BigSue

Have you tried protein soups? How about protein hot chocolate? I find that warm liquids go down a little more easily than cold. I got some protein hot chocolate from the BariatricPal store that is really good. It tastes like normal hot chocolate, no weird protein taste.

I recently bought a bunch of seasonings from Flavor God. Nacho cheese is good on pureed refried beans and mashed cauliflower. Buttered cinnamon roll is good on applesauce (helps to cover up the taste of the Genepro protein powder I add to is). Pizza is good on the famous ricotta bake. I also bought everything seasoning, taco Tuesday, and lemon garlic but haven't tried them yet. I like sugar-free caramel syrup in applesauce and tea. And I like to mix chocolate protein powder and PB2 powdered peanut butter into Oikos Triple Zero yogurt.

I had gastric bypass, but I went back to work 11 days after my surgery. I had surgery on a Thursday, took the whole next week off, and went back to work the following Monday (I am working from home most of the time now, but I usually have to go into the office once per week, so I went in on Monday and worked from home the rest of the week). I have a desk job and I was fine. I could have gone back the previous week if I really had to, but I was definitely better off taking the week off because it's a lot of work to get all the protein and fluids when you can only drink an ounce at a time. By the time I went back to work, I was able to drink fluids at a reasonable pace and didn't have to pay so much attention to it. I sipped water all day at work and had a protein shake for lunch and I was good.

Something similar happened to me. I think it might have been because I used a lot of Listerine breath strips while I was in the hospital. Apparently, overusing products that kill bacteria (like mouthwash or breath strips) can kill off the good bacteria in your mouth that keep fungus under control and make you susceptible to developing thrush. Based on some internet recommendations, I started rinsing my mouth with warm salt water (1 teaspoon salt to 1 cup of water) 3 times per day. This helped very quickly -- big improvement after a couple of rinses -- but took a few days to go away completely. I had an appointment with my doctor before it went away completely and she prescribed an antifungal mouthwash, but I ended up not needing it because the salt water fixed it by the time I picked up my prescription. Also, I stopped using regular mouthwash and breath strips. Hope this helps!

I have struggled with my weight since puberty and I've been obese all my adult life, and I've hated my body for just about as long as I can remember. I never got to the point of loving myself, but I at least accepted it and decided that I was not going to care what other people thought. I accepted that some people get to be thin and beautiful, and that was not among my gifts, but so what? I am great at other things, so I will make the most of those talents. And I think I have -- I've worked incredibly hard to overturn the stereotypes that make people assume I'm stupid and lazy just from looking at me, and I've earned respect for my accomplishments. But no matter how much you love yourself, and no matter how little you care about other people's opinions of your body, it is freaking hard to go through life as a fat person. There's an active thread on the General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions board called "Things I won't miss about being fat," and while there are quite a few replies relating to body insecurity, there are also a lot of replies about things like not being able to fit in chairs, or airplane seats, or rollercoasters, and not being able to buy clothes in our size at roughly 99% of clothing stores, which are legitimate problems that make life hard. Add to that the widespread size discrimination in our society, and it is hard not to hate being fat. I think you can hate being fat without necessarily hating your body or yourself, although it is easy to see how one leads to the other. Now, back to your question. I did not have this surgery to look better, but because of the health aspects. I have always pushed myself to make sure my weight didn't stop me from doing anything, but as I've gotten older, that's become difficult. I've gotten frustrated with the physical limitations I'm starting to have, as well as health conditions that are strongly associated with obesity. I am just over two weeks post-op, but I lost over 60 pounds before surgery. I've had recent visits with three different doctors who were just thrilled with my weight loss, and it made me so uncomfortable when they cheered my weight loss and congratulated me, because I have tried very hard to separate my value as a person from my weight. I had flashbacks to when my mom used to weigh me every other day and basically made me feel as though her love was conditional upon my weight. And yes, sometimes I feel guilty here when I congratulate people on their weight loss, because that goes against my normal policy of never commenting on other people's bodies, but I also recognize that people here are working hard to change themselves (for whatever reason) and deserve encouragement.

I bought sample packs of Bariatric Fusion and Bari-Melts, and I much preferred the Bari-Melts. I recommend getting the sample pack first to make sure you like them.

I lost over 60 pounds before my surgery by intermittent fasting and tracking everything I eat in MyFitnessPal. I didn't really get any guidance from my program except recommending MyFitnessPal. I was on a "medically supervised" weight loss effort with my PCP for my insurance requirements, but she didn't really give me any specific guidance, either. If you're not already tracking everything you eat, I would start there. MyFitnessPal makes it really easy because they have a huge database of food, so you just have to search for the food and you don't have to enter nutrition information manually. If you eat something with a barcode, you can just scan the barcode and it will find the food for you. It will calculate a calorie limit based on your current weight and weight loss goals. You have a pretty low starting weight, so you probably won't lose that much before surgery, but this should at least help you not to gain.

I have both. I have mainly been using my food processor for the pureed stage. First of all, you shouldn't puree hot foods in the mini blender because steam pressure can build up and be dangerous. Secondly, a blender is better for liquids, and I don't think it would work too well for, say, refried beans or cauliflower because they're not liquid enough. If you put refried beans in the blender cup and then turn it upside down to blend, the beans would be stuck at the bottom of the cup, away from the blade, and not get pureed. A lot of people recommend an immersion blender, and I've thought about getting one, but I don't think I'd use it enough to make it worthwhile.

I would guess that your surgeon's office is pretty well versed in the insurance requirements. They do this all the time. It might help to ease your mind if you can get the actual fine print from your insurance policy (you may have to call or e-mail the insurance company for this). I had some concerns about my ability to meet the requirements for my insurance, and my surgeon's office looked up the requirements and said, "Don't worry, we'll get you approved." And they did! It was a lot easier than I expected. I got denied initially because my insurance company changed their requirements while I was in the process, to add a requirement for a letter from my PCP saying that I was medically cleared for surgery. My surgeon's office provided an example letter to my PCP, and I was approved in less than a week from my PCP's letter.

Sorry you're feeling so awful. I felt terrible when I first woke up from surgery and had a lot of feelings of regret. I was lucky enough to be feeling much better by the next day, so I can only imagine how it would be to feel like that for 5 days. I'm not a doctor and I can't make any promises, but it is very, very unlikely you've messed up your body forever. You may take longer to heal than you hoped. You may have some complications that require additional treatment. But it is really rare to have serious complications, and even if you do, almost all complications can be fixed. I'm sure you picked a good surgeon who knows what he or she is doing. Have you contacted your surgeon's office? They want you to call if you're having problems. Maybe it will help to remember that you put a lot of thought into the decision to have this surgery. I'm sure you had good reasons for it. They say you shouldn't make decisions when you're in a heightened emotional state -- like being in a lot of pain, as you are now. Trust the decision you made when you were clear-headed and not clouded by pain. You'll get back to that point again and this awful time will just be a blip in your memory. I hope you feel better soon!

Good job resisting temptation! I did my best to avoid looking at food, even pictures of food, during my pre-op diet. Never realized how many e-mails Taco Bell sends until then (I didn't even eat at Taco Bell regularly, haven't been there in over a year, but once you give them your e-mail address, they don't stop).

You’ll probably be ok if you stick to the liver-shrinking diet 100% from here on out. Keep in mind that the purpose of the pre-op diet is to make the surgery safer for you. I’ve heard that some surgeons will close you back up without doing the surgery if your liver is too big when they start. That is very rare, and I’m not saying this to scare you, but it is something to take seriously — as are all of the instructions from your surgeon. The post-op diet is really restrictive, too, and you won’t be able to eat fast food for a long time after surgery (and you might not be able to eat certain things ever again without getting sick). If you eat things you’re not supposed to while your stomach is still healing, it could cause serious complications. It’s hard, but so important to go into this fully committed to following your surgeon’s instructions.

That's fantastic! I really appreciate seeing the results of people with a starting weight similar to mine so I can get a realistic view of potential results. You are much taller than I am, so I'm a lot wider at the same weight, but I'd be very happy with losing 80 pounds in 7 months. Congratulations on your success!

I had a 2-week pre-op diet. The first week was 3 protein shakes plus one frozen meal under 350 calories (no rice or pasta) per day. The second week was 4 protein shakes per day, no solid food. I was also allowed to have water and other calorie-free beverages, broth, and up to 2 servings of sugar-free Jello or popsicles per day.

I had a lot of trouble getting enough water the first few days. Even drinking 3 ounces per hour made me feel like I just ate Thanksgiving dinner. The good news is that they pump you full of IV fluids at the hospital, so that will help prevent dehydration at the beginning. I'm two weeks out now and I can drink water at a reasonable pace without feeling stuffed. You are doing it right by sipping throughout the day. You don't need to worry about set meal times until you start eating actual food (pureed stage), and at that point, you'll have to wait 30 minutes after the meal to drink anything (some programs also say no liquids 30 minutes before the meal). As for the pain when the water hits the pouch, I was told it is fairly common to have cramps or spasms in your stomach, especially when drinking cold liquids. I was given a prescription for hyoscyamine to help with that (which I took for the first few days, but I haven't had any more issues after that).

For ready-to-drink shakes, I like Equate High protein caramel flavor. My coworkers turned me on to it and said that it tastes exactly like Premier Protein caramel but cheaper. Before my pre-op diet, I didn't have much experience with protein powder, so I ordered a bunch of single-serve samples from different companies. Once you start buying these online, you'll see nonstop ads for protein powders on Facebook. You do need to look at the nutrition labels and make sure they meet your requirements. My favorite that I've tried is IdealLean. This is the only one that I purchased a big tub without trying the sample first because it was on sale at a good price. I bought a big tub of chocolate brownie flavor and samples of others, and I liked every one that I tried from IdealLean (chocolate coconut, chocolate mint, and strawberries & cream). I mix them with almond milk, by the way. I also purchased a lemonade clear whey from there but didn't care for it much (I've found that I don't like clear protein drinks in general -- I just don't like the protein aftertaste). I also got samples from: 1Up Nutrition (chocolate peanut butter was my favorite; I also liked mint cookies & cream and coconut ice cream) Northbound Nutrition Waves of Whey (mini marshmallow was good, cinnamon frosting was pretty good but I wouldn't want a whole tub, chocolate freak shake was terrible) Strength (belgian chocolate is good but I prefer IdealLean chocolate brownie) KetoShop (unicorn vanilla milkshake and cinnamon roll were decent; I haven't tried chocolate and strawberry yet)

My surgeon said that if I have problems tolerating food, I should go back to liquids for a few days. Everybody heals at different rates, so maybe you’re just a little slower than expected and not ready for food yet.

I see... This seems like something you need to figure out with your doctor. I don't know if you still see your surgeon after all this time, but if not, maybe you could go to another bariatric surgeon (i.e., someone who is very familiar with issues of bariatric patients). But still, it is a legitimate medical issue, not a matter of "just eating more."

Is the only problem that your fiance is driving you crazy, or are you having other problems, like not being able to eat enough (which doesn't sound like the case since you have reached a stable weight) or malnutrition? Because, I have to say, this is the outcome I am hoping to get from surgery -- not wanting to eat anymore. Does your fiance know that you had weight loss surgery? If so, it seems like a pretty easy explanation: you had weight loss surgery to lose weight, you succeeded, and because the WLS was a permanent change to your digestive system, you are only able to eat small quantities of food now. If you are healthy and your labs are good, this is not a problem and he should not try to get you to eat more.

I just had my surgery two weeks ago, so I guess take my advice with a grain of salt, but I was able to lose 60 pounds before my surgery just by doing two things: tracking everything in the MyFitnessPal app and intermittent fasting. If you're not tracking what you're eating, that will be a major step in the right direction. It really helps to look at how many calories you're eating, and MyFitnessPal will calculate a calorie limit based on your current weight and weight loss goals. I'm not stupid and I know how to read nutrition labels, but something about seeing all my food listed in the app and having a clear goal really made me start thinking about what is or isn't worth the calories. It motivated me to find lower-calorie items because they felt like a good "deal." And I could still indulge if I wanted to, but I'd have to give up something else that day to stay under my calorie goal. The app makes it really easy, by the way, because you don't have to manually enter the nutrition information. You can just search for the food on the app, or if you're eating something with a barcode, you can scan the barcode. Intermittent fasting was also a great help to me because it made me feel less deprived. I did a 16/8 fast (fast for 16 hours, feed for 8 hours). My feeding time included lunch and dinner, and I skipped breakfast. Splitting my calories between two meals instead of three made it much easier to stay within my calorie goals. If I had a small lunch, I could really pig out at dinner and still be under my limit. I learned to be patient when I wanted to eat something because I could tell myself it's not that I can't have it, I just have to wait until later to eat it. Since I was going 16 hours without eating every day, I got out of the habit of snacking, even during my 8-hour feeding time, because I just got used to waiting until mealtime to eat.

Awesome! I'd love to see before and after photos if you're willing to share. I'm just two weeks out from surgery, but I hope my results will be as good as yours a year from now!

I agree... I don't think it's anyone's business how you lose weight, unless you choose to publicize it. If you're going to use your weight loss to promote products or get followers, you should be honest about how you lost weight. Some of the stigma of weight loss surgery is because people think it's so easy to lose weight through diet and exercise (and shady weight-loss products). It doesn't help anybody to lead them to believe they will get the same results without WLS.

I don't think it's surprising that you don't have much energy when you're hardly eating anything. Even if you don't feel hungry, your body is on the verge of starving. Plus, surgery is physically traumatic and it takes energy to heal. I'm two weeks out today and I feel surprisingly good. I went back to work on Monday (it's a desk job so not physically strenuous). But I have been making sure to take it easy and especially avoid anything that will make me sweat, since my fluid intake is ok but not quite where it should be. I know I will need to exercise to achieve the weight loss I want and get in shape, but I'm not worrying about that at this point since my calorie intake is so low (about 400 calories/day).

I bought a bunch of single-serving samples of protein powders from different brands. It helped to have some variety when protein shakes were all I could have.

My program requires a weight loss surgery seminar (general information about WLS), a one-on-one nutrition consultation with their dietitian, and a group nutrition class (general nutrition information and some info about the post-surgery diet). I also had a 3-month medically-supervised weight loss requirement from my insurance company, which was with my PCP, who did not provide any guidance other than "eat less and exercise more." A couple of weeks before my surgery, I had to attend what they called a "consent class," where they went over all of the possible complications of surgery plus detailed pre-op and post-op instructions. Most of the information from the classes is included in the bariatric patient manual for my program. Does your surgeon have something like this? I think most programs do. If yours doesn't, you can search for manuals from other programs to get an idea, although every program varies a bit and you'll need to follow your own surgeon's instructions. You could call your surgeon's office and ask them if they have a document like this. There is a lot of information online about post-surgery meal planning and recipes (check out https://www.bariatriceating.com/blogs/recipes and http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/). There are a lot of videos on YouTube about bariatric meal preparation, as well as people telling their personal WLS stories. Pain can vary a lot from patient to patient, but I can tell you I had very little pain. The first day, when I woke up from surgery, I was in a lot of pain that I'm pretty sure was gas pain, but that went away very quickly, within 24 hours. I haven't felt any pain from the incisions. For the first few days, I had a little internal discomfort when I consumed fluids. I was given Toradol for pain while I was in the hospital, and I was sent home with several prescriptions, including hydrocodone + acetaminophen for pain (which I didn't take at all, and I didn't even feel the need to take regular Tylenol), ondansetron (Zofran) for nausea, and hyoscyamine for cramps/spasms. I haven't needed any of it after the first few days.