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I take a prenatal Vitamin. The vitamin-y aftertaste is minimal and I know I'm absorbing the Iron because of the side effects. I use BelllyBar Chewable Prenatals, two daily and they're a pretty balanced multi that includes iron and B12. Check with your doc if they're suitable for folks that aren't pregnant or trying to get pregnant. It's the first multi I take every day, because it doesn't make me nauseous. My hair and nails are finally like they were prior to surgery! I take mine first thing in the morning WITH food. Right in the middle of my Protein coffee or whatever I'm eating, I stop to take my Vitamins and then finish my meal. No real aftertaste, no nausea, no problems. Good luck, ~Cheri

I'm a super shortie. Meaning that even petite pants have to be hemmed a few inches in most cases. My inseam is almost 29" and it's a real pain to find pants that fit. A quick fix is some stitch witchery and an Iron, if the already present hem isn't terribly noticeable. I just tried my hardest to find off the rack petites that would fit but I know it's not always an option. I'll lose another entire pant size with plastics, no doubt. My apron is the worst! I can't believe how you're closing in on goal already! It seems like not that long ago you started posting! ~Cheri

Nope, not that I've ever noticed. I hated

Then something isn't right and I urge you to get into the doctor so they can figure that out. Are you eating enough? That might be your issue - if you're still severely restricted and not getting in many calories it could be keeping your sugars very low. Normal sugars range from 70-100 (fasting) and should peak at 135-145 (postprandial), or at least that's why my doc had me following. So if your fasting sugars are around 50 in the morning, you might need to eat right before bed. In any case, I was always told that 50 was the high point of the danger zone, and that I should immediately have fast acting sugars to push my levels back up. Anything below 50 and you're tempting a serious risk. I'm not sure how frequently you test but I tested first thing in the morning, 30 minutes after each meal and right before bed. When I wanted to see how a particular food affected my system I also tested immediately before eating and 30 minutes after eating, just to see what I needed to avoid. If you can't get in to a doctor soon, I recommend at the very least testing immediately before bed and eating something or drinking juice if your numbers need boosting, and checking first thing in the morning to see the effect. I'd still be concerned about your levels falling too low while you sleep if you're riding the line at 50 all day long! ~Cheri

I've never tried that - I mix the unflavored into Soups, coffee, tea, juice, etc. You can mix some into pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese...whatever makes you happy! I've even mixed scoops into homemade mini muffins, Breakfast Cookies and scones to add a teeny Protein boost to my carbs. ~Cheri

Exercise is great for your body and your mind, but exercise isn't the answer to losing weight. Diet is the answer. Building plenty of muscle will help you burn more calories around the clock, so don't stop exercising if you already enjoy it. But if you're already active, adding more exercise right now might have the opposite effect on the scale. Track your calories religiously for three days, without changing what you eat. There might be something you need to tweak. Perhaps you aren't eating enough for your active lifestyle. Or perhaps you're eating more than you realize. You won't know until you have a very clear picture of what's going into your body. From there, play with your numbers until you find what works. I know, that's not an easy suggestion to follow! But we're all so different. I lose best (and maintain best) when I eat 90+ grams of Protein daily. I need plenty of carbs to feel happy and satisfied with my meals. Everyone is different. Also look at external factors. I changed my birth control after I got my sleeve and could not lose with Mirena in - I had to have it removed. I don't lose when I am feeling very stressed, even though I don't eat more food during these times. If I don't get good sleep for several days in a row, I can see a bounce UP on the scale. So if there's something else going on with you, make sure you address it so you can be healthy in body and mind. The good news is that you can get to goal. You've done a really great job so far. Your sleeve is still there, still fully functional. All you need to do is find that sweet spot where you can balance your diet and your lifestyle and lose weight again. Best of luck, ~Cheri

Yes you do have food issues to work on and YES you'll be okay for surgery. I've never understood why surgeons put patients on pre-op diets before surgery - unless it really is someone in need of liver shrinking. Because, really, who succeeds at going cold turkey from an addiction? The vast majority of people DO NOT, and I, personally do not see the huge difference one week of liquids makes prior to surgery. All it does is make patients miserable and when they have trouble sticking to the extreme diet change, they feel sad, helpless and like failures. Now, that said, getting used to liquids prior to surgery is going to help you. Because after surgery, cheating on the diet can mean life or death. That sounds overly dramatic but I assure you that it is not. You need to heal and you can cause a life-threatening leak if you cheat yourself at that point. I wouldn't stress about it, but I would take this opportunity to evaluate when you're eating and why. If you can pinpoint these issues prior to surgery, you can eliminate them while you're on your way to goal and be happier and healthier in body AND mind once you're at goal. You'll be fine, don't stress! ~Cheri

And I'm just gonna chime in here and add: If diets were one size fits all, none of us would need surgery! We'd be skinny the first time we tried Weight Watchers, or Nutritsystem, or Optifast, or any one of the dozens of other diets I've tried in my life! Overweight people CANNOT eat the same amounts of food as people that are naturally smaller. We must need less, or the 1,200 calorie diet would be a magic wand we could wave at ourselves. It simply doesn't work that way. So, adjust your diet now and talk to your doctor about this. I'm sure this isn't your first go round with a "normal" diet that isn't helping you lose weight, right? He should be sympathetic to that idea. I had a nutritionist call me a liar once because I was gaining weight on a diet she gave me to follow - she insisted I must be cheating. The reality is, I gain weight on more than 1,400-1,500 calories a day, unless I add in a ton of exercise. Now, two pounds is a small gain. But you should have lost in the first month of a new diet, so I'd shake things up. And the last thing I'd do is jump onto a liquid diet. Why? Because you can't maintain that for two whole months and if you fall off and crash hard, the rebound weight might push you higher than you are now. If you want to shake it up, so to speak, replace one meal a day with a balanced Protein shake, and follow some of the advice the PP gave you. Good luck, and I hope it all works out, ~Cheri

Congrats to you, lady! You're doing fantastic! A word of advice, though, based upon my experience. I got down to "just about goal" and was sure I wasn't going to shrink much more. I bought a full wardrobe in the size I was at that time. I only lost six or seven more pounds after that but I went down an entire size and had to replace my entire wardrobe from underthings to a jacket - even down to my shoes! I lost an stinking shoe size, how crazy is that? So, once you hit goal (and you will!) sit there a bit before you go out and invest in a new wardrobe. I gave away clothes that still had tags on them, and it made me very sad. Oh, and hello?! Isn't modern denim the most amazing thing? I tried on a pair of jeans that I had buried in the bottom of a box from the incredibly brief period when I wore a size six as a teen. Ugh - the thick, heavy material with zero stretch was completely unflattering! Though I admit, I liked the higher waist. Call me a mom but I don't think low riding jeans look good on anyone over the age of seventeen. I much prefer the old retro waistline that accentuates a small waist and larger hips. ~Cheri

Three weeks or more at the same weight with no fluctuation. It's normal. For me, short stops and starts were the pattern my body made while losing. I lost on average just over 6 pounds a month, with two nine week stalls in there. In a typical month, I'd stay the same weight for a week, gain three pounds around my cycle, and have a sudden drop of several pounds within a four to six day period of time. Nothing I did to my diet made me lose any differently, so I used that time to work on my food issues and learn how to eat normally. Stalls happen. The important thing to remember is that we are all going to lose weight. To not lose the weight you want you would have to eat around your sleeve. That says nothing about how long it will take you, though! Some people lose very quickly and some lose very slowly. Most people are somewhere in the middle. But you will lose. Good luck, ~Cheri

And to the OP, the best advice I can give you is to shelve any expectations you have beyond losing weight, period. I'm sure that you can reach your goal and it sounds like you really don't have that much to lose. Everyone is really different - so different that we can drive ourselves insane worrying about short stalls on the scale or obsessing about whatever everyone else is losing. That said, I'm just over 5'1" and started at 242 pounds. I lost, on average, just over 6 pounds per month, though I did have two nine week stalls in there. I was a very slow loser, regardless of what I did to speed things up. I took 17 months to get to goal, but have almost effortlessly maintained for the last seven months. People tend to drop a large amount in the first month if they didn't do a preop diet. The second month usually slows because you introduce solid foods again and will likely see slow movement or even small gains on the scale until you're used to the change. The good news is that you will lose, even if it's not at the rate you'd like. But try your hardest to make only small goals for yourself - ten pounds or twenty pounds, max - that are tied to a specific date or season. The post-op forum is full of unhappy people stressing out over short stalls or not losing at a pace they find acceptable, when in reality, there's just no way to control those things (always assuming a good diet) and no reason at all to be upset about losing weight (albeit slowly). Best of luck, ~Cheri

I'm amazed by this. Did your surgeon provide any reason why he wants his patients to avoid Protein Shakes? I'm just curious, because I had such incredible restriction that even well beyond one year out eating more than one egg scrambled with cheese or 2 oz. of dense protein was simply not possible. Meeting healthy nutritional goals would have been impossible for me had I not supplemented with shakes. I know that later on we don't want to be dependent on them for the bulk of our nutrition, but even two years out I drink one a day to keep my protein over 90+ grams daily. ~Cheri

Ugh, fake strawberry anything makes me retch. Syntrax Nectars are truly awesome. Syntrax also makes the best unflavored Protein I've tried. Muscle Milk was one of my favorites for a while but started to cause me digestive issues so I stopped using it. Keep trying samples to find something that works for you. Warm, spicy broth with a little unflavored Syntrax goes down well. And yes, you're far enough along that I understand the desire to chew food! I wasn't hungry at that point but was so sick of drinking my meals. It's normal to feel frustrated but you should be through this phase soon. Your primary concern right now should be hydration. It takes a while to hit nutritional goals and get in enough protein. Keep testing different protein samples - there are lots of sites that sell them but I'm pretty fond of Vitalady's site. Try a bunch of things until you know what works. Protein shakes aren't absolutely necessary but your life will be much better if you can reach your nutritional goals, and shakes will help you do that. You will have more energy and you will lose weight more consistently, and if you get in enough protein you'll be doing what you can to make the weight loss fat loss, not muscle. Hang in there. You'll be complaining that you can hardly eat your scrambled egg in a few weeks, but in a few months you'll be amazed at how much weight you've lost and how much more normally you can eat. ~Cheri

Oh and in the meantime, while you're waiting for your meds to take affect, try sleeping on several pillows and not eating anything before bed. For me it was worst at night until I got it under control. This is a very common side effect. You have nothing to worry about and with inexpensive medication you'll be much better. ~Cheri

You need a PPI - you need Nexium, Prilosec, or Protonix. Your doctor should have prescribed you something like this, but I'm seeing more and more people posting with acid issues lately so I think many doctors simply aren't doing it. Either get to the store or have someone go for you - pick up some generic Prilosec (omeprazole) and you will feel MUCH better. You should be on it daily until you no longer need it and the acid is under control. For most people this is somewhere between six months to one year. The only medicine I tried that did nothing for me was Prevacid, so I'd start with something else. And make sure it's a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) or else you're only treating the symptoms, not the cause and you'll continue to be plagued by acid problems. Hope you feel better soon! ~Cheri

You'll reach a point where losing gets difficult. Some of us are a bit smaller than we thought we'd be when it happens and some people are a bit bigger. Your body pretty well calls it quits on the weight loss when it's ready to stop losing. When you get to that point, where you're trying for a month straight to drop two pounds on the same diet you've been losing on for months, you'll see how tough it would be to keep on shrinking. At that point, you can easily up your calories. You'll want to and you'll feel more "normal" at that point. So long as you go into maintenance with resolved food issues, and you continue to track your food so you know how much you can eat without a problem, you should not see more than a tiny bounce back on the scale. And the great news about having a sleeve is that if you're diligent about weighing yourself and catch a regain early on, it's very easy to take that weight right back off again with reduced calories. The sleeve doesn't lose it's restriction. Good luck, you have nothing to worry about! ~Cheri

That's an odd one. Maybe your tastes have changed enough that it's causing an issue? Have you tried switching brands or is it all toothpastes? The only time I gag when brushing my teeth is when I'm pregnant. Hope you figure it out! ~Cheri

Prevacid is the one pill I took that made no noticeable difference. If you can, try taking generic Prilosec (omeprazole) and see if it makes a difference. ~Cheri

My favorite way is to mix with my morning coffee or some tea. I'll brew, say, coconut coffee or chai tea over a little ice (I like it warm but not scalding hot) in my shaker cup and add a teeny bit of cream. Then I'll add in two scoops of Protein powder - vanilla, chocolate or unflavored (I prefer Syntrax Nectar) and shake it up, popping the top once or twice so it doesn't explode. No lumps or clumps! I pour it into my reuseable straw cup and voila! Protein Shake + caffeine fix, and I'm a happy girl. I also make my own soymilk and use that, coconut milk is a nice once-in-a-while treat, almond milk is yummy and I like mixing unflavored or vanilla protein with juice, too. I use cherry juice, orange juice, pomegranate juice...whatever I'm in the mood for that day. Oh, and the Nectars are good mixed with Water, too! I struggled to get my shakes down until I started mixing with coffee and tea. Now I'm two years out and still not sick of them. I guess the point is that it's always possible to find a Protein Powder and a liquid to mix with that works. Milk can make folks queasy immediately post op, so if that guy hates his shakes, he might try skipping the milk and trying some different shakes out. I can make all the difference in the world. Best of luck, ~Cheri

I'm so sorry to read these stories. Some of them really cross the line and are absolutely hateful. I'm sorry anyone had to go through those things and I hope that nobody is giving any of those hateful and ugly people space in their heads by holding onto the hurt and shame those people caused. My "lightbulb" moment was when I broke a wooden dining room chair that was part of my friend's antique set. We were at a large gathering of my husband's coworkers and their families. I was already the biggest girl in the room and this just cemented things for me. My husband was already asked on occasion if I had put on a lot of weight after marriage or with my twin pregnancy - as if people just couldn't believe he'd fallen in love with a fat girl! In any case, I was beyond humiliated and was even more embarrassed when she refused to let me apologize and tried to blame the chair and tell me it was okay. She wouldn't let me compensate her or anything. It was horrible. I knew I was big but I never thought I would damage furniture! I had been researching surgery for more than a year at that point and made the appointment for my sleeve less than a week later. It was very difficult for me to accept invitations with work people for a long time after that. ~Cheri

Try a new brand! Buy various samples online and try them with something other than milk. Protein Shakes aren't absolutely necessary but they are by and far the easiest way to hit your nutritional goals. I'm two years out and my daily goal for protein is 90+ grams. I still drink a shake almost daily to achieve that goal. ~Cheri

You'll do just fine! No worries - really! It's a big choice and it will definitely change your life, but for the better. Best of luck! ~Cheri Yes, popcorn is something I never cared much for preop but LOVE now. Watch it, though, because it slides. And I do think a lot of folks avoid it for at least a few months while healing. But yes, popcorn can be in your future if you'd like it to be. ~Cheri

I should rephrase - none of those foods (except dairy - I am lactose intolerant) are things I CANNOT eat. I can eat all of them. I do, sometimes! But why would I choose to eat a big salad made of iceberg and have loose bowels later? Why would I choose to eat a wrap with tortilla knowing I'll only get two bites in before I feel uncomfortable and full, when I could have half a grilled or toasted sandwich instead? All of my food goes down easily. I've overeaten only a handful of times in two years and yes, I've had to urp back up those last few bites a few times. But my life is NOTHING like what I've read about the band. I was sure I wanted the band until I saw so many revisions and complications during my six months of research. I eat nuts, I don't need meat to be slathered in sauce or gravy and for the most part I eat like a totally normal person. I avoid the foods I do because there are other options available that don't come with the risk of some form of discomfort, that's all. You can't count on having NO food intolerances and you can't count on having them, either. Unfortunately, there is no real way to know what's going to happen to you until after surgery. Let us know how your appointment goes on Friday and what your ultimate decision is. I can tell you that I'd rather avoid tortillas for the rest of my life and be so effortlessly maintaining my goal weight than to be where I was two years ago. The boards are FULL of people like me, and there are only a handful of people that are more than a year out with a persistent food intolerance. Best of luck, ~Cheri

Yes, your meds might be bumping you down too low. Get in to your doc ASAP, this is very serious. You do not want your sugars to fall dangerously low while you're sleeping. I stopped my meds immediately post op and had I stayed on them I would have had a problem. Within just a few days of surgery my sugars were high-normal, even though I had actually gained weight from the IV and travel! Drink some apple juice in the meantime and get to your doc! Update us and let us know you're doing alright, please. Best of luck, ~Cheri

Nah, you'll never be able to eat again. Those of us in maintenance are starving to death. Ok, you know I'm teasing. Hey, you just transitioned from clears to full liquids and added in Soups, right? They're thicker and your poor, healing stomach is still swollen. It takes a while to hold a decent sized meal. And by decent sized I really mean 4 solid ounces! You're also feeling frustrated by your limited diet, I'm sure. You're uncomfortable, can't eat, food is less appealing and your entire life is changing - but this will pass. And it really does pass more quickly than you think it will. Before you know it, you'll be posting your three month update. So hang in there. Focus on hydration and healing. Nutritional goals can wait. Nobody hits them right away. It's frustrating but you'll be onto soft foods soon. Sure, you'll only get in a bite or two at first but that gets easier, too. Focus on avoiding dehydration and relax. Best of luck, and congrats on your new sleeve! ~Cheri