I  am in Pre Op an losing a LOT of weight....I have NO income and so thrift stores are not an option at the moment....I do know how to sew pants and tops and have a sewing machine....I need to make my bras smaller..... both the cup size and the width around. If anyone has a bit of practical advice on how to do this please respond....do I  make the cups smaller first or the part in the middle  where they connect?  They are so darn expensive and I can't keep buying new ones til after I get my surgery and reconstruction done......thanks

Well, after bleeding for 36 straight days and getting so anemic that even walking up our basement stairs made me tachycardic, short of breath, and dizzy, I've had two whole days of normalcy and am already feeling better (husband says I'm less pale too). I had to skip my treadmill for an entire week since I'd gotten so woozy and fatigued, but yesterday I was able to drop it down to a slower/less inclined level and do over an hour without stopping once during the routine.

I'm drinking tons of water and eating some high-iron foods, so hopefully, by next week, I'll be able to do my cardio at the level I was working on before I hit this speed bump (once my body's manufactured a bit more blood). I also had a lot of schedule disruptions in the last week-and-a-half (out-of-state drives and so forth), so I've frequently fallen short on my water target and twice ate something which isn't on my diet plan. Bah. (One of those was a salty food which probably did help bump my BP up though.)

Anyway, only lost a pound for the entire week, but since it was with no exercise and sloppy eating, I really couldn't expect more. Now to get back to working my regular plan.

Why is your dietician opposed to it?

Hi Sharon,

What's worked very well for me in the past (and now, I'm unfortunately having to re-do due to several physical and emotional challenges) is the following:

1. A minimum of 80-100 oz of water each day

2. An accurate journal where all calories in (listing the specific foods), calories out (listing the type of exercise), and water intake are recorded . . . I intentionally tend to overestimate calories in and underestimate calories out so I don't have any nasty surprises on the scale (oh, I also put scale readings in the journal)

3. Five evenly-spaced tiny meals each day of 300 or fewer calories (and never skipping breakfast) . . . plus, I visualize good food as fuel, never reward . . . and bad foods I try to visualize as a toxic drug, as if I was a heroin or meth addict craving them

4. A minimum of one hour of cardio every day (I treadmill with hand weights, doing arm exercises the whole time since I have floppy arms) . . . I increase this as I approach a normal BMI and weight loss slows

5. Surrounding myself with supportive and motivational people, books, and programs . . . and learning not to let the past sabotage the future, meaning that if you "slip," you simply acknowledge what you did and move on, not letting guilt or shame or any other negative emotion lead to a binge of slips . . . a 5# mistake is infinitely easier to deal with than a 50# one or a 150# one

So basically, you can eat small, frequent mini meals as if your pouch was working (protein first, followed by healthy fruits and vegetables, and nonfat/low-fat dairy if you're not lactose intolerant) while you regain your health and build your immune system through a healthy diet and exercise. Then, once you're feeling strong again, you can look at how you've been managing and then decide whether to have your surgery revised or to continue on with what you've been doing.

Anyway, hope at least some of this might be helpful to you. Just keep in mind that when you look at what works for everyone else, you will need to pick and choose the methods that will work for you personally. Your lifestyle. Your cir****tances. Your mindset.

Good luck, and I'd be glad to help in any way I could.

Julie

Hi Marcus,

The first time I began a serious weight loss journey many years ago, I did it in Dr. James Early's obesity medicine program in Wichita (he uses the HMR program) and is associated with the Via Christi hospital system here. He had come to the Physician Assistant program previously to give a lecture about obesity and its treatment, which is how I had found out about him. I had privately dieted down from 244 to 222 before starting, and then during his 16-week program, I dropped down to 180, despite being very non-compliant with both the exercise and diet rules (lord, I hate protein shakes).

But even though I was a "naughty" patient, overall I found the course extremely helpful. I learned a lot: a helpful metabolic formula for calculating calories, the critical importance of water, the true statistics about those who successfully lose significant amounts of weight and keep it off, and many useful tips and tricks to keep oneself from falling off the wagon, so to speak. The most significant change they effected in my life though was convincing me to buy a quality treadmill. I can't even begin to imagine the thousands of miles I've traveled on it over the years. The cardio allowed me to drop all the way down to 142 ( a normal BMI for me) afterward on my own.

And no, they never recommended "magic" pills for weight loss, and neither do I. They're overpriced, have some icky side effects, and do not treat the underlying psychological/emotional/physiological causes of obesity. So thumbs up on seeing an accredited obesity specialist, but thumbs down on drugs for weight loss.

Julie