Splenda

My latest recipe is to take a can of tuna or salmon, drain it and put it in a bowl. Add mashed avocado and Everything But the Bagel seasoning. You can eat it straight out of the bowl, put in a lettuce wrap or on saltines.

Here is how I handled it. 1. If they don't ask what you did, don't tell them. If someone says I look great, I just say, "Thank you. That is very kind." 2. While I did not announce my WLS, if someone directly asks what I did and I am reasonably sure they would be supportive, I tell them. I might be the only person they know who has had WLS and I want them to see someone succeeding so maybe they will be supportive of the next person they meet who has had WLS or is considering it. 3. If someone directly asks and I doubt whether they will be supportive, I would just say, "Oh, I'm eating right and exercising." Which is true. 4. If someone found out I had WLS and accused me of taking the easy way out, I would very blandly reply, "Isn't the most important thing that I find a way out?"

A few things: 1. Yep, it's hell week. I tell people that the week before surgery was way worse than what came after. So if you get through this, you will be able to make it. 2. The first 3 days will be the worst (at least until you are in the laxative stage 24 hrs prior to surgery; I was so miserable on that day). Your body will adjust to liquids only after 48-72 hours. 3. The way to endure through those 3 days is to constantly be having liquids. Drink protein shakes until you feel full; if it takes 3 shakes in a row, drink 3 shakes in a row. Eat a whole box of sugar-free popsicles. Eat as much sugar free Jello as you want (assuming that is allowed on your surgeon's plan). Whatever you are allowed to have, drink it without guilt or regret. After your body adjusts, you probably won't feel the desire to gorge, but drown your stomach in liquids until that happens.

Milo's is pretty good (I buy it at Walmart). The latest drink I love to make is to take a Vitamin Water Zero lemonade and add a packet of Wyler's Light Peach Iced Tea. The drink is 5 calories, zero sodium, has a bunch of vitamins/minerals from the Vitamin Water, and tastes like an Arnold Palmer.

I am a stomach sleeper and I had bypass. While I didn't experience GERD, I slept in a recliner for about 3 months post-surgery. It was the only way that I could sleep pain-free.

What I am about to say is a general rule. You are two weeks out from surgery. Within the next few weeks, you will hit a weight loss stall. It will last 2-3 weeks and will be very frustrating for you. Just keep doing what you know to do and you will break through the stall. After you come out of that stall will be the quickest weight loss of the entire process. You will lose the most weight between months 3 and 6. There will come a time anywhere between 8 and 18 months that the weight loss will begin to slow down. You will experience more stalls and you will not lose as quickly when you come out of the stalls. Then there will come a time when you stop losing weight and even gain some back. For example, a co-worker had the sleeve about 6-7 yrs ago. He told me that he bottomed out at 175 pounds, but now he is at 195-200 (down from 330, I believe). As other people have said, there is no good way to say, "I've lost 7.9%, but I am supposed to be at 9.8% by now." Everyone is different. But that is the general trajectory that you should expect.

Last April, I was a groomsman in a wedding. Had to rent a size 66 jacket. Needed a new suit jacket for a work function. Went to JC Penney and fit into a size 52 jacket.

A comfortable recliner to sleep in, especially for the first weeks post-surgery (I'm a stomach/side sleeper, so it took a while for me to sleep comfortably on my bed). A sturdy cane was also helpful to me for the first week after surgery because it gave me something to push off on when going from seated to standing (like using the toilet). I seriously underestimated how sore my stomach would be after surgery.

I concur with @lizonaplane. You can eat out, if you do it smart. 1. If you know where you are going to be eating (i.e. a friend is having a birthday party at Restaurant X on Friday), then study the menu in advance. Find the right meal for you. 2. If you are just coming off surgery and don't have a ton of stomach space, order something ala carte. About a month after my surgery, my wife and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I ordered a single scrambled egg and a small side dish of grits. Also, don't be afraid to order off the kids menu, especially if it is a restaurant that offers healthy kids options (like grilled chicken). 3. Always eat your protein first, followed by veggies. 4. Again, lizonaplane is right: make the substitutions work for you. If they charge extra for it, Tim Ferriss says that you should consider those charges as your Six Pack Tax (the tax you willingly pay to develop a six pack).

A few things: 1. You are about six weeks out of surgery. At six weeks, I had lost some weight and a few people noticed, but not many. I had lost about 10% of my starting body weight at six weeks (according to your sidebar, you've lost close to 15%). I am at the seven month mark and I am finally around the point where random co-workers have really noticed my weight loss. Keep it up and the before and after photos will come (my before/after looks pretty shocking). 2. Even though I have a shocking before/after, I still don't see it in the mirror. Really. Truly. If I went solely off the mirror, I would say that my face looks a little thinner, but not much else. I didn't understand how a non-insane person could have body dysmorphia until I had this surgery. I have way more sympathy for people who are anorexic after this experience.

The mirror is a TERRIBLE judge. You know that friend/cousin/sibling who will compulsively lie to you and you cannot trust a single word they say unless you verify it with someone else? That's your mirror. When I look in the mirror, I still see a giant belly. If I went solely by the mirror, I would judge the surgery to have been a massive failure. Last May, I ordered a custom suit online, based on my measurements. It fit fairly well at the time. I had surgery in August. Yesterday, I tried the jacket on and I was swimming in it. I looked like a 12 year old boy who tried his father's suit on. If your clothing -- especially shirts and jackets -- fit looser than they did pre-surgery, then you are losing off your tummy, no matter what the mirror says.

It's not my weirdest non-scale victory, but it might be my proudest. I took two flights and did not need a seat belt extender. I was also able to use/fit into the airplane lavatory during the flight. It's been 20+ years since I could claim either of these.

I was in a similar boat where my surgeon told me that either RNY or VSG would be fine and left it up to me. I considered the pros/cons and worried about the effects of RNY. I ultimately went with RNY because I wanted the surgery that gave me the best chance to lose the most weight. If you know you will be self-accountable for your Vitamins, you have already drastically reduced the chances of long-term bad effects. Obviously, there are no guarantees that everything will turn out OK (and that weighed on my mind when I was on the gurney, waiting for my surgery to start). But long-term complications are relatively rare in people who are committed to taking their Vitamins, hitting their Protein goals, etc. And taking the Vitamins isn't difficult -- get a good bariatric multivitamin and find a workable routine for taking it (I keep mine at my desk at work and take it when I get to work). I am very happy with my surgery. I am 41 and am in the best health/shape/weight I have been since college (it has been at least 20 years since my weight was so low). I was also a sweet tooth and addicted to food. But I have to say that not being addicted and not being constantly tempted by sweets is such a liberating feeling. The surgery definitely changes the hormones in your stomach in ways that change how you feel about food. I am 6.5 months out and here is my response to most foods: meh. It's there. It has nutrients. It will taste fine. As someone said in another thread, I no longer feel like my body is fighting against my efforts to lose weight.

Welcome to the three week stall! It is probably the most discussed problem on this message board. Just keep doing what you know to do (follow your surgeon's dietary guidelines, keep walking) and it will work itself out. It is very frustrating when you are in the middle of it, but when the stall ends, you will lose weight FAST.

I think this article gives a very fair view of what life is like with bariatric surgery and a good layman's explanation of how it changes you, beyond just shedding pounds. Read it if you have cold feet. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/bariatric-surgery.html

I don't know your age, situation, weight, other health problems, etc. If you think you can do this without surgery, then do it without surgery. I am not being sarcastic. It is a huge, life-altering decision and if I could do it without surgery, I would. But the surgery isn't just another way of saying, "Eat right and exercise." I understand what your husband is saying: with or without surgery, you will have to watch what you eat and stay active. But I struggle to explain to people how the surgery changed me, in terms of my relationship with food. Bypass/sleeve doesn't just make your stomach physically smaller; it changes the hormones from your stomach. My cravings for food are so much weaker and different; I don't crave rich foods (I am much more likely to crave saltines than cake). More than any time in my life, I see food simply as fuel rather than a source of pleasure/joy. I choose foods as much for how they will make my stomach feel than how they taste (my stomach will find it much easier to digest fish than steak, so I am much more likely to order salmon at a restaurant than sirloin). It's easier to stay disciplined when you don't even feel the same tug toward the foods that destroyed your old diets.

I can only speak from my experience. I had several of those "I can do this without surgery" moments throughout my life. I first started down the path of surgery in 2013/14. I was doing the Tim Ferriss Slow Carb Diet (6 days/wk, eat only beans/meats/veggies, 7th day is cheat day) and having great success. I explained what I was doing to the bariatric surgery coordinator and her response (paraphrased) was, "That's nice, but you won't be able to do that post-surgery." I didn't want to hear that, figuring that I had already lost 40+ pounds this way and cancelled my appointments. I ended up losing roughly 150 pounds on that diet, but gained it all back. Why? It reinforced binge eating habits and didn't set me up for future success. Like a lot of overweight people, I thought my next lifestyle change (clean eating! intermittent fasting! keto!) would be the one that allowed me to lose the weight and keep it off. I finally realized that I was only fooling myself. It takes an incredible amount of discipline to lose weight and keep it off without surgery. You have to commit to eating a certain way for the rest of your life; I have yet to meet someone who did a diet for 6 months, lost the weight, went off the diet and kept the weight off. I reached a mental state where I had two choices: 1) continue living my life as I had been or 2) making a truly radical change, the change most likely to keep the weight off. I chose Option 2, because I owed it to myself, my wife and my kids to be the healthiest person I could be. I do not regret my choice. But while I do not regret my choice, I don't go around telling other people to do it. I don't think I would have succeeded in 2013 the way I have today with the surgery. In 2013, I would have seen it as "I do a surgery, I eat less, I lose weight, winner, winner, smaller chicken dinner." That is a set up for long-term failure. Now, I see it as "I have been given a great chance to live a healthy life and I need to take advantage of it." Until you reach that mental state, you are not ready to succeed with this surgery.

Here is what I did early on, when the stomach didn't have the same "I'm full!" alarm that it had pre-surgery. I would stop and ask myself, "Am I as hungry as I was before I started eating?" If the answer was, "no," I would stop eating. If I found myself hungry in the next few minutes, I would resume eating. If I didn't feel hungry, I would just throw the food away or save it for later. This trick continues to work well for me to keep from grazing myself into trouble.

The explanation I was given for why no caffeine was that post-surgery, it irritates your stomach at a time when the stomach needs to be handled as gently as possible. Once my stomach was healed, I was given the go to resume caffeine consumption. I can see where hot coffee, which is usually highly acidic, would irritate your stomach post-surgery. I used Grinds coffee pouches to introduce caffeine into my bloodstream without irritating my stomach. They are a coffee-based chewing tobacco substitute; they are pouches that you stick inside of your cheek/lip like chewing tobacco. The caffeine enters the bloodstream directly, reducing any stomach irritation. I also used them pre-surgery to wean myself off caffeine without having to go completely cold turkey -- it got me out of the habit of drinking caffeinated drinks without giving up on caffeine completely.

I used patches right after the surgery when I didn't feel great about taking capsules. My blood work turned out fine at my 3 month checkup, but as others have said, vitamin deficiencies can take a while to manifest. I still keep some patches around for times when taking capsules is very inconvenient (like traveling overnight). I view them as "Not as good as capsules, but better than nothing."

There are a few ways to accomplish this: 1. Eat some type of stewed meat, where it naturally has taken on moisture. 2. Find some low sugar or sugar free sauces (i.e. use a little bit of keto bbq sauce) 3. A little bit of gravy, all things considered, should be ok. Don't douse your food in gravy, but use just enough to add moisture. 4. If the meat is a good fit for it (like chicken), some avocado mash makes a nice sauce. Really, just find something that adds moisture, so you aren't relying totally on your own saliva to help it breakdown and become mush in your mouth.

This week is my six month surgery anniversary. Obviously, everyone's experience is different. My vomiting experiences have fallen into two categories: 1. Food I ate too fast 2. Food that I was not healed enough to eat As to the first one, if you are able to stick to a slow eating timeline, you won't have that issue. I eat slower than I did presurgery (I look back now and half-wonder if I even chewed before swallowing), but old habits die hard. As to the second one, I tried some meats (chicken, stewed beef) too soon into my solid food stage. But no, you are not doomed to a life of throwing up.

I was in a similar boat where my surgeon told me that either RNY or VSG would be fine and left it up to me. I considered the pros/cons and worried about the effects of RNY. I ultimately went with RNY because I wanted the surgery that gave me the best chance to lose the most weight. If you know you will be self-accountable for your Vitamins, you have already drastically reduced the chances of long-term bad effects. Obviously, there are no guarantees that everything will turn out OK (and that weighed on my mind when I was on the gurney, waiting for my surgery to start). But long-term complications are relatively rare in people who are committed to taking their vitamins, hitting their Protein goals, etc. I am very happy with it. I am 41 and am in the best health/shape/weight I have been since college (it has been at least 20 years since my weight was so low).

The moment I came out of the anesthesia, I was insanely groggy and my abdomen was SORE. Best way I can describe is that it felt like I had someone trying to blow up a balloon underneath my stitches. That pain went down 50% over the next 24 hours, but it was probably about 10 days before that pain completely went away. There will be days when it is just plain sore, especially as your abs heal from the incision (the main incision on the left side, where they cut the abdominal muscle to get in, took the longest to heal and longest to no longer have pain). I tolerated liquids well from the start; I was sipping Crystal Light lemonade in the hospital and handled the jello just fine. As far as being super active...well, define "super active." This was my first surgery ever and what I didn't realize was how much surgery saps your energy. I would slowly walk around the hospital floor once or twice a day, mostly just to have a change of scenery. I walked like an old man in a nursing home, but all the nurses commented on how much more I walked than most people who have bariatric surgery. It was a week before I had something approaching a normal schedule, but it was a few weeks before I had normal energy levels. If you are in your 20s, are going to be diligent about your vitamins/nutrition/protein and have no major complicating factors (autoimmune diseases, etc.), then chronic illness is not super likely.

The 30 grams things came out of body builders (of which I am definitely not one). In terms of muscle-building and muscle-retention, anything more than 30 grams at a time probably isn't going to have a much bigger impact than 30. But that protein is used for many purposes, including amino acids and any excess protein is broken down into energy. At least for me, its a good source of energy. If I drink the Chike shake at 7:30-8am, I'm not hungry until noon. And I routinely get >100g of protein throughout the day. I am losing weight (135 pounds as I approach my six month anniversary), my doc loves my bloodwork and I have great energy, so if it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it. I am not going to make perfect the enemy of the good.