Matt Z

Congrats and finding your way back to the path. It's tough, but it's so worth it!

Congrats! Just remember to not worry about the weight, or stalls, or anyone else but yourself!

I'm 10.9 lbs from my all time dream goal... and it still doesn't seem real. I totally get it LOL

Personally, I had several. I had some easy, more difficult, almost absurd, and dream. When I was 370, my goals were, 300 for the "easy", 275 for the "more difficult", 250 for the "almost absurd" and 200 for the "Dream". This was when I had the lapband installed. I hit 300. Then I couldn't go any farther, floated up and down from 300 - 320. The revision to the bypass helped me clear all the rest of my goals and now I'm a stones throw from 200. So, the take away, don't be afraid to dream big, just make sure you understand that dream goals might never happen. Set yourself a few goals, that way when you start ticking them off, you won't be frustrated trying to get to JUST that one, crazy, dream goal. And don't forget to celebrate each and every victory with the same level that you would beat yourself up for each failure, it's only fair to be equal!

The changes can be pretty drastic... or at least they can seem that way. Work on getting upwards of 128oz of water, it helps, it really does. Not just with hunger and cravings, but with fat loss, since fat is water soluble you want to give you body more water than it needs to do it's normal daily business and the extra is for the fat processing, it sounds hard, but it's really not once you start working up to it. Second guessing is normal. Just keep reminding yourself of why you want the surgery. For me, I knew if I didn't do something, I'd end up dead sooner than later. And I'd kinda like to see my son's graduate college, get wives (or husbands of that's what they want) and maybe have kids (or adopt), I just knew I wasn't going to last going the way I was... dieting or not, it just wasn't going to be good in the long run. Focus on your future, not your past. Worry about the way forward, not the steps you tripped on already. And just remember, the ONLY person you EVER need to answer to, is yourself, if at the end of the day, looking in the mirror, you are happy with the day... then no one else can tell you you were wrong.

It depends really, it's pretty personal, not everyone is effected the same way. I haven't had much issues with Stevia and other alternatives, high levels of sugar alcohols case some discomfort, but I haven't had any classic dumping from any substitutes.

I'm a late night snacker / sleep snacker. I found that putting the "better" options out and available quicker made a big difference. Fruits, veggies, cheese, protein snacks... all within easy reach. It does take some cognitive readjusting, but it helps. Congrats on the 64oz, start working towards 128oz. It helps as well if you keep water by your bed and drink that before you even get out of bed to snack. Habits take a minimum of 2 weeks to break, and that's 2 weeks of making damn sure you are doing whatever it is you want to change. Small changes work better than big changes. Small, easy to adjust to changes and keep that up for 2 weeks before you attempt any other small changes. It's not easy, but it is very much possible with the right mindset.

The thing you are doing wrong is worrying. Just relax and stop stressing over weight loss, focus on healing first. Don't compare yourself to anyone else... just worry about your diet, do what you have been told to do, and just focus on the more important task, getting yourself healed up from surgery. Everything else will fall in line in due time.

Literally anything that will blend LOL. I pureed everything for a while... even pureed a steak and cheese... no joke. LOL It wasn't as good as you would expect, but I certainly tried.

Very glad to hear that!

Comparing yourself to another WLS patient is about as accurate as comparing a Car to a Building. 2 very VERY different things. You could have 2 twins, having the exact same starting weight, surgery, surgeon, etc etc etc etc and they would still lose at different rates. Focus on you, not on others. There is no one else out there that is going to lose the way you do. No one.

Every vegetable is a carb.

Average is Average... it's ALL data sets combined and then divided by the total of data sets. I'm a daily tracker, I don't really stress too much over the little ups here and there, it's the whole of the set that matters, are you trending downwards or trending upwards? Check my post here

Some folks never lose their hunger/appetite, some do, those that do generally have it return before the end of the first year, this goes for sleeves as well as bypass.

There are 190 instances of the word Vegetarian on the site, check through these search results, might have what you are looking for. https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=vegetarian

Congrats! It's always an amazing feeling when you assume you won't fit and then you slide right in with no issues!

Nice! I love the "REFILL", how large is that? looks like it *might* be 24-32 oz. If so, that's a good start, but to maximize your fat loss, you REALLY want to try to hit 128+ a day if you can.

the **ONLY** thing that *MIGHT* have protein is that Bone Broth... but I can tell you from a quick search, that it's not going to be anywhere NEAR what you should be getting a day... if you are buying it, check the nutritional panel, it'll have the protein count listed. What I'm seeing online for non-protein enhanced broths is as low as 5-6 grams per serving, when you should be aiming for around 60-80 for your daily total, so, if you were consuming this 5 gram per serving broth, you'd need to drink 12 servings to hit 60 grams in a day. And at that point, you'd be super high in sodium intake. What they give you the day after surgery, is for recovery purposes and no where near what you should be continuing to consume.

I love the Avocoloda from Tropical Smoothie Cafe (no sugar of course) with added protein and flax seeds.

I know, I'm not really "Stressed", I think I just need to "buckle down" a bit more. Been allowing a bit too much leeway personally. Just trying to make myself accountable.

Need to drop a total of 0.462962962962963 per day to meet that goal! Not to put too fine a point on it LOL.

I'd like it to be more, I've got to track .5 a day to hit my "Dream Goal"... just trying not to get too stressed about the process, but damn if I'm not trying my hardest LOL !

How crazy is it that I drop .3 lbs and I'm "mad" about that LOL

Hey... they are made with plant protein and have very low calorie counts per bag... so, TOTALLY "good" for you!

Amazing job! Have you looked into insurance covered skin removal? Most have some option available to some extent, worth looking into if you haven't yet.