PorkChopExpress

Ended up taking a break from the gym today...I'm SORE. My body isn't used to all this MOVING business. Heading into week 5 and that means I get to start on whole pieces of meat for Protein...no more need for mushy or shredded. This is the final week of restrictions, and then I am left to my own devices, to try things and see how they work out for me. So far, I haven't had anything give me trouble...but I haven't been very diverse about my selections, either! I guess we'll see. The funny thing is, the freedom is a little daunting now. I'm not sure what to try. I know I'm only supposed to try one new thing at a time, to isolate which ones do and don't work out...but I also don't want to waste a bunch of food (and money). So I'll be getting stuff that can stay frozen, I guess. Trader Joe's has been a good source of protein options so far, I expect I will keep going back. Might try Whole Foods too. I find that I care much more right now about the quality of what I'm putting in than I ever did, before. It's a very positive development.

In terms of meal planning, a great program you can use for your smartphone is called MyFitnessPal. It'll let you enter every single thing you are eating each day, tell you what the calories and macro breakdown are (protein/carbs/fats) and let you really get targeted in your diet. If you were to come in with something like that and demonstrate that you've been diligent about sticking to a program, and tracking your diet, that might satisfy their desire to see you taking control over your diet. If they've given you an idea of what your calorie goal should be every day, then pre-program your meals into MFP and see where you end up with calories. Tailor your meal plan to hit your calorie target.

There is a lot of science now that is demonstrating links to obesity not just in sugared soda, but also diet. It creates chemical changes in your gut and hormonal changes that contribute to weight gain. I'm a lifelong Coke addict and I swore of soda completely. I would recommend you do the same. The point of getting this surgery is to make a permanent change. That has to include mental changes and if you think you'll just eventually go back to how you used to do things, you'll gain weight back. Commit to change. Let go of the soda. Just my two cents, I know I'm not a veteran but I DO read a lot.

Do you like mashed potatoes? I love 'em. As long as you get it without chunks and it's smooth, that's close enough to puree. Mixes nice with flavorless Protein like GENEPRO, too. Throw some cooked chicken in the food processor with a little bit of chicken stock, and add some seasonings. I know a guy who did a touch of fat-free ranch and some buffalo wing sauce, and had it that way lol... You just kind of have to get a little creative. You can also grab some Hormel chili and throw that in the food processor, blend it until it's basically a paste. If you have a food processor, you can more or less puree anything. It's not going to be like eating solid food, but you don't have to do it forever.

Well, think of it this way...if you don't have your mental game in order, there's a good chance your effort will be wasted even IF you have surgery. There's a reason they put emphasis on the mental preparation on these surgeries...because long-term success is mostly mental. So if you're not ready, you're not ready. What has been the challenge with the CBT?

It's a total re-learning process. You HAVE to go slowly. It doesn't even matter if you look at your food and go, "That's hardly anything," you need to make that last at least 20 minutes and more if possible. Your bites should be very small, probably at least half of what you were used to. You have to chew until it's like a liquid in your mouth.

Usually depends on the availability of rooms. I unfortunately had to stay in the recovery room until like 5:00pm on the day of my surgery (I came out of surgery around 11:00am).

In a week you'll feel pretty much normal, maybe with a tiny bit of soreness but not bad. Just give it time, take it day by day, and do your best to get your water and protein in. Both are critical to the healing process, and you'll heal a lot faster and better if you get enough.

Forget alcohol for a year post-op. Ignore its existence. And after that, you will probably find that one drink is about all it's going to take to have you flying like a kite. I'm not a big drinker personally, so it's not a huge loss for me.

I usually tend to go with the surgeon's advice. Your BMI puts you in the "superobese" category and at that weight, surgeons are all probably going to go with the one that will result in the most weight loss, most quickly. You are young, so you will probably recover well and it's a good time to hit the "reset" button - now that I've done it, at 45 years of age, I'm sure I'm going to wish I'd had surgery 15+ years ago. Discuss the pros and cons with him, express your concerns and go forward with whatever you agree is the best option. The results are what you're after, and at this weight your health is of primary importance...so my feeling is, go with what will get you the best result, the fastest. I initially intended to do the gastric bypass, however they had to convert to sleeve due to scar tissue from a prior abdominal surgery. At this point though, I'm just happy to have had a correction made so that I can be successful now

Drinking is the biggest challenge now. I'm one month past my surgery date and I struggle to hit 64oz even including my two protein drinks. There just isn't space in the stomach and I give up at least 4 1/2 hours of my day in the "no drinking" zone surrounding meals. To be successful you literally have to be sipping every few minutes, all day long. It's pretty tough. But I'm sure as my stomach capacity increases in the months to come, it'll get easier as the swallows can get bigger and the amount the stomach holds improves.

You need to have a talk with your husband about why he feels so strongly against you doing it, and then try helping him see it from your perspective. But a lot of times, I think people react this way for either concern for your health and well-being (fear of complications or even death from surgery), OR they do it because they have their own selfish reasons for you to remain as you are. It's hard to say what his motive is, but you need to clear the air with him and if it's important to you, which I'm sure it is, put your foot down. It's for your long-term health, which is no joke...and your family should appreciate that fact. To forbid someone from doing something that will improve their health and longevity dramatically is asinine to me. There's something else at work, here.

I would go back to clear liquids for a couple of days, and see if it settles down...and keep taking your Protonix as directed. Hopefully it will start to ease up. Make sure you are doing as well as you possibly can on water intake, too. That may be part of the reason for the constipation. But I'd really lay off of anything that requires your stomach to work for a couple of days and see if that helps.

I think I would get seen by your surgeon ASAP, call them first thing in the AM. It could be an allergic reaction to the anesthetic or medication you received for pain, but aches in the extremities and skin rashes are never a good thing. If your tongue starts to swell, you have difficulty breathing, or anything like that, get to the ER immediately.

Yeah, a lot of them you can kind of tell that they aren't mentally committed to the change and are likely to just right back to their old habits. Some people just can't be helped, no matter how hard you try.

Pretty much just a seroma in one of my incisions that had be drained, about a week post-op. Wasn't pleasant, but also wasn't the end of the world. He opened the wound, pushed all around it to drain it (not too fun), then they "packed" the wound with gauze (a little uncomfortable, but not too bad) to absorb drainage. Then I was told to remove the gauze later (weird feeling, not really painful though) and then just start pressing all around it, squeezing out whatever Fluid buildup there was. I was also given an antibiotic to take, which helped a lot over the course of 7 days. I just had to keep it dressed, push the crud out of it every day, and eventually it sealed itself up and was fine. Sounds a lot worse than it actually was, and that was really my only issue. I honestly have no real complaints because everything else has been super smooth, and I had much, much worse complications after my gall bladder surgery years ago.

It's kind of a crapshoot, I wouldn't risk it...try to maintain your BMI. Insurance companies are tricky that way. My wife is in the same boat, having to maintain at 40 BMI for the purposes of insurance covering it. Usually these six month programs explain to you up front that you're under no obligation to lose weight, it's primarily for the education and preparation.

I remember this feeling all too well...when my surgeon gave me the go-ahead to eat "mushy" foods I was thrilled. One month of nothing but liquids is a supreme test of will, for sure. I got a little bit of "chewing" during the liquid stage with my Popsicles, but that was it. Sinking my teeth into some actual meat felt really good. I didn't even mind that I had to chew it to paste, I actually enjoyed it

I kind of wish the producers of the show would start following them a little later in the process, because we generally don't get to see much of their post-surgery successes/failures. Too much of the one year they follow these patients is in the pre-op phase. But I agree, seeing the enablers and watching people drop out of their lives by the end of the show says a lot about the challenges the super-obese face. Sometimes they are their own worst enemies, sometimes they browbeat people into enabling them, they bully their loved ones who don't know what to do...but sometimes, it's the loved ones who want to keep them where they are. It's an interesting and sad show, but I always end up wishing I could find out how they ultimately ended up doing.

If it's tap water, it's probably the metals or possibly chemicals. What I'd suggest is getting some purified water (reverse osmosis) which gets rid of a lot of that, and has a much more neutral taste. I didn't end up having any weirdness with my taste buds after surgery, but I know a lot of people do. So chalk it up to that.

There isn't really much that's "restricted for life" with bariatric surgery, other than the fact that you want to make a conscious choice to start eliminating sugar and saturated fats, and focusing on complex carbs rather than simple ones. If you have gastric bypass, sugar is always going to be a problem and likely to cause dumping syndrome, so that's one thing that you do end up having to deal with minimizing for a lifetime, anyway. But that's a good thing, no matter how you slice it. But eventually, you will be able to eat relatively normally, you're just going to be eating phenomenally less than before. You will actually be blown away by how much less, honestly...I have been.

My pre-op diet was two weeks and it was 100% liquids, no solids no meat nothing...and I took great pride in making it through that entire program without cheating once. It put me in just the right mental place to handle life after surgery. This prep isn't just for a good, smooth surgery and recovery...it's for your mind, too. It's a commitment that you're making to change. Embrace it! There's a time limit on it, and then after surgery you will not care anymore.

Stop now and get back on track. You really must focus on the self-discipline that's required to follow through with this part of your surgical prep, it's important. It's not just important in terms of a successful surgery and recovery, but moreso for your MENTAL preparation for what's coming. You simply cannot be in the mindset of cheating anymore. Period. You will not have that option after surgery and if you try, bad things are going to happen. Let go of your old habits, it's time now to focus on reprogramming your brain and that includes maintaining your discipline, as hard as it is (and I know the pre-op diet is hard, it might be one of the hardest parts to this whole thing...but it's got a time limit on it). This one lapse isn't going to cost you the surgery, no. But when you do something like this, you open the door to MORE lapses.