aNYCdb

To some extent you are starving yourself to get into Ketosis and shrink your liver. On the bright side once you make it through to the surgery the ability to fill up quickly will make the initial low calorie diet much easier (some people don't even feel hungry at all after surgery). You just have to buckle down for 10 more days to make it though. I would focus on just trying to drink extra liquid to get you through to your surgery date.

Their, there, they're, it will all be ok.

Sorry I can't help, though frequent my farts smell like roses.

Congrats on starting you journey and I hope you are a good candidate for ESG. I would also add having had a VSG, that if opted to go with what you insurance covers it is a pretty minor surgery and a small incision. Either way recovery Fromm the procedure is going to be a minor part of your post surgical adjustment.

Sorry I can't help, though frequent my farts smell like roses.

I can't imagine being able to stay asleep after being propped up to have my blood pressure taken, but I suppose if you can make that work all the better for you. The only downside to sleeping is that it keeps you in the hospital longer. Discharge is usually based on your capacity to consume 4oz of liquid an hour (so that they can take you off IV fluids). They usually have you 1oz/hr hours 1-4, 2oz 5-8, 3oz 9-12, 4oz 13-16, then home. The only upside I had to being woken at 1am, 2am, 3am, and 5am is I got discharged first thing in the morning.

Their, there, they're, it will all be ok.

I would think it would be much cheaper to replace than to resize. That said you could turn them into a blanket I would think pretty easily.

Their, there, they're, it will all be ok.

Their, there, they're, it will all be ok.

Their, there, they're, it will all be ok.

1) It depends on the insurance company, but generally you don't want to be gaining weight at any point during the process (different companies may have different thresholds, for example mine was no more than 2 pound weight gain).
2) Requests for approval is usually submitted when all of your requirements are completed, which is usually after your final weigh-in/nutrition class (because they take the most time). When you say pre-op testing I'm not sure what specifically you are referring too. If you are talking about like preop bloodwork then that could be before or after approval request. If you are talking about things like pulmonology, cardiology, sleep study, stress test, PFT, etc (obviously you may not have to do many of these) then approval isn't usually submitted until they are all complete.
4) Of course they can, but since you usually needed them to sign off on the referral for surgery it usually isn't an issue. If you foresee it being an issue then address it with them now, and if necessary change PCPs.

Happy Monday. Stepped on the scale this morning and came in at 196 which puts me under 200 with a BMI of under 30 (merely overweight) for the fist time in years.

I haven't had to travel much since surgery, but I like ready made tuna/chicken salad packages that don't need to be refrigerated (that said that sweet potato apple thing you posted looks good). As for how to get away without eating, I would order something small and then say that you are doing Paleo (or some other type of diet) and that you already ate your specialized meal. That little lie will kill two birds as it will explain why you aren't eating so much and also explain the weight loss.

Post surgery you can never go wrong with a Protein Shake.

Post surgery you can never go wrong with a Protein Shake.

The general rule is that if your job requires lifting you need to take a month, otherwise you risk is a hernia.

It depends on how fast you are walking. Typically because you are locked into a steady pace on a treadmill you will walk further because when you walk outside we tend to slow down at times to look at things around us.

I wish, but I'll be happy when I get to at least no longer be in the obese category.

***Updated with a poor before picture.***
Exactly one month out from Surgery, down 27 pounds from the day of surgery and about 65 pounds since I started on this process.

CW 205
BMI ~31
Shirt is slim fit large, jeans are 34 inch waist.
Sorry I didn't really take any before pictures. Hopefully these will serve as my before pictures as I loose the rest. Not quite comfortable going shirtless, but if folks are interested I have some strechmarks that run from my triceps down my sides, but otherwise nothing is hanging too loose.
 

Before

Obviously insurance only wants to pay for surgery if you are morbidly obese, there is not getting around that. That said gastric sleeve is pretty low on the long term side effects scale so the chances of needing additional surgery and being denied are similarly low, its a question of personal risk vs reward.

I had a family member ask to see my incisions (this person was neither a child or someone qualified to judge how I was healing). Otherwise it hasn't really come up and I've only told a small number of people and everything else has been explained as "I'm on a diet."

The answer is that it depends, some people who lose 200 pounds will wind up with little loose skin while others that lose 50 will need/want surgery. Everyone's skin elasticity is different. The only general rule is that the younger you are the more elastic you skin is.

Part of the problem with answering this question is that you don't really wind up with loose skin you wind up with skin that is being stretched by your remaining fat the problem is its not really possible to get rid of all of your fat.

The closest analogy I would have is that of a Water balloon. While you can drain 50% of the water out of the balloon the remaining 50% will keep the balloon from going back to its original shape. The issue is that some people have skin that is able to shrink to encompass the remaining water only while others the weight of the water will pull on the skin effectively leaving space.

I'll let the other folks more familiar with Mexico weigh in on that aspect. The part of your story that really struck me was that you have already had an ESG performed. My understanding is that the outcomes from ESG and VSG are similar in that they effectively do the same thing in different ways. It's unclear has your ESG "sleeve" failed in some way? Otherwise I'm not sure what you are expecting to gain from having a VSG performed. It sounds like your eating habits have managed to at least partially impact the success of your ESG, though even finding a new equilibrium point lower than you were is a measure of success. I've had the VSG and it isn't magic, its a tool that only works if you are able to address your eating habits as well.

I'm honestly baffled by this. You ate a small portion of food, that in total probably had 300 calories in it. You are more than two months out and this doesn't sound like it represents any kind of overeating. Just because you are eating healthier doesn't mean that you are limited to only eating healthy things for the rest of your life. The goal is moderation which it sounds like you are doing, don't try to convince yourself that you did anything wrong or that you "cheated." You ate what you wanted and did it in a way that conformed to your weight loss goals, so congrats.