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My plan sounds the same I have been eating Soups made with milk then strained for no chucks. Protein shakes, S/F Jello, S/F pudding thinned with milk, Greek yogurt thinned with milk, cream of wheat, chicken and beef broth. Hope this helps I mainly do Protein Shakes because I like things supper cold so I blend with ice and milk and it is like a frosty. Feels good to me.

1. First question may be a bit silly and I know everyone has their own unique experience, but I'm wondering what to expect on the actual day of surgery. For some reason the surgery itself doesn't make me nervous because I know I have an excellent doctor, but being put to sleep makes me a little nervous. Also, I'm nervous that I'll wake up into excruciating pain.. Is this the case ? Either way I know eventually it will all be a minor detail but I'm just curious to see how others have reacted to surgery. For my surgery, I was wheeled into the operating room, had a few pleasantries with the staff, then bam woke up in the recovery room. No mask being put on my face, no slow fading out . . . I was just there chatting with people one second, then the next second woke up. When I woke up I did have pain in my shoulder (from the surgical gas) but I wouldn't call it excruciating. My team did an excellent job on pain control the whole time I was there. It wasn't a big deal. 2. My second question has to do with hair loss. Is there anything I can do from now to prevent my hair from falling out/ thinning. I know getting in my Protein is key, but is there anything else I can do? No, there isn"t anything you can do to prevent it. Don't waste your money on massive amounts of biotin or some sort of special shampoo. It will either happen or it won't. There are good ways you can cut and style your hair, as well as cosmetic tricks, to hide hair loss if you get a severe case of it. Usually the hair loss starts around month 3 and stops and the hair starts growing back somewhere around month 6. 3. My third question has to do with excess skin. Again I know each person is different and there are many factors to this. My question is did anyone find that toning exercises or any kind of body butters/lotions help at all? No. If there were some sort of magic trick to prevent excess skin, no one would need plastic surgery because word would spread and everyone would do it. The thing is, you already have the skin you have. You can't prevent it, it's already there. If having excess skin is going to bother you a lot, start saving your pennies for plastic surgery now. 4. My fourth and final question has to do with pregnancy after being sleeved. I don't plan on starting a family for another 4-5 years but I'm curious if the sleeve has affected anyone's pregnancy.. Did anyone find it hard to take in the proper nutrients ? Was it hard to bounce back from pregnancy? Did any complications that may not be obvious arise due to the sleeve? I haven't had personal experience, but my sister (a physician) says that pregnant women require an extra 300 calories per day to nourish the fetus, plus a prenatal vitamin. It's not hard to get 300 calories per day. Make a protein shake with whole milk and a tablespoon of peanut butter and you are just about there. Or eat a handful of nuts twice a day. Instead of having yogurt for breakfast, have scrambled eggs with cheese and avocado, plus eat a couple slices of dried mango for an after-dinner snack. Trust me, once most sleevers get a year or two out of surgery, they don't have trouble adding in 300 calories. They have trouble *not* adding in 300 calories when they don't need to! You'll be fine

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous beings though I haven't told my extended family about my surgery. But, it was a success!!! I started off my day normal with my Protein shake. We headed over after lunch. This year I did make healthier choices about what I put on my plate and my portions were small, but I did great! Nobody said anything. They noticed some more weight loss and knew I have been actively working on losing weight since last March. However, they did give my hubby a hard time since he didn't eat very much at all for dinner. He just ate to many appetizers. Ha ha! There was a veggie tray that I snacked on prior and had eaten a yogurt before arriving. When desert time rolled around, I knew there was no way that I would be able to down any of it, so I took it home. Later that evening, I ate half of my little piece of apple pie. Suffering didn't happen at all! When I weighed myself this morning, I didn't even gain an ounce! Woo hoo!!! It feels good to eat to live, rather than live to eat! We all bring dishes so, it isn't just on one person to cook. This year, I made 3 dishes. Little did they know, they were all sugar free! Yep, I wanted to be able to have some of my own dishes too. I used Stevia. Everyone raved about how good they were and nobody noticed that the sugar was gone! The one thing that stood out bigger than life to me, was how HUGE everyone else's servings actually were! And people went back for seconds!!! It just blew me away to think that used to be how I ate. To have a Bentley (sleeve) as a tummy, was still the best decision I have ever made for myself! Today I feel AMAZING vs sluggish feeling of the day after Thanksgiving Feast! What a huge difference! For that, I feel thankful!!! P.S. This morning, on the 29th, I dropped 2 lbs!!! Even after eating half of my little piece of apple pie and half of my piece of cheesecake the next night. Who does that after Thanksgiving and yummy desert?!?! I was shocked beyond belief! Dang!

Hi all- I started my pre op diet yesterday and things went pretty well. I was a little tired and ended up going to bed earlier than normal. I'm curious, how much weight did you lose on your pre op diet? My surgeon's diet is two weeks, a shake for Breakfast, shake for lunch, yogurt/fruit/veggies for a snack, and a small dinner. I must admit I'm quite hungry and even dreamed about fried chicken and mac & cheese last night. I found that quite funny because the last time I had a piece of chicken was 7 years ago!

greek yogurt is amazing and feels so much more substantial to me than regular yogurt. I hadn't thought about adding some of my whey protein powder to it at all - sounds great! i have to avoid the ones with fruit in it b/c of my diabetes. i had been adding a packet of splenda to the plain greek yogurt for the time being until i can have some fruit. the whey protein powder sounds like a much better idea though! thanks!

I love raspberries. I wonder if you could puree and then freeze them for a lovely Italian Ice type treat. Or (I have seen this when blueberries, not sure if it will work with raspberries) but coat them in yogurt and then freeze them and they are lovely little yogurt covered berry treats? Can't wait to see what ideas people come up with. I need to go find a farmers market..

I've got a great lunchbox (Fit n Fresh brand) that has an iceblock thing that fits inside it, there's a space below and 2 smaller containers sit on top. I can take a sandwich (tuna, lettuce, and avocado for example) and some carrot sticks and dip, or a small salad, some yogurt and cut up strawberries, any sort of combo like that and it stays cold for hours and hours. I just eat it in the lectures or tutes. I also have a small thermos to take coffee in, I get sick of having to buy lattes and cappucinos, you cant just get normal brewed coffee anywhere these days. That does me, I usually throw an apple or something in my bag too.

Okay, I ran to Publix and picked up some healthy stuff. I purchased avocados, pears, cracker barrel individually wrapped sharp cheddar chunks, Planters South Beach Diet Mix of macadamian nuts, almonds, and cashews with sea salt, some low carb/high Protein wraps, 4 1cup individual servings of a new greek yogurt with fruit(pineapple and strawberry), baked pita chips, hummus dip, dreamfield's elbow noodles, cheesy whole wheat tortelini, I also picked up some South Beach Peanut Butter Protein Bars, some Silk soy milk. No Mootopia here. I also picked up some Weight Watcher meals. I'll only be able to eat 1/2 of one per meal, but I figure I can save the rest for later in the day. Today, I've already eaten 3 times, every 3 hours since 9am. I had 3/4 cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal with 1/2 of 1% milk. The bottom half of a Lender's Blueberry bagel, toasted with a dab of butter. (That really didn't feel all that great once I ate it so probably won't do it again) Then at 2:45ish, I hate 6 almonds, 4 macadamia nuts, and 1 of the sharp cheddar chunks. I am stuffed. Tonight, I'm making it leftover night for the guys, and I plan on having part of WW meal for dinner. I'll try my best to get in more nuts and some cheese before bed, but I really don't want to push it. All of that is only 533 calories. So, here's to tonight, slow and steady dinner with a snack. I'll eat dinner about 6, then try to have a snack around 9pm.

Your tummy is still super swollen hun. It does get better for it's gonna take more time. Some people don't experience it at all, and I don't know why. I dealt with it for a good solid 2 months if I can remember correctly. When it comes to taking bites, I didn't start normal bites for a long, long time, and even to this day, I take small bites of steak, chicken, rib meat, and other dense food. Now, with yogurt, or mashed potatoes, I can and do take a normal bite. The one thing that really helped me was sipping on hot tea. It seems to relax my sleeve, and made drinking and eating much easier. Even when I go out with friends and family to eat, I often order a glass of Water, and a hot tea or coffee. I drink the tea/coffee before my meal arrives, and it really helps.

HaseenS I know its so hard, Keep going back a step when you cant go forward. I never feel hungry so its easy not to bother eating but I am so weak and wobbly I have to. I reached out to my dietitian and she said try crackers and soft cheese and breadsticks and soft cheese. Strained [ cream of] tinned soup. Tiny slivers of mature cheese. Yogurts and homemade milk shakes without sugar. Ice pops. My Calories are so low that I dont bother with low fat or fat free. I will sort that when I get onto real foods.

Day 10 post-op. Today was much better. Yogurt, applesauce, soup, and liquids. I'm getting used to the smaller amount of food...I don't mean my stomach, I mean my brain is getting used to it. I keep forgetting to report the best part...no more heart-burn (could be the band or the hernia repair...don't care) and my knees are feeling better...just by dropping 10 pounds! I had the energy to babysit tonight and to wash my kitchen floor. Yay!

I can see why you need to "drink" alot most of the day so you stay hydrated and then when you get to mushies or soft foods, you should eat every three hours or so (no more than 4 oz.) and continually drink the rest of the time. You should be concentrating on protein shakes and mushies if he has cleared you for that. When you get to soft/solid foods, there are alot of options that are easy to take with you like cheese sticks, cottage cheese, StarKist sandwich ready albacore tuna iun a pouch that does not have to be refrigerated, hard boiled eggs, etc. But it's hard for me to understand why you would be eating real food at three weeks. I have never heard of that. Your sleeve needs time to heal before it starts taking in solid regular food. If you are on pureed foods, you can still have all the sf jello or sf pudding or yogurt you want and those are considered full liquids.

All the problems you list COULD be related to the acid, which isnt that abnormal. It would be a good precautionary step to get some imaging done just in case. But if your surgeon is confident, then it's your call whether you want a second opinion. Acid can swell up the esophogus and slow down the movement of food. Does it get better when you take the acid blockers? Does it feel like food is stacking up before the stomach (intense, focused discomfort)? Are you chewing things up really well and eating slowly? If you get imaging that shows youre structurally fine, then I'd work with the choice of foods. Work with your nutritionist to find foods that don't trigger the acid. For me, I couldnt touch yogurt for 3 months. But now I'm off the pills and love yogurt.

I use unjury too. One scoop is about 4 Tbs. During my pureed and soft food stage, I would usually add 2 Tbs (which is about 10.5 grams of protein) to my food. Examples of foods that I added it to: refried Beans, yogurt, mashed sweet potato. Most of the time though, I use the Unjury in my drinks if I need more Protein rather than in my food. My favorite drink to add it to is decaf iced tea. Goes down easy. I add 2 Tbs per 8 oz of liquid.

I agree blender work best for shakes. The blender also allows you to add things like Greek yogurt or fruit. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" Einstein

Jut an fyi: Fred Meyers has it's own store brand (owned by Kroger, so I'm sure Krogers also has them) has a pretty tasty low carb yogurt. Only 4 gms per container. In Feb, I gave Atkins a real try. Would've killed my mom for a cookie. My husband has no problem going off carbs but I' very cranky. Didn't cheat for 4 weeks. Didn't add yogurt or sour cream till the 3rd week however. They were too many carbs for my <20 gm allotment. 4 weeks later, I had lost 14 lbs. A month later, I've gained back 12 after resuming carbs. Thats why I hate diets. Marci

My go to list: Greek yogurt Mini babybel Shrimp/fish Edamame Beef/turkey Jerky I only drink premier Protein shakes. (Sams/Costco) everything else makes me gag. My goal is 60g per day. So I guess this would depend on your goal and how far out you are.

4th week....greek yogurt from light and fit, red seedless grapes, shaved deli meat ham and turkey. Saltines(2 will do it),cracker pretzels because it has no yeast so it won't get stuck, moist scramble eggs, soups, chicken-no noodle, bean soup, pasta fagioli without the pasta, ham salad from publix, protein bars, sugar free ice cream. I make sure i meet protein of 60grams and stay under sugar before giving myself a treat. Oh yeah, i managed 2 wings very slowly. Increasing the calorie intake has broken the 3 week stall.

It is much easier to get protein when you can eat purées. Puréed foods can hide the flavor of protein powder much better than protein drinks. Here are some of my favorites: Greek yogurt mixed with protein powder (I like vanilla yogurt with chocolate flavored protein powder and powdered peanut butter). Sugar-free pudding mixed with protein powder Pureed refried beans mixed with unflavored protein powder (I like to top the beans with enchilada sauce, Laughing Cow cheese, and Flavor God nacho cheese powder) Applesauce mixed with unflavored protein powder and a tiny splash of sugar-free caramel syrup Protein oatmeal mixed with cinnamon roll protein powder Pureed black bean soup mixed with unflavored protein powder You might also want to browse the BariatricPal Store because they have a lot of protein-fortified foods like soups, oatmeal, pudding, etc. that you can try. One of my personal favorites is protein hot cocoa. It tastes like normal hot cocoa (no yucky protein taste) and if you mix it with Fairlife milk instead of water, it’s a lot of protein.

I'm a high school librarian, but taught for 9 years in the classroom. I was banded on 8-1-08 and started work yesterday. I'm doing the liquids still right now, but lunch time is our busiest time of the day, so I'm going to have to do easy, smooth things like yogurt, cheese, shakes, etc. Because like DWRD73 said, we don't want to "you know" in front of the kids. We'll do it, heck we've all survived NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, we'll survive this too. : )

It has been a while since I last posted. I tried to post on day 5 but the site was down and I couldn’t save anything on the computer that I was on. So now it is day 27. Tomorrow will be four weeks from my surgery date. That means that I can have mushies tomorrow. But before I get to that I want to recap a little. I was in pain for the first two weeks post op. It was mainly directly in the middle of my stomach and at my port site. I couldn’t understand how some people say that they don’t have any pain at all. My suggestion would be to take at least ten days straight to rest and get better. I only had five, which was okay but I definitely shouldn’t have gone to work day 6 and 7. I was so tired and just sitting at my desk was painful. At week 3, I was able to sleep normal in my bed except for on my stomach. I tried earlier but I was uncomfortable and chose to stay in the recliner longer. So that brings me back to now. I have been on clear liquids up to now and it has been okay. It definitely has helped with weight loss. I have lost 26 pounds post op so far. I have been surprisingly okay with the liquids keeping me full too. I am not struggling with insane hunger or cravings. There are times that I wish I could eat but I have been okay. I did slip up two days ago when I though “I am only four days from mushies, I should just start now”… Well I had clam chowder and the next day I had the worst migrane in a long time that I thought I was being punished. I threw up five times and my stomach was completely empty when I was better. So I guess I am back to the straight and narrow now. Tomorrow though I cannot wait to have beans and cheese or maybe some yogurt. I hope my stomach doesn’t retaliate. I also hope that I still lose weight steadily. It doesn’t have to be a pound a day but at least 1-2 a week. I am scheduled to have my first fill on November 14th. I wonder what it will be like. I cannot find my port so I hope they can find it well.

Hey everyone! I was banded on Wednesday, so today I am 3 days post op. Since the surgery, I have had a constant tightness in my chest and back, and if I walk for too long, I end up having to take a painkiller. I keep telling myself it's just gas, but my surgeon said that should have stopped by day two. If that's the case, what the heck is this horrible "tight" feeling? Another problem I am having is I don't know when I am full. I am on a full liquid diet, and it seems like I can drink and drink and drink, and never get that full feeling. I am drinking soups, yogurts, jellos etc, shouldn't that be filling me up? Ok one more question! My surgeon told me he fixed my hiatal hernia that was causing my heartburn, so does that mean that eventually I wont have to take protonix anymore? I'm still really sore, and the pain in my back is almost overwhelming. I have been sitting down for an hour now, and I can still feel it. I just wish I knew what it was. My surgeon seems like somewhat of a jerk, as he laughed at my questions after I got out of surgery. I wanted to say, "well if you had told me these things beforehand, I wouldn't have to ask you now." There are just some things that make me nervous about my surgeon 1) He says I can take all my pills (9 total) at the same time and not have to worry about anything. Some of them are horse sized and he said I don't even have to break them in half. 2) He has had me on a full liquid diet from day 1, not low fat, not sugar free, but a FULL whatever I want liquid diet. 3) I told him I was having gas pains still yesterday, and he acted like I was exaggerating, and told me they should have been gone already. Didn't want to send me home with painkillers either! 4) My stomach is still incredibly swollen. I look like I swallowed a watermelon vertically. I'm fat to begin with, but this is crazy, I don't even fit in comfy pants, LOL, I look like an obese, pregnant person who swallowed a watermelon. I would just feel a WHOLE lot better knowing that someone else has experienced these things, and if not, I'd like to know that too so I can hunt down my surgeon and make him give me some answers! Thanks is advance to you all, I really appreciate it!

Toughest time was the first week post-op - port site pain and very "gassy" from use of Oxycodone - chose to give up using Oxycodone and just "tough it out". I was back to work within 2 weeks - but did not do alot of lifting for another 2 more weeks (I am an RN on a busy med-surg floor). Another tough time was my first time I was "stuck" - scary. You will figure out what foods to avoid and which foods are best. It helps to make the protein fruit smoothies - I use unflavored whey protein powder with frozen fruit and yogurt in my smoothie maker - sometimes I don't get enough protein in my diet - recently had an "unfill", because I was too tight and was not losing any weight.

I started making small meal salads by the one month mark. I used chopped spinach instead of lettuce for a bit better nutrition along with some tomato, avo, green onion, bell pepper, carrot, snow pea (typically only 10-15g of each) along with a couple ounces of meat and a little cheese. It was great change from the standard meat, cheese and yogurt staples and kept me sane!

Please tell me what you are snacking on... I dont want to eat cheese or yogurt, Need something new