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I cannot have any solids. Except cottage cheese, if you call that a solid. What I would do for a raw veggie right now. Yogurt and chicken broth is getting old.

Hi everyone! I got banded yesterday! Yay! I'm feeling pretty good today, with the exception of my shoulders. Did anyone else get that intense pain under their collarbones after surgery? The doctor and my nurses told me it was from the gas they pump in you during surgery and to move around a lot to help it get moving. I walked around a bit yesterday and I burped a lot out, and now my tummy is making grumbles and I can feel the gas moving around. So hopefully I'll feel better soon! I guess maybe I'm just excited about finally being banded but I'm not having any trouble at all with my liquid diet. I am hungry, but for now, I'm pretty good with my Isopure and popsicles. My doctor said to start full liquids next Tuesday and to see him next Thursday. He also gave me the okay for yogurt based (homemade) smoothies when I'm on full liquids! Yes! My pain level besides the gas is moderate. I'm extremely sore, like I went to the gym for the first time in a while. Getting up out of a sitting or laying down position is a little uncomfortable but they gave me some pain medication and I'm feeling pretty good. I think tomorrow I'm going to try to eat some Jello and get down a little broth. Also, and interesting point: my doctor had made me sign a release saying that he could fix a hiatal hernia if he found one, and guess what? He found one! Apparently this was the cause of a lot of my pre-op acid reflux, and he said that now that he fixed it, my reflux should be greatly reduced or even gone altogether! Yay! All right guys, thanks for your support in my intro post! You'll be hearing a lot from me! Riss

Congratulations on your upcoming surgery Carla. I too am from Toronto. I wish my pre-op consisted of yogurt and cottage cheese. I was banded at the SWLC in Mississauga and their pre-op diet consists of 3 Optifast protein shakes and 225 calories of green vegetable a day. It was a rough time but at the end of it I had lost 23 lbs and it was well worth the struggle. As Susansilver said, once you're done the pre-op diete you tend to brag about your success. :clap2:

I had surgery on the 23 and still on clear liquids... After a week the dietian suggested a yogurt drink and protein shake a day. However, she said at this point no blenders due to excess air and comfort after surgery. If you are feeling like your ready to advance your diet that's probably a good sign everything is working as it should. Funny how the recommendations can be so different eh?

Either Protein drink or yogurt for Breakfast. Baby turkey meatloaf for lunch. (like 2 oz) Protein Drink between lunch and supper Turkey meatballs for supper. (2) With a little marinara sauce and two broccoli crowns.

For me, I use Shaklee's Vanilla Soy Protein powder (15 protein gram sper service and mix with a high-protein yogurt (low fat/low carb: Stoneyfield or Dannon = 15 protein grams) to make a delicious shake - add ice and you are good to go.

I love chopsticks!! I even manage to eat yogurt with them( VERY SLOWLY!) The only downside is when picking up a large piece of something, I have to consciously remind myself to take a small bite...

Protein drink for bfast Couple slices of Turkey, light string cheese, yogurt,or cottage cheese for lunch or random combos of any of those.. Protein drink booster/snack Chicken, burger, Turkey, beans or something from the lunch list.. Trying to incorporate veggies and fruit here and there

It's hard to follow the doctors orders when you are hungry. I'm on my 8th day of post-op and I'm going crazy. I'm suppose to be on a modified liquid diet for 3 weeks. Which includes protein shakes, jello, yogurt, cottage cheese, watered down oatmeal etc. I found I needed something this morning or I was going to go crazy. I decided to make some instant potato and I watered it down a bit until it was like a cream of wheat consistency added S&P and butter and I can't believe how good it tasted! I felt the same way after I ate it...what did I do, did I just blow it? But I felt fine afterwards and I'm still full even though I only had about a 1/3 of a cup.

5 days post-op and I feel pretty good. Little gassy...but not bad. Last night is the first nite that I actually felt hunger pains so I had a 5 oz greek yogurt. Still woke up feeling hungry during the nite, but just drank more water. Got up about 7am and had a cup of maltomeal. Then about 1100 I was really hungry and I ate a can of spaghettios w/meatballs which is two cups. I don't think I needed the two cups...but part of me was curious what the band would do. I didn't notice anything... but I am not hungry and its now 8pm I did have 16 oz protein drink between 7pm-8pm just to get my protein in though. I think my goal will be to work on getting an eating schedule down now that I am not sleeping as much.:w00t:

Hi Jocelyn, I had my surgery, RNY, on 8/28, I'm just a few days ahead of you. Im struggling with your same issues. Since everything medicine and supplement wise has to be crushed, I'm eating one applesauce cup a day divided in thirds. 1/3 in the morning for my Calcium Supplement, 1/3 around 3:00pm for my next 2 pill dose of Calcium and then the last 1/3 I mix with my Bariatric Chewable Supplement. Believe me, this is more than enough to fill me up each day but know I need more and want more. I've been adding high protein yogurt to the mix, cottage cheese and the best thing ever was yesterday, an Egg Beaters Scrambled Egg with low fat cheese...HEAVEN!!! I just bought an amazing cookbook called , "Earing Well After Weight Loss Surgery" by Levine and Bontempo-Saray. The authors recipes sound delicious and they break down the recipes telling when in your recovery, you can have the recipe. This is where I got the idea for the scrambled egg. Keep the Faith my fellow weight loss surgery sister, we can do this!!,!

Greek yogurt is also a great source of protein.

Hi there! It's been over a week since I've last posted, and I've spent that time transitioning from liquids, to pureed food, and am now eating soft solids... but it hasn't been without it's trials... The first three days home from the hospital, my surgeon's plan calls for a pureed diet. For me, this consisted of mostly Greek yogurt, protein drinks, and some delicious pureed mushroom soup that my husband made for me. I'm sorry, but the idea of pureeing meat or fish or something just turned me off, so I didn't go there, but I feel like for those few days, I actually was doing well at getting in my protein in. Managed to get about 50 grams most days. And I have never had an issue getting my fluids in. I always get 50-64 ounces of straight fluid, not including my protein shakes. No, my big issue those first few days was with swallowing my pills. I was still having a fair amount of pain, so I was taking the Vicodin my surgeon prescribed probably twice a day, plus trying to take all of my vitamins, and the Pepcid. No matter what time I tried to take them, or what I took them with, I would inevitably get something "stuck" and end up "sliming" until I eventually vomited. More times than not, the pill itself stayed down and just water came out.... weird. This is a huge change from the pre-op me, who could swallow all 6 of my vitamins at once, and not flinch. Needless to say, I've stopped taking my vitamins in pill form, instead I got some calcium chews, and some Biotin chews (I'm very worried about losing hair), and I found these cool things at Costco that are like a Crystal Light powder that you put in your water, but they are chock-full of vitamins! I drink two of them a day in my water. So the only thing I'm still a little worried about is my Iron, but I just can't tolerate plain Iron pills, it makes me nauseous... and I've been doing enough vomiting lately without adding in anything that may upset my little tummy more! So on Post-op day 4, my surgeon's plan called for me to start trying some soft foods. On the list of soft foods allowed was soft baked fish. So my husband decided to cook dinner for us on Sunday, and made me a beautiful, tiny piece of tilapia, which he served over some soft polenta. It looked and smelled so delicious that I dug right in, and ate more than half of it without any regard to how my tiny tummy was handling it! With about one bite of food left on the plate, I realized what I had done, and knew I was in trouble. I spent the next two hours running into the bathroom. Every time I thought I was through, more would come out! It was awful, but not unexpected. I knew what I had done, and vowed to eat more slowly next time. Well, the next time turned out to be the following night, when I made what sounded like a wonderful recipe for a Ricotta cheese bake. But, yet again, it smelled and looked so good, I ate about half of the 1/4 cup portion that I had served myself way too fast, then got sick again... So, long story short, I am becoming a professional vomiter. I keep a pillow next to the sink to splint my incisions while I puke out whatever it is that I took one too many bites of. It's gotten better over the past day or two, as I've kind of learned to take one bite of something, and then wait about ten minutes to see how it will sit. If it seems to be settling well, I'll eat another two bites. But three bites of any soft or pureed texture food seems to be my limit. I've also become more severely lactose intolerant than I ever was pre-operatively. During my two week protein shake diet, I was able to enjoy at least one of the Premier chocolate shakes per day, as long as I took a lactaid pill with it. And I never had any issues with yogurt. Not the case post-operatively... I've sworn off of the Premier shakes entirely (too bad, because they pack 30 grams of protein in each one!), and as of yesterday, decided that the yogurt wasn't working either. So there went two big sources of protein. Between the vomiting, and the lactose intolerance, I've been really struggling to hit the protein goals set by my surgeon. I'm probably averaging about 40 grams/day, with a goal of 60 grams. So with all this talk about what's not working, this probably sounds like a pretty discouraging post. So let's talk about what is working! Foods that I can eat in small amounts with no issues: Eggs, refried beans, powdered protein shakes made with almond milk, and bananas. Sounds like a pretty short list, but here's the thing: I'm never hungry. Like, never. If I wasn't worried about my hair falling out, I would happily just drink my vitamin water all day and not eat at all. Once in awhile I get a craving for something, like yesterday I kept thinking about bagels, but it's never accompanied by actual hunger. It's just a craving, and it passes. Pain-wise, I haven't taken a Vicodin in three days, and prior to that I was only taking them at bedtime, and taking Tylenol during the day. Now I don't take either. I get an occasional twinge of pain under the incision on my left side (where they took the stomach out), but it goes away in a few seconds. As far as my surgical incisions go, all of my steri-strips (the little tape like things over my incisions) have fallen off, and I have to say, they look good! Three of them are completely healed over, and the last two just have tiny scabs on them. I've been putting vitamin E on them. And now... the big scale question. I have lost (drumroll please) 24 pounds since I started the pre-op diet, with 11 of those pounds having come off since surgery. So that's 11 pounds in less than two weeks, 24 pounds in less than a month. I am pretty pleased with that. And, hey, I just realized that 24 pounds is more than 10% of my starting weight, which is something I never managed to accomplish in months of sitting through meetings at Weight Watchers! The pictures below were taken yesterday. I decided after looking at someone else's before and after pictures to wear the same clothes in all of my progress pictures... I can really see a difference in how the shorts fit around my butt and thighs. My husband can't get over how much thinner my face is already. So overall, very pleased, despite all of the challenges! I have my first follow-up appointment coming up this Wednesday, and then I go out of town for 10 days, so I'll have some info to put in another update pretty soon!

I am allowed but honestly my taste buds have changed so I can only eat the plain greek yogurt

I am addicted to chocolate protein shakes and I add chololate yogurt. Delicious plus healthy.

Jamie, I was definitely shooting for the moon thinking id get through 4oz. My nut book says 4oz of meat, and the label said 21grams of protein so I was sooo excited. I can eat 5oz Greek yogurts so I guess I thought that 4oz would be a breeze. NOPE, said the grouchy pouch. Funniest thing? My mom, who weighs 125 pounds soaking wet and has never been big her entire life polished off three pieces of bread and butter, a cup of cheesy rice, green Beans and twice the turkey I had on my plate BEFORE I got through my measley 1.3oz of turkey. Lol. My nutritionist told me to eat every 3 hours and has me end my night with a dessert of either SF Jello, pudding or an Atkins bar or Atkins candy. I do find the Atkins bar really hits the spot for the night. I don't eat the "meal bars" just the snack ones and only have them 2-3 times a week.

Haha! Yeah. There is a BIG difference between yogurt and meat. I always love the posts that ask how much people can eat. It definitely depends on WHAT you are eating. 5 oz. of yogurt is EASY. But I STILL can't eat more than 2 oz. of tuna.

GooD AfternooN!!!!! I'm feeling really good today!!!! You can even call me hyper!!! I can't stay still:dance:... I did about 30 minutes of aerobics/excercises... I did 4 or five loads of:washing: .... i gave my two boys a :scared: .... I organized my closet and I even cleaned the boys NIGHTMARE :eek: of a room!! (if you know what moonsand is...you know what I mean....:faint: ) I know I have the "nesting" syndrome. I tell my usband it's because when he coems home from his trip it will be just to take care of me and the kids and not worry about the house...Plus, I've definately let my house go since doing all the PTO things...:rolleyes (at least that's my excuse).... Any way... My diet is going good... Yesterday: Dinner: 1/4 cup rice and 1/2 of a pork spare rib... snack: Bumble Bee sensations (sun dried tomatoes w/ tuna) and my last 12 oz of crystal lite... I got up to pee......3 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cry Oh well...I sucked it up!!!! :clap2: Today: B: atkins vanilla snack: light yogurt with 1/2 scoop eas whey protein I'm on my 1st crystal lite bottle l: atkins chocolate Doesn't this sound yummy!!!:cry Well, gotta go! Gotta bring my daughter to horseback riding lessons!!! she LOVES it and I love to watch her!!!! Anyway, amybe once I loose the weight we could do it together!!! :clap2: See YA!!!!!!! 6 more days and counting!!

:crazy: GooD AfternooN!!!!! I'm feeling really good today!!!! You can even call me hyper!!! I can't stay still:dance:... I did about 30 minutes of aerobics/excercises... I did 4 or five loads of:washing: .... i gave my two boys a .... I organized my closet and I even cleaned the boys NIGHTMARE :crazy: of a room!! (if you know what moonsand is...you know what I mean....:faint: ) I know I have the "nesting" syndrome. I tell my usband it's because when he coems home from his trip it will be just to take care of me and the kids and not worry about the house...Plus, I've definately let my house go since doing all the PTO things...:rolleyes (at least that's my excuse).... Any way... My diet is going good... Yesterday: Dinner: 1/4 cup rice and 1/2 of a pork spare rib... snack: Bumble Bee sensations (sun dried tomatoes w/ tuna) and my last 12 oz of crystal lite... I got up to pee......3 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cry Oh well...I sucked it up!!!! :clap2: Today: B: atkins vanilla snack: light yogurt with 1/2 scoop eas whey protein I'm on my 1st crystal lite bottle l: atkins chocolate Doesn't this sound yummy!!!:cry Well, gotta go! Gotta bring my daughter to horseback riding lessons!!! she LOVES it and I love to watch her!!!! Anyway, amybe once I loose the weight we could do it together!!! :clap2: See YA!!!!!!! 6 more days and counting!!

My soft spot was a runny nose and a sneeze...but that was when I was too tight. I had a slight unfeel and now I don't have the "trigger".... I have started eating Carb Conscious Supreme Protein Bars...they are DEE LISH US!!! They are big, so I eat 1/2 for breakfast with an Activia yogurt and 1/2 for lunch...they are 300 calories and 4g sugar--so rather than a snack--it's a meal replacement for me...If you like chocolate and carmel..this is the one for YOU!!!!

My doctor had me on 10 days clear following surgery. He said your mostly likely to have a leak in the first 72 hours. After 10 days, that reduces to less than 1 percent. After 2 weeks ...0 percent. I appreciate that my doctor is very cautious with his approach. He has a very high success rate with this patients. I am now on day 11 and feel great. He has added Protein shakes, eggs, and yogurt until day 14. After day 14, I can start puree for a week, then mushies, then intro one food at a time. I would rather sacrifice now then have a problem....

I'm starting the boot camp to!! B- Isopure protein shake S - fat free yogurt L- salad with protein S-babybell cheese D-chicken

Refried Beans thined down- cheap, Protein, and tasty. 0% greek yogurt- not the cheapest, but not horrible either Couscous- not sure if I spelled that right, but it's a grain with low to no carbs and lots of protein and it's tiny so it will be easy on the band. My nutritionist said that this could be counted in softs. tuna salad Weight loss oatmeal thined with Water

The first day I could eat mushies I ate 6 little cups of apple sauce and thing of yogurt. Before would you have stopped at at two pieces? Don't beat yourself up too much. You said you hadn't eaten dinner andj I think that's maybe where you could change something in the future. Before the pizza arrives make sure you eat you 3 to 4oz of lean protein, then when the pizza gets there you wont be so tempted. Keep in mind that the band won't make the right decisions for you. You have to do that. At the beginning it can be hard to tell head hunger (or the little food addict in you head) from physical hunger. Head hunger is what we need to resist. All that said, we all slip. If you beat yourself up about it you can get discouraged and give up. Like Scarlet Ohara said, Tomorrow is a new day.

K, I was banded on 6/20 and have horrible gas pains too. That is from the surgery. They have to blow up your cavity in order to operate. It will go away, you need to walk and if Gasex helps take that. I have not felt depressed but am very hungry and grouchy! I am still on Clear Liquids and will be able to add yogurt tomorrow! Can't wait. I've lost 13 lbs so far. Good luck