Brooklyn732

I haven't been sleeved yet but I devised a plan that I hope will work. LOL. I have a 2yr old daughter so whenever we go out to eat as a family I will order a full entree and she adn I can share it. That way it doesn't look funny that I'm not eating and I don't have to order something off the kiddy menu that she won't eat anyway. Whenever we go out to eat she never eats what we order for her and she ends up picking off daddy's plate anyway. So I figure it works! Once she gets older I'll have to think of something else. And of course when I go out to eat without her I'll have to have a different plan.

You've been here for support from Day 1 so I thank you and appreciate that very much! I haven't met my new surgeon yet but I have an appointment for the 28th to meet him. I'm hearing good things about him. Once I meet him I will be more comfortable and less nervous but I'm still very excited about getting approved and getting a date and finally getting sleeved!! I'm definitely going to stay in touch with you and I hope you do the same. Have a wonderful holiday with your family!!

My opinion is that this is NOT the thing for you son right now. The sleeve is a tool for weight loss. It is NOT the answer to weight loss. I can tell that you are a very concerned parent who wants the best for her child, but the sleeve will not help your son if he doesn't get control of his eating habits. If he binge eats the way you describe, he could do severe damage to his sleeve and to his health. Do you think he could do the all liquid diet? Why don't you try having him do a "pre-op" or "post-op" diet for a few weeks and see if he can handle that. If he shows that he can handle it then maybe you should look into it further. But him getting sleeved without resolving the food behaviors will result in failure. This is just my opinion. I wish you and your son the best of luck!!

I want to get folks in the NJ tri-state area together via email and eventually have some in-person support groups in Central NJ. We get a lot of great advice on this site and I want to continue to do that, but for those of us who are close geographically, I would love to get together. And I also had the idea of playing "matchmaker" for single sleevers. What do you folks think? More importantly I personally want and need support from all of you so anyone who wants to email can do so. I've already "met" some great people and I'd love to meet more. I've been having personal issues that I was able to "talk" about to people here and I appreciate them a lot for "listening". I also had some doubs about getting sleeved and the great folks here talked me through them. Email me anytime or PM me here. My email is recipes (LOL) email me. I hope to hear from all of you folks!!

I'm in!! My email is kpitrealnj@gmail.com. My sleeve date is in Feb tho. Hope that doesn't rule me out. Feb 16th to be exact.

I went through the whole waiting and denial and approval process with insurance and it worked out fine for me. I'm not sleeved yet but I have a date set for Feb. I am still nervous about the whole process and what it will be like and I ask myself if I really want to have 85-90% of my stomach cut out for good. But then when I look at the 3 high blood pressure meds I'm taking and when I strap on that damn CPAP mask at night and when I feel the strain on my knees, I forget all the other worries and realize that this weight is MORE likely to kill me than the surgery is. And that is a fact!! I've read as much as possible and I continue to read more so that I am prepared for what is to come but you can never be FULLY prepared. But at the end of the day, you are doing the right thing and the short term "pain" of the surgery and recovery will lead to the long term "gain" (or loss really) when it comes to the health benefits. Keep the faith and use the people here as support.

I hate to butt in on the ladies forum but I want to give my $.02. As a man (and I can ONLY speak for myself) I HATE it when I wife has sex with me "just because I want it". If she's not into it, I can tell and I am immediately turned off. I want my wife to want me (one of my reasons for losing weight) and I want her to be into our love making. It means too much to me to cheapen it by making it mechanical or obligatory. Maybe my wife is just a bad actress and I am very glad about that because I don't want her to "fool me" into thinking that she wants me. And it makes the times that we DO make love so much better. I agree with what the ladies have already said. It seems like from what you're saying, you are focusing on yourself so don't feel guilty about that! But have you found a way to communicate your goals to your husband? Is there any way you can bring him into the process? Make him feel like he's contributing in some way and he won't feel left out. For me, the littlest things go a long way. Show him that you appreciate the space that he's giving you and how much it means to you. Things may have changed because of your surgery, but make the change be for the better. If you really love him and want to make it work, there is no such thing as "over-communicating". Sorry for interrupting ladies. I have no idea why I keep wandering into the powder Room...

If you want the wonderful taste of peanut butter without the fat and calories, try PB2. Its a powdered peanut butter. And unlike some of the other "fake" peanut butters, this is made from actual peanuts that are pressed and ground into a powder. The process takes all the fat and oils out of it. And if you want actual peanut butter than you can spread, just add a couple tablespoons of water (or milk or skim milk or almond milk) to the powder and mix it up. Yummy!!

WHOA!! This is the first time i've seen ANYONE mention self-inflicted shots!! I CANNOT deal with needles much less giving myself an injection. What's the deal with this? Is this common? Or is this one of those "depends on your situation" kind of deals?

Thank you so much!! VST has been a great forum for me to find answers to questions I may have felt too stupid to ask but it's also a place where good people support each other. NONE of my family or friends know what I'm going to do and I don't plan on telling them so it's great to be able to interact with all of you here. That's another reason I started the diet and exercise so far in advance. I want everyone to think that all the weight loss came from that. I don't know if they will be supportive, but I don't really care to find out. I know they won't judge me, but I don't want to discuss my decision. My wife knows what I'm doing and whether she chooses to support me or not is her decision. She has been good so far, but I'm doing this for me. I have to be selfish for once in my life.