Holly5.3

Halloween morning; 237 (-18.5 lbs since surgery on 10/11/12 and 41 total since 8/15/12, started Pre-op diet) Now to work on New Year's Challenge! 

Thanks so much! I'm sure I'll be more creative once I get a few tested and approved recipes under my belt. It's a challenge, but I'm trying to have fun with it!

I just made this dish with one ingredient switched out. Instead of marinara, I used pureed canned zucchini w/tomato, just to add some veggie. Very cheesy and tasty! Only on day 2 of puree, so I was looking for something light and Italian, since family was having pizza. Could only eat about 3 teaspoons-very satisfying. I only wish it was a little thicker, maybe pureed veggies added too much moisture. Still tasted like stuffed shells/eggplant parm.! (idea: Maybe use as a stuffing for portabello mushrooms when on normal food phase.)

I dont know. I could never really eat a lot, it's more what I ate. Certain foods were starting to bother me so I avoided them for about the past 10 months, like pizza. I love it, it hates me! But I certainly made up for lost calories by filling up on bread. I could live on toast and butter! I hope to stay far, far away from bread until I make my goal. Easier said than done, I'm sure!

Thanks, Iggy. My surgeon also said it's very elastic, like a nylon sock. When they remove the portion of it, it's empty and deflated so they can pull it out. But it stretches (and stretches) to accommodate food and over-eating. Very interesting!

I hope I didn't offend anyone with term eating disorder. For me, not eating appropriate food, eating too much or too little= dis. order. I'm not eating orderly, so I'm "dissing" the orders (based on sound nutrition for a lean and healthy body). a 5'5" woman weighing 278 pounds, who should weigh 138, does not follow "orders", she follows her addiction to fat, carbs, and sugar. Maybe its because I'm an "older middle-aged" woman and have gone through every program imaginable since I was 16 and finally realize it wasnt the diet that failed me, it was me failing me.

Thanks, Jill! We lost power for only 24 hours, mist of my town is still without! I was supposed to return to work Monday but school's been closed since then. I am so relieved to NOT be at work on Halloween -candy, cupcakes and treats streaming into main office all day for classroom parties. I had my egg, poached on a Coleman cooking stove-heaven! Dinner wasn't as successful, today's another day! One day at a time, for sure!

I wouldn't until your nut/dr. instructs you to. Puree stage didn't start for me until day 19 post-op, yesterday and it was harder than I thought. A poached egg with a sprinkle of cheese was like an entire diner breakfast! (love that!) but I tried to eat a slice of roast beef about the size of a dime-chew, chew, chew. Delicious, but I got scared so stopped (pureed meat is gross, thought I could chew long enough to get it to that consistency-afraid I wasn't chewing well enough before swallowing!) Second try, some Peanut Butter. Again, it felt wierd in tummy, away with te OB! Third try...ricotta cheese with black pepper - 2 tsps. and I was stuffed. So much for my first pureed dinner! A tiny bite of roast beef, about 2 tsps. peanut butter and ricotta cheese! Don't be in a rush to get here, it's still not easy (like anything worth having is?)! Good luck!

 Happy Birthday! Isn't it wonderful that your new life has begun! I'll bet you are in a better place this birthday than last year! God bless snd have a beautiful day (and year!).

My surgeon gave me a little photo album of pictures taken during the surgery. I couldn't look at them close up for a while, too gory for me! My stomach looked huge but they didn't have pictures after it was cut or stapled, but there are photos of the hernia repair, which looked like a crazy person went wild in there with black thread! (I told him my Grandmother was a seamstress for Bergdof-Goodman and is rolling in her grave with that kind of sewing going on!-lol!) I wish I could see a before and after sonogram or something to see difference in size after surgery. I bet mine was big, but I suffered from gastritis for so long I'm hoping that will be forever gone with my stomach!

Thanks for B/A pix-you are try a new woman! You are an inspiration to us newbies! Congrats! Keep up the great work!!

Sending prayers and positive energy for healing today, sweetie!

They can freeze dry peanuts to make low (or is it no) fat peanut butter, but they still can't make frozen meals low sodium and reduce the preservatives and additives! When I did Jenny Craig a couple years ago, after getting tired of the cost of the food, tried to find comparable meals to replace Jenny's. No luck! Everything was higher in sodium, sugars, fats and carbs! JC's food is manufactured by Nestle-you would think by now Nestle would have produced frozen meals for mainstream unless Jenny Craig won't let them! I did enjoy the portion control and many of the meals were very delicious,but a year and thousands of dollars (spent approx. $75-$100/week X 52 weeks!) later, I just couldn't lose any weight. Lost about 70 lbs. gained 77 back in a year! (ouch!) now I've re-lost 40 since Pre-op diet, 30 more to be at my Jenny weight (I felt terrific though!) hoping to get there by end of January (or, dare I say, sooner!).

Hi Toni, I know your post is old, but I'm reaching out to fellow sleevers from Dr. Ahmad, Mather Hospital. DOS 10/11/12. How are you doing?

I was sleeved on10/11/12 at Mather Hospital, Port Jefferson, long Island by dr. Ahmad.

I just started my vitamins yesterday (nut. has us start back when on puree). I bought chewable calcium w/ vit. D and multi-vit., also chewable, from Unjury. They're made specifically for sleevers. Problem is one serving of calcium is 4 tablets. I put the 5 chewables and my vit. B sublingual in a liitle bowl to eat during the day as a snack-jeeesh! My times have changed! I wish there was one tablet to do it all, chewables are a tease!

I'm glad you asked this question! I'm 3 weeks post op tomorrow and yesterday I just had to have a small cup of coffee with French Vanilla Creamer-we had no electric and I have a house full of relatives evacuated from their home due to hurricane! First, like everything else since surgery, it didn't taste 'right' and second, I could feel the caffein working almost immediately so I stopped drinking. I had 1/4 cup at most. I was afraid it would upset my little baby tummy, it didn't then, but I don't feel great this morning--almost feel hung over- weird!

Center Moriches, Long Island, NY.

I'm almost 3 weeks post-op and I'm keeping cals. around 600. I figured best to keep things tight and minimal with the Holiday Season fast approaching!

Wow, solid food so soon? Even though it was a small amount, your stomach is still healing. Are you getting enough protein and water? I'm just starting puree today and I tried to eat peanut butter, a bite of thinly sliced roast beef and it was too much. I had about a tsp. of the PB and about the size of a quarter of the beef and could tell my tummy didn't like either. Ricotta cheese with black pepper did the trick. I've noticed that when I have a shake (so sick of them!), I am satisfied for a long time. Maybe resign yourself to having a shake during your most hungry time. Keep your eyes on the prize-you're doing this to get your body back, not to satisfy food cravings...believe me, I tell myself this all the time!

Fantastic! Such an accomplishment! My dream would be to be able to run even a 1/2 mile! Thanks for inspiration-keep up the great work!