Arabesque

The eggplant lasagne is really just a moussaka. Traditionally lamb mince is used but you can use beef. And use cinnamon & all spice instead of Italian herbs like basil. This is a pretty simple recipe for it: https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/classic-moussaka/88513a78-4b3d-4546-b985-32f4c33382a7# I’m not a great lover of eggplant but the small ones are usually tastier as a side than the large ones but the large ones are best for cooking in things like the moussaka. You can also make the magic quiche (or frittata) as muffins (often called savoury egg muffins or just egg muffins). Some recipes say use 6 eggs but I used 10 so that was almost one egg in every muffin. Great to freeze too. I used to make them a lot (until my tummy said nope I don’t like eggs now) with caramelised onions, roasted capsicum, feta, cherry tomatoes, frozen mixed vegetables (defrosted & patted dry) or whatever I happened to have in my fridge.

Nope. We don’t even call them shrimp. They’re prawns. Shrimp was used in the original ad solely for the tourist market so you’d know what was being barbecued. You were all lied to. 😂 PS - There aren’t kangaroos hopping down our streets either.

I’m pretty simple too - if I can’t do it in 20 minutes not interested (for every day cooking) & I have favourites I cook on repeat. Plus all the leftover meals in my freezer, I actually only cook a couple of times a week. Most is reheating & only cooking vegetables. Honey is like sugar in that it is an added sugar so check with your team as to how much you can have each day post your Sadi. But it’s not.that you’ll be eating it everyday anyway not eating a huge portion. You can always reduce the amount of honey in the recipe if you’re really concerned. Personally, I like honey soy sauce marinated chicken or pork & cook it a couple of times a month. I’d share my recipe but I’m a ‘that looks about enough’ or ‘I’m not adding that much’ of an ingredient cook - a recipe is only a guide not a rule. I’d google easy mahi mahi recipes or easy beef (what ever the cut) recipes & see what looks interesting. It’s what I do sometimes.

Nothing wrong with being a perfectionist or anal @Lilia_90. Your spread looks wonderful.

Knew all these - watch too much American tv I think 😂. Don’t believe 3/4 of the Aussie slang people stereotypically think we use like I’ve never said gidday to anyone or called anyone a cobber (a friend). Most aren’t commonly used at all or haven’t really been in use for a long time. Many words are abbreviations or shortened forms of words - we’re great at doing that. Like cossie is short for swimming costume. In general, we’re more English in our vocabulary (& spelling). Except the young ones are adopting more & more Americanisms.

To further add to your confusing vocabulary from other countries @SleeveToBypass2023, we call them togs, cossies, swimmers or bathers in Australia. It depends upon what state you live in or what school you went to. 😁

My mum used to make a delicious tapioca pudding as did the woman I boarded with when I was at college (now that’s a long time ago). I can’t imagine drinking them in tea. . Now eating them in a custardy dessert yum. Though like you I’d probably struggle with them too now.

My plan was no caffeine but I could have herbal or green tea from day one. I only drank green tea anyway so I didn’t even ask when I could have caffeine again - ha! Caffeine is supposed to reduce the absorption of iron by about 60% (can be more or less depending upon your iron source) if you drink a caffeinated drink while eating or taking your iron supplement. Some studies advise waiting 30 minutes before drinking your caffeinated drink others say two hours. And yes, it can aggravate your tummy. It’s one of the drinks to avoid if you have reflux/GERD or an excess of acid (which we do for a while after surgery). Reflux is one of the reasons why I gave up caffeine years ago. That & not sleeping well. As always check with your team for their recommendations.

Don’t buy too much @ShoppGirl. I found it very salty & couldn’t eat it thanks to the change to my taste buds. You may be fine with it but if you can’t tolerate it, freeze it if it’s fresh or opened & use it as a soup base instead of stock in puree or later stages.

Temporary hair loss is very common after surgery. Your body is going through a lot is stress: the surgery, reduced food intake, weight loss, anaesthetic, hormonal flushes & changes, etc. The result is a temporary acceleration of your natural hair loss cycle. It actually can occur after child birth, periods of extreme stress, other more major surgeries, etc. The hair you are losing is dead & you were going to lose it anyway just not as quickly. You can’t stop it. Or slow it down. Some people will suggest adding additional supplements but this period of hair loss still lasts about 4 month -/+ regardless of taking the additional supplements or not. Those supplements won’t help hair that is already dead. As long as you’re taking the vitamins your team recommends & are meeting your protein & other nutritional goals, you don’t need to do anything else. Your new hair is still growing just at its usual rate & it is only this new growth that may benefit from the supplements. How much you’ll lose is very individual & you can’t predict it. You may lose more if it’s summer (when we usually shed more hair) or if you are in your 7 year hair shedding cycle (just went through mine again & was losing a lot more than usual). Try cutting off some of your length if you have longer hair. Many of us do this so the new growth reaches the length of the old growth more quickly. And shorter hair is always bouncier & looks fuller than long. I decided some temporary hair loss is a small price to pay for the benefits of your weight loss. Oh, and try not to stress too much - it only adds to the stress your body is already under which influences the hair loss. PS: You can update your weight by scrolling to near the bottom of this page. You’ll see a section titled Together we have lost… Add your current weight & click Update Your Weight. It will display the next time you start a thread or respond to a post.

While being well informed yourself is very helpful, sometimes it can mess with you causing anxiety, fears & doubts which is where you are at the moment. I know you have been worried about this surgery for a while now though it did seem you had decided it was the way to go recently & were more confident about it. Have you thought about speaking with a therapist (not sure if you are or not) if only to rebuild your resilience and may be to help you look at the information you’ve found more clearly so you can ask your surgeon the best questions. But, yes in the meantime it may be best to avoid googling. We just don’t have the medical knowledge & understanding to accurately apply the information you can discover to your specific situation & needs. As you said, your surgeon wouldn’t have suggested or recommended this surgery if they didn’t feel it would work for you. And as @catwoman7 said, your team will have strategies in place to monitor & mange any issues that are possible with the surgery like malabsorption with blood tests & adjusting your supplements & dietary recommendations. All the best.

I’d join you for a cup of tea @GreenTealael. In fact I’m sipping my daily green tea right now. You look very cute sitting there in what almost is a little flower bower.

I’m Australian so our English heritage meant I understood them perfectly. We use whinging a lot but take the Mickey not as often. 😁😁 That’s damn ridiculous @MrsFitz. All of it: the inconsistent dispensing & contradictory stockpiling justifying for it, the system they use not coping with a brand name change, poor delivery of vital medications, etc. You have every right to complain about the situation. Hopefully they can sort it out quickly & you’ll have your meds soon. PS - Reminds me of when I had my gall removed & my medication (new boxes bought from home), which were locked away, were not returned to me when I was discharged. They organised a service to deliver them to me but of course they never arrived. The service claimed they tried but I wasn’t home. I didn’t leave my house for two weeks. Asked for them to be taken to my surgeon’s rooms at the hospital so I could collect them at my follow up appointment. Of course they didn’t. I had to walk what felt like 20 miles up & down floors, building to building, wing to wing to get to the ward I’d been in & then they couldn’t find them at first. There was about $150 worth of meds so I was not letting it go. Oh & then I had to walk back to get to my car to leave. And I was made to feel like I was inconveniencing them.

How frustrating. No winder you’re upset. Unfortunately this is becoming all too common - poor service & follow ups by doctors & their staff. Add in the difficulties actually being able to source meds - it can be a nightmare. Have you tried asking for E scripts that are sent to your phone? Then you show the text to your pharmacist or ask your doctors to email the scripts to you. At least that way you know you have them. Can any of your meds be doubled dispensed? That is you get can 2 months supply dispensed instead of just enough for one month each time. I do this so I’m not always going into my pharmacy & I always have a new box/bottle of meds ready to go in case there is some delay or feck up by the doctors. Though my back up supply for my HRT patch this time. An extra month has not been enough. My pharmacist told me today mid August for delivery. It was supposed to be in stock in May, then June, now … Had to see my doctor for an alternative med but I’ll need another script for that as she only gave me a two month supply.

I call it regurgitating not vomiting because it almost comes up on its own with very little muscle spasming. Think it’s because your tummy is the muscle & it’s smaller so less strenuous spasming is needed. Plus being a smaller ‘container’ it takes less to empty it. And no cramps & sore stomach muscle after. That’s a win to me.

I’d wait until your weight stabilised - you don’t want to have the ring resized again. I had one resized but because I lost more weight it became too big again. It was sized to a H and I need a F1/2 in the end. Though I really can’t get it smaller because of the design of the ring. So I just got ring resizers like @ms.sss. Much cheaper than the cost of resizing a ring. I also wear some rings on different fingers. Of course how successful they are does depend on how much to big your ring is. If it’s your engagement & wedding rings, I’d probably store them safely for now. You can always buy an inexpensive dress or costume rings to wear in the meantime or could be a god excuse to get new rings. 😉

If only @ShoppGirl. But once the photo is approved it becomes your photo. If you take another it has to go through the identification process again. Sigh! Thankfully I don’t usually have to show my licence often so if it’s a crappy pxt it won’t be seen often. I wonder what will happen with all those young girls with their over filled sausage lips & chip monk cheeks & the eyelash extensions that half cover their eyes. That’s going to be interesting. Lol! Hopefully you have a better system in the US so you don’t have to go through this @Tomo. I admit I considered only getting a one year license but waiting in the queue again & all the kerfuffle & the comparatively additional cost for a one year vs 10 year license put me off.

Tea sandwiches? Do you mean finger sandwiches like you’d have at a high tea? Oh, just googled it. They are the same. Can’t say I’d blame you @GreenTealael. Cheese waffles just sound wrong. Don’t get the savoury waffle thing.

It has weakened over the years but it is still there. Some days it makes itself known quite strongly. Some days it’s more a gentle reminder.Some days I can eat more (all of my portion) without any restriction & some days I can’t. Certainly isn’t as strong & restrictive as it was in the beginning though. Think it’s a combination of being more conscious of how much I can eat of different things & just a general softening/loosening over time much like our tummy loosens a little.

This is the only time I miss bread. An egg & lettuce sandwich or a cucumber sandwich, on white bread, are heavenly. I used to soak my cucumbers in balsamic vinegar for an hour or so before. Mmm? Now I’m wondering if it’s worth the groaning & complaining tummy & general blah feeling of eating bread just to have one of them.

I don’t add protein powder to mine but you could. Just started adding collagen powder to mine for no other reason than to make me look young & beautiful again LO!!

It can’t hurt to see if you need them or need them as frequently. And it may reveal what your reflux (GERD) is really like. I still take mine every day because of my reflux is worse than pre surgery but the PPIs manage it. I used to take them just when I needed them before surgery (maybe once every 2 months +/-) & managed my reflux by dietary choices back then. Still do which I think helps.

Wouldn’t say there are complete no nos (except for sodas/soft drinks except soda water or tonic water fir my gin 😁) though there are things I avoid or eat rarely. I don’t eat bread, rice or pasta as they tend to sit heavily & are simple carbs. Apart from fruit & vegetables, I eat 2 serves of multi or whole grain carbs a day (multi grain crackers & rolled oats). Potatoes tend to sit heavily too especially mashed, baked/roasted aren’t as bad but I rarely have them. I rarely eat sweet things like cakes, desserts, chocolates, etc. except on special occasions. Like I have dessert at Christmas & may have a small piece of cake or dessert at a special event like a wedding (couple of times a year). Generally avoid foods with artificial sweeteners or sugar substitutes & I know those that do like my yoghurt & protein bar. My added sugar intake is less than 10g a day usually only about 5g. I don’t use pre prepared sauces except Asian ones like hoi sin, oyster, etc. & gravox. I still enjoy a drink every now & again just not every night like I used to & one glass is usually enough. I prep & cook most of what I eat myself to keep my foods primarily no or low processed. I used to enjoy a dessert when I went out or something sweet like a biscuit or cup cake after dinner & 4 or 5 meals a week were rice or pasta & ate bread every day before surgery but I really don’t miss them now & I think I’m better without them. Sometimes it would be a little easier when I go out but there are always alternatives or work arounds. Mind you it’s harder to avoid chilli or heavily spiced foods (have a sensitivity to them) when I go out than avoid pasta, rice & bread. This is what I learnt worked for me. Your way of eating in maintenance may be different to mine and that’s okay. It just has to work for you. As I said you have to be flexible, you can’t control every thing every day. And you have to accept that sometimes you might go off piste & that’s okay.

Haven’t had a revision @FifiLux, but I think if I was in your situation, I‘d ask for a second opinion or tell your surgeon you‘re not ready/interested now but will keep it in mind as a possible option in the future. Considering your GERD is so mild & manageable, there doesn’t seem to be a medical reason for the revision. If you are happy with your weight loss (& you should be - congratulations) what is the need for a revision for additional weight loss? At ten months, you have plenty of time to lose any additional weight you may want to lose (many of us continue to lose for a total of 1-2 years). The cynical side of me wonders if your surgeon wants to buy a new house, go on an overseas holiday, etc. Said cynical. 😁

Only you know the answer. Simply because you know your history with weight loss & gain & you know yourself best. You have to be ready, because it’s not easy & there’s a lot of work you have to do. If you need more time, that’s fine. As @ms.sss said, you’ll be ready when you’re ready. For me, the surgery provided an opportunity & the time to really understand my relationship with food. I regularly dieted & until the last few years, I could lose weight but as soon as I stopped the diet I returned to eating the same way I always did, for the same reasons & in the same situations. And of course I’d regain the weight I lost. With the surgery & the post surgery eating plan I slowly developed a way of eating I was comfortable with. I worked out what foods were best for me & which weren’t. I became more aware of portion size. And I learnt to recognise the situations (physical, emotional or psychologically) & behaviours that influenced my eating. Because it was a slow process, it was easy to adopt & adapt to my new eating style. Something that diets never did & I never did while dieting. I realised I saw diets as restrictive & a punishment. Now, how I eat is just how I eat. All the best whatever you choose to do.