chameleon

Ok, I am off my first week on ww euphoria. I only lost .6 pounds this week...wtf?? I ate les than the first week...but....I walked 3 days out of the first week 3 miles each time and I did nothing the second week...hmmmmm....could it be that excersize actually helps????...who woulda thunk it! Anyhow, I guess I gotta get my ass back out there...I would so much rather be a slug and loose weight any way like these little tiny girls who eat 5000 calories a day and never move a muscle all day...and yes there are a lot of them out there. What the hell is wrong with my computer I think its possessed. O well Im not in the mood for this right now. peace out home girls.:peace:

Ok, I am off my first week on ww euphoria. I only lost .6 pounds this week...wtf?? I ate les than the first week...but....I walked 3 days out of the first week 3 miles each time and I did nothing the second week...hmmmmm....could it be that excersize actually helps????...who woulda thunk it! Anyhow, I guess I gotta get my ass back out there...I would so much rather be a slug and loose weight any way like these little tiny girls who eat 5000 calories a day and never move a muscle all day...and yes there are a lot of them out there. What the hell is wrong with my computer I think its possessed. O well Im not in the mood for this right now. peace out home girls.:peace:

I have to totally agree with you there T.O.M. The black dudes do seem to like some extra meat on their women, not to mention fat. That's so weird...like a cultural thing...I wonder where it comes from?

Dianne...you rock girl...congrats and thanks for the inspiration. {hugs}

Obviously Magic is young and wants to eat what many of the young people around her eat. But since she is not in high school anymore, peer presure isnot an issue. It's a good bet that many of her friends are obese as well and I'm sure KFC is keeping them that way. When I was young and pregnant I thought it was a license to eat everything and anything I wanted. I gained sixty pounds with my first child because of that kind of thinking. I never took of the last 20 and have been gaining steadily in the 22 years since then. WW is the best plan out there, but as pinky says the Points may provide too much bulk for bandsters, but maybe not...it's still a great choice for support and accountability. That once a week weigh in keeps ya honest if nothing else!

I was just laughing at some of the posts about bra sizes and how wls has affected boob sizes. Please guyz look but don't touch this one! List before and if any change after like this: 42D/40C I haven't had my surgery yet so I will just say it like it is: 42D Thanx girls! :peace:

I am on a weight watchers high..ya know that euphoric feeling that comes over you when you are still in your first few weeks of ww? I joined last week so that I can at least loose a little bit of weight while I wile away my days waiting for my insurance company to take their thumbs outta their asses and approve me. Anyhow of course I lsot my obligatory 4.5 pounds in my first week, and of course it wasn't even hard...not at all as a matter of fact. There were actually a couple of days that I couldn't even eat the last couple of points. Why is this??? Why can I do so well on ww for the first 4 or 6 weeks, then I just peeter out. Maybe, no probably because I loose those first 20 lbs so easily, then it gets harder. I know your only supposed to set small goals, but I can't fool myself completely, that 140 pounds over all that I have to loose to get to my goal is a HUGE, Ginormous, Gargantuan Monstrous number and it scares the shit outta me. I loose 5 pounds and I think ok, only 135 to go....you're 5/140ths there girlfriend....go, go, go, you CAN DO THIS. Then I start the mental figuring...this is what I always, always, always do when I start a new weight loss effort...I'll be walking on the track, or on the elliptical or on my way home from ww or anywhere and I start doing the calculations in my head..."ok I am 280 now...If I keep loosing at this rate I will be 260 in 4 weeks, then I'll be 240 in 8 weeks, then 220 in 12 weeks, then 200 in 16 weeks, then 180 in 20 weeks, then 160 in 24 weeks, then 140 in 28 weeks, then I shoould make my goal of 137 in 28 and a half weeks...whooo hooooo!! Then reality sets in and I go, Ok theres no way in hell that I will keep up a 5 pound per week weight loss....Ok lets figure it this way. I am sooo fat that I can probably keep up the 5 pound per week loss for like 8 weeks...that'll bring me to 240, then I can probably looses 3 lbs per week til I get to 200...umm lets see, that'll be like 13 weeks, so in 21 weeks I can be at 200. Ok then I'll probably slow to about 2.5 pounds per week til I hit 175, so lets see...that'll be like 10 more weeks so in 31 weeks I can be 175, so then it'll probly slow down to 2 pounds per week till I hit 150, so that outta take another 12 weeks so in 43 weeks I will be 150. So It'll probly slow down to 1.5 lbs per week til I hit 137 so in a total of 51 weeks I will be at goal!!! So I can comfortably say that in 1 year I will be at my goal weight!" This talk has taken up hours and hours of my thought processes over the past 20 years...I can't even estimate how muc time I have wasted on these pathetic calculations...over and over again like an obsession I do this. I should have lost 700,000 pounds by now if all of these strategizing sessions produced the desired results. I estimate that I have given ww somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200.00 over the years...now thats nothing compared to some women friends I have. Some of them just keep paying and paying and paying for years even when they don't go or follow the plan for months and months at a time. I bet I know women who have spent 5000.00 at weight watchers, just for attending not for products and they all loose some weight and put it back plus a few then loose some more...blah blah blah. I do know this. Weight Watchers is the BEST, Healthiest, most effective eating plan known to womankind. I say this as a dietician and as a woman who looses lots of weight on the flex or point plan AS LONG AS I DO IT! AND AS LONG AS I JOURNALIZE. You loose the battle when you stop writing I do know this. Anyhow, my current dilemma is that i wonder what I will do when I loose 35 pounds, I worry that if I loose more that I will not be eligible for the surgery even if med mutual ever coughs up the cash. So I ask myself....what will I do then? Should I loose as much as I am allowed and then try to maintain at 245? I keep thinking in my head about statistics...the statistic that only 7% of women who loose a significant amount of weight kepp it off for more than 2 years. I then wonder what percentage of ww women have lost 140 pounds. Then I try to apply that 7% number to the number of ww women and I come out to like 2....No just joking...I really don't know what the actual statistic is for ww over time. I drive myself crazy with thse number things. I can use numebrs to justify anything and I do it all the time. My quest for weight loss started this craziness and it has never stopped, not since after the birth of my daughter when I had gained 20 lbs...from 131 to 151 after birth when she was about 3 months old and I hit my first plateau...at 151....God what a gift and I thought it was such a curse! I remember my frustration at not being able to get that weight off...If I had a crystal ball then I would have only needed one bullet. Anyway, I was proud of my 4.4 lb weight loss at my weekly ww meeting yesterday, but I was even more proud of the man who was sitting behind me. He probably weighs about 350 or 375 and is about 5'10" and I would guess he's about 35 years old. He's a black man and I can tell he is a successful classy business man...he doesn't have spinners on the wheels of his late model beige colored Chrysler 300 nor does it have curb finders or any of the other paraphanelia that many black guys feel that they need to show how proud they are of their blackness. These men always come off as so pathetic to me...aspiring to be a pimp...anyway, this man is comfortable with his success and does not feel the need to prove any thing to any one. He is real. I know it sounds like I am attracted to him but I am not. I am proud of him because last week ( he joined the same day I did) he was talking about how he was looking into weight loss surgery and that he heard about someones great success at ww and he thought he should give it one last ditch effort. He came in yesterday and beat my 4.4 pound loss into the dirt with his 9.6 pound loss in one week. He was so happy and amazed that I was happy with him and for him. It was as though he got a new lease on HOPE. That's when I realized it...I had lost all HOPE of ever loosing this weight and this lapband procedure has given it back to me. I know that I will not be 280 pounds a year from now. I know that I will have lost a great majority, if not all of this burden of carrying around a whole extra person. This gives me such happiness, it's like a drug...a really good drug. I am not touting wls to this black man in my ww class. I am a dietician, I am supposed to believe that if you eat right and eat less nd move more you will loose weight. I will continue to g to ww even after I have had the surgery, and I will try to keep tabs on this man and I will tell him someday if he is struggling about this wls. But not yet. He might be one of the ones who makes it on his own...I wish I was because I feel like somewhat of a fraud doing this, but I don't care enough to continue to live fat. Well that's enough of that! Love, Me:kiss2:

I am on a weight watchers high..ya know that euphoric feeling that comes over you when you are still in your first few weeks of ww? I joined last week so that I can at least loose a little bit of weight while I wile away my days waiting for my insurance company to take their thumbs outta their asses and approve me. Anyhow of course I lsot my obligatory 4.5 pounds in my first week, and of course it wasn't even hard...not at all as a matter of fact. There were actually a couple of days that I couldn't even eat the last couple of points. Why is this??? Why can I do so well on ww for the first 4 or 6 weeks, then I just peeter out. Maybe, no probably because I loose those first 20 lbs so easily, then it gets harder. I know your only supposed to set small goals, but I can't fool myself completely, that 140 pounds over all that I have to loose to get to my goal is a HUGE, Ginormous, Gargantuan Monstrous number and it scares the shit outta me. I loose 5 pounds and I think ok, only 135 to go....you're 5/140ths there girlfriend....go, go, go, you CAN DO THIS. Then I start the mental figuring...this is what I always, always, always do when I start a new weight loss effort...I'll be walking on the track, or on the elliptical or on my way home from ww or anywhere and I start doing the calculations in my head..."ok I am 280 now...If I keep loosing at this rate I will be 260 in 4 weeks, then I'll be 240 in 8 weeks, then 220 in 12 weeks, then 200 in 16 weeks, then 180 in 20 weeks, then 160 in 24 weeks, then 140 in 28 weeks, then I shoould make my goal of 137 in 28 and a half weeks...whooo hooooo!! Then reality sets in and I go, Ok theres no way in hell that I will keep up a 5 pound per week weight loss....Ok lets figure it this way. I am sooo fat that I can probably keep up the 5 pound per week loss for like 8 weeks...that'll bring me to 240, then I can probably looses 3 lbs per week til I get to 200...umm lets see, that'll be like 13 weeks, so in 21 weeks I can be at 200. Ok then I'll probably slow to about 2.5 pounds per week til I hit 175, so lets see...that'll be like 10 more weeks so in 31 weeks I can be 175, so then it'll probly slow down to 2 pounds per week till I hit 150, so that outta take another 12 weeks so in 43 weeks I will be 150. So It'll probly slow down to 1.5 lbs per week til I hit 137 so in a total of 51 weeks I will be at goal!!! So I can comfortably say that in 1 year I will be at my goal weight!" This talk has taken up hours and hours of my thought processes over the past 20 years...I can't even estimate how muc time I have wasted on these pathetic calculations...over and over again like an obsession I do this. I should have lost 700,000 pounds by now if all of these strategizing sessions produced the desired results. I estimate that I have given ww somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200.00 over the years...now thats nothing compared to some women friends I have. Some of them just keep paying and paying and paying for years even when they don't go or follow the plan for months and months at a time. I bet I know women who have spent 5000.00 at weight watchers, just for attending not for products and they all loose some weight and put it back plus a few then loose some more...blah blah blah. I do know this. Weight Watchers is the BEST, Healthiest, most effective eating plan known to womankind. I say this as a dietician and as a woman who looses lots of weight on the flex or point plan AS LONG AS I DO IT! AND AS LONG AS I JOURNALIZE. You loose the battle when you stop writing I do know this. Anyhow, my current dilemma is that i wonder what I will do when I loose 35 pounds, I worry that if I loose more that I will not be eligible for the surgery even if med mutual ever coughs up the cash. So I ask myself....what will I do then? Should I loose as much as I am allowed and then try to maintain at 245? I keep thinking in my head about statistics...the statistic that only 7% of women who loose a significant amount of weight kepp it off for more than 2 years. I then wonder what percentage of ww women have lost 140 pounds. Then I try to apply that 7% number to the number of ww women and I come out to like 2....No just joking...I really don't know what the actual statistic is for ww over time. I drive myself crazy with thse number things. I can use numebrs to justify anything and I do it all the time. My quest for weight loss started this craziness and it has never stopped, not since after the birth of my daughter when I had gained 20 lbs...from 131 to 151 after birth when she was about 3 months old and I hit my first plateau...at 151....God what a gift and I thought it was such a curse! I remember my frustration at not being able to get that weight off...If I had a crystal ball then I would have only needed one bullet. Anyway, I was proud of my 4.4 lb weight loss at my weekly ww meeting yesterday, but I was even more proud of the man who was sitting behind me. He probably weighs about 350 or 375 and is about 5'10" and I would guess he's about 35 years old. He's a black man and I can tell he is a successful classy business man...he doesn't have spinners on the wheels of his late model beige colored Chrysler 300 nor does it have curb finders or any of the other paraphanelia that many black guys feel that they need to show how proud they are of their blackness. These men always come off as so pathetic to me...aspiring to be a pimp...anyway, this man is comfortable with his success and does not feel the need to prove any thing to any one. He is real. I know it sounds like I am attracted to him but I am not. I am proud of him because last week ( he joined the same day I did) he was talking about how he was looking into weight loss surgery and that he heard about someones great success at ww and he thought he should give it one last ditch effort. He came in yesterday and beat my 4.4 pound loss into the dirt with his 9.6 pound loss in one week. He was so happy and amazed that I was happy with him and for him. It was as though he got a new lease on HOPE. That's when I realized it...I had lost all HOPE of ever loosing this weight and this lapband procedure has given it back to me. I know that I will not be 280 pounds a year from now. I know that I will have lost a great majority, if not all of this burden of carrying around a whole extra person. This gives me such happiness, it's like a drug...a really good drug. I am not touting wls to this black man in my ww class. I am a dietician, I am supposed to believe that if you eat right and eat less nd move more you will loose weight. I will continue to g to ww even after I have had the surgery, and I will try to keep tabs on this man and I will tell him someday if he is struggling about this wls. But not yet. He might be one of the ones who makes it on his own...I wish I was because I feel like somewhat of a fraud doing this, but I don't care enough to continue to live fat. Well that's enough of that! Love, Me:kiss2:

There is nothing anyone can say to make it easier for you, but sometimes it helps to hear other peoples tale. I divorced my husband of 12 years back in 1995, We had a 3 year old son and an 11 year old daughter. It seems like a lifetime ago to me. Mt ex mother in law was also divorced and when she heard that we were splitting she kept saying I should have never done it, I should have toughed it out because it's so hard on the kids...blah blah blah. It is also tough on the kids to see the primary example of what marriage and love is supposed to be in such a skewed light. Your oldest son who is away at school now has already formed his opinion of how a woman is to be treated in a relationship...and its not a good one! Hopefully this will save your youngest from the same fate. Also, one of the reasons that your oldest is rebelling against the idea is because you are standing up for yourself and finally demanding respect, he doesn't understand that you are entitled to this, just as your soon to be ex doesn't understand this either. Enough of my armchair psychotherapy. You are a beautiful person and you deserve happiness, respect and adoration...my last piece of advice: Give it to yourself before seeking it from another person! donna

Its been 500 years now and I am the only surviving female of my species. All of the original Doctor, Dieticians, nurses, receptionists and patients that I have met thrrough my journey to get a lap band have died off hndreds of years ago. I now weigh in at 5000089 pounds and my insurance company is still telling me that I need more proof that I am fat enough to get this surgery. They figured that I would live a normal life span like all of the other sorry --- patients that they had jumping through hoops until they just keeled over from a cholesterol induced heart attack, but no. I will not die until I get the friggin surgery. It is the year 2506, exactly 500 years and 7 months since I started this journey tward lapbandism. I am old and decrepid but I still want to loose weight, if for no other reason than to spend the gd insurance companies money. I have got used to the mean sales girls and the small airplane seats and the 3/4 length sleeves on the ugly fat lady clothes....why are there 3/4 length sleeves? Are fat women also expected t be dwarfs with 3/4 length arms I mean wtf? Anyway...I am used to looking away when I pass a good looking man in the mall and not laughing too loud as to not call too much undo attention to my already giant size 22 self. I am a funny person who laughs uproariously and often, but only in front of family and friends. I live in a world of stepford wives and peyton place propriety and I am like a fish out of water....I am dying for oxygen with these people who have cookie cutter lives and sizes. HELP! I am surrounded by a credit card weilding, drowning in debt very thin to mildly overweight river of mindlessness. People are measured by what kind of cell phone their fourth grader is carrying...."I got Bipsy a chocolate for her 8th birthday....those razor phones are so five minutes ago!" I mean P A L E E S E! Anyway, cheerleaders will always be cheerleaders, and jocks will always be jocks and I will always be somewhere above them, looking down and shaking my head at the waste. Shit...Im not even on anything that warrents this kind of crazyness...well...I better get outta here.

Its been 500 years now and I am the only surviving female of my species. All of the original Doctor, Dieticians, nurses, receptionists and patients that I have met thrrough my journey to get a lap band have died off hndreds of years ago. I now weigh in at 5000089 pounds and my insurance company is still telling me that I need more proof that I am fat enough to get this surgery. They figured that I would live a normal life span like all of the other sorry --- patients that they had jumping through hoops until they just keeled over from a cholesterol induced heart attack, but no. I will not die until I get the friggin surgery. It is the year 2506, exactly 500 years and 7 months since I started this journey tward lapbandism. I am old and decrepid but I still want to loose weight, if for no other reason than to spend the gd insurance companies money. I have got used to the mean sales girls and the small airplane seats and the 3/4 length sleeves on the ugly fat lady clothes....why are there 3/4 length sleeves? Are fat women also expected t be dwarfs with 3/4 length arms I mean wtf? Anyway...I am used to looking away when I pass a good looking man in the mall and not laughing too loud as to not call too much undo attention to my already giant size 22 self. I am a funny person who laughs uproariously and often, but only in front of family and friends. I live in a world of stepford wives and peyton place propriety and I am like a fish out of water....I am dying for oxygen with these people who have cookie cutter lives and sizes. HELP! I am surrounded by a credit card weilding, drowning in debt very thin to mildly overweight river of mindlessness. People are measured by what kind of cell phone their fourth grader is carrying...."I got Bipsy a chocolate for her 8th birthday....those razor phones are so five minutes ago!" I mean P A L E E S E! Anyway, cheerleaders will always be cheerleaders, and jocks will always be jocks and I will always be somewhere above them, looking down and shaking my head at the waste. Shit...Im not even on anything that warrents this kind of crazyness...well...I better get outta here.

I am a dietician....ironic isn't life. I chose administration instead of therapy and I have spent my career as a Food Service Director for public schools. My goal in life is to remove the last surviving chicken nugget and french fry from the lives of school kids...but I have to move with stealth lest they figure out that I am here to save them from obesity...a fate worse than death, so I am steadily introducing .....shhhh......healthy food....shhh!!!!... into the school lunch venue. Don't tell any one! Me

I waited to hear from insurance for 3 weeks, they then sent a letter stating that they needed to have a 6 month medically documented weight loss attempt within the 12 months prior to appoving surgery. I have been persueing this since February of 06 when I went to the workshop. I had all of my tests in March and waited for 6 weeks for my DR to send in my weight and diet history. I got the stupid cpap machine for sleep apnea, my BMI is 44 and I have a herniated disk and sciatica. I am now seeing a dietician (which is what I am...how mortifying) to met the rquirements of my rediculous insurance company. While I am doing this though I have actually joined weight watchers again (for the 8th time in my life) and am loosing as I always do with them. I will be sure not to loose too much though, you can believe that! Why? Because I need to loose 140 pounds, not 25 or even 50 or 100 and I do not have the slightest amount of faith that I will achieve this without surgery...maybe 50, not 140. And 50 would put me 20 pounds below what I have to weigh to get approval, so I am shooting for 30, that would be a good head start. You see I am not one of those skinny since birth dieticians that I get to talk to in the hospital who say "you just have to listen to your body and you will loose weight". If I keep listening to my body I will be getting lifted out of my bed with a crane in 5 or 10 years! I am a dietician because I have had a life long obsession with my weight. Even when I was young and thin at 5'7" and 130 lbs. I thought I was a blimp, so now I don't know how to even view myself....as a older blimp I guess....any way, to get back to the insurance issue. I am 6 months into this journey...granted I have Medical Mutual of Ohio and they suck the big one. Most of you wont have this much trouble, so good luck and God Bless!:confused:

I don't think I will visit this area again the stupid talk of you, yo mamma, the horses and he said she said we said they did they shouldn't ...blah blah blah is starting to atrophy my brain cells...get a life loosers.

crikey....we will miss ya Steve

I DO think she sucks but I Don't give a crap about her feelings so I Do not care if they are hurt or if she is uncomfortable with me giving her a little attitude adjustment.

Just wondering....when was that devils advocate mode s'posed to have ended again??? Ummm are you an anorexic waif in fat ladies clothing??? This woman who is your friend is ...lemme see how do I put this euphemistically....full of shittola. No one....NO One....NO ONE NO ONE who is overweight wants or appreciates any retail sales ass-ociate offering theadvice that they wont find their size in a store....NO ONE! Ok, now that we are all straightened out on that point. How retarded does someone have to be to realize that victorias secret doesn't sport a size 12 panty or a 44DD bra size? Ummmmmmmmm...I'd say complete coma might excuse it or possibly brain death, other than that No one who can sign her name with something more than an X would need some little twit or a BIG FAT HOG or anything in between to tell her that her size is not available in a store. I mean.....can you honestly believe yourself????? GOD Almighty....I hate Stupidity.:angry

yeeaaahh for you!! Even though I am pissed at Med Mutual right now cuz they are sayin that WW is not what they want. They want a Medically documented weight loss attempt...what bullshit! Like who the hell goes to the hospital to go on a diet when they have been on every friggin diet on earth 400 times. So now I am persuing this...see my journal as I am too po'd to write it all again!! lol I am happy for you and I hope to be joining you in the not too distant future!

LMAOROTF Tired old Man...my ass! At least you're honest! Whoever said that women aren't shallow isn't exactly wrong, they are just confusing shallowness with compasion, love, and emotion. Women are probably, generally more attracted to the emotional, intellectual and sexual prowess of a man than just to their looks or their bodies. I am any way. I do love a nice ass on a guy, but sexy eyes turn me on just about as much. I also love a chiseled jawline and Marlboro man ruggedness and big bicepts, But I love the feeling that a confident man can give me too. Most of my lifetime best friends have been men. I have only had about 5 or 6 women in my life who I can truly say are friends. Why?? probably because women are much much more shallow when it comes to judging other women than men are when it comes to friendships. BUT...when it comes to men judging women for sexual relationships that when the gloves come off. A mans woman is a reflection of his sexiness and his manliness...blah, blah, blah...I don't believe that most men are comfortable enough about themselves to not be ashamed of a fat woman, even if that fat woman is their best friend and lover, until they are at least 50 if ever. Notice I said most men, there are the few specimans out there who have reached emotional maturity early and can appreciate the unconditional love of a best friend/lover who happens to be a bit chunky...so who cares...I love her...those men aare few and far between and are as rare and precious as gold. I have one...I know. Sorry for rambling....love ya'll

I am soooo sick of jumping through hoops of fire for this stupid --- insurance company!!! They sent a letter back to my surgeon that they now want a 6 month clinically documented weight loss attempt for me within 12 months of approval. Guess what??? I don't have one! I have only been on diets all of my life, but none that have been "clinically" supervised by a Doctor or a Dietitian, even though I am one. Can I document my own weight loss attempt????....Hmmmmm. Something tells me they wont go for it!! Anyhow, I did see the dietitian in March when I started this journey, then I saw her again two weeks ago, and I will be seeing her again in two more weeks, and she has been "counseling" me on what I should be doing to take off the 24 pounds they would like me to take off prior to surgery...and I have been getting weighed each time....soooo I am wondering what parameters does the insurance company hold for clinical documentation of a weight loss attempt??? Does the attempt have to be moderately successful?? What if it's "too" successful...like what if I can lose 20 pounds in 6 months? Will they then say Oh Look, she can loose weight without surgery so we aren't gonna pay....I can loose some weight...I can alwasy loose some weight...10 or 20 pounds, but never 140 pounds and it never ever has stayed off and I always always gain it back plus some more! So what the hell does a 6 month documented weight loss attempt proven....not a damn thing thats what! I can attest to that as both a dietitian and a fat chic! What it proves is that the entire insurance process is a racket and I am gettin quite pissed about the whole thing. Maybe they think idf I get frustraated enough that I will go away...FAT chance....If I get denied I will hire an attorney and I will win, so they might as well suck it up now and save us all some irritation! Ok I'm done now, and yes I do feel a little better! Thanks!:violin:

I am soooo sick of jumping through hoops of fire for this stupid --- insurance company!!! They sent a letter back to my surgeon that they now want a 6 month clinically documented weight loss attempt for me within 12 months of approval. Guess what??? I don't have one! I have only been on diets all of my life, but none that have been "clinically" supervised by a Doctor or a Dietitian, even though I am one. Can I document my own weight loss attempt????....Hmmmmm. Something tells me they wont go for it!! Anyhow, I did see the dietitian in March when I started this journey, then I saw her again two weeks ago, and I will be seeing her again in two more weeks, and she has been "counseling" me on what I should be doing to take off the 24 pounds they would like me to take off prior to surgery...and I have been getting weighed each time....soooo I am wondering what parameters does the insurance company hold for clinical documentation of a weight loss attempt??? Does the attempt have to be moderately successful?? What if it's "too" successful...like what if I can lose 20 pounds in 6 months? Will they then say Oh Look, she can loose weight without surgery so we aren't gonna pay....I can loose some weight...I can alwasy loose some weight...10 or 20 pounds, but never 140 pounds and it never ever has stayed off and I always always gain it back plus some more! So what the hell does a 6 month documented weight loss attempt proven....not a damn thing thats what! I can attest to that as both a dietitian and a fat chic! What it proves is that the entire insurance process is a racket and I am gettin quite pissed about the whole thing. Maybe they think idf I get frustraated enough that I will go away...FAT chance....If I get denied I will hire an attorney and I will win, so they might as well suck it up now and save us all some irritation! Ok I'm done now, and yes I do feel a little better! Thanks!:violin:

I have medical mutual insurance and I have been jumping through hoops of fire for this surgery. At 5'6 and 280 lbs, I am wayyyy above the BMI requirement and the have the required weight history, with sleep apnea, a herniated disk, and written recommendations from two of my docs. They are now requiring a six month clinically documented weight loss attempt within the 12 months prior to approving the surgery! I have given documentation of about 10 years worth of diets, including ww documentation...now they want more stuff. Has anyone had this problem and what can I do other than what I have already started to do which is to see a dietitian (other than myself since I am one!) and follow a "plan" that she has given me, but I have been doing this since last February! I really don't want to wait for another 6 months!! Any Suggestions? When do you get an attorney involved? It seems that they are making the requirements more stringent, the more people they have that are trying to get the surgery! Sick and Tired of insurance bullshit in OHIO.:angry

I just heard back that Medical Mutual is requesting proof of additional Weight loss attempts. My PCP ent a letter listing the different drugs that have been precribed over the years...Redux, Xenical, Meridia...I also Included a letter listing every diet plan I have ever been on...probably close to 30 (see my journal). The only supervised weight loss plan I was ever on has been weight watchers, 4 or 5 different times over the past 20 years. I know the approximate dates and I listed them, but I have no other proof because WW says they only keep records for 4 months after you stop going. And I threw away all my old stuff, and I only keep bank records for three years, so I can't eevn find a check or charge for them. I don't know how it is true that WW only keeps records for 4 months, because they send coupons for me to come back all the time! But they lady from the WW headquarters told me that and said that a lot of bariatric pts call requesting the same thing...Anyway...I don't know what the heck kind of proof I can give them???!!! I have about 15 weight loss books that I have bought over the years...Hilton Head Diet, Atkins, South Beach, Dr Phil, Oprah, Susan Powter, and many more. Shall I send them??lol. I might be able to track down a receipt or go and get one from my last hypnosis attempt from last April, but the last time I went to WW was in 2001-2002, and I can't get proof for the life of me. HELP...does anyone have any idea of what I should do? I am waiting to hear from Cleveland Clinic about what their next step is....I really really don't want this to go into the appeals process....I have been waiting long enough!:help:

Todays the day??!! I wish you luck..I'm sure it will be great and the butterfly can sart to emerge from it's cocoon!

Well it's been 17 days since my stuff was mailed into insurance and I haven't heard anything yet. I'm counting weekends...so I guess they actually received it on monday July 31st...two weeks ago yesterday. I want to call them and find out the status of it but I don't want to do anything that might jeopardize this either, because there is no way in hell that I could ever self pay and I want this so badly. My husband, who is so absolutely wonderful and loving said last night "hon...I worry about you if they end up denying it...are you gonna be ok?" I really hadn't considered this as a real possibility before, since I meet and exceed every requirement they need. But in the back of my mind is always the cancer history and them really thinking that I'm not a good long term risk to invest their money in. I wonder if they can do that for real? I mean I know it's all about money for the insurance companies, like the risk to benefit ratio is not the same thought process for them as a company as it is for me as a patient. They are thinking would it save us money in the long run to provide this care for this person or are the odds against this person living long enough to justify spending this money for this surgery that would normally be worth it since it would prevent us from having to pay for diabetes, heart failure, joint replacement, and any other obesity related malady. But in this case, the odds are against the patient living long enough to cost us the money to pay for those things and this procedure is not gonna reduce the risk of cancer reoccurring so why do it? This is the kind of crazy shit that goes through my head. Cynical, Skeptical, Untrusting, Paranoid, YES I am all of these things when it comes to insurance....why? Because I've been there, done it all. It's not that I expect to die from cancer any time soon but, I am kinda scared about it, since my luck hasn't been very good in life and after the metastisis to my lung in Feb of 05 they gave me a 70% chance of surviving 5 years. That is scarry shit man! I mean, does that mean that the odds get worse for say a ten year survival rate? Like, does that mean I have a 35% chance of living for ten years or something? I mean, I'm friggin 42 years old! I don't know....I just get scared sometimes. Not very often, only if I really think about stuff. Usually I am my "normal" self and I use the word normal loosely, believe me! Ok I am done for now gotta go to work. peace out.....:hippie: