Search the Community

Mark, I agree. Quest bars are excellent tasting. The Fiber amount in them are substantial. I find them to be an excellent addition to the menu. I have one every two or three days when something sweet just seems good. The extra fiber is certainly welcome with a low carb diet, for sure. I look at the labels of the various flavors and select ones with less sugar alcohol. I understand there is now a pumpkin flavored version, too. Cool stuff. I was in Academy Sports today with my son and we found them for sale in there over by the weight lifting gear. Super cool. I seem to go to Academy on a weekly basis anyway....now I'll grab them as I do. They had over a dozen varieties.

How soon after surgery did you start drinking wine? I miss my occasional glass but I'm fearful of the effects. I had my first glass of wine about 5.5 months post-op. And thereafter I started drinking wine pretty regularly -- maybe 4-5 nights a week, but only 4 ounces. I'm on maintenance now and drink a glass of wine (4-6 ounces) OR one shot of single malt scotch (not both!) about 5 nights a week. I drink it extremely slowly and truly savor it. I'm truly a social drinker -- don't binge drink in any way. And then sometimes I just get bored with it or out of the habit and don't drink for a month or two. But I will definitely say that wine / alcohol affects me a little more than it did pre-op. Everything they say about alcohol's effects on WLS patients seems to be true for me.

So I want to share my whole story as well as post my progress here. I guess after having issues with my weight for so long it's time to be honest as to why and how I get here. JUST A KID ages 10-16 I have always been a bigger person as a child by the time I was in 5th grade I already weighed 100 pounds, I know this because at a party with friends one of my friends said I had a Dream we all went out to party, and Shanqiua u we're skinny in my dream, that hurt. I become queen of disappearing to advoid ppl picking on me. It didn't always work I still got called fat, the ugly sister and if you were small you would be pretty. I learned to live in a made up world to not deal with reality. I would read a lot and made myself a character in my book. This lasted till 14 when I had my first kiss, that lead to first sexual experience than a baby. So adding to my issues I made myself a teen mom. It was very depressing. I balloon to 280@16 and stay this for a long time. I was in a bad space in my life. Teen Years age16-21 With a baby I still managed to excel in school graduating with honors and divorcing my parents so I could be my own legal guardian. I learned early on that what I did with my life was my choice, and I felt I could not control my weight so I control my life by ensuring I wasn't another teen mom who did nothing with her life. Went to school, college for BA , Grad school for MSW. But I was making bad men and food choices and I think the men choices I made was to please them because I believed no one would want me. THE HEALTH ISSUES age 19-25 I was a dibetic and didn't know it. I was 19 when I lost a ton of weight I went from 280 to 200 in three months, I was thristy all the time pee smelled like fruit and I was lossing my vision. I thought I was lossing weight because I had changed eating habits and started working out, this help but it wasn't the only reason I was lossing. I was so happy about the Weight lost that I didn't bother to go to a doctor till I could not feel my leg... This scared me went in and sugars we're 400. I was put on insulin, which cause the new found weight lost to stop, so I stop taking the insulin dumb yes. I did this back and forward with the medication for a long time till my doctor told me I did not care about my life, I did care but was so scared of going back to 280. I change eating habits for good and started working out which allowed me to stay between 200-210 MEDICATION age 25-26 I started my medication the insulin and did not get back to 280 but was hovering BTW 220 for a while. I was in a very toxic relationship and more drama than ever food and alcohol become my safe haven. After a DV situation with my now ex husband I decided to take my life back and I joined weight watchers, and the gym, my doctor put me on a diet pill as we'll . It worked wonders getting my weight to 185 lowest I have ever been since 16, with this new found confidence life was good but I started not taking the meds again plus the pill was giving me racing heart, depressing thoughts all the side effects. Stop the pill gained all the weight back and than some getting to 215. NEW START age 27-28 At this point I had two kids hated where I lived and was feeling like **** about my life, I took the 3k I saved packed my car and moved from MI to TX with my kids. Found a new doctor got back on my meds and hit the gym and boxing. Because of the yoyo diet, refusing to get on the diet pill again I was not lossing weight like before . My doctor talked to me about the wls and I was not on board i was 5'1 215 and was thinking im not that big, but reality was I was that big and knew I had to do something especially to get my sugars under control..i talk to my therpist about it and she was supportive. We went over the pros and cons as well as how relationships would be if I did go through with this. (We had been working through my relationships with ppl due to poor relationships with family, friends and men back home). After the talk and research I went in for a seminar. SEMINAR age 28 Went on 8/25/2015 Started process the following week. I did not like the first surgeron I went to and switch on 10/1/2015. Here is how the progress went: 10/7 Appointment met with surgeon, Nut(psy evaluation done that day), dietien. Was given requirements from doctor which was: Don't gain weight 216 Keep sugars below 150 10/12 Went to get blood work done Xrays done My insurance required six month diet, but I already met the requirements for this from past diets (the pill and weight watchers) 11/7 submited to insurance 11/8 approved 11/18- pre opt appointment (weight 213) 11/23 surgery date @10am

Most people also subtract sugar alcohols and that's a bit more questionable. Quest bars do have sugar alcohols and the net carbs they advertise subtracts those.

@@LadyK44 what a JERK. Think he says the same thing to alcoholics with the DTs? Or smokers with oxygen tanks?

1. How long did you go before having your first drink? 4 months 2. Have you had any MEDICAL complications with your surgery that were attributed to drinking alcohol? No....but if I drink too much or several days in a row I get a bit of heartburn/gastritis. Same thing happens with coffee. 3. Have you gained back significant weight from drinking alcohol? No 4. Have you developed an alcohol addiction post VSG after having been able to control your drinking before? No. In fact I control my drinking MUCH better than before surgery. I WAS an alcoholic...drank every single day and got plastered every weekend. Now I might have a drink 2-3 times/month.

Darn hit enter too soon and cannot edit on mobile. I was also going to add that for myself personally I am trying to hold off on drinking as long as possible. Right now at 4 weeks post op I am still dealing with head hunger and feeling like I still want to emotional eat. I am an ex smoker and now working on becomming an ex food addict. I do not want to fill the voids with alcohol, so for myself, I am choosing to hold off on alcohol until I can get my mental game to a much better place.

My surgeon has the same advice. I was was an avid wine/beer drinker pre- surgery (especially around the holidays). I am only 4 weks out, so no alcohol yet, but man do I look forward to a glass of wine someday lol I have family members with a sleeve and RNY and they both drink post-op. Aside from not drinking as much to getting drunk much faster they have had no other "complications"

Good warning. About 4months post op I had t the tiniest glass of wine at my sister's 40th wedding anniversary...oh it burned! Later, after getting to goal, I allowed alcohol as a social treat. I made a mistake one night, opened a nice red to have and essentially blacked out on 2 glasses. Yeah , I forgot to eat. I am 4 years post op and do drink socially but the key is food. Empty baby tummy plus booze is a bad idea!!

Thanks Danny, I like real stories. I have always restricted my alcohol intake and limited how many I have in any given week. My initial concern was damaging my sleeve, but I'm okayed for ibuprofen, so why not a weak Bloody Mary? After that, stalling my weight loss came second, but at this point, the sleeve won't let me eat enough to get close to the calories I'm burning. I still probably won't, but the fact that everyone says something different is bugging me!

Ok, I myself am two weeks from being sleeved, so this is secondhand knowledge. One of the gals in my support group is 4 weeks out and she was just telling us how she drinks 1 beer at bowling and a glass of wine after work on occasion. My first instinct was, is she nuts? However, she is a well educated, successful woman who has had great success with her sleeve, so who am I to judge? My doctor and physiologist said they recommend waiting a year to reintroduce alcohol, simply because they want you to reach goal and too many times, we waste calories on drinks. Also, you metabolize alcohol differently after surgery. I am a revision so I do know this from having the lap band. I would be drinking a glass of wine, it went down fine, so I had another and BAM!!! I was hammered, and throwing up... Not good!! I will probably get backlash, and I am NO expert, but I think if you can handle it, use in moderation, and are getting your water and protein first, then have a drink:) cheers????

It's a surprising, but common error for folks to read on message boards of one or two persons' WLS experiences and then extrapolate from that to "all WLS patients' experiences." As in ... "everybody who has WLS has complications / regains all their weight / becomes anorexic / loses their teeth / becomes an alcoholic / gets divorced / can't eat real food / whatever." FTR, at 15 months post-op (sleeve) I've never thrown up once. I average 90-100 grams of Protein a day. I still have a protein drink about 5 times a week. It's just food. Like milk. Like chicken, burgers, eggs and Beans. BTW, my sister who has never had WLS also has a protein drink for Breakfast during the week. She finds it convenient.

Yep, I get that too. I have changed Protein drink brands a few times, some are too thick. I am wondering if the sugar free things i am choosing to ingest have too much sugar alcohols. I am gassy all the time. Someone told me I maybe introducing too many different types of new food items. My doc is ok with eating pretty much anything - minus the sugar, butter and high carbs foods, he recommends to eat the Proteins first then if i want or have room for vegi. I have had this dumping for 2 days now. I am thinking it is related to this New whey Protein shake its no sugar- high protein but goes right through me. Anyway ---- food is becoming no fun right now.... I still feel tired as well. I keep thinking its the combonation of time change-diet change-no caffine/sugar - and the surgery are you taking your B12 and Vitamins?

I know how you feel, because I was scared at the idea of giving myself the shots too, but I've been doing it for 8 days now, and you know what? It's not that bad. Find the flabbiest part on your lower belly off the sides of your belly button, alcohol rub, pinch the chub, hold the pen over the area and just push the plunger! It really doesn't hurt that bad and it may save your life. We did our surgeries to make our lives better not end them with complications. You can do this! I am and I'm a big freaking whimp!

Great thread! Thanks to all for your transparency on this topic. I wasn't a great over-eater -- just enough of an over-eater to gradually gain more and more weight. And, believe me, when you move less and less (as you get older) and you keep eating just a little more than you need you can pile on the pounds plenty fast enough. But back to the OP topic .... I travel a lot on business, and my work is very stressful (fun, but stressful). I loved nights alone in hotel rooms -- eating comfort food AND dessert. Burgers AND chocolate cake. Salmon, potatoes AND carrot cake. Steak AND ice cream. There's a real common thread here I recognize about eating alone and unobserved. Breaking rules. Behaving as though there are no consequences. It could have been worse, I suppose. No drugs. No alcohol to excess. No unsafe sex. Just chocolate cake and carrot cake.

@@Dallas Powell I am glad to hear you went back and hopefully will make some progress. There are some things you can do and should do to help with your weight loss in the meantime. I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I am going to be straight with you. Obesity is a metabolic disease and as you know the surgery is only a tool to help you. Not eating all day completely screws with your metabolism. If I learned anything at all in the last year, you must, must, must eat 3 meals a day to keep your metabolism moving and balance your blood sugars. You also honestly have to change your thinking around "the diet". We don't diet at all, we actually learn to eat differently, healthy and it is for life. We cannot simply stop when we reach goal or the weight will simply pile back on. These steps are so important to getting past this disease and getting obesity into remission. The commitment is truly for life. There are basic rules that help each of us who have had bypass become successful, I am not sure if your doctor gave you these instructions but based on what you have said so far, I am guessing not. 1. Hitting your daily Protein goal is a must. 1 gram of protein for every inch you are tall 2. 48 to 64 ounces of sugar free liquids daily. This includes Water, Soups, etc. 3. No drinking 30 minutes before and after you eat 4. No alcohol for first year 5. No carbonated beverages 6. A food plan that is high in protein and focused on good carbs like fruits and vegetables. Stop eating processed foods, sweets, bread, Pasta, rice especially during the weight loss phase 7. Move your body as much as possible, every bit counts. 8. You must take your Vitamins. Usually Calcium citrate, Vitamin d, b12 and a daily multi vitamin. These are critical for bypass patients.

I feel like we had the exact same psych eval. I went home from my appointment so bummed out. I was told I need to seek outpatient therapy for coping with anxiety, and to abstain from alcohol for at 3 months before they will revisit my case. I honestly drink a few drinks a couple times per YEAR, like on holidays like New Years and 4th of July., but my mother is also an alcoholic so that pretty much means I am too. I've also been diagnosed with GAD (general anxiety disorder) and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) well over 10 years ago, and have been medicated since. (Prozac only- no benzodiazepines)...now he tells me I'm bipolar according to my testing, and questions. So frustrating!! I totally understand what you are going through!

Update... 16 months since I first started this topic. I can say at this point that I can definitely tell the difference in my tolerance. I'm down around 125 lbs and sometimes after a few too many, I forget that my tolerance is not as good, and it can be a disaster lol. I have definitely been able to control it better as of late by learning to drink Water in between drinks. I still do not drink more than 1 or 2 beers in a night, mainly because the carbonation seems to fill me up. I think this might be part of the tolerance issue as well, hard alcohol vs beer.

I had my psych eval a couple of weeks ago. It was not at ALL what I expected: I filled out literally 30 pages of background information on myself, then had to answer 338 true or false questions on a computer - one of which was: "Evil spirits sometimes possess my body"...then spent not quite an hour talking to the doctor. We barely spoke about food or my relationship with food - instead, she thinks I have the potential to become an alcoholic (because my mother is an alcoholic and I enjoy a glass of wine after dinner most nights) who also has a mild case of PTSD stemming from my sister being sexually abused when we were children. I left her office completely dumbfounded, like "WTF just happened?". I really thought the purpose of this evaluation was to see where my head was at as it pertained to the surgery and the permanent changes I will need to make afterwards, but like I said - we barely spoke about the surgery. Then I get a phone call from my surgeon's office. Apparently the psychiatrist presented my "case" to a board that included her peers, as well as a representative from my surgeon's office, and together they decided that I need to see a counselor for at least a couple of sessions and have that person put together some kind of treatment plan for me before I can be cleared for surgery. The counselor I have to see didn't have any open appts until Dec 2 and Dec 9, which I have already scheduled, but even if I get the clearance on Dec 9 and it's submitted to my insurance the same day that isn't enough time for them to review and approve (provided they approve it on the first try) and for me to then do the 2 week diet in order to have the surgery done in 2015. Because in 2016 my insurances changes to a high deductible plan - $3000 vs the $700 it currently is (which of course has already been met this year). Thankfully my employer will contribute $2200 in January to use towards the deductible and/or other medical expenses, but it's still another $800 I will need to cover. Not to mention the money I will need to spend if I also need to redo any of the tests or labwork I've had to do already. I don't deny that I would probably benefit from speaking to a professional about my issues, but this surgery is one thing in my life I feel completely in control of. I am ready for it. I'm ready for the changes. With the addition of these two newest appts..with all the appts I have already been to (tests, lab/blood work, follow-ups) I will have been to a total of 24 appts since August, including the first info session. I rearranged my schedule at work countless times to accommodate my appts, burned through nearly 50 hours of vacation time...I even cancelled a cruise for this! I will have spent nearly $1500 out of pocket, because although my insurance covers the surgery and the hospital stay it won't cover any of the pre- or post- op requirements...I've got journals and food plans and I've reorganized cabinets in my kitchen to make room for "my" food... I'm dedicated and determined and READY, and I feel like I got robbed because I never even had the opportunity to tell any of this to the psychiatrist. I realize this is just a delay, not a no, but I still can't help but feel completely defeated. I have done everything I have been asked to do, and all of my doctors have been wonderful as far as working me in and helping me to get this done before the end of the year...only to be derailed by a woman I literally talked to for just under an hour and other people who never met me, never spoke to me - but yet feel they know me well enough to know I'm "not ready" for this. Sorry for the length. I just needed to vent I'll be fine. I'm just mad at the world right now. And thinkin' that I shoulda just went to Mexico.

What I'm looking for is NO STEVIA! I'll be starting a 10-day pre-op liquid only, high-Protein, low-carb diet soon. I've tried every vegan protein powder that I can find in sample packs. All of them make me gag. They are way too sweet and sweetened with stevia, which I just can't stand. All of them are pretty grainy, too, though I can actually handle that better than the flavor. My ideal flavored vegan protein supplement would contain: - Minimal ingredients (most have all kinds of veg & fruit additives, which affects flavor and increase the chances of allergies). - Sweetened with a mixture of fructose, xylitol or ertythritol, and monk fruit to get a natural low-glycemic sweetness without too much sugar alcohols. No stevia. - Not overly sweet! You can always add sweetener if desired, but once it's in there you can't take it out! - Available in chocolate, vanilla, & berry favors. - Dissolves well without a heavy grainy texture. - Has at least 15 g protein and no more than 8 carbs per serving

Sorry to hear you experience this but then again it was your choice to drink it or not. Next time just get water and it's way to early to drink alcohol. Hopefully you are not feeling sick anymore.

I still haven't gotten sick or anything. Sugar doesn't bother me. .neither does alcohol sugar. Will be careful though still avoiding sugary foods so it doesn't effect my weight loss. I was approved for Insure Nutrition shakes through insurance. .then found out they scam insurance companies by charging $5000 a month for Protein Shakes and supplements. Before my order was processed I called them to cancel it. They said ok it's canceled. .then the next day I checked my insurance and saw they processed it even though they said they canceled it. Insure Nutrition is a scam.

Or just say you choose not to drink. Nobodies business. I have had to take blood thinners for 4 years due to a random episode of PE which almost killed me. I cannot drink alcohol, as it thins my blood. Sometimes people ask, most of the time not. If they do, if I know them, I'll usually remind them I'm on blood thinners. If not, sometimes I'll tell them, sometimes I'll just say I prefer water or whatever. I've found its no big deal. Why would people look at you oddly for not drinking? I've never had anyone care.

Me personally, I like not having coffee (or alcohol) any more. I even tried a little of both and don't see any reason to bother.

Order iced tea, order Water, order whatever you want. Who cares if you are drinking alcohol or not? That is absolutely nobody's business but your own.