Orinskye

11 hours ago, MyDogsLoveMe said:

I hope I am replying correctly...

Thank you and congratulations on your weight loss!! That is a huge accomplishment! Good luck on your skin surgery.

My primary doctor referred me to positive change classes and I took the nutrition class about 3 years ago. After that and during covid I gained soooo much weight and she (primary) recommended the surgery. I took classes online and then did my blood tests and that was it. Then I had a hospital stay (unrelated to weight) March, 2021 so I had to wait on my surgery. Fast forward to April of 2022 and my doctor said I should be ok to have weight loss surgery. I contacted Positive Change and they did not require me to retake classes and reordered my blood tests, I had a psy evaluation, and did not pass the first because I had not lost any weight (I actually gained) and he didnt think I put in the work. I had another appointment with him about 6 weeks later (mid July) and had lost weight so he approved me. I just had a phone consultation with a surgeon and he approved me for the sleeve on the condition that my specialist says its OK. He said the sleeve is better for me due to the medications I have to take.

Since I went through my classes a long time ago, I watched tons of videos on youtube from other surgical hospitals etc. A lot of places seem like they are really connected to their patients and give them so much support. For me, I feel like I am on an island. I haven't talked to a nutritionist, or anyone else walking me through this process. Most of my info this time around is via youtube; and I just found this place last night.

• What I am most worried about is drinking Water. I get Migraines if I get slightly dehydrated. I have been working out to lose weight and noticed how much I drink. I am trying to sip Water throughout the day but I am failing at keeping myself hydrated and have had a Migraine almost every day. How do you do it? Set alarms? How do you go through your day sipping so much water? How do you work like that?
• I also saw that you cannot eat gummy vitamins is that true? I cannot find that in the positive change book, maybe I missed it.

Thank you for your support and all the help!

Water: super important and some people had success with alarms (I did not- I found them irritating) I used a water bottle with times on the side. You had to finish that much water by that time on the side of the bottle and you get 64 ounces in. You can get them on Amazon. Look for motivational water bottle or something. I drink way more than that now though …. Now that it’s a habit.
i found it difficult at first because of masking. I wasn’t allowed to take my mask off while teaching/inside so I had to step outside the classroom every time I wanted a drink. I compensated this one by making my OWN water bottle (it was a cup with straw) and wrote times on the side just like my other one. Because it had a straw I could slip it under my mask and take a sip without having to go out of the room.

Gummy vitamins: I used chewable ones at first but they tasted awful and stained my teeth. I switched to just basic pills. I was told no gummies during the classes.
(that said: I used to have the occasional gummy bear at the movies…. Stolen from my kids 😂….. but I can’t do that anymore because my body goes crazy when I have sugar/carbs).

The other one they recommend was calcium citrate chews. I don’t take these. By taking these it was too much Calcium (found by bloodwork) so it’s one less thing I have to take.

Hi there, I am in so cal and went through Kaiser. I went to the South Bay facility.
they definitely make you jump through hoops with all their pre qualifications (like classes, psych eval, etc). But it was so worth it. It was done as an outpatient procedure because it was in the midst of Covid, I had the gastric sleeve done because I was worried about Vitamin deficiency issues.

i am now about a year and a half out from surgery. My friend/mom was really my support because my family/husband thought it was unnecessary (drs told me it would save my life). My friends husband went through it so he was a good sounding board, but This forum is awesome for any questions you might have and I honestly went here first.

i am pretty tall at over 6 feet but my highest weight was 330 lbs and now I am at 155-160 pounds. I am currently looking into trying to get skin removal surgery.
In case you are interested in that down the road: apparently they make you take classes for that as well.

complications I had: I had a slight issue with my blood pressure being too low post surgery and was taken off my meds which fixed the problem. Kaiser was very responsive to the concern and the surgical team was great about conferring with my other specialists (I have many) because they are all part of the same Kaiser system.

if you have any questions feel free to reach out!

good luck!

I walked around the fair today…. All day…. And I wasn’t miserable 😂 (it was like 94 degrees out too!)

5 minutes ago, SleeveDiva2022 said:

My nutritionist is kinda trash. But my surgeon and the nurse practitioner are fantastic, and they said not to count calories at all. Just watch the Protein, carbs, and fats. So that's what I do. I may need to try that fitness app. I just worry because I can look at what I'm eating, and how much, and I know I'm not getting enough in. But my mind just has such a hold on me right now that I literally can't force myself to eat more. Even when I know I need to. I'm hungry, I'm under what I should be eating, but it's like I won't allow it. I need to figure out how to break that. I wonder if I keep hitting stalls because I'm not eating enough......is that a thing??

I stalled a lot, I would increase my intake and then I would start loosing again.

I seem to be kind of “odd” though. At a year and a half my hunger hasn’t come back, volume wise I am on the really low end as far as intake capability (this is the concern for my nutritionist… one scrambled egg white and one bite of a Turkey sausage patty and I am DONE) , and I still can’t tolerate certain foods. I’ve kinda wondered it the surgeon took out more stomach than he was supposed to 😅

(Foods I can’t tolerate: pork, bread, rice, and noodles. These foods all make me feel terrible) I also can’t tolerate anything fried or anything heavy in sugar (being honest these should be avoided anyways lol) . Most of that restricted food is carbs…. The pork is interesting though because pork loin is a lean meat, but it makes me super sick.

I peeked at your surgery date on your profile and it said you had your surgery in May of 2022.

Every plan is different and if you are comfortable with your nutritionist ? Follow their advice.

I am the opposite of you (my hunger hormone never came back- I am a year and a half from surgery). I do the same thing with “I don’t want to gain weight back” so I monitor my weight by stepping on the scale once a week. I found that if I did it multiple times a week I would start to obsess so I only do it once a week.

calorie tracking is another good tool. My nutritionist is constantly on my back to track my calories (I am kind of terrible at it….. 😅 it’s okay when I have my set schedule during the school year but during summer my schedule is less defined and my meals end up sparse or nonexistent just because I’m not hungry)

On 6/24/2022 at 6:15 AM, SuziDavis said:

I live in South Florida, USA... heat and humidity are a daily thing ...lol...😫

Lol- I live in southern ca. while it isn’t humid… it is definitely hot and the skin folds do get sweaty. I was thinking I was fine…. Until summer hit. Now I am looking into skin removal. 😅

I am a little worried they won’t do it though. I would like a Tummy Tuck, arm lift and breast lift because those are the areas where I get rashes/pain, but I am at 155 pounds now and I am worried they will look at my weight ….. guesstimate the weight of loose skin to be removed….. then refuse to do it because it could push me into the underweight category bmi for my height 😬.
I’m trying to get in asap before we loose insurance again. 😑

fingers crossed at least some will be covered since I have a history of skin issues

I’ve noticed my drs office is also way more than my home scale but then my other dr has a scale that weighs me in less than my home scale. 🤷🏼‍♀️

since my home scale is between the two I just stick with my home scale.

I had an extended period of time off. I healed really fast BUT I had a little issue with passing out which they had to figure out. Once they took me off my medication I was fine and I went back after a month off.
if I didn’t have that issue? One of two weeks would have been sufficient

4 minutes ago, catwoman7 said:

P.S. old timers on this forum are probably sick of seeing this photo, but this is me BEFORE I had plastic surgery. I lost over 200 lbs, so I had TONS of loose skin. See it there? No - I didn't think so. It's pretty easy to hide. And easy to get rid of if you want to pursue plastic surgery.

I love it when you show this photo. In this case a picture really is worth a thousand words. ❤️

I totally wish I had done it sooner. My dr first asked me if I was interested 6 years before I said “let’s do this”. I wish I had done it then. You know what they say about hindsight. Lol

the hunger hormone is a funny thing. I have often wondered if the dr cut too much out because mine hasn’t come back yet (I’m 15 months post op) . I have to stick to a strict schedule to remind myself to eat (fine when I’m teaching, but during the summer that has gone out the window) .
I haven’t read anything other than ‘they cut the portion of the stomach out related to the hunger hormone’. Does anyone know why it comes back sooner for some people rather than others? Or never goes away at all?

I’m looking into skin removal now… I’m 15 months out from surgery and went from 330 pounds to 158 pounds. My loose skin isn’t as bad as some I’ve seen, but it’s still uncomfortable.
i thought I could live with it but then summer hit with temps above 80 degrees and me constantly wet from the pool or the beach lol. 🤷🏼‍♀️
My insurance has very strict criteria for covering skin removal and I don’t know if I will qualify. I sent the doc some pics and now I am just waiting for a referral or a “no you won’t be covered”. If it is covered I was thinking about getting it done over Christmas break, but if it’s not I will have to save up and possibly do it next Christmas break (I’m a teacher and don’t want to take time off or do it during the summer).

24 minutes ago, SleeveDiva2022 said:

I've never had the skinny vanilla latte. Is it really good? I always worry because there's no actual sweetener in them. Is the sugar free vanilla Syrup sweet tasting at all? I don't really have a sweet tooth at all, but certain things taste better with a little sweet taste to them. Also, are the egg white bites good? I'm not a big fan of egg whites normally, but I'm trying to branch out more these days.

The skinny vanilla latte taste ALMOST the same as a full sugar latte to me (it is slightly less sweet than the real thing). A few times I have been “tricked” into a full sugar one when someone else orders for me and I couldnt tell at first. I only found out when I started to feel like crap. I don’t dump….. but I do feel sick to my stomach if I have too much sugar.
i have since obviously learned to check the label, a few times Starbucks has screwed up and legit put the wrong one…. But I have it often enough to where I now know the difference. 🤷🏼‍♀️
the egg white bites are my favorites to order. I don’t really like the other ones there. Kale and mushroom was okay…. But the bacon one was bleh. That might have to do with my aversion to pork since surgery though (I don’t know why, but Pork is a nono for me. I’ve tried pork loin several times and I get about two bites in before it wants to come back up and bacon is hardly any better).

That said…..i fully admit: I tried the new coconut lime bar and it was amazing. Definitely not something to eat by yourself (I shared it with my kids and mom, we each had one bite) . The calorie count and nutritional facts are terrible for such a tiny thing though 😬

My diet might be looser than yours though….I am in the “maintenance” phase of my journey. I am fifteen months post op and now down to 158 pounds.

I order a skinny vanilla latte (that has non fat milk and sugar free vanilla syrup)

I like their egg white bites and I will get those if I need a Protein boost.

If I have my kids with me I might get the sausage cheddar sandwhich…. Take one bite… then give the rest to the kids 😂

my kids are my helpers. If I’m alone I never want to get food because it’s a waste… but if I have my kids with me it’s a game changer.
(this applies to going out to dinner as well: I won’t go out if it’s just me, but usually I will order what my five year old wants and just split it with him. And before you all cringe and say “enjoy your chicken strips”- my five year old has good taste…. He asks for steal and lobster 🤣)

I saw a recipe on tik tok today and it showed how to make a Pizza Crust out of canned chicken, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Has anyone actually tried it?

3 hours ago, SleeverSk said:

I was just talking to a friend about this the other day, A friend of hers would barely look at me in the past if I saw her in the shops etc ( small town ) anyway the other day she went out of her way to say hi to me twice in one day and I said to my friend is that because I am not fat now ? Its sad really that people are like this I hope I am not one of them.

I have had to deal with this in a professional level. Interviewing for teachers is brutal and while my resume outshines anyone else’s? I was never chosen when I was over 300 pounds.
sadly this type of discrimination is completely legal and can’t be proved.
I am now going to be interviewing in the next year for positions again (and at a normal weight). I am curious how things will turn out now that I’m thin.
(I’ve even had principals straight up tell me they would never hire me because I was disgusting to parents… and I was always professionally dressed. Just obese)

I kind of give guys the side eye now if they ask for my number. I’ve had it happen a few times now and I always cringe on the inside because I knows it is because of how I look now 🤷🏼‍♀️

The concern for them was that the food addiction would be lost and that the addiction would then move on to something else (alcohol).
i was questioned about my alcohol use when I did the psych evaluation. But I didn’t really drink prior to surgery and I can’t drink at all after surgery (the alcohol of a heavily juiced mimosa… with very little alcohol in it…. Can get me buzzed )..

The interview was really interesting, she tried to trio me up a few times.
Her:“when was your last drink?”

Me: “two years ago? I don’t really know it’s been that long”

(she was disbelieving that I hadn’t touched alcohol in years which sent up red flags for her).

so then she asked me things about holidays and what kind of get togethers we have and if food it an integral part of the celebration…. Which led into what drinks are available ….
(I told her honestly that my family does buffet off to the side where everyone grabs their own food, we eat wherever during these celebrations but mainly just socialize. Soda Drinks are available and alcoholic drinks are available but I usually just stick with Water, coffee, or tea).

i passed the evaluation so I guess she didn’t find anything seriously wrong with my answers. But if you try and lie about it other questions may be asked where your evasiveness about drinking may come to light. So it’s best just to be honest.

I had this post surgery. It was from drops in blood pressure.
I was taken off the 1/2 pill of blood pressure med I was on and that more or less solved the problem of it happening regularly.

it does still happen though. I’ve gotten to the point where I know the signs (my vision starts to get dark spots) so I sit down and take a moment. I get it worse if I am not drinking enough.

I am just over a year out:

the way I eat now? I go out… I eat whatever the family eats except in smaller portions and I avoid some stuff.

i still don’t really do Pasta. It just doesn’t sit well. I don’t do rice. If there is bread I am very picky and will avoid it altogether if it’s not amazing bread. I mostly still just eat Protein, veggies, and fruits.

My families social gathering all consist of buffet style massive amounts of food, but I only take one plate and keep portions small. I do find myself when going out that I am done before everyone else and still have a ton of food on my plate. In those situations I just ask for a box to go and sit and chat instead.
I’ve also taken to ordering food with my 5 year old. My 5 year old has a very adult pallet and will often want adult food not kid food (steak and lobster?!). So with this in mind I look at the menu and order something i share with him. Even when I get my own food at home he asks if I’m full so he can share (after he finishes his).

so I have a variety of strategies I use. I also still go for protein first to meet my protein goal and will often skip food that is low in that category (like Soups and stuff. I only eat those when I’m sick now And I usually only do it at home so I can put Protein Powder in it if I have to).

Calorie wise…. My nutritionist still isn’t thrilled. I still struggle to get in her 1700 calorie mark, but I am better in the sense where I can now get in 1400 calories MOST days (of good clean food without a ton of fillers) . I still don’t feel hunger at all over a year out (I’ve felt it maybe once or twice but that was when my schedule was off and I went WAY TOO LONG without remembering to eat) …. But if I can stick to a schedule it helps me stay consistent and get those calories in.

11 hours ago, mswillis5 said:

I'm only 38 but after losing my weight, my neighbor asked if I had cancer. They had cancer near that time and were just worried about me losing "so much weight"

I got all those comments today and my dad pulled me aside and told me that “enough is enough and I need to STOP losing weight because now (according to him) I look skeletal and unhealthy” . Attaching a pic because I am not “skeletal” 🙄

3 hours ago, oldandtired said:

Ok, so excited. You tend not to "be noticed" at my age. In the last week, several compliments from the opposite sex. Great mood boost!

I’m not that old (I’m 39) but when I went to Starbucks the other day the guy at the counter greeted me by name. I was taken aback a bit but just took my coffee and smiled… but I’m so blah at 6 am that I’m just not focused enough to notice details like that.

i got to work and one of my students noticed there was a heart and a phone number on my Starbucks cup. 😱

i teach fifth grade so you can imagine how crazy the girls went over the information that the Starbucks guy has a crush on their teacher 🤦🏼‍♀️.

it is odd when you’ve gone your whole life with men never looking at you like that 🤷🏼‍♀️

11 hours ago, TheWeightisOvr said:

Wowzers ! What another amazing story there are loads of surprises on this forum. Thank you so much for responding with your experiences. You’re a lot taller than me I’m about 5:7 on a good day. But our stats are definitely similar and it warms my heart to know you started out the same way. I would kill to be 169lbs. My God that is so ideal for me. Did you Start slow? And it actually kick started your weight loss by increasing your calories?? What does your diet consist mainly of?

major claps for junior high weight! Haha that is a new one. I’m so excited for you and I pray to God I will be able to Celebrate such wins at my surgiversary next year. Let’s keep in touch!

I had a tendency to stall for long periods then drop a ton quickly…. Then stall for forever and a day again… rinse and repeat. Overall it was agonizingly slow

food wise now:

Breakfast: a slice of toast with Peanut Butter or avocado. If peanut butter I will add 1/4 of a banana (sliced)

lunch: P3 peanut cluster pack and a chobani yogurt.

dinner: chicken/shrimp/ rarely pork or beef (pork for some reason my stomach can’t handle very easily. That was the first food that gave me foamies and it sits like a rock in my stomach 🤷🏼‍♀️)

for Snacks I tend to have nuts or cheese or yogurt.

im boring with food. I tend to do what works and that’s it. I don’t like to think about food and honestly I am never really “hungry”. I think I’ve only been hungry once since surgery and it was one of those things where I was working on a home improvement project and lost track of time/forgot to eat and missed eating for almost the whole day. So I really don’t even classify my hunger as coming back yet since it was only the one time.

I just got Invisalign so I am not really wanted to snack much either lol. My calories were in the 1000 range up until a few weeks ago and my nutritionist freaked out because she said I should be 1700. I had a meeting with a different nutritionist and she said I could push myself to 1400-1500. So that’s what I did and I started losing again. Their reasoning was that they didn’t want my metabolism and body to adjust to 1000 calories because that wasn’t sustainable long term.
typically people say that you have a bounce back from your lowest weight. My family is a tad concerned I lost “too much”. I do have lots of loose skin 🤷🏼‍♀️ I don’t like it so I tend to hide behind clothes.

as far as osteoarthritis… with that amount of weight loss I actually hardly feel any pain and can walk around like it’s nothing. I can’t run (high impact) or jump (also high impact) but easier exercise is fine. I’m currently taking it easy because I played basketball/handball with my students and stressed my knee out by doing all the things I shouldn’t have been doing 😅

I tend to walk A LOT. I have a big campus and I walk back and forth all day, I have a standing desk with no chair so it encourages me to walk/rotate the room. My arthritis was so advanced it looked like an X-ray from someone who is in their late 80’s and they were talking knee replacement surgery. I was in a wheelchair. They wouldn’t do the surgery
Because of my weight and my age (too young). By doing the weight loss surgery I have put off that need for a knee replacement indefinitely.

I also went through Kaiser and I have almost the same stats as you.
i started at 330 pounds.
i had surgery around 297 pounds.

(I’m 6 2” for reference)

i am 39 years old with severe osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles.

I weighed in this morning at 169 pounds (I am on my period though and I tend to retain Water so I am probably closer to 165) . I get about 1400 to 1500 calories a day in now. My one year surgiversary was on March 24th. So I am just over a year out, but my numbers looked very similar to yours.

they are happy with my loss, I am now in a BMI range of 21 or so… i was at 185 for a LONG TIME then just recently started loosing again because they upped my calories. So now I am down to my lowest I have been since junior high. It’s really trippy when I look back on photos of me as a child and see that I weigh more then. Or the fact that I can wear my sons T shirts (he’s 11). I only weigh 65 more pounds than he does 😱

I was the same weight for MONTHS (185pounds)… at about a year out I figured “okay, this is it. I’m stable and maintaining now”.

Recently they have me increasing my calories (I’ve managed to get up to 1500 calories a day which has been a difficult transition because I tend to eat foods that are lower in calories ) and then I dropped a Lot of pounds very quickly. I am now 174 (I hadn’t weighed myself in a while because I always hovered around 185) . My nutritionist about had a fit and wants me to do more regular check ins now. (Insert eye roll here). I just got Invisalign too so my tendency to snack (which is how I upped my calories) is now nonexistent because getting these Invisalign trays off are like wrestling a rabid animal 😅

anyways…. I know a lot of people have broken stalls by temporarily increasing their caloric intake. 🤷🏼‍♀️ You could increase your calories and see if that jump starts weight loss again

I do like blue cheese… I think I’m going to add that with some salad stuff.

Foie gras… yeah not so much lol 😅

we tend to eat really light… chicken, shrimp, fish, Turkey, veggies. Fresh fruits (but only a bit, lol usually take a bite and my youngest son takes the rest) … I don’t typically do starches anymore (no potatoes, no rice, no breads). I can do Beans but not a lot.
the stuff we eat tends to be lower in calories so in order to get what she wanted in? my thought process was eat twice as much… which I can’t do because o already eat till I get my cue that I’m full. So I was panicked a bit.

adding in healthy fats, healthy Snacks will help get the calories up to where they should be. Thanks for the support !

Thanks! These are all great ideas!