Sheribear68

My doc never gave a calorie goal despite me asking. All he said was to make absolutely sure to stay hydrated and he set my minimum water goal at 80 ounces daily. He also said that I should try to stay under 35-40 gm carbs daily and to try my best to get in protein, but to not try to add in protein at the expense of hydration. As your sleeve/pouch gets bigger, you’ll be able to get those calories in. I kept a food journal and at my 2 week post-op showed my doc that I had only consumed 880 calories in ONE WEEK and he shrugged and asked me how I was feeling. Told him I felt fine for someone who had just had bariatric surgery and his answer was that eventually I’d be able to hit protein goals, but that it would take time and not to sweat it if it took a few more weeks to get there.

Oh my goodness I hope you’re doing better Gabybab. Please don’t try to push protein too much. I know so many of us get so concerned about protein, but fluids are the most important thing right now. The first 10 days or so after surgery, I had 16 ounces sugar-free sports drink along with my water and I really think that helped me get through those first few days way better than if I hadn’t had them.

Yes Dana. You truly hit the nail on the head by saying we need a safe place to post our thoughts and fears. Yes, I realize that my body will eventually get on board and continue to do what the science behind these surgeries will “force” it to do, but any stoppage in progress is absolutely scary as hell. Knowing that many of us feel this same way and being able to empathize and relate to those feelings is so very empowering. For starters, we know that WE ARE NOT ALONE. Just that in and of itself helps so much. And CaribeRidge..... you are absolutely right on water. There have been many days that I’ve drank over 80 ounces and not lost a single ounce, but I’ve never experienced a loss while drinking under 64. Water is definitely key and makes the whole process run better.

So sorry EmzBee As a lifetime denizen of Oklahoma City, I know the heartache that comes from having your community completely destroyed by terror. Almost 24 years out from the Murrah bombing and I still grieve for the lost friends and classmates who died or lost their loved ones. I don’t have any special food recipes, but my recipe for you is to give yourself some self care. Make sure you’re carving out time in each day that is just for you and that you focus on your body and your mind and give yourself permission to be mad as hell and to not shut down the grief and to learn the new normal that will become of this. Worry about water, then once your tummy can handle it, move on to other foods. Maybe think about going back to the diet you were on the first week or two after surgery. I’m sending good vibes your way and please don’t hesitate to talk to us often so we can get through this as a team.

It’s weird how the appetite works. Lately I find myself in a fasting state for 15+ hours daily and until I finally have the first “meal” of the day, I’m not hungry at all. Typically I’ll have a glass of fairlife milk around 10-11 am, and after that I’m hungry for the next few hours and eat a little bit of something about every 2-3 hrs until dinner time, which I’ve finished anywhere between 6-8 pm, depending on my work shift for the day. During that 6-7 hours of “hungry” time, I put done probably 90% of my daily calories, but it’s still far short of where I need to be because I just can’t hold all that much. I dunno, I want to get in protein, but I also don’t want to obsess over every bite that goes in. I think as long as we get in water first, then worry about protein, we will all do okay as long as we’re taking in our supplements. Today I had 8 ounces milk, 6 almonds, 1/2 scrambled egg , 1 ounce triple cream Brie, 2 ounces steak and 1 tablespoon avocado. Oh and over 80 ounces water. Lol, not even close to 60gms protein, but I as I post here exhausted from the work day and trying to settle in for bed, I really don’t plan on trying to get in any other kind of protein. I have to remember how craptastic I used to eat for days and weeks on end and I didn’t suffer too much (well, besides being almost 100 pounds overweight) from that. Not saying there shouldn’t be goals, but we are all just taking our first few baby steps on real food and it’s a process.

No idea since I’m only 5 weeks out. I think once I’ve hit the end of my rapid-loss phase and move into maintenance (10 months or so from now) I’m going to look into intermittent fasting because it truly seems like the answer to keeping the weight off

Loving this thread and the responses! Okay so this is kinda getting personal, but I’m gonna share here because I’m thinking there are others here with me that might have this issue. As part of this procedure, my insurance company set me up with a therapist that I have phone calls with for 45 mins every other week. I’ve been with her now since November and she is a 32 year bypass veteran. When I hit my “stall” in week 3 and the scale didn’t move for almost 2 weeks, she didn’t tell me I was being silly in worrying, and didn’t make me feel selfish for complaining that I’d lost almost 2 pounds daily and then stopped cold. She also didn’t berate me for not believing in the science behind the procedure. What she did instead was to empathize with my feelings that I was going to be the only person who “failed” bariatric surgery while follwing all instructions to a tee. She understood what kind of psychological damage my body has done to me by never wanting to lose weight easily and by giving me breast cancer at the age of 40. She understood my feelings of distrust during years of infertility and repeated miscarriages in my 20’s and how when I finally did have that second baby, that my body rewarded me with gestational diabetes and 80 pounds that I carried around ( lots of yo-yo dieting in the intervening 22 years) to this day.  Her response was “ you’re afraid of being judged negatively because your body has repeatedly shown itself to be untrustworthy and because it ‘betrays’ you all of the time. Who in your position wouldn’t have these fears, my dear?” Well that was pretty profound because after thinking hard about it, the hard truth is I really can’t trust my body to “ do the right thing” so when a mini stall happens, or I don’t lose what I think I should those feelings of “ omg, here we go yet again” creep back like some kind of PTSD. None of us should ever need to apologize for those feelings because they are REAL and we’ve all been scarred at one point or another or else we wouldn’t be here. I will continue to have optimism and follow instructions to the best of my ability, but I will also continue to keep looking over my shoulder and keep an eye out for future betrayals like a jilted lover does with the one who keeps cheating on her over and over and over again

That’s amazing! Lol, just started calculating when I’ll be back in onederland. Probably 2 more months. Fingers crossed

Congrats!!!

Love hearing how most of us have graduated to purées, if not semi-solid foods by now. Makes me feel like we’re not freshmen anymore. Lol, the March people are now the newbies. 😂 😂 So today was yet another challenge. I live in Oklahoma and cedar pollen is crazy insane and I’ve been struggling with “cedar flu” for the last 24 hrs. Woke up feeling like crap and a tummy full of mucus from the drainage. Food sounded so awful today that I had nothing til a glass of milk at noon. Still had to work a 10hr shift and took a Benadryl when I got home and now I’m half-zombie Ugh! Have to work 26 hours more this weekend and my energy levels are waaaaaaay down. Surviving til Monday when I can get a day off is my focus for now. That and hydration ( I never want to drink water when I’ve got sinus drainage) and food will be down on the list of things I’m gonna care about. Since I work 13 hr shifts on my weekends, I’m gonna bring some bone broth and milk and cottage cheese and soft cheese and try to get in at least 30gm protein. Honestly I’m thinking about how much food that is and wondering how I’m gonna get it all down in a 13 hr shift. Big change from even 2 months ago....

I know! It’s almost torture not being able to eat fresh veg. Honestly if you put a small salad and a piece of chocolate cake side by side and told me I could choose 1 without hurting my stomach, I’d dive head-first into that salad. 😂😂 Lol, had cottage cheese and 1 scrambled egg (with Tabasco-yay) for lunch. Breakfast was 8 ounces milk

How exciting! I turned 50 last October and had my surgery feb 6, so we will literally be about the same age on surgery date! Can’t wait to see what us 50+ future hotties can do!

Thanks so much for the input. Okay, so I’m going to continue to follow this thread and see what y’all are doing, and when I feel the time is right (once I’ve lost most of my weight and feel as if I’m truly hitting a plateau) I’ll start playing around with IF to maybe get the last 10-15% off that I’m sure won’t come off easily.

One thing I’ve been regressing on this week is I think I’m probably eating too many veggies too fast. Weirdly enough, one of my favorite all-time things is salad. Cobb salad, Greek salad, Asian salad, wedge salad... I love them all. My husband has always said that I should’ve probably published a salad cookbook because I could have that as the main course for dinner every night and it wouldn’t get boring. And my salads have a minimum of 10-12 ingredients. Lol, in my fave Cobb that I used to make, I had TWO different kinds of bacon and 3 types of cheeses before I would even start with the rest of the stuff. Sigh..... I miss salad. That being said, I miss it so much that I’ve been sneaking salad into my dinner meal and my protein levels are suffering. I also had part of an avocado yesterday, which I think breaks the record for the longest time I’ve ever gone without avocado. I’m so scared that I’m going to overstretch my sleeve, but I’m seriously having veg cravings. I’ve gone over my journal and I’ve taken vitamins every day and I’m eating clean as far as limiting sugars and I’ve had zero artificial sugars because any kind of artificial sweetener cranks up my food cravings into overdrive. It’s weird..... I could care less about eating any carbs, but I’m obsessing over vegetables, which I can’t really eat because I don’t have the space. Anyone else going through this right now?

Can’t wait to hear how it goes

In my pre-surgery class, we were told to D/C all stimulant weight loss meds 2 weeks prior to surgery. You’ll need to stop it

So glad that worked better for you. Lol, I feel as if my sleeve has regressed this week. The last 2 mornings I could barely get down any breakfast at all despite feeling hungry. What I did manage to eat felt really heavy on my tummy and made me slightly nauseous. Then I struggled to drink water for about 2 hours after. This morning instead of eating, I drank 6 ounces fairlife milk and did a ton better. Was able to drink some water within 15 minutes and didn’t feel weak and “hungry” anymore. Think that’s what I’m going to do for the next week or so and then try solids again in the morning. Wow, this really is a process

Lol. Yeah I can’t even hit 20 carbs most days because it’s all I can do to hold in protein. Heck, my sleeve is so tight in the morning that I’m pushing to drink 4-6 ounces milk. But a girl can dream... 😂😂😂

Okay so I have a progress report to make. For the last 3 weeks running I was getting so frustrated because the scale was inching sloooooooowly along and now I’m happy to report that I’m down 1.6 pounds since Monday. I truly didn’t mean to get on the scale mid-week, but my ever-supportive and all around best husband in the whole world surprised me last night with a fancy new scale that does body measurements like Water, fat, bone, and muscle. It will even sync with a couple of my health apps. So of course I set it up this morning first thing and weighed on the old scale before weighing on the new one. Bad news: the new scale weighs me 1.2 pounds more than the old one did. Booooooooo Good news: I lost 1.6 pounds!!! That’s almost as much as I had lost in the last 2 weeks COMBINED. Fingers crossed that I’m moving back down and this 3 week almost-stall is done Edit to add: it’s going to be hard to not get on it to make sure the drop wasn’t some kind of fluke, but I’m going to be strong and wait til Monday.  

Okay so it would help us answer you better to know what you’re eating and when. Post that and together we will help you work through it

Lol, not gonna lie... I wish my NUT would tell me to eat 100 gm carbs daily. Heck, my guys tell me not to go over 40 and I’m walking on my treadmill 10 miles weekly and doing Pilates 3x weekly. 😂😂😂 Maybe I can bribe your guys to talk to mine and I can have more carbs...

Flyover country here. Posting from Oklahoma, so west of the Mississippi, but not really considered east, west, north, or south. Or maybe we can call ourselves many of these things as it suits our needs. Haven’t really seen many Okies here, but I’m sure we’re represented here just as we are about everywhere else

Wow I have to admit that I’ve never had the foamies. I’m extremely lucky, I think. I’m the person who never threw up once during 2 pregnancies, never threw up once while on a year of chemo ( and I even held down a full-time job during) and has never once thrown up due to drinking too much alcohol. Much to nobodies surprise, I’ve not thrown up ( or even come close to it) during this procedure. I’ve got stomach cramps a few times, and that’s been when I’ve tried to push food and water too close, or when I’ve tried to eat something within 3 hours of awaking. For some reason my sleeve just doesn’t want food in it until at least 10am and preferably later. I’ve all but given up on breakfast because I can only get down 1/4 of the amt of food I can have at dinner and even something like a couple spoons of cottage cheese get stuck and I start to have spasms and light nausea. And if I’m feeling light nausea, I know it’s serious because I almost never feel nausea.

Not sure how you feel about cottage cheese, but that’s my primary go-to when I know I need to eat, but don’t feel like messing around with food. It always goes down easy and I know I’m getting good nutrition. Also, if you chew something enough times, it becomes purée. Plus, there is such great satisfaction from actually being able to chew something for the first time in weeks. What my doc told me is it was fine to eat solid proteins on the purée stage as long as I didn’t put in a bite bigger than my pinkie finger nail and as long as I chewed at least 20 times before trying to swallow.

I was also told no protein shakes. They’re high in calories and don’t count as water. I was also told to completely zero out any kind of artificial sweeteners. Those can cause insulin spikes worse than actual sugar and slow metabolism. My NUT said a minimum 80 ounces plain water or the loss would be greatly slowed. She also said to not stress the protein until I could make very sure I was hitting the minimum 80 ounces with relative ease. It’s a process and I dare not weigh myself more than once weekly. I’ve still only been losing a pound a week, but with 24 pounds lost in the first 12 days, I’ll take the pound per week