Bufflehead

You really can't tighten up excess skin with exercise, sorry to say. You can put some muscles under it, which may make it look a little better, but time and plastic surgery are what you need to truly get rid of excess skin. Exercises like squats and lunges are good for your thighs. You probably also want to do things like leg presses using weight machines. For abs, I like doing all sorts of Pilates (the 100 is a really good one), bicycle crunches, and planks. But as I said, these exercises aren't going to do anything to your skin. They work the muscle underneath the skin, not the skin itself. There isn't any way to tone skin via exercise. Good luck!

Check the ingredients with New Whey - even though the name says whey, if the first protein ingredient is collagen, run away. That's pretty useless for us. I drank the Atkins Advantage for the first few weeks after surgery and loved them. They didn't hurt my recovery. For RTD protein, you may also want to check out Premier Protein and Pure Protein. Both of them have better numbers in terms of protein, calories, and carbs than the Atkins drinks. They also don't have coffee in them if that is a concern. Many people like both brands.

That's pretty much what I did for the first six months. I wouldn't have done it if I weren't absolutely religious about weighing or measuring everything I ate and tracking it on MFP -- I had a lot of confidence that I was eating according to my team's plan. It worked well for me. I had a lot less stress and freaking out than I see here about what the numbers on the scale did today, yesterday, etc.

I went back after two weeks to a desk job, so not nearly as active as your typical teacher. For the first three days I could only make it a little more than halfway through the day, then was too exhausted and went home. Then we had a four day weekend, which was nice! So when I went back the next week, I was 3 weeks post op. At that point I could make it through the day but was still pretty wiped out at the end of the day.

@@yescobar there should be a scoop in the can of powder. Usually it has shifted all the way down to the bottom and you have to dig for it.

You want to ask your surgeon about rules regarding pills. They all vary -- there is no "we" in post-WLS patients when it comes to things like medications, food, exercise, alcohol, caffeine, etc (unless you are talking to someone who had the same doctor you did). My doctor's rules may be very different from yours. All that said, have you considered liquid multi-vitamins? I took Wellesse liquid multi for four weeks after surgery - a double dose. I didn't have any trouble getting it down, but you can dilute it with water or light fruit juice if the taste bothers you. My labs have always been great. Good luck to you!

I haven't tried to eat pizza! Still in weight loss mode so pizza is not on plan. I can't say I have always stuck to my plan, but pizza has never been a huge temptation for me so I haven't bothered. My typical lunch or supper is 2-3 ounces protein plus a couple ounces of veggies, and at that point I absolutely do not want to eat any more and am pretty sure I would be in pain if I did. I try really hard to stop before I get to that point of pain, and have gotten pretty good at reading the signals my sleeve sends me. If the thought of eating or preparing more food seems irksome or unpleasant, I stop, even if I had planned to eat more at that meal. For example, the other night my dinner was 2.5 ounces of sardines baked with an egg on top. I had planned to eat some veggies after that, but after my protein I just couldn't eat any more. The thought was kind of nauseating and I felt physically full already. So I would say my restriction remains strong, especially if I stick to what I am supposed to eat - dense protein and green veggies.

Unjury is an excellent protein powder. What flavor did you buy? Try starting with one protein shake daily - 8 ounces of water, milk, almond milk - whatever you choose to mix it with - and one scoop of protein powder. You can also add in additional flavoring items such as a tablespoon of sugar free pudding mix, some PB2, or sugar free Torani syrup. If you bought the chicken soup flavor, that changes the advice I would give -- I am assuming you got vanilla, chocolate splendor, something like that. PS - Unjury has instructions plus some recipes (scroll down a bit for those) for all its flavors: http://www.unjury.com/using/weight_loss_surgery_protein.shtml If the link above gets messed up by the auto-linking feature here on this site, just Google Unjury recipes. Good luck!

@@Brn2blossom unless you have complications you shouldn't need help. Many of us went home from the hospital and took care of ourselves just fine. It will actually help you recover if you have to be the one to get up and get your drinks, answer the door, etc., rather than having someone take care of those things for you. Good luck!

EBay has been a godsend for me.

When I was in the phases where I needed to concentrate on eating slowly, I used the Eat Slower app on my phone. It's free and available for both iPhones and Androids. I set my bite interval to 45 seconds. Worked great for me.

Depends on what you plan to use it for. The only thing I really use mine for is to make protein shakes. I use a Cuisinart stick blender -- I love it because it is easy to assemble, use, and wash and it puts no foam or air into the shake. However, if I wanted to put ice in my shakes I am not sure it would be powerful enough. It worked fine to make pureed food as well, but I also used a mini-food processor at that point.

Are you sure it's milk of magnesia you are supposed to take and not magnesium citrate? Magnesium citrate is what most surgeons have their patients use for a pre-op "clean out." Milk of magnesia is not nearly as strong. If it is magnesium citrate, no, you won't be able to go out and do things. You'll be camped as close as possible to the bathroom. Make sure you are stocked up on baby wipes and toilet paper. The effects can last up to 24 hours. It comes in little bottles and is fizzy like soda. Make sure it is very cold before you drink it, and just drink the bottle as quickly as you can. If it's milk of magnesia, the effects should be a lot less drastic. It doesn't taste great but the typical dose is only a few tablespoons so you just choke it down. As far as going to the hospital, pack as lightly as possible. You may or may not be able to shower depending on the length of your stay and the hospital policy, but if you do, they can provide basic soap and shampoo etc. Believe me, you won't particularly care about the brand of shampoo at that point. Good luck!

30 lbs in the first week? I've been around here a while now and I've never seen that. By my math you've lost 13 in less than 2 weeks since surgery (going from 312 to 299) - that's one of the faster rates of weight loss I've seen. You shouldn't be disappointed, you should be thrilled IMO.

olive oil or grass-fed butter.

I like the recipes from Nom Nom Paleo - both the blog http://nomnompaleo.com/ and the cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GA4L9AA?btkr=1 - although it is not specific for wls, I find the recipes all meet my bariatric team's guidelines and are really good.

Are you on a PPI (acid reducer) such as omeprazole or Protonix? If not, you may need one. Or if you are, you may need a different one or a higher dose. Stomach acid often feels like hunger, especially if you are feeling "hungry" within a short time after eating.

I've used blueberries and strawberries before. Bananas are too high carb for my plan, I stay away from them.

At least on the web, there should be a gray shaded box with white writing in it that says UNFOLLOW THIS. It is towards the right under the WRITE A REPLY button. Also, just for future use, you can go into your settings and change what you get notifications for. I found that very handy!

I found that I really benefited from having a strict meal plan when I was early out. The rules of my surgical practice for soft foods were: 3 meals per day, no more than 3 ounces per meal. No snacking in between meals except for calorie free liquids and protein shakes. Eating your meal has to be accomplished within a 45 minute timeframe -- if you are not finished with what you planned, that is fine, put it away for leftovers or toss it, whichever you prefer. Then no eating anything (other than protein shakes/calorie free liquids) until your next meal. I also found that it helped me to plan my day ahead of time on myfitnesspal. I would figure out what I was going to have for each meal, plus my protein shakes, first thing in the morning, then enter it in advance. If I needed to adjust for some reason during the day, I could go back and fix it. I will also say that if you are eating a lot of things like pudding, broth, and popsicles, you may find it challenging to meet your protein goals for the day. I am not sure what guidelines your bariatric team gave you, and don't want to contradict them -- I think it is important to stick with the rules you were given! But if you can stick within your rules and eat in a more protein-forward way, I think it will benefit you overall and also may make it easier to cut down on snacking and grazing, since you will be full longer. Good luck to you!

It's not really so much whether it is "good" or "bad" for protein, but whether it fits your plan's requirements for calories, carbs, and protein. 2% certainly has more calories than 1% or skim -- do you count your calories so you know how much you are getting each day? If so, it's fine to use 2% as long as you stay in your overall calorie limit for the day. I think lowfat (2%) milk is usually about 130 calories per cup, vs. 1% at 110 and skim at 90. I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk - for me that's the right choice for now, because I really need to watch my calories as I battle the last weight I need to take off. I know you said yuck, but I have to tell you that I didn't like it either at first, but made myself use it for a week. At the end of the week I really liked it, much better than cow milk. So if you need to cut back your calories, tell yourself you will try it for a week before you reject it (assuming you haven't already). Not sure where you are located, but if you have Kroger grocery stores nearby, you might want to check out their CarbMaster milk. It is significantly lower calorie and lower carb than regular skim milk, in addition to being higher protein. It is also lactose-free. It comes in plain, vanilla, and chocolate flavors -- I think it is really good.

NO it is not too late! Start by getting all crap out of the house and eating protein forward meals. Snack on high protein items such as jerky and boiled eggs. You can do this!

@@MrsMike1 it sounds like possibly your vagus nerve is injured but you really should contact your surgeon for advice.

Bread and anything carbonated make me feel icky.

My go-to's are jerky (bison jerky, turkey jerky, ostrich jerky, elk jerky, etc.), roast seaweed, protein shakes, and sliced deli meat.