LoserMama

Knitting and crochet, and now in the past week, have incorporated regular exercise at a gym. So that is taking the place of a lot of the old preoccupation with food at the moment. Trying to establish new things to do instead of eat is hard!

Just popping this back up after searching for this subject. I'm around 8 weeks too, and stalled at the same weight. Jumping on scale shortly, hoping for a miracle....LOL I did a new workout attempt last night -- zumba, and am planning on changing up my intake for a little bit to see if that helps kick me off the plateau. Sheesh.

This is awesome and YOU are awesome. you just learned that you are able to resist a binge before it got the best of you. Now you can exercise that knowledge and turn it into "muscle" that will help you again and again. KUDOS. Sent you a PM, too.

I had it and asked at my two week appointment, they checked it out and just said it was from ketosis. It went away on its own without any other treatment needed. It was embarrassing and I felt self conscious. they told me to use a tongue scraper which I did and that helped some but honestly once I was off of the liquids phase it started to disappear.

Hey there. We're in the December 2011 group too, so some updates there, but in general for me- down from 24/26 and 3x/4x to size 18 and size 2x tops. I have lost about 25 lbs since surgery, combined with 35 lbs preop, I'm down almost 60 pounds total, with another 70 left to go. I am wearing my original wedding rings as of 2-3 weeks out, which I hadn't worn for ages. Anniversary ring has fallen off and waiting to be resized. I went from needing an extender on an airplane, to having about 4-5 extra inches on a regular belt to pull tight. My diabetes is probably gone, but my primary won't declare it officially gone until I've had an a1c with three months on solid foods, but i haven't taken diabetes meds since surgery, and my fasting and pre/post blood sugar tests I've done have all been those of a "normal' person. yay! What else....knees don't hurt nearly as much anymore. I apparently have a sleeve of steel because I have not had any nausea or vomiting since being sleeved. I started trying to exercise regularly last week and that is my big focus, along with staying focused on Protein and Water before anything else makes it in.

The soda issue has been covered. Apart from a sip to taste it, diet coke was a vice for me and I'm probably not going to try much of it except as occasional sips. Protein bars, I'm anxiously awaiting shipments of Quest Bars and Oh yeah bars -- from the WLS twittersphere, I hear these two brands mentioned most often as the best tasting, highest protein with reasonable or low carbs. i have Premier Protein bars and they are dense. I have two boxes now and I'm not sure when they will get used. powercrunch are quite good but seem quite high in calories for the amount of protein you get...I think like 220 calories for 14 g, but decent carbs, like 10 g I think? From the arguments I've heard, their protein source, proto whey sounds like its quite good and absorbable. Oh yeah nutrition offers samples of everything once per month per customer, so that is what I ordered. For $20 for all 4 kits, you get 8 bars, three RTD shakes and 5 packets of Protein powder, not bad! http://ohyeahnutrition.myshopify.com/collections/ohyeah-sample-kits Quest is here: there is a box that has a sample of each flavor here: http://www.questproteinbar.com/

That is awesome!! Like you, I seem to be experiencing resolution too, and my doc also wants to see how I do for a while on solids with a couple more A1cs, but i'm not on meds anymore. he won't declare me resolved until he sees a 3 month a1c of me being on solids, but with the readings I've had since being on solids, I think it will be good news. congrats to you!!!

I asked about this at my six week visit, and NUT said she would expect that until 3 months out I would still be relying on some Protein drink or such to help make it to 80 grams. that was kind of a relief. I wasn't sure what I should be expecting of myself. Today is my experimental day to try to see if can get my requireds without shakes.I'll have a shake to round out the day if I don't make it. For Breakfast I had: 1 chobani (14g) 1 hardboiled egg (6) Lunch: 6 thin slices lunch meat (6 g) 3 oz cottage cheese (9) snack soft Jerky nuggets (talking about them on another thread had me try them..LOL) 20 g. So so far, 55 g of protein. I have to find a dinner with 20g and i can almost make it.

Definitely find out if its ulcers, would not be good if that were the case. In the case its not ulcers, there are some great steps you can take about truly really getting good at distinguishing between hunger and desire/craving. For me, I thought I knew what hunger was, but i realyl didn't. You might know for sure, but for example,its ok for your stomach to growl, that doesn't necessarily mean you're hungry. Post op our stomachs growl a lot while they are processing the food, it doesn't mean we're hungry. I've also found that I don't feel like I have to eat urgently if its real hunger. Hungry is different -- for me I'm learning that I feel kind of hollow. You can also conduct an 'experiment' to tolerate hunger. i.e. when you feel that hunger, get going doing something else -- if it fades away, its possible it was just digestion or a craving or whatever, but the point being, you will survive it without needing to eat. Its not fun if there is not a medical reason for feeling hungry. I am sorry you are feeling this way and feel like there may not be relief in sight. I hope the GI doc gives answers that might be more clear cut. Any chance you are having blood sugar related issues? That can also make you feel like you have to stuff food in your mouth right now, and it feels crazy.

You've gotten lots of great advice here, and I just wanted to say I'm a bit past six weeks out, and the liquids phase was definitely the most miserable. I thought of it also as medicine and I also kind of think of the whole post-op diet phases sort of as my form of "rehab" from my food addiction. LOL> I know not everyone who has the surgery is a food addict, but I sure am. And the fact that I am on the other side now and can honestly leave a bag of chocolates sitting in the pantry and have one small one every day or two....its crazy. My doc's diet plan was strict as well, but I was offered variety in the liquid choices, so hoping your doc might too. I too wanted salty not sweet for those early days. My staples during that time were beef broth, premier Protein shakes, and nectar fuzzy navel. Much beter than the thick Protein powder drinks to me.

Hey guys, whats up? Anything new and exciting to report as we are now in February? What are you focusing on most now? I am focusing on getting consistent and regular with exercise. I am now starting to see with how tolerant my sleeve is that I can see how important it will continue to be to create new behaviors around eating. As long as I focus on Protein first, things are pretty good, but I can see how people could "cheat" with sliders. So my other focus is on continuing to stay the course on being clean in my post-op diet. Are a lot of us on myfitnesspal? Please post your username if you want buddies there. I am "losermama" there too. Hope everyone is well.

bump on this. I'm wondering what the "prevent hair loss" cocktail amounts (Biotin, coq10, flaxseed oil) are? I know they may not help, but if it would help anything at all, would like to do so. I was taking biotin preop, and I know there is SOME in my multi, but probably not at the level needed. Also, when do you start using nioxin? When you start seeing hair loss, or before? Anyone know?

please do post. with my travel, I just ordered Oh Yeah Good Grab bars and Quest Bars. Hoping those may be helpful when schedules get hectic. My NUT suggested Protein bars would be ok (of course prefering real food whenever possible, but sometimes, a quick grab may be necessary.)

Hello sis, sending you hang in there vibes. I am sick today too, what's up with that? When you get home, take care of YOU.

My list says I can have it starting from week 10 or on, too tough. She told me at my appt, because she knwos I travel, that I could probably try the teriyaki chicken Jerky "nuggets" earlier since I seem to tolerate everything quite well, and just chew chew chew. I also get Glenny's Soy crisps (BBQ) 9 g Protein a bag if I want chip like things. Like others, string cheese, mini babybel cheese, lunch meat and hardboiled eggs are staples.

my doc told me at my six week, that at 6-8 weeks, its 90% healed, and that goes up to about 95% within the first six months. He never did say it got to 100%...LOL.

I like the power crunch wafer/bars, and I just ordered Quest bars and Oh Yeah Nutrition bars -- they both look like they have great potential to both taste good and deliver good Protein with relatively decent carbs. I also have premier Protein Bars too, they are ok too, but pretty dense.

ok, I have to ask, whats the 3d tummy? I am similar in it feeling imcomprehensible to be a normal weight, I've been big for soo soo long. But I can start to believe it more. With pre and post op weight loss combined, I'm down from 278 and a size 26 to now 219 and a size 18. I haven't been a size 18 since well before my oldest was born....and he's 13 years old. So its a little mindboggling.

Its still possible to gain pretty easily, i would imagine, with our sleeves, over time, because over time we can consume more, and because of "slider" foods -- carbs/candy/chips just kind of melt through you. so we have to be vigilant. I had way more to lose than you and STILL got those kinds of comments, and I still have NO idea why. I'm a little bit taller than some women at 5'7" and because my weight is fairly equally distributed all over, I think that might be why, but sheesh. My mom was the worst, I told her that to get to the top of the normal BMI range, I had to lose 120 lbs, and she nearly died--there will be nothing left of you, you'll be anorexic! She just had no concept of how big I am/was.

That was a great link Lisa, and thanks to all of you for comments, because I hoped that between NUT recommendation and what seemed like the large number of people using premier here, that it probably was a decent choice. I think you make a good point PDxman about what purpose the Protein supplement is being consumed for! Thanks all of you for sharing your experiences, I feel better, I actually really rely on my premiers and wouldn't want to lose them (can't believe i'm saying that now given that pre-op I just HATED them :)

totally yum....

Brandymarie, I'm 5'7" like you and I've found out somethign interesting...I've always gotten my pants tall as well and I have learned that it no longer works now that I am losing weight -- I think the length used to help make up for some of the circumference...LOL. So I'll check out your PM, I have another person interested in them, so will just divvy up and send you both a box, I have plenty. And I want them to go to good use and make room for me to get other stuff.

The hot and sour soup from PF Changs got me through!! It satisfied my chinese urges completely.

LOL, yeah, I was given green light for regular bari diet a while ago, and immediately had almost a full week of business travel -- so I had no choice but to eat out. Major thing is chew chew chew. I don't really seem to have anything that upsets me, which actually in a way sort of sucks. I do want to start having more meals at home and this week I've been working on that, but I just want to point out that you can make decent choices while eating out. My nutritionist even asked me to speak at our upcoming WLS support group that has a topic about choices for eating out to talk about my experiences. The one I feel like was probably the worst choice on that list was the shrimp scampi. She and I talked about that having too much fat, but that it still got the Protein in. I guess what I'm saying JaneRose is, make change gradually and don't beat yourself up if you do eat out. I dont' think its the end of the world if you make protein centric choices that are relatively low fat -- myfitnesspal is quite good for helping you see the values of the items you can choose when eating out somewhere.

I could take a good selection of them and take a guess. I know when I sold a big box like this of clothes on ebay, the shipping was like $25-30.(When I ever so foolishly sold all of my smaller sizes clothes in exasperation last spring....so so so sad now....) So it is spendy, but thats a lot of clothes for that amount actually.