Jonathan Blue

This is a little bit of a loaded questions. The reason your nutritionist is probably having you do things like brown rice is to begin weining your body off of the high carb, high fat foods you will not be able to eat after surgery. This is a lot of times better for most people than going cold turkey. I never realized how much a role carbs played in my daily eating until I started the two week pre-op diet my nutritionist put me on and I wasn't allowed any at all. I was craving potato so badly. The other thing is it will help you continue to reduce your weight prior to surgery and in turn reduce your risk of complication. I cannot say enough about following the program your nutritionist lays out for you, but to constantly be working with them. They know what they are doing and will not stear your wrong. If you are not a fan of some of the things she wants you to be eating, let them know and perhaps they can suggest some alternatives. All in all its just a process to reduce carbs slowly up until surgery. After surgery you are typically on Clear liquids for about a week, then pureed foods, then soft mashed, and finally gradually adding in solid foods as you can handle them. Each of these stages is a week or two each depending on how your nutritionist sets up your program. This is done to help your stomach heal gradually and never to overwhelm it. For all intentes and purposes your stomach has been traumatized and needs time to recover. If you ever have any questions about recipes for any of these stages let me know. I worked as a chef for Walt Disney World for a time and loved the chance to find ways of getting my favorite foods and tastes while still following the dietary rquirements. If anything here is unclear please let me know and I will do what I can to clarify. The primary reasoning for the differences is preparing your body for surgery in a gradual way and then slowly giving your stomach the time to heal and recover afterwards. This only a small part of an absolutely amazing journey. You wont regret it ever. Its the greatedst thing I have ever done for myself.

Everyones skin is different, just like no two people will have the same post surgical journey. A lot depends on how old you are, how much you have to lose, and your specific skin elasticity. I agree with you completely, that I don't want to go through everything and still have lose skin. I am just planning on needing skin removal surgery at some point. Until I can get there I am just relishing in all the things I can do now. Don't be too concerned if you lose a lot of weight really fast and there is a little lose skin in your mid section. It will take time for your body to adjust and your skin to spring back. The two things I have been doing, and a lot of people have recommended, are working to tone your muscles and exfoliate your skin. Take the time in the gym to really work on toning your muscles. This will help you to tighten that skin. The other thing is to use a loufa and scrub your skin. Getting the dead skin off allows for your body to generate that new skin that will be needed to tighten it up. One last idea is to regular use a lotion on your skin that is full Co-Enzyme Q-10. This Enzyme helps promote the skin tightening back up as well as moisturized and nourishes your skin. Keep in mind, even if you did all of these things, you may still need skin removal just because of your body type. I still do them so when it comes time for that I am in the best position to make is successful. I cannot agree more about wanting to look the way you feel. I think every person who has the surgery feels that way. Keep up the faith and handle your business. Take hart in all of the amazing things you are capable of with your new body. Have patients and everything else will fall into place.

I love that idea. Right now I will sometimes take an Amy's meal to work and eat like 1/3 to 1/2 of it depending on how hungry I am. When I was on the pureed food diet I would always make a regular portion or two and then divide it up into little tupperwear cups to be warmed up later. Not nearly as interesting as being able to purchase meals direct, but a start. You may try coming up with a sales pitch and presenting to several of the bariatric food sites or protein shake companies as a new startup idea. Just some thoughts. If you ever want to talk about it more or strategize, let me know. I used to work as a chef for Walt Disney World in another life. Figuring out how to have amazing tastes and the things I loved while making them bariatric friendly was so much fun for me post surgery. My nutritionist always loved the recipies I sent her.

That is truly and amazing and inspiring story. Some really good thoughts and tips to those looking into have a skin removal surgery. I will be starting that process in the next six months I think. I still have a little weight to go before I feel like I will be ready to start that next phase in my journey. Have you been doing anything exercise wise other than just standard workouts? Do you think they helped going into the skin removal. I appreciate how open and honest you are about your experiences. Keep up the amazing work. You are an inspiration to us all!

Many people over this last year have asked me what I did to prepare for my weight loss surgery. There were many things that I did and not one was more important than another. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your preparation heading into surgery and especially the liquid diet the week or two prior will be the hardest and most important thing you do as a part of your journey. You will work hard to prepare your mind, your body, and to some degree your spirit to go though the surgery. Once you do have the surgery the hardest part is over. If you can survive the months before taking the plunge then everything you do after will be a piece of cake in comparison. I am here to tell you that anyone who says having a weight loss surgery is taking the easy way out is someone who will never understand what it truly takes to go through this process. To some degree I feel sorry for those who don't get it. They will never understand the joy and excitement that comes with going through this transformation. To be honest, even though my wife loves me and has been an amazing support through this whole process, she will never full know or understand what it is like to make this decision and prepare for the surgery like I do. This is part one, in a series of three posts, detailing my preparation for surgery. The first aspect of this preparation I will cover is how I prepared my body. This was pretty simple for me really. I was in bad shape and was huffing after just sitting up from a chair; as my transformation video in an earlier post has shown. I was miserable! I would practically crawl through my front door after just my first night back to work. I work as a pharmacy technician at a hospital and walk 8 to 12 miles a night. I was living off of Tylenol and Bengay. Honestly I smelled like I was probably 90 years old. Looking back I find myself completely disgusted that I ever let things get that bad. Since I could not really do much working out because of the toll work was taking on my body, what could I do? The answer came from my brother. He is a nurse and knows a ton about medicine. I honestly think he should have became a doctor, but he didn't want the added responsibility. Before I had fully decided on having the bypass surgery and long before anyone knew I was even contemplating that option my brother came to me, as serious as I had ever seen him. Those that know my brother know he's a bit of a joker and very lighthearted. His demeanor kind of scared me, but in this conversation would be the answer that would help me prepare my body for surgery. He explained to me that he wanted to see me healthy, that he wanted me to be able to be the cool uncle when he had kids, and how he wanted his brother back. He was scared that I wouldn't be around much longer and didn't want to see me die. Looking back I really think he was right. Then he did something that floored me and provided and amazing answer to how I would physically prepare for the journey I was about to take. He explained to me that he wanted me healthy so badly he would pay for my gym membership if I promised to go three times a week and swim. On a side note; He religiously checked up on my progress with the gym manager to make sure I was going and even went so far as to meet me at the gym and swim with me. I swam on a team in junior high and he explained to me the benefits of working out in the Water. Water has the ability to take all of the pressure off of your knees and other joints. It can keep you cool if you are prone to overheating and provides an amazing about of resistance if you find ways to take advantage of it. He set up a plan and told me just to come three times a week to swim and do what I could. So that is what I did. I did not want to let me brother down and I would hope he would agree it was the best investment he ever made. So that is what I did; I swam. I swam freestyle, I swam breast stroke, I saw backstroke, and when I was feeling particularly squirrely, I swam butterfly. Butterfly was my specialty when I was on swim team but man it is a butt kicker. I started out with 10 laps, which was a lot better than I had thought. I found I could move more freely and with less pain in the water. From there I just simply added one or two laps each time I went. Before I knew it, I was approaching my surgery date and I was swimming close to an hour non-stop! Why should I work out prior to surgery? There is a very simple answer. To prepare your body. You need to prepare your body for what you are about to put it through. This is major surgery and not something to take lightly. You also want to work out to build up your cardiovascular and pulmonary endurance. Strengthening the heart will make you strong for surgery because your body will be stressed, because of this your blood pressure will spike for a short time after surgery and it is a lot to put on yourself. Strengthening your lungs will help keep you from a common post surgical complication which is pneumonia. My goal in preparing my body was simply to be able to survive the surgery, keep my complications down, and my hospital stay short as should be your goal as well. I want to tell you right now that preparing my body worked out well. I had no major complications and I left the hospital three days later, which was the minimum hospital stay my doctor required for his full bypass patients. What if I can't swim? The key here is to simply get moving. If you can walk, then walk. If you have access to a pool, then you can water walk or water jog. If you love biking and can do that, then do that. You just need to move. Your goals with this are simple. First, you want to make sure you are panting a little from being out of breath when you are done. This will show you that your lungs have been pushed a little and if that is true then your heart will have been pushed also. Second, each time you work out, just add a little to it. If your taking laps on a track, add a lap or a half a lap each time. If you are walking your neighborhood then walk for another 30 seconds or a minute. If you do this early, as soon as you begin contemplating surgery the further along and better prepared you will be, come surgery day. As always, if you have any questions, or if there is anything unclear, please post your questions and comments below and I will work to answer them all as soon as I can. Also check out my blog again soon for part 2 of the series about dealing with the psychological aspects of preparing for the amazing journey you are taking.

Many people over this last year have asked me what I did to prepare for my weight loss surgery. There were many things that I did and not one was more important than another. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your preparation heading into surgery and especially the liquid diet the week or two prior will be the hardest and most important thing you do as a part of your journey. You will work hard to prepare your mind, your body, and to some degree your spirit to go though the surgery. Once you do have the surgery the hardest part is over. If you can survive the months before taking the plunge then everything you do after will be a piece of cake in comparison. I am here to tell you that anyone who says having a weight loss surgery is taking the easy way out is someone who will never understand what it truly takes to go through this process. To some degree I feel sorry for those who don't get it. They will never understand the joy and excitement that comes with going through this transformation. To be honest, even though my wife loves me and has been an amazing support through this whole process, she will never full know or understand what it is like to make this decision and prepare for the surgery like I do. This is part one, in a series of three posts, detailing my preparation for surgery. The first aspect of this preparation I will cover is how I prepared my body. This was pretty simple for me really. I was in bad shape and was huffing after just sitting up from a chair; as my transformation video in an earlier post has shown. I was miserable! I would practically crawl through my front door after just my first night back to work. I work as a pharmacy technician at a hospital and walk 8 to 12 miles a night. I was living off of Tylenol and Bengay. Honestly I smelled like I was probably 90 years old. Looking back I find myself completely disgusted that I ever let things get that bad. Since I could not really do much working out because of the toll work was taking on my body, what could I do? The answer came from my brother. He is a nurse and knows a ton about medicine. I honestly think he should have became a doctor, but he didn't want the added responsibility. Before I had fully decided on having the bypass surgery and long before anyone knew I was even contemplating that option my brother came to me, as serious as I had ever seen him. Those that know my brother know he's a bit of a joker and very lighthearted. His demeanor kind of scared me, but in this conversation would be the answer that would help me prepare my body for surgery. He explained to me that he wanted to see me healthy, that he wanted me to be able to be the cool uncle when he had kids, and how he wanted his brother back. He was scared that I wouldn't be around much longer and didn't want to see me die. Looking back I really think he was right. Then he did something that floored me and provided and amazing answer to how I would physically prepare for the journey I was about to take. He explained to me that he wanted me healthy so badly he would pay for my gym membership if I promised to go three times a week and swim. On a side note; He religiously checked up on my progress with the gym manager to make sure I was going and even went so far as to meet me at the gym and swim with me. I swam on a team in junior high and he explained to me the benefits of working out in the Water. Water has the ability to take all of the pressure off of your knees and other joints. It can keep you cool if you are prone to overheating and provides an amazing about of resistance if you find ways to take advantage of it. He set up a plan and told me just to come three times a week to swim and do what I could. So that is what I did. I did not want to let me brother down and I would hope he would agree it was the best investment he ever made. So that is what I did; I swam. I swam freestyle, I swam breast stroke, I saw backstroke, and when I was feeling particularly squirrely, I swam butterfly. Butterfly was my specialty when I was on swim team but man it is a butt kicker. I started out with 10 laps, which was a lot better than I had thought. I found I could move more freely and with less pain in the water. From there I just simply added one or two laps each time I went. Before I knew it, I was approaching my surgery date and I was swimming close to an hour non-stop! Why should I work out prior to surgery? There is a very simple answer. To prepare your body. You need to prepare your body for what you are about to put it through. This is major surgery and not something to take lightly. You also want to work out to build up your cardiovascular and pulmonary endurance. Strengthening the heart will make you strong for surgery because your body will be stressed, because of this your blood pressure will spike for a short time after surgery and it is a lot to put on yourself. Strengthening your lungs will help keep you from a common post surgical complication which is pneumonia. My goal in preparing my body was simply to be able to survive the surgery, keep my complications down, and my hospital stay short as should be your goal as well. I want to tell you right now that preparing my body worked out well. I had no major complications and I left the hospital three days later, which was the minimum hospital stay my doctor required for his full bypass patients. What if I can't swim? The key here is to simply get moving. If you can walk, then walk. If you have access to a pool, then you can water walk or water jog. If you love biking and can do that, then do that. You just need to move. Your goals with this are simple. First, you want to make sure you are panting a little from being out of breath when you are done. This will show you that your lungs have been pushed a little and if that is true then your heart will have been pushed also. Second, each time you work out, just add a little to it. If your taking laps on a track, add a lap or a half a lap each time. If you are walking your neighborhood then walk for another 30 seconds or a minute. If you do this early, as soon as you begin contemplating surgery the further along and better prepared you will be, come surgery day. As always, if you have any questions, or if there is anything unclear, please post your questions and comments below and I will work to answer them all as soon as I can. Also check again soon for part 2 of the series about dealing with the psychological aspects of preparing for the amazing journey you are taking.

If you ever need to talk with someone who will understand what you are dealing with feel free to contact me. I am an open book and willing to help in any way that I can. You can also message me for my phone number if you ever need to get a hold of me faster, or talk to a real person and not just a text message.

I agree it is something to be careful about, so if the pain stays there for several hours and doesn't subside, then worry. Just try to take it easy with the food. If you find you are still eating too quickly, you can always try dividing your meal into three and eating each section with a baby spoon every 10 minutes. Set a timer if you need to. It sucks, but forcing yourself now will keep you from stretching out your stomach later. Setting up this now will enforce good habits down the line. You will do just fine. If you ever need any help or advice at all, I am an open book and here to help.

My name is Jonathan and I am almost 1 year post op. I am down 210 lbs and am pushing to do some amazing things now that I have regained my truly incredible body. I am planning a half marathon and a triathlon next year. I will be working my way up to a full marathon, a full Ironman race, and a 585 mile mountain bike ride while camping my way across the Colorado Trail. I want to show others that I am just a normal guy who made a choice to get healthy and that if I can do it, anyone can. I am open and willing to mentor anyone who needs a friend. I can provide advice, motivation, and best of all, tasty recipes. I used to work as a ched for Walt Disney World in another life. It is truly an amazing journey we are on and I would love to be a part of yours.

I had my surgery with Dr. George Kerlakian at the Good Samaritan Hospital as well. I highly recommend him. I am also available as a mentor through the process. I know it can be really tough, but I promise it will be the best thing you ever do for yourself.

I am so very sorry to hear that. I am sure we all have stories about being bullied or treated different because of our weight. I remember once in elemtary school being made fun of so badly at recess, I walked right out into the parking lot and hid under a car until the end of the school day and proceeded to walk home sobbing the whole time. I remember another time in high school I worked up the nerve to ask a girl I really liked to a dance. Her response was simply that I was too fat for herI think the hard part for many is the view of beauty. My wife is a bigger girl and I love her as much today as when I met her. I am also as attracted to her today as I have ever been. I know plenty of bigger women that I would say are beautiful. Just because you don't fit in a size 2 doesn't make you ugly. People can be so hurtfuil. I can tell you that surgery will definitely change you. I will change your body in ways you could only imagine in your wildest dreams. You will be able to do things you only dreamed about or thought you would never do again. Do you have anything like that your are looking forward to? With the change in your body will definitely come a change in confidence. I remember not long ago I had a close friend tell me that when I was in high school I was larger than life. Anyone who spoke with me believed I could truly take on the world and win. He explained over the years that as I gained more and more weight I withdrew into myself and had no self it looked like I was slowly dying little by little. He told me that now he saw the old Jonathan that he was poud to call his friend. He knew I could take on the world again and he couldn't wait to join me. He has been my running partner ever since. I can very distinctly remember a few months ago I had a very beautiful nurse where I work slip her phone number into my pocket. I was so beside myself I think I mumbled something stupid and walked away. I felt horrible later because in my shock I forgot to tell her I was married. I did go back later and make things right. This has happened on two other occasionss since. It has been really weird being flirted with and hit on by the girls that wouldn't give me the time of day in high school. It will be the most amazing journey and I promise you will never regret your decision to do it. I know you will do amazing. If you ever need to talk with someone or have any additional questions feel free to write me at any of the links below. Welcome to the rest of your amazing life. All the boys will be giving you their number.

Sandy, Good luck on your surgery today. I know you will do amazing. It was probably very rough emotionally, but it is for everyone. I am a year out and down over 210lbs. and I still have trouble viewing my body being the size it is. I still react as if I am so much heavier at times. It is a learning process. What will make it all truely amazing is when you begin doing things you never thought possible or you begin doing things you never thought you'd be doing again. I can't wait to see what you will do once you lose you weight. Your journey is going to be epic.

First things first, you did not ruin your new life. If you had not done something like this yet I would have been surprised. We have all had the "Oh crap!" moment when we ate a bit too much. It hurts, but it will pass. If it has not subsided in the next couple hours then go to the emergency room, but I think you will be fine. Just give it some time to work through your stomach. From the sounds of things, you may just be taking on too much too fast. The potato soup was a good choice and you may need to stay with things that are more of a mashed or pureed consistency. Feel free to hit me up sometime for some recipes that I have come up with that work. I even have one for a puree that tastes a lot like Chipotle. You should probably take it easy on the solid food for a week or two longer. I know you are excited to start eating normal food again, but your body probably just can't take it right now. I highly recommend using a baby spoon when eating to avoid taking in too much. I know it seems silly, but it was a life saver for me. This is an amazing journey and it will take time to figure it all out. I wish I could say this will be the last time something like this will happen, but I would be lying to you. I am almost a year post op and every now and again I still do it. The whole thing is a learning process so don't be too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes. Our bodies just now have a unique way of slapping us up side the head when we do. Everything will fall into place before too long, just don't worry about rushing. Enjoy the jouney, I still look back fondly on my pureed food fun. Trying to figure out what I could eat and how things tasted differently since surgery was a fun little adventure. I still use some of the recipes I came up with then over a year later. If you have any additional questions or I can help in any way, feel free to send me a message on one of the links below and I will do what I can to help you out.

When I was in high school many many years ago, I was a part of a church youth group. I spent a ton of time singing in the choir, listening to sermons, and going out door knocking. It was a major part of my life back then. During this time, I had a friend named Eric Foust (Picture below with his daughter). Now Eric was an interesting individual. He always had such an amazing and positive outlook on life that you couldn't help but gravitate towards him. One of our youth leaders once jokingly said that he was so friendly he was annoying. I am laughing now just thinking about him, his goofy nature, and this comment. It really is too true. He is now pastor of his own church in Cincinnati, Ohio called Triumphant Baptist Church. I don’t think I ever told him this, but I owe a large part of my success to him. You see, back when we were in high school he had a catch phrase that he used. He at first used it to be serious about some point he was making, but slowly over time it sort of became a joke. I believe he heard another pastor use this phrase in a sermon on tape and thought he would steal the idea, but the exact origins are unknown to me. The only thing I remember is the indelible mark one little phrase left on my life and that is: “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO” The simplest meaning of this phrase is that if you want something bad enough in life, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. If you “want to” you will find a way to make it happen. You will find the time, money, energy, and motivation to do the things you truly want to do and are passionate about if you want to make it them happen bad enough. If you want something bad enough there is nothing that should stop you or stand in your way. Through high school he used that phrase repeatedly for the stupidest things. We would all be sitting around trying to figure out where to go eat and he would scream out, “It’s all about your want to,” at the top of his lungs. I would complain about not having a date for our prom alternative. “It’s all about your want to,” was his simple answer. Every time he gave this answer he would have a smirk on his face as if to say, “I know it’s annoying, but I’m getting my point across and it getting stuck in your head the way a bad song on the radio does.” I heard this phrase so often in high school I would spend nights dreaming about it. There was more than one occasion where I honestly thought I might punch him in the throat if he said it one more time. The funny thing with this phrase is after a while it sticks with you and before too long everyone in our church youth group was saying it! “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO” “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO” “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO” “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO” Years later as I began my weight loss journey and started dreaming about the things I wanted to accomplish I spent months pondering how I would be able to do it. Would I be able to handle it? Would I be able to do everything I wanted to do? Would I be able to make the changes necessary in my life? Soon there was an itch in the back of my lethargic overweight brain. The itch became a scratch and worked its way to a full on slap in the back of the head. The answer to my questions came back to me in the voice of my friend from ten years earlier, “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO!” So my challenge to you today is what do you want to do in life? What are the things you have dreamed about, but never thought possible? If you could do or be anything in life what would it be? Share your answers in the comments below and encourage each other because the answer is simple: “IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR WANT TO!” Be sure to follow me on Facebook by click like to the right or following the link below

Those are some amazing accomplishments everyone. I am working on training for my first olympic tri next summer. I will then be working towards my first half and then full ironman race in the following two years. I also have plans to document a bikepacking trip where I mountainbike the 585 mile Colorado Trail through the Rocky Mountains. I just feel as though I spent so many years abusing my body and not living up to my potential. Now that I have my body back, I want to see just how amazing it is and how far I can push it. I also do this to show others that I am just a normal guy that made a choice and that if I can do it so can they. I will be documenting these accomplishments on my blog listed below. Keep up the amazing work guys. I hope to hear even more amazing things from you in the future. Best of luck training.

Epiphany, It will pass. I promise. You are very correct that it is a transitioning problem. One thing to help you out is to eat a little slower. I know this is easier said than done. Try eating with a baby spoon. I know it seems silly, but it will keep you from eating too much at a given time which is what causes the discomfort a lot in the first place. When you are trying to take your Vitamins in the morning try maybe doing the Protein shake first and then the vitamins. That way your stomach has time to "wake up" in the morning and pehaps it wont be so rough. I agree with you that I hated breakfasts and for the longest time eating in general was such a chore. I really hated eating and food in general. It took about three months for that to full pass. Just focus on what will go down. At this stage in the game, it is less about you getting all of the nutritionally diverse food and more about just getting food in general. Let the vitamins do what they are supposed to do for now. Your doctor should be closely monitoring your Vitamin levels for the next several months and will be able to tell you if you need to start worrying about tweeking things. Your body is an amazing machine. It can go for a long period of time before the results of vitmain deficiency become severe. Just keep up the great work. It really sounds like you are on track. This will be the most amazing year of your life and I am so excited for you. If you have any additional questions or I can help in any way, please let me know. I will do what I can. You can reach me at the links below.

Nancy, If you do not already know how to swim, now would not necessarily be the best time to start. I think it would be an amazing goal to learn how after surgery as soon as you feel as though you are able you and your doctor says you can begin working out again. i lost my first 150 lbs. just by different ways of swimming for about the first 6 months after surgery. It is still a workout I do at least two to three times a week. I would encourage you to make learning a point. As far as between now and surgery. I would strongly suggest Water walking. If you have access to a pool, all you want to do it get into water that is between your belly button and chest and just walk. You want to take wide, determined strides with an emphasis on walking heel to toe. The water will reduce the preassure on your knees and ankles and make it easier to do. I would do this for as long as you can each day and just try to add on to it prior to surgery. An interesting fact. If you ever want to know what your body could possibly feel like at a lighter weight, try moving around in the water. As an example, if the water is up to your belly button, then it is the same as if you were half of your body weight. If the water was at mid chest it would be like you were walking at 20% of your body weight. So when your in the pool, play around, dream, and most of all have fun! If there is anything else I can do to help be sure and let me know. My contact info is below.

The baby spoon suggestion above is absolutely the best suggestion I can give you in terms of avoiding taking in too much at a time. Typically even if you are taking one bite after another, you should not be able to take too much. The other thing that worked really well for me was to divide my meal into three parts and eat them 10 minutes apart. That way I was sure to spread it out over the course of the full 30 minutes and then using the baby spoon helped tremendously. I am one eyar psot op and I still have a fond attachment to eating icecream with a baby spoon lol.

I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories as well. I am one year post op and I still religiously track the number of calories I am taking in verses the number I am burining through exercise. With the surgery you are basically allowing your body to starve itself and there is a delicate balance between calories in verses calories out. If you take in too few you may feel dizzy or light headed, if you take in too many you won't lose weight like you thought. As for my journey, three months post surgery i was taking in between 600 and 700 calories a day. As my activity increased and my working out increased I began taking in closer to 1000. Right now I work out two hours a day five times a week and on those days I take in close to 1400. I also agree before concerning yourself with calories you definitely need to make sure you are hitting your Protein goals. As far as not loosing too much weight goes, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You are still not very far out from surgery and your body is still trying to recover and cope with all the changes it has undergone. In the six weeks right after surgery I only lost 40 lbs and was also very discouraged. Then I went back to work and was able to start working out more heavily. The weight just poured off to the tune of about 14 lbs a week for a few months after that. It was crazy! So don't loose heart. It will all kick in soon. You just need to give it time. This is an amazing journey, take some time to enjoy the ride. If you have any additional questions or if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. You can contact me at any of the links below. Best of Luck,

If you are able to work from home, you can go back as soon as you feel comfortable. You may not be able to sit for long periods of time due to the strain on your stomach, but you could definitely work from a laptop laying down. That choice is yours. I took the full six weeks my doctor allowed, but I work a job where I am on my feet and walking 10 to 12 miles a night. Because of the active nature of my job I took the whole time off. What I did not realize is that I probably could have handled going back to work after about two or three weeks. The pain was gone and I was no longer on any pain meds. I had many people tell me post surgery to take the full six weeks as apposed to part of it. Their reasoning is that the diet is so very different and requires so much adjusting that, in all honesty, it took me the full six weeks to begin being able to make it a routine. Since you are working from home and have a little more control over this you should be fine going back as soon as you feel comfortable. I would at least reccomend taking a week to ten days after you get home from surgery to get used to everything before charging back. Half days would also be a good option for a little bit. I wish you the best of luck in your surgery. It will be the journey of a lifetime. You will discover amazing things about yourself that you never thought you could do. I am excited for you! If you have any questions or I can help you in any way feel free to contact me at any of the links below. I will do what I can to help out.

Spring Dixie, Best of luck on your surgery today! I know you'll do amazing. I am so excited for you and the amazing journey you are about to embark on. Please keep me updated on your progress and all the amazing things I am sure you are going to do once you have your new body back. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know at any of the links below.

Keep up the awesome work on your recovery. It seems like forever now, but in looking back it will fly by. Just wait until you start being able to do all these amazing things you never thought possible. I am so excited for you and your journey. Please keep me updated and if there is anything I can do to help you out please let me know at any of the links below. Best of Luck,

HMHUGHES, I dealt with this issue for months after surgery. I felt like every waking moment of my day revolved around what I was eating next and every time I did eat, the thought almost turned my stomach. It took about 5 months before it fully resolved. Everybody is different so it could just take time. I tried finding ways of mixing my Protein into things that were lighter or worked better for me. The big one that saved my butt was a protein fruit sorbet that is similar to the Dole whip that is so popular at Disney parks. The recipe on my blog if you are interested. You will just need to keep expiramenting until you find that perfect combination and keep the faith. It very will could just be that your body needs more time to adjust. While you are going through this, try to focus on all the amazing things that have been happening since surgery. What are some things you can do now that you were not able to do before surgery? I remember the first time I walked down a flight of stairs like a normal person. I sat at the bottom of the stairs and cried. Relish the moments when you are physically doing things you never thought you could do or things that you haven't been able to do in some time. If you have any other questions or want recipe suggestions feel free to contact me at any of the links below. Good luck on the rest of your journey. I know it will be amazing.

Clara, Time is key here. Your body will take the longest time to make the adjustment to being able to eat meat. Keep at it. Sweet potato is an amazing food to use. You can also try Beans, spinach, and kale to get some of the extra Protein you need. I also have an amazing recipe on my blog for a protein fruit sorbet you should check out. You just need to slowly work your way back into regular meats and when you do always try to eat them with a sauce of some kind. Meat tends to be dry and does not go down as easy as other foods. The suace will help with that. If you have any additional questions let me know. I am an open book. Best of Luck,

I am so very sorry you had such a horrible expirience. I agree with the above poster that you definitely need to be seen by a doctor about your stomach. If anything, it will make you feel better about know what is going on. Worst case scenario, go to the ER at the hospital the procedure was performed in. They will be able to get a hold of someone to help you. In this process information is everything and I agree your doctor has dropped the ball royally. I encourage you to look past this experience and focus on the future. As you continue to heal and are able to do more and more, you will begin to discover your new body. You will find out how amazing it is and what you are cabaple of. On those days when you feel like your not getting anywhere and things seem bleak, make a list of all the things you can do now that you couldn't before. I remember crying the first time I could do something as simple as walking down a flight of stairs like a normal person. Now I run up and down them. Keep an eye on how far you've come and all the amazing things you are doing instead of focusing on the past. I agree you made the right decision and I am so excited for the journey of rediscovering your body that you are about to go on. It has been the defining moment of my life so far and it will be for you as well. If you have any other questions or if there is anything I can do for you please let me know. My links are below. I hope this helps. Jonathan Blue Email: jonathan.blue.t@gmail.com Blog: http://wakingupfromh...s.blogspot.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook...ealjonathanblue Twitter: @fat2fitblue