SpartanMaker

It my very non-professional opinion, this may be a sign of an eating disorder? I'm with @Hop_Scotch, you should probably talk with a therapist.

It was worse for me post surgery, at least for a while. I didn't even take any narcotic pain meds, which can really stop your guts. The good news is, now that my team allowed me to start taking a probiotic again, and now that I'm eating real food again, the constipation is pretty much gone.

It's pretty common. So much so that my team actually starts everyone on a bowel regimen a week before the preop diet even starts. They had a flow chart and used little poop emojis. (Which I personally thought was a bit much.) It was also the very first tining in the preop PDF they sent me. The idea was if you don't have a soft BM every 1-2 days, then you take progressively more stools softeners and stimulants. I asked why it was the very first thing in the PDF and they said it's one of the most challenging things people deal with both pre-op, and for the few weeks post-op. It's also one of those things that you're better off staying ahead of, meaning once you realize there's an issue, it's can be difficult to get back to "regular"

Glad they're helpful. I have tons for shrimp ideas as well, but didn't add any here. On my plan, they're not on the soft foods list.

Glad to hear it! Not that you would necessarily want to go down this road, but there actually IS a surgical procedure to make you taller. As I understand it, it's quite painful and takes a while. Look up "limb lengthening" if you want the gory details.

Should have added: if you need more protein, you can add unflavored protein powder to most dishes. Also, tofu works as a sub for many things like you said, but sometimes, lentils or beans may work even better. Done correctly, lentils make a great sub for ground beef because they add more texture than tofu would.

Some ideas: Sweet Potato Chili Instant Pot Tacos (made with lentils) Cauliflower Tacos with black beans, cabbage slaw, cilantro & Yum Yum Sauce Vegetarian chili Spinach salad with red onion, Falafel “Scotch” eggs and Garlicky Lemon-Tahini Dressing Egg topped Sweet Potato/Onion Hash, Sautéed Mushrooms & Kale with Parmesan & Almonds Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, Pear Salad with Balsamic and Walnuts Veggie Quesadilla with black beans, spinach & mashed sweet potato Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Whole Masoor Dal, Quinoa, pepitas Southern Veggie Plate Vegetable Kofta Curry Baingan Bharta Lahsuni Bhindi Muttar Paneer Palak Paneer Aloo Gobi Chickpea Curry Avocado toast topped with egg Cheese Stuffed Poblano Peppers Lentil Soup Briam & Greek Salad Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas with Fresh Dill and Parsley, Horiátiki Salata Vegetarian Enchiladas Suizas Zucchini-serrano fritters with black beans, avocado, fried egg, salsa, & queso fresco (a.k.a. lower carb Huevos Rancheros) Falafel wrap (can use butter lettuce if you don't want pita) Vegan Chickpea "Crab" Cakes, tartar sauce, butter lettuce & apple salad Veggie Stuffed Roasted Portobello Mushrooms with Salad Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato Chocolate Mole Soup Rajmah dal, Saag Paneer, Vegetable Pakoras Gatte Ki Sabzi, Palak Paneer Aloo Gobi, Palak Paneer, Rice Vegetable Manchurian, Chana Masala, Bhindi Ki Sabzi Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Spinach and Manchego Malai Kofta Curry Cauliflower, Egg & Potato Curry, Palak Paneer Shakshuka, Spinach, Berry & Pistachio Salad Veggie Quiche & Side Salad Pisto Manchego, Fried Egg Coconut Cauliflower Curry Moroccan Stew with Chickpeas & Sweet Potatoes, Quinoa Huevos Rancheros & Papas Fritas, Avocado & Cilantro Vegan Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burger with shiitake mushrooms (Served on an whole wheat English muffin) Caponata, whole wheat pita chips & lentil soup Baked Sweet Potato with Moroccan Style Lentils Vegan Burger patty & Sweet Potato Wedges Moroccan Shakshuka Eggs With Lentils Menemen Veggie Enchiladas with Chile Verde Roasted Veggie Grain Bowl Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Harissa & Sourdough Bread Vegetarian Mulligatawny Collard Greens & Black-Eyed Pea Soup Veggie Stuffed Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, Pear & Walnut Salad Soba noodles with spicy tofu and cabbage Loaded vegetarian quesadilla (use low carb or whole wheat tortilla) You'll notice there's a lot if Indian foods. I love things from the Indian sub-continent and there are thousands of vegetarian options to choose from. Same goes for many other "ethnic" foods.

You're at the low end of normal. As stated, if you have no symptoms, rejoice! Your heart is having to work a lot less then it used to. Note that it's pretty common for bariatric surgery patients to have lower than average BP. It happens because we're dropping fat so quickly. As we lose weight, there is less need for the blood volume you previously had, so you actually lose blood volume. (No, you don't bleed, it's absorbed naturally.) What does not drop as quickly are the size of your veins and arteries. They are bigger than normal because they are used to having to contain higher blood volume. At this point, it's simple physics. Less fluid in a closed system will be under lower pressure than more fluid. For most people, this will adjust over time. Some people unfortunately do end up with hypotension, either temporarily or permanently. If you do start having symptoms: Make sure you stay hydrated. Up your salt intake, especially if you're not getting much. As you probably know, salt raises blood pressure. An increase in salt consumption might help. Do be careful however. For some people, this carries certain risks. Talk to your doctor -- especially if you are still on high BP meds, you probably need to stop them -- there are also treatments available for low blood pressure.

Here are some more ideas for you: Vegetarian (or not!) chili Cabbage Rolls with potatoes Kofta Curry Muttar Paneer Stuffed Poblano Peppers Kafta Kabob Huevos Rancheros (skip the tortilla) Vegan Sweet Potato & Black Bean "meatballs" with shiitake mushrooms Menemen Dalia Khichdi Masoor Dal Dal Makhani Baba Ghanouj with Cauliflower or Zucchini Fritters (add protein powder) Blackened Salmon with Smashed Potatoes Creamy Garlic Butter Tuscan Salmon over Zoodles Mahi Mahi w/ Aji Amarillo, sauteed zucchini Thai Red Curry with Mahi Mahi Tilapia w/Pesto, Roasted Root Veggies Vegetable Beef Soup (use ground beef & no corn) Beef & Bean Sloppy Joes (skip the bun), roasted carrots Swedish Meatballs & potatoes Ground Beef Stir Fry with broccoli & mushrooms Kibbeh Harira Crustless Quiche Basically anything that uses ground meats is probably safe. Get creative with veggies to either cook with or along with the meat. Some things that may be light on protein may need some unflavored protein powder mixed in.

I'm still on purees, but starting next week, here's some of the stuff on my menu for soft food stage: Butternut Squash Bisque w/ Meatballs Meatloaf, Green Beans, Sautéed Squash Slow-Cooker Buffalo Chicken Meatballs Broccoli Cheese Soup (add unflavored protein powder) Taco bowl Moroccan Shakshuka With Lentils Mapo tofu

As I understand it, this is somewhat variable. I have no problem with any temp, but will say I seem to be able to drink warm things faster? Can't comment on the shakes, I used pre-prepared ones.

As @ShoppGirl said, if it happens, it's temporary. Even if you do lose some, you'll get past it. As to what, if anything you can do about it, there are some things that may help? Research on this is kind of sparse, but collagen, as well as biotin (a.k.a. vitamin B7), supplementation may help. Collagen is the main protein found in bone broth, so you could get extra protein from the bone broth, and potentially help ease the impact of post surgical hair loss. If you don't like or want to use bone broth, you can also buy collagen powder that you can add to other foods. Some collagen supplements have B7 in them as well. There are a few minerals such as iron & zinc that are also helpful. In addition, vitamins C, B2, B9 & B12 are important to hair growth. In short, make sure you're taking your bariatric multivitamin and it should keep the shedding to a minimum.

I've used a CPAP for about 12 years now. I'll echo what @summerseeker said. You may need to try different masks to find what works for you. Because I'm a side/stomach sleeper, big masks didn't work for me, but I found that this works pretty well: https://www.resmed.com/en-us/sleep-apnea/cpap-parts-support/sleep-apnea-full-products-list/cpap-masks/airfit-p10/ I've used one of these exclusively for about 10 years. As an aside, I'm really hoping to be cured of the sleep apnea as I continue to lose weight. The plan right now is for me to get a new sleep study ~6 months post surgery. Fingers crossed.

Ideally, you wouldn't eat right before bed, but we don't live in an ideal world. The thing for you to figure out is are you really hungry, or is it head hunger due to habit or maybe self soothing? For head hunger, most of the time I just have to find other distractions. Especially ones i don't associate with food. I'm not really a TV watcher, but I know a lot of people tend to mindlessly snack when watching TV. If this is you, find something else to do. If you really are hungry, then do as @Tomo suggested and look for healthier options.

There seems to be some confusion in this thread. As @Arabesque mentioned, when we talk about "gas pain" immediately post surgery, this is not from gas in your intestines, which is what most people think of when we talk about gas pain. "Gas pain" post abdominal surgery is literally from the gas the surgeon used to expand your abdomen. They do this to be able to see and have room to work. Carbon Dioxide is the most commonly used gas for this, but I have heard of other gases like nitrous oxide also being used. This gas is eventually absorbed into your tissues and carried away by your bloodstream. It does NOT end up in your intestines. This gas causes pain primarily by pressing on your diaphragm. This is one of the reasons it can be a bit painful to breathe, along with residual effects of the anesthesia. By pressing on your diaphragm, it irritates the phrenic nerve. This sometimes causes "referred pain" in your shoulder. It's not that the gas has escaped and settled in your shoulder region, it's just due to the nerve irritation. The phrenic nerve runs from your diaphragm, up into your shoulder region, and up your neck to your brain.

I don't think I could have done it. I'm a little over 2 weeks out and I went back to work part time the last 2 days. I found it very taxing. It partly how tired I feel, but maybe even more so that I'm mentally drained. I work from home, but have a mentally challenging job, so I have to have a clear head. Now that I'm actually starting real food, it's getting better every day. The other challenge early on was just how much of my energy and thought went in to keeping up with my liquid and protein intake. I'm afraid that if I was trying to work as well, I likely would have ended up dehydrated or worse.

I'd add that everyone's experience is different, so it's hard to tell you "what to expect". I for example had very little pain, no nausea, and had no problems getting in my fluids and protein. Other people have had all those problems and more. Perhaps the one thing that most of us have in common is that it all gets easier every day. When you get down or depressed post surgery (and you will), remember that the struggles are generally temporary. As they say: "this to will pass".

You've gotten some good advice, but I'd also recommend talking to your bariatric care team. Each of us has our own experiences to draw on, but your team should be able to draw on hundreds or even thousands of patients to better advise you in light of your particular background and surgical outcome.

I use myfitnesspal. I've used it for a number of years and generally find it's the best and easiest to use. There are a couple of things you have to get used to: Anyone can add a new food, This can be a blessing if what you find in the database does not work for you. Don't find what you need? Add it. The downside is that some common foods have dozens of entries and a fair number of them will be wrong. The entries that have been verified as correct by staff have green checkmarks, so you'd be well advised to look for those. It's not as easy is log small portions accurately of some foods because not all entries have weights in grams (or even ounces). They may only have a "serving", so you're stuck estimating a percentage. This is compounded by issue #1 in that you may have to look through multiple entries to find a "good" one. The flip side is that if you do find an accurate entry that is properly entered by weight, our small portions are fairly easy to accurately enter. Both Meals and Recipes can be built and saved. This generally works well, except that when building a recipe, you can't see all the nutrition info for an ingredient. This can be a problem again due to issue #1 above. What you find you have to do is check after you add the entry if it looks right. if not, it's back to editing and finding a different ingredient entry. Lately I've been seeing a lot of glitches, especially around my water consumption. I'll add water, then check again later to find that it's missing. Finally the biggest gripe: this program is not customized for bariatric patients. At the end of the day if you "Complete This Entry", you'll get a nasty message telling you that you're not eating enough.

I think most of us go through what you're feeling right now. We all dread a loss of the things we used to enjoy. (Most of these fears are unfounded, by the way.) The reality is if those things are important to you, you'll most likely still be able to do them, just less often. Instead of focusing on the loss, another better approach might be for you to think of new, healthier ways to have fun with your friends. Drinking and eating don't have to be the only ways you interact. Also, if you do end up having dumping syndrome (which is not a certainty), then you may have to make some dietary changes, but many people really have very little problem making those changes. Perhaps the thing for you to do would be weigh the positives vs. the negatives of surgery. When you remember all the ways being obese effects you, you may find sacrificing a few things to get rid of all those other issues is more than worth it. As the end of the day, only you can make that call.

Can you explain what you mean when you say you don't feel strong enough to go back to good habits? It sounds like you already know what you need to do, but are struggling to do those things for some reason?

I was hoping the OP would return so we could discuss some of the things posted here, but they have not. As such, I wanted to take a bit of time to delve a bit deeper into what was posted in the event anyone reading this was confused. Sorry, but this will be a long post. The TL;DR version is that most of what was posted was inaccurate. Let's start with this section: Dumping syndrome (feeling very sick when eating certain foods), is really variable for both Sleeve and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass patients. Some people have this, and some don't. It's generally accurate to say that dumping is more common in gastric bypass but regardless, relying on this as the way to keep you from eating things you shouldn't, is just not a good strategy. As I mentioned before, neither surgery fixes what's between your ears, so if you go into WLS expecting that this is going to keep you from binge eating, you likely won't be successful. Stomachs can stretch, but it takes repeatedly overeating for this to happen. I wanted to make that clear since some people are overly worried about this. As long as you stick to plan, this should not be a concern. Again, not a good strategy expecting dumping syndrome to "fix" you. Fix your eating problem first, then have surgery to help you get to a healthy weight. The OP seems to have a misunderstanding about how fat cells work. White Adipocytes (fat cells), store lipids (fats) as droplets in the body of the cell. The volume of the droplet stored in each cell can grow or shrink as needed. The point is that the number of fat cells one has does not determine some sort of "baseline" amount of fat you will store. Yes, obese people often have more fat cells on average, though this is somewhat determined by genetics, overall body mass, as well as how long you have been obese. The OP is correct in that you can grow new fat cells if you exceed the capacity of your existing adipocytes to store lipids. What's not correct is that this somehow makes it more likely that you'll gain weight if you overeat. If you overeat, you'll gain weight regardless. This is factually wrong. Yes, being cold does require your metabolism to work harder to keep you warm. Studies have shown that on average, if you were to exercise in a very cold environment vs. a warm one, you can burn as much as 30% more calories when subjected to cold. Keep in mind that this effect only occurs when you are exposed to cold however. Let's take a simple example to illustrate how little of a difference this makes: Let's say your basal metabolic rate is 2000 calories. If you burn 30% additional calories in a 15 minute session of shivering as the OP suggested, that means you'd burn about 21 extra calories. (2000 calories divided by 24 hours is about 83 calories. That times 30% equals about 25. Divide 25 by 4 since it's 15 minutes of shivering and you get about 6. So if you take the OP's advice, you'd burn about 6 extra calories for your 15 minutes of shivering. Now if you actually workout (rather than just sit), in a cold environment, you can certainly increase the calories burned, but again, it's limited. I hope you see that this is not a good way to actually lose weight. Plus, we should be exercising for other reasons like to improve our cardiovascular health. Shivering won't do anything for that. If you want to know the real way to exercise for weight loss, you need to do strength training. Why? Because as you strength train, you also increase your basal metabolism. In other words, you burn more calories even when you're not working out.

I had very little actual "pain" from the carbon dioxide. I'd classify it more as "discomfort"? I just took tylenol as far as pain meds and was fine. (I didn't even take all the tylenol I was prescribed.) Also, as has been said here already, walking really helps, so I was walking multiple times a day. I think compared to the many other surgeries I've had, this one was actually one of the least painful.

I think it's normal to be worried. I've had over 15 surgeries now; some major and some minor. I was worried about all of them. While worry is normal, being paralyzed by fear is not. The truth is we as humans are really bad at understanding risk. if you look at that data, we are many, many times more likely to die or have life altering complications from being obese, than we are from WLS. In fact statistically, WLS is even safer than things like gall bladder removal surgery.

I know a lot of folks from Europe go to Turkey. I think it's even cheaper than MX, though travel costs from the US may eat up the difference?