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I was wondering this same thing as I was reading this thread. Even a 30 minute walk in the evenings is some progress. Get a pedometer and increase your daily steps by 1000 a month. So if you are walking 4,000 steps a day try to do 5,000 every day for a month, then 6,000 and so on and so on

jj..i completely agree with you. Now, I am just beginning the journey to make this decision (I have considered bypass before, but did not go through with it as the recovery time and evasiveness worried me). This year I have already slowly began making changes in my health (more Fiber, less fat, more whole grains, switching from regular to diet sodas, etc). I am now enrolled in a 4 month weight management workshop where they work with you on making small changes in your diet and activity levels. I am committed to losing weight in this program and then I will decide if WLS is for me, because I would never go through it with out knowing I can make the changes. Maybe i feel this way because my insurance requires losing 10% of your highest weight, so i have to do it any way, but I still think it's a good idea to counsel patients pre-op on lifestyle changes.

From what I've heard/read/been told...carbonation causes the pouch to expand and then you will have a larger pouch, meaning you can consume more food, hindering your weight loss. Honestly, diet cokes aren't worth the worry, I'd just have to train myself to go off them way before I have the surgery, as long as tea and coffee is okay for my daily caffeine I will be OK

Rum? I have read over and over carbonation is a no no, but is liquor on this list too? I realize no one should be drinking their calories, but an occasional drink with a juice mixer, is this ok?

Is a 10 day pre-op liquid diet normal? Or does it vary surgeon by surgeon? That kind of scares me....I don't want to abuse my body before I have a surgery to make my body healthy....

I know how you feel. I have tried food journaling before and never got more than a week down at a time b/c I was so disgusted with what my choices were I would stop writing and ignore it. Here I am back at it again for a Weight Management Workshop I am doing (it was my choice, not required by dr or insur for WLS) Today is my 7th day and this weekend was sickening. Yesterday was over 3200, but a normal day is around 2500 for me. For the person that said to keep it at 1200, well that's fine and dandy if you want to starve yourself, but everyone's calorie intake should be tailored to their height/weight. For me, my maintenance numbers are 2250-2600, but as you are trying to lose weight you should take off about 500 a day combined with exercise and increased physical activity. I myself, would starve on 1200 a day (this is all on account to those of us that have not had lap band yet) and I'm sure you would too. I use a tool called sparkpeople.com, it's similar to thedailyplate.com - you input your height and weight and it calculates how many calories you should be consuming. Then you set your goal for 500 less so my goal is 1750 - 2100. Every 4 weeks or so I will make a new goal for 250-500 less (i.e. 1500 - 1850)

thanks to both of you! great suggestions. i will for sure check these out

Nance, thanks for the encouragement and suggestions of where to search... JWRN - I am going to double check with my insurance, but I have BCBS of Tennessee and according to the Vanderbilt CSWL they don't require 6 months of a Med supervised diet, but they DO require you to lose 10% of your highest weight, which now means I need to track down 5 years of medical records and since 5 years ago I was in college, I didn't really have a PCP per se, I just used the student health services. Also, Jan 2007 - April 2008 I didn't have health insurance so I never really went to the doctor. I did use a clinic once or twice, but now I am worried I won't have adequate medical records. I need to research them more, because i don't think their WLS program is very old, but Baptist has this nice timeline of steps on their website welcome to Baptist Hospital | Hospital Services | Metabolic Surgery Center | Surgical Steps

nope. I am still researching the process of getting lapband and figuring out a timeline because I most likely won't be able to have the surgery until December, as that is when work is slow and I can take some time off. Where are you getting yours done?

no expert here...but i think you need to call your Dr on Monday. Sure if they find something wrong, it would be a bummer to have to push back your surgery, but if you ignore an underlying medical problem it could mean a lot more bigger bummers for the future of your health! Plus, it could be nothing, and finding out from your medical professional will put your mind at ease...it's never good to have added stress when you are preparing for a major medical procedure!

Hi All, WLS has been in the back of my mind for several years now. About 3 years ago, I attended a seminar at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN to inquire about gastric bypass. I decided then that gastric bypass wasn't really what I was looking for, too evasive and too much risk (a friend of my mom's died due to complications several years after her surgery). Enough of my background...here we are today and now and I went to see my new doctor for a physical this week. I mentioned I was signing up for a 4 month weight loss management workshop where they work with you on changing your lifestyle. She mentioned that lapband might be a good procedure for me since I am currently 6'0" and 334....around 154 from the high end of my "goal weight". BMI calculates at 45. No other underlying medical conditions, as I am young, but I have a major history of heart disease on both sides of my family and do already have a bit of a high blood pressure. Just beginning to learn about lapband here to see if I should pursue this on the advice of my PCP

My doctor mentioned to me at my appt this week that I should consider lapband. I went to the library to find more information and was disappointed to find that most books focused on gastric bypass, and there was very little on lapband. Anyone have suggestions on reliable books to peruse before I pursue this? FYI..I attended an orientation about 3 years ago for gastric bypass, when I decided that it really wasn't an option for me.