Pedro Valle-Inclan

9 weeks

So far, nothing catastrophic..., yeah, I've definitely been more manic lately and very quick to become very frustrated, but i had the presence of mind to ask Bariatric staff about it and they said it's a very common side effect after surgery. I was relieved but at the same time I have to deal with this. Like I said it's a setback bipolar-wise but not terribly so far, but I am concerned and we're monitoring this very closely

See, Rusticlemon, that's what seems right, that's what I would have wanted; I'm sorry people can make all the excuses one wants for these people, but this is crap. these alpha surgeon types who are too important and busy to see the people they operate on are full of it and themselves...

Yeah, I'm considering canning bread too. I bought this fantastic dark rye stuff at a whole foods place and for Gods sake the darn bread is 140 calories per HALF slice (50 grams)...!!! That's a tiny piece. It's simply not worth it. For a few days last week (I'm at 9 weeks post-Op) I realized I was eating nearly a third of my 1100 calories a day in worthless, non-nutritional crap like diet Popsicle, pudding, Italian Ices, chocolates with stevia, etc - the point is that I'd much rather use/eat up my daily calorie allotment on stuff that gives sustenance and even more importantly I'm keeping the Sweet tooth thing going. It's time to bite the bullet and train my palette away from sweet stuff. That's how I got in this position in thye first place, well that and the main love of my life: chewey, doughy, breads etc.

thanks for these ideas!! Hey I have to confess that after 8 weeks I "went off" yesterday, I feel like a fool; just eating some amounts of fairly high calorie treats, like ice pops, puddings, atkins candy bars etc. Anyway, I totaled it all up ugh, and it was around 1700 calories for the day which is at least 600 calories higher than my highest day since surgery then I looked on line to discover that any "normal" diet or website says that for my height and weight if I want to lose I should eat 1800 or less a day so I felt better but still, it was the breakdown of the great discipline I've shown for months thanks for listening to my vent back on track today!!

Don't know the answer to the Protein powder question, though now in my desire to live and eat "cleanly" I want to eliminate crap/chemicals from diet as much as possible and most all of the powders are really crap ingredient wise and sweetened with stuff we don't even wanna know about. I found one called Orgain's organic Protein sweetened with Stevia, I hope it turns out to be a good one. You never know because we can be fooled my companies so easily. My only suggestion would be to stop using Soy; seriously, research Soy a little, it's really becoming widely rejected. I use almond milk now

I love it! made me laugh - "the best thing I've ever eaten...!!" ha.. that's great. What a journey we're on. But I tell you, it's easy to see now how so many people after this surgery gain back every single pound! It's so clearly now just one tool, one excellent behavior modification tool to be added to the changes WE must make in order for this process to work properly. I feel so far that I've met the surgery half way, at least, by having lost some 40 lbs pre-op and by having established a decent cardio, weights, meditation and therapy regimen before surgery that are now being maintained. This is hard, I can easily see why many good folk have failed. It flies in the face of the behaviors I indulged in for decades. I'm at 60 days post-op, not even TWO months, and I feel like it's been an eternity because everything's just so different; different and exciting as weight is flying off of me. I've been just switched to soft foods, anything I can cut with a fork easily, and so only ONE day I went a little berserk, but the funny thing is that "berserk" for me now was a whopping 1400 calorie day..! Lol, in the old days that could be ONE meal...My guess is that as a 6'2" 205 lbs man that 1400 will be just under maintenance once goal weight of 190 or 195 is reached, it might actually still be considered in the "weight loss" range. Good luck to us all

Hi, well I believe that it's all about added refined sugar, not naturally occurring sugars.. hmmm... I haven't eaten anything with added sugar yet in my 9 post-op weeks. The only time I experienced "dumping" was from eating too much and too quickly once. It was awful. No vomiting or diarrhea, but stomach distress and an awful sense of weakness and a bit dizzy and nauseous. Don't wanna go there again

A fabulous cheese and mushroom omelette with salsa in a restaurant that was heavenly, now of course what's funny is that I'm still eating the damn thing 2 days later...!! Meals have to be the size of my palm according to my doc

Yes, no processed foods. Clean means simple. I was told don't eat anything White cuz it's going to be crap.No white flour, no sugar, etc Milk is the only thing white that I imbibe and even that in real small moderation, only in my tea or coffee. Obviously one can get carried away with the word"processed", any oil could be described as processed - I mean oils and vinaigres etc could be called processed but that's not what we're talking about here. Those things have been made for a millennia, we're talking about avoiding modern processing processes in factories, so this cuts out a ton of food, but I don't know about you guys, but I wanna change my life and the habits that got me to Bariatric surgery in the first place .

LO siento but all these "female answers" make me wonder what the male counter part rewards would be...? A new wrench perhaps? Gun? hammer? Razors, pitbull, truck,clubs, big stomping work boot ?? hmmmmm

Hi friends, well I've been rolling along thinking I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread, doing everything right to the letter, wondering why others are having troubles, but finally last night I ran into my first bump in the road.I think I now know what "dumping" is. Now I'm not sure why this happened or exactly what I did different from other nights, but I might have eaten too fast or a bit too much and plus I'm now on my surgeon's second phase diet which is puree. Well I ate my 4 oz of protein shake, 2 oz of cottage cheese, 4 oz of a pudding, 1 oz of egg salad and then was lying down to watch computer screen; I fell asleep briefly then woke up to a kinda nasty sense that I either (excuse the TMI that's coming)had to vomit or go to the bathroom, so it was the latter after all, but I sat there pretty miserable for 20 minutes, feeling light headed and nauseus, didn't want to stand from nausea and light headedness, so wow, not much fun!! I take it that was dumping, right? Well, I would like to try to avoid that in the future but not sure what I did

Hi and thanks. No, I certainly won't be able to lose any more weight after another month or so, I would be dangerously thin. Yes, I met the doctor half way. I lost around 50 myself with a really good exercise program and Atkins diet (trust me, I'd done it before...), so I feel like I really had established some good habits pre-op. The lowest I could go with my very wide shoulders is perhaps 190, maybe 185 but even now I'm getting those extremely irritating comments about, "Don't you think that's enough now?" etc... So very soon it will be about maintenance. And the appetite isn't completely back, just s small bit, but I did find that my useless calorie allotment had crept up to where 200 or more calories of my daily 900 were puddings, chocolates, etc; sure, all sweetened with Stevia but more importantly just a really bad direction, so I nipped that, plus it's a lot more satisfying to use those calories on eggs or Soups or baba ganoush etc.Man, what an incredible journey this has been. Good luck to you!!

Hola, Friends! Hey I wanted to post this on this site, but as often happens, I looked at the myriad categories/ threads and had no idea which one to post it in. That's one thing that drives me mad about this site: too many options; hell, you'd think you had a choice...!! Anyway, I'm 64 and I want to up my exercise, I've been around 30 minutes of walking, fairly fast, but maybe only 4 or 5 times a week. Now I know that's not bad to some people, but I know that I need more. Plus now at 8 weeks post op, my appetite has returned and it makes me nervous a bit. I'm still holding strong at around 900 calories a day; I journal everything I eat which would have been unthinkable before because I was such an unconscious emotional eater. I'm 6' 2" and now about 209 lbs (my high was 305), and my goal is 195 or so. I weigh in once a week at work on the school nurse's scale and I fear that this week may be the very first time I actually weigh MORE than the week before, however if that is the case I'll simply reduce intake and up the exercise. I've never felt such a sense of control and discipline in my life.

Ooh, I'm loving reading these goals/reward plans/hopes.. they're inspiring!! I jiust hit one: I dropped down below 210, I was 209 at my weekly weigh in at the nurse's office at the school where I work. Thrilling! But my first reward won't be till I drop below 200.... my highest was 305. My reward for below 200 will be a weekend in Boston!! Now I am holding off on the whole new wardrobe until around july to see where this whole weight thing stabilizes. Already my face looks quite thin (comparatively) so I'm getting all the "Ok stop there" comments, but my waste isn't all that skinny, plus far more importantly: it my freakin body!! So up (down) and onward to go...!! wheee...this is a blast

Hi folks, this has been an incredibly smooth and uneventful procedure, to the point where I almost didn't want to say it because I hear of so many problems on here. But it's been a breeze knock on wood. So here are the two things: 1) the unanticipated great pleasure is crossing my legs. When I sit and cross my legs now the experience is completely different as my legs don't splay out, the fold neatly and the folded over leg just goes straight don along side the other leg, if you can see what I mean here. It's no longer uncomfortable. But it's something I would never have thought of. 2) Has anyone heard of people reaching their goal weight in TWO months? Well I'm about to do that. Granted because I lost 45 before surgery, I didn't have as much to lose but now I've lost another almost 35 and so in a few weeks I imagine I'll be there. Just strikes me as strange but utterly wonderful... I'm 6'2", highest was 305, and now I'm 211, goal is 195 or 200.... this is a trip!! wow

Me, too, YOU...!!!

wow, 5, 11 and 139? You must be quite slim now. I'm 6, 2" and now 208, and though I look thin in a lot of clothes I own, they are mostly baggy on me now so that makes me look even thinner, but here's the thing: yes, my face and neck DO look fairly thin but my waist isn't all that thin yet. Nobody 6, 2 at 208 is all that thin, the BMI (which I know is not the gospel) says I should be 190 to reach a BMI under 26... won't happen because friends and family will assume I'm dying I'll be so thin-looking. I think I should stop worrying what others think and just go to a weight that feels good to me. Man, what a strange "problem" it is to have, a doctor telling you to eat nuts...lol

Wow, really, I should have guessed that, JNT1, but it makes sense. In a way I look forward to some restriction, because the lack thereof was certainly part of what got me here in the first place. I like the idea of a built in governor.

Amen to that, Oh Pink One!! Yeah, 50 days post-op and I still measure and journal everything carefully. But the hope is that I'll develop a strong sense of portions and get away from that crap; I realize how incredibly easy it is to mis judge and eat a ton more than we think we eat. But yeah, heavy protein always first in meal, chewing at least twenty chews (hell of a feat with Apple sauce!!!). waiting a minute between bites, it is the polar opposite of how I ate my whole life.

Hi and thanks for the info, a lot of it seems sage, but some of it flies in the face of things my surgeon tells me.For example, the most worrisome thing would be that one should eat hard proteins very quickly, like within 5 minutes, which is the opposite of what I'm told (the 30-30-30 rule). I think I'll run this by my surgical team

It's weird, since the first days post-op I could drink a hundred ounces if I felt like it

45 days since Feb 10th surgery, down 40 lbs, eating an average of 880 to 950 calories a day and walking or biking an average of 30 minutes a day. The weird part is that those aren't guesses, those are pretty much on the money, I've been keeping track of everything, something I never would have done before.

Yeah great question. I've very rarely heard from veterans,. I hope some rerspond I'd love to hear how their lives are now

Yeah actually that is the one thing that is a real drag, even though I'm on puree phase I have to drink milk of magnesia twice a week to go.... hmmmm