joatsaint

Congrats on having such a good recovery. Now start Pimpin' that Sleeve! :-)

Did you tell them that on advice from you council, you could not answer that portion of the questionaire? :-)

My surgeon said as long as there were no "chuncks" in my full liquids meals, it was okay. So I would not be worried about adding spices or sweetners. I guess I had a mixed blessing during my 1st month. I really didn't want to eat anything and my stomach took a long time to return to it's normal levels of foods it would tolerate. I was only eating about 3/4 can of cream of mushrooms soup/day for the 1st month. With the occasional spoon of creamy Peanut Butter. Other than those two main things, I was eating sugar free Jell-O and sugar free popsicles. I never really cared about eating a variety of flavors and only change to a different food once I was burned out on the current one. At 12 months post-op, I'm still pretty much eating the same thing day after day - pork loin or chicken breast or turkey hamburger mixed with black Beans or lentils or refried beans.

I was back at work on day 10, with no issues. Having said that, my job is a desk job - so I wasn't required to do any lifting, bending or squatting. But I have read posts claiming they went back to work 3 days post-op. I think the amount of time off from work has as much to do with letting the pain meds get out of your system - so you can safely drive - as how much you will have to exert yourself at work.

Stop that! You're making me hungry. :-P On second thought, go ahead and post your food porn pics.

Good luck on your surgery. I've seen posts and videos from people that were just hours post-op, I wasn't that energetic post-op.

I don't think you messed up. It sounds like the test I took. From what I've read, the test is to determine your mental outlook on life. They just want to see if you're going to be able to understand, be realistic, and live with changes that come with bariatric surgery. They are not out to disqualify you, only to make sure you are mentally fit for surgery.

Anyone that asked me about how I was losing weight was told that I was eating a whole lot less and doing lots of walking. They could see me going out for walks during lunch and I ate only a small bowl of food at lunch. No one really asked any more than that. It's been 11 months and I've only had one person ask if I had WLS and I told him that I did - but that was at month 10, I probably would have lied to him if he had asked that question in the 1st 6 months. I wasn't comfortable telling anyone for a long time.

At one month out, I was eating a lot of ground chicken and refried beans with salsa.

I didn't have a food funeral. I was at my lowest point when I decided to have surgery and I hated everything about food and the control it had over my life. But I've read many accounts of people having food funerals. Some think that they need one last pig out to say goodbye to the foods they'll never be able to eat again, but the truth is most people can eat whatever they want once their new stomachs heal.It's just the quantity that's reduced.

I know I'm close to full when I start feeling pressure in my stomach and I feel the gas bubbles manouvering their way arond the food in my stomach - trying to get out. When I get overly full I feel a poking sensation at the bottom of my throat - have that sensation a few times and you'll quickly teach yourself how much you can eat before you're full! :-P

I think you're just going through the same phase we all go through.

I think I started vitamins about 1 month out - after I was back on full foods. To test my stomach's reaction, I broke the tablet in half and swallowed it. After 5 minutes, I didn't feel any stomach distress, so I took the other half. I've been taking the whole tablet since then.

Congrats! I made the same mistake. I woke up and felt a hard lump on my side. When I pressed on it, I realized it was my ribs! When you start feeling the car seat press on your butt bone, let us know! :-P I started feeling that new sensation about a month ago.

I have found that massage works pretty good to tighten up loose skin, especially around the mid section. After showering, I knead and roll my gut like a ball of dough to stimulate circulation and move the fat cells around. I noticed that doing pushups started to tighten the loss skin on the back of my arms and figured getting more circulation around my gut would help do the same.

My gas pains went away by day 7. I walked A LOT and just moving around seemed to ease the pressure. My 1st couple of days, I felt like I had one of those Alien "chest burster" critters sitting under my ribcage. :-)

At 6 weeks post-op, I was still on an 800 cal/day diet. I would have broken the quest bar into 2 and eaten half in the morning and half in the afternoon rather than the whole thing at once.

I would consider it a puree, but I wouldn't want to eat it. When I was at the puree stage, my stomach could not tolerate something as fiberous as oatmeal. My stomach was limited to cream of mushroom soup or egg salad, along with my sugar free Jell-O and sugar free popsicles. Anything tougher than those made my stomach behave like one of those tree branch grinders the road crews use. :-)

I went through the same thing. I just acclimated myself to eating cold food. Now, it's just a way of life to eat stuff that is room temp or straight out of the fridge. The benefit is that now I don't have to wait on the microwave to heat things up! :-)

To keep my diet under control, I stick with eating a lot of protein and high fiber vegetables like green beans. Only after I've eaten my fill on those types of foods do I allow myself a very small portion of dessert. I usually measure it out in a normal coffee cup. 1/2 a cup is my normal serving size for desserts.

I believe in everything in moderation. If I get caught up in a "forbidden food list", I'll just obsess about the things I can't have. So if I want a piece of chocolate, I eat a Hershey's sugar free chocolate - it's about 30 calories, and tastes almost the same as regular chocolate. I just pay special attention to my total caloric intake for the day and don't allow myslef to over indulge on foods that don't have any real nutritional value.

I really like Premier Protien chocolate out of the 3 brands I"ve tried. It's really smooth and silky - like chocolate milk.

Thanks for the update. I didn't realize Slim Fast had a low carb option. Have you tried Premier Protein chocolate, I love those things!

Congrats on having a successful surgery. Keep walking and sipping on your water!

I go to Golden Corral about twice a month. I eat about 1 small platefull. I know I'm not getting my money's worth, but I go there with my friends to socialize - it's not about the food. I get a wicked thrill about not being able to eat as much as my friends. While they're going back for their third plate, I'm still working on my first piece of steak and Brussell sprouts. I consider it the best $12 I spend all week!