Oregondaisy

Society tends to bond over food. We celebrate most everything using food: birthday cake, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas Cookies, Memorial Day and Fourth of July bbq, etc. I can see how not being able to share and partake of food together on those occasions may cause us not to feel as close to others as we used to. We share food in order to, subconsciously, nourish each other so then I suppose that we have to figure out how to nourish and care for each other without food.. The thing to remember though, is that it's only difficult in the beginning. After awhile, you can eat more, and you learn how to put a couple bites of this and that, to have a taste of all the foods at these social occations. In the beginning, when we can only eat a few bites, we try to do that, but after the first 2 bites, you're wondering what you're going to do with all the food on your plate.

I use a mini blender and I blend them up with ice so they are like a blended margarita . They are like a milkshake to me. I like mine thick and the blended crushed ice makes them a lot thicker. Yummy! I had a magic bullet and it broke. This one is Hamilton Beach from Walmart, and it works great. I didn't want to shell out another $50 for a magic bullet. this one was $19.

I stayed on liquids and mushies/very soft for way longer than my doctor told me I needed to. I quickly figured out that if something caused pain, not to eat it . Solid food is difficult to digest and it's a realy learning curve on how many bites of it to eat at first.

I'm 3 years out and I thought my stomach streteched too much. Well I've found that when I went back to eating tiny portions similar to when I was first sleeved, my stomach shrunk some. I am back to being full on very small portions of dense Protein. If you're eating slider foods, of course you're going to be able to eat a lot more. The 2nd stage of a sleeve is not a gastric bypass. it's the DS. If you don't know anything about it, there is a DS forum on obesitiyhelp.com

If you look in the food forum, under Protein drinks, there is rating of Protein Drinks. I think it's pretty accurate sinice I've tried many of the protein powders on that list. I d idn't make up the list. I found it online but I agree with the ones they say are excellent and good. Right now I like Matrix. I get it at vitacost.com It has a good taste with the lowest calories and carbs I've found. I like the orange cream ( I add more SF Torrini orange syrup) and the chocolate.

yeah, quite a few peopl ended up coming in that night. The chat room is a great way to get questions answered. Sometimes we don't have people in our lives that really understand being sleeved. It's nice to have someone to talk to who knows what you're going through. I love to chat with other sleevers, in the evenings.

is there no sauce like regular chili has a tomato sauce?

The chewables at Walmart are not calcium citrate. they are calcium carbonate which we don't absorb.

It looks like the chat room is working again! Anyone want to talk? I've got the chat window open and I'll hear the doorbell ring if anyone comes in, while I read some posts. Hope to find someone who feels like talking! click on chat above!

you're lucky you can drink it. Most of us become lactose intollerent after surgery. Drinking milk gives a lot of us horrible gas and diarrhea.

Mexicali is safe. I spent 3 weeks there when I got my face lift. I stayed at a friend's house who a nurse and moved there. We went all over Mexicali in her car. I really liked being there and felt perfectly safe, everywhere we went.

It's really kind of hard to explain the frustration and depressed feeling you get when you are around other people eating. It takes a long time to be able to eat more than a few bites. You want to eat, but when you do, you feel stuffed after a few bites. It's very frustrating (the best word I can come up with) to think you're going to eat, and are prepared to eat, but then get so full so fast. These are the times we think "what have I done to myself?" Now that I am past 3 years, I eat very normally. I try to remind people who are newly sleeved that it won't always be that way. It's really good to work on our issues with complusive over eating and binging because it's very easy to regain after 3 years. chips Cookies, and pretty much all junk food goes down like there is no sleeve there.

That sounds really yummy. I can't wait to try it.

Just try to remember that the post op diet is about a month out of your life. Your stomach and staple line need to heal without any pressure right now. You have the rest of your life to chew food and eat whatever you want, in small portions. Keep your mind on the prize-the new you! You'll be shopping and wearing cute small clothes and feeling really good before you know it!

Hey I never thought of using the Mio drops. I use the Torrini sf syrups or DaVinci sf syrup. I do love the Greek yogurts that have the fruit in them, but the carbs are very high. I have also put SF jam in the plain. It's really good when you add in a little sf pudding mix. The syrups thin out he yogurt but the pudding thickends it back up and makes it quite tasty.

Gee that's odd, since my surgeon said we most definitely do have dumping syndrome and it's no different than the way RNY (gastric bypass) patients dump. My daughter had gastric bypass, and she was the one that told me what was wrong with me the first time it happened to me. She said "mom, you're dumping"

You may need help with your baby for the first week or so. I had no pain to speak of, but I have seen ohers on here who say they were in pain for the first few days. You will get pain medication. As far as skin goes, it does stretch out. You're young, so you have a better chance of some tightening. You really can't lose over 100 lbs though, and not have some saggy skin.

I have a really bad sweet tooth too. Unfortunately, I can eat them with no trouble. It's when I eat something high in sugar and high in fat, that will make me sick like that. Once I ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and I had to find a couch in the mall to lay down for an hour.

If you want to lower your carbs, eat plain Greek yogurt. If you put about 2 tablespoons of cheesecake sf pudding and a splash of Torrini's or DeVinchi sf syrup, it's a very nice treat! I love to use the coconut syrup.

We as sleevers most definitely DO experience dumping. I have done it many times. I asked Dr. Aceves about it and he said it's because our stomachs are so small, that too much sugar or fat (or combination of both) will get into our systems much too quickly. It's not just diarhhea. It's sweating, feeling nauseous, and rapid heart beat. The diarrhea comes last.

From a nutritional point of view, collagen and Gelatin are a poor-quality sole source of Protein since they do not contain all the essential amino acids in the proportions that the human body requires—they are not 'complete proteins' This is why most nutritionists and doctors do not want us using these types of protein. They are poor quality and when we are consuming so little, it's very important to get the best protein available.

Well that really sucks. I''l pm Alex

I haven't been in the chatroom for awhile so I have no idea if people have been using it. It's a great way to get questions answered, or just talk about how things are going with other people who know how you feel. I'm going to leave the chat room window open for awhile if anyone wants to talk! Just click on chat , above!

I really like Protein shakes. I am one of the few crazy ones! The only thing I find is that for me, if I tell myself I am going to only do shakes, that's what I do. For some reason, if I tell myself I am going to right and eat well, I always manage to eat some sort of junk anyway. I don't think it really matters if you get your protein from shakes or food, as long as you're following your doctor's post op plan. The real problem is we live life in the world of temptations, and it's very easy to let old habits come back as we are farther on down the road. For me, it will always be a battle.

Yes, it's normal to be able to eat more as time goes on. I am at 3 years. I ate a whole 6" once. Most of the time, I can't finish the last little bit and eat about 3/4 of it. Plus if you're a man, your sleeve is probably longer because you're taller. Don't worry. It's normal to stretch a bit as time goes on. It won't stretch too much though!