Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Hi Fluffy if you go hunting, one of the most common threads you will find here is “I am x weeks post op and I feel no restriction!” It is REALLY common so do t sweat. I almost convinced myself that my surgeon did no bypass and only cut me open and sewed me up again! It settles. You learn to read it - but it takes learning! The restriction for me generally acts more like “meh, that’s enough eating cos I have better things to do” - more like a disappearing food drive than a physical full/squeeze feeling. If I DO eat too much it shows 10 minutes later - pain, hot sweats and sometimes I fall asleep! So I try and avoid that!! Meanwhile, you are a learner driver for that tummy, so just take it easy, stick to your plan - that is why they gave you a plan! x

I had my surgery 14 December last year and hit my goal (BMI of 25) almost exactly six months later. My weight steadied out about then, perhaps a bit under goal, and my eating is pretty well in a new set of eating habits etc. But as for developing new exercise habits - forget it. Anyway, I decided I need to sort that out too. Getting fit was the challenge. Going from fat to fit! An unattainable goal!! I am an occasional dog walker - but I live up a bit of a hill, so always tried to get out of it because I hate exercising. So, I found this “Couch 2 5k challenge” on myfitnesspal, and downloaded the zenlabs C25k app. I reckoned I had one big advantage - I was REALLY good at Couch! The first week, running for one whole minute on the treadmill was seriously more than I could manage. But the improvement was fast. I have repeated the odd day along the way, and at week 3 moved from treadmill to street (luckily I was on holiday so had GREAT things to look at and inspire me!). I am now up to week 7. Not fast, but can run for over 20mins at a stretch! But the oddest thing - my weight plateau stopped, and I have lost 9 lbs in the last 6 weeks... Here is a before and after this 9 month journey... I can’t tell you how pleased I am with myself!

Surgeons all seem to vary in what you are allowed. I was allowed cottage cheese - are you? I added different things each meal for variety - chipotle, chilli, pesto, applesauce, mushed watermelon (watermelon on its own remains a huge favourite!) Also, yoghurt with puréed fruit.

I hated protein shakes at the start - most were way too sweet. Eventually I settled on a recipe I like for breakfast - the least sweet vanilla PP I have found, one shot of chilled coffee (Nespresso the night before) a glut of milk and 7 ice cubes, blended coffee-vanilla slush ice! But to start I relied on the protein soups from the bariatricpal store. They are delicious!

Yep, @Queen Grandma is right - snacking is ok in moderation. But - what sort of snack? How far over your calories does it put you for the day? If you are ‘giving in’ and having a protein bar, well that is different to if you are giving in and having a pizza or a McD’s supersize meal or a diner sized portion of cake! i am 9 months out and struggle with temptation too. A few things have helped: 1. If possible don’t have high-refined-sugar snacks in the house. I have a rule - if I am desperate for something like that I have to walk to the shop (1 mile, with 1 mile uphill home) to get it. I have only set out twice and both times ended up just having a walk instead. 2. Plan for both snacks and treats. I have a note on the fridge of a few treats I am happy to have - yummy but ok for my stage of the journey. And another list of healthy snacks, to remind me. Cos when I get a snack-attack, I suddenly seem to forget about fruit, or yoghurt, of lettuce/hummus/cheese - crisps is the ONLY snack I can remember exists! 3. Plan. Plan ahead. Did I mention plan? Have frozen oopsie rolls in the freezer, your favourite cheese (Swiss for me) in the fridge, tins of sardines in Louisiana hot-sauce in the pantry. You know you’ll crave - so stock up the good stuff so it is easy to make a good choice! And I log all my food in myfitnesspal - I have a section for “screw-ups” but I hardly use it these days. It is great to look back at the “snacks” section when I am craving - I now put only healthy snacks there, so I can use it to remind me of stuff out there that I like.. It takes time but the things you crave genuinely do start to change! And - go easy on yourself. It is a marathon, not a sprint! But - do work at changing, cos we all need better habits if we want to avoid regain 😁 x

Thanks you three! Had a session with the gym owner today. She said “you’re looking a bit scrawny” - but bpm was 110/70, resting heart rate 51, although low percentage body fat - 13% with scales, 18% with calipers. She last saw me 3.5 years ago, 100kg, and back then she said “look at you, you have really let yourself go, you should be ashamed”. I didn’t see her again. No fat woman wants to hear that, and even fat CEOs are likely to not have the internal capacity to be oblivious to that sort of critique! So, with that body fat percentage, I can’t really lose too much more fat! My 10lb small dumbbells at home have worked wonders on my arms - a few reps before and after each bath, she was pretty pleased with those muscles, and my potential to build muscle. Reckons I should sit around 65kg (currently 63.2) and will as I build muscle. Wants my protein grams up, closer to 100g a day, which suits as I try and lift calories. So - pretty good, all on track to being a strong, lean machine!

Ear plugs. Hospitals are noisy! My iPad so I could read and play as a distraction. Phone to talk to or txt people. Soft pj trousers that sit below tummy button, to not rub on the tender bits. Slippers - lots of walking the halls to get rid of the gas pain, from the gas they pump in to separate your organs so they can operate. I hate the taste of water, but sipping it is a big part of recovery so I took flavor drops. Girlie face stuff, perfume, anything that helps you feel better to pick you up when you’ll be feeling pretty drained...

Hi there you’ll find many many threads on this site from people saying “I am just a few weeks post surgery, I think I can eat anything, maybe he didn’t really DO the operation” and that sort of thing. You are WAY not alone. The first few weeks are hard. Like you, my surgeon said I wouldn’t be able to eat a host of stuff that I could eat. You have to CHOSE not to at this point in your journey. And you really should chose not to. The most important thing is you treat your new pouch as real delicate, and start to develop real careful habits - those habits will stick! The pizza thing - shop bought, and I am guessing but maybe with quite a bit of additives, hidden sugar in the sauce - now in your journey is a great time to do a “whole new you thing”. Like what about you buy a rotisserie chicken, shred it, and freeze 2oz portions wrapped in foil. Then you just haul one out, warm it, add a bit of chipotle or applesauce, mash - all clean food, probably 1/2 the calories and a really good easy start in changing to healthy eating habits! Seriously, I can’t eat more now than I could at 6 -8 weeks out, so the weight does peel off! But now is your critical time to change your habits. I have watched others in my journey and seen that the ones who made THIS change seem to have success. To decide any pizza is a once-a-month treat from now on. That losing weight and being a person who eats healthy, are your only life greats for the next few months... THEN you are guaranteed success!

Good question! My sodastream does carbonation to 1, 2, or 3 level. I drink it with a meal at 1, on its own at 2. But giving a bottle a shake and letting it stand works - but less predictably!

We didn’t when I was young but over the last maybe 10 years, we have begin to. The commercialisation opportunities have been embraced by retailers, and the American influence from TV is strong! On 5 November we do celebrate with fireworks, rather oddly, a man named Guy Fawkes trying to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in 1605! So that and Halloween are becoming a late-October early-November thing.

And if it is any help - losing weight does, for many women, even this out. Our stored fat containers a lot of hormones (which are fat-soluble) and when we lose, those hormones are released. That can play havoc with our emotions, but as you lose and your body’s fat stores reduce, so does that hormone store, so your swings may well get much less extreme. Isn’t true for everyone, of course, but there seems to be evidence that this is a trend. Filler food - find things you can eat with lower calories. Mine - watermelon. A coffee/protein slush is for breakfast at 150 calories (25g protein) instead of cereal, or bacon and eggs at 250 calories. And with a bit of training, things that are OK seem to turn into things I like to eat, in time!

Fantastic - more neck and less chin has been one of my biggest joys! You are looking great!!!

When you have stitches or stables in a line in your stomach, until that wound heals you don’t want to put too much pressure on it. I think that is the basis of his advice - don’t pressure that delicate stomach until the tissue has done a good job of fusing itself. Three weeks seems like a good guide. I have never heard of someone taking a gulp and springing a leak, he is being cautious and although the risk might be low the consequence of busting the seam is bad. But that time will pass real quick!

or soup. To be fair, our variety of pumpkin is sort of more dry than yours, less watery. It is MUCH harder to carve one of our pumpkins for Halloween! We don’t have that tradition, but I went to college in California and I brought home one of those pumpkin-carving-pattern books, so I persist and do it with a dry old NZ pumpkin (microwaving it a bit helps!) and our neighbours love it!

Here is New Zealand, we eat pumpkin roasted, as a vegetable. Savoury. Only. I have never quite got with the American thing of turning it into a sweet desert! And then making it into a fake-pudding-yoghurt?? Well that is just doubly wrong!, 🤣

Has it always been that way? How far out from surgery are you? I am 9 months out. It wasn’t that way to start with - I had a lap band for 9 or so years, and this was the thing I struggled with the most for the first 4 years when it was working. I never got used to it. After the bypass I tried sipping with a meal - and at about 4 months found it was fine. I drink pretty much only lightly carbonated water, maybe 1/4 glass with a meal, and usually to wet my mouth, throat, for swallowing. My surgeon is fine with this and comfortable it has no ill effects. I don’t drink after I am finished eating, though.

I was. Big surgery - a bypass, and via open surgery (cut from rib center to belly button) not keyhole. After four months this would have been a breeze, so barring complications it should be for you too. Both post-surgery irritations, but also your new eating style will be pretty settled by then... and you’ll deserve a vacation! And you’ll be thinner, healthier!!

Oh man, congratulations! I am so excited for you!! Have you talked to your surgeon/nutritionist? They’ll have great guidance for you and bubba’s health and well-being...

I never got used to it, and luckily I have ended up with it not mattering! I try for not drinking right before a meal, but can sip a drink during dinner quite happily and I still comfortably eat my meal. Not huge volumes of liquid, of course, so I have done SOME adjustment!

Hi there When you say the weightloss has stopped - for how long? 13kg in 6 or so weeks is AMAZING! But stalls happen. If you search you will find literally hundreds of threads about stalls - and a stall can go from three days to a month or so - but at that calorie level (and I agree, 80p or so is probably wise. Pick up your protein and the healthy calories will lift a bit) you will start losing again. And also - make sure you are measuring. I pretty much always find that it is in a stall that I suddenly lose inches - drop a pants size or shirt size! Be patient. It will resume...

Hi flower just keep reminding yourself - this is the hardest bit, hunger-wise! You don’t have the tool yet to help you change your eating - but we expected to be able to do the behavior change! I remember thinking ‘how come they think I can do this? If I could, I wouldn’t BE fat!!”. Two more days. Count them. Two. I focused on “make hunger my friend” - when I felt hungry, I reminded my self that for this short time, that was my success signal. You can do this - it is SO worth it, for two more days or wrangling that awful feeling...

Hi there Be patient my friend - the “three-week-stall” can happen any time from day 3 to month 3! Three weeks is common, but 10 days is as well. Stick to your programme and suddenly, you’ll see the weight drop away. Even better advice - start measuring.make careful note of WHERE exactly you measure (take photos, side on, of where the tape lies!) - often in a stall, that is when I drop a pants size or shirt size, so being able to measure other than with a scale is useful! X

Hi @logicwand So I am only 9 months out, so I can only comment on stabilising as it relates to ‘stop losing post-surgery’. I pretty much levelled out at 6 months. I really worked my programme, my starting weight and height are within cooee of yours. So before the 6 months was up I was below my goal weight and have held pretty steady for the last three months. I see your timeline - how is your weight loss going now,

I am sending you every good wish. If this new tool gives you the assistance to change your life the way it has mine, these dreams will become reality. I LOVE my new life. New eating style - changed forever. I used the first 6 months to shed, I stuck 100% to my plan, and I created a new approach to eating, to exercise, to celebrating. And it is every every every bit as good as I imagined!

Nope, this isn’t dumping. ‘Liquid fecal urgency’ (or, as we call in in New Zealand, a fart with follow-through 😁 is really common until our tummies work out their new rhythm. A few people have it forever, but overwhelmingly it settles in the first few days, of as eating returns to solids. I am 7 months post op bypass - I get this occasionally (I just don’t let out a quiet gentle fart any more - too risky!) still. Dunping - hot sweats, nausea but for me no vomiting, yawning, liquid fecal urgency, fatigue - feels like nasty food poisoning and suddenly 30-40 minutes later it stops. It has successfully put me off eating sweet stuff!