Fiddleman

Depends on what you are going to order. The wraps and subs should wait until you can comfortably eat bread again, maybe never. I bet you will be comfortable with eating wraps from subway after month 5. They also can make salads out of any sandwich type. I personally used to enjoy the sweet onion chicken teriyaki and a salad made out of this would be pretty tasty. Everyone is different, but a lot of post ops require a number of months until they can eat the raw veggies in a salad. Again, this might be month 5 or month 6. Did you know that subway just started to sell a dedicated chopped chicken salad option? These are fairly good and you can double protein it if you desire. Like the sandwich salads i described above, you can pick and choose which toppings to add to he chopped salad. There is enough salad to last you 3-4 meals. The only negative is the chopped salad is a bit pricy at 9 dollars. Too much in my opinion for what you get.

Good - I hope the experience gets better for you.

Thank you both!!

I have found the Chia seeds are most effective if you gel them before mixing them with a protein shake or anything else.

Great job to the both of you! I honestly think your dh looks like a different person now. Very nice and so much younger looking both of you. See you in support meeting soon!

Do you eat the chia seeds as packaged or do you let them gel in water for at least 20 minutes? it could also be that you are trying them out too early post op. My first experience was about 4.5 months post op. That is when I first found out about them. Now, 2 tbsp of chia seeds in my morning protein shake is a daily ritual. It makes my shake nice and thick, increases protein, provides omega 3 and hydrates me with water before an intense daily workout later in the day. The aztecs knew what they were during by eating a handful of these before running 100s of miles in the Andes mountains so long ago. They sit in your GI tract holding onto water,ready to release additional water,say, when you are in the middle of running a 10 k. Love them!

Thanks everyone for your kind and motivating comments.

To parent post - good comment. The body needs increased Water and Protein to heal properly from high impact stress placed on it. In your case, it is even more important then the average person that needs it after working out. You may try drinking even more water and high quality Protein Shakes that are designed for athletic recovery. You could source additional protein from food, but that might be challenging considering the small nature of our stomachs. GNC sells a good recovery shake called Amplified Wheybolic 60, but I am sure there are even better recovery shakes that others can recommend. I use this GNC Protein Shake as part of the recovery process daily. It is not the only shake I drink. I drink a high quality whey shake in the morning and a casein shake at bed. Consuming the long acting casein protein shake always keeps me at the low end of my maintain range and even helps drop weight, as in 1-3 lb overnight. If I do not take it, my weight stays on the mid to higher side of maintain range. My maintain range is +- 2 lbs centered on 188 lb currently. Consider casein for this reason, even if it seems too good to be true. You can google the positive effects that consuming Casein at bed and whey protein in the morning can have on your metabolism. You may consider getting your protein intake way up with shakes as the body heals faster with large amounts of protein especially when it is under stress and dealing with inflammation from your car accident. Your body is struggling with high levels of inflammation right now due the car accident. Such inflammation causes the body to hold onto fat longer. The fat traps toxins in your body which leads to water retention and an inefficient metabolism. You want to get rid of these high levels of inflammation as quickly as possible in order to create equilibrium in your body. You may consider taking a super dose of Omega 3 in the 6-9 g range to help your body eliminate the high levels of inflammation. The super Omega 3 dose is hard to source from the standard products found at most grocery stores or even stores like costco. The highest dose i have seen off the shelf is 1 g dose. most products contain 300 mg of the active ingredients. In order to avoid taking literally a handful of 300 mg fish oil capsules, you can look for molecularly distilled omega 3 in super dose size. There is a product made by stronger, healthier, faster that has 3 g doses of omega 3 per tsp: http://www.sfh.com/products/omega_3-oil I used this product myself about a month ago to help repair the inflammation caused by intense exercise. It really does help to reduce the high levels of inflammation in the body, but should not be taken forever because of long term side effects of super doses. it is also very expensive. I have since switched to taking 4 g omega 3 a day (2 capsules in the morning and 2 capsules at night) to save on cost. Product i take now is by avocare and I take it every day to combat inflammation from intense workouts, regardless of whether i feel the need to or not. I have not had a sore day yet after intense exercise encountered and my initial issue with high levels of inflammation in the back did go away after a few weeks on 6-9 g daily consumption. The sfh.com product is 60 dollars, but does have 60 doses in it. If you are taking 2-3 doses a day, you will use it up in 3 weeks, which should be enough time to reduce the inflammations levels. Additionally, BCAA chain powders (mix with water) have a good mix of amino acids for opening up the muscles and joints for repair. A lot of athletes take these in order for their muscles to recover faster. The increased water I suggested above will carry the waste from your body from the repair process. Lastly, rest. Your body likely needs some down time in order to help it recover in the absence of my supplement suggestions above. There is no reason to stress it out even more and cause a reoccurring inflammation issue. This are some good strategies to help your body repair faster and focus more on eliminating fat rather then fighting inflammation all the time. They are only suggestions. Use the information as part of your decision making process. Others might have som ideas as well.

We need a *susan* fog horn to get her attention.

I went through a lot of pain swallowing and in the stomach for a least a week after surgery. It was hard to even drink the Protein shakes and I was not hungry enough to do so. However, the doctor and his staff were very clear on drinking them to meet protein requirements in order to heal in the normal amount of time. I was not concerned about the hair loss, but did want to heal normally. One strategy that really helped me is to drink 1 ounce of Protein shake every hour. I could manage this through sipping. It was not until 3 weeks have gone by that I was even honking about 8 ounces at a time 3 x a day. Start small with the 1 ounce increments and see if that is helpful. It will get better as your stomach heals!

No protein for 2 weeks as a post op sounds really tough! Sounds very draconian. Most are allowed to have protein shakes same day or next day after surgery, if they do not have any complications or difficulty swallowing.

Here are mine. Down 180 lb. I was sleeve 7-2-2012 and reached goal 2-28-2013.

Great job! Feels good to be closer to finish then start, doesn't it.

Ha! My ellyptical makes a ton of noise, but it is also a dinosaur nearly 20 years old. It is time to send it out to pasture...

What treadmill are you interested in?

My wife, the gourmet chef, prepared it. She has really helped me eat healthy dinners as a post op! I could not have been successful with eating around dinner time without her mad iron-chef skills.

The post above yours asked if I knew about Secret Garden. Very much so, although has nothing to do with the original topic of this thread (my apologies!). Fiona is a violinist that belongs to the Celtic fusion group called Secret Garden (very popular in Europe). She is so relaxing to listen to and I aspire to play like her, really like her style of violin playing. Maybe I will eat some apple while listening to her music and bring the thread back on topic. http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Secret-Garden-Millennium/dp/B0002IQIFQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1369455140&sr=8-5&keywords=Secret+garden

The following is a copy of the cheese Cake Factory Thai Wrap appetizer for dinner tonight! I know you want some. Yummy!! Probably 1 wrap is enough for most. Some might like 1.5 or 2 depending on how far post op you are. At 10 months, I got through 1.5, but that was still a little too much. 1 would have been fine for me, but I enjoyed it too much.

Muchas gracias everyone! I really appreciate validation of hard work. Yes, it is hard work but entirely worth it!! Some simple tips I can give newbies: Do not compromise Always have your eye focused on both short term and long term goals Be consistent Visit support groups often (especially VST) Be your own champion of motivation and success Find VST role models and be like them Follow your doctor guidelines Take your Vitamins and supplements every day. Learn what are the best kinds to take. Meet and exceed Water and Protein goals on a daily basis. sleep 7-8 hours a night. Feel rested. Do work on eating more as the months go by Do work on giving 110% to your workout plan, always challenge yourself at every workout. Applies when after month 5 or so. Let go of the superficial issues around losing weight. Do not stress about not dropping weight. There will be weeks that go by with no changes in scale weight or perhaps fitting clothes. Get used to the staircase of lose, stall, lose, stall and then ignore it. Believe in your success. This is key. Do not sabotage your success. Focus Find our exercise you really enjoy so you do not feel it is work. For me, it is running and cross fit. Learn as much as you can about your body and how different foods, supplements, drinks and exercises affect you. Always be asking yourself questions and search out the answers. Others on VST are an excellent resource, but also google is also your wise friend. These are just off the top of my head. I could keep writing these for pages, but you would get seriously bored.