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agreed. i bought a bunch from amazon and it's barely drinkable. it's a million times better than the bariatric advantage liquid protein elixir they have me on for the first couple of days. that stuff is incredibly nasty. shakes start tomorrow, and thats a lot better.

I am 14 days out, Im only suppose to be on water and protein shakes and my Dr said to start soft foods. Any ideas. My book says cheese, Greek yogart and cottage cheese and peanut butter. I was bad and cheated and ive already ate several sm bites of hard boiled egg and tuna. I'm down 14 lbs since surgery and my Dr says that's on the low side. Now I'm affraid to adds in food. Any help or motivation would be greatly appriciated.

When you have dense protein. Sent from my Vivo 5R using BariatricPal mobile app

We were invited to BBQ restaurant for a bday party tonight. I am 11 days out still on clear liquids and protein shakes. I know I can't handle going I am always hungry it seems.

New Whey is a liquid protein that comes in a "shot size" type bottle. It has 42 gm protein per 4 oz. I mix half of it with 12-16 oz of water and that gives you 21 gm of protein. They come in grape, watermelon and acai berry. They taste pretty good and aren't as heavy as the shakes.

Your body understands carbs as fuel.it is just trying to refuel after your work out.Atkins has good low carb protein bars.Try one of them after a work out.Good luck :-)

How about mixing a fruit smoothy and adding the no taste protein drink?

Mine did, but keep in mind that doesn't mean yours will. Some people continue the struggle, just with a little mechanical will power. For me, pre-op, I looked forward to eating. I would get exited if we were going to a buffet and hope they had certain foods. I f we planned a vacation, I would instantly wonder what kind of foods they had. Food helped me pass time - if I was watching tv, I was also eating, regardless of hunger. If I was studying, I had a bowl of chips with me. Etc. Now eating is pretty much a chore. I could count on both hands the times I've truly felt hungry since banding, even when I'm getting ready for bed and haven't yet eaten anything. I'm just not hungry anymore. This has been very liberating, because even though hunger rarely spurred my overeating, it was definitely a factor (OMG - I'm hungry?! I better go eat a lot because that's HORRIBLE!) I call it my shift from "live to eat" into "eat to live" -- I finally get what all the psychos who say that mean. As for cravings, I don't believe in stopping them. I think that denying a craving does more harm than good. If I want something, I have it - only now isntead of having ALL of it, a piece fills me up. If it's something I am craving but I just can't bring myself to give into, I will look for a healthier alternative. I love Peanut Butter. Sometimes I will crave a peanut butter cookie. Sometimes I will have the cookie, but sometimes I'm too tight, or they aren't available, or I have to buy 20 (which means I'm eating 20 or throwing 19 in the trash), so instead I will make my Protein drink with peanut butter in it. When you have a strong craving, and don't do something to address it, IMO most of the time it becomes a bit of an obsession. And when you tell yourself you can't have it, or try t ignore your obsessing, is when you "crack" and binge on it... whereas if you'd just eaten the damn cookie, all would be ok. :smile:

I started soft food today, still only eating chicken, but it was so good and juicy!! For some reason the blender made it so dry and I had to bbq sauce it up to make it wet lol. Anyway, What else did you eat on soft foods that is high in protein but not carbs?? Fish and eggs I know but what else?? Any suggestions??

I am on soft foods now and have been since week 4. I am week 10 and will be here until 12 weeks!! I can not wait till then and can have salad!! Here is what I eat mostly: Foster Farms Turkey Meatballs Tuna chicken Salmon Tir-Tip Steak Roast-slow cooked Hamburger/turkey burgers cheese Eggs-boiled/scrambled Sausage Chicken salad/tuna salad/egg salad Lunchmeats Cottage cheese Peanut Butter Pure Protein bars Well-cooked veggies Fuit with out skin That is my menu for the most part. Good luck to you! Kelly

I am 10 days out and still on clear liquids. The last couple days I've had spells of mild nausea after being on my feet for a few hours, to the point that I had to lay down for a few minutes to let it pass. I haven't been able to stomach protein other than what I get from homemade chicken broth, so that's probably part of the issue for me. I agree that you should back off the soft foods for the time being.

It is very hard at first. I remember feeling the same way. But, you do have to eat and drink protein to feel better. If you don't, you will end up in the hospital with an IV. Your body can only go so long. Please try to sip water with G2 Gatorade at least. I always sipped half and half and it help keep my from getting dehydrated. You will feel so much better if you make yourself do exactly as the Dr. says. Good luck and I hope you feel more like yourself soon!

Hello, Does anybody have any good Protein recipes? I drink the unjury chocolate protein. I wanted to something top it to give it some type of flavor because I'm sick of drinking plain old chocolate. I'm 18 days post op. Thanks

Hi Wonderful Sleevers; I keep reading 'Don't graze!!'. Heck, if I don't graze I don't get my Protein & liquid in. I'm on full foods now and it takes me a good 45 minites to eat, or about an hour to finish a Protein Drink. If I don't eat or drink every few hours, I don't get my quota in. And I really prefer to be eating, not drinking, most of my protein. So can someone please explain what grazing truly means? Thanks!!

Welcome to the site. It is hard and counterintuitive, but you have got to get in your nutrition in order to lose weight but also to heal from surgery. Follow your program. Focus on getting in at least 64 oz of Fluid, every day. Focus on reaching your Protein target, every day. Take your Vitamins and supplements as directed. Exercise when cleared. (Walking is a great way to start.)

You need to measure your food and eat on a schedule in the early weeks/months. It's the only way you can make sure you are getting enough calories and protein. You won't feel "hunger" and you'll associate food with discomfort, but you need to fuel your body! Are you doing any exercise yet? If/when you start to introduce intense exercise, you'll probably want to be up over 800 calories a day.

Hi Everyone, This is for the Newbies who have had or are going to have "sleeve" WLS. I have posted these before & have had people ask me to repost them. I know that different doctors have different requirements for what you should eat the 1st month after surgery. Please follow YOUR doctors directions for what you have. I am posting what my doctor wanted me to do. VOL # 1 Hi Everyone, I decided that I would make a list of things for new people who are thinking about having WLS that might be helpful to them. This is long so please PRINT THIS OUT TO READ if you don’t want to read it all at one time. First thing is to start asking people on the board is all kinds of questions—make of list of things you want to ask and keep coming back and ask more questions as time goes on. The more questions that ask the more you educate yourself about WLS and the process and what doctor they liked. Don’t rely on just one source of information. It is really normal to have all kind of feeling and emotions when trying to decide if you want to have Weight Loss Surgery. I must have talked myself in and out of doing this at least 50 times during my 6 months of research. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. This is a big step. But if diet and exercise worked for us then we still wouldn’t be fat and would have lost the weight a long time ago and never regained it. It takes a lot of courage to have Weight Loss Surgery. I am very proud of you for looking into this. Don’t give any more days of your life being overweight, and your body hurting along with being unhealthy. WLS really is your answer. How do you select your surgeon? First of all this is NOT a time to price shop for the cheapest doctor to do your WLS—that is just the wrong way to go at this. There are a lot of doctors who advertise on the Internet doing sleeve surgery for a lot less than some other doctors. I found one posting from a person who had the following concerns after having surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. (a) They put NO name band on her to be able to ID her when giving medications or anything else. ( NO one asked if she had any allergies to foods or medications—thank goodness this person didn’t have any. ( The lab did NOT label tubes of blood with the person’s name on it—very dangerous. © Day after surgery they gave this person ice chips, tea and apple juice. The next day (day 2) they gave this person NOTHING so this person asked why and the nurse said this person wasn’t allowed to eat anything. Well, this person then said I had Clear liquids the day before and they wanted to know WHO gave it to this person?? (d) This person was told that they would get a copy of the operative report on their discharge to take home with them—This person has not received it yet and that was about 2 weeks ago. So make sure have positive feedback about the Surgeon and Staff and Hospital that you choose who is best for you. I can only speak about my experience and my research that I did before I made him my choice for a surgeon. I know that there are other good doctors out there too. Do you research and be careful. Take your time and be comfortable with your choice. Pack lightly for your WLS. So many of us have gone to Mexico, so you want a small suitcase with wheels, a laptop & a cell phone. The clothing that you wear to Mexico are the same ones you can wear home—slip on shoes work great too. Make sure that the clothing is loose fitting. Something just comfortable for your ride home. While in Mexico—that is if you go to Mexico for WLS make sure you take GAS-X. They have nothing in Mexico that they give your for gas, and the use gas in your abdominal area during surgery. It is painful after the surgery, so GAS-X STRIPS are easy to use by just placing them on your tongue. Take a couple of boxes with you—you will be glad you did. If you are going to use a credit card make sure you tell your credit card company and your Bank if you use your debit card or credit card. Sometimes if you DO NOT let these companies know you are outside of the US they block your charges. Use a credit card or debit card vs. cash. The debit card or credit card is much easier to use. Take small amounts of cash for tips—I took $65.00 in 1’s for tip money for various things. If you go to any hospital anywhere leave ALL jewelry at home –just a watch and no rings or other jewelry. I never had any problems at all leaving my purse and computer& cell phone in my room while I was in surgery, but they recommend that you leave all jewelry at home. If you are a lady please remove all nail polish—they need it removed to see your nail beds during surgery. The first month you do after surgery is the HARDEST month you will ever have to do. You do 10 days of nothing but clear liquids to start with—that means you have to be able to see through the liquid. Do not panic if you can not get the Protein they want you to have the 1st 10 days—I couldn’t find anything I liked that was clear during the 1st 10 days. They want you to try to drink 64 oz. each day, and it is difficult—it is like a job because you will need to be sipping Water ALL day long. I want you to give it your very best effort to drink as much as you can. Getting your liquids in each day is so very important to your recovery. You DO NOT want to get dehydrated; you could end up in the hospital. Your new stomach has just had major surgery and it is swollen and will only hold something about the size of your thumb. The next 10 days gets much better—you are now on creamy liquids for these 10 days—don’t forget to drink you water. You can now have some creamy Soups, yogurt, and pudding—sugar free and find a Protein Drink that you like. For me it is Premier Protein Drink and I get mine at costco. When looking for a protein drink, make sure they are low in calories, high in Protein—Premier has 30 grams of protein in each drink box and make sure you have low carbs too. I know there are a lot of other Protein drinks out there that people like. When it comes to carbs I tried to keep mine at no more than 20 carbs per day. Ask others what kind of Protein drinks they liked and where they get them. The last 10 days are mushy foods—Don’t forget to drink your water. Mushy foods are a bit of a challenge. How many foods can I make mushy? I even considered using some baby foods. Start thinking about what will work as mushy foods for you. Starting the 2nd month is quite an adventure. You can eat regular food. Here is where the relearning process takes place. You now will take tiny BABY BITES of food and chew each bit about 30 times or until it is like a liquid. From here on out you will need to take small bites of food and chew and chew and chew. I found out that chicken and fish were a lot easier to chew up. I don’t eat much red meat—your tastes will change and things you didn’t like a lot might taste good and something that you used to love don’t taste that great anymore. Keep track of what you are eating and keep your calories at about 800 calories per day and no more than 20 carbs per day—whole grain carbs are the best to have—NO white or refined carbs. I highly suggest that you keep track by writing them down or using some of the Internet sites that offers you this. I suggest this site it works great there are other sites to use this is just a suggestion. hair 3 or 4 months after having WLS. I would find a lot of hair in the shower after washing my hair. That is pretty normal for a lot of us—this does not happen to everyone. There is no magical cure for hair loss—some people use different shampoo’s or take Biotin. It happens and you live with it. YES, it will grow back. For me I had pencil straight hair and mine grew back natural curly and I love it now. I already had thin hair so for me, I got some cute wigs and wore them for about 9 months until my hair looked a lot better. It was worth the hair loss to lose 105 pounds. Because we eat a lot of protein we suffer from constipation. You need to have at least 70 grams of protein EACH day. So I mix my protein drink each morning with MIRALAX. It is NOT habit forming and is tasteless and it is just a good way to start off the day. I put the protein and a cap full of Miralax in the blender with about 5 small ice cubes and that is my Breakfast. 3 years later I still have this for breakfast and nothing else, it just works for me. You may have periods where you have what we call STALLS. You may be doing everything right and eating and exercising and you have NO weight loss for a week or more. This is normal—mine lasted 9 days. Don’t panic the weight loss will start up again, just keep doing what you are doing. Our heads play games with us sometimes it is ugly what our brain tried to convince us of—We call these “Head Games” and they really are tough times to work though, but you can do it. Your head is still thinking with your old brain and way of thinking that you have been doing for most of your life. You now are eating VERY small amount of food, but your head is used to you eating LARGE amounts of food and that is what your brain wants—so it tries to tell you the you should be eating more—NOT true at all. So you need to have a talk with yourself. Do I just WAN T to eat or do I really NEED to eat? You are not on a diet, but you are making a LIFESTYLE change and that is good because you can do this for the rest of your life. You will NEVER be able to eat like you used to. That is good because that is how we got fat. You will morn the loss of food—you will look around and see others inhaling all this food and you think to yourself—I used to eat like that. You will notice how fast people eat and inhale their food and talk and hardly chew what they are eating. That is pretty normal feeling to have—because you are now eating such small amounts of food and chewing and chewing. You will never be able to guzzle a bottle of water again—that is OK too. These are all good things. In time you will look at all the food people are eating and thinking to yourself oh my gosh I could never eat that much again—it is way too much food. When you have issues or problems come back to the board and ask others who have already done this. We are here to help and support you. Give or exchange all your fat clothes away. You will never need them again after they become too big for you. This weight loss is something you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. You have earned the right to have new clothes. Make sure you have the VERY best doctor that has had a lot of experience with sleeve surgery and check his success rates out. Check the doctor for HIGH patient reviews from the people who have gone to him or her. I can NOT STRESSS this enough. Make sure that your surgery is being done in a hospital NOT a Clinic. Ask where you recovery will be. YOU are worth the extra money that it cost to have this WLS in a Hospital and by the best Doctor you can have. You want to have a happy and GREAT life and having the RIGHT Doctor and Hospital are the key to this. Sorry if this is long, but it is intended to have as a reference and answer a lot of your questions that you might have. For some of you, you are very lucky because your health insurance is now starting to pay for Weight Loss Surgery. For many of us, we did not have your luck, so we are self pay patients. There are companies that loan money for this surgery—be aware that their interest rate is high. Once you pick your doctor ask them about these companies that give loans for surgery if you are a self pay patient. You know we never think twice about making car payments. If you have to borrow the money for this surgery just look at this as “body payment.” It will be the best money you have ever borrowed. Please PRINT this out to read later. If you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me. I had surgery almost 3 ½ years ago, so I do have quite a bit of experience. I really am here to help you along your journey. It took me 14 months to lose this weight and I was 63 when I had the surgery, so it is NEVER too late in life to do this. *********************************************************** VOL # 2 Here are some more things I want you to know about if you are thinking about having WLS and you are having the “Sleeve.” 1. We have talked a little or a lot about “slimming or phlegming” In case you missed it, when you first start eating regular food you have to re-learn how to eat again and chew. With your new stomach you will need to take small tiny bites and chew until the food in your mouth is almost liquid like. This is nothing like what you had been doing your entire life. In the past you eat and talk and put big bite in your mouth along with a few chews and then swallowing—this will NO LONGER WORK FOR YOU. This is a very difficult thing to change. So with your new stomach and just having surgery you may experience slimming or phlegming. First you will feel like the food is stuck, then it comes back up in a clear liquid –your saliva. It isn’t vomit, so that is why it is called slimming or Fleming. It’s a wakeup call to slow down you eating and chew, and chew and chew some more. Just go to the bathroom or have a napkin ready for the slimming or phlegming if you are eating out. If you try to overeat—which is bad you may experience this too sometimes. For me it was always about not chewing enough. 2. What are some signs that you are full? At first I wasn’t sure, but sometimes I just got tired of all the chewing, so I stopped eating. I now get the hiccups or my noise will start to run when I am full. I know that other people have said they experienced this too. 3. It does take some time to retrain yourself on how to eating and I know that the first month it is such a process just trying to get all the food & liquid in that you need to get in because of your new restrictions. In time it does get a lot easier. Some people actually mourn the loss of food, because you will NEVER EAT the quantity of food that we used to eat---YEAH that is how we are going to lose the fat and maintain that goal weight that we want to have for the rest of our lives. 4. If you think you are hungry and you are positive that you are having physical symptoms of hunger this is YOUR OLD thinking brain playing those tricks we have talked about. You now have to start learning to educate this OLD brain into being your NEW thinking brain. Ask yourself do you just "want to eat" or do you really "need to eat" because it has been 3 or 4 hours since you have eaten anything. It is amazing what our brains can and will do to sabotage our way of thinking. You may be challenged by this OLD brains way of thinking for many years. For me I just have to have some self-talks with myself. We have an addiction to food. There is no way around avoiding food, so we need to find the set of skills that will allow us to change our lifestyle. I eat to live, I NO LONGER live to eat! Food is not my main focus in life. 5. I have seen so many times where people are going along and doing great with their weight loss. Then all of a sudden they are NOT losing anything—they panic—I did when it happened to me. We call these “Stalls.” We have stalled and are not losing anything. Most of the time you are eating all the same and correct things that you have in the past when you were losing weight. Our body just does this naturally--stalls. Mine lasted 9 days one time. This is really normal. I have a few suggestions. Use this site or something like it to track everything you are putting in your mouth.http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ you might be surprised at what you are eating—that is why I say track it. Remember keep your total calories at 800 per day—if you exercise then you can eat more. This site will help you figure that out how much more you can it by what kind of exercise you did. You also need to make sure that you are not eating more than 20 carbs per day. No white or refined carbs. They should ONLY be whole grain carbs—not whole wheat, BUT Whole Grain carbs—do the best you can when it comes to carbs. If you are having problems with the weight loss you can kick up the amount of exercise you are doing too. The weight loss will start back up again, so don’t panic. 6. We all stumble and fall along the way, don’t beat yourself up over it. Move on and have a better day the next day. 7. Be aware that your friends and family may not be supportive of you having WLS. For your family, first they really may NOT understand it and they are scared for you. This is pretty normal. You have been on the Internet, and been educating yourself and doing a lot of reading—you know much more than they do about weight loss surgery and your choice is the sleeve. They have only heard the horror stories that the media puts out there or one of their uneducated family or friends have told them. Your friends are scared they may lose you as a friend because you are going to lose the weight and they will remain fat—yes I call it fat. I know there are a lot of politically correct terms to use, but if I can say I was fat you will one day too. Some of your friends will be jealous. My suggestion is that you can try to educate them some, but take your time and effort right now and use it for yourself. After you have had WLS and they see you are becoming healthy and you are alive and well they may come around. I want you to put yourself FIRST, for the very first time. If they are truly your friends they will be there when you are skinny. 8. The first month will be the hardest month you will have to do. You are changing everything about how you eat. I want you to keep saying to yourself that it is ONLY 30 days and I can do ANYTHING for 30 days. Once you start the 2nd month and can have regular food, it gets easier. 9. What do you do about getting smaller clothes? One of my adventures used to be to go to Resale clothing places and sell or trade my larger clothing to them, and then finding some smaller sizes. Just buy what you need to get by for a while until you need a smaller size. It was like a treasure hunt or an adventure for me. I found some places like Goodwill that had brand name label NEW clothing that the local stores gave them. I found some great deals at these places. So consider doing something like this or getting together with some of your friends and trading clothing. I also donated a lot of mine for a tax deduction to nonprofit organizations that give tax receipts—it is really great when it is tax time rolls around and I had all these deductions. I would make a list of everything I was going to donate and how much weight I had lost. I kept that all together in case the IRS asked why I gave away 20 some dress and 10 pair of pants, and 30 tops! 10.Make sure that you go see your Primary Care Doctor when you have had WLS if you have gone outside of the US for your surgery. I went to see my PCP before I went to let her know what I was doing—I wanted a doctor who would support me in my efforts. I had to do a bit of education and after she had time to read all of the information I left her, she was behind me all the way. She said come back in to see her after being home for 2 weeks and she would check me over and run a blood panel to see how I was doing. She did this every month for a while and started taking me of meds that I no longer needed. I did need to start taking potassium—mine was low after having WLS and I knew this when I left Dr. Aceves—they had run a blood panel after I had my “Sleeve surgery.” I loved the fact that my PCP took me off 4 of my other medications within 3months of me having WLS. 11. Exercise is important for you in a lot of ways. Walking and swimming are the ones that work best for me. I know that there have been a few people who said they did nothing. Walking helped me lose a little faster and was good cardio too. I try to walk at least 4 or 5 times a week. When I can I try to swim on the days I don’t walk. I know at first it is difficult to start to exercise, but walk around your home then, down the block a little. When the weather is bad—I live in Oregon and we have a lot of rain, we walk inside the Mall during those times. They open up the Mall at 6:00 am where I live, so you can start early. Buy a used treadmill and see if you like walking on it. My last words of wisdom are the following 1. Saying yes means you will do something new, meet someone new most likely and make a difference in your life. 2. Be true to yourself. It is you, your authentic self, the one you were in the first grade, before you leaned to massage your personality into a form that would suit others. 3. Sometimes it is hard to hear the message because of all the external voices and they are so loud. 4. Voices that are loud are always meant to bully. DO NOT BE BULLIED. 5. So carry your courage in an easily accessible place. Be your OWN authentic person when it comes to Weight Loss Surgery. This is ALL about you and NO one else. 6. Last you don’t need the approval of the Bully. You know what is right for you, follow your heart and go for it. I am always here if you want to ask me more questions, or I didn’t cover something that you are thinking about. I read my E-mail daily. I know it is a BIG step to take and there are a lot of things to think about, you can and will be success. My last bit of knowledge is making sure you keep drinking your water each day. It is so VERY important that you do this. Hugs, Suzanne

Hello everyone, I had my sleeve done on May 23rd,2011 at 2:45pm at Scripps Mercy Hospital. My surgeon is Dr. Laurance Tanaka. My beginning weight was 223 pounds. I am 5'6" and 51 years old. The surgical experience and the staff were great. I have not had any problems or complications. I stayed in the hospital for four days. The night of surgery I was up walking with my iv pole in tow. I walked several times a day while admitted and attended the exercise class offered for post surgical patients. My one week discharge appointment yielded a 14.5 pound weight loss. I encourage everyone to comply with the program. Follow your doctors instructions, exercise (walk), and stay hydrated. I am now intaking about 40 ounces of fluid daily. My diet is one protein shake a day and all protein soft foods. Currently I am eating fat free cottage cheese, mashed beans, greek yogurt,soft fish, shrimp, scallops, and crab meat. Eggs and tofu are encouraged however I don't like either. My next appointment is June 29th and I will be introduced to more foods. I look at this opportunity as a new beginning and I look forward to returning to my previous vigor. I am happy to be on this site and I will answer any questions.

I'm 6 weeks out and I can eat 2-4 pasta noodles. I have not tried bread more out of fear than anything else. I'm not craving it and am sticking the protein first rule. I don't miss the bread and will put off trying it as long as possible. So far, so good!

Thank you girls!! Mountain Girl! I'm a mountain girl too! One cool thing I have is an app on my iPad that basically is a food diary! I used one online for years so I am very familar! Keeps track of my exercise as well! Fantastic on the 35lbs down! That is inspirational. I truly think it is going to be hard for me to learn to chew! I have been trying it but I find I forget about halfway through a meal! Now that I am on just liquids I guess pausing before sips and bites will be what a try! Thanks! Sabrina Did you just grind up your raw veggies?? As of this morning I have had a smootie with Isopure Protein powder. I am heading to the store for a few random goodies soon. My biggest issue is that I am a savory kinda girl and not so much a sweet eater! Most options seem to be sweet things! V8 will be a life saver I think!

Are you tasting diffrent protein shakes to see which ones you like. They are going to come in handy after surgery.

Okay, so I was banded June 11, 2009. I did it because one of the girls I work with got banded and she did really well with it and lost a ton of weight. I have in the past exercised and ate right to lose weight. The problem is that I am of the mind set that once I lose a certain amount of weight that I can go back to old habits. I know that's the wrong way to think, but the hope was always in the back of my mind. Everytime, I start doing really well and lose a lot of weight, I sabotage my efforts by eating high calorie, high fat food. Yes, chocolate, ice cream, chips, and other junk. Skipping meals and not eating the necessary proteins. I realize, that it is all in my psychology. I need to change the way I feel. I need to free myself from the fear of succeeding and treat myself like I'm worth it. I'm almost at my year mark and I've only lost 49 Lbs. which I don't begrudge, but I know I could have lost more. I haven't exercised one day and I have cheated whenever the motivation was absent. It will be an uphill battle to change the way I think. But I'm going to try and start a new exercise regimen and join a support group. I figure, as long as I know that I am the problem, I know what to do.

Had my 2 week check up yesterday. The last two weeks were a little rough on me, but mostly because I put my knee out, three days b4 the operation. Getting dressed, putting socks on, silly things became a problem for me that I had not expected! I am now drinking 26oz of water a day an 8oz protein drink with 42g of protein a day Food has been odd, I have no urge to eat at all, and have been trying to force one tea spoon of apple sauce or baby food into my mouth every day, but I simply dont enjoy it. However last my my husband strongly urged me to try some scrambled egg, and I ate two tea spoons with no troubles at all, it feels a little thick going down, but it's okay. I also eat a sugar free ice pop every night, it takes me about an hour lol but it's my guilty pleasure I have lost 32lbs!!!! I am taking all my pills, you know, the biotin and iron and calcium and vits.... my bp is now perfect, pulse is coming down , hardly no hair loss... at first it was tough, but people are right it gets better every day... I get a little tired quite easy, but one step at a time!

So today I have been thinking about how badly I ate yesterday. I had a pampered chef party and of course the food is NOT conducive to weight loss. I had a protein shake before hand hoping that it might help me not overeat at the party. Yeah right! Loaded baked potato chowder, strawberry cake with whipped cream, turtle bar cookies...*sigh*. This morning I got up and had my normal bowl of bran flakes, but was feeling guilty because I still had that "I ate too much" feeling from yesterday. Sometimes these feelings just go round and round in my head and I beat myself up and I am not even really aware of it. Today, however, I was aware of it. A rule that I try to live by is "Tomorrow is a new day". No matter what I do today, as long as I wake up tomorrow morning, I get to start all over. No... there are not any "Do Overs". If I screwed up yesterday... I screwed up yesterday. Can't take it back or undo it. But I can let it go. It is in the past. Move on. One of the main things I want to do when I beat myself up, is comfort myself with food. My emotional appetite can be ravenous. Something sounds good, and I think I will feel better if I eat it, but lo and behold, it does not make me feel better at all. So I try something else. Eventually, I only end up feeling horrible and the emotional thing is still there. If I can ever truly get a handle on that, there is no telling how much my life would change. I am human... I screw up.... Move on!! So... today... My mind starting doing that... man.. you ate way to much.... you still have a lot of weight to lose, and at this rate, you are NEVER going to lose it all. I HATE THESE THOUGHTS! *Sheesh* Get me off this freakin mental merry go round! :tt1: So today, I will do better than yesterday. I will forgive myself for screwing up (again) and I choose to move on. My life is better today then it was 9 months ago and I am determined it is going to keep getting better. After all... what have I got to lose????

Well Lilymunster its good to hear from you. You are going to get thru this trial by fire, you've quit smoking, good girl, thats an excellent first step. Now that calorie restriction, 1500 is not a bad level, I know you can do it. I've been on 1000 and 1200 before. Remember lean meat or other protein, fruits a n d vegetables. Minimize bread and starchy carbohydrates if you can't cut them completely. Get plenty of fluids, its not too soon to get in 64 oz daily. Thats what they'll expect from you,post surgery. No sweetened drinks like sodas, colas ,root beer, Dr Pepper, you get my drift. Some doctors even make you give up,coffee and tea. 1.caffeine is a stimulant and a diaretic. 2. A lot of people add cream and sugar to them-both no no Try to get enough rest, try to do daily exercise, it will,make you stronger and a stronger patient will be a healthier patient. Plus if You're out walking or other exercise you won't be so tempted to sit and eat. Take the advice of an older fat woman, you don't want to be worn out and worn down. Even this fat broad is walking more, if I can do it so can you. Hope this pep talk has helped a little. Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app