gmast99

I am here.

I am hanging out in the 180s. Down from 280s. I don’t do anything. I never watch calories anymore. I eat whatever I want. I just get full after a few bites. Still no issues. I have never had the constipation, foamies, or nausea that some people seem to get. I drink a ton of water. I have gotten really used to eating the same thing for days at a time. I went to Outback Steakhouse on Monday for dinner. On Tuesday dinner I had leftover Outback Steakhouse. On Wednesday for dinner I had leftover Outback Steakhouse. lol I do find that I am hungry in the middle of the night. I wake up and get a little snack sometimes in the middle of the night that I never used to do before. It seems like my body wants something every 6 hours. It just doesn’t want much. I still struggle to eat enough protein. Carbs are just so delicious. I have zero regrets.

I am very happy to hear you are looking forward to your vacation. I am the same as you. I have zero regrets about the surgery. I have settled in around 195. My goal was 185. I am aware that I could try harder to hit the goal weight but I am perfectly happy with 195 and eating and drinking what I want. I do not think the 10 pounds is worth giving up wine and pasta. Granted much smaller amounts of wine and pasta these days but I still feel human when I go out to dinner with my friends and family. At this point, no one even believes me when I said I had surgery. People don’t notice that I eat smaller portions because I am eating the same foods as them. I have way more energy and way more confidence. I am thankful I did not have complications. I have rarely even gotten sick. So for me I am living my best life after a successful surgery. (It should be noted I followed the MDs instructions to the letter for the first year.)

Question. Have any of you tried taking a fiber pill to health with regularity?

I haven’t checked in for a while. Doing great here. So far no complications. I am down to 185 and feeling great. I pretty much made it without any of the difficulties. I never really got foamies and don’t think I got sick more than 5 times and most were in the first 6 months. Now I can pretty much eat whatever I want I just get full really quickly. My body has relearned its relationship with food and unlike the old days the minute I start to feel full I totally lose my appetite and just want food to go away. I probably need to work on my protein intake since I still love carbs but no one is perfect. I am glad everyone is doing well. It is not a quick fix like I thought it would be but overall I feel like it was a healthy way to lose weight. I am medication free with normal labs and blood pressure now and no more CPAP.

I am doing great. I am at my goal weight. Averaging around 185 lbs. I can eat whatever I want at this point but not much of it. No complications so far. Now I contemplating my ideal weight of 175 which I didn’t ever think would be possible. Life has been crazy busy with my career and home life. I am thankful for all the extra energy that I have now and with the heat wave we are experiencing I am loving not being drenched in sweat all the time. I find myself being cold at times which is not something people in Miami say often. I still enjoy hearing about all of the success my November surgery buddies are having. I think it has been a great experience for most of us. Keep up the good work everyone!

Things here are going really well. I can eat whatever I want but only a little. I am tolerating sugars and fats better. Veggies and fruit are still the safest to eat. I have been stalled for a month which is fine. Still not down to the 190s yet. But I feel great and I look good. My friends and coworkers tell me that I am still losing weight just the scale is slow to catch up. I am definitely still losing inches. I am using a ton of lotion trying to keep my skin as hydrated as possible and hoping it will not look to flabby when all is said and done. My scars are still very visible but there is not much that can be done about that. Still no regrets.

I have the same problem with coffee. I don’t drink fast enough now and I hate cold coffee. So I got an Ember Mug. It was expensive but it is amazing. Piping hot coffee all morning long. And I am saving a fortune on the Starbucks below where I work. So I feel it paid for itself. Congrats to everyone on the dedication. I haven’t had many issues this last month. My weight loss has slowed down but I am flirting with hitting 199 lbs which will be a huge mental milestone dropping out of the 200s.

Anything spicy is off limits. I used to love the heat in Cajun seasoning and now that is an absolute no for me. My family makes home made salsa from what they grow in their garden. I can’t handle the peppers. Anything with sugar or grease. After I got back to work my Starbucks addiction restarted as I need the caffeine. I am basically limited to black coffee. Anything with flavoring does’t sit well. I am having a hard time with ground beef which I was fine with at the beginning. So I switched to a chicken burrito from beef at my favorite Mexican restaurant but I still ended up feeling bad when I got home. It was still greasy from the cheese I am guessing. I am not having any issues with things getting “stuck”, but if I have anything with sugar or grease I feel terrible in an hour which is strange because I could handle both in the months after surgery. Then my concern was chewing enough and eating slowly. Now I can eat as fast as I want and chew normally but I have to avoid a lot of things. The symptoms start with getting really hot and starting to sweat. Then a mild nausea kicks in. It passes in an hour but it is not a great feeling.

I am doing well. Had an over three week stall. It was getting a little frustrating that the scale stopped moving. Then one day I stepped on and I had lost 5.5 pounds overnight. I had to weigh again just to check that it wasn’t a mistake. I am back to losing again but not as quickly. Strangely I am having more problems with food these days. My system seems to be getting more picky. I hope everyone is doing well. I still have no regrets.

I am hitting 3 months post op. I am down 60 lbs and have been stalled for the last two weeks. I am not too concerned about it since I have read so much about it here. It is certainly a tad frustrating but I feel so much better after losing so much so fast that I can see so many benefits to encourage me. The biggest for me is no more CPAP at night. As far as recovery: I can tolerate all fluids and I tolerated wine. I would say 90% of food sits just fine. I am avoiding high sugar and high fat foods obviously and I don’t really miss them. Fish and veggies are easiest for my system. I can swallow larger pieces of food now which is a huge improvement from the first month. Back then if I didn’t chew 30 times per bite I was headed for disaster. I still eat slowly. I have found that when I go out to dinner I talk everyone into some appetizers and then I eat that during the appetizer course and in place of my meal. I space it out over a couple hours while everyone else enjoys the courses. It works for me and my friends don’t really notice since I am always eating. Who knew you could eat some chicken wings over an hour. But not buffalo. Spicy food is still a no go for me. I have had foamies in the first month but not lately and I have still avoided dumping syndrome. I feel like it is going well and I am getting a lot of compliments. I am waiting to lose another 20 before I start investing in nicer clothes. I am looking forward to that. 3X is a bad memory. 2X I can no longer keep on. XL is getting looser.

Hi All I am coming up on my two month post op this week. Things have really gotten easier for me the last two weeks. I think I have kind of found a groove that works for me. Protein shake for breakfast, a small lunch, and a larger dinner. I tolerate almost all foods now without difficulty. Chewing and not rushing of course. I had a 20 day stall and gained weight which was a little frustrating but I picked up my exercise routine. I hit ten miles on my Apple Watch one day. Luckily it is warm where I live so I can walk up and down the beach. But after starting the exercise, the weight is dropping off. Happy to report I am at 50 pounds less today than at my Pre-Op appointment. I don’t notice the scale changes that much and only weigh in once a week but I notice how much better I feel. This for me is about living the rest of my life as healthy as I can. Congrats to my November surgery buddies that have survived the first two months. Things should get easier and better for us all.

Zoe don’t be too hard on yourself. In a month I have managed to eat every single thing they have told me to avoid. I just do not eat much of it. While I used to destroy a carton of ice cream, I was completely fine with a few bites. One slice of pizza at my favorite restaurant doesn’t kill me. I am full and feel like I deserve the reward after a long week. I don’t look at these things as failing. I look at them as adjusting to my new life. It is not realistic to think that I am going to live the rest of my life avoiding everything on the very large naughty list. The naughty list is things that I eat less of. No longer an entire large pizza. Now a slice. No longer an entire box of Chips Ahoy. Now three with some skim fairlife milk. And I am still losing my 2 to 3 pounds a week which my doctor says is healthy weight loss. Some days I don’t get enough protein. Other days I get extra. There is nothing magic that happens at midnight that resets your nutritional needs. If I average out enough protein a week I am happy. There is a support group here in Miami which is helpful because you get to hear first hand from people a year and later post op how they eventually fell into a routine and now most people seem to not think of their surgery as a burden like I feel it is now. I keep reminding myself that this is a lifetime lifestyle surgery and not a quick fix. Losing 100 pounds in 2 months would be very satisfying but is not healthy for your organs or your healing. I do get jealous of the people who can eat whatever they want. Some of my favorite foods do not sit well at all with me. Eggs are still a no for me. Shrimp is death. My favorite chips and the spicy salsa at my Mexican restaurant had my drenched in sweat on the curb trying not to vomit in the gutter while my friends frantically went for the car. We never even got to order the meal. My surgeon for my 30 day follow up said that with time I will be able to enjoy small amounts of all these things again and to just continue to proceed cautiously. He is pleased with my weight loss and my healing and that is all you can ask for.

I am at the three week post op mark. Slowly advancing my diet. No more puréed. Now just soft foods. Thank god for grilled fish which is filling and satisfying. No weight loss in a week which I am fine with because I have reintroduced carbs and I know from the many failed Keto diets that the minute you have carbs again the weight comes back with a vengeance. I am still very full after only a few bites so I can’t eat enough protein so I am still doing a shake a day. I am down to just one of the five incisions that is still healing. The rest have closed up nicely. I am having a weird experience with friends and family. I can only eat a few bites of food and with Christmas approaching I have been going out to dinner and to parties a lot. It is such a waste of money to order a meal given restaurant portion sizes knowing that leftovers don’t qualify as soft food after they are microwaved. So instead I have been asking to split meals. I am surprised by how many people look at me like I am a monster for suggesting this. Does anyone else find that people don’t want to split a meal at a restaurant?

Checking in. I will be 2 weeks post op tomorrow. On Wednesday my surgeon cleared me to start soft food. I have been eating fish that I grill and I have been using my Instapot to pressure cook some things. I am not interested in puréed. I can live on apple sauce and fish for a long time. Weight loss has stopped at 30 pounds in 3 weeks which I am fine with. I haven’t lost much post op but I lost so much Pre-op I am not surprised. The Dermabond is finally starting to come off my incisions. No problems so far tolerating food. I am slowing sampling different things. I am avoiding sugar. I so far have nothing but positives to say about my experience. For me this isn’t about a number on a scale. This is about my health and I already feel more energetic and am not longer using my CPAP.