Butterthebean

Good thing you didn't decide to have "male enhancement" surgery....that would be painful.

Fine....I sent this today to a friend on MFP....I copied it from there. Ok...so the green shakes... Well, I bought a vitamix, that thing will liquefy anything. The blendtec is just as good and some people like the ninja as well, and it's much less expensive....... Anyway, there is no limitations on the recipes. I do put a lot of stuff in mine. I start by filling it up with kale/mixed (collard) greens (you can use spinach). They say kale and spinach taste less bitter than stuff like mustard greens. Plus chopped up whatever veggies I may have. A little broccoli, asparagus, mini carrots, mini cucumber and 2-3 cups of cold water. The more water the thinner it will be, less water....thicker. Adjust to taste. Blend that up. Then I add 2 cups mixed frozen fruit/berries/whatever. 1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt. 2 scoops protein powder (I use chocolate and you can't taste it). I also add a few little things like a tablespoon of spirulina, 1/4 cup goji berries, a dash of cacao....this stuff is optional but super high in nutrition. Blend again and add a little bit of water if its too thick. That makes about 50-60 oz of shake. I put about 12 oz in my shaker bottle with 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and let that sit for 25 minutes then drink. It's good. I'm getting in a lot of nutrients most sleevers can't get on the typical low carb plan. The carbs are all low glycemic. I honestly made 4 or 5 batches before I figured out the exact recipe I liked. You make a batch, adjust it, make another. It gets better. I have never felt better....but I'm craving salads now all the time.

I must say I'm a little taken aback by the number of posts I've read on this forum recently by people who seem genuinely surprised that you can gain weight after having surgery. Whether it be Water retention during that first month (3 week stall) or simply 9 months down the line and someone is eating crappy foods and not following their plan anymore....it is most certainly possible. In fact, no matter what type of WLS you have, a person who is determined can eat around it. This is why most of us are forced to have a psych eval and see a NUT several times before surgery...so we understand this is not fool proof. This is not meant to be a criticism of anyone here. My real concern is why aren't your doctors and NUTs driving these points home with you before surgery? My surgeon made me sign a document stating I understood I had to eat right and exercise for the rest of my life or the surgery wasn't going to help me. If I could say one thing to everyone it would simply be that the surgery will not do everything for you. You have to eat the right things, and you need to exercise. The sleeve helps initially. But as time goes by the sleeve does less and less, and you have to do more. The people I've seen here who have been successful are those that embraced those changes and learned better eating habits while they were still in the honeymoon phase, so when their capacity to eat increased they made better, healthier choices and maintained their goal weight.

Check out the thread called "green shake anyone." I wrote it up in detail over there. I would type it again but my iPad is running out of juice.

Why do you think my shakes are so good? Cause the damn vitamix was so expensive. It drops tiny microscopic bits of fairy dust into the shakes which help with weight loss and prevent thinning hair.

Uh...yeah. I guess you've never heard of a colonoscopy. I have...3 times. Not fun, but neither is colon cancer. But having said that, I can't see why you would need that for VSG. Are you sure they didn't get your paperwork mixed up with someone else's? Edit....I know you've heard of colonoscopy.

I got some stuffed jalapeños left over.....I still haven't learned to cook less, only eat less.

Bed Bath and beyond had them for the same as Costco I think. MTMW1975 on MFP got a ninja which are much cheaper. She says they work well too.

Screw it. You folks convinced me.....a cheeseburger is ok to eat. Here is the one I made tonight. Complete with 2 stuffed jalapeños instead of french fries. Yum. Sadly....no secret sauce.

Mason. You're right. You were attacked. Your "very general statement....not directed to anyone in particular" was also an attack. You made some derogatory statements and critical judgements about people you don't know anything about and never bothered to consider that someone here might read that and take it personal. You didn't consider the fact that you might have been talking about people who come on here every day trying to help others and ask nothing in return other than a little respect. And since then you have never owned up to it. You are still down playing it and claiming you are the victim. This whole thread started as another in a long line of threads aimed at ganging up on a particular segment of this community and bashing them...in this case the strict sleeve people. I won't continue to harrass you, but in the future I hope you stop to think about who here you might be insulting before you jump on another band wagon.

Well, I feel better knowing I do not have a personality disorder since I've had no problem "adapting to the strong demands of controlled eating behavior imposed on them by the surgical operation".

Agreed....I'm doing much better making my own.

I've been in enough brewhahas for one day. I figured I better not stir the pot anymore.

Nevermind

I used Dr. Alanis. He has offices in Houston and League City. What I like about him is that his staff works super hard to tackle your insurance hurdles for you. I didn't have to do much of anything other than go to my nutritional classes. But they made all those back and forth phone calls for me. But if you're paying cash I guess that's really not an issue for you. I did really like him and most of his staff. There is one that's kinda bitchy but I didn't need her for anything so who cares.

Wow....I sometimes buy me a little oven roasted chicken salad at subway with double meat and get a couple of meals out of it. I was buying the chicken teriyaki salad but I found out that sauce they use ups the whole salad from 10 carbs to 40 for the double meat. Considering the only difference is the small amount of sauce on the chicken, I figured I could live without it.

Well....no I won't. Just because you can't find any peer reviewed studies saying people can't abstain from Big Macs, doesn't mean it can't be done. I think the point I'm making with this....and this is really not for your benefit Mason, but for anyone else that may read this....is that there is certainly more than one path to success here. You don't have to indulge yourself with unhealthy foods to maintain over the long haul, in spite of the fact that Mason says you will fail if you do. And even though no one is saying you can never eat a Big Mac again, Mason is continuing to argue that those of us who choose not to are somehow the fanatical ones while he is the level headed intelligent one who has continually been attacked here...even though he has made several derogatory and slanderous remarks about others with no regard for who he was talking to or about. And when called out on the subject, he went back and edited his posts to say something different, and the lied about what he said....but never once owned up to the ugly, derogatory remarks he made like Cheri so graciously did. That just about covers it....btw...I ate hummus this week and a Kit Kat last week. So I guess I'm covered from this abstinence violation syndrome. Now I will go seek the psychotherapy that Mason prescribes since he has so aptly long distance diagnosed anyone and everyone who feels the need to snack as "needing help."

Maybe that's because some of us find the term so offensive that it completely overshadows anything else that might have been said, and you were throwing it around like candy, along with making all kinds of critical judgements about people who want to eat healthy...saying that people are in fear or denial and need to get therapy for wanting to drink a Protein shake. But apparently there is nothing unhealthy about someone who has weight loss surgery and then proceeds to eat ice cream and Big Macs 8 weeks after surgery....because why....there has never been a peer reviewed study proving it. Well do you really need empirical evidence that eating a Big Mac is unhealthy and will shorten your life span? There, I tried to honor your request and bring it back to the original topic.

Not trying to make a vague reference....here's the link to the thread... http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65409-horror-story/page__st__160 I'm not trying to debate it with you, just asking you to go read it...starting at thread 166.