joatsaint

My psych eval seemed to be all about me having realistic expectations of life after surgery - how much weight I expected to lose, how fast, knowing that it would take work and dedication to be successful and the dietary changes I would have to live with. There was also a 500 multiple choice questiannaire that seemed to be mainly focused on determining if you were a balanced person. You might watch my video and I tell about my psy eval.

I wasn't eating much of anything for the 1st few months, but somewhere around 6 months I tried some popcorn and had no troubles with it. And it easily filled me up. 1 of the Orville Riddenbocker single serving bags was 2 meals for me. Now at 11 months, I can eat a whole bag. It's not a slider food for me. I believe the reasons to stay away from popcorn during the 1st few months is: 1. It is possible to get pieces of the kernal in your stomach's staple line. 2. It has very little nutrition and you need to get as much nutrition in every bite you can.

I know where your coming from. It really got me down when I felt I was too far gone to lose the weight - the thought of the depravation, food cravings, and years it would take to get down to a "normal" weight level. It can get overwhelming and I figured why fight it. After years of failing to control my weight and gaining more and more weight, I was, as Ralphie May said, "Way past a diet Coke fix!" You have to hang in there and keep trying to get approved.

Every step you take towards your goal is important and it is a huge deal. I chickened out on my first attempt to do the surgery. It took me another month before I realized I needed it and committed.

If could have stayed on a diet, then I wouldn't have needed the surgery. Don't beat yourself up about it. I had a very hard time with the pre-op diet too. After surgery, my entire mind set changed about food and it's like night and day. No more cravings, I don't obsess about certain flavors. Post-op, I could do the pre-op diet all over again and not think twice about it, whereas before, I was always focused on how hard it was to stay on the liquid diet, missing solid food, and certain flavors. I don't know what changed in my brain after surgery, maybe it was the reduction of the ghrelin homorne, not having sugar and high carb foods for months post-op, or if surgery was the kick in the pants I needed. I just know it worked for me and I'd do it all over again in a minute!

I had the same feeling post-op for about 5 days. I knew exactly how that guy in Aliens felt as that critter burst out of his chest! The only real cure is time and walking. I wasn't in any kind of shape to walk oustside in the cold last December when I was sleeved, but I did get up and walk around the house. I tried to get in about 20 minutes of total walking time per day and just kept on imporving on that.

I stocked up on chicken broth, cream of chicken Soup, cream of mushroom soup, EAS low carb shakes (but I have switched to Premier Protein chocolate shakes), Crysatal Light lemonade, sugar free popsicles and sugar free Jell-O. But don't buy a whole lot of anything. You won't be eating that much the first 2 weeks or longer. And I found that my taste buds changed after surgery. I gave away a case of chicken soup that I couldn't stand (before surgery I loved it).

It's not just you... it 's mee too. And it aint' even cold in Texas yet! Down in the 50's and the wind just cuts through the skin on my hands and arms... brrrrrrrr! :-)

Congrats on your weight loss. I too was nervous/excited about having surgery, but it was worth it. My life has really changed around since I lost the weight and I'd do it all over agian in a minute.

My doc said I could drink anything that was high protein/low carb. (less than 5 carbs per serving) I stuck to the EAS carb control chocolate shakes at Wal-Mart. 4/$5. Later I found Premier Protein chocolate shakes and switched to them. Both were low carb and good tasting, but Premier had a much more silky texture - more like chocolate milk.

I didn't try caffine again until several months post-op - mainly because I wasn't able to eat or drink much of anything for that long. But at 11 months, I can drink (3 to 4) 8oz cups a day at work with no ill effects. I didn't start out drinking like that, my first cup, I took a sip, waited a few minutes, took a 2nd sip, still no problems - then I knew I could handle caffine again.

I was only eating sugar free jell-o and sugar free popsicles for the 1st week. And Frankensleeve didn't like either one!

My doc wanted me off shakes and onto real foods as fast as possible - he explained that real food has lots of macronutrients that you don't get from shakes, since the processing destroys or reduces the nutrient content of food.

My stomach gave me fits for weeks and I was only eating about 3/4 can of Soup per day for the 1st month. But others say they were back to eat their regular foods in days - they didn't say if they had gone against their doctors prescribed diet or not. But my stomach, my taste buds, and sense of smell were all out of wack for weeks, so what you're going through seems to be part of the process. Hang in there, your new stomach needs time to adjust and heal.

I was nervous/excited/scared when I made the decision, but after I committed to the surgery, I calmed down because I knew that I was going to go through with it - no matter what.

I was walking per my doctor beginning the day after surgery - only 20 minutes a day. And I built on that. It's been 11 months and I walk 4 to 5 miles a day - 4 to 5 days a week.

Peanutbutter was a weakness of mine when I was on puree foods. I had to limit myself to 2 tablespoons/day or I'd eat the whole jar.

Good luck, hope your eval comes back fast. My doc sent me to a psychologist that was known for his speed for processing evaluations. My other option for eval would have take over a week to get the results back.

At about 8 weeks, I mixed a shot of Tequila in my Crystal Light lemonade - I almost instantly got a warm fuzzy feeling. :-) I am normally a "two beers and I'm drunk" person, but now, it only takes 1.

I had this wierd craving for a Whataburger - a Texas based burger joint. But I was only a day post-op and by the time (4 weeks later) I could eat solid foods, I had gone cold turkey too long. :-p I haven't had a craving for any food flavor since then.

I don't like the new site layout either. The new layout is makes it much harder to see the newest content and newest questions/replies in the different forums. I liked being able to see the new questions, status updates, and blog posts over in the right hand panel as well as having the last "replied to" thread listed under each subforum. Now all I can easily locate is the newest topics. Clicking on "New Content" brings up content from the wrong forum, instead of VSG, I get Lap Band threads.

You can always PM me. I'll be happy to share what I have experienced over the past 11 months post-op.

I went through that exact same thing for about the first 4 months. I was barely able to eat 3/4 can of cream of mushroom soup a day for the 1st month. After that, I slowly progressed to "tougher" foods. My system for eating slowly was to take a bite, play a round of Bloons tower defense, take a bite, ... repeat.

I was advised to take a chewable multi post-op, but I couldn't eat anything for the 1st week post-op - everything I ate caused a sever reaction from my stomach. I started taking the normal size mufti-Vitamins at around day 14. I broke one in half and swallowed it. I didn't have a negative reaction to it, I've been taking them ever since with no problems.

I've noticed the same thing about my self, I can eat more now and more often. I find that if I eat protein that isn't chopped or ground up like hamburger, I stay full longer and eat smaller portions. I also try to fill up on low calorie vegetables like green beans/cauliflower/brussel sprouts. To keep losing the weight, I've had to up my walking. I average 4.5 to 5 miles a day, with 3 of those miles done at a park near my home. I try to get those 3 miles done within an hour.