Nic C

Was able to fit into goal shirt today (pink) and the birthday was before surgery the rest are 6weeks post op and 30 pounds down

I still have a long way to go but I’m so much happier and healthier now

Checking in to say I am doing really well. I am grateful for this opportunity to work on loving myself. For a moment, I felt bad because I told my Mom and brother that I appreciate them wanting to come see me but I am not up to having visitors. My Mom did not want me to have this surgery and my weight has been an issue between us since I was 11 years old. That's 37 years of judgement and advice on how no man will look at you if your fat. She was wrong about that, my hubby of 6 years is amazing. Mom was a little upset when I called her but I have to do what is best for me right now. Some of the emotional issues my therapist warned me about are being revealed and I have to learn how to feel things instead of eating the pain and guilt away. Right now I am walking and journalling.
How does everyone else handle the emotional ticking time bombs that come up when you least expect it?

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UPDATE on Frustr8:
I just heard from Tomkitten that Frustr8 is out of surgery. Doctor said there were no problems. She's very tired but sitting up and sipping liquids. I'm sure she'll be back on the boards in no time! She's been dreaming of this day and it finally happened. Praise be!

Best wishes for Frustr8 and SueSaBelle for their surgeries today! I hope you both have a smooth procedure and recovery

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Best wishes for Frustr8 and SueSaBelle for their surgeries today! I hope you both have a smooth procedure and recovery

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Best wishes for Frustr8 and SueSaBelle for their surgeries today! I hope you both have a smooth procedure and recovery

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Congratulations on getting a surgery date!

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Welcome @Nic C, @CrankyMagpie, @Neversaynever and any newbie to the thread I may have left out. Great to see the group growing (and shrinking).

My people! Hello! It is so nice to see this thread! (I am not exactly a gal; I'm non-binary, but I was assigned female at birth and pass as female in spaces where I don't feel comfortable being "out." I hope it's OK if I hang out here. I have about had it with dudes, right now.)
I don't put my weight in my profile, because, I'm not sure why. I feel like my writing style is pretty distinctive, and I worry that someone will identify me based on what I say here and then will know what I weighed? ... Look, anxiety isn't rational.
Anyway, I started just under 350. I set a goal weight for myself based on the BMI chart (even though it is ridiculous and unscientific), but honestly? If I get under 220, I don't think there's anything I will want that I can't have. I'm not even really having this surgery explicitly for the weight loss; I'm doing it to get my arthritis under control. (The weight loss is part of that, and believe me, I'm excited about it. But I wouldn't have signed up for it if not for the arthritis.)
I'm self-pay (which will completely clean out my savings--probably with some debt to boot), so I don't have a mandatory insurance waiting period, and I just wrote a really long message to my bariatric team, begging them to reconsider their "you must lose 10% of your starting weight before we'll operate on you" policy. It isn't science-based (I didn't tell them that; I wanted to convince them, not make them mad), and it is making other parts of my life significantly more difficult. I get bronchitis every single winter, and if they push my surgery off until mid-winter and I get bronchitis before then, 1) I can't have surgery until probably at least April, and 2) my deductible will reset. (The surgery isn't covered, but it'll still count toward what's left of my very, very high deductible.) Also, my clearances will start to expire, which is expensive and time-consuming. Also, I've gone back to school, and my easy classes are this semester; I can't miss 2-3 weeks of class, next semester.
Anyway, if they hold fast on their arbitrary numbers, I think I will start investigating other surgical teams in town.
So, hi, that's my life story. Nice to meet you all!

Thanks for the warm welcome, y'all! It's refreshing to read your stories and to know that there are others who started where I am and have had success and are still succeeding!

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Congratulations on your surgiversary! You look so great and I love the black dress!

You look AMAZING! Congratulations on your loss and the non-scale victory of shrinking scrubs!

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I'm so happy this thread exists. I've been lurking around different forums and have felt a little discouraged that my HW is 416 when others are in the 200s. I'll be 29 in October and though I feel I should've started this journey earlier, I know there's a season for everything and I wouldn't have been emotionally ready back then. I'm in 26/28/4X clothing sizes and I refuse to buy more clothing until I lose weight. I have jeans ranging in size from 18-26 that I'll use to measure my progress in addition to the scale. My final, ultimate goal weight is 150 and it seems SO daunting since I still weigh over 400 lbs. I already know that if/when I get to Onderland I'm going to cry. I'm in the early stages of the process (psych and 2nd nut appointment are in September and still have to get medical clearance from my PCP and some other testing. I'm low-key freaking out about the upper endoscopy and gallbladder ultrasound) and haven't seen any loss yet but I'm hopeful. Y'all are such an inspiration!

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I'm so happy this thread exists. I've been lurking around different forums and have felt a little discouraged that my HW is 416 when others are in the 200s. I'll be 29 in October and though I feel I should've started this journey earlier, I know there's a season for everything and I wouldn't have been emotionally ready back then. I'm in 26/28/4X clothing sizes and I refuse to buy more clothing until I lose weight. I have jeans ranging in size from 18-26 that I'll use to measure my progress in addition to the scale. My final, ultimate goal weight is 150 and it seems SO daunting since I still weigh over 400 lbs. I already know that if/when I get to Onderland I'm going to cry. I'm in the early stages of the process (psych and 2nd nut appointment are in September and still have to get medical clearance from my PCP and some other testing. I'm low-key freaking out about the upper endoscopy and gallbladder ultrasound) and haven't seen any loss yet but I'm hopeful. Y'all are such an inspiration!

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I'm so happy this thread exists. I've been lurking around different forums and have felt a little discouraged that my HW is 416 when others are in the 200s. I'll be 29 in October and though I feel I should've started this journey earlier, I know there's a season for everything and I wouldn't have been emotionally ready back then. I'm in 26/28/4X clothing sizes and I refuse to buy more clothing until I lose weight. I have jeans ranging in size from 18-26 that I'll use to measure my progress in addition to the scale. My final, ultimate goal weight is 150 and it seems SO daunting since I still weigh over 400 lbs. I already know that if/when I get to Onderland I'm going to cry. I'm in the early stages of the process (psych and 2nd nut appointment are in September and still have to get medical clearance from my PCP and some other testing. I'm low-key freaking out about the upper endoscopy and gallbladder ultrasound) and haven't seen any loss yet but I'm hopeful. Y'all are such an inspiration!

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Thank you all for your tips! I'm going to follow the post-op bariatric diet that they gave us and buy smaller plates. I gave up soda already and I'm going to do my best to decrease my carb intake as well. Hopefully I won't crave them as much.

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Thank you all for your tips! I'm going to follow the post-op bariatric diet that they gave us and buy smaller plates. I gave up soda already and I'm going to do my best to decrease my carb intake as well. Hopefully I won't crave them as much.

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My WLC gives every patient a specific diet to follow starting the first appointment. It is the diet we will be following when we start eating solid foods again. I am in the 5th month of my WLC 6 month required program. No matter what our insurance requires everyone they do WLS on has to go through this program, along with the required medical testing that can take awhile to complete.

Mine had me give up caffeine, alcohol and carbonation. Told me to practice "eating in order" Protein first, then veggies and then carbs if still hungry. Make sure and include a fruit or veggie at every meal. Oh, and not to drink my calories and aim for a minimum of 64 oz of Water a day. Also to practice not drinking with my meals.

My nutritionists wanted me to do several things:
1) Focus on getting a Protein as part of every meal. Ideally a lean protein, but they never balked at Peanut Butter on an apple as a snack. Low-sugar yogurts are good. Light string cheese is good. eggs are good.
2) Get a fruit (up to 1/2 cup or 1 fruit) or a vegetable with each meal.
3) Switch from simple to complex carbohydrates. If you're going to have bread, make it whole grain--and after your protein. They weren't like "take away potatoes" (though they did encourage me not to count those as a vegetable :)), but they were like "switch from white rice to brown rice."
4) Take small bites, chew a lot, eat mindfully, put the fork/spoon down between every bite. No wolfing down food in the car, no open bags of chips in front of the TV.
5) Get 8 cups or more of Water per day. If it has Mio in it, or it's an herbal tea or a Decaf coffee, that's totally fine. Sugary beverages are a big no, and caffeinated beverages don't count.
6) Stop having carbonated drinks. (This is the one that I balked at the most, honestly. I knew I'd need to give them up post-op, but I had really planned to keep enjoying them until I had to stop.) If you really must have that diet soda, let it go flat first.
And I mostly followed that -- I won't lie: at least two croissants, no small amount of Chicago style popcorn, and several servings of pizza crossed my lips over the course of the two months I mostly-followed these guidelines -- and lost 6 pounds each month.
I need to lose a bit more quickly, so I've changed things around a bit -- doing a low-fat ketogenic diet which has me down near 1000 calories a day -- in order to meet my doctor's arbitrary weight goal in time to get my surgery this fall. But the rules above were pretty good, and the flexibility to break them--just a little, and only very rarely--was nice. (I hate Keto. I hate that a single piece of fruit will wreck up my system for over a day. But it is a very efficient way to lose weight with mostly manageable hunger. And those refried Beans in the mushy food stage will taste SO GOOD to me. I miss beans.)

You can start by meticulously tracking your food/water intake (if not already) this will help you to: not gain any weight, maybe lose some weight and set you up for great habits after surgery!
You're on your way!!!

I had my first nutritionist meeting today and though it was a little overwhelming, I'm still excited. The info I received was mostly about the post-op diet and the 3 day liquid pre-op diet, but I didn't get much info about what I should be doing in the mean time, diet-wise. Of course, making healthier food choices is a given, but did your nutritionist give you any additional info at your first meeting? She did make the comment that if I lose weight pre-op, that's great and it'll be healthier for surgery but I can't gain weight which makes sense. Any tips for these next 4 months? Thanks in advance!
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Hey - welcome and good for you for deciding to join the journey. Use the search bar at the top to find topics in the forums - it will answer a lot of questions already covered on here.
Also take time to look up @JerseyJules and @BigViffer and some other veterans. Jules has youtube videos documenting his journey.
Good luck.