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I've stumbled upon a new snack that is really good. I know that we were told to try and stick to things (food or drink) that is 10 or less of sugar. This qualifies. Quaker Chewy Peanut Butter chocolate Chip granola bars. (on the box it says 25% less sugar) 1 bar is: 100 calories 5 grams sugar 3 grams fat 2 grams of Protein It says 'Our Quaker Chewy Bars are made with 8 grams of whole grain rolled oats, rice & wheat' They're really good, not something I'd recommend for protein, but much less sugar than some of the choices out there.

I'm almost 3 months post op and I have stomach flu. This is TERRIBLE. I haven't had the stomach flu in 10 or so years. The vomiting and diarrhea is just awful. I went to dr. They have me some meds. Does anyone have any "go to" beverages? I cannot handle Water. I don't want to do tea bc of the caffeine. I have been drinking Powerade zero as much as possible and had some diet ginger ale. I went from nauseated to now cramping--- probably bc of all the meds and this is so rough on my tummy. Is there anything that helped you guys ever? I'm desperate and miserable. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

First of all congratulations. I was banded 12/30. I can tell you there are more good days than bad. I was on a 2 week pre op diet and had 2 bad days, i am 10 days post op and have had a couple "bad" days where i thought i just had to eat. Keep busy, i dont think you have the problem, keep your mouth busy if you are allowed to chew gum or hard candy etc. Follow the doctors orders. I havent cheated one time and the weight loss will show that. I did catch myself yesterday when i was cooking i stuck my finger in it to see if it was warm and then licked it off, i caught myself and spit it out, it was only a grain of rice but its not on the diet! lol You CAN do this, you HAVE to do this, and you WILL do this. I wis you the best of luck and keep us informed.

My dr.did five cuts also,the biggest eas very sore for a week. Its normal,I coukdnt even put my shoes on by myself for 10-12 days.even taking a shower at times was.hard,move the wrong way and it hurt

Post op day 4 and down 20 lbs!!?!! Well since I started my 10 day liquid diet. 9 lbs gone since surgery.

Greg It sounds like you are doing fantastic. It's so great to hear about people like yourself who are a little further advanced and others who are years into bandland and others who are just researching this approach..As you know it was quite a process getting us here emotionally to be ready to accept and utilize this healing approach..The band is such a remarkable tool and I want to learn to use it well..Right now we are still getting to know each other but the band has been friendlier to me as I am treating it better..My family went out to Chinese tonite --I had some hot and sour Soup and then picked at a chinee eggplant with seafood dish...We had alot to take home which is unusual for us.In my glory eating days not much left the restaurant.The tough part was when the waitress brought over a special complimentary desert for the table with scoops of ice cream, sorbet and fruits...As you all well know ice cream can be our great nemesis sO I did have a couple of spoons but plan to work out extra hard tomorrow...By the way an old buddy got me out tonite for a couple of hours and I drank a shot of vodka and a few sips of wine...I was happy to know that this indulgence went over OK..Now back to work tomw to have a more mundane and less caloric diet...It was fun though..I haven't been out in a bar in many months and just listening to some of my favorite music and hanging out a little as a bandster was great...I had asked my medical asst about drinking an occasional shot of vodka and he said fine..he does too...and no harm done...So, maybe I will reward myself every month or so with something like this. The days of 10 shots are over but one I can handle...Life seems so much more enjoyable being on the road to getting healthier...Came home and drank lots of Water........Tomorrow am planning on doing some aerobics and eating very light... keep up the great work Greg and everyone else. Happy holidays........ Steve 10/31 302.5 11/11 284 band day first fill 1.2 cc 12/13 259.5 12/17 256 -46.5 Dr Ren nyc goal 199 7/11

Hello. I'm scheduled to have my sleeve surgery on March 14. I am a violinist and have been asked to play at a wedding and reception the Saturday after (March 19). Would I be ready and able to play by then? Thanks for any advice!

Hey all, I'm just about 10 weeks post-op and doing extremely well. A few of you have even gone out of your way to send me private notes of encouragement, kudos, and well-wishes. This means a lot to me, so thank you for that! I wanted to find out from you about your experiences with sleep post-surgery. I would say that before surgery I probably did have bouts of sleep apnea, though I never got tested for it or diagnosed with it. (Wife used to tell me I'd stop breathing in the middle of the night in between loud snoring, though...) Despite this, I was able to function pretty well on about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. Sometimes I'd even get 7 or 8 hours of sleep and be ok too. Now, post-operatively, I have found that it seems like I can never get enough sleep, and I have a real hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Any sign I had of the apnea went away shortly after surgery, so I know it isn't that. I have been getting 8 hours of sleep at a minimum and often find myself hitting the snooze button and even coming in to work late because I grab more sleep where I can. It's frustrating. Has this happened to anyone else? Does it ever change or return to normal? What causes this? Theories? Ideas? Suggestions? I hope all is well with you in your respective journeys, I'm humbled to be fighting the good fight alongside all of you and value your input. Cheers, ~Pat

This is really interesting information that I hadn't heard before (the part of 10% extra loss as well as the REM/sweet craving connection). Although it doesn't necessarily correlate with needing the study done prior to surgery it would surely factor in after surgery. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Bea and Elisabeth, I'm from AZ too, about 60 miles S/E of Phoenix in a little po-dunk town called florence. I had my surgery 8/19/11 and am stoked about it each and every day. I still have along way to go, but am confident I can do it. I wish you both the best of luck and what a great holiday gift to receive. Keep in touch. Zil

I cant tolerate most artifical sweeteners anymore. McD's soft serve tasted like greasy blech. Jello sugar free chocolate mousse, that I used to love, had a weird taste and a texture I could no longer stand. HW 385 SW 359 CW 338 Sleeved 10/5/16

Welcome! I'm pretty new too, surgery is scheduled for August 19. You'll learn a lot of great info from this site!

I cannot say anything about post-op, because my surgery is not until Dec.2, but I sure can about now. I am being weined off my antidepressant Celexa and boy did I have a few off days this past Sat-Tues. I will not go completely off my Celexa today as was planned. Now I will go down to 10 mg for the next 6 days, then I will have to go off completely the day of surgery until the doctor says I can go back on it. I was on 60 mg until the pre-op diet. They want patients to get weaned off of it so that the withdrawal will not cause complications or they won't be so severe if there is any. I guess right after surgery it is too difficult to swallow pills for a little while. I hope I don't have to stay off of mine very long. When had those off days I was on 20 mg a day, so I know that it is probably the effects of it being reduced from 60. If you are on any medications, have they let you start them again. I wish you all the best.

Does anyone have tattoos who have lost a bit of weight so far? I was continplating getting one but I still have 27 pounds to lose. I don't want it to mess up my first tattoo because what I want is very meaningful. I want to get a wrench with the name Basore in it in honor of my grandpa who passed. He was like my father and I've wanted this tattoo since I was 10 (he died when I was 8). Can anyone tell me their experiences with it?

Light weight lifting...like 5-10 pound arm weights while you're sitting down won't hurt you right now. I was fully back into a gym routine at 5 weeks, but I feel as if at 2 weeks my incisions were still pulling a bit and any real type of lifting might have been uncomfortable. Let your body be the judge...if it hurts, don't do it.

Yeah, thats kind of what is concerning me. The flight from the UK to the west coast is 10 or 11 hours.

Hi, My name is Gigi. I am considering WLS and have been doing research on the lap band and VSG. I went to a seminar on 8/19 thinking I wanted a lap band and realized it was not really a good option for me. I have a lot of allergies and do not think the idea of putting a foreign object in my body a good one. As a result, I have been thinking about the VSG. I am 5?7?, around 282 lbs with a BMI around 45; I also have asthma, high-blood pressure and moderate to sever sleep apnea? so I am a good candidate. I still have some concerns especially as I have never had to have an operation. I?m scared! My insurance covers the procedure but I have to do a 6 month doctor supervised diet and exercise plan. I am mainly considering this procedure to improve my health before I add more complications to the mix. Looking better is just a plus. I have been reading the entries on here for while so most of my questions about complications and results have been answered. I am still interested in knowing if there are any major restrictions to exercising after the procedure. I have always been a big girl ? size 14 in high school, while all my friends were size 9 -10 ? and extremely active. I have taken dance lessons most of my life and even when I was in a dance troop where I was dancing 6 days a week, I was never smaller than a size 12/14. So what I am interested in knowing is ? after the procedure do you lose your muscle? When you lose all that weight, is your skin extremely lose that you require surgery to correct? Do you know if I will be called for my initial appointment before I start the dr supervised diet and exercise plan or is that something that typical takes place after you have your initial appointment? Has anyone had there VSG done at Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York? That is where I would be getting my surgery if it proves viable for me. Thanks for any information! It is greatly appreciated.

So I started this journey in August 2019. I just found out that my insurance has approved me. I still need to do the EGD an I am scheduled on the 15th of this month. I have one major concern and that is, I can not tolerate any type of pain medication on an empty stomach. I am worried about after that surgery. Any advice?

You should do it the night before your 10 day pre op diet.

I know, I know. It’s been toooo long since I’ve updated. We’ll just blame it on life. The last couple of months of 2010 were a dooozy. I was so glad to kick that year in the arse on the way out the door into 2011. *sheesh* Praying for a much smoother ride this year – though all things considered: at least I got my health on track. shake weight for Christmas. Might seem like a gimmick, but it’s doing something. I feel it! I won’t even talk about the rapidly depleting “fun-bags”. I’m greatful I still have significant cuppage – even if it is on the count of them being so longgggg. By the time I scoop the slinky’s up into one of my FAB new over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders from Lane Bryant, I still have an ample bosom. *cheeze* I have also noticed that my build-a-booty exercises are working better than I expected. That, and a nice proper fitting pair of slacks makes me look Beyonce-bootylicious (even if HERS is fake). Speaking of slacks – I’m in a size 18 now. CANUFRIGGENBELIEVEIT?? At my biggest (in August) I was a sz 22/24. I’m now about 60# down (give or take, depending on the day), and its still somehow lost on me. Yeah, I get that its gonna take awhile for my old brain to catch up to my new body, but I feel like in some weird parallel universe at times. I mean – is “this” really…ME? The last time I saw 250# was over 10 years ago. And now, I’m only 51# away from my first super big goal of getting UNDER 200#. I’m on my way to ONE-derland, baybee!!! Though, I guess me hitting 50# was worth some fanfare – I just kinda…forgot. *shrug* People ask me a lot how I feel. Well, most days, I feel pretty good. I’m pretty much back to “normal”. With the exception of raw veggies/salads (and I’m craving a ceasar salad something fierce). The nausea/vomitting has subsided. And my knees and back/hips are thanking me. I’m more active in terms of walking when I can, takig the steps when I can, dancing when I can, and doing my lil mini-workouts in the bedroom. Really, its been going pretty well. I’m rather proud of myself, even if what I’m doing is minimal at the moment. Protein in the first couple months…my hair started falling out. BIG time. In CLUMPS. My big beautiful fro is no more. *sadface* At first, I went with rockin drawstring pontails for a minute, but I just didn’t feel like…ME. So, on Christmas, I cut my hair off. I figured I rather have short, vibrant, healthy hair.. then longer/bigger patchy hair. So I’m going to keep it short for the next 9 months or so until I can get my protein & everything where it should be. Maintain my fiery crown of red (with the help of Clairol textures-n-tones “Flaming Desire”), however short, and rock on… I will say one last thing – the weightloss surgery was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Rough start aside, it gets easier every day. I’m making much better food choices, which means I still get to enjoy the things I love on occasion (cupcake, anyone? Well, in my case 1/2 a cupcake *lol*). I’m even rather fond of green veggies. Who woulda thunk it!? I do still feel guilty when folks give accolades of “keep up the good work” b/c I don’t feel like I’m doing much to earn that. But, if deciding to actually “do” something about my weight & health (surgery or no)…well I guess that counts for something! Thanks to all who have continued to support, encourage, and drool. Think I’m lookin hawt now? Just *weight* until the summer almost halfway there!

My side area is still hurting. On a scale of 0 pain-10 extreme pain, I'm at a constant 4. Calling my surgeon tomorrow to see what she thinks. Ughhhhh! I pray it's not even sleeve related. I haven't had any physical problems with the sleeve. I'm 7 and a half weeks out. I'll report back what she had to say.