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this time last year I was a mess, 196kgs and rising I had all the fatty food the big cake and all the alcohol i could fit in!!! Today,,,,I am on mushies Ill be having a low fat casserole, sipping my water and I think my kids are getting an ice cream cake, coz they are only 6 and 3 u cant have a birthday without a cake lol Funny thing is it doesnt bother me if i have it or not Next year will be amazing, people will be able to buy me nice clothes!!! I will want to go out somewhere, coz the chair wont break, coz the isle will all of a sudden be big enough for me, coz my seat belt will fit Today might be my birthday but i feel like today is a celebration of a new life. I am feeling reborn:biggrin:

I'm thinking it is because f the dehydration alcohol causes more than it being dumping. From my experience dumping is pretty sudden and almost as soon as I ingest the sugar and it hits my tummy.

Dumping also passes pretty quickly. If you're still feeling bad today I'm thinking its because of the alcohol dehydration. Drink plenty of water today. More than usual.

The thing to remember is that drinking alcohol cause dehydration. Dehydration causes dizziness , nausea and severe legs cramps. Stay hydrated. Two of any drink is more than enough to have fun. Have a plan in place so you don't over drink. Wine is the most agreeable for me. Haven't watered it down. Alcohol seems way stronger after the sleeve.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I will have to spend ths week before the vacation trying out which alcohols work best for me..right..lololol Thanks for the advice. I am thinking a bloody mary may be okay, and a little white wine mixed with crystal ligt.

My program at Kaiser Richmond CA told us no alcohol ever again. I think their biggest thing against it is it is empty calories and they don't want you to trade one addiction for another. But they also have the no carbonation, no caffeine, no gum, no drinking from straws, no smoking ever rule too. So it really varies from program/doctor.

I tried beer Did any of you feel a throat dryness after waking up? This was two beers drank very slowly, and I stirred as much carbonation out of it before I enjoyed them. It was not right before bed, and I sleep on a wedge pillow. Just curious now if the alcohol in those beers caused the silent reflux? Or if it's something else. But did you experience any negative effects the next day? I felt not so great, even after two beers. I won't ever drink more than that again.

Two months out I started walking an hour a day, lifted as much as I could to maximize my muscle mass knowing I was going to lose some in the first few months. I weaned myself off of alcohol and caffeine (I started that process a month out). Three weeks out I tried out the foods I was going to eat in the first month, had them in stock before I left. Two weeks before, I started practicing slow eating at lunch. Tried about 6 different Protein powders to find the one I liked. I worked through https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-First-Aid-Kit-Practical/dp/0976852659?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 to get my mind right. And every-time I would get second thoughts I would read: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/195065-you-know-you-lost-weight-when/ But months before sending in my deposit I watched every video I could on worst case outcomes. I analyzed what they were doing wrong and figured out in my mind was I willing to take that risk. The vast majority of the failures were people who tried to keep eating chips and Twinkies or were emotional basket cases. After seeing that, I started watching people who succeeded and built a program to imitate their success.

Michelle, I spoke to Dr Meguid about drinking...He said beer has carbination and may cause problems. He told me to try it if I wanted by drinking one and if I tolerate it then I can drink it in moderation of course. AS far as liquor goes its not so much that you can't have it it just turns to sugar in your system rapidly and works against your weight loss. We shouldn't get drunk any faster cause the alcohol doesn't get into our blood stream until it passes out of the stomach. Only about 20% gets in thru the stomach. ASk the Dr they will talk to you about it. They are really great and will give you their opinion and leave it up to you. Good Luck Greg

Um, yeah, lol. Dont know what that could be. I have something weird that happens to me, totally unrelated. If i have a bad couple of days - like too much alcohol or bad food, I get sore all over. I notice it towelling myself dry, it hurts. I've NEVER liked massages, that kind of pressure over and over on one spot is utterly exruciating to me, even light, relaxation massages really hurt me. I go for a run and every time a foot hits the ground, of course, your flesh vibrates, that hurts. Its only when I've overdone things (although massages hurt all the time). Nobody has EVER managed to give me an answer. Every naturopath of course thinks they can fix it, that its a wheat or dairy allergy (of course, isnt that the answer to EVERTHING?), but its never proven the case. Just weird. Like your feet. Hope they feel better soon!

Atkins would be the last bar I'd want due to all the sugar alcohol. It screws my system up badly. Maybe you'll have better results. Quest Bars are hands down the best I've ever tried. Very high in Protein, low in sugar, high in Fiber and the flavor is killer. Most all of the Protein powder when mixed with ice Water seems to work out great for me. There is a wide, wide range of excellent low-carb protein powder available.

We were only told that carbonation is not our friend and that we can become drunker quicker. Obviously also, alcohol has calories in it that we don't need. And once you have a drink, food choices may not be as good as they should be. In future (if I am ever well enough lol), I wouldn't be afraid to have watered down drinks. But so many alcohols can cause stomach acid issues. Red wine is really low in calories, A flattened slimline (diet) tonic with a bit of vodka in it is low in calories. But my bet though, is that alcohol is the last thing on your mind in the first three months. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Weight today 203! Total: 980 Fat:34 307 32% Carbs:52 191 20% Fiber:4 0 0% Protein:73 293 31% Alcohol:22 155 16% Activity - 30 mins on treadmill 3.1mph @ 2.5 incline - 200 cals recumbant bike - 10 mins - 50 cals Net calories 730

Day 9 of pre-op shakes. 3 Protein shakes a day. I am tired and going to bed earlier, but I have stepped up my exercise. I'm doing 2 hours of Gazelle and walking 1-1/2 miles a day. Something that has picked me up a bit is a cup of decaff peppermint tea. Day 3 & 4 were the hardest for me, but I kept busy. I think one of the worst things you can do before surgery is to become sedentary. You know how when you exercise every single day and then you quit for a few days it gets hard to start back up? Well, when you have surgery you will be required to just walk the halls. You need to keep up the stamina, while you can, to make that go a little better. As you hit day 5, you may hit ketosis and the breath thing becomes an issue. I rinse my mouth out with non-alcohol based mouth wash (Biotene) and brush my teeth & floss a lot. I would never eat right after flossing, so it's also a good tool to use. Eager, I had a headache that lasted about 2 days, I promise you it will get better. Up your Water and make sure you are getting 64 ounces at the minimum. The busier you are the easier it is. Hopefully you will get to bed and fall asleep quicker because you kept busy and are tired out then. I'm a bit sleepy today but I'm going to have my shake, do a little more gazelle and then go for a walk and hop into bed and sleep and get up and do it again tomorrow. Good Luck, again I promise it does get easier!

I feel the same way. I only told a few close family members about my decision, and a few very close friends, but I know my friends wouldn't care if I ate less at lunch, or even just had Water while they ate, they care about me, and want me to feel good about myself so skipping the guacamole and chips at lunch will make our relationship stronger in the long run. As for the alcohol, I'm not going to lie, I do enjoy it as well, but after the first 6 weeks from what I have read up on here, you can still enjoy it in moderation, so you wouldn't be completely nixing it from your life forever.

Sorry, should have mentioned that my preop diet is liquids only. Stomach issues is a good one though. Hopefully no one notices (no alcohol + stomach problems = pregnancy assumptions).

My Dr/Nut said absolutely no alcohol or carbonation for a minimum of 3 months after surgery. By law they are required to say 6 months. But my nut was like *wink wink* you "can" have some at 3 months out.

I was told no carbonation ever again and no alcohol for a year.

I'm trying to figure out where I come down on the "body positivity" movement and the "health at every size" philosophy in relation to WLS. It's caused me to really think deeply about this, and I thought I'd throw my thoughts out and see how others view it. For starters, I absolutely believe that people of all shapes and sizes deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. People should not be bullied for their shape or size. Physicians should not give different treatment plans for larger people than they do for thin people. The answer to strep throat is not "lose weight". I believe businesses should better accommodate people of all sizes with larger and more sturdy seating as well as better access for people who have mobility issues due to any cause. Airlines in particular. "Normal" people don't fit in those darned seats, for Pete's sake. I believe that people of all shapes and sizes should have access to good quality clothing at a reasonable price. I also believe the diet industry is bogus. The medical field should start telling the truth about the success rates both short term and long term of the "diet and exercise" prescriptions. If the success rates for diet and exercise were given for a drug, it would be banned by the FDA for sale. We need to learn a LOT more about what drives obesity and quit experimenting without full disclosure on people who are obese, especially children. We need to learn more about the damage done to our bodies by dieting, which is likely to be worse than if we just stayed heavy and never dieted. What we do know is that weight is a complex issue that individuals have very little control over. It needs to stop being viewed as a moral issue, with heavier people seen as moral failures. All of these things, I am in agreement with the HAES/body positivity movement. Then we get into the "health" discussion, and my stance starts diverging from theirs. HAES claims that there is no direct causation between body fat and ill health and that the path to better health should not involve any level of focus on weight. Well, not really. While there are some people who carry a lot of body fat and have no significant health concerns, there are also people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol and smoke daily who have no significant health concerns. No one would say that there is no causal relationship between alcohol and liver problems, or between cigarettes and lung issues just because not everyone who partakes is ill. The science is clear that excessive weight significantly increases the risk in a number of health areas. The body will compensate until it can't anymore, and then a cascade of health issues descends. I believe that to state otherwise is deceitful and damaging. And if your weight directly keeps you from being able to take care of yourself and move around, then there's no way you're "healthy", medically speaking. That is not to say that healthcare should be denied to larger people. We still treat lung cancer, even if the patient smoked for 40 years and "brought it on themselves". But we also encourage intervention for the addiction and prescribe cessation programs. We don't have a lot of good options to offer people who struggle with weight issues, and we need to be more up-front about how well they work, but we shouldn't quit trying. HAES/Body Positivity has and excellent observation about the health issues - it's no one's business. Unless I'm on your medical treatment team, it's not my business how much you weigh, and it's not my place to say you should lose weight. It's not my business what you do or don't eat. If I am on your treatment team, I should treat you with the utmost respect and not ignore symptoms and issues because you're larger. The whole argument about "my taxes pay for this treatment and y'all bring it on yourselves" is bogus. My taxes pay for sports injuries (caused by patient choice), car accidents (sometimes caused by patient choice), tobacco complications (caused by patient choice), and drug overdoses (caused by patient choice) and we don't see a large call for those people to go without treatment. Even if we were to start drawing lines, where exactly would they get drawn? HAES also pushes for healthy lifestyle choices, just without a focus on weight. I'm down with that. People of every size can take steps to improve their health: make healthier food choices, exercise, reduce stress, get regular medical care. Some of these will even have more impact than the actual weight loss. Many of these will result in weight loss. People should not be discouraged from doing these things until after they lose weight. I can even (medically) support an attitude of, "I'm going to work on these other things, and I don't care about the scale while I do." (And once again, if I'm not on your medical team, it's none of my business.) HAES has the right idea about much of this. And then I diverge again from HAES and the like when they say that being on Weight Watchers or having WLS or in any way deliberately focusing on modifying your size is AGAINST the body positivity movement. Everyone has different reasons for choosing these things, and not all of them have to do with hating your larger body. I loved myself at my highest weight and was generally okay with my body. I never looked in the mirror and hated myself. I have features I'm not crazy about, but it's at worst neutral, never a self-hatred. I didn't have VSG because I wanted to fit in a size 10 jean again (if I get there or even close it'll be a welcome side effect in my book). My decision was not swayed in the slightest by social pressures. I had VSG because I have physical health issues that are directly impacted by my weight and are reducing my mobility and taking my activity level down to practically nothing. I was lacking a quality of life and wanted to improve the things in my life that HAES talks about. Because of those health issues, I didn't feel like I had time to do it "the long way". I don't advocate WLS for everyone, and unless you ask me directly I'm not going to say whether or not I think it would be a good idea for you. But I'm not "body positive" because I "amputated a healthy organ" in order to change my size. Like so many things in our current society, the opposing sides would have you think that it's a binary situation - on or off, good or bad, this or that. I have never embraced a black and white binary way of thinking and am not about to start now. I want to support the HAES movement, but it seems like I'm not welcome and some of the concepts they propose as near-gospel I find to be scientifically questionable. Maybe I'm trying to justify my position against what I want to believe and it just doesn't fit, I don't know. What do you think?

I wrote about this in 2015 when I was sleeved. It's a hot topic and I got a lot of grief from others. 1. The big issue is babying your WLS post surgery. Not all surgeries are equal. Sleeves are the most minimally invasive and based on reviewing guidelines worldwide, I found them ranging from no wait (in England) to 1 year in most major US programs. I went with two months, but eased in very delicately. Speaking to doctors, I learned that the sleeve is pretty much healed after 6 weeks. I have also heard that a Gastric Bypass is less tolerant since you're no longer using the tough stomach tissue to process the food you eat. 2. The next big issue is your liver. When you are losing a lot of weight in a hurry (like most WLS patients), your liver is working overtime. I waited until I was close to reaching my goal and drank extra Water before and after my very weak drinks. 3. Beyond those two major health considerations, the biggest is your weight loss success. Alcohol is empty calories and when we drink, we make bad food choices. I always counted the calories in my drinks, which kept me on distilled alcohol and water. I also always planned what I was going to eat BEFORE drinking and stuck to it. 4. Although not a risk for everyone, transfer addiction is a real risk for people who may have been addicted to overeating or anything else. I have read many stories from people who never drank before WLS, but were addicted to eating or soda and became alcoholics after. 5. The carbonation myth has no basis in medical research. I researched it extensively and found zero long term issue from any doctors. I also observed that many obese people drank sugary soda all day long, which is why most programs tell us not to drink it. It should be avoided until tolerated following your surgery. I tried it after 6 months and it upset my stomach. Today, I can drink a little, but not much (12 ounces over a few hour timespan). Of course if you were addicted to soda or beer before WLS, be very careful. These are the biggies, let me know if you have any further questions...

I didn't notice a difference with the affects of alcohol being quicker. But one time I dumped from having 2 coolers that was not nice! Luckily I was able to make it home before the explosion...

Unless you have fatty liver disease from diabetes or alcohol/drug use, your goal for surgery is not so much to "shrink" your liver but to melt the fat off of it. The first place any of us lose fat when we diet is from around the liver. Most any diet that restricts calories and fat will do. Salt may make you retain water weight but it does not generally cause us to build fat.

If you want a glass of wine that is fine just make sure you account for the calories and carbs just like anything else you eat. I too enjoy a glass every know and then. If you have a carb counting book alcohol might be listed and it is interesting which ones are higher than others.

I agree with Cake girl. The first three days of the pre-op liquid diet will make you second guess your decision, but hang tight. It will get better. I too had awful headaches, even threw up on the night of day 3. After that though it got better. Its just like withdrawals from alcohol or drugs I suppose, But you will live through it, I promise. After day 3 it became much easier.

I started my pre-op diet on Thursday and I've already lost 10 pounds in 3 days! I'm on 3 Protein shakes a day (which I make myself) and 2 meals with lean protein and veggies. No dairy, no fruit, no alcohol, no caffeine, etc. I've been averaging about 1100 calories and about 120g of protein per day. I find it interesting that some programs allow for dairy and fruit, as they are both quite high in sugar. I love the Syntrax nectar protein powders - they taste like regular juice when mixed with Water. I have 2 of those a day. I also have a Protein shake in the morning where I mix almond or soy milk (and sometimes a block of soft tofu) with either flavoured Protein Powder (like vanilla or chocolate) or unflavoured. I have both Syntrax and Isopure for those, plus the PB Peanut Butter powder, which mixes in great with the chocolate protein powder. Edit: I had a bunch of links posted, but this site overruled them. Amazon carries a lot of good protein powders, but for unjury you may have to buy directly from them. I also shop from vitacost and iHerb, as they ship to Japan and many other countries (whereas Amazon will not).