SilentBotts

You will also probably be very surprised at how satisfying small portion sizes are post-op. I'll make chicken cutlets and pre-op I could eat anywhere from 2-4 of them. Now one of them leaves me completely satisfied.

We loose the most weight in a period right after surgery that lasts six months to a year, depends on your body and starting weight is a factor as well. During this period you absolutely want maximize your weight loss and avoid anything that isn't helping you hit the Protein and calorie goals you set with your surgeon and nutritionist. The sleeve gives us a lot of flexibility in our food choices but we still have to make sure we are making good choices. It's a personal decision to try anything that could be called junk food. But it should be done with a lot of fore thought. You need to consider how it might affect your weight. If it's something that might be habit forming for you and could lead to reforming bad habits you had pre-op. You'll also need to make sure you are still meeting your dietary requirements as well. The real permanent change is that you are always going to be planning your food and putting a lot of thought into what you eat. The days of just eating whatever is at hand or whatever you are craving are done. For me personally I don't plan on experimenting with food choices until I've hit goal and proven to myself that I can maintain. pizza is something I may try a year from now and even then it'll have to be thin crust, and I know I can get some protein out of the cheese and adding some toppings like chicken. Chinese food is out forever, too starchy, too much MSG, too many calories, not enough protein. I also know that because of the bread I'm probably never eating a burger or hot dog on the bun again. Your example of chicken wings is a good one, chicken is great for protein, generally you'll be able to eat any comfortably sized portion. It depends more on the sauce you are using. Most sauces are loaded with sugar and calories so you'll want to pay attention to that and find alternatives. I'm five months out at this point and also honestly I don't even find my self craving this stuff anymore. I'm very satisfied by the foods I've been eating. Lots of chicken and fish, some beef and pork, lots of eggs and cheese. Nuts for an occasional snack.

My supervisor was actually one of the people I held off on telling specifically because I knew she would make it super weird. And wow did she. She got super freaked out, used up 5-10 minutes of a meeting with me trying to convince me to go on some kind of retreat instead.

I didn't really feel physically different. It was strange once I was able to eat solids, making dinner for the week and thinking "I could eat all of that" Then being completely satisfied by my one cup sized portion. You'll want to make sure you've got a digital scale, blender, tiny tupperware containers to portion out servings. sugar free Jello, ice pops, and drinks are good to have on hand. If you don't already have one I would get a good 32oz or larger Water bottle, helps with hitting daily liquid goals. Make sure you get your Protein power/shakes.

I have a feeling that anyone who would be unsupportive about this decision also would have found a way to be unsupportive or nasty about losing weight with a traditional method. So screw 'em.

Pre-Op I only told a few close friends/co-workers and family. I didn't really spread it around more because I was worried that I wouldn't make it through the six month pre-op checklist or would change my mind. Once it was done I tell anyone who wants to listen to the story. Everyone I've told has been super supportive and it seems like everyone already knows someone else who has had some type of WLS.

I occupied myself with getting my house ready for being home after surgery, making sure I had all my supplies, and Protein stuff, and Vitamins, and things to do. I just treated it like a vacation.

I agree with every thing Bufflehead said. Definitely also track your Protein, if you are hitting your goal with just food then you can probably drop one or both of the shakes. Getting all your protein from food is a good goal in general, and lean protein like fish/poultry/eggs/low fat cheese makes it very easy. The cottage cheese is a great choice. Turkey or chicken sausage is a great alternative to pork sausage. I would also try to limit the number of times you have a snack each day. Snacking can get us back into the habit of grazing which is a really easy way to get around the restriction of the sleeve.

Might be ingrown hairs if they shaved your stomach before surgery. I've had a ton of them. But, I'm not sure if they shave everyone or not.

Did your doctor put you on a liquids only pre op diet? I found it made a huge difference in my ability to adapt to new eating habits post op. The pre op diet was kind of like a detox period. Made it much easier post op.

Was not paying attention this morning and put my Colace under my tongue as if it was the B12. Five minutes later the gel starts to dissolve and it is the most bitter taste, I can still taste it, I've been rinsing my mouth out for about 10 minutes. Uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

It was definitely the rice. I'm very surprised your surgeon and NUT didn't do a better job explaining the restrictions. Rice/Bread/Starches were drilled into me as things to avoid because they expand and fill you up too fast and potentially cause discomfort. For the first six months to a year while your in the loosing period also definitely focus more on Protein foods than anything else.

I waited about three and a half months before trying anything carbonated. The carbonation doesn't bother me, but I burp a lot. I find a 12oz can is a good size. I keep some Vitamin Water zero and coke zero on hand for my flavored sugar free beverages.

First week I just made a little nest on the couch with my video game controls, e-book, Water, and pain pills. I was sleeping a lot and took several naps. Getting in and out of bed was interesting, my abs were still super tender so I had to sit, lay on my side and then roll onto my back.

A little bounce back is normal. It looks like the issue is more likely your eating habits, another surgery wont change those. I would recommend make an appointment with a nutritionist and to start tracking what you are eating. You definitely want to minimize carbs and sugars. Also make sure you're hitting Protein goals and getting all your Vitamins.

The fatigue lasted a while for me, didn't start to feel normal until about a month and a half out.

Moving will help a lot with the pain. I was on hydromorphone for a week and a half, taking it about every 4 hours when I was awake.

Never had issues drinking fluids. I was doing two shakes with 30g of Protein each for the first few weeks, replacing one then eventually both as I was able to eat more food. I was able to increase portion sizes about twice as fast as all my meal plan guides told me I would be able to but eventually settled at the 1-1.5 cup portion size that seems to be the norm. It really depends on the food. chicken breast I can do about a cup of, scrambled eggs almost 2 cups.

I brought some loose pajama pants to wear home, my kindle, phone plus chargers, also my CPAP tubing, they had a machine for me at the hospital.

I Have a coworker who is always offering me food, even though I have explained in great excruciating detail my diet restrictions and the lengths I go to plan food for the week. Also the first picture I posted after losing about 30lbs was after my face started breaking out because of all the crazy hormones from the weight loss. Very first comment is my step-sister freaking out about my face.

Great work, keep it up!

700 cals a day seems correct for 2 months out. I know they wanted me off the shakes and onto food as fast as possible but both my surgeon and my NUT have stressed the Protein. You'll start to see hair and muscle loss if you're too protein deficient. It seems counter intuitive, the protein helps build muscle, which you should be building more of with increased exercise, which then burns more fat. What did you change with your diet that you're still getting in 700 calories but only 40 grams of protein?

My dad drove me to the hospital and waited with me until they called me in for prep. He took off afterwards and came to visit once I had been out of surgery for a few hours.

I wasn't told about the weight gain from the IV, my NUT didn't tell me about the three week stall, but I'm pretty sure I remember being told that stalls were normal.

I don't remember any breathing tubes or oxygen. I remember freaking out because at first I couldn't move at all, and I wanted them to raise the bed, but after about five minutes I was fine.