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I'm with you, I hate soup. Hate it always had. I wanna chew my food. This phase was difficult for me, I used egg beaters and would make scrambled eggs 1/4c. and 1/4c of cottage or ricotta cheese in them. That was yummy to me. I also have heard several people talk about refried beans with melted cheese and greek yogurt on top. I am so sorry! I don't have much more than that. I think this is the tough part. But you can do it, and it really will be worthwhile.

I am now 5 days op with a few questions. I have gone from "I think I'm gonna die and this decision wasn't so hot" to "I'm uncomfortable but it is manageable and I will be fine in a few days. I'm glad I did this.". here are my questions: how much should I be able to drink at a time? In the morning when I get up I can drink a 10 ounce Protein shake in just at an hour. Is that too much? Should I still have pain on incision sites? I still have a pretty significant pain on my left side by one of my incision sites. How much solids should I be able to eat? I am cleared for yogurt and I was able to get down 3 ounces in about 30 minutes. Is that too much? I guess I was under the assumption i wouldn't be able to eat but a teaspoon of food at a time. I was shocked I could eat the yogurt. when I stopped at 3 ounces i didn't even feel really "full" or uncomfortable. I just stopped since it was the first time I'd eaten anything. I guess I am ultimately worried I have a leak in my stomach and I'm able to get so much food down because it is leaking into my abdomen! The doc did a leak test on me and it was fine at hospital. I just didn't think I'd be able to get this much down! Is this normal?

Thanks! And I know you will do just as good if not better, just keep a positive outlook the whole way through...by the way I forgot to mention and this might sound silly but it wasn't silly for me. I had two prior surgeries about 2 years ago for my back and my gallbladder. Right before surgery I was so nervous that I started crying and my recovery afterwards was not easy for either surgery but I have to say this time I did just 2 things differently and I think it helped tremendously. This first is that I prayed the night before and right before surgery (I know not everyone can/will do the same thing depending on beliefs but it worked for me) and the second was I purchased the "Preparing for a successful Surgery" CD from the SSF Kaiser. at my final appointment before surgery. And at the hotel the night before I played it on the CD player just as I laid down in bed and listened to that as I fell asleep and even left it playing while I sleeping. I think it made a real difference. I was so calm this time before the surgery and this time I didn't even have my mom there like I have always had her in the past. My best friend who went with me kept asking if I was nervous and I didn't get nervous at all! Not once! I think that CD really put me in the right mind set. As far as the foods on stage 2, I started adding cottage cheese (1/2 c. a day) about 5 days out from surgery, then I also had instant mashed potatoes with a lowfat (Campbells) turkey gravy on it to thin it out a little bit. I ate that 2 times a day. A typical meal for me from Day 5 until I was cleared for Stage 3 was: Breakfast: 4 ounce Activia Vanilla Yogurt 2-4 ounces of Unsweetened Applesauce Lunch: 2 ounces (1/4 of med. size) Sweet potato 1/4 cup Lowfat Cottage Cheese Dinner: 1/2 cup Mashed Potatoes 2-3 Tbsp Turkey Gravy 1/2 of (4 ounce) Activia Yogurt Snack: 1-2 Sugar Free Popsicle or Sugar Free Fudgesicle About 3 days before my 2 week follow up I started to get really hungry so I started adding in some Stage 3 foods slowly and I was ok with that. I told Dr.Alami about it at my 2 week appt., because he told me to stop the protein shakes and I told him I stopped taking them a while ago because I had a hard time drinking them. At that time my typical meal was: Breakfast: 2 ounces (1/4 of med. size) Sweet potato 1/4 cup Lowfat Cottage Cheese Lunch: 2 ounces cooked ground turkey meatball (cut up in 8ths);topped with 2 Tbsp tomato sauce; little Italian seasoning (sort of like a spaghetti sauce) 1/2 - 1 (4 ounce) Activia Yogurt Dinner: 2 ounces cooked ground turkey meatball (cut up in 8ths);topped with 2 Tbsp tomato sauce; little Italian seasoning (sort of like a spaghetti sauce) 1/4 cup mashed potatoes Snack: 1-2 Sugar Free Popsicles or S/F Fudgesicle Sorry for the BOOK, I hope this helps!!! If you have any more questions let me know

The kind I buy are from Costco and they are called Premier Protein. They were recommended by my surgeon's office because they are softer/chewy so you can eat them early out too. 1 bar has a whopping 30grams protein. I don't remember the exact info for everything else but want to say it's AROUND 210-230 cals and 15g carbs. I find that at one month out, I still can only eat 1/2 a bar at a time (very dense) so it makes a very reasonable meal since you'd cut those cals and carbs in half, and still get 15g protein. The box comes with 3 flavors in it - chocolate peanut butter, double chocolate crunch, and yogurt peanut crunch. Not sure why they call them crunch because they are soft and chewy. I think they are decent in flavor, the yogurt one is my fave (tastes more "convincing" than the chocolate) but I don't think you can buy them individually, just in the box with the 3 flavors.

Sounds like you have pretty good restriction already! That's great! Or your stomach can be a bit swollen from the fill. Maybe try liquids, yogurt or pudding for a day and then try again. Eggs should be a food that go down fairly well. Try to wait a minute or two between bites and see if that helps. Sometimes it's not just small bites and chewing well but giving your stomach a little time for it to register. I doubt if 1 egg was too much, you should be fine with that.

If you are near a kroger's, they have a carbmaster milk that has 11 grams of protein, also carbmaster brand yogurt there has alot of protein. I am 7 weeks post op and get all my protein in with food and one shake a day.

When I had my surgery last week my husband was unable to be by my side because of his 12 hour graveyard work plus it would of taken him an additional hour to get to the hospital. So my mom stepped up by going to my postop lifestyle class the day before surgery and my step dad would also be there to being me to and from the hospital. Well, the morning of my class I finally told my mom how much I weighed and she laughed at me, which naturally hurt my feelings and made me realize bringing her there was a big mistake. Then the day my patent came to pick me up my parents forgot to pick me up! We agreed to leave at noon and my mom texted me that they'd be there before twelve but when I asked how the traffic was at 1145 she said they were still at home!!! I had gotten my last dose of pain meds injected into my iv since I told the nurses that I'd be checking out at twelve but by the time my parents got to the hospital the pain meds wore off... I was in pain getting in and out of their big ass car. My step dad knew I was upset and started to make some bullshit story up of.. "you were too drugged up last night!! We couldn't understand you!!" ... Um no... I told mom this morning to pick me up at noon. He was making things so bad the moment I came home by saying my husband should of taken me to and from the hospital and this was not any of his responsibility. (Both my patents are retired and live WITH ME AND MY HUSBAND) So last night (5 days post op) I went for a walk at the local marina around 830 cause it was cooler (92) but when I got home I was out of breath. So this morning I thought I'd take it slower by walking a lap around the mall but came home exhausted yet again! My dad tells me to suck it up .. and he doesn't understand why I'd be so out of breath. I told him he wouldn't understand and that caused him to snap at me saying that he would because he had a valve transplant a few years ago (but I was always there to support him during his recovery) . I told him I just had half of a major organ removed and he started to get all huffy and puffy. Since this morning my husband removed my nonfat yogurt and sugar free pudding from the kitchen refrigerator and placed it in our bedroom fridge so that I wouldn't have to run into my dad again. I'm so exhausted of all this and I want to go back to work but I know that's not feasible since work is pretty demanding. Guess I'll be in my room for the next three weeks. I can't believe I'm 28 years old and crying over this shit.

Kimmi, I added a little lowfat yogurt fo mine and that really thickened they up. I am still drinking them today. I use whey protein from Walmart with skim milk and the yogurt. Choclate is awesome

Recently, I was reading the back of a Special K® Protein cereal box and saw a statement that lack of sleep can increase the feeling of hunger by 25 percent. Since I’m in a profession that is science based, I did some research on the National Library of Medicine website to verify this. I didn’t find the study that supported detailed that 25 percent increase in hunger when you don’t sleep enough. However, there were several areas where researchers are linking poor sleep and weight gain. If you are tired, you usually don’t feel like exercising. You move less, so you burn fewer calories. Being tired makes you more likely to choose a food like cake instead of salad. There were a couple of studies that did find an increase in ghrelin after poor sleep. Ghrelin is the gut hormone that makes you hungry. Sounds like the perfect storm for weight gain, right? You produce less ghrelin after surgery, which leads to less food intake. Part of weight loss after surgery is that you produce less ghrelin, which leads to less food intake. If eating more healthfully is a challenge for you, it may be that you need to start with better sleeping habits. By the way, that Special K protein cereal is a great add-in to light Greek yogurt. This is a great snack before surgery and about two months after surgery. Happy Zzzz’s!

I always find the "cheating" topic interesting because it seems that there are so many different post-op diets. What is considered cheating on a doctor's orders, may not be considered cheating on another doctor's orders. For me, my doctor insists that we do not eat anything but broth, protein shakes, and water the first 4 weeks. Then week 5, we can try cottage cheese, mozzarella, and greek yogurt. On Week 6, we are allowed mushy food. But, when I see what other members post as to their diet, it seems that I should be able to do mushy foods by at least 3 weeks. That is just so annoying to me because I want to eat darn it! Anyways, I guess at this point there is nothing that we can responsibly do except follow what the instructions are. I would definitely not have the guts to cheat on the first week though =)

Thanks Kwalla girl! So Jill never said anything to you about low carb vanilla Protein shakes. Im so parinoid I will do something that will cause an issue at surgery time. This morning I was wating Siloette yogurt. I was looking at it and there is big peices of fruit in it. I was like "uhhh is this okay??". Then got nervous that maybe I shouldnt be eating it.

Hi Craftylady! I have a question for you. I see something about people drinking Protein shakes. When would people be drinking these? I know for my pre op I only get milk, yogurt, cottage cheese and Jello.

During liquid I ate: Yogurt, blended soups, jello, sugar-free popsicles, Fairlife milk (has WAY more protein than regular milk and no lactose), chicken broth, sugar-free pudding It's rough - but it's really a pretty short amount of time. I just graduated to Pureed diet and that transition is going slowly. My new tummy doesn't like some of the foods. I didn't digest pureed ground turkey well...at all. It is definitely a lot of trial and error! Best of luck to you!

Hey MominCanada, welcome and thanks for sharing. I had an ESG in November last year in Houston. I checked out Dr. Marvin and was confident in him, you should have a good experience. Stalls, great question, we all have them and there is usually more than one in my experience. It's a large change that our bodies are going though and each body reacts differently, it's not a linear process. I had a stall for 10 days where I didn't lose any weight, gained 1 pound and then afterwards in 2-3 days lost 3 pounds. Difficult for me as an engineer to explain. Water consumption and keeping it high seems to have something to do with it, see several recent posts in ESG forum. A number of us have had stalls, gone back and increased our water intake back >60-80 ounces per day and continued to lose weight. I have a goal >> than 20% weight loss and am about half way there. I would encourage you to discuss your goals clearly with Dr. Marvin and ask his opinion with your specific body size/shape and goal is ESG the best way to go. I had this same discussion with my Dr. and concluded VSG or ESG would work (I did not want something temporary like balloons) and eventually chose ESG due to the simpler procedure and quicker recovery time. My diet is very similar to a ketosis diet (only smaller portions) and when I have my blood checked I am deep into ketosis. Typically eating 2 eggs in AM, 3 ounces of protein at lunch and dinner with 1/4 cup green vegetables and 1/4 cup brown rice or pasta. I will do a yogurt for snack in AM and sugar free chocolate pudding for snack in PM. Total 800-1000 calories/day. When I spoke with the dietician we agreed this was very similar to a keto diet. I have the same approach with sharing, other than my wife not talking about procedure with others. I have told them I'm working with a doctor on a very strict diet, with blood monitoring, etc. Diet is focused on on lean proteins and similar to keto approach. So far so good on that front. Keep the questions coming, we're here to help! Please keep sharing it can help so many others! Tex

if you can eat chicken salad you will ba able to eat chili and stew. I also liked yogurt, apple sauce, oatmeal just remember when u try new things to go very slowly

Hang in there because it gets easier day by day. I was not hungry for the first 5 days. Moving to creamy foods, especially yogurt and pudding was like winning the lotto. The key is to keep a positive attitude and to remember that this is the first steps in taking back your life!

I use the unflavored in my banana yogurt smoothies. No problem! Jo Ann

Dear rosiegirl, Dr. Roslin did mine and my sisters surgery too. Hers in sept. Mine on Oct 20, I spent 11 days in the hospital, had some complications, so once I could eat which was 5 days after surgery, he put me on a mushy pureed food, I thought it strange and my Mom called Debbie his asst. And then for the ray of the time I ate nothing but yogurt and cream of wheat. Tomorrow I will be 3 weeks out, so hopefully I can change it up a little. Take care

I didn't really have any choices to make while I'm on the pre op. The surgeon gave me a 14 day plan (which ends when I get sleeved on the 3rd). I'm doing 3 shakes a day, 1 100 calorie yogurt, 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese and all the broth, decaf tea/coffee and Water I want. Not sure if this answers your question and I'd be willing to try again if it doesn't. Good luck!

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

I still have trouble with sugar. I eat alot of Splenda. I was told I should get off the splenda because it makes me crave other sugars also. I love to drink tea and thats what I put in it. I also drink Crystal Light and thats sweet. I also have yogurt often which is kinda sweet (the lowfat kind) so I have plenty of opertunity to get sweets including apples and sugar free jelllo. I am not sure I would know what to eat if I cut all of that out lol. Its all dietary sugar though although I admit I will swipe a piece of candy from my kids here and there if they have it around (Easter Sucks) So I do still crave it. Now the question is do I crave sugar because of how much artificial sugars are in my diet? I am guessing so. Any ideas?

Acidophilus can help too. The good bacteria in yogurt to help your digestive system stabilize. Acidophilus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was allowed to have some salad at the 3 month mark. All docs are different so it's best to ask your particular one. Just make sure you are regularly meeting your nutrient goals before adding in the salads. I try to use veggies with the most nutritional value, so my salads have consisted of spinach and romaine, any other greens would be good but i find the rather bitter. I add some shredded cheese, canned beans, diced up leftover chicken, or whatever i have on hand. I make my own salad dressings now, i tried using greek yogurt, but it was to tangy for me, so i just use plain yogurt, with seasonings. There are a ton of dressing recipes out there, so just google them.

Brunch of last night's coconut chicken with cilantro and even more lime squirted on for good measure.......yum. Usually I skip breakfast and get hungry mid-day. My husband is consistently hungry at 11:00 and has what Tolkein referred to as "Elevenses." By this time he's already had a big serving of full fat yogurt with a dollop of cherry preserves. After breakfast and elevenses he is looking for lunch. Then tea. Then dinner. Geesh, no wonder I was fat! Not him, though. Genetics, sigh.

Ok... Had my first preop Dr. Apt yesterday and while I was happy that iv lost weight (10lbs in 2 weeks since surg) I'm not ecstatic about it. I expected more since I was on liquids for 2 solid weeks. My NUT and Dr said I probably would have lost more, but I'm not getting nearly enough calories in. So basically my body has shut down and is refusing to lose at a more rapid pace because I'm only able to get in 300-500 cal a day. AND to top it off, my doc said no gym until I get my caloric intake up. WTH So I guess my real question is, can anyone suggest high calorie meals that's aren't huge? NUT said it looks like I have a very tight sleeve, so it will be harder for me. Right now I can only consume about 1/2 an egg or 4 bites of cream of wheat or 1/4 a yogurt cup. Obviously not much at all. I'm just scared that if I don't start being able to consume more that my weight loss will not progress. I'm ready to get in the gym. I was sleeve as a tool, not to have it as a crutch. Sleeve Date: March 28, 2013 Weight on surgery date: 281 First Goal 50lbs: July 13, 2013 (231)