Bufflehead

hmm, I wasn't allowed anything on your list other than protein shakes. My go-to's were skim milk, kefir, low sodium V-8, and lassi, in addition to the stuff you would typically find on a clear liquids diet (light cranberry juice, broth, Unjury chicken soup, and G2 Natural were some of my favorites of those).

My surgeon says it is okay to drink before meals (and even encourages drinking before meals) once you get to the soft foods phase, but no drinking with meals or for 30 minutes after is for life. In fact, we are not allowed soup for life (except soups that are completely broth or completely creamed, no chunks of anything) because it is the same thing as drinking with your meal.

Coffee is not a diuretic and will not dehydrate you unless you are drinking 5+ cups a day, so says the Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclini...-drinks/AN01661 My bariatrics team forbids coffee for six months after surgery, and advises moderation after that, because coffee is acidic and it may cause stomach problems/damage.

My bariatric team says count it. We (their patients) are required to get 64 ounces of fluid each day and any fluid counts, including protein drinks, broth, etc. It will all keep you hydrated.

I think you are doing great with your weight loss! That aside, I think tracking your food intake is very important. My RD looks at my food logs carefully and gives me great suggestions (and she even asked for some of my recipes!) Plus studies show that people who track their food lose about twice as much as people who don't, and that tracking food is the best predictor of how well someone will do with their weight loss. Here's a link to one article (there are others out there): http://www.webmd.com...lps-lose-weight

My surgeon has all his patients start taking bariatric level of vitamins 2 weeks before surgery to build up stores of them, because it's often hard for people to get in all the vitamins they need immediately after surgery.

I think the most important thing you can do to avoid complications is make sure you have the right surgeon. Is their practice a bariatric center of excellence? Has the surgeon done at least a couple hundred sleeve surgeries? What is his/her complication rate (leaks, blood clots, stricture, etc.)? also: follow your surgeon's instructions with respect to pre-op and post-op diet precisely. If you have questions about the diet or any symptom you might be having, call and ask for help, don't be embarrassed and decide to wait to see if it resolves on its own. That is what you are paying them for. Blood clots are a risk after this (any) surgery: get up and walk as soon as you can after, and if you are provided with something like compression booties in the hospital, use them as directed, even if it's a PITA. If you are given restrictions on how much you can lift after surgery, follow them: no cheating and lifting up a toddler/young child if not permitted, no deciding to carry the heavy groceries in yourself because it's too much of a pain to get your husband/children to bring them in, and so on. If you are a smoker, you will definitely need to quit well in advance of surgery. These are all the things that our RD and NP stressed to those of us in my WLS Boot Camp that we all had to go to before surgery. Except the picking the right surgeon, of course! That I picked up here on the boards Good luck to you!

I'm on pureed food stage so I'm eating refried beans. Had them for breakfast this morning! I can eat other kinds of beans and legumes as long as I puree them. I have a can of golden lentil daal in the cupboard that I've been meaning to attack with an immersion blender. I know a lot of other people who have eaten lentils and white beans with no problems.

I use Wellesse liquid vitamins -- I buy the multivitamin, calcium, and iron (they have others as well such as B Complex). I have no problems taking them at all. You can buy them on Amazon and other places too. I'll probably switch to chewables at some point in the future but for now, with recent surgery, I'm finding liquid is perfect for me.

If you go to a Mexican restaurant, you can order refried beans. Order an egg salad sandwich and just eat the egg salad. You could do the same thing with a pimiento cheese sandwich.

Give yourself a minimum of fourteen hours a day when you will work on drinking. That leaves 10 hours a day for sleeping, bathing, shopping, etc. Each hour measure out 4.5 - 5 ounces of liquid and sip steadily. You should be aiming for 1.5 - 2 ounces in 15 minutes depending on what you are drinking. If you are having trouble with water or whatever else you are drinking, change it up. I found it easier to drink G2 and Propel Zero than water when I was just out of surgery. I also liked hot tea. Keep working at it and I am sure you will find your groove

I think it goes by how many posts you have.

If you dislike the thick protein shakes, you may want to try Syntrax Nectar flavors such as Roadhouse Lemonade, Iced Tea, and Fuzzy Navel -- very light and you mix them with cold water. You can get a sample pack from BJ's Bariatrics here: http://www.bjsbariatrics.com/product/synSamplePack.html And from some other places as well. I really recommend holding off on buying full tubs of protein powder until after surgery because it is really true, you may like something beforehand and hate it after! That happened to me.

I went cold turkey and was miserable for three days but fine after that. I found it helped psychologically to make myself a cup of decaf tea in the morning -- even though I don't particularly like tea! But I missed the ritual of making a cup of coffee and sipping something hot, so the tea helped a little that way. If you can find Tylenol without caffeine in it that will help with the headaches too.

I like to add a little bit of sriracha sauce.

Check with your surgeon's team, there are many different approaches. I'm not allowed alcohol until I'm off soft foods and on to "real" foods, which for me is 6 months post-op. Even then it is discouraged. But I know other people's surgeons allow alcohol much earlier. Your surgeon should have a detailed plan for you though.

My dr told all of his patients to take the lowest dose listed on the bottle of Milk of Magnesia if they hadn't had a BM within four days after surgery. If that doesn't work for you, you may want to call your surgeon's office for advice and see if they can prescribe something. Yes it's embarrassing, but trust me, they are used to talking about that stuff and it is not nearly as embarrassing as ending up in the ER with impacted stool!

I'm not allowed grits because my surgeon/his dieticians think they are pretty much nutritionally worthless. I could consider them six months after surgery but I don't think I want to start eating that kind of starchy/carby food until I reach my goal. But if your nutritionist says they are approved, as long as they fit in your calorie and carb levels and you aren't having trouble meeting your protein goals, I say go for it!

gorgeous!

It all depends on what your insurance company's rules are. You should have a booklet of benefits (member handbook) that lists the criteria for coverage of bariatric surgery. Most insurance companies will pay if your BMI is 40 or over even if you don't have any weight-related problems, but some have different rules.

This is a great topic. I agree with your conclusion that this is mindful eating rather than disordered eating. If someone is on a strict monetary budget and carefully plans spending and borrowing, no one would say they have a financial disorder, right? They would say that person is smart and working to stay on track and even get ahead.

You can buy little cans or packets of salmon, sardines, herring, trout, oysters, crab, shrimp, octopus -- all sorts of seafood! And there are pouches of chicken and turkey as well.

I'm on purees right now (I was sleeved one day before you) and a typical day for me might look like: Breakfast: 1/2 poached egg + 1 Tablespoon pureed salmon Lunch: 3 tablespoons nonfat cottage cheese Dinner: 3 tablespoons chicken pureed with chicken stock + 1 tsp. low carb BBQ sauce Snacks: 1 Premier Protein chocolate shake, 1 glass Ocean Spray Light 50 cranberry juice, 1 glass low sodium V8, 1/2 protein shake made with Syntrax Mint Cookie Protein Powder, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and Hood Calorie Countdown nonfat dairy beverage. Most importantly, I track everything on myfitnesspal.com and make sure I hit the macros above. And I weigh or measure everything I eat to make sure the information I am entering in MFP is correct.

Having a whole banana, a boiled egg, fish, veggies, shakes, etc. sounds like a lot of calories and carbs especially for being so early from surgery. What is your daily calorie and carb intake? Are you measuring everything you eat and tracking it on MFP? What are your daily goals for your macros as provided by your dietician? Right now my goals are 650 calories, 30-40 g. carbs, 72-100 g protein and under 30 g fat per day. Once I move on to soft foods my calorie limit will move up to 750. What are you aiming for?

I'm the same way (4 weeks out). I eat because it's on my schedule of things to do for the day and I know I need to in order to get in my protein etc. But it isn't anything I look forward to or particularly enjoy. If you told me I couldn't eat for the next three days I don't think I would really care. I know this will change though!