gamergirl

Um..hello NUT? Has she ever made yogurt from scratch? It's MILK along with 1 tsp of yogurt cultures! What the heck? Actually there is a lot of research for the use of yogurt and other fermented foods in helping to repopulate the gut with friendly bacteria. When our stomachs got cut away, we lost a lot of the friendly flora in our gut. Considering 85%+ of our immune system is supposed to be in our gut, yogurt is the best thing we could do. Since ancient times, people have eaten fermented foods to aid in digestion, hence pickles, kimchee, etc. ( I sound like the History Channel I know, I just heard Morgan Freeman's voice reading you that line). Anyhow, back to the topic, i feel confident in saying that I personally would question that piece of advice and ask that it be accompanied by logic. Now if you're eating it with a lot of sugar or artificial sweetner I could understand that but as plain low fat? I don't get it.

is it wrong that I laughed when I read this post? It's actually pretty awesome and I can relate. I used to refer to myself as that "geeky, overweight Indian chick" when I was gently poking fun at myself. Three out of those four are still true but my catch phrase my need some word smithing.

I remember dreaming of food my first week out. Like, I literally would miss what my husband was saying to me because I was dreaming of grilled cheese sandwiches. How embarrassing right? Here's what I suggest, distract yourself. Take a bath, give yourself a pedicure, listen to some music, sleep a lot, and just know it will pass. I am 5 months out (today! yay!) and I only vaguely remember those days. It gets better really quickly. Perhaps you could also look in the recipe section and see what people were drinking at your stage? If you are at full liquids you can do high Protein Soups, pureed in the blender etc. But yes I think what you're going through is normal, so hang in there.

Oh yes! get ready soon it will be followed by the weepies. Emotional lability is a hallmark of the recovery for some reason. Anger, happiness, bitterness, sadness...all make their appearance on the stage. Tell your loved ones to take cover, recognize this is temporary and watch carefully what you say to folks to minimize the "damage". I think a lot has to do with just physical recovery. Exhaustion makes one cranky as does pain. Additionally, when your body releases fat, estrogen stored in it floods your system. And then add to it that perhaps your fav way of comforting yourself just went away too and we're just totally off kilter. The good news? You're just like everyone else! Which means, you too will lose weight just like everyone else! See, always a silver lining.

That sounds delish! how did you get the basil to not pour out?I chopped up some mint ribbons to add in, and they come straight out of my low-tech jar. My husband suggested using a cheesecloth bag but I don't like the idea of cloth in my jar

i'm hitting the tea pretty hard too! Teavana has way too much of my money lately. Call me a slow learner but I wonder why it took me 5 months post sleeve to learn this? Just realized, I am indeed 5 months post sleeve today! woo hoo!

wow! Great ideas! I especially like the raspberry and cardamom idea. thank you!

I loved your whole list and btw, I agree, your wig ROCKS! But I wanted to talk about the carb addiction thing. What we're discovering is that my husband replaced his real sugar addiction with a fake sugar addiction. Popsicles, sugar free pudding, sugar free shakes...and his weight loss stalled. In fact, he's put on 2 lbs in the last week which is highly unusual for him. I suggested he go cold turkey and he's trying that today. So just be careful with substituting fake sugar and thinking you're better off. We learned this lesson the hard way. May not be an issue for you, but thought I'd share just in case.

Were there any huge surprises beyond what we already know about carbs, insulin, fat retention?

The perfect kind! I also feel a lot better when I eat fewer carbs. Less hunger, less bloated, and more energy. It's hard to argue against all that isn't it?

Ah I had forgotten about hopelessness. I hate to think like that, but you are correct, I had feelings of utter helplessness and hopelessness that I would ever overcome my weight struggles.

31 lbs in two weeks is amazing! Congrats!

Indian style ground beef (kheema mutter) with zucchini noodles tonight. We also had cabbage stir fried with fennel and sesame seeds.

Yes. It tastes wonderful with banana, pistachio, butterscotch and it tastes sooo chocolately with chocolate pudding. The only one where I could taste the Protein powder a little bit was through the lemon pudding, but even that was good. So just pick your fav flavor and have at it!

We tried this and love love love it. Great recipe!

Love your post!

This thread actually inspired me to go cut up an orange and a lemon and fill a pitcher with Water to infuse it with the citrus and no sugar. When all else fails, the strong start cooking their own healthy versions. See what your thread did Sheila? thank you

I tell you what. Every day after the surgery gets soooo much better, you'll be surprised. One day I was only able to drink 14 oz of Water, the very next day I could drink twice that. You'll be astonished how quickly you'll feel better so just know that what you feel today is NOT what you will feel a week from now. As others have said just keep sipping, worry less about Protein than water, and just accept that you had MAJOR surgery. It's okay to feel like a truck just ran over you. Rest, sleep, pamper yourself, take long baths if you can, watch tv, distract yourself, drink things that taste/feel good to you--just don't eat. Too dangerous for your poor new tummy. And also if you call your doc, they might prescribe something for the nausea, if the antacid mentioned above doesn't cut it.

wow! That is great news E! I am so excited for you guys. I sure hope the adoption goes through for you. Great news.

All I heard was that you just gave me permission to eat white bread. Everything else just went la la la after that. Yes!!! j/k j/k...it's actually a very good idea. I suspect in the quantities we eat these foods it can't be that bad for us. I suppose if we were making dessert, it might be worth using the lowest GI foods for sure though

Surgery 8/2 of this past year. My husband lost 77 lbs, I lost 57 pounds so between us, we've lightened the load on this earth by 134 lbs. Which btw, is more than our 13-year old son weighs. It is also more than a newborn baby giraffe weighs, in case you were wondering

geez louise. All I want is a little something in my Water that won't kill me or make me fat! It shouldn't be so hard! okay I'm done whining. I will go look up liquid Stevia drops. Thanks guys

My resolutions are to have this be the last year where weight loss can and should show up on my resolutions. Ribearty I loved that idea of yours. Also I want to get some balance back in my life. I want to be at a point where I'm not obsessing about trackjng, monitoring, worrying, focusing on weight weight weight. I want all this to become more of a habit, and less of a chore. I want to not spend hours a day wondering how to balance my Protein, fat, and carbs etc. I want, in other words, to stop overthinking this and just live. Yes I am type A. Why do you ask? I want to find an exercise I like and make a priority out of it And I want to keep thinking about this a bit more Thanks for starting this thread!

No I. Don't think it does. A drop in Greek yogurt shouldn't really be an issue. I think for those of us like my husband who are sweetening everything they drink and half of what they eat...well, whole different ball game