Sajijoma

I use Pure Protein bars. They have sugar alcohols which can upset your digestive track of you eat too much, but at 4 months post op, I can really only handle half a bar.

I had 2 actual appts and the seminar, but I had to report to his nutritionist who gave feedback on what I was doing throughout the process.

I really think you need to sit down and have an honest look at yourself and at your commitment if you are already trying to skirt the rules and you are just out the gate. If you are thinking about risking your health now for a little pleasure in the mouth, think twice, because down the road, it's easier to give into those temptations and not nearly as deadly as advancing your diet too fast is in the beginning. Suture lines take time to heal, and you are risking causing a stricture, or getting something stuck, or perforating your newly created stomach. My NUT told our class about a guy who tried to eat a taco days after going home from surgery and the shell got stuck in his sutures and perforated and he nearly died. Then later on, the same guy was eating candy bars and pushing to see how much of that candy bar he could down before or if he'd get dumping. He never reached his goal, his weight kept going up, and he eventually died of a heart attack. It's not worth it for a little pleasure on the tongue, just stay the course.

You may find that post op, you just don't want or like chocolate anymore. I used to be a level 10 chocoholic, but since surgery, chocolate tastes horrible to me. It's a lot like dirt. Immediately post op I couldn't even get my protein shakes down because the chocolate flavor really make me nauseated. I'm 4 months out now, and honestly, I like the smell of chocolate, but I don't fancy it anymore. Same with tea. I used to drink iced tea by the gallon every day since I was a baby, but since surgery, I just don't like it anymore. It was a hard emotional loss, but taste wise it was a pretty easy give up when it tastes so bad!

I can't tolerate too many protein shakes. Post op, I had a bout of lactose intolerance that is somewhat starting to get better, so it seems, but those first few weeks/months all I could do was syntrax nectars. Twisted cherry and wild grape became my best friends. I still use them daily. I also found recently that I can tolerate my old fav protein shake which is bio chem chocolate. It has a really good taste and doesn't upset my stomach. I use it as a special treat when my family is having dessert, I'll whirl up a cup with some sf chocolate milk(shamrock brand is wonderful!) and ice and make sort of a milk shake. It makes me feel included and tastes great.

I know you are miserable and you think the answer is to get the surgery reversed, but I'd urge you, as others have, to find a psych you can talk to and work on getting your underlying problems worked out. It doesn't sound to me that the surgery was unsuccessful. You have apparently lost weight thus far, the problem is, you are depressed. I don't know if you were depressed before surgery, but sometimes when people are scared of the outcome, they can get depressed when they see they might actually achieve it and they really didn't want to on every level. For some of us, there's that little bit that holds us back....maybe it's from being abused in some way, or for attracting negative attention somehow or maybe we thought the surgery would be a magic bullet to make us feel happy and the aftermath of surgery is that the surgery won't make you happy. It's just a tool to help you lose weight and that's all that it is. You need to get help for the psychological side because at least from where I'm sitting and reading, you are suffering from full blown depression and you might think it's because of the surgery, but it's not. It's more than that.

I've done the toppings only a couple of times, but I have found that my head's desire for pizza doesn't match my stomach's ability to handle it. It's too greasy and just plain nasty. My nut and I talked about pizza from the get go, and she said that we have to not be afraid of these foods. All these things can have a place and role in our lives as long as we don't give them dominance. If eating pizza once will turn you into a 3-4 slice guzzling maniac having pizza multiple times a month, then please don't do that to yourself. If you are more the kind who takes a bite or two and says that was plenty and your itch is scratched, that's better! Have a slice(or a quarter of one slice) and move on.

The best thing to do when you fall off the wagon, is to pick yourself up and put yourself back on that wagon. Try journaling what is going on in your life at the times you feel weak or give in to temptation. Write down how you were feeling and anything that might in retrospect give you some clue into what your motivation for slipping up is so next time when you are in a similar situation you will recognize it and be able to handle it in a better more productive way.

You totally need a new GP! Mine was behind my getting wls so was my Obgyn. The surgery is a great tool to lose weight and if you take good care of your tool and use it, it will always work for you! He is wrong to say if you eat too much now you'll eat too much afterwards, because for many of us, the malfunctioning vagus nerve is what caused us to primarily overeat to begin with! The sense of never ending insatiable hunger! Once you have surgery and that connection is cut, your sense of hunger changes and it is so much easier to deal with now than it was before. If you are an emotional eater, you may have some work to do post op to keep things in check, but we all have baggage and it's about gaining a little perspective and getting a little assistance. My rny has literally saved my life and it's sad to know there are still doctors out there who just believe we eat all day and do nothing and that we just need more willpower to succeed!

I like both honestly. It depends on the dish. If I'm wanting to feel like I'm having spaghetti, the spaghetti squash definitely scratches that itch more, but I used to make garlic Parmesan noodles as a side dish sometimes and the zucchini noodles fill that spot nicely and butter buds substitute the butter part nicely. There are also carrot noodles and beet noodles(didn't much care for those) but you can really do all sorts of fun things with a spiralizer and any semi firm veggies. even makes great sweet potato curly oven fries for that great "cheat night" without totally blowing it.

I've been there too and I'm working on my self sabotaging behavior. One thing I do notice is that if I get a lot of attention from people, it makes me very uncomfortable. If especially a male friend or family member or stranger even at this point, comments on how good I look, it scares me, and I do have to watch that I don't turn around and eat crap. It helps to not keep crap in your house so that you have time to talk yourself out of it if for no other reason than you don't want to get dressed and drive 2miles down the road just to ruin your progress. I feel like I use my weight as a form of protection. When I was heavier, people didn't compliment me on how good I looked. They stayed away and that felt "safe" but the more I lose the more "unsafe" I feel without that wall of protection. Probably because the last time I was thin was when I was also a helpless child who could do nothing to stop my abusers and as I got heavier and bigger eventually I had the power to stop them with my sheer girth. I do a lot of internal meditation to try to talk to my inner self and try to understand on a deeper level that I am safe now. I'm as safe as I ever could be and I don't need my fat suit anymore. I can protect myself without it. I can let it go. The other reason I have sabotaged myself in the past was because of money. I know it's stupid, but in the past when I lost weight and started buying new clothes, my husband would yell at me that we don't have the money for this(meaning me to lose weight and buy more clothes) and he'd yell and complain until I felt I had no choice but to stop losing weight because I didn't have the money for clothes. Better fat and covered than naked and skinny! So I'd get derailed that way or when I discovered how much excess skin I had and freaked out and quickly put all the weight back on to plump that skin back out. It's silly really, but I was prepared to live fat and miserable because of some loose skin! I'm not worried about that anymore. My skin is getting really loose and scary looking, but I'm prepared to cross that bridge when I get there which will be to get it removed. My NUT and I estimate it will take roughly 2 yrs to reach my goal weight from my starting point which gives me plenty of time to save and grow my money needed to cover the costs, so I don't need to live in fear of not having the money for skin removal or the fear of having to live like a deflated balloon, or the fear of not enough money for clothes. It's just all fears! Once we work through those fears and we give ourselves permission to just live and be happy, how great it is! ????

For me, before I had rny, my every thought was about food to some degree. What was I eating, was it a good thing to eat, what was I going to eat next, and what I was having for dinner. Then it was what I was having for snacks. It was a never ending cycle and my stomach ruled me. I was always hungry even after finishing a meal stuffed to my eyeballs. The surgery gave me freedom from that feeling. I'm a little over 3 months out now and I do feel hunger from time to time(not often but from time to time), but it's not that beast that it was. It's like "oh, I'm hungry. Maybe I should eat something" Not "I'M HUNGRY!!! FEED ME NOW OR DIE!!!!!" It's a very doable kind of feeling. I don't suffer at all like I did before trying to battle the hunger beast. My biggest thing though is reading labels. I am absolutely shocked by how much hidden sugar is in everything we eat. When you've got a 4-5g cap on sugar per meal, you learn to make better choices and that does require a lot of reading. You may still have head hunger(I've been dying for stuffed crust pizza) but it's not something I go and do because it's not in my plan. I make substitutes like using a low carb tortilla for a crust and going heavier on protein and veggies and lighter on cheese and sauce. It's just something you have to learn. But it is so much better and easier to handle after surgery. I've become a quick learner that that for every unhealthy food you like and crave, there is a healthier and possibly even more delicious alternative from pizza, to burgers, to "fried" chicken, to whatever you can think of. You don't have to feel like you are living a never ending diet post op.

I lost my butt too. I'm thinking down the road butt implants might be more a necessity than a luxury! ????

I took pj's, underwear, maxi pads because I heard that women often get their periods right after surgery(which I did need because I started spotting), deodorant, lip balm, listerine pocket pack breath strips, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, tooth brush, socks and slippers and my body pillow(that was the best thing I brought!!). I ended up wearing pj's home from the hospital because I knew I was going to go home and try to rest and it made no sense to dress in clothes then change again when I got home. I didn't even put shoes on, just socks and house slippers. My hospital provided lip balm, toothpaste, tooth brush, body wash, shampoo, and lotion, so in the end, I didn't even use the ones I brought with me. Trust me, you don't need or will want an extended list of junk to take to and from the hospital.

you will get there. It takes time. At 3 wks, I was tired all the time, constantly struggling with getting water and protein in, getting sick from my shakes and was just miserable, but I'm 3 months out now and my life is better than normal. My energy went through the roof, the sipping becomes easier and more routine, and eventually it just becomes so much easier and the weigh starts falling off and that makes it great too! I'm 60lbs down from surgery and over 100lbs down from my highest weight. You will get there. Your body just needs to heal right now. ????

I have Aetna, but they only approve for one day, one overnight stay, so when I was still in the hospital because of anesthesia and pain meds causing oxygen issues, the hospital requested an extra day and it was easily approved.

It sounds to me like this is his way of manipulating the situation. It sounds as if he's saying if you can't be fat and miserable, then it's not worth it to him so choose to be fat and miserable or he's leaving. My advice, as hard as it sounds is to just let him go. You need to have supportive people around you, especially in those first days and weeks, and it certainly sounds like this guy isn't it! I'm reminded of an episode from my 600lbs life when Zalynn was on there and her husband wanted her to be big. He loved big women. He was with her because she was big and that was it. He didn't care she was suffering and in pain. He didn't care her life was being cut short. He was only there to feed his sexual fetish. When she went for wls, he tried to sabotage her, he was cruel to her, mocking her, ridiculing her, and even trying to force her to eat fries and fast food crap in the car on the way home from the hospital knowing damn well she couldn't. He was absolutely just cruel and in the end, she finally gave up and realized he didn't love her and let him go. It's hard, and I am so sorry you are going through this, but if you have to choose between your health or him, you should choose your health and wellbeing every time! Hang in there sweetie! Sometimes when we lose weight, we lose a couple hundred from our life we weren't counting on, but you'll be better off in the end.

I did the 90 day plan as well because of my BMI and because I went through a center of excellence. My 90 days started the day I saw the NUT for our first visit/consult and then I had 2 more visits that were exactly 45 days apart. After that, it depends on the speed of the office and ability of them to get everything together and files with aetna. My office took about 2wks because the psych held my eval ransom because he "forgot" to send me a bill to pay and demanded it be paid before he released it(he's just that nice a guy!) then my surgeon was out of town the next week so he couldn't write the letter of recommendation for surgery, but after they got all that together and it got submitted, it went in on Monday, I called Tues and there was no update. I called again We'd and they told me still no update and later that afternoon, the coordinator at my surgeon's office called with the official approval. From there it was a matter of picking my day, another visit with the surgeon for directions on what to do and blood tests needed and then over to the hospital for a blood draw and some questions and a brief EKG and that was the end of it! ????

Drink water and lots of it when you feel hungry. A full belly can't be stuffed with food. Also, make yourself NOT go to Taco Bell or if you absolutely have to snack, get something good for you like carrots or a protein bar and not junk. It gets easy for awhile post op to not cheat, but there comes a time when when you get to where the cravings pop up and you have to deal with the root cause of them whether it's poor diet, mistaken thirst, emotional eating, whatever the the causes, they do pop back up. I'm 3 months out and spent a week struggling with my desire to eat pizza and want chocolate. I didn't cave into those desire, because you have to stay committed. It's hard, but you can do it. Distract yourself. Go for a walk, so whatever it takes because it's too big a thing to leave behind for a Taco Bell burrito.

I haven't had this problem exactly. It took about 9 days after surgery to be able to go poop and it was the most painful Boulder I ever pushed out. Since then, I got back on my probiotics and I really don't have hard stools. It's pretty predictable too. Not every day regular, but close at this point. I read somewhere that using stool softeners and laxatives can over time teach your intestines to not work properly. They basically get lazy and you can become dependent on them to get the business done. I've tried my best to avoid that end and I really do believe the probiotics are what helped prevent my need for those. I take a double dose daily.

You look great! Such an inspiration to those of us who have a long way to go! ❤️

My butt is significantly smaller. The biggest change I notice is when I'm sitting down for anything over 20 mins it just hurts to sit. It's all boney! I had to buy more throw pillows to make a substitute butt! ????