Newbie from Central Coast

Hi Kel, Im glad you popped in I was getting a little worried lol.  So good to hear it went well and you are recovering nicely... I am super nervous about Thursday.  I hope mine goes as well as yours.

Look fwd to catching up soon xx

Yay Kell!! Great to hear all went well   Take it easy and get well soon  xxxx

Hi All

Hi Girls

Kell, Im sorry I didnt see your msge - OMG its your surgery tomorrow!!!!!! I am so excted for you hun. I hope it all goes really well - please let us know how you are getting on afterwards...I will be at the hospital tomorrow for my pre-op so would be great if I run into you - my appt is at 11am.  Im hearing ya about the Opt - these last 2 weeks have been so hard - but you made it and tomorrow your life will change for the better - good luck hun :)

nightowl, glad to hear you are doing so well...mmm shapes I can smell them and taste them now hahahaha.  I just cant wait to have normal food again.  28 kgs is an awesome loss hun - woo hoo!

Hi Joanne, great to have you here.  I have my op with Dr Wong next week.  How long do you have to do Opti? I am on my 5th and last week now...there is a light at the end of the tunnel lol.  Megan is lovely isnt she. She is a great support to all her clients.

As for me Im on my last week of Opti so ya for that. I have a slight issue in that I got stung 4 times by an unknown creature last week (bit me while I was chasing my son and I didnt see what it was) and I now have a very red, warm and swollen knee which my GP thinks is now an infection so they have put me on antibiotics. I am just hoping and praying that it gets better asap and doesnt prevent me from having Op next Thurs...I will be devastated if they put it off as Ive been waiting so long...fingers crossed...

We will have to try and have another get together soon xx

Welcome JoannneM!!

Kell, give Megan a call/sms/email, she may have some ideas for making your last week of fasting a bit more tolerable. Best of luck!  xxxx

Hi everyone, I am having my sleeve done in 5 weeks on 10th July by Dr Wong, had my pre op meeting with Megan his dietician yesterday and she was so lovely and helpful. I'm both scared and excited now it's so close, can't wait for my new skinnier life to begin!!

I admit I have been struggling a bit lately, I have been pretty good cutting out softdrink, chocolate etc but am finding it hard to stick to Opti or Veggies for dinner only.

I am struggling on though only 1 more week to go, I just hope to god my liver won't be too big!

Hi fellow coasties, I'm 10 weeks postop today and going well. Lost 28kg so far (14 preop). Able to eat small amounts of anything I've tried. Had a chicken and salad wrap (fullsize from a sandwich shop) yesterday, ate half for lunch and the rest a couple of hours later, I was pretty full but no problems. I did eat some Shapes savoury biscuits on the weekend and found I could eat quite a lot of them, they were one of my many weaknesses preop so I think I will have to be careful not to make a habit of snacking on those.

Good to hear you are going ok Mel, at least the opti and low carb veg is tolerable when there's a definite end in sight! Thinking of you Mel & Kell on your countdowns to surgery!  

Hi just checking in on you Kell - hows the Opti going?  Not to go now :-)

How are you nightowl? Any new updates from your end?

Im going ok, but Im a bit over the Opti I must say.....only thing keeping me going is that surgery date - 17 days to go  

Really great to meet you guys, I look forward to another get-together soon!

It was lovely to meet you both, I had a great time.

It has reassured me a bit to know I am not alone in my battle :-)

Will be nice to do it again soon!

Hi Girls

Thanks heaps for the chat today.  It was lovely to meet you both and hear a little about your journey so far.  Look forward to catching up again soon

Mel xx

I think I have lost about 3-4 Kg this week which is great, though my scales seem to fluctuate hugely so I don't think they are very accurate, they aren't even old!  Dr said he wanted me to lose 5 Kg in 3 weeks so I am well on the way there, I just hope my liver shrinks!

Great its a date ladies.  Lets meet out the front at 2pm. I am a member so I can sign you both in.
Look forward to it. I'll PM you my mobile number just in case anyone is running late etc.

Well week one is over thank goodness....only 4 to go.  I lost just over 5 kgs so am very happy with that. Hey nightowl, did you weight loss slow right down after the first week on opti?  Im guessing it will go down to 1-2 kgs next week, but as long at it's a loss that's the main thing.

How are you going on yours Kell?

2pm Sat at Wyong Leagues is fine for me too.

I dont mind if you eat Nightowl, it doesn't really bother me seeing other people eat in front of me whilst I can't.

It will be nice to meet up. :-)

2pm Sat at Wyong Leagues is fine for me too.

I dont mind if you eat Nightowl, it doesn't really bother me seeing other people eat in front of me whilst I can't.

It will be nice to meet up. :-)

Club sounds fine :-) I'm good with either. I won't eat anything in front of you guys (actually I haven't eaten out at all yet, if I did it would be a small salad to be safe) but I may have a coffee. Looking forward to meeting you :-)

Hey Kell and nightowl, Im so glad you guys are free so we can catch up.  I have been trying to think of where we can go where us Opti gals wont get tempted to break our pre op diets so instead of meeting at a cafe, how about we go to a club where we can just sit and chat, have a water or diet softdrink and not be surrounded by people eating?  Having said that you can eat nightowl, I promise I wont pounce on you and steal your food lol :-)

How does Wyong Leagues Club or Wallarah Bay Rec Club sound at say 2pm on Saturday? If you prefer to go down Tuggerah way that is fine with me too just let me know whatever is easiest.

So looking forward to meeting you both.  Anyone else who wants to come along, you are most welcome. 
xx

I'm free all this weekend :-)

During the opti stage hubby and I had the same dinners, he added extras like some microwave rice, chicken, plum sauce. He lost a few kilos too. I mostly cooked stuff like stirfry or soup. I was allowed a small amount of meat so I could cook some things with meat and just measure out my 90 gram portion and fill up on veg. I froze cups of veg soup to take to work for lunch and had opti with coffee for breakfast.

During the liquid stage of postop (10 days) he either cooked for himself, had ready-made meals or we shared smooth soups like pumpkin (only he got the dippy bread). As I moved on to mushy food, we ate the same eg tuna mornay or bolognese sauce, he would have it with pasta, rice or couscous, and I'd have it on a spoonful of ricotta cheese (tastes like lasagna, but good protein and low carb). I'm 8 weeks postop today and have been on normal food for a few weeks. I eat the same food, just much smaller portions, but very little bread/rice/pasta as it fills me up too much and I can't fit in the protein. I haven't yet tried a sandwich, I'm a bit scared of the "ball of bread getting stuck". I used to adore my refined carbs but now I've broken the habit, I'm trying to keep away from some of my old faves.

Today was a bit better thankfully though I find I have a yuck feeling in the stomach most of the time which I think is because its not used to being empty lol

I am free this weekend, Friday isn't suitable for me unfortunately as I work in Syd so I don't get home till late, but if you want to do Saturday its good for me :-) Just let me know the time/place

Ok lets book it in are you free anytime this wknd?  Or I can do Friday afternoon after 2.30pm if that's better?
Nightowl and Fittru and anyone else I may have missed is also welcome.  Seeing as a few of us are from the north end how about we meet at Tuggerah? I dont mind where as long as it's not Max Brenner as the smell of chocolate will kill me hahahaha.  Let me know what day/time suits you guys :-)

Kell, I so know what you mean about day 5. I am on day 6 and I found days 3-5 the hardest. I just felt so aggrivated by everything and any little thing was annoying me to the point where I told my poor hubby off a few times lol. Lucky he is very supportive and understands it is only temporary. 

I can relate to what you said about depression etc as I am an emotional eater too. Food becomes our friend at times when we need comfort of some sort.  Ive always found comfort in chocolate...I could eat a whole block and not even feel sick but you know what I havent missed it at all.  The main thing I am craving and missing is bread...vegemite toast to be precise hehe must be the carbs I guess.

Nightowl, great to hear you live close by and hopefully you can catch up too depending on your work/social/family comittments etc.  The HANGRY word made me chuckle...so true.  At the moment I am just trying to avoid the kitchen altogether (well not possible as I have to make the babie's lunches and dinner etc) but my hubby is cooking his own meals so I dont get tempted to pick or taste test lol.
Have you found it gets easier these days when preparing meals for the family?  Do you just have a small portion of what they are having etc?

Good luck with Day 6 tomorrow Kel :-)

A meet up sounds like a good idea, it might help us prepare for the changes we will experience after surgery.

Tuggerah is probably where I have seen you then Mel as I go there fairly often, its such a small world!

I am on day 5 of the Optifast and its been the hardest so far, not so hard in resisting temptation (I even turned down a tim tam offer at work) but hard with the boring food and rumbling stomach, and also the mental side as I suffer from Depression and am used to eating for comfort etc so its a negative habit I need to break.

I am trying to think positive I can do it and everyone is sound proud of me for doing it :-)

So great to see some coasties on the forum! A coffee some day sounds good (or even an opti). I'm at the northern end of the coast too, Jilliby, about half way between Blue Haven and Mardi.

Fittru, sounds like you are going well. I will be very happy if I can get down to a size 14 eventually. My recovery so far has been textbook too, and I'm following the rules.

Mel & Kell, keep battling on with your opti and vegies, it does get easier, altho I was sure craving variety by surgery day, there's just not that many exciting ways with low fat low carb veg. I was prepared to be HANGRY (hungry & angry) but I never really got that bad.

I went thru PHI. There was about $3800 I think out-of-pocket, which includes a year of review appointments with Megan and at least one with surgeon at 5 weeks postop.

Best of luck xxxx

Hey Kell, you are not far from me at all :-)  I reckon we need to catch up before the op to calm each other down hehe.  I'm sure it will be fine as long as we do what they tell us to etc.  I have claimed money from my superannuation to meet the costs. There is no way I could afford it as we are already struggling to make ends meet. 

Im taking two weeks off work. The main thing Im worried about is not being able to lift my babies (18 mth old twins)  I have mum and dad coming to help and they go to day care 3 days a week so fingers crossed I can recover with no heavy lifting etc.

I dont work in Sydney, I actually work in Tuggerah lol...worked in Sydney years and years ago though.
Let me know if you wanna catch up sometime before our big days :-)

Wow Fittru, awesome results!  Congrats and good on for following everything right as Im sure that's where ppl slip up sometimes.  I understand what you mean about not technically loving your sleeve, but as you said it has given you the chance of a new fit & healthy life and that is something to be thankful for.

If you wanna catch up anytime too, let me know. Maybe you could be out mentor hehe :-)

Weight loss: I have lost around 57kg all up. My highest was 134 and I now sit at app 77kg most days. Could probably loose a few more but don't do anywhere near enough exercise or watch my intake enough. I really am quite happy at a standard size 14. It's smaller than I was at 14!!!!!!!!
Food intake: definitely more since about the 12 mth mark. Breakfast is usually 1 piece of toast or occasionally an egg but still only one.lunch is a sandwich or if out will try to order a protein source. Eg steak and salad. I eat as much protein as I can and leave the rest. I can definitely eat more at lunch than at dinner time!
Dinner is what ever ther family is having. I have a hubby and 2 teenage sons so could be anything, only in a much smaller size. Probably up to a cup in total. I have not found any food I can't eat and have NEVER vomited since my op. Definitely have over eaten on occasion and been incredibly uncomfortable for a spell but never had it come back up.

I realise how lucky I have been. I had a text book recovery and no problems at all. But that said, I followed every rule I was given to the letter! I am not sure i will ever say I love my sleeve (as others do) but I appreciate it for what it has given me and the new life I now have.

Best of luck with your journey and look forward to hearing more as you move forward. Xxx