kimbernada

Is this your pre-op diet? Are you on shakes only or do you get to eat fresh veggies?

To add... I guess how I order food now is my normal. But I do wish I could eat a huge lettuce salad with Ranch dressing. I miss that. Lettuce fills me up too fast, so it's a waste of a protein opportunity.

^ This! 100%. The past few times that we've gone out to eat, I've ordered a turkey or hamburger patty without the bun or other accompaniments and with a side of fruit. The waitstaff haven't blinked an eye at it. I know I'm getting a very healthy meal (definitely getting my protein!) and my hubs gets to finish off the fruit - I typically only have a couple of pieces of the fruit chunks before I hiccup. We ate at Carino's two weeks ago and I was able to eat about 1/3 of a lunch portion of baked tortelloni. It was tasty but then I had to work harder the rest of the day to get in my protein. One of my co-workers, a guy, is almost always saying "You are so good at following 'the rules'... I wish I had that determination." Well, it's more like Veronica (the sleeve) back talks too much. Throwing up at work is NOT fun.

Really? I guess I need to cruise the boards because I seem to have missed this.

I didn't have a pureed phase for my post-op diet. We went out to eat about two weeks after my surgery - I had a little bit of baked potato and some bourbon chicken. (It's super moist chicken.) Moist meat was on my list of "okay" foods to eat.

Curvy chicks rock! You look amazing!!

This is a much less expensive option than buying the Big Train Fit Frappe. We have a coffee maker, but I don't even know how to use it. We bring it up from the basement when the in-laws are here to visit - and they make their own coffee. (The horrors!!) LOL At least they like my cooking.

I've mixed it with pudding. Use the sugar and fat free pudding mix. Mix the pudding and milk first and then add the Protein powder. What I do is mix two servings of the protein powder to make two "big" servings of the protein pudding, since you typically use 16 oz of milk anyhow. (Cow milk seems to set up better than soy milk.) I tried using some of the unflavored stuff with oatmeal and it was not appetizing at all. I use the Isopure unflavored. I have used the unflavored with the Big Train protein powder. One scoop of the unflavored, one scoop of the Big Train, 12 - 16 ounces of Water. I think that ends up at 36 grams of protein and only 170 calories. (That's way better than a Luna Cookie Dough Protein Bar for the same 170 calories and only 12 grams of protein, although I do like these Protein Bars.) OH!! Speaking of protein bars, Quest makes some to DIE FOR flavors. They have cookie dough and chocolate brownie that taste like the real thing. They have lots of other flavors, but these two are my absolute favorite. You have to nuke them for about 10 seconds... and then... Mmmmmmm.... The cookie dough one tastes just like a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven, except that it's healthy and doesn't contain a lot of crap. 190 calories and 21 grams of Fiber. The chocolate brownie is also amazing. I don't know what kind of magic powers they possess, but again - heat it up a little and it tastes just like a real brownie. (Well, to me anyhow.) I don't like either when they are at room temperature. (If I keep one in my front pants pocket, it seems to warm up enough.) A box of 12 is about $25 at Amazon.com - so they are a tish over $2 each. I don't have one every day, but when I DO, I really enjoy it.

And... this is the link to Michelle's blog regarding Protein ice cream: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2008/08/protein-ice-cream.html Heed her warning though. If your protein shake tastes like a "monkey's a$$", it's still going to taste like that frozen. And boy is that true. I just made some ice cream last night and tonight. (I've got some 1% milk that needs to get used pronto.) I've found that adding a package of sugar-free, fat-free pudding mix in with the protein shake and then blenderizing the crap out of it to get it all foamy makes the best ice cream. Again, I use the Syntrax nectar Sweets shakes - chocolate truffle, vanilla bean torte, and strawberry mousse. They kept me sane after my surgery as they mix up great with the Blender Bottle - not thick and airy - just like a flavored milk. I barely can drink any sort of foamy protein shake as it is way too much air. The shakes I make with the Fit Frappe stuff take me a LONG time to finish, probably 45 minutes.

OH! And there's a Syntrax Nectar Cappuccino protein shake mix flavor too. That's yummy too. No caffeine in it though.

Big Train makes iced coffee flavored protein shake mixes. I absolutely LOVE their Fit Frappe Mocha flavor. Well, it can be iced or hot, I think. (I don't like hot coffee.) If you have a Sam's Club near you, they have the best price at about $25 for the 2 lb container. Amazon has the same size for about $45. Some of them have caffeine (like the Mocha). I typically make a shake with my Syntrax Nectar chocolate truffle, 8 oz. light soy milk, 4 oz water and then add one scoop of the mocha shake. Blend it all up and have a snazzy mocha shake!

This is the same schedule my surgeon told me I'd be on.

I'm guessing it's out of stock because the quantity available as pre-orders have been spoken for. That's typically what happens with the Kindles, anyhow.

You are doing a fantastic job!!!

My husband had commented before I even had the surgery that he was scared that I would lose the weight and then leave him. He's also mentioned that again recently. I told him that he was stuck with me. However, I personally know a few people whose marriages weren't strong enough. My brother's is one of them. His former wife had gastric bypass done and decided she wanted to date. Yeah, their kids were 8, 6, 4, and 2. (They are now 24, 22, 20, and 18.) Anyhow, two husbands later, I think she's settled down. I do have to say that her third husband is a really nice guy. Anyhow, at least some of us KNOW that our spouses are insecure and we can work on that, if that is the route we want to take. (Which for ME, it is.) Dammit, I paid Match.com $25 to find me a husband. I'm not going to just go find another one. Especially when this one is finally trained!! (Just kidding on the trained part. Sort of.)

WOW! You look amazing!! Great job!!!

For gas from the surgery itself, I think the only real cure is walking. I personally didn't have any gas pains, but I think I was just lucky. Gas-X will work for gas IN your sleeve, but I don't think for the gas that was pumped into your abdominal area during surgery.

You may also notice that you are more sensitive to bodily odors - yours or other people's. I switched to Dial anti-bacterial shower gel and that seems to have helped any issues I had with my own body. I don't know if it was also the body emitting the anesthesia or what, but yuck.

Hey, where did you hide your saggy skin? Or maybe you didn't have much? Your arms look great!!

You did it!!!

The only restriction that my surgeon gave me was drinking alcohol. He told me of one gal who actually passed out after having only one drink. Considering that I am not even a social drinker, as I probably only have one or two drinks a year, I decided to just stay away from it. It hits me hard pre-surgery, so I'm not sure what post-surgery would be like. (Although I used to be able to drink a lot in my early 20s.) Otherwise, caffeine is okay, diet soda is okay. I prefer to drink that "Ice" brand of fizzy Water as it isn't quite as carbonated as a diet soda. Still fizzy, but not too much. Enough to clean out the pipes in the morning. I can't take big gulps of anything fizzy as it makes me just want to burp it all up.

It could just be that you are adding muscle to your body. Or have you tried a different scale? (What if your scale is broken?) Way back in time, I was hitting the gym really hard. I dropped several sizes in clothes but hadn't weighed myself. When I finally DID hop on the scale, it showed that I had only "lost" 10 pounds of fat. You are obviously losing fat as your body is shrinking!! I'm thinking that you are just gaining muscle from all of the hard work that you are doing at the gym.

I totally agree. While I do try to keep my daily calories around 900 (rarely less than that now), I still let myself indulge in the good stuff. Granted, most of my "indulging" has been within the last few months - with Christmas and Easter goodies. (Why are all the typically "bad" foods called goodies?) We didn't have any of that stuff at our house, but the in-laws and my parents did for Christmas and almost ALL of my co-workers had Easter candy. OMG... one of those Reese's flat eggs has 90 calories! After this bit of over-indulging, I have learned that I just cannot have chocolate readily available to me. I can't. I couldn't before surgery, so I obviously can't afterwards. Having the sleeve doesn't stop me from eating the high calorie slider foods. We do not keep ice cream in the house anymore. (sugar free fudgesicles, yes.) We did have a pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough a few weeks ago. The hubs wanted the container for a photo shoot he was doing. We shared it. I scooped out the first inch or so and put it into a little glass condiment dish. He ate the rest. It was FABULOUS! (What's scary is that pre-surgery, we would get a large pizza delivered from the local pizza joint - split it - and then for dessert we'd each have a pint of B&J's ice cream.) We still have pizza once a week. I can only eat one slice and I'm hiccuping. One SMALL slice. Picture a frozen pizza cut into eight slices and that's what I can eat. We've switched to making semi-homemade pizza with turkey pepperoni. I still can only eat one piece. Sometimes my head tells me to eat that piece really fast because then maybe I could sneak in another piece before the sleeve catches on that it's full. But that's a load of doo-doo -- but I don't because then I have to face the consequences of an angry sleeve. (Throwing up pizza is not a fun thing.) I even still make myself a plate of nachos (well, tortilla chips with melted cheese). However, it's on one of my little plates and probably only has about 10 bite size tortilla chips. I log it in My Fitness Pal. I guess to me, as long as I log it and I am hitting my calorie (900) and protein (80 grams min.) goals, it's okay. The Easter candy? Er, yeah. I might have logged it all. Which... makes it not okay. The one good thing I learned is that sometimes cycling calories is good for weight loss. Having a couple of higher calorie days seems to help ME with losing weight. I still lost weight over Christmas... but around Easter, while I didn't GAIN, I also didn't lose. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence that the weight loss stalled. I know plateaus happen, but.... funny how it happened shortly after the candy appeared at work. As to candy, I do have a HUGE bowl of Dum-Dums and Jolly Ranchers on a top shelf in my cubicle. Those aren't trigger candies to me. My co-workers like having some kind of candy to grab when they want something "lighter". I might have a Dum-Dum maybe once a week and I don't care for Jolly Ranchers. I intentionally bought stuff that is sort of "meh". Why do I buy candy? I like bringing something sweet to the meetings I run. We used to have a candy closet where I could grab a bag of mixed stuff to bring to meetings, but they are cutting back on expenditures, and the candy budget was cut. (The horror!!) So.. I first tried Tootsie Pops, but I found that they were still a trigger - so once those were gone, I switched to the Dum-Dums and Jolly Ranchers. (Ick, just thinking about Jolly Ranchers makes my taste buds recoil.)