FrankyG

I don't eat fruit hardly at all. It is mostly sugar/carbs with very little Fiber. If I do eat any, it's like a few cut up grapes in my chicken salad - small quantities and rarely. I see no benefit to my diet from consuming fruit and discovered that adding it in tended to increase my sweet cravings. I already have enough trouble fighting that, so fruit is not on the menu often. Tons of veggies tho. Not much for carby vegetables however (carrots, peas, potatoes, corn). Love things like spinach, broccoli and cauliflower, brussel sprouts, green Beans... I do eat moderate carbs, but prefer to get them from things like brown rice, beans, lentils...

Fat stores hormones. As you lose fat, all those hormones get dumped back into your bloodstream. That's one of the reasons they advise women to have rock solid birth control methods - fertility is increased for most of the time you're losing weight. But it also means you are going to be feeling really, really (REALLY) moody often. Warn friends and family members if they know about your surgery that you aren't raging or weepy for no reason and be prepared to take a time out if you start feeling really crazy bad. Be aware when you start feeling angry or depressed that it is likely a chemical reaction to the hormone flood, and remind yourself be kind to both yourself and others - even if that means you have to excuse yourself from the room/situation to get your feelings under control (or go scream or cry and get it out of your system).

Are you weighing/measuring your food? Are you tracking what kind of food you're eating and what you're drinking? Are the levels of Protein, fats, carbs, calories and general nutrients good? As long as you are monitoring your food and getting what you need (water/protein/etc) and still losing weight well, you're fine. If you slow down or stall out for long period of time (over a month with no weight loss and no fat loss/muscle gain) then would be the time to make adjustments in how much and what you're eating.

My doctor had me taking omeprazole (generic prilosec over the counter) for the couple months, but he also cautioned me that I shouldn't eat at least 2 hours before bedtime as laying down after eating would cause GERD/reflux flareups. He took me off the omeprazole around 3 months as it isn't good to take long term, and as I had stopped having any issues except on rare occasions. But I know if I forget to watch when I eat and try to go take a nap or go to bed, I will regret it.

Refried beans with a touch of greek yogurt and sprinkle of cheddar cheese. And a couple of mild jalapenos (very mushy). Sooooo good.

Yup. Many on here have experienced exactly those feelings. The "what did I just do to myself" feeling right after surgery is pretty awful since you get really caught up feeling you made a mistake and that can lead to amplifying the depression and anxiety. But it is normal, and you will be happy soon enough again. While the regret goes away pretty fast, the depression, anxiety and other mental issues may linger. Fat stores hormones like estrogen. As you start really losing weight, that fat will flush those hormones back into your bloodstream and result in a hormone flood. That hormone dump is one of the reasons doctors caution women of childbearing age to be on a VERY safe form of birth control. It also can cause wild mood swings, anger and irritability and uncontrollable bouts of weeping and depression. Being aware that this is possible is quite important so you can let your friends/family know you might have a difficult time sometimes and also so you can be aware when you start feeling like you are going to blow up or need comforting/help, you can let someone know and not suffer alone.

I can. I don't remember exactly when I was okay with guzzling Water again, but it probably was closer to 8 months to a year out. I can drink pretty water much exactly the same as before. Maybe not wipe out a whole 12 ounce bottle in one go, but I can drink gulps of water after a workout without feeling bad or in any pain.

I had an aversion to eggs for months. I threw them up in the soft food stage, and it took until around 7 months before I could even try them again. It might be the texture, or the smell or the look, but aversions are easy to develop in the early days. It will pass, hopefully sooner than my aversion did.

My doctor did use BMI statistics. I was told my normal BMI goal should be below 145 pounds. I broke out in laughter and told him if I got below 200 I'd consider it a success and set my own personal goal weight as 175 because I thought it wasn't in the realm of the ridiculous like 145 would have been. I do not lose weight easy. Never have. Was a very slow loser even after surgery compared to most on here. But I didn't get discouraged and I'm not going to be upset if I don't get down to that BMI weight. I'm am still quite pleased with the results and feel much better overall about eating and my relationship with food. I'm just under 2 months out from my 2 year goal and now 5 pounds away from goal. I may add in a stretch goal of 160 but honestly I think at 175 I'll be working on converting the fat that is left over to muscle. I am at something like 125 pounds total lost (can't see my ticker as I am typing) but still lots of fat to cut.

I had my gallbladder out almost 20 years ago. My pain was horrible, usually right after eating a high fat meal, but it manifested as intense pain in a band around my upper abdomen, but radiating out from my spine (which is NOT normal). I definitely would throw up, and no drugs or anything could touch the pain of the attacks. They would last around 20 minutes usually and started with me throwing up and then the pain and writhing on the floor in agony. After removal, the only lasting effect was IBS - I got to know where the bathrooms were in every store, restaurant and public building I visited very well.

Definitely need to see a doctor for this. It may be nothing but garden variety gas or constipation, or it might be something more. But if it has been happening regularly, it's time to go get it checked out. It kind of sounds like a gallstone attack to me. But I am not a doctor, I just had gallstones and know what that felt like before they got REALLY bad pain-wise and that's similar to my experience.

Are you saying you're 2 weeks out from having sleeve surgery? If so, nooooooo do not do this!!! You are lucky that you hadn't gained weight from surgery (they pump lots of fluids and drugs and it causes bloating and Water retention so many gain 3-5 pounds for about a week or two). Your body is still traumatized from surgery. You should not attempt ANY changes from the doctor's diet you were given this close to surgery as it is dangerous! Forcing more food or calories in at this point when your stomach is being held together with staples and trying to heal is scary. You are not supposed to worrying about losing weight right now - it is all about healing!

http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/351046-embrace-the-stall/ Your body is still traumatized and pumped full of fluids and meds from surgery and usually you're lucky not to gain weight within the first week to 10 days. And the first stall usually hits around your third week. Your body has to take pauses every once in a while. No one loses weight steadily. Think of it as it needing a small rest break while it figures out whether this lower calorie/low carb thing is going to be permanent... it is? Well okay, guess we'll drop another few pounds and see what you're doing then. Still low cal/carb and adding in exercise? Well maybe it's time to build a bit of muscle and drop some fat so you won't see the numbers on the scale drop but you'll notice the difference in your clothing since a fat is way more bulky than lean muscle. Rinse and repeat for the next year with varying lengths of time spend in stalls. You'll be fine. Do read Inner Surfer Girl's post about Embracing the Stall and it will all make sense.

Dense Proteins are when you'll really start feeling it. Unless your doctor just pretended to cut your stomach, it didn't fail. At a few days or even weeks out? Your stomach is still very traumatized. You can't rely on feeling ANYTHING correctly at this point. You just had major surgery and likely still have some of the drugs in your system and feelings of fullness or hunger are going to be blunted if not missing for a very long while. Be sure to not test what you can eat since you really can't judge how much you can hold right now. Measure and go slow. With liquids, it's not as dangerous, but you really still need to be measuring everything once you start purees and soft foods.

No please don't do this. This is a bad road to go down and could turn into a real eating disorder. You are still manufacturing saliva and stomach acids when you put food in your mouth, and it is highly unlikely that every molecule of food is spit out, so some liquefied food is still swallowed. You're not saying what you're chewing/spitting out, but it still is dangerous if only because you're using poor coping methods right out of the gate and you should do your very best to throw out all the bad habits now so you don't continue trying to find cheats that will end up sabotaging your success. It also is cheating your doctor's orders for your diet he laid out for you. If you are struggling, please contact your doctor and explain what you're doing and ask for help. But do please back away from this. It isn't good for you. You're trying to become healthy and learn how to eat correctly. This is not a healthy way to go forward. When you are feeling really desperate, have a glass of ice cold Water, try some sugar free pops or Jello, or even a Protein shake. If your diet allows other stuff, by all means go to them, but do your very best to stick to what your doctor said at the phase you're in. I know how hard it is - really, really really I swear. But you have so much awesome to look forward to and you can make it without doing things like this. You are totally worth the hard work and effort. Please stay strong and do your best to stick to your doctor's diet without cheating. You can do this!!

If you need your clothes to look good for professional purposes, then probably I would agree to go buy a pair or two of dress pants to tide you over to the next size drop. If it's casual wear, then I definitely would not buy much stuff and just deal with stuff fitting loose for a while. But that's me and I worked from home and did have a variety of different types of pants to wear already that didn't start looking silly on my for some time. But do not buy anything expensive if you can help it. You'll be dropping weight/sizes every other month depending, so it will be a waste of money if it's the more expensive stuff. I love shopping at thrift stores - Goodwill, Salvation Army, local church-run shops - and if you figure out where the larger sized clothing is plentiful, you'll likely have a better selection. I can shop in regular stores now, but I still like thrift stores because I find really nice things (lots of name brands, some brand new with tags!) for cheap. And you can try on a variety of brands sometime and discover that maybe a different brand fits your body type better without having to go to 10 different places to try them on. And congrats on your loss so far!

Are you taking a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) like omeprazole? That feeling could be related to acid reflux and I know my doc had me take a PPI for the first 6 weeks to help cut down on the burning/bubble feelings. I know I got the mild lactose intolerance for about 6 months (mostly just upset my stomach and had mild diarrhea), and do recall things tasting too sweet and the sense of smell being stronger too. It might also be a stricture, but I have no experience with that, and I would think your doctor would check for that at your appointments.

I think I'd slowly start putting glasses, hats and monocles and necklaces and earrings (deerings?) on them. See how long it would take him to notice. And then insist that it's your contribution to the decor, and they stay that way.

Your feelings of "full" won't be normal for some time, so stop if you think you are. You can always sip some more later to make up calories or hit Protein goals, but it's better to go a bit less each meal (and just have several small meals) than too much. The concept of a normal "full" you are thinking about may also be something you'll need to figure out once you're eating regular foods again. Most of us that gained enough weight to be considered obese have very flawed perception of fullness. I used to eat to the point of feeling sick sometimes. Portion control was a foreign concept, and even now, I have to remind myself I can always eat more later if I am genuinely hungry, but the food won't disappear forever and I can have whatever I'm eating any time. And once you are on solids (especially hitting your protein goals and eating healthy veggies and complex carbs in moderation), your energy level will start coming back. I feel pretty darned great and have a high energy level now. It just keeps getting better every week, so just keep plugging away at the basics (protein/water/moderate activity whenever possible) and you'll be fine. Good luck!

I am almost 2 years out, and stalled out all the time during the whole weight loss process. I'm almost at goal now, hope to be below it on my anniversary. At 3 months: down 41 pounds At 6 months: down 54 pounds At 9 months: down 72 pounds At 1 year: down 93 pounds Weight loss was pretty steady for the first 3 months, some small stalls of a week or so, but mostly downwards in 3-5 pound jumps otherwise. Around 9 months, it started getting a bit harder, but it also coincided with my feeling much more energetic and I really got into finding new and fun exercise/activities to do. Now (about 1.5 months out from 2 years): down 124 pounds. 6 pounds from goal. But the last year it's been me really concentrating on my food and Protein and Water intake. I stall out for weeks sometimes, and occasionally gain 2-4 pounds in there too. But I keep logging every bite of food, watching my protein and calories and exercising and it slowly inches downward. But a caution: my story and pattern is mine - yours is yours. Your body won't work exactly the same as anyone else, so don't fall into the trap of judging your progress against others. You'll do great if you just keep to the basics and don't get discouraged.

It should start trickling back down after 6 months, but it can last for up to a year before it completely stops. Just keep up with your Protein and the Biotin can't hurt. Just remind yourself this is temporary and your hair will be okay again.

I'm with you on the house thing... Planning a move to another state in the next year. Still need to sell the one I'm in, but the looking at what's available now is obsessive. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App It is soooo addictive! And the scary thing is that 99% of the houses I'm seeing are just... horrible. And I don't mean their paint choices or terrible furniture. Just ugly or gross layouts and no flow for the rooms or well thought out placement of the house itself in the landscape. Stuff you can't fix easily if at all... Oh girl... If you only knew what I've seen. The worst one for me was the really pretty from the outside traditional looking house that the owners decided to tile the entire downstairs level... in cheap 6-inch ceramic bathroom tile. In white, with accent tiles in maroon and forest green. Over a two thousand square feet of obvious bathroom tile through the entry, living room, den, dining room and kitchen. And they thought it would be cute to put tiles on the front kicks of the stairs. And painted the entire lower level dark, dark DARK green. And the living room/great room area had a wallpaper border of wolves with Indian maidens (see attached image for the general idea). This was not a house in the Southwest U.S., and the owners did not have a drop of Native American blood from the looks of them, but we were told the wife felt she might have been an Indian Princess in a past life, and decided to decorate the house to reflect what she thought was "Native American flavor." SO imagine an entire house designed around this idea, and with questionable decorating methods, a heavy emphasis on stereotyping, and just plain terrible taste. I'm restraining myself from contributing further comment on that. The kitchen cabinets had been "distressed" by owner as well. I'm pretty sure that involved her grabbing a hammer at some point and beating them randomly with it and then slapping a few coats of paint (more dark wall paint - with no sealer) on them an then using a very linty rag to wipe the paint to expose the original cabinet color (which was white). But it was very, very obvious that it was a amateur that did the distressing. The entire downstairs felt like a YMCA locker room from the 1970s in a slasher movie - dark and claustrophobic and echo-y. With airbrushed wolves, horses, teepees and Indian maidens and other random "authentic" decor. While most of the horror was cosmetic, the sheer amount of things that would need to be replaced completely or redone - all flooring, all walls painted - the upstairs was *quite colorful* as well, complete kitchen gutting, "designer" color fixtures - meant it was a big no for us even if the layout had been good (it wasn't). But it was one that left our buyer's agent speechless when we first walked in (it was a "hey this house is for sale and it's a good location/specs sound good" situation and no pics up on the website yet so we didn't know what to expect). We knew instantly we didn't want to even consider a lowball offer, but had to go look through the rest of the house just to see if it really was all that bad... yup, it was.

I'm kind of over trying to help any more of the posts along the "I ate something really fatty/sugary/solids" or "Gee, is smoking really bad?" variety. So much anger and pissy responses because I didn't pat them on the head and tell them it was just fine and no, you special little snowflake you, it isn't a bad idea to do whatever the hell you want just cause you are craving it or uncomfortable denying yourself. SMDH. I had surgery to be healthy, which included me admitting that I ignored or tried to downplay the stupid @#! I did, and putting an end to all of it (overeating, binging, poor eating habits in general, lack of good exercise/smoking). This was the most difficult thing I think I've ever done in my life, but I did it and it seems like the dumbest thing I would ever do if I were to go back to any of those habits and destroy everything I've worked so, so hard to accomplish. I guess a portion of folks out there are would rather live with their delusions and pretend their poor habits won't result in regain/sickness/addictions. Just have to realize that some people are violently in denial about how messed up they are and don't want real help - just a magic potion or something that will let them continue their unhealthy habits without consequences. I do admire y'all that still fight to cut through the BS if only to keep the misinformation down for the ones that read here and don't post. I just don't have it in me any more.

CUTE.

I'm with you on the house thing... Planning a move to another state in the next year. Still need to sell the one I'm in, but the looking at what's available now is obsessive. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App It is soooo addictive! And the scary thing is that 99% of the houses I'm seeing are just... horrible. And I don't mean their paint choices or terrible furniture. Just ugly or gross layouts and no flow for the rooms or well thought out placement of the house itself in the landscape. Stuff you can't fix easily if at all...