MzCoffee

Thank Taunia - for the links and the tips and tricks! Very thoughtful & much appreciated!

@Diva Taunia - how do I add you? I just searched Diva TAunia and then just Taunia and couldn't find your closet! I think there is a step I'm missing! Thanks!

Joined a couple of weeks so that I could start selling clothes that are too big for me. Need to upload my photos - thanks for teh reminder- I will definitely take a look at your site though right now I am trying to clear out closet space!

I had a really hard time getting enough calories or liquids during that first 1-2 week period as well. That plus the major shock that your body has undergone is enough to put anyone on an emotional roller coaster. I was exhausted as well. But now it's almost 8 weeks out and I have energy to burn, so it definitely takes time but gets better. Just give yourself some non-food TLC and extra self-compassion - you've been through a lot!

Good luck @mylighthouse! Your 100 lb weight loss is impressive & inspiring, but your honesty & positive attitude are even more impressive & inspiring. It sounds like even though aspects of the surgery & recovery will be arduous, your quality of life & horizons will be so much better & broader! Wishing you all the best & a rapid & complete recovery.

After I was miserable because of weight stall starting my 3rd week post-op, my doctor's office & nutritionist said to only weigh myself when I came in to see them. Given that the next visit will be in 2 months & the one after that in six months that strikes me as just a tad unrealistic but I understand the larger point which was to focus on protein counting & amount of water drunk and not the scale b/c it's a distraction.

This looks lovely! I hate how heavy water feels now. And I hate artificial sweeteners as well. This looks perfect!

WOW! You're strong. I refused to do Mother's Day brunch (but then again as a Mother I get to say how the day goes!) but I seriously could not have managed to get through all that temptation. A friend recently asked me forlornly if I was ever going to be able to go to her favorite restaurant with our whole group of friends this summer and I said, honestly, probably not. Because whatever it is, head hunger, hunger hunger, cravings, I got it! Good for you though. So much better when you're off the liquid diet ...

Great advice - thank you!

I recently bought one too - looking forward to making yogurt too!

Yes - I actually get nauseated if I drink too quickly or take anything resembling a gulp. and I never feel really hydrated.

A terrible, terrible thing happened today in our apartment building. A fire broke out - no one knows how yet - in the apartment of an elderly couple. We were all evacuated, even though it was in a different wing of the building (3 different elevator banks & we're adjacent) in part b/c we have a child & in part b/c this is NYC and fires move fast b/c the buildings are so close & often without firewalls. The guys who work in our building are truly amazing & they were able to get out the wife, but the man - an elderly, sick man who was weak & needed a lot of help to move around plus a walker - was too heavy for three of the building staff to pick up and move. It was incredibly smoky & hot & eventually they just had to retreat from the apartment & leave that poor man there by himself, obviously desperately hoping the firefighters would get there in time. They didn't. One of our maintenance guys - who is both very tough & very kind literally had his face blackened with soot & was in tears because he couldn't lift the man up & out of the bed. The poor man tried to lift himself & couldn't. My father who was a strong athlete, was also very, very weak at the end of his life so I know how impossible it must have been for that elderly man to move himself - but three maintenance guys couldn't move him either because he was too heavy. My wife knew him - they were on our co-op board together & I didn't even know him by sight. She says that we have to recognize that we have no control over how our lives will end, we can do our best but in the end it is not always up to us. In the Jewish tradition every year on Yom Kippur, our holiest day and the time when we repent & promise to try harder to do better in the upcoming year, the Bible reminds us that some will die in the upcoming year, some peacefully ad some "in fire" and that we don't know what will happen to us, it is in G-d's hands, not ours. We can only control trying to be the best possible person that each of us can be, but I feel so personally helpless today. And of course, I am thinking that everyone keeps saying that the man who perished in the fire was at least 300 pounds - close to my weight - which was why they couldn't move him when they most needed and wanted to do so. I keep thinking about everyone's feelings of helplessness & despair here, and how so many people tried to change the outcome and couldn't. This has just been so heart-breaking & upsetting and I have just felt so sad & awful about this all day. I am praying that he was unconscious from the smoke quickly, so that he didn't have a long time to know what was happening to him and obviously so that he didn't die in terrible pain. We will do whatever we can for his poor wife and for the workers in our building who are clearly traumatized by this. But that doesn't really change any of it, does it? It's the first time I've really experienced first-hand how one's weight can literally be the difference between life & death, and how it can deeply affect others around you as well. Thanks for a space where I can just write some of the sadness down. May the memory of Leon Gold be for a blessing.

Thank you. I really appreciate your honesty. My parent's health difficulties were part of the reason I wanted to lose weight as well, but I had never really thought about the fact that I couldn't be lifted, and it is a chilling idea. Thank you for reaching out - it really helps.

Thank you so much for being so kind - I really appreciate it, and it helps.

Thank you so much for your condolences. I am so very sorry about your Mother's untimely death. How heartbreaking for you and your family. It's so painful to lose a parent, at any age, but losing a parent a too young an age exacerbates that pain. I think that there must be a lot of these stories, that people often don't share out of shame and embarrassment. Thank you for sharing it with me. I really appreciate your kindness and sympathy - it does help. May your Mother's memory be for a blessing.

Thank you so much for your kind response - I appreciate your sympathy & support.

Thank you so much for your kindness and sympathy.

Good point! I just love raw seafood, sashimi and beyond and the idea of delicious, high-protein, non-red meat is just so appetizing ...

So I was sleeved on 4/18. My surgeon did not require pre-op weight loss, only that I stay on a clear liquid diet two days prior to surgery. I was in the hospital for 3 nights, came through with mostly flying colors until the end when I had some serious nausea, hence the 3rd night. Came home on full liquids, allowed to start purees on Day 7post-op. Minimal pain, some sharp hunger pangs eased by antacids, very little nausea, fair amount of fatigue but it decreases every day. Have been pretty diligent about my two daily protein shakes, getting enough liquids and following the pureed plan, until this immediate past weekend when I went off pureed plan and had a soft food for approximately 3 meals over the course of a work retreat weekend ( not an excuse but I think I did so in part b/c I hadn't told people there about the surgery and I hadn't made a real plan for dealing with non-stop food eating and work meals). For good or for ill, I didn't experience any unpleasant physical consequences due to eating unauthorized foods. By Sunday night I was back on pureed foods, and have been ever since and it is now Wednesday afternoon. However for the past five days my weight loss has stalled at around 16 pounds. I don't mind slow weight loss but it had been so rapid until this that I am worried that I messed up my progress by starting soft foods too early. I know this is completely neurotic, since all the amounts of even the not-yet-OK foods were tiny, but then again so is my new stomach! Have others had this experience? Is it even in the realm of possibility to stretch your stomach at this point, two weeks out? And yes, I know, I know I should have listened to my nutritionist and doctor etc. about sequence of food texture and will do so going forward. Thanks for any insights!

I found being on the liquids really hard and felt hungry all the time though I kept being told it was "head hunger." Taking prescribed antacids helped. I only had to do clear liquids for 2 days pre-op but post-op my nutritionist didn't want me adding more than 1/2 banana a day to the smoothie during the full liquid period. She said the fruits had too much fructose, i.e. sugar. Now that I'm on the pureed foods the mantra is: protein first, fruits and vegetables second, whole grains last. I know some NUTs + MDs are very concerned about the carbs, mine are more focused on the sugars. If it's allowed you could try making a vegetable smoothie aka soup by puree broth and veg (I used asparagus) together and then heating it. Also, unjury has a chicken-flavored protein powder if you really need to get your protein up. Good luck!

I've used a little tumeric and cumin in my plain yogurt & I've used the tumeric in my scrambled egg. I like both Indian and Middle Eastern flavors though.

WOW. LittleLizzieLilliput, thank you. What kind, pragmatic and smart advice. I just read most of your post aloud to my friend who has been really supporting me through this journey and she kept say saying wow, wow, wow: what an awesome, intelligent person and how incredible that she took the time to write all of that out! Agreed! The strategies that you use and suggest sound like they will really work for me as well, but most of all thank you for pointing out that I need to prepare my own individual strategies to copes with pauses and other challenges related to this new life and process. Intellectually I understand that I need a holistic approach but I am starting to realize that emotionally I keep approaching weight loss - even now - as a series of one-offs and I need to develop new habits and different coping strategies. This journey is becoming a very unexpected one for me - I really thought I had anticipated much of what it would be like, and I am discovering that the real challenge is much more emotional and mental than physical. I understand that that is a bariatric surgery truism, but for me it is still a very novel idea. And first thing tomorrow I will go measure myself! Thanks again for your very thoughtful response - it is so helpful and comforting.

Also curious about this! Thanks for asking.

Thank you! This is really helpful information and advice! I think like a lot of fat people once the scale started going down so fast it became a daily boost, but I understand that it will vary and that I have to focus on the long-term goal, not the immediate approval boost! Thanks also for sharing your own journey - your stats are really impressive & inspiring!

Thank you - that is reassuring (and kind!).