LittleBill

Pre-op I would chug down a quart of water in a couple of minutes when working out in the heat. I am almost two months post op, and I can knock back about four ounces at a time. I'll give it a few minutes and another four can go down the hatch. If I drink just a little more than I should, I can feel it, and I back off for a while. I do NOT want to stretch my sleeve.

I'm guessing that if you recognize the language, there's a very good chance you're part of the culture. ????

Okay, I called for reinforcements. Mrs. LittleBill thinks I am crazy, but she agreed to take a picture for me. This is my wrist with all the spare skin pinched and pulled as tight as I can. There is no room underneath. They have been this way since I was 185 lbs on the wrestling team in high school, and starving myself to make weight.

Thank you. I am not sure what it is, but I can ask. They belong to my niece.

Is this uh.... do it yourself kind of work? wink wink (You are making this really easy on me.) I can see you are a very bad person. I am usually the one who has to tell people they are setting me up too easily. Here is an example of the work I do. I built the chest, not the musical instruments.

I bought my current belt from Springfield Leather Company. It is heavy duty, very well made, and not expensive - unless, of course, you compare it to bonded leather belts costing $15.00 or so. As I mentioned above, my belt carries several articles on a daily basis that require a strong and well made belt. You can get one for about $50 or so.

I refuse to get another belt until I'm done because I'm very picky with my belts. I've already burned through the 4 holes that I didn't use previously and I've drilled an additional 3 holes. My belt wraps all of the way around the side of me and the tip tucks into the belt loop behind my pocket. I had to go to a second belt. My previous belt was a Wilderness Tactical belt, which had no holes, and used a cinch of sorts with a Velcro end to hold the flap. I wore it until I pegged it and it would go no tighter. I have special requirements in belts as they often have heavy things hanging off them. Yeah, lots of things are shrinking that I wasn't sure would shrink, but my wrists are very bony. They are huge, but there is no fat on them. My forearms are sort of like Popeye's, at least for strength. A lot of that comes from the work I do. About 11 years ago, I had a drill press accident, where the piece of wood I was drilling came loose from its clamp and spun around to smack my hand. I was sure I broke bones. I went to the ER for X-rays. The doc looking at my hand said, "You have some of the biggest bones I have ever seen." They weren't broken. I just had a huge lump on the back of my hand for about a week. You are a naughty girl too. That is classified information.

You are a naughty, naughty, girl.

I love eggs. I have been enjoying them again at least once a day since I was allowed scrambled eggs on my puréed diet. But I like variety. In the past, that variety was supplied by adding bacon, sausage, scrapple, Spam, and various kinds of bread to go along with them. While I plan to reintroduce some of those eventually, things have been getting a little tedious. Scrambled, fried, scrambled, fried. Hard boiled, scrambled, fried. You get the idea. So, I was standing in the kitchen this morning and decided I would try something different. I would poach my eggs! I have not had a poached egg for a looong time, and the last few times I did, someone else (i.e. the cook at the diner) was kind enough to poach them for me. I remembered my wife telling me that I didn't really need an egg poacher. I could poach them perfectly well in the microwave. All I had to do was put them in a dish of Water and heat things up. What could go wrong? I found out what could go wrong. I happily assembled my cooking device, using a small pyrex dish filled with enough water to submerge my two eggs. I stuck it in the microwave, and hit the express cook button for 2 1\2 minutes. I thought I was being conservative, and would have plenty of leeway to avoid any accidents. At that point, the aforementioned wife appeared in the kitchen to get her second cup of coffee. I explained what I was doing, and how I was looking forward to a different style of preparation. I was already starting to salivate in anticipation. Suddenly, without warning, there was a huge BOOOOM! I did not even have to look. I did not want to look. I already knew. She knew too. I opened up the microwave to discover that 1) I was not having poached eggs for Breakfast and 2) I had a cleaning chore ahead of me. The scene was awful. It was as if the notorious kitchen terrorist, Abu bin Overcooked had planted a bomb in my eggs. There were bits of egg everywhere inside the microwave. There was even egg on the bottom of the glass carousel. I am not sure how that happened, but it did. Suffice to say, I am sitting here bemoaning my lot, gnawing on a Quest Protein bar for breakfast. The microwave is clean, and I will be researching a safer and more predictable method for poaching eggs. I wonder what's up at the diner this morning?

It is possible. I looked at the Charge 2 and the Surge. Finding the XL band is like trying to find a unicorn. And for the Surge, they want a premium of almost $40 for the XL band over the large. I will do some more looking tonight. I'm fat in a lot of places, and I have lost a bunch of weight already, but my wrists will stay the same - are staying the same - regardless. I've gone down four sizes in my pants, and one size in shirts, and my wrists are exactly the same size as they were six months ago. There is no fat on them. There isn't even a lot of muscle right at the wrist itself. It is all bone and tendon with a covering of skin.

I am going to have to look at other options, that's for sure. Thanks.

I've not been sleeved for all that long, but I have found that between meal hunger is often thirst. I take a few slugs of Water or coffee or whatever, and I am good again.

HAHAHAHA! I was going to write this very thing, but you beat me to it.

While I was on liquids, my nutritionist told me it was a meal. Once I made it to solid food, I am to treat it as liquid, even though it has Protein in it. Your best course of action would be to consult the nutritionist where you are having your surgery, if that is possible.

I bought several flavors in smaller containers to last me through to post surgery. Now that I am back to solid food, I have not had much trouble getting to 100 grams plus of Protein, so I am not drinking as much. Protein Bars are a lot more satisfying and a whole lot easier to stick in my pocket for when I am running around, or even just up in my shop. I do have a five pound can of Gold Standard Extreme Milk chocolate, but I came out of surgery loving that stuff. It has replaced my desire for a big ole glass of chocolate milk.

I am negotiating with Mrs. LittleBill about one of these things. She is resistant, but I am like the Borg. Resistance is futile.

I was in a 3 month pre-op plan. My wife was not, but she started following my pre-op diet very closely. We both started using My Fitness Pal to keep track of calories. We also stopped buying the stuff that sabotaged us on our good intent. It is one thing to have to walk past it in the store, and it is something else entirely to have it calling out to you while you are sitting at home. If it ain't there, you can't eat it. Both of those two things combined allowed me to lose 68 lbs pre-op. My wife lost 30 lbs. Neither of us was 100% successful, but we were successful to make a difference all around. Every day is a new day to start over again, and for every day, that is the only day you have to succeed.

Thank you! My nutritionist gave me all sorts of dire warnings pre surgery about how tastes and tolerances might change. To make it worse, I am the person who always hears, "That never happens to anyone!" in all sorts of situations, so I was prepared for the worst. So far things have been very good on the food front. I am very happy to report that the things I seem to have lost most of my taste for so far have been the things that got me here in the first place. I am like a reformed smoker, only with Tastykakes. I am sorry to see you lost something you really enjoyed and is good for you to boot, but I am glad you got a laugh out of my story.

Not even close to being right. Do you not understand humor when it is written out like this?

So, I went for round two for the mid morning snack. I tried the method Vinasu described, with much better results. I did look on Amazon, and I can get egg cups for $9.97. They are on the way. Hey, it's a tool right? And in the words of Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor, "There's no such thing as a tool I don't need!"

Looks good! We've been smoking ours the past couple of years, since we obtained a smoker big enough to handle one. Everyone loves it.

I have no idea. I am only reporting on what I read about their product, and I make no comment beyond providing the facts as I understand them. I am very suspicious though, about compressing 30g into a 15g volume especially when that volume only weighs around 4g. As for shrinking molecules, here is a link that discusses that in layman's terms. http://www.schoolphysics.co.uk/age16-19/Atomic%20physics/Atomic%20structure%20and%20ions/text/Collapsing_molecules/index.html

I am very close to you in size/weight and am aiming for 100 grams of Protein a day. My diet is similar with regard to meat. I have Quest Protein Bars for Snacks. I have a giant tub of Gold Standard Extreme Milk chocolate sitting in the kitchen. It is as close to a glass of regular chocolate milk as one can get, and with 8oz skim milk, it gives me 32 grams of protein. ETA: I don't have a shake every day, as I am hitting my goal and then some without them ,but a glass of "chocolate milk" goes down very easy and satisfies what is left of my sweet tooth.

We buy skinless, boneless breasts, and roast them. If you soak them in brine (saltwater) overnight, and then roast them at 425° for about 45 minutes with foil tight over the pan, they come out extremely tender. Spray the roasting pan with some olive oil, add some pepper, onion and garlic powder, or any other spices you want, and you have several meals ready to heat for not a lot of money. We buy the stuff on sale for $2.00/lb. We eat it as is, or make it into chicken salad, chicken enchiladas with refried Beans, and so on.

My nutritionist recommended Genepro, so I bought a can. Then I started reading about it. The serving size is 15 grams, but they claim 30 grams of Protein is contained in that 15 gram serving. There is also an asterisk or two next to that. Watching their promotional video is like science fiction. They are claiming to shrink molecules down to smaller sizes so they can get all 30 grams in. We have a saying out in the country about trying to fit two pounds of poop into a one pound bag. I will not be buying it again. I have been drinking various flavors of Gold Standard. Now that I am back to food, I am eating meat with a side of meat, and have cut way back on the shakes.