JamieLogical

10-15 years? what a strange number? I could see 12 months maybe, but why so far out?

Usually when you select a food in a tracker like MFP or SparkPeople, it will specify if it's cooked or uncooked. For recipe calculators, I always go by the uncooked weight, though.

Does that mean your first surgiversary will be 4 years out? If so you should have no trouble reaching your goal weight by then!

We all have to find what we can live with. For me the 14 grams of Protein to 190 calories doesn't seem like much of a "bargain" and, while the net carbs aren't as bad as a lot of options out there, the fact that the dietary Fiber comes from chicory root is a turn off to me. Chicory root causes me more gas and bloating than some of the other prebiotic fiber options out there. I hadn't seen that brand before, so I'm glad you posted. Might be just what some other people need to get more protein in.

Not sure what your post has to do with this thread, but that sounds horrible. Have you seen a professional about your anxiety issues? Are you anxious because you are afraid for the people eating the food or are you anxious because you are afraid seeing other people eat will make you want to eat things you shouldn't?

But my evil companions made me drink it. Darn them! I had a total image of you being laid out across the back seat of the car on this road trip, being waterboarded with diet coke.

I certainly don't eat like that every day! Of course you would gain weight over time. If I go to a birthday party, I will eat some of that stuff. What is that, like once every couple of months? I have to live the whole rest of my life. There's no way I'm doing that without EVER having pizza, cake, or ice cream again. I'm 17 months post-op and struggling to find a way to eat ENOUGH calories to maintain my weight now that I'm training for a half marathon. I don't apologize for having an occasional treat at a party at this point. I have ice cream in my freezer at home in fact. It just sits there. I haven't eaten a single bite of it in weeks. But if I do decide to have some, I'll just work it into my day.

Some of this will pass, some won't. I'm one year out, yesterday, and still have episodes of light headedness and feeling faint every time I stand up and start walking anywhere. It's low blood pressure and my body now takes longer to flucuate pressure and volume. I have this same issue. My blood pressure has been on the low end of normal since my surgery (almost 17 months post-op). My doctor told me to "liberally increase my intake of salt", which I have kind of tried to do. I don't add salt to things, but I don't worry about whether something is high sodium or not anymore, like I did pre-op. As for the light-headedness immediately after surgery. That's due to not eating and expending a tremendous amount of energy to heal. That definitely gets better once you are able to eat more and get more calories in.

Your nutritionist should give you some guidelines for shakes. In general you want to make sure they are low carb and low sugar. For ready-to-drink shakes, I liked EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control (rich dark chocolate flavor), which are available at Target, Walmart, and some grocery stores. For Protein powder, I would buy Now Sports unflavored whey isolate and flavor it with Torani sugar-free syrups.

Fast food restaurants have Water...

I hope it is just that...I had a little tuna and 4 small crackers for lunch yesterday then for my mom's bday dinner...a small slice of pizza hut meat lovers, 2 boneless wings, a small slice of cake and a little scoop of ice cream...full but not sick... Cake and ice cream are sliders, so they really don't take up much room in your stomach for long, unfortunately. One piece of pizza and two wings is a sizable amount, but not enough where I would worry. I haven't tried pizza and wings together, but I can do one small slice with the crust and then the cheese and toppings off of another slice or two in one sitting. Since wings don't really have much meat on the, I'd think that's pretty comparable.

I think anyone who experience "hunger" as early out as you are is either talking about head hunger or acid. I didn't start feeling real, physical hunger until closer to 6 months post-op.

Breast lift is definitely much easier than the tummy tuck. Good to just stay focused on your current recovery though! It really does get so much better every day. And you WILL feel "normal" again. You really really will.

Mine was getting through the second week of my half marathon training. I still can't believe I am doing this!

It's definitely a lot easier to see our losses in photos than it is in the mirror. I don't know what that is, but it's certainly true. Good for you!

I was lucky in this regard too. My PCP ("preferred care provider" is what we call them in the US) was very supportive about me travelling to Mexico for my surgery. In fact, I have another appointment with her on Feb. 29 for my 18 month follow-up and blood work!

Great post! I have a question for you. You mention having lost a lot of muscle. Were you exercising regularly during your weight loss phase? How much protein were you getting?

You need to measure your food and eat on a schedule in the early weeks/months. It's the only way you can make sure you are getting enough calories and protein. You won't feel "hunger" and you'll associate food with discomfort, but you need to fuel your body! Are you doing any exercise yet? If/when you start to introduce intense exercise, you'll probably want to be up over 800 calories a day.

I only had one person who thought my surgery was a bad idea. He himself is very overweight and I think it's interesting that he was the only one who gave me a hard time. I think by telling me not to have surgery, he was defending his own decision not to have surgery? Though he didn't say so, I think he was making it more about him than about me. It immediately put him on the defensive.

That is not hunger, I assure you. Are you taking a PPI to reduce acid. If not, ask your surgeon about one immediately. I had a lot of pain and discomfort when sipping water in my first two weeks post-op. Once the swelling went down, it was much better. But, you will definitely want to be on a PPI for at least the first 2 months.

Wats that Here's the link: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00R7D77VI

I assure you, it is possible, and not painful, but probably would be while healing after surgery. I don't recommend you try it though! I didn't have any for 4-5 months post-op and wish I'd never started. It's like tasting the forbidden fruit. Today is day 1 of me kicking the habit again! I'm curious how you even ended up trying it again. I am almost 17 months post-op and I have had exactly one sip of soda since my surgery. I was out to dinner with my husband, didn't have a drink of my own, and got something stuck in my throat. I grabbed his root beer and took a sip so I didn't choke to death. Luckily, I hate root beer, so it was completely disgusting and didn't tempt me at all! I'd love to hear how you ended up in a situation where you even tried soda again post-op and allowed yourself to get back in the habit. I don't think I have to worry about it with soda (since I really have no temptation there), but I'd like to avoid that situation with some of my other potential triggers.

That's pretty shocking. My protein target is the MAIN thing my nutritionist focused on. She didn't care about calories at all, just wanted to make sure I got up to 100 grams of protein a day as quickly as possible.

I just read on the Quest sure they went back to their original formula No. I received an email from their customer service. They did not change their main ingredient back, just made changes to their formula to improve the taste and get their bars back to what they tasted like with old ingredient. They are still using soluble corn Fiber (new ingredient), instead of isomalto-oligosaccharide (old ingredient). I was SO excited when I first saw that email, thinking they were switching back. But then I read the whole thing and found out that they were only addressing customer concerns over the flavor, not the digestive discomfort a lot of us had experienced.

@@shelly7 I'm taking insync now. I buy it on Amazon, because it's way cheaper there than in my grocery store.