mistysj

I started at 98 kg. that shirt I was wearing is pretty flattering to my shape but I should have my husband take a photo from the side. My stomach and butt are the same size and I have an upper and lower belly. For some reason I am drawn in right where my navel is. I hate it. It didn't go away when I was around 70 kg which was my lowest adult weight (in 2003 after a year and a half of Weight Watchers) but I am still obese at that weight. My goal is 50 kg which will put me at 22 BMI. I'm very short and carry all my weight in my middle. I actually have great legs for my size. If it wasn't for my waist I would be in size 14. I am in size 18 and the legs are always huge. I did already have to tighten my belt a notch! I have to wear a belt because I am very high waisted and all the jeans are so low they give me muffin top. I hope my waist migrates down a bit as I lose weight.

The One has both of those features plus an altimeter for tracking how many floors you have climbed. I love it!

Too sad about the girls. Mine will probably be at my waistline! Two-week follow-up went great! I weighed 93 with clothes and shoes on. Not bad! Incisions are healing nicely. He wants to see me again in two weeks. He also said that when I am around 70 kg we will start talking about plastics because he thinks I will have a big belly apron!

The only time I had a facelift it was awful. They used this hook thing to remove blackheads from my nose! I have never been in so much pain. I think they were also just seeing freckles and trying to remove those too! I swear. It was horrible. About the opposite of relaxing, and it was really expensive. Do your homework! Retinol is one of the few compounds that can actually give you younger skin, because it stimulates your skin to regrow faster. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/fashion/30skin.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 I have rosacea (just redness, not the sores thank god) and it really helps me.

That is superb, Lissa! Congratulations! I realized that I also have my follow-up with my surgeon this afternoon! I think he will be pleased with my easy recovery so far. It will also be a nice excuse to skive off early from work. Everything is fine at work but I have to admit I am a bit tired! I have mostly just caught up with my email and chatted with a few of my employees, so it has been a pretty low-key day. But still, I feel a bit wiped out! Drinking my optislim shake now, and I feel a little self-conscious about it. I know that is silly, but it is what it is.

Awesome. It seems a bit "pop-psy" but sort of makes sense to me so far. I have to admit I already flew through principle #1 and am reading about #2 now. I have a feeling I may have to wait some time to put these into practice since I am still so soon post-op. I'd be interested to hear what you think, as someone who is already at goal.

First day back to work today! Lets see how this goes.

RNY is roux-en-Y gastric bypass, also just called "bypass" DS is Duodenal Switch. It is basically gastric sleeve with intestinal rerouting like gastric bypass has.

When I have been craving salty food I have a cup of chicken stock with a little vinegar and hot sauce to make a mild hot&sour. If I crave sweets I have a little glass of fruit juice. Still in the full liquid phase.

I just shared all of my purée recipes, including how to purée chicken, to the Recipe Sharing section of the food and Nutrition forum. I am freezing the last batch right now and I will be all set for the next two weeks! How is everyone doing today? I am relaxing and trying not to be too bummed that I go back to work tomorrow! I'm a little nervous about how tomorrow will go with me still on fluids, and also nervous about how well I will do with purée on Tueaday! People at work will know about the surgery now because I posted that post about it on Facebook and enough of them are on it that it will already be general knowledge. I hope nobody asks too many stupid questions. I also hope I'm not flat out exhausted by tomorrow afternoon! One thing I am looking forward to with moving out of the liquid phase is finishing a meal in less than an hour! I'm supposed to take 30 minutes when I start purée and cut it down to 20 minutes by the soft food phase.

I start the purée stage this week, and I have prepared and frozen two weeks worth of meals so it will be easy for me, since I start back to work tomorrow too. I used MyFitnessPal to assess the nutritional values for each recipe. My plan is to use these recipes plus porridge, yogurt, and puréed fruit to get me through it. They all have the sign-off of my dietitian, but may or may not be on your plan. I tasted the smallest amount of each one so I can say that in my opinion, they all taste good and offer some variety. I shared the recipes, including how to purée chicken, to the Recipe Sharing section of the food and Nutrition forum. I hope it is helpful!

People do fail to get to a healthy BMI with VSG sometimes, especially if they start with a very high BMI. I know you are only speaking for yourself here, but it doesnt necessarily follow that someone has an eating disorder because they have had regain or not gotten to their goal. Maybe so, but maybe not.

1 can or 2 cups pumpkin, butternut squash, or other winter squash 1 large container or 2 cups ricotta 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp allspice 1/4 tsp cloves 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 tsp Benefiber (2 serves) Purée until smooth. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups and put 1/2 cup mixture into each. Freeze for three hours or so, then remove from the muffin tin (you may need to use a plastic knife to help), peel,off the paper, and put into zip loc bags. Serves: 12 Cals: 74 Protein: 3.6 Fat: 4.3 Sugars: 1.5 Fiber: 1.3

2 cans tuna 1 cup cream sauce (see below) 1 can peas 1/2 cup Pasta 4 tsp Benefiber (2 serves) Purée until smooth. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups and put 1/2 cup mixture into each. Freeze for three hours or so, then remove from the muffin tin (you may need to use a plastic knife to help), peel,off the paper, and put into zip loc bags. Nutrition info includes the cream sauce: Serves: 8 Calories: 126 Protein: 13 Fat: 3.9 Sugars: 2.4 Fiber: 1 Cream sauce: 1 tbsp butter (not margarine or oil) 1 tbsp flour 1 cup 2% milk 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice In a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in flour and cook until smooth and bubbly and just starting to go brown. Add the milk and whisk until dissolves. Turn up the heat and stir constantly, keeping it at just below a boil. Be careful or it will scorch. Just when it starts to thicken, remove from the heat and add the cheese. Continue stirring until the cheese is dissolved. Use the sauce pretty quickly. Makes 1 cup.

I am not pushing the OP to decide one way or the other but I just want to make sure that they have the info they need about the DS. Please do your research. And let's not propagate medical fear-mongering. "The longitudinal gastrectomy with duodenal switch is a safe and effective primary procedure for the treatment of morbid obesity. It has the advantage of allowing acceptable alimentation with a minimum of side effects while producing and maintaining significant weight loss. These results are achieved without developing significant dietary restrictions or clinical metabolic or nutritional complications." (From the conclusion of the following study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360120/)

DS is actually not any more drastic than RNY and is favored by more and more surgeons over RNY for extreme obesity now. I posted a link about this a few weeks ago in the Research forum. Please don't scare the OP with prejudice in the same way that people discouraged many of us pre-VSG. OP, talk to your surgical team. Go back and own up and get a plan to go forward. Whether it is a revision or working closely with a dietitian, you can do it. I am proud of you for deciding to take charge of your situation! Edit: here is the link. http://m.obesityhelp.com/articles/choice-of-bariatric-procedure-a-philosophy-obtained-in-20-years-of-bariatric-practice-2/ That article also talks about a DS technique that lets you keep the pyloric valve.

Go for a walk Go shopping for smaller clothes Give yourself a facial, manicure, or pedicure Get a massage Dance to music Call a friend Make a list of all your NSVs Make a list of 20 things you are grateful for

I would love to have the option to pay a monthly or yearly subscription to get an ad-free version of the site. I absolutely will never click on ads so you're not getting any ad revenue from me anyway, and it really slows down the site and hurts user experience. I understand that you need to make money, but I think you might find that you actually make more money this way. Also, as feedback on the ads, I quite often see diet ads here! That doesn't really seem appropriate at all. Especially dodgy fad ones.

This happened to a friend of mine because of b12 deficiency. She is about 4 weeks post-op. she has to get b12 injections now and it stopped after just one.

The broth will feel so good and you really need the salt. I'm still having at least one cup of it a day. I put habanero sauce in mine. I don't know if you are quite ready for that though. Spicy sharts might not be what the doctor ordered. Oh and Johnlatte thinks the word broth should be banned!

Absolutely. I read 6-7 books about it, read all kinds of scientific studies, read everything I could find here and in ObesityHelp. Thankfully I only had two months to obsess. Now that I have had the surgery it is almost an anticlimax! I know I will stalk at 3 weeks for instance. I don't expect any surprises for at least the first couple months. I feel really prepared and I think it has helped my recovery to be so smooth.

Whew I am worn out! I've been cooking for two hours! I puréed the chicken (worked fine, using the link I posted before) but didn't make anything with it yet. I made a "tuna casserole" purée and a pumpkin ricotta purée with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. I'm freezing single servings in a muffin tin. It turns out a muffin tin holds about 1/2 cup! Tomorrow I am going to make a chicken vegetable purée and a chicken taco purée. I can post the recipes if anyone is interested but I haven't really tasted them yet, just licked a bit off my finger. I'm too scared to have a real taste since I don't move on to purée until Tuesday.

I'm almost two weeks post-op. Until the last couple days, I haven't felt restriction. I expected this because I heard a lot of people say you don't feel it while on liquids. I was actually drinking too fast and had to slow down even though I did not feel like I was overdoing it. Well yesterday and today I have felt restriction. It is taking me an hour to finish a shake whereas a few days ago I was doing it in 40 minutes or less. My theory is that it has more to do with the nerves in the stomach starting to heal, than being on liquids versus solids. What do you think? I am actually relieved I am starting to feel it because its hard to slow down when it doesn't feel like you need to.