Bufflehead

I am going to go against the grain here and say that passing out is a potentially serious problem. I think you should get seen by your PCP to explore possible issues from low blood sugar to orthostatic hypotension (and likely a bunch of others I know nothing about, since I'm not your health care provider), rather than seeking diet advice from strangers on the internet or random athletic trainers at the gym.

I am 5'4 and my surgery weight was 284. I lost 55 lbs prior to surgery on my 6 month supervised diet and 2 week preop. Down just about 130 lbs in the year since surgery and have about 16 lbs to go to reach my goal.

Your sleeve is telling you that you ate too much. The food is so crammed into your stomach that the vagus nerve is being irritated. When you have eaten so much that you sneeze, make note of how much you ate and next time make sure you eat less than that. Keep repeating until you find out how much you can eat without irritating the vagus nerve.

How high is your fever? My instructions were that if the fever gets over 101, to contact my surgeon. If you can't contact your surgeon, try your PCP. If you don't have a PCP or can't reach him or her, I guess I would go to an ER?

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that people see me as a "normal" weight person. Like, I assume that people are looking at my shopping cart and silently judging what's in it -- and let's face it, people do that, I do that -- and so I find myself thinking, "ha! I'll bet they aren't expecting a giant fat person like me to have a cart full of healthy food like I do!" and then remember that people don't see me as a giant fat person, and to the extent they are judging my shopping cart contents, they are thinking something like "that's what I would expect a healthy looking person to have." Or if I am shopping for clothes at a department store, I still think that a sales person is going to come ask me if I am looking for a gift if I am browsing through a rack of size 8 or 10 pants. I've had a couple of instances of people staring at me and I felt horrified and ashamed because my default assumption is that they are staring at me because I am unbelievably big and fat -- which used to be true. But then I figured out they were actually kind of leering/ogling? Which felt incredibly strange, I am not used to that at all and had never thought it would happen (I'm 48!) no matter what size or shape I got in to. It's definitely taking some getting used to.

@@JustWatchMe I have a sleeve and my surgeon also approves drinking right up until eating, then not drinking during or after. So that's what I've been doing for the past year . . . I don't think it's hurt me at all. @@jlt6187 I also like spicy food, Keep practicing at eating without drinking, you may develop a better tolerance for it. Another trick is to munch on cold shredded lettuce in between bites of spicy food. I actually find that works better than drinking while eating.

I recommend getting a bunch of samples and not committing to a big tub of anything until you sampled it after surgery! My favorite brands are Jay Robb, Unjury, Syntrax Matrix, Syntrax Nectar & Nectar Sweets, Chike, Designer Whey, and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard. Places to buy samples: http://www.jayrobb.com/protein/whey-protein-samples.asp http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/protein-powders/protein-powder-samples-1-serving.html http://www.unjury.com/store/protein/unjury-starter-kit.html http://www.chikenutrition.com/chike-variety-pack.html https://vitalady.com/protein-supplement/ I also like the cappuccino and hot chocolate protein powders a lot! http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-drinks/healthsmart-hot-drink-cappuccino-7-box.html http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-drinks/healthsmart-hot-chocolate-7-box-sucralose.html You can also get high protein soups: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-soups/ The three hot products above I linked are nice because you can mix them with really hot water or milk -- for most protein powders (like Unjury's Chicken Soup) you have to use a food thermometer and make sure it is under 130 degrees or the protein will clump. The other things I recommend - if you are mixing your own shakes (I hate all the ready to drink stuff), use a hand/immersion blender so you don't add a bunch of air bubbles and foam in. And you may want to check out stuff you can add in to your shake for extra flavor. Here are some of the products I like for that: http://shop.torani.com/Sugar-Free-Syrups/c/Torani@SugarFreeSyrups?gclid=CJ_hmN69774CFclr7AodAn8ATQ http://www.sweetleaf.com/products/sweet-drops-products Also do some experimenting to figure out what you want to mix your shakes with. I think that for most of them, using water is gross (some of the fruit flavors from Syntrax Nectar are an exception). But you have all sorts of options with skim milk (and you may have special high protein or low carb skim milk available at your local supermarket, check for that if you want), almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, etc. Depends on what you like and what your nutritional needs are.

I take 2 Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable Multi's (one with breakfast, one with dinner), Wellesse liquid calcium and liquid iron (at least 2 hours apart), generic vitamin D, K2, and B12. I get my labs drawn regularly and they have always been excellent.

I was in the 60-70 gram range for the first week post-op. After that I was hitting 75+ consistently.

Use the little gear up by your screen name in the upper right corner. Choose My Tickers --> Edit Ticker --> Properties. Change your current weight value and save, that should do it!

I second the recommendation for Jay Robb protein powder. All natural, great numbers, and tastes really good. For flavor add-ins, I like the Sweetleaf Sweet Drops flavors. They are all natural, taste fantastic, and even though they look expensive, you only need a couple of drops for your shake, so they end up being cheaper than Torani. I love the Torani too though! http://www.sweetleaf.com/products/sweet-drops-products

It's not unusual after any surgery involving general anesthesia because of the microscopic damage done to your mouth, throat, etc. (plus you very likely got a huge dose of antibiotics via your IV line during surgery). Also it's apparently more common after surgery on the stomach because your gut flora gets disrupted. I know my surgeon puts all his patients on prophylactic Nystatin swish n swallow starting 10 days before surgery because thrush is so common post-wls. Disclaimer - not a medical professional, just relaying what the bariatric nurse told me!

I relied a lot on the Unjury chicken soup protein in the first few weeks after surgery. Also, Healthwise brand protein soups, and mixing unflavored protein into beef broth or miso soup. The sweet stuff was a lot harder for me to drink.

For most of us it takes a week - 10 days for all the IV fluid from surgery to clear out. All that water weight makes the scale a liar! Besides, 4 pounds in 7 days is FANTASTIC. Seriously, don't expect to lose 4 lbs every week. In my opinion you'll be a lot more confident and at peace if you weigh yourself every couple of weeks or less and try to ease up on some of the expectations.

My limits are 850 calories and 60 carbs per day.

"You're so kind to take an interest in my health. This is a medical decision I've made together with my doctors in order to improve my health. I'd really appreciate any support you can give me. Thanks." repeat as necessary.

A lot of people use organic Smooth Move tea for constipation and swear by it.I would also say just get as much fiber in your diet naturally as you can -- apples, beans, prunes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, artichoke hearts, avocadoes, etc. Chobani Simply 100 Greek yogurt is all natural and has 5 grams of fiber per serving. A chewable probiotic is also not a bad idea. I weaned myself off of coffee before surgery because I didn't want to be dealing with caffeine withdrawal at the same time I was recovering from major surgery. I am so glad I am back to having my morning coffee now!

I hope you like them! I wanted to like them but to me their shakes tasted like dirty dishwater.

I had a small hiatal hernia and occasional GERD prior to surgery. My hernia was repaired during my sleeve surgery and I have not experienced any reflux/GERD since then. I was on PPI's (omeprazole) for 9 months after surgery but have not taken any in the last 3 months.

@@ankinray rules about wine etc. vary depending on your surgeon. My plan calls for no alcohol until you reach maintenance, and then to exercise caution due to 1) liquid calories; 2) high rate of transfer addictions with wls patients; and 3) rapid absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream for post wls patients, which can make it easy to over-drink very fast.

I am not at the point of wanting to stabilize yet, but this is the advice I have heard (second hand) from my program's dietician --work to find your maintenance calorie range. If you are not tracking on MFP, start. When you want to stabilize, start adding 100 calories to your daily allotment, in 2 week increments, until you find yourself maintaining your weight. So, right now I am at 850 calories per day in weight loss. When I want to stabilize, I bump that up to 950 calories per day for 2 weeks. If I am still losing weight, then I bump that up to 1050 for the next two weeks, etc. --do not increase the frequency of your meals or snacks (this can lead to grazing, which is a very dangerous habit) --increase the volume of your meals as little as possible, in order to protect your restriction. So try swapping out some of your current choices for more calorically dense, but still healthy, foods. If you are having protein shakes, make them with 2% or whole milk instead of skim. Use peanut butter instead of PB2. Add some avocado slices to your salad. Have a handful of nuts as a snack instead of carrots or string cheese. This is what I plan to try eventually. Still have about 15 lbs to go! Good luck to you.

I think most people have some doubts and nerves prior to surgery. It's completely normal. Only you can know whether this is the right decision for you. I will share with you -- that list you posted a little while ago about all the things you want to do after surgery? That could have been my list, and now I've crossed every single thing off that list (well I'm still working on the whole learning to love my body thing). And I know it would have never happened without surgery. In my view, YES I think you will succeed. You KNOW this is going to be hard work. You know it is possible to fail. These things are essential! You have clear goals in front of you and a good picture of what you want from surgery. You may be nervous but I think you have all the tools to do great -- a clear perspective, a healthy dose of fear (to keep you on track) and determination. The ones I worry about are the ones who think this is going to be easy and that there's no way they could mess it up. I think you will do extremely well. Good luck!

The only person who could say something like that to me without being offensive is my doctor. Trust me, I've lived my life somewhere between the overweight and super morbidly obese range . . . I am not an idiot, was painfully aware of my weight, and didn't need "helpful" friends or family pointing it out to me. Now if someone had invited me out to go hiking for the day, to go for a walk, for lunch at a new vegan cafe or something . . . I would have liked that a lot.

I eat at a more normal pace now. I do put my fork down between bites and make sure that everything is properly chewed, but I don't use the Eat Slower app on my phone to make sure I wait 45 seconds in between bites anymore. I did that for the first six months and it was really helpful to me then, but I'm glad my eating is a little more normal now!

@@KrissySMD if you are mixing protein powder into hot liquid, use a food thermometer to make sure the liquid is under 130 degrees. Otherwise it will clump up like that and yes, it is gross! Also for pureed food, I found them disgusting if I tried to do something like puree meat with water or broth. But if I pureed it with a really tasty sauce, put some cheese on top, and heated it up in the microwave, it was more like a casserole and it tasted fine to me. So I did stuff like chicken pureed with marinara sauce & topped with mozzarella, ground beef with bbq sauce and cheddar cheese, salmon with tartar sauce -- stuff that would bump up the flavor instead of water it down. Have you tried the ricotta bake from The World According to Eggface blog? That worked well for me. Also things like poached egg and refried beans with salsa and cheese. Good luck!