JamieLogical

That's what I do. Monday mornings, after I pee, but before I eat/drink, and naked.

@@Malagal These are the easiest to get a hold of at local stores: http://www.oldwisconsin.com/snacks/snack-sticks/turkey I have also gotten some more "exotic" meats at places like Bass Pro Shop, camping supply stores, and specialty stores. They have things like duck, alligator, buffalo, karibu....

I'm 9 months out and haven't thrown up once. Not everyone throws up when they are overfull post-sleeve. There have been several times when I have overeaten (especially in my early days on solids) and I felt incredibly uncomfortable, a lot of pain, and like I was going to explode, but never threw up.

Were you weighed at a different time of day than last time? Where you wearing different clothes? Stalls do happen, especially right around the time you are at. But I sincerely doubt you've gained 5 pounds of real weight. It was wither water retention or some sort of problem with the scale itself.

It really does get better every day. Time drags out so slowly in the early days, but in a few weeks, you will be feeling MUCH better and in a few months you will feel completely "normal".

I wasn't allowed solids until 40 days post-op, but my earlier phases were a little different from yours. Still, I agree that it's better to take things slow and not risk a leak or food getting caught in the staple line until everything's had a chance to fully heal up.

This is a huge first step for you and the beginning of your whole new life. My main advice would be to practice patience. You will need infinite amounts of patience through this process. You'll need to patient in jumping through all the pre-op hoops, waiting to hear back from various doctors and offices. It will feel like forever! Then you'll need to be patient through your pre-op liquid diet (if you have one), which will be very tough. Then patient with your healing post-op and patient through all the post-op food phases when you are anxious to move on to more interesting and satisfying foods. And you will have to be patient with the scale! Sometimes you will love that scale and seeing the numbers fly off of it and sometimes you will be incredibly frustrated with its refusal to budge.

It grows back. Mine fell out in months 3-5 and I'm at month 9 now. All my baby hairs are about an inch and a half long.

I had severe muscle soreness and weakness on my pre-op diet as well. I had to stop working out altogether. It got so bad that it was hard for me to just lift my arms up to wash my hair in the shower in the morning!

It's rough. The first couple of days with the headaches and the fatigue setting in, especially. Hang in there. It's only temporary!

First of all, dietary cholesterol in food has no effect on the real cholesterol levels in your body. That was disproven a while back and the FDA is considering removing cholesterol from nutrition labels, as it is misleading. So don't stress about eating eggs or shrimp or other foods that are high in dietary cholesterol. It's saturated and trans fats that effect your body's cholesterol levels. Moving on to your actual question, my go-to Protein convineince foods are: Protein Bars Protein shakes reduced fat string cheese Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt (only brand I can tolerate... doesn't taste so "Greek" to me) "beef" sticks ("beef" is in quotations there because I actual eat mostly ones made with turkey or other meat) lightly salted peanuts Edit: Here's a WebMD article explaining what I was talkign about with dietary cholesterol: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/cholesterol-food

@@heav85 If you are really worried, you could get one of those "First Response" tests that allegedly can work as early as 6 days before your period?

Yay! You'll be joining us on the losers' bench very soon!

I didn't have to wait at all for my room at the Marriott either time (I checked out when I went for surgery and checked back in and got a different room the day after surgery). I wonder if it might have something to do with what time of day you arrive. Maybe if you get there early (before check OUT time), you have to wait for someone to check out and for them to get the room cleaned and ready for you?

@lclemur @IcanMakeit In the beginning, weight loss is generally faster without exercising, but you need to factor in that a scary percentage of the weight you are losing is muscle. If you work out, the scale moves more slowly, but you can be certain that the weight you are losing is FAT, not muscle. My weight loss has been very slow by most people's standards. I've lost 60 pounds in 9 months. However, my body fat percentage has gone from almost 50% to 25.8%. My nutritionist wants me to get below 25% and I have 10 pounds to go until my weight goal of 165, so I am thinking I will hit 25% right as I'm hitting my weight goal. So I will have an ideal body composition at that point. If you don't exercise as you lose the weight, you will lose a lot of muscle and then when you stall out and realize you need to start exercising in order to reach your weight loss goal, you will get frustrated, because the scale might actually go UP a bit at first as you start to put muscle back on.

@@AnA92212 If you are working out 6 times a week, you should definitely try getting in more calories. At 300-500 calories a day, assuming you are burning 300-ish from exercise, you are getting dangerously close to a form of anorexia called anorexia athletica, which is basically where you burn as many or more calories a day through exercise than you are eating. That is VERY bad for you considering you also probably burn at least 1200 calories a day just by living. Your body will go into self preservation mode, your metabolism will slow WAY down, you body will stop expending energy for things that it considers to be "non-essential" functions..... Either cut back on the exercise or work on increasing your caloric intake. Not trying to scare you, just trying to warn you that over exerting yourself and not eating enough can have detrimental consequences. I know you want to lose weight quickly and we all know that weight loss is about "calories in vs. calories out", but our bodies are built to resist rapid weight loss and will do everything they can to "save" themselves if they think they are starving.

@@kiks I have a few concerns about that New Whey product. First off, 42 grams is too much protein for your body to properly process at one time. You need to keep your protein under 30 grams per serving and give your body time to properly digest and absorb it, before having more. So really, the extra 12 grams in that product would be "wasted" and might have slight detrimental effect on your kidneys. Secondly, collagen is listed as the first protein ingredient on the label and as far as protein supplements are concerned, you should be looking for whey isolate. That is the best and most complete form of protein supplement that your body will be able to fully absorb and utilize.

@@stefanie324 Definitely get back to the protein shakes. You NEED the protein desperately at this point. In a few months you will start losing hair and getting enough protein at this point will help minimize that hair loss. If you don't up your protein until after your hair starts falling out, it will be WAY too late. Not to mention all the other health risks associated with not getting enough protein!

@@heav85 Did your surgeon not warn you about using back-up birth control post-op?

I don't envy any of you working on your pre-op diets. I remember how miserable mine was. The headaches... the fatigue.... just feeling like I was starving all the time. It really does get SO MUCH better eventually, but you are in for a rough month or two. Hang in there and have patience.

It sounds like everything will work out in the end. It is terrible to have a complication and I am sure that right now she is pretty miserable about it. But in a couple of months she'll be recovered from the surgery and the complication and enjoying the benefits of her WLS. So maybe try to encourage her to focus on the long term, big picture stuff?

I always got motion sickness on long car rides if I wasn't driving or at least in the front seat, paying attention to the road. Any time I had to sit in the back or I tried to read or sleep, I would get sick. So I've been in the habit of taking Dramamine before any long car ride. I haven't NOT taken it any time post-op to see if there has been any impact one way or the other from my sleeve. Sorry I can't be much help!

Awesome story!

@@Stevehud For many of us, we have issues with constipation post-sleeve, so a laxative effect is pretty welcome! Personally, I have not struggled with constipation the way many people I've seen on these forums have. Perhaps it's due to my regular use of Truvia and the Erythritol in my protein bars? I have pretty regular (daily), well-formed bowel movements. So I have no complaints. Seems to be working for me!

I did kind of the same thing a couple months out from my surgery. My favorite food in the whole world pre-op was Red Baron 4 Cheese Pizza. I would easily eat a whole one in a sitting and did so about once a week when I wasn't dieting. Well, I tried to eat some of one maybe 2 months post-op? I finished one whole slice and the cheese off the top of a second slice. Felt SOOOOOO sick and overfull and I haven't bothered again since then. Didn't even eat the leftovers from that first one. They went in the trash after sitting in the fridge for about two weeks. Back then I was a little sad that I couldn't enjoy my favorite food anymore, but now I am totally over it.