Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Hi @Nancy Geoghegan and @BlueGirl1920 I am just on 8 weeks post op. Soon after surgery, I asked my partner ‘how do we know he DID the op, not just cut and sew’ because I could eat more, and more importantly I could eat faster, than he said I should expect. I would forget and gulp my drink - with no ill effect (I tried not to, of course). I would eat 4oz pottle Of yoghurt for breakfast, and get through it. Now, 8 weeks later, I am exactly the same - I am eating the same quantities. Since the end of week 1, no stretching. And I am losing 1-2lbs a week, effortlessly. My tastes have changed, my portions always less than 1/2 cup for 3 meals a day, and I am eating more than I really am driven to to get calories and protein in. My surgeon said “you have good peristalsis” (the rhythmic cramping that moves food through our gut) which is good. He said that for patients like me the most important rule is - eat your protein first, for the rest of your life. That really helps us good-peristalsis-girls stay on track. I can easily do that!

I am interested by not the RNY bypass? Deals largely with diabetes, more common opp... did he suggest why not? My understanding it is simpler, and works well!

Research on 1700 patients of my surgeon’s bypass patients - after 1 year, most are eating about 750 calories a daywith a little variability but not much.

I am 8 weeks out. Have lost less than a pound in the last 2 weeks (sigh). I get a bit despondent, but I remind myself I am down a bra size this week, and my pants look too loose, and people are noticing - with the earlier gastric band too I found that in a stall I often changed the fatty locations, so body shrinkage in a stall may be more than when you’re losing lbs. I can gulp water, smoothies. “Good peristalsis” said surgeon. Makes me nervous as I seem to be able to eat 1/2 cup of anything not too sweet, when and how fast I want. For dinner in an event last night ate a bread roll, slowly. It felt fine but I was full - had two force in 2 prawns in for protein. So a small sourdough roll - 1/2 cup, is full for me. My only rules now are: Each meal, only 3 a day, about 1/2 cup each, with 20g protein to start and then and whatever extra healthy and flavours helps you get good nutrition and to stay on programme. Of course I with this programme wanted a miracle. Of course I wanted a bloody tool to effortlessly lose weight every day. I am sick of dealing with weight and my own pathetic inadequacy in being unable to manage normal food/exercise behaviour. But it is a tool. We can misuse it. Or put in new, lifelong, simple rules to make it the new you...

This is so the best thread!

Cottage cheese with flavourings (chilli sauce, chipotle, pesto...) Smoothies - myfitnesspal has GREAT smoothie recipes that add protein, but also reintroduce spinach and other healthy things into the blender. I found smoothies way nicer than straight purée, but I did love puréed edemame beans, peas and feta cheese...

My surgery was mid December. My carbs now are typically around 50g a day, occasionally up to 100. I am averaging about 750 calories a day now - 3 meals, 1/2 cup each one, good mixed food. One meal is a protein shake so that I can get over 50g of protein a day...

In New Zealand! You can stay at mine when you come over! The brand is Wellaby’s...

I am a bath-a-day girl - stress release. I wasn’t working over Christmas, so did without for 15 days but was very delighted to return to my bathtub then. I was Clear once all wounds were clearly healed, no more scab, no hint of un-healed portion of incision anywhere..

I have found lentil chips - baked, full of protein, make me as happy as potato crisps, and great with hummus!

Try flavouring the cottage cheese - helped me for a few days. Four favourite flavourings were Pesto, sweet chilli sauce, chipotle, balsamic vinegar....

I found the protein drinks made me nauseous. But the BariatricPal variety pack of soups didn’t - they were GREAT and became a staple...

Fantastic. Some folk here talk about “non-scale-victories” -NSVs - I reckon this is the best sign things are going well! Congrats.

Hard to understand - but you’d have to eat 1000s of calories for it to be fat! How are your clothes feeling?

90lbs! Man, that is a Great Dane dog you are no longer carrying around. As for exercise - go on, just start. 5 mins, just start with that. I am not an exercise person, but as I get lighter I find I kind of like it!!

You are right - that is a HUGE fluctuation. I weigh daily. It is the trend over time that matters, and I know (and reasearch shows this is generally true) weighing daily is associated with me keeping eating on track. I must say, the 50lb drop since 23 Jan seems extreme - maybe you shed a huge amount of water and have it back? 30lbs in 10days is amazing!

Hiya Some ideas. Firstly, update your stats - yours (alongside your post) say you have lost 25lbs but you have lost 43 - that is great! You have averaged 2lbs a week for 20 weeks, and are now under 200lbs - about half way to your goal it seems! Fantastic. I stress eat too. And for loneliness, I think. So how to keep yourself on track? *Stick to your plan. *Think about food, sure, but I find it works well to channel that thinking into planning small healthy but delicious meals. *spend spare time cruising through these forums, looking for ideas, talking to people *dont have crap foods in your house if possible There are many good ideas in these pages, useful tips to keep you on track...

This is a GREAT place for support - answering questions, soothing anxieties, and giving you a bit of tough love when needed! Tell us about yourself - eg any other medical problems (eg GERD - bypass generally thought to deal better with that)...

Just hang in there - we all seem to go through a flat patch - or like you, even put a bit on, in the first few weeks. A bit of extra salt might mean you retain water or something... Never fear, the weight loss starts again. Just stick to your plan, a great journey is just starting!

Was there a reason you can not have anything but mush? Have you special medical reasons? If not, and your nutritionist was saying this about all of us who have bariatric surgery - when, she is talking through a hole in her arse! I am seven weeks post op and tonight for dinner I had two slices of chilli-laced haloumi cheese with pesto mayo along with a cucumber/rocket salad with tamarillo vinegar dressing. Fabulous! In total, maybe 1/2 cup of deliciousness! Go on to the recipes forum, and look at the great stuff people are eating post sleeve surgery! All the best - on this great journey we ar on...

Fear not - surgeons and teams vary widely in what they do/do not let you eat and when. I was having finely cut salad while still in hospital - others have liquid and purée for weeks. Just follow your team’s advice...

I recognise so much of this. Tonight I am out of town, meeting people - one has a grandchild with her, so MacDs was arranged. Everyone eating. I loved a Big Mac - tonight I ordered a burger, opened it, ate half a beef patty for protein but yum. I REALLY wanted lettuce and tomatoes and light things. I can honestly say I have never ever ‘wanted’ that sort of food before this month. I wanted pizza. Fast food. Not I want light, fresh. I want subtle taste, not a 150g bag of crisps. I am not craving sweets, fries, biscuits, buns at all. Nor nearly as much salt. Seasoning with chilli or chipotle - I want less flavouring. Drinking - I want lightly fizzed water, 20% light cranberry - don’t miss my usual apple cider (sweet sweet) at all. I am finding this basic shift in my food desires quite mentally disconcerting! Do you think it will settle, and we’ll revert?

My surgeon said, after my 5 days in hospital, that “you will go home 5-10lbs heavier than you came in” and don’t weigh for the first week to avid exactly the disappointment you are having. It is all water from the saline drips, sitting 8n all your cells - they pump it in during and soon after surgery. You’ll wee a lot over the next few days and that deals with it - I weighed myself a week after I got home and was very pleased! Our numbers are similar - almost seven weeks after surgery I am feeling pretty happy about progress I can tell you! I am already half way to my goal,. And (thankfully) the food I crave seems to be shifting, which is very good indeed! I hope this happens for you too, my friend. Craving a light salad is a whole new thing - almost makes me laugh!

My dinner: Jamaican jerk puy lentils with a pineapple/tomato/chilli/mint salsa. Maybe 1/2 a cup total, or a little over. Delicious, 10g protein, and dessert is a small, 15g protein berry protein shake! Living the dream, me....

Today. At work, eating lunch (ricotta gnocchi in tomato sauce - leftovers, frozen, eating for third time without problem previously) when I got a quick-onset tummy ache. Sharp pain, bloated - gas, I thought. Probably from cabbage Pad Thai the night before - my first try at cabbage and maybe my last for a while! Went home and it was more and more uncomfortable. Couldn’t burp (is that a US word? Belch? Eructate?) or fart (I KNOW you all know what that is!) Eventually, tried the old baking soda/lemon juice/water trick, and gone like magic. But as I stood, double over willing myself to pass gas from anywhere at all, and I pondered whether to do de-gas pills or baking soda water, I got to wondering, and here is the question - if I took de-gas pills they make the intestine bubbles all join together to make a big bubble which then can travel up to your stomach so you burp it out - well, what is to stop that big bubble going into my OLD dead-end stomach and just sitting there being irritatingly painful because it is trapped in the dead end?