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I did decide to go back to what was on the full liquids so shakes, yogurt & cottage cheese. I'd like to have Soup but it's not appetizing in the heat. I had thought maybe I wouldn't feel so weak & tired if I ate puréed food but it didn't help that anyway. Sent from my iPhone using VST

Congrats on your recent surgery. It is completely normal to feel hungry and want to "pig" out at this stage. Your stomach is healing and is not as swollen as it was in the beginning. Remember, you are in the beginning stages which are about healing the stomach and ensuring band placement. You have yet to get a fill and be restricted. You felt restricted before cause of the swelling and irritation to the stomach due to the surgery. Even though I don't think what you ate is considered pigging out - you must be careful not to overeat and expand your pouch at this point. You need the first 6 weeks to allow the stomach to heal and allow the band's placement site to heal too. Overeating can stretch the pouch and cause less restriction for you later on. If I recall correctly, you should be eating 2-4 oz per meal - try your hardest to stick to that. If you continued to feel hungry - wait as long as you can and then eat something like a sugar free jello, yogurt, a full liquid so it will go thru the band and not stretch it. Don't worry - you aren't alone in this stage. It is hard and you are doing fine. Do your best, that's all we can do. Good luck.:mad2:

Short weekend, busy weekend, but finally able to post to my blog. Went to see Kenny Chesney, ate at Toby Keith's restraunt (I Love this Bar & Grill). I got the ribs & chicken, ate the ribs and 1 bite of chicken - full. I did have a drink, strawberry margrita - liquid calories, I know, but hey, I was having a good time :rolleyes2: Bought another drink at the concert - $12.00 for basically sugar. :biggrin: Won't ever do that again! My daughter had a great time, it was her first concert. The Friday night festivals threw me off the weekend, Didn't exercise at all all weekend! Sunday night my son was playing in a concert for family & friends, we had a cookout, I ate pretty healthy, made me chicken, but did have a little macaroni salad - yum. Yesterday, my band was WIDE OPEN, I could eat anything and everything and basically did. Very hungry yesterday, not sure what the heck was going on. This morning, back to restriction again. So glad of that :blushing: I am going to be so dead in a few hours, first of all, didn't get to bed until around 12:30 last night, got out of bed at 4:00 am this morning. My son had to be at the airport by 5:30 this morning. He is flying to Reno with his school. He won first place in the State competition on his Business Essay, now he is competing in the Nationals. He'll be gone for 6 whole days! I'm so proud of my boy! He's such a good kid, an all american boy. If I can just keep those darned girls away from him. lol. Anyhow, didn't get much sleep, so I'm sure it will catch up with me soon! Menu today Bfast blueberry yogurt/granola Lunch salad Dinner roasted chicken wt 180.7 - YUCK - TOM IS DUE exercise -

Hi "C" What's your name ? First I am also 57 and was banded on Sept 3rd of this year. I have lost 26lbs as of today and it's been difficult getting the fills. I just had my third and I still don't feel restriction. I am eating the right things but my portions are to much... I need to eat less at each meal. I'm not a Protein person so that did'n't satisfy me... I have been as of late having an egg scrambled with Salsa on top for Breakfast. Sometimes I add Weight Watchers cheese.. I often have sliced deli turkey wrapped around string cheess.. I like that for a quick fix.. it's quit filling. Lot's of Soup and yogurt with fruit also is a good quick fix.. Hope this helps don't get down on yourself. Just get back on track and TRY and walk at least 3 times a week. That was hard for me too but I'm in Calif so the weather is like 95 right now so no excuse right... Keep me posted and we'll share ideas Sincerely, MartiXLardy

I have mine set at 50/30/20 and avoid sugar like the plague. And heed her words on avoiding no or low fat products outside of dairy...that's usually a sugar trap, as she stated. If you are trying to save calories and focus on Protein, I hope you like fish! I don't eat beef. I eat some chicken (usually canned for chicken salads), a ton of fish (especially salmon) and a ton of broccoli, brussel sprouts and asparagus. Cottage cheese (Walmart full fat large curd is so yummy), light string cheese, yogurt (Walmart light), Isopure drinks and Premium Protein Drinks are all staples every day. I have a million bariatric recipes, but I am personally a repetitive eater....I eat the same things all the time. It's just easier that way and I always have a cheat (within reason, of course) on Sundays...mixing up the caloric intake to keep my metabolism guessing.

So I am bit down. Let go back from the begining: Jan of 2010 I was at my highest ever, 271! From Jan to August I lost 40 pounds. In August I had my first consult for the surgery. On Nov 23rd I was at 220 with my 2 week pre op diet. Now here I am Feb 14th, I know not even 3 months and I have lost an additional 29 pounds and I frustrated as I have pretty much stalled since Jan 18th. I went up 4 pounds after starting the pill which I quit 2 weeks later and now yesterday I finally got down to 191 again where I was when I started the dang pill. So I am sitting here trying to rationalize with myself that 29 pounds in under 3 months is huge, yet there is this nagging feeling that it should be more faster! I am in a daily guilt fight with what I put in mouth even though I have not ate any bad foods since the surgery. I don't do breads and I watch carbs like crazy. I try to keep them under 30 a day. I guess I am wearing myself out emotionally with the fight to lose in what I perceive is not enough fast enough. I get down when I see folks losing 40 or 50 pounds in 2 months and think what am I doing wrong? I know when I look in mirror the person looking back is not bad at all compared to what I used to see, but when I look at my belly and legs I see the fat left to loose and feel like yuck. I have avoided buying any clothes as I keep thinking it will be a waste because I should loose more weight soon, but deep down I am not trusting that is going to happen any time soon because of the stall. (See the head game????) Just for example a typical day of food is like this for me: 1 160 cal, 30 gram Protein shake Greek yogurt with torani syrup or one with the fruit already. 2 or 3 oz of chicken or one of those tuna cans with crackers some days a afternoon snack of a 160 cal, 15 protein power bar more chicken for dinner.

Mix protein with liquid trying to kill two birds with one stone. My average is about 60 gms protein, trying hard to get another 20 in though. Would mix with cream soup, yogurt, sf pudding etc can only have 2 tablespoons, so can't get a full 20 gms.

I started my pre op diet yesterday. My surgeon has me on two slim fast shakes a day and one protein veggie meal a day. A small snack of yogurt or fruit is allowed. Yesterday wasn't so bad, but today I'm starving!!! I'm trying to drink a lot of water to help curtail this. I'm in the diet for two weeks prior to surgery. I hope it goes by quick. Good luck to you.

That's a tough one because your surgery is so fresh. Put some fancy yogurt in a long stem glass ..... sorry, I couldn't eat much at 8 days. Have fun in a non-food way.

You could make parfaits in champagne glasses with alternating yogurt or pudding flavors... I ate a lot of strained cream based Soups at that point too... Finding other things to do when we normally eat to Celebrate is not easy. It's one of the biggest issues we're having... just a big adjustment. Happy Anniversary!

Liquids will pass through your sleeve quickly, so you'll definitely be able to go through those quickly and likely feel almost no restriction. As for food, I also don't measure. I go by feel, and it certainly changes from one day to the next. Sometimes I can finish a whole greek yogurt with granola, sometimes I can only finish half. Based on all the posts I've seen here, ab's research I've done, it doesn't appear that you can really stretch the stomach that much.

I always add a full scoop to a carton of yogurt then split into two servings.....prefer vanilla powder in vanilla yogurt with some fruit added...blueberries are my fav.

Hi. I am Pre op trying out some new things and was wondering if anyone has added powder to yogurt. If so, how was it? What flavors did you mix and how much powder would you recommend adding ? Thanks !!

I love Splenda and don't have problems with it, but my friend prefers to blue packet, Nutrasweet. Maybe try it and the old standby pink packet artificial sweetener? If you can't use any sugar replacements or find a Protein powder with a sugar-replacement that works for you, try the unsweetened Protein Powder or the chicken Soup flavor from unjury. You will need some kind of protein powder to get in your protein during the first months after surgery. Greek Yogurt has lots of protein too and could be sweetened with any sweetener, but I found it hard to get enough of it down at first. Lynda

Thanks for your posts. I'd really like to hear from folks that are 2-3 years out of surgery. There are different challenges then. The Hunger and cravings come back, you've tried the same recipes and tired of learning new ones. The excitement of fitting in clothes or in an airplane seat is now something you take for granted. Your support system is less and there's a social and cultural expectation for you to go back to eat "normal" again. You've become active and have switched to a number exercise routines. And the reality hits that it is low fat cottage cheese and Greek yogurt as your primary diet for the rest of your life. In short, the thrill is gone and the hard work is really up to you

I'm at 3 months, I can't eat chicken soup, tuna, yogurt, refried beans, tomatoes, cucumber, all of those things hurt a lot. I try a tamale took the meat off, because was spicy, did fine, try a baked fish stick, the frozen ones I think they are fry before getting frozen, I try an homemade meatloaf with turkey bacon, did fine??? What's up with that? I thought I wasn't going g to be able to eat stuff like that. I'm graving for a salad, and steamed veggies or grilled chicken or fish, I try steamed fish I tough I eat a knife. What should I do? Off course is a very small quantities. Like 3 small fish stick and that's eat for all day pretty much.

Even though all doctors subscribe to a different set of pre-op rules, i've noticed a WIDE variety of liquid diets on here. Mine will consist of the usual broths and also includes yogurt, applesauce, grits, popsicles, pudding and even mashed potatoes! No real mention of protein shakes, but I can add stuff to my milk intake to make it taste better, ie, Carnation instant breakfast mixes. The supposed goal of the pre-op is to shrink the liver, to make access to the stomach easier and less risky. Post op goals are to not irritate the new stomach and to promote healing. I think it sounds like you are doing fine if you are losing and by keeping things as liquid-like as possible, I'd say you are on the right track. Good Luck.

hello.. so i am still on my liquid diet only clear liquid.. and if i want plane yogurt from time to time just like my dr recommended. am sticking to the diet.. but am having a hunger feeling from day 7 and now all i want is to eat real food is this feeling normal? didn't the say that they remove the place were your stomach gets hungry? or is it just a myth? and did you cheat on 10 days post op... love to hear your experiences Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

If everything looks good at the hospital.... I would still check with your surgeon. But remember your body is still healing..... It's pulling energy from you to do that. You need to rest and keep yourself hydrated with Water and Protein shakes. Are you taking Vitamins? When my stomach refuse to take anymore Protein Shakes (burnout) my liquid vitamins kept me alive without complications. I'm eating mushy foods now so I put nonflavored Protein powder in my yogurt, hummus and some liquid drinks. Plus everything I eat has protein, fish, Beans, eggs, cheese and so forth. Stay safe. Sent from my SM-J700P using the BariatricPal App

LOL, my old normal post surg = Rosemary's Baby bad deliveries once every 4-5 days. Holy crap! So bad. Since adding lots and lots of psyllium fiber + daily "meds" + lots of veg + water, I get big fluffy, painless, 1lb poops daily. It's my "NEW NORMAL" and I owe it all to my daily plan. I never deviate from it: Miralax 17g in black decaff coffee 2 Colace stool softeners 11g Now Brand whole psyllium husks divided into 2 cups of room temp Cinnamon Apple Spice Tea (decaff) 1/2c Greek yogurt with live cultures 1 GG Brancrisp Fiber Cracker + 1 tbsp almond butter each night before bed 100+oz plain water, plain decaff coffee, plain decaff green tea, plain matcha It is totes worth doing this! The psyllium husks and fiber cracker fluff up the poop and the Greek yogurt with cultures along with the psyllium is helping to repair my gut biome. The water is super duper important otherwise you make concrete.

I had a lot of those cartons of creamed soup post-op, which I often added milk and unflavored protein powder to. I also used a lot of protein powder (both unflavored and sugar-free flavored varieties) and smooth greek yogurt. I bought oatmeal but discovered I could only stand the unsweetened stuff immediately post op, the normal stuff was WAYYYYY too sweet for me to tolerate. High protein milk (Fairlife in the USA, Natrel in Canada) was a great way to get in some more protein and a hundred or so more calories a day, as well as upping my fluids when water was weirdly awful to drink. I think I had some unsweetened applesauce, but not often. Basically my rule for myself was if it wasn't a source of protein, I didn't eat it those first couple weeks. There was just so little room in my tummy or will to eat, I needed to make every single bite "count". I think the biggest surprise was how much sweetened stuff in general disgusted me and tasted bad though. Pudding cups, popsicles, protein shakes, oatmeal... I had absolutely zero interest in sweet things. I lived off of savoury for at least a week before introducing limited amounts of sweeter foods. (AKA going from plain oatmeal to plain oatmeal with half a teaspoon of raspberry jam VS the high protein maple brown sugar oatmeal I'd been suggested to buy). I know some surgeons include baby food in their post-op diet plans, but I can't imagine myself eating that post-op. If it's not specifically recommended for you, I would like to say it really isn't required. I was kind of emotional and crotchety after surgery and was even resentful of the pureed soups, so I can only imagine how crabby I'd have been to be eating food meant for a baby LOL. Your mileage may vary on that one. I think my biggest piece of advice from one planner to another though... is DON'T OVERBUY. I was totally like "oh yeah I'm gonna stock up on all this stuff and it'll be perfect!" and then things I stocked up on... I ended up not wanting to eat and not liking. Stuff like said high protein oatmeal which I had always enjoyed before suddenly tasted terrible and now I was stuck with four stupid boxes of the stuff. Buy enough for a few days so you're not stuck with stuff your new belly/tastebuds aren't digging. Yes it means you're a little less prepared for the post-surgery apocalypse, but there's always online shopping and grocery delivery if you don't have enough of something. Post bariatric surgery is the one time I'd actually advocate "better to need it and not have it than have it and not need it". Also, I really looked forward to grocery shopping post op because it was a great way to get out of the house and do some limited walking

I know the feeling. Im on day 6 today and am eating my first yogurt. I have a 4 ounce cup thats probably going to be on my desk all day. Trying to figure out what the full feeling is. Still sore from surgery so cant really tell what is pain and what is full. I just started protein shakes yesterday. Havent really been hungry but do have an empty stomach sensation. When will my stomach feel normal?

You don't necessarily have to quit eating your favorite things. Like the poster above, I occasionally also go to Olive Garden. In fact, I went this past Monday nite for my fiances birthday. I had seafood alfredo. And chicken gnocchi soup. I ate about 4 bites of each, about 1/2 of a breadstick and the rest is still in my frig. I* can eat whatever I want - just in much smaller quantities. And I love that about the band. If I could eat a perfect diet, I wouldn't have needed the band to begin with! You're totally normal. The night before my surgery (I didn't have to be on a pre op diet at all) I went to Outback and had ribs - thinking I would never eat them again. I ate about 1/2 a rib just last weekend at a bbq. Something weird happened tho recently - yogurt started tasting better than ice cream!!! Good luck! Marci

I put half a scoop of it in the 4 oz yogurt, so with the 5g Protein from the yogurt and 10g from the unjury, I think that's a nice amount for 4 oz.

i cannot stand stevia - it tastes like chemicals to me - however splenda doesn't, go figure - I use splenda in my tea and yogurt daily. I have been on a looonnggg stall but i highly doubt it is the 2 splenda packs I have a day