Susanne

In all honesty - and please don't take this as an insult - but who in the wide world would believe that a "fatty" would go on a clear liquid fast on Christmas???? Would you EVER be a person who would do that? And would stick with it when sitting at the table? Again, ON CHRISTMAS - probably everyone's favorite food days where even the skinny puppies overeat! If I would have tried to sell them that excuse, I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face myself... If you feel you have to lie and can't be honest with your family, I'd take the easy route and just stay home. Call in the morning, say you were up all night running a relay between the bathroom and the bedroom and you can't come. And otherwise, tape a rerun of that TV show and send a copy to your family. If it worked for your husband, it may work for your family too. I think a lot of people just have an initial shock, but most come around seeing that you are happy with your decision and that you haven't taken it lightly. Good luck Susanne PS: I don't like being lied to so I try to avoid doing it to other people :-(

The differences in food recommendations never fail to amaze me. I was 2 weeks clear liquid, followed by 4 weeks of full liquids and then I go to soft/moist foods. My surgeon has done over 400 sleeves, so I believe he knows what he is doing. They explained their caution with the fact that they are keeping a leak rate of <1% while other clinics accept up to 4% leak rate and in order to keep the leak rate that low, they are more conservative with the recommended food. I guess I appreciate that thought process :-) I guess I am not willing to experiment with something where failure is catastrophic and irreversible. Don't get me wrong, I have experimented with a lot of things *cough* and usually don't shirk a challenge. In this case though, if something goes wrong - there is nothing I can do, no way to save the failed experiment. If it is down in there, it is down in there. AND the repercussions are more severe than just a bad trip or a mean hang-over... The sleeve is still in the healing process, and I have the rest of my life to eat meat...hmmm, meat!

Are you sure you can have meats already? Or do you mean pureed stuff? 3 weeks seems a early to me (though I came to realize that my surgeon is very conservative), I am almost 5 weeks out and have to wait another week :-( I am looking forward to meats too - not just because I like them but because with 3 oz. of lean ground beef I can have 22g of protein!

I am with Tiff - go to GNC and try them out. I know, it may be uncomfortable to go in there with the buff 20-somethings but remember, in the end they probably are on commission and "need" you. I told them outright that I had surgery after one tried to talk e into some other supplement. There is a huge variety of shakes, something for every taste bud. As for the Wheybolic - it is still my favorite and I bought a huge bucket on Saturday during the Gold card sale (still ongoing I think). How are you making it? I noticed a huge difference between the blender and the shaker bottle. If I use the blender, it gets creamy like a milkshake and when I use the shaker bottle, it is more like chocolate milk consistency. @Dawn, maybe are you using the blender? Maybe the thick consistency is bugging you post-surgery? Try to shake it up in a bottle maybe? Either way...best shake for me :-)

Ok, I guess today is officially cheat day. We went to the cookie drive at my SIL's church and had too buy a bucket of cookies and together with the cookies I am having another cup of coffee (espresso size cup). I keep thinking that on the end it is just liquid, and I don't think my staple line should be that "raw" that the touch of 1oz. of coffee has repercussions. I know neither of you can make recommendations, and my surgeon seems overly cautious but I am sticking to his recommendation and am still on full liquids and will be until 12/14. He keeps me off soft foods for 6 weeks - I feel like I am really coddling my sleeve compared to other folks on here. It's like home schooling vs. public schools, lol.

I am glad I am not alone. @Mommy (and man, that is weird calling you Mommy), I think if you scroll down, there is a box called Meta, which has two links for Entry RSS and Comment RSS. That should allow you to add it to your blogroll @NBFlo, I believe it is about the fresh surgical wound and caffeine, which can cause ulcers or so? Same for alcohol and I believe I am supposed to stay away from both for 3 months. @Tiff, when did you pick it up again?

I just read in another topic that everyone seems to get a leak test before being discharged. I never had that, and now I want to know how many actually had the test and if it is depending on location. Please vote! Susanne

Welcome to the forum! You'll not be disappointed, it is amazing! I tried to lose weight earlier this year, working out for up to 2 hours a day, eating reasonably (but slipping up every now and then), and I made it down 18 pounds in 4 months. Admitted, I was a little firmer than now, but I also gained it all back once I stopped the workouts due to time issues. Now, I had surgery pretty much a month ago and lost 28.4 pounds. It seemed like life was not fair all my life and all of a sudden the tables have turned! Good luck on your journey! Susanne

LilMiss, I am not trying to be argumentative, please don't misunderstand. You know best what works for you, I just want to make sure you are not unnecessarily depriving yourself of a power food. I am not sure what nuts you are looking at, maybe sweetened nuts, like honey roasted or other nuts with flavorings (and usually some sugar)? In general, nuts are considered a low carb foods: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/whattoeat/a/snacks.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet I really like the following site because it shows the ratio of protein/fat/carb in the little pyramid and it is easy to see what is low/high carb/fat/protein: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3086/2 -- almonds 6g/2% carbs per ounce (3g of those are actually fiber) http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3137/2 -- walnuts 3g/1% carbs per ounce (2g of those are actually fiber) This is low carb and you should be save to eat them. 1%, the only lower carb would be no carb at all :-) What I couldn't find was a definition of low carb, ie. a threshold value for grams of carbs. Either way, good luck on your mission :-)

I don't think nuts are high in carbs - they have a lot of fat/calories, but their carb content is OK. I am only a month out, so I can't have either but if you want to go low carb, nuts should be OK. If you restrict those, you'll go "low everything" which would basically be a pre-surgery diet behavior again. I personally hope that I don't have to go that route again. Why do you want to do that? Do you feel you are not losing enough? Maybe you just "miss" restricting/controlling yourself like you had to in pre-surgery life?

Holy cow - I thought my process was taking long, but compared to this is seems like it went fast (9/18 - Intro Seminar, 11/2 Surgery). Good luck to you and your wife -- btw, why isn't she asking herself? Bring her in...

LOL, I JUST made my husband feel my shoulder because instead of round and cushy, there are muscles and bones and dents

I have no idea, I guess they checked regularly in the hospital and on the post-surgery appointment 2 weeks after. My surgeon (Dr. James Foote) has done close to 400 sleeves, so it's not some backdoor hack :-) http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/bariatric+surgeon+profile+James+Foote+jkm.html My surgeon is also VERY careful with the eating plan, I was 2 weeks on Clear liquids, and after that 4 weeks on full liquid (two more weeks..blargh)

I am a 34. I believe surgeons use larger size for lower BMI. My surgeon said he would use a 34 instead of a 32, because my BMI was "only" 42

I am now one month post op and I have another 2 weeks of full liquids. I so had it again. It seems like 2 weeks is the max I can go on eating the same stuff, LOL. I have to go to the store and see if I can find a nice soup to blend...

ASK YOUR SURGEON - if you really have pain, no one on here can diagnose it from a far but I think we can all say that shooting abdominal pain is NOT normal. It may be nothing, it may be something but I would definitely check with your doc

Do you do a food journal? I find it helps when trying to pinpoint issues with eating too much, not enough, too carby, not enough protein etc. I like MyPlate on livestrong.com

That is one of the reasons why I am still going to GNC. I have returned several products because of taste and if I had to keep those, the lost money would have made up for the savings in initial price - does that make sense?

It looks like that sale ended this morning at 9am, but right now I can still save 30% on some and I got something new, Dymatize Elite Gourmet Chocolate Peanut Butter for $19.99. Let's see how that tastes

LOL - reminds me of the pumpkin pie I bought for my husband. Serving Size: 1/10 of the pie. Now tell me, who cuts a pie into 10 pieces? NO ONE!!! This was just so they could sneak it in at under 300 calories because 1/10th of a pie was 280. If they had used the regular 1/8th of a pie, it would have clocked in at a whopping 350 calories for a small piece of pie. I bet a lot of people don't even consider the off-kilter serving size and think they get 280 calories when they eat a piece....

That is my favorite too, the Chocolate. The Cookies and Cream has a little aftertaste IMHO and the Banana flavor is so strong, I felt like I was sitting in a pile of ripe bananas - some may like it, but for me it was too much. I have mixed PB2 with chocolate or a banana. NOTE: It is not ready to drink. I don't se a problem with this, because this stuff mixes very easy. I have a couple of shaker bottles but in the end you can just pour it in a Water bottle and shake it that way. It is easier to carry and easy to store this way. And if you go over to GNC today, they have 30% off for Gold Card Members and 20% of for everyone else - Cyber Monday! And another note - if you have a local GNC in the mall, you can return what you don't like, even if the pack is opened. BTW, same for costco...if you REALLY don't like it, they will take it back.

I had a funny thought about the pre-op diet cheating. You know, when someone asks you if you were good and stuck with your diet, you can always say yes, right? No one will ever know if you snuck in a burger or some fries. HA - not so much, your surgeon will cut open your stomach and if there is a half digested piece of burger sitting scared in the corner of your tummy afraid of the light - HE'LL KNOW YOU CHEATED :-) Maybe it was just my diluted pre-op diet brain, but I had to laugh at the thought...the one and only time someone will really be able to see if you cheated on your diet