lizonaplane

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.

So, I have been working on getting surgery for 6.5 months and decided right at the beginning to change my eating habits in preparation. I lost 45 lbs, but then I was getting down to where if I lost 8 more pounds I wouldn't qualify for surgery anymore; my BMI would be below 40 (I don't have any comorbidities). Since I figured I would lose weight on the pre-op diet, I decided to eat whatever I wanted until my pre-op diet starts on 30Aug2021. So far, I have gained 4 lbs back and I feel gross. This is four pounds in like a week! Granted, my parents were in town and I ate out so many meals. I wish my insurance would have just taken my starting weight, when I had a BMI of 49.6! I honestly don't know what weight they will use, since because of COVID I haven't been weighed in person yet; all of my visits have been over zoom. I've tried to ask the surgery center, but I don't get any response.

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. ,

I've been waiting six months to get surgery... just last week I got my surgery date, so it will be 7.5 months from when I called the surgery center to when I get surgery... assuming COVID doesn't cause them to cancel my surgery! I have kept my motivation by continuing to work on losing weight, although at this point I can't lose anymore or I won't qualify for surgery (I've lost 45 lbs). I also have spent a LOT of time on these message boards and on YouTube and I found a good FB support group. Most of them are terrible. Fortunately, work finally got busy so I have been distracted a bit and also I went on vacation and have done more exercise (got back into swimming!).

Just because you CAN eat something doesn't mean you SHOULD. I agree with what everyone else is saying, but you might also consider seeing a therapist if you were overeating due to binge eating especially if you have struggled with that in the past. If you were just testing out the limits of your stomach, call your surgery center, but if it was that you were craving ice cream, and felt the need to eat four eggs instead of one, think about whether therapy would be of use.

I have to agree that asking for what the "plan" will be on here is pretty useless, because each surgery center is so different. It really bothered me, because there should be some evidence-based medicine happening - but then, I work in clinical trials in cancer, where they have protocols for everything that are standardized across hospitals. I know that I wasn't asked to lose weight before my surgery, but a lot of that is dependent not just on your surgery center, but also on your insurance. However, I wanted to make sure I got used to eating in a more healthy way to "practice" for life after surgery, so I started eating lower carb (I still eat a lot of fruit) and higher protein. I've lost about 45 lbs and I've been less hungry than on previous weight loss attempts when I just cut calories. I'm eating about 1400 a day, on average. However, if I lose any more weight, I will not qualify for surgery, so I'm going to relax my eating until it's time to start my official "shrink the liver" diet at the end of the month. Many/most people have a liquid diet, but I just have to do ultra low carb/low fat high protein with low fruit and lots of veggies. I get it that the hard part is not knowing and not being able to plan. It took six months for me to get my surgery date, due to backlogs from COVID and the surgery center being short-staffed. Hang in there, and read as much here as you can. Be careful not to take anything as Gospel, either here or anywhere else on the internet, unless it's a hospital or professional website, like mayo.org or ASMBS.org.

When you go to the Field Museum... the exhibits on the first floor are really good, but check out the gem exhibit on the 3rd (?) floor if that's something you're into. It's quite good. There are other exhibits on the higher floors too, but there's not the clearest labeling about them, so I almost missed seeing that there were higher floors.