Fiddleman

I didn't eat anything until 4 days out ( too much swelling). After six days I was eating 2 oz of protein shake every hour for every hour I was awake. This went on for about 3 weeks. Good luck.

Thanks for the response. I am 2.5 months post-op and have done fairly well with loss so far ( 90 lb). I wanted to find something to help out more as i also am not looking to exercise as much as some have reported. Max I want to do is 1 hour a day and I plan on alternating between cardio and weight training in a week for up to 6 days a week. I have not started this plan yet. Today I generally walk daily for an hour briskly and there is some hill climbing. As for ingredients, Super HD has something called "Super HD nootropic and CNS Support blend." The number one ingredient is Caffeine Anhydrous at 160 mg. Second ingredient is N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine at 150 mg. No idea what this is. Third ingredient is Toothed Clubmoss at 2.5 mg. I thought that ingredient sounded interesting. Again, no idea what this is. There is also something called Thermo sculpting blend at 253 mg. The iFAS50 has a mixture of various leaf extracts, Tuber fleece flower, dandelion, red pepper fruit, etc, etc. There is also a B blend in it. I already take B12 and B50 supplements and Multivitamin has B Vitamins in it.

I think mine are under 20 because I stick mostly to pure proteins like chicken or salmon and shakes. The reason for the ambivelance is because I only track protein gram counts and liquid ounce counts. I might increase the carbs soon to include more low glycemic foods, but for now I have a good thing going. Calories are probably around 600- 800 calories and I am never hungry or tired because of eating 6 times a day in small amounts ( 3 oz solid protein or 8 oz shakes with water). Good luck.

The stalls are fairly normal and happen to everyone. No exceptions. It is the body adjusting to the weight loss by moving things around and rehydrating your muscles with Water to support stored glycogen. The stall will naturally take care of itself and usually be followed by a good drop on the scale. On my first stall I decided to try and break it by hiking on a pretty extreme, stair master type hike (2000 feet in 1 mile). While I did break my stall, I do not think it was because of the hike ( stall was already going on 3 weeks) and I ended up overdoing it. I spent the next week recovering and not being able to walk very well. And I had to cool it on even the normal exercises. And I got extremely dehydrated and thought I needed to go to the ER even before I finished the hike. And I have hiked all sorts of challenging hikes since a child. The point is that extreme measures for breaking a stall are not worth it.mbeing patient would have saved me the 1 week recovery time. I don't really pay attention to the scales any longer and weigh in about once a week. I have found it much better to focus on how you feel, how clothes are fitting, getting adequate sleep, getting adequate rest, keeping stress low, being happy and more. Sure I was not always like this, but have found life and work much more enjoyable if you just let go and not stress about things that are out of my control. I used to think exercising like a fanatic led to better results, but ultimately it did not because my diet was all wrong and it put stress on my body because I did it so often. I do still exercise, but I do it out of enjoyment and best of all, for me. One of the exercises I enjoy the most is walking my dog for 1+ hours. It is not real intense (some hills, a little brisk), but it helps me relax with nature, fresh air, listening to the birds, etc. And my dog loves it. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Try and take one day at a time and concentrate on the fact that you have already won this battle. That is a good feeling. You cannot fail at it unless you do things like grazing, eating slider foods or eating high carb and high fat foods ( besides your stomach will not like you for that). One thing that helped on my initial steps during post-op is drinking 2 oz Protein shake every hour for as long as I was awake. It kept me " full" and forced a habit of eating on a schedule that I still adhere to today ( 2.5 months out). That lasted for about 3 weeks before going on purée and then onto solid foods. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I am pretty good at drinking lots of water ( flavored mostly) in 10-20 minutes. It is probably about 22 oz to 32 oz and it appears to have little effect, with the exception if I really drink fast in a 10 second period. I will catch myself doing this sometimes, feel the pressure and then remember not to do this now that I had the sleeve. It did take me at least a mon to get past the point of drinking more then 2 oz at a time. I had heard from numerous folks that water cannot stretch the sleeve, so am not real concerned yet. I am really good with the basics of not drinking around eating foods. Any thoughts?

Hm, I have not run into this yet and am about 90 lb down. Maybe it won't happen? I do also have to say I have always been a water freak on a daily basis, have done several cleans in the past and also sit in my sauna about once a week. Even at my heaviest, I would drink water like there was no tomorrow. I suppose it is not a bad thing, but did wear out quite a few waitresses when I went out to eat with the family.

Oops, I mean to say SW was 335 not 315.

SW (07-02): 315 CW (09-17): 245 HW (10-31): 225 GW(?): 180 Yay, 3 lb lost this last week. Going to really start some weight training and tough exercise now, I promise... been fairly light on exercise so far (2-4 miles walking a day) and not really pushing any cardio limits yet.

Those are really great ideas. Keep them coming.

That's not a dumb question, really. My wife was not allowed in the recovery room. She was a bit surprised after having to wait 3 hours to hear anything...

I believe it had chunks of mango, peach, tomato, lime, onion and tomato. It came from Costco. It was pretty good and offered a bold flavor to the chicken.

I brought up the notion prior in this thread and thought it would be fun to try my hand at designing and building one( I am a software developer). From the responses so far, it would appear such a site and app for the phone / tablet would be very useful for people like us. It would specifically be for people who have gone through WLS because otherwise folks can go to any of the other online numerous sites like eharmony, etc. it would also be a fun project to work on outside of my day job as a software developer. Would folks be willing to pay for it or should it be free ( sort of my gift back to the WLS community)?

2.5 months out. Here is what I ate today. B (6am) 8 oz matrix Oreo shake with soy. Also mixed in Probiotics ( greens from Gnc) 9am snack: 2.5 oz chicken sausage ( garlic and herb flavor) L: 2 oz chicken pieces with .5 oz farrow and tzatziki (sp?) sauce. 3pm snack: 8 oz matrix Oreo shake with Water D: 2 oz chicken with mango salza topping 9pm (to come): 8 oz matrix Oreo shake with water. Down almost 90 lb today. I never feel hungry because eating small amounts every 3 hours. It also keeps the metabolism firing on all cylinders. I also am around 90 oz water so far and plan to drink another 32 oz before 9 pm snack. I hope this helps. Good luck.

I don't really miss anything, but I remember what I used to like eating: orange chicken, popcorn ( especially caramel and white chocolate), apples, bananas, Costco cake, apple fritters, Mexican a la crema and more. I guess the reason I don't miss them is because of one of the major reasons why I had this surgery. For the past 10 years or so I have constantly had a love hate relationship with food. While I enjoyed the initial experience of eating, I almost always hated my behavior that leads to over eating too much of the wrong types of food. My will power would be like steel sometimes, but then it would be razor thin other times. I got so fed up with the love hate relationship and what is was doing to my health, mental state and general well- being, I had to do something to stop the vicious cycle. That is where the surgery came in. All in all, I say good riddance to all these foods. For that reason, I don't desire them any longer and feel I am free from the power they held over me. The door has closed on that part of my life. A different door has opened where I have a healthy relationship with food as fuel. While many can probably relate to this power struggle i described , everyone is different. Good luck.

Recovery room was about 2 hours, but it really took me an additional 48 hours to get out of Icu recovery and to my room. I had surgery on Monday at 12 pm and was disharged Friday at 11am. I remember really being ready to go home. Just to be fair, my circumstances were not considered to be average. Most folks go home the next day after surgery. Some also stay much longer then my stay if there are seriuous complications. Good luck.

Mine was 45 minutes, but you also get to spend a while in recovery before they wheel you to your room. In my case, I went to Icu instead because of breathing issues.

I eat chicken pot pie that my wife makes. It is a cooking light recipe that is actually very healthy and yummy. The only difference now is I do not eat the crust and only eat about 3 oz. it has a lot of protein in it from the chicken. Yummy!

Oh my gosh, I was such a popcorn addict before surgery. I was especially drawn to the white cheddar varieties, but also loved theatre popcorn. It was probably my greatest weakness. Since surgery, I have not had any but oh do I remember. It does not seem to bother me to go to the movies where my sense of smell is now super heightened. Nor does it bother me to watch others eat it. I guess all it took was to break the habit in the name of not wanting to hurt the sleeve. Will I ever go back to eating popcorn? I am not sure. It could be both a slider and a weakness for me so it is best to just stay away if I cannot handle moderation. I was a serious glutton around the white cheddar variety before surgery, sometimes inhaling a full family size bag in one sitting. And then feeling incredibly guilty afterwards....

I usually have Splenda with a cappccino or expresso. Lately, I have been have one every few days. No problems so far. This is the only caffeine I am having and it does help when my workday starts at 5:30am and for all the wrong reasons I go to bed at 12:30 am (mostly it has to do with some late night coding as a software developer). Recently I have also been trying an energy blend from GNC that has Guarneri seed extract, panax ginseng root extract, rhodioia roses root extract and Yerba mate leaf extract. This is in an attempt to eliminate caffeine and go a la naturale. Does any one know anything about these herbs an effect on body? Before WLS, I drank a lot of coffee before work (2 venti sometimes), consumed 5 hour energies up to 2x a day and also spent a couple years drinking monster and rock star drinks up to 2x a day( the sugar free varieties). I am glad to be out of the habit of consuming essesive amounts of caffiene since surgery date, but want to make sure I am not doing anything wrong with the herbs.

When does hair loss start? I am 2.5 months out and am taking in 100+ grams protein a day. Every few days I run my hand threw the hair, pull on it, but so far it is not budging. Not even a strand. I am not saying I want to lose hair, but am trying to prepare mentally for it. LOL! I have always had really thick hair and no male pattern baldness in my family.

If mixing with milk causes this, you may be lactose intolent. Try mixing with soy or almond milk instead. Good luck.

I found this thread interesting and kept thinking that the VST forums is a great way for single people to meet up with each other. There are literally 1000s of men and women who are now feeling more confident, looking hot and waiting to meet each other on this forum ( not talking about the happily married ones of course). Or maybe there needs to be a WLS Dating site.

As lightnfluffy so eloquently put it, this is a time to take measure of your new life. You are not the same person as before this new phase began. There is no need to rush or feel like you are not losing fast enough. If you are relaxed, sleep enough and do the basics, you will succeed. There is no question about that. Take the time to reflect on what possibilities lie ahead of you, enjoy the process and just take one day at a time. Your body will thank you and every day will be a new gift to you. Good luck.

I am not sure if this counts, but I had 10% alcohol NyQuil for 4 nights last week when dealing with a cold. It helped me sleep, but I was wondering if I should have had the non-alcohol version instead. It did help me sleep.