PdxMan

I loved eggs pre-surgery and they still make my tummy get funny. cheese I can handle fine. But looking at the other stuff, one thing pops out. Nitrates. These cause my wife issues, but she is not a sleever and as a whole, they are not good for you. I have heard of folks developing all kinds of different issues post-sugery. Perhaps try a few days of non-processed foods. No BBQ sauce, deli meats, sausages or hot dogs. You will not notice a difference after one meal. It will take a few before you will notice.

Have you tried a variety of foods? Are there any common ingredients in the foods you are eating? Could be a lactose intolerance thing. Perhaps a gluten thing ... wheat allergy ... something. You may need to dial back to mushies/pureed foods for a bit ... Tell us what you are trying to eat typically.

Dee, trust me. 85% of your stomach has been removed. There is no possible way under the sun to eat anywhere near what you did. I used to eat huge meals and now my 125 pound wife can eat double what I can. I know it can be difficult to wrap your head around, but things are going to change. It was the change I needed to help me change my relationship with food.

I remember transitioning to new stages was a little scary, but just try to do what your medical team has told you to do, listen to your body and come here, read and share your experience. It does get better and easier.

Common concern, but utterly impossible early out. Check out my earlier post on this topic.

Remember that it is only a guide ... not necessarily the size of your stomach. If you Dr sewed tight to the bougie, then that would be your size, but if they don't, then your actual size would be larger. There is also the concept of the oversew, which would make it tighter. The bougie just ensures the sleeve isn't too small and/or actually doesn't get cut across all together.

Funny I should read this today. Last night someone sent me a link to a video of people crashing on treadmills. Man, those things are DANGEROUS!! LOL! After viewing that, I would say to wait at least 6 weeks ... the same as recomended for bike riding. This is because if you crash on your bike, you run the risk of damage to your sleeve. I'm not saying you are going to have one of these bad treadmill experiences, but you sure would hate the consequence if you did. Can you walk outside?

I have an explanation HERE.

So, there is a school of thought that says it is better to work on distance early out ... not worry about pace. Once you are able to get distance, you can increase your pace. Think of it this way. If you are able to consistently run 6K without stopping, you will be able to run 5K faster. When you are able to run 10K without stopping, you will be able to run your 5K even faster. You should be mixing up your pace as you run your distances as well. This will help your body to NOT have muscle memory. If you run at the same pace for every run, you will find that you cannot run any faster. Muscle memory is great for tennis, golf ... many sports, but not running. We don't want to train our bodies to run at the same pace, else we will never run faster. That is why one of your workouts each week should be short distance sprints. This will teach your body how to rotate your hips/legs/feet faster.

I was in the same boat at 6 months. At about 8 is when I could handle Pasta. I've tried rice since as well, but have opted for quinoa, since rice is so nutritionally void whereas quinoa has everything I look for in rice, plus some Protein. Needless to say, the quantity is a mere fraction of what I could do. Went to Spag Factory couple weeks ago. I could finish a hearty portion before. Now, my wife and I split a hearty portion and I eat about an eighth. We get two more meals out of the leftovers. Gotta love it.

It will be different for everyone, for sure. For me, it was about a week, I think. It was shortly after this that I stopped weighing myself daily as I could see it was going to quickly make me crazy. When you weigh yourself monthly, you don't see the stalls and it was easy for me to keep a positive attitude. I would suggest ditching the scale. It really does you no good early out. There is no meaning behind what it says. Your body is still healing.

Search the site for 3 week stall. This is very common and just one of the stages your body goes through post surgery. Don't worry. Very normal.

I just want to re-iterate one point made above. When we're talking about gas pain being normal, we're not talking about intestinal gas (but there is some), but surgical gas. When they are in there working, some air does go into the body cavity. They do try to 'squeeze' it out, but there is no way they are going to get it all. This air is trapped inside your body. The only way to get rid of it is for the body to absorb it. To aid in this effort, they recommend moving. Walking or whatever. It is painful and it will absorb eventually. How long will it take? It depends on the amount of air that was left. If the surgeon didn't do a good job of squeezing it out, then you may have more, hence, more pain longer. Try to get walking and get your liquids in to help transport the air out of your system. Let us know how it goes and good luck. I know you've heard it, but it will get better.

I am a big fan of running and training for races. I can really see progress and that is fun. For my cross-training, I do Tabata (high intensity interval aerobics) or spinning. Both get my heart rate up, but nearly as much as running. I do hit the weights, but not as often as I used to as Spring has started putting demands on my time and the first thing I have had to sacrifice is weight room time. I pretty much do all my running outdoors, even in the rain. So much better than a treadmill, for me, as where ever I run to, I have to run back. On a treadmill, I can rationalize shortening a run.

Well, we definately shouldn't be eating anything remotely like relish in the first week. That is liquid stage. I think we're talking several weeks out, right?

I know there are folks who like the Isopure, but I have never met them! I have tried a couple and couldn't finish them, either. Didn't like them at all. I settled on Premier brand from Costco. Soooo much easier to drink.

Yup, used relish in mine. Where did you read no relish? It's a pretty soft food.

For starters, you are WAAAAY too early to be weighing every day and worrying about weight loss. Your body is still healing. Let's take a look at this objectively. You just had 85% of your stomach removed. You are eating between 300-500 calories a day. What does it mean if you lose 1 or 2 pounds? That you lost fat? What about the swelling in your stomach and your incisions? That is basically Water and it is reducing ... right? What if you don't lose at all? Does this mean you are a failure and you won't lose any weight at all? What if you gain? Does this mean you are gaining fat? Really? It is so easy to get your head spinning around during these early days, but you have to remember your body is healing. It just went through major surgery. It is no longer being fed the way it was. There are some adjustments that it has to make. Give it room to do this without worrying. Again, you just had 85% of your stomach removed. You have read the postings on the forum. Do you really think you are not going to lose? Stop weighing yourself. It does yourself no good and sound like it may be giving an unsupportive husband ammunition to help sabotage your self esteem. Just don't do it yourself. No good can come of it. Wait a couple weeks. Weigh yourself monthly. You will see losses and it will do wonders for your self esteem. (Plus disarm any non-supporters in your life) If people ask, "How much did you lose today?", tell them that you are not going to be a slave to scale and that you don't know. It is non of their business, anyway.

I had one ... undiagnosed. When the surgeon was doing my sleeve, he corrected the hernia. Because of it, there was some additional pain when swallowing right afterwards, but by no means was it something I couldn't deal with. Before surgery, I had reflux issues all the time. Hated it. Since surgery, none ... zippo. It has been awesome! Don't worry about it and know that it is a good thing to have it corrected.

Do a search on the site for 3 week stall. It is quite common.

Yes, I just came off of a 4 day birthday bender for my 7 year old to be followed up by an Easter Egg hunt. Cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate ... oye! I did give in and I physically felt like cr@p afterwards. I think with our new sleeves we are more nutritionally sensitive to these swings. More likely, this is how "normal" people react and it is just new to us. It is what keeps them from going on these sweets benders ... I'm learning ... sometimes you have to hit me over the head ... but I learn ...

You're moving on to more solid foods, so you are going to feel the restriction more. This is one of the reasons why we are not supposed to drink before, during or shortly after eating. The pyloric valve sits towards the bottom of the stomach and opens up to let digested food pass into the intestines to be absorbed. This food must be in a somewhat liquid stage which signals the pyloric valve to open and food begins to drain out of the stomach. When you are in the liquid and mushy stages, this occurs much quicker. When you move to solids, the stomach acids provide the liquids and the food is broken down. This takes longer, so you feel fuller longer. Proteins take longer to digest, so that is why we eat them first, so we get the restriction longer and ensure we get the proteins we need.

Well, I think you're in luck! You have a simple solution and already know what you need to do. I would recommend going back to square one. You've done it before, you have to do it again. It's like the person who goes into the Dr and says my arm hurts when I do this, and the Dr replies, well then, don't do that. You crave sweets and eat them ... feel like crap and don't lose weight ... well ... guess what my advice is going to be? Get rid of all the sweets in your house. Don't buy them and if someone gives you a box of chocolates, say thanks and give them to someone else. Make their day and yours as well. Don't give into the mindset of, "If I eat just one, it won't kill me" ... it will. Just get rid of all the trigger foods. There's another old saying ... sit in a barber shop long enough, you're going to get your hair cut. Best way to avoid getting a hair cut is to not walk into barber shops. Don't think I'm immune to this, by any means. I know these demons as well and battle them daily. But, I exercise a lot and when a chocolate bar is staring me down, I know I am going to have to run a mile to balance that bar ... then I grab an apple instead ... (sometimes )

July 8th, 2011

Ah ... see my post to your other question.