JavaKnut

My first week I would measure everything in 2oz servings into a small glass or little condiment-like bowl. I kept an eye on my clock on the wall and knew that I needed to finish those 2oz each 15 mins. Sometimes I would substitute 2oz of jello just to have some mouth feel. That got me on track very quickly. At the top of every hour the 2oz were protein drinks - either isopure the first 3 days, or premier protein once I moved to thick liquids. I stopped measuring on week 2 as I know how much I can sip. I know I can take 1oz sips now and do my 2-3oz in just a matter of a couple minutes at the most. I am still hitting the top of the hour with protein, although now I can mix in hummus, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc. It is very easy to slip and get distracted and lose track of time. Just keep on it. The more you set a schedule and routine early on, the easier it is to keep up with and will establish automatic reminders for yourself.

I am working on trying to get some more fiber in my mushy foods this week. Next week I will move to soft foods which will make it easier to intake it. I found some cottage cheese that has some added fiber and some fortified milk. Hopefully those will help for the next few days. Also the biggest help is to make sure you are getting your water intake. I set my goal for 70oz daily and am routinely able to exceed that. The water apps I was using were telling me to intake 110-120oz a day based on my weight. I also try to make the majority of my daily water be actual water. Granted, premier proteins count 11oz each (I do at least 3 a day). I try to only have one of the Vitamin Water Zero (or drinks like that) be part of my count. I am not fond of fake sugar, but with having to avoid real sugar these days I try to keep my intake of the fake stuff as low as I can.

No typo - over 42lbs now, and that's 20 total inches. Every Sunday my wife helps me take a variety of photos in the same spot, same clothes (and down to skivvies just for me and family to reference), and then I grab the measuring tape and I use the "Body Sizes" app on my phone to track measurements for Waist, Hips, Chest, Biceps, Thigh, Forearm, Calf, Neck, Shoulders. I then take those numbers and put them into the Baritastic app, which tells me I am over 20in lost. I also track my heart rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, water, walking, exercise and all through the Samsung Health app and the Samsung watch I wear. I use "Hydro Coach" to track my water intake - which integrates and sends the info into the Samsung app. It is great having all my numbers on hand for when I have my Dr and nutritionist appointments. I can pull up graphs and show them my progress on all of it.

Definitely contact your doctor and make sure they do not have any concerns. They told me as long as I am passing gas it is not a blockage, just more of a slowdown. Definitely is uncomfortable and makes it very hard to go as you aren't supposed to push hard. I definitely see a stall in daily weight loss if I don't have a BM. When I was on clear liquids only, I was going as much as 3-4 times a day - liquid lightning! Granted I was also on a antibiotic for that week as well. Once I moved to full liquids and more protein it backed me up a bit and slowed me down on going. The weight stalls I see go away each time I get a BM if I get stopped up for a day or so. I am averaging 1-2lbs a day easily. Some days I swing as much as 3-3.5.

I had a sleeve and duodenal switch done on the 10th, and they took my gall bladder out as well. I lost 20lbs in my 2 week liver reduction diet (1 week shakes and 1 meal, 2nd week was shakes only). I gained 11.5lbs from the IV's in the hospital. After 2 weeks of recovery - I am down 40lbs total and over 20 inches. Surgery took 4 hours, recovery for 2hr, then to my room. They kept me an extra day. Went in Friday, came home Sunday. One of the PA's after my surgery swapped out my IV to one that had sugar in it - which was blowing my blood sugars off the chart. They were shooting me with insulin every 30 mins or so it seemed like. They finally figured out the problem on Saturday afternoon. Took better part of a week to get my sugars down to normal after that. I picked up a bit of an infection on my far right incision where they took out the gall bladder. Antibiotics cleared that up after about 4 days. I had to be on clear liquids for a week. I was up to 64-70oz and 60-80g protein within about 4 days. Now I am easily hitting 100oz or more of liquids and can easily do 120g of protein with Premium protein drinks. Finally got to move to mushy foods this tuesday. So far I have had activia, hummus, cottage cheese, soup broth, jello. Next tuesday I should be able to move to soft foods - fingers crossed. I had a ton of pain and got stopped up from the morphine. Day 4 I still had not passed gas or bowel movement. Ended up throwing up twice. Finally got my bowels moving with some milk of magnesia and the world changed and things made drastic improvements.

BA is designed to help reduce your liver size. That needs to happen so they can get in and do the surgery. Basically all the stuff they want to get to is covered by your liver. The Premier Proteins are not designed to do that, but are a great protein source and very easy to drink. For the BA drinks - have you tried super cold water, and then drinking them right after you shake them? Seriously, the longer they sit, the more evil they get. Isopure is the devil. I hated it, but put up with it for the first week after surgery. The mouth feel and after taste is what got to me most with it. I only tried 5 flavors of those and settled on 2 to get me through the week. Glad I only had to do 2oz at a time.

I make up the most ridiculous diets I can think of and try to convince them that is how I am losing the weight. My latest one is a famous scandinavian diet that consists of being able to eat as many sardines and peanut butter as you want, as long as you eat them together. I follow that with jogging backwards for 3 miles a day. 40lbs in 4 weeks - it works! For close friends or people that are genuinely concerned I might have some kind of health issue, I will tell them what I did. If it is someone I don't know well or care about, then they can try to figure it out on their own through one of my crazy diets.

So how are you doing now that you are just over a week post op? I am in my 3rd week post op - had mine on the 10th. Week 2 was monumental improvement. Week 1 was rough for me.

I am in the middle of my third week after having the sleeve with the DS and my gall bladder out. I agree my energy was zapped for the first few days. Also just general movements caused pain. The tiniest sips of water caused me to have gas. I was kept for a second day. I can't even imagine riding on a plane that quick. It was bad enough riding in the car. Any bump caused pain. Turbulence would be murder and I would think the gas from sipping would be exaggerated on the flights. Also - good luck trying to get enough protein drinks on the flight for those first couple weeks. I would think he should wait at least 5 days to a week before flying, especially any long flights.