Creekimp13

So...lets really think about this. If we can eat soup, broth, jello and protien drinks, why in the hell can't we drink? I have yet to hear anyone (on boards, at my bariatric group, or in bariatric literature and studies) offer a satisfying justification.

Lauren, we're the same height. I'm pretty active. I get at least 10,000 steps every day (most days 13,000-15,000) To maintain, I eat 1400-1600 calories a day. To lose, I eat 1200 a day. Logging every bite that goes in my mouth is the sneaky part for me.

It is the rule, and yep, it's for life. And yes, pretty much everyone is given this song and dance. I wish they wouldn't lie/explain poorly. It's irritating and it makes me lose faith in professionals when they're doing this. The reality of the drinking with meals rule...from what I understand, digging a little deeper and reasearching....is that they don't want the fluid to push the food right through. They want you to feel full with the small amount your new stomach can hold, feel satisfied, and learn to eat less. Also...when food is poorly digested in the stomach, it can make you gassy, cause stomach upset, etc. Also, like you've already discovered....early in the game, mixing food with fluids can up your chances of vomiting...which you want to avoid. Some real talk? I followed the rule pretty well the first six months or so. Then, I said to hell with it....and started drinking very small amounts with meals when I felt I needed to. (Maybe two ounces total, just enough to have a sip here and there) I am not advising anyone else to do this...it's always best to follow orders, particularly while you're healing. But yep, three years out, I don't worry about the drinking rule and so far the sky hasn't fallen. Not advise...just sharing my experience.

Chantrella...feel better and keep us posted when you can.

Woot! Congrats!

If you like shrimp....even a little....you need to try this, cause these are SO FREAKING GOOD! You get some raw shrimp, clean it, just the meat. BLOT IT WELL....squeeze, even, to REMOVE MOISTURE. Half of it, you cut up into chunks. Half of it, you either mince with a knife or put through a food processor. You mix both halves together with an egg white and a little corn starch. Refrigerate for a half an hour, and then form the mixture into patties on waxed paper. Then, you have two options... You can either bread it with eggwash and panko, or you can leave it plain. Or, you can split the difference and just sprinkle a little panko on it and not fully bread it. Season it well....I love Old Bay for this. Then you fry it. A couple of minutes on each side. You can air fry it, too! Spritz with oil and off you go. You eat this thing with some lettuce, wassabi, and some tartar sauce. You can put it in a wrap, or a whole grain bun, or just plain....but make sure you have lettuce, wassabi and tartar sauce. TONS of protien, low calories, and incredibly tasty. My husband...who isn't a huge shrimp fan...will eat these like hamburgers and loves them. Also, you can put the raw patties in the freezer and get them out as needed:)

We were encouraged to get 1200 calories a day ASAP after surgery. Took me a couple weeks to get there. Then we stayed at 1200 calories a day until maintenence. I eat 1400-1600 calories a day now, and maintain.

I love sushi, but even three years out...I eat two to three pieces and I'm done. If you make your own and use brown rice, it's not quite as brutal a bomb on your blood sugar. Also, making your own, you can keep your rice layer very thin on your seaweed. Lots of Youtube videos to watch and learn:)

I used to weigh multiple times a day. Drove myself nuts. Now, it's once a week. Monday morning when I get up, stark naked. After I pee, before my first cup of coffee. LOL.

My hair grew back curly! It always had a little wave, but the curl became much more aggressive when it grew back. Isn't that bizarre? Yep, lots of greys...I just dye them at home. I use Garnier Nutrisse Light Golden Brown on my dark mouse brown and grey hair and it comes out looking pretty good for about $14 every couple months. LOL.

My insurance company did a great job pre-approving me....but then my hospital mixed my information up with a different woman with the same name. This very grim looking account administrator came into my room the day after my surgery and said she needed to discuss payment arrangements because "apparently my insurance rejected the claim, and we don't know how this happened, you were supposed to be preapproved" By some stroke of luck, I happened to have my approval letter in my purse and got it out and showed it to her. She came back in half an hour and apologized profusely. Myself and the other woman with my name....our social security numbers were two digits off...8's, 3's and 0's (lookalike digits). It was a legitimate mistake....but man, did it have my heart racing for a minute!

Many of the breakfast cereals are super fortified, but few are tolerated in volume by us until later. Kellogg's Rice Crispies has 11mg per serving, General Mill's Total cereal has 18mg!!! and I love both with almond milk. They'd be tough to tolerate early, hoever, due to volume. I do love me some Snap, Crackle, Pop. I'm not a big fan of red meat anymore and try really hard to find any alternative dietary sources of Iron I can. Shellfish is good, clams, octopus. Seeds and nuts. Sneak spinich into everything. Light liverwurst, if you can stand it...is pretty good. Organ meats. Bleh. LOL

Coco Wheats. One 120 calorie serving....has a whopping 10mg of Iron. My mom actually suggested this...when she was a kid, Cream of Wheat's ad campaign was something like.... "If your family is large and you can't always buy meat, protect their iron stores with Cream of Wheat" And..."a bowl of Cream of Wheat has more iron than a steak!" It was actually marketed to fight anemia for a while back in the day. Lots of references to eating it during your period, too...to keep your iron from depleting. And it's still true. Cream of Wheat and Coco Wheats are iron powerhouses. Very gentle. too. Spinach and apricots in smoothies are great, too.

Dietary Fiber is your friend.

When I'm out shopping...to this day...I go straight to the plus sizes. My bestie got totally frustrated with me one day, ripped the size 18s and 20s out of my hands, marched me over to another rack and handed me size 12s and 14s. "You worked too hard to look like a sack of potatoes. Try on flattering stuff that FITS." I let her pick a few outfits and was totally blown away. I absolutely get what you mean. I know it's nutty, but my brain doesn't seem to process it without help.

Never underestimate checking gas stations when you're in a crunch. I've found hard boiled eggs in single packages with the little salt and pepper packet. The weird little protien packs that have cheese and meat and nuts are handy in a pinch. Sometimes gas stations have single serve soups and microwaves youc an use...I've had a bowl of split pea on the run this way. Subway will do salads, too, with the meat and cheese and fixings in a dish.

Your BMI is low (at 33) for bariatric surgery. Most bariatric surgeons have a cut off of 35 with comorbidities. 40, without them. Have you found a surgeon willing to do someone with your health and BMI? Will your insurance cover the surgery with a BMI that low? Many won't. "If I could do 3 weeks of healthy eating then why would I need this surgery??" this line in your post concerns me a lot. Commiting to the surgery and doing the recovery safely...requires a hell of a lot more willpower than simply eating healthy for 3 weeks. It's a months long process of severe diet restriction. Three weeks of "healthy eating" would seem like an indulgent feast to many of the folks in the process right now. I don't mean to scare you off....but you really should research the foods you're allowed to eat and for how long after surgery. Also, the many hoops you have to jump through. The surgery doesn't do the work for you. You can regain every pound and more. It's a tool that helps you get closer to your goal faster. Once you're there....finding a way to permanently change your habits is daily effort. What does your general practioner think of you having weight loss surgery?

It's just like life before surgery....except everyday you think...crap, I did the surgery! I REALLY need to get serious and not screw this up! LOL Best wishes! Out of curiosity, what made you choose duodenal switch? Don't have to answer that, I'm being nosey, but if you want to share, I'm interested:)

Tim, I am rooting for you. I love your enthusiasm:)

I wanted to add...I've been incredibly attracted to heavier guys. And thin guys. And super fit guys. To me, confidence is sexy. Kindness, compassion and gratitude...are very appealing. Humor is sexy. Wicked verbal skills are sexy. Commonality, intelligence and swagger are sexy. I think I could find about 80% of the population incredibly hot in bed...if they have a sexy brain and good character. Chests, legs, butts....meh...I need more than what's in a bucket of chicken. LOL Finding the combination of amazing brain, good character and good heart....that's a lot more rare and interesting to me.

I understand feeling embarassed about weight in the past.....but I really hate fat-shaming....even our former selves. No one sets out to be fat. No one is unworthy of love and intimacy because they have an addiction to food, or other physical defect. Tim, please don't take my post as criticism. I totally get that you're just excited and feeling better about your body and.....I totally get the joy of returning to feeling sexy and confident:) All of that is awesome and I know that's what you're saying here. But I also think about the other folks reading this board....folks who are just starting out or who have a really long way to go, or who are struggling. I think about self love...and honoring that part of our history...and honoring the struggle ahead....which is lifetime. We are always gonna struggle with obesity. Even when we're fit. It's gonna be a daily commitment moving forward to stay on the fit side of fit-vs-fat. I choose to love my formerly fat self. She wasn't perfect. She had some bad coping mechanisms and habits. She struggled with food addiction (and still does). Sometimes I think the only way to really love ourselves and move forward...is to have empathy for who we were and what drove our choices. That history is part of what made you who you are today. I don't mean to be so goofy about this....I know what you're saying....I just felt a little introspective and wanted to mention that our appeal, our sexiness, our value....isn't all physical. I'm totally excited for your trasformation...and don't mean to take away from that.

I'm surprised you're drinking fruit juice on your liquid diet. Unless it's the sugarfree kind. For my group, the whole point was to eliminate carbs to shrink our livers... and whole sugar fruit juice would sabotage that. That said, I realize all plans and doctors are different! I genuinely hated my liquid diet and felt horrible all 14 miserable days. Headache, felt light headed, bad keto breath, irritable. I used to time the one food item a day we were allowed to eat an hour before I had to drive, cause I felt really foggy and had a hard time concentrating....wanted every advantage to drive safe. MOST people do not have this experience, but some do. I hope you don't.

I wouldn't do this in the loss phase....but in maintenance it gets much easier. Honestly, these days I just eat 300-400 calories of whatever I want at fast food places. The other day I had half of an Impossible Whopper and a coffee. Couple weeks ago I had half a fish delux sandwich at Arbys. I really like the Turkey special at Cracker Barrel...bunch of roast turkey, I skip the dressing and biscuits and get carrots and mashed potatoes. Can get two meals out of a lunch portion of this. Big thing for me, is just keeping calories reasonable. I don't eat fast food a lot, but when I do, I make a point to enjoy it and not sweat the macros so much. I DO watch the calories, and make sure to eat a healthier dinner. Losing phase, you really need to restrict the junk more and hit your protien goals. In the losing phase....I sometimes had half an egg McMuffin. The whole sandwich is 310 calories and 17g of protien...it's really not that bad a choice on the run. Wendy's has pretty good salads with low cal dressings and grilled chicken... and you can get a half order. Some of the soups and salads at Panara's aren't bad choices...watch sugar and high calorie dressings. Blackened Chicken Tenders at Popeyes could be a good choice. 170 calories, 26 grams of protien. Very spicy!

I went for a while cause there was a super fun motivational leader (you have to like this person), and getting weighed weekly made me super accountable. Definitely explain that you're gonna do your own thing with the diet...but that you want the community, support, recipes, etc. You won't be the only one:) I enjoyed it....then Covid happened. LOL.

Ok...this is a weird one. I won't miss not being able to reach my legs to shave them. For YEARS I rarely shaved my legs because I nearly needed to tape the razor to a stick to get it done. Had to turn just the right way, hold my breath, and shave really quick! I hated it. Made me feel incredibly sad. Since I've lost weight, I LOVE to shave my legs. (I know that's bizarre...but it makes me feel pretty and flexible and young)