lizonaplane

You can also buy balsamic glaze at the grocery store and trader joe's. It's exactly the same thing!

Good luck on the 12th! Let us know how it goes. Hope you've been successful in sticking to your liquid diet.

Keep pushing the surgery center and the insurance folks. Mistakes are common and getting the run around is common. Stay calm; no one wants to help someone who is unpleasant (this is hard for me!). Just keep checking in with them to see what you need to do (usually there is nothing you need to do, they have to fix everything behind the scenes, but if you ask them what they need, then you know what the problem is and what is outstanding and you can call the responsible person and have them do their step... but it's a pain....) Good luck!

Congrats! A lot of people who do bariatric surgery never make it out of the obese category!! Woohoo for you!

Groan... it takes so long for my stove to heat up. I can't imagine having to wait for boiling water. Maybe if I just make a little water in the microwave it will be okay. I make the hot chocolate on the stove so it doesn't spill or burn. I haven't tried adding salt. Sometimes I add a bit of vanilla extract.

I don't like mayo, but I do like miracle whip, so you could try that. I make a sauce of mayo mixed with mustard and curry powder (it doesn't taste like mayo AT ALL). You could try bolthouse yogurt ranch (or any other bolthouse flavor - they are about 45 calories for 2 tablespoons). They are in the produce section refrigerators. You could try a bottled curry or tikka masala sauce or Asian marinade (I haven't had surgery yet, but I'm thinking I'll be too tired after surgery to cook much so I'm thinking of easy things). Also, broth might be good.

Since you're in the UK, your process might be significantly different. I believe there is a thread on the UK NHS process. You can try searching for that. However, if you are going to do self-pay, you can probably do it pretty quickly. I know many people from the UK go to central and eastern Europe, but I don't know too much about that. There is a thread on "hospitals and surgeons" but I don't know how many people are from Europe. Sorry, as usual, us Americans tend to dominate things! Good luck!

I know that I wouldn't have been ready to do the surgery when I was a teen, but that doesn't mean that he isn't. But it's a lot of work. Here is an article about teens having bariatric surgery from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/health/obese-teenagers-bariatric-surgery.html If you can't access it, let me know and I will try to summarize. There are also medications that can help that could see if he's ready... but he'd have to be compliant with the medications, and in order for them to work, you have to eat less, so if he has bingeing issues, it won't help. It is certainly better to have surgery when you're younger and don't already have co-morbidities, but you have to be mature enough to change your eating habits, which can be hard if all your friends are stuffing their faces with junk food. Good luck!

I was making sugar free hot cocoa from scratch (unsweetened cocoa powder, add splenda, mix in a bit of fairlife skim milk to make a paste, then add more milk and heat) but it was clumpy. What is your trick to make it not clumpy? I found it tasted a lot better than the sugar free swiss miss, but the clumps of cocoa powder weren't fun.

I'm still pre-op... I'm dreading/fearing the emotional changes because I have bipolar disorder and my meds are totally stable but I know this will be throwing me a curve ball as my hormones go crazy when I'm losing weight. I'm also dreading/fearing possible diarrhea from eating random things. I spent years with IBS/diarrhea from my meds and it's so terrible to not know when you'll need to find a bathroom IMMEDIATELY.

I noticed that about a month ago when I was staying in a hotel (I'm pre-op). I only have Netflix at home, so no commercials. I hate commercials for food! I'd rather watch cooking shows.

I've had it before. It's kinda sweet and bland, like any other packaged hot chocolate mix. But it's fine. I bought some for after surgery too, I plan to mix it with fairlife high protein skim milk.

I might just eat a little every day for the next few weeks until I start my pre-op diet. I already ate a little and it seems rude to give away ice cream with some taken out! Plus... I kinda still want some 🙄

Update: I heard back from the surgery coordinator and they have submitted the prior authorization with a weight that has a BMI of about 43, so I'm cleared to lose weight again! Yay! Now, if only I hadn't bought that tub of ice cream...

I just posted about this because I've lost a lot of weight during the process of getting ready for surgery and I got two suggestions: wear ankle weights and slouch while they're taking your height. Unfortunately those won't work for me since I won't get weighed till I check in for surgery and my height was just recorded by my PCP who is in the same system. I've just resorted to overeating, which feels pretty gross, but I'm not sure what else to do.

LOL! I love it. Too bad my height is recorded already in my chart because my doctor is part of the same system.

I'll have to send another email to the coordinator. I just realized another reason I feel so gross is that I got my period for the first time in over a decade. I had to go off my birth control to reduce the risk of blood clots and I am just miserable!

LOL! I don't think I can wear those the day of surgery, and that's the first time they will weigh me in person.

Hi! I do not have that surgeon, but if you look under the tab "weight loss surgery forums" there is a whole thread of posts on different hospitals and surgeons. You can see if that surgeon is listed there. Or, you can do a search by their name. Good luck!

I don't know what figure 8 workouts are (never even heard of them - Are they maybe an Australian thing? For all I know they could be really popular in the US, but I'm sort of out of touch with trends!) but for Pilates, it depends on what your goal is. It is great for strengthening your core, which is important especially as you get older (no idea how old you are) for balance, but really at every age. However, it's not really that helpful for losing weight. I did one Pilates class a few years ago and I found it really too hard for me, but if you were watching a video, you could stop when you got tired. I'm sure you could find something on YouTube for "Pilates for Beginners". Dancing is better for weight loss, especially high energy dancing things like Zumba. I'm not sure if you meant that or more things like ballet. I have found a lot of easy dance exercise videos for free on YouTube. I find Zumba too hard for me, because I'm super uncoordinated and out of shape, but it might be something you can do. I just do these 15 minute dance exercise videos (I don't remember the exact name, I just search "dance exercise"). I bet you could find ballet exercise if you searched for that. I hope you find something you enjoy!

Wow, you are an inspiration! Congrats!

@Candace76 Said not having her doctors mention her weight and that made me think of something... every time I have a medical issue, whatever specialist always says it's related to my weight, and I just need to lose weight, even if thin people often have the same problem. I'd like to say, "well, how would you treat this in a thin person?" But I always just start crying and can't say anything.

Chicken, turkey, pork, and lamb also are good sources of iron. It's not just beef. More importantly, it's heme iron, which is absorbed better than non-heme iron, which is what is found in veggies/beans.

You can talk to the surgery center. Usually the person who manages insurance submissions is really familiar with these details and can answer that. I know many plans use the weight from the visit before the pre-op diet, but it's hard to know. I haven't had any in-person visits due to COVID, so they've just been asking me to tell them my weight. I've actually been trying not to lose weight now because they won't weigh me in person until I check in for surgery and my BMI had gotten down to 41.6, so I know I will lose weight on the "shrink the liver diet". You don't want to not lose weight on the two week "shrink the liver diet" because that is important to put you in a good place for the surgeons to have an easier time to move your liver out of the way for surgery, so you have a lower chance of complications. While the goal of the diet immediately before surgery isn't to lose weight, most people do lose weight, especially if it is a liquid diet.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm guessing it will happen to many people, probably me too. I'm sorry that you won't have your insurance to help you once they open back up again. That's so rough. I hope you find a way. ,