Josephine

My last supper was a big salad filled with nuts, tons of veggies, cheese, the works. Kinda boring I know. :thumbup: I ate a lot of fish and salad the couple weeks before surgery. One salad that is really low carb and delicious is iceberg lettuce (gross i know but much less carbs) with sour cream, turkey bacon, cheese, and boiled egg. It sounds weird, but it's really heaven. It'll be much easier after surgery. The only thing surgery does for you is the most important thing: You get full FAST. And in the first month especiall.. 2 or 3 bites and you're done. It gives your body plenty of time to dump all those toxins so you're not craving bad food PHYSICALLY. You may still crave it mentally, but you won't be able to eat it, so you just have to deal with that part.... which tends to go away after a few weeks.

We made delicious pizzas last night for dinner. We used those small tortillas. They were great! Here's what I did: I cut up red onion, red bell pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, some spring onion, a couple jalapenos, and sauteed it. Then I cooked some chicken breast in small pieces on low heat (1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of water) with the lid on. Then I mixed the meat and veggies together. I zapped the 3 tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds. This helps them harden and brown later. Preheated the oven to 200 celcius. I diced 2 more cloves of garlic and added it with a tiny bit of garlic and onion salt to a teaspoon of butter. I spread the mix lightly on the 3 tortillas and sprayed PAM on a pizza platter and put the tortillas on it. I added a couple teaspoons of pizza sauce to the 3 tortillas with 1/2 ounce of cheese on each. Then I loaded them up with the chicken/veggies mix, aded another 1/2 ounce of cheese to each, sprinkled some parmesean on top and then baked for 15 minutes, stopping 5 minutes early to sprinkle some green onion to the top of them and then baked the additional 5 minutes. They were sooooo friggen good. I ended up eating 1/2 of one of the little pizzas and the boyfriend ate the other 2 and a half pizzas. He LOVED them. It was QUITE good. I have a friend that posts about her pizzas that she did early out like yours (cheese, pepperoni, and sauce only) and it's GREAT for people who are early out. Those of us that are past 4 months and can eat a little bit more might like to prepare it with a 1/2 slice of pita bread or one of these mini tortillas.

hehehe you made me spit crystal lite. you're hilarious. omg, i'm so sorry for your woes but very glad you've got a working one now. i know all about mean scales that lie :thumbup:

The only thing I'd be concerned about is that 50 lbs is not much to lose. I'd ask the surgeon to give you at least a 40f so you will have a better shot at being able to stop the weightloss after you hit50-60 lbs lost. If he gives you a 32, it might be a lot harder to stop the weightloss when you want to. That's just my opinion, and some people say bougie size has very little to do with it, but mine's a 40 and I've lost a lot of weight, never thrown up, never had problems with any food, etc. I love that I'm able to eat anything, just a lot less of it. I'm almost 5 months out and losing steadily. A good example of what I can eat is what I ate yesterday. 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 7 cashews and 10 frozen blueberries 2 string cheese 1/3 of a mango 2 ozs of rice/vermicelli/scrambled eggs/chicken breast 1/4 cup of greek yogurt 1/2 cup of endive/mashedpotatoes/bacon/nutmeg/vinegar mush with 1 cheese souffle (Admittedly this meal took me about an hour to eat but I knew I needed to try to get dinner in because I have a kidney infection so I had been sipping white beer and cranberry juice all day. Man it's hard to drink beer after VSG.) Then before bed I had 5 saltines with light gouda cheese. I thought after all that I'd show a gain on the scale (the beer and cranberry juice alone was 700 calories) but I actually lost another 2 lbs. I dunno, maybe bougie size doesn't matter that much, but I know I can eat enough healthy food with a 40f whereas some people I've read that have a 32 can't get in much more than 1/4-1/2 cup of food at a time. If I only had 50 lbs to lose, I'd be scared it wouldn't stop. I have a few friends that are 20-30 lbs below goal and try very hard to gain weight. We're all different, so it's hard to say, but I do know that a 40 allows me to get in proper nutrition (my 4/5 month bloodwork was excellent!) and still lose weight. Additionally, if for some reason a 40 is too big and you have trouble maintaining, you can have additional surgery to convert to a bypass or switch, but if you get a 32 and can't stop losing, what can you do? Nothing except get used to weighing 110 lbs. Just my opinion. I do think the sleeve is an AMAZING tool, but for someone who has only 50 lbs to lose, it's a risk that your body might get down way below goal before it matures/heals enough to allow you to stop.

They go down fine for me without drink, but if you're having problems with being thirsty while eating, you're probably not properly hydrated. I try to drink a lot of Water. When I actually do it, I don't have any problem with being thirsty while eating dinner and it helps me get in a lot more food than I would if I had been slacking on the water and have to drink with my meal. My surgeon never said anything about not drinking before/during/after but of course I know that we shouldn't. I think it's mostly important for RNYers or Lapbanders. My sleeve is a 40, so I have enough room for a few sips with my meal if I need it. Regardless, when I'm drinking all the water I'm supposed to, my intestines are full of water and hydrated enough that even if I'm eating something salty, I don't get the sensation to drink.

One of the best things that ever happened to me was 12 years ago when a lady at work ate half her cheeseburger and tossed it in the garbage. She saw me looking and started to say something and then stopped herself. After a few seconds she came and sat by me and told me that she'd had gastric bypass surgery and had lost 200lbs, and it would be a wonderful option for me. I didn't get offended, but it did start me on my path of researching and finding my own way. =)

Pork rinds were my first HAPPY PROTEIN find! Only mine are 250 cals, 33g protein for a small 45g bag. These are great for the munchies without feeling guilty. (I have chronic pain as a result of the lapband and take pain pills/medical THC for it)

I've never had this pain with the sleeve, but when I had the lapband and something got stuck really bad, OMG, the pain between my shoulderblades was so severe, I knew when something had come unstuck finally when the pain subsided. My own fault for eating salads, but I just love(d) them so much!

I've heard a normal stomach can hold up to a gallon of food if pushed, but most people eat around a liter of food 32 ozs. So to have an 8-10 ounce stomach at maturity is still small.

OMG this cracked me up, like you only give it to him on his birthday. Hehehehe! I'm sure he gets it more often but it just really got me tickled and made my dad come over to read it and then got him tickled. LOL I think I waited about 2 weeks. I was so tired that first 2 weeks.

That is a slippery slope dear. Please back away from the Snacks. What you need to do is go back to liquids for about 2 days and that will clean your body from the carbs. Then put yourself on a schedule of eating. If you tackle the hunger before you feel it, your sleeve will work for you. Example: 8am: egg and cheese 10:30am: a nice crunchy apple 1pm: tuna salad with a couple reduced fat crackers 3:30pm: yogurt and a few carrot sticks 6pm: chicken breast with garlic and parmeasan and some brocolli. 8:30pm: celery with Peanut Butter and a cup of Soup During the day drink tons of crystal lite and decaf tea. You don't have to count every calorie that goes into your mouth, but you DO have to have a good plan full of crunchy healthy snacks and stop bringing the junk into the house. If you have to have something sweet do low cal ice cream or some fruit. If you have to have something crunchy have carrots, cucumbers, pickles. If you want something salty, have 5 olives or a couple pork skins. You can do this!!

I'm able to eat all of those things with no problem, just in small portions, because yes they do expand a little bit, but as long as you control your portion, there's no problem, at least for me. Just be sure you're eating plenty of protein with it.

To answer your question, in the beginning while your sleeve is healing you'll feel uncomfortable after just 2 or 3 bites. Once the sleeve heals and the swelling goes down, you should be able to eat anything you want, and you will know you're finished when you start to feel a bit of pressure. If you push it, you'll start to feel the food in your throat. It really helps to measure your food to 1/4 or 1/2 a cup and just eat that and stop. I don't measure, I just get small portions on a small saucer and then stop when I feel that first sign of pressure even tho I know I could get in another couple bites easily.

You can order the Syntrax Nectars online. There are tons of places that sell them :smile: You can even get some samples online for really cheap to see which ones you like from vitalady.com

I think you're doing great. The only recommendation I have for you is that at 4 months post op, you should try to get in at least 800 cals on ALL days unless it's just a REALLY bad day food wise.

I was given a straw with my meal the day after surgery in the hospital. I never had any problems with it.

I had the band September 2004. Since November 2005, I've had nothing but problems. I've been in severe daily pain every waking moment because of the band and my body rejecting a foreign object being in it. Since I was revised to the sleeve in October 2009, I've lost 77lbs and I'm so happy. I still suffer with daily pain because they could not get the port out. Don't do it. Of the 9 of us that got the band together, 8 have been revised, replaced, or had it removed. I think long term it's a terrible WLS.

At 2 weeks out, it's imperative to follow the rules completely. The first month is not designed for rapid weightloss dear. It is designed to help your sleeve heal properly. Please just keep following the rules perfectly to let your sleeve heal and regain your strength and ignore the advice I gave to the other poster that was farther out than you. :thumbup: A calorie intake of 500 in the first month is okay. Pushing it farther than that could hurt you.

how long after surgery did this begin? is it possible that you have a sleeve stricture? has anyone done an endoscopy?

I wasn't unfilled before my surgery, but then again I only had about 4CC in a 11cc band.

Add in 200 calories to your diet and start to think positively and tell yourself many times a day that you love yourself and you need to be thin, healthy, happy, and strong to survive in this world of predators.

It's the low fat diet that causes it. When I was 16 I went on a fat free diet for 4 months where I got almost no fat at all, and at 17 had to have my gall bladder removed.