Escape_Pod

Keep in mind that when you were sleeved, many of the nerve endings in your stomach were cut, so your "feelings" aren't very reliable right now. And, it takes some time to convince yourself that you're really going to be ok if you eat 1/4 cup of scrambled egg and stop. I had the hardest time getting over that mental hurdle that "if I don't eat more than this I'm going to be hungry again in 30 minutes!" If you ARE "hungry" again in 30 minutes, this early out it's head hunger (or stomach acid!). Measure, eat conservatively, and then stop. After 45 minutes, start the liquids again. Also, nothing pureed or really soft is going to make you feel the restriction of your sleeve like dense Protein will. No, you can't eat it yet, but when you do, you'll have a much better connection to what "full" feels like. Until then, measure, eat SMALL bites very slowly, pause in between, and stop as soon as you begin to feel satisfied. This is the hardest stage - it will begin to click for you better when you get to more solid foods. Until then, honestly, you're not eating for sustenance - 2-3 tablespoons of food is NOT going to meet your nutritional needs. Your body is relying on the protein shakes, and Vitamins, and your fat stores for now, and that's just fine for awhile. In the early weeks you're retraining your stomach on how to digest food. You put it through some major trauma - think of it like a newborn - it's not ready for much yet.

Please please PLEASE take your vitamins! It's not just about feeling the best you can. It's about serious health issues. I take high-dose bariatric Vitamins and still ended up with a thiamine deficiency, which can eventually result in neurological damage if it goes untreated. Take those vitamins, and if you can, take a GOOD QUALITY Vitamin. We don't absorb well, even as sleevers. A good bariatric-formulated vitamin provides you with high dose nutrients in their most absorbable form (just like we need to take Calcium citrate instead of calcium carbonate - many vitamins come in various forms, and the cheaper form isn't always the best quality). And have your blood work done regularly. You had the surgery to get healthy, right?

You're very smart not to push it! When you're ready, try something different, and eat it very slowly. Some of us find it takes a bit longer for the swelling from surgery to start to go down, and we need a few extra days before moving on to the next food stage. You'll get there. Welcome to the "losers' bench"!

Steph, Tastes vary, so what I like may not work for you, but I take the Celebrate chewable bariatric multivitamin (Mandarin Orange), the Bariatric Advantage Iron Chewy Bite (chocolate Raspberry Truffle), and the Bariatric Advantage Calcium Citrate Chewy Bites (chocolate or caramel). I started with chewables because I couldn't swallow the pills, and stuck with them because I like them! I'm not sure about the gummies, but my understanding is that most Vitamins come in various forms. So, for iron, there's heme iron and non-heme iron. There's calcium citrate, and calcium carbonate. The cheap vitamins you find often use the cheap version of the vitamins, which may not be as easily absorbed, particularly by us post-ops. And, cheap vitamins may be manufactured in places that aren't as stringent about quality control, so you may or may not be getting what the label says you are. Maybe I'm a goof for believing it, but I do believe there's value in taking a good quality bariatric-formulation Vitamin, even if I have to go out of my way to buy them. I also take additional Vitamin D, B12 (sublingual), and a probiotic.

Just had to say I LOVE your new profile pic - you look fabulous!

I love my pressure cooker, I just need to build up my list of recipes for it! Most often I make pulled pork with a tenderloin, and some salsa or a pouch of taco sauce (I love the new Frontera sauces). It goes into an enchilada for my husband, and for me I just add a few black Beans and a sprinkle of cheese, lettuce and tomato. It freezes well too! It's so much faster than a crock pot, and very very tender and moist.

I too struggle with sugars, carbs, and binge eating, so I feel your pain. I take a multi-pronged approach to getting myself back on track - whip out all the strategies you can come up with, the more the merrier. Here are the ones that help me: (1) Take some time to really, really focus on why you want to get back on track. Ideally, every day. I find this helps me up my motivation in the face of stress or temptations. I often journal for a few minutes, jotting down all the reasons I want to get back on track, and all the reasons I don't want to eat the foods I shouldn't be eating. But whatever works for you - meditate, have a pep talk with yourself in the mirror in the morning, just take some time to really focus your mind on what you're working on. (2) Get the sugar and carbs out of your menu. If your husband's frustrated seeing the path you're taking, hopefully that means he'll be supportive in removing the temptations. Get them out of the house. Stock up on good-for you foods. The first few days to a week will be the hardest, face that, and commit to getting through them, whatever it takes. Eat a little more veggies or Protein than usual if you need to, or have an extra protein shake. You don't want to be combatting the sugar/carb cravings and hunger at the same time, so eat dense protein and veggies, snack on them if you need to. I'd vote for hard boiled eggs, or chicken breast, or something like that over a shake. Don't be afraid of some healthy fats to keep you satisfied. (3) Have a strategy for combatting the munchies - get up and go for a walk, take three deep breaths, or distract yourself with something. Make yourself a cup of tea, or sugar free cider, or coffee, or whatever floats your boat, as long as it doesn't have carbs or sugar. I chew a ridiculous amount of sugar free gum - it's a habit I need to break eventually, but at the moment it's working for me, and it beats the heck out of eating chocolate or cookies! (4) Find a way to get some accountability. I track my food and exercise on MyFitnessPal, but if I'm eating badly I start to hide, so that doesn't work for me. Tell your husband, or a friend, or someone here what your plan is, and check in with them regularly. Or, join a support group. If OA meetings can't be worked into your schedule, find a group online. I just wrapped up a 6-week online accountability group on Facebook - we had to check in at least once daily, and it was a great group. Cost me $10 to participate, but I was entered in a drawing to win a pot of $$ (don't recall exactly what the pot was, maybe $75 - $90?). I didn't win, but it got me online every day, I got some support, I got to support others, and it helped with that focus thing. (5) Celebrate your victories, no matter how small. Got through snack time without eating bad? Got some exercise today? Made it through a whole day with no sugar? Whatever it is, celebrate it. Do a little happy dance. Pat yourself on the back. Do a fist pump in the air and tell yourself you ROCK in the mirror. If your husband's the sort who will be supportive, tell him, and let him tell you how awesome you are. This is a really key element of building new habits, and it feels silly, but it really does work. Positive reinforcement is really important, and the scale can be a mean witch, so find another way. You CAN do this! You've done it already, you just got derailed, but you can do it again.

Two comments. First, I believe it's calcium that reduces Iron absorption, not the other way around. My last round of lab work came back with my ferritin levels at an abysmal 2, despite faithfully taking my supplement iron (over 150% RDA), so I'm on a much higher dose supplement for the two months, hoping to avoid needing infusions. I'm pretty careful at the moment to avoid taking iron with anything that can reduce absorption, especially calcium or caffeine. Secondly, calcium (and iron) absorption require stomach acid. If you're still on a PPI (and I expect to be for the forseeable future), you may not be absorbing everything you're taking. Calcium's the one that worries me, because it's not something they catch with my routine blood work. I can get a DEXA scan, but that's not something I want to pay to do real often, and you can't reverse bone loss with more supplementation. That to me alone is well worth the minor expense of my calcium chews. Besides that, they're caramel, or chocolate. Makes a pretty damned good excuse for a little after-lunch chocolate chew if you ask me.

Lisa, I just wanted to say I'm so sorry you're going through this. You and your husband will be in my prayers.

Great thread Fiddleman! My most important strategy is abstinence from sugar. Sigh... It's not what I was hoping for, but since I started off last year trying to lose a chunk of regain, did a face plant into a cupcake in mid-February and ended up hopelessly trapped in a sugar vortex and ending the year with 10 more pounds of regain to take off, I think it's official. I simply cannot do moderation. Fortunately, I've found some wonderful sources for recipes that satisfy my sweet tooth without creating a craving for more. And, I've rediscovered the strength that comes from being ABLE to turn down the goodies in the break room, because I've got all that out of my system and I'm not a raging cookie monster. That's my battle, and one I suspect I'll be fighting to my last days, but at least for the moment I'm winning. And it makes everything else pay off - the vigilance on the scale, sticking to it even when I know I'm doing everything right and I'm not seeing the losses I "think" I've "earned", the regular exercise, and the establishing of new routines to keep me distracted and away from food as a source of self-soothing. The exercise is the other key element for me. It's my stress release valve, it occupies chunks of my day I'd otherwise be spending raiding the pantry, and on days when I can get out hiking in my beloved mountain trails, it's healing to my soul. It gives me much-needed solitude and space and time for self-reflection. It's as necessary to my well-being as anything else I do. And, oh yeah, the extra calories burned are a nice bonus, though I have to be pretty careful about how I spend them (see reference to the #@@%*@%# sugar vortex above).

Oh Cheri, I'm so terribly sorry. I don't think there are any words that could ease your troubles right now, so I'll just send a gentle hug, and ask you to be as kind and patient with yourself as you possibly can right now. Grief is a process, and sometimes you need a hug, and sometimes you need to sob, and sometimes you need to rage at the awfulness of it. We're all glad to have you with us, whatever it is that you're feeling at the moment. You are loved here, simply because you are you, not as a model of success, or a cheer leader, or an advisor, though you are wonderful at all of those roles as well. Hugs, Beth

I don't know why more bariatric programs don't warn their patients about the likelihood of the emotional roller coaster in the first few weeks post-op. You need to know, your family needs to know. It's totally normal. As someone else mentioned above, a lot of hormones are stored in fat, so the rapid initial weight loss releases a lot of that back into your blood stream, so most of us are pretty emotional. Add that to lingering effects of anesthesia (which can take weeks to be completely out of your system), some post-op pain, inadequate sleep, and the fact that you just turned your life upside down, you're out of your normal routine, you're having to establish completely new habits for eating, drinking, and Vitamins (did anyone else literally need a chart to keep track of it all?), and the fact that you just eliminated what, for most of us, was our primary life coping mechanism (food), and .... well. .. is it any wonder we're a bit miserable for awhile? I woke up one night in my first week, had a bad case of the teeth-chattering shivers, and ended up full-out sobbing for no apparent reason. My poor hubby! At least I'd encountered a few threads about the post-op emotional thing, so I sort of recognized what was going on. As so many have posted, it gets SO much better. Yes, some of the changes are long-term, but most of them you'll adjust to quickly. Chin up girl, you're going through the worst part now.

Mmmm... Quest bars. The nice thing about GNC is that you can buy just one (Amazon or direct from Quest is cheaper). Some Vitamin Shoppes carry them too. If you haven't tried the apple pie, do it NOW! (I'll wait....) A few seconds in the microwave, and ... awesomeness! I love the Peanut Butter too, but I'm just that kind of girl.

Have you tried Quinoa? It's a bit rice-like. I like it mixed with veggies, just enough to give it a bit of that rice-like "toothsome" texture. I might have a tablespoon of rice with dinner if my husband's having some, but I generally don't have rice, Pasta, potatoes, or bread any more. Bread's the only one of those things I miss much.

I'd highly recommend alldayidreamaboutfood.com for sugar free low-carb recipes too. She does some amazing things!

I'd guess you're just in a stall, as you suspected. It's great you're getting more Protein in, though. I still love my morning protein hot cocoa - not willing to give it up yet, though I know something more solid would be more satisfying. You're doing great!!

It might also be worth a good look at your Protein sources in your meals. I found that I had to give up on things like cottage cheese and yogurt as my Proteins at meals because it wouldn't hold me for very long. Ditto with Protein Bars, even ones with better stats like Quest bars. I need something solid - a hard boiled egg, taco meat, grilled chicken, etc. I often feel like I'm hungry between meals, and it certainly FEELS like real hunger, but if I'm extremely busy at work, or out running around on the weekend, I don't feel the need for a snack at all, which tells me the in-between-meals "hunger" for me is definitely in my head. But that's just me.

Misty, Just my two cents, but I'm 2.5 years post-op, and I still aim for 100+ grams of Protein a day. Frankly, protein is my best food source because it fills me up and keeps me satisfied until the next meal. I aim for several ounces of dense protein in a meal, with some low-carb veggies, and occasionally a bite or two of carb. As long as your diet is primarly protein and veggies, it then becomes a matter of keeping your calorie intake within range, and getting sufficient exercise (and outwaiting the stalls). So, did the protein shake replace something else, or was it an add-on? Depending on the shake, it could add 100-200 calories, and possibly a chunk of carb grams as well. It's possible the added calories or carbs have slowed you down a bit.

I'm taking FerroSequel. It took me about 7-10 days to stop getting headaches every afternoon, but other than that it doens't bother me. It's time-released. However, I won't get retested until end of February, so no idea if it's working.

I like quest bars too - great stats, and they travel well ( no melting, crumbling, etc.). I have to be careful with them, I ate one at work last week just because I found it in my bag, but they're my go to option when I'm out hiking and need the energy. You can order them direct or through Amazon, but if you're new to them you might be better off checking out a local GNC - most of their stores seem to carry a good variety and you can buy single bars to try out flavors. I think Vitamin Shoppe might carry them too.

DeeDee, I'm sorry the bridal show wasn't wonderful, but it's wonderful you've found a dress you love that makes you feel beautiful! Maybe you could have the dress shop take a photo of you in it, and you can keep it as a reminder of what you're working toward?

Whoops, sorry for the teaser with the cookie recipe! First, to give credit to the source, the original recipe came from Linda at EatingWellLivingThin -dot-wordpress-dot-com. "just one" cookie: 1 tsp melted butter 1.5 tsp egg beaters 1.5 TB oatmeal (old fashioned or quick) 2 tsp Splenda (or other sugar alternative) pinch of salt, cinnamon drop of vanilla Bake @ 350 8-10 minutes. Her stats: 69 calories, 3g Protein, 5g fat, 3g net carb (2g fiber). I often make triple the recipe, add some extras, and count it as 5 Cookies. Sometimes I substitute microwaved Peanut Butter for the butter, or half of the butter. Other times I add a tablespoon of PB2. I usually chop in a few pecans and add some mini sugar free chocolate chip cookies. So obviously all of that messes with the stats - do your own counting if you don't want to guestimate. Search her site for the pb cookie too.

Wow, I'm very late to this party, but it's amazing to see so many of the experienced vets back here - thank you! Whenever I need inspiration, or guidance, this veterans forum is my favorite place to be! Started off my morning on the wrong foot (in that OTHER forum - why why why do I go there?), and it's so much better here. I just wanted to add another voice of support for supplements and regular labs. I'm about 2.5 years post-op, and still take bariatric-strength supplements religiously - a twice daily Multivitamin, 4x daily extra Calcium, and an Iron supplement (167% RDA), which I'll admit to occasionally taking twice (darn those yummy chewables!). I also eat read meat and spinach regularly. When I had labs done at a year, I was super low on thiamine, and d. I added a b complex, and high dose d to my regimen. Now, 18 months later I recently had labs done again. Thiamine and d (and b12) are great, but my ferritin levels are at 2. Last year they were on the low end of the normal range (12 or 15 - 150), I think I was at around 15. So, despite my regular supplementation, I've dropped to super-low levels. I've been on a high dose timed release ferritin supplement, hoping to get my levels up without having to resort to infusions, I'll know in another 6 weeks if it's working. My symptoms were fortunately pretty mild, so don't count on that necessarily as a warning sign! Lots of folks think sleeve patients don't need to worry about regular blood work because we're less prone to deficiencies than RNY patients, but "less prone" doesn't mean "not prone", right?

Oh, and seaweed snacks - love those for a salty fix!

Lots of great ideas here. I like cottage cheese - lots of things you can add to dress it up, sweet or salty. I also like kale chips, genisoy soy crisps (my best option when I really want popcorn), turkey pepperoni "chips", or a protein hot cocoa or "soft serve" - in the summer time I'm in the office kitchen many afternoons making peanut butter or mocha "ice cream " in my blender with protein powder when others are drifting off to the bakery for a cookie.