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My nutrition after surgery book from our class states sugar alcohols are NOT ok if you've had bypass because it too can cause dumping. Anything ending in -itol should be avoided. So, I'd avoid those. You can find sugar free puddings that are sweetened with Splenda or aspartame(if you can handle it) that will not cause dumping or distress.

So I had my surgery on September 30th and I'm happy to say that things went relatively well. I only had three things I struggled with after surgery. 1. Immediately waking up I was miserable. They gave me everything they legally could and I still thought I was going to die for like 4 hours. 2. My heart rate. At "resting" it was at 115. When I wasn't feeling good it would get over 140. So they watched my heart really close. I think a lot of it was hospital anxiety. They finally got it to calm down with Valium at like 3 in the morning but by calm I mean 110. 3. Peeing. I know tmi but honestly it was the hardest part. My sips were fine. Swallowing was easy. But when it came to going to the bathroom I couldn't go. On surgery day I had to have a catheter because my bladder reached 800cc (catheter requirement is 500cc). I had the catheter over night and when they took it out the next morning I couldn't go on my own. Eventually my bladder got over 500cc again so they used a straight catheter. I didn't go on my own until late that night. THEN I got to go home. I still struggle now. I have to have Water running and use a wet cloth to get me to go. It's weird but it works. In the hospital they tried peppermint oils, showers, everything. It was so frustrating. Now I'm home and I weighed myself. I've lost five pounds already which is odd. Not complaining but I was expecting a weight gain from fluids and swelling. I struggle with Protein. Yogurt feels good in my pouch. The hardest part about being home is my family honestly. All I hear is: walk faster, walk more, you don't need your pain pills, how's that baby food taste?, don't you wish you could have a pop tart. They actually went grocery shopping specifically for junk food because they know I can't eat it and then ordered pizza. When I said something about it "I wasn't being compassionate" and "I knew what I was getting into".... Mk so let's send an alcoholic to a 12 step program just for them to come home and be like "look at all the booze we bought". I literally just cried. This whole process they were supportive saying we "are all making changes together" and I come home to this. I feel alone. I feel like it's not fair. I've worked really hard to change my life and I feel like I'm being punished because I chose wls. can anyone else relate?

I was also told sugar alcohols are ok. Anything too sweet can upset the pouch. So I think it's just in moderation.

I was told no sugar and no alcohol but sugar alcohol is an artificial sweetener and as far as I know it is O.K. There are several different types of sugar alcohols. Some can cause diarrhea if taken to excess. An example is sugar free gummie bears. Sugar free pudding was on my list of acceptable foods from the very beginning of the program.

5 days post op- My dietitian told me to not have sugar alcohol. Apparently irritates my new stomach. Then I'm reading about my stage 2. Apparently I can have sugar-free pudding. All the sugar-free pudding has sugar alcohol in it. So I want to know is a little bit Okay?

I am really struggling with cross addiction. I am diagnosed bipolar. I was anorexic as a teen and turned into a binge and purger as an adult. I cash paid for the lap band so I didn't go through any psychological evaluation. After the surgery I could no longer use food as a "drug" so I turned to alcohol and it has really messed up my life. My band is now completely empty but I still can eat food and throw up after every meal. I have found that if I drink alcohol I am able to eat more. I don't know why this is but, the fact that I able to eat anything at all motivates the drinking. I feel like the $15,000.00 I spent on the surgery was a deal with the devil. I contacted the Dr. who did the surgery (Dr. Liu) and was told I would have to pay another $15,000.00 cash to have it removed. This was the worst decision of my life. I lost my husband and my dignity all for vanity and a quick fix.

Easy Andrew, indeed! I never drank and became overweight. Still don't drink. And also to the other not everyone who is overweight is addicted to food! Why do we generalize and why do we use the words addiction and alcoholic so loosely?? My oh my.

I pay a lot more attention these days to how much others are eating. (Pre-op, I didn't notice that so much.) And in my estimation, only a few of my skinny friends are eating "a lot." When eating out at restaurants, they generally order what they enjoy eating and what they find delicious (not particularly low-calorie food), but they usually don't eat it all and leave food on their plates. They don't eat a lot of bread (or any). A lot of them are "foodies" -- they cook a lot at home, share recipes, and are on the lookout for where good food is served. They exercise -- walk a lot, do strength training, and yoga. Every once in a while, they take a break from food -- doing a mini-cleanse diet, eschewing alcohol for a few weeks or a month, etc. They stay well hydrated (they're seldom without a bottle or glass of Water nearby). Yes, some of them do complain about having gained five pounds and how they need to take it off. But they always do seem to lose those five pounds. And then gain it. And then lose it again. This is what their normal looks like. Sounds like "maintenance" to me.

Dub, You're going to be a great WLS success. As a sleeve patient, I can tell you I'm THRILLED with my "journey" (I think you adore that term ). I'm 13.5 months post-op. I've lost all my excess weight and been maintaining now for 5 months. I have a friend who had VSG surgery about the same time I did. I met him online and then met him IRL recently. He's probably your age (late 40s) and has lost over 200 pounds in the last 13.5 pounds and just hit Onederland. TWO HUNDRED POUNDS IN A YEAR PLUS. Since his surgery he has been very active. He has eschewed alcohol the entire time. He eats very healthy, follows all the good eating guidelines (you know them all). You will not believe, I promise you, how much your life is going to change in the coming year. Even your best dreams won't be able to predict how good you're going to feel - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Your life is about to change dramatically for the better. I'm so tickled for you!

Liz, glad you're feeling better. I have to see my husband Tuesday at my home for a house appraisal. I have only seen him once in person in the past 15 months and that was at court. I haven't been inside my house since I left. Lots of emotions, but of course the one thing that bothers me the most is my weight. I'm ten pounds heavier than when I saw him at court In April. I gave up all alcohol three weeks ago but the scale has not gone down. I'm going on liquids for a couple of days even though my fill appointment got postponed this week. Protein shakes and Soups. That has always been good for a couple of pounds down in the past. My lawyer suggested bringing a friend with me to the house. I decided against it because I don't want him picking a fight with her, and I also don't want to give the impression that I need reinforcements. I will be so glad when this divorce is over. My lawyer told me it probably won't be done until next summer. Meanwhile, I deal with the body issues. I felt so confident in April, and that court date was my lowest weight since WLS. Then I spent these last six months eating wrong, drinking every weekend, and gaining these ten pounds. Anyway, you here are my reinforcements. So talk me off the ledge, please! Just kidding. It will be okay. I just wish I didn't feel fat this week. That jerk is not worth this angst. Edited to add: Mr. Wonderful always predicted I would fail at LapBand. He was openly critical and would often mock his coworker who dropped 100 pounds and then stabilized, with probably 80 left to lose. This idiot's words are in my head this week.

Liquids for the next couple of days. Non alcoholic. Ha ha. Trying to get my loss going again. My fill appointment got postponed due to my work schedule.

Hi back from holiday in Cyprus and happy to say I lost weight whilst there ! Three stone thinner than when I visited in May too. So glad I had this surgery. It's great to see that you are flying along with your weight loss. I am slow but steady so I'm hoping this will continue. Dined out last night but took a container with me and brought home what I did not eat. Might as well get the value as you are paying for it! So far I have stayed away from sweet stuff and no alcohol has passed my lips since early July. Never thought I would say it but not bothered if I ever have it again. All the best to you and any other UK sleeves reading this

The honeymoon period. The time period after the surgery, when the weight is coming off without much effort, and you feel like it was the best decision you ever made. The compliments are coming from everyone, you're fine with taking the supplements, the protein shakes, heck, you're even okay with losing some hair – it'll grow back, right? But what about when you've reached “that” point? The point where the weight loss has slowed. The “head hunger” has started and, well, the “fun” has worn off. Reality sinks in that this “real life.” This is something that you need to keep up with. This is now your...gulp...”everyday” life. Did you expect to have depression creep in? Or maybe creep back in? Most of us thought this surgery would correct our mood issues, thinking that losing the weight would help get rid of that which was bothering us. So what happened? Why are we sad, frustrated, mad? Why aren't we...well...happy? A lot of this can be attributed to losing our primary coping tool to deal with depression and stress: mindless consumption of food. We may not have realized it at the time, but food was our comfort, our companion, sometimes the only thing that was there for us when nothing/nobody else was. Now, that support is no longer something we can reach for in hard times to get us through. We are physically and emotionally missing/grieving our former “companion.” Our coping tool. Sometimes, our best friend. So what do we do? First, we have to look at the physical way food was affecting us. Not just related to weight, but in our brain. Food was giving us satisfaction in a way that was “rewarding” receptors in our brain that control the chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that makes us feel good. This is the same chemical that is triggered when someone uses drugs or alcohol. Yep, scary thought, huh? That's why we often hear about “food addiction.” We are literally “feeding” that addiction when we overeat. That's hard to accept, I know. Second, we have to look at WHY we may be overeating. What thoughts do we have that lead us to seek food as comfort? Are they thoughts about ourselves? Are we thinking that “I'm so fat” or “I shouldn't even try” or maybe even “Why do I even bother?” Sometimes the addiction is so deep, it's hard to identify the thoughts that made the behavior start. Then it may be more helpful to think about the feelings. What feelings direct us to start overeating? Is it anger? Boredom? Defeat? Do the words or actions of another make us feel “less than” and lead to lowered self worth, thus leading to the desire to overeat? The concept of looking at Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors is at the core of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a standard therapeutic method of behavioral therapists. Finding a therapist that can help us figure out the source of how these 3 things work together to lead us on the path to overeating can go a long way toward correcting the behavior. The key to CBT is retraining those thoughts to become more positive, leading to more positive feelings and behaviors. Often, we get stuck with “ants” - Automatic Negative Thoughts – and they are hard to undo. With the assistance of a therapist that is trained in CBT, particularly one that is familiar with bariatric surgery, we can retrain our brains to think more positively about ourselves, thus leading to be less dependent on food to nurture feelings of happiness. What kind of “ANTs” do you want to get rid of? Can you think of a chain of Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors that you would like to change? What would you rather that chain look like instead?

The honeymoon period. The time period after the surgery, when the weight is coming off without much effort, and you feel like it was the best decision you ever made. The compliments are coming from everyone, you're fine with taking the supplements, the protein shakes, heck, you're even okay with losing some hair – it'll grow back, right? But what about when you've reached “that” point? The point where the weight loss has slowed. The “head hunger” has started and, well, the “fun” has worn off. Reality sinks in that this “real life.” This is something that you need to keep up with. This is now your...gulp...”everyday” life. The honeymoon period. The time period after the surgery, when the weight is coming off without much effort, and you feel like it was the best decision you ever made. The compliments are coming from everyone, you're fine with taking the supplements, the protein shakes, heck, you're even okay with losing some hair – it'll grow back, right? But what about when you've reached “that” point? The point where the weight loss has slowed. The “head hunger” has started and, well, the “fun” has worn off. Reality sinks in that this “real life.” This is something that you need to keep up with. This is now your...gulp...”everyday” life. Did you expect to have depression creep in? Or maybe creep back in? Most of us thought this surgery would correct our mood issues, thinking that losing the weight would help get rid of that which was bothering us. So what happened? Why are we sad, frustrated, mad? Why aren't we...well...happy? A lot of this can be attributed to losing our primary coping tool to deal with depression and stress: mindless consumption of food. We may not have realized it at the time, but food was our comfort, our companion, sometimes the only thing that was there for us when nothing/nobody else was. Now, that support is no longer something we can reach for in hard times to get us through. We are physically and emotionally missing/grieving our former “companion.” Our coping tool. Sometimes, our best friend. So what do we do? First, we have to look at the physical way food was affecting us. Not just related to weight, but in our brain. Food was giving us satisfaction in a way that was “rewarding” receptors in our brain that control the chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that makes us feel good. This is the same chemical that is triggered when someone uses drugs or alcohol. Yep, scary thought, huh? That's why we often hear about “food addiction.” We are literally “feeding” that addiction when we overeat. That's hard to accept, I know. Second, we have to look at WHY we may be overeating. What thoughts do we have that lead us to seek food as comfort? Are they thoughts about ourselves? Are we thinking that “I'm so fat” or “I shouldn't even try” or maybe even “Why do I even bother?” Sometimes the addiction is so deep, it's hard to identify the thoughts that made the behavior start. Then it may be more helpful to think about the feelings. What feelings direct us to start overeating? Is it anger? Boredom? Defeat? Do the words or actions of another make us feel “less than” and lead to lowered self worth, thus leading to the desire to overeat? The concept of looking at Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors is at the core of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a standard therapeutic method of behavioral therapists. Finding a therapist that can help us figure out the source of how these 3 things work together to lead us on the path to overeating can go a long way toward correcting the behavior. The key to CBT is retraining those thoughts to become more positive, leading to more positive feelings and behaviors. Often, we get stuck with “ants” - Automatic Negative Thoughts – and they are hard to undo. With the assistance of a therapist that is trained in CBT, particularly one that is familiar with bariatric surgery, we can retrain our brains to think more positively about ourselves, thus leading to be less dependent on food to nurture feelings of happiness. What kind of “ANTs” do you want to get rid of? Can you think of a chain of Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors that you would like to change? What would you rather that chain look like instead?

Food addiction often turns to a different addiction such as alcoholism.

im a big fan of the Eades. ( sort of like Atkins) but they believe more in the high Protein low carbs that have come to be associated with our type of weight loss. They always gave that net carb formula. which is of course, total fiber + protein - carbs = net carbs. and it has really worked for me. Now im very grateful for the addition of the half sugar alcohols number to add in, i find the real sugar alcohol culprits are found in the s products like sugar free candies etc. things that we should probably stay away from anyway, sugar free cakes etc.

In my opinion, if you don't have acid reflux OR diabetes, they are both probably good choices. If you have those condistions, current evidence is that bypass is a better choice. My BMI was 52 when i revised to the sleeve and I have gotten to a normal weight/size and maintained for a few years now. The challenge in making this decision is that the sleeve has been around along time but not well studied for LONG term results. It appears to work "about" as well as the bypass, but the long term data just isn't there. At a high BMI, many surgeons nudge you toward the bypass because there is a clearer, well documented long term results history documented. I had my own reasons for choosing the sleeve and I think some of it was my bias against the bypass based on personal experience. I have known 3 bypass patients close enough to see them from pre surgery, through maintenance and they all "Scared me" 1. Died. but to be honest, she died because she was a diabetic who became an alcoholic drug addict after losing all that weight. It was absolutely terrible - in her 40s and died in her sleep. This was about 10 years ago. Lets be honest, that had nothing to do with bypass vs sleeve. 2. Horrible horrible recovery. But, this was mid 1990s. It only recently occured to me that her surgery was "open" not laproscopic. At the time, I thought the horrible recovery was due to the "rerouting" but I bet it had more to do with it being open surgery 3. The surgery and weight loss really aged her. She looked terrible post weight loss and never got to a normal weight. Again, to be fair, I don't know the reasons. This is someone I worked with about 5-6 years ago. She may have had other health problems and frankly most bypass patients I have seen pictures of or have met since then look great. I recognize my own biases and my views have changed. Now, 4 years post sleeve I tell everyone that I think they are both good procedures. I think they are both excellent choices versus remaining morbidly obese and suffering the increasing health issues over time. The bypass has more documented history, many more studies, and resolves reflux problems. Sleeve has been amazing for me, and many others too... but there are no 20 year studies either.

I wouldn't drink because alcohol will have an immediate and significant impact on your liver. Definitely talk to your surgeon ahead of time, but if it were me, that close to surgery, I wouldn't risk it. That said, you can still have fun without drinking. If your friends are true friends, then ask them to respect your decision not to drink. Have fun and Happy Birthday!

Get rid of the things that don't fit .... I'm all for keeping one shirt and one pants that you wore during your heaviest .... just to compare when you're thin and sexy ! Why keep it ? I agree with @@dhrguru about the alcoholics not keeping a bottle ... You have to be Out with the Old ... In with the New !!! Make lotsa room in the closet for the new sexy clothes you'll spend countless hours wearing and feeling like a million bucks !

I am not a drinker of alcohol. But i do like wine every once in a long while... So i was wondering if anyone had it yet and how it sat

@gbveteran4d @shelleylester Just because you CAN drink those things, doesn't mean you should. The two main ways people regain weight (or stop losing weight) is by drinking high-calorie drinks (such as full-sugar Gatorade, fruit juices, cafe mocha or similar sweet coffees, and alcohol) and grazing (eating small amounts of food constantly through the day). Having a glass of wine every once in a while is one thing (I would consider that fine), but making a habit of having it multiple times a week would be sabotaging your weight loss. For example, on average wine has 123 calories for a 5oz glass (although it varies widely based on type). Rum and Coke (2oz rum and 12oz coke) are 268 calories. Assuming you are in maintenance level, that one glass of wine is probably around 10% of your daily calorie intake, and the Rum and Coke is around 20%. 8oz of orange juice is 111 calories. If you are still in weight loss mode, these drinks will definitely slow down or stop your weight loss if you drink them regularly.

Vodka! With a crystal lite mix. If you must. Alcohol slows your weight loss. Or about 4oz of wine.

Oh man. All those sugar alcohols. With things like that, you need to take a serving portion and put the rest away. If you don't have the self control to put the rest away and not touch them, then take a portion and throw them away.

I'll tell you why not: * There's virtually no nutrition in that food -- and it's "expensive" for the calories that are in it (I'm guessing around 150 calories for a half-cup). That's a lot of calories. For 150 calories, you could eat more Protein, some very nutritious veggies and fruits, and even a little whole grain. The point to WLS is not just to lose weight any old way, but to get healthier. (I realize you may not care about this, but I did.) * It indeed may be a gateway drug -- and lead to a second, third, fourth half-cup serving. . * The sugar alcohols in there (that sweeten it) will give you diarrhea of the worst kind. Try eating two half-cups and see what happens. Best to you.

@@rnsamantha We are 2 peas in a pod! Although I'm much further out than you, I discovered recently I could drink diet soda without it hurting anymore. Well, the floodgates were open! I was in Reno last week, and I was drinking diet soda after diet soda while I was gambling. I figured it was better than drinking alcohol.... Well, needless to say, when I got home, I bought a 6 pack of Coke Zero. Although I don't believe the old wives tale about carbonation stretching your sleeve, I just can't see any good coming from drinking too much of that crap. Like you said, slippery slope. I pride myself on eating clean most of the time. There is NOTHING clean and unprocessed about diet soda! I ended up giving my Coke Zero to my grown kids for their house. No mas for me!