mswillis5

Refried Beans with a little bit of cheese was one of my go to's. And the infamous Ricotta Bake. I never ONCE pureed meat. YUCK!

As an adult I would never expect anyone to be with me overnight following this type of surgery. If something goes wrong there are nurses there, if something goes wrong he wouldn't be allowed to be with you anyway.
Hopefully you will be so sleepy you won't miss not being there over night.

Almost all hospitals are doing that due to COVID-19. You're actually really lucky that he can visit you at all. I had my knee replaced in August and no one was allowed to enter the hospital with me at any time. I was dropped off and picked up and loved ones never came inside. If he can be with you during visiting hours, you're blessed!

My goal weight is 170 and I am going to get to it pretty easily since I am only 2 lbs away. My wife was 5 ft and her max weight was 280. The doctors first goal for her is 150 in under the first year and she is 198 right now at 5 months out. She really wants to her goal to be 120 and feels she can do that with lots of work.

Take their advice/opinion with a grain of salt! When I told my nurse that my goal was 130, she looked at me like I was crazy, and said that my goal should be to lose 70lbs (which would have put me at 160). I flew past 160, hit 130, and kept going until I landed at 117 (plastic surgery then brought me to 113).
I'm not superwoman, and didn't do anything special other than follow the plan!
Focus on your goals and you will achieve them!! Good luck!!

Before surgery, I was the one who caused my wife to have bad eating habits. I would always bring home donuts or ice cream or junk food. I have vastly improved with bringing junk foods home since my wife and I both had surgery and are definitely working on making much better food choices. I used to eat ice cream almost daily before surgery and it has very little appeal now after surgery.
Editing to include my 11 year old daughter.
My daughter is larger for her "defined" age based size. She was in the 94th percentile for height and 75th for weight at her annual check-up last month. Since we started not buying as much junk food, she has thinned out a bit and even her grandmother noticed that she was losing a bit of weight. She is also growing taller and is almost 5ft tall already, so that could explain a bit of this as well. We are not putting her on a diet but she is eating what we eat. Since we are eating healthier and don't have that much junk food in the house, I feel that this is going to improve her life for the better as well.

Before surgery, I was the one who caused my wife to have bad eating habits. I would always bring home donuts or ice cream or junk food. I have vastly improved with bringing junk foods home since my wife and I both had surgery and are definitely working on making much better food choices. I used to eat ice cream almost daily before surgery and it has very little appeal now after surgery.
Editing to include my 11 year old daughter.
My daughter is larger for her "defined" age based size. She was in the 94th percentile for height and 75th for weight at her annual check-up last month. Since we started not buying as much junk food, she has thinned out a bit and even her grandmother noticed that she was losing a bit of weight. She is also growing taller and is almost 5ft tall already, so that could explain a bit of this as well. We are not putting her on a diet but she is eating what we eat. Since we are eating healthier and don't have that much junk food in the house, I feel that this is going to improve her life for the better as well.

My husband is normal weight, and is very active (biking, swimming, running, etc). He generally eats healthy, although he does like his Snacks. He doesn't drink soda (which was my weakness pre WLS), and isn't big on sweets and Desserts, but does enjoy getting appetizers when we eat out, etc.
Pre WLS, we ate out wayyyyy too much!! WLS and Covid solved that problem, and I feel like I've had a financial winfall from all of the $$ that we've saved on not eating out all of the time.
I actually decided to have WLS when my husband was camping and hiking with some friends. I was tired of not being able to keep up with him. I called a surgeon and was actually able to get in for an appointment right away, so when I picked my husband up after his trip, I was able to announce my big news, that I was going to have WLS! I love being able to keep up with him now, and someday when travel opens up again, I look forward to taking amazing vacations where the focus will be on activity and fun, and not the food!

Just this weekend my sister, who has really struggled with her weight and is on a good non-surgical path now, told me "I have a friend that wanted to get surgery and I told her not to because she would change her relationship with food FOREVER!". I bit my tongue and told her (as gently as I could) "That's kind of the idea. We have both changed our relationship with food...and if we want to keep it off, it has to be forever....as we've learned over and over again."
Good luck, I hope everything goes well! I have had zero complications and am SOOOO happy that I had this done!

I told one of my coworkers and they said they knew someone who had surgery and lost the weight and gained all of it back. This was before my surgery and they asked if I really wanted to still do it. Even though they were not 100% on board with me at the beginning, they knew I wasn't doing this alone. (My wife and I had surgery the same day). I had to explain to her that it really is only a tool that helps with weight loss but that the mental aspect of eating has to change or you can gain the weight back.
You are going to do great! I like to say that the more that we work towards this, the more we can show that WLS surgery really does help to save our lives. There are quite a few bad influences out there that don't believe it will work and I like to show them that I am not one of those statistics and that it can work.

Steak salad. Hubby ended up with about 1/3 of it. It was super yum!

Thank you. She will enjoy doing this.

My wife and I have been upfront with everyone so far. I have only told a few coworkers and my manager but they have almost all been fairly receptive. I know that my wife has had a few coworkers who she didn't even know had the surgery and were able to relate with her and give her advice.

My wife and I are officially in Onederland and I have lost 108 lbs so far during the last year (20 before surgery and 88 during preop until today). I have never posted a picture of myself here so here are a few pictures of when I was near my peak weight and a picture from last month. After the last picture my wife and other family made me go get clothes that actually fit. The shorts I wore to surgery were over 10" too large when I bought the new ones. I had to buy a couple of pair to get the correct sizing and the same with shirts. Since I wasn't able to try things on, I had to return some that were too large. When I have a chance, I will try to post a picture of my wife and her progress as well as she is not currently on this forum. In total, my wife and I have lost 188 lbs since our peak. She only has 20 lbs more before she has over 100 lbs lost as well and is well on her way towards her goal weight.
October 2018

March 2019

November 11, 2020 - Surgery Day

February 27th, 2021
 

My wife and I are officially in Onederland and I have lost 108 lbs so far during the last year (20 before surgery and 88 during preop until today). I have never posted a picture of myself here so here are a few pictures of when I was near my peak weight and a picture from last month. After the last picture my wife and other family made me go get clothes that actually fit. The shorts I wore to surgery were over 10" too large when I bought the new ones. I had to buy a couple of pair to get the correct sizing and the same with shirts. Since I wasn't able to try things on, I had to return some that were too large. When I have a chance, I will try to post a picture of my wife and her progress as well as she is not currently on this forum. In total, my wife and I have lost 188 lbs since our peak. She only has 20 lbs more before she has over 100 lbs lost as well and is well on her way towards her goal weight.
October 2018

March 2019

November 11, 2020 - Surgery Day

February 27th, 2021
 

Before surgery, I was the one who caused my wife to have bad eating habits. I would always bring home donuts or ice cream or junk food. I have vastly improved with bringing junk foods home since my wife and I both had surgery and are definitely working on making much better food choices. I used to eat ice cream almost daily before surgery and it has very little appeal now after surgery.
Editing to include my 11 year old daughter.
My daughter is larger for her "defined" age based size. She was in the 94th percentile for height and 75th for weight at her annual check-up last month. Since we started not buying as much junk food, she has thinned out a bit and even her grandmother noticed that she was losing a bit of weight. She is also growing taller and is almost 5ft tall already, so that could explain a bit of this as well. We are not putting her on a diet but she is eating what we eat. Since we are eating healthier and don't have that much junk food in the house, I feel that this is going to improve her life for the better as well.

Before surgery, I was the one who caused my wife to have bad eating habits. I would always bring home donuts or ice cream or junk food. I have vastly improved with bringing junk foods home since my wife and I both had surgery and are definitely working on making much better food choices. I used to eat ice cream almost daily before surgery and it has very little appeal now after surgery.
Editing to include my 11 year old daughter.
My daughter is larger for her "defined" age based size. She was in the 94th percentile for height and 75th for weight at her annual check-up last month. Since we started not buying as much junk food, she has thinned out a bit and even her grandmother noticed that she was losing a bit of weight. She is also growing taller and is almost 5ft tall already, so that could explain a bit of this as well. We are not putting her on a diet but she is eating what we eat. Since we are eating healthier and don't have that much junk food in the house, I feel that this is going to improve her life for the better as well.

OAGBPal, you are so very kind. I have to say I'm just very pre-occupied by my upcoming visit. I had a very short pre-op window....my first appointment with the surgeon was October 28th and was given my January 5th surgery date when I left the appointment. I had one appointment with the dietician, then a virtual psych session. On my next surgeon appointment on Dec. 31, I literally left in tears because I didn't lose what he thought I should have, although he never gave me an amount to lose, just "three frozen meals a day and nothing else". Admittedly, I had a few slips over the holidays, but I was so shocked and then angry after that visit, that I really think I was traumatized. I'm not looking forward to my visit. Everything I eat and all my workouts are documented so I'm going loaded with my "evidence".
I've been amazed at the lifestyle changes I've made and I'm proud of myself for that because that's what will bring me success in the long run, but I'm just preoccupied with that upcoming visit.

You are down 60 lbs in 5 months. That is still over 12 lbs per month on average. All people lose weight at different rates and it sounds like you are still doing great!

You are down 60 lbs in 5 months. That is still over 12 lbs per month on average. All people lose weight at different rates and it sounds like you are still doing great!

if you have GERD, consider RNY. VSG can (and it doesn't always, but there's about a 30% chance) make it worse. RNY often (not always - but usually) improves if not outright cures GERD.
outside of that, it comes down to personal preference.
I went with RNY because I did have GERD - but I would have chosen RNY anyway because at the time I had surgery, VSG was just becoming popular, and I was a little afraid of it becoming "Lapband 2". However, it's been around long enough now that it's proven itself.

there's actually a lot more research on RNY since it's been around much longer - but VSG is the most popular surgery right now, and has been for a couple of years, so you're going to find a lot of info on that.
and yes - statistically people lose more weight with RNY, but success is more dependent on your level of commitment than it is on surgery choice. There have been people wildly successful with both surgeries, and people who have failed both surgeries, and lots of people in between. If you're committed, you can definitely be very successful with your VSG...just as successful as you likely would have if you'd chosen RNY instead.

I had almost no pain. The only thing I can remember is that if I was transitioning (e.g., going from lying down to sitting - or sitting to standing), my abs felt like I'd done 1000 crunches the night before. But otherwise, if I was just lying there....or sitting there....nada. I did have some gas pain once I got home, but mine wasn't too bad. They sent me home with pain meds, but I ended up not even opening them.

I'm only 3 weeks post-op and 30 pounds down, but I already can breathe better and actually go on walks/climb stairs. It's really nice.

Can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet... my fiancé and I often pack together in one suitcase. She would complain because I took so many clothes. “You’re taking up all the room!!” I realize now I wasn’t taking more clothes, my clothes were just so much bigger. My small-body clothes allow me to pack even more and take up less room!

If you feel it is too fast, then it may be too quick. One thing that I am doing is putting down my silverware for 20 seconds before moving on to my next bite. This helps to slow down my eating and I know when I get full. I also measure out how much I eat so that I don't eat more than I should.