Tufflaw

Looking for some advice/suggestions, I'm getting a little bored with the same old stuff I've been eating and want to change it up a bit. I see people talking all the time about meal prepping so they only have to prepare one big meal on Sunday and then they are able to save the rest to eat throughout the week. I'd love to do that so I'm not tempted to eat out or do something unhealthy when I don't have time or energy to make a meal. But I've never done anything like that before ever, I always prepare the meal right before I eat it. Sometimes I'll have leftovers that I'll heat up the next day, but I really would like to be able to prep for the week in advance. I have a slow cooker and an electric pressure cooker so I could use either of those to prepare. Does anyone have any recipes for your meal prep for the week? And please let me know what you do with your portions, ie: freeze/refrigerate, I'm starting from scratch here. Thanks!

Hi, I wanted to make a suggestion for those looking for a good way to exercise post-surgery. For those thinking of starting a jogging regimen but hate the thought of actually running, I strongly recommend a program called c25k, which is short for Couch to 5K. The idea is that by following this program, you go from sitting on your couch doing nothing to running a full 5K (3.1 miles) in 9 weeks. I've always hated running but doing something like a 5K was always on my bucket list, so I decided to give it a try. I've tried the c25k program in the past (years ago) with some decent results, but never stuck with it. So now that I've lost some decent weight post-surgery I wanted to try to kickstart my metabolism again and get some good exercise so I decided to try the program again. And it was a success! I followed the program, ran three times a week using my c25k app, and made it to the end. After I finished I ran three 5Ks a week for a few weeks until I ran in an organized 5K event where I placed 18th out of 63, and 2nd place for my gender/age group! Now, for someone who always hated running, I can't believe I'm doing this, but a few weeks ago I started the b210k program (Bridge to 10K), which is a six week program that gets you from running a 5K to running a 10K (6.2 miles). Today was day 1 of week 3, and I ran 3 intervals of 1.8 miles each with .1 mile walking in between, for a total running of 5.4 miles. If you've ever thought of trying to start jogging but didn't have a plan or thought it was impossible, give this a shot, you won't regret it. It starts off really easy and gradually builds up. There are a ton of free and paid apps you can use. I personally use Rundouble which has a free version, and you can pay to unlock additional programs. I've also heard very good things about an app called Nike Running Club, which is also free. I've also tried Zombies Run 5K which is pretty neat. Best of luck to whoever gives this a shot, hope you'll post your progress here! Bonus pictures of me and my daughter after the 5K (she ran the kids fun run and took 2nd place):

Great job! Yeah I love wearing stuff that used to not fit and now it fits or is even big on me. I've gone through all my clothes that I had when I was smaller and even stuff I wore after my first surgery (I was sleeved in 2016, lost a lot and then gained back and had revision in 2021), now I need even smaller stuff. Originally I was a 2XL shirt and those were starting to get tight, now I'm a Medium (!!) and down about 10 pants sizes as well. I've been getting my stuff at the thrift store because I don't know if I'll outgrow them (undergrow?) and they'll end up being too big. Once I reach my final weight and size I'll do a shopping spree.

I had personal issues related to some things going on in my life that had nothing to do with the surgery, but that coupled with professional issues I was having (losing my job) just put me in a bad mindset where I didn't care as much about tracking what I ate and weighing myself regularly and not eating what I wasn't supposed to. So I started eating larger portions and eating snacks/junk food and not tracking anything and it all went downhill from there.

I got the sleeve in Dec 2016 and lost a lot of weight very quickly, about 120 lbs in maybe 6 or 7 months. Then I had some personal and professional setbacks and ended up screwing up the program and over the next few years put almost everything back on. Then last November I had revision to bypass and again the weight loss was pretty quick - not as fast as before but still very acceptable. I am now lower than the lowest weight I was with the sleeve, and have kept it off longer as well. And I continue to lose, so we'll see where the endpoint is.

You just have to get through it - make sure you finish all the preop stuff in time so you don't get delayed. You will likely have to do a pre-surgery liver shrinking diet which, depending on your doctor, might be all liquids or otherwise very restrictive, which will suck. Some do 1 week, some do 2 weeks (I had to do 2 weeks which was not fun). I think I saw one poster say once they only had to do 3 days. Whatever it is, just keep thinking towards post-surgery and how much your life will change. Good luck!

I've been bringing my kids for the past few years to a place called Urban Air, it's basically an indoor amusement park, it's a lot of fun. Unfortunately, a lot of the coolest things to do there have a weight limit, 250 for some and 230 for others, so I was never able to join them on those rides. Even though I passed both thresholds a few months ago I never felt comfortable going on them until tonight I decided to give it a shot. I ended up doing ALL of the stuff I couldn't go on before, including the "Sky Rider" (indoor zipline, it was awesome), Ropes Course, and Rock Climbing. Lots of fun, and another great NSV.

That's good, so it was basically this?

Agreed, speak to your doctor. GENERALLY speaking, you should be feeling better every day, so sudden unexplained pain is not good. Maybe a stricture? Talk to your doctor's office and be as specific as possible, they may ask you to come in and take a look, maybe a CT scan or even endoscopy to make sure everything is OK. Better safe than sorry.

Did your doctor tell you to remain on liquid diet for so long? Three weeks seems like a lot. They had me eating soft/pureed foods starting day 1 after surgery.

Nice!! Looks like you're doing great too, congrats! Our stats are pretty close, we even have almost the same number of posts!

Nearly 102 down since November 2021, I like the before and after!

I personally haven't tried it but I know someone who's been going for a while and absolutely loves it. I like a lot of things about it - the leaderboard and the person leading the class will help a lot of people who need that extra push. Could you do it on your own? Sure, but I think most people are MUCH less likely to push themselves beyond their comfort zone without someone helping push them there.

Wow that's awful! Maybe try a different doctor/hospital. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but when I scheduled my surgery for revision to bypass, I made my first appointment in June 2021 right in the middle of Covid, and my surgery was November 2021. Some additional precautions were taken in terms of visitors, etc. but otherwise went off without a hitch.

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

Sleeve: Maybe 2 days or so Bypass: No gas pain at all

Weighed in this morning and realized my BMI has dropped below 30, so officially "overweight" instead of "obese"! Don't really feel any different but wanted to share.

I don't think Mylanta will really do anything - these aren't typical gas pains which are in your actual stomach, it's pain from the air that's pumped into your body to give the surgeon room to work so it's not actually in your stomach but your body cavity itself, which is why it doesn't hurt your stomach but your shoulders and back because it's rising.

I had practically no pain, the only discomfort for a few days was the gas pain from the surgery (when they insufflate your belly so they have room to work), mostly in my shoulders and back which is common. My incisions didn't really hurt. I took the prescribed percoset for a few days and then stopped before I even finished the bottle because I didn't need it. I think I took it a few times a day for maybe 2 days, 3 at the most, then at night to help go to sleep for another day or two and then I stopped. I was up and walking within a few hours after surgery with no pain, just a bit groggy.

Just wanted to share a little NSV. I realized last week that I had to do some shopping because once again my clothes were getting too big on me! When I started my weight loss journey, I was wearing XXL shirts that were getting too snug, and size 42 pants that were also getting too snug. As of this week, I'm wearing Medium shirts and size 32 pants - holy cow! I found one of my old XXL shirts that used to fit me tightly, tried it on with a little help from my daughter, thought some here might enjoy:

I always get my "official" weight first thing in the morning after I wake up. But I almost always weigh myself last thing before I go to sleep as well, and it's actually helped me get more sleep. I've noticed that the longer I sleep the more weight I lose (I've lost up to 2 lbs overnight sometimes), so I have been actively trying to get more sleep, going from an average of 4 or 5 hours a night to 7 or 8.

Ugh that sucks. Luckily eggs don't affect me at all, I actually have two scrambled eggs with shredded cheese every single morning since the first day home from surgery. The only thing that tastes different to me is certain types of spicy stuff, some of my old favorites just taste yucky now. Have you tried egg salad? After surgery when I was in the soft food phase my wife made me homemade egg salad pretty regularly and it was my favorite out of all the salads I was eating (tuna, chicken, turkey).

Don't feel bad for weighing in, there's literally no right or wrong way to do it. Except I'm probably doing it wrong, I weight myself multiple times a day because I'm a crazy person. Not always all the time, but I weigh myself at least once a day in the morning and I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all - unless it starts driving me crazy, otherwise it's not a problem.

Curious to see what "tricks" anyone uses to get more exercise in. I recently started exercising again, and am really trying to get the ball rolling. I started the Couch to 5K program for running - I've done it in the past but never followed up so I'm trying again, starting week 3 tomorrow. Also started doing circuit training at Planet Fitness three times a week on the days when I'm not running. But the biggest thing is trying to get a lot of aerobic exercise in the form of the elliptical machine at Planet Fitness. It's boring but I found a way to "trick" myself into doing it for long periods of time. I bring my tablet and watch TV shows and movies and the time flies by. It also incentivizes me to go the gym because I decided I wouldn't watch anything at home, only at the gym, so now I want to go every day so I can catch up on my shows! I've been watching a series with hour long episodes so I've been doing an hour on the elliptical almost every day.

Lucky you, my liver shrinking diet was 2 weeks! If it's the act of chewing you miss, try chewing on some crushed ice cubes in water.