JamieLogical

Are you still in your post-op food stages? If so, then definitely don't "cheat". That's not a diet, it's a prescription and you need to treat it as such to ensure safe healing and recovery. If you are out of your food stages and back on solid foods, then it's up to you. I would caution that anything high carb is going to kick your body out of ketosis, if you are currently in ketosis. That means you will likely experience headaches and fatigue every time you transition back into ketosis after a cheat day.

I would assume a letter from your surgeon or surgeon's office would suffice as proof of international travel.

It's very unlikely you stretched your sleeve. Most people experience a "relaxation" of their sleeve around 9-12 months post-op where you start to reach what is going to be your permanent capacity. That's why a lot of people refer to the first 9-12 months as the "honeymoon period", because that is when you have the maximum restriction. I don't think anything is wrong with your sleeve. I think you are just fully recovered from the surgery and adapted to your new stomach. So, moving forward, what should you do? You should go back to the basics. Put protein first. Make sure you are getting about 100 grams a day. Make sure you are drinking all of your water and not drinking your calories. Make sure you are taking your vitamins. Limit yourself to five scheduled meals/snacks per day and don't eat in between. And do some sort of physical activity or exercise every day.

Yes! Fertility can increase drastically. It is VERY VERY important to use back-up birth control in the first couple of months post-op. I was on birth control the whole time, but I also used condoms for the first two months.

I disagree with those who are saying 1100 calories is a lot. Especially if you are working out at all. I pushed hard to get over 800 calories post-op so I could do anything more intense than "brisk walking". I then pushed to get up to 1100 calories so I could start running. And I would estimate that I was around 1400-1500 calories a day through most of my weight loss phase. If you aren't exercising at all, then 1100 calories is probably the upper limit of where you want to be, but if you are working out, you need to basically be "eating back" any of the extra calories you are burning through exercise, otherwise your metabolism is going to tank.

I promise you that you aren't gaining fat. If your weight is going up on 1100 calories a day, it is Water retention. It takes 3500 EXCESS calories to gain one pound of fat. At 1100 calories a day, you likely have a DEFICIT of close to 1000 calories a day, so you are definitely NOT gaining actual fat. It doesn't sound to me like you are doing anything wrong. Weight fluctuates from day-to-day. If it is bothering you, then just stay of the scale and focus on your plan. If you stick to your plan, you WILL lose weight. Make sure you get your Protein in, drink your water, take your Vitamins, and get up and move.

It will get better day by day for sure. I recommend GasX strips and lots of walking. The walking is hard because you are tired and in pain and it is hard to find the motivation to get up and moving. But it genuinely does help a lot once you force yourself to do it.

If you haven't already, you should look into Couch to 10k. That's a GREAT program that gets you up to running a 10k without stopping in 12 weeks if you stick to the schedule. You can also start a couple "weeks" into it if the first few week's workouts are too easy for you.The issue I see is that St. Patrick's day is only 8 weeks away, so you may not be able to get through the whole program unless you are able to start with Week 4 or so.

I use this Water bottle: http://a.co/fnqEGqZ It's the greatest thing ever! It fits in a normal cup holder in my car, which is awesome and it keeps ice water cold for ages. I fill it with ice and water before I leave home in the morning. Refill the water a couple of times during the day at work. And there is still ice in it at the end of the day when I get home. It's also great at keeping ice water cold in a hot car. One time I went to a festival. I filled the bottle with ice and water before leaving home, drove 2 hours to the festival, even stopped for a sit-down Breakfast on the way, left the bottle in the car all day while inside the festival, it was in the upper 80's all day long, got back out to the car that evening, and there was still ice in there! It was the best thing ever after a long, hot day! I will warn you that if you buy any of the colored bottles, the colored film will eventually start to flake and peel off. So I recommend the stainless steel one.

Well, if you aren't having problems with liquids, I would just try to drink more protein shakes and more creamed soup or whatever other full liquids you are allowed. It is quite possible you are legitimately hungry, since we tend to only get a few hundred calories a day in during the liquids phase. You are literally starving. It's also possible that you are thirsty. People often mistake thirst for hunger. So be sure you are drinking as much water as you can.

So, what I did with my shakes post-op was get a bunch or Torani sugar-free syrups and mixed and matched them. I would make a shake with half Water, half soy milk, unflavored Protein powder and then a couple pumps of Torani syrups. I liked orange and vanilla (tastes like a creamsicle), strawberry and vanilla, chocolate and irish cream... I got the lime flavor, but ended up not using that one much. I feel you on being over shakes, though. Literally the first day I was allowed solid food I tried a Protein Bar instead of a shake... took me almost 2 hours to eat the whole thing. But I did pretty much completely switch over to bars. I still have a couple every day!

At least you weren't already over a week into your pre-op liquid diet or something! Definitely does suck to have to change all your plans and wait an extra week, though.

The Dreaded Week 3 Stall is a real and there is nothing you can/should do about it. As long as you get your protein, water, and vitamins in and are up and walking several times a day, you are doing everything right. You just have to be patient. Put away the scale if it is making you crazy. You should be focusing on healing and following your plan right now. The rate of weight loss should be the least of your worries. Oh, as for the dry mouth, check out your tongue/throat in a mirror with a flash light. If it has a white coating on it, you might have oral thrush. That can be pretty common if you were given liquid antibiotics post-op.

What should I enter as my starting weight? My weight when I first started looking int WLS? My weight prior to my 2-week pre-op diet? My weight the day of surgery? If I go by my weight the day of surgery, it's pretty accurate. I was two years out in September.

When were you scheduled for and when have you been rescheduled to?

It does happen. It's not incredibly common, but common enough to not be strange. Actually, a lot of surgeons go ahead and remove gall bladders at the same time they do RNY, just as a preemptive strike.

It's not possible to drink too much, so if you can drink a lot, that's great! As for hunger, can you tell us what you mean by "hungry"? Is your stomach grumbling? If so, that is likely excess acid or gas. Are you on a PPI? Or is it more like you see a commercial for food on TV and you think "OMG, that looks so good! I need it right now!" If so, that's likely head hunger. When it comes to actually eating, what food stage are you in and how much are you eating or what types of food?

So so happy to hear this!

My main problems post-op were gas pain, menstrual cramp-type pains from my drain (I assume? Went away completely as soon as my drain was removed), sharp pain in the center of my chest with every single teeny tiny sip that was caused by esophageal spasms that subsided a couple of weeks post-op, and fatigue. I didn't throw up at all. had two bouts of dry-heaving my first day post-op, but that was it. No nausea. I was on anti-nausea medication for the first two weeks post-op and that seemed to do the trick.

Um, at a month out your nutritionist already wants you at 4-5 ounces of food at one meal!??! That's nuts! I was at 2 oz. a meal for ages. I am well over 2 years post-op now and I would say 5-6 ounces is my absolute max, depending on the density of what I'm eating. You should be able to meat your Protein goal even if you can only do 2 oz. at a time. Especially if you can handle your Protein shakes and Greek yogurt. I would say about a month out my day looked something like this: Breakfast: Protein shake Morning Snack: string cheese Lunch: leftovers from a previous dinner or a scrambled egg w/ cheese Afternoon Snack: Greek yogurt Dinner: 2oz. of some recipe (like Shelly's baked ricotta, some sort of tuna salad, pulled chicken in sauce, etc.) Late Snack: protein shake That right there is 90 grams of protein a day, assuming my protein shakes had 20 grams each and my lunch and dinner had about 15 grams.

Cheese... that is the best bet. Quest also makes small packs of protein chips, but they are pricey and I didn't really find them to be all that great.

The pain in your chest is likely a spasm or contraction of your esophagus. I had those for about two weeks post-op any time I took even the teeniest tiniest sip of Water. Marching in place as I was sipping helped a little. As for feeling fatigued and run down, that is VERY normal. I probably napped more than I was awake in the early days post-op. Even once I was back to work at 15 days post-op, I had to go to bed as soon as I got home because I was so exhausted from just working my desk job. The fatigue improves once you are healed up and able to get in more calories.

You may have oral thrush. It's actually pretty common if you are on a liquid antibiotic post-op. Take a look at the back of your tongue and throat in a mirror. If there is a white coating, it could be thrush and you should talk to your doctor about an anti-fungal.

Thinking of you today. Let us know how your appointment goes!

You should pre-measure your food and eat the amount your surgeon/nutritionist recommends for your current food stage. I was told to eat 2 oz. at a time in the beginning, so I pre-measured my food into these little 2 oz. plastic baby food containers and ate out of those through my puree and soft food stages. Once you are more healed up, you WILL get "full" signals from your stomach again. It is only in the first month or two post-op, when your nerves are still healing, that you can't rely on accurate signals from your stomach.