KatieMc

I bought tapas dishes and appetizer forks and spoons for my meals. They make me feel special they're so pretty.

That is a very good point. Hospitals have a lot of sick people in them. I am glad you had a good experience.

My trainer has been my rock the last several months. He is more than my trainer, he is my therapist. He is the best damn therapist I have ever had in my life. He is the ONLY support system I have "in real life" and I talk to him about EVERYTHING. He is so knowledgeable and motivating and inspiring and he means more to me than nearly anything. Not trying to be dramatic - it's just true, lol.

Anyways, he told me today he accepted a job in the evenings and can no longer train me. There is no other time whatsoever that mutually works for both of us given our work schedules. I AM CRUSHED. I don't WANT another trainer. Yes, I will be saving A LOT of money, but I am scared to go at this alone. I am having my plastics in November and was looking forward to him helping me pick up where I left off after I am cleared for the gym again. I am going to miss him SO MUCH. I hired a trainer in the first place because I knew I had to pay someone to get my ass to go. It just happens I got the most awesome human being on the face of this planet. Now I love the gym and classes and I have to learn to be my own motivator and get excited for myself when I succeed... something I've never been so good at.
I am super crushed. ;( I've gone through the 5 stages of grief in the last four hours and legit sobbed in the bathroom at work and I am probably going to burst into tears when I see him later tonight since this is our last week together.
I have worked out a whole new gym schedule to keep me on track, and now I will have money to take more yoga which I love. I am trying to look at the positives and take away all he's taught me. But I am so so sad about this.

I’m approved!!

Don't worry, you're too soon into the post-op process now to worry about weight. Just focus on healing. The weight will come off. Get at least 64 oz of Water each day and 60 g of Protein and just follow the program.

Hello Everyone - I am one-week post-op today, and I am now only 2 pounds lighter than I was last week. That is ok with me, and I am so happy I had the "tune-up" surgery. I do need to wear an abdominal binder getting on and out of bed. I return to work this week and zero pain. I am hopeful and positive that the weight will continue to come off. During my Pre-Op liquid diet, I shed 25 lbs, so I am feeling good about that. I have broken my weight goals into 35-pound goals. I am 27 pounds from target 1.

I don't want that as well. In fact I don't know anyone who wants that. However, I know quite a few people who are this way/have gotten this way. The job just sucks you in and you really need your free time to recharge and catch up on sleep, not wanting to go to this or that event etc. - you just want things to be quiet.
ETA: It's quite easy to blame "weight" for a lot of things and "weight" might be (or even most likely be) a big factor, however, there can be many other things preventing people from being "this going out and enjoying stuff and things" person, including the question "Do I really want to be an extrovert?".

I went.

Mine did!
Search your ins. site for 'criteria for panniculectomy' (typically, this is the only procedure ins. will cover)
If you have a doctor that has been following you for problems due to excess skin. Take the list of criteria to them. Have that dr write the referral & necessity of the procedure. Make sure they touch on as many ins. criteria they can.
I went to pain management as I have many physical issues. He wrote a referral, touching on all the points ins. was looking for.
Took that to plastic surgeon, who took pics & wrote her own prior approval request. That was sent, as well as letter from pain management. I also wrote my own letter stating the co-morbidities that were resolved with weight loss, how crucial exercise is to maintenance & keeping those co-morbidities gone, and how the pannis was impacting my limited options for exercise.
I was SHOCKED, when I got a letter that not only was the panniculectomy approved, but also abdominoplasy!!

Keep in mind, insurance companies want to save as much money as possible. Convince them that, in the long run, it is more cost effective to do skin removal than pay for treatment for co-morbidities, infections, etc......

Instead of making a new thread for each of my quandaries and appointments, I'm just going to post here. lol.
My home equity loan is approved! I go for closing on Friday. I have $40,000 dedicated solely to plastics, but I don't intend to spend more than 20K.
I have my consult with my surgeon on August 16th for an arm lift and Tummy Tuck and to do something about my "side boob" area. They WILL do a tummy tuck and arm lift simultaneously.
TO BE CONTINUED! I AM SO PSYCHED! AUGUSSSTTT!!

You needed to vent, come here any time and do that - it's important for your mental health and your journey.
Some men are insecure when the wife makes drastic physical changes and changes the roles that were in place before. He may not know how to handle that. Your description sounds like he is needy and depressed, if his depression meds mess with libido that could bother him. (Wellbutrin does not do that BTW. It takes 3 weeks to take effect, and in some it can have a slight appetite depressant as well.) Depression is joyless and makes a person feel stuck. Men seldom go to counseling, but suggest it anyway.
Try to think back to when you dated and did things together - maybe suggest a date night once a week based on those common interests. Tell him he has to get dressed up, go to a bar with music and dance and talk - you can just get Water with lemon so it looks like a drink. Getting out of the house is good for depression. Or invite another couple over to do something - even just playing cards. Did he ever have hobbies? Motorcycles or bowling, fishing, trains, etc. Arrange a picnic to a forest preserve for the family and lock the phones in the car, bring a frisbee.
Good luck.

I hear ya, so many things i didnt know going into this as well. I like to make tilapia with seasoning and mix it with a homemade cilantro avocado greek yogurt dressing. Almonds and Protein packed beef Jerky have also been my go too. I havent tryed salad yet but grilled zucchini and broccoli are something i have alot. chicken everytime i eat it gives me alot of chest pain so been trying to stay away from that. Fish and pork seem to go down very well. tuna salad is good but get sick of that more than twice aweek. I have a boiled or scrambled egg most mornings. (Snack jalapeno cheese on 3 wheat thins shh dont tell anyone). I love Gatorade zero that helps me get in more liquids. Im only losing 1pound or 2 a week thought it be faster but hoping when i add in some cardio that will help as well. I bought a taebo dvd to workout too so i can do it with my kids around.. I have so much more energy now than i did before surgery. I am loving that.

Hi there
One idea - go into your profile and tell up some details - height, weight, date of surgery, surgery type. Your profile still says pre-op so it’s pretty hard to say anything useful. Only getting your Protein by supplements is fine if you are 10 days out from surgery, but not so much if you are 10 months out!!

Hmmm...at my one month post-op mark, I'd be lucky if I got over 400 calories. Nutritionist said whatever I could get in was good enough at that point.
I was however given literature pre-op that months 2-6 I should be at 800-1200, though I was nowhere near that.
But really, it varies from person to person. How tall are you? And are you male or female? How much to you weigh right now? Are you active (or plan to be)?
The folks on here could give you better advice if you provided this info...

800-1000 probably isn't too much for you, but I would be cautious about going much above it. The 6-800 level that GradyCat mentions seems to be something of a sweet spot for many - low enough to provide enough caloric deficit to get the desired weight loss for most, but high enough not to trigger any major metabolic problems from being too low - and is fairly common in many programs that specify calorie levels. Many patients, particularly average to below average height women, will find that they maintain in the 1000-1200 calorie range, so it pays not to go too high unless one has better info on their personal metabolism. Being a guy, and young, that implies a higher metabolism so you can tolerate higher calories in you loss phase; starting at close to 500lb may work against that some. Another consideration is that your overall metabolic rate will decline some as you lose weight (your resting metabolism, in theory, shouldn't change much assuming minimal loss of muscle tissue), as it takes fewer calories to move 400lb around all day than 500, and fewer still to move 300, and 200, etc. So avoid the temptation to increase calories as you lose, or you may come up short of your goal.
That said, I settled fairly quickly at 1100, (no set calorie goal in our program, either) and that worked well for me, though I only had about 100lb to lose, but did so in about seven months or so (and that was intentionally slowing things down some in the last couple of months) Do you have an idea what your calorie level was when your weight was stable (not gaining, not losing) before surgery? That can provide some guidance in estimating what you need to do. I was stable in the 2600-2800 range before surgery, and now maintain at around 2000-2200.
A slow down at this stage is to be expected, as most go through a bit (or more than a bit) of a stall at around three weeks. There is usually a fairly quick initial loss of mostly Water weight as we burn off our short term energy reserves of glycogen (basically stored carbohydrate) and then a pause as the body shifts gears to burning our fat reserves, which burn more slowly than the glycogen. I, likewise, lost about 30 lb the first month, then 15 each of the next two months. Completely normal.

I’m 10 days out from my surgery. And I felt like absolute hell for the first 5 days. I didn’t do much but take my meds, sleep and I’m between sleeping walked a bit and sipped my liquids. I was amazed that day 6 I woke up feeling like a normal person..lol. You didn’t make a mistake..focus on what you are able to do and REST. Your body needs it for recovery. Take your meds and by all means call your team if you think something is not right.
You got this!! Hang in there. What a difference a few days will make .

I scoured the forum for tips from people and came up with a revised list of things to try. I'll be adding to this and updating as time goes on but this is a lot to go on and gives me hope as I start my pureed diet phase this weekend. Enjoy !

1. Eggface Ricotta Bake (google it)
2. Green bean casserole (bariatric style) with canned chicken
3. tuna casserole (bariatric style) with green Beans instead of peas
4. Mexican beef with cheese or beans with cheese (too carby for me--made me hungry too soon after eating)
5. Broccoli, spinach or cauliflower pureed with light cream cheese, lemon juice, s/p/g (steam the crap out of it first)
6. Smashed cauliflower with bacon and green onions (put in a food processor)
7. Any Soup or chili made bariatric style
8. Fish in foil pouches with lemon and spices/herbs.
9. zucchini sauteed with onion, tomatoes and herbs and pureed--can add any kind of lean meat.< /span>
10. yogurt/cottage cheese blends with berries.
11. Pureed black Beans with a bit of cheese
12. Yellow Split Pea Soup puree
13. Buffalo chicken Dip puree
14. Broccoli cheese Soup puree
15. Pureed Chicken salad
16. 4 Cheese mashed cauliflower
17. Hummus - Roasted Red Pepper by Sabra
18. Eggface Cottage Cheese Bake (sub out cottage cheese for ricotta + parmesan + ps mozza shreds + low carb marinara)
19. Cottage cheese flavored with taco seasoning
20. Progresso chicken enchilada soup with mashed cauliflower & ground chicken pureed
21. Scrambled egg with a little milk and topped with a teaspoon of salsa
22. Pureed Italian sausage with a little green and red pepper with Spagetti sauce
23. Applesause (unsweetened) with a sprinkle of cinnamon
24. Pureed Lentil soup with shredded cheese
25. Shiitake mushroom pizza with ground chicken and pizza sauce and cheese on top - all put in blender. Sounds weird but really good

https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/loaded-cauliflower-soup
https://www.food.com/recipe/shellys-baked-ricotta-324036

I’m on day 17 and I haven’t lost weight for a week now. I’m 12 pounds down now but I’m getting a little depressed that I haven’t seen a change in a week.

3 days Clear Liquids, 11 days full liquids. Though it seems there's some variation in what is considered "full liquid", like my list doesn't include the cream Soups even though I am allowed pudding, yogurt, sherbet. I'm sticking to my list though since we're talking just 4-5 more days, it's just not worth quibbling about. Which I think you figured out too, lol.

So it took me 4 days to lose the surgery weight, then 8 days to lose 9lbs, then things came to a grinding halt for the past 6 days. I started purees 4 days ago, might be related, though calorie consumption is only 600-800.

This afternoon I either had a response to the move to purees or my first experience of dumping syndrome. It was 4 hours after my first egg since surgery. It had also been 4 days since my last, um, bathroom event. We'll see what tomorrow holds...

Ooooh, your stomach will still churn - take my word on it!

Per our program On liquids we are to get 200-300cal and once we move to purées next week it’s 500 calories.

Oh no! I’m sorry you are having such a crappy time, hopefully today is a better day!

Had brunch with friends this morning and guess what was on menu? Boobs! 😂
Ate all the greens and one of the boobs (a.k.a Smoked Salmon Benedict sans the english muffin topped with caper nipples)

I'll try to shorten this long story! Back in 2011 I had a lapband! Until about a year ago I was a model lap band patient. The surgery was wonderful, I lost 156 pounds in less than a year, and due to a horrid issue with reflux, hiatal hernia repair, and more reflux when the repair didn't "take" I'm here... about to have a new weight loss surgery in hopes of both "fixing" the reflux, and dropping the almost 60 pounds I gained when all the Fluid was removed from my band.
I'm a little nervous, because technically a gastric sleeve can make reflux worse, but after going back and forth and back and forth on the issue, my doctor still believes the sleeve will be my best bet due to a separate issue I have that has in the past required prednisone therapy... even though I told him I'm never taking prednisone again... EVER... I don't think he wanted to take any chances. So...... we have a plan. And it starts with the removal of my band and me getting a sleeve. I'm ready to drop the extra weight, but more than that, I can not wait to sleep through the night again... reflux SUX and it sucks almost as much as weighing more than 270 pounds a whole lot of years ago!! I'm seriously praying this works!
I realized today that I'd forgotten about this forum which I frequented previous to my lapband surgery.... and I'm so happy to know it's still here!
I have questions... and it looks like y'all have answers! Anyway.... my surgery is at noon tomorrow!