MissMac

Pain is a good teacher. As I worked my way through the various food stages, there were times when Miss Tummy objected strongly. She made sure that I was miserable for hours. This is how you learn to listen to your new stomach. It is now the boss of you.

I have been on this forum sine August of 2013. I have around 4,000 posts, but for the second time, the site has wiped me out. The last post I made today counted as #62. Geeze Louize

I mean 85% gone.

I agree most with comment #34. What I want to add is that the further out I get from my surgery date (12/23/2013), the more I am able of ramp up the physical activity in spite of orthopedic limitations. What I have discovered is that on days that I start out with strength training or boxing, I can eat more and tend to "front-load" early in the day and then slack off eating towards evening with no carbs and a very light dinner. Like yesterday for example, I had a one hour boxing workout interspersed with laps around the back yard, push-ups and squats. To me my post-workout lunch is the most important meal of the day. I had tacos without the tortilla, but included homemade guacamole. To get in the nutrition I need on those days, I do graze because I just can't get it all in at once, and a usual small meal is not going to give me enough recovery to push through the afternoon awake and alert...... but it is with Protein, Water, protein, water, protein, water. As for bread and starchy carbs, I still proceed with caution. They sit on my stomach like lead and make me very uncomfortable. I make my own pizza with a cauliflower crust. If I have Pasta at all, it is with chickpea pasta full of protein - and no more than once a week. I only have a couple of baked potatoes all month. Mostly my veggies are green veggies or tomatoes. If I have carbs, it is usually with Breakfast like an egg/banana pancake, or a green smoothie with 1/2 banana in it. Your grown man 85% stomach is by nature going to be bigger than my old lady 85% stomach. Just be careful about grazing dawn to dark or consuming starchy stuff on a regular basis. If you must eat more frequently to keep up your energy, then chicken breast is better than grapes. Grazing mindlessly will catch up with you. It just works better for me to plan my day so that I have a reasonable balance between calories in and calories out. As for the forum, keep in mind that opinions and tact will vary, but yes, we do mean well.

This works for me for hard-boiled eggs: I put my eggs in the pot with a teaspoon of salt and cover them with hot Water from the tap. I cover it and bring it to a rolling boil for a couple of minutes. I turn the heat off and leave it covered. I let it sit for at twenty minutes +-, and then exchange the hot water for cold water to stop the eggs from cooking any further. To crack them, I tap both ends of the egg and then roll it against the inside of the pan to break up the rest of the shell. I will peel them under the water in the pot, or under running cold water. It is the same concept as comment #10 where you are effectively creating shell shock to separate the membrane from the egg. Because of the salt, the shell should separate in large pieces and not stubborn little bits. If the eggs get cold before they are shelled, I put them in a bowl of very hot or boiled water to create the same process of shell shock. Sometimes if I want a warm boiled egg and not a cold one, I plunge it into hot water for a few minutes before I eat it. If you want to scoop out the middle for deviled eggs, let the peeled whole egg cool down first. It will be much easier to cut and scoop.

Here are 1,326 reasons why the rest of us put fears aside and just went ahead and did it: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/219831-what-was-your-final-straw-that-broke-the-camels-back/?hl=%20final%20%20straw

Take whatever meat the rest of the group is having and put it on a stick with cut up veggies. Aldi's has individual cans of tuna salad and ham salad which do not need to be refrigerated until you open them. You can roast veggies wrapped in foil with a little olive oil or butter. I would not usually recommend hot dogs or bratwurst, but if it was a once a year camping thing, I would eat a bratwurst with some mustard and diced onion.

At 2 1/2 years, I am maintaining at 1,000 calories. That is because of orthopedic issues that hinder increasing my exercise load. I am sure that if I could be more active, I could settle in at 1400-1500 and be fine with it. One thing I realized is that the human body does not need near as much food to survive and I thought it did.

My post-op crying jag was about feeling like a real failure to have to remove most of my stomach to lose weight. By the time I lost the first 50 pounds, I was over it. I have never given up pizza. I just don't order it anymore. We make it here with the cauliflower crust. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/232930/cauliflower-pizza-crust/ That way I can totally control the ingredients. Just had some over the weekend loaded with veggies and a bit of cheese. I found that what I missed the most from take-out food was the sugar, salt, and grease. I had to learn what real food tastes like. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/232930/cauliflower-pizza-crust/

At my one month follow-up I was approved for regular cooked foods as tolerated. There is a Wendy's next door to the bariatric clinic, so I stopped there for lunch. A small chili with cheese lasted me four days.

At 2 1/2 years I still get hiccups after I eat. Sometimes instead, I will sneeze six times. Every once in a while Miss Tummy still sounds like a dinosaur fight.

My first one was at three weeks. Stalls are like lovers. Your first will probably not be your last.

One of the hardest adjustments for me was not cleaning my plate even if I was full and not eating leftovers to avoid throwing them out. I had to learn to throw bits of food away or tape it to my hips.

I am not sure what all that meant, but it sounds like you have decided to get bariatric surgery. In that case, congratulations. A year from now, you will be well on your way to better health and a more satisfying quality of life.

While you are working this out, you can incorporate some concepts that most of our pre-op plans require anyway: 1. Eat lean Protein first and plenty of it. 2. Do not eat anything made in a factory 3. Drink Water until your eyebrows float. 4. Do not become part of the sofa.

My sleeve was my 12th surgery under general anesthesia. It was the least painful and had the quickest recovery. My concern with complications was, "where will I be in five years if I don't get the surgery.?" The answer was dead. So, for me it was worth the risk.......my quality of life sucked anyway - now it is like a new life in a new body.

When I had a stroke. Here is what 1,325 of your bariatric brothers and sisters said: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/219831-what-was-your-final-straw-that-broke-the-camels-back/?hl=%20final%20%20straw

Thank goodness you are a woman fully grown and can make your own healthcare decisions. Go ahead and do what you have to do. Once you have the surgery and are on your way to better health and an improved quality of life, they can gripe all they want but they can't undo your surgery.

My mean ol' rotten ex-husband's mother was from the Netherlands (near enough to France) and they called cottage cheese "Schmierkase" pronounced "Schmear Case".

At two weeks out, I was indeed on purees, but just a couple of days from starting soft foods. I was tired a lot and did not have much energy. I could eat 1/3 cup of food and not much more. The only pain I had left was just inside my biggest scar if I moved the wrong way or picked up something. I still was only sipping small amounts, but frequently. You will probably feel good enough to be pleasant, but don't be playing Frisbee or softball. Have a good time.

Keep in mind that you will probably be on a liquid diet up to two weeks prior to surgery. Then when you get home, you will be on liquids, then purees, then soft foods, and then maybe at four to six weeks you might start regular foods as tolerated. That's at least month on liquids before starting food. Another reason people are weak and sapped of energy is also because when you do start eating, it will be less than 1/2 cup per meal. It will take you many weeks to get to where you can drink enough Water at one time to actually quench your thirst. I was already retired when got sleeved, but had I been working I would have been wise to take four weeks off. A desk job will be easier to come back in to than a construction worker. If you can get the time off, take it.

One of my favorite quotes is fro Benjamin Franklin. "To whom thy secrets thou doest tell, to him thy freedom thou doest sell."

Just a caveat on the essential oils. Fennel smells like black licorice, and so will your skin.

I waited until three months to eat anything with hard bits. I have in my fridge a mix of flax seed , wheat germ, chia seeds, and crushed walnuts that I put in as many recipes as I can.

I am getting there. I recently watched Forks Over Knives, and came away disgusted. My grandpa was a farmer, and even though I knew that our meat and dairy does not really come from family subsistence farms anymore, I had my head in the sand about the brutality it takes to get meat and eggs to the table. My goal is to get to where I don't eat (or wear) anything that comes from a creature with a mother and a face. This is a total upheaval of the way I have eaten all my life and seems to be bariatric heresy. But I am learning about plant based Proteins and how to get my Protein requirements from those. My new diet includes more Beans, spinach, and nuts. The next step will be to experiment with tofu, that thing which I hate. There must be some creative tasty ways to make it taste like something. I had never peeked in on the vegan/vegetarian forum, but I think it's time.