Creekimp13

I feel that salad desire. I'm back on most things....but what I miss and want the most...is a crunchy salad. Tired of mushy food...want texture and zing:) So many salads I miss... Won't be long, now:)

Lookin good, Chickadee! Stalls stink...but you've lost nearly 40 pounds in the last 6 weeks...your body is going what the hell? LOL. I promise the stall will break and you'll lose much more. Patience:) You're doing great, and lookin terrific!

I'd think of some really outrageous thing to tell them...like....my unborn twin is causing me to go into kidney failure because it's teeth and hair are infected and a specialist from Germany is coming to remove it and study it. LOLOLOL Yes, I have demented humor. You could tell them you have a large benign anal tumor that is not cancer, but is painful and will require you to eat a special diet. No one makes fun of a butt tumor. And while there will be a little gossip, most people will just feel bad about it and try not to say anything. You could be a hero and say you're donating a kidney to a cousin. You can say whatever you want to say. Or say nothing at all:)

Have SO been there! I remember getting my first bowl of cocoa wheats...I wanted to skitter off to a corner with them and hiss My Preciousssssssss!!!!!!! LOL

Am loving the pic of your toesies, by the way. LOL. Here's some fun trivia....those hospital socks are color coded. Yellow means you're a fall risk. They'll make you wear yellow socks until they're sure you're walking ok on your own...and then you'll get a pair of tan socks. The tan socks were my first goal:) PS...not sure this is universal....but it certainly seems to be. Another weird tip... you're gonna want to get up and walk, but you'll be like...how the hell do I do that when I'm all hooked up to stuff? After you get your tan socks and can walk on your own at will... 1. It's ok to remove your leg pump sleeves.....just undo the velcro...they can continue to inflate and deflate while you're out for a walk. You can slap them back on when you come back:) They're wonderful...like a calf massage. 2. It's ok to unplug your IV pole from the wall....just plug it in when you get back so the battery stays charged. Take your IV pole with you. 3. it's ok to put on some lounge pants or PJ bottoms so it's less breezy while you're wandering the hall. Less of a show, too:)

Woooohooo! Showtime! Best wishes for a safe effective procedure and a fast recovery:) Remember: Sip, Suck, Stroll. Get walking as soon as they let you. You've got this:)

Everyone gets wrinkles....and turkey neck...and saggy boobs. LOL. Even people who have been a perfect weight their whole lives have these things. Your 40's are just....a time of physical humility. No matter who you are:)

It's a Taiwanese drink made of tea, milk, fruit syrup, or flavored syrups like chocolate, hazelnut, etc. Sometimes they have candied pieces of fruit in them, but most often they have little tapioca "pearls" in them....that are like round gummy bears. LOL. And when you drink the tea and those weird little gummies pop through the oversized straw...it's quite delightful. Think of like a fancy sugary tea at Starbucks...with a pile of round gummy bears in it that you drink through a huge straw.

Don't know if this helps, Fluffy....but if I had one wish...it would be to go back 18 years and do this in my 20's instead of my 40's. I'm stubborn and my process was long. LOL. Best wishes to you!

It'll be ok. I promise. You're not gaining weight, you're retaining some water. This, too, shall pass:)

Best wishes for a successful effective procedure and a fast recovery!

Only way to know is to get in touch with your insurance company, or get a consultation with a clinic that has experience submitting a request for you. (Sometimes clinics have better luck that individuals, since they have experience on how to jump through the hoops in just the right way)

First time I went in for a weight loss surgery consultation was about 18 years ago. For 18 years I told myself...you can do this without surgery. (I hate when people say "on your own" because if you've had surgery, you're STILL "on your own"...LOL) Straws that broke the camel's back. 1. Back pain. Like horrible pain that had me looking for benches to sit on during regular appointments, outings and grocery shopping trips. Couldn't be on my feet for long without wanting to cry. Was eating enough ibuprofen to rattle like a maraca. 2. My A1C was creeping up and became pre-diabetic. 3. This is the biggie. I'm doing peri-menopause and had some weird spotty periods. Ended up doing a lot of testing and needed a uterine biopsy. We were concerned about endometrial cancer....and my doctor said...well, you do have risk factors, in particular your years of morbid obesity put you at risk for endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer. And that's where all my fears of bariatric surgery disappeared. I'm a hell of a lot more afraid of cancer....than I am of getting a sleeve. Also, my kid is a biologist, and one day I'm going to have grandkids...and you know she's going to take them on adventure vactations. Hiking, canoeing, caves, etc. I don't want to be left behind. I don't want to be Grandma-Can't-Come. I want to be a crazy grandma on water skis someday. I want to have adventures with my family. I want to be sleeping in the kid tent telling ghost stories. So yeah...my life without weight loss....scares me a hell of a lot more than surgery, than facing my demons, and making peace with food. Everyone has a process on how they reach their decisions. Took me 18 years of wrestling with doubts and fears and anger about being fat and having shitty genetics and a food addiction. One day, I just had clarity. This is what I'm going to do. Yep, there will be stumbles. But I'm on my way and I might get delayed, but nothing will stop me from getting there. Best wishes to all who struggle:)

Half an egg McMuffin. 150 calories, 8g of protein. There's always a McDonalds. Pair that with a decaf coffee and you're good to go:)

Glad you're at the hospital! The docs will get to the bottom of it and keep you out of danger. Best wishes on a speedy recovery!

I love them, but they're incredibly awful for you. Pure carbs. One fourth cup has about 130 calories.....from the syrups, to the milk to the tapioca pears...it's a carbohydrate overload. Worse, it's all high glycemic carbs that will make you spike like crazy and have massive rebound hunger. I'll miss them. If I'm ever with a friend who is drinking one, I might take a sip....but they're like eating candy. From a safety standpoint would they be ok? You are almost guaranteed to get nauseated by too much sugar too fast.(think dumping syndrome) You'd need to chew up each pearl really well, cause I can see them being a clogging hazard. My advice? Don't run this experiment until several months out. Better still....have a sip of your friend's and try to find a replacement. They're horrible for you.

If you go by data gathered by doctors on their patients...actual weights taken by doctors at the one month check up (rather than what people report...people lie a LOT about their weight)....the average weight loss in the first month after sleeve is 18% of excess body weight. Which means....if you have 100 pounds to lose on the day of surgery...you will probably lose 18 pounds in the first month. If you have 50 pounds to lose on the day of surgery....you will probably lose about 9 in the first month. If you have 200 pounds to lose...you could lose 36 pounds in the first month. But yeah...according to hard data taken at doctor's visits......18% loss of excess body weight at the time of surgery....is average for the first month. And of course individuals vary. Some lose a little more, some lose a little less. Other factors....surgical complications, slow healing, fast healing, menstrual cycle, adjusting to any alterations of maintenance meds, etc....can cause a bump in either direction.

"Once I get through surgery, my goal is to never touch the trigger foods again." Man, if it were this simple....wouldn't most of us just set a goal to quit all our trigger foods and not bother with the surgery? My theory is that you can't run from food. Gotta make peace with it. Get power over it. Gotta face it and get control of it. Otherwise, it still has all the power and you're running away for the rest of your life...powerless. I'm not saying being able to say no, is powerless....just saying....these foods will still be there. You'll run into them. They might still sing to you. I guess my question is...why do you think having surgery will make you more able to "never touch trigger foods again?" What happens to your brain during surgery that enables this change of ability? Not being a jerk, just honestly would like to follow your train of thought.

Have had the loose poops on and off this past month....but have not had any problems avoiding accidents. Nothing out of the ordinary. it's always wise not to completely trust a fart on a loose poo day. LOL 100% agree:) But as of yet, have not had something like this occur.

Here's another way to look at it: * You've already had the flu so you won't have to worry about picking it up as much. * Whatever weirdness is going on with your menstruation...endometrial and ovarian cancer risk increases with obesity...the bad period might be God or the universe or whatever telling you to DO the surgery because you carry additional risk by being heavy. * Obese people are more at risk for illnesses of all kinds. If you have problems being sick all the time....staying heavy probably won't help you. Whatever you decide, best wishes.

Sad to be the wet blanket....but your weight might disqualify you. At 5'6" and 210...your BMI is 33.9. Most surgeons will only do the surgery, and most insurances will only cover it when you have a BMI of 40+ or a BMI of 35 with comorbidities like diabetes or hypertension.

The conventional advice is to give up carbonation forever. Some people bend this rule and get away with it. Some end up with problems...regain...etc. My doc said in a seminar that if you want a carbonated drink once in an absolute blue moon....try to keep it under 4 ounces and don't do it more often than a couple times a month. (you're not gonna die or sabotage yourself by having a glass of champagne at a wedding, or half a small coke a couple times a year). Best advice is to avoid it...cause it leads back to bad habits and can potentially stretch your pouch (some controversy there, too) It's a judgement call. I'm going to try to give it up forever cause I love carbonation and it would be very easy for me to over indulge over time. So far, I'm drinking my Mio and doing ok.

Poking around in my closet last night, I put on my favorite Capri cargo pants from last spring......let go of the waist and they fell right off my butt. Like seriously...didn't even need to tug them...just wiggled a little and they slid off. I giggled like a loon and called my husband in and showed him. I remembered they took my measurements when I started at my group. I dug the paperwork out, and got out my measuring tape. I've lost two inches on my bust. One inch on my hips. One inch on my neck. And a whopping SEVEN inches on my waist:) My cargo Capris were baggy...I was buying an up-size because of my waist. Waist reduced and the rest was already baggy. Off they fell:) Am love, love, loving getting my waist back:)

Your wife should go in for a physical, have some tests, and determine the cause of her water retention and see if it should be treated with a diuretic. Water retention can happen with everything from venous reflux, heart issues, kidney issues...to a diet too high in salt, obesity, etc. Some very simple harmless causes, and some complex serious causes. Don't guess...go to the doctor:) Best wishes.

By 21 days I was eating 1000 calories a day and felt pretty darned good. Three meals, three snacks...each about 150-200 calories. Protein target 80g+ Not all doctors advise you to starve yourself. Newer long term research (10 years +)suggests that having your metabolic reset occur on a starvation metabolism will hurt your weight loss maintenance long term. Eat when you're hungry. Just get your protein and don't eat junk.