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Congratulations Stacey! I'm so happy that you've finally gotten your date. :thumbup:

Hi Pat, It's great to see you on here! I am talking some bay folks into coming to the Sonoma meeting. I'll have to see if their schedules leave room for lunch and walk and if so, YES, let's do it! I really look forward to seeing you. Congratulations on breaking your stall! I seem to stall all the time as well and just have to wait it out. Even 90 minutes of exercise 7 days a week doesn't seem to make a difference.

Good Luck Lemon Drop!! I hope you like him as much as I do. I think he's a great doctor. Tell him that I say hello.

It's great to see so many people posting from the Bay Area. Good luck to all of you who are getting ready for surgery. I had my Sleeve done by Dr. Baggs in Richmond on 2/17/2010. I'm coming up on 8 months. I'm one of those very slow losers. I eat on plan and exercise 90-120 minutes, 7 days a week. We all have to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Keep at it until you get your surgery date. It's going to change your life! I :heart: my Sleeve!

Hi Jes, I'm here! I've been off in New Orleans celebrating my 60th Birthday. Can you say "good food" ? My son met me there for 4 days to celebrate. We went to Jazz clubs, walked the streets of several neighborhoods and ate great food. It was a wonderful way to welcome in the next decade of my life. I'm still doing my best to follow my eating plan and exercising 90 minutes a day which is what it takes for me to lose weight. I'm really learning about what a commitment to better health really means. Surgery is definitely not the easy way out. I go to the Kaiser support group meetings, have a WLS mini support group that I walk the lake with and have added Weight Watchers for the additional accountability. I want all the insurance in the bank that I can muster to not be one of the 1 in 3 that gains their weight back. Does anyone go to the Sonoma Support Group? Can I get information on where it is, time etc? I heard through the grapevine that Dr. Baggs is the November speaker. I hope everyone is doing ok. While I generally just post at OH and VST, I do peek in to see what all of you are up to around here. :smile2:

I would have eaten that 4th PB cup whether I like chocolate or not. You will have time to come up with all sorts of coping mechanisms. I've never before been able to take one bite either, but now I seem to be able to. Keep your eye on the prize. Remember why you're doing this. Think about health risks that you may have today. For me, I hold "GOAL" in front of me and stay focused on that. I know that if I allow more than one bite, I may never get to goal. I plod along day to day. Lot's of exercise and for the most part, follow my Kaiser plan of eating 3x a day and getting Protein from food. That said, I've been known to add a Protein shake to my day. Don't spend your time worrying. Spend your time building a good support network, but where you live and online. Find a group that you can be honest with. I'm in a forum on Obesityhelp that works well for me. Find your spot and cultivate it. You'll be fine! Watching the pounds come off, you won't want to wreck it!

I think the head hunger gets worse as the months go along. That's why it's so important to set up good eating habits and make sure to have a good support team in your corner. There's something about the first six months (so I've read) where we want to do everything right and not step on the boundaries, but that it lessens as time goes on. What I do is to make sure I get enough food/protein so that I'm not hungry. I've also incorporated a lot of exercise into my life as something to fill the hours that I used to spend "thinking about food, planning about food, eating food". Someone in one of my first support groups said that we have spent so much time revolving around food that post op we need to find something new. Some pick crafts, shopping, computer and some pick exercise. I prayed that day that mine would be exercise. I gave up soda and never looked back so I haven't had those cravings. I allow myself to eat anything and everything but it's often 1 bite. I'd rather have the 1 bite and move on then to obsess about it and make myself crazy. The Sleeve is amazing in that it takes so little to fill us up, especially when we follow the dense Protein first. That is the greatest miracle to me. Not a lot of room left for "junk". I don't keep anything with white flour in my house and make sure not to have things like crackers or other slider foods because they go down too easy and the calories add up quickly. Good luck! We all go through this.

A friend of mine had Dr. Park for her RNY and really likes her a lot. It's good that you like her because now she'll be your surgeon from now on if you need follow-up etc. I know that she wasn't doing Sleeves back in February when I had mine but she's had all these months to play catch up and get good at it. There will be a second surgeon in the operating room as they always double up. The other three are very experienced with the Sleeve so you're in great hands all around. Dr. Park did my pre-op physical and I liked her. What does LDS stand for?

Congratulations on your weight loss! I hope you like Doc Baggs as much as I do. He's a very kind, caring doctor. Maybe one day we'll meet at a Wednesday night Kaiser support group! Good luck to your daughter as well. :sad0:

Welcome and congrats with being so close to surgery Lisa Marie. Please also stop by obesityhelp dot com for good support. You're a lightweight and we have a great lightweight forum for people with a starting bmi of 35-40ish. There's also a very active VSG forum there. I look forward to following your progress! Good luck!

Beware, flavorless protein powder doesn't mean that it doesn't smell like protein powder. I just gave mine away without every using it because the smell made me gag.

Hello, costco has their own variety of Pure Protein. They also have Muscle Milk Light which is lactose free. I couldn't tolerate protein powder/drinks with lactose, post-op for several weeks. The GNC card is well worth the price for a year to get 20% off monthly. I like the GNC Hydro whey which is 30 grams of protein per scoop. I couldn't tolerate the nectar drinks. Beware that your taste buds may change dramatically for the first 6 months or so post-op. Suddenly everything tastes much sweeter. Vitalady.com is a great place to purchase Protein Powder samples. She also has the best available Vitamin plan for WLS patients. I get my Dry D3 and B complex from her as well as protein samples. Trader Joe's for B12 and their chewable multi is ok. For Vitamins, Bariatric Advantage, Nashua Nutrition are good. I go to the Vitamin Shoppe in Pinole but I don't go often. I get their products on Amazon for cheaper shipping than what they offer. Good luck!

Lemon Drop, I answered you on the other Kaiser thread.

Hi Lemon Drop, Doc Baggs is my surgeon as well. I think he pretty much walks on Water. The amount to lose is different for each of his patients. Lose as much as you can before you see him. He'll like that. I had my appointment with him 12/15/2009 which was a month after my orientation and had my surgery 2/17/2010. I used that time to start getting my weight down. I had to wait a month because his calendar was full, but I knew that I wanted him as my surgeon. Things can go quickly. I had my surgery within a couple weeks of hitting goal weight. Good luck and let us know how it goes. :drool:

All of the Richmond surgeons seems to require different amounts of weight loss. I think Dr. Fisher is one of the stricter ones. That said, he's also a great surgeon. He was in the operating with Dr. Baggs during my surgery. There are always two of them in the operating room. I think a lot depends on where you carry your weight. Are you apple shaped? A smaller abdomen makes surgery easier. I'm sure he wants you to have the best surgery and easiest recovery time. Good luck!

Good Job! Dr Fisher assisted Dr Baggs in my surgery. I had a 40f Sleeve. They're now doing a 34f which is great. I wish I hadn't been in the first six months while they were still testing the waters, but I'm happy with my Sleeve and my recovery. Good luck, you're soooo close!!

It sounds like you're a Kaiser patient because you have to be at your goal. I had my Sleeve done at Kaiser Richmond with Dr. Baggs. Wear really light clothing today!

Tiffy, I love the new pic of you. Thanks for always giving great updates on your journey. You truly have inspired so many of us. Congratulations on a job well done!

I'm at 7 months post op and eat between 700-850 calories a day, exercising 90+ minutes, 7 days a week. I still track everything on myfitnesspal . com. At two months I was around 550-700 calories a day. I didn't start intensive exercise until the end of month 2.

Great news! I bet you'll be there in a flash! Don't forget to get a pedicure as you'll want a picture of the great event.

Hello, I was put on thyroid meds 6 months post-op. I had been exercising 2-3 hours a day, eating 600-800 calories a day and was losing 3 pounds a month. It felt like pure torture. It took 4 thyroid tests from January to August before they were ready to treat me. The good news is that I've shed 10 pounds since starting the meds on August 20th. I'm much more hopeful and optimistic now! I'm going to be retested at 8 weeks to see how the meds are effecting me. Good luck!

Hi Ashley, Doing well here. Weight is coming off slow, but coming off. I'm still exercising a minimum of 90 minutes a day and try for more as often as possible. I did some snacking at a conference last week and gained 2 pounds. I definitely can't snack and expect to lose weight. I hope you can get your eating on track before it's harmful to your goals. I think there's a support group that meets out your way. Do you go to that one?

Call Richmond and ask them to mail you the Sleeve insert for the Binder. The food plan is the same as it is for the RNY and Band during the pre-op weight loss stage.

Hi Shannon, Dr. Baggs is awesome. When I had my appointment with him in December, he said he had done 20 Sleeves. By now he's done dozens more. I think he did a great job with my Sleeve. No complications and have felt great all the way through. I have a 40f Sleeve and two friends of mine that had Sleeves done in the last three weeks are 34f which is great. I wish I had a smaller Sleeve but I figure the size doesn't matter so much as how well we stick to the plan. If I remember correctly, they have you wait three months from when you quit smoking before they will operate. I think they do a blood test to determine that you've quit. I think someone mentioned Dr. Fisher. The surgeons work together and Dr. Fisher was in on my surgery. I had a hernia (that I didn't know I had) repaired at the time of my Sleeve. I spent 1 night in the hospital, then went home. I think everyone there is awesome. Good luck to all of you!!

Good Luck!!! Saving a place for you on the Loser's Bench. Let us know how you're doing please. :scared0: