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Someone told me that Doritos are a terrible thing to eat with the sleeve, worse than alcohol for your new stomach. Obviously, they are fattening, but that is not what I am referring to. Anyone??

I had my first alcoholic beverage at 3 mos out and haven't stopped since (i'm now into year 3) and I haven't died yet. I don't think one small vodka is going to kill you, just be prepared for that intoxicated feeling right away. . . it's really weird. . . good luck

What I read is about concern for the liver. Even after one is healed up and well past surgery, the alcohol will put a far greater strain on the liver than it used to. That said....would ONE little drinky hurt? I wouldn't think so...I just don't know how far out from surgery.

Ok, so I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times, but I am 5 weeks out and doing fine. Is it silly to have one alcoholic beverage 6 weeks after surgery (not several drinks, just one?) a small vodka and tomato juice is what I would like to try. thanks.

Everyone is different but I find myself doing more physical things outdoors that I have not been able to do in years. I have become a gym rat to try and get into the best shape of my life. I am trying to get away from a lot of the things that contributed to me becoming obese in the first place such as sitting in the house watching TV or at the computer all day. I am trying to spend much more time doing anything that is physical that my weight prevented me from doing before. Now that I have all of this new found energy, it is a blast to work in the yard, the garage and any other projects I can come up with. Now as far as an addiction, I would have to say shopping. I love bargin shopping and now that I wear a size large instead of a 4x, it opens up a whole new world to me. I hated shopping before so this is kind of a surprise that I enjoy this so much. I was not there and do not know the context of what was said about replacing the eating addiction with another addiction but I will tell you this, there are many healthy addictions you can have, they do not all have to be bad. I am a little obsessed with being healthy now, I figure if I went through WLS, I got a second lease on life. I eat healthy now and do not drink alcohol or put anything in my body that does not have nutritional value. I will be the first to admit that I am a little overboard on this but I feel so much better and there is absolutely no way I ever will slip back to my old bad habits.

Great question! I would love to hear about new "addictions". I'm sure working out is super popular. I was a foodie before surgery (not long ago) and I've really enjoyed learning about new food combos that are super healthy and tasty. I *highly* recommend http://theworldaccor...e.blogspot.com/ for recipes and honest blogging about her WLS journey! I've heard bad things about patients going back to their food addiction or moving to drinking alcohol excessively. That's terrifying.

I was sleeved 12/1/11 so I am 8 weeks out and I’m on regular foods. I haven’t done well with most refine cabs like rice and bread (I haven’t tried pasta but I want to hold off). I’m really concerned with drinking, I had a few sip of champagne for New years but outside of that no alcohol and I know that there will be drinking which isn’t usually a problem for me. I would like one drink, not to make it a habit but what if any should I consider.

I just met with psych yesterday. I've seen her before and it's all great! She and I are working closely on med regime to help me get ready and be ready. She's all in for the surgery for me. Amazing, but true I'm lower BMI than qualifies, but am really fit and active, eat as well as I can...but am a sugar addict! No gloss on that baby...I've been mainlining sugar since the breast. I don't drink alcohol any longer, not using anything. This is the final addiction frontier for me. You go to the app. and tell it like it is, be true and be ready to advocate for yourself. You deserve this! Let us know how it goes. Good luck

Got carded at my local purveyer of alcoholic happiness and was told "this is not you" As most chubby guys, I always had a young face but for the woman not to even recognize the big guy on my license was a cool NSV for me.

Hi- I wanted to share this with you- I drink Kombucha- it is a living tonic, you can buy it or make it your self. The only think wrong with buying it is, it is made with tea- which has caffeine, and being that us WLS peeps should not be drinking caffeine pre-op or post op, or effervescent drinks... how would one go about getting their "booch" fix? The tea- which is a living thing- made from tea and sugar and the scoby, left to ferment. (google that) Scoby it's a culture of living organisms that are good for you- especially for your GI tract! similar to keifer and the yogurts. however it is fermented so there is a trace amount of alcohol and sugar. I started drinking this when I wanted to get off soda drinks-- it helped with withdrawal symptoms. especially the cravings...also when I was craving fried foods and breads... What I did was start my own culture from a bottle of store bought kombucha- I put it in a sun tea jar with a spigot- added 1 cup of sugar and filled it up with DECAF tea. Left on counter 2 weeks- it started to bubble around edges. Pretty soon I could smell it- it was sweet- then went vinegary. this means it is almost ready- also had a slimy thing growng on top- like plastic wrap- this is the new scoby- it will soon become up to an inch thick. (also called a mushroom- but it isn't really one) I drank several glasses and then started to replace what I was drinking with more decaf tea and a little sugar. apparently if you want a glass aday, by adding back- the culture devours the raw sugar and each day you have fresh kombucha ready for you. You can google and get recipes and more ideas on it- (endless kombucha) The thing I like about it is- WLS friendly using decaf tea and fermenting it down so it has no/little sugar as well as leaving in the sun tea jar- has no carbonation. if you never tried it- give it a gamble- just be careful, for your tummies sake. Some people think it tastes too sweet while others say it tastes like vingar- depending on how balanced your body is- is how it will taste- when I first started it was sweet - after a while it got vinegary to taste- then it went back to tasting good. just a general info post- drink at will.

Beautiful post. You're right - a food addiction is tough- you can't quit "cold turkey" because you need food to live - you don't need alcohol or drugs or other things people get addicted to in order to live. You can't just remove the temptation, you have to beat it. Congrats to everyone that continues the battle against food addiction and wakes up the next day to fight it again!

Hi Everyone, All addictions have one thing in common- they numb you out to what is happening in the moment. They offer instead, an intense sensory experience which either absorbs all of your attention or distorts reality. You may think you’re having a real moment, but you are not, because your addictive activity, such as food, drinking, or drugs, is actually disconnecting you from your true emotions and, therefore, making it difficult for you to connect with others around you. My food addictions always came along when I am happy or miserable and sometimes bored to death. Then when we get to the time in our lives and we feel like we can never lose the weight because we are so fat, we think what the heck let’s just eat anything and any amount we want, We know honestly that is NOT the answer. “People who are hungry for more real moments often us addiction to get a temporary hit of happiness” But because the feeling of happiness that that we get from our food addiction is only temporary and then it becomes a vicious circle of always eating the wrong things and overeating. So the happiness is only temporary, you can’t feel good without the bad behavior of abusing food. This is how you get hooked into you addictive behavior of using food for comfort. Addictions are so socially acceptable in America that, often people don’t even realize that they have one, especially when it comes to eating food. Food is NOT something that we can simply say I am never going to eat again. If it is an alcohol addiction then you can say—I am never going to drink alcohol again. Food is something that we are going to have to deal with for the rest of our lives. For me I had to make a lifestyle change. It is like going back to school. I had to start reading labels, planning my meal and using a journal and keep track of everything I put in my body. If I didn’t have “bad” foods in my home that would tempt me to eat them—then they would not be a problem. I learned to make healthy choice including snack and what I craved. If it was something sweet like a desert I learned how to make some healthy ones. It take a lot of effort and a immense amount of time, to plan my meals, shop for my food, and read labels and keep track of what I was eating. I know it takes a lot of time to keep a journal, but it will really be helpful to you. I use this site: http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/ . I know there are other sites that people use. Do what works for you when it comes to keeping track of your food. You also need to exercise. Having a food addiction is NOT an easy thing to deal with. Start asking yourself when you want something to eat—do I just WANT this food or do I NEED to eat this food. Most of the time it is you just “want” to eat the food. Find something else to do—like posting on this board and talking with other about their addiction. I wish you nothing but success, but I want you to know that this is something that we all will struggle with. I am here to help in any way I can. Hugs, Suzanne

I don't think the alcohol is a good idea. My largest incision next to my navel had a gap and it started leaking a small amount of fluid. My surgeon told me to keep it clean and put a bandaid on it. It closed up in about 2 or 3 days. The bandaid seemed to help it heal much faster. Maybe because it could breathe more?

My surgeon trained with Dr. Paul O'Brien, so he provides his book (The Lapband Solution) as a guideline for how to eat and live with the band. I've been sticking to those guidelines depsite seeing so many variations of "the rules", and it's been working for me. I stay away from protein shakes and my guidelines on protein are 30-40g per day- which I think is easily doable considering I'm eating 1,000 calories or less. I try to eat the most whole, natural food possible that I can find. The only thing I drink with food is alcohol, per the guidelines I was given. Using liquids to get in nutrients or calories is a slippery slope- if you aren't able to eat REAL food, then something is wrong. You can't do a liquid diet forever. At the end of the day though, don't confuse yourself- if your doctor has given you guidelines, follow them- don't worry about what everyone else is doing! Reducing your calories will lead to weightloss and that is what the band will help you do! Hang in there!

Yep, stop alcohol. I'm a little ahead of you and had this happen on two of them . When I called, they told me to get wound closure strips (like steri strips but available at walgerens with adhesive already on them). A tip: if you jsut put them on flat, the wound will stay open. I found it worked best to put the tape above/on top of the incision first, pull gently down as I adhered it down across the incision, so that it brough the two sides together. I used 2 on the small one and 3 on teh large one. The one that was more open is still a little bit larger scar, but the one that was a small gape looks just like al lthe rest now, a nice tight line.

I agree, stop the alcohol, use a bandaid or steristrip to pull the edges together and call your surgeon today. An opening in the skin is a potiential entry point for infection to get in. I'm wondering if there is any drainage from the opening? If so, what color? Clear? White? Green? Yellow? Pinkish?

please don't use alcohol. Alcohol burns the edges of the skin and will prevent it from closing. Steri-strips to hold the sides of the wound together should be all you need along with keeping the wound clean with an anti-bacterial soap. Alcohol is actually stopping the closure.

I agree. Call your surgeon. Please don't put more alcohol on it. That just sounds painful! Ouch!! IIRC, alcohol actually prevents healing. I was told to leave my drain incision alone, although they did bandage it after the drain was removed.

Yeah, I'd make an alcoholic stop drinking before rehab. I'm actually dealing with an alcoholic hubby right now and MY requirement for us to have a relationship is that he stop drinking, period. And, yes, I think it's fair for our doctors to require us to show some kind of motivation by losing weight before surgery. The surgeon has only so much time available to do surgeries and he wants to see results from his hard work, just like anyone else. If we, the patients, can't control and motivate ourselves somewhat before surgery, then how does the surgeon know we're going to do so after surgery? I know my doc has a waiting list of patients who want to be sleeved by him. Now, the other side of that coin is that I think it's ridiculous to expect a long-term obese person to lose 10% of their body weight before surgery. Why do I think that? Because I lost 50 pounds the year before my surgery, then got hit with health problems that packed that 50 pounds, plus more, back onto me. I'd have never been able to lose 35 pounds (10% of 352) before surgery. I did drop 13 pounds on my pre-op liquid diet, which I think shows that I was motivated to lose weight. I see both sides of it. I just think that some surgeons require more than others, which is fine. But, that requirement has to be adjusted to the patient and the patient's health status.

i was told alcohol was not a no no just to be careful with it because it could absorb faster, I had to give up my drinking days due to diabetes long before the surgery was done. my problem is snacking, I like to snack and I feel I need to have something right before i sleep or I cant get to sleep right. bad bad habit. guess i need emotional eating therapy lol good luck

Yes.....I would tell an alcoholic to stop drinking before rehab. Sorry...I don't see the problem.

Hi there. I am a few months out before having surgery scheduled. In my WLS program, I am required to lose 12 lbs to "prove" to them I can lose weight. I don't know why, but this enraged me. I felt humiliated and degraded. Please note that i am not referencing the pre-op liquid diet--that is for safety issues. I do understand that post-op I will be adjusting to a whole new way of life, but come on, I need my tool! I have gained and lost the same amount of weight so many times in my life. I'm a pro. I've never gotten to "goal" but I can lose weight. I am less angry now and have been successful in losing that small amount of weight, but don't treat me like a moron, Mr. Surgeon! Thanks for letting me vent (obviously still a little anger lingering...) LOL. Shan

You caught that homeopathic and OTC products are FRAUDULENT. The real HCG come in injectable form. It is a white crystalline powder that you add Bacteriostatic Water and men take a dosage of 1500ius ed for a period up to 2 weeks to help induce natural testosterone production. Bacteriostatic water has 1% benzyl alcohol (BA) added in, while sterile water is just sterile H20. Bacteriostatic antibiotics inhibit growth and reproduction of bacteria without killing them. Bactericides will actually kill bacteria, and bacteriostatic solutions will only prevent bacteria from forming. So it's just like the name implies--it's bacteria-static water. Whereas sterile water is just water. You can make bacteriostatic water by mixing correct portions of Benzyl Alochol and distilled water (for example 99 ml water+1 ml BA) through a filter, but it's just easier and safer to buy it yourself... (null)

Blunt is good. This is a support site right? Maybe some people need a different kind of way of support. I'm no guru on people's thoughts or means of feeling support, but i do know personally that if i fall, i get right back up. Keep in mind, eating for me personally is an addiction like alcoholism or drug abuse. food was mine. Have a good one !

My doctor said to stick to 1500 calories and keep it low fat. That's pretty much what I've been doing all along anyway. I did notice, however, that it said no alcohol for 6 months prior. Guess I'm going to have to fudge a little on that one. I drink very seldom, but I have had a very few drinks in the last 6 months. Anybody else been told this?