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I'd be a lot more afraid of NOT having the surgery than having it. I hesitate to say this, but you're more likely to die from obesity complications than you are from the surgery. These surgeries are much safer than they were years ago - mortality rate is very low - even lower than hip replacement surgeries, which they do all the time. I was heavier than you are (although fortunately, I didn't have any co-morbidities), but I knew it for me it was either have the surgery or die from my massive weight (I was well over 300 lbs). Having that surgery probably gave me an extra 10 years of life. I'm much healthier today in my 60s than I ever was in my 30s and 40s.

I'm middle of the road I guess. Try as I might, I can't drink coffee without creamer. No sweetener unless it's a cold brew. Here's one I saw earlier and oddly enough reminds me of you @ms.sss since you mentioned taking pole dancing classes post op for exercise. LOL

no - mine completely went away. But...do they have you on a PPI, like pantaprazole (SP?). My surgeon had us all on one, regardless of surgery, for a year - but that was back when they didn't know the side effects of long-term use of those. Most surgeons nowadays have people on them for 3-6 months, which is supposedly safe.. I would definitely let your clinic know. If you're not on a PPI now, they'll probably put you one on for at least a couple of months, until you heal. And if you ARE on one, they may increase your dosage for awhile. It may go away after you're healed up, but in any case, you should be on something for it. For one, that acid can't be good for healing - and for another, no one wants to deal with severe heartburn, and you don't have to!

stalls became more frequent the further out I got. And they tended to last longer, too. Every time I'd hit one, I'd think "well, this must be it...", but then my weight loss would eventually start up again. I kept losing until about the two year mark. It was slow going after the first year, though.

I'm new here as well. Scheduled for Sept 20th.

My diet is not plant based but I do eat a variety of foods and happy to eat vegetarian or vegan when I visit my sisters (one vegan, the other vegetarian) or go to their preferred restaurants. As much as possible I will buy free range and locally/grass fed and the local farmers market is excellent. Fortunately where I live is a food bowl.

I make my own cheesy sauce that is great with pasta or veggies like broccoli. I do not use the processed products, as I don't think they taste that good, they are expensive, and I try not to use processed food products as a rule. To make a cheesy like sauce, I soak cashews for 30 to 60 minutes in hot water. Then I put them in the blender with a cooked yellow potato, soy milk, a small avocado, and sometimes some tofu.. Add a good amount of nutritional yeast and some miso paste, pepper to taste. Blend until smooth. The avocado taste does NOT come through, but the fat makes it "creamier." I will admit that the Beyond Beef burgers are pretty tasty. I might have one of those once a month or so, but not often. My protein comes from a wide variety of legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, tofu, tempeh, soy milk/yogurt or Nancy's Oatmilk yogurt which is pretty high in protein. I easily get 60 grams a day. Sometimes I will add a half scoop of protein powder to a smoothie or yogurt bowl.

Just got my labs back. I have been eating WFPB for about 7 months and the results are pretty impressive. First of all, my protein, calcium, and iron levels are well within normal limits, which proves to me that plant sources are perfectly adequate to meet these needs. Best of all, My lipid panel has just blown my socks off. Here are results from pre-op, 6 month and 12 month labs. Please note that I was at goal, having lost 100+ pounds at 6 months. CHOLESTEROL: 223, 219, 153! TRIGLYCERIDES: 133, 56, 34! HDL: 64, 71, 78! LDL: 132, 137, 68! CHOL/HDL: 3.5, 3.1, 2.0! The disappointing part is that my Vitamin D level has continued to drop, in spite of daily supplementation and plenty of outdoor time. I am sure this has to do with my fat malabsorption since surgery, so I guess I will be taking the super doses for a while to get it back up.