blizair09

Go after it, Heather! Reach for the stars. I know you can do it!

Good luck tomorrow, Butch! I know that you will be ready to be on the "other side" of the surgery, and it sounds like you are as prepared as you can be.

@@vegbeth Welcome! I am a relative-newbie to the entire thing, but I have found this community to be helpful and informative. Good luck to you!!

Good luck to you. I can tell you that I immediately felt better when I made the decision to pursue this long journey toward the sleeve and sustained weight loss and positive weight management. Six months in and with my surgery date in sight (September 28), I take a lot of solace in the fact that I know I am doing the right thing. (Even if I am scared to death at any given moment...)

@@IveGotThePower You're welcome! Good for you for reaching out to your nutritionist. I paid for my non-required, extra visit with my nutritionist because I wanted us to be on the same page, and because I didn't want to be forced into some kind of canned program when I am a bit of a unique case in my surgeon's practice. The surgeon himself told me that no one ever loses the kind of weight I have lost pre-op. Sometimes the folks on his staff haven't known quite what to do with me over the past six months. :-)

I have been following a low carb/high protein/high healthy fat diet for the past six months (insurance required nutrition program) and I have, as of today, lost 95 pounds. I have been in ketosis the entire time. I haven't had more than 20 carbs on any day (and have had less than 15 most days). It has worked wonders for me. My surgery is September 28. My nutritionist has agreed that I can avoid foods throughout the various post-op food stages that are higher in carbs and continue to remain in ketosis. I plan to do this until I get all of the excess weight off. Some disagree with this approach, but it has worked for me. Good luck!

I have gone through this every morning of my six-month pre-op diet. I won't get an accurate weight until after about 10:00am or so. I am still ridding my body of liquid until that point. If I weigh super early (before 7am), it can easily be a 2ish pound difference. I've learned to know that and accept it -- but it was a hard pill to swallow in the beginning!

Weird, but our addiction to Diet Coke is gone, and Water is sooooo good! That gives me some hope. Giving up carbs is nothing on giving up Diet Coke! I look forward to the day when it becomes no big deal...

What a story! Awesome work. I've lost a lot pre-op (93 pounds and counting), so I have been a little nervous about what my loss will be like after my September 28 surgery. Your story is giving me some comfort since you took off quite a bit pre-op, too. All the best to you moving forward!

Oh goodness. You aren't "stalling"- I know that it's common for us to refer to the three week stall. You are HEALING. Your body is ADJUSTING. It needs to re-work the way it is now processing not only food, but your energy stores. You've just shocked the crap out of your system! Lol. Give it a chance to figure it out! I am a firm believer, at over 100 pounds down, that a stall goes on much much longer than this. In between, it's simply adjusting. I've said it before- I count the "decades" of pounds I lose--- 240-230 190-180 etc. the numbers in between are of no consequence to me. They bounce, change and do all kinds of erratic things- until they don't and I plummet into the next "decade". For me, right now, it's the 170's. 160's will come but if I worried daily about the 2 pounds up and down for a few days In between , I'd go bonkers. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App This has been the case in my pre-op weight loss as well. Some "decades" just skirt by in 2 weeks; others are almost painfully slow. The body is a strange monster sometimes. (And it is always the "decades" around a milestone weight that are the slowest for some reason -- some sort of strange, cosmic humor, I suppose!!)

Good for you! Grandparents are the best. I know mine did so many wonderful things for me growing up (even during the "adult" years of college and my man-child 20s). And it was all out of love. Yours will love watching your journey unfold because they love you. Enjoy that and spend as much time with them as you can. I miss mine everyday!

Great idea! I live in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and there are 2 malls near my home. I have been walking them throughout the last six months (no one wants to walk outside in the NOLA summer heat), and I was just talking to my brother on the phone about how soon after surgery I could get back into that. Anything beats the treadmill. Even watching The Golden Girls while I am walking on it doesn't making it any more exciting!

Try to lose what you can if you have to go through pre-op diets for the surgeon, or the insurance, or whoever anyway. It can only make things easier. I started off with the goal of losing 40 pounds during my required six months of diet visits (10% of my starting body weight). As of this morning, I have lost 93 pounds, and my surgery is two weeks from today. My insurance didn't require it; my surgeon didn't require it; I just did it for myself. (Partially to prove that I could do it, and partially because transitioning from a low-carb diet to life after surgery will be a hell of a lot easier than going from my old everything-goes diet to life after surgery.) I'm still scared of the actual surgery day, but I am going into it knowing that I have done everything I can possibly do to put myself in the best position possible as a patient. Good luck!

This is so true. I was teetering on the edge of diabetes, needing to take medicine for cholesterol levels, and who knows what with my out-of-control fatty liver. That is why I am taking this journey. (The smaller size and cool clothes are just awesome fringe benefits.) Most people who say these things have no idea what it is like to walk in your shoes. (And some of them probably do know, but haven't had their moment of reckoning yet.) You do what is right for you, and to hell with them! All the best!

That's awesome. Congratulations!

Hi everyone, If anyone has read some of my posts, you know that I have been on a low-carb diet for six months and have lost over 90 pounds pre-op. Because of that, I have been really concerned about the amount of carbs in many of the foods that I am supposed to eat throughout the various phases of the diet after my sleeve surgery. I had an appointment with the nutritionist today. (I decided that it was worth it to pay for this non-required meeting to make sure we were on the same page before my surgery in a couple of weeks.) She and I talked about my unique situation, and she told me that I do not have to eat any of the foods with carbs in them (e.g., sugar free pudding, applesauce, Cream of Wheat, bananas, processed cream Soups, etc.) if I don't want to and I can continue to keep my carbs low since that works for me. She said if I just want to have Protein shakes or non/low-carb stuff with unflavored Protein powder that was fine along with Vitamins. We did talk about how my hormones will change after surgery, and we agreed that I was going to concentrate on protein and be open to trying foods to test my stomach at the various stages so that I wouldn't be afraid of carbs or afraid of food in general. It was a great meeting, and I am glad that we took the time to do it. I just wanted to share since there have been a few discussions about carbs post-op (and in case this might be helpful to someone reading). Best to all!

I have had a 34 year love affair with Diet Coke. And I will miss it post-surgery. A lot.

Man, I so feel you with this. My surgery date is two weeks from tomorrow. And as much as I know that am doing the right thing, that my pre-op work leaves me in the best possible condition for surgery, that I have plenty of STD to cover leave from work after, and that my Mom and Dad will be here to hold my hand (and my partner's hand) for two weeks during and after, I am SCARED SHITLESS, too. (The "being laid out on the table" comment above just freaked me out again. I have to quit thinking about those kinds of things!) But, you will be fine, and I will be fine. And, in the end, we will be SO MUCH BETTER for it! All my best wishes!

OMG -- the week before I started my six-month pre-op diet, I had to have one of my colleagues tie my shoes at the Norfolk airport. My shoes made the alarm go off in the Pre-Check line and I had to take them off, and they were tied too tight to slip back into. With my dress clothes on, I just couldn't do it. Talk about hitting rock bottom. (Although Jenn was so sweet about it and has been nothing but supportive throughout this entire thing...)

Yay!! Happy birthday.

My nutritionist made me promise today that I would not step on the scale in the first weeks after surgery except at the doctor's office. I will have a follow-up appointment 6 days after the surgery and then again 3 weeks after that. I'm going to try to keep to that promise. (Especially through the follow-up visit. And "try" being the operative word!)

I'm taking off for six weeks so that I can devote myself completely to healing, exercising, and following the post-op diet to the letter.

Congratulations! I know that you feel amazing. I am about 7 pounds away from 100 pounds off myself, and I'm so close to it I can taste it. My surgery is in 15 days, and then I'm going to plow through the 200s like a hot knife through butter. Best wishes as you continue your journey!!

I've done a low carb/high protein/high healthy fat diet for my entire six-month insurance-required nutrition program. I've over 90 pounds doing it. I keep my carbs under 20 per day (and under 15 most days). I have whittled from 2000 calories down through 1800 and 1500 to about 1200 calories per day for the past few months. I have cut out alcohol, only because at my calorie-level, I just can't justify using up any calories that won't provide some nutritional value. It has worked super well for me. My surgery is two weeks from tomorrow, and I am gunning for 100 pounds down when they wheel me into the OR. Good luck!