gamergirl

we were told any time past 14 days.

I can't wait to eat either! In the meantime I am thinking of recipes and feeding others. Bad joke but if you have what I call "guy humor" which I do, you will appreciate this (additional thread hijack) joke. Comedian said that when it gets late at night at the bar, and he's drunk, he's got two choices. Go home with the fat lady, or try to drive drunk and go to jail. He always picks the fat lady, because he knows that at least at her house, the food is good That's us. The food is good at our house because my husband and I both love to cook and feed people. (Not trying to offend anyone, so please keep a sense of humor and don't flame me!)

are you still on pain pills? they can create dry mouth too.

I didn't do it because I wanted to get into the right habits. But I will tell you, a really good reason to not do it, is just that much more weight to lose after which can get discouraging. I'm only a week post op but I already wish I'd managed to lose more before the surgery so if get to goal faster. From all I read on the forum I kept telling myself that it wasn't that I was never going to be able to eat those things, just not for a while, and just not as much. No free rides here. What we do now, we pay for later unfortunately.

Wow, amazing progress! Congrats.

R is now walking 2 miles! He says he's been doing that since day 3 and I didn't even know. We're both pretty much back to normal except for the fact that we tire very easily. We will laze about today but the food images will not leave me alone. I want to BITE into something. Anything! I spend significant portions of time thinking about food, recipes, pinning, thinking of what I will cook when I can. And I realize it's really, really, good to have this time when I cannot, in fact, eat anything. All of us who complain about the liquid diet afterwards, it's our "break up with food" time. As with any breakup, you miss the loser, you love/hate him, but you're so glad you did it. Why did I think this would be any different? It's not. Note this. It's not any different than a breakup with a person you loved. We got all our liquids in, we got all the protein in, but we've gotten creative about recipes. We make unjury chicken with Ramen flavoring, with taco seasoning, and today, R makes his perfect spicy tortilla soup and we eat just the broth. It has adobo chilies in it and we love it! We're not having any trouble with spice which is a relief to us. R is struggling with a popsicle addiction. They're calling him. As soon we can do soups tomorrow, I will talk to him about throwing them out and getting his carbs via pureed veggies. We don't need to be back on sugar. Someone said they cheated on their pre-op and I wrote a very harsh post back saying if you can't stay on your diet pre-op, how do you think you will do it post-op when cheating could mean death? We're all so focused on getting through the pre-op that we don't realize post-op liquid is even LONGER for some of us. Make no mistake about it, the post-op diet is harder. You can't eat. You can't drink except in sips. It's weeks until you will feel normal. It's much harder. Buckle up.

I would say three things. Jump in calories. Good timing potentially? were about to lose anyway? But I do believe real food takes more energy to digest than Protein shakes. I don't know if its 5 lbs worth, in fact I'm pretty sure it's not, but real food requires more digestive effort.

It's those size 10 jeans isn't it?

So this won't happen with everybody but it happened with us. Two months of green smoothies, 1lb of raw veg daily, 1lb of cooked veg, 2-3 fruits, handful of nuts, 1c of beams. (Fuhrman diet?) don't even remember. No cheating. LOTS of food prep! All natural. Most raw. LOTS and LOTS of food prep, Couldn't eat out. Felt great. Had more energy. Went it to say nani-nani boo boo to doc who swore the only way to get healthy was to eat meat. Just to show her a diff way to get healthy. Net result for both my husband and me? TWENTY point increase in blood sugar. So yeah, be careful. If you are insulin resistant or carb sensitive, or prone to diabetes, not do much with the healthy sounding smoothies.

Jeanie, I don't think we did either on day 3, but it got easier with every day. Hang in there.

I'm not surprised at the math and music combo. I'm sure you've read all there is on the best music being able to be broken down into mathematical progressions, chopin-listening in infants enhancing mathematical abilities, etc. I promise I will be amongst the first buyers of your game (unless it's like, $500 or something.) BUT to get your own thread back to normal, here's another recipe I'd like to suggest. Brown rice Ground beef Mixed, non-starchy vegetables Fresh garlic and ginger if i want for health reasons Always turmeric to reduce inflammation 1-2 tsps Salt chicken broth (2 c's broth for 1 c brown rice if making in a rice cooker/pressure cooker). This is my basic recipe and then I doctor it up with taco seasoning, indian biryani seasoning, whatever is around seasoning. I cook in a pressure cooker/rice cooker/crockpot combo a lot, (http://www.amazon.com/Fagor-670040230-Stainless-Steel-6-Quart-Multi-Cooker/dp/B001A62O1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376242387&sr=8-1&keywords=fagor+multicooker) and this could be done at rice setting or pressure cooker setting for 6 minutes. Advantage of pressure cooker is lazy person like me doesn't even bother browning the meat first.

I love playing video/computer games I used to be statgamer on several other sites because I am a statistician/scientist by trade but we also play a LOT of computer games at my house. What can I say, we're geeks and nerds and okay with it.

I used to make this every weekend for the week for us. It's old-fashioned oatmeal (not quick cooking, not steel-cut, but in between for level of processing), with greek yogurt and fruit. High in Protein, complex carbs and no cook. Woo hoo! Basic recipe at our house for each serving was is 1/2 c oatmeal, 1/2 c greek yogurt, 1/2 c of soy/almond/regular Milk, honey or stevia to taste, 1/4 c either blueberries, or raspberries. Don't use bananas which brown. Multiply times days you want to have this. Mix together in a bowl, put into 2 c mason jars so it can expand. The oats soak up all the yogurt and liquid. Leave in refrigerator at least overnight. Does well up to 5 days for sure. Enjoy! My 13-year old was in charge of making it, so talk about easy. This link shows you other ways to make it for flavors: http://www.theyummylife.com/Refrigerator_Oatmeal

Just bought him one. If this helps him, I will send you a long distance hug and kiss of gratitude. it's so hard to see your kids in pain.

We make soup today! Shrimp Bisque and Chicken & Mushroom, both pureed. I don't know how to shop or cook for small meals. I barely have pots in the house small enough for our new meals. I take out the cauliflower I bought. I picked the smallest one at the market. The WLS Surgery recipe calls for 1 cup for four people. That's about a fourth of the entire dang cauliflower. What am I supposed to do with the rest? The chicken soup recipe calls for 1/2 lb of chicken. I have no idea what size pot I need to cook that little chicken. I've been cooking for a family since I was 14, and here I am at 47, I can't guesstimate the right pot size for so little food. I've been telling R he will have to stop going to Costco but I don't think he quite believed me until he saw the proportions of food we're cooking. Forget Costco, I think I may need to start buy veggies at the Salad bar instead of at the grocery! And after all that? I eat 2 oz and R can get in 4 oz of the soup before we're too full for more! Friends want to come visit to check on us. We start to clean the house and to cook something for them. After several hours of whirl winding around, we are SO tired that my tummy hurts. R is cranky and over-sensitive and has to go lie down after he loses it with the kids and me over nothing. The hormone thing is doing a whammy on him for sure. We give him hugs and reassure him we still love him, and then sit down to eat as a family. I decide we will have to let our friends know we are not up for company yet. We're really, really not. At all. We may not hurt, but we tire easily and then we get cranky. Need to tread slowly still. R and I go to lie down in our bed at 1 pm. The kids follow as does the dog. We spend the rest of the day hanging about together, all of us on our computers, chatting occasionally, resting, reading, and playing with the dog. From time to time, I get up to make food/snacks for the kids, and R gets up to make our soups. THIS is how you recover on a Saturday after surgery my friends. Soul-food time, with no food, just love to feed your soul. And a little soup maybe.

My son has been suffering from back issues for months now so I trotted off to Amazon to look at this. I suspect this works through endorphin release, no? Everyone complains of the pain for the first few minutes and then that warm, relaxing feeling which should signal endorphins. So I suspect no matter what part of your body you use it on, you should feel generalized pain-relief. Hmm.. I wonder if it will work for him? Thanks so much for posting!

The recipe as promised. Bon Appetit! and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/90479-post-op-softpureed-foods-palak-paneer-spinach-with-protein/

I think my husband found it at CVS but you can get them anywhere including grocey stores. This is what you're looking for: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_4?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=32%20oz%20water%20bottle&sprefix=32+o%2Caps%2C267

It's an Indian Dish called Palak Paneer. I like it because it's yummy and I think for those of us tired of eating Protein shakes, a food-based way to get some protein in our tummies.

Many, many of the issues they mention here are related to RNY and bands, not VSG. By treating those all in one bucket, it's a huge disservice. Also forgive me but this is REALLY bad journalism. Correlation is passed off as causality, and no percentages are ever stated and its so badly done that really, you should do your own research. Here's my suggestion. Take each of the side effects they detail and look up the incidence of that side effect with VSG, and then decide. You will find things like malnutrition, dumping, etc do not happen with VSG. As to the suicide rate, look up suicide rates amongst the obese as compared to normal weights first. I'm quite sure it's higher, with or without surgery. When they say 20% complications, is dehydration because patients didn't follow drinking directions a complication? Funny, no definitions provided. Aargh I will stop ranting. I am trained as a scientist and I deal with statistics daily, and that is a classic case of scare-mongering while failing to provide sufficient evidence. Okay I'm off to take a deep cleansing breath now

Wow! Amazing difference! Congratulations.