Arabesque

I’ve had Chinese twice: once at about 4 months & then again in maintenance. I just picked out pieces of braised meat (chicken & beef) & vegetables but avoided the sauces as much as possible (used a fork to strain the meat & veg when serving) & no rice or noodles. I did throw up the first time I ate it but you can only try.

Super hot, Jake.

14 hours ago, MagentaMom said:

A mini thermos! That's a great idea!

So you made Protein Shakes ahead of time and kept them in the fridge?

I have a bunch of different Protein Powder flavors, including an unflavored one. I'm hopeful that I'm covered on that front.

I sometimes found I’d make up a shake but couldn’t take the taste after a few sips so I’d pop it in the fridge & try it again the next day. My taste buds & tummy were really erratic to begin - tolerating something one day but not the next. I had my surgery in winter so I sometimes used hot Water to make up my chocolate flavoured shake so I could pretend it was hot chocolate without the marshmallows - lol.

Herbal teas & decaffeinated green tea are also great. Dilute your shakes too. I found it made them easier to drink & further upped my Fluid intake. Don’t worry if you don’t hit your fluid goal every day - as long as you’re in the ball park. You will get more in as you progress. Mind you, I was a big Water drinker before surgery & I struggle every day to get close to goal 15mnths out.

I just made sure I’d have all the shakes, Soups, broths, etc. I would be eating during the liquid stage. I live alone & didn’t want to bother others to do my shopping. I bought all the over the counter meds too like gasX, benefibre, stool softeners, pain meds, hydralite, etc. Also bought a mini thermos to keep soups & broth hot as it took me hours to drink them. I’d make up my shakes in zippy cups/water bottles so I could have a couple of flavours on the go in the fridge. Your taste buds do change after surgery & flavours you enjoyed before may become disgusting to you after.

Small storage containers & zip lock bags once you start on soft then solid foods will become your friend. I froze meals I cooked in individual serves - actually still do - so it made it easy at meal times to just defrost & heat.

Good luck with your surgery.

Unfortunately, this won’t be your first stall. I liked to think of a stall as my body playing catch up with my weight loss, reduced diet, etc.: it just needed to take a breath. My longest stall was just short of three weeks when I was a couple of kgs short of my goal - so frustrating. You’re doing the right thing by keeping on your path. The weight loss will start again.

Good luck.

Having a supportive GP does help when you’re on this journey. I’m sorry yours isn’t. In Australia we have to have a referral from our GP before seeing a specialist so if your GP isn’t on your side you can’t even get to the surgeon.

I’m very fortunate to have a GP who wants the best for me & has been extremely supportive. She’s been my doctor for more than 25yrs so she knows my struggles well. She weighs me at every visit, checks all my blood work results & orders extras so she can pick up any variations in between surgical team visits. She also keeps in contact with my surgical team.

I struggled to get my energy back too but I tend to take a long time to recover from everything even a cold. I also had (still have) low blood pressure issues which I believe contributed.

The nausea could be from dairy or even your Multi Vitamins (they used to upset me a lot). Sometimes something you’ve been eating successfully will upset you out if the blue. I find if I drop it for a week or so I can eat it again without issue. Our tummies can be sensitive & contrary. I’d do the old trial & error. Add one thing you are regularly back into your diet & see how you go then add something else.

11 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

Vacation pic - golden hour by the Ocean

The dress was so soft and clingy that it revealed every little thing and now I want abs. Help.😆

You look great in this red dress GreenTealael - set off gloriously against the green shrubbery & fence & the blues of the ocean & sky too. I think you look fab with or without abs.

11 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

Vacation pic - golden hour by the Ocean

The dress was so soft and clingy that it revealed every little thing and now I want abs. Help.😆

You look great in this red dress GreenTealael - set off gloriously against the green shrubbery & fence & the blues of the ocean & sky too. I think you look fab with or without abs.

11 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

Vacation pic - golden hour by the Ocean

The dress was so soft and clingy that it revealed every little thing and now I want abs. Help.😆

You look great in this red dress GreenTealael - set off gloriously against the green shrubbery & fence & the blues of the ocean & sky too. I think you look fab with or without abs.

Don’t be afraid to accelerate a stage if you’re physically (&mentally ready). It’s ok to do this just as it’s ok if you want to slow down your steps. Just don’t go crazy. It all comes down to what you (your tummy) are able to tolerate.

You may be ready to move forward especially if you’re pretty active. Try another spoonful & see how you go.

Yep, watch the sugar content. Cereals are notorious for hidden sugar. (Watch artificial sweeteners too as they only feed your sugar cravings.) They are also high carb. Look for multi or whole grain cereals - better carbs. I was allowed rolled oats from early on. I make it with lactose free milk. I eat a milky, though still thickish, bowl every day - good source of Protein. No sweeteners at all except a few blueberries on occasions.

Ask your surgeon to recommend what supplements are best for your needs & your surgery. There are some that are formulated especially for Bariatric patients. (I believe there are some on this site.) Some people struggle to swallow Vitamins post surgery so this might be a consideration in what sort you chose - capsules, gummies, patches...

Nothing will prevent the saggy skin or Hair loss. Sorry.

The saggy skin is what’s left after the fat is gone from your stretched out skin. If you’re younger, your natural skin elasticity may help to reduce some of the sag. But the older you are, the more weight you have to lose, how much your weight has fluctuated over the years all increase your chance of saggy skin. Some say exercise & weights but that only builds muscle to fill in under the skin. It doesn’t tighten the skin itself. (I’d have to have Chris Hemsworth’s arms to fill up my batwings.) The only way to get rid of saggy skin is to physically remove it. I was almost 54 when I had my surgery & expected I’d have saggy skin after. I actually didn’t have much once I hit my goal - my upper arms, a little looseness between my upper thighs & general softness on my tummy. Then I lost the additional 10kg & everything went south. Saggy butt, flappy arms, oozing down my thighs... I even have loose skin on my fingers! I’ve just accepted my sags as part of my journey to get where I am now.

The hair loss occurs because of the shock of the surgery & restricted diet accelerates your natural hair loss cycle. Supplements will only support new Hair growth. They won’t stop your existing hair from shedding.

Best of luck on your journey. It’s going to be amazing.

I think it’s time for a new dietician. They should be supportive, a source of information & guidance & motivating. If they’re not you need to find a new one.

I was a bit meh about mine too. (Decided I was in the wrong profession after handing over $80 for each ten minute appointment.) I was going every fortnight for 6months, then monthly. She’s never weighed me. Never measured me. Never asked me to record my food intake. She barely asks me what I eat each day. She took a very scant health & diet history at the first appointment. Guess you can’t share much in 10 mins! After the first appointment she emailed two pages of pre surgical diet guidelines & I’ve received no other information in 16+ months. Oh & at my last appointment she asked for the very first time if she could look up my blood test results. (head shake, eye roll, shrug)

I did lots of research myself & studied all the material provided by my surgeon. I worked out my own post surgical diet & maintenance plan.

The only reason I stuck with her was that every now & then she’d share a piece of golden advice. She was the one that said not to worry about my cholesterol levels rising because it was being excreted from my fat stores & into my blood steam as I lost weight. I did some reading & she was right. She’s low pressure & that works for me.

Ok, breathe. It’s ok. We all lose at different rates. You may be a slow loser. You said you’ve lost 10lbs in 4 weeks so that is some loss.

I am concerned about how you are managing to get in 1200 calories a day at this early stage. Who recommended that as a daily goal? That seems more like a high recommended pre surgical caloric goal not post surgical. 300 - 500 calories at this early stage seems to be pretty common. 1200 calories is what a lot of us consume to maintain our weight.

Are you on purées or have you started eating soft foods? Are you following your diet plan? What quantity of food are you eating? Most are told to aim to consume 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of food 3 times a day once you start eating purées, soft food & then solids.

Contact your nutritionalist/dietician and your surgical team. They will give you some guidance on how to manage your journey.

Oh, Dtrain those shoes are A-mazingly fantastic. Welcome to the dark side of being addicted to shoes. Your soxs are mad good. I love dressing too even to get groceries - just makes you feel better.

Yes, very normal and you’re doing the right thing.

Almost 16months out, & I still often don’t feel hungry. (Hope it lasts a lot longer.) On these days, I stick to my routine of when & what I eat (though I do eat a little less & stretch out meal times on these days).

Oh, & you’ll certainly know when your restriction starts to kick in. Also, I noticed when I did start to feel hungry it was a different feeling. I didn’t know what was wrong but knew something was off. But that could be just me - lol.

You’ve lost 60lbs. This is great. But I know the head games can sabotage your progress & bring your down.

It’s not just about the number on the scale. Think about your wins. I bet you’re more active than you were before, have more energy plus being several clothing sizes down. What about improvements to your health & well being? What about things you couldn’t do before but can now. Celebrate these wins.

We all have different experiences on this journey. For every fast loser, there will be someone who loses more slowly. Every lb lost is a lb closer to your goal.

Do you have a dietician or nutritionalist? It may be worth a conversation to ensure you’re on the best eating plan for you. A tweak to your diet can make a big difference sometimes.

You can do this.

I love zip lock bags - snack size 15 x 10cm. Great for freezing individual serves & don’t take up as much room in the freezer as containers.

Though I struggled to swallow medication the first couple of days after surgery, I was ok after that. I just spread out when I took them across the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner) so I wasn’t swallowing too many at once. (Because meds are absorbed at different sections of the digestive tract, check with your doctor to ensure yours will be absorbed correctly after surgery.)

Like Recidivist, I didn’t enjoy Protein Shakes & had no appetite either. I’d dilute the shake & Soup I’d ‘eat’ each day & literally would take hours to drink them. Some people keep a 5min timer on their phone to remind them to sip. I was a big Water drinker before surgery, but still struggle 15.5 months out to meet my water goals. (I supplement with high water content fruit & vege - melons, lettuce, etc.)

I’ve never been able to eat spicy food (sensitivity) So not an issue for me but I’d go the bland diet route to begin especially while you’re healing internally. Plus you’ll discover your taste buds will have changed & things you used to love will become disgusting to eat. (Don’t worry you’ll come to love them again.)

I haven’t heard about the chewing 20 times before swallowing advice, but eating slowly is very important. Put your cutlery down between each bite. I still ask myself if I really need the next bite or am I eating out of habit.

But this was me. You may be totally different.

Best advice I received was to take everything slowly. From how much you can eat or drink, what you can eat or drink, how much exercise you can do, when you can progress through the stages, etc. It’s a lot of trial & error to find what works for you & your tool. Some things will work one day but not the next. Your tummy will soon tell you want it likes or doesn’t & what’s too much.

You’ll do fine. There are so many wonderful benefits to this process. Enjoy each & every one. 😁

10lbs is pretty common as Catwoman7 said. I lost about 13lbs in the first three weeks (but I wouldn’t have been hitting 400 calories a day - not hungry & struggled to eat much that first month or so). I slowed after that first month.

Some weeks you may lose a little more, others less. Then there’ll be weeks you don’t lose at all. It’s all part of the process.

Good luck on your journey.

It just feels so uncomfortable if I do drink with or immediately before or after a meal. Plus I can’t eat much if I drink before or during. I don’t miss it either. I’ve been having Soup a bit recently & it’s a real challenge to eat unless it’s a really thick dense soup (& I love a bowl of home made soup). All you can do it give it a try & see if you are someone who can.

We’re all still learning so all questions have value here. 😁

Devastated. My local supermarket is no longer stocking the yoghurt I love in either tubs or the drinking yoghurt. Best thing was it didn’t taste as sweet as other yoghurts which is likely why it’s not a ‘good seller’. Used to mix my collagen & silica powder in the drinking yoghurt. I’ve complained but I’m probably a lone voice. 😭

It doesn’t have sugar but it does have artificial sweeteners which continue to feed your sugar cravings. Plus the 300mg of caffeine per can is equivalent to about three 8oz cups of coffee.

Another consideration is the carbonation. The gas is rather filling for your much smaller tummy. If, on the odd occasion I have a carbonated drink (soda or tonic water), I don't let them get pretty flat, I get a very uncomfortable tightness - like I want to burp but can’t.

Many wls patients have no issues with caffeine or carbonated drinks but others do. But ultimately the decision is yours. You could see if you can tolerate drinking them again but I would give yourself time to heal after surgery before you do.