michaeli

So I had my gastric sleeve 2 months ago exactly and things are going fantastic - down 51lbs so far. One odd thing I’m noticing though is my weight loss is more dramatic in specific areas causing indents or rolls between 2 sections. An example is the top part of my stomach before my chest has an indent in the middle. I’m also getting 2 sets of laugh lines on my face when I smile as it’s losing weight. My sides now go totally in causing the part towards arm pit and the “tube” part of my belly to look like 2 separate rolls. Im not complaining as I look so much better and I feel much better but it’s odd that my body is losing weight more in very specific areas. Did you / are you experiencing this?

So I've been traveling for the last week - on the same week as I was cleared to eat more normal food. My hotel rooms haven't had fridges (to store protein drinks) or microwaves, and there's been a lot of going out to restaurants with people from work or friends I know in the city. And every time I go to a restaurant, I can maybe eat 1/4th of the plate at most, even less often. Example I went for brunch where they always have huge plates - got an egg scramble - didn't touch potatoes or bread and had 1/4th of the egg scramble so it basically still looked like a full plate. And every time I've been asked "did you not like it?" and I've just said "oh it was great but just full". Also it's crazy how much food I'm actually wasting and it's not like I can take it back home or anything - plus doggy bags are annoying to carry around while still out and about even if I was at a home. I would share entrees but everyone's wanted their own so far. For those that are like over 3 months out - how much of a restaurant entree can you finish? How do you find eating out? Do you just share food or something - and if not with a husband / wife - do you split the bill evenly still? I did find a great solution though around getting asked did you not like it, and that's Korean BBQ - you can hide how little you eat when with a bunch of people

Can I join in? I'm close. Official Pre-Op Diet Start: Dec 27th Sleeve Surgery Date: Jan 8th Lost just a tad over 40lbs since I last weighed which was about a week ago. Can't weight myself for 1 more week as I'm traveling.

So I'm at 5 weeks and allowed to slowly introduce normal foods - test out each one at a time. But to slowly increase on the texture scale - i.e. no uncooked crunchy vegetables or fruit yet. Here are my items: Broccoli - I love broccoli and it's so great for you - but until I feel great about my pouch/staple line not having sections for little pieces of the floret to get stuck, no go. Green Apples - I know in general you want to avoid sugars and carbs, but I'm looking forward to having a green apple or 2 every week. Seems like perfect size for a meal too. Medium-Rare Small Filet or NY Strip Steak - This is a big one. Steaks were so perfect for keeping with my low carb diet pre-op - really shrunk up my liver, my surgeon said I had one of the best liver sizes for my weight and made the surgery really easy for him. But decent sized pieces of steak no matter how I chew is a bit hard on my new pouch I think. What are / were yours? Any you were looking forward to that you couldn't eat? And here's my one item that I really want that is less healthy, but: White Rice - Super high in carbs but decently low on calories. I want to treat myself to having a bit of white rice with something like Korean BBQ or Sushi (not sure how I'll eat that respectively to the chef as i would most likely need to cut it up) eventually.

I'm just under 5 weeks post-op. Everything is going great! I feel like I'm almost 100% and now been shifted to slowly introducing normal foods right now - still sometimes get weak by mid-day and it was a hard journey but otherwise it's really going great. Haven't had an issue with anything but the things I want to have an issue with (carbonated beverages, sugar, etc). To the actual question: So I'm currently traveling for work right now. Which means sometimes I'm not in a place to eat or drink for a while. I'm trying to figure out game plans on how to get in protein shakes but it requires checking in my bag or hoping they have protein drinks at the places I'm traveling to - luckily lots of stores in US have muscle milk which has good macro-nutrients. But say I haven't eaten in like 6-9 hours and also feeling a bit dehydrated - is there any tricks to get in enough food and water before bed without developing bad habits? I found these Quest Protein Chips with a great macros (130 calories, 21g protein, 4g carbs - not super tasty but still decent - a bit too much sodium - 230mg) and I have no issue slowly eating them while still drinking - but that sounds like may be a path to slider food. I know eating and drinking at same time is bad plan and I would never do it with normal food that's chunkier but food I can turn mushy it seems np for me - but that also seems like a bad habit.

I stalled twice in 5 weeks already. First time I stalled I stayed the same weight or gained a bit of weight each day for like 3 days - then all of sudden 1.5lb lost, 1lb lost, 1lb lost days after. Remember there's so many things that go into your weight: 1) How much water you are retaining 2) How much food is in your digestive tract? 3) All the hormonal changes you are going through throw weight retention patterns off. 4) Your body is adjusting to metabolic caloric intakes and carb intake levels it's not used to. Here are things I read / researched before - not an expert like others: 1) Being dehydrated can cause you to gain weight in the short term oddly enough. The body says to hold on to it's water when you start becoming dehydrated and it's only after a couple of days that it changes. 2) You may be hovering in and out of ketosis which can be a problem. Just try to avoid carbs and sugars completely and trust in the system. Here's my number 1 advice: Don't watch the scale that hard - still track it so you can see your amazing progress over time - but a better thing to do is to find a perfect spot where you can take a bathroom mirror selfie every day then just scroll through the pictures when feeling discouraged. It's hard to see the results in the mirror as they slowly happen but when you scan through 30 days of pictures you can really tell the difference. My sides are shrinking, my face is shrinking - it's awesome!