Fluffnomore

Wow! What a transformation!

I'm on full liquids and the new foods I've been allowed to add in are very much carb in nature. While overall a pound up or down doesn't seem like something to stress over, maybe you could make a concerted effort to eat really "clean" for the next few days and see how that goes. Tuna salad, well shredded chicken salad, that kind of thing?

So I'm going to be at 3 weeks post surgery, tomorrow. The first week was frankly kind of a blur because you're really just learning how to sip, the peculiarities of your sleeve, whether you like/can tolerate warm, hot, cold foods best, and what things taste like (if they've changed.) The second week is UGH broth and all that goes along with it. This past week as I've branched out into cream Soups, etc, is when I have learned the most. I have learned that I *can* eat more than 6 oz of Soup, but it is not comfortable, for example. And what I find happening now is that I'm stopping before I can get to that point. I'm giving myself permission to dish up only a tiny portion. I don't know why that is an adjustment, but it is. And as I do these things I am finding that there's not room left to cheat/go scavenging/sabotage. Now, part of it is that I promised myself I would not go outside my guidelines for recovery, period. Would it be easy to? I guess, because the world is spinning on without me at the center of it. But I'm treating my stomach like it was one of my babies during my pregnancies. Maybe even better than that. I'm thinking of it as defenseless during this time, and that really helps me make good decisions. Because ultimately, they're non-decisions. Your stomach is your baby, or your toddler. And I don't know about you, but when my pediatrician told me that my baby could have milk but no solid food, I did not give my baby a cheeto. Or just a sip of wine. I did not feel sorry for it; I knew that no good could come out of giving it something it was not ready for. What Cheri says above is absolutely true. But I'm trying to give you yet another way to look at it.

It can also be the name of your childhood pet plus the street you grew up on.

Yes, GG. I work on the production side of the arts and most of what I do is anticipate, plan for and solve problems. (Really.) One of my most used phrases is, "Okay, this is what we're going to do…" It is crazy to me that this approach hasn't worked on myself. Except isn't WLS a big freaking Plan B? There's no wiggle room in the early days. Here is what you are allowed to eat. Here is the amount you have to drink. And even as the new stuff starts creeping in now, I can see that it's all going to come down to anticipating, planning and corrective action. I'm extremely good at winging a lot of things, and I think that's what gets me in trouble in my own health. At the same time, I wouldn't dream of showing up to a production without putting as much work in beforehand as I could, and without thinking through all of the things that could go wrong and trying to anticipate minute details. Like, might I need a stapler at this venue? The littlest things can make a huge difference. So I completely empathize with people who I've seen stating that they want to be able to eat whatever they want, just less…but I think that for me the real lesson is going to be in learning how to plan my life out, at least my life in food. And you all can laugh at me in 6 months when I think people are too rigid. I'm just trying to change some deep-seated behaviors in myself here.

This is so great, thanks! I may put some Peanut Butter into a Protein shake or Cream of Wheat. Otherwise I need to wait for a couple of weeks too, but I will be so happy when I can shift things around. Thank you OWB! And if any of you vets have ideas for ways to increase the fat a bit in the full liquid phase, I'd love to hear it. I'm of course having cream Soups, but that's about as far as I've taken it.

Can you talk to your PCP? This doesn't sound good, or right.

Oh, you missed a whole lot of fun. But I'm glad you're back.

I am more like Caroline in terms of what I am able to eat almost 3 weeks out. I will say this: it seems like there is a slight adjustment every time I try something new. Nothing major, but I do wait a bit and see how it sits. My NUT says that when I move into mushies I should still progress by adding or subbing one thing a day until I'm sure it works. In other words, not to go nuts pureeing 3 or 4 new things the first couple of days. I don't know if I'm making sense...

I'm having a textbook recovery and great results. I was sleeved 10/24, one night in the hospital. Stopped taking painkillers the day I got home, and very minimal pain afterwards. I made a typical progression (tough to drink the first day, got increasingly easier the first week.) I'm almost 3 weeks out, down 26 pounds from my pre-op appointment weight (30 overall) and am about to start week two of full liquids, after which I progress into mushies. I'm not cleared for exercise other than walking until next week (possibly 2 weeks after that, just depends) and while I worked already the first week after surgery, I'm back full time now. I've attended two benefits (both with several hours on my feet, etc) and have a big work week next week that I'm not worried about at all. This has by far been the easiest recovery from surgery I have ever had. My heart breaks at the stories of people who have had trouble, but I think my story might be more typical. We tend to say more when things go wrong than when they go right. Best of luck to you!

How sad and pathetic that I am BORED today? LOL Somebody tell a joke.

Crazy story and I'm sorry you went through that. So glad you're on the mend and will look forward to hearing about your progress.

Maybe use a heating pad? It really does help.

I'd try to refocus on Protein. fruit juice isn't going to do anything for you at this stage except maybe help keep you regular. Maybe. I do sympathize with the whole Ireland/starch thing. I spent a week there and I was continually amazed with the piles and piles of starch. (I'm Irish as well; it seems as natural as anything to eat that way.) You do start with a relatively low BMI; is there any wisdom your doc has given you about that? I've never heard that height correlates with weight loss!

I ran into about 25 people I know at this luncheon yesterday and my son's 5th grade teacher asked if I had lost weight. She was the only one. I said, "Yes, about 25 pounds," and we left it at that. I think I'm so geared up expecting to explain to people that I forget that a lot of people ARE making small talk and nothing more. Strangely, my two friends who were there who know about the surgery got all winky-faced and weird with me. "Are you feeling okay? You look great." And one was even trying to help me police the food at the table…including removing my wine glass (that I'd left full as a decoy and a cue to the servers not to keep pouring.) So cute. It made me laugh.

For me, it's pretty much every 3 hours or else I do feel hungry. And it's odd because it's uncomfortable…and then I look at the clock and say, "Okay. Time for more." I think when the intake is around 150-200 calories per hit, it's going to be that way.

I am really toying with the idea of not drinking wine again, even when cleared, for this very reason. I am happy that I've had no urges toward it this month (since starting the pre-op diet), but it's one thing that I was pretty darned consistent about prior to surgery. Is it denial to say I don't know about whether or not I was addicted? Maybe. Butterbean and I had this sub-discussion on another thread. I am merely saying I really don't know yet. Maybe I haven't come face to face with what got me here. And part of it is that my pre-op life reads very much like GamerGirl's, except swap out sweets with wine. Metabolism: definitely didn't allow me more than three very small meals if I wanted to lose weight. But no bingeing, no hiding or secret behaviors. And I exercised, like a demon, at least 3 times per week. (Physically, it was too hard on my knees and ankles to do more!) What did I do? Have at least 2 glasses of wine a night, most nights. Calorically speaking, should that have tipped me over the edge? Maybe, maybe not. But I also can't deny that even starting in the low-ish BMI range, I've lost 30 pounds since October 2 (my high weight in my ticker.) So it's starting to be hard to deny that my body maybe didn't WANT to hold on to this much weight, since it has wasted very little time letting it go. Much more quickly, I might add, than I ever expected. My CrossFit coaches really wanted me to give up the idea of surgery and just go over to the Paleo diet. Even though I think that's going to be my default when I'm done (albeit much less than most of them eat), I couldn't take the plunge before. I didn't trust myself to follow the guidelines strictly, not drink wine, etc. It is so much easier to do the right thing when I worry that I might hurt myself if I don't. I struggle with thinking this makes me weak. On the other hand, at the same time I believe that for whatever reason that when I qualified and it worked out for me, it was a lifeline I could grab. Maybe it would have been "better" for me to swim to shore on my own power, but I'm on my way to shore and maybe it's the final destination that matters the most.

UGH. I have to go to a benefit "ladies' lunch" today. I'm 2 weeks out, so there will be nothing I can eat. Any good ideas for how to make it less obvious that I'm pushing food around on my plate? Should I just fake a seizure or something? This is my second benefit since surgery. Went to one last week but because I was running it was able to bring my own Soup which they served with the meal.

I'm doing fine on my protein but it is really hard in the liquid phase to keep the carbs at that level. Or at least, I have found it to be. Maybe it will be easier when it's not so much soup all the time.

I'm really glad to read about this. The artificial sweetener/low fat stuff has been concerning me. I'm still only 2.5 weeks out so I'm feeling my way around this subject.

Day 2 was the worst for me. Drink as much water as you can and power through. Seriously. By day 3 and 4 you will feel better. You might want to see if they'll let you do a G-2 Gatorade or something similar.

I had my gallbladder out 5 years ago and was sleeved about 3 weeks ago. I have 5 new incision sites, so no. As far as the bowel stuff goes, I had (TMI warning) really loose stools almost every day. Sometimes the urgency, but it didn't seem to be brought on particularly by greasy. It was worst in the morning. I was convinced it might be bile salts diarrhea type stuff, but never bothered to have it tested. Since sleeving I have had a couple of those moments, but if anything I struggle more with the opposite. It is early days, yet, so maybe this will change.

I didn't even put that together. Duh. Sometimes the blonde just takes over. Yes, I had that too.

Great job!

Goal seems so far away. There are two things though. The first is that I'd like to wear a bikini. We will have to see if my extra skin agrees with that. The second is that I want to get through all of the major CrossFit workouts as written. (Rx them, for those in the cult.)