Susanne

My surgeon basically said that after the wound healing, it is "just a liquid". He didn't spell it out, didn't give me anything in writing, but the way I understood it is that it is discouraged for a couple of reasons. 1. It is high in empty useless calories. 2. Most people make dumb decisions after drinking which is bad in general but after surgery, you can hurt your pouch if you gorge on crap. 3. It is difficult to get in 64 oz. of liquid and if you fill up on booze it may prevent you from drinking good and hydrating liquids. 4. Last but not least they are DOCTORS and no doctor will ever tell you "Sure, go ahead and drink alcohol". Saying no to alcohol is part of every doctor's "party line", together with "don't smoke", "exercise", and "drink plenty of water" (among others). Take from this what you like :-)

I love 1% - it's just the right balance between milk flavor and low calories. Especially in the winter, I find skim milk often a little bit too icky. Too bad not everyone carries 1%

I never had a restriction on milk either, not sure where you read it

Here are some words of caution, before everyone thinks making yogurt is the best thing after sliced bread... I have made yogurt and I am surprised that everyone says it's not much work and so great. I found it a lot of work, a little messy and time consuming (if you work full time). Slowly heating up the big pot of milk to 170°, cooling it down to 110° - and if you are over or under it doesn't work. At 110°, you have to slowly stir in the starter bacteria, and if you don't do it right it doesn't work properly. Of course knowing milk, you have to stand by it the whole time and stir. Then transferring the milk to the little cups, which always spilled a little. And then waiting 12 hours or so for the yogurt maker. If it worked, the yogurt was nice, but often enough, it was too cold, too warm, not stirred sufficiently, the bacteria was exhausted etc. And of course you only know after the whole 12 hours if something went wrong. I had yogurt that was gritty, too liquid, chunky and lumpy... We used it when my husband was laid off because he was home and had the time. But for everyone who is working full time and trying to exercise and trying to cook healthy food after work, I think it is a lot of work and the outcome is not always guaranteed. I consider myself a decent cook, and I like to cook and make things, but that wasn't it for me. We have this yogurt maker: http://www.amazon.com/Waring-YM350-Professional-Yogurt-Maker/dp/B0017YS1GI (for sale, if you want it, LOL) Here is the manual for it, just so you can see how it works before you jump in: http://www.fantes.com/manuals/waring-pro-yogurt-ym350-manual.pdf Price wise, if you add it all up, it's not much cheaper (if your time is worth something to you). You need to buy the equipment (starting at $20, mine was more). Then, for 6 glasses of 8 oz. yogurt: You need to have 5 oz. of GOOD yogurt at hand for every batch you make (Greek yogurt has between 5 and 7 oz.) = at least $1 You need to buy the milk (1/3 of a gallon for 6 glasses) = $1 At least 1 hour for preparation = $? (you judge) You have to wait for 12 hours for it to be ready If you want the Greek yogurt texture or want to use it like sour cream, you now have to strain it which is a mess in and of itself. ------------------------------------- At least $0.34 per 8 oz. of yogurt, plus equipment cost plus your time plus waiting plus cleaning up = not worth it for me Believe me, I am a serious yogurt snob and American yogurt still freaks me out with all the additives and the weird texture. Yes, you can control what goes into your own yogurt - but if you then add sugar free syrups, you are back to square one anyway. And I still prefer my 2% Fage over homemade any day and if I look for a sale and buy in bulk, it is a much better deal for me.

I can't even express how sorry I am!!!! LOL What's your diet? I assume it isn't just the dreaded liquid diet but more what I had, ie. 800-900 calories? I had to buy "their food" but in the end, it worked out find. Just remember, you'll come out the other side a better man with a much easier life! What is 4 weeks compared to forever? You can do it - start a blog, it is much easier to follow for most and I can read it at work :-)

The thing is - you will have a ton of restrictions for the weeks following the surgery. If you cannot follow it now, why would you be able to follow them afterward? That's what my surgeon gave me as one reason (and the liver etc. is the other one). I found it perfectly understandable. If I am not able to follow a few rules (and your pre op diet does look much better than most) before surgery I am very likely to wreck my staples. I don't like the comparison at all to be honest, I can tell you for sure that being able to follow a 2 week diet before surgery is worlds apart from using the sleeve as a tool. Think of it - we were all in the same boat, non of use were reasonable or sane eaters - and from what I see, we pretty much all love the little sleeve we have. You'll get through it, and once you are done (and reasonably recovered), getting through it will be easier than before...

I know I should start to work on strength a little more. I am fairly good at getting my cardio in - we have a treadmill and a recumbent bike at home in front of a projector so I can watch TV and movies while walking/running/biking. I also still have a gym membership with Snap Fitness but I find it very hard to make time to go there. I guess I am more of a home body and I like to be at home after work (or out partying, but that's a different story). So, I just got the Aldi newsletter, and they seem to have a good selection of "New Year's resolution" equipment. I would love to get their kettle bell set which includes 5, 10 and 15 pd weights and the set is $25. I guess with those things you can't go wrong, in the end you could use a gallon of milk and exercise with it if you like. The other thing that caught my eye was the home trainer.: shake weight, no wiggle-the-fat-off mechanics, but more like a weight bench paired with the Bowflex - also using the "rubber bands" for resistance. This link has much more info and it seems to be the same: http://homegymsreviewed.net/cory-everson-6000ht-home-trainer-review/ Or here from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/home-trainer/dp/B002DF143W?SubscriptionId=0VH8RTY47RB4PWN6PDG2&tag=httpwwwgetfre-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B002DF143W Aldi has a great Money Back Guarantee but if someone already knows it is crap, I'd rather not go through the motions. What do you think? Worth trying or better not? Thanks Susanne

Hi all, I have been tracking my food and exercise using Livestrong/DailyPlate since many years. I am generally pretty happy with it, the food database is amazing and I have a nice log. Unfortunately, they are not able to fix/release a working Android application, so I am looking for something else. What sites are you using to track your stats? Is there an app for it? does it have a big food database so I don't have to enter a lot of stuff? Please advise Susanne

I think breakfast is easy, egg and Banquet turkey sausage (or some other brand) makes 15 grams of Protein and 180 calories You could try a high protein Cereal for breakfast. This one is nice but also pricey: http://www.target.co...rotein%20Cereal 15 grams of protein for a serving - add a cup of milk and you have a protein blast in the morning. It tastes fairly good too! If you want to go all out, try a high protein oatmeal - I am not talking about the Quaker stuff with the little bit of extra protein but this stuff with 35 grams of protein: http://www.bodybuild...re/dym/oat.html

I am not sure this is the best way to start cooking for someone with VSG. It probably works if you are a "normal" person, but what's the sense in cooking with pasta, rice and potatoes if that's exactly the stuff you shouldn't really be eating in the early phases? I do like your other suggestion - invite people who you know cook well and ask them to cook with you and show you. It's the easiest to learn by watching someone, much easier than from a cook book and if you have questions, they will answer while a cook book is just sitting there ignoring you, LOL

Wow - I am very impressed with the 50 lbs shoulder press. The shoulder press is by far my weakest, embarrassingly so I just started to go back to Snap Fitness over the holidays (well, I went twice), and I hope I can keep it up even though it is a pain to try and fit the gym in with a busy work day. I know I need the strength training in addition to cardio, but we have a treadmill and a bike at home and it is so much easier to do that while watching a DVD at home. Snap offers personal training too, and I was considering just doing a few sessions to learn some safe weight moves I can do at home. Somehow, I am always freaked out that I am going to hurt myself with free weights - and in the past, I did hurt my elbow and my shoulder just from doing a wrong move or using too much weight. I love the Snap Fitness machines, because they naturally restrict the motion to a safe range so that the chance of hurting yourself is lower.

I guess it all depends on your general well-being. I had more or less no pain post surgery and was able to get all my Protein and liquids in. You can't strength train without proper nutrition, right? If all the above, I'd say 6 weeks sounds right, maybe even earlier because the lap VSG never had a restriction /wrt lifting or so. My exercise guy said that you should be careful to not excert yourself during the early few weeks where you have a hard time getting the nutrition you need --- so you really wouldn't want to burn any extra :-)

You really have to fix your eating problem...and yeah, 300 calories 8 weeks out sounds bulimic to me too, even if it is because you have stomach issues

I was just laughing about a mass gainer from GNC because it had 850 calories in a serving - that sounds like it would be a great thing for you then. Just make sure you are really burning 3000 calories because that seems like an awful lot!

Mushies after 6 weeks but in my plan, yogurt was part of full liquids - which came after 2 weeks

I had PMS worse than my surgery. I had no pain, not right after surgery and not in the weeks after. I had no nausea and no vomiting either. It was a little annoying at times, because you can't drink but I made great friends with the ice chips and was overall happy. I did have a nice room and wonderful staff which definitely makes it much easier. I did press my pain button but not really because I was in pain but because it helped me sleep at night. From everything I have heard about child birth, I'd say child birth is a lot worse. So, it seems like if everything goes right, you have no pain. With complications, you may have some.

LOL, I was peeing like a race horse and was so embarrassed. They had the little bucket thing in the toilet and I was constantly filling it up. Why are they monitoring that anyway?

LOL - are you sure it's not these pretzels? Because these pretzels are making me thirsty!

How does that work? Curious...

Hi all, we are having a family Christmas on the 26th, but I wanted to have something "nice" on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for me and the hubby but somehow I can't come up with anything. Roast, turkey, goose etc. are all way too much for the 2 of us and with only one eating really :-) Who has some festive ideas for Christmas dinners? Happy Holidays Susanne

I am not an exerciser by nature either. We have a treadmill and it is pretty much parked in front of a TV. Pick a show you always watch, and commit to only watch it on the treadmill - or get your favorite series or one you always wanted to watch on DVD. Christmas is right here, put it on the wish list - or go to the library. Or go online and use Hulu or so. A sitcom is 20 minutes, a drama is 40 minutes - those are great workout increments. For me it works. I can pretty much guilt myself into walking on the treadmill when watching TV because really, it is right there and I would be sitting on my a$$ watching TV so there is no excuse about not having time. I know, a lot of people wouldn't want the treadmill featured so prominently, but hey - you had people cut out parts of your body, what's so bad about a treadmill (or bike or so) in the TV room?? Otherwise, if you really detest the exercise equipment in the living area, put it somewhere else and get a little portable DVD player or an old laptop. I honestly can do anything if I can do it front of the TV, even Iron dish towels, fold laundry - and yes, I am a total TV whore...

Did you think there is a difference between those two? My Prilosec was prescribed but it said OTC on the pack. And now, 7 weeks out without anything, the ONE DAY where I take Omeprazole from costco I get this. They have the same active ingredient, how can that be such a difference? Or is it all coincidence? Eureka, this sounds like that I have, right under your ribs in the middle? Tiffy, is that your type of discomfort too? It's pretty much gone now, but I still had it when I got up, so it was going on for about 16 hours. I am probably overreacting, especially considering what pain and discomfort a lot of other people have and I got nothing at all aside from this now!

Well, this may sound stupid, but I don't think I ever had hearty burn. Every now and then, after an extensive night out, I had a "sour burp" but just one and that was usually it. Now, since yesterday afternoon, I am having some discomfort right at my solar plexus, ie. under the sternum. I was telling a friend, who asked if I am having heartburn. She doesn't know much about WLS but she said that's where she hurts if she has heartburn. On the other hand, there is no burning sensation, it almost feels like the something is stuck but there isn't because I can eat and drink without restriction. Yesterday was also the first day I tried a new and cheaper PPI, Omeprazole instead of Prilozec so I think she may be on to something. I took a Prilozec after that last night, but it is still there this morning. In addition, I actually had a little bit of cashew chicken with rice yesterday for lunch. It wasn't much but it was the first time I had rice. Does any of this sound familiar? Does anyone have heartburn like this? I always thought heartburn was always sour burps...

I really liked mashed potatoes at this stage, sometimes with gravy or with creamed spinach. I like grits too, yummy with a little grated nutmeg and "I can't believe it's not butter" spray. I had refried beans, with salsa and a little Greek yogurt. If you like, mix some hummus with Greek yogurt, which makes it a little creamier and adds protein. I am not a big soup person, but I think they are having some great packaged soups by Pacific Natural (http://www.pacificfoods.com/our-foods/carton-soups), you may need to take a blender to some to puree the chunks but most actually worked fine as is.

Like everyone else, I am so with you. The clear liquids are fine for a couple of days when you are more busy trying to heal but as you get better - your food doesn't!!! I had a tomato broth and a beef broth that was bearable but after 10 days I was ready to jump out the window. How long are you on clear liquids? I was on it for 2 weeks and the day when you eat a spoon full of mashed potatoes or grits, it's all forgotten...but then starts up again toward the end of that phase. Now I am six weeks out and am finally allowed soft and moist foods which is HEAVEN. You'll make it. If you are on a plan that is slower than others, it'll have a reason. It drove me nuts to read people talking about tuna salad within the first 3 weeks when I knew it would take me another 3 weeks to get there, but every doc is different! Good luck and stay strong!!!