Bufflehead

Yes, you have to do the liquid diet that your team prescribed for you. It is to protect you and keep you safe. As for the hunger, that could be a number of things: -dehydration. If you are not getting at least 64 ounces of fluids, you may be experiencing thirst and thinking it is hunger. Make sure you are hitting your fluid goals. --head hunger. Are you thinking about specific kinds of food, or would you be happy to eat just about anything? If you would be tempted by a burger or a cupcake but not by a plain piece of grilled chicken breast or a big stalk of steamed broccoli, you aren't really hungry, you are just having cravings. --true hunger. Some people do keep experiencing hunger immediately post-op. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and get through it. Hunger is unpleasant but it isn't an emergency. You aren't going to starve. Have a protein shake and go for a walk to take your mind off it. Good luck!

Has your surgeon mentioned the possibility of being checked for a stricture? That's what always pops into my mind when someone says they can't keep things down and they are getting worse rather than better. Putting that aside, dehydration can make you nauseated and can make it hard to keep things down. Liquids should be your job one -- experiment with different temperatures of fluid: hot, warm, room temp, cold, see what you tolerate best. Take tiny sips constantly. Keep checking in with your medical team as well. Good luck!

weighing yourself too often and expecting that your weight loss will be a straight slide down instead of one with stops, starts, and small peaks with greater valleys.

@@Omla just tell your boss you are scheduled for surgery. You are not obligated to say anything more. If he/she presses (some people are clueless about both the law and etiquette) say "uhh, that's really personal . . ." and look as mortified as you possibly can. Let them assume you are having anal fissures repaired or something.

If I'm dating someone and it seems to be serious, I make sure she sees a "before" picture of me somehow. Usually that leads to some discussion and it's pretty easy to work in, "my body is far from perfect, you can see I've lost a lot of weight . . . as you can imagine, I have a lot of loose skin left over." If it doesn't come up in that initial discussion, then I steer the conversation in that direction somehow at a later time -- but definitely *before* the clothes come off. I haven't had any negative reactions.

My dietician had me give up on the idea of variety. She says that most people who are at a healthy weight eat pretty much the same thing every day at least for breakfast and lunch. As she says, food is not entertainment. So what if I want variety? So what if I am bored? I need to get over myself and eat for health. I have pretty much the same thing every day for breakfast: steak and spinach salad. I only vary the spices and dressing I use. Lunch is grilled chicken breast with some kind of green veggie and some light salad dressing. I use pre-grilled chicken breast from Trader Joe's and frozen veggies for lunch, I just defrost the amount I need. For breakfast, I do sautee the steak for a few seconds, but that's it -- fast and easy.

I doubt you are going to find a calorie-free chewable. Wellesse liquid calcium is lower calorie and lower carb than the chewables that most people use -- if you are interested in that, you could ask your doc if he would approve liquid instead of chewable? It is calcium citrate btw.

they brought me decaf in the hospital the day after surgery. But you really should check with your team to know what their rules are. My assumption would be, if they explicitly said you CAN have tea, but don't mention coffee, that means you CANNOT have coffee of any sort. So I would check with them to be sure.

I started with Wellesse liquid multi's for the first several weeks after surgery, then switched to Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable multi's -- low calorie, low carb, and much cheaper than most any other chewable multi's. I did a double dose for the first year then switched to a single dose. My labs have always been great. They taste fine -- kind of a very mild citrus type flavor.

If the regular shakes are too sweet, maybe try Unjury chicken soup protein powder or Celebrate tomato soup protein powder. You can buy samples of Unjury from their website for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to buy a sample of the Celebrate tomato soup for a reasonable price -- they charge $25 for it on their website! Maybe if you call them they can help? I also did a lot of the high protein hot soups (HealthSmart brand) from Nashua Nutrition and found they helped a lot: http://www.nashuanutrition.com/store/hot-soups/ You can get unflavored protein (Syntrax Unflavored, Unjury unflavored) and stir it into broth or soup. When you are making a hot protein drink, be sure to keep the liquid at 130 degrees or lower or the protein will clump, which is nasty. One exception is the HealthSmart soups -- they are formulated so you can use liquid right below boiling and it will work perfectly. Good luck!

Someone in my support group is a server at a busy restaurant and she took off six weeks and said she needed all that time to recover and get enough energy and strength back.

@@jane13 I don't break them in half. I am able to tolerate them whole (barely).

calcium -- for the first several weeks after surgery I used Wellesse liquid calcium, then switched to Citracal Petites. Those chewables tend to have tons of calories and carbs -- no thank you! Check with your surgeon to see if they want you to use calcium citrate rather than calcium carbonate. Many of the chewables (such as, I think, Viactiv) have calcium carbonate and many surgeons/dieticians do not want their sleeve patients taking that as we may have trouble absorbing it. multi-vitamins -- started with Wellesse liquid multi for the first several weeks. Switched to a double dose of Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable multi (much cheaper, lower calorie, and lower carb than most other vitamins, especially the "bariatric formula" ones), then tapered down to a single dose after a year post-op. I have my bloodwork done regularly and it has always been great.

What's this about not being able to use straws? (That's all I use!) Some people can't use straws because it makes them feel bloated or gassy because they get extra air in their tiny new stomach. It wasn't a problem for me. Keep in mind that this is going to be a big change for you in many ways, and you have to be willing to be flexible, learn new habits, and change things that you consider to be "ingrained" behaviors. It may or may not be straws, but it will be something. Try to shed the mindset of "this is the way I do things." Is reconstructive surgery really a MUST?! No. It depends on how much loose skin you end up with and how much you can tolerate. I have some loose skin after losing 180+ pounds but no one can see it unless I'm naked (or close to naked) and standing up, and it doesn't bother me very much, so I'm not planning on it. How long is recovery and will I need someone to stay with me during recovery? Recovery varies a lot from person to person. I took two weeks off of work to get my energy back, get over some residual pain, and make sure I had time to focus on getting all my fluids and Protein in correctly. I didn't need anyone else at home, but I did make sure I had all heavy lifting and strenuous household chores done before surgery -- laundry, yard work, kitty litter changed, etc. I had my housekeeper come by for one extra visit during my recovery because I didn't feel like cleaning house and I needed someone to change the kitty litter again -- I took the lifting restrictions seriously! Other than that I didn't need anyone around, and was actually glad not to have anyone hovering over me. I think most people don't need anyone with them unless they had severe complications or just get really unlucky in terms of their recovery. Good luck to you!

Hi BBWoman. When I have found myself struggling to keep on track, I buckle down and do some heavy de-carbing. My steps are: --get all unhealthy carbs out of the house. Sweets, starchy veggies, and grains are all IN THE TRASH immediately. -for the first three days, eat nothing but lean meat and green veggies. Spices and cooking spray are fine to season the food - no sauces, butter, cheese, etc. Lean meat and green veggies only! But I allow myself to eat as much lean meat and green veggies as I want. --the next three days, go to myfitnesspal.com and set up an account with reasonable weight loss goals and a high protein, low carb daily ratio. Pre-plan my eating every day. Weigh or measure my portions. Log all my eating. Stick with the rule of lean meat and green veggies only. --make sure that I am getting at least 75 grams of protein and 64 ounces of fluid a day. Only allowable fluids are water, black coffee, and tea. --my six day carb detox is now over. Keep my targets on MFP and my practice of logging and pre-planning, but gradually add in eggs, dairy, fruit, and tree nuts. Plan for three meals and two or three snacks a day -- no unplanned snacks or "grazing" allowed. This is my plan and it works for me. Yes, it is very rigid and involves a lot of counting, measuring, logging, etc. But I find I do better when working within a strict framework instead of just trying to make stuff up as I go along. That's what got me to 350+ pounds and needing weight loss surgery in the first place. Good luck to you!

It has to do with the vagus nerve. It runs along the stomach (and elsewhere in the body) and controls a lot of involuntary functions like sneezing, nose running, and hiccups. It typically gets injured/mashed/bruised during surgery and can lead to lots of ~interesting~ results for several months after.

Use the quick adds tool and add in however many calories you need to go over 1000. Close your diary for the day. Then go back in and subtract the quick added calories out.

Love it. "Our moderation button is broken. We moderated ourselves right up to 300 pounds." PREACH!

Enjoy, I just about had a happy breakdown at Kohl's the first time I went out shopping in the "normal" size section. I was struggling with believing I could do that and people weren't looking at me like I either got lost on the way to the "women's" section, was shopping for a gift for my thin friend, etc. That being my new normal was actually kind of hard to deal with, even though it was happy-making too. I know I am rambling . . . have a great time shopping!

I always tried to keep my breakfast low carb and high protein, like the rest of my meals. Just because it's breakfast doesn't mean I need to eat a bunch of crappy carb-laden food. Now that I'm free to eat raw veggies I usually make a salad with about 3 ounces of steak and one ounce of raw baby spinach leaves. It is a great breakfast! Back when I was on soft foods I often had something like a poached egg over a piece of turkey sausage or slice of light spam; or Greek yogurt or cottage cheese with a spoonful of peanut butter or almond butter stirred in. No grains!

No clue, I stayed off the scale entirely for the first few months except for weigh-ins at my doctor's office. So I didn't get on the scale until a month post-op (my surgeon doesn't weigh people at 2 week follow-up because that information is not meaningful). So, I was completely free from worry as to how much I was losing or how fast or was I having a stall. All I had to focus on was how well I was following my medical team's plan -- and that's all any of us really can control anyway.

I wasn't allowed any grains or starchy veggies at all for the first six months. If your program doesn't mention eating baked potatoes or tortillas, don't do it without calling them and asking for clarification/permission. There are other ways to make meatloaf and meatballs, just google something like Paleo Meatballs or Paleo Meatloaf.

Losing weight is going to make most people look a bit older because they don't have as much fat to fill out their wrinkly bits on their faces. It doesn't have to do with what surgery you have or how fast you lose.

@@auttinicole it depends on what the requirements are for your surgeon and/or your insurance. I know some insurance plans will deny people who gain weight. Mine won't -- if you are unsure of the requirements from your insurer or your surgeon, definitely get in touch with them. Good luck!

Hi Toni, The important thing is to go back to a healthy post-wls diet. For me, that is high protein and low carb. I stick to 3 ounces of lean meat and a couple ounces of green veggies for each meal. For snacks, I have things like a piece of fruit, a small handful of nuts, or a protein shake. I am sure you were fed all sorts of unhealthy crap in jail -- carb-heavy stuff like bread, noodles, and potatoes. Cut out all that and focus on lean meat and green veggies and carefully watching your portions. If you do that, you should lose weight -- but the first several days will be HARD! Your body is used to getting a bunch of carbs and it will protest with "head hunger" -- cravings for carb-heavy foods. If your body is telling you, "I am starving" -- ask yourself if you would be happy to eat a piece of lean chicken breast and some broccoli. If the answer is no, then you aren't really hungry, you are just having a craving. If the answer is yes, go ahead and have the chicken breast and broccoli. How much you "should" be down is irrelevant -- there is no such thing as "should" be down by a certain time for anyone, whether they have been incarcerated or not. That's past -- don't focus on it. You haven't destroyed your surgery. You do need to honor it by focusing on lean meats and green veggies and curbing any tendencies to over-snack, graze, or drink liquid calories (other than protein shakes). You can do this. Good luck!