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I was allowed greek yogurt on my full liquid too, but I found it too thick in the beginning. I watered it down with a splash of milk until it was a thinner consistency, but after a week or so I was able to get it down on it's own.

I think I was just so happy to be out of the stall, that the possibility of going back into it a week later sucked the spirit out of me. I didn't have the emotional energy in me to even feel properly upset -- or maybe, some part of my brain is trying to protect me from that? But clearly I am still having the feelings somewhere deep down -- cause last night, man, the nightmare I had about anxiety and eating half a box of Fruit Creme Peek Freans in the dark. I've gotten through enough mental health issues in the past that the logical part of my brain knows I'll get through this kind of shut-down phase, but sometimes its just harder to waddle through the mire.

Before I had my hysterectomy, I noticed my PCOS sort of regulated a bit. Didn't do a whole lot for my hormonal imbalance, skin tags, insulin resistance, and it really made losing weight slower and more difficult, but it straightened out my periods a lot. I would go 2 or 3 months without one, then bleed like niagra falls for 2 weeks straight, then get a light one the next month, then start over. After I dropped my first 70ish pounds, I noticed they were coming in more regularly, and after my first 100ish pounds lost, they were proper length, proper frequency. And it stayed that way until about 4 months before my hysterectomy. Then they started getting wonky again. Skipped 2 months, needed progesterone to get it started the next month which caused HEEAAVY bleeding, then nothing the next month, then hysterectomy and I didn't care lol

So if any of you have read my story on here, you will know I have PCOS. I am 28 now, and I was diagnosed when I was 21. I haven't really had a regular cycle, and in the past 2 years I have probably only had 3 times where I have bled REALLY light. I wouldn't even call it a period 🤣 So now I have lost weight, in the past 2 and a bit months I have had 2 periods - proper ones! I am both elated but also now reminded of the annoyance of them 😂 Grateful to my body for functioning, but boy oh boy, the hormones?!?! I have been an absolute wreck this week - angry, depressed, sad, crying, detached, more angry. 🤦‍♀️ On an interesting note though, I was really struggling with my restriction - I really need to be eating more - and I noticed that whilst on my period I could eat more which was good! Anyway, just a bit of an observation from me 😂

Ii haven’t had my revision yet but for the sleeve I was told about 6 weeks and I could do exercise. For the revision it’s a little more complex so at the skull part group meeting we were talking about fitness and I said that I needed to do core exercises and the PA said that 6 weeks was fine for them too and the surgeon was right there and didn’t correct him so I took that for myself as it means I’m pretty much cleared at that point for most things. I think they do say to wait a bit longer for weight lifting and one girl asked about roller derby 3.5 years ago. But outside full contact stuff and weights it seems to be 6 weeks that we are healed enough to be safe from outside stuff so I would imagine all swelling and stuff would be gone by then for sure.

Generally full healing takes about 8 weeks but of course some are a little faster others take a little longer. There will be some abdominal swelling from the surgery & being poked & prodded, your organs being shifted about & the external wound areas. Again recovery is very individual. If I remember correctly it took me about a week. Some abdominal swelling is from the surgical gas (it’s not in your tummy but the abdominal cavity) which you will slowly breathe out over about a week or so. They also pump you full of a lot of fluid so you may be retaining some fluid from that. It can take a few days for you to pee it all out. Some shakes can cause bloating from the lactose or if they contain sugar alcohols (sorbitol, xylitol. Erythritol, isomalt, etc.) Some find if they sip too quickly they can swallow air & become bloated & gassy too. GasX can help with any gas. All the best.

Absolutely normal to experience stalls after surgery OP. We all have them - and I mean ALL. What matters is how we react to them. They can be demoralising, demotivating, de-everything!! I do see that you have included the words zombie, dissociated, automaton, emotional shock, shut down, apathetic, superficial and others - in just one post about a stall. I totally understand that this might result from an in depth knowledge of the psychology of weight loss, or just psychology generally. I do hope that you can focus on how well you have done (and will do!) and are having lots of support from wherever you can get it.

Kind of feel like a broken record from what everyone says but....STALLS HAPPEN! Also, its okay to have imperfect days, were human, give yourself grace. I freaked out when I had mine so I totally get it! but your doing amazing!! Just from your profile pics I can see the changes in your face, you have lost 88lbs! to put that in perspective, that is my 7yr old and 2yr weight combined! you lost two little people lol Now your wearing a 1x?! damn killing it!! Keep doing what your doing it will come off, and focus on those NSV's they make all the difference!

I've had a very up-and-down sort of week, mentally/emotionally (and weight-wise too, I guess). It started in that I'd finally gotten out of a stall, and everything stayed good for 10 days or so? And then a week with absolutely no weightloss. On the back of a stall, it just crushed my spirit. I said fine, by next week it'll be better, stay off the scale... and instead I hopped back on 2 days later to a 1.4lb gain. I think I went into a sort of zombie-state. I was still doing what I needed to (work-wise, diet-wise, exercise-wise) but it was like some kind of emotional shock: I was functioning but apathetic about pretty much everything. My brain and heart just couldn't take it, and shut down. Then the physical side. I'm sure it will surprise nobody here, but when you're behaving kind of like an automaton you don't pay enough attention to things like time, or specifically eating slowly. Cue the foamies and vomitting. I think four times in the past week. Luckily, most of the time I caught it early enough to prevent anything too intense, but yeah. I'd thought I was smart enough / experienced enough at this point to learn from my mistakes, but that one I just kept making. Afterwards, the lingering nausea kept me from eating enough -- so the protein goals were not met for five days in a row. (Until I found Greek Yogurt Cheesecake Pudding which turned things around so I was exceeding my goals) I'm doing better-ish, now? I still feel mildly dissociated, but the past couple days it's been like... life & energy slowly returning and my mood improving. The universe waited for me to be in a better mental place, and all of a sudden knocked 4 lbs off the scale this morning. Sunday, I had a great NSV that I didn't feel hit me until today -- I'm wearing a 1X for the first time in over a decade. (Top and bottom, which is another NSV because ever since my late 20s, my bottom has always required me to go one size up from whatever shirt size I was wearing) But even this NSV, I'm able to acknowledge it and told a couple people about it because I knew they'd be happy for me, but it still just all feels pretty superficial. I only seem to be able to get excited and enthused about other peoples' good news, lol.

I have it with smells. So many things smell like fish or tobacco to me. My dad will make himself a coffee, and I smell cigarettes. He'll be frying up eggs or a hamburger, tobacco. And for some reason, a lot of medicinal scents smell fishy to me: my metformin makes me gag because it smells so strongly of fish -- as does my children's grape-flavoured allergy liquid. 😕 As for taste, I've been lucky enough not to experience that -- although my taste buds are definitely still out of whack / different than pre-op. I can taste chemicals in SO many things now -- even items that I was fine with (twice, just last week) suddenly taste chemically. (I'm looking at you, lemon pudding....)

By about 12 weeks out (3 months) you should have a much easier time hitting your fluid goals. You're doing pretty well. Try getting some nausea meds, drink ginger tea, if needed add a ready made protein shake to your normal diet to not only boost your protein intake but also your fluids (it's a 2 for 1 deal with those).

1- Female, 51, 5 feet 1 inch 2- 230 lb lost 12lb 3- 218lb 4-196lb 5-180lb 6-157.6lb 7- December will be 12 month

I am 1 year post-op (exactly today!) In the months after the surgery, I have not had any significant issues with taste or food aversion. There were a couple of changes with foods that I used to love that, now, I could take them or leave them. I travel a lot for business, and when I am away from home eating in restaurants, I have started having experiences where certain foods taste like... seafood. I *hate* seafood in all forms, and always have. Meat is the most frequent problem, especially beef (except ground beef which is fine). Chicken is never a problem. I was just in China for 3 weeks, in many different cities, and everywhere I went, things were tasting fishy, especially meat. It wasn't just that something was prepared with fish sauce - I checked. Over and over and over again in city after city and restaurant after restaurant. (I have traveled to China before and loved the food; this time not so much.) But this wasn't just China - it has happened in other places as well - just not as often as in China. Now that I am back home with my normal food and normal recipes, there is no problem at all, however, at home I eat primarily chicken so maybe I would have an issue with beef tasting like seafood here too. Of course, I will discuss this with my doctor at my 1-year post-op appointment, but I am curious about other people's experiences with taste-related changes.

1. Basics: GENDER, AGE, HEIGHT F, 52 at time of surgery, 5'3" 2. Total Weight lost in the 6 months BEFORE surgery (if any) 12.2 lbs 3. Weight on DAY OF SURGERY. 254.6 4. Weight at 1 MONTH POST surgery 235.7 5. Weight at 3 MONTHs POST surgery 216.7 6. Weight at 6 MONTHs POST surgery 192.5 7. Weight at 1 YEAR POST surgery 174.0

7th week out and some days harder than others with nausea

It’s not easy for everyone to hit that 64oz goal the first couple of weeks after surgery. I certainly didn’t. You’re about 2/3 of your goal which is okay as long as you are making an effort & are slowly but surely increasing your intake. Don’t forget you can include your shakes, soups & broths in the liquid stage. After that include only the extra liquid you add to a soup or shake, etc. (e.g. say your shake recipe is mix with 250ml of water but you add 300ml so count the extra 50ml). Also keep water by your bed & sip through the night. I sip every time I get in or out of bed (which is often cause a layoff peeing 😁) & can get in another 8 - 10ozs or more. Set a reminder alarm on your phone so you sip every 5+/- mins and always keep water or other liquids close to hard. It eventually becomes a habit. You’ll be hitting that goal easily before you know it

I'm right at 5 months, and over the past few weeks, it has become HARD. In the beginning, I was dropping weight, had zero interest in food, and was totally motivated. But since the beginning of July, I've lost a pound. Actually, I've lost and gained and lost and gained that one pound multiple times. I've started feeling hungry sometimes again, and that's triggering all sorts of bad behaviors like getting up when I'm trying to avoid work (I work from home) and looking in the cupboard for a snack, not to mention craving sweets. It's been a constant fight. Not getting that reward of watching the scale dropping all the time kind of saps the motivation, I think. And the novelty wears off and you start to realize that you're in this for the long haul and maybe you start to rebel a little. You're not alone. You say you're afraid of being judged, but you are judging yourself every time you do things you know you shouldn't do. You said it yourself. You're disgusted by what you're doing, but there's a reason you're doing it, and figuring that out is going to be the key to stopping it and changing. I feel like there is probably a voice you hear in the back of your head telling you that you can't do this. Maybe there's literally someone saying it to you in your life, but most likely it's a voice in your head from a long time ago, one that sounds like you but probably was someone else when you first heard it. For me, it's my grandmother, and to some extent my dad. Never happy, never praising. Expecting perfection and scolding "for your own good" over every little thing. Ridiculing my weight despite being overweight themselves, but also overfeeding me because that's what they knew. Food was the enemy, but also a reward from emotionally stunted caregivers who had no other way to show affection. When you can never fully meet expectations at a young age, you learn quickly that you will always fail. That may be the role you've played in your family. Maybe it's everything, or maybe just one thing, like being overweight. And when you start to succeed, it feels frightening because it challenges everything you have been taught to believe about yourself. If you're not "the fat friend", who are you? Or maybe being "the fat daughter" kept a jealous family member happy because you weren't "competition" that way. There are so many reasons we get into these patterns. But the point is, the patterns feel normal and safe. So you make sure you don't succeed and change too much or for too long. You're used to being disappointing to yourself. You can live with that. But admitting you're capable of succeeding and changing is really scary. Allowing yourself to challenge the roles other people want you to fulfill is the hardest thing you can do. At least that's my experience. As for how to change, my first suggestion is talk to your team. That's why they're there, and they know what's going on because they've seen it before. Face it head on. Nothing they say is going to be any worse than what you are saying, and doing, to yourself. If you can get set up with a therapist, even better. Second, get every source of temptation out of the house. The alcohol. The junk food. Whatever is making you stumble, get rid of it. Do your shopping online from now on, or curbside pickup because it is way easier not to give into temptation that way. You can't binge on what you don't have. But skip the gym. It's really only about 10% of your success, anyway. Focus on water, protein, and vitamins. You don't need the false guilt of the gym to make everything worse. And third, get help from people you trust who are close to you if you can. Accountability is key. If going out to eat is an issue, tell your friends or family that you need their help not letting you go out to eat. Explain why you can't be around snacks, or why you won't be ordering alcohol, and ask for their help. If you trust even one person in your life to tell what is really going on, tell them. You need another voice cheering you on instead of just your own head bringing you down. Bottom line, something about what you are doing right now feels comfortable to you. It's a pattern that you can live with, even if you hate it. Something about what you were doing when you were following the rules was making you uncomfortable. Figure out what and why. You can't change your habits until you change that voice in your head, and until you can love yourself and cheer yourself on instead of being your own worst judge. But you have to believe you're worth it and be willing to do things that scare you in order to get past this fog and get to where you want to be.

If this experience taught me anything it was that the human body adapts - i was panicking my first week out of surgery i knew i wasn’t drinking enough broth and water and tea included. But my dietician just said you’ll see your body adapts as long as you keep sipping when you can - you do the best you can listen to your body. The internal swelling is no joke - you can feel perfectly fine on the outside but imagine the healing going on inside. You’ll actually be able to feel it go down a little each day and the restriction won’t be so harsh. I hit none of my hydration or protein goals the first few weeks 🤣 and i felt sooo bad about it but in the end it really isn’t the end of the world as long as you try to the best of your ability

I'm also in the "what to do for the birthday Struggle Club! My surgery is 7th of October and my birthday is tomorrow 25th July. My dr put me on a 12 week milk diet (1.5litres of milk with semi-skimmed milk and 1 salty drink a day) to quickly lose weight before my surgery. So I don't want to jeopardise that and have my usual slices of cake from my favourite bakery. It's also my friend's wedding on Saturday. I can't avoid the wedding are ask people to do something that isn't food related. But I can control my birthday and avoid temptation. I made the decision to go out and get my nails done and go to a comedy club instead! I'm not much of a drinker so the club won't be a temptation and I can't eat while getting my nails done! Next year, I'll be thinner and probably more in the mood to celebrate anyway.

So after my post last week where I was .4 away from my goal, I am not 1.2lb UNDER my goal! So I am working on my macros to see what caloric threshold I should hit to stay around the same. Last week I was eating around 1100-1200calories and I still lost weight. Gonna stay around the 1200-1300 mark. Any input on this aspect would be great! I’m still working out 6 days a week (been an addiction lol) Last week my sisters, mom and I had a spa day, laid by the pool with drinks after our massages and I couldn’t believe the difference in how I looked between the summers! The drink in my hand is coconut mojito mocktail that was delicious but too sugary I had a couple sips because I didn’t want to 💩 everywhere 😂

That looks good but does anyone else get dumping from heavy cream? Five years out and only 2-3 things truly give me issues and heavy white cream dishes are at the top of the list.

I read through some other paperwork they gave me and found where it said nothing after midnight (but not on the page about the preop diet), so there is that. It's still just feels crazy to me that I was allowed to eat anything at all. I had a failed lap band in 2010 (11 of the worst days of my life until they removed it) and was on liquids for 2 weeks, and clear only for the second week.

Lots of nerves were cut during your surgery so the messages/signals you used to feel around your eating rather aren’t getting through or are distorted. It’s why it’s so important to stick to the portion sizes and timing for eating/drinking you’ve been given. It takes about 8 weeks to fully recover from the surgery & the nerves are healed. It’s then too that you may start to feel your restriction (a tightness across your upper chest). It’s a good opportunity to become more aware of more subtle signals around having had enough or too much to eat or drink. I still ask myself do I need the next bite or sip or do I just want it & I’m five years out. Also when your signals do come back you may notice they’re different. Sneezing, runny nose, hiccups, etc can all be your new signals for having eaten or drunk enough. A gurgling tummy,or hunger pangs aren’t in most cases a signal you are hungry. They’re usual a signal that your digestive system is working. I don’t know why but the gurgling & growling seems much louder after surgery. Mine are very loud & yes I still get them (it’s happening now). I say I have a poltergeist in my tummy, rumbling, grumbling, squelching & rattling the chains. My younger nieces & nephew think it’s hilarious! All the best with your recovery.

So it takes about 6-8 hrs for food to pass from your tummy through your small intestines to your large intestines. It takes about 36hrs in total for anything you eat to fully leave your body (pooped out). I’m going to presume you’re having gastric bypass which involves surgery to your small intestines (sleeve doesn’t) so not eating for 6 hours before sort of makes sense. However, saying that every surgery I’ve had was nil by mouth from dinner the night before regardless of time of surgery. I know people who are told nothing after midnight, who get up & eat a meal at 11:30pm. I had a pelvic MRI last week & it was nothing for 6 hours before which was odd because the images the MRI took of the pelvic region of course included the large bowel which would have been full of waste which was odd to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Check with your surgeon. Only way to be sure.

Never too late to give away or donate from your freezer. Then you’ll have plenty of room to freeze single portions of anything you cook. In a short time you’ll have a variety of meals you can simply defrost & heat. I usually only cook twice a week from scratch, freeze several portions then I ‘shop’ dinner from my freezer. Tonight I’m having pork schnitzel from the batch I cooked last week. Once defrosted it will reheat in 30/40 seconds & I only have to prep vegetables. I use zip lock bags for my single serves: any meat cuts (steak, lamb cutlets, etc.) plus soups, meat balls, bolognese, anything really. I even cook a mini roast, slice it up & freeze individual portions in the bags with gravy. Easy to write on the bag what it is & add a date so you remember when you cooked & froze it.