meggiep

I will be four weeks out on Monday. I was in a bit of shock after surgery only because no matter how much research you do before- and I was an encyclopedia!) your body had no idea what you were about to do! I was shocked I could not swallow- and for the first few days things were tough. Things turned around on day five. Honestly I don' quite feel like my old self yet- and perhaps never will as my old self never had to be so focused on drinking fluids and getting portein or counting carbs. However my energy is much better since starting mushies at 3 weeks as I am getting real food now! I am self employed- we are wedding photographers, so much of my work is from home. I had to hire a replacement for one of our weddings as my weight limit for lifting is 4 pounds unti next week. I have to say I am glad to be home during this recovery period- I also think I probably needed a but longer to recover than the usual person might due to fibromyalgia. I do honestly think three weeks is great if you can get it though many people return to work sooner- and you are 20 years younger than me so that is also a factor! ;-P I have you tubes from before surgery through day of to now- the link is in my signature. I suggest going to surgery day and then watching those to now to see the unvarnished truth- highs and lows. I feel better and better every day and I know once I am eating regular food I will come to day I forget I even have a sleeve- and I will tell you one thing- this is the best thing I ever did and I wish I did it at your age!

I am bumping this because I think it is a really interesting thing to compare- given the people who get upset about the stalls- I would love to see if pre-op diet plays a part.

I hear you! I never realized I would be learning to eat all over again. I told my husband they really ought to consider the first 6-8 weeks the recovery period since it seems like you are working from morning on to try to get all your Protein, Water, etc. and it is taxing! I am never hungry, and that is indeed what I wanted but then you do have to think about protein and getting more from food and less from the gawd awful drinks. I am looking forward to th day when I am eating regular food for my protein, fluids go down "fluidly", and I can NOT think about this sleeve! Just for an hour!

Is Unjury 20 grams a scoop? WOW! I have some arriving Monday - have always used the packets before and they are 21 a packet so I assumed it was 10 a scoop. That's great!

Many people re-start their weight loss by upping their calories. When you go that low for so long your body is bound to go into starvation mode, and hold on to every single thing. The principle of the plan that it seems most successful losers on this forum follow is to eat high protein to protect your muscles from being burned, and eat low carbs to force you body into ketosis- where fat is burned. The water is needed for washing out the byproducts of the fat burning. Exercise keeps it all humming. I have never seen is prescribed to eat 500 calories a day. What program is that? In reading that I seriously can see why you have lost so slowly- it does not seem chemically like it would work that well.

Cosmic! Truly.... I don;t suppose his middle name is John? That would be too much! We photographed a wedding once where the groom ws Michael John and so was his son and his father- they had my Michael John do a photo with them- the four Michael Johns. I am trying to figure out why suddenly after all these years, I have such a plethora of Megs around me! My Mom was Margaret too but she was Peg and I Meg. So we are a subset of the Meg's with sleeves (after you get yours) - Meggie's with sleeves and husbands named Michael!

I have heard that...but I also doubt most people take a long time to drink their protein! Mine in the morning has 45 but I spend two hours for sure drinking it too so I don't know what to think.

I have always been a slow slow loser but sadly you do take the prize! I know you know all these things but I just want to be sure you are drinking all your Water, counting carbs, and getting all the Protein. Are you logging your food? Sometimes it is eye opening. I only say this because I want you to have the results of your dreams, not because I am jumping to the conclusion that you are doing the wrong thing!

Not being able to lift my dog for a month! He just does not understand. I will be honest- the process of introducing food a little at a time, is difficult for me (I am in the midst of it now) as I just do not yet know the limits of my scale or how to approach my food choices and somehow incorporate vegetables and fruit. Neither of these things outweigh my joy at having the sleeve and being 34 pounds lighter after two weeks of preop and three weeks with the sleeve.

My husband and I busted out laughing as I read him about the appetizer! Well there are three of us so far on the Peninsula/South Bay. I am eating either a medium egg with a T of grated cheddar on it, 1/4 cup of cottage cheese, or 1/6th of the Eggface ricotta bake recipe- which is 1/4 cup. I guess that is 2 ounces. I don;t find it takes a long time though, as long as I make sure I am "empty"- that is really what I would call it as hunger does not enter in to it but I do need to wait at least two hours after my one Protein Drink of the day to have my egg, and then go for a walk and wait at least two to three hours before the next small meal. Otherwise I just can't eat as much. I need to calculate this stuff because I simply am never hungry. I make sure my morning protein drink is 45 grams- 3 scoops of a 15 gram/scoop powder. I make it will milk and that brings it to 47. So with that Protein drink 47 grams egg plus cheese 9 grams 1/4 c cottage cheese 8 grams Eggface ricotta 11 grams voila 75 gramss! I figure once I am really able to eat dense Proteins and more foods I may be able to say bye bye to the drinks, or at least substitute an unjury chicken Soup , which I find so much more palatable!

I can definitely go there but I prefer July 9th as my birthday is on June 25th and we have plans. I will also say we have a couple considering our photography services for 7/9 but I doubt if they book us they are major price shoppers.

I will be a month on Monday but so far have lost 16 pounds post op. I also lost 18 pounds on my pre-op liquid diet. I started a thread in post-op asking about pre-op vs. no pre-op diet and how it affects post-op weight loss. I had my first stall at 2 weeks but when I think about it I had lost 30 pounds at that point in four weeks! Of course my body was in shock. I actually consider my 2 weeks of liquids as my start date.

I can't tell you how reassuring it is to know you stalled at two weeks , knowing your ultimate great results!

I was thinking about something Crosswind said recently wondering if the pre-op diet, the two weeks of liquids or something similar has an affect on your post-op weight loss. I guess it stands to reason it would- to lose a large amount pre-op could send you in to your stall sooner, etc. SO I thought it would be fun to talk about our stats- if we did a pre-op, what it was, and what our first month or so looked like. I will start- I did two weeks of liquids pre-op . I lost 18 pounds on that. Post-op I lost 12 pounds in the first two weeks- then on day 15 I hit my first stall of 8 days . This week I have lost 3 pounds, breaking the stall. It seems likely my rapid weight loss in those two weeks pre-op may have brought that stall on sooner... Certainly I am not complaining, I still am now at 33 pounds lost and hopefully that stall was it for at least a few weeks. How about you? Pre-op or not? How bout post-op?

I HATE Megan too! ;-P My husband is Michael and he hates being called Mike- we both are constantly called Megan and Mike. Who would assume Meg is from Megan? You would have laughed in my Water class tonight- three people left early leaving five in the class and three of us were Megs. We joked that if we had to vote about anything the Megs could band together and out vote the non- Megs. Because of the confusion we all have a different name- the original teacher I met is Mean Meg only because of the times she kicks our butts, I am Meggie because many friends and family call me that, and the third is Megalita. You and I and Meg from NOLA who is on here can have a special subset- Megs with sleeves! Megs rule

Thanks so much for the book titles! One thing I want to ask is what you are allowed right now? My first week I was on Clear liquids plus Protein drinks and though I got my 80 grams of protein faithfully I was only getting about 3 carbs a day and I was so wiped out I could barely speak! My nutritionist said I should be on THIN liquids- and as soon as I added Soup thinned with milk, yogurt thinned with milk, etc. and raised my carbs up to 40 or so my energy level got much better! This week, three weeks for me, I have added pureed food and feel human for the first time- have been able to start working out, etc. Also make sure yo are getting your fluids- it is easy to get dehydrated and that will also wipe you out. Good luck!!!

Hi Eddie, I really sympathize! I agree you may need fluids by IV at this point- it is ultra easy to get dehydrated after surgery. Once that is addressed: Keep trying to find a Protein powder that works! After my surgery May 9th most of the powders I formerly liked were disgusting to me. I found one chocolate on ethat has 15 grams per scoop and I mix three scoops with 8 ounces of decaf, 4 ounces of milk, ice, and a splash of vanilla or Starbucks sugar free caramel syrup. Keep looking! Got to GNC- they sometimes have samples- lots of people have reported liking the Wheybolic Extreme 60 and it can give you 40 grams in two scoops. You need a foundation of protein to keep your body from consuming muscle. I set my phone alarm to go off every 12-15 minutes. If I don't have that reminder I fall way behind in my fluids. I also keep several different kinds of Fluid at hand- decaf tea, propel, Water... I agree with the fact water can be the hardest to get down so having other sugar free stuff around is important. Eddie it will get easier. You do need to spend a lot of time and energy getting your fluid and protein habits in place right now, plus slowly introducing food. Just know in a couple of months you will actually come to a day (and I need to believe it too!) when you wont even think about your sleeve every day. Good luck to you!

Oh I hear you! Every day I tell myself I will try to get it down in an hour but I just can't...they really are like medicine to me, and mine is mixed with decaf, milk, vanilla, and shaved ice. Min ends up about 12 ounces. How many grams of Protein is yours? I use three scoops for 45 grams to give me a good foundation. The rest of the time - if I don't use the alarm on my phone (at work you can use the buzzing mode!) then I fall totally behind. Girl- it's work!!! Today I was at the pool and asked a woman in my class who had RNY three years ago if it gets easier and she said she can totally gulp Water now- I hope that is true for us. The other thing I do is in the morning I gather several different liquids- a 16 0z bottle of Propel, a 12 ounce keep it hot cup of decaf tea, and a 32 ounce bottle of water. My husband has rigged an ice bucket that I keep the water and propel in. I change it up with them whenever the larm goes off because I still find wat more difficult than some other things. And here I sit at 10:30 at night and I still have about 20 ounces to go! Luckily I stay up late! Good luck!

I did it! It is in my post about the recipes.

Ok everyone here is what I came up with for the wonderful RIcotta Bake, so delish on purees or anytime I think! I could see adding a layer ofr ground turkey when I am on a fuller diet. Anyway, this nutritional info based on using full fat ricotta cheese, regular parmesan (I used shredded from Costco) a large egg, and low fat mozzarella cheese, as well as my particular fave vodka/marinara sauce for the topping . It is also based on dividing the complete dish into six servings, which is about perfect for my 1/4 cup ability here at three weeks. So if you want to eat more, multiply my totals x 6 and divide it into the number of servings you want it to be. Obviously if you use low fat cheese all the way around it will change. Like Eggface I prefer full fat for the most part though I don;t mind low fat mozzarella I am all about the flavor! I use Spark People to feed the ingredients in and create the recipe and then got the nutritional data- easy! Hope this helps anyone obsessed with having the right thing to log every day like me! Serving = 1/6th pan Amount per serving Calories 160.7 Total fat 10.9 g Cholesterol 74.0 mg Sodium 335.8 mg Potassium 74.0 mg Total carbs 3.1 grams dietary Fiber 0.3 grams sugars 0.9 grams Protein 11.5 gram I have all the Vitamins and stuff too but its a lot to type and my fibro is affecting my hands today!

First of all, since we have the opening and closing of our stomachs intact you can drink right up until you eat- it is after you need to wait. AFter that I set my phone alarm for every 15 minutes to remind me to drink. It is work- for sure, but so far three weeks out, I have gotten all my protein and all my liquid every day since day five. I still drink a 45 gram protein drink in the morning first thing to give me a good foundation. It is work, but it is all doable!

I think I could stretch to Hayward for sure! xoxo

I am so bad with CA geography I don't know what would work best for you- I am good to go to San Jose, San Francisco, or Oakland. That's about my limits in the different directions! I know we have two in SJ but they could probably manage any of the other two places too (also Fremont of course or someplace like that...

I am in Redwood City so I am definitely in for a SOuth Bay get together as I cannot (yet) manage a longer drive though I have hoped losing weight will help with that! Maybe we could aim for someplace in between RWC and SJ like Sunnyvale ;-P

I am thinking maybe there will be at least some closer to me so we could also have a meetup- I wold be fine going to Fremont or another place across the bay if necessary but my nerve pain in my back does not allow a really long drive like Sacto ;-( In any case I'd love everyone to tell where they are from!