Can't have surgery and can't go on like this.

I have a cardiovascular issue that makes surgery very risky. My useless, 3 year search for surgeons willing ignore the risk became an excuse for gluttony. I need to lose 135lbs.

It took 2 weeks, but I detoxed off Pepsi and lost 5lbs. I'm taking step #2 tonight: No Blue cheese dressing, mayo or croutons on my salads. I don't know, for how long, by what method or if success is even likely. I do however, refuse to give up & give in.

Hi Marky I feel your pain in mostly all of your post. I too blew through four surgeons and have a heart condition. And I very well may need to lose 135 pounds to be skinny.

Blue cheese dressing is the only dressing I use but I now add acv to thin it out. Never liked soda but loved flavor bubbly water. Gave that up for my HEALTH. Now I love room temp water with lemon.

Good for you to give up on those things! In ten weeks you could be 25 pounds lighter just from doing what you are doing. It is a start which many find difficult. I too am a very slow loser...I kinda hate it but I will get there just like you will get there too.

Are you posting your meals (or everything you swallow) on My Fitness Pal? Do it right away.

I don't know if you are a numbers person but having your RMR calculated and then eating 500 fewer calories each week will yield BIG results.

If you can walk do so, swimming is the best and lately I have been doing standing stretching routines on utube. I get sweaty from it and I know I am burning. My next goal is to start walking on the treadmill using a slow pace with a high incline. I can't wait!!!

In my family one sister is very lean and cheats maybe once a month she works out THREE hours a day no health problems none, another sister never works out eats everything GMO and has had both a heart attack and stroke, yet another has had diabetes heart stuff and cancer, another one has had a stroke GERD and they all eat GMOs regularly with no movement.

I'm FAT and have a bad heart but am trying to prevent a stroke high bp cancer diabetes heart attack and every other evil thing that harms our precious bodies. So I try to eat righ****ch anything artificial and GMOs and and am losing weight. So DON'T YOU GIVE UP either!!!

Hi SkinnyBonz38,

Thank you for that lovely, inspiring response. We have a lot in common. My main goal is to reduce heart attack/stroke chances. That indeed means reducing weight, processed foods, cholesterol & blood sugar levels. I'm at an age where goal weight & looking good means less than my health.

For me success means taking one step at a time. My main diet addictions were dairy based fats (cheese, salad dressings) & soda. I would have had to eliminate those even if I could have Bariatric surgery. So I finally realized that self control would have been a requirement even if that had been an option.

I love to cook from scratch. That made avoiding most processed & GMO foods easy. The exceptions were soda & dairy fats. I still need to reduce carbs & volume.

Your suggestions were appreciated & helpful. I have used food tracking in the past. But when you're out of control, you stop doing that as well. It is in fact step #3 in my plan. I don't know if this plan will work. What I do know is that I do not miss the soda or cheese & dressings. Even if I don't achieve any other step: I'm already healthier, and 8 lbs lighter with just those 2 baby steps.

I wish you continued success and health. Most of all:thank you for your kind encouragement.

It wont seem the same to you for a while - but I personally really enjoy fat free blue cheese salad dressing. It's a bit hard to find but very worth the search.

There is also excellent ranch fat free dressing and even fat free thousand island though again pretty hard to find.

I too love dairy and find I can substitute fat free milk powder and butter buds in most recipes without compromising creamy buttery taste at all.

((( good luck))))

I agree with All that... and Kudos to you!!

Hi, hope you are still around... I just found your posts and greatly appreciate the topic of being unable or unwilling to have surgery and needing to keep trudging ahead best we can anyway... This website, forums, and your posts do help.

So here I go, and I apologize in advance for the long post:

I just joined this site Nov. 2017 when I first started the 6-month pre-op program with my health providers for VSG, and have been voraciously reading and studying everything here and everywhere else I can find (for over two years actually) to not only continuously increase my education in these topics but to stay motivated. I love this site and all the wonderful posts and posters!

I have been working towards WLS for a few years, dieting my whole life, etc, and have gone through all the requirements except final surgeon meetings (too early for that) - but - have lost enough weight now that I won't qualify for surgery. This has forced me to think very hard and try to infuse even more open-minded views on using the better nutritious eating and lifestyle practices I've been able to reinforce this time to gradually lose the weight since I won't likely be able to have surgery (unless I let myself get sloppy to regain the weight in order to have the surgery!). Now that I feel "in a groove" with this, I'll have to stick it out and strive for averaging maybe a 1 pound loss per week, giving myself to the month of when I would have had the surgery to see how well I can do using all that I've learned and practiced. There's nothing better I can do anyway... but that should give me sufficient motivation to be patient and go another 6 months, etc, at a time. At least I will know it will be the healthiest way to lose weight that I can manage.

I too have cardiac issues, had a heart attack, apparently a mild stroke I didn't know about (tiny white spot in my grey matter?!), and the usual host of qualifying co-morbs and other obesity ailments... and need to take some weight off before I have a knee replacement, etc. So I truly need to stick with a healthy forever lifestyle, with or without surgery. I like your efforts to eliminate your worst bugaboos, even if one at a time. Pepsi - big one. Mine were also breads, brown rice and pastas, some sweets. I gradually lessened each, which now seem to be well-managed if not eliminated. I am always looking for a healthy substitution for each taste, sensation, urge, etc to be satisfying without feeling deprived; increasing activity and exercise; weighing-counting-tracking everything (Baritastic app); leading with protein, getting it all in; same for fluids (living on extra-diluted Crystal Light or similar beverages), and taking vitamins and calcium. Works, so far so good, just losing on average 1 lb a week, and feeling great. I have also worked on trying to more quickly reduce my stress responses (good for heart anyway), not overloading my time, and I am retired so want to appreciate and enjoy what I have earned. Yes, don't give up and don't give in! We are doing this!

As an aside, I have been "living" in the VSG forum and spent time in many other forums here to glean so much knowledge and motivation.. I have not found any other sites to be nearly as helpful and enjoyable. I hope you all continue, even without surgery, to participate, and I hope those of us who now cannot have the surgery are always welcome, since I am practicing the very measures the vets and others here reinforce for weight loss and maintenance. In effect, I am now on lifetime maintenance with 1200 calories, sadly without the surgery, but working to keep this positive. All posts and tons of helpful, healthful measures given here are the things that will get us through slow times, plateaus, lazy, tired and frustrated times, and work so much better (for me) than the support groups in the city (which I probably won't be allowed to attend much longer anyway). When I get booted out of the program, this is all I will have, and it's the best, so it's crucial we all feel comfortable here.

You are all brave, strong for making all the efforts and improvements you make every day, and very much appreciated. Looking forward to more! *hugs*

This is a very hard situation, I don't know what to do when I'm in your shoes. I hope you will find solace from the support of people around you. You can handle it. Try other diet options.

Chunky423,

I just now saw this post so I hope I'm not too late. Two years ago I entered myself into a Medically Managed Program that allows for three meals per day and snacks as needed. I weighed in at 444 pounds and ballooned to 452 within two weeks. Since then I have dropped steadily to 342 this past week. YOU CAN DO THIS. It won't be easy, but take the route of the tortoise, the rewards will be substantial.