Surgery this Friday

Thanks Grim.  Its advice from folks like you that keep me encouraged and motivated.  I will look into the app and the fitbit.  I picked up an app called bariatric to log my food but I will check the website as well. 

How exciting Tim! Get ready for the ride of your life!  Listen to everyone here, they have great value with experience and support.  I am not sure if you have gotten these links but they are a great  help getting ready for surgery.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/articles/photographing-your-weigh t-loss-surgery-journey/

http://www.obesityhelp.com/articles/weight-loss-surgery-hosp tial-stay-what-to-pack/

http://www.obesityhelp.com/articles/four-on-the-floor-self-c are-after-weight-loss-surgery/

We can't wait to hear from you post-op!

Kathy thank you!  Those links were great. I'm two days away from packing and I would have never though to bring Chapstick.  

We can't wait to hear from you!

Hey Tim, welcome.  It sounds like you've prepared and you're ready for this.  I wish you a speedy recovery!  

Thank you Iloveravens. I'm trying to approach this from every possible angle. I do not want to lose. 

Thank you for your service.  I never served but I was a VA nurse for a while.  

Welcome to this forum.  There is a wealth of knowledge here.  It is really easy to search a topic in the upper right looking glass. I too recommend Frisco's "Pyloric 101".

I think you are ahead of the game in realizing you are addicted to sugar.  I have been reading a lot on Over Eaters Anonymous.  Good info there too from the addicts perspective. 

At almost 2 years out, my wife and I still eat on small plates with small forks and spoons.  Still weight most everything I eat.  

Failure rate with diet and exercise is 95-98% so the odds are much better with WLS even at 50%.  Learning about what works, what doesn't is the real key to success.

Thanks leapsecond. That's a great way to see the glass half full with the statistics. My doc has that failure rate in my head. He's not real supportive of my idea to do this. I'll be changing primary docs right afterwards. 

Hello Tim, and welcome!

This is a great forum to utilize on your journey, lots of great information and advice to be had.  

You sound like you've done a lot of preparation and have been working on the mental part as well as the physical.  It's as important as the surgery itself and as many will tell you - they operate only on your stomach not on your head.  Meaning it's important to stay in control mentally as much as it is to weigh and log food.  Your head can mess with you and you need to find ways to recognize and bypass those times.

With all that said, it's also important to not compare your journey too closely to others on this board.  Your mileage may vary.  You may lose faster or slow than others, there is no set rate.  You will likely experience a stall at 3-4 weeks out - this is TOTALLY NORMAL, do not despair.  You will have periods of plateaus and may not lose for a week or two but it will resume.  Your body takes opportunities to catch up to all the changes and this is where stalls come in.  They will end.  This is when tracking body measurements can really help propel you forward as you will continue to lose inches even if the scale doesn't show it.  

Personally, I only weighed myself once per week for the first year and not for the first month after WLS.  Because of the surgery and recovery, fluids, etc I knew the numbers would be skewed that first month.  Others feel differently but I really wanted to make the non-scale experiences my focus because I tend to live and die by the number on the scale.  It worked well for me and made the stalls easier to handle.  I knew the scale would dictate how my day went based on the number it showed (from all my past dieting) and I wanted this journey to be different.  That change helped me a lot that first year, redirected my focus.

Follow the food progression steps as your surgeon outlines.  Do not rush the process.  Your body needs those first 6 weeks to heal the staple line.  Your 'full'sensation will likely be broken as the nerves are cut during surgery so measure everything and don't over eat.  Chew, chew, chew.  sip, sip, sip.  Don't mistake not feeling full to mean that you actually aren't full.  You can damage your sleeve this way.

The first 12-18 months is often called the 'honeymoon period'. This is when your losses and restriction are maximized so use the time wisely.  Stay on track, weigh, measure, log, drink water, exercise, take your vitamins, do everything you're supposed and get in the zone - you will be amazed at what your body can do.  It's really an amazing time if you work your sleeve properly: protein first, then veggies.  Time your eating if needed: take a small bite, chew it 20 times, swallow and wait at least 1 minute before the next bite. Rinse and repeat.  Use a timer if needed.  Sometimes you will be watching that clock like a hawk but mostly you won't because you will be full very quickly.  Wait at least 30 mins after eating to drink.  Be vigilant about this.  Make your protein and water goals a priority.  Get exercise daily.  I am a walker and that's all I've been doing.  I'm not a converted gym rat, that was never for me.  I knew I wouldn't stick with it.  I like walking, I do it very briskly and have from about 3 weeks out and in the past 2 years I've increased the speed and duration.  It's worked for me and I like it.  I make it a non-negotiable part of my day, just like showering.  Movement required daily.

Don't get tempted by the "just one bite" of the wrong foods.  It is a slippery slope and can be hard to claw back from.  The triggers can be tremendous and a bite of sugar could open the floodgates.  Just say NO.  Don't do it.  In times of temptation tell yourself "Not today, maybe tomorrow".  When tomorrow comes say the same thing again.  It's your head screwing with you.  There will come a time when you will be able to eat more and a larger variety and it's a challenging transition so stick to the plan, especially in those first 18 months, but more so as a lifestyle change.

I wish you much success and a speedy, easy recovery.  This is an amazing journey.  Keep up apprised on how you're doing.  And definitely ask questions.  Lots of veterans here with lots of good advice.

Oh my goodness MissNexxie what a wonderful wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for taking the time to write down so much great information for me. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that. I'm a bit of a research nut and I do have a lot of the facts and data. These help me analyze and understand what's going to be happening to me as well as what's going to be expected of me. I am more worried, as you said, of the variation each person experiences.  Am already a scale watcher. I may try to put it away. The emotional upheaval I've read about really makes me nervous. I'm not by nature a largely emotional person but I've not ever had this crutch removed before. I'm nervous about my response to it.