DLCoggin

Huge dog lover here and my heart truly goes out to you. I know all too well what you're feeling. I cannot, and do not want to, imagine my life without a four legged best friend. You never forget those friends. But I hope that when the time is right, you'll get another furry person. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will put a smile on your face and a song in your heart - like a puppy!

Starting weight was 285, 250 on the day of my surgery, almost two years post-op and my weight this morning was 153. You're gonna love the new you!!

Our ability to support others is a gift and one that we should all share with every opportunity that presents itself. But I believe that we have a much greater, much more valuable gift that we offer to everyone in our lives every minute of every single day - we are happy, healthy, living, breathing, loving examples of what can be. Nothing we can ever do or say will ever come close to the motivational power of what we have accomplished. The message is clear - if I can do it, so can you.

Great, great job!! So if you had one piece of advice for others on the journey, one key to your success that stands out, what would it be? Again, congratulations!!

The only thing you're doing wrong is second guessing what you already know - stalls are perfectly normal. Stalls are by definition doing everything right and your body just takes a little breather. Stay positive. Stay patient. Stay focused. Allow your body to find its own way in its own time. It's sooooo much easier than the emotional roller coaster. You're gonna love the new you!!

Follow the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can and...relax. Living in fear is not realistic, not sustainable and most certainly not healthy. Sometimes you'll lose quickly. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes not at all. It's all part of the process. Just remember that your focus is always the same regardless of what your weight is doing - follow the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can. Second guessing yourself every time you move to the next stage or your weight loss changes is pointless to say nothing of emotionally exhausting. Stay positive. Stay patient. Stay focused. Allow your body to find its own way in its own time. You're gonna love the new you!!

I think that a reminder that this is a major surgery and that there can be challenges benefits us all. Good for you and thank you for sharing your experience! Your courage and honesty are an inspiration for all.

You'll find more food ideas here on the forum than you can shake a stick at. Go to the Home page and under "Main Gastric Bypass Surgery Forums" you'll find "Food and Nutrition" - a whole forum dedicated to appropriate foods at various post-op stages. The first few weeks following your surgery can be challenging but they pass quickly and you'll soon find yourself in the routine. Virtually all surgery teams give their patients very detailed, written instructions on what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat - at each stage of the process. It sounds daunting but it's not nearly as bad as most folks imagine. Stay positive. Stay patient. And stay focused on following the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can. You're gonna love the new you!! P.S. I strongly agree with what others have said - food logs are an enormously powerful tool and the more you use it, the more you learn and the more valuable they become. I'm almost two years out and I log every single day. My Fitness Pal and Sparkpeople are both excellent!

Totally agree with music and BBdoodle. Listen to your body and you'll wind up exactly where you should be. I believe that so strongly that I never set a "goal weight". Before I even had the surgery I made the conscious decision that my body would tell me when it was where it wants to be. My job was to simply follow the protocol until my body made the decision. And that's exactly what happened. Thirteen months post-op and having lost 130 pounds, my weight stabilized. After about three weeks, I knew I had arrived. Today I'm three weeks away from two years out. And my weight this morning was 153.6. No bounce back. My body is where it wants to be. And thanks to my food log, maintaining my weight within about a three pound range has been surprisingly easy and straight forward. Listen to your body and you're gonna love the new you!!

Lol. Although it does happen, folks rarely lose too much weight. Your body will know when it's at the weight it wants to be at. At that point, your weight will stabilize and losing more becomes notably more difficult. Your mind is not always as reliable but I believe it pays to listen to your body.

Tuna salad - canned tuna, little low-fat mayo, diced pickle (dill or my favorite - sweet) and I like to add diced celery. You can eat it as is, make sandwiches, or for family members not on a low carb diet - try tuna burgers by putting it on hamburger buns with a slice of cheese, wrap in heavy duty foil and toss 'em on the grill over some campfire coals just long enough to heat 'em up and melt the cheese. Very high in protein, versatile, you can prepare the day before you leave, no cooking or pot to clean and it's really good!! Also easy to take with you on the boat when you're fishing!!

My surgeon recommends 100g of Protein per day and I've been hitting that about 95% of the time for almost two years. Protein is crucially important for a lot of very good reasons - faster wound healing, helps protect you from bacterial and viral infections, improves retention of lean muscle, reduces hair loss, and protein is a key source of energy (especially when you're on a low carb diet). Your body has over 100 trillion cells and every single one of them contains protein. Remove all of the Water from your body and 75% of the stuff that's left is protein. On average, 20% of your total body weight is protein. Many believe that getting sufficient protein helps in weight loss. But I've never read (or heard of) any scientific cause and effect relationship being established for specific protein intake levels being correlated with specific increases or decreases in weight loss. As we see on the forum all of the time, even doctors are all over the place in their recommendations for daily protein. Bottom line - do your best to get ALL of your doctor's recommended protein in every day and you're gonna love the new you!!

Your weight loss is just that - YOUR weight loss. It's never a good idea to compare your weight loss to anyone else's weight loss. The fact that your loss is different than mine (or anyone's) means absolutely nothing. Sometimes you'll lose quickly. Sometimes more slowly. Sometimes not at all. It doesn't matter. What matters is that regardless of what your weight is doing, your focus is always the same - follow the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can and just let your body find its own way in its own time. Having said that, consider the fact that you're averaging a loss of four pounds a week. To help you put that in perspective, if you maintained that loss for one year, you'd lose over 200 pounds. So I'd say you're doing nothing short of amazing!! You're gonna love the new you!!

Go to your profile > Edit Profile > Signature and then you just input any information that you want to appear at the bottom of all of your posts. Have a great day!

Thought it would be interesting and educational to start a thread on all things regarding food logs. Share your thoughts, experiences, questions, successes, failures, news, research, favorite apps, frustrations, benefits, opinions, favorite features, ideas for improving apps and tips for getting the most from your food log. I believe that food logs are the most powerful tool we have for achieving The Prime Directive - lifestyle changes. What do you think?

Hey guys! I'm running terribly behind in everything because of a week of jury duty. We officially went into deliberation late Friday afternoon. Fingers crossed for a verdict today. I'll be back soon!

"It is of no use saying 'we are doing the best we can'. Success means doing what is necessary." Winston Churchill

At least in my case, the psych eval was a snap. Answered a bunch multiple choice questions - essentially the same questions worded different ways. Saw her one time during which she seemed confident that I'm not crazy. And that was it. Even if a challenge comes up with the psych eval, any number of members have been approved following a little counseling. If you have confidence in the other surgeon, I wouldn't let anxiety over the psych eval deter you. Great job on the weight loss!! You ain't seen nothing yet - you're gonna love the new you!!

My son has a good friend that is 500 lbs plus. A great guy, over the top smart, thirty something and heading for a train wreck. Every time I see him, or anyone else suffering from obesity, I want to have the "there is an answer" conversation. But I've never found a way to do that. I'm not sure there is a way to do that. The reality is that you have to want it. You have to be willing to reach out. You have to be frightened enough, angry enough, frustrated enough, depressed enough - to take the first step. And that's when your world changes.

How we lose inches when we are not losing weight - muscle vs. fat. Rapid weight loss is the result of your body metabolizing fat - body measurements are shrinking. High Protein diet promotes the addition of lean muscle - one pound of muscle is considerably smaller (less volume) than one pound of fat. So you can reach a point where the "weight" of the fat being metabolized by the body is equal to the "weight" of the muscle being added by the body = no weight loss. But one pound of muscle has less "volume" than one pound of fat = inches are being lost even though weight is stable. Sugar alcohol - I know that stalls are sometimes attributed to consumption of sugar alcohol. There are some that believe a more likely cause is the higher amount of carbohydrates commonly found in foods that contain sugar alcohol. Here is a link to one of the better articles that I've read on sugar alcohol. It does a good job of explaining what sugar alcohols are and their pros and cons. http://www.ynhh.org/about-us/sugar_alcohol.aspx I'm off to jury duty. You guys have a great day!

Although I have often read on the forum where any number of doctors have stated the 30g Protein serving limit, I have never been able to find any high confidence research that either supports that or disputes it. I suspect that coming up with a good rule of thumb on protein is a daunting task because there are so many variables not only in the type of protein, but in the digestion/absorption rates and a whole host of other things. M.A. Cruz, I found the article you linked to be interesting and quite well written. The author's description of the digestive process of protein was particularly interesting. But we have to remember that the author's intended audience was not RnY patients. The pre-digestion process in the stomach and digestion times in his article must be considered suspect. We have limited pre-digestion taking place since the stomach is out of the picture. food passes much more quickly from the pouch into the intestine than it does from the stomach (with the pylorus) into the intestine. We also have to remember that some portion of the duodenum is bypassed - how much will vary by patient and by surgeon so that can be a difficult factor to estimate. Then when you attempt to factor in differences in digestion/absorption rates for different protein types, it gets even more difficult. Filtering creates higher amounts of protein for a given volume - think whey concentrate vs. whey isolate. But denaturing protein, using heat or acid or both, changes the protein on the molecular level. Denaturing effectively reduces the size of protein molecules which results in protein being absorbed into the bloodstream substantially more quickly and therefor presumably in higher amounts. Hydrolyzed protein is absorbed even faster still. And it goes on and on. One word of caution, there is evidence that too much protein in your diet can result in some potentially serious problems. The research is not yet conclusive but the Institute of Medicine's Dietary Reference Intakes suggests that doubling the amount of protein can result in a 50% increase in the loss of Calcium through the urine. And may increase the risk of kidney stones by 250%. From what I've read, you may want to carefully weigh any potential benefit of that second scoop of Protein Powder against the potential risks that may be associated. Science does yet seem to have a definitive answer to both sides of the question. It might be wise to err on the conservative side of things until more is known. Here's a link to one article in WebMD that discusses some of these things in more detail - http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/wheres-the-beef-wheres-the-health-benefit.

Your weight loss will fluctuate. Sometimes you'll lose weight quickly. Sometimes more slowly. Sometimes not at all. But your focus is ALWAYS the same regardless of what your weight is doing. Stay positive. Stay patient. Stay focused on following the protocol as closely to the letter as you possibly can. Measure your success against these things and the weight will take care of itself. Allow your body to find its own way in its own time. You're gonna love the new you!!

Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe bars - 180 calories, 20g of protein, 17g of carbs (2g of fiber, 4g of sugar alcohol). Protein calories to total calories is only 44% so 56% of calories is "other stuff". Not great considering their shakes average 85% of their calories from protein. But the bar is over the top good and when you're on the go, you can't beat the convenience of a bar. They come in a lot of other flavors but this one is just too good and since I probably eat one or two a month I don't need a lot of variety.

Are you or have you thought about maintaining a food log? If you really want to focus on changing your eating habits and for that matter your whole relationship with food, food logging is highly recommended. You're gonna love the new you!!

First we would have to have universal weight loss patients - lol!