Sleeve1stFitNext

Congratulations and good luck on your surgery!!! The nerves will always kick in just before something that we are excited to have done.

Complete head hunger. I have that problem too. My mom brought some Halal food (which everybody knows is my favorite outside meal). I could smell the white sauce and hot sauce and I was going to snatch the container out of my moms hands and eat some. It took everything in my power. I felt like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings (she had the the precious.) lol

@RJrocks hmmm you are right. The after pictures are of everyone really happy. Maybe it is also the aura that the person is giving off? When your happy and at peace with yourself, the auro energy with give off will show. It is true that the after pictures show a everyone dress to impress. Nothing is wrong with that. Show yourself girl!!! lol

My Aunt got the lapband at 56 year olds because the weight was causing too much pain on her joints and her back. She had no motivation to exercise neither, mainly due to the pain she felt every step she took. She however, started to doing little things: Walking down the street, going around the corner, walking to the supermarket. She was not a healthy woman and yet her surgery went extremely well. She stated that the hardest part was getting started. However, once she got started, you could not stop her lol. She is now 62 years old and she is still losing weight and trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

Congratulations!!!! Reaching goal is a huge accomplishment. This will be a very much deserved gift to have the excess weight removed. I wish you the best !!!

Women do get a lot of messages. Even at my heaviest, I was surround by emails after emails and I would read them. The difference is, I liked the guy that stood out. A lot of them were the unoriginal, " Hey Beautiful, I would like to get to know you better." or the infamous "Hey" , "Hi", "Wassup", "Can I have your number?" "Send Nudes" Now first things first, I am not beautiful, I do not like being called beautiful for the physical. I am Adorable. I have a beautiful personality but any guy that says hello beautiful, I am like nope....PLAYER ALERT!!! My current bf sent the message (I copied it), "Hello, my name is j. I am really interested in your profile. I am sure a lot of guys talk about how you look but I want to talk about how you think. Now you "claim" to love greek mythology and that is also my favorite, so I want to ask you a few questions:" He then asked me a bunch of riddles that went from obvious to having to think really hard. It is always the person you will lease expect to capture your attention. Only because he worked out and a lot of pictures were him at the gym and showing off his muscles. I was like look at this lunk pretending to be intellectual. Oh boy was I wrong. Sorry if I made this about me. I just wanted to you to see that opening up to people even ones you think may not be interested, can be a great surprise.

I choose the sleeve because I was only aware of 3 options at the time in which my insurance covered. 1) Bypass - did not like the idea of vitamin dependence and the possibility that I did not weigh enough for the surgery. 2) Lapband - did not like the idea of going to the doctors for restriction fills and just the overall idea that it may erode or slip made me feel uneasy. 3) Sleeve - it was a mixture of both. Restriction that I needed and portion control and the less likelihood of being vitamin dependent. Each has it's pros and cons. It really depends on which is the best for you and your needs.

I have noticed the same thing as well. I look at the before pictures and then the after pictures and I am like there is no way that person is 185 lbs (they have to be at least 125 lbs - 135 lbs). I think some of the weight includes muscle. A lot of them do weight lifting to tone up and muscle does weight more than fat. I think that everyone's fear of lose skin, pushes us to lift weights. Also, @907city2farmgrl is right that the surgery changes our body composition.

You are lucky. I mean I am offered the ability to have non-starchy vegetables up until 72 hours before and that is it. I am able to have salads but it has limited ingredients. Mainly the only liquid diets are the hardest to pull off. I will see if I will be able to handle this without the vegetables and only the liquid.

Long distance relationships are difficult, however they can work out. As long as you will be able to see each other then it should work out. I say go for it and see what happens.

My doctor says not right away. 6-8 weeks post op then you can start having gum. Right now it is letting your stomach heal and following the stages. Even though we are adults, we have to think of our stomachs as newborn babies: 1) Each week is like 2 months in baby time: Would you give a newborn gum? No. because they can't chew it and they run the risk of swallowing it. 2) Would you give a toddler gum? Most likely no because they run the risk of swallowing it. You have to treat your new stomach as a newborn. It sucks because we have things that we like mentally from before but our stomachs cannot handle it at this time. You will be able to chew gum eventually. Now is just not the time. Once you have made you way to solids then you should be able to have gum but your surgeon will make the decision. Congratulations on the surgery.

You can send a message saying: "Hey, my name is (name). I am interested in getting to know you better and what your interest are"

This is an awesome profile. You don't need to change anything.

Hey, there are many, many fish in the sea. If one does not seem to interested, you will find another. Here is a way to spice up your profile, "Fun and loving guy who is on a journey to not only transform my mind but my body as well. I like to do the following: 1) List all of all your outdoor activities and things you like. Looking for a woman that would like to travel and come along this journey with me."

You have done an amazing job!!!!

3 months is very excessive. I am struggling on at 14-day pre-op diet. It could be done for the following: 1) Liver Shrinkage 2) Fat around the midsection shrinkage. 3) Healthy weight for a successful surgery. You can do it. After awhile, it is not so bad.

Congrats!!!! The small wins are the best.

Congratulations!!!! I will be there soon.

I have purchased the Vitamins by Olly sold at Target. They are chew able. Try eating a few bites and then taking the pills. This may work since you have food in your stomach as well.

I can relate with you. I have tried every single diet plan and purchased nutrition for dummy's, diet for dummy's lol. I broke my ankle at the gym trying to lose weight and now run the risk of breaking the other ankle (pretty much any day now at this point). I am very self conscious of my body. I do not like it when my bf, looks at me naked so I hide (although he does not care and still thinks I am beautiful). The best tips to get the ball rolling and this is what I did, is the following: 1) Call your insurance company and make sure that bariatric surgery is covered. 1a) Ask what are the guidelines such as weight, bmi, comorbidities, required wait times (3 - 6 months or anytime for surgery). 1b) Confirm whether or not you will have to be at a center of excellence. 2) Start looking for a surgeon. The more views and rating the better. You can also look here on this website as many wls patients have referred their surgeons. 3) Read up on the surgery and watch a lot of videos. The more informed you are, the better you will be at adapting and using the tool properly. I hope this helps. I am sure that I am missing some steps in there.

Like @blizair09 I would take this journey all over again. I am in the pre-op liquid stage on Day 6. This has been the hardest and yet most rewarding struggle. This is a tool, it is not the magic pill and it can only be used properly when you put your all into it. I sought out the surgery, it was not offered to me. I did that because I had spent two years actively trying to lose weight and I was not succeeding. I have broken bones, spent thousands of dollars and this is my last hope. I think the more you read about it and look into it, the better you will feel. I would not suggest getting the surgery if you are not ready to, have not actively tried losing weight and do not understand the tool and yourself. As of now, I do not regret my decision. However, I will check in after the surgery lol. You never know with these things.

I use the personal trainer at Planet Fitness. He has intro classes and actually classes. When no one signs up which usually happens, he uses the 30m -1hr to assist me with my workouts.

I started mines the 12th. It is going to be the hardest thing you have ever done. It will be worth it though. I tell myself everyday that there is a goal. I try to keep focus. Good luck!!!!

Premier Protein is what I use. It is not too bad but it does the trick.

I do not have a Kroger near me. I can look up the product and see who else sells it.