Bufflehead

You look fantastic! Great job.

It will depend on how far post op you are. I wasn't allowed anything but liquids for four weeks -- I'm on soft foods now, about 7 weeks out, and can eat 2 oz. fish or any other meat, maximum. I expect that will change over time, I see other people later on can eat up to 4 oz. I'm not allowed soup -- ever -- since it's the same thing as drinking with your meal. As my doctor explained it, if you drank broth from a mug at the same time as eating chunks of meat and veggies on a plate, everyone knows that isn't okay. So why is it okay if you dump them all into a bowl and eat/drink them together? But most people are allowed soup on their post-op plans.

1. "thanks for your concern, but my doctor and I have decided this is the best plan for me." then if they persist, "if I didn't make myself clear, I'm not interested in discussing this with you."

How long it takes to drink depends on the person and how far out from surgery you are. Liquids usually go right through the sleeve once you are several weeks out of surgery and the swelling has gone down. When I was first sleeved, I couldn't drink more than 2 ounces of protein shake over the course of an hour. Now I am about seven weeks out (I think) and I can drink an 8 ounce protein drink in an hour but sometimes I feel overfull when I do. Drinking 8 ounces over 90 minutes is a lot more comfortable.

I have a friend in Asheville who is considering the sleeve. The few surgeons in Asheville who do bariatric surgery have very little sleeve experience, according to her. She has decided to go with Dr. David Voellinger in Charlotte.

The Unjury powders work out to about $1.35 per serving. Syntrax Nectar you can usually get for under $1 per serving, depending on where you buy from. Keep in mind that you will be eating a lot less than you usually do, so will save money in your food budget there. Also, you won't be drinking tons of protein shakes forever. I'm six weeks out of surgery and usually have 1.5 protein shakes per day and easily meet my protein target of 75g/day. I really recommend getting samples before you buy a bag/can of powder and DON'T try the samples until after surgery. Your tastes really will change. If you look on the nutrition/food forum, then in the protein sub-forum, there is a thread of where to get protein samples. Lots of places have them. Unjury will send you a great sample pack including a food thermometer, which you will need if you are going to make hot protein drinks.

I tend to like the shakes I make myself better than the premade ones. I do have Isopure or Premiere Protein drinks occasionally but that's really for convenience, not because I like them better or think they are healthier. It's hard to find premade ones that have a lot of protein while also being low calorie and low carb.

I would say add in some healthy fats and complex carbs. Have some guacamole with your protein. Saute your chicken in olive oil. Have nuts for a snack. Have a half a baked potato (or sweet potato) with butter occasionally. Good luck to you!

It's really hard to say, it's such an individual thing. I also had four weeks of liquids after surgery. I found that my tastes did change after surgery -- I don't like sweet stuff nearly as much. So I really recommend getting as many samples as you can of protein drinks prior to surgery and don't commit to buying a big tub of any protein until you've tasted it after surgery. The stuff I drank the most of (non-protein drinks) were: Ocean Spray Cranberry Light (it's more tart than sweet), hot decaf tea, low sodium V-8, kefir, and crystal light lemonade. The protein drinks I had the most: unjury chocolate splendor, unjury chicken soup, syntrax matrix mint cookie, syntrax nectar fuzzy navel, roadside lemonade, lemon tea, and twisted cherry. I still drink most of the same protein drinks except for the chicken soup -- now that I can have real food I don't crave that savory taste in my protein drinks as much anymore. Also it has a ton of sodium!

Yes, puree was after full liquids for me, but some surgeons skip puree stage. For puree I could eat the types of food listed above but they had to be pureed to the consistency of applesauce. Exceptions: refried beans, cottage cheese, yogurt, and poached or scrambled eggs could be eaten without being pureed. Soft foods came next, that's what I'm on now. Soft foods for my program is high Protein foods (meat, fish, dairy, soy, beans, lentils), cooked non-starchy veggies, and soft fruits -- as long as I can cut them with a fork. So I could have ground beef but not a steak, for example. And even though I could cut a potato with a fork, I can't have it because it is a starchy veggie. My program is very strict and very detailed!

the vegetarians (non-vegan type) in my program are encouraged to eat lots of tofu, beans, lentils, dairy (esp. greek yogurt and nonfat cottage cheese), eggs, and the products made by Morningstar Farms as well as things like Boca burgers.

I had greek yogurt for my first puree food (3 weeks out) and a half a turkey sausage link for my first soft food. Both were great but I couldn't eat very much of the sausage! I thought I was going to eat the whole link (this is one of those small frozen breakfast links, not a big link) but I could only manage half. It was delicious and very satisfying though. I had a poached egg for one of the first things I had on puree and it was so delicious with just a little bit of salt and pepper.

My puree phase was all high protein stuff - dairy, eggs, beans, tofu, meat, and fish. The things we were allowed to eat without pureeing: eggs (scrambled or poached), refried beans, yogurt, cottage cheese, soft tofu. Everything else had to be pureed, so I would do things like puree tuna with sriracha sauce and a little olive oil mayo, or chicken with low carb bbq sauce, or turkey with marinara sauce and then heat the pureed turkey in the microwave with a little mozzarella cheese to melt on top. Refried beans heated up with melted cheddar was something I really enjoyed. I'm on soft foods now and can eat high protein foods, non-starchy veggies, and fruits as long as they can be cut easily with a fork. Some things I like: --poached egg over 2 T. great white northern beans with some hot sauce --bonbel mini lite cheese --single serve packets of tuna (the sweet & spicy is my favorite flavor) for lunch --sauteed or baked fish such as mackeral, grouper, halibut --cottage cheese with a spoonful of peanut butter or "Naturally More" (peanut butter with extra soy protein and fiber) mixed in --chicken salad made with ripe avocado instead of mayonnaise I haven't tried ground beef yet -- maybe this weekend!

Sunshine is the only thing that helps my vitamin D levels. Every sunny day that I possibly can, I spend 15 minutes lying down outside in shorts and a tank top, no sunscreen. Longer periods in the sun really won't help much plus they can cause skin damage and I've already had skin cancer once! Oh and after you come in from outside, don't take a shower or put lotion on or anything like that for at least 30 minutes. Your skin is still working to convert light into vitamin D and those sorts of things will make it stop.

Have you tried liquid vitamins? I take wellesse liquid vitamins and have had no problems with them. I think they taste fine but if you don't like the taste, you can dilute it with juice or water. I take the multi-vitamin, calcium, and iron. You also might try taking the vitamin pills right before a meal or right before bed -- my dietician said those tricks work for a lot of people.

I don't sneeze but I get a runny nose. Sometimes the hiccups. I think these are both common reactions even though they seem strange . . . someone posted that because of our new small stomachs, food fills it up and presses on the vagus nerve, which can cause things like sneezing or a runny nose when it is irritated.

My surgeon's soft foods plan calls for 3 meals a day, no snacks. The 3 meals can be a maximum of 3 ounces each. We are supposed to eat at each meal: 1. 3 ounces of high protein food (meat, fish, soy, beans, dairy, eggs) OR 2. 2 ounces of high protein food plus 1 ounce of soft, non-starchy veggies or soft fruit. No starchy veggies, grain-based foods, non-nutritive foods (sugar free pudding for example), or sweets are allowed. No soup is allowed. All foods are supposed to be weighed with a digital scale to make sure we are getting the right amount of food.

I'm not allowed potatoes or porridge on soft foods and wasn't on purees either - need to focus on protein (meat, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, beans, tofu, soy) and then to the extent you have any room after eating a couple ounces of protein, cooked green veggies or soft fruits. But that's my surgeon's program -- what did your surgeon outline for you? I would guess that if you are getting bad cramps and then running to the bathroom when you eat you may very well be eating too fast. But again, I would check with your medical team -- I am a random stranger on the internet and not exactly a health care professional.

I was originally considering the gastric bypass, although I was very hesitant. My niece had gastric bypass and she's done very well with her weight loss - but she has so many digestive problems and her diet is so limited, it just didn't seem healthy to me. I started hanging out on various WLS boards and going through all the different procedures. I had never heard of the gastric sleeve but found some message boards and read more about it and it really appealed to me. I never liked the idea of having a foreign object implanted in me and a port leading to the outside just seemed weird. Plus the lapband boards had so many people who seemed to be struggling to get the right amount of fill, and they couldn't eat a lot of different kinds of food. Anyway, I had pretty much decided on VSG when I had my initial intake visit with my surgeon. He went over all the options for me and told me he thought I could consider DS, bypass, VSG, but he would not recommend the lapband. He told me he hardly ever does lapband anymore, there are too many complications and not enough success with it. He only does it if the patient absolutely refuses to consider anything else. He told me that on average people lose a little more with the bypass but he thinks his patients tend to have a better quality of life with the sleeve. Also, because of my personal and family history with autoimmune diseases, the sleeve would be a better choice. I was sleeved 6/19 and so far so good! No complications. Some adjustments to make but it's been mostly easier than I thought. Good luck to you, and sorry for the super long post!

I cut mine 50/50 with either water, Hint essence water, or G2. I find it tolerable that way. Not good, but tolerable. Some examples: apple melon Isopure mixed with Hint Watermelon essence water Peach mango Isopure mixed with citrus mango G2 natural stuff like that. You should only drink Isopure from glass or ceramic containers -- if you put it in plastic (or even steel, I have found), you will never get the smell out again!

I take Wellesse liquids vitamins - the multi-vitamin, calcium, and iron ones. I think they all taste fine but you can dilute them with water, juice, gatorade etc. if the taste bothers you.

I don't like sweet and rich foods very much anymore. Also, I used to love anything with coconut but I tried that coconut syntrax nectar protein shake, and I tried making a shake with coconut milk, and both made me gag. Now even the thought of coconut or the smell of it is disgusting.

You may have already done this but just in case I wanted to link to the Instant Breakfast finder -- just select the powder, then for flavor put in the sugar free variety pack or sugar free chocolate and it will tell you if/where it is sold near you. http://www.carnation...ere-To-Buy.aspx

It's up to you -- I live alone and didn't want anyone with me. I basically wanted to be left alone. If I wanted to nap in the comfy chair in the living room in the middle of the day, I didn't need someone clomping through the living room to wake me up. I did have my housekeeper come for an extra visit to do things that required more effort/lifting. Other than that I didn't need any help. I thought it was good for my recovery process to be getting my own drinks from the fridge, taking care of minor housekeeping, etc., rather than just sitting around while someone else did things for me. But basically I'd rather just be on my own than feel like I am entertaining company or watching out for a guest.

My surgeon's plan allows three meals per day, no snacks.