ShelterDog64

I'm not a vegetarian, but a huge portion of my Protein comes from non-meat sources, and I can barely tolerate eggs post-sleeve so they're not a consideration. I eat a lot of Beans, regular cheese, cottage and ricotta cheese, yogurt, quinoa and whey-based protein supplements. You'll be great at it!

@@suzzzzz That's a great description, weight loss in waves. I was stuck in the same pound of hell for almost 2 weeks, now I've lost 3 pounds in 2 days. I've tried to not weigh myself daily, but that creates as much anxiety as not losing weight. I'm focusing on my interim goal, which is 50 lbs in the first 90 days...I'm SO close! I hope you're all doing well, we might need to start a new thread soon, I think this one is 600+ posts long

I didn't feel the restriction of my sleeve until I moved to solids. For the first week, every sip of Fluid was a bit uncomfortable, but after that it was easy to drink a whole Protein Drink. When I started solids, I could only eat about 2T at a time. I knew EXACTLY when I'd had enough...it's unmistakeable.

I knew it would be impossible (for many reasons I won't go into here) for me to keep this surgery secret, even if I wanted to. I haven't told my distant relatives or a few people who don't live near me, but I've told most everyone else who is a regular part of my life. We entertain and socialize extensively, so there's no way to hide my decreased intake of food. I hit a point, pre-op, where I basically said 'f**k it' and told people...if they aren't willing to be kind and supportive, I don't need them in my life. This isn't vanity surgery for me, it's to improve my health and extend my life. If they can't support that, they aren't decent human beings and I have no issue cutting them out of my life in a hot minute. Happily, I've had nothing but support and now that I'm post-op, everyone has been wonderful and have been cheering me on through every step of this. BUT, this is up to no one but you. Only you know what your friends and family are like, and how willing they are to be the kind of support you need. And you don't have to make a decision now and never deviate from it...in a few months, you might feel differently than you do now and you can tailor your information sharing as needed. Good luck to you!

The best reassurance I can give you is that anesthesiologists who are associated with bariatric groups generally have extensive experience with obese patients and are probably your best bet for a safe anesthesia episode. If you share ever aspect of your health with them, being 100% truthful about the good, bad and ugly, they can do the job they need to do. They need to know if you have sleep apnea or suspect sleep apnea, your drug/alcohol usage (both prescribed and OTC drugs as well as any herbal/vitamins/etc), your activity level, and so on and so forth. There's no guarantee for any of us, but we can up the odds we'll get through surgery safely but being honest and trusting our caregivers with all of our information. Good luck to you!

The store here on Bariatric Pal has both PatchMD patches and BariMelts vitamins.

I don't think a 30 lb weight loss in 7-ish weeks is 'only 30 lbs'. What was your expectation? Why are you still missing food, has your plan not allowed you to advance to a full diet yet? I guess I'm just kind of confused...you didn't have the surgery for no reason, you had it because of your weight and now you're rapidly losing weight. What's not going the way you want it to?

Babbs usually chimes in on these carb threads with good info, but until she does, remember that all carbs are not the same. Simple carbs (white flours, sugar, non-diet soda, honey, corn syrups) are the ones to be avoided for the most part. But complex carbs, like those found in whole-grain foods, vegetables and many fruits, can be a part of a pre- and post-op bariatric diet. Dairy and nuts have carbs, but are a staple in my diet...I avoid bread, Pasta and sugar but always have vegetables or fruit after my Protein at every meal.

I had my surgery in June and I've had sushi, but I only ate half of a slice of a roll with brown rice and the rest was sashimi. You shouldn't have to completely remove ANYTHING from your diet forever but you'll probably want to limit rice. So yes, you should be able to have sushi, in limited amounts

@@leese1978 You can't really do anything 'wrong' 4 days post-op, be a little nicer to yourself Walking, sipping Water and drinking Protein is your whole job right now...and if you can't get much protein in this soon after surgery, you'll be fine. Keep trying to increase it and you'll soon be at your requirement. I struggled with getting my water in and still do...it's just not something that comes easily to me. Keep moving, keep sipping and it DOES get better...the first week or 2 is hard and then it's suddenly easier and you feel much better. Congratulations on getting through your surgery!

My plan allows for carbs, much like @@Christinamo7, but I've chosen to limit things like bread and Pasta to keep my weight loss moving better. That said, I have eaten toast with a poached egg and didn't have any issues at all with it. It fills me up very quickly and sits kind of heavily in my stomach, so I don't really enjoy it like I used to. And when I eat bread, I make sure it's the highest fiber/lowest sugar I can find. Simple carbs like white flour and sugar are the ones I avoid like the plague.

Is your week 4 purees or soft foods? Every plan is different, I was on full food by the end of week 4. Good soft foods: refried Beans with cheese, ricotta with sauce, cottage cheese with pureed fruit, soft scrambled eggs (for most people, not for me), yogurt, softer cheeses. I mixed unflavored Protein into most everything I ate. Like @@amandastearns said, shakes are a good option still at that point, especially if the food choices are complicated and you don't have a lot of time to spend worrying about food.

@ I spent 10 years convincing myself that the surgery was too drastic, that I didn't need it, that I could lose the weight on my own (and somehow magically keep it off THIS time!!), etc, etc, etc. Now, 10 years later, I've just wasted 10 good years of my life being fat, in pain and in declining health. I kick myself daily for not doing this a LOT sooner It's not as drastic as I thought it would be, mostly because I don't care about food much any more. I care about being active, not having joint pain and not being on a couple of meds I started out on. I literally can forget to eat now. FORGET TO EAT!! That NEVER happened to me before, ever. Ever. You're the only person who can make the decision for yourself, but WLS is effective, and it's safe. And if you're at the point where it feels like your last option, it probably is. Good luck with your decision and keep us posted!

I like infused Water that I make myself, my current favorite is cucumber lime, or I use the Mio Vitamin drops in Blackberry Raspberry flavor. It's sweetened with stevia instead of sucralose, which I hate. They also have a Tropical Cherry flavor that I haven't tried but is stevia sweetened. I have no idea which Vitamins they claim to contain as I use a tiny amount because full strength is too sweet :-P

Your nutritionist or dietitian would be a good person to talk with this about. If you can't reach that person, I'd divide all the food he's asking you to eat into manageable amounts. Right now, I can eat 3 oz. Protein and maybe 2 oz. veg or fruit at one meal, so that 3 oz/3 oz/3 oz meal would have to spill over to a snack...you may need to do 5 meals/day. You'll feel awful if you try to eat 9 oz of food at one meal. That's a lot of food for 1 month post-op, and it will be very hard for you to get your protein requirement in without supplementing with a shake. You really need to speak with your dietitian/nutritionist.

@ I'm also an ENTJ and never waver from that. I've probably taken some version of the M-BTI 30 times since my late 20s and the result is always the same, and I'm waaaaaay to the deep end on all 4 categories.

@@determined1LD I've lost 46 lbs so far, and I've been losing/gaining/losing the same .5 lb for about 10 days, so really 46 in 8+ weeks. Every surgeon has different pre-op requirements; mine felt that it wasn't necessary to do prep for the sleeve other than what you'd do for any surgery. Not trying to override anything your surgeon requires, just that there's really nothing 'weird' out there, only different approaches by different docs.

Really! Any complications determined1LD Not a single one. I probably had one of the easiest recoveries of anyone posting here...I was on full diet at 4 weeks and haven't looked back since.

It definitely gets easier! The first week sucked, quite frankly...the swelling is overwhelming your stomach and just getting enough Fluid to support your body is difficult. My surgery was 6/21 and other than the restriction I feel when eating, it's like I never had surgery. Hang in there, it does get much, much better! Congratulations on getting your surgery, you're on the loser's bench now

Definitely clarify with your team, but for comparison, I did no prep at all for my surgery other than being NPO from midnight the night before my 0800 procedure.

Thanks for the heads up! Hard to imagine mammograms being worse than they currently are, but sounds like it's likely.

@@Dub We're gonna need a 2 person kayak for the trip to see @!

@@Kelleylu * My head can't get past the idea that chopping off half my stomach to quit overeating is barbaric and someday I'll regret it.* I held off for 10 years because of this very thought. But guess what? It turns out that getting 3/4 of my stomach removed (it's not half, btw!) was the absolute right thing to do, for ME. I walked out of the hospital after a 2 night stay off my hypertension medicine, and with my fibromyalgia trigger points GONE. Clearly, having 100% of my stomach was increasing my body's inflammatory response to the point that I was having to control those responses with medications. My mild arthritis is nearly gone, my leg and arm muscles don't hurt anymore and my mood is greatly elevated by the absence of chronic pain. My experience doesn't mean this is the right surgery for you, but only to illustrate how intrinsically interwoven all of our body's systems are. Merely losing the weight I need to lose wouldn't have had the same effect on me.

Main thing I was inquiring about was because the new sleeve pts seem to be eating much less. I know I'm allowed to eat that but I was asking if it were normal. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App Many people probably could get 4T in pretty soon post-op, but just don't try. I never tried any more than my doc suggested at 2 weeks out because I didn't want to push the limits of what my sleeve could hold...that might be why it seems like others have less capacity. Just guessing.

@@Dub Hearing the words 'charcoal' and 'tequila' in the same sentence makes me swoon...just need some sand and saltwater and it's heaven.