Rainbow_Warrior

There's one very important person you need to have the frankest of conversations with ... NOW. You need to gauge his feelings and commitment. My wife and I have had this conversation a few times and we are enjoying that we are both getting lighter/healthier. Be very wary that you have had the sex-"tap" off for so long. Do something before the weekend is out!

Several of the weight resistance machines at the gym have helped. Just ask the "wandering" gym supervisor what he/she would recommend for you. Be frank. They are, generally, very helpful. (They want you to stay a reliable returning gym user.)

Thanks Doctor Adeyeri. There's a lot of great tips in that very recent post. I've taken a screenshot of the EIGHT TIPS part for personal reminder. (Actually SEVEN TIPS ... no #5 to see!) BTW, I have been great at #1, #2 and #3 for 1275 days in a row. Since I retired, I have been spot on with tip #7 ... my sleep now is nearly always in the range 7.75 to 9.25 hours daily plus a day nap of 50 to 90 minutes. (I'm almost 14 months retired from full-time work.) #8 is very new to me but I have a good 90 day history and will build! #4 has been hard ... switching from a Protein:Carbohydrate ratio of 1:2 to 4:3 is a very new thing. I have been phasing the change well over the last month and a half. (This very week is the first time I, the son and grandson of the district's finest bakers, have gone SIX days without so much as a slice of bread. I can't ever recall a time in my life I've previously gone longer than 30 hours without bread!) #6 has been tough. I like liquids (... espresso coffee, black tea, peppermint tea, tonic water and 5-10 beers per week) but water consumption has been in the back seat all my life. I'm drinking about a litre in three protein shakes plus about 2-4 tumblers of other water each day. Hey, what was the missing #5?

Amen to that! Sadly, some people who have 'serious history' doing this to family and loved ones don't notice until the boot is on the other foot. - - - Mind you, what I call COMPLACENT COMMERCIAL OBSERVATION is bad too. "And what is that?" I hear you ask. COMPLACENT COMMERCIAL OBSERVATION is when three family doctors in the space of 35 to 40 years treat each ailment/illness/injury related to obesity (or morbid obesity) as single episodes. I wish that Doctor K back in 1980 had just said, "I know you've told me you've been to Weight Watchers and that you play a lot of sport but are not able to maintain a normal weight. Would you like me to monitor your weight and involve other health care services? Reality is, RainbowWarrior, that 105kg is very bad place for you to be when you really should be seventy-five to seventy-eight kilograms." Doctor K and two other GPs (and a couple of locums) failed to say anything like this at all while I was in their surgeries. It was an older Chinese-born GP filling in one Saturday morning about 2013 who said to me (while he had my history up on the screen), "90% of your health care issues would go away if you lost that 90 or so extra kilograms you're carrying everywhere." Were my doctors too complacent to tell me the truth as I may have been a long line of regular $$ to them? Mmmm. Maybe I'm overly suspicious. In the last couple of years, I found a doctor who listened better, reflected better and invited me to do regular swimming at the same pool he and the practice doctors go.

I know this pain of up and down. The graph is Dec 1981 to now ... red line is my "ideal" weight (75kg/164lb)). For most of the last 30 years I have been about double this. Best wishes to your decision.

No. I am polite, even cordial ... an attentive listener. I focus on his advice and support. He can do a job I need. He's a refined version of my plumber, my lawn maintenance man, my electrician, etc. I want him to be well-trained, dexterous and to do his job well. In return, I'll pay him the gap fee and authorise the health insurance pay off.

I was 174.6 kg on the day of my first interview with the surgeon and dietitian. I set my goal at 74.6kg for two reasons: (A) it's exactly 100 kilograms to lose. In Australia, we measure weight/mass in kilograms. So, all my "percentage lost" and "percentage to go" calculations will be super easy to see/calculate. (B) 74.6kg is also over BMI 24 and below BMI 25 ... very convenient number!

I was doing the same thing in reverse just days ago. i.e. What would I (a morbidly obese 61 year old male Australian) say to my 15 year old (or 18 year old) self given temporary use of a time machine? My four top answers would be: 1. Don't eat factory-generated breakfast cereals or any added sugars or sweeteners. 2. Moderate portion sizes are best and "seconds" should be a rare thing NOT your normal thing. 3. Soft drinks or carbonated drinks are unnecessary ... including all diet varieties. 4. Alcohol, especially beer, does not have to be central to social life or "winding down". - - - While I cannot guarantee that these four pillars will stop my adult overweight, I'm sure that I would not have reached 191.8kg (423 pounds OR 30.25 stones). Five of my grandchildren had a dad that was 208kg (458 pounds) in January 2015 and is now 99kg (218 pounds) today following diet shakes for six months then Gastric Sleeving in late July 2015. In fact, it's his success that finally prompted me to go for Gastric Sleeve surgery myself. He and my daughter do not want any of their five kids to repeat his life or mine. They operate under my first three advice points for their kids. My daughter and the youngest grandchild in that family are Coeliac as well. So food and eating and drinking sensibly are at the core of their daily life.

It's NOT mandatory that people agree with your choice. It's clearly you that has made the decision and has almost all the options for the future under your supervision and control. Utilise ALL the support you need. For your own benefit (from others' hindsight), be VERY SELECTIVE in who you tell or even WHEN you tell them. Keep away from people with known negative outlooks on WLS as they will be NO help to you. You should know by now which of your family, friends and work colleagues (if any) should be "in the know". Think before you speak/share.

Looks delightful and delicious. Enjoy.

Very good article. Thanks for sharing, njgal. I hope he's doing well now that some extra years have passed.

By increasing your crowd size above "one", you could sell tickets and potentially have a treasure chest of $$$ to fund new smaller sized clothing. <GRIN>

The best people will, ultimately, admire your honesty should you wish to speak frankly.

Surely, I hope, just one random 'nutter'. In all my ten days here, I have seen a troll operating/posting in two forums but everyone dismisses him, fobs him off and tells him to pull his head in. He's said nothing in response to me AS YET ... but should he crap me off, I'll just use the "BLOCK USER" feature.

A great point. And, in the extreme of being under an unfair or unwarranted attack, there is the choice to BLOCK a user that you find distasteful. I'm sure celticNgal will see that available choice soon ... I noticed it after about five days.

I'm glad you're personally focused. I'm impressed that you are ready to sidestep meanness and negatives. Stay on track. Respond to the people who are (helpfully) pushing you towards your goals. Ignore the small-minded and ignorant ... most of all, stay out of any forums where they predominate! Cheers.

I'm at a loss to know what you're referring to, celticNgel. I have posted my story. I have responded to other people's weight loss news. People have responded to me by offering me hope, advice or words of applause. Of about 180 responses in ten days, only ONE has been negative. Maybe, I'm guessing, you have entered the wrong forums.

Congratulations. Nice start. Time to update your current weight/mass, eh?

Climate change is real. Fifteen of the warmest years on record have occurred in the period 1999-2016. Our nearly 300 years of industrialisation has had a huge fast impact on the planet. I know that reporting is fast in our modern 24 hour news cycle but there really do seem to be many more extreme weather events and natural disasters these days.

Relative lack of stomach space means less room to absorb burp pressure?

Superb news!

Water bottle = GOOD move! Pain news = pleasing. RE PAIN AFTER SURGERY: My best man (from wedding many years back) had his Endoscopic Gastric Sleeve 46 hours ago (Monday 11th Sept at 10am). He was home 25 hours later. (I was with him 11:30am to 1:30pm Tuesday.) No pain. Walking and moving freely. He played with his dogs and daughter on the floor/rug. He is returning to work today ... right now. ENDOSCOPIC GS = having the gastric sleeve down from the inside, i.e. down the throat. NO INCISIONS. No keyholes.

It's a mental mechanism others develop to assume that all calorie controlled diets with exercise are easy and that I (and 95% of other grossly obese and morbidly obese people) are just not trying hard enough. Over the las t 40+ years, I have watched some formerly very skinny and some average weight people become overweight then obese. I see their eyes when I say, "I know it's hard to diet for long periods of time, eh? ... harder than you used to think, eh?" Some do begin to empathise ... but not all. - - - People who tell me my upcoming gastric sleeve op is cheating get both barrels from me. I emphasise that I am spending megabuck$ to buy the advantage ... i.e. paying a direct price for all my failures at dieting because I want to "get in the game" and end the medications, the painful joints and the combined negatives of hal a lifetime of obesity. Thanks for reading my 10c worth.

Best wishes for this new step into your future!

Bill, Barack and Hillary have been trying to convince Americans for 25+ years to have a Universal National Heath Scheme like Canada, the UK, nearly all of Europe, Australia and New Zealand. I can't believe Americans are frightened of "free" universal health care paid for by their taxes ... like the rest of the world. You must have powerful doctors' lobby groups!