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I think it's great that you've recognized an emerging problem before it's able to derail the amazing progress you've made. I'm a nurse and one of the tools we use to assess for potential problems with alcohol is called the "CAGE" assessment. It's 4 quick yes/no questions and can be a great way to gauge whether or not someone might have a problem. C: Have you ever felt you needed to CUT down on your drinking? A: Have people ANNOYED you by criticizing your drinking? G: Have you ever felt GUILTY about drinking? E: Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning ("EYE OPENER") to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover? Two or more "yes" responses mean the possibility of alcoholism should be investigated further by a medical professional. I hope this information helps. food is a way of self medicating for many of us and when that is taken away, it can be very easy to adopt other unhealthy coping mechanisms. Best of luck to you on your journey (and to anyone else who might be reading this and struggling with a similar issue). Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I think it is great that you brought up the topic and shared your experience. Our program has stressed to us that there is an extremely high rate of alcoholism after wls. They said people who rarely drank before are being admitted to inpatient treatment programs with 1-3 months of their first drink after wls. It is an important topic to discuss. Thanks for sharing. I wish you all the best. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

It is incredibly common to swap one addiction for another. WLS means we can no longer sustain an addiction to food, but there are plenty of other vices out there to turn to. That's why there has to be mental/emotional work along with the physical change of surgery. I have always feared alcoholism as it tore my mom's whole family apart. So I have always had strict rules for myself around alcohol. I never drink when I am upset/depressed. I never drink alone. And I never drink at home unless it's a special occasion (like a party or friends/family are visiting). But my addictive personality has led me to other things, like video gaming addiction and exercise addiction.

Hello - My closest friend has surgery about 10 years ago.Lost a lot of weight. About 4 years ago one beer became two, two became 4, and so on. Just like you are describing. Sad to say that a rough home life expanded the situation and she became a very unhappy alcoholic and still struggles. I know this is not uncommon, for all the reasons others have said. Plus I think our bodies are just wired for "addiction" sometimes. It truly sucks. And I am sorry you have to struggle with this. But, like someone else said, you have done it once. You can do it again. Don't let shame keep you from getting the support you need. Life is too good. Don't give up on having what you want.

My surgeon mentioned this happening to some people as a caution. Many of us have addictive personalities to start with or we wouldn't have abused food to the point of being so overweight. You take away one addictive coping pathway and sometimes another one takes its place. He said the only patient he's had who regretted surgery was one who became a drug and alcohol addict who's wife then left him. I wish you all the best. You beat one problem, you can beat another! I'm just sorry you have to in the first place. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I think it's very likely that you have emotional issues that you need to see someone about. The reason is because, at first, you were overeating. Now you have found another way to comfort yourself. Do you actually crave the alcohol now? Or are you doing it to feel something?

Be fore I get into the nitty gritty of this post let me tell you about my background. I had the sleeve done on 11-2012 and was by far the best decision I ever made. I will advise anyone with a weight issue to proceed with this procedure. I weighed in at 393 pounds the day of surgery and after two and a half short years I got down to 218 lbs ( dream goal is 210). I have been large all of my life (311lbs in 10th grade) and at 38 years old I felt great about myself. I was losing 8-10 lbs a week at my prime and slowly stopped as I was able to consume more food but nothing to be alerted about. I noticed at my smallest weight I was very weak and kept telling myself I need to get stronger if I was going to maintain this weight. Before my procedure I could not control my food intake but had no alcohol issues at all. If I had 3-4 drinks a month and that would be a lot for me. Food was my deal back then not alcohol. So about two years ago I went out with the boys and one of them bought me a beer. I was like what the hell, I'll have one (first in 2 years). It took me about an hour to drink the entire bottle. As time went on I notice that the one beer turn into a six pack in a week then into a 12 pack over a weekend. I slowly started drinking regularly and with that I slowly started to put weight back on. I took a step back to evaluate what was going on just to find out that I was still consuming the same amount of food that I did before but my weight was increasing. The concern now is that the alcohol is taking over the place of the food issues that I had. Having a food issue pretty much all of your life was normal to me but now trying to figure out if you have an alcohol problem is what I am struggling with. How did this happen and why all of a sudden now? It took everything in me to get myself to have the surgery and now I am facing another hurdle to get over. To this day I am still struggling on this issue an I can't stress enough that if you get faced to introduce alcohol back in you diet please DON'T do it. You may think you have control but chances are you won't. This is a small reach out to anyone that may have had a similar issue. Please reach out if you think you may have any advice or a similar story. Thank you for your time Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

First, let me clarify that I am a sleeve patient and not a bypass patient. Thus, my experience with dumping is exactly none. However; I have read about it and understand the phenomenon. I am pretty confused by this line of reasoning. Dumping is a negative health effect caused by improper eating after a major surgery and you're disappointed that you're not able to rely on it to keep your eating in line? I feel like that's akin to an alcoholic lamenting that certain liquors don't cause them to puke and pass out, and they end up staying out and drinking all night instead. Does that sound like a healthy way to mitigate a drinking problem?

I am shocked at people getting attacked for going against the grain here. If you are 600lbs, then obviously you have a serious problem and need tons of rules and guidelines to break your very serious issue. No carbs, no falling off the wagon, plenty of exercerise, listening to Nutritionists..all that good stuff, by the book you must follow to get to a normal weight. It's like telling an alcoholic that they shouldn't drink again, sound advice. Then there are people like me, and possibly bugle girl. I wasn't 600lbs. I was sick of dieting, really really sick of trying my whole life to lose 50-60 lbs. up and down roller coaster. I went into it not following any of the rules, and I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I could still socially eat, enjoy food, but have a little less of everything. I ate everything I did before, but way way way less. Only issues I've had were gallbladder and feeling weak. My weight loss was achieved. I never once felt deprived, and I feel I can carry about a normal life. Co-worker brings in cupcakes?- yes thankyou I will have one. I get a pizza and eat for a week, instead of a day. So can we at least agree that it is not a one-size fits all solution to this? And for hecks sake, stop attacking everyone on here that doesn't have the same approach and diet plan you would give to someone morbidly obese. I am not an alcoholic, never was, I can drink a beer and not fall apart, same thing with food.

I've never heard of the product. Sounds chemically. Lol. Nonetheless, I'll look it up. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App It's a sugar alcohol, like most anything that has -itol in its name (maltitol, xylitol, etc.) that has some fraction of the calories of regular sugar relative to sweetness (not zero calorie, but less than normal sugar.) It's not unreasonable to go without the fake or zero-calorie sweeteners, but it does help to track your intake long term to keep your accounting straight. As others have noted, particularly later on toward maintenance when one can eat more, be aware of cravings that can come with sugar consumption (and some of the artificial ones too) so pay attention to keep your weight under control long term.

I wouldn't do the emergen-c because it is kind of carbonated. If you are taking Vitamins, I think you can take Vitamin c gummies or dissolving ones. Just don't do massive amounts. I found an alcohol and sugar free cough syrup that I took about that far out. It was a child's one but it helped. I take Nyquil now at about 8.5 months out. It knocks me out really quickly! Sugar free cough drops are good too. I also do Thera-Flu and that helps me. Maybe Zicam nasal spray? Hope you are feeling better soon! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using the BariatricPal App

If asked, and I was the talk of the town at our holiday party Wednesday, I just say I've given up alcohol, carbs, sugar and do not go over 1000 calories. I also leave out the part about surgery. Sent from my SM-N910T using the BariatricPal App

I'm sitting in the waiting room of my local occupational health. I'm short 2 employees of my 5 man (Including me) crew. I'm waiting here because I have reasonable suspension of the employee mentioned above being under the influence of alcohol. I'm strongly believing that I will be a 2 man crew shortly...

I don't generally use any sweeteners since the sweet taste triggers me to go looking for sugary products again, whereas whole fresh fruit doesn't seem to do that to me so much. Having said that I tried a new sweetener a couple of weeks ago because I was cooking rhubarb and it was just too tart without something. The sweetener is erythritol which is a sugar alcohol like xylitol but with less of the GI upset. It is less sweet than sugar (only about 70% of the sweetness) and comes in granulated form which to me is indistinguishable from sugar. Erythritol is also supposed to be safe for diabetics because it is supposed to not affect blood sugars - I didn't notice a big spike in my sugars when I had the rhubarb - but that was only one small bowl so I can't say if it holds true all the time. I also put some in my mum's coffee instead of sugar and she didn't even notice - normally she doesn't like the bitter after taste of sweeteners - again I only did it for a week while she was staying with me ... so it isn't a very scientific study lol. In Australia we can buy erythritol in Coles but it comes in little individual serve packs which is annoying if you want to cook with it. To get it in a large pack like sugar we have to order it from the internet. I am not sure about other countries.

Law school is awful. I put my husband through. He graduated in the top 5% of his undergraduate class and struggled with his grades in law school. The not being able to work thing almost killed us. I was working a crap retail job that really didn't pay enough. He didn't get any scholarships and now has $150k in student loan debt because we took every cent possible to make sure we had a roof over our head (seriously, DC area is freaking expensive - my paycheck didn't even cover our rent). When he got out, it was right in the middle of this last recession and no jobs were available. He interned with all the public-interest groups who were all in hiring freezes. The situation is pretty bad when you go to a tier I school with no employment prospects afterwards. All the people who got hired when they graduated had family firms and connections, which we had none of. When the freezes ended, they only wanted people fresh out of school. It really didn't prepare him for anything afterwards at all. He does criminal defense and he had to learn pretty much everything. Like right now, he just started a new firm and is learning the civil sides because trying to get people to pay their bills is nearly impossible sometimes. I'm just glad his stuff is doing well enough so that I can go to school full-time and not work, especially since my college is tough (it's an honor's college). The kicker is, his school keeps begging us for money. We haven't even started paying his loans back. And the fact that they changed their name to "honor" one of the biggest disgraces to the legal profession (and Supreme Court - sorry to get political, but yeah, not happy about that name change) means they can go well.. uh.. yeah. If they had the money to do that, then they don't need the money we don't have. Relax, breathe, relax. Drink a glass of wine (if that's your thing). Don't go overboard: law school almost made my husband an alcoholic. Yes, an F can be catastrophic. But it sounds like you've done pretty well other than that class. Fingers crossed for you that it pulls you up over that hump. If they try to kick you out or pull your stuff, appeal it. Explain your situation: your life, stress / mental health factors, etc. They might have programs to help with that (my husband's law school did). I have to keep a 3.0 to keep my scholarships and get into the graduate program I want to do. The pressure is on there. I feel ya. I couldn't afford to stay in school if it weren't for my scholarships. Oh, and the way classes are graded are terrible. I remember his grades being determined 100% by the final exam. Nothing else mattered except that exam.

I have a horrible sensitivity to sugar alcohols, so my NUT has me using Carnation Instant Breakfast with unflavored Protein powder added as an alternative. I could also add the powder to broth and have it that way. Sent from my SM-G900P using the BariatricPal App

I agree that the alcohol won't help your liver. Also the sugar and carbs are not likely on your preop diet. You will get to have alcohol again when your surgeon releases you for it.

Good Evening all, I was told on Wednesday evening i am to have my sleeve on the 3rd of January, this caught me completely cold as ive been waiting that long. I immediately started my pre op diet and in 4 days have lost 7 pounds which is crazy. Obviously we have Christmas coming up and well...my 30th birthday (new years eve). Now I get the deal with alcohol but how long before surgery should i stop ? For the record i haven't had a drop for 7 days now but i wouldn't mind a couple of drinks at Christmas and here or there, not so bothered about my birthday as i appreciate its very close to my op day....would this be an issue ? I wouldn't drink 8 days before surgery however i havent had direction on this, i see my nutritionist on Wednesday :/. In regards to my pre op diet, at the moment it consists of this daily : Breakfast : Meal Replacement shake, low carb, high Protein lunch : Same again however i may add half a chicken breast for bulk Dinner: Tonight i have chicken breast and stir fry, tiny tiny tiny bit of mint sauce Obvs i am having sugar free fluids (mainly Water but pepsi max every now and then) Does this seem ok ? For what its worth, im 6ft tall, male and im weighing in at 19st 10, i hope to be 19st flat for surgery. Not sure If this makes any difference, figured id put it. p.s on a last note, i was so against this surgery yesterday but i came on here and m view point has just dramatically changed, i am looking forward to living again, thank you.

Replying to #1 Post on 12/14/2016 - "Every who has had surgery already, how are you feeling?! How was your experience? And to everyone waiting for their surgeries, are you excited?! Hows pre op going? I'm assuming most have started by now and if not are you dreading starting like I was?! haha, i have 2 more sleeps till my surgery and I'm so ready for it to be over with!!!!" I am doing good, other than not sleeping much (cat napping all weekend - not one ounce of REM sleep since Thursday night) but I am sure that is expected with the excitement of anticipation of my surgery tomorrow. I have already lost 11 ;bs with this clear liquid diet that I have been on for 3 days (pre op), I'm already feeling like a better me - working towards the best me! I haven't packed my bag yet, but I have everything I need, just need to put it in the bag for the hospital. I am single, and was concerned about coming home from surgery alone, so I will also be packing a back to take with me when I leave the hospital because I will be staying at my daughter's home until I feel comfortable bringing my new tummy home. I essentially have purchased everything I need, the Protein isolate, (I am not doing the whey, I am doing the P Protein Isolate powder because of being lactose intolerant. I bought the Biotin tabs for hair loss prevention & support, the Vitamins, the protein waters, gas tabs, chapstick, and other items. I picked up my prescriptions from the pharmacy already, and waiting to head to the hospital in the morning. i plan to do my BEFORE photos tonight & my final pre surgery weigh in, and if I can figure out how to save info on this website, I will update my profile. I plan on taking it easy today, and just continuing to drink drink drink these Clear Liquids up until bedtime tonight. . I am super excited, I am the "glass have full" kind of lady, and I always look for the positives, in life, and not put emphasis or focus on the negatives. I look for the lessons to be learned from them, and how I can turn them into positives, you know LEMONS into LEMONADE. I am sure we all have had or will have some concerns about this life altering decision we have made, and procedure we have had or are about to have, and I hope that we won't let the negative thoughts rob us of the positive impact this will have in & on our lives. We all want and need something better, or we wouldn't have made the choice to do this. I hope we can continue to glean from each others post all of the wisdom shared by those who have already had their procedures, knowledge that we have, and real life testimonies about our day to day successes. I know there may be some pain and discomfort (that is true with any surgery), I know that this new tummy & new lifestyle will require some getting used to, but I a more than confident that WE CAN DO THIS!!! so let's take the bull by the horns and ride on to victory!!! (and NO I have not been drinking - alcohol, LOL) just super excited for all of us!!!! have a great day! Happy Weight Losing Everyone!!!

I LOVE BEER. Oh beer and pizza and everything in between. I used to order pizza and drink 4 beers back to back. Post surgery, it hurt bad when I tried even a Soda. I am not a quitter,I was mixing soda with water and drinking it cause of he cravings. Didn't like it. I weaned off Soda pretty quickly. Next came beer. The post op process did a good job on killing the beer cravings, you just can't drink enough without being uncomfortable to make it worth it. So a cocktail? Even those. You can't really drink. If it's between a nice meal or a drink, I usually go for the food. I would rather eat a piece of pizza and maybe a sip of alcohol. The surgery process took care of tha problem for me

Both my kids are high functioning ASD - I know what you mean! We mostly avoid artificial/processed food, but the pre-op diet was tough. I'd already picked up a few Sucralose products during the insurance mandated diet, but went full chemical sugar free for the last few weeks of super low carb. Man, it was *nasty*. But I've seen the pictures from my surgery and my liver looked FABULOUS, so I'm pretending it helped my liver shrink and am moving on. Like elisa5150, I did use sugar free stuff the first month or so - especially the sugar free popsicles - but also Gelatin, Protein powder, and some protein hot chocolate. Now, I use flavored stevia drops for kefir or yogurt (yay live cultures!) and a little xylitol (a sugar alcohol) in my tea. Some of Protein shakes (Orgain) have stevia and erythritol (another sugar alcohol) or monkfruit and inulin (Jamie Eason Lean Body for Her). Personally, I do really well with xylitol and okay with erythritol (though their "naturalness" is highly debatable). And while current research increasingly makes it look like sucralose and other traditional artificial sweeteners are really messing with gut health, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that stevia, monkfruit, xylitol, or erythritol have much effect one way or the other. There are natural(-ish) protein powders out there - as long as you can keep the carbs and protein where they're supposed to be. (My NUT recommended youbars - they make custom Protein Bars with options for natural sweeteners.) We love grass fed butter and cheese, though I'm sticking with olive oil and coconut oil for now. I do have a tub of natural coconut oil based vegan butter spread I use every once in a while, but I wouldn't give up grass fed dairy for margarine if I had a choice. Mostly, though, my new stomach prefers savory moderate to low fat food, so I try to work with that as much as I can. When I was still eating dairy, I discovered I could mix herbs (Penzey's Fox Point seasoning) into low fat Greek yogurt and use it as a dip. Still got my protein, but didn't have to sweeten it. Which is probably for the best. I don't think living on artificially sweet or fatty things is necessarily better than living on real sweet or fatty things. So, good fats when we eat them - grass fed beef; pastured eggs; olive & coconut oil - and all in reasonable amount. If a dish is too fatty, I can't eat enough to meet my protein goal. Sort of a self limiting problem, so I don't see the need to drag margarine into it. As for sweets... research just keeps making it look like artificial sweeteners wreck your gut and make you crave more sweets. Which kind of makes sense since some "bad" gut bacteria has been tied to increased sugar consumption/desire for sugar. And sweets have gotten me into a lot of trouble in general, so I feel like this is the time to develop better habits. Thank heavens I did full on high fat/low carb Keto before surgery - I rarely had sweet things anyway and it still kicked my butt! But it really did kick the sugar cravings and I am so glad I didn't have to deal with that post surgery! It's made it way easier to explore healthy options that don't involve so many chemicals. Now to try and get back on my gut health protocol and try and get my kids onboard. Wow - sorry this is so meandering - it's the middle of the night and we have a small herd of cousins over for the first Christmas break sleepover. Brain. Fried. Let me know if you need product ideas - I feel like I've researched them all . Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

I'm in the "everything in moderation" camp. I avoid alcohol mostly but indulge on occasion. The biggest problem with alcohol, for me, is that it boosts my appetite while lessening the efficacy of my band and that's a bad combination. I always eat my Protein first and then eat bites of anything else on my plate if there's room. I refuse to follow a specific, rigid diet simply because attempting such always backfires for me and I end up binging on what I actually want instead. Of course, traditional binging now is a physical impossibility but during a particularly brutal bout of PMS I did manage to eat an entire sleeve of Oreo Cookies and a glass of milk for lunch. That's all I ate and it kept me full for several hours... Calorically it was in line with what I would've eaten anyway but it was nutritionally void of anything except sugar and fat. I am in no way recommending this, but hey, I have food issues and occasionally I slip. The great thing about the lap band is once the episode ends, I don't just say "screw it" and "go off my diet" because there is no "diet" to exit anymore.

@@Slick300 I think true foodies, not food addicts, do well after surgery. If you thought you were a food snob before surgery, after surgery it is times 10. I will not eat bad food or mediocre food, not at all. This have to basically be delicious for me to eat them. The time post off where you are eating very simply for weeks/months cleanses the palette in a very interesting way. When you add food back, good high quality food has the taste amplified quite a bit. You taste everything more. Which is why bad food is so terrible to you. I enjoy being able to eat at trendy restaurants and not walking away hungry. I can have a couple bites of something, get a taste for it and be satisfied. I really enjoy places with small plates, it completely cloaks my small capacity, and by the time people have realized I have barely ate anything, they are almost done (realizing they pigged out). I gave up alcohol long before surgery, so I can't really comment on that. I will have a sip of something if it compliments the dish, but it is purely for the taste/compliment. Alcohol does enhance food. I suggest paring with liquor before surgery and not having it, until you have lost over 50% of your excess weight. Some people can do well with alcohol after surgery, but others not so much. It is just empty calories, with no nutritional value. I think about food/drink in terms of how it benefits me, and alcohol just has few benefits and lots of cons. If you love food, really love, good food, you will after surgery. If you follow your food steps, and change your relationship with food in a positive manner, you can still be a foodie and be successful.

I am seven months post op and my restriction is still there. Just as other people have said here, I could eat carbs that turn to liquid and things like chocolate though. I can also drink most things now. So I could easily take in too many calories and gain weight. I get a strange hungry type feeling but it's not like before surgery. I usually drink Water then take whatever antacid, PPI etc that I am due to check if it is true hunger. My head still wants things that my body just won't tolerate like pizza, burgers, fries and other old favourites. I also don't drink alcohol. But I won't ever eat any of that. Protein first for me, my water, meds and supplements then veg. I try to eat fruit occasionally too. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

do you occasionally mix in Alcohol? And do go about it with the same thought process? I'm Working on getting my head on straight and be faced with the right choices without that feeling like I'm on a diet.. Paul12677