Caribear

Its been a long journey ! I havent posted in a long time and I regret not posting my journey. Its been 10 months since my gastric sleeve, the first few weeks where very hard I will tell you that. I dont wanna scare anyone or even someone that hasnt done to read this and change there mind! Dont change your mind we all went through this path and its a life changer! I was a very very big guy in others words i was fat. Everyone used to make fun of me and it hurt me!! Like really bad, I use to eat to forgot my pain the more i ate the bigger i got witch got me bigger and bigger till my doctor told me to stop but i didnt listen to anyone didnt care i was very depressed all the time all i thougth about was food and sleep lmaoo ! I swear till dis day i laugth at myself. I was 325lb 150kg i was a bigg guys. I im currently 170lb 75kg. I got to my goal 2months ago and my goal was 85kgs :S. I droped 10kgs in 2months!!! My last check up was 3weeks ago and my doctor told me to stop dropping. He told me if i keep dropping i will have bone problems and back pain. He said i need to start eating more of a fat diet like Cookies fried stuff etc.. I can eat them twice a week and the rest of the week eat my diet. But dont get me wrong i fell bad that i have to eat those things again! And plus i can only take a few bits and im full !!! What im trying to say is that i had the gastric sleeve and im happy with it it had its ups and downs put make sure your steonger then it! If anyone ever need edvice im here for everyone noobie or not! Thanks for reading means alot leave a comment if you have any questions or even wanna share your store! Thanks again! Cheers.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using the BariatricPal App

OK, so here is a NSV I had a few days ago. I am going to admit it is kind of immature and vain. None the less, it felt really good (evil grin). Warning: long post!
My husband's sister - I will call her Shelby here- lives 4 states away and has pretty much hated me since we met. She was super close to my husband's ex-wife, the two of them are two peas in a pod. So for that reason, no matter how nice and cordial I have been to Shelby, she is outright cold and often blatantly rude to me. It goes so far as her telling my step kids off-color remarks and things she thinks about me, including one lovely piece of advice: "Just don't eat whatever Kelly eats. You don't want to end up like her, do you?"
When I met her 5 years ago, I was understandably nervous and self conscious: I had 235 lbs on my 5'3" frame. In contrast, Shelby is taller and weighed maybe 140 lbs. She is also totally into appearances and looks. After we met, she called my husband and asked how he could have "down-graded" from his ex to me. I was so hurt. (But my husband promptly stood up for me and then hung up).
I saw her three times over the past 5 years. Each time I felt so awkward and self conscious, knowing how judged I was in her eyes. It never should have mattered to me, but it did.
Last Monday, Shelby came into town for my step-daughter's dance performance and to visit my husband's ex. I am three months post op. We did not tell Shelby or anyone on his side of the family about my surgery. I have gone from a size 20/22 to a comfortable 12 and have lost 60 lbs, down to 179 and my confidence has really began to flourish. At the dance, we spotted Shelby and her two kids. She was disheveled and looked uncomfortable. Her usually perfectly made up face was smeared and she looked like she was having a hot flash. Also, she is remarkably heavier than lat time I saw her. Now I will say I do not ever judge anyone on their weight and I never will. I have had all too much judgment and so I truly have all the empathy on those like me dealing with body image issues. But I bring it up because of the irony and scathing hell I had been on the receiving end of from her.
We approached her to say hello and offer her a seat next to us. She refused, and, didn't even acknowledge me. Her face was flush and she was angry and visibly stressed. After the show my husband asked if she and the kids wanted to join us for dinner. She declined and said she was going out with my husband's ex. Again, not looking me in the eye, zero acknowledgement. I have to insert here that I was dressed nice, donned some heals, had a fresh haircut and did my makeup. (pretty fancy for a simple gal like me). I was wearing a flattering trench style long jacket that really made my waist look small.
Right before we left the dance hall I was leaving the ladles room and my husband said he saw Shelby eyeing me from behind, surveying my new shape with her eyes. I went to dinner that night feeling a huge victory. A vain one- yes. But ooooh sometimes these things just feel so good.
To come down to earth, I do have a muffin top from hell that if Shelby saw she would laugh in pure delight. I hide it well- but would LOVE to figure out how to lose! With rapid weight loss I am getting that skin, so I am trying to find ways to reduce it.

coffee hydrates people as well as Water does, so there is no need not to count it as fluids, or try to make up for it or something else.
Probably 75% of my liquid intake is full test black coffee and has been for years, so if there were some sort of problem with caffeine and dehydration I should be a desiccated piece of dead leathery skin by now but I am perfectly healthy.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/milk-and-other-surprising-ways-to-stay-hydrated/
Coffee is acidic and can be hard on a sleeved stomach, especially a newly sleeved stomach, so that alone should be reason for caution, though.

There e no BAD foods, but some foods are better type Han others. My NUT APPROVES of any nutritious food in moderation. And lets face it, with a stomach that hold just a little over 3 oz I can only eat in moderation.
Cheese!
I make "crackers" out of cheese for spreading tuna and chicken salad on:
The only special thing you need is parchment paper, though I have made it on pieces of brown pepper bag.
Preheat t he over to 375
Cover a shallow baking pain with paper
Shred 2 oz of cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. make six equal mounds on the paper. Leave room they will spread.
Bake for ~10 minutes. (8 in a convection oven) check every minute after the first 7. It's ready when thin and fairly brown on the edges.
Remove from oven and slide the paper onto a cold surface. It's crisper if it cools faster. In a few minutes take it off the paper with a thin spatula and if the cheese is oily blot the crisps with a paper towel.
Once cooled store loosely wrapped in paper at room temperature, keeps for one or two days.
They stay crisp in the frig and even freezer as old as they are in an air tight container.
Six "crackers" with a Protein spread = 2-3 servings
It might take a few trays to get the texture just right but after that it's really easy to make these.
pizza Crackers:toss together ~ 2oz pre shredded "mexican cheese blend" with 1 table spoon of shredded parmesan, a dash of ground pepper and a few shakes of each, dried basil garlic powder, and dried Tomato powder. You can add also two slices of pepperoni

You know how people who were one thing, and then reformed themselves all of a sudden become fanatical about that thing they used to be? Ex smokers are one of the best examples, policing the ranks of those who continue to smoke, evangelizing them to save them from that particular sin. They are especially known for their zeal. I sort of felt that way today.
After my post op check up (which went very well), I drove up to visit my parents and help my Dad with a few chores around the house. While we were working, my Mom declared that we needed to go to the store to get some things she had been wanting for a while. Now "we" translates and "Dad and I". As for the store, she did not care, as long as it had everything she wanted on her list. It was that discussion that led to the circumstances where I found myself a short while later.
We wound up in the mecca for fat people. There were more fat people there than at the Golden Corral on 10% off day. Yes. I am talking about Walmart. I hate going to Walmart. I don't like having to walk for what seems like miles just to discover they really don't have what I want. What's even worse sometimes IS finding what I want. Then I have to stand in line to check out - a line that stretches into the hazy distance like people lined up waiting for Judgment Day. And today was even worse. We were at a Walmart in a popular vacation spot for people from a very large city whose initials are N.Y.C. So it was fat people with an attitude.
I also made the mistake of texting Mrs. LittleBill to tell her I was at Walmart, thinking she would at least sympathize. I received an LOL and a list of stuff to look for. So now I had two missions. We had to park so far away from the building that all we could see was the top, peeking over the horizon. I am pretty sure we were in a different zip code. The parking lot was solid with vehicles. In the distance I could see people dodging back and forth between the city drivers zooming around looking for the best spot. I said to Dad, "Maybe today isn't such a good day to try and go in there." He turned to me and said, "It's not worth my life to come home empty handed! We're going in!"
We eventually made it to the door. I grabbed a cart, and waded into the mêlée, calling out to Dad that we could split up and cover more territory more quickly. It was like a cross between bumper cars and the demolition derby. People were smacking into one another left and right, coming out of the ends of the aisles like they had been fired out of a cannon. Baleful glares and insincere apologies were exchanged with abandon. And in all of this, there was a huge number of human juggernauts, cruising through slowly, yet unstoppable. They drew my attention with fascination.
Like the ex smoker described above, I looked from person to person, thinking: "You need bariatric surgery. You need bariatric surgery. You REALLY need bariatric surgery! I can't believe I used to look like that! Did I really look like that!?! This place is a GOLD MINE for my surgeon!" It was actually kind of weird. On one hand, I felt something of a kinship with these people while on the other hand I was repulsed. I think a lot of the latter had to do with attitude though. I really get impatient with rude people.
In one sense it was something of an NSV for me. I am still fat, but I am not the land yacht I used to be, and to a degree, I felt a whole lot slimmer as I negotiated the killing fields of the retail environment. It was also something of a wake up call, to learn that I do not perceive myself in the same way that I used to. I am going to have to work on that one for a while. It kind of snuck up on me and grabbed me by the throat. But at least I made it out of there alive.

You know what's a funny (odd) observation I just made?
All the comments about this show and how it drives people crazy that some of these people aren't compliant with their surgeries and how they like Dr Now because he doesn't put up with excuses? People who point the same things out to others in this very forum are told they aren't being supportive and are called bullies.
Why is that?

...with coloring books and puppies. There are some wonderful, smart and fun millennials out there. And then there are those people. Those people need either Spartan Man Camp or Big Girl Panties Seminar.

Can a special forum for Millennials be created so they don't get their feelings hurt here?
DS surgery 12/14/2016

I'm odd. Yep imagine that. I took a pen and drew a face using my bellybutton as a mouth and wrote "just a little off the top". It is amazing what you can do on a toilet if you are given enough time.

Over the last few weeks, I've seen a number of posts about "cheating" on the diet plan in the days and weeks immediately following surgery, and I am very concerned about this trend.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on TV, and I am not dispensing medical advice.

However.

I am a registered nurse, and what I'm about to say is an informed and educated opinion.

Surgeons tend to give VERY detailed instructions about what to eat after a stomach surgery, and for VERY good reason.

Even when the surgery is arthroscopic and looks to be a very tiny surgery on the outside, it's a VERY BIG surgery on the inside. The VSG surgery leaves a staple/suture line the entire length of the stomach. That incision has to heal, and if you could see it, it would look like raw beef. If the incision were on the outside, we would be very careful with it, keeping it clean and bandaged while it healed. Of course, it's on the inside, so we can't do that. But we need to keep in mind that it needs to heal in the same way.

We have to eat, and that food will be against that raw incision. At the same time that we have to protect the healing stomach, we also have to get in plenty of fluids and nutrients, specifically Protein, in order to support healing. Protein is the primary building block for tissue, so it's critical to healing. Carbs are mainly just energy sources, so they're not as important, especially given that people having bariatric surgery have plenty of energy in their fat stores. This is why protein is stressed so heavily over carbs in the diets.

Additionally, the stomach is now in a new shape, and it basically has to learn how to function as a slender tube instead of a big bag. There's a learning curve. Kinda like a newborn baby's stomach. We don't dump steak and salad into a newborn's stomach for good reason - it doesn't know how to deal with it. Similarly, we don't want to do that to our new sleeve. We start off with stuff that's easy on the suture line and easy to digest, and as the suture line heals and the sleeve learns its job, start working our way up to "real" food.

So over the years, doctors have learned what foods are best for a healing stomach, and that translates into the post-op diet progression instructions.

Typically, that looks like this: Clear liquids, then full liquids, then pureed foods, then soft foods, then slowly move into a "full" diet beginning with high moisture content foods first. When moving from one stage to the next, it's typically advised to add just one food at a time, in small amounts, and see how it's tolerated. A food that's not tolerated well can be tried later on as well. If an entire stage is not being tolerated, back up to the previous stage for a while, and then try again more slowly.

Surgeons tend to specify how long to stay in each of these stages, what types of food make up each stage, and how to transition to the next stage. Every surgeon's instructions are a little different, and it's based on their experience and sometimes changes based on the patient's specific medical case.

The general idea in the very early weeks is to eat foods that will not stress the healing suture line, and do not have particles that are known to cut into the raw tissue or get embedded into the suture line. If a cut or embedded food particle gets infected, it can become an abscess and develop into a leak. A leak can be life threatening, and at the very least cause the patient to have to be hospitalized and possibly have more surgery to correct it. Foods that are particularly known to cause issues are those that swell up like rice, have seeds like strawberries, or have rough hard edges or hard to digest fibers like wheat crackers or raw vegetables.

There are people who eat all sorts of things against their doctor's orders and have suffered no ill effects, but this should not be used as an argument that the doctor's orders are not important. Similarly, you will find some people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day and drink a pint of whiskey every day but live to 100. They are not representative of most people, and should not be used as the example other people follow.

The reality is that some people will develop abscesses and leaks because they ate things before they were cleared to by their doctors, and there is no way to predict who will have the complications and who will not. And the consequences can be as severe as death. It's not common, but that's how bad it can get. That's why the doctors give the instructions they do. They're not just testing you or trying to make your life hard. They are giving you the best information they have to keep you safe.

Violating these orders is not "cheating" on a diet. It's risking your life. I am not being overly dramatic with this statement, it is a fact that it has happened. You are risking your safety and your health if you violate these orders. It's not about "being human", it's not about "food addiction". It's about your safety and your health. It's hard to be on liquids only for 2 weeks (or more). Some people have huge cravings, or "head hunger" as we tend to call it here. Or just want desperately to chew something. No one is saying it's easy. But it's necessary. Distract yourself. Eat/drink anything that's allowed on your plan - freeze it, heat it up, try something that's opposite of what you've been having to shake it up. Walk around the house or the block. Suck on an ice cube. Count to ten or a hundred. Post about how hard it is, and ask people to help you get through it. But muscle through. It's nothing less than your health and safety.

As for why one surgeon will have his patients on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks while another only does 2 days? Or why one will skip a phase entirely? Each surgeon has different experiences that inform his practices. One is not right and the other wrong. They are each operating out of what they were taught and what they have seen in their own patient groups. They may have even modified the plan because of a specific health concern in your specific case. As a patient, you need to fully understand what your surgeon expects, and if you have a problem with the protocols get it straight with your surgeon and team BEFORE you go under the knife.

If you don't trust your surgeon and his protocols, find another surgeon. I personally would question a surgeon who doesn't allow any Protein drinks including the clear ones for 2 full weeks post op (saw that in one patient's instructions on this site) and likely wouldn't work with that surgeon, given what I know about the needs of protein for healing. But after surgery is not the time to be questioning the surgeon's protocols. Get those questions asked and answered to your satisfaction well before the surgery date.

If you are having surgery, and you have not been given your post-op instructions, at the very least for the first 2 weeks post-op, do not proceed with the surgery until you have that information. We have people posting here stating that they were sent home without clear instructions as to what they were supposed to eat or drink, just a vague statement about "full liquids". That is not sufficient information, and instructions should be given WELL BEFORE the surgery, not after. You should fully understand what will be expected in the weeks after the surgery before consenting to the surgery, or your team is not doing their job.

(This ends my sorta rant about post-op diets and "cheating")

Good luck to everyone!

When you can relate to this you-tube so much, but are concerned that others won't see the humor ...

GOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!!!! When I updated my weight this morning..it's 150.4, I guess the little tickers below use rounding so even though I'm .4 over my goal it says I reached my goal today!!! How thrilling is that???!!! At just a little over 7 months I've lost 102 pounds! I am so happy! This is the best Christmas present ever. 150 looks and feels like the perfect weight for me, but I think I'll keep going just a little bit so I'll have a little bit of a cushion....maybe to 145....I think too much more than that I'll start to look sickly.
I'll post some good goal pictures in the next few days.....it's Christmas time so I'm sure I'll have some good ones from some of the family gatherings coming up.
Thank you to everyone here who have been so supportive! Yay! I did it!!!!!

Thank you guys for for the concern. Makes me feel like I do have a support team here on my phone. But I did go get checked at the ER and the dr and my dr looked over my CT scan and said everything looked great, but I do have some kidney stones. So I'll take that then having some serious complications in my stomach. Today was awake up call yall! I lmk gonna do this and I WILL succeed!!! Merry Christmas to yall!!!
Sent from my SM-N920P using the BariatricPal App

Where is anyone making someone feel bad about surgery? "Bugle girl", as you called her, (she has a name, btw...) was eating bugles less than two weeks out.
That was the only issue. She was still on mushies.
I don't care what diet anyone follows but, yes. I will encourage someone to follow the diet PRESCRIBED by their surgeon 100% of the time. If they choose not to, that's on them, but I won't validate bad decisions.
I agree. Everyone should have the opportunity to have this surgery IF they are emotionally and mentally ready for it.

Where did @@jenn1 say that moderation is a crazy idea? You keep setting up strawmen and fighting with them while blaming it on 'others'. Jenn1 CLEARLY said if what you're doing is working for you and you're happy with it, then good on you. You're being rude and snarky for absolutely no reason..."have you ever heard about yo-yo dieting? Have you ever heard about smaller portion sizes?". What is the point of all this, except to fight?
Tilting at windmills, me thinks.

@@Tootsietoes
Are we all adult's here? I have no Idea why I'm even responding..
The goal healthy. Whatever that may look like for each of us.
You asked..."Does it bother you that someone could choose to get the surgery based on the idea that Portion Control, not food, is what makes you fat?"
Never bothered me. I'm not here to rescue anyone. Good luck to a person that ate all their meals as cheese cake. Restriction alone is not a one size fits all. Your food choice will effect your outcome.
I see - People looking for permission to go back to old behaviors. As long as they are happy..... that's fine. You are happy with your outcome right?
Others are not so happy with weight gain. Some come here to get back on track. I would never tell them to eat what ever they want and all will be fine. That's just me...
The majority here are new. I will direct them to proven best practices.(Their program)
Not a one size fits all. Off the top of my head. You will see a program changes with people with health issues, complications, above average fitness levels, mobility issues and maintenance ... I'm sure their are more reasons.

Why do you even care about the opinions of strangers on the internet. Grow up.
Also there are a ton of anorexic and people with other eating disorders with low ish BMIs cloaking themselves on these forums. Some people see through that BS.

@@Tootsietoes So, if you're 600 lbs, there IS a one-size-fits-all solution, but not if you're 300 lbs. Got it.
And if I'm not mistaken, you just produced a gorgeous example of the straw man fallacy. Congratulations, you managed to both create a fallacious argument AND oppose it all in one comment! Bravo!
@@Hammer_Down ...I got it right, no?

It still says pre-op on your profile, how far out are you? You didn't specify your starting weight, but it sounds like you are on the lighter end of the spectrum? The reason why it's so important to clarify things is because there are a lot of people who just read posts and those "eat what you want" posts might be the only info they want to hear.
You know, like "she eats cupcakes and pizza, so I can too". Some only choose and pick the posts they like, like an addict. They choose to ignore the fact that you barfed on certain foods when most of us would have still been on soft foods. They want permission to make bad choices, because you did also, not taking into account their personal food plan.
I'm happy if it works for you forever, but keep in mind that what works for you, might be very destructive to someone else. I wouldn't want to risk my post being read like a permission to go for whatever you like, whenever you feel like it. That's why all of us have our own guidelines from our surgeons, in addition to support to making good choices. That support should be according to general food plans, just to be on the safe side.
Nilla

One size fits all... Interesting. I have seen many like you who eat everything in moderation, and they aren't attacked. I fall in the moderate carb (eat whole fruits and sometimes whole grains) vs low carb, and no one attacks me. Discussions, debates are always welcomed here. It's the self created drama that is not. If you get my drift...
Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App

Dunno. I've been pretty vocal about not doing low carb, and I don't feel I've been attacked for it.

@@Tootsietoes I'm am confused. Did you have Bariatric surgery? Was it sleeve? I am asking about the sleeve because that is the only one I plan on having and I decided to do it because I have osteoarthritis and my knees are killing me to the point that all I do is go to work sit down go home sit down. I eat junk food because I'm bored and lonely. Now struggling to get this weight off and find an exercise I can do without huffing and puffing within the first 3 minutes of was difficult and even more depressing. I had to admit to myself I had no will to do right. It was just so easy to thoughtlessly stick Cookies and pizza into my mouth. So with that said I looked into the sleeve surgery and all the risk that come with it not to mention the risk of increasing my new belly by going back to the foods that doubled my weight in the first place.
So if my medical care team advises not to eat foods that could do damage then I am not trying to see what they taste like anymore. I'm more interested in finding new foods that would nourish me instead of comfort me. I have a friend who complained about being fat and not looking good. She had the sleeve surgery and she kept trying to go to fast food Windows ordering cheese burgers. And then she had to go to the bathroom to vomit. I'm don't want to do that crap.
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Wait, whuuuuuuut?

There is a BIG difference between creating your own path by eating what you choose to eat on/off plan both pre and post op and eating something that could potentially cause serious health risks 3 or 5 days post op.
I really don't give a rat's patoot if you choose to eat a cupcake, a pizza, a taco or an entire pan of brownies if you so desire once you are cleared for all foods. That said, I am certainly not going to help you justify that behavior, especially if you know it's a poor choice and you are looking for permission to make said choices.

If you are on liquids or mushies and eating pork chops and swedish fish and come here looking for validation or a stamp of approval? It's probably not going to happen.
If it's working for you, AWESOME! I can make poor choices, too, at 3.5 years out because I learned good habits along the way by sticking to my doc's PRESCRIBED diet.
But that's just me. It says so in my signature.

I even found some ziploc tubes on Amazon and froze Syntrax nectar Protein drinks (I like roadside lemoade) so they were ice pop style, and sucked on those the first couple of weeks post-op to try and increase both fluids and Protein. The ice pops were easier to get down than liquid Water at that point. It seemed like I was sipping non-stop through the day and only getting a few ounces in, but little by little I was able to get more and more down and it got better. Just hang in there and keep at it!!

@@LittleBill


​I always hope people will take the opportunity given with surgery and run with it. I'm sure its hard to see your friend decline in health again.

​Restaurants are used to serving large portions. It's funny when a waiter or waitress cant believe your full on a small amount of food. Some try to push something to drink with your meal.
Attitude is lesson I had to learn in the process of surgery. Making your health and fitness your life style is hard. It can be done. It will be day by day. Its not immediate. Its dedication and consistency working for your goals.
Thanks for posting this Bill.