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So I had completed my bariatric seminar 2weeks ago, that is required prior to meeting surgeon that is more like an informational session. Had my first appointment with nutritionist and surgeon today! Had the run down of the entire process. Have my appointment for endoscope for April 13th. Walk in clinics for my labs, ekg and chest xray. Have my psych eval scheduled in April and my fist "medical supervised weight loss appointment" thisFriday. I'm so excited. Feels kind of surreal. I made a few changes in my life recently knowing this is all for a healthier me. I've started drinking ONLY water, at least 64oz a day. I've also quit smoking/consuming alcohol. Origionally I was stressed over the 6months thing but honestly I'm kind of happy I have that time to mentally prepare and make changes. Hoping for Sept surgical date! I also can't wait to havr new comparison photos to show progress! Sent from my LGMP450 using BariatricPal mobile app

I live in Denver and do use mj recreationally. I waited for several weeks after surgery but my doctor and nut said it was fine. I DO get the munchies and am sad about that. It DOES settle my stomach when I'm nauseous. It has A LOT less calories than alcohol. So while I'm sure everyone is different, I won't be using mj regularly anymore after I move out of state next month. Not to say I won't occasionally partake, but the munchies are enough to deter me from being a regular user. Plus, it's illegal in Texas.

heroin is killing our young people. So is alcohol and pills. It's ok , even celebrated, when society advocates alcohol use and abuse, and thousands are behind bars because of mandatory sentencing for pot possession. Marijuana, when used normally, is far less harmful than any other drug. Of course, some will have a problem with it, but those folks would likely abuse other drugs. They need help As a chronic pain patient, I wish I lived somewhere with medical marijuana was available...don't like feeling high, though

I live in Texas and mj is still ilegal here, I am against using it recreational but for using medically if needed. I respect that, I actually do like to hear others point of views as long as they aren't attacking someone else's way of life. Like my personal opinion is I'm against the consumption of alcohol period. Even though it is legal I'm against it. Marijuana is legal here for medicinal purposes (soon to be recreational) and it has improved my quality of life drastically.Did you stop smoking pre or post- op if so for how long? And when did you start back?

It is also still illegal in my state. That is the only problem I have with it. If it were legal I would equate it w/having a beer or a glass of wine. If I needed it for medical reasons I would have no problems using it w/a prescription. It's medical use is increasing in popularity and acceptance. We have several locations in our area where you can get it and business is booming. As far as munchies go (I'm very familiar w/this, being a child of the 70's) keeping snack-type foods around that also have high Protein is a great idea, as someone suggested. Nutrition stores stock high protein Snacks that satisfy crunchy-salty cravings while meeting protein needs. I like CrunchO's w/12gr of protein (also available on Amazon). Nuts, while higher in fat, have protein and healthy oils, and Protein Bars are satisfying too. MJ isn't the only thing that causes munchies - I tend to want snacks when I have my wine. Alcohol lowers my will power and relaxes my judgment a bit so having protein snacks available helps me to stay on track during weak moments. :-)

It's a free world. We're all "allowed" to do what we want, so that would include having as many drinks as you want. If you have truly educated yourself on all the potential risks of alcohol after WLS (both today and long-term), only YOU can determine whether you choose to remain compliant with your bari program. My program also recommends abstaining from alcohol FOR LIFE, and my personal choice is to follow that recommendation, for a lot of reasons. Yet another example of how different we all are...

I had my first drink at 3 months out. It was a glass of wine and it hit me HARD. When you do have your first, don't have it while you are out, have it at home so you can see what impact it will have on you. I am almost two years out and I still get loopy after a beer or two and I lived in a sorority house for two years -- I can (could!!) hold my alcohol. I cannot eat after I drink or vice versa, so if you do feel buzzed, don't plan on food sobering you up like it used to and don't plan on being able to drink Water to pass it through faster. Another reason to have your first few drinks at home. Wine and other sweeter drinks give me heartburn that feels like death is trying to claw it's way out of my chest. I do like a bloody mary, or a vodka cranberry or vodka lemonade either made with 0 calorie "juice". I am not advocating drinking against your doctor's plan, but I am saying that if/when you do, do it smartly (is that even a word??) and cautiously.

So all is going well with the eating. I love that I'm eating less and losing *clap* *clap*. But now 7 weeks out, I need an alcoholic beverage. I have one of the most conservative programs and they advise no drinking EVER again. Well that's not going to happen. I meet with my dietitian next week and we need to set a realistic goal. I'm at the bar right now with friend as they sip on their wine and I just can't watch them weekend after weekend. If I'm allowed one glass of alcohol a weekend that would be amazing! Of course I would choose wisely and log the calories etc. Sorry I needed to rant as I sip my Water in the bar.

Well I think we all drink a pretty good amount hell we can't eat much might as well ...I just started drinking again I went for a few yrs with out a drop alcohol poisoning will do that to ya..

Jack, I agree that drug use CAN disrupt and erode the fabric of society - alcohol abuse to a certain degree has certainly proved that, and it is legal. Obviously, drug cartels do have a history of enforcing means to their own ends thru violence and corruption. Wonder how powerful they would be if their drugs weren't illegal in the U.S., and if we had a proper means of manufacturing, distribution, taxing, and a set of rules governing the use of drugs? Alcohol abuse didn't end with the abolition of prohibition, but lots of bad guys are no long enforcing a means to their own ends through violence and corruption in the U.S. as it relates to the illegal sale and distribution of alcohol here.

@Allformyprincesas Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to sleeveland Liquid is liquid, is liquid protein shakes are made with milk or water - so i was told to count towards my liquid daily total - broth also counts as liquid - (alcohol does NOT count) sounds/looks you are doing great. keep up the good job good luck kathy

Well, I'm not supposed to have alcohol for a year and am gonna try to stick to that if I can. I have a mild allergy to the tannins in red wine so I always drank Asti, which was carbonated. Or vodka and cranberry. Or beer.... Lol Anywho... My favorite was Asti, but since it's carbonated I'll probably forego that and stick with the vodka and cranberry when I do drink alcohol. My sister was cleared for alcohol in 3 weeks. Every surgeon has his/her rules and I don't see anything wrong with you posting about alcohol. If I'm being honest with myself, I will probably have a drink on my birthday in June or when I'm on vaycay in July. But I'm not sure. Be sure and let us know how it goes. I know with my sister she has a much lower tolerance than she had. She gets a buzz much faster. But she also gets sober faster so I'm guessing that she's metabolizing the alcohol at a faster rate than before. Have fun!!

Well say 'hi' to the sharks for me. Personally, I don't swim in anything that's no chlorinated...although I hear that hasn't stopped alligators in Florida from crawling into a few. Went to my first meeting. Not quite what I expected, but I'm going back and we'll see what happens. I'm doing very good today with avoiding those carbs. Can't say I'm not craving them, but every time I reach for one (like a cracker), I remind myself that it's my 'alcohol' and walk away. If I can get through this first week, the following week will be easier because we'll be at Disney where there are tons of things to do to keep my mind off food and I won't have ready access to food. Yeah I know there are food places all over, but it's still not as easily accessible as opening up a fridge. Oh goodie...it's 2:30 and I can have my Protein drink! That should help with the cravings! Melody

I am at 11 months post op and weigh 179.6 lbs. My total weight loss to date is 66.4 lbs. I have averaged a weight loss of approximately 6 lbs per month. I am currently purchasing size 14 pants (my 16’s are getting baggy) and L shirts (I am between a L and XL depending on the shirt). I am 5’5” tall. Last month I wrote that I was going to be doing the Paleo eating challenge for the month of Feburary at my gym (Crossfit). I credit that for this month’s weight loss which was 6.2 lbs (I had only lost 2.8 for the month of January). The diet eliminates all grains, dairy, sugar, and beans from your diet. This wasn’t too much of stretch for me since I had given up most grains and sugars after my surgery 11 months ago. I didn’t eat/drink enough dairy to miss it that much and while I enjoy beans again I didn’t eat enough of them to really miss them either. I did miss the alcohol thoughJ. As part of the challenge we were to also drink half our body weight in ounces of water. I never made it (that would have been 12 cups of water a day!) but I drank more water during the challenge then I normally do. I liked the challenge because it gave me some focus this past month (I was also teamed up with someone from the gym who was very nice and kept me motivated). I cooked a lot more (new recipes) this month then I normally do (my husband cooks most of the time) and ate a lot more fresh fruit and veggies. I had a few slip ups (minor) mostly because I wasn’t prepared in certain situations. The girl I was partnered with lost 10 lbs. I am supposed to get my after measurements taken today so I’ll see if I lost any inches. The challenge is over and I plan to keep grains and sugar out but I will most likely add small amounts of cheese and beans (i.e. chili and hummus) back in. I also upped my exercise this month. We were required to do a minimum of three workouts at the Crossfit gym during the challenge (which was what I was doing anyway) and you got extra challenge points for extra workouts. I have been averaging two extra workouts a week this month for a total of five days of working out. I reached my personal goal during the challenge of getting into the 170’s so I am happy. My next goal is to get to 176 by my 1 year post-op anniversary, which is at the end of March. That would put me at 70 lbs lost for the year (with only 30 lbs to go to my goal). My paleo challenge got me thinking about other challenges. I did a random internet search for anyone else who had done a paleo challenge for 30 days and ran across a TED talk featuring Matt Cutts (some random person who works for Google) - http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html . He has been working on trying something new for 30 days. He hasn’t done Paleo but he has done a lot of other things. This got me thinking that this would be a fun challenge for myself this year. So in the spirit of trying something new each month for 30 days I signed up to do yoga in March (I am counting my Paleo diet as something new for February). I choose yoga because I have never done it and our local studio was running a 30 days for $30 which seemed like a reasonable price. I started making a list of other challenge ideas for myself. Some of them include watching 30 documentaries in a month, reading four nonfiction books within a 30 day period (one a week), no TV, try 30 new recipes in my Vitamix, etc. I’ll report back on the yoga next month. Hope everyone is have a good start to the new year. I’ll check back in next month!

Wow- you've had a lot to deal with. I hope it's calming down. I've been struggling too, and have started seeing the pych in my clinic. She suggests approaching this like a project at work. Figure out what the specific tasks are and start doing them. Breaking down "Getting on track" to acutal steps so it is doable. For example, I had started having a glass of wine a few nights a week, and worse eating M&Ms all day at work. Among other things, but I decided to focus on that. My plan was no candy, and no alcohol unless I can truely say it's a special occasion. One week later, I've had neither and am down about 5 pounds. So, pick one or two things to start with, and focus on them maybe?

Well Hello everyone, we are fast coming up on our 1 year surgiversary and I came in to check to see how everyone is doing. As for myself I'm glad to see that I'm not alone. My weight loss is very slow and I have been at a weight plateau for about 3 months now. Like a lot of you though my inches seem to be going down and I am back into a lot of my dresses that I was wearing the last time I lost a good amount of weight BL (before lapband) . I had an appt last friday to get another fill. I think that would have been my 4th or 5th not sure but I cancelled it because when I went for a fill at the beginning of June I had not lost anything and my Dr accused me of eating cake and ice cream (slider foods) I was a little miffed because I'm not a sweet eater at all. Why do people including these weight loss surgery Dr's think that if your overweight you must be sitting on the couch eating Bon-Bons with empty ice cream containers around you? I'm at a point where I can't eat much at all but I do eat the wrong things sometimes like I will eat fried shrimp. I can only eat about 3 or 4 at a time but it would be better to have the shrimp grilled or steamed and I eat late sometimes and I'm not shy about having a drink now and again and I know for a fact that alcohol stalls my losses and bloats me. So I take responsibility for my slow loss. I plan to make an appt to get my next fill just before my 1 year surgiversary which will be on 8/16. Hoping that I can bite the bullet now and at least lose another 10 lbs before then bringing me to my halfway point. I'm disappointed because I wanted to be like those star WLS peeps that lose 100lbs in a year but I guess I will be like what the lap band research says that will lose 1/2 their excess weight the first year. Wishing everyone continued success.

Oh that wasn’t my first drinking with a post-wls bod. im 3 years out now and drink quite regularly (bring on the concerned comments, I’m ready!) my fIrst attempt at alcohol was 3-4 weeks post. I had maybe two sips of red wine and it slightly burned a little and I swear I could feel it travel down my intestines. With so little drank, it had no effect on me. second attempt was closer to 2 months post had a few sips of a sugary soju drink and I had a several hour long dumping episode. Not pretty. I probably had 5 or so PARTIAL drinks my ENTIRE weight loss phase. It got me tipsy quickly even with small amounts of less than 1/3 a drink, and I could tell I wouldn’t be able to drive….but I also sobered up really quickly. fast forward to now and i can drink maybe 2 drinks in succession (like in under an hour) and be pretty toasted…if I nurse the drinks over a period of time I can keep from getting too drunk. And I still sober up really quick. oh and I mostly stay away from sugary mixers if I can help it…

So, how was your first time introducing alcohol into your new body?

Hello All. Can I introduce myself. I’m Paul and exactly 4 weeks post gastric sleeve surgery. I’ve been trying to lose weigh all my adult life with varying degrees of success. All ultimately fruitless. There’s very few I haven’t attempted and I was desperate by the time I agreed to surgery. Although a various times I’ve topped 30 stone I was always able to cope with the excess weight. Not so these last few years and severe arthritis in my worn out knees has forced the issue. To get them replaced I have to be lighter. And hopefully ALM will be in less pain and I can move about easier. I was deeply ashamed about having to go down the path of surgery. I’ve loathed my size all my life and it’s had a profoundly negative effect on both my career and personal life. I was a fairly decent footballer in my time (hence the knackered knees) but undoubtedly the excess weight I carried in my younger years, whilst nowhere near as extreme, hindered my performance and damaged my self esteem. I first joined the NHS bariatric programme in late 2015 after encouragement from my GP but I promptly lost 7 stone and decided it wasn’t for me. Life, as always, got in the way and all that weight went back on by 2018\19 after I was made redundant and lost the plot. I was fortunate to get put back on the programme in 2019 and despite the hiatus of the Pandemic got invited to meet the surgeons in January this year. Can’t say I didn’t have my doubts as the date of surgery to nearer but I knew I was probably on my last chance should I walk away. The liver shrinking diet was extremely easy I felt. I stopped any form of alcohol a month before my date of surgery and I’m feeling OK now. I’ve had a couple of incidents of the foamies and have been sick twice trying to progress to purée/soft food. I’ve put that down to eating too quickly and perhaps slightly too much despite my efforts at not doing either. I find I hard to eat the 800 calories a day target I’ve been told to meet, and sufficient protein but I’m working on it. One thing that I do seem to be unusual for reading through this thread. I haven’t weighed myself since the day of the operation. Am I wrong not to do so? I can feel previously tight clothes getting baggy. My view is this is a marathon and not a sprint now and why torture myself if I can see a plateau going on for a couple of weeks. Nice to meet you all.

crzytchr....I hope that is what we do. I will probably be pushing for that! lol Tracy...my mom has told Lee to keep his mouth shut. And I am agreeing with you that his wife probably has too. At least I hope! lol Plain...that's a good idea too!! Thanks for the advice!! I would talk to Jacque (Lee's wife...my employee) about it, but she doesn't work anymore this week. Hopefully he's not stupid enough to try to start trouble with his boss's son-in-law. But alcohol makes you do stupid stuff.

I did "okay" during the superbowl.......the chips and dip kept nagging at me....but didn't drink any alcohol and stayed away from the sweets....oh, and drank about a 55 gallon drum of water......salty things are always my downfall....UGH. Paid my penance on the treadmill tonight, though.......I'm WHOOPED.....I do walk without holding on, but generally keep it around 3mph max....I have pretty short little legs, so that feels like a pretty good clip to me! My iPod is definitely my friend during a treadmill session. I have a playlist set out that keeps me going.....sometimes I just shuffle and skip through the slow songs if I'm bored with the playlist.

You know for years Suzie, they had programs for young men, that they had the option of joining the service to avoid jail time on small charges----non violent charges usually. One of my oldest friends her DH of over 30 years, did that, joined the army to stay out of jail, for alcohol related issues. Turned him into a man! The ALL ME attitude we are all finding is taken away from them there! Maybe we should send a bunch of people!!! LOL I am on edge----I know I am----and that may be a lot of my problem. I have avoided talking about it, and basically hid from it in general, and it wasn't until your line you wanted to say to your sister, about having problems too--it clicked with me! I feel relieved that I can recognize what is behind some of my stress. I was beginning to wonder if I just invited their attitudes! I called my DD to let her know I was taking Kinsey to the movie, and if she wanted to go fine, if not we would go without her!! While talking to her, my Dad called and invited us to lunch, after church. So in the end, DD, DGD and my folks and I went to Chinese food, and then us girls--Mom, me, DD, and DGD, 4 generations went to see Alvin and the Chipmuks!!! There is a point in the movie where the chipettes meet the chipmunks, and are smitten, and they are batting eyelashes and wiggling their noses, and I look down at Kinsey, and she is grinning ear to ear, and wiggling her nose. It was priceless. She loved the movie! Come home, talked to Rick for awhile, and now just vegging until my shows come on--new ones tonight!!! YAY!! Heated up a bowl of black eyed peas and cornbread for dinner. We haven't had any more snow, but the temps have not gone above freezing in days....high today was like 28 or so. Just yucky! My niece spent NY in the hospital, having emergency surgery---she had an ectopic pregnancy. She had been told for years---I mean lots of years, like 20---that she could not get pregnant. Then this! She is heartbroken. She wanted a baby so badly. It destroyed her marriage, them trying so hard, and in the end she turned to a lot of drugs, and hard lifestyle, I have to wonder what this is going to do. So do the kids go back to school tomorrow? I have none, here regularly to know if it is tomorrow or not. I'll check in after my shows are over....FINALLY new TV!!!

First off, anyone that compares smoking pot to smoking crack is probably on crack. And as far as the legality of it, I have yet to hear a decent argument for it even being illegal. It is less dangerous than alcohol and has a 0% OD rate. As Dr. King said, "We have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws". Now with that out of the way... :-) My biggest problem with smoking pre-op was that I would get some serious munchies. In a way I thought banding might fix that, not that weed munchies is the reason I got banded or anything. I just thought it would be a nice side effect of the band. I tried it a couple of weeks after surgery and I got some SERIOUS munchies. I didn't pig out or anything but I did eat more than I probably should have and I'm lucky I didn't cause slippage. I would be careful with it, just make sure there are no munchies around the first time you try. Everyone is affected differently, and I found out that even though I couldn't eat a lot that didn't keep me from wanting to. Good luck :-)

i personally think pot is a lot less dangerous than alcohol. i know that the reason docs dont want people smoking cigs before AND after surg is that A) it increases the chance of complications under general anesthesia and it inhibits wound healing. Katiebug I wish I were 18 again with that fabulous elastin rich skin, good luck to you!!!

I'm not a smoker of any variety. I believe if pot is illegal, then cigarettes and alcohol should be as well. They're far more destructive and addictive than pot as proven to be. I know many people on a personal level who use pot and are extremely high functioning intelligent people who are quite successful at the careers they've chosen. All that said, pot is illegal and it amazes me that the owners of this site have no problem with promoting illegal behavior. As for those who choose to break the law so publicly...at least when you get caught (post banded), you'll have the consolation that you'll look so much better in those prison jump suits than you did pre-banding. .