karen_marie
-
Content Count
136 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Status Replies posted by karen_marie
-
Eager to post some photographic evidence of my progress so far! This week will mark the beginning of my fifth month post-op. The before photos I weighed in at 280.1 the night before my surgery. The after photos were taken today at my current weight, 229.8.
Some new NSVs include being a size 0 in Torrid dresses and finding my newly purchased size 18s are getting looser and looser.
-
I use MyFitnessPal to keep track of what I eat and everything else under the sun. Unfortunately, if you eat less that 1100 calories, it won't calc because it says you are not eating enough. So, the question is, does anyone know of a better app to use to track food that doesn't make you feel bad that you are under the calorie count?
-
I've been using MyFitnessPal for quite a long time now. If you go into your settings -> goals, scroll down and under Nutrution Goals you can choose to update calorie goals. I've set mine to the top end of my post-op calorie range (800). I never get any notifications about not eating enough, etc. Try that and see if you like MFP after it's set how you need it
-
-
After a week of keeping my mind on the goal, I got down from 196.2lbs to 193.9lbs. I am soo happy. I have not words to describe it. It gave my a renewed hope that I can come down a bit more. I personally don't like being so close to the 200lbs because it is soo easy to get back up to that amount.
This weekend, I spent time looking at my older workout videos and that the one that gets me is the pull up. My first time, I did 3 and 1/2. I struggled soo much to do that. Then the next week, I was doing 6 and I was not struggling as much. It just reminded how far I had come.
Sometimes we focus on the finish line soo much, we do not take time to look back and see how far we have come from the starting line. I have come to the conclusion that I may not get to my weight goal due to my love of weight lifting and strength training but I will take being able to do a pull up and one day hopefully as push up any time.
-
I'm doing so well on the new plant-based way of eating! It's been 1 month since my final diet visit, where I found out I had gained about four pounds since my previous visit in November. That meant I had only lost 3 pounds overall from March-December 2017. Ugh, sad trombone. However, in the last 3 weeks of eating a plant-based diet I've lost 13 pounds from my December visit weight! And that includes Christmas and a vacation! So definitely not a "perfect" month by any means. I'm really hoping this way of eating will support my goal of reaching and maintaining 100% of excess weight lost.
-
Hey whatever works! I've had a few friends go plant-based and drop a lot of weight naturally.
-
Little Green reacted to this
-
-
Did a face to face Friday comparison and HOLY SH*T! hahaha the difference from my 300lb face and my 235.4lb face is truly astonishing. It's like a completely different person! Good motivation to keep moving onwards and DOWNwards!
-
A little bummed because I still have not heard from the office that does endoscopies to get mine scheduled so I can get my surgery date! Between the holidays and the recent snow, I can understand why, but it's still frustrating. Impatiently waiting!
-
I second @Taylor5, just call until they get you scheduled! My pulmonologist's office is NOTORIOUS for being difficult to get ahold of and schedule appointments. I just call, secure message, whatever I gotta do to get someone on the phone with me haha
-
Little Green reacted to this
-
-
Hi, my name is Karen and I had my bypass surgery on October 11th 2017. I had been researching various kinds of weight loss surgery for a while, first in the UK where I was born and lived until 7 years ago, and then in the US. I first looked at the band back in 2008 but the process in the UK was long and expensive and my bariatric surgeon was very unfriendly and very conceited. I had to put things on hold when we decided to make the move to the US and it took some time to get life set up here. In 2013 I broke my knee - the tibial plateau in particular, and was not allowed to weight bear for nearly 12 weeks. Of course, I packed on more pounds during that time and even worse, the rehabilitation from that injury was made significantly harder by being morbidly obese. In 2015 I decided that I had had enough and I contacted a surgeon in the local area. I started the process to get approved by insurance and part of that was a six month supervised diet. During that time I lost over 50 lbs and the nutritionist encouraged me to carry on losing by myself without the surgery. That worked for a while, but stress and going back to work meant a return to my old habits and the weight soon came back. Before I could put all of those 50 lbs back on, I got back in contact with my surgeon as I had decided that I really could not do this on my own. Insurance accepted my six months supervised weight loss from the previous attempt so all I had to do was get the psych evaluation done again plus an EGD. That surprisingly took way longer than I imagined since the surgeon's office managed to mess up both appointments plus leave me out of pocket for the psych eval. Anyway, my papers finally got submitted this September, insurance approved me within 4 days and surgery took place just over six weeks ago. I am down 31 lbs from my highest weight and 23 lbs from my surgery weight and feeling so much better already. My now arthritic knee (from the break) is benefiting from the weight loss and clothes that had once again become too tight to wear are now fitting nicely again. It's early days but I am happy with how things are going!
-
Need Help looking for app that I can log my daily meals and print out monthly for my doctor. anyone have a name of such an app that I can download???
-
I second MyFitnessPal. I've used it for a long time, even before my surgery. You can print off a report of your food log each day online if you want, and can also run reports on weight loss, calories, nutrition breakdown, etc. I use the mobile app so I have no issue keeping up on my food logging. And when I make up a big batch of something, I'll create it as a 'recipe' in the app, and when you tell it how many servings that bulk recipe makes, it'll tell you the calories/nutrition breakdown per serving. Makes it super easy!
-
-
I'm not sure how I was labeled PreOp, I am PosrOp.
-
After many years of losing myself to weight loss and gain, many months of planning, eating better, Dr's appointments and seminars, and many many days of worrying, the time has finally come. I'm scheduled to get to the hospital today at 12:00. Everyone warns you about nausea after the surgery but nobody warns you about it before...the anticipation is driving me insane! I have a little tote packed with earplugs, headphones, comfy pjs (just in case), my unflavored protein, and lots of fidget toys. I know this is going to be the start of something great for me but I might go crazy waiting! I'm trying to stay as busy as possible but my entire body knows something big is looming and it's in overdrive. See you all on the other side!
-
Hope all goes well today! Out of all the stuff I packed in my backpack, the only things I used at all were my going home clothes, 10ft phone charger cable, and my CPAP for the one night I stayed over. Other than that, I had family & friends keeping me company or I was doing walks or using the bathroom lol
-
2newdreams and hap314ness reacted to this
-
-
I must be losing my mind... I got approved for surgery, but found out my surgeon is on vacation for the next couple weeks so I cannot see him until Dec 6th. That is when I will schedule surgery. I asked if she knew aprox when the surgery will be, and she told me he may not be able to operate until after the first of the year depending on his schedule... this has me so bummed that I am not even celebrating that I got approved... WTC is wrong with me??
-
Oh man, that would be TORTURE for me! It doesn't even feel like you're approved and ready to go if they can't even give you a surgery date within the next month and a half
At least you know that's it is going to happen FOR SURE lol just dig down for that extra scrap of patience!
CONGRATS!
-
-
Had my surgery on Friday 10/27 afternoon. I was doing so well in recovery that they released me after only one night in the hospital
I've been super fortunate so far, only needing one pain pill in the hospital, and right now just taking liquid ibuprofen. I've been burping since the hospital, but today was my first day at home with protein shakes and finally started passing gas - yay! lol Most of my discomfort is from soreness from the surgery and gas pressure. No issues getting my protein shakes in and keeping them down. All of my docs were super happy with my recovery, and my surgeon said the procedure went perfectly. Here's to the start of my new life!
-
Sorry to hear that you're having a hard time with the shakes @Sosewsue61
have you tried different shakes? I had bought the chocolate and banana Premier Protein shakes from Costco, and some 4oz plastic cups with lids (like you'd get a side of guacamole in at a restaurant). Then I just pour out a 4oz serving 6x a day. Once I get cleared to blended/pureed, I think I'll be down to 4-5 meals a day. It can get boring, but having the pre-mixed shakes have been a huge time saver. I'm just focusing on getting enough water in between my shake portions now.
-
Sosewsue61 reacted to this
-
-
Surgery is TOMORROW! It doesn't even feel real! I'm sitting here having my decaf coffee 'breakfast' and trying to just keep as busy as I can today so I can try to avoid the fact that I'm on 'clear' liquids all day today, no protein shakes
I brought chicken bone broth and chicken bouillon cubes to try for lunch, and must have brought half a pound's worth of sugar free lemon lime jello for snacks haha. Lord this day can't be done with soon enough!
-
Thank you! Can't wait to get back on to provide an update post surgery
My pre-op with my surgeon yesterday evening went great. Said all my pre-op tests looked really good and he didn't foresee any issues as far as he can tell/predict.
Thanks to Snapchat filters, you can see how I'm *really* feeling about this clear liquid day LOL
-
FluffyChix and Sosewsue61 reacted to this
-
-
omg omg I am so excited I found a group per say that I can vent too about this I am 29 years old and I am getting gastric sleeve surgery on October 26 just two days away I am on my third day of liquid diet and I am getting scared and nervous my highest weight was 255 and last time I weighed myself I was 248 I am gonna weigh myself tonight but I’m sure I lost with this liquid diet. Like I said it’s day three and I am feeling weak hungry headaches and antsy today is better than the last two anyone else is getting sleeved soon? This is my last hope to loose weight I have been trying so hard
-
Good luck on your surgery tomorrow!!!
-
Tania211001 reacted to this
-
-
Only 3 days away from this life-changing surgery, and I've started putting together a list of easy things I can do while I'm at home recovering. It has to be THE DUMBEST list of things I've ever put together, but here goes hahaha
- Do all the needed post-op stuff: go for walks, use spirometer, take vitamins on time, eat/drink right, etc etc etc etc ...
- Portion out vitamins for the week into 4x/day pill organizer
- Copy all phone contacts into a spreadsheet, remove old contacts file from phone, double check remaining names against spreadsheet to ensure no one is missing
- Pluck eyebrows
- Catch up on YouTube channels I watch
-
Color in keepsake drawing of a tattoo I designed for a friend (I'll include a pic of the outline below )
- Write in penzu online journal
- Play xbox games I've been neglecting
- Prep and freeze food for first few days back at work
Anybody else have a list of mundane things they want/need to do while they are recovering at home?
And here's the sugar skull owl tattoo my friend requested I design for him. It'll be super colorful once he gets it done, and once I color in the keepsake drawing for him!
-
@FluffyChix Oh I plan to be watching (while walking around my living room) a BUNCH of stuff that I've been wanting to catch up on haha
-
Only 3 days away from this life-changing surgery, and I've started putting together a list of easy things I can do while I'm at home recovering. It has to be THE DUMBEST list of things I've ever put together, but here goes hahaha
- Do all the needed post-op stuff: go for walks, use spirometer, take vitamins on time, eat/drink right, etc etc etc etc ...
- Portion out vitamins for the week into 4x/day pill organizer
- Copy all phone contacts into a spreadsheet, remove old contacts file from phone, double check remaining names against spreadsheet to ensure no one is missing
- Pluck eyebrows
- Catch up on YouTube channels I watch
-
Color in keepsake drawing of a tattoo I designed for a friend (I'll include a pic of the outline below )
- Write in penzu online journal
- Play xbox games I've been neglecting
- Prep and freeze food for first few days back at work
Anybody else have a list of mundane things they want/need to do while they are recovering at home?
And here's the sugar skull owl tattoo my friend requested I design for him. It'll be super colorful once he gets it done, and once I color in the keepsake drawing for him!
-
Thanks for the update @Sosewsue61! Glad to hear all is going well so far after surgery for you!!! So I know you're just like my mom and have multiple sewing machines - which one are you going to play with the most during your recovery time?
-
Only 3 days away from this life-changing surgery, and I've started putting together a list of easy things I can do while I'm at home recovering. It has to be THE DUMBEST list of things I've ever put together, but here goes hahaha
- Do all the needed post-op stuff: go for walks, use spirometer, take vitamins on time, eat/drink right, etc etc etc etc ...
- Portion out vitamins for the week into 4x/day pill organizer
- Copy all phone contacts into a spreadsheet, remove old contacts file from phone, double check remaining names against spreadsheet to ensure no one is missing
- Pluck eyebrows
- Catch up on YouTube channels I watch
-
Color in keepsake drawing of a tattoo I designed for a friend (I'll include a pic of the outline below )
- Write in penzu online journal
- Play xbox games I've been neglecting
- Prep and freeze food for first few days back at work
Anybody else have a list of mundane things they want/need to do while they are recovering at home?
And here's the sugar skull owl tattoo my friend requested I design for him. It'll be super colorful once he gets it done, and once I color in the keepsake drawing for him!
-
Hi @vrm2bfit! To answer your questions....
- I haven't been working out during my pre-op liquid diet. I've done some longer walks (1 mi ish or more), but haven't done anything super strenuous. My energy levels have actually been pretty good since I'm making sure I get enough sleep (7+hrs a night) and eating enough protein. I've also had to start using a CPAP machine as of 10/10 per pulmonologist's orders, and I (begrudgingly) will admit that it seems to have helped my quality of sleep. I'd say if you do try and keep up your workout schedule, maybe dial the intensity down the first time or two until you know how your body will react. For my 2wks pre-op liquid, I have to stay between 700-900 calories a day, so I'd be hesitant to go 'balls to the wall' so to speak lol Definitely ask your surgeon though before you start the liquid diet and get his/her input.
-
Can't believe it's day 13 already! So, I've made a conscience effort to really shake up (pun unintended but welcome haha) my recipes for my protein smoothies. I generally blend mine up with my blender, so it's more smoothie than watery shake. Blender makes it a bit frothy too, so you feel like you're drinking more than you've actually made (for example, the one I blend in the morning to bring with for my lunch will decrease in size about 20-25% by the time I drink it - that's how much extra body you get by letting it blend for a minute). I'd definitely suggest getting a few things to help add different flavors so you won't get tired of the same thing every day. My surgeon's office has you purchase two big bags of the Bariatric Advantage protein powder from them, so I chose vanilla and creme (which is sorta unflavored). Here are things I've blended with them:
- Skim milk / water
- Fresh or frozen strawberries, bananas, blueberries
- Sugar free flavor syrups (chocolate, vanilla) [like Torani syrups]
- Decaf instant coffee (I'm not allowed caffeine pre- or post-op for gastric bypass)
- Flavor extracts (coconut, mint, coffee, vanilla) [coconut one with some pineapple makes a good pina colada protein shake!]
- Powdered peanut butter [like PBfit]
- Canned pumpkin puree (add pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract for pumpkin pie protein shake)
- Oikos triple zero greek yogurt
- I already know I'm going to have some loose skin (bat wings, anyone?), but the health benefits are worth the trade off. I've shown my very supportive hubby some YouTube videos of folks showing all their excess skin after hitting goal, just so he knew what could be coming down the road. But he's on board for the health benefits too, so it's just something I'll deal with as it happens. If the extra skin ends up causing rashes etc, I'm making a point to go see my primary doc so I can document every time that may happen to build a case for insurance to possibly cover removing some of it.
- I will say it's gotten a little harder sticking with the liquid now that I'm soooo close to surgery and being done with this part of the process lol. Weirdly enough, being able to cook for my hubby actually has helped me not be tempted by food. I guess because I'm handling it, it's enough to get enjoyment out of making good food so that's a win for me. I am watching a lot more of my cooking competition shows I like, though hahaha
Sorry, that's A LOT of info I just share! Feel free to ask anything else
You're getting the sleeve so we're doing different procedures, but we'll still have some similarities along the way. Feel free to add me to MyFitnessPal if you'd like! My food diary is open to friends, so you can see exactly what I've been eating every day the past 13 days: karenmarie211
You're ALMOST THERE! Keep fighting!
-
Thank God! I finally figured out how to log on.!! I'm looking for a surgeon in my area on TN. I had gastric bypass in '03 and left the state of Ala. I never went for a f/u either. Now I've gained weight again and need serious help. I don't know where to start. I don't remember the doctors name who Fisrt did it. I'm willing to pay cash possibly. Just need to be sterned in the right way. Please help. I may not know how to get back However I will try to get back on here.
-
Primary doc cleared me for surgery! Said my pre-op test results were perfect
1wk and 1 day til surgery!!
-
Primary doc cleared me for surgery! Said my pre-op test results were perfect
1wk and 1 day til surgery!!
-
Finally caved and bought some BariatricPal stuff from the store to try during my post-op liquid phase. Ended up ordering:
- BariatricPal Protein Soup - Chicken Bouillon
- Celebrate Meal Replacement Shakes - Tomato Soup / 5 Single Serve Packs
- Celebrate Meal Replacement Shakes - Cinnamon Roll / 5 Single Serve Packs
- BariatricPal Protein Smoothie - Aloha Mango
- BariatricPal Protein Soup - Broccoli and Cheddar
- BariatricPal Protein Soup - Cream Of Chicken
Wanted something different sweetness wise for shakes, and have been missing a bit of savory so hopefully these soups/broths are good!
Also have my surgery clearance appointment with my primary doc today after work, so excited! I did my pre-op testing at the hospital last Saturday, and called them on Tuesday morning to make sure that they had sent my results to my primary doc for this appointment. Still crazy to think the surgery is next Friday
-
Day 5 of liquid liver-shrinking pre-op diet, and so far so good! I have been taking more enjoyment out of watching my cooking/baking shows on TV though
Can't believe my surgery is soo close@ This process has been incredibly fast for me (went to free WLS seminar by surgeon July 29th), and can't believe my life will change for the even better so soon!
-
I had the worst experience this weekend... Friday my brother and mother talked me into riding a ride at the fair that i did not want to ride... i got up in the chair and they could not latch the harness... bc I am too fat. I knew it b4 i got up there but it is so much worse when u have proof... I cannot wait for the day when stuff like that no longer happens... silver lining is that i have new motivation to stick to it.,
-
Been there, got the t-shirt, and the t-shirt didn't even fit lol That was definitely one of my lowest moments too. Riding a roller coaster is on my list of things I can't wait to do once I start dropping some weight
At least you'll have a great motivational story to share or even just reminisce on down the road.
-
-
Just about 4 months post-op and within 7 pounds of my goal. This morning I ran my fastest 2 miles at 12:20 average pace. I run faster when my dh runs with me. I haven't decided if this is a good thing or not..lol.. I do enjoy the company
I've come a long way in these 4 short months and it has been better than I imagined it would be. I love that I enjoy running and I am eating healthier then I ever have in my life. I feel hope for an active long life now where before I imagined myself dealing with the complications of having type 2 diabetes as I aged. Life is such a blessing and I am enjoying each new day!!
-
Yesterday was my day! After 10 months and 14 days, I can now officially say I am 100 pounds down. Forty more to go before I consider plastics.
-
CONGRATS!!! That's a HUGE accomplishment! [Pun intended :)]
-
MowryRocks reacted to this
-
haha
