JamieLogical

During my pureed stage I was allowed scrambled eggs, soft cheeses and shredded meat, so I really lived on those. I made Shelly's Ricotta Bake (recipe on this page) and had that almost every night for dinner. I had tuna salad or a a scrambled egg with some melted cheese for lunch. I was still having two Protein shakes a day (one for Breakfast and one a couple hours after dinner). I had cottage cheese, string cheese, light greek yogurt, or Peanut Butter for Snacks. My nutritionist wants me at 85-100 grams of protein a day and I was able to get at least 85 grams in all through my pureed stage with those foods. I never actually pureed anything.

How often are you eating?

First of all, it's normal to stall out at week 2-3 for a while. Second of all, you have lost weight overall since your surgery, correct? I am 6 weeks post-op as of today and down 17 pounds total. Is it frustrating to see others who lose like 40+ pounds in a month? Yes! But I am losing weight. I am sticking to all my nutritional guidelines. I am doing my approved exercise. I know I will eventually get to my goal. When I was upset about my "slow" loss last week, someone who has been at goal for over a year now told me she doesn't even remember how much weight she lost in these early weeks, because once you've been at goal for over a year, does it really matter how fast you got there? That really put things in perspective for me. I had been treating this whole thing like my "diets" of old, where it always seemed like I was in a race to lose the weight as fast as possible. But VSG is forever. It's not a diet. You don't get to goal and then just be "done" with it. This is a lifelong journey, so if it takes me 12 months vs 6 months to get to goal, how much is that really going to matter in the grand scheme of things?

Sounds to me like not getting enough Protein could be contributing to many of those other symptoms. Is she prioritizing protein every time she eats? Is the difficulty getting enough protein due to just not being able to eat enough in general or not enjoying high-protein foods? Is she supplementing her protein in any way with protein shakes/bars? If so, which ones? Has she discussed these concerns with her surgeon/nutritionist? If that's not an option, how about her PCP? I wish you the best of luck in trying to get the answers she needs to feel happy and healthy!

I too have heard some negative things about Almanza. When there are so many positive things about other great surgeons here on these forums, why take a risk on one with so many negative reviews/comments?

I had my VSG with Dr. Ariel Ortiz of Obesity Control Center. There is a lot of great info and experiences on this forum if you go back through some of the posts.

I didn't have a BM until 5 days post-op. Didn't feel constipated, just didn't have to go. Probably because I hadn't eaten anything other than a couple sips of broth and a couple bites of jello. However, since then I had a BM every other day the next few weeks and now that I'm almost 6 weeks out, I have one at least once a day, usually twice. So my point is, don't stress too much about it until you are eating more unless you are truly uncomfortable.

I don't know what the system is in Canada, but I do know a LOT of people from Canada go to Mexico for WLS, so I am sure you could get some answers on the Self-Pay Mexico forums. I'm in the US and I just confirmed with my insurance company that they would cover any hospital visits for dehydration, infection, or complications and they said that they would. I also visited my PCP and scheduled my first round of post-op bloodwork and follow-up prior to having my surgery. She will be monitoring my vitamin/mineral levels and ordering any other tests I might need depending on the outcome. I'm almost 6 weeks post op now and will be having my bloodwork done next week and my appointment with my PCP is on the 24th.

They have all the ingredients and nutritional info listed on their web site. I was cleared to eat cooked veggies, ground meats, and legumes (beans) at 28 days post op. I haven't had any issues with it. I obviously don't eat the crackers they give me. I'm not allowed to have crunchy or crispy things until three months post-op. Also, I was told to avoid non-whole-grain carbs, so saltines aren't ideal, even once I am allowed to eat crackers.

Are you tracking your food in something like MyFitnessPal or SparkPeople so you can know exactly how much Protein you are getting? I'm not as far out as you and only was allowed to start eating solids yesterday, but here are some of the things I've been eating: Breakfast: Protein shake or Protein Bar (just had my first protein bar yesterday) Lunch: Half a Small Wendy's Chili or Tuna salad or a Scrambled Egg w/ 1/2 oz. of Reduced Fat cheese Protein Snacks: Lowfat Cottage Cheese or Reduced Fat String Cheese or Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt Carb Snacks: 1/2 Whole Wheat Mini Pita with a TBSP of Hummus or 3/4 Small Apple with TBSP of Peanut Butter Dinner: Shelly's Ricotta Bake or Two Turkey Meatballs w/ Sauce or Shrimp w/ Butter & Garlic or Pulled chicken & Sauce Evening Snack: Protein Shake

According to this calculator, someone with your stats only has a 50/50 chance of losing 88 or more pounds in 12 months. With a 75 pounds loss, you aren't far off from that, so it seems to me that you are doing right about average. No reason to be sad at all! https://www.realize.com/do-i-qualify/potential-results/comparison

Who measures Protein in ounces? I don't even know what that means. As for how much I was getting post-op, I barely got in any protein until I was allowed to start having Protein shakes again 7 days post op. Prior to that I was only allowed broth and Jello the first few days (obviously not a ton of protein in those) and I was allowed drinkable yogurt a couple of days post-op, but that only has about 4 grams per serving and I couldn't even finish a whole serving. Day 7, when I could drink protein shakes, was the first time I probably got around 60 grams in and it was weeks before I was able to get my nutritionist-recommended 85-100 grams in. As for Water, it took me a week and a half to two weeks before I could get the full 64 oz. in. In the first couple of days I maybe managed 40 oz. and that was sipping pretty much non-stop during all of my waking hours.

My husband is my main motivation for losing weight. When we met 13 years ago, I weighed 165 pounds. That's what he fell in love with. I have always carried a horrible sense of guilt about my ballooning weight, feeling like I've cheated him out of something. He has NEVER EVER expressed that concern to me. He definitely loves me no matter what my size. But I just really want to be the woman he fell in love with, because he deserves that. He's so amazing in every way and I want to reward him for having stuck with me through all my ups and downs. Also, we don't have kids or anything. We are each other's world. If anything were to happen to me health-wise because of my weight, he would be devastated and lost. My sister-in-law died of a pulmonary embolism (most likely due too her weight) at the age of 41 and my brother was completely devastated. My whole family was completely devastated. I don't want my husband to ever have to go through anything like that. And I don't want the rest of my family to either!

How long has it been since your surgery? This high protein/low carb diet we are on is basically Atkins. In the early stages of Atkins, your body enters ketosis, which is where your body has to burn fat for the energy it would usually derive from carbs. However, the longer you are on a high protein/low carb diet, the more things should stabilize. So if you aren't far out from surgery, high ketones would be normal. If you are months out from surgery, high ketones could be more of a concern. PS: Measuring ketones in urine is pretty inaccurate. If you are truly worried, you should have your blood ketone levels tested.

So, as of today, I am 40 days post-op and allowed to start solid foods. The biggest thing I was looking forward to with this transition was being able to swap at least one of my two daily Protein shakes for a Protein Bar. Earlier in the week, I went to Vitamin Shoppe and stocked up on several different flavors of QuestBars to try once I was able. Well, this morning I decided to swap my Breakfast shake for the chocolate Brownie flavor QuestBar. It's pretty soft and didn't have any chunks of anything in it, so it seemed like a good first option to try. Holy crap! It is SOOOOO much food! How am I supposed to eat this thing? It's going to take me all morning. The label says it's 2.12 oz. and I've been able to eat up to 4 oz. at a time recently, so I thought i could handle it. But it's so dense! I have to take TINY bites and chew them into nothing. It's been a half hour, I'm less than halfway through and I already feel like I'm going to explode. Those of you that are further out from surgery, do you get to the point where you can eat one of these things in a reasonable amount of time? If I take all morning to eat this thing, how will I ever get my Water in? Am I going to run into this problem with all of the solid foods I try?

Well, if you call the restaurant and find out for sure that they don't serve any soup of any kind, I would say call the guy, tell him you've looked over the menu, explain your surgery (even if it's just the hernia repair part), and ask if it would be okay to switch to a different restaurant. I know it will suck to have to do that, but if he's a good and decent guy, hopefully he'll take it okay and won't be upset.

Are you looking for info on what people eat once they've reached their goal in order to maintain or are you looking for info on what people are eating right now? The second half of your post makes it sound like you are eager to see your surgeon so you can ask about what you should be eating at this stage in your journey.

Maybe they have a soup-of-the-day sort of thing that's not listed on their actual menu? I can't imagine a restaurant that doesn't have ANY kind of soup! Can you call them ahead of time to find out for sure? Does this guy know about your surgery? Probably not, assuming this is a first date. I would definitely NOT eat anything you aren't supposed to be eating yet. Even if that means having to come clean very early on in the meal about your surgery.

Yeah. I recommend reading every word and following the links to the videos. I really learned a TON from that one article. Very enlightening!

Does your nutritionist not subscribe to the theory of "net carbs"? Sure there are 24 grams of carbs in one bar, but 19 of those are Fiber. The daily recommended allowance of fiber is 25 grams. So your nutritionist only wants you eating 15 grams of any other kind of carbs?

The size of the bougie is going to have absolutely nothing to do with your rate of weight loss. I'm staying in touch with several people who all had our VSG by the same surgeon within a week of one another and our weight loss is all over the map. We're even on the exact same schedule for moving from clears to fulls to purees to solids, the same Vitamins, and the same Protein targets.

Here is a great article on bougie size! http://tinyurl.com/omrxp7h There are some photos in there that show how minimal the differences in size really are.

I finally finished the Protein bar. It took me an hour and 10 minutes and it's now been over an hour since I finished and I still feel about to burst. @@motherof5 My surgery date was Sept. 1, so we are very close to one another. I haven't experienced much restriction with my soft foods. I can eat a whole scrambled egg with a 1/2 oz. of melted cheese and some taco sauce on it in about 20 minutes, no problem. I can eat half a small Wendy's chili in a sitting and just get a little bit of a full feeling, not sick at all. So I was pretty caught off guard by how slowly I had to eat that protein bar and how crazy filling it was.

I'm so sad for you! I don't know if you will ultimately regret your decision or not. It's hard to know where the future will take you. But I think if you HAD gone through with the surgery, you wouldn't have regretted it. The pain is so minor and temporary in the grand scheme of things and the risks associated with VSG are super low. As for missing food, one of the beautiful things about VSG is that you can still eat the foods you love eventually, just not in the quantities you used to. Since there is no dumping syndrome, like with bypass, and no risk of certain food getting stuck, like with lap-band, you really can eat just about anything. Of course, if you continue eating junk food, you still won't lose the weight, but that's the case whether you have VSG or try to lose the weight on your own (like you now intend to).

I carry nearly all of my weight in my hips/thighs/legs, so people always think I weigh much less than I really do. I think if you carry your weight in your stomach/chest/arms, people think you look heavier. So apple-shaped women look heavier for their weight than pear-shaped women do.