OzRoo

@@James Marusek Great advice! It makes sense re restricting Newbies initially from posting links. I agree re removing these spammers and their posts ASAP. @@Alex Brecher Could you or Ken S look into it, please? Thank you.

@@eso I haven't bought mozzarella for a while. Thanks for reminding me. I have been using regular cheddar cheese. At times, I would add our Australian cruskits (healthy crisp-breads that were bought out by an American company), I would crumble them into the unmelted mix, shave my cheddar or use grated one. I then slice thinly ham, or bacon, or prosciutto, even smoked salmon at times. Sprinkle more cheese on top, add bit of salt and cayenne pepper. And a splash of soy sauce. I microwave the dish for about 2-3 minutes. At 2.5 mins, it comes out nice and crunchy If I don't feel like cruskits, then I add all above sans crisp-breads, but I may also add cream cheese to the mix. I used refried Beans on occasions, and they blended in nicely. As for yourself, definitely avoid the refried beans. Maybe you can try them in the future. Quite few foods that I couldn't tolerate earlier on, I am fine with at 8 months post op.

Yum! Sounds delicious! I love adding ham or prosciutto and refried Beans to my melted cheese mix, and I make it crunchy. Pesto sounds great! Must buy some, as I used to love it in the past, and then forgot about it. Now if only I could get the Cheese bread here in Australia, I'd be in heaven Carr Valley, come to Australia! I will sell your cheese bread and eat it

@@Hammer_Down I had few months in the past where I lost my appetite, and nothing much was appealing to me either. I had to make sure I had enough daily Proteins, though. I used to add Protein powder to my Chobani yoghurt, and still do it, to this day. I long for those days now. My hunger came back after 6 months, drats, so back to regular small meals for me. 8 months post op, and my honeymoon period is over for me ...... Speaking of which, it is almost dinner time in my neck of the woods, so I better eat something soon. Good luck with your Watergate, I am sure you will ride it out. Just maintain your proteins in this stage.

@@Hammer_Down LOL, I forgot the "taco gate" ...... Basically, any thread that goes over 15-20 pages May have some "gates" in them ..... Yes, I am now hungry too, but only because I had a little snack over 3 hrs ago.

No links, but we had "bacon gate", pork chop gate", "Swedish fish gate", "Carp gate", "20 oz steak gate", "CheesIts gate", "eating pizza 2-3 days post op gate", "BMI 21 for VSG gate", etc, etc I am sure I forgot few others ...... And they keep coming ..... Wash, rinse, repeat ....

Trust me, it will .....

More examples of Slider Foods/Drinks: chocolate, Ice-cream, Frozen yoghurt, Milo (chocolate shakes), alcohol

Very sensible idea!

After 2-3 months, my clothes were loose and my face was no longer bloated, but shapely. I also could fit into my regular bra, boobs got smaller, thank goodness! After 6 months, some people who have not seen me for this amount of time, they did not recognise me! And the ones that did, said: "wow, you lost lot of weight. You look great!" My feet got smaller too, LOL, I went down 1 size in shoes!

Post op diet Prescriptions are very important. Yes, they do very with different surgeons and different patients. The main thing is what Your Surgeon prescribed for You. For me, my post op prescription was: 2 weeks liquids, 2 weeks purees, 2 weeks soft/mushy, then gradual progression into solids. I too had enough of sweet stuff, so, as mentioned by Lipstick Lady, I had Soups galore, such as pumpkin, strained mushroom Soup, strained asparagus soup, broth and V8 juice. The liquid phase was the hardest for me, and I was sick of it in week 2, but I soldiered on. I was too afraid of a leak or possible complications to deviate from My Prescription.

I can't remember how long my pain lasted, I think a week. I had a week's supply of oxycodone when I was discharged from hospital. I was in the hospital for 3 days, and was given strong pain killer via my IV initially. My worst pain was in my left side, where my part stomach was removed, and I had a drain there for 2 days. Everything did get better for me with time. The first 1-2 weeks can be rough. Having said that, the sleeve was not the most painful surgery that I had, and I had few surgeries in the past. @@ninaross if you are still in the hospital, ask for stronger pain killers, and definitely talk to your surgeon about it, whether you are in the hospital still or have been discharged. Good luck!

LOL

Where rigid thinking and fixed ideas prevail, unfortunately countless lessons in applying logic and learning good communications skills may not be a priority. The Mirror of Self Reflection is lacking.

This is as good an example as any of a brain bending logical fallacy. You are deploying a textbook False Dichotomy with your "us vs then" language here. We are not wearing jerseys. There are not 2 teams on BP, the offended and the offenders. Everyone on this site comes from diverse backgrounds and we all share somewhat different opinions on all matters, diet or otherwise. You should get it out of your head that there is a surreptitious campaign going on, where multitudes of people conspire against you. I mean his in the nicest way possible, but I don't think you're really important enough for people to run a covert smear campaign against. There's no media black ops going on here, just people who disagree with you. Which brings me to your ad hominem attacks: name calling and accusations don't bolster your argument. In fact, it's most often used as a tactic by people who have no valid argument. Your strawman: you claim that you're simply defending your opinion and called bad and stupid by soapboxers. That you are under attack by these uncouth bullies. The problem? You can't seem to come up with any instances where someone from "the other" group called you names. You created that argument and then struck that argument down yourself. Circular logic at its best. This! Now this response is logical, sensible and again, down to earth. Logical, calm perception with logical and calm explanation. Attempts to thwart logic and attempts at controlling via mind bending just does not work! Neither does circular logic.

Great, down to earth, logical and sensible post! @@Hammer_Down Thank you.

Post op there is the new "baby stomach" to care for. Like babies, it can't handle too much if any adult type drink, food is consumed, and keeps gurgling and belching and protests often. Stomach takes 6 months to heal completely. I gurgled and belched in the early post op phases. Most of it has now gone away. I had my op early March 2016. I remember getting severely dehydrated in my 2nd week, and that was scary. I bought electrolyte drink then, Hydralyte, and to this day, most of it is still sitting in my fridge. This was a big lesson for me to keep my fluids up. With Water, it was hard for me to sip or drink plain, so I started adding bit of apple juice or lemonade to it. This helped me. I also drank lot of brewed black tea then. Now I switched to green tea. Now, 8 months post op, I can guzzle 500ml in one go, no problems. My gurgling, most of it has gone away. I experience bit of gurgling and/or belching if I forget to eat, get too hungry, and consequently occasionally eat too fast. It does get better with time! I had chewable BN Multi for the first 3 months. Then I went back to my regular Multivitamin, and it did make me nauseous many times. I was taking them After food. I tried cutting them in half, and taking them After food, twice daily. This works for me, no more nausea. As others said, please talk with your surgeon about any issues that you are having now and later. Good Luck.

No regrets, none whatsoever. The first 2 weeks were rough for me, mainly due to being on liquids only, and I had severe reflux. This changed, once I moved onto purees and switched to a stronger PPI (acid reducer) I love my results, down 73Ib, and although the weight loss has slowed down for me at 8 months post op, it is still happening. Plus I have been free from PPIs for close to 2 months now, and my reflux is gone.

@@lexiemustang Soo good to hear that you are doing so well now! Congratulations! I had depressions on and off for years. I was antidepressant free, both pre op and post op, till month 5 post op. I had a tremendous amount of stress, and one day I just couldn't cope anymore. I went back to Effexor, as I tolerate it well and it does not increase my appetite. It took me 8 weeks to start feeling better, as opposed to 1-2 weeks pre WLS, but the main thing is that it is working. So happy to hear that you are feeling so much better! Best Wishes!

When I was 3 weeks post op, it was Easter and a friend gave me a chocolate bunny. I resisted it for one day, ate 1/2 of it the next day, and it made me so ill, and together with one of the worst reflux attacks that I have not touched chocolate since. I could probably be OK with it now, but I choose not to. Don't want to tempt fate. Have fruit and custard for Desserts now, instead of chocolate and loads of ice-cream. So, yes, my sleeve saved me from myself Great topic @@The New Kel

I started logging food in MFP during my Soft/Mushy stage. My dietician helped me to program MFP for my personal guide, so I was given a % of Proteins, Carbs and Fats, and 800 cal limit per day. I programmed this info into My Goals Yes, MFP jumps up and down when the caloric intake is less than 1000 cal per day, but I ignore it. When I succumbed to some slider foods, it showed me how many empty calories I consumed ...... And it shows me how much protein I have each day. Some fruit that I love, like water melon is very high in sugar, carbs and calories, so I have it with bit of rock melon, cottage cheese and custard. There were few months in the past when I was very stressed, had no appetite, and I was lucky to consume 550 calories per day. Not anymore, appetite is back. So, for me, the My Fitness Pal has been very useful.

I still love my Gloria Jean bean flavoured coffee. Early post op I was also drinking lots of brewed black tea, now I don't touch it, switched to green tea instead. I used to eat lot of beef before surgery, now I don't touch it. Have been having turkey and ginger pork instead. And fish and chicken as in the pre op days. I eat lot more yoghurt now, love Chobani yoghurt, and I supplement it with Protein powder, and a bit of grated apple, cinnamon and vanilla essence. It is yummy! Gone off bread, Pasta and I never really liked rice. Yes, I too love cottage cheese, and add a bit of low fat aioli into it, tastes really good. Developed love for Water and rock melons and custard. I still have many jellies left over from the early post op days, but I am not interested in them anymore.

Sounds like it is time for Bananana ...... Or a bunch ....

I was stalled for 6-7 weeks. Almost did my head in! I followed advice re mainly Protein meals. Have been doing it for a week, and today my scales finally moved! Finally lost a pound! Hooray! I also got Bowel Clear (has many herbs), and this relieved my constipation due to very high protein food. Many of us who were sleeved 8 months ago have noticed that the honeymoon period is over, and that weight loss can stall for longer times at this stage. At least it it still going down, but at a much slower pace.