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all ready sick of oatmeal,yogurt, sf jello. not hungry just want something i can chew. pure protein drinks are the only ones i can stomach. i thought i would be going to bathroom alot. but feeling constipated. what is that about. i am determined to go forward. and to my sleeve twin Milkd we are going to make it. july 24th is rt around the corner stay focused. scary but ready.

Yep constantly in touch with the bariatric nurse and since im off lactose products i feel like a million bucks ....energy level is up and they advanced my diet to include yogurt so i had a wonderful 2 oz of yogurt today with no complications ...and i zumba'd with the kids (big hug!)

18.3ibs - pure milk and yogurt diet stayed only 8 days before surgery Sent from my SM-A300H using the BariatricPal App

Yes gas pain and pressure can be monsterous! I just found out today that i have to switch to Lactaid as opposed to skim milk because im lactose intolerant. Milk has alot of protein so i was using skim milk in the protein shakes instead of water and it was causing alot if gas and pain. They said its not uncommon for ryn patients to be or become lactose intolerant. Walking has helped alot to ease gas pain and pressure. Now that i know there will be no regular milk for me!....yogurt and aged cheese they say is alot lower in lactose....looking forward to having yogurt again in the near future! Yay! Never really liked milk anyway

I think your NUT is crazy. Ice cream, milkshakes & the like are slider foods and completely empty calories. Fat & sugar will either upset your stomach at best or cause dumping & sliming at worse. Soft cheeses, cottage cheese, Peanut Butter, and greek yogurt are a much better choice. Instead of the 0% greek yogurt, go for the regular. Hell, have some guacamole, it's loaded with good fats. Drink whole milk for your Fluid intake. Just do your best on getting quality calories, not just hitting the number. It will come in time.

I just had an apple and rhubarb yogurt - full fat, I hate low fat yogurt, so I dont eat tons of yogurt, as the saturated fat is not that great. That was breakfast. I was planning on a sandwich for lunch - probably ham and salad dinner tonight is a barbecue, got some nice lamb loin chops which we'll have with salad. Might have a small glass of wine with dinner. I try not to eat between meals at all. I do better on a 3 meal per day, no Snacks kind of routine, once I start eating at 4pm I cant stop kind of thing, so I just dont start. Thats an average day for me. I dont diet, I dont count calories at all and I most definitely dont do low carb. I just eat what I ate before in smaller portions minus all the snacks and crap in between. And whilst I dont do low carb, we have far far fewer Pasta dinners and much more plain meat and 3 veg type dinners now.

The premade shakes worked best for me to insure the Protein. I used Atkins, Nutrilife and Premier. The Premier has 30 protein compared to 15 for the other two. I liked the chocolate flavor in all three. They are 11 oz and it would take me about 2 hours to drink it. In the beginning, I sometimes had two of those a day. I filled it around that with potato Soup, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, yogurt, SF chocolate pudding (LOL). I was fortunate that I was able to go from clears to full to mushy by the end of the first week, and felt great. Be cautious, use common sense and do what makes your stomach and you feel the best. Good Luck!!

Thank you everyone!! I went and saw my surgeon and he told me to just walk for now esp. since one of my incisions got infected :/ I started to take ensure with 13G of Protein but I think the calories are too much. I'm going to try the low fat Greek yogurt with the Protein powder, skim milk and fat free carnations with OJ that someone said Hopefully that will taste a lot better!! -THANK YOU!! I have another question (sorry for asking so much!) I've been getting really thirsty from the hot weather and I want to chug Water. I'm afraid because I was told small sips but I don't feel like it's enough and it's REALLY hot. What can I do? Just suck it up and continue with the sips or is it okay to drink water normally?

I suggest getting a good tasting 100% Protein isolate Protein powder (for example, UNJURY), Torani or Da Vinci sugarless flavorings, sugarless puddings, FAGE sugar free low fat yogurt.... piece of cake. You can easily do this by Dec. 29th.

This is similar to the sample menu I was given. I understand it's a good concept but I know my dietician wanted to to start eating that way at 3 weeks. I am 8 weeks out and I have to wait at least any hour after I eat to be able to drink or I can feel it. Then I am finally able to drink about 6 oz at a time, but then I have to wait at least a half hr before I can drink more. On the days I work its hard sometimes to even get a lunch break sometimes. I do 12 hr shifts, unfortunately we've been understaffed for over a year now making it worse. But I do have to eat multiple times a day to get enough protein. Yesterday I had 2 eggs before I left for work at 6 am. While at work anytime I went to the back to grab something for a patient I passed the break room, so I stop and drink some water. Around 10 am I ate a string cheese. At 1 pm I ate a 20 gm protein bar for lunch. At 5:30 I had a Greek yogurt. When I got home at 8:30 I had 2 oz of chicken for dinner. During the day I was able to get in about 36 oz of fluid and 77 gm of protein. Ideally I shouldn't be eating dinner that late, and yes I should get more fluid in. But I feel for working on a busy floor at the hospital I did pretty good and there's no way I could've done it without snacks in between meals. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm able to add in vegetables yet though bc I get full off the protein but I know it will come in time. At home I can do a little better without the time constraints of work.

:thumbup:My team says I am doing great. Starting weight shortly before surgery was 293 and I am now at 277.... 16 lbs so far. My incisions have all healed, I have had no gas pains, nausea or any of the other uncomfortable complications I have read about here. Stayed on full liquids day 2-10 and still incorporate a lot of full liquids such as yogurt, cream of wheat and protein water into my daily diet. In fact you could say I am on full liquids all day, eating whatever else will go down comfortably for dinner, keeping an eye on my own personal nutritional goals. I was doing this for awhile before surgery anyways, and has now bwcome habit. I worry about progressing too fast with the diet. I asked my doctor if I ate something wrong, would it cause any problems with the band, such as slipping? He assured me that might have been true in the “old days” but that he now ties the lapband in securely by bringing up some of the lower stomach and stitching it around the band. The band will not slip by eating something wrong. He did say if I had a prolonged bout of throwing there was a slight chance of slippage, but unlikely. He also said that before the first banding the stomach pouch will not stretch as there is little restriction, any excess food just slips through to the lower stomach. His said I would be limited in what I eat by what felt comfortable “slipping through” and could gage how much swelling is remaining from the surgery by what size goes down OK. I would learn from trial and error what I could eat and what would be not be nice to me. So I have tried out various other foods to see how they feel, being sure to chew very well. This is very much feedback trial and error, as if I forget and do not chew well it does not feel good going down. I have the best luck on foods that are on the soft slippery type, like fish(scallops, red snapper), noodles, eggs and various oatmeals, even soggy morning cereal. All with no problems. No gas, bloating nausea or any other complications that I can feel. All went down just fine. Rice, flour tortillas and anything fibrous that can’t be chewed into pieces get “stuck” and I have to wait for it to clear before eating more. Not painful, just annoying. My nutritionist did say to avoid coffee as that has tannic acid which could cause ulcers on the band. I wonder if that applies to tomato products, such as spaghetti sauce, as tomatoes have tannic acid, as does wine, I think. I will need to verify that with her. I am thinking it may be the daily prolonged use of coffee that could cause an ulcer, but for now I just say no. The temptation is to keep pushing the limit, such as gobbling down a Burger King Steakburger ( I did not even though I probably could if chewed well), but I had better have enough self discipline to not do that or I have wasted my life, time and money on a procedure I do not respect. I log everything on FITDAY.com (have done this for years) and keep a careful eye on my calories, cards, proteins, etc. When I was on full liquids I was taking in about 800 calories and usually met the 60 protein goal. I am looking now at keeping my calories around 1200, so that I will continue to lose weight. My doctor has taken me off the high blood pressure med as I now test in the normal range. I have reduced my glyburide by 50%, and am slowly reducing my 24 hour insulin. I am experiencing fasting glucose of 120, which is about 100 points lower than pre lapband. So far I am very happy with my lapband.

Hi Gordan, I think most of us have to do that 2 week diet before hand to "shrink the liver". I agree that it's probably partly to get you used to eating a certain way. As far as yogurt, you are the first person I have heard of that was told to just eat yogurt. Many of us were put on protien drinks and some on clear liquids. Yogurt sounds better to me. But being realistic, you could shrink your liver just as well if you threw in some green veggies and lean protien. After surgery it is important to stay on liquids or semi liquids but I can't imagine why it would be important before. Now I'm going to get all kinds of flack from other bandsters for saying that. I'm running away:)

I have alarms set on my phone to eat. For example my alarms are set for 9,12, 3, 6 & 8:30 I eat Breakfast at 9 then at 12 I eat a snack (usually a cheese stick) then at 3 I eat lunch. then at 6 I eat dinner and at 8:30 I eat a snack. Maybe I need to pick different foods. I am so use to trying to watch what I eat maybe I need to eat different foods to get in the needed calories. My usual breakfast is a half a serving of oatmeal with 1 scoop of unflavored unjury Protein powder added. Then snack is usually a 100 calorie greek yogurt or RF cheese stick. Lunch I usually eat cottage cheese about 1/2 cup (either low-fat or fat-free) then dinner is usually 1-2 oz of protein and 1/4 cup of vegetable and 1/4 cup of brown rice or protein plus Pasta. (Sometimes I can't eat all of my dinner but make sure to eat all the protein) Then my snack before bed is usually a cheese stick or 100 calorie greek yogurt. So maybe I need to change my lunch meal to contain more food? Thanks for responding Mary

I'm not giving you hell, I'm simply pointing out a different way of thinking. And curious. Why did you NEED something off your plan? Just as there is a huge difference between cheat and choice, there is a big difference between NEED and WANT. Spaghetti squash is a great choic nutrtionally but not neccessarily soon post op. The stringy texture was a no no on my plan for three to four months. Same with string cheese, celery, asparagus... LMAO.. I know you're not.. I meant I was going to tag you to tease.. Just playful shit.. My choices for food is.. Veggie Soup which sucks and I'm going to buy stuff to make my own.. Greek yogurt which I love.. But veggies wise is.. Baby carrots, cukes, tomato, broccoli (which I'm not a big fan of), sf pudding, sf Jello,.. And I'm kinda guessing their keeping it like that for people that get overwhelmed and end up making bad decisions.. But I am going to call in the am n talk to my nut about it all.. This is just week 1 of a 2wk diet they want me to do for 4 wks n don't even have a surgery date yet.. I'm not post op .. I'm pre and no date even yet but everything is complete and they just ha to submit to my insurance.. My next appt is 20th.. *fingers crossed* Munky

Try taking your vits at bedtime with some yogurt to coat your stomach. Try introducing foods that get you nauseous at a very slow pace. This is hard work to get to know our body. I have been very lucky with no complications or nauseousness. However, I do under eat my sleeve so I don't get uncomfortable. Keep trying, it will get better when you take your PPI.

You can bring packets of Protein powder and a collapsible funnel with you. Then just buy bottled Water or milk once you are through security and mix the Protein Powder into the bottle. A lot of airports also have thing like yogurt or cheese sticks for sale at various stands. Are you allowed cheese sticks in your pureed stage? I was. If you don't know, maybe you can ask your nutritionist ahead of time. For eating out, you are going to be pretty limited to just Soups. Be careful to not eat any of the more solid chunky bits. Definitely do NOT eat the celery if there's celery in there. It's way too fibrous, even cooked.

Wow... I hope you start to feel better real soon. I have my protein shake for a morning snack around 10 - 10:30, it takes me a good 1/2 hour to drink. It is 64 grams of protein, then I have approximatley another 20 grams of protein, thru yogurt, cottage cheese etc.

I am a vegetarian (most of my adult life) who generally doesn't eat eggs. I eat Greek yogurt and vegetarian cheese (cheese that isn't made with animal rennet--but it of course is not vegan, because it's made with dairy). I also no longer buy leather and try to live as compassionately as possible in all parts of my life. I have been getting my Protein from soy products, whey and soy Protein powder, Beans (kind of high in carbs for the amount of protein you get), cheese, and Greek yogurt. I have very seriously been considering going vegan. However, if I want to keep my protein up and carbs down, I really think that I will need to drink my protein (plant forms) and then eat veggies as my meals. My surgeon wants his patients off of Protein shakes once we move to solid foods, but I don't think that is realistic for a vegetarian, and especially not for a vegan. There are very few natural vegan food sources of protein that don't also require that you consume some carbs--and in general, many aren't super-high in protein, and we can't eat the volume needed to get vegan protein from food alone. One example is soy yogurt--it is much lower in protein and higher in carbs than Greek yogurt. I also don't want to overdo it on soy, because female reproductive cancer runs in my family and I am also hypothyroid. I will be interested to hear what you end up doing and how it works for you. It's good to know someone else is considering a vegan way of eating.

I've tried other Greek yogurts, but I must say Chobani is my favorite. It's a much smoother texture than others I've tried (which I've discovered to be gritty feeling).

@@drew's mom congrats! I have some pain on my left side too. Probably just bruised from surgery. Keep on sipping and try soup and yogurt! Popsicles are good too! Good luck !

I was worried too and I'm only supposed to have 2 oz and I'm 8 weeks out...but I asked my surgeon bc I seem to be able to gulp without even thinking and was worried I was messing everything up, he said nope this is normal bc your tummy is a sleeve and especially depending on how vertical the portion is that remains it may nearly go straight through you! No worries! My bet is if you are in mushies or when you can start adding some dense proteins you will be full must faster! I still am barely able to finish two oz, so for example I am supposed to have 4TBSP of food(yes 2oz) so last night I had 2TBSP Taco Ground Beef(heated) then topped it with 2 TBSP Cottage Cheese, so all protein and I had to stop with one to two small bites left. If it was Greek yogurt it woulda gone down super easy. Hope that helps some!

I am not using any protein shakes or liquid protein at the moment, though I do recommend checking out Isopure drinks (available at vitamin shops / GNC) if you're looking for an alternative to shakes. My surgeon does not support liquid protein drinks/shakes in general, though the nutritionist says to use them in a pinch if I'm not able to get protein in "the old fashioned way". So far, the old fashioned way hasn't been a problem for me. My surgeon starts us on pureed foods right after surgery. For me, that means the Vitamix is getting a serious workout. My current favorite protein sources are: homemade spicy chicken taco/burrito meat with salsa homemade chicken salad cheesy scrambled eggs refried beans greek yogurts of all flavors fortified chocolate milk (1C skim milk + 3T of powdered milk + 3T sugar-free Hershey's syrup = delicious!) PB2 (powdered peanut butter or powdered chocolate peanut butter) I will also run soups through the blender as well, though I am happier with more flavorful options above. Hope this helps!

The stuff that sings to me....gets re-homed. Just takes too much emotional energy to slip up and feel guilty. I'm tired of the food drama in my life. My food at home falls under two categories... 1. Healthy legal stuff. 2. Naughy stuff my husband likes that I find repugnant. Not saying I don't eat treats once in a blue moon. I do. But I make a point not to bring it into the house, or only bring it into the house for a special occasion with a very limited quantity. Lots of steps that make me THINK about the choice. Not saying I can't make that choice once in a while....but it's gonna be my idea and not the singing. LOL:) I want my food choices to be deliberate. (even the occasional splurge) There is one legal-ish item that I struggle with a little. Yasso greek yogurt bars. God, how I love them. LOL. They come in a box of four. I usually get them when I take my mom grocery shopping. I take two home (one for me, one for hubby), and leave two at her house. They have a hell of a time singing to me....from her house:)

It could be from taking your meds with only liquids. I know if I take ANY meds without something mushy or semi-solid that I will be nauseous as soon as the medication hits the bottom of my stomach. Our new stomachs have a narrow curve at the bottom now so pills tend to sit there as they dissolve and it can irritate the stomach lining quite a bit if they are sitting on bare tummy. Try taking them with something solid or yogurt or pudding at the very least so that the pills can dissolve in the food and not directly on the stomach lining before passing into the pylorus.

On the weight loss slowing, everyone here has already said that's totally normal. But since I'm a total nerd and tracked my weight loss, I can tell you exactly how mine slowed down. I've lost a total of 70 lbs over 23 months. Month 1: 3.5 lbs a week, reached -22 lbs Months 2-4: ~1.5-2 lbs a week, reached -41 lbs Months 5-12: 0.5-1 lbs a week, reached -63 lbs and passed my original goal weight at 11 months out Months 13-20: 0.2 lbs a week, currently at -70 lbs, 12 under my original goal Does this mean that you pretty much never dieted before you got surgery? Or are you comparing now to the first 6 months after surgery, where you didn't care about food much simply because you weren't hungry? After reading these boards for a few years, it seems that the people who have long term success do have to pay some attention to their diet to maintain their weight loss. But that takes a lot of different forms according to the specific issues and goals of different people. You won't necessarily have to pay as much attention to it in the long term as you do right now. Right now you're learning what works for you; later it will become habit. Especially if what you said above means that you never dieted much before - in this case you would be learning about what works for you for the first time. But for everyone, after bariatric surgery, you have to learn what your "new normal" is. Personally, my long term goal has been to maintain without having to calorie count. Before surgery, I was pre-diabetic and low carb was the only thing that ever helped me lose weight. After surgery, carbs are still an issue for me, though much, much less of an issue than before. Rather than limiting/counting carbs every day, I've found that having a 4-5 day period of low-carb every 3-4 weeks keeps my carb cravings in check. I still start my day with a protein powder latte and make sure that I have protein with every meal. Veggies help keep me full. If I feel hungry, I eat a snack, but I usually start with a piece of cheese or a few frozen meatballs (I love these things) before I have anything more junky. I eat sweets some days, but not all. I use things like sugar free ice cream or low sugar yogurt for a bit of a treat on other days.