kimbernada

I like some of the little squeeze bottles for flavoring my Water. I think one of them is the Pomtini? I have found that I don't like "overly" flavored water as it tastes too strong and/or sweet for me. Walmart even has some that are totally clear. I think those flavors are grape and strawberry/melon. (I'm a clutz with drinking water so having a clear flavored beverage is kind of nice.) I also like the Vitamin Water Zero drinks. My favorite is their lemonade and they have another called Rise that tastes kind of like Tang. I used to LOVE plain water before surgery but it still kind of is a turn-off for me.

For ME, I found that being able to SMELL a favorite food satisfied me more than ever eating it did. Co-workers would bring in a bag of fast food and I'd ask if I could smell the bag. Seriously. I don't think I've ever been in tears over not being able to eat a previously-favorite food. Knowing that eventually I might be able to try it kept those feelings at bay. Then again some of the crap that I used to like really is just crap. You WILL be able to eat most of your favorite foods, it all depends on what your sleeve likes. Some of your favorites may actually totally be a turn off when you try them. For me, it was eggs. I used to love a good scrambled egg. It's taken a good year for that to be an acceptable food for my sleeve. My sleeve now LOVES grilled fish. I could eat it before, but it wasn't a craving like it is now. I think this is all part of the success of the sleeve (or almost any of the weight loss surgeries). You really do have to start at square one again. Some foods that you are allowed to eat don't sit well today, but might tomorrow. Now, instead of barely even thinking of what we are shoving in our mouth PRE-SURGERY, we have to analyze the nutrition content POST-SURGERY. Does it have enough Protein to even make it worthwhile? I still focus on my protein intake. If I don't, I know I won't get enough.

I made mini turkey meatballs the other night. Six meatballs = 1/4 pound. I can only eat THREE of these before I get the hiccups. I got the recipe here: http://7bitesshow.blogspot.com/ I'd recommend using non extra lean ground meat. I used extra lean ground turkey and they are pretty dry. Good, but dry.

I even bought the same brand/color of pants in smaller sizes so that no one really even noticed my weight loss until I'd lost closer to 50-75 pounds. No one even said anything for the first six months. Well, no one outside of my team at work. They knew I had the surgery, but they didn't find out until the Friday before I had my surgery. I had okayed the time off with my manager and didn't tell anyone else about even that (just the generic "surgery"). One of my teammates had asked "What kind of surgery are you having? Or should I not ask that?" So... I said "Weight loss surgery" and then explained what kind. Our team is like family, so once I told them, I felt much better about it. NOT saying anything was kind of bugging me. I didn't want anyone to know that I was having this surgery BEFORE I had it - mainly because I did NOT want to hear negative stories. Everyone knows someone who had complications, etc. Well, actually I do know someone - my aunt. (She had bypass surgery about 15-20 years ago.) But there are complications for any surgery. I know someone who died during a knee replacement, which seems to be one of the more "common" surgeries. Another aunt (sister of the other one) died during a different "common" procedure. Anyhow, I've rambled a little. To the OP, there is no right or wrong regarding what to tell others. What YOU feel you need to do or say is the right choice for you. For ME, once the surgery was over and I was feeling good about my surgery, having great success and no complications, I found that I didn't have a problem telling people who asked. <-- emphasis on asked because I don't just stop and tell people about the surgery. Even my UPS driver said to me last week "Okay, so just what have you done?" I was actually confused because I wasn't sure what he was talking about. He was pretty funny because he said that he had wanted to say something the last time he saw me, which is actually kind of rare to SEE him, but he said he wasn't sure if it was appropriate. I did tell him that I had surgery last summery and then, as usual, I explained a little about the surgery. (Who knows? Maybe his wife is overweight and that's why he asked me what I did?)

I even bought the same brand/color of pants in smaller sizes so that no one really even noticed my weight loss until I'd lost closer to 50-75 pounds. No one even said anything for the first six months. Well, no one outside of my team at work. They knew I had the surgery, but they didn't find out until the Friday before I had my surgery. I had okayed the time off with my manager and didn't tell anyone else about even that (just the generic "surgery"). One of my teammates had asked "What kind of surgery are you having? Or should I not ask that?" So... I said "Weight loss surgery" and then explained what kind. Our team is like family, so once I told them, I felt much better about it. NOT saying anything was kind of bugging me. I didn't want anyone to know that I was having this surgery BEFORE I had it - mainly because I did NOT want to hear negative stories. Everyone knows someone who had complications, etc. Well, actually I do know someone - my aunt. (She had bypass surgery about 15-20 years ago.) But there are complications for any surgery. I know someone who died during a knee replacement, which seems to be one of the more "common" surgeries. Another aunt (sister of the other one) died during a different "common" procedure. Anyhow, I've rambled a little. To the OP, there is no right or wrong regarding what to tell others. What YOU feel you need to do or say is the right choice for you. For ME, once the surgery was over and I was feeling good about my surgery, having great success and no complications, I found that I didn't have a problem telling people who asked. <-- emphasis on asked because I don't just stop and tell people about the surgery. Even my UPS driver said to me last week "Okay, so just what have you done?" I was actually confused because I wasn't sure what he was talking about. He was pretty funny because he said that he had wanted to say something the last time he saw me, which is actually kind of rare to SEE him, but he said he wasn't sure if it was appropriate. I did tell him that I had surgery last summery and then, as usual, I explained a little about the surgery. (Who knows? Maybe his wife is overweight and that's why he asked me what I did?)

From what I understand, we don't have pouches. We have a sleeve. (RnYers have the pouch.) I'd say that you should go back to logging your food 100%, shoot for 85 grams of protein a day and about 1000-1200 calories. Protein first is still the rule. I have a 40 gram protein shake for breakfast every day. I know some doctors' plans want the patients to move to food only for protein, but I have found that I prefer to have the shake. (And my doctor has given me the green light.) The shake also lets me multi-task while getting ready for work.

From what I understand, we don't have pouches. We have a sleeve. (RnYers have the pouch.) I'd say that you should go back to logging your food 100%, shoot for 85 grams of protein a day and about 1000-1200 calories. Protein first is still the rule. I have a 40 gram protein shake for breakfast every day. I know some doctors' plans want the patients to move to food only for protein, but I have found that I prefer to have the shake. (And my doctor has given me the green light.) The shake also lets me multi-task while getting ready for work.

I hear ya! All of the documentation that I received from my doctor talks about the needs of a bypass patient, not a sleeve patient. Well, they must have done a "find and replace" for the first few pages so that the word "sleeve" was used.

I hear ya! All of the documentation that I received from my doctor talks about the needs of a bypass patient, not a sleeve patient. Well, they must have done a "find and replace" for the first few pages so that the word "sleeve" was used.

I guess it depends on what your doctor says. My doctor allows caffeine. Coffee was on the list for beverages to drink from day 1. I'm guessing tea would qualify as okay too for my doctor's plan. I'm not knowledgeable about tea though. I also drink protein shakes that have caffeine in them.

I guess it depends on what your doctor says. My doctor allows caffeine. Coffee was on the list for beverages to drink from day 1. I'm guessing tea would qualify as okay too for my doctor's plan. I'm not knowledgeable about tea though. I also drink protein shakes that have caffeine in them.

I can shop for HOURS now... No more sweating after barely walking into one store. Man, I don't miss that. Although I mostly shop thrift stores because I've found such amazing deals - paying retail prices isn't as much fun as finding a killer deal. I have to dress in layers for work AND have my little heater on under my desk. I even wear fleece arm warmers (kind of like long fingerless gloves). Brrrrrrrrrrr!!! I wear sweatshirts and socks to bed too. BUT... I wouldn't trade it for anything. Then again, I say that NOW and it's only 52 degrees out. Let's wait to see what my tune is when it is 30 degress below zero. (I guess there isn't a limit as to how much clothes a person can put ON, right?!)

Sometimes my mind tries to trick my sleeve. "Pssst.... if you eat really fast, you could probably eat a little more." The good news is that my sleeve rules the plate. I pretend to stick my fingers in my ears and say "Lalalalalalalalala!" I only put a cup of food on my bread plate for a meal, or about the equivalent. We have pizza every Sunday night and I have one slice - 1/8 of a regular size frozen pizza (so it's about 180 calories). This is when my brain REALLY starts talking. Nope, not worth it. My sleeve will talk back if I try to eat more than one slice. (Literally making those weird gurgling noises.)

I'm eating about a cup of food at a sitting - with about 1000-1200 calories total for the day. EXCEPT for this past week - we had to say goodbye to our 14 yr old schnauzer last Friday. I've done a little stress/emotional eating, but not totally out of control AND it's easing up now - as I know we made the right decision, etc. Anyhow, I still have a protein shake every morning to bump up the protein total. It's about 40 grams of protein. That gives me a little leeway the rest of the day for hitting my 80 gram minimum for protein. I think the biggest thing is to get back to journaling your food intake daily. I know it isn't exactly fun, but it will get you back on track or at least really pinpoint what you can work on, etc.

What are you eating too much of? What about supplementing your food intake with raw veggies as a filler? That way you are eating and giving your sleeve food, just not a lot of extra calories. Did your doctor give you a caloric target to hit?

I can still only eat super moist poultry. (Well ANY meat I eat has to be tender and/or moist.)

Volume-wize, I can probably eat a cup of food. I think your two eggs and bacon would probably be about the same. Perhaps? My only suggestion is that if this is "real" bacon, maybe switch to turkey bacon. Granted, I don't know your total calories for the day, so maybe the real stuff fits in fine. At about 14 months past surgery, I shoot for about 1000 calories a day. Some days, it might be a little more, other days, a little less.

On a side note, if anyone is looking for some cheaper rings, Amazon.com sells stainless steel rings for pretty cheap. One of the rings I wore is an eternity band that was similar to my real ring (except on my real ring, the stones don't go all the way around). It cost me one penny plus $4.99 shipping. Yep, five dollars - and stainless steel, so no nickel or having the metal change color. I ended up getting a solitaire from HSN.com that was similar to my own. My real engagement ring had a lower setting than most solitaires so I was happy to find one pretty similar for about $30. (But if you like a higher setting, Amazon has some stainless steel ones for around $10-$30.) I did wear my real rings until one time I was drying them off with a paper towel at work and they slipped right off. Holy buckets!!!

I did. Thank goodness I failed at failing.

Yep, I had to wear fake wedding rings for awhile. I just got mine resized from a snug 8 to a loose 6.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that while you might be able to eat almost anything, it's the quantity that you are still limited by. (So can you eat enough of your nutrients in order to grow a healthy baby?) A year out, and you will be able to eat larger servings of healthy (and not healthy) foods. Granted, I can still only eat about a cup of solid food at any meal and my year anniversary was July 24, 2013.

I still can't gulp like I used to. But I'd say for ME, it was close to two weeks before I wasn't sipping. (But that could have just been my fear of drinking too much at once.)

I slept on my side the second night after surgery. I had a big fat pillow that I used to sort of lay my front on to keep from rolling too far over.

I didn't hear anything from co-workers until I'd lost about 40 pounds and that was from just a few. It wasn't until I'd lost around 70 that I REALLY heard comments. I don't hear it as much now, which is okay too.

I don't have any banned foods. I chew gum -- there's no way swallowing this will harm you stomach. As a sleever, we still have our original pyloric valve. I could see if we had the gastric bypass since those folks have a man-made one. I go through probably a pack of gum a day - 18 pieces. It keeps me from mindless eating. It just loses its flavor so fast. sugar-free... bubblegum, chocolate mint, lemon square, orangesicle, sherbet, etc. I probably have about six different flavors stacked up at any given time. Soda? Yep, I have that sometimes too. Not every day as it just takes me too long to drink it. (Baby sips, not swigs like pre-surgery.) Alcohol? Meh, doesn't appeal to me. My 21 year old self would be appalled to hear my 44 year old self say this. LOL Of course back then, I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd go to bed at 9:30 pm either. Candy? Meh, doesn't hold much appeal. I don't keep chocolate at my desk. I do have a HUGE bowl of hard candies and Tootsie Pops up on a shelf in my cubicle. They don't call my name. Ice cream? Sometimes. Maybe less than once a week, but a small cone. At least the Dairy Queen is ice milk, not ice cream. Actually, a small cone is too much. I usually get it in a dish to avoid the cone. pizza? Once a week. 1/8 of a frozen pizza is less than 200 calories. Considering I used to be able to eat an ENTIRE frozen pizza, this is a good compromise. I am finally able to eat steak again, but it does have to be tender. Grapes and other fruit? Heck yeah. But after the Protein. (Except for tonight. I had some cold washed grapes on the counter that I was munching on before supper - way too filling.) I just wish vegetables didn't fill me up so fast!! I now have spinach and baby carrots in my morning Protein shake. I can't taste or see them.