2ndSpring

Congrats .

Waiting for approval was really hard for me mentally, so I know how you feel. Once you make a decision and are ready to move forward, it is frustrating to have to wait on someone else. Maybe think of it this way, you are already on the journey. Its just that the surgery may happen at a different point on the journey than you originally planned. Good luck and I hope it all comes together soon.

i find the tracker so helpful for carbs and protein. I don't wait until the end of the day, then it's just a journal. As the day goes on, I'll know if I need to add a protein snack or a shake. I'm using the fitbit tracker. I can export a month's worth of meals to an excel file and bring it with me to my NUT appointments.

The world has become so weight obsessed that when someone loses weight, people will either react with curiosity (because they want to duplicate what you did) or with negativity (because they are jealous). In either case, these are their issues to deal with, not yours. If they can console themselves by pretending you've lost too much weight, then they don't have to confront their own issues. The tongue waggers in your office need a diversion. Haha, you could sleep with the office hottie and give them something new to talk about. LOL - just kidding, don't do that.

I don't take calcium either. The jury is still out on whether or not there is a relationship between calcium and heart disease.

The scale goes up and down like it's possessed. Ignore it, like you would ignore a crazy person on the subway. haha, just avert your eyes and pretend its not there.

Here is what did it for me.... evidently, once you are very obese, your body chemistry has changed to such a point that there is only a 3% chance of losing all your excess weight thru diet and exercise, and then keeping it off. The surgery changes that equation! So.. we have made the decision to make permanent changes and the surgery will be a tool to support us. Yay for us!

5 weeks out and I'm just starting to feel closer to normal. For the first 4 weeks I felt like my arms and legs weighed a ton and I couldn't lift them. I guess it is a combination of many things: we had major surgery that takes a while to fully recover from plus were are eating so little.

I found that my body got used to the liquid diet after the first week and then it wasn't as bad. I drank my shakes at the same time every day and it became a routine. I promise it is much better after surgery. Your appetite will be right in line with your ability to eat. Good luck!

@ShelterDog64 - thank you! I missed the original "carp" thread and had seen it mentioned a few times in other threads, so I was wondering what went on. I searched for carp and then also found the "sweetest fish" thread too. Soo funny. It takes all kinds.

30 days is the norm for a foreseeable fmla covered absence. fmla does not require you to divulge your diagnosis. Here is a link to a fact sheet from US dept of labor on notice requirements. I hope the mods don't mind the link. https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28e.pdf

Make sure your Water isnt too cold for the first 2 weeks or so. I made that mistake and the dr said that my stomach constricted each time the cold water hit, making my life much harder than it needed to be. I've always loved water but it tastes funny now. I'm assuming its the ketosis.

Isopure unflavored. 25g of Protein in a scoop (scoop is 29g). The only ingredients are whey protein isolate and soy lecitihin. I bought it on amazon.

Hi atzvsg, In addition to the great advice already given, there is one more thing to consider.....Digestion of carbs starts in the mouth. Saliva contains digestive enzymes that start the breakdown of starches in sugars while still in your mouth. Even if you spit out the bulk of what you chewed, you'll wind up taking in unwanted calories. It sounds like your coordinator didn't give you great advice. I'm glad you found your way to this site. I'm new too and from what I've seen so far, everyone looks out for each other, even when it means telling us what we don't want to hear

I've been using VegaOne (the chai flavor). It is pea protein based and also has Fiber and greens. It can be gritty when mixed with just Water, but is fine when mixed with almond milk.

When I was getting everything ready for surgery, I spent like an hour in whole foods in the Vitamin aisle. There are a lot of vegan/vegetarian Vitamins there. You may have to take separate vitamins to get the doses you need according to your labs. I am taking a chewable multi, liquid D drops and sublingual B12 right now. For the Vitamin D.... D2 is from yeast or plant sources, while D3 is usually from lanolin. this is a bummer because D2 is supposedly not readily absorbed by the body. After much consideration and soul searching, I decided to take the D3 because my blood levels were super low.

and why is everything so sweet? I don't need everything to taste like candy. I won't go off on a tirade/rant about food companies getting rich while marketing garbage as healthy food (...my family laughs about how fast I can go from 0 to 60 on this topic!).

I'm semi-vegetarian, pescetarian - I eat fish and eggs but no meat. I have to stay away from dairy too because I'm lactose intolerant. I'm a week away from transitioning to whole foods and still on soft food but here are some meal ideas. At each meal I have one of 3 proteins: eggs, Beans or fish. - last night I adapted a recipe for lentil meatballs, haven't tried them yet, but they look good. Google NYT veggie balls. I omitted the parm and used chickpea flour instead of breadcrumbs, and almond meal instead of walnuts. (I made them soft by then leaving overnight in tomato sauce.) - omelette with 1 oz of sauteed veggies - premake the veggies for the week - like a batch of sauteed mushrooms, onions and spinach - chickpea flat bread - made with chickpea flour which is 100% beans, no grain. I make it thicker and cook it less than recipe so it stays soft - google chickpea bread and a ton of recipes will pop up. then I eat it with a side of veggies - poached fish in coconut curry sauce with 1 oz of veggies on the side. sooo easy, veg broth, a can of coconut milk and some curry paste in a deep frying pan. when at a simmer, add fish. As soon as I'm ok'd for solid food, I'll go back to roasting veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, asparagus, and brussels sprouts in the oven. I love the way they get caramelized and it is so easy, drizzle with olive oil and salt, put em in the oven and walk away. In the meantime, I've been boiling or steaming veggies and then drizzling them with a tsp of flavored olive oil - i have a lot of flavors: garlic, lemon, rosemary, cilantro. There is an olive oil store near me and the quality and flavor are great.

I’m 1 month out and have been on mushy food since early on (as per doc’s instructions). I’ve been following all of my instructions: eating only allowed foods, taking Vitamins, getting Protein, going for walks and hydrating. I’ve been logging and tracking everything. I want to use this period wisely. I want to change habits and create new automatic responses. I figure practice makes perfect when it comes to saying no. My concern is that I feel like I’m still obsessed with food but it is masquerading as positive behavior. All the planning, tracking and logging means I’m still thinking about food constantly. And I eat a snack at night even when I’m not hungry if my protein count is too low for the day. Are these seemingly good behaviors reinforcing the old ways? I’d be really interested to hear from the vets about anything that helped them make permanent changes and also what didn’t help. Thanks!

thanks for the replies. Bufflehead: That was a great analogy! You are absolutely right and I'm thinking of this the wrong way. I just really want to make sure I'm putting this time to good use. I totally understood the "fat brain". I agree with you that our reptilian brains want us to stay fat. Haha, we would have been great cavepeople...sole survivors after a long winter famine. Antichick: thanks for the advice, maybe I'll make an appointment with the psychologist at my surgeon's office.

I tried the coconut one. there is an aftertaste that I probably could have soldiered through in order to get 40g of Protein....but there is a ton of sweetener to compensate giving it a nauseatingly over sweet taste. Similar to Kel, those protein shakes suddenly didn't look so bad anymore.

congrats on the surgery Angel. Don't be disappointed - 18 pounds is so much weight!! that is about 2 1/2 newborn babies worth of pounds that you aren't carrying around anymore. And now you are on your way to your goal, and you body will get you there on its unique schedule.

I had my surgery on a Wednesday. I was off Thurs & Fri and then all of the following week. By then, I didn't have much pain and I was doing pretty well with liquids and Protein. The first 7 calendar days were really tough for me, but then all of sudden it got easier and easier each day after that. I've only told my daughter, son-in-law and parents. I'm a really bad liar so I'm going to stay as close to the truth as I can...... very low carb, high protein and portion control. all of which is true.

The shakes have been a hard part for me too. I've been using VegaOne. It is pea Protein based, has 20g of protein per scoop, plus has Fiber and vegetables. 10g of carbs, but 6 of that is fiber. It is not chalky, but can be gritty due to the veggies in it. You mix it with 12 oz of liquid. I was having a lot of trouble getting it down when I was mixing it with just Water. I found it much smoother and easier to tolerate when I started using almond milk - 8 oz almond milk, 4 oz water. For the first 2 weeks, I was only mixing up half a shake at a time, because it gets too thick if you let it sit too long. I also tried Vega's "protein & greens" line. Also vegan, but really gritty. Someday when I can make a smoothie, I'll try that again. I've been using Isopure unflavored to stir into food. This is whey protein.

This may or may not be related to your question..... I was putting Vitamin E oil on my incisions because I heard that it reduces scarring. It caused redness, so I did some research and lo and behold, the vitamin E thing was not only debunked, but found to cause dermatitis in 50% of the study population.