Bufflehead

I generally bought new clothes when my old ones were getting too big.* Thrift stores, EBay, thredup.com and Kohls were my mainstays. *Sometimes I had to push myself to realize that clothese were, in fact, getting too big. I think we all get used to seeing ourselves a certain way. So occasionally I would make myself go into a store and try on clothes I thought would be too small just as a check. And in fact the clothes I thought were too small never were!

@@lizardqueen it worked well enough for me to lose over 200 lbs and be happily maintaining at a normal body weight for well over a year -- I was very content with the rigid plan given by my team! Less room for error on my part, and as my over 350+ starting weight demonstrated, I'm highly prone to making errors when it comes to food and health.

@@Sweetpea4u68 my surgeon was Dr. Keary Williams in Knoxville TN.

Not so much embarrassed as . . . I don't wear or display corporate logos or brand names for anyone if I can help it. The only exception I make is my running shoes -- I'm too lazy to do something like cover up the logos with duct tape.

There really isn't a norm. I never lost as fast as a pound a day, even though I started out at 50+ BMI. If I had lost that fast I probably would have been crying with joy and gratitude. Even though I never lost that fast, I still managed to lose over 200 lbs and get to a normal BMI, so how fast or slow I lost at the outset really ended up being irrelevant to my long term results. Good luck!

The way my team defined it was very simple. We were allowed 3 meals per day in weight loss mode, no more than 3 ounces per meal. Don't take more than 45 minutes to eat your meal. If you haven't finished, put it away for leftovers for your next meal, or throw it out. No snacks of any kind other than protein shakes. That was it.

I have a hot cocoa almost every morning. 1 packet Nestle fat free hot chocolate + 4 oz unsweetened vanilla cashew milk + 2 oz water + dollop of fat free reddi whip. All in all under 55 calories of deliciousness. I also add in other flavorings -- like this morning I added some hazelnut sweet drops & instant coffee for a hazelnut mocha hot cocoa. Nothing I've eaten since being sleeved has made me "crap myself." I think that's more often for bypass or DS people.

I haven't thrown up once since being sleeved. I had a very conservative progression plan and followed it closely.

I usually have a small apple in the late afternoon. When I was in weight loss mode, no snacking other than protein shakes. My team really stressed that snacking throughout the day is a habit that led us to obesity and that we need to stop. It is okay to let hunger build up between meals rather than snacking so that we never feel hungry.

Surgeons love to operate, the only thing that will stop your surgeon is if someone puts a hungry tiger between him and your body or you develop Ebola between now and your surgery date. Really, if you've been approved for surgery you don't need to worry about your surgeon not wanting to do your surgery. Keep your focus on what you need to do to be ready and your surgeon will do his part.

I've felt better and better since getting through the initial fatigue and soreness of surgery. Right now at 51 I feel better than I ever have in my life. No stomach or digestive problems ever, tons of energy. Plus, emotionally and psychologically I'm much more healthy.

@@KristenLe now that I'm in maintenance I eat a small apple for an afternoon snack most days, and a couple pieces of dried fruit at the end of the day if I have enough calories and am craving something sweet. Particularly if you don't eat a lot of sugary food, a piece of dried fruit like apricots or dates can feel as sweet as a sugary dessert! Even in weight loss mode I would really look forward to a little dish of strawberries at the end of the day.

Three+ months of no weight loss isn't a stall, it's maintenance. It means you aren't eating at a caloric deficit. You have been really successful at losing weight -- you know how you ate when you were losing weight. That's what you need to do again. Exercise is great, but the battle to lose weight is won in the kitchen, not in the gym. If you aren't already, carefully weigh or measure your portions and track your intake on MyFitnessPal or a similar app, at least for a few weeks, in order to get a clear picture of exactly how many calories you are taking in. If you are like most people who have been morbidly obese, your maintenance calorie level would be about 2100 calories per day (current weight x 10). To lose a pound a week, eat 1600 calories per day (do not count calories burned via exercise and try to "eat them back."). To lose 2 pounds per week, eat 1100 calories per day. If you are very confident about your calorie intake and tracking and not losing at those amounts, your resting metabolic rate may be lower than that and you need to drop your calories further. As far as hunger goes -- yes, hunger comes back. You need to learn ways to deal with it other than eating. You can never out-eat hunger. It is okay to be hungry. Hunger doesn't mean you are about to starve to death. I did Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to learn ways of dealing with hunger other than eating. Some simple techniques are things like planning all your eating at the beginning of the day and writing down your food plan. Then when you get hungry, you remind yourself "I'm hungry, but that's okay. I can wait until 11 AM when I get my chicken breast snack." Good luck!

No. There is no magic potion or implement to prevent sagging skin, unfortunately.

What does your post-op plan from your bariatric team allow? That's what matters. Would have been too early on mine, I was ordered to be on liquids for four weeks post-op. But my plan really isn't relevant to you, only your plan should be relevant to you.

I didn't eat cereal or any grain of any kind until I hit my weight loss goal and had been successfully maintaining for months. Cereal is not your friend in weight loss IMO.

I lost about 70 lbs in the year before surgery by going high protein/low carb and faithfully logging my food intake in myfitnesspal.

When I did chicken I pureed it with low fat chipotle mayo, or bbq sauce, or curry sauce -- usually something with both liquids and flavor. If you are finding chunks you probably aren't running your food processor long enough, or need to add a bit more of whatever liquid you are using. Good luck!

I took two weeks off but was still exhausted when I went back after two weeks. I had to go home the first couple of days mid-afternoon. I probably should have taken three weeks. I have a desk job.

@@Annlinet it may improve to a certain extent over the course of a year or two, but usually not completely. The only way it is truly temporary (without surgery) is if you re-gain all your weight and re-fill it with fat.

I was approved in late April or early May and scheduled for mid-June -- my surgeon was all booked up until then.

I want to push back a little. Why do you need to drink protein instead of eating, say, chicken, fish, lean beef, etc.? I personally don't use Genepro because I don't trust its claims (gram is a unit of weight -- you can't get 30 grams of protein out of 15 grams of substance). But if I did use it, I'd probably check out prices here at the BariatricPal store, Amazon, and EBay and figure out who has the best price and shipping deal combined. Good luck!

I try to stay away from both artificial sweeteners and sugar. Not 100%, but they either of them is rare for me rather than a main part of my diet. To the extent I have something sweet, it is usually made with "real" sugar -- but I don't do it often. I don't eat fruit spread or jam of any kind on a regular basis -- but on Christmas morning when I put jam on a biscuit, I use real sugared jam not artificially sweetened or flavored jam. I don't use sweeteners in coffee, which I drink every day, but I have a mug of tea maybe 2x per month and that I usually sweeten with a teaspoon of sugar. On the other hand, if I drink fruit juice, it's usually the "diet" cranberry juices that are made with artificial sweetener. No way am I wasting 130 calories on a glass of juice to wash down my iron pill. To me 130 calories is lunch, not a glass of juice (which also comes laden with sugar and carbs). For me what works best is to look at things that are typically either loaded up with either sugar or artificial sweeteners and figure out something else entirely to eat or drink instead.

Groatmeal for me! http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Oat_Groats I live alone, so I use my small crock pot and make 4-5 servings. Groatmeal keeps well in the fridge. I just portion out mine into a little tupperware container each morning, add a splash of cashew milk and some PB2 and take it to work. Heat it up, add some toasted nuts, and you get a delicious, filling, breakfast with protein and fiber. Disclaimer: this is what I eat in maintenance. When in weight loss mode, I did not and do not eat grains of any kind, ever, and don't recommend them for weight loss. My particular recipe for groatmeal is a little simpler than what the link will take you to. I don't use fruit or sweetener -- I actually like my groatmeal more on the savory side. My recipe is 2/3 c. oat groats, 1 c. water, 1 c. unsweetened vanilla cashew milk, and 1/2 t. salt. Cook on low overnight. That's it!

Have you had anything with lactose since your surgery? I ask because some people do develop lactose intolerance after surgery (it is usually temporary) and Premier Protein can cause problems for people who are lactose intolerant because of the type of protein it has (whey concentrate).