Hope4NewMe

I agree that it is amazing what changes can happen in just a month! I'm happy that everything is going well for you. It seems a lot of us have trouble with knowing what satisfied feels like. Hopefully it'll come to us soon.

Don't beat yourself up for one bad day! Thats also not too bad of a day compared to where we were before the surgery. I know I've come close to 1000 a couple of times because I'm trying to find foods that I like that have a ton of protein and sometimes those are also high calorie. I also can pretty much eat anything and have no nausea so its harder to keep on track when our tool is a little more lenient than others. Its a long journey, so don't stress too much about the bumps, we'll get there!

Glad you are doing better with the food and your other issues. Super sorry to hear about your puppy though! I love all of my animals too.

Waiting to drink has made things difficult but with my latest dietitian meeting he said I didn't really have to wait as long, like 10 before and 20 after. That will help me out a ton. wonder if you talk to your team if they would relax the rules a little. I to am still trying to understand my new stomach. I really can't tell satisfied yet, its empty and then its full lol. I am going through a phase where nothing seems to taste good. Even the stuff I know should taste good, its like food has lost its flavor and is bland. Hopefully that goes away soon. Chicken it seems hates me. I was able to eat 2 oz one night and was perfectly fine. The next night I weighed out 2 oz and I ate about half and for the 1st time since the surgery I was in a lot of pain and I felt like I was going to throw up. I actually wanted to throw up to end the pain lol. It lasted about 1.5 hours and I'm afraid to eat chicken again. Still learning I guess.

How is everyone doing? This group got really quiet and I miss new stuff to read. Do you guys go to different groups that do more talking? I just hit my 1 month yesterday and had my appointment with my dietitian and all is going really well. I was sad at 1st because I thought I wasn't hitting my protein goal every day and then he told me that the goal was lowered after surgery. So before surgery I was supposed to hit 75 to 90 but after surgery it is 60 to 80. So I have been hitting my protein every day yay! I also finally found something that helps with my constipation and that is monk fruit sweetener. My daughter got me into drinking tea in the morning instead of coffee and I added the monk fruit to make it sweeter since I wasn't using my protein shake as creamer like I was for my coffee. Apparently it acts as a laxative and now I get to have my tea and also don't have any stomach issues. Its soooo much better. All of my incisions are almost all healed. Just one is is taking its time. Pain wise I feel almost back to normal and my energy is doing great. I'm slowly increasing my exercise and I'm so proud of myself that I'm walking a mile every day. I know that's not a lot to most people but to me it was a huge 1st step. I've always hated exercise so even to be doing it every day is a good step for me but a mile was my 1st goal. Now to hit 2 miles a day Hope everyone is doing well and please come back and post so I have something to read lol!

That is me! I am not hungry, I have no room because I'm constantly drinking water and I still dream about bread and especially sweet breads. Same fear too of not being able to control the cravings when my hunger comes back.

I appreciate all of the info! Its nice to see a full circle of how someone started and and got to goal and maintains. Its all very helpful and no post is too long. The idea of the surgery plus the keto fat burning is why I'm so pro low carb in my head. I have done keto many times though (less than 40 carbs) and never lost any weight. I even used those ketone strips to make sure and they confirmed I was good, but even after doing the diet for 6 months, never lost more than 5 pounds. I never get the keto flu either, so I'm ok there but if it doesn't work for me, and you can maintain on higher amounts, I wonder if I can eat carbs and still be ok. I think I just have to try things out and see how it goes.

Thank you for all of the responses! I think I will try adding in good for me carbs through veggies and try not to worry if the carb number goes over 40. I'll just keep testing as see how my body does and hopefully I'll be as successful as many of you have been.

I can tell you what my dietitian and exercise guide told me. There are 3 things to try, eat more calories, eat more protein and make sure you are getting enough vitamins. I seem to stall and even gain weight when constipated, so usually my stalls have been fixed by doing a laxative. Not every day though, like once a week. Good luck and if you find something that really works well, please share!

Congrats! 30 is a great number! I'm glad you are doing well with all the foods and even getting to eat out. Hopefully the energy will come soon and good luck with the exercising.

The cravings for me got better as I was able to eat better food. When I got on soft food I was able to eat more things that made me feel normal again and then I was less focused on food itself which helped the cravings. My family goes out to breakfast every other friday and I had skipped those for over a month because I didn't want to be sad. Hope things get better for you soon since you get to start soft food now.

Those are some amazing ideas! Some I haven't even heard of so I'm looking forward to looking them up. I am such a boring basic cook and just get stuck in a rut, so these ideas will help a ton! Thank you so much! I did get some shrimp to make shrimp cocktail with sugar free cocktail sauce and I bought button mushrooms I can add to everything lol but also going to try adding low fat cheese and broil them to make stuffed mushrooms. Those were my ideas for the week lol.

I learned that a belly band was amazing with helping with the recovery after surgery. It helped with being able to sleep on my side and to get up and down out of chairs or bed. When I wore it I almost felt normal and like I didn't have such a big surgery. I had an easy recovery after my surgery so I don't know if it works that well with everyone but I still recommend it to try at least.

I'm so sorry you had such issues!! I will take your advice and I won't try that brand for my constipation. I had the opposite issue with taking milk of magnesia. I took the lowest dose and nothing so I waited another day and then took the highest dose and finally some relief but just barely. I hope you are feeling better! Thank you for sharing so that we can learn from your experiences.

I'm still on soft foods until monday but what types of real food are you trying? Its so weird to be set free into the world of food without guidance, I feel like I'm going to be lost. I just had my 1st meal outside of the house and I survived lol. I had an omelet with mushrooms and onions and it was awesome. I only ate a tiny amount but it was nice to feel normal and I actually love eating such small amounts. I don't feel the negative judgement that was probably all in my head to begin with but it still was nice.

I'm with you and can eat more then I think I should. I can eat 1 scrambled egg and 1.5 ounces of chorizo. I'm also starting my 3rd week after surgery. I honestly can't feel my stomach getting full and someone elses post made sense to me that a lot of our nerves have been cut so maybe as we heal more we'll be able to feel that full feeling before we eat to much. I was never given any size or calorie advice from my bariatric team so its a really hard thing to judge.

Glad to hear the great update! Being done with liquids was my favorite day so far lol. As soon as I could start eating the puree is when my energy started coming back so hopefully you'll be full of energy soon. Have fun eating!

I weigh myself every day and the scale has not really moved in the last 4 days. So I might be in the dreaded 3 week stall. I think that you can gain weight even with the low calories but I don't think its fat, I think its water weight or constipation. Eventually your body will get the clue and let go and you will see the scale move. I would call your dietitians though and let them look over your food log and see if they have any suggestions. My dietitians said usually the stalls are caused by either not enough calories, low protein or not taking vitamins. But I would talk to your team and see what they think. It should at least help your anxiety and give you some input from the experts. Good luck!

Thank you for the update! I'm glad that they were at least able to find the problem. Hopefully they can fix this soon so that you can get to feeling better and able to eat again. Take care!

I actually use both because I like different features on them. I do think the baritastic app is easier to use and easy to track what I want to track, but I have had issues with it being way off on its information. Like I had it say a can of chicken in water was 56 grams of fat when it was like 2.5. It did get fixed about 2 weeks after I saw it but my dietitian said I was eating too much fat before surgery and I actually wasn't, it was the app being wrong and I hadn't caught it. So now I double check the stats and I also use the myfitness app as a backup to see how the 2 sites compare. So far in the 2 weeks, only 1 day was way off and that day the baritastic app said I ate 200 more calories then the fitness one. The thing I don't really like about the my fitness is that it kind of yells at me every day for not eating enough calories.

I haven't tried the protein powder added to my meals yet, but thank you for this warning. Your experience is one of my worst fears. I'm already having constipation issues and would never want to make them worse.

I have to agree, I tried puree chicken last night and just couldn't eat it. The flavor was ok, but the texture was too sticky and it was even hard to swallow. Refried beans are my friend, lol

I keep dreaming of foods all the time and if my kids bring in things like donuts to the house, I swear my stomach starts growling. But if I stop and really feel if I'm hungry or not, I don't actually feel hungry, so I think its head hunger. This hasn't changed from the day I got my surgery (on the 19th)so I don't know if it will ever go away. If it does go away, I'll be a happy person though.

I'm sorry you are having such a hard time after surgery! Your positive attitude is amazing. I hope they figure out how to help you soon, good luck! I was getting more and more tired on the liquid diet. I didn't start getting energy until I could eat the pureed foods. Yesterday was the 1st day I felt like I had normal to above normal energy and I had my surgery on the 19th. So hopefully soon things will pick up for you.

How do you make that? Looks like good comfort food.