NickelChip

Trying to be more optimistic today. My belly used to look bad in this dress so here’s some progress.

So glad it went well! And an apology, too? Wow!

Do you like dresses? I adore dresses for warm weather. I suggest getting some loose, flowing types and a few light cardigans or those scarf-life draping kimono/shawl thingies for if you go inside somewhere that is cooler or want to cover your arms. I would probably take measurements to match up to your size on online size charts and try ordering or shopping in mid-August. You might get some things on end-of-season clearance. Actually, one of my favorite tricks is to find one dress I like and buy it in 3 or 4 neutral colors, and then top it with different accessories that I can use at any dress size. Three different kimonos will make a single dress look like you have three.

In my case, I was referred by my primary care doctor to the weight management center that is affiliated with the hospital and everything else was done through them. But I know it can be different depending where you are. In my case, my surgeon, dietician, and behavioral therapist were all in one office and I went to the hospital to have my labs drawn and my barium swallow and EKG. I did not have to do a sleep test or endoscopy based on whatever criteria they use for that. My insurance required a certain number of visits with the dietician and surgeon, but I'm not sure now what the requirement was because I had been going to the center for a long time on medically supervised weight loss before switching to surgical, so I had long since met those requirements.

I have to be honest about my experience so far with dietitians, and with post-bariatric advice and counseling in general. If you ask 100 dietitians what we are supposed to be doing, you will get 101 different responses. And if you ask them a second time, you will probably get even more. Too much Protein, not enough protein, carbs are the devil, carbs are fine, low fat, don't worry about fat, count calories, only count macros, work out more, don't exercise too much...
You've lost over 100 pounds. You are 12.8 pounds from your goal at only 5 months post-op, work out 6 days a week, and look and feel great. You seem really happy. I fail to see why you should change anything if you are happy with your results, unless you think the advice will benefit you. You know your body and what works for you, and unless your dietitian is a bariatric patient, she's never been through what you are doing first hand.
Take what she says with a grain of salt, except salt is bad, unless it isn't because electrolytes are good...who knows?

That's all understandable! At least your eyes are open, and you are frustrated. Hopefully, that will get you back on track. I'm so afraid of getting to where I can eat more. It seems that I'm able to eat just a bit more each week. I remember when I could only eat half a bag of Quest chips. Now, I can easily polish off the bag. As much as I dislike being nauseous, it does keep me from eating much. However, even when I think I've eaten a lot I'm still under 1,000 calories. It's funny what now feels like a lot!
You've got this! I would get the junk out of the house and get things for the kids that they enjoy but aren't tempting to you. Keep some cut-up fruit and veggies in the fridge for easy grabbing when you need/want something.

So glad it went well! And an apology, too? Wow!

I’ve done this with spaghetti squash! The kiddo liked it too.
No, I don’t make little fancy stuff because by the time I figure out I’m hungry, I’m too hungry to care about rosettes.

So glad it went well! And an apology, too? Wow!

Hello 👋
it’s good to hear everyone’s progress. Things have been mixed for me as my husband died suddenly 65 days ago. Shocking to say the least.
So I’m not quite sure how I’m doing really.

however, my surgery has been life changing, physically I’ve never been so fit. I’m down 30kg and only 3kg from goal but have been in a plateau for around 5wks. Despite the emotional turmoil I have pretty much managed to stick to the programme, only wavering twice when I simply did not care enough to stop myself eating too much rubbish. The reassuring thing was I stopped and got myself back together. I want to be healthy, so am putting the work in.

Walking and exercise, (strength, cardio, yoga - on Apple fitness) have given me a focus. When I feel lost and overwhelmed by grief I go walking. Rather that than gorge myself silly then feel even worse, as I would have done prior to surgery.

There’s never a good time for a spouse to die but I’m glad I was well on in this weight loss journey as I’d be in an even worse position had I not been. My husband would be proud and happy. ❤️

In my case, I was referred by my primary care doctor to the weight management center that is affiliated with the hospital and everything else was done through them. But I know it can be different depending where you are. In my case, my surgeon, dietician, and behavioral therapist were all in one office and I went to the hospital to have my labs drawn and my barium swallow and EKG. I did not have to do a sleep test or endoscopy based on whatever criteria they use for that. My insurance required a certain number of visits with the dietician and surgeon, but I'm not sure now what the requirement was because I had been going to the center for a long time on medically supervised weight loss before switching to surgical, so I had long since met those requirements.

Hurray! My endoscopy was a success today 😊 No pain, no memory, no issues, all clear ready for the next step on my bariatric surgery. I’m thankful that I was put in for today’s list after someone cancelled as I was told that it was normally a 6 month wait as they on have 1 list per week for deeper sedation with only 4 patients on said list.
Here’s a turn up for the books - the snotty Sister from yesterday’s phone-call was at the sister hospital today and sought me out to apologise to me 😮 To say I was surprised is an understatement but I’ve accepted her apology and I’m moving on.
Thanks for all the support yesterday. It meant the world to me and showed me that I wasn’t being unreasonable.
💜

Tonight I decided I'm making myself zucchini "spaghetti" with marinara (I buy a brand with no added sugar) and precooked turkey meatballs from the grocery store. It only takes a few minutes and everything is pre-made so the prep and cooking time is minimal. A little sprinkle of parmesan on top and it'll be good to go!

As others have said, I felt absolutely no hunger after surgery. I got a little tired of the same flavors every day and kind of missed chewing, but I wasn't hungry. I even had to go back on liquids for a few more weeks because of some vomiting issues and it was fine.
For resting, the first couple days home I rested a lot. I would bring a big tumbler of Water and a premade Protein Shake into the living room and just sit and watch TV and nap when I needed. That passed quickly and the pain was mostly gone within a few days.
You will be amazed how quickly you are feeling back to normal. You've got this!

Do you like dresses? I adore dresses for warm weather. I suggest getting some loose, flowing types and a few light cardigans or those scarf-life draping kimono/shawl thingies for if you go inside somewhere that is cooler or want to cover your arms. I would probably take measurements to match up to your size on online size charts and try ordering or shopping in mid-August. You might get some things on end-of-season clearance. Actually, one of my favorite tricks is to find one dress I like and buy it in 3 or 4 neutral colors, and then top it with different accessories that I can use at any dress size. Three different kimonos will make a single dress look like you have three.

My go-to marinara brand is Bove's, which is made in Vermont and only contains plum tomatoes, olive oil, fresh onions, fresh garlic, salt, and fresh spices. It's delicious, but is pricey and can be harder to find if you aren't in New England. But the one I will get if I'm not able to find Bove's (or if I'm feeling like a cheaper option) is Ragu Kettle Cooked Tomato basil, which you can get at Walmart and Target for under $3 a jar. It's about as close to homemade as you will find from a bigger brand and the ingredients look like things you keep in the kitchen.
The turkey meatballs are fresh but precooked from Shady Brook Farms and can be found in a lot of grocery stores. The ingredient list is kind of terrible, though. They are tasty and heat up in 2 minutes, but once I actually looked at all the crap in them (I tossed them in the cart without checking), I will probably opt for a frozen version in the future if I don't want to make homemade.
Speaking of frozen, they make frozen zucchini spirals, and I think you can get butternut squash and beet spirals, too.
When made with fresh (not frozen) ingredients, I just toss it all in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. dinner done!

Omg. I so wish my grocery had those ingredients now. You just reminded me. There is a store like 45 minutes from me that has the fresh zucchini spirals and they even have a deli that makes their own Turkey meatballs that were really tasty. I’m sure that the marinara is not the greatest nutrition wise and they could’ve added a bunch of crap to the meatballs because they don’t list the nutrition label on prepared food in the deli. I could inquire to see if they have it, but I wasn’t strictly counting anything then.
Anyways, this was a meal that i actually enjoyed. And I never really thought about how convenient it is considering. I really need to start shopping there more often. The prices are a little high but the quality and variety of healthier choices is 100 times better than the stores that are right down the street from me. It’s kinda sad that I will make that trip for other things without hesitation, even restaurant food but I don’t tend to drive that far for healthy food. Something to really think about 🤔
Do you mind sharing the brand of your sugar free spaghetti sauce? Are the meatballs frozen? Is there a particular one you prefer?! This is definitely something I am putting on my list!!

Thank you for posting this! This is very timely for me because I've just gotten back from vacation and am struggling. The kids are off school and underfoot. The house is a mess with things to be washed and put away from vacation. My routine is off and I'm not getting enough sleep. The fridge was empty when I got home and I lacked the energy to meal plan, so I now have a fridge of random food I picked up and hope I can turn into meals. We came home with way too many snack foods and sweets and now that they're in the house, the temptation is at an all-time high and my motivation to follow the rules and do what I know I need to do is feeling very low.

As others have said, I felt absolutely no hunger after surgery. I got a little tired of the same flavors every day and kind of missed chewing, but I wasn't hungry. I even had to go back on liquids for a few more weeks because of some vomiting issues and it was fine.
For resting, the first couple days home I rested a lot. I would bring a big tumbler of Water and a premade Protein Shake into the living room and just sit and watch TV and nap when I needed. That passed quickly and the pain was mostly gone within a few days.
You will be amazed how quickly you are feeling back to normal. You've got this!

Tonight I decided I'm making myself zucchini "spaghetti" with marinara (I buy a brand with no added sugar) and precooked turkey meatballs from the grocery store. It only takes a few minutes and everything is pre-made so the prep and cooking time is minimal. A little sprinkle of parmesan on top and it'll be good to go!

It's easy to forget that "weight" and "fat" are not the same thing. You can burn fat and go up in weight, and it's normal for daily weight to fluctuate by several pounds. You've been really lucky so far that the scale has gone down consistently, but you're getting to the 6-month mark and that's when the surgery's fat burning effect starts to slow (not stop, but slow). In the past, you were burning enough fat quickly so that even if you went up in weight from Water or the food in your digestive track, you wouldn't see it on the scale. Now, though, you might only lose a small amount of fat in a week, so you could see the scale become a little more erratic. It's totally normal and you aren't gaining fat. It's also very common to hit a stall around 6 months post op as your body recalibrates. You'll probably see slower weight loss once it breaks, but you'll still see the scale go down for many more months.
And if I just base it on my own experience, you will experience this type of thing the closer you get to a number that feels important to you because the universe is like that. The moment I dropped below 200 lbs, which was such a psychological milestone for me, my weight bounced back up and it took another 10 days to get back into the 190s again. My third month post-op, I stalled and only lost a total of 3.8 pounds. The following month was my best month so far for weight loss.
So don't read too much into a little wobble on the scale if your habits have been reasonable. If it takes 3500 extra calories to gain one pound, unless you can identify some really bad choices that would have led to a 14,000 calorie surplus this past week, it's not anything you're doing. Just keep following your plan and ignore the scale.

As others have said, I felt absolutely no hunger after surgery. I got a little tired of the same flavors every day and kind of missed chewing, but I wasn't hungry. I even had to go back on liquids for a few more weeks because of some vomiting issues and it was fine.
For resting, the first couple days home I rested a lot. I would bring a big tumbler of Water and a premade Protein Shake into the living room and just sit and watch TV and nap when I needed. That passed quickly and the pain was mostly gone within a few days.
You will be amazed how quickly you are feeling back to normal. You've got this!

It's easy to forget that "weight" and "fat" are not the same thing. You can burn fat and go up in weight, and it's normal for daily weight to fluctuate by several pounds. You've been really lucky so far that the scale has gone down consistently, but you're getting to the 6-month mark and that's when the surgery's fat burning effect starts to slow (not stop, but slow). In the past, you were burning enough fat quickly so that even if you went up in weight from Water or the food in your digestive track, you wouldn't see it on the scale. Now, though, you might only lose a small amount of fat in a week, so you could see the scale become a little more erratic. It's totally normal and you aren't gaining fat. It's also very common to hit a stall around 6 months post op as your body recalibrates. You'll probably see slower weight loss once it breaks, but you'll still see the scale go down for many more months.
And if I just base it on my own experience, you will experience this type of thing the closer you get to a number that feels important to you because the universe is like that. The moment I dropped below 200 lbs, which was such a psychological milestone for me, my weight bounced back up and it took another 10 days to get back into the 190s again. My third month post-op, I stalled and only lost a total of 3.8 pounds. The following month was my best month so far for weight loss.
So don't read too much into a little wobble on the scale if your habits have been reasonable. If it takes 3500 extra calories to gain one pound, unless you can identify some really bad choices that would have led to a 14,000 calorie surplus this past week, it's not anything you're doing. Just keep following your plan and ignore the scale.

Thank you for posting this! This is very timely for me because I've just gotten back from vacation and am struggling. The kids are off school and underfoot. The house is a mess with things to be washed and put away from vacation. My routine is off and I'm not getting enough sleep. The fridge was empty when I got home and I lacked the energy to meal plan, so I now have a fridge of random food I picked up and hope I can turn into meals. We came home with way too many snack foods and sweets and now that they're in the house, the temptation is at an all-time high and my motivation to follow the rules and do what I know I need to do is feeling very low.

My favorite no-cook meals are salads. I like to start with a salad of baby spinach, matchstick carrots, fresh edamame, chickpeas, beets, feta or goat cheese, a sprinkling of sliced almonds, and top with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. It pairs well with chopped chicken breast (buy rotisserie to avoid having to cook it), smoked salmon, or thawed pre-cooked shrimp.
Regarding the honey in your recipe, I would start by cutting the amount in half and see if you like the flavor of the glaze like that. Depending how you feel about artificial sweeteners, you might also try one of the no-sugar Keto "honey" substitutes that are out there.