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??????ªit wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! I can do this!! I took my protein shake and my Greek yogurt and I didn't even think twice about all the food they had!

okay guys, I am one week out of surgery as of today! I had my post op appt. yesterday and I've lost 13 lbs since my pre op. My question is this: my doctor allowed me to move up to soft foods yesterday as tolerated. So, this morning for breakfast at 7 a.m. I had a chocolate carnation instant breakfast. Then, at 9:30 (just now) i was still hungry!!!! So, I went into the kitchen and had about 1/3 cup of cottage cheese with a half of a pear (no sugar added, of course!) Now, i feel full. I am hoping that I'll be okay until around 1 p.m. or so. I just don't want to over eat. I mean, that's what got me here in the first place. I have no restriction in my band. I won't get a fill until about 3 weeks. Last night, I had about a 1/2 cup of food... mashed potatoes and squished peas (without the hull). I was still hungry an hour later... and then I ate about 1/4 cup of frozen yogurt.... STILL hungry about 30 mins later. SO, i had about a 1/3 cup of cereal with skim milk. I woke up starving!!!! And that's when I decided to do the Carnation Instant Breakfast drink. SO, what do you think???? Please, be brutally honest. I do not want to screw this up. But, my doc keeps saying that i shouldn't be hungry. so, LAPBANDSTERS, I am begging for your opinions!:thumbup:

I love chopsticks!! I even manage to eat yogurt with them( VERY SLOWLY!) The only downside is when picking up a large piece of something, I have to consciously remind myself to take a small bite...

I'm 1 week out and started mushies today. My Dr told me that I should only consume foods/bites that are smaller than my thumb nail and to chew it until its the consistency of yogurt. Is that what you were told as well and do you actually follow this rule? I made myself 1 egg white today and it took me forever to eat the darn thing and it was kinda gross to chew/swallow it at such a Water, thin consistency. Not appealing. Don't get me wrong, I know there are foods out there that probably require lots and lots of chomping, but is it really necessary for everything we ingest?

I am 54 days out from surgery. I have lost 28 lbs since surgery. I went in for a check up on the 5th of this month. I received a 1/2 cc fill for the first time at that appointment and now I am more hugry, sooner, than I ever was before. Was getting the fill a mistake or is this normal? My doctor wanted me to eat more solid foods, he said I was still eating a lot of what he considred soft foods (i.e yougurt). I normally have yogurt for breakfast just out of convenience and time. I have since changed to having two eggs in the morning around 7-8 am and I am starving by 11-12. I try to eat fish or something high in protein and a vegtable for lunch and I am starving again by 3 in the afternoon. I will eat dinner between 4-5 in the evening and have again, something high in protein like chicken or fish again and a vegtable and I am again very hungry before bed. I measure my food and weigh it carefully but it just doesn't seem to be enough to last me. What should I do? The doctor doesn't want me to supplement with protein shakes. Which I though was a great idea to boost my protein intake and keep me satisfied. With the 3 meals I eat a day I am not always getting a full supply of the protein that they want me to get to. I am so confused and hungry! I need help!

At three weeks out, I was only on thick liquids. I had things like cream of chicken Soup, mushy tuna salad, cottage cheese, greek yogurt. I would not even think of anything with breading until a ways in. I have just started (at 4 months) trying to experiment with one nugget and I scrape most of the breading off. If you eat too little, your body will think it is in starvation mode and will not work with you. What I would try to do is have three meals a day. For example, breakfast have a soft scrambled egg - a bit later have a Protein drink (Atkins or Muscle Milk light) - lunch have some cream soup (chicken, tomato, mushroom). Be sure to drink Water in between. For dinner have some cottage cheese, yogurt, tuna - something like that and if you are still hungry, have another Protein Drink. I would eat canned fruit only in its own juice (not with light syrup). Watch the smoothies as the skins from the fruit can bother you early on. You have to start being really careful now and get into the habit of thinking about every thing before you eat it. You will do fine, just watch carefully what you eat.

My Nut also!! For over a year Before WLS I would make a Protein drink with Yogurt & Uncooked Oatmeal I Loved it! but at this time Yogurt is not my Friend Lol

Yes and Yes!! With grilled you chicken you may need some sort of sauce with it in case it is a bit overcooked (it would be dry and might be uncomfortable in your sleeve). I love greek yogurt. My FAVORITE is the Fage 2%. They also make a 0% which has no fat and is lower in calories (but isn't as creamy IMO). If you are watching your carbs then get the plain (i substitute this for sour cream in recipes). Then flavor it yourself with sugar free syrups or crytal light packets. My favorite is to add espresso powder and half a packet of splenda. The variety is limitless really. Yogurt sits very, very well for me. So this is my go to on "tight sleeve" days as well.

Ever since I got banded, June 1, I have been having major problems sleeping. I'm not in pain at all, so that's not the issue, but I just toss and turn all night. I don't know what the problem is. I've even been taking my Ambien and still...nothing. I haven't had a full nights sleep in about 5 days. It's KILLING me! Has anyone ever had problems with this after surgery? Ugh! Also, today I finally get to move from "clear liquids" to "full liquids" which, for some reason, includes things like oatmeal and yogurt (I'm not complaining, I've just never considered them liquid before). I'm super excited because I really miss CHEWING but I'm kind of scared that it won't sit right with me and I'll end up getting sick. Any advice?

grits, yogurt, sugar free pudding, sugar free popsicles, puree vegetable beef or chicken noodle soup in your blender. You can puree pretty much anything, like spud mama says -- it may not always look good, but it tastes the same.

Hey everyone, I have a quick question. ...what were your doctors orders as far as diet after surgery? I had my surgery on 6/13, was put on clear liquids from day 1-10, soft foods such as yogurt, pudding and cream of soups day 10-20, then mashed up baby like food from day 20-30.

I'm a baker, not a cook so I still eat mostly convenience foods. Protein shakes, yogurt, Jerky, soups, etc. during the day. I cook a healthy dinner for the family every night and that's pretty much the only time I put effort into food prep. I'm very fortunate that my hunger is all but gone so I don't have an urge to snack anyway. Every now and then I'll cook an egg for b'fast but at 3 months out I still can't eat a whole one. I hate wasting food so it's just easier to dink a shake.

Oh heck yeah, I can totally relate. I was really worried about it before surgery too. I had made some small changes and lost some weight. I have been off reg AND diet sodas for almost a yr now. But I was still a fast food type person for the convenience, as well as the "gotta have it now" mentality. I didn't plan ahead and keep things on hand or prepare meals ahead of time. And that hunger I used to have, where I didn't wanna even take the time it required to cook before i shoved it in my mouth. But the sleeve has helped that, I don't get the omg I am starving, get in my belly NOW, feeling. I get a sort of empty feeling and kinda go by what time I ate last to confirm it is actually real hunger, not head hunger or acid. But I have to admit, I do mostly easy/convenient type foods at home. Cause to be honest, I don't know any other way of life,so I think as long as it's a good protein source and all, it's ok. I don't do the protein shakes as much, but I really like the taste and convenience of boiled eggs now. So I boil half a dozen or more at a time, to have on hand to eat, or to add to tuna/chicken salad, or make egg salad with. I've been babysitting this wk, and having to get up and leave WAY earlier than I am used to, so I have been taking my boiled eggs, cottage cheese, cans of tuna and chicken, my diet green teas, so I will have the ability to keep up with my protein. I use greek yogurt a lot not just cuz of convenience but it's high in protein and makes meat go down so much easier if I make it into dips. I add it to the tuna/chicken/egg salad. I use it in place of sour cream. I do string cheese and other cheeses a lot to add more protein to stuff. I will also take a whole bag of the frozen chicken breasts and put in the crock pot before bedtime, then the next day I divide it up into small portions and use some for chicken salad, some to dip in greek yogurt/w/ranch mix. I really like the hidden valley fiesta ranch mix. Or I will use other sauces and flavors like BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, white sauce (the kind that goes on bbq and smoked chicken) etc. to kinda change up each meal. You do have to watch the sauces for sugar and stuff, but some have fewer carbs than others. But I do eat a lot of chicken. lol. I like how the crock pot will make meat tender and fairly moist, I hate dry meat. But anyway!!! You are not alone!! And you have done a fabulous job losing 45 lbs pre-op, congrats!!! It seems to me, you are doing a good job of preparing yourself mentally for the sleeve and making positive changes. Give yourself some credit, and I am working on becoming more of a real cook, but until i master it, as long as I do protein first, I ain't gonna worry too much about it. The sleeve really does make it easier to stop and think and plan meals out, so you have that to look forward to!!

The usual jibber-jabber - remember if you are losing weight, even if at a slower/reduced rate, that isn't a stall. And are you hitting your water intake with no problems? Still taking vitamins every day? When I hit my first road block it helped me to actually bump my calories up a bit. Obviously at 2 months out that isn't easy to do. I did little things like adding a spoonful of Greek yogurt to my protein drinks. Just getting it up by an extra 100-200 calories seemed to help. I did tweak my carbs a bit to try and get them a bit lower where I could. Don't get too bothered with it. It's frustrating but things will kick back into gear before you know it.

Well, I must have been the luckiest bandster ever, or the doc just managed to deaden some nerve in my tummy - because I have had so little pain that it hardly bears mentioning. The gas has been present - occassonally a little pressure, but not painful or problematic. I have been reading about new bandsters with pain for a long time and I was quite surprised NOT to be one of them. I am generally such a wuss!:knockedou I went on Tuesday (2/21) to my two week post-op visit with Doctor Fox. While I haven't lost any weight officially, I know that my measurements are still catching up to the 16 pounds I lost on the pre-op diet. My clothes fit again - and my face is visibly thinner. I forgot about that pointy chin I have... While this makes me happy, I still need to get up and get back to the gym. Work has been so crazed lately that I have been very bad - I haven't been to the gym since prior to surgery! This weekend - it's the Treadmill or Bust. I have not been very compliant on the food side, either... I started eating things consistently a day or two prior to when the doc's diet said I could... Bad me. I have currently eaten everything except steak - including bread. I had a fish sandwich for lunch. I have the Vanguard band - and while I have some limited restriction during the day, I have little or none at night. So far, though, this has not distressed me too much. I am practising my chewing skills. Knowing how much I have to concentrate on this act, now, I guess I spent the last 40 years swallowing my food practically whole. Considering how fast I used to eat, that's not impossible. :yuck: I have to guard against getting hungry - since that is when it is very difficult for me to get the food fully ground up before swallowing. There have been several times when I knew that some not-quite-well-chewed bit got past me - and I was waiting for the pain - but it never came. The big band means that the food is pretty much just Pausing - and then moving right by. So far, I haven't had any major portion control issues - maybe just slowing down is enough that the stop signal gets hit. I am on the fence about getting a fill. My doc says I can have one after my one month visit on the 7th - but I am afraid. I mean, geez... I have no pain and I can eat anything I want if I chew it well. My bathroom scale said I was down a couple of pounds today - so do I really want one? But, on the other hand - I have already said that the food is only pausing - the big band is mostly worthless without a fill... and the danger of being able to eat anything is that I will eat everything. No restriction is too much temptation. I think I will have to get a small fill - whether I want to or not. I got this surgery for a reason, and no matter how nice it is to be spoiled, I better take the next step. *fear* I hate pain and I don't want any PB's!!! I really am in this for the long haul, though. I don't want to lose weight so fast that my whole body sags and I get that big wattle under my chin. I am doing what I can to stave off the panni problem - I wear a girdle 24/7. A comfy one to sleep in and a tougher one during the day. I started wearing it about 2 days after surgery. My belly flopping around was way more uncomfortable than wearing the girdle! I wish I had started doing it 10 yrs ago when the panni first started to hang!! I know I will have to have PS if I ever want to have a flat belly. It's just a fact. I am wearing a sports bra to lounge and sleep in, too. I don't want the girls getting bruised on my knees!! It's an adjustment to sleep with garments on - but I guess it will be nicer if I ever have to run from a fire in the night or anything. LOL! Thank goodness for Bestform. They make a lovely cotton-spandex sports bra that slips on over your head in big-girl sizes. No tags, no hooks, just soft support. Again, I should have started sleeping in one when I was 14. Oh well... I will never mess with the girls - not even if I have to roll them up to get dressed in the morning.... So far, this thing is working... I have evolved a little bit now that I have the official ok to eat real food. I was eating yogurt & cheese and soft things all day at work and then eating a little bit of whatever DH cooked for dinner. These last couple of days I have just been drinking my breakfast shake (min. 40 grams of protein + vitamins & calcium) and eating some small thing for lunch. Yesterday, I had a cup of Chili. Today I had the fish sandwich. I am pretty sure that my calories have gone DOWN by doing this... I was parcelling out about 800-900 calories worth of protein shake, SF pudding, cheese, yogurt, etc and just nibbling all day long - which was GREAT for keeping me from getting hungry - but with just the shake and one thing for lunch, I am probably at 700-800 calories instead - depending on the day and the phase of the moon. But DANG - you could eat a lot of stuff, if everything comes in under 70 calories! I think that I will never properly count calories - I mean, I hate that crap - but I need to keep in mind what the calorie counts on my food are. I imagine after my fill, everything will evolve again - which is fine, too. Ruts are bad. I don't ever want my body to "get used" to anything, except for exercise! I think I will have to boil myself up some chicken breasts and do like I used to do when I did Atkins - low carb during the week, anything on Saturday. Maybe banded, I can carb on Sundays, too. It's hard being pure around my beloved. But, I do lots better when I don't have to worry that I have the right foods. Chicken & cheese sticks with dipping sauce were a staple during the Atkins days. I just need to make them up again. If the food is here, and easy access, I will eat it... most of the time. I also know that, even with no fill, exercise would make the difference. It takes A LOT of calories to move my beautiful bulk... Now, if I could just get work under control again, so that I could consistently get to the gym, life would be good. The biggest problem is that before I was banded, I would work until 7 - get home at 8 - run to the gym, come home and eat at 9:30 or 10:00. That won't fly any more. Not only will I drop from low blood sugar; but I have to eat before 9 so I can go horizontal without a pouch full of food. I *might* have to try going *GASP* in the morning before work. (ICK!!! Did I just type that?!?) I am going to have to do SOMETHING - cause I have to get to the gym at least 3 times a week - and there are only two days in the weekend! LOL. Maybe a snack in the late afternoon and coming in a wee bit earlier to work. Hmmm. A little earlier to work seems easier to accomplish than actually working OUT before work - and the whole showering in public thing has never really worked for me. Yeah, that's the ticket. If I get in earlier, SUPPOSEDLY I can leave earlier. We'll see how that goes. I got here just after nine today. For me, that was early - by almost an hour! If you are not me, and you have read through all this blather, I love you too. I figure you must love me to read through all this personal sorting out. Hope you are having a great day, and that something more exciting than this entry happens to you, soon. (in a good way.) :]

I had soups, sf tapioca, yogurt, string cheese, cottage cheese, protein drinks, sf carnation instant breakfast, gogurts but mostly soups....

Hot coffee or hot tea helps me when I'm tight. I'm post-menopausal so I don't experience the hormonal shifts that others deal with.. I can't advise on that. But I know what you mean about being too tight for yogurt.. I had yogurt for Breakfast this am and had to stop and take a shower before I could finish it.. not that I threw up on myself.. but that I felt tight and sometimes a warm shower will help. You didn't mention how much Fluid you received on your 2nd fill. My largest fill ever was 1cc. I don't need big fills to get results. Usually I get .2cc's, and occasionally I get .tcc's. (that's POINT 2 and POINT 5). You might be another one who needs to creep up on a fill. Sure, we have to go in more often, but the incidences of too tight/unfill are greatly reduced. Hope you get some relief in the AM.

Jay..you sound like you are being too hard on yourself. Fruit, yogurt, nuts.. sounds like wholesome food maybe the gallbladder has been holding you back. I'm actually curious whether high, moderate, or low fat is beneficial for the gallbladder. So many people that lose weight have problems, but I wonder whether it's the low fat diets that people frequently use that create problems, or whether dietary fat intake has no bearing and that it is some other mechanism at work...

At 7 to 10 days out I was on mostly protein shakes. At least four of my meals were protein shakes, one would be soup (pureed) and one would be yogurt or pudding.

I agree with Mis73 on this issue! You have to think of it like a detox, and you will go through withdrawals like nicotine, drugs etc. I don't know how true it is but I have heard that for some dropping the sugar is worse than other substances. I know when I detox I get cranky, headaches, my systems cleans itself out, I have broken out, just feel flat out depressed. It will make it easier to avoid or to have in very limited amounts once you are off them for a bit. My suggestion is to try to keep off them as long as possible and maybe try to substitute other things for it. There are some good products on the market that use splenda and things like that. I also have found sometimes when I am craving something like ice cream or chocolate I make up a Protein shake and toss a banana in it with some extra ice. It gives me the chocolate/the coldness/sweetness/and a bunch of protein in it. Yogurt can be good to help you over the hump! Alot of people on here do a piece or two of dark chocolate or other kind of sweet if you cannot shake it. But try not to set yourself up for feeling negative on the band. For most of us that have been on multiple diets before, only to gain back the weight plus some extra. You figure each time you do that, and keep gaining over the course of years you are just going to see the number going up, up and away. Try to get a control on that sugar addiction, and try not to let it control you! Good luck in your counseling for it and keep us posted!

I'm 4 days out. On my list I can have yogurt like lemon light and fit dannon, thinned cream of wheat, in addition to of course, protein shakes and other liquids. So I took about a half cup of this vanilla ice cream which is totally melty because I'm having it so slowwwwwly. Honestly because of the 10 day pre-liquid diet this is the best thing I've had in 3 weeks. Question, how fast will I know if it isn't a wise choice? Will I possibly get diarrhea or nausea later. I seem to be tolerating it so well but of all the horror stories I'm not sure when I'd be out of the woods so to speak. Did anyone have this in the very beginning? So far I had 2 protein shakes (totaling 65 grams of protein today), some water and this. Thanks!

Same here cheese is no problem. Neither is yogurt....go figure

If you stick with protein while traveling it shouldn't be to bad. Lunch and dinner just make it protein dense. Even for breakfast, I'd rather have a plain Greek yogurt, or an omelette? than cereal or protein bar... But for me those things are the devil I don't lose weight if I depend on them.

I really like the Mayo Clinic diet. Mason jar salads are my go-to for work lunches: https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolynkylstra/mason-jar-salads?utm_term=.ouMPZYqa0d#.buyv0YWnG7 One way hubby and I compromise on junk food...he is only allowed to bring things into the house that I genuinely don't like. LOL. All other junk had to be consumed at work. (Rumor has it, he has ice cream for lunch a lot) I'm not a fan of certain types of cookies and treats he likes...so those are the ones I'll pick up for him....ones I kinda...hate. Apples are wonderful things. With peanut butter, they're even better. If you have a fridge at work, keep cheese sticks, baby bellas, yogurt, single serving cottage cheese. Also keep low sugar oatmeal packets, sugar free pudding, and anything else you can find that's either low glycemic or high protein. Fruit and veggies are good food. Rediscover hard boiled eggs. Switch your bread to low gycemic options...pumpernickel, whole grain, sourdough...and cut your bread in half if you can. Try high protein wraps. Experiment with chia seed pudding, avacado toast, and homemade protein packs with nuts and cheese and dried fruit. Try several different protien shakes and bars....try for low sugar and high protein. See if you can get a metabolic test to get a true idea of your body fat and set a reasonable calorie goal. if you shoot too low, you'll cheat. Don't cheat...start working on a forever diet you can live with:)

Canned chicken and tuna are great sources! I add a little bit of olive oil and get creative with salt-free seasonings. Yummy and satisfying. I usually pair with a 1/2 of serving of flatbread or crackers and some fruit or a greek yogurt. I am usually too full to even finish an entire meal.