Bufflehead

Taking a double-dose of Trader Joe's High Potency Multi (chewable or regular) is far cheaper than any of the special bariatric multivitamins and has the same stuff with the exception of one mineral I'd never heard mentioned as particularly important and my dietician told me I could disregard. For pre-surgery iron, any supplement you can get at the grocery store should be just fine. And if you are doing a multi there is no need for extra C IMO.

If you prefer the ones made with water, order a Syntrax Nectar sample pack (or two): http://www.bjsbariatrics.com/product/synSamplePack.html You mix most of them with water. Or you can pick out individual flavors of Syntrax Nectar to buy here: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/protein-powders/protein-powder-samples-1-serving.html I mixed each packet with 8 oz. of ice water, and the numbers were 100 calories, 24 grams protein, 0 grams carbs. My favorite flavors are the Roadside Lemonade, Lemon Tea, Grapefuit, Fuzzy Navel, and Twisted Cherry.

I was at 340 -- well 339.9 but who's counting -- at my first surgeon's appointment. I had to do a six month supervised weight loss plan for my insurance, and then the 2 week preop liver-shrinking diet, so I was under 300 when I got my surgery. I don't share stats or numbers regarding weight loss here because I've seen too many people get waaayyy too focused on comparisons, to nobody's advantage. But for your research purposes, you can count me as someone who is on the slow side of losing despite starting out as a heavy weight.

At six weeks I was transitioning from purees -- where I was allowed 3 T. of food max per meal -- to soft foods, where I was allowed 3 oz. of food per meal max. 3 meals per day, no snacks. So that doesn't seem very far off from what you are doing. Your numbers in terms of calories, protein, & carbs sound good to me. I take it your surgeon didn't provide any guidance with respect to amount of food to eat?

I've eaten a third or half of a small serving when I am on the road (aka 100 miles away from home, not just driving around town) and I was able to fit it into my daily macro's just fine. No crackers with it though! I wouldn't eat it, or any fast food, on a regular basis but as a stopgap when traveling it works for me. PS I had mine with onions and a little cheese and had no problems, either in terms of digestive problems or fitting it into my daily nutrition goals (under 800 calories, under 60 grams of carbs, under 30 grams of fat).

You look fantastic! Awesome work and results

I started feeling hunger again maybe four months after surgery. I just tell myself that hunger is unpleasant but not an emergency, and I can put it on the back burner until my next scheduled meal or protein shake.

Doesn't happen to everyone - I'm almost 7 months out from my surgery and I haven't had any dry heaves or vomiting whatsoever.

My dietician suggested taking any pills that might cause nausea right before you go to bed. For other pills, space them throughout the day and take them with food/protein shake. Good luck!

I am coming up on 7 months sleeved. Here's my take on some of your questions: Reflux: this may depend on the underlying cause of your reflux. Before your surgery, you'll have either an upper GI series or an endoscopy, which should find a hiatal hernia if you have one. Many, many obese people have them and they cause reflux. If you do have one, your surgeon should fix it while doing your sleeve surgery, and the odds are very high your reflux would be cured. That's what happened to me. But it's impossible to know without having either the upper GI series or endoscopy. This is something you would definitely want to discuss with your surgeon. Some surgeons feel like gastric bypass is a better option for people with reflux NOT caused by a hernia. Energy - after the first couple of weeks of recovery, my energy levels have been fantastic, better than ever. I eat less than 800 calories every day. My body has a plentiful supply of energy stores to draw on, aka fat, so it isn't a problem! I don't feel weak at all, I feel stronger than I ever have. Exercise - I started walking immediately after surgery and was released for full workouts four weeks out. My exercise is intermittent - one month I might be doing the 30 Day Shred every day and lifting weights three times a week, and the next month nothing more strenuous than walking the dog for 20 minutes. Interestingly, I find that I lose weight faster when I am not exercising. I don't think it has much to do with muscle being more dense than fat - really those changes are very incremental. But most people can do just fine losing weight without exercise (I know that's not a popular sentiment). However when it comes to maintenance, exercise appears to be very important! I think once you lose some weight you'll be more able to exercise if you choose to. When I exercise, I look at it as good for my cardiovascular health and for bone strength and health, not as something I need to do for weight loss. Nervous about surgery? Not particularly. I was worried I would get a leak and be hospitalized or bedridden for a long time, but other than that I didn't have any particular fears. I think I'm a little abnormal in that respect though. I see a lot of people freaking out about surgery, and I get that that's a completely normal reaction. It is major surgery! I had a lot of faith in the skills of my surgeon and the quality of care at the hospital so I believed everything would be fine. How do you maintain once you hit your goal weight? I can't speak from personal experience, but my dietician says that the smart way to do it is to add some calorie-rich foods, preferably high in healthy fats, or fruit, and keep your portions small and your eating infrequent. She doesn't like to see people drift into grazing patterns or starting to eat bigger meals, both of which can be detrimental in terms of eating habits and maintaining your restriction. So add some sliced avocado to your salad, eat tuna packed in olive oil instead of Water, add a half a banana to your Protein shake - stuff like that. Good luck to you and sorry for the super-long post!

I like Trader Joe's because you can get it organic and nonfat.

I diluted Isopure (aka Isopuke) half and half with G2 or essence water, it was the only way I could choke it down. I always met me daily goals for protein, carbs, etc. so it worked with my plan/

You look great, congrats!

For the first six months after my surgery I weighed every other Friday, plus days when I had a dr appointment and on my "surgiversary" date (the 19th). By limiting the number of times I weighed, I never experienced a stall or plateau or anything like that. Every time I stepped on the scale, I had gone down. So I wasn't ever stressed out about how much I was losing, or not losing. At the six month mark, I switched up my routine. Weight loss gets harder and I knew I needed to monitor more carefully to catch any problems right away. So now what I do is I weigh every day and note the weight in my phone, but don't consider it an "official" weight. Each Saturday morning I calculate my average weight over the last seven days and enter that into MFP as my "official" weight. Doing an average is, I think, a lot more accurate than recording or caring about small daily fluctuations that could be caused by almost anything. Or nothing. And it is working for me, my weight continues to go down regularly when I look at my weight loss chart on MFP. In fact, everyone said weight loss slows down dramatically after six months but so far I'm on track to lose more in month seven than I did in any month since my first month after surgery! Hopefully it continues.

My plan allows zero soup (with chunks) ever because of the "no drinking while you eat" rule. We were allowed cream type soups at the full liquid stage but that's it.

Here is what I would do: Do you have a myfitnesspal account? If not, get one. Set your daily caloric intake to 1200, and your ratios to 35% carbs, 30% protein, and 35% fat. Start logging EVERYTHING you eat. Weigh or measure EVERYTHING you eat. Focus on high protein foods like meat, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, lower fat cheese, and cottage cheese. Small amounts of beans and lentils for fiber, green veggies. These should be your mainstays. Supplement with small amounts of healthy fats such as nuts, olive oil, and avocados. The higher protein and fat ratios will help you feel a bit more satisfied. That said, you will undoubtedly feel hungry and unsatisfied at times over the next month. You have to push through that. Yes, you are hungry, but it is okay to be hungry given the goal you are working towards. It won't be forever. Being hungry is unpleasant but it is not an emergency. Do not bother logging any exercise or "eating back" exercise calories. This will just slow you down. Good luck!

Wellesse liquid iron tastes good and liquid iron is more easily absorbed than other forms. I took a double dose (with permission from my dietician) - one T. in the morning, one at night - for the first four weeks after surgery, then switched to normal iron pills I can buy at the supermarket.

I actually routinely get 100% of my RDA of calcium from my diet. I track it on MFP so I know for sure. I do take one Citracal petite every day just to boost it a bit, but I am not convinced that is necessary either. There's a lot of contradictory evidence about whether supplemental calcium even does much to prevent bone fractures, and whether it might lead to increased risk for heart attacks. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/thinking-twice-about-calcium-supplements-2/?_r=0 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2284757/Taking-vitamin-D-calcium-WONT-prevent-broken-bones-say-leading-experts.html

OP, I know you got fish instead and it was great, so this isn't necessarily for you, but for anyone else who might be reading. I started with shrimp on the puree phase -- pureed of course! I would puree shrimp with sriracha sauce or something like that. When I moved on to soft foods, shrimp was one of the first things I ate. I like it sauteed with a sauce of hot sauce and melted blue cheese. I never had any problems with shrimp whatsoever and it's got great protein for the caloric buck. It seems like there is a lot of variability with what people tolerate and what they don't. Just because someone else had trouble with shrimp, doesn't mean that I did or that you will. And just because I didn't have trouble with shrimp, doesn't mean you won't. My advice - if a particular food is approved for your phase (check with your dietician, not internet strangers, if you have questions), then start by trying a small amount at home to see if you tolerate it before eating it in public!

For me the most important thing in keeping on track has been logging everything I eat. If you are not logging, I would encourage you to join MyFitnessPal (or sign back in if you already have an account) and make a commitment to log everything, every day. Once you see exactly what you are eating, the calories, carbs, and protein, then you can see where you need to make changes. And I think having the evidence right in front of you every single day will help in making better decisions. Good luck!

Have you tried the unjury protein chicken Soup? A lot of people can tolerate warm savory drinks better than cold sweet drinks, particularly thick cold sweet drinks. Other possibilities: protein enriched soups: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-soups/ hot chocolate or cappuccino: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-drinks/ When I was on full liquids I did some other stuff like: --cup of hot chai tea with a half scoop of vanilla Protein powder stirred in --cup of hot beef bouillon with a half scoop of unflavored protein powder and some steak seasoning --cup of hot coffee (decaf per my instructions) with a half scoop of chocolate protein powder stirred in When you stir in regular protein powder to a hot drink, you need to use a food thermometer to make sure the hot drink is not over 130 degrees or the protein will clump. For protein drinks/soups that are intended to be consumed hot, the usual rule is they can be over 130 but not boiling. Good luck!

You may want to talk it over with your dietician or surgeon. My plan calls for staying under 800-850 calories and under 60 grams of carbs per day. I am about 6.5 months out and am losing following these guidelines.

I don't do anything against the rules (food-wise) but occasionally I "save up" my calories and carbs and fat counts so I can have a treat at the end of the day. A few days ago I had a light breakfast and light lunch so that I would have enough room in my macros to have an ounce of the rosemary marcona almonds that Trader Joe's sells. Nuts are ok per my plan but I really have to budget carefully to be able to have more than just a few, and I love these, just a few is not enough!

My dietician gave me permission to eat that sort of thing (small amounts, like a few bites) but only in social settings, after six months. For example, if I am out to dinner with a bunch of friends, I could eat a couple of bites of rice that came with my dinner. Or if I am having lunch at a friend's house and she serves sandwiches, I could have half of an open face sandwich. Things I can't do: --buy carbs/starches/sweets and bring them into my home (or of course something worse like buy them and stuff my face with them in the car in the parking lot!). --buy carbs/starches/sweets at a fast food place. --nosh on crackers or similar stuff that might be provided at work. So basically only a few bites and only on rare occasions. I have to follow this until I reach goal and maintain for at least six months.

My surgeon said six months too. If you want permission to deviate from what your surgeon told you, in my opinion, you should ask your surgeon. I got permission a couple of times to change my instructions, when I brought it up with the dietician and explained what I wanted and why. But I wouldn't go against my instructions just because I wanted to or because people on the internet said their instructions were different, etc.