MegInNOLA

Well, I'm laughing/feeling sorry for you all at once--I'm in the "barf" camp, too, even though I absolutely HATE to do it. I haven't had to do it for a couple of months now (yay!) so I'm hoping that maybe I have a handle on eating slowly and CHEWING properly. I'm obviously a slow learner. :-) I can tell you that you will continue to get those ICKY feelings well after surgery. I ate something last night (a mayonnaise-based salad dressing) that my sleeve did NOT like--usually I try a bite of a new food and see if it's going to be okay, but I just ate the salad, and when I was about 2/3 through my small portion, I realized I was NOT going to make it through the rest and I was feeling that same old "sleevie hates that food" feeling. I actually propped myself up and made myself relax enough to sort of doze off in order to avoid the nausea and "I have to throw up" feelings, and it stayed down, but it was a challenge. If this had happened a few months ago, I'd have barfed for sure; so it seems like maybe one is able to have a bit more control over things as you continue to heal and things get easier. Hang in there! One way or another, it's all a learning process.

Wow, that's a cheat for you? LOL It's a meal for me. I LOVE hummus, and my sleeve tolerates corn chips so much better than any other sort of cracker. I eat this regularly, around the same amount as you, as one of my five mini-meals. Lemon hummus is my favorite. I do sometimes eat the hummus with cucumber instead of chips for dipping, but seriously--I'm a corn-chip girl, love them, eat them regularly, and don't sweat it. I'm not low-carbing, though. I think this is a pretty healthy cheat--good for you!

Aw, Coops, I'm so sorry--how icky to be sick on top of bereaved. I hope everything picks up for you very soon in terms of physically feeling better. Being a member of a loving, caring community is really important when the community mourns one of its own--I know y'all will collectively comfort one another through celebrating Jack's life and his continuing presence with you. Hang in there--thinking of you and yours.

I tell you what I did. I plugged in my current stats, current weight, age, activity level, and put in a new goal weight to be reached in 180 days. It showed that my current caloric requirement is 2312 (which is really high--I'm not consuming near that many calories now), and that to reach my new goal in 180 days, I need to reduce my calories by X amount daily. My question is, I'm already eating around the suggested reduced amount of calories now--and I certainly am not losing a lot of weight, if any, for this whole last month. According to this calculator, I'm supposed to be able to maintain my current weight at 2312 calories a day, and I should be losing if I'm eating fewer than that, right? And I'm definitely not-- I think I'm going to experiment with detailed logging for a few days just to verify that my caloric intake is really what I think it is. Maybe I've been overeating all this time and have just been unaware of it, but I don't think so. I suspect that my metabolism is sort of shot because of hypothyroid issues (although I'm on Synthroid now--maybe years of obesity and thyroid malfunction have taken a toll and sort of permanently slowed my metabolism?).... and I'm definitely experiencing a lot of stress, so cortisol and other hormones might be part of this picture. Logging should eliminate that as the problem, though, so one step at a time.

Well, I'm a bit confused by the simulator. When I plug my information in, it says my baseline diet is 2312 calories per day (I think that's to maintain my current weight at my height, age, and activity level, right?). In order to achieve whatever goal, it says I am to reduce that caloric intake by X calories--but I'm already eating right around that "reduced" number of calories now, and I haven't lost diddly squat this month! So I'm not sure if I did something wrong with the simulator or what. :-)

Just be sure to chew thoroughly, and seed/skin tomatoes and cucumbers. Eventually, you'll be okay with it, but for now, taking a few precautions can make a difference. :-) Enjoy!! Worst-case scenario is you zap it in the blender and call it gazpacho and drink it. It will still taste really good--a little tomato, some cilantro, a little onion, maybe some cucumber, zap it up, YUM!

Hello dehydration (I think). That's what happens to me when I don't get enough fluid. Try upping your water and see if that helps. Hope it gets better for you soon!

Take your time. It took me a lot longer to tolerate food than a lot of folks, but it's all okay now. Just do what you can, when you can. No hurry, and no pressure to stick to someone else's timeline. It's your body; listen to it and do what's right for you. Congratulations on your surgery! :-)

Good luck Ginger!!

I still eat sushi, but only a few bites. The rice is definitely a problem for me. Nowadays, when I eat sushi, I typically split a roll with my husband, and I take the "guts" of the roll and eat them, leaving most of the rice on my plate. I get the great flavor of the sushi without the intolerance issue. My favorites are crunchy rolls (with "crab," avocado, and asparagus with a little tempura crunchy) and Philly rolls--not really "sushi," I know, but yummy ("crab," avocado, and cream cheese). My other favorite is one that does not have rice at all--it's called crab naruto, and it's the "crab" salad stuff wrapped in cucumber strips instead of seaweed and rice. Delicious and light!

I know exactly what you mean. I look forward to seeing old friends now--not to be all "I'm all that," but because I look forward to talking with them and catching up without worrying about my weight! It was such a heavy mental weight as well as a physical one--I never knew how great it would feel to ditch that mental worry. Thanks for posting and helping me realize that. :-)

Yeah. My highest weight was 31 pounds more than my surgery date weight. Surgery was last April, and I've lost a grand total of 145 pounds. Holy smokes--I have never typed that out before. Thank goodness for my sleeve....

Girlfriend, I'm 6'2". You are a shorty!! Congratulations on your 100 pounds--it's pretty freaking awesome, isn't it!!!

Hey y'all: Well, I got on the scale this morning and was exactly the same as before my conference. I'm telling you, it's kind of great and kind of weird all at the same time, because while at this conference I just ate and drank whatever sounded good at the time--I'm talking about drinking at least 2 glasses of wine a night, a Starbucks full-fat, full-sugar mocha a day (which really didn't sit very well, I have to be honest and say--kind of quease-inducing), meals that had multiple courses (although I tried and mostly succeeded at keeping things very veggie-centric), and--brace yourselves--dessert. Yes. I ate a few bites of tiramisu at dinner Saturday night, and it was ah-may-zing. I was really kind of scared to get on my scale this morning and frankly shocked to see no weight gain at all--no loss, but no gain, either. I feel like I've dodged a few bullets, although I was mentally prepared to see a higher number. The whole process of this conference has really been eye-opening for me in lots of ways. First, I realize now that I really can relax about eating--my sleeve definitely does its job and restricts the amount of food I can tolerate. It also restricts the types of food I am able to comfortably eat--I "can" physically eat lots of different sorts of food that I couldn't tolerate at all when first sleeved, but I don't feel comfortable when I eat certain things--most of them happen to be not such healthy choices--so I'm not nearly as interested in eating them any more. Vegetables, however, are completely sleeve-friendly, plus I love them, plus I like how I feel physically when I eat them. Sweet Starbucks coffee--not so much; I drank it because it was available and my usual wasn't available, but I will not be making that a regular thing, as it didn't make me feel good enough to overcome the queasiness from the sugar (and I absolutely will not drink artificial sweeteners--just a personal aversion to that). I was able to find appetizer-sized meals that worked in every restaurant we visited. I ate in public with friends almost every meal. Not one person ever commented about how little I ate except my mentor; we went to lunch, and my waiter was quite concerned that I didn't like my grilled asparagus vinaigrette because I couldn't finish the appetizer-sized portion. My mentor, who had seen me eat several meals by that time of the conference, told the waiter, "She doesn't eat much--that's why she looks so great!" I just grinned and told the waiter it was delicious but I was full. All's well that ends well. I walked past people that I've known for twenty years and had them not recognize me until I spoke to them. Had a lot of double-takes. Had one guy come over to my table, sit down, and start talking with my mentor--I have worked closely with this person in the past at a conference--when my mentor turned to me with a comment and used my name, this guy's jaw dropped open and he spent about ten straight minutes apologizing for not recognizing me. I got used to saying, "Yeah, it's pretty different for me, too!" I was startled to have men break into a trot from behind me in order to get to a door first to open it. My carry-on luggage was stowed for me and retrieved by various guys on the plane--and believe you me, I'm 6'2" and perfectly capable of lifting my little carry-on bag into and out of the overhead bin. LOL I was flirted with by several strangers, waiters, old friends, and colleagues at the conference--not in an ugly way, mind you, just friendly flirting. My husband said, "You have lost your invisibility. What an ironic thing that you got smaller and are no longer invisible." He is 100% right! No more invisibility. And I realized that where I used to get really uncomfortable with men noticing me, I'm able to deal with the flirting in a friendly way (most of the time, just a big smile) and just take it for what it is, which for me is as a non-pressure compliment. So, all in all, a very enjoyable conference, both for the content of the conference itself and also for the nice responses to the "new" me. I had a lot of questions about "how I did it," and I responded quite honestly that "I had surgery, and it took!"

Whew! I'm home, y'all. HI KRIS! Nice to "meet" you and welcome to the group! Sorry I was without my computer for this week--seems like you're at home here already. :-) GT, who does the shopping for your house? I'm asking because if someone else is bringing that stuff in (ESPECIALLY if they know it's something you sometimes crave), it might be time for a little (or big) discussion about being supportive and preventative care of YOU. If you do the shopping, that's another issue. Honestly, I have a "thing" about no food being out of bounds--if I want to eat a Snickers bar for breakfast, I'll do it--I know what that means, though, to my weight loss efforts, and I also personally know it's going to make me feel sick as a dog. If I choose to do it anyway, okay; I evidently want that more than I want what having the Snickers bar is going to keep me from. Does that make sense? That's how I look at things--and I'm NOT trying to bash you; I'm talking about what runs through my head. Because I'm not an emotional eater, it's hard for me sometimes to understand the emotional fulfillment/guilt thing that some folks experience with particular foods or habits of eating. I can't remember if you said you were seeing a counselor--might be able to help you get some insight on why you eat things you feel are keeping you from attaining your goal. I sometimes think a lot of us have an underlying fear of success--it's so weird, but it only just occurred to me a couple of days ago that nothing's really going to be different when I eventually reach goal. I keep thinking of it as some kind of "magic end to a process," and that's not what this is, really. This is life. It's not something I'm doing for now, only to be able to or have to do something different when I reach my goal. When I reach goal, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing now, for the most part. Maybe I'll try a few bites of whatever when it's available. I did that this week--had a business conference and ate whatever was available that sounded like it would work with my sleeve... I'm going to weigh tomorrow morning and we'll see what the damage is. I did make good choices most of the time, but not all of the time, and I drank way too many Starbucks mochas. But the "bad food" issue is definitely something that I'm sorry you're dealing with. It does seem like maybe there's an emotional eating component there, and maybe a counselor would be helpful in figuring out what's going on. You know we're all pulling for you!! HUGS

Hey y'all: Since I'm so close to goal and have been sort of bouncing around here for a couple of months, I have begun to focus on eating for long-term health. I'm interested to see how others eat for optimum nutrition and energy--eating for health and sustenance rather than necessarily for weight loss, although I absolutely do NOT want to gain anything back! Here's where I am: Breakfast: coffee with milk, shot of chocolate syrup (yeah, I know, but...), whole-grain Breakfast cookie (physician recommended since I'm thiamine-deficient) Snack: 1/4 c. almond/cranberry mix and finish the coffee Lunch: Small mixed salad with dark greens, tomato, cucumber, 1/4 avocado, feta cheese, vinaigrette Snack: Low-fat cheese or yogurt, fruit Supper: Varies a lot--includes dairy or vegetable Protein and veggies Snack: Corn chips and salsa (max of 6 chips or so), cheese, low-fat sour cream; OR a couple of crackers with cheese I also supplement with Multivitamin, calcium/vitamin D, Vitamin C, super B complex, and I'm about to add an Omega fatty acid supplement since I don't eat a lot of foods that contain those. (Note that the above sequence of 5-6 mini-meals is what my sleeve is comfortable doing--I can't eat a lot of volume at one time, and sleevie still doesn't tolerate meat, most chicken, eggs, and flour products other than the occasional cracker.) So, is anyone else already eating with an eye to nutrient density, or do you have recommendations for resources I could check into?

Precious, everybody's sleeve is different. I never counted anything (and still don't), mostly because I have to eat what my sleeve will allow--and, for good or ill, it doesn't let me eat foods that aren't good for me (can't tolerate fried foods, most flour products, sweets). However, it also doesn't let me eat good-for-me foods like chicken, eggs, tuna, etc., so it's a trade off. Since you're having such a difficult time trying to do the "standard" things, why not try something else? Maybe aim to get some Protein through vegetable sources--get some bean Soup and zap it in the blender and heat that up and eat it. Split pea with ham. Vegetarian chili that has TVP (textured vegetable protein) instead of meat--zap them up so they're smooth and try those. My point is, low-carbing will work for a good number of folks, but not everyone. If your sleeve won't tolerate a lot of the typical protein foods (tuna, chicken, whatever), you obviously can't eat those, and a lot of very healthy, non-animal-protein-based foods are going to come with some carbs. Since you can't keep a lot of solid stuff down yet, I say don't worry about your carbs too much and just try to find a set of foods you can eat that are tolerable. I lived for the first few months on yogurt, spoons of Peanut Butter, cottage cheese, and soup--literally ate soup every day. You'll be glad later that your sleeve is picky--right now, it STINKS, but as you heal and progress, you'll be happy to have that picky thing that keeps you from eating what you shouldn't. Hang in there, my friend!!

Thanks, Rick, for your reply and for sharing your menu--I'm glad to hear that a bit of sugar helps transport the protein; now I don't feel so horrible about the shot of chocolate syrup that I put into my iced coffee, as it's helping transport the milk Protein. :-) I'm still looking for nutrition books, too, and am coming across a lot of "diet" books, too. I'm definitely not interested in a low-carb diet, which would not be practical for me with a sleeve that can't tolerate a lot of animal-based protein other than dairy, BUT I am interested in upping the Vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that can be consumed in fruits and veggies. And I agree that it's a lot easier to transition back into "regular life" or maintenance if one hasn't gone too far off the type of eating one plans to continue--we won't really have the bounce-back effect when we add things back, since we're not going to be adding too many things, or different things, back into our diets. So thanks-- you seem to have a good handle on all of this. I'll look into Nutribase--my husband is a computer geek who can probably round that up for me--and see if that's something I want to incorporate. I definitely want something in which to keep up with nutrient consumption, because I've already been diagnosed with both thiamine and Iron deficiency simply from not eating enough foods that contain those nutrients, and I'd like to get a handle on everything to head off any other possible deficiencies.

I eat fruit daily and have since about 3 months out. Applesauce did not work for me, but it is typically one of the first fruits people put back into their sleeves (along with maybe mashed banana, which also did not work for me). I started, strangely enough, with grapefruit, for which I had an intense craving--maybe I needed the Vitamin C? At any rate, I ate grapefruit almost daily for a few months, along with a couple of cubes of melon of various kinds over the summer. Now, happily, it's early strawberry season down here, and I'm enjoying those. I ate cherries, too, last season, and will definitely enjoy those again. Oranges, too, and pears. I find that it's the skins of things like grapes that cause problems, and in the early sleeve days, strawberries were difficult (don't know if it's the tiny seeds/texture or what). My advice would be, if you're craving something, try a bite of it. Don't eat an entire serving. If that works, great, add a little more next time. Advance your fruit eating the same way you advance other parts of your diet, slowly and carefully. If you're low-carbing, fruit is quite high in carbs, but they are definitely beneficial ones if you're eating the fruit fresh and not in sugary syrup. A lot of folks include fruit in their morning smoothies, as well.

I am staying off my scale until next Monday--scary thought!!! I'm going to be out of town without scale access... I'm sort of freaked out by the thought of not jumping on there in the mornings and I don't know why. On the up side, I'm heading to a professional conference where I'll be seeing old friends for the first time since surgery. Looking forward to it!!! LOL What a change from previous conferences, where I kind of dreaded seeing everyone and actually looked for reasons not to go or to leave early. I think the additional salads/fruits/veggies are paying off. I feel good, and I seem to have dropped a pound over the last few days, although whether that's a "real" weight loss or just Fluid moving out (I do dehydrate really easily) remains to be seen. I'm about to get in lots of walking and more alcohol than usual (conference!), so I don't know what that combination is going to do. Planning to be careful but also to enjoy myself. Hope y'all have a good rest of the week!

Bless you! I had a really rough start, too--and have eventually moved into feeling great!! You will, too. Are you taking an antacid? I had big-time problems with throwing up DAILY for the first two months--then I read on this board about people taking Prilosec, and that saved my sanity and stopped the throwing up. What a relief!!! Also, you might find that backing up to an earlier stage of food choices might help. I stayed on soft/mushy for a lot longer than most. And I'll let you in on a little secret: I have NEVER met my Protein goals. Not once. Never. And my blood numbers are just fine for protein, I still have lots of hair, I feel fantastic, etc. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'll take it. My point is, don't stress. Do what you can do as you can do it. If you can tolerate the Protein shakes, try those. Try bars. Try softer protein foods like Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, unjury broth, or whatever. You will find the combination of things that works. Meantime, HUGS to you from the owner of another picky sleeve--it's not fun, that's for sure, but I hope you'll experience the success you want soon!!

Yeah, I'm the Monday problem--teaching schedule. Tuesday of next week, the 6th, I already have an appointment, so I think I'll have to miss this gathering, but I'll DEFINITELY be in for the next one. Ginger, I know you're going to do great with your surgery!!!

Do you mean 17 grams of protein?

I have no problems with vitamins, but protein shakes make me sick! :-) Have you tried taking your vitamins at bedtime? That's when I take mine, and I have no troubles with them at all.

Great! The end of April is a lovely time to visit--Jazz Fest, beautiful weather, etc. There aren't a lot of veggie restaurants around here, honestly--tons of great seafood and creole/soul food places, though. I like Mediterranean places for the most part. In New Orleans, on Carrollton Avenue, there's Lebanon and Mona's Cafe, both excellent. There's a Zoe's out on Old Metairie Rd that is wonderful--my husband and I both really enjoy that. It's fresh, light, and really delicious; they make white Beans slow-simmered in olive oil and rosemary that will knock your socks off, plus it's the best Greek salad in town, I think, with just a light vinegar, oil, and herb dressing. Yum! Good thing I just ate Breakfast or I'd be getting hungry now. :-) Most of the Mediterranean places here do a version of moussaka that is yellow squash, onion, and tomato layered with olive oil and baked in casserole--it gets tender and delicious and is one of my favorite things ever. You can find hummus at almost any restaurant nowadays, so that's an easy one--I usually ask for cucumber slices instead of pita bread, since I can't tolerate the pita. On Magazine Street, check out Nirvana and the Whole Foods market--the market has a huge selection of prepared foods and a nice cafe area in which you can sit and eat. In the Quarter, it's a little trickier, but definitely check out The Green Goddess--yummy, yummy. Like all places on this list, they are not strictly vegetarian; most New Orleans restaurants will include seafood, if not all kinds of meat and dairy. Give me a holler when you're heading this way--would love to maybe meet up for coffee!