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For me it's my disease of compulsive over eating. Despite my WLS I still have the disease and I struggle with it every day. I go to a therapist who recommended Over eaters Anonymous (OA). It's patterned after Alcohol Anonymous (AA) and I also attend monthly group meetings sponsored by my surgeon. With OA I have a group of people I can call or text if I feel that I will eat something not on my food plan and they offer me constructive support. There are those that can stop eating when ever they want I can't I need to constantly work on it. One day at a time. Seek help and build on your past success. Good Luck.

Ok, so detail EXACTLY what you are doing. Let's figure it out. Take this assessment. 1. How much are you eating or drinking every day that has any calories in it? Calories, Macros 2. Do you weight, measure, and log EVERY bite that goes in your mouth? 3. How many times per day are you eating? 4. What times of day are you eatin? Are you eating at nite? 5. What quantities are you eating at each meal (ie weight on a scale + volume in a measuring cup) 6. Give us an idea of an average day of meals/foods you eat. 7. Are you exercising? 8. How much water are you drinking? 9. Are you drinking alcohol? Frankly, I felt I was a slow loser, too. But in the end I did better than national averages at 1 year. My weight loss picked up when I started getting most of my nutrition from real foods rather than protein drinks/yogurt/cottage cheese, etc. Dairy kicked my booty with losses. Also, I HAD to keep my calories/carb/fat SUPER lolo to lose weight. To lose comfortably, I had to be in the 600-800 calorie range and ideally around 650. Sad but true. There are many here like this. I'm basically in maintenance at 900cals. I'm a 5'4" very average, non-athletic, 56 year old woman. I walk 60+ minutes daily and do a tiny bit of strength training. AND I do IF. LOL. So it's a major kick in the teeth. 25 lbs in 3 months is very average/normal. In my opinion, many surgeons do not level with their patients and allow them to believe this is "easy" weight loss and that it will look like 20-25lbs in a month. But reality is it's average of 2-4lbs/week with most of it falling in the 2lb range. So guess what? That's 8lbs a month in a month that only has 4 weeks. Plus there are stalls that happen. Hope to hear back on this assessment and let's see if we can help?

I waited about 5 months. I’m nearly 9 months out and have drank about 4 times. For me, if my stomach is empty, alcohol will hit me really quickly and a little goes a long way. Now granted, it’s been a few years since I was a regular drinker, so my tolerance hasn’t been high for awhile... but yeah, strongly recommend pacing yourself to get a handle on what your tolerance is. I never drank and drove before- out of an abundance of safety- but I can 100% say that post-surgery, I do not/should not drive even after just one drink. So please be careful!

Yeah, I have one every now and then, when I drink alcohol, but I can't drink much because they end up hurting my belly. You're fairly fresh from surgery, if I'm remembering correctly, so I would hold off another 6+ months if I were you.

Matt, wait you had your surgery a year ago so technically you're really not cheating anymore if you drink alcohol right? Had my surgery only a month ago, and 11 freakin' months is way too long to wait without Vodka :-) On my first week post op, I was eating steak. I was chewing them really really good, then I'd spit it out. I only lasted a week doing the liquid diet after the surgery. I started eating soft fish and mashed potatoes on my 2nd week. Bad, Bad, Bad Gastric Bypass Patient!

I had my first alcoholic drink on Valentine's Day this year. I had a bourbon and water. I was super buzzed pretty quick.

Dubchild--and it's hard to explain, right? Obviously we choose to have the surgery and took all the steps to follow through with altering our insides in hopes of a road that leads to better health, but there IS a loss. I feel almost crippled. I always knew food had power of me, that I didn't eat right or couldn't eat the right portions of the right foods, but I never looked at is as a true addition, like drugs or alcohol, but holy smokes, it is! I had a lot of visits with the NUT and a diabetic nutritionist over the years, and I had the prerequisite psychological visits, but I almost think I need a 12-step program now to get over this loss! At least I know how to share this feeling with others who are contemplating bariatric surgery. I think all should be prepared for a period of mourning and an understanding of what that mourning period will feel like. I would have still gone through the surgery, but maybe be better prepared for this psychological drain.

From what I understand, the problem is not just the alcohol, it's the carbonation too. It would probably not be as enjoyable as you might imagine. Get a tropical non-alcoholic fruity drink!

So here is a thought, I dont drink but I am going away in the summer to the Caribbean and I was thinking laying at the beach and a bartender comes around with a very cold beer. What would u do? I know we are not allowed to drink alcohol so I'm just curious anyone had a beer after surgery and what happened

Too many simple carbs will make me have it. Also alcohol will. I do better with adequate protein, healthy fat, and lots of leafy greens and low glycemic veggies, and a few berries here or there. Sorry you are having this!

Wow I have to admit that I’ve never had the foamies. I’m extremely lucky, I think. I’m the person who never threw up once during 2 pregnancies, never threw up once while on a year of chemo ( and I even held down a full-time job during) and has never once thrown up due to drinking too much alcohol. Much to nobodies surprise, I’ve not thrown up ( or even come close to it) during this procedure. I’ve got stomach cramps a few times, and that’s been when I’ve tried to push food and water too close, or when I’ve tried to eat something within 3 hours of awaking. For some reason my sleeve just doesn’t want food in it until at least 10am and preferably later. I’ve all but given up on breakfast because I can only get down 1/4 of the amt of food I can have at dinner and even something like a couple spoons of cottage cheese get stuck and I start to have spasms and light nausea. And if I’m feeling light nausea, I know it’s serious because I almost never feel nausea.

I was in a very similar situation and my dietician sent me this checklist: o How often are you weighing yourself? Try not to weight yourself more than 1-2x week. Stress from seeing the number and being frustrated can actually stall our weight loss as well. o Are you consuming liquid calories? Juice, smoothies (not protein shakes), alcohol, etc. can add empty calories and provide little satiation. Instead, opt for water! o How are your food choices? Poor food choice may result in increased calorie intake. Try minimizing high-fat protein sources such as cheese and peanut butter. o Are you consuming enough protein? Aim for 70+ grams per day. o Are you drinking enough water? Aim for 64 oz. per day. o Are you getting enough sleep? Aim for 6-8 hours of sleep per night to reduce stress hormones causing sugar cravings and increased fat storage. o Are you walking? Until cleared by the medical team daily walking and staying with light activity is recommended and encouraged. I had been following most of these, but I was weighing myself everyday, only getting in about 60g of protein, and maybe 48oz of water. I changed all of those things and in one week I dropped 5lbs. If there is anything on this list you aren't doing or having trouble with, then I'd start there. Good luck!

The **ONLY** reason I can still club/dance... is the alcohol. At work, lol, not so much.

That would require me behaving myself. Instead I've just gone off the rails, eating whatever my carb loving self desires. I sometimes try to focus on protein, like having my burgers protein style, or snacking on meat and cheese (those meat and cheese roll ups you can buy everywhere are great) It's all very strange. I came back from vacay with a new low weight. Not too unexpected due to all the walking I did. It went up slowly, which I was fine with. Was away for a full week with lots of poor choices + alcohol. I was pretty afraid to jump on the scale this morning, but found I lost two lbs (but still above my low weight) So for now, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll just log everything and weigh myself, and see how long this lasts.

Happy Ketosis luv, your body is now burning off fat. My breath, either I have gotten used to it, it's. my armpits, they are my bugaboo, washed with soaps, alcohol the. ( in theory to kill off skin bacteria) put baking soda there, by might call I have the same smell, rather like onions , garlic and a subtle rotting undertone. But it is what it is , on my 4th or 5th different antiperspirant/deodorant, the Arm and Hammer seems to do the best, family has never complained about it but I think I can constantly smell it. And I am also RnY but 6 months out now. Maybe my burden to bear, but I do like the 70 pounds that are no longer a part of me!

I’m 2 days post op gastric bypass (sorry, not a long term success to share). I wanted to say , though, that that was my thought process too and my PA said “ listen, I’m not going to tell you what to do, I’m going to give you the facts. The bottom line is is that you have to be happy, because you’re going to keep coming back and checking in with me and I don’t want to see you with regret having chosen the sleeve and not bypass. “ Because of my history of weight gain and loss and eating disorders, bypass was the better option for me. I’m home, I spent 1 night in the hospital and have no regrets at this point in time. I knew myself well enough to know that if I got the sleeve, at some point, the chances of me regaining weight were higher than if I did the bypass. Everyone has a different experience; for me, I don’t look at dumping syndrome as a bad thing. To me it’s a tool to listen to my body and an assistant for making good choices. I went into this with a lot of information. People have complained about calcium deficiencies, but I learned that this could be because they weren’t the taking their vitamins. I work with a girl who doesn’t take her vitamins on the weekends, doesn’t like to exercise, drinks with a straw (no no!), makes not so great food choices, no drinks alcohol. She’s the kind of person who may, down the road, say how it didn’t work for her. I plan on being a success story. This was my first surgery, I was petrified! I went into the operating room and fell asleep and woke up in recovery. I was nauseous for a couple of hours, but that was it. The pain was nothing worse than I would have expected. Read all of the good and bad stories, learn why some people had bad experiences, was it something they could have prevented, was it because of a previous medical condition, etc,. The best of luck to you! You’ll make the right choice for yourself. Be honest with yourself, keep a journal, make goals to stick to, and feel free to reach out to folks because you’re not alone!

I eat the 'One Bar' protein bars - they are a little outside your preferences but they are big, so you could easily eat half. 220 Calories, 20g Protein, 24 carbs, 1 sugar, 6 sugar alcohols, 9 fiber for the Chocolate chip cookie dough. And 210 Calories, and 22 carbs w/ 5 sugar alcohols for the Birthday cake one. You can order them on bariatric pal, but I also have them in my grocery store (I don't care for the lemon one).

I also had a drain. I had to baby it. I emptied, measured cleaned and logged its contents. It was work. But I believe I'm healthier for it. I had low energy for quite some time after surgery but i rolled with it instead of fighting against it. I didn't need stress adding complications to the pot so i tried to remain super chill about everything. It was major surgery after all and i was honesty happy to be alive. My incisions took a while to heal and were very itchy so i cleaned *around* the incisions with alcohol before putting the hydrocortisone cream *near* the incisions. It helped alot. One week down many more to go !

My wife waited until one year after my WLS to start the process for hers. We wanted to see how the new lifestyle would affect us as individuals and as a couple. She sees my struggles and I see how she has helped me with them. So, together as a team she will get her sleeve and together we will work to stay with a healthy lifestyle. A few hard and fast rules that I adhere to. I don't eat processed foods as they have no value for me post WLS. I measure all of my foods as I need to know how much I am putting into my body. I don't drink alcohol (never did) or carbonated beverages. I drink fluids 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after I eat. I am mindful of what I want to eat. Most of all I seek support wherever I can get it. As for food prep, I bought an air fryer and this little gadget is great. I cook fish and chicken in it and they both come out very good in little time. Best of all prep for the foods is very minimal.

Any one have some good suggestions for a non-alcoholic cocktail? I’m going on cruise in September with girl friends. I’d like to feel that I’m part of the party at the bar but don’t want to have alcohol.

Yes- which is why I stopped beating myself up about not following mine exactly and revising it to fit my needs. How do these surgeons come up with the post op plans? Mine says I can drink alcohol 4 weeks post op; other people have to wait 6-12 months? Some are requiring 80 g of protein beginning immediately after surgery and others are 15 g for the first week? Some people are supposed to start with multivitamins day 1 post op and others wait 1-2 weeks to integrate them? Are these surgeries so radically different that the post op diets need to differ this much? I’m listening to my body and pushing to get max protein but I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t get in 80 g of protein. Sorry.

I hear you! I am 4 weeks post op now and I have 2 mantras: "I'M NEVER GOING BACK!" and "IT's JUST NOT WORTH IT!" (when tempted to taste or take a bit of something not allowed.) This is way too much work, money, and risk to throw it away. Use this pre-op time to really clean up your eating. After surgery, you want every bite to be as nutritionally dense as possible, and as healthy as possible. The "New you" deserves nothing less. Get rid of the artificial sweeteners, colors and flavorings. Get rid of the soda and caffeine. (Caffeine may come back later, but you may find you feel better and more stable without it and really not want it anymore. I LOVED coffee, but can't even stomach the thought of it now!) Absolutely get rid of the sugar! ALL sugar! Get rid of processed food. Cook it yourself. Get rid of simple carbs/starches. Minimize wheat or get rid of it altogether. Learn to enjoy other whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, millet, teff, amaranth. Learn to enjoy veggies - LOTS of veggies! They will be the life saver of you success. Of course, get rid of alcohol and tobacco. If you can start making these lifestyle changes NOW, you will have a much easier time after surgery. Recovery is hard enough without having to cold turkey off addictions like sugar and caffeine. Use this time to really EMBRACE the changes. Each change you make means you "WILL NEVER GO BACK!" As far as temptations go, yes they are there, but..... "IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT!" I had to fix a full Mexican meal for a family party, make muffins for work, and cake for a birthday party. I did take a couple of tiny tastes to check for seasoning, but then I spit them out. I remind myself that my time will come to have some of these things, but not right now. Each choice you make is a choice to "go back" or "never go back." Remember that a slip up one day is a mistake. A slip up 2 days in a row is called RELAPSE. Just get back on board immediately. I found that keeping my food journal is critical. I plan all my meals (as tiny as they are) the day before, so there is no guess work the next day. We got ourselves where we are by a lot of bad choices over a long time. (Even if we thought they were good choices at the time with the dieting, starvation, and other crazy stuff we did to wreck our metabolisms and disrupt the normal hormone pathways.) It will take a lot of GOOD choices to rewire our brains and reframe our thinking about food - what is wonderful (veggies) and what is poison (sweets and simple carbs.) We can do it! Let your OCD and rules work for you!!!!!

Everythinganna: besides drinking alcohol every night and the scrambled egg, we are so similar. No judgement here! I have my post-op visit Wednesday, I’m waiting to see what the doctor tells me about exercise before I begin.

One of my friends invited me out for a girls night on Thursday. She did not know that I had surgery but I told her about it so the situation wouldn’t be uncomfortable. I am not someone who goes out regularly but I am looking forward to this and also seeing how it is being out without drinking alcohol or gorging myself on food. Should make for an interesting evening!

I’ve decided just to do this “my way” and ever since I’ve been at a lot more peace. I may not be getting adequate nutrition and vitamins but I am giving myself a break and letting my body adapt. Vitamins were making me puke so I switched to vitamin patches. I ate HALF a scrambled egg (which foamed up in my throat) so I am mostly just drinking a protein water and a shake here and there (but never getting in the required 60-80 grams). I have been weighing myself every morning first thing when I wake up. I have been consistently losing a pound a day but now I’ve decided to stop weighing. I am sleeping like a freaking rock. After drinking a bottle of wine every single night for years (a habit that I slowly phased out during the weeks/months leading up to surgery) I am feeling and sleeping better than ever. I have no pain/no nausea whatsoever but a very very small capacity for food. I do get hungry now and last night I ate a pepperoni from my families pizza delivery order. And I squeezed it till it was bone dry with no oil and chewed it up thoroughly. No problem whatsoever with that. Figured if I only ate one pepperoni for the whole day yesterday I was OK. And most exciting I have zero desire to drink alcohol. It is actually somewhat repulsive to me. I feel good now!! The first week was a nightmare. I’m doing my post op visit this week hopefully (I may have to reschedule because my car is still in the hospital parking lot from almost 2 weeks ago - three hours away). Otherwise I’m doing great. My personal goal is to get out and walk more frequently. I have been taking only one real walk a day. Hopefully none of this catches up to me because I am not following the doctor’s orders to a T but I have had to tweak it based on what I can and can not tolerate. Please don’t judge! Anyone getting in real walks/exercise yet?