Bufflehead

There are a lot of coffee flavored Greek yogurts out there with no chunks of anything. Chobani has one, Yoplait Cafe Mocha, Dannon Cafe Latte. Yoplait also makes a caramel Greek yogurt that is really good.

As long as you are making a sincere effort at following your program, the question "should you be losing faster?" doesn't make sense. It's like asking whether the hawk flying above my yard should have better eyesight, or if the stream running a few miles away should be running faster -- and blaming myself if I decide it should. If you are doing a respectable job at what any post-wls patient should do, you can't control anything else. You can't order your body to behave like a metronome or a Bunsen burner or some other piece of lab equipment. You've already realized that by looking at your charted weight loss and seeing that there isn't an exact correspondence between what you eat and how fast or even whether you lose, at least in the short term. You'll never be satisfied with your progress if you either compare yourself to other people or to some idealized, Platonic version of what weight loss looks like. IMO, the only "should I" anyone should ask themselves is, "should I be doing a better job of following the plan my medical team laid out for me?" -- and I think that, especially early on, most of us give it a great (not perfect) effort, and that's what we should be doing. Not losing weight at some predetermined rate of speed.

I did a six day carb detox. First three days was only lean, unprocessed meat (no jerky, deli meat, bacon, or sausage), green veggies, and healthy fats. I ate as much as I wanted and did not track calories, carbs, or anything. After that, I did another three days of lean meats and green veggies but this time weighed and tracked all my food on MFP. And then gradually expanded my diet to include moderate amounts of fruit, dairy, and nuts. The first three days without carbs are super hard, which is why I let myself eat as much as I wanted without worrying about amounts, calories, etc. As a bonus, even eating as much as I wanted, I still lost weight! Once you get through the first 2-3 days the carb cravings subside a lot. For me, I wouldn't do a diet that included a lot of shakes as meal replacements. I don't find them filling/satisfying, so I think that would be really hard for me. But you have to do what works for you

Don't worry too much. There are tons of us who do this on our own and we do fine. Make sure that any heavy housecleaning is done beforehand, you won't want to be pushing a mop or a vacuum cleaner around. If you have a cat, make sure the litter box is changed right before surgery (lifting restrictions). I found a body pillow was helpful for sleeping during the first couple of weeks. Also helpful: taking my narcotic pain meds shortly before bed! I stopped taking them during the day very quickly but they did help me at night. Water you should be able to get from the tap, right? And if you find yourself running low on protein or just about anything else, you can likely get Amazon or some other company to deliver it to your doorstep within a day or two. You will be fine. Good luck!

low sodium V8, carb life milk, unsweetened almond milk or cashew milk? Are you allowed tea or coffee? Get plain lassi and add cumin and coriander?

Click the little gear next to your name in the upper right corner. From the drop-down menu, select My Content. This works on the web version, don't know about the app. If you are on your phone or tablet, you may want to open the browser there and use the web version instead of the app if you can't find My Content where I described it.

It does happen! I've always loved fish and that didn't change for me with surgery. But I used to truly despise eggs -- just being close enough to someone else eating scrambled eggs so that I could smell the eggs was enough to make me literally gag. But since surgery, I absolutely love them and eat at least one egg almost every day.

I started adding sriracha to my chicken broth within a couple of days of surgery and never looked back. It never gave me any problems. That said, I have been eating very spicy food my entire life and it never gave me any trouble before surgery either.

I was a vegetarian for a long time (10+ years) and ate myself to well over 350 lbs, so that surely wasn't my real solution. Are there people with complications and regrets after surgery? Sure, but I'm going to bet that percentage-wise, there are a lot more people who are morbidly obese with complications and sad emotions related to their obesity than there are people who are post-VSG with complications and regrets. When I was in your situation, I was a lot more worried about where I'd be in 15-20 years without surgery (likely dead) than in 15-20 years after surgery. The vast majority of people who have this surgery have no complications. I was one of that group. I never had even a twinge of regret, not even upon waking up from surgery or during the first days of recovery. This was easily the best decision I have ever made for myself.

I had a hernia repaired at the same time and wouldn't have known it if they didn't tell me about it. It was a complete non-event for me . . . except that my GERD was cured, which was awesome.

Doubtful, but you would need to talk to an attorney to be sure.

@@redsohare you can buy samples of Optimum Nutrition and several other brands at nashuanutrition.com. I would give you a direct link but it looks like the site is temporarily down for maintenance. Hopefully they will come back soon! Just Google Nashua Nutrition Protein Samples and it should come right up -- but keep in mind, you don't want their "free samples" page, you want the one where you purchase samples. The free samples page usually doesn't offer anything you would want. Good luck!

Do you have any recipes for low-carb high Protein Cookies? I want to make sure I have something I can take with me to Florida that's more exciting/quick than a shake if I need it available. I've been googling, but I thought I would ask the general hive-mind. Okay, this will sound harsh but I promise you I don't mean it that way! Cookies? IMO, best not to try to re-create the foods that led you to obesity and kid yourself that they are healthy. Don't worry about whether food is "exciting." Food isn't entertainment. You want excitement, go to a horror movie or ride a rollercoaster. Pack some packets of flavored tuna or salmon, or take some turkey Jerky. What was your pre-op grocery list? low-sodium V8, boxes of broth (chicken, beef, ginger miso), CarbMaster milk (Fair Life is similar if you don't have Kroger stores near you), SF popsicles and fudgesicles, light cranberry juice. What is your favorite flavored protein powder and why? Favorite is probably Chike, it tastes the best to me. Their iced coffee flavor in particular is one I love. However, the numbers aren't necessarily the best, so I have also used Syntrax nectar Sweets, Syntrax Matrix, unjury chocolate Splendor, and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard. All sorts of flavors. I really like coffee drinks so if I am not using coffee flavored protein powder (or even if I am), I will add a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee to my chocolate or vanilla Protein shakes. Also, I used a lot of Unjury Chicken Soup flavored protein immediately after surgery because that tasted better to me than anything sweet. Realistically, how "quickly" do you go through a tub of powder? I know that I wont be making full shakes for a while, so not sure how much I need to have on hand. Just buy lots of samples before surgery. Your tastes may very well change with surgery, so no use investing in a big tub before hand IMO. Do you use an "unflavored" protein powder? If so, which one? I think this would be good to be able to add to soups etc if needed. I used it a little bit, both Syntrax Nectar and Unjury. The thing with adding it to hot liquids is that you have to be very careful about the temperature or it will turn into a curdled disgusting mess. What Vitamin (brand) did you use post-op? my NUT was not specific. For the first four weeks after surgery, I did a double dose of Wellesse liquid multi-vitamin. After that I switched to Trader Joe's High Potency chewable multi - cheaper, lower calorie, and lower carb than virtually every other chewable out there, especially the "bariatric" Vitamins. My labs have always been great. Do/Did you have a goal outfit (even if not a final goal)? If so, how did you pick it? Any recommendations on what I should look for in clothing for my new body? No goal outfit. My only piece of advice for clothing is that when you are in the process of weight loss, stick with used clothing (thrift stores, EBay, thredup) or with what you can find at incredibly discounted sales. When did you start to "feel" your weight loss? I've already lost some, but still dont really feel it. I don't honestly remember very well. Maybe 3 months after surgery? When did others start to notice your weight loss? I initially lost about 60 lbs during the pre-op year, which no one really noticed (I started at over 350). Then when I had lost about 50 lbs after surgery people started to notice. At 75 lbs after surgery people who hadn't seen me since surgery were visibly startled.

I agree with them. That has worked well for me, and when I stray from that plan, things turn into a disaster. However, everyone is different and even if those rules work well for a lot of people, there are some people who need to, or can, do things differently.

My surgeon takes almost everyone with HBP off their BP meds at the time of surgery. After that, you are ordered to monitor your blood pressure at home. If your blood pressure gets (and stays) high, then you go back on your meds but keep monitoring in case your BP drops as you lose weight. Most people never have to go back on meds again though. I didn't. I did have to monitor at home and keep logs of my readings. I had to show all my logs at my follow-up appointments with my surgeon and when I checked in with my PCP.

Call your doctor's office to confirm the surgery date before telling your job. Usually the surgeon's office picks a random date to submit but will give you a different actual date for surgery.

The fat is used by the body as fuel, and ends up as CO2 by-product and is exhaled into the atmosphere. We are all contributing to global warming! http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/16/371210831/when-you-burn-off-that-fat-where-does-it-go And your stomach is considered human medical waste. The folks in pathology will check it out and then it gets disposed of appropriately, typically in an incinerator.

How many calories and carbs are you eating each day? What is your net caloric deficit? Are you weighing/measuring all your food so you know exactly how much you are taking in?

There is no such thing as tasteless protein powder, only unflavored -- but protein powder will always have its own, inherent taste. To keep it from clumping, you should mix it only with warm liquids, not hot. Other than with hot liquids, I've never known protein powder to clump if you mix it with a good blender. I used both Unjury and Syntrax and found them fine, though best mixed into stronger-flavored foods to mask the protein powder taste as much as possible. Some people will claim that Genepro is tasteless and mixes into anything -- I personally think Genepro is a complete scam and doubt that it has much if any protein in it at all, but lots of people swear by it and claim good results with their labs and weight loss, so who knows.

A lot of my family members are Muslim. When my niece, who had gastric bypass, was fasting for Ramadan, she consulted with her surgeon and her imam and the plan they came up with was for her to abstain for food from sunrise to sunset, but be allowed to drink water during the day. Because dehydration is such a risk after bariatric surgery, and we can't eat and drink enough during the non-fasting hours to make up for the missed fluid during the day, her doctor felt that it would be very risky and unhealthy to go that long without drinking. Her imam agreed that it would be perfectly permissible to do this sort of modified fast since she had physical limitations that made it dangerous to go that long without drinking. Good luck to you!

Usually hair loss doesn't start until 3-4 months after surgery, so don't make any decisions based on what you are, or aren't, experiencing right now. Shorter hair actually hides hair loss better than longer hair, plus it's easier to manage. If I were in your situation, I would go ahead and get it cut.

@@Veronica_mm I drink fully caffeinated coffee, but you should check with your own medical team for their instructions. There is no wls-wide standard advice when it comes to coffee and tea.

Check out mybodygallery: http://www.mybodygallery.com/ You can see there is a lot of variation in terms of clothing size between people of the same height and weight. I think it has to do with how/where you carry your weight, muscle mass, bone density (people who have been obese for a long time tend to have very heavy and dense bones -- Yes we ARE big-boned! As a bonus we don't suffer as much from osteoporosis or broken limbs as we age), etc.

black coffee

I would say that the metabolic tests and even your HRM are probably wrong if you are certain about exactly what you are eating and yet you are still gaining weight. The scale isn't lying to you.