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Hidin'. Three of my stepkids are in for the summer so I've got five kids to corral - I pretty much spend my day cooking and nagging, with no time for VST. ~Cheri

For the first year or so, when I still had a VERY limited capacity the shakes were definitely a meal replacement. Nowadays it depends on what I've got going on. If I need it to be a meal replacement, I make it high calorie - adding in two scoops of protein, some cream or soymilk - anything to actually make it substantial enough to serve as a replacement. Remember, I'm not trying to shave calories anymore and I want to maintain my weight. But more often, I just add in a scoop of protein to my morning coffee for a little protein boost. I don't like to eat a large meal in the morning and this helps me reach my nutritional goals. I still aim for 90+ grams of protein a day. Hope that helps! ~Cheri

Oh, heck, you could bring your dinner but why not try to find something that will suit your diet and enjoy a night out with your family? Don't veer from your surgeon's guidelines, though! Why not have the kitchen puree you some boneless wings, if you think you can handle them? If you're going to bring your own food in, nothing will quiet any complaints faster than the words "food allergy." Enjoy your night out! Honestly, I hope they have a great dinner but your family couldn't have picked a worse place for you to eat. I can't believe they don't even have a single soup on the menu! ~Cheri

Yes, in the loss phase weighing every third day or less is a good idea, because weight fluctuates daily and it's NORMAL - for everyone, not just sleevers! In maintenance, I find it very helpful to weigh daily to keep myself accountable and it works quite well for me. Now that I'm not expecting a loss, I don't hate the scale as much. Keep in mind that fluctuations in weight can be caused by anything - barometric pressure, too much sodium, not enough water, ladies on their cycle, muscle tears, etc...the list goes on and on. So if the scale is making you nuts, put the darn thing away and don't let it ruin your day. You've just removed 85% of your stomach, so you're going to lose weight - end of story. Our bodies do some annoying things while we're on the journey, though, so just hang in there. ~Cheri

I didn't start to feel "hungry" until close to a year out. I felt "empty" or had low blood sugar, and would realize once that set in that I hadn't eaten in hours. I am now close to two years out and if I'm not paying attention can go the entire day on my morning Protein only to realize when I'm shaky hours later that I've forgotten to eat. It's not a good habit, so your best bet is to watch the clock or set an alarm in the early days, and keep a Protein shake handy so you can sip on something with nutritional value all day long. ~Cheri

Welcome! Head hunger is something you'll work on throughout your journey. It's a challenge but once you're able to clearly recognize it (something I think surgery does make easier) you will have the opportunity to stop indulging it - which is the first and most important step. Yes, I'd buy a number of Protein samples and keep them around until post op. I'm two years from surgery in two weeks and I still try to drink a shake daily. My tastes have changed a few times since surgery and I've changed "favorite" Proteins two or three times. One constant: Syntrax nectar Sweets in chocolate truffle and vanilla bean torte. I mix them in with coffee or tea each morning. Yum - they're the only shakes I've never gotten sick of drinking and they mix into cold or warm liquids without clumping. As for Pasta, HA! Everyone is different but I'm two years out and still can't eat more than a few bites of rice, tortilla or pasta - they gum up and make me overfull and uncomfortable. Controlling your food choices gets easy if the hunger goes away post op. Once you realize you can eat real food again but only two or three bites at a time, food loses some of it's interest. It took me nearly a year to really enjoy food again. Not everyone goes through this, but for me, eating was a chore and it was hard to force myself to eat enough each day. I hated it, actually. I never really regretted surgery, but I did have a rough patch where I felt like food was still controlling my life because I had to eat around the clock to reach my nutritional goals. That passed once I got to the point where I could eat a decent amount of food in a sitting, though, and while I'm still sometimes frustrated (I'd like to eat the whole sandwich instead of just half once in a while!) I'm very happy for the most part. Best of luck to you. I hope you find support and answers to your questions on these boards. ~Cheri

Welcome, and thanks for sharing your story. The months until your surgery will pass more quickly than you think. ~Cheri

I couldn't do even Lactaid, so introduce it slowly if you use it, and Immodium only made me feel worse (horrible gas pains), so whatever you try do it in moderation and be careful until you know how you'll react. I do soy milk and it's great. I was fine for a few weeks post op, or at least I didn't put two and two together until I was on purees and soft foods. Then it hit me and I had to cut out all of my dairy for a while. For the longest time I could only tolerate hard cheeses in very small portions. For me the symptoms were very painful (and TMI, but horribly stinky) gas, all-day nausea if I consumed dairy, a rumbling belly and of course, the diarrhea. I had to switch Protein shakes, cut out all dairy except small portions of hard cheeses and move to soy milk. Around one year out I started trying dairy again and found that cheese wasn't much of a problem. I'll be two years out in a few weeks and I can now eat most dairy in moderation. I can have one or two servings a day but I still cannot drink any milk. So, I can have a splash of cream in my coffee and be okay, and have one serving of yogurt but if I have any more dairy that day I'll be sick. I live somewhere I can't find cottage cheese but I'm definitely trying that again as soon as I'm stateside. So even if it is lactose intolerance there's a good chance you'll won't be saying goodbye to all dairy forever. ~Cheri

It varies by person - how active you are, how much you have to lose, and most importantly, how your body reacts. I started out with super low carbs (20-30 or so a day) and gradually brought it up until around 9 months out when I was getting somewhere between 40-60 a day. More carbs had no impact on my loss so I was comfortable eating them and giving myself some "flex" in my diet. I've never really watched my fat but due to the high Protein diet (I shoot for 90+ grams a day) I eat about 45% protein, 30% carbs and 25% fat. I try to make those fats as "good" as possible and I do limit my red meat and fried foods to help that. I am only able to keep the ratio I do because I still drink at least one Protein shake daily. I was a "slow" loser - it took me 17 months to lose 107 pounds. I now maintain between 133-137 on any given day, with very little effort. If you're looking for ways to mix things up, you can post what you're typically consuming and we'll give suggestions. You could be eating too little, or too much. Your body could need more carbs (mine did!) or less carbs. You might just be a slower loser no matter what you do, too. Nothing I did to mix up my diet to make things move more quickly had any real impact on my weight loss pattern. Sometimes we just get lucky. If nothing you do helps, don't get too discouraged. Slow loss is still loss and there aren't prizes for getting to goal more quickly. Do the right things and you can reach goal, even if it's more slowly than you'd like. ~Cheri

Popcorn for sure! I expected to have an easy time with things like ice cream, yogurt or cream Soups but popcorn, chips and cookie surprised me. Anything you can chew up into tiny, crunchy bits seems to go down much more easily than the chicken breast you should be eating. ~Cheri

There's a pregnancy specific forum here, but not too many people posting about pregnancy. I know Tiffykins had a successful pregnancy and didn't gain too much and is currently expecting again. I've seen several people post that they're expecting but very few come back and do a follow up to say what they're gaining. ~Cheri

I don't have one on my ankle but I do have my neck, upper back and arms tattooed. Despite losing more than 100 pounds none of them have shifted or changed significantly. Unless it's in a place likely to sag or bag, you'll be fine. I'd be a sad girl if I had a breast tattoo or one on my stomach, that's for sure. ~Cheri

No, I don't think so. I had no pre-op and a pretty easy recovery. I was off pain pills as soon as I got back home from Mexico. I think a lot of it is simply personal - it's up to your pain tolerance. I do think people that have had major surgery before tend to bounce back more easily, just because they know what to expect. ~Cheri

Yes, people refer to "dumping" all the time but I think they're using the wrong term in most cases. For the first several weeks it's liquids in, liquids out as Oregondaisy said. After that, if you're eating the right foods you shouldn't have a problem. I developed lactose intolerance and the digestive issues that accompany that, but once I started avoiding foods that caused an issue I was fine. If you aren't used to artificial sweeteners and drink/eat a lot of them post op you might experience a problem, so take it easy on them until you're sure how they affect you. If you suddenly eat a ton of fat or sugar in your diet, you might experience an issue. Not because your body is rejecting a food but because it's simply not used to those things. The biggest time this happens seems to be when transitioning to "regular" food again. Someone will go out and eat ice cream or fried chicken and have a rough time because they've been on Protein shakes and cottage cheese for a month! Your body simply isn't used to the same foods as before surgery and the same thing could happen if you hopped off a diet into junk food without a sleeve. I don't think you have anything to really worry about. Staying positive and calm is the best thing you can do with this type of problem. ~Cheri

Hugs for dealing with that. And I'm probably totally out of line but that's what happens when we talk about personal things in an open forum - sometimes someone volunteers things you don't want to hear or don't agree with. So before I start, please forgive me if I give offense. I personally feel that our weight problems (in almost every case) start with our heads and emotions, not our stomachs. There's a reason we abuse food like a drug, that we overeat, that we hide from things with it and continue to do it even when we start to hate our external appearance and know food is to blame. I would evaluate your relationship with your mother and see if there are any triggers there that have caused you to feel badly about yourself or that have contributed to whatever you've got going on that helped you gain weight in the first place. If you can pinpoint it you can confront her and talk it out, or at least be aware of it so it doesn't set you into an emotional tizzy. I never considered that I had a lot of problems with my mother because we were finally on good terms before surgery, but I did have some poor habits I learned from her to deal with post op. And I didn't realize that she was perhaps unintentionally lashing out at me because as a woman that is very overweight herself, she was jealous that I was leaving her behind and finally losing the weight. This conflicted with her happiness that I was doing what she wasn't able to do and left me with a mom that was sometimes very supportive and sometimes very hurtful. Once I could talk to her about it, we were able to move forward, and we're trying to find a way to fund her surgery now. Don't just get mad and brush it off, think about it and what it says. I have no doubt your mother loves you. But if this is an opportunity to learn more about who you are and why, and change it, and possibly help her to see things your way, why pass it up? Congrats to you for coming here to vent instead of doing something to set your progress back. ~Cheri

You would have to eat to the point of sickness and discomfort REPEATEDLY to stretch the stomach even the small amount it has to stretch. That said, a sleeve doesn't need to stretch if the person chooses to graze all day, eat slider foods and not adhere to a healthier diet. For the most part unhealthy foods go down easily so you can eat more of them. ~Cheri

I'd start taking it as early as possible. I was told that the one really important thing that you need in your system BEFORE conception is folic acid. A great way to get that is a prenatal Vitamin. I take the Bellybar chewable prenatal Vitamins and I love them. They don't make me queasy even though they're just as unpleasant to chew as any other vitamin. I love that they have folic acid and Iron in them so I don't need an extra supplement. ~Cheri

Yep, you'll need your glasses. I left contacts and home and wore glasses the entire time. ~Cheri

YES! Try this and see if it helps. You may not have such an issue that you're feeling reflux but that hunger feeling could definitely be acid. Try the over the counter generic omeprazole and take one daily for a week and see how you feel. I just had a recurrence of that hungry all day feeling around two years out and had to pop back on my PPI for a few weeks and I feel much better. ~Cheri

Yep, I used a "freckle" plastic retainer during surgery and had no problems. ~Cheri

I just want to chime in on food and entertaining. In the beginning this would be tough. But somewhere around six months out this is no big deal. I bake, I cook, I entertain large and small groups on a weekly basis and I would NEVER give it up. It's fun and fulfilling for me. I've adapted a lot to suit my surgery but not as much as you might think. I eat less than my guests but so what? It is definitely something you will be able to do once you're healed. The time without food is hard but the more inventive you are in the kitchen the easier it can be for you. I didn't want to eat at all but having something nice and spicy instead of bland old chicken broth was really nice. I didn't want to eat but by the end of my liquids phase I was ready to chew anything, so yes, it's a tough spell while you heal. But once it's done, it's done. You never go back to that kind of dietary restriction again. I've learned to make my food count. I choose better ingredients and lots of flavor over quantity now and I enjoy food more than I ever did before. I might only eat a bite or two of each thing I prepare, but this is my new normal and I feel no deprivation whatsoever. This CAN be you. I never thought my life would change as much as it has, but once you start losing the weight and shedding the emotional baggage your life will improve tremendously. ~Cheri

Keep going. The weight will come off if you continue to do the right things. Unfortunately, we don't get to control the rate of loss! I was definitely frustrated at different points along my journey to goal but the reality is that you won't care how long it took once you get there. So keep doing the right things and don't worry as much about the calendar or how quickly the scale moves. ~Cheri

I never gave up spices! Reintroduce them now and see how they treat you. I never would have made it through that extended liquids phase without spicy chicken broth or hot and sour soup! ~Cheri

It's a challenge. You'll learn the balance between eating quickly enough for your time limit and eating slowly enough for your sleeve. It's a learning experience for a lot of us. The most important thing is to rest between bites, if only for 30 seconds. You should not be scooping up your next bite while still chewing one. The reason for this is so that you have a second to gauge your fullness. A lot of time the difference is made with just one small bite and certain foods are real offenders for this: eggs, bread, tortillas and Pasta all do it to me. Talk to the people around you while eating or flip through a magazine (so long as you won't eat mindlessly if you read while eating!) and take a short break between bites. You're going to eat such a small portion for a while that it's not likely you'd need more than 15-20 minutes to eat, anyway! ~Cheri

You should be fine. I had my passports made before surgery and currently live overseas and use them frequently. I have not yet encountered a problem despite the fact that I have three chins in the passport photo and could now pass for my younger sister! They're trained to look for identifiers in the face, not only your weight. If it comes up, simply explain and it should be no problem. Once you reach goal and have time, get new documents made. The only thing I've updated so far is my drivers license because I had lost enough that I was having trouble when the supermarket clerk checked my ID so I could buy beer or wine. ~Cheri