Search the Community

I'm 4 weeks out so I'm no expert but I'm also not a big/good cook. I've cooked twice since post-op. I started puree/soft foods 2 weeks ago and this is what I do... For breakfast and/or lunch, I eat yogurt or have a protein shake. My nutritionist said I can have turkey bacon so sometimes I throw some in the microwave and have that. For dinner: I've been eating canned salmon (not big on tuna) and canned chicken. They last a pretty long time and there are some really simple recipes for them. I don't consider that cooking because mostly I saute them with frozen onion and peppers, season it and I'm done in 10 mins. If I want more flair, I'll add a small amount of teriyaki sauce or oriental sauce. As far as fast food, I've also had rotisserie chicken from the Peruvian restaurant by my house. It went down better than the canned meat! Right now for the most part I just eat meat so it's pretty easy to track. I have a digital scale and I just measure out 3-4 oz. The 2 meals I cooked were 2 different types of chili. Both of which only had like 5 ingredients. I had leftovers for a few days. I haven't been to a restaurant yet but I like all the advice that BigSue gave on this. I'll def keep them in mind!

I was sleeved April 27th. I was still having problems then Saturday I made a smoothie with a protein shake, Greek yogurt and strawberries. And I had cherries for a snack. I went 6 times Sunday morning. Haven't gone since I tried Miralax again last night. MOM helped me too but my doc likes Miralax.

I am from Columbus,Ohio too!! I just scheduled my surgery and will have Ramos as my surgeon. My surgery date is March 26th. I go in on March 5th for pre-admission testing. I am not sure what all is involved in that but I am excited. I am trying not to get overly excited and have not talked to anyone on my team at work about it yet. I am sure I will need to eventually. I am so thankful that we have this chat site. Does anyone have any good ideas of what to eat for breakfast,lunch and dinner for the pre-op diet? Right now I am eating ff,sf yogurt for breakfast a low-fat cheese for a morning snack,either a sm salad or sm bowl of tuna for lunch and then afternoon nack is Special K bar and then a light dinner. I think dinner is going to be the worst part of my day to get thru especially eating with my husband but I need to suck it up and get over it. Does anyone have any good dinner ideas for me? I know I am rambling on and on but I really have no one to talk to about all of this stuff

Not hungry, but had to start on full liquids today, so I made a yogurt shake w/protein powder and skim milk; managed to down 1 cup. Still not hungry. Largely off the Loratab but the other drugs are a must and they make me quite dizzy. Unfortunately, the nutritionist neglected to tell me how often to eat(every 2, 3, 4 hours? When hungry?) and how much? All I got was, "take in 1000 calories and 65 grams protein a day". Still trying to figure out how I'm going to manage to get the right balance of fruits & veggies in when I'm on real food.

Just curious how much everyone is eating for lunch and dinner. I don't know if I am eating too much or too little. I starting weighing the Protein (chicken, pork, turkey- my 3 main proteins) and eat about 3 oz. at each meal along with a little Greek yogurt or cottage cheese and a few edamame . Is that too big a serving of meat? I know I'm getting in my protein but just want to make sure I'm not eating too much. Don't want to stretch the pouch!

I make minimal use of shakes, because I also find them cloyingly sweet. One alternative with a good protein count is to take one cup of Chobani Less Sugar Greek yogurt (any flavor, 12g) and mix it with 8oz Fairlife 1% milk (13g). I put it in an insulated shaker cup (with a whisk ball to blend it smooth) and enjoy it while it's still cold/cool. If you let it get warm it is not as pleasant to drink. For me, tepid and thick does not want to go down.

I made some fresh yogurt. Chipotle chicken broth mixed with mashed potatoes instead of Water is great. Have not tried refried Beans yet. Made deviled eggs and ate one. thats my mushy experience so far.

I made mock enchilladas! Use crock pot shredded beef, it's really soft! 2oz of the beef, a tbsp of enchillada sauce, cheddar cheese and blend it up. Top with a dollup of sour cream! So yummy!! I also did chorizo and eggs with cheese. refried Beans w/cheese and sour cream corned beef hash w/egg (blended) Fage yogurt w/splenda and a bit of crystal light mix cream of potato Soup mixed with milk, bacon bits, and cheddar cheese (blended up)

@@MamaTo3inNH I am cleared for full liquids right now ie yogurt, pudding, popsicles, broth, strained cream soups, etc.

Hello everyone my name is Tina otherwise known as breakingtheshell. I really want to share my story with you I am so glad that I found this website. I am sure that there are many others out there with my situation maybe somebody can help me understand this because I asked my doctor my dietitian and they just seem to give me short answers and then there in a rush to get away I started out at 347 during my six-month counseling sessions and the day of my surgery I was 327 my surgery was on October 26, 2012. I wore a size 5x tops and bottoms or a 32/34 and my bra size funny funny was a 54 Double D. I never wore jeans after my disability which was a big contributor to becoming morbidly obese. Oh this is funny, I used to wear a size 13 wide shoe now I'm in a 12. How did that happen?? The surgery was extremely painful for me and it took a great five hours for them to poke and probe me and rearrange things rather then the simple 2.5 hours. My liver was extremely enlarged because I suffer from nonalcoholic liver disease so they needed to go in other places it was hard for them to lift my liver to work around it. I have been on the highest strengths of morphine for so long that when I got into the recovery room I felt all the pain and there was nothing else they could do for me so I stayed at the hospital for three days straight crying and begging for help to get rid of the pain.........I felt like I was butchered. By the way I was on pain medication for so long because I have severe back injuries I need to have a Nother three surgeries on my back I have fibromyalgia rheumatoid and osteoarthritis degenerative disc and joint disease spinal stenosis sciatica And everything else that causes pain. This is how I got started on my venturers for a gastric bypass surgery my back surgeon had to do another surgery on me but because I was so morbidly obese he refused to open me up on the operating table for fear that I would die. He told me I needed to lose over 100 pounds and in order to do that I had to go have the gastric bypass done so I quickly did my research checked my insurance and was approved quickly after six months of counseling. I lost a lot of weight I'm talking about 85 pounds by the end of my third month. I felt horrible I felt lethargic and spent most of my time in bed because I was so tired. My skin dried-up like you would not believe my face looked horrible like I had aged 10 to 15 years and I still with having pain in three months in my stomach area. Oh and the hair loss ......it's still coming out!! My six-month mark was on April 26, 2013. I had lost 122 pounds and my clothing sizes got to an extra large top a size 16 trying to wiggle into a 14 jeans and my shoe size went down and my bra size is now at 38b. When I look in the Mira I see a totally different person I look like a skinny person but I know that I need to lose at least 60 more pounds!! my husband says I should be grateful for what I have lost but darn it I didn't go this far to stop here but the problem is it STOPPED!!!! I understand that there are times that you will Platau but mine has lasted two months now losing only 9 stinkin pounds. I started solids a little late because of having Strictures and having to be dilated three times but I noticed that when I started eating solid foods my hunger started and I always feel hungry again an hour after a meal. I can only eat 1/4 to 1/2 cup of solids. I mentioned this to my doctor and that was hysterically crying and he says to me well that means your metabolism is working again that's a good thing and then got up and walked out!!! Wtf???? This is my life. This is my dream. I am doing everything by the book I am drinking my Protein I am actually drinking the whey protein bullet (with approval) which is nice because it's only 3 1/2 ounces to suck down to get your protein and I don't know what else to do. I cannot exercise because of my back injury. I'm going to be having surgery again rods and screws put in my back and I just don't know what else to do. I've kept logs, drink my liquids,snack on a little fruit or fat free sugar free yogurt. UGH CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME ADVICE ON HOW TO KICKSTART MY WEIGHTLOSS AGAIN????? I don't want to be skinny because I love curves. I'm not being selfish! Thanks in advance for your input. Tina

Sleeved 9/9/15. I have lost 53 pounds. No more Metformin for diabetes, gout, high cholesterol. Hopefully I will come off high blood pressure meds next month. My struggle has been getting 64oz of water in but I have no problems protein. I do one protein shake and one protein bar a day. I get the rest of my protein eating eggs, chicken, seafood, turkey and beef. Snacks are yogurt, string cheese, almonds, sugar free puddings and sunflower seeds. Exercises have been walking, ab exercises, squats and resistance band workouts. Just joined Planet Fitness so that will be a new journey. I know that everyone is different but I had to find what works for ME and I have found this is what works for ME......right now.

Hello all, I was sleeved on 9/9/15 so far so good. I have lost about 43 lbs and feel great. The cons: I have been trouble getting my Water in, cannot take my Multivitamin (makes me so nauseous), also I have been eating (for the most part) the same food (I.e. chicken, eggs yogurt, nuts) The pros: I love nuts eat them everyday, I am able to get my Protein in but 2 oz at a time, and I can't believe that I lost weight this fast my mind is still trying to catch up Just wondering what everyone else is going though and if you have any advice. Thank you!

I just started soft foods and have had the hardest time with things tasting burnt. The bone broths that I loved prior to surgery taste horrible so I rely on protein shakes, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, cheese and I found a no sugar jerky at Target that I can tolerate. All that dairy is hard on the bowels so I still take my stool softener from time to time. Last night I was trying to get my second shake in and I just couldn’t do. All of a sudden there was this thick clot of something in my mouth - I think the shake was building up on my tongue or something. I had to go in and scrape my tongue with a spoon to get all the buildup of the protein shake off. It was gross and I couldn’t finish the shake after that.

I'm a little over a year out from my surgery and find I'm usually tight in the morning so this is my "Breakfast smoothie": 3 oz of pineapple juice 3 oz of milk 1 vanilla low-fat yogurt (I use Activia) 1/2 frozen banana 2-3 frozen strawberries (8 blueberries or so if I have them on hand) 1 scoop whey isolate Protein powder - vanilla I just mix it in my blender and it's great. It is about 280 calories and 28 grams of protein. That is pretty much my fruit and dairy for the day. For lunch and dinner I concentrate on getting in the remainder of my protein and try to get a little veggie in. HTH!

It says 1-week post op at the top and this looks like what I was on for the 1st week. I had a hard time with eggs when I ate them in the first week though. 3 spoonfulls gave me the "stuck" feeling. Also, I always get greek yogurt with fruit. At that time I was eating 600 or less calories a day so I don't see the harm in a greek yogurt with 130-150 calories!

Yes. It took me like 25 mins and I had only had a yogurt for breakfast that day, but yes I did. My wife and I had surgery on same day and I have always been able to eat more. I talked to my doctor about it and he said that my stomach is much longer than hers. I am 6'5" tall so he said my banana is just flat out longer than most people's. It worried me at first but he said that because of my height and the fact that I am male, being able to eat an ounce or two more than my wife at a sitting is no big deal.

GPS is a very hot topic in the bariatric surgery community and growing every day. I am now starting to train other surgeons on the procedure and the demand for this is increasing as patients request GPS and surgeons want to learn how to do it. I have visited several U.S. surgeons that also do GPS for the benefit of sharing information and maximizing our collective knowledge about a new procedure. We share information on a regular basis for the benefit of our patients. Last week I visited a prestigious academic center that has started offering plication as well. When we first started, our patients were having a hard time pronouncing and remembering terms like imbrication and plication so I asked my wife what we should call it and she suggested GPS for Gastric Plication Surgery because it was easy to remember. This term seems to have caught on and now I see even international surgeons use the term. There does not seem to be agreement about the bougie size (bougie being a soft rubber tube used to size the new stomach sleeve). I have a strong opinion that the sutures (stitches) should be interrupted (individual stitches with a knot tied at each location) as opposed to a running stitch (knot tied at each end of a long stitch taking many "bites" along the way much like sewing. With interrupted stitches, the tension is controlled at each knot. With a running stitch, the tension is not controlled and can get too tight and lead to stomach tissue necrosis and/or perforation which we have all read about on this board. Another part of this is not to place the suture too deeply. In surgeonspeak, the suture should be seromuscular, not full-thickness. I also have a strong opinion that the ideal stitch is 2-O Ethibond. This is a third generation silk that actually causes a bit of scar tissue (favorable) which makes the bond stronger than just the stitch itself. Ethibond has been around for many years plicating the stomach for other reasons and it holds really well. I have seen Prolene used which is a monofilament suture and causes no reaction and actually doesn't hold its knots as well (poor suture memory as we call it) which means the knots can come undone. I think Prolene is at too high of a risk for prolapse where the whole thing resorts back to the normal stomach size or even worse where only one section is herniated out and could cause problems. I also feel strongly that the sutures should be no more than 2-3 centimeters apart from one another. I've seen surgeons place their stitches much further apart and I think this again increases the risk for prolapse or the stomach herniated back out between the stitches. We've learned from doing thousands of band surgeries for the last 9 years the importance of a two week liquid Protein diet prior to surgery to reduce the size of the liver and improve the ease of the operation. The first weight you lose comes out of the liver. I also think it is important to eradicate the known stomach bacteria, Helicobacter pylori because it is ubiquitous, most of us have it in our stomach lining and it can cause ulceration, inflammation or swelling when surgery is done on the stomach. This is easily eradicated with a two week antibiotic regimen pre-op. I think it's important to stay on a liquid diet (pureed Soups, applesauce, Jello, pudding, yogurt) for the first week and soft mushy foods for weeks two and three. Carbonation is a bad idea in any stomach surgery for weight loss because it dilates our work. (Have you ever opened a dropped can of Coke?) The best weight loss is acheived when you avoid drinking liquids for an hour after a meal. This allows you to be fuller sooner and longer and really makes the tool of GPS more effective. We have found that Levsin (hycosamine) 0.125mg SL (sublingual - under the tongue) given pre-op and continued three times daily post-op dramatically reduces the crampy abdominal pain after GPS. This has really improved the patient experience with this surgery. I also use lots of numbing medicine (local anesthetic) during the surgery which dramatically decreases pain after surgery. I always scope the stomach during the operation to make sure we're not missing an ulcer or polyp or any other important pathology. I do this in the operating room because it saves doing it as a separate procedure and also the scope is the ideal bougie size so I leave it in for the sizing catheter and this allows me to look at the perfect sleeve I just created when we're done with the procedure. Many surgeons don't do a stomach scope and I worry about doing this with no knowledge of the stomach lining. There is a lot of debate about stapled sleeve gastrectomy vs GPS. One item of consideration I think is important is that stapled sleeve patients have a 9% incidence of Vitamin B12 deficiency. The stomach makes something called intrinsic factor that aids in the absorption of Vitamin B12. A distinct advantage to GPS is that no stomach is removed and the intrinsic factor levels are not disturbed so you would expect that GPS patients would not have such a high incidence of vitamin deficiency. Stapled sleeve patients are also deficient in several other Vitamins such as Iron, folate and Vitamin D. (Ref: Obesity Surgery 2011, Feb 21(2):207-11.) I think there are many advantages to leaving the stomach in the body - just making it smaller as a powerful weight loss tool. Ghrelin gets a lot of press but it is important to realize that you reduce ghrelin with pressure (food in a smaller stomach). Ghrelin is a feedback hormone so physically removing stomach doesn't eliminate ghrelin. You guys have seen me rant about hiatal hernias on this board and I continue to feel strongly about repairing this during the surgery. What I've learned is that if you are overweight, there is nearly a 100% chance that you have a hiatal hernia and even if this is small it should be repaired at the time of surgery. Otherwise, you will have terrible heartburn when your stomach is made smaller. I get calls from patients that had GPS elsewhere and they have terrible heartburn and their hiatal hernia was not addressed at the time of surgery and they are pretty miserable. This is avoidable. Hiatal hernias are really easy to fix at the time of surgery so my opinion is that there is little excuse for ignoring this principle. The latter part of this month, I have a major annual surgical conference and plication is now on the agenda of this meeting. All this to say, I think that GPS is here to stay and gaining in popularity. One of my GPS patients came in the office last week having lost over 70 pounds in less than six months and he is quite thrilled as am I. That is all the good stuff. To me, the main downside is that the procedure is still new and we don't have long-term data. Two year data out of Europe looks good but we don't have two year U.S. data yet. There is some interesting data from Germany showing dilations ten years after stapled sleeve gastrectomy and I think the GPS can do this as well. We know from other operations that the key to preventing dilation is to avoid carbonation and avoid eating to the point of regurgitation after the stomach is smaller. Whenever something new comes up with GPS I will post it on this board. I also thank you for teaching me. Your experiences that you post here educate all of us. Keep up the great work. I wish you all the very best of success in your weight loss journey. Don't forget to buy yourself a substantial present when you reach your goal. Brad Watkins MD

Keep your head up! I know you might not want to hear this- but they may have been a reason your surgery was delayed. Everything happens for a reason? This is just part of YOUR story! 1) shoveling it in? Haha. I'm 3 weeks out and I don't want to even think about solid food yet. Yesterday was the 1st day I ate 3 oz together- 2oz tuna salad + 1oz Greek yogurt for dinner. 2) I never had children, so I can't compare the pain to a csection. But I can say I survived with no pain medication - but hey, everyone's different. My pain was pretty mild. 3) like I said, I'm only 3 weeks out, so I still consume very little. I eat about 2 oz for Breakfast (yogurt or cream of wheat- something like that) -- a Protein shake for lunch (8oz, but takes a while to get in), dinner- (a little tuna, tuna salad, tonight I'm making chicken salad! Mmm) and of course I sip Water all day-- I'm getting around 50-something oz of water a day. But that took practice-- the first day after surgery I only got in 5 oz of water. Good luck!! I'm sure everything will come out great!-- maybe not like you planned, but great!

Kellster, What do you do with the yogurt...I mean I know you eat it but is it plain? Do you put anything in it?Thanks, Cali

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!

Ohhh. Ok. How yogurt...what type of yogurt can I have? I love yo plait Greek o fat but instructions say no fruit at the bottom which ones can I buy?

I've been having to have snacks in the afternoons and before bed depends, but I haven't been choosing too wisely. So, I went to the store today and stocked up on 100 calorie packs, 60 calorie pudding (can easily add protein powder to), as well as yogurt and other things to have on hand. I hope this will help. I have also made a weekly menu to stick with. Lots of grilled things on it. I would love to be able to eat refried beans or soup and feel full but not there yet. I had hoped to get another fill next week but my doctor is on vacation and the next week I'll be on vacation so I have to wait another two weeks!!! I am going to push myself to do my best, even when on vacation. Atleast then I'll be busy at the pool and such and food won't be as accessable. Have you ever heard of having too few calories when excercising and your body not losing? I am wondering if that has been my problem. I jumped back into excercising along with cutting my calories and maybe my body is in shock. What do you think?

I'm doing mashed potatoes tonight with yogurt butter and skim milk. I'm excited about that. First eating my protein so just expecting to be able to have a few mashed potato bites.

Do you have any food restrictions? i'm 6 weeks post op and can eat anything, i have trouble with hamburger though. I eat: salmon cups (in the same area as the tuna) lots and lots of white fish (orange roughy, tilapia) and sometimes swordfish although only once a week pork chops chicken greek yogurt Protein shakes (normally for breakfast) center cut lean bacon weight watchers string cheese and if I'm really feeling carbtastic i eat: thomas bagel thin (only 100 calories!) frozen yogurt fat free pudding a slice of pizza (totallllly my weakness haha) I need to work on the veggie intake, i don't like them so much :-/

Try putting your whey protein in soup. I would usually put 1/2 scoop in it. If you are able to eat yogurt, put some in that too. Both of those solutions are what helped me get my protein in for the day. I'm 15 days out and still can't drink the protein shakes either. I've seen where people are taking their protein shakes and freezing them like a fudgesicle. I haven't tried that one yet. Good luck!