Globetrotter

I forgot to mention that I am supposed to get 600 calories a day and usually barely top 400.

Wow, listen to that sentence. Deconstruct it. That is one self-abusive sentence! You're the one with the problem? Like you're a horrible person? Yeah we make choices in our lives but the majority of severely overweight people are battling genetics and a wide list of things almost completely out of their control. This surgery is how we take control and we are brave and strong for doing so. You can't get rid of the junk food because you have kids? I'm sorry and please everyone don't flame me for this, but I totally disagree. We inform our childrens decisions on food, we are supposed to show them the way. Leaving those snacks in the house for them is not doing them any favors. Yes they may complain or tantrum, but they are the children, we are the adults, we lead them. There are super delish yummy brightly colored snacks out there that are also healthy. This is an opportunity at health-overhaul for the entire family.

Knitting is seriously the way to go, during my 3 weeks of healing/vacation after the surgery I picked up knitting again and made a baby blanket for a friend that is expecting. It was wonderfully zen, the movement and click of the needles, seeing my work grow in front of me, getting into that zone of "just one more row" instead of "just one more cookie". =) Plus it gave a rhythm to my sips, every two rows I would take a mouthful and swallow it slowly over the course of the following row. Maybe I'll post pics of the baby blanket here before I give it to her, "blankey- brought to you by VSG". =)

Thank you everybody for your words of encouragement, I really needed them! Oddly enough, scale obsession doesn't play a part in any of this - I do not own a scale and will not weigh myself until my one month out date, Aug. 14th. I will use a scale at the medic's station. I will use this experience to gain patience and understanding, thank you guys for letting me know I am not alone, am not the lonely heavyweight of the forum, and that movement will happen!!!!

I know I know, I would totally have done this in my early 20's or even late teens as a preventative measure if I could have, I'm not putting down lightweights, It's that I was feeling lonely. Thank you though to everyone, I know now that I am not the only heavyweight left on the forum, though I am one of the short ones (5'3")!

Where I am I still need a scrip to get the Miralax so I guess I will be stuck using the MoM which just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. But I am only going once every 3 days and it is a struggle even then.

I think a stall implies that you have lost weight and have stopped losing weight for awhile. I haven't lost any weight yet. It is my opinion that the 20 pounds my doctor's scale claimed I had lost at my 2 week check up was really just fluids etc from the surgery itself.

Because you said 21 grams of protein for 6 servings, which equals out to 3.5 grams per serving. Or did you mean, 6 servings, 21 grams of protein each? If that's the case than this dish rocks.

I'm glad that so many folks here are positive upbeat cheerleaders and I hope to very soon be one of them! Right now though I am a month out and haven't really lost any weight and am facing fears of "what have I done to myself, is this really going to work?" I know at a logical level that it will and that I need to practice patience and use this time to listen to my body but I also want to be truthful and it is not so much that I regret my decision, I am just in a place right now where I wonder if I will end up regretting it.

Hi Surf, you mentioned having a "tiny bit" of ice cream and cookies and I believe you. However, as we all know, we are all battling not just the physical aspect but the psychological one. Is there a possibility that you may be indulging in these treats more than you realize? Do you measure the portion, eat full fat, have more than one serving more than once a week? I'm not trying to be critical, but for me personally ice cream is a trigger that's why it caught my eye in your post. If I were eating it I would probably be having a lot of it and trying to rationalize it. So like some of the others said, maybe logging your food for a week might show you a weak spot or something you are missing.

I would love to hear any feedback on this topic as well. I am 30 days out and am getting frustrated with the trifecta of calories, protein, and liquids. If I try to get most of my protein from food then I overshoot on calories and if I eat my protein rather than drink it, I don't come close to making quota on liquids due to the no drinking with or after food rule. It seems right now that the only way to acheive my guidelines is to drink 3 shakes a day and eat food only as a garnish. Frustrating.

Hey guys, I don't know why in my constellation of questions prior to surgery I never thought to ask this one but my Mom thought of it now that I'm moving on to soft solids. Since we are so protein-centric and since many if not most of us get that from animal sources, what is cholesterol like for sleevers? Pre-op O had fine "good" cholesterol and slightly high "bad" cholesterol. Do sleevers have a problem with cholesterol long term?

Someone early on in this thread had voiced their concern over having to make their tiny portion stretch out over the length of a meal and how could they do that. I'm a month out from surgery and for me it isn't a matter of "making" myself stretch it out, I have to! I can feel every particle of every bite go down my throat and into my stomach where, glunk! it thunks in there. One serving of greek yogurt takes 2 hours - 2 hours!- to finish. 2-3 ounces of tuna, an hour or more, because I have to pause after every mouthful. Whatever I eat I probably wait 5 minutes or so between every bite. Not on purpose, but because I have to otherwise I get the traffic jam in my chest.

Holy crap! I just went to that website and calculated my exposure - at my weight if I eat 6 ounces of tuna per WEEK, I'm considered at high exposure! Crap! I was counting on flaked tuna to be a go-to source of soft food protein! I was already going to keep my consumption low though because eating too much tuna gives me horrible horrible acne breakouts.

sounds delish but it's only about 3 grams of protein per serving. I try not to eat anything that has less than 10 grams. Maybe you could add an unflavored protein powder to up the grams?

Um, hey guys, it's been many days now, I would really appreciate it if somebody would respond to this post. It stands to reason that if we are consuming mostly protein that mostly comes from animal sources that we might be in line for cholesterol problems in the long term. Anybody? Bueller?

Mellifrits - you should check out a thread that has been running for some time now called VSG and dating, it is a great read and may answer several of your questions.

Hey guys, Globetrotter here, I'm finally back in my living space in Iraq. I've showered, slept, and oh yeah, been rushed to the combat hospital with dehydration after a 72 hour traveling ordeal. I sip sip sipped on Protein Water during the commercial flights, I nibbled on the scrambled egg, soft meat and cheeses offered during the flights. I was still doing good even when I flew military from Kuwait to Iraq. Things didn't go downhill till I got stuck in one spot in Iraq and the ac was out and I started to sweat more than I could hydrate. I faded pretty fast after that, I made it to my destination, barely. I was rushed from the airfield to the hospital where I received 3 bags of fluids, two of which were glucose. I'm on bedrest now and am sipping water and rtd Protein drinks. Right now I have to violate one of our commandments regarding the not eating and drinking, in order to get my hydration levels where they need to be and get in the nutrition I have to eat and drink, not simultaneously but I cannot observe the 15 min/30min rule for a day or two. So, after all this, what upsets me? The fact that after I was done at the hospital I weighed myself and am UP 10 pounds from when I was weighed at my surgeons over a week ago!:w00t: Feelin' pretty low right now.

Gosh Sunshine, thank you so much for posting that, I really needed the boost *gulp*. I took a few days in my room to rest, recuperate, & rehydrate and am now back at work. Still feel a little tired and weak but much better. I must give a shout out to the soldiers who helped me, they did not waste any time and gave me great care. When I had the surgery my surgeon prescribed an anti-anxiety pill which I thought was odd. Now, I'm so glad I have them, I am having all sorts of anxious sad thoughts and the real icing on the low-carb cake was the pair of pants that I had waiting for me that were a mere 2 sizes smaller than what I was wearing pre-op ... didn't fit. :sad0: I mean didn't fit, belly hanging out, couldn't even begin to get the zipper near itself, the button was a good two inches away from the button hole. I supposedly lost 20 lbs in the first 2 weeks, I thought this would have at least got me within spitting distance of the pants fitting ... so it's back to the enormous baggy elephant grey cargo pants, a real bummer. I won't weigh myself until the 14th, that's one month out from surgery. I'm making it on fluids, eating just under my calorie goal, and making my Protein quota. Haven't started exercising yet due to the fatigue so, we'll see. Plus, my boyfriend has redeployed to the states and not having him here within phone call distance hurts more than I anticipated. sigh.

Into my second week post-op, am still on protein shakes and broths but am also adding thicker smooth soups like tomato soup. What is the optimum carb count during this phase? I try to select the lowest carb soups possible but the are still present.

I'm three weeks out and am discovering that I have to participate in my full signal. What that means is, after some uncomfortable experiences I discovered that I don't "feel" full until 15 minutes after I've eaten and if I overeat I painfully discover that way too late. So now I stop eating completely after 3 bites of anything and if I am still interested in the food 10 minutes later I will have another bite. I just had tuna for the first time with some shredded cheese. All in all I managed to eat 6 forkfuls or about 4 ounces - 2 ounces for breakfast, 2 more for lunch! My full signals and hunger signals are messed up right now, hope they get better. Thank goodness for the rtd's or I wouldn't make my protein or liquids quota.

Thanks Jane for getting the joke.

Donna, when were you able to incorporate fruit? I am now 3 weeks out and am eating scrambled egg, tuna, very very moist steak, along with rtd protein drinks. I'm taking my vitamins but would really love to eat an orange or plum or some other soft fruit that is high in vitamins and enzymes. Now that I am back at work and cannot get those delicious blended soups my carb count is restricted to whatever may be in my rtd's which, right now, are EAS low carb so only 4 per serving. How do you make yourself eat when you're not hungry? I've taken in only 300 + - cals today, I have to get 600.

Ohmygod everyone, thank you THANK you for this thread! I feel like I stumbled upon my tribe of people who are all around 3 weeks to 5 weeks out from surgery and we are all in the same place! If you read a thread I just posted in My Story called "the ordeal" you will know the full extent of what I've just gone through. I seem to be stalling and I'm not getting in enough calories from soft food alone, I'm not getting in enough hydration IMO, my anxiety is high and my spirits low. All in all, not much fun! I don't know when I will have the energy to exercise, right now just going to the bathroom exhausts me and speaking of which, yes, major constipation. I'm afraid of taking MoM or something, afraid it will be too caustic for my new stomach. I felt like such an ace when the doctor told me I had lost 20 lbs in 12 days, now I feel loooow.

When I went for my check up with the surgeon last week he said that the only time he ever had a patient get a blood clot was when that patient, at 6 months out, flew to London (10 hr flight). I'm 3 weeks out and will be on a 19 hour flight 3 days from now. He said to get up and walk every hour and I said I would buy compression stockings but, I AM TOTALLY FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!! How will I tell if something is wrong? I know leg swelling is supposed to be a symptom but my ankles and feet have always gotten puffy when I fly. HELP!!