2-0-freakin'-9

Yeah, you read that right. 209lbs. I lost over 5 lbs this morning. I guess my camping trip took a few days to catch up to me. I was expecting this loss when I got home from camping, but as you know, I actually gained a little weight. Here's photographic evidence, just in case it jumps

back up again tomorrow (lol):


I haven't run this week. I'm working on the things I need for my surgery next week, oh - did I mention that it got moved up to NEXT MONDAY? I'm not ready... omg. What was I saying? Oh yeah, getting ready for my surgery next week. I had labs yesterday (meaning they took blood from my arm) and I have my Pre-Op appointment today. And on Wednesday when I was supposed to run, I didn't have my truck with me (the BF had it) so I couldn't go meet my running buddy, Brandy, at the park. Which for me meant, hey, I can wait on that till tomorrow. Well, tomorrow got busy and it never happened. Grr.

I'm going to try to run this weekend, but we'll see. I wanted to get week 2 of the couch to 5k this week, so that I'd be further ahead after my surgery. I won't be able to run for awhile because ... no bouncy bouncy. I will jump back on the elliptical though, asap.

So life was a little sucky yesterday, I was feeling down and very stressed out, from the surgery coming up, from the labs I had to do yesterday (needles - ICK/OUCH).

That Funny Feeling

My weight is up by .4 lbs, which puts me back in the 239 pounds area, as of this morning. I was sad to break my losing streak, but not entirely surprised. Weekends are not good for me. I have a bit of a co-dependent thing with my boyfriend, and when he gets snacky, guess who also gets snacky? On top of that, I made mac-n-cheese at the request of my daughter, and ate some. I knew I shouldn't but I just couldn't help it!

I know it's only .4 pounds, but I'm supposed to be losing weight, not gaining it back!

The tree I saw on my walk today.

Needless to say, I was disappointed this morning. I'm sure it'll be back down soon though. I'm on the tail end of my "monthly issues" and I'm sure I'll drop a bit once I'm all done there. I also walked 40 minutes yesterday, and 40 minutes today. I plan to do it again the rest of this week too.

I remembered to bring my food for breakfast and lunch today, teriyaki chicken and apple sauce. (for both.. the chicken was leftovers)

When I was eating lunch today, I got one of those reminder jolts that I have something stopping me from eating. I got through with my chicken - protein first! - and started my applesauce. I got about 3 bites when I got this ... heavy feeling in my gut. I took one more bite and stopped. I only took that last bite because it was already half in my mouth when I felt the heaviness. It's a really good thing that I picked the smaller piece of chicken for my lunch, or I probably would have PB'd. lol
Which I haven't yet done, btw.



Current weight: 239 lbs.

Just Short...

The question for the morning is; Did I meet my goals? hmm... lets see:

So as you already know, I did one set of "Squat/Shoulders/Sky". I never got a second one in because my legs hurt too much.

2 hours + of French yesterday!! C'est Magnefique!! (spelling?? lol)

Shakes were already made. I have a frozen one in my bag, thawing for lunch.

No 20 minute walk, was replaced by 30 minutes of Yoga!

Weight: Barely 240!

I lost .7 pounds this morning, which put me .2 pounds away from 239. I'm hoping that by tomorrow I will have lost that other .2 pounds to make it to 239. That will be SUPER exciting. I haven't seen the 230's in over 2 years!!

I have my surgery follow up this afternoon with Dr. Yarbrough, where he tells me it's ok to eat solid foods again. Though, I'm going to try to stick to the shakes till I make 235 lbs. That way I'm solidly in the 230's before I risk putting real food in my mouth every day.

I'm going to try baked chicken tomorrow. I know I've already done chicken, but the chicken I did was processed, deep fried and sauced. So although it went down ok, that doesn't mean that normal, baked and DRY will go down as well. I have a lemon pepper marinade that I'm going to cook it in. Hopefully that will help.

So, I'm not under 240 yet. That's ok, I still lost some weight. At least I'm not stalled out.


Current weight: 240 lbs

No Loss Today

Well, I jumped on the Wii this morning, hoping that I didn't gain because I ate so much yesterday. Good news: No gain! Bad news: No loss.

I didn't have time yesterday morning to make my requisite shake, so I ate two over-medium eggs at the cafe downstairs instead. Then for lunch I had a 7-layer burrito with chicken (No tortilla and easy on the rice). As a snack I had half a banana and a strawberry. For dinner I had 6 tater tots and a scoop of turkey sloppy joe with about 1/4 oz of cheese sprinkled on. No bun. I feel like I ate a lot. I know I didn't really... compared to what I ate before surgery, this was nothing. Compared to the week post-op though, this was huge. I'm pretty sure that's why there was no loss. (It could also be the lack of #2 for three days, if you know what I mean.)

I guess I can't expect to lose every day, and at some point it's going to level out because I don't get filled for 5 more weeks, but still! I was on a pretty big high from having lost that 14 pounds. Maybe tomorrow I'll drop that pound to 239. That would be great!

I'm being pretty good today. I had a Banana Muscle Milk for breakfast - 25 grams of protein, baby! I have 4 strawberries in a bag for snacking in case I get peckish. And I will have soup for lunch. Hopefully I won't be starving when I get home this afternoon.

I'm keeping up with my water pretty well. I had at least 50 oz yesterday, and then a glass of tea. So far today I've had most of 20 oz, and will refill the bottle in a little bit as soon as this is gone, so by the time I leave here (work) today I will be at 40 oz.

I'm setting some goals for myself for the remaining part of the week. Lets call them "Self Improvement Goals". Here they are:

1. Two 5 minutes sets of "Squat/Shoulders/Sky" per day.


2. Review French words on Babbel.com 20 mins per day.


3. Make my shakes at night, for use the next day.


4. Walk for 20 minutes per day.


5. Hit the 239 lbs. (or below) mark on the scale!

Ok, well, that's all for now. Let's see how the rest of this week goes, if all goes well I'll put up new goals for next week.

Current weight: 240 lbs

Awesome Din-Din

Dinner. What an interesting time of the day! I'm supposed to still be on mushies, but it's a lot of work to put stuff into a food processor or blender after it's been cooked, and I like to eat dinner with my family. Last night the family was having these small bbq chicken bites (prepackaged) with mashed potatoes and cooked broccoli.
When it came time for me to plate up I got down one of those little salad plates that's about half the size of a regular plate, and added 1 chicken bite (my first since banding), a spoon of broccoli, and a spoon of potatoes. When comparing my plate to my family's plates there was a drastic difference. I found it quite amusing.

Out of the 4 of us, my son was the first to finish, then my boyfriend. My daughter is always slow, so it's to be expected. I was there grinding away at my one chicken piece still, having only had that and a couple bites of the other stuff. I was the very last person to get done, with the smallest amount eaten. Boy, was it tasty though. Just to be safe, all my chicken bites were about the size of the tip of my pinky finger. Then I mashed up that chicken in my mouth to a nice grainy paste.

It all went down fine. When I was done I leaned back in my seat and felt nice and full. A little over "comfortably full" but not enough to make me sick. Definitely far less than the Home Town Buffet feeling. (That, by the way, is how I judge too full, that feeling like I just went to Home Town Buffet and got my monies worth is way too full.)

This feeling is very exciting, and I'm happy that I'm feeling it. It makes me very happy to think how much this band is doing for me already, just in the week since I had surgery. I told my boyfriend that I felt like I'd had seconds of his size plate. That was how full I was. He laughed.

By the way, I lost another .7 lbs as of this morning. This puts me at 240 pounds!!! I am not yet looking at the something point something weights, because I'm losing so fast I'm just rounding to the current pound. This puts my loss at 14 pounds since last Monday!!!! That's just crazy. I'm hoping it'll be another pound and a half to put me at 239 by tomorrow, so cross your fingers for me. I'll be in the 230's if I make it!! Yipee!


Current weight: 240lbs.

Surgery Done

Surgery is done! It was on Monday. Can't write alot today because I have a bandaid on my finger and it's causing me trouble typing.

Just letting everybody know all is good. I got home from the hospital today about 10 am, after spending the night. I've been mildly hungry a couple times, but fixed easily by a couple teaspoons of food. Of course I'm in stage two eating. Mushies for the next week.

I have some pictures to post that will be my "before" pics. I also have some of my belly and the scar. I got to be the first to get the new machine for my surgery, so I have one scar just above my belly button, it's about 1.75 inches long, and one tiny one just below the middle of my breasts. (or, where they would be if I had them)

Dr. Yarbrough says that the little one won't be a scar really. It's about the size of a large needle being poked in, rather than an incision.

So that's all for now, more tomorrow when I take off this darn bandaid.

Current weight: 256 lbs.

Written in Stone

I just got the call from Dr. Yarbrough's Office!! I'm no longer in pencil, I'm in pen! I am for sure getting my surgery Monday! I have $2700 left to pay, and I've got that, so I'm good.

I have a pre-op today at 3:15pm, then my surgery is 6AM Monday morning.

I am so excited that my blood pressure is through the roof. My head feels like it's going to explode, along with my heart, and I'm actually getting a headache from the rush. OMG OMG OMG OMG.

So I probably won't post again till after the surgery, unless something weird happens before then.

Wish me luck!!

Current weight: 249lbs.
Time to surgery: 5 days!

Insurance

OMFG!!

So yesterday I was going to go in and get myself officially weighed in. I figured that I must have hit my goal weight, so it was a good time to do that. Wanting to make sure I had my goal weight before I went in, I called yesterday morning, about 10:30, to find out, and was on hold for 5 minutes. So I called back again, and was on hold still. I was on my morning walk, so I didn't really want to listen to hold music, I wanted to listen to regular music, and my iPhone is my iPod, so even though I could listen to both at the same time it would have sounded funny.

I tried back about 10 minutes later, and still was on hold. This time I decided to stay on hold, and did end up listening to both my iPod music and the hold music at the same time. Ick. It was better than hold music alone though.

I waited on hold for over 20 minutes. Then my lunch break was over so I had to hang up.

I tried back again later, about 1:00pm, on my second break, and this time I got their answering service. They were at lunch. OMG. The answering service said that they would be back by about 1:30, but by that time my break would be over.

After work I tried again. I called and this time I actually got through! Yay me. I talked to Cindy, the secretary, and told her that I wanted to do an "official" weigh in so that I could be in the running to get an upcoming surgery. Cindy said they were busy today, and that if I came in tomorrow, I could do that, and talk to Rosemary (the official person to talk to). I said ok, and hung up.

I went home, disappointed, but figuring, it's only one more day. The problem is that I'm on Slim-fast right now... the diet from hell... and that's how I've lost the last few pounds to get me into this range. Well, if at any point I go back to regular food, even with small portions, I'll probably gain back a pound or two which would put me over my goal weight. Which means that waiting one more day means I have to continue this diet from hell. I am so hungry during the day that I'm swooning by the time I get off work, and STILL can't eat. I can't eat till dinner.

Anyway, I get home and tell my boyfriend about all this, and he's visibly annoyed at them for doing this to me. He's like, "it's not that hard to enter someones name in a chart!" He wants to go get a new video game (Conduit, for the Wii) so we're going out anyway. He says we should drop by at their office, and I should pretend that I didn't fully understand what she said earlier and say:
"I know you guys were busy earlier, so I thought I'd come by now and see if you were less busy."

He figured that they'd be less able to send me away if I was standing right there in their face in person.

So, we went in, about 4:00pm. We got there and there was seemingly no one there. The front desk was empty. I was sure they didn't close till 5, and I was there before then, so there should be someone there. We sat down, and waited. I thought, well, if someone was actually here, maybe they went to the back for a minute.

After about 5 minutes, Cindy comes in. Yay! I give her the line, and she says, "I'll take you back and we'll see what we can do." We came around the door to the back, and she says, "We were just talking about you!"

At this point, I'm dying of curiosity. Why were they talking about me?? Is it good or bad? Do I owe them thousands of dollars? Do they know for sure I'll have to wait to get my surgery? Or... are they ready to schedule me?? OMG.

I walked back towards the scale, and on my way Cindy tells Rosemary that I'm here. Rosemary looks up and says, "Angela? Angela ******* ?" I looked up and said yes, it was me. She told me to come sit down at her desk so we could chat.

Upon sitting down she tells me that they were indeed just talking about me. My insurance approval came through FIVE MINUTES AGO!!

Knock me down with a feather.

Well, she then asks me, "Can you..." and I interrupt with a "YES!" because I know she's going to set me a date! OMG OMG OMG OMG.

She asks, "Can you come in for a pre-op consultation tomorrow afternoon?"

And of course I answer, "YES!!"

Then she said she was penciling me in for surgery on Monday, June 29th... MONDAY!!




...
...
...

Did I mention, MONDAY!?!?!?!


Current weight: 249lbs
Time to WLS approval: Done.

Rolling along

Well, there's been alot since the last time I blogged here. I've been busy, life full of stuff to do and all that.

I was tasked to lose 10 lbs before I could get my surgery. I've been trying to do that for the last 3 months. It's surprising how hard something can be if you put your mind to it. heh. I purposely weighted myself down for my first weigh-in so I figured that my subsequent weigh-ins would be easier. But no. I ended up going up 5 lbs. Which I lost later, but then went back up 2 and down several more. To the point where my last weigh in I was back to the original weight that I'd been before. I've been weighing on my Wii too, to try to keep track. I was able to get down to 6-8lbs left by normal dieting.

Well, for the last 2 weeks'ish I've been on SlimFast to try to lose the last 6lbs of the 10 that I was supposed to lose. So far it's working. I've lost about 5 lbs according to the Wii. I'm afraid to go in and weigh in officially though, because it never says what I think it should.

I've now been through my 3 nutrition classes. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. I got some good recommendations about protein shake stuff, one was pretty good. It kinda tastes like pudding, only thinner. I also found out about this liquid calcium supplement that was pretty good too.


I'm truly hoping that when I get home from work today, I'll be down another 2 lbs. I messed up a little Saturday, and went to Home Town Buffet. I didn't eat ANYTHING else that day though, except a piece of cheese. So I didn't think it would impact me much. It didn't really, I didn't gain anything from it, but I stalled my losses too.

Wish me luck that I've lost another pound or two. I'm STARVING right now. heh.

Current weight: 249 lbs.
Time to WLS approval: As soon as I lose the rest of my 10 lbs. I think.

Second Nutritionist Visit

Went to see the dietitian again today. She said I'm doing ok. I've only got 5 more pounds to lose to be on track. So I should be ok.

She set me up with one more appointment with her, then I have to take a class in June. Gosh this is really dragging out. I was hoping to have my surgery in June... not a stupid class. At this rate, I'll do the class and then there won't be an open surgery date till Ju-fricken-ly. I'm never going to lose the 75 lbs I needed to lose in time to get the reconstruction on my boobs. If it rolls into next year it'll be another $5000 that I just don't have. This sucks.

I hate life today.

Oh, on a slightly more positive note. I had my first sleep apnea appointment today too, and the doctor is sure I have sleep apnea. She scheduled me for a sleep-over test and gave me a sleeping pill to take so that I can for sure sleep that night.

She said that I have a small jaw which makes the air hole narrow. Also, that even if I lose weight, I may still have some amount of sleep apnea.

And how is this good news you ask? Well, if I wear the CPAP thing and it helps me sleep good without loosing oxygen during the night then I'll be more alert and energetic during the day. This is a big thing for me because I'm always tired and have a hard time being motivated for anything.

Basically, even without the whole surgery thing, half my weight issues are my lack of energy to get up an do stuff, and if I'm not tired then my work, my sleep, my daily activities, my hanging out with my kids...etc... will all get better with the CPAP machine. So life will be much less stressful.


Current weight: 255
Time to WLS approval: 1 month + 2.5 weeks

Sleep Study

I got a reminder call today from my bariatric center that I need to do my sleep study. I've been putting this off because I don't like the idea of trying to sleep with all those wires attached to me. Ick. I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is without adding that complication to it. I'm going to call at lunch today and make an appointment.

The sad thing is, is I'm pretty sure I made this appointment already and I just forgot about it. I'm hoping that's not the case though, because sometimes doctor's offices and other places will blacklist you if you miss appointments. And I don't want to be blacklisted. lol.

Well, that's all for now. Once I have my sleep apnea thing, I'll come in here and blog again. Till then.... TTFN (Ta Ta For now!)

Current weight: 257lbs.
Time to WLS approval: 2 mos.

Nutritionist-Part 2

Wow. I thought I had already posted on my trip to the nutritionist, but apparently I forgot.

I went to see the nutritionist as part of my required "making sure she'll comply" appointments. I also saw the psychologist (or maybe psychiatrist??) to talk about my history and the reasons why I'm overweight. I think I did pretty good at that one.

BUT

Then they weighed me in. I experienced complete shock. I thought I'd been doing well at loosing weight. After all, I'd set up my first appointment expressly to give myself some easy to lose weight. So on this appointment, I should have lost some good weight. Nope. Not me. I GAINED weight. Gained. Yep, that's right you heard it. I gained 5 lbs.

5 pounds is not that big a deal normally, but I only have another month to lose the first 10 they asked me to lose. So now, I have a month to lose a total of 15 pounds. FIFTEEN.

Hrrumpf.

Current weight: 262 (I think... I'll check my paperwork and fix this later)
Time to WLS approval: 2.5 months

Nutritionist

I'm going to the nutritionist tomorrow at my bariatric center. I have another appointment with them tomorrow as well, but I can't remember what it's for. This is another step in the long road to WLS. I'm hoping to get my actual surgery by early June at the latest. If all goes well I will! :)

I've been having a lot of issues with heartburn and reflux lately. I'm hoping it's just because of my fat, and not because of some new cancer in my chest. I'm finding spicy foods hard to tolerate, yet I still eat them because they are good. mmm tacos and pepperoni!

Current weight: 255 lbs.
Time to WLS approval: 2.5 months

Dr. Yarbrough

So I had my first visit with Dr. Yarbrough today. He is so nice! It was a longer appointment than I was expecting.

There were three people with concurring appointments. We had to go through a mini-class on what to expect from the surgery and more detailed info on how it works. After that, I had to talk to a finance person who basically told me that I had to have all my surgery money up front.

This wouldn't be a big deal except that my out of pocket through my insurance is like over $4500 bucks. Do you have that kind of money laying around??? I sure don't. I think I may be able to come up with most of it, and I asked my sister to see if she'd fit the extra $2500 that I can't come up with, in exchange for a repayment of $200/mo. and an extra payment at the end.

Hopefully that works out. She said yes, but she tends to be a bit flighty sometimes.

So anyway, my next appointment with them is in March. And the earliest I'll get my surgery, if everything works out, will be in May sometime. So maybe if I'm really lucky it'll be end of May.

I need to lose 75 lbs before I can get my reconstruction on my chest. So, if I get it in May I'll be hard pressed to lose that much before the end of the year.


We had to go through another
Current weight: 258 lbs
Current BMI: >44
Time to WLS approval: 4 months :(

2nd Time Around

So Xmas is over, and the year is too (or will be soon). Which means that my rescheduled banding is coming up. January 22nd is my consult. I waited too long to schedule it and that was the soonest they had available. (I know, right???)

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm worried that something will happen and for the 3rd year in a row I won't be able to get banded. I'm so sick of waiting to be thin. Holding on to the extra pounds so that I don't get rejected by my insurance. I wish sometimes that I'd just started exercising way back in the beginning, then maybe I'd be skinny by now. Then I realize that, no, I would not be. I would just be yo-yo dieting, because, if I could do it by myself I would have done it years ago.

This time I hafta do it though. Even if I do get rejected or put off. I won't be able to get my new bewbs till I lose at least 75 lbs.

So, wish me luck that I'll get banded. TTYL.

Current weight: 252'ish
Time to WLS approval: 2-3 months?

Chemo ending, weight loss on its way!

So my chemo is over, and I'm about to lose a quick 10+ lbs in a double mastectomy. I talked to my insurance company, and they've stated that I can finish up my Dr. monitored weight loss program (the two months I had left) and still get my Lap-Band surgery this year. So hopefully, if all goes well, I'll be banded by September/October. Yay!!

I have to re fill out the paperwork for the bariatric surgeon, but now I have my Oncologist on my side too. It's recommended that you be a lower weight to curb the possibility of getting the cancer back. So, maybe I'll get approval. That would be so nice.

Well, wish me luck folks!!

Current weight: 260
Time to WLS approval: ??

I want off the rollercoaster.

Yesterday's weight: 250
Ok, this is where I need to be to start my diet. To make sure that I won't lose too much thereby blocking my surgery. It sure don't feel very good though!

I hate weighing this much. My ankles hurt, my feet hurt, and my knees feel like they'll split open whenever I bend them. Luckily I'll be able to lose a little soon. I'll lose about 10-12 pounds over the next 5.5 months. So that's about 2 pounds a month if I want to stay safely over the BMI limit.

Yay me!!

Every day that goes by I get more excited. More hopeful. I read blogs of people who have already had the surgery, there seems to be a proliferation of people who got banded or RNY in the year 2005. So luckily for me, I am able to read the entire story. From the struggles to the easy-peasy. I hope I fall into the easy-peasy category. I don't want to be obsessed with food every day of my life. I'd like to be the ".. it's ok. I like food, I eat food, I just eat less food" people.

Awesome Quote~

I just loved this quote from this site:
http://www.weightlossdaily.org/

(This is the specific article)

The whole article is awesome, but this quote kinda sums up the lapband and, really, any WLS. So check it out!!

"Surgery is not the magic pill we have all been waiting for. You will not wake up thin. You must be willing to meet the band half way. You will lose weight at a different pace than your friends. You must change your behavior for this to work. It is a tool-and nothing more. An electric mixer is easier than mixing by hand but you still have to follow the recipe for the cake to taste good."

Food

The things we learn about food when we're forced to eat too much:

• Food is gross!
• Don't eat too much.
• Food is gross!
• I don't like that.
• Food is gross!

Okay, okay. Enough on my food is gross thing. That's just it though. I've been on this thing trying to gain a little weight now so I'm not under my minimum weight to have my WLS. I thought it would be easy, just go back to eating like I was before I started dieting, and Viola! There's that ten pounds you lost.

What I didn't count on was that my stomach was smaller from not eating so much, so when I tried to eat more..... *blech* Food is gross. For the past few days I have been consuming an average of 3700 calories per day. I'm eating the worst for you stuff I could find and I hate it.

I always used to laugh at my boyfriend. There was a time when he was only 140 lbs, and he's 6'1". He was always upset because he was "too skinny" which makes sense for a guy and especially one that tall. He was always trying to gain weight, but pretty much no matter what he did it didn't happen. Eventually, and after much laziness and stomach expanding, he was able to gain weight and looked pretty normal, no longer skinny. Now, he's gotten used to being lazy and eating alot and he weighs more than he wants... go figure! LOL So he's a little on the chunky side.

So, my point on that was, that I used to laugh at him, when he tried to gain weight. That whole, "If only I had that problem!" I wanted to be too skinny too, and now, although I am obviously not too skinny for most things (I'm actually morbidly obese) I am nearly too skinny to get the surgery I need to no longer be morbidly obese. So now, I had 10 days... yes, only 10 days, to gain 10 pounds. Yikes. Well, not 10 whole pounds, more like 8, I had already gained 2 in the weeks leading up to this. I succeeded in gaining 5. I didn't gain 10. I gained 5. Arg. And today is the day I'm supposed to reduce my calories by 200. Luckily I was fibbing on my tally, and where my Diet Coke should be, I put in Coke. So I have a fictitious extra 300 or so calories I can take away without actually doing it.

I'm truly afraid, that when I start cutting the calories back, my body will do what it wants to do and lose weight. I know, again, that sounds horrible. After all, my whole goal is to lose weight, and you know what? I could. I could lose some weight without the surgery. BUT. I could probably only lose about 30 pounds. Where will that get me? I'll be too skinny to get the surgery, I'll be stuck at that weight -- which is still too heavy, and I will eventually gain it back, because that's how life is. I won't have anything stopping me from eating too much, I'll become complacent and my stomach will stretch from eating just a little too much - often - and food will no longer be gross. I'll gain it back and then more, and my skin will stretch more and my stretch marks will get worse. I'll be 300 pounds and really need the surgery but then I'll not have a job because I lost it after a bout of depression caused me to stay home too much and I won't have insurance and I'll just get even bigger!!!!! Or, my sleep apnea will kill me while I sleep.

Ok, so a little melodramatic, but that's just me. These are my fears and I don't want to live like this anymore.

Dr. Monitored Diet

For my insurance I need to have a 6 months, doctor supervised diet plan.
I went to my PCP yesterday, because he's fastest. He gave me this:

For 10 days, keep track of what you eat and average the calories.
At the end of 10 days, subtract 200 calories from your average and stick to that.
Continue for 2 weeks at that reduced calorie level, and continue to lower by 200 calories every 2 weeks after (till my 6 months is up).

Oh, and exercise.

Sounds like a good plan, I think.
I still have to be at >40 bmi at the end to qualify for surgery, but since this diet plan is so slow, I think that will happen ok.