mylynn1377

My boys would fall over with excitement if I ever had angry bird/bad piggy nails lol

It's good to know that there are options besides creamy shakes. Not that I mind the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry but it gets old after a bit. I can't wait until after surgery so I can see if I still tolerate those kind of shakes. If not then I at least know where to go to get a fruit flavored alternative.

Our local spa does a series of Slenderquest Body Wraps. My husband thinks that would be a great reward while in the weight loss process. It helps you loose inches and is supposed to help tone the skin a bit. I can get it done and get a facial or mini massage while I'm wrapped so I think that may be what I choose as my reward.

Here is something I'm wanting to try as soon as I can eat regular food..hoping I can tolerate dairy! Shelly's Baked Ricotta 8 oz of Ricotta cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1 large Egg, beaten 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning salt & pepper to taste 1/2 cup Marinara Sauce 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese Mix ricotta cheese, parmesan, beaten egg, seasonings together and place in a oven proof dish. Pour marinara on top and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake it in the oven @ 450 for about 20-25 minutes (best) or nuke it till hot and bubbly. I usually made it first in the oven and heated the leftovers in the microwave. For a sweet Italian fix: Mix ricotta cheese and SF Torani syrup for a mock cannoli filling. Other: Fage Yogurt with SF Torani syrup Faux Ice Cream - freeze yogurt or Protein shakes in popsicle makers SF pudding (with or without added protein) Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat (with or without added protein)

A friend of mine told me that she just took a little bit of what the family ate and ran it through the blender. Like lean ground turkey browned with a tiny bit of low sugar spaghetti sauce. And then throw it in there. Low fat or fat free refried Beans with a tiny bit of soft cheese. Just mash it up really, really well. Cottage cheese and some no sugar applesauce on the side. Soft scrambled eggs with a tiny bit of cheese. Just make sure its mushy. Steam some green beans or carrots and toss them in the blender. You could make chili and toss it in the blender and have blended green beans on the side. Just make sure it's not too spicy. Baby food fruit isn't bad at all. I tasted every baby food that I ever fed my kids so that's an option if you run into issues. For a treat I still take unsweetened applesauce, add some splenda and cinnamon and microwave it for a few seconds. That is really tasty. It really depends on what's allowed for your Stage 2. I have my book in front of me for planning meals and I know I will be super excited to get to eat food again. I'm planning on having some oatmeal, letting it cool, adding Protein powder to it for a treat. Ummm a really good website is theworldaccordingtoeggface com. She is 4 years out from RNY and has a lot of really good recipes and ideas for food. You should check her out.

I won't miss having to specially request a table at restaurants because I know I won't fit into a booth. I won't miss doing things like housekeeping and laundry on "good days" because I never know when I'll feel good. I won't miss getting into new vehicles and waiting to see if the seat belt fits or not. I won't miss being the fattest out of my trio of best friends. I won't miss getting all of the super duper plus size clothing catalogs in the mail. Oh and I won't miss having to hunt forever for a bra that is comfortable and actually fits right.

Good luck lady! Let us know as soon as you can how you are doing!

Yes Nel, trying to figure out when to take all my bariatric supplements after surgery was kind of a major undertaking. Can't take Iron or calcium close together or the calcium won't absorb. Can't take either anywhere near my levothyroxine because then my thyroid meds won't work right. Ughh... so I have to do calcium chews late in the day and take the rest of my vitamins at night. That little pill is a pain in the booty!

I'm doing my preop diet now. Liquids and sf jello for 2 weeks prior. No lb requirement specifically, but I figure to shoot for at least 10 lbs lost which seems to be what most doctors want. It's mostly to shrink the liver, to keep you from gaining weight, or to prove that you can commit to something this life changing.

I started to slowly come down on caffeine, watch what I ate, eat better and cleaner, and just move everyday no matter what I'm doing. I don't go to the gym, maybe that will come later. I play with my kids outside, I do go swimming and I Water walk a few times a week. I got in the mindset that the preop diet would be easier for me if I started taking certain things out before hand. I eliminated refined sugar, simple carbs, and most red meat (which is hard because I love steak!). I lost about 4 lbs from last months doctor appt. until Wednesday and from Wednesday I have lost another 6.2 lbs on my first week of preop diet. Considering that last year I had lost 25 lbs and it took me 5 months...I consider my recent accomplishment a victory. So to me you loosing that much in that space of time is awesome. As for last meals...nahh. I'm hungry now all the time on this liquid preop diet, but I haven't once had a horrible craving for chocolate or cake or anything like that. Which is a big, big, deal for me and one I'm super proud of. So I think I will stick to what I am doing and consider my surgery all the celebration I need. I don't want to set myself up for cravings that I can't or won't satisfy after surgery. It would kind of be like having a good bye cigarette after being smoke free for a few weeks. That can't be good lol.

I have hypothyroid and I try to avoid soy as much as possible. I get a very informative newsletter from a doctor. It's Mary Shomon M.D. and she has hypothyroid (Hashimoto's). She has found in herself and in quite a few patients that soy can adversely effect how we process our medication and can cause absorption issues. Soy is considered a goitrogen, which means that it can cause swelling of the thyroid and can slow thyroid function. She has a newsletter from About com and she has quite a few books that are really helpful and informative. Her info actually helped me research and talk to my doctor about upping my medication and adding an additional medication that has helped me feel better. I have her Thyroid Diet Revolution book and it helped me get my eating in line while I've been waiting to get surgery. If you want to read some of this info just Google soy and the thyroid. It will take you to a very informative article on how soy effects us people with thyroid issues.

We are allowed 5 shakes a day. Either EAS Myoplex Lite ready to drink, Boost Calorie Control or Glucose control, or Bariatric Advantage High Protein. I've went with the cheaper shakes which is the problem really. They don't have much in them to help with hunger. But I tried a sample of the Bariatric Advantage and I just couldn't drink it. It was so disgusting. So I was afraid to buy a different flavor and spend 60 bucks on something that I wasn't sure I could stand. I can have broth, sf Jello, sf Popsicles, and all the sf beverage that I want though so that's helping. How much weight on average has everyone else lost on the preop? I'm trying to figure out what kind of weight loss they are looking at, but no one ever said you have to loose X amount of lbs or you have to stay below X amount of calories. So I'm a little in the dark here.

I weighed at a dr's appt on Wed and it was down from the previous month but just weighed today and I've lost #5 since Wednesday. It took me almost a month to loose 5lbs normally. So at least there is that to keep me motivated while I'm starving. Oh and Memorial Day weekend...all those bbqs going. I'm getting my husband to at least grill for him and the kids. No sense in everyone missing out on the fun just because I'm drinking my food.

I had to up liquids slowly because I'm not a big drinker. Sad thing is that the only time I really drink a lot is when I eat! This is hard for me and one I have to really start working on. But I am doing way better on getting my fluid in at least.

I'm really worried. I've been sticking to the diet pretty well and I started on Monday. But I really haven't lost a lot of weight. The shakes they listed for me to use have a little more carb than I think they should. I'm wondering if I should call the doc and see if I can sub in some lower carb shakes. I'm really worried. Surgery is June 3 and I don't want anything to interfere with it.

I've been doing pretty good on my prep diet. Yesterday was pretty bad though. The guys got pizza and it was all I could do to not eat it. I had to go hide in my room and I made the husband do clean up so I wasn't tempted. I have to seriously increase my fluids though because the increase in protein is hard on the kidneys and it's giving me a UTI.We don't get any solids except sf jello...if you can call that a solid.

I've had two c-sections and one gallbladder surgery and I can say that the gallbladder was waaaaaaay easier. I was up and at em the next day and back home taking care of the babies. I took it easy and kept a pillow over my tummy because my toddler was prone to jumping on me but other than that I don't remember having much pain or anything. I'll def take being knocked out for surgery over being awake for the whole thing...ugh that sucked.

Day 3 and I feel like I have a hangover. So weird that I'm not craving sweets or bread. I want cottage cheese and a piece of grilled chicken...maybe some salad. Errrr!

I'm really glad I found this thread. I'm on day two of the preop diet and I feel horrible almost like I have a hangover. I haven't been really hungry or anything so that's not an issue. Last night I couldn't remember if I had all 5 of my protein shakes so I just refrained from having anymore. Then I had some sf jello and took my vitamins and an omega 3 chew. Maybe 10 minutes later I seriously felt like I was going to throw up. I managed to get to bed but I woke up this morning and my stomach was burning and I have a headache and no energy. I'm thinking that maybe I didn't get in enough liquids yesterday either but this sucks a bit. I think I will up my jello intake also to make me feel more like I'm eating.

I'm trying to find something that is really good quality that I don't have to pay crazy amounts of money for like bariatric advantage. My doctor is suggesting a multi, iron, calcium, and sub-lingual b12. We may not need the iron though because mine is usually a little high. But I also take levothyroxine for my hypothyroid which makes it virtually impossible to take other meds because you can't take anything near the thyroid medicine. Trying to juggle all this is a pain.

For anyone out there who has had an EGD as a part of their list of things to have done before surgery I have a few questions. I'm supposed to have this done tomorrow morning, Tues the 5th. I've had to reschedule this already due to weather and I don't want to have to reschedule again but...I'm kind of recovering from a bout of flu, courtesy of my 5 year old. I'm feeling loads better today except my throat is still pretty sore. No fever, muscle aches, etc. Just a bit of a stuffy head, a little congestion in the chest, and the sore throat. I'm wondering now if I should just see how I feel in the morning and go for it, let them know when I get there and see what THEY want to do, or call can see if I can reschedule this..again. Which will put me behind on every other appointment that I already have for everything else. To top it off I'm wondering if I missed something in the discussion of this procedure because everywhere I've looked for info the web is saying that you should stop all NSAIDS (Aleve, Ibuprofen, etc.) 5 days before the procedure, but my surgeons nurse never told me this and I've been taking Aleve for muscles aches and sore throat. I take Aleve because it doesn't irritate my stomach like ibuprofen so that isn't an issue. I don't actually have anything issues with GERD, ulcers, or stomach issues right now, this is just a precaution that my surgeon likes to take so they can have a picture of all the insidey goodness before they go rearranging things later. So I'm wondering if I should just go for it and if the NSAIDs have bothered my stomach they would know that and we could discuss it. I also have to keep in mind that I have to travel 80 miles to have these appointments and to get things done, plus I already have nut, physical therapy scheduled for tomorrow also. Plus they already have my sleep study scheduled and I have my psych eval and some other labs scheduled out too. If I can't do the EGD, they'll have to reschedule some of that stuff and I don't want to do that. If you guys have any pointers I would appreciate it!

Good news is they went ahead with the EGD and didn't find anything. The bad news was I got sick after the procedure and I had to cancel my other appointments for the day. But I managed to get my spots rescheduled so that I don't get behind.

It's nice to see someone else from MO. My husband used to live in Cuba and he went to school in Rolla.