Lissa

I'm not going to say that your food choices are "bad", because they really aren't bad. They just may not be the best foods you could put in your sleeve. Peanut Butter is pretty high in Protein, so that's a good choice. Jelly, candy, crackers and mashed taters are all carby foods that might cause you to stall, so in that sense they are not good choices. HOWEVER, if YOU think those things will cause you to stumble, then you need to avoid or limit them. Have you tried refried Beans? They are very soft and go down easily in the mushy stages. You can add cheese to them to up the protein, and their flavor/texture is good for hiding some extra protein powder. How about some SF pudding or candy instead of the full sugar version? There is also a peanut butter powder that amazon sells which gives you the advantages of peanut butter (flavor, high protein) without the fat attached to the store bought versions. I agree that there are always choices and substitutes to make things healthier. I also think that an occasional treat isn't going to hurt you, but occasional means once a week or once a month, not daily. Do you have a therapist? If not, it may be time to find one. You say that you don't trust your own judgment on this issue, so you really should talk to a pro to help you develop that trust in your own ability to do this. ALL of us have food issues and need to deal with them. Having a little professional support will make it easier.

I'd love to do braces, but I'm already paying money back into savings and working on a couple other projects, so that will have to wait. Congrats to you for getting started on yours!

I take my B12 daily, too. My surgeon said I could decrease it to 3 times a week, but I feel more energetic when I take it daily. I can use all the energy I can get!

Refried Beans are usually made with lard. Rendered animal fat. . Missed the veg part earlier. Lissa

I would NOT start mushies early. Your stomach is still very swollen and it takes time for it to heal enough to move on to the next stage. You might not even feel pain because you are so recently post-op, but you could do damage. Since leaks are a HUGE problem, I would be very cautious about moving forward. I'm not sure about your area, but most Mexican restaurants here offer tortilla soup and the broth from that is yummy. It's also safe for us in the early stages as long as you don't eat the solids.

Woohoo!! That's WONDERFUL!! I know you're excited and happy dancing over there!

Wow! Debbie, You've had quite a time! I see that you are in North Carolina. Is that where you had your surgery? I advise printing out your post and forwarding it to the doctor and to the hospital. They should know that patients are being mistreated this way! Welcome to the loser's bench, even if you did get a rocky start! Stick around here and we'll all help as much as we can! Again, I'm SO sorry you had a bad experience with the hospital! ((Hugs))

Oh, I hope it's nothing, but better to check and be sure, IMO. Good luck!! ((Hugs))

Sometimes I marinate the chicken in the dressing, if I remember to take it out before I leave in the morning. Otherwise, I usually use italian dressing to cook the chicken, or I will boil the chicken with spices. I buy the bags of frozen chicken breasts because it's easier to take out just one and cook it.

Viola, If you have a Sav A Lot near you, they have some great deals on individual servings of fish. I paid about a dollar each for tilapia filets a couple of weeks ago. They are single-serving, so I can just put one in a pan with some lemon and italian dressing and they cook in minutes. Great when I'm hungry and have had a long day!

Oh, CLK, I think you need to post a thread about keeping kosher with the sleeve!! My best friend that recently passed was Jewish, although she did not keep kosher in a formal manner. We had quite a few discussions on what was required, though. I would be very interested in reading about how to manage keeping kosher on this journey!!

Congrats on your sleeve! Welcome to the loser's bench!!

That's a definite WOO HOO!!! I have several different flavors in the pantry and most of them still don't taste good at 5 months out.

IIRC, I was still on purees at 23 days out. I'd have to go dig out my food journal book to see for sure. On purees I was loving refried Beans, scrambled eggs (soft scrambled), pureed chili and pureed dinty moore beef stew. I also made Egg Face's Ricotta Bake and that was DIVINE! For serving sizes, I could eat about 2-3 oz of food at a sitting if I ate very slowly and really savored every bite. My very first pureed food was refried beans that I bought at Taco Bell. I was totally shocked when three small spoonfuls filled me up completely!

Pureed Potato soup should be okay at this stage, but it doesn't have much protein unless you add some to it. Maybe add a little protein powder to your portion, if you can tolerate that.

Tylenol liquid is what my doc recommends. I wouldn't take ibuprofen unless you call your doc first and ask about it. It might be okay, but better safe than sorry. I took the tylenol liquid for some post-op headaches, but I'm not big on any pain meds, so only did that a couple of times.

LOL, Nicole! Isn't that ironic? I wouldn't tell him about your WLS until things get more serious. For a casual date, all he needs to know is that you have a great personality and beautiful eyes. If things get more involved, then you might need to tell him a bit more. Good luck!!

Sorry to hear you're feeling under the weather!! I have used liquid tylenol the couple of times I've needed medicine. I've seen others post that they can take tylenol capsules, but I haven't tried that yet. If you do take cold meds, though, be sure to drink extra water/liquids to stay hydrated. Hope you feel better soon!

Congrats and good luck!!

I'm at 268, which is just over 80 pounds down from surgery. I feel fantastic and I am dropping pants sizes right now. The scale hasn't moved in a couple of weeks, but I'm still working my plan: water, protein, exercise. It WILL happen.

Gorgeous!! You were beautiful before, but the transformation is amazing!!

If you are just starting purees, 2-3 oz of food is probably going to make you full. If you puree the ground beef in some kind of liquid (tomato sauce maybe?), then it should be okay to eat. I really liked refried beans with some cheese in them during purees. I also pureed some Wendy's chili and some dinty moore beef stew to eat. A few teaspoons was more than enough of any of them.

I've been pretty lucky to have some great people in my life. My friends are awesome and very supportive. I guess that makes up for most of my family being just meh.

Yeah, Dorrie! It definitely was! That other one was that he hugged me after dinner and his arms went all the way around. I had to laugh when he said "Where'd you go!?!"

The salad dressing really helps with eating meat! I ordered some steak yesterday for Breakfast and it was WAY under-cooked when I got it. I brought it home and cooked it for lunch today. With a little vidalia onion dressing, it went down really well. Yummy! Had a funny with DH last evening. We had dinner together and I asked him to order a larger steak than he normally would so I could have a small piece of it. I ate my 2-3 oz of steak and the side order of broccoli that he hates and was completely full. He just sat there amazed that I could eat "so little" and be okay.