Nymea

So I am coming up to 5 months post op now and have had my first post op blood done with excellent news. The numbers are whatever we use in Australia so they may not make a lot of sense to those of you in USA unfortunately. So hba1c ( I am a diabetic) has gone from 8.5% to 7.0% and I have stopped all insulin and oral medications. Just on diet alone now. Total Cholesterol down from 8.5 mmol to 4.0 (4.0 is considered normal here) Ratios for the cholesterol measures are all in the excellent range Liver enzymes down from 156 to 126 (normal is 115 maximum) ... so I still have a little way to go there but I am happy considering how many blood pressure tablets I was taking and that I am still on a few. I am ecstatic about these results. I feel fantastic and am beginning to enjoy life again. Yes I still have some weight to go to goal, but that is less important to me now that my health is so much better.

So having scoured forums for suggestions of palatable Protein drinks I find most of the ones recommended are not available in Australia. Does anyone have some suggestions of ones that taste reasonable and are well tolerated by a new pouch? I am having trouble with my pouch not wanting to accept anything much in the way of protein. ( 3 weeks out from RNY)

I had a similar problem. My housemates are all very overweight and eat a lot more rubbish than I ever did. I happen to always have loved fresh home cooked - they love takeaway in every shape and form. My biggest weakness has always been sugar which is brought into the house frequently. When I had the surgery there was a lot or resentment, as if they didn't want me to succeed in weight loss because it would make them look bad. I still get it at times. Basically I have started leaving the room whenever they eat or whenever I get negative comments about not eating enough and getting too skinny.

I had my surgery in the middle of our winter and have never been so cold in my life. Fortunately we are heading into summer now so I can manage with just a few layers instead of many heavy ones. I share a house with other overweight people so there is a constant fight over what temp the heating sits on. Eventually I gave up and bought myself a couple of heaters that sit just beside my chair so I can be warm while they are fanning themselves.

I am almost 4 months post op and started off with good intentions to stick rigidly to the plan ... not that my surgeon or nut actually gave me a full eating plan, just one for the first 5 weeks and then "guidelines" to help with a healthy lifestyle moving forward. What I have found since surgery however, is that surgically reduced stomachs don't read nutritional plans. So you may have a plan that states x amount of Protein per meal and x amount of vegies etc, but that doesn't mean your stomach is going to agree with it. Since my surgery I have found protein is the hardest thing for my stomach to cope with. I try and make sure I have some at each meal, but I doubt if I manage the number of grams that some plans recommend. ( I should perhaps mention I was a vegetarian pre op so that might make a difference to protein tolerance). Having said that I have had my first lot of blood tests and everything came back normal. My surgeon says my weight loss is on target - whatever that means since he never gave me any solid goals to meet. I eat healthy, yes once or twice tried something I shouldn't and instantly regretted it and am moving on with an eating plan I find I can cope with on a daily basis. I stick to mainly fresh fruit and vegetables, chicken and fish and a small amount of dairy (limited by lactose intolerance). I don't stress about numbers - not calories nor nutrient grams. I am learning to listen more to my body and finding I feel much healthier for it as well as the weight coming off easily. This suits me and my body ... yours might be different and require different things.

I think my weight loss has been a little slower than "normal" whatever that is because I have been on insulin for most of the post op period - until last week (and for the 30 years prior to surgery). Also I can't really exercise much because I am waiting for both knees to be replaced, which puts a limit on walking and using gym equipment. I do swim when I can get to the pool though. Still I have gone down 3 dress sizes in just under 4 months so I am not complaining. As for eating, I find that my stomach restricts the type of food I can eat as well as the volume all by itself, so I haven't even thought much about sticking to an eating plan. Mainly I eat fresh fruit and vegies, dairy (limited because of lactose intolerance) chicken and fish. I occasionally crave the "bad" foods (candy/chocolate/takeaway/bread etc) but I have had horrible reactions whenever I have just tried one bite, so I just don't bother any more. To be honest I don't really miss it either.

Hi - I am just one week away from four months post op. Like you I was nervous about the surgery and the post op results. I was terrified I would be "THE ONE" who didn't lose weight. Post op wasn't all sunshine and unicorns either but I would definitely do it again. I had very little pain, nothing that needed medication but the nausea and vomiting was terrible. I ended up being in hospital for 6 days post op because of the vomiting, but slowly it subsided enough for me to go home. Exhaustion and being unable to do much at all (even showering myself was a challenge) were the biggest problems after coming home from hospital. That lasted somewhere between 6 & 8 weeks then slowly improved back to normal. Since the surgery vomiting and very loose bowels have been a problem on and off. They still plague me if I eat the wrong foods, or eat too fast, or if the evil witch is looking in my direction and makes my stomach decide that today it is not going to accept the very same food it loved every day for the last week. I have also had a couple of bouts of flu that affected my digestion significantly as well. But even after all that I say it was worth it. All the negative effects get less over time until you are left only with the positives of weight loss and feeling great. As for the surgery itself, I have been an operating theater nurse for over 20 years and I can tell you that we don't let people die in surgery. The biggest risk is actually post op complications and they are things you can be pro active about preventing. For example make sure you do your breathing and coughing, get up and move around even if it is hard. Those things prevent clots and pneumonia, which are two of your biggest enemies in the days after major surgery. The more you work to get yourself in shape before surgery (exercise if possible and stick to the diet they give you) the better your chances of a good recovery with no complications.

Yay congratulations and good luck with your surgery

I always had in mind to reach what the tables say is "normal" BMI for me .. which would make me about 138 pounds. I have never really believed that I could get that low. I should add that my surgeon doesn't give a goal weight .. he says I will know when I get there and that is the right weight for me to be at. Having read this topic I have revised my first goal to 160 pounds. That will put me out of the obese category and into the overweight category for the first time since I was a teenager. Once I have reached that goal, I plan to let my body decide what weight it wants to settle at. Once I am sure it is the right weight for me, then I will start working to make sure I stay within a few pounds of that weight on the upper side. On the lower side ... well I don't want to get into below weight territory but other than that .. I am fine.

Having spent the first 4 months of this year procrastinating about whether to have surgery or not I finally saw the surgeon today. But a little more about me first I think. I am 56 years old and been overweight since I was 8. Sure I have lost weight plenty of times, but it never stays off. Eventually that nibble of cheese in the evening becomes a plate full of cheese and crackers or that couple of squares of chocolate becomes a whole bar ... or two. Damn the supermarket for always having a 2 for 1 special on some type of chocolate. I can't deny it is my own fault. I know I eat way too much of the wrong things but somehow after intense periods of self control it falls through the floor and I am back where I started. Of course I never set out to eat a whole packet of chips, or a whole bar of chocolate (family size of course) but that is how it ends up. 4 years go I decided to give up sugar completely. I literally dragged myself through the first few weeks, but by about 8 weeks, I was no longer craving and rarely thought about it. I didn't lose any weight but at lease I didn't put any on either. Then I stopped eating breads .. well anything with flour in it really. I also cut out potato and rice. So I was basically left with fresh vegetables, meat, dairy and fruit. I did marvelously on that diet and lost 20 kg with hardly any effort. I kept on losing slowly for nearly 2 years. Then I went on a cruise ... I stuck with my eating regime for the first week, but then decided that the Desserts were only little and one wouldn't hurt. Those croissants at Breakfast were only small too, so they wouldn't hurt either. Nor would the chocolate sauce on the pudding, and the hot chocolate at the coffee shop. I had a wonderful time on that cruise, really let my hair down and managed to undo everything I had done over the previous few years. Oh I didn't come back with all the weight back on, but when I tried to stop eating the "bad" things again and return to my healthy eating my head just wouldn't let me. Time and time again I tried but never with the success of that first time. Recently I tried to give up the sugar again with a friend's help. She suggested that I get a tape measure and cut a centimeter off for each day I didn't eat sugar. Today I cut off the 50th centimeter. I still find it hard to go past chocolate in the shops, but for the rest of the time I don't worry about it as much. Tomorrow I am stopping the bread and crackers again, moving back to more fresh vegetables and a piece of fruit a day. Then next week I will slowly introduce my VLCD one meal at a time. I will replace lunch first since I enjoy my porridge at breakfast and find I can manage well without lunch if I eat a good breakfast. I won't go without lunch though, just replace it with one of those drinks *shudder*. I am going to buy some bars as well since I prefer them to drinks. So why have I chosen to go the surgical route? Well aside from the obvious continual failings, I need knee surgery, two replacements but they won't do them until i lose weight. Since I can't walk without a cane now, I need to do something about my weight quickly. Sure I could just do a VLCD and lose the weight I need to for the knee surgery but this time I want a permanent solution. I also have a heart problem, high blood pressure and diabetes. All of these will improve if I lose significant weight and keep it off. I suppose by some measures I don't have so much to lose. I weigh exactly 100 kg and at 5 ft 2 that makes my BMI 40. I would like to get to about 60kg but even 65kg would make my life significantly better. These days I have given up worrying about what I look like. I just want to be able to move around more freely and feel more healthy. I used to be a nurse (in operating theater so I know exactly what this surgery looks like lol). I had to give up nursing last year because me knees would no longer hold me for a full shift (or even half a shift). Now I am doing a PhD and am really enjoying the change of pace. So back to today. I saw the surgeon, one of my old colleagues and we agreed that they best surgery for me was Roux en y. However, he suspects a hiatus hernia so I have to have an endoscopy first. That is booked for 5th July. Hopefully if all moves smoothly I will have my surgery mid July. I have to see the dietitian, psych and a cardiologist/intensive care physician because of my heart problems. With any luck I will be able to book them all in before the endoscopy so that when it is done I can get the actual surgery booked fast. It only takes a week or two here in Australia to book into a private hospital I already have the paperwork which I can send in now so they have me on the system. Then my surgeon will just give me a date and it's done. I am still not 100% convinced I want to go through with it, but I will most likely need to have the lap hernia repair anyway so I might as well do the lot in one go. First step on the path so to speak

Update at 3.5 months out So I had the surgery .. and survived lol. The first week was terrible, just constant vomiting. But it passed and I went home from hospital still scared but able to drink whatever I wanted in fluids. I found that for the most part clear fluids (broths and such) were the easiest, but each day i would try some thicker Soup etc because it was on my meal plan. Slowly I got to introduce puree, then soft foods, then normal diet. It didn't always go well and there were many days where I needed to go back to clear fluids to give my stomach a rest. It took a lot of patience. But I made it. I know now which foods I definitely can't eat (at the moment at least), which foods can be iffy, and which foods are mostly "safe". I say mostly safe because nothing post RNY is definite in the first year or two. The hardest challenge for me has been eating out. There have been a few family events that involve eating out and I find that I often just order a latte and pinch a chip from someone's plate or go with a side salad. For me that is safest and I really don't want to be rushing to the bathroom in a restaurant (I have had it happen a couple of times and it is no fun at all). The surgeons have put me on the list for double knee replacements and my heart failure has gone. I have cut down on my blood pressure meds and last week the doc took me off insulin .. although I do need to take tablets at least for a while. I reached a psychological goal for me as well yesterday. I am now the lightest I have been in 25 years. If I lose another 5 kg I will be the lightest I have been since I was 17. The road to recovery hasn't been easy. There have been a lot of setbacks. The ups and downs of weight loss have had me in tears at times, but I had good support from friends who got me through the worst of it. Now I am focused on enjoying life instead of what the scales say. And the scales are being much friendlier to me as well. So I am facing the next 3 months with more enthusiasm and joy for life.

Congratulations and good luck with the surgery.

I wouldn't worry too much about pauses and even small gains in weight. We all fluctuate with our cycles and the moon ... and whatever evil being is currently focusing on us Seriously though my own weight loss journey has been very up and down (literally). I seem to get stuck on a regular basis and then seemingly overnight I will shift as much as 2 kg and am then left wondering where did it go in 12 hours? I had a friend who encouraged me to stop weighing myself so often and that worked. I cut down from daily (sometimes even 2 or 3 times a day) to once a fortnight. Now I am much more focused on living than on weight loss ... and I can see that over time the weight has off. It just doesn't happen in a straight line. It isn't easy ... i was like you at first .. terrified that I would be the one who didn't succeed. It is so hard to let go of that fear and learn to just live again. But please give it a try. It really will make a huge difference to the way you feel. Just trust in the process. It is proven to work so let go of the need to control it and start enjoying your new life.

Hi - I had my RNY the same week as you and I have the same issues. I eat pretty much the same thing for Breakfast every day because I find that is the hardest meal for my stomach to cope with. Most days I have no problem, then out of the blue it won't accept the very same food. I also have the same thing as msujester and find that if I stop at the first hint of trouble and wait until it clears (it can sometimes be as long as an hour) I can usually finish the meal eventually. The other thing I find when my stomach cramps up like that is sipping a little hot tea is soothing and helps the muscles relax. I know we are not supposed to drink and eat at the same time and as a general rule I don't but when I get the crampiness that won't let anything go down, I find hot tea helps. I guess it is still a matter of getting used to eating differently. I have 2 friends who had similar surgery .. one said it takes about 2 years to be secure in eating again. The other ... who is not quite at the 2 year mark says that it gets easier but the sudden rejection of food you can normally eat is still present, just less frequent.

I was on insulin for 30 years before my surgery. I am now 3.5 months post RNY surgery. My doc said it was unlikely that I would be able to give up insulin completely but last week he took me off insulin. I now take a combined Metformin/Forxigia tablet and am watching my sugars, They still go up a bit too much if I eat any carbs but my doc says it is going to take time for my body to get used to coping on its own again. So as long as my sugars dont exceed a certain point in the hour - 2 hours after meals I am fine. So far I seem to be doing okay. I will most likely be on medication my whole life and have to be strict about carb intake but it is worth it to be rid of insulin. I am about half way to my goal weight now. I guess I will know when I get closer to my goal if I can give up the tablets or not.

I found myself getting frustrated with daily fluctuations as well. I stopped weighing myself so much and now I do it about once every 2 weeks or so. It made a huge difference to my mental health and I was able to stop focusing on food and scales and focus on living life again post surgery.

3.5 months post op here. My biggest achievement is to come off insulin after 30 years on it. For me that is huge .. even more so than cutting down on my BP meds. I also saw the cardiologist a couple of weeks ago and my heart failure has gone! That was my primary goal pre surgery ... to improve the heart failure .. so when she said it was gone I was gobsmacked. Today I cleaned out my wardrobe .. and have hardly any clothes left that fit me. Guess what I am getting for Xmas? The road from day of surgery to here has been hard and I had many regrets in the first few months ... but now I have none at all. I would do it all again in the same situation.

My plan allowed for anything that was the consistency of a thick shake on discharge from hospital - any food could be blended to make it that consistency. Then at week 3 I moved to puree food - again anything that could be pureed. Week 4 I was able to eat anything as long as it was soft cooked and week 5 I was allowed a full diet. That is not to say my stomach allowed it, just that my surgeon and dietician did. I am not at 3 1/2 months post surgery ... and most foods are still an experiment. What I could eat yesterday isn't necessarily what I can eat today. The only things that I can consistently eat with no difficulty are fresh raw or steamed vegetables ... and some fruits. I seem to live on salads these days.

Let me tell you this .. it may help ... it will be much harder to lose weight if you go on insulin. However, you must follow your doctor's advice there because too much high sugar - particularly over time ... can cause damage that can't be repaired. I am assuming that you decided to go through with WLS in order to improve your health. I can tell you that as hard as it may be right now, it is absolutely worth the work in order to get to surgery in the best shape you can be. I was on insulin for 30 years - and continued on insulin for 3 months after surgery. The insulin made it very hard for me to lose weight ... although after the surgery it was easier. My doc took me off insulin just last week ... and in 5 days I lost 3 kg. I am now on tablets but I am hoping that eventually I can lose them too. I can't tell you how freeing it is to not have to take insulin anymore. Having said all that I want to say again .. you must follow your doctor's advice on this matter because of the damage that can be done to heart/kidneys/nerves/eyes and many other parts of your body by taking risks with high sugars. So hang in there ... I know it is hard .. but you only have a few more weeks to get through ... and the rest of your life ahead of you to enjoy food again.

I have been able to eat some fruits (like melon) since early days. Fruits with a fibrous skin like apples I couldn't manage the skins until end of month 3. Strawberries have always been a bit of hit and miss for me. Sometimes they are fine, other times they just don't stay down. I find bananas are hit and miss too ... sometimes I dump on them other times I don't. Now we are moving to the soft summer fruits (in Australia) and I find I have no problems with mango and grapes. I am still waiting for nectarines to get to a reasonable price to try them. I am looking forward to cherries which usually come into the shops at the beginning of December (I will have to be extra careful not to accidentally swallow a cherry seed though). The most surprising thing for me is that I have more problems with eggs, meat and fish than I do with fruit and vegetables. Grains and breads are just not edible at all ... which is no real loss for me since I have always loved my fruit and veg. Dairy can be hit or miss - some days I am lactose intolerant and some days I can eat it just fine.

This confused me too because in Australia a no sugar added cordial is what you guys would probably call crystal lite. It is a no calorie flavour you add to Water. So I too was reading it wondering what all the talk about alcohol was for. To the OP I added a little sugar free lemon or lime juice to my water to keep my palate fresh and the nausea at bay. I still do add it sometimes ... depending on my mood. I haven't had any problems with losing weight even while still on insulin. I will say that my doctor took me off insulin last week .. and all of a sudden I dropped 3 kg in 5 days - which only goes to show insulin makes you retain Fluid and possibly fat as well.

Hi there I am having a gastric bypass on 16th August and looking forward to the positive changes that will come with it ... reduction or elimination of insulin, improvement of GERD, lowering of blood pressure, being able to move better .. maybe even less knee pain. Of course I am worried about the outcome particularly since I also have a heart condition, although my cardiologist assures me I will be fine and my heart will even benefit from my losing weight. As a nurse I know I will lose weight but in the back of my mind I still have this nagging doubt. I suppose with all the failed diets in my 56 years I can't believe that this time it will work. What I am curious about is whether it is possible to lose enough weight to get back to a "normal" BMI weight range. So I am asking if anyone here has managed it and if so what did it take to get there? For those who didn't quite manage normal BMI how close did you get? I would like to get as close to what is considered normal for my height as possible. I am not expecting to make it all the way, and I think I can live with being just a bit overweight rather than morbidly obese but I really would like to have some realistic idea before I start. My surgeon hasn't given me a goal weight yet so I feel like I am swimming in a pool of hopes and fears. Unfortunately the fears are screaming the loudest at the moment. I do still have another appointment with the surgeon before my op so maybe he will tell me then. If not maybe I will push him on the subject.

@ Hi thank you for asking. You have done amazingly well ... congratulations on hitting "Normal" BMI. I bet that feels amazing! Not sure how long ago you posted .. I have been busy and not checking here much ... but I reached 22 kg lost this week. I still have another 17 kg to go to be in the normal BMI range, but I am very happy with the loss so far. Eating and drinking can still be a bit hit and miss at times - but I am adjusting and take the ups with the downs now. The best thing for me is that I came off insulin a week ago. I still need tablets for my diabetes, but considering I have been on insulin for 30 years it is so freeing to be able to say goodbye to it. I am hoping that by the time I reach a normal BMI I can say goodbye to the tablets as well.