plastic surgery but the built-in personal flotation device has got to go!

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I get it. Congratulations! http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/379379-biggest-nsv-yet-3?hl=%2Bbiggest+%2Bnsv+%2Byet#entry4290213

Yoga pants are a gift from above!Please, no pictures of you in them... @@QueenOfTheTamazons Consignment stores are where it's at! You can try different brands and styles and spend little money or great clothes. Me in them? Absolutely not! The "gift" is to men that find the feminine form beautiful. I just so happen to be one of those men.

I use a small journal. I have my most common foods written down on the back pages so it is easy for me to add the details to my entries. I look up the details on myfitnesspal. Also each weekend I do measurements and they are in there as well. It is much better than any app that I found.

We went to a dinner last Saturday with some friends that don't know about my surgery. They need a Peruvian dish that had chicken and walnuts in some sort of a paste that was over rice. It was no big deal that all I ate was the chicken and walnut combo. Nobody said a thing about me not eating the rice.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to do Halloween with my son. We have a specialized vehicle that I have to have 4 days per week and the tranny died in it so I had to borrow one from another location. I was barely home in time to see him off to bed.

When I finally got out of my saggy butt jeans it was a huge confidence booster!

Yoga pants are a gift from above!

This is my sweet Chloe girl! Camping On a doggie date. My chocolate lover. Clean living! Family photos?

$4400 in Mexico and I researched the crap out of the surgeon and the company. There is a lower complication rate there than there is in the states. There is no way that I would consider going to anyone who has a complication rate as bad as most of the doctors here in the states.

Sausage kicked my ass when I tried it! Definitely take it easy when you do and as suggested try one item at a time.

Funny because I just had this very conversation with my surgeon this week. He has seen people gain in the first 6 weeks after surgery and then ask him "why isnt this working for me". People are like this in all aspects of humanity, not just WLS. I have patients that I counsel about smoking because they have COPD. They tell me "i cant breath" "i cant afford my meds" but spend 50$ a week on cigarettes. They expect me to fix their problem while taking no responsibility for their actions. We have a choice...it may not be an easy choice but its still a choice. We have an opportunity to change after WLS and we should seize it to make better choices. Not ruin it by continuing with the same bad behavior. Gee, you sound like an RT in home health care...

Holy cow! Nicely done.

My dinner last night was an egg with mushroom and sausage. I had the same thing for breakfast. Lunch was 1/2 of a large chili from Wendy's. I usually have Greek yogurt for breakfast. A favorite lunch is shrimp with old bay and lemon juice topped with a slice of havarti cheese and 2 slices of tomato then it goes in the microwave. Essentially a shrimp melt without the bread. Bacon is awesome! Bacon with tomato and lettuce... I did shrimp with bell peppers, onion, garlic and a light orange sauce a few nights ago.

As usual we will have 12-20 people. I will smoke a turkey the day before and that always goes to my dad. The day of I will smoke another one and my sweetie will roast one. We will also do a ham that my brother in law bought when he was here in September. I plan to have one broccoli ball (broccoli, stuffing, parmesan cheese and an egg as a binder) a couple of "fork fulls" of my mom's recipe sausage rice and pretty much just have some turkey or ham. Either way we are doing 3 turkeys and enough food to feed a small army!