TheCurvyJones

I'm trying to start changing how I eat before surgery, my first consult is approaching. I just turned all my new patient information and I feel defeated already! I feel like I'm never going to change how I'm eating, please help me. How did some of you all make changes and fight the temptation?

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

The sleeve forces a LOT of this. Don't stress about it, just make one small change a week and commit to sticking with it. Then add to that.

What *I* did was I started ramping down my eating as soon as I booked my surgery. I started cutting out flour, sugar, wheat, starch. I cut my portions and stopped eating just because the food was there. I stopped eating around 8PM each night. I increased my Water intake. I dedicated one day a week to liquids, just to get a feel for it. Then I upped it to two days a week, then three.

You can list out the habits you have that you want to change and then list how you'll actively change them. The mind game is the hardest part of weight loss surgery. As much as you KNOW you should not and cannot eat something, that doesn't stop your brain from wanting it. Practice avoiding things you know you're not going to be able to eat post op.

This might be controversial but I don't believe in will power. Will Power is some kinda magical skill that people think comes automatically installed with the sleeve. THERE IS NO MAGIC. It's all YOU. And for me, deciding to say no is like working a muscle. That NO muscle gets stronger every time you use it.

But again... post op, the sleeve does a lot of this for you. You will not have capacity to eat much of anything, let alone anything junky. Anything sweet you might ingest will probably make you sick. Just hang in there until your surgery date and then........ everything changes.

I don't cook, so I am an expert at eating out and keeping my goals in check. If you'll be on solid foods, you can go to a sandwich shop and get the lunchmeat and cheese rolled up into lettuce leaves, or chopped on a salad (I only ever really eat the meat and the cheese anyway). Every fast food place serves a burger on no bun. Hardees calls it a lowcarb burger. Some call it 'on the green'. Wendy's will serve any burger they sell in a dish with a leaf of lettuce, a Tomato, and a knife and fork. Get a side salad and dig in. Agree with eating the insides of everything! Burritos, tacos, just open the tortilla and ask for a fork. I still love refried Beans and cheese.

At restaurants, I stick to the Soup menu or the appetizer menu. Ask for the lower fat versions, they are less likely to be breaded and deep fried and DO NOT be afraid to ask for it how you want it. They might say no but they might say sure, we can do that! Omelets are great, eggs are great, bacon and sausage is great. avoid pancakes, waffles, biscuits and the like. You won't be able to each much of it, then you're full but still hungry if that makes sense? it just pisses me off if I fill up too fast.

You don't have to disclose your surgery to everyone you talk to but it does help people understand that you REALLY can't eat much.

Also, many restaurants will let you order off the kids menu-- smaller portions for teh win! You will have leftovers. I always keep the Protein and dump everything else. i know good and well I am not going to eat that later.

I almost never order drinks anymore unless I am taking them to go (lots of ice!). I have to wait at least 20 mins after I eat and I never get to it.

I would actually make chicken noodle Soup and just drink the broth. It had more flavor then chicken stock. When I did have chicken stock, I added garlic salt and pepper to it. I would also cook it with carrots, corn and celery in it, and then stain it. It gave it a different flavor that way. I relied more on yogurt with Protein powder, as I found it to not be as sickly sweet as the Meal Replacement shakes, puddings, hot chocolate.

Man, this sounds amazing and I am YEARS out!

I think keeping the locs would actually protect your hair. It's a protective style and it means less daily manipulation. A couple of people I know that have had locs post surgery still have them. They might thin out a bit, you might lose a couple, but not all of your hair falls out.

My doc never put me on metformin because I wasn't trying to have children. The side effects were...unattractive and I have lost weight (actually still losing, that's how slow I've lost) It's something to explore.. It looks like there is at least one thread about it here at BariatricPal.

http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/197034-metformin/

I gave myself projects. LOTS OF PROJECTS! My parents were coming to visit right after surgery so I had to get the guest bedroom set up. I gathered all my vites and my Protein shakes. I set up my post op food stash by stage. I went grocery shopping, stocked up on Water and Isopure (yuck). I read a lot of books and I spent a lot of time trying not to think about it. It'll be here before you know it!

All I am going to say on this is... make sure that when you come back to this topic at 2 yrs, 3yrs, 4 yrs out that you aren't embarrassed by the younger you. There are a lot of things I said/posted/assumed/postulated and I honestly can't go back and read those posts. I KNEW SO MUCH and i was SO JUDGEMENTAL about other people and I was NEVER GOING TO DO some of the things I do, to this day.

Be very careful... even if what you're saying is 'approved and on plan', it's possible to come across as a blowhard who has no idea what the Sleeved Life is like. it's nearly impossible to explain, it's different every day for every person and... you just never know what caveats you'll bow to when you're further down the road.

I will be 4 yrs out in Dec, have met a lot of people on this journey. Most of us shut the hell up after awhile, because you just never know.

My surgeon advises that excess acid production feels a LOT like hunger. Are you ona PPI (zantac, Prilosec, Nexium?) Do you mean that you feel EMPTY, LIGHTHEADED, WEAK or are you talking about a burning or painful sensation in the stomach?

If it is the latter, I would consult your doc's office again and don't get out of their faces until they agree to take a look. Maybe it is an ulcer, maybe it is excess acid, maybe it is something else. This isn't normal for 6-8 weeks out and they need to do something besides pat you on the head and send you on your way.

I was a super slow loser as well. It took me six months to lose 30lbs. Just hang in there, keep working the plan-- high Protein, low carbs, lots of Water, move your butt, make sure you're pooping and keep your eye on Non scale victories-- stuff you won't see on a scale like saggy butt in your jeans, smaller face, rings and watches flinging about, shoes flopping off of your feet.

If you're not tracking your food, you may want to start. Snackies can sneak in without you even knowing it! I always find that I reach for junk when I'm not actively paying attention to what I am eating.

You may need to shake some things up. Raise or lower your carb level (not with junk), take up a new sport, increase your Water intake, rearrange your eating schedule, stop eating earlier in the evening... you have the rest of your life to figure out how this works. it's not a race!

LASTLY-- I was the person that complained and asked about slow losing and was told to 'get off the scale' or 'don't worry about it' or 'stop cheating', so i am never going to be that person. I INVESTIGATED THE ISSUE and found that I have PCOS. if you google gastric sleeve and PCOS you'll find LEGION of women who lose very VERY slowly, even with WLS. And then, once a month, we drop weight. During my weight loss phase I would lose NOTHING for 3-4 weeks. Then the week of my cycle, drop 4lbs. And then NOTHING for 3 weeks, and then drop 5lbs.

It gets much, much better. Hang in there! No regrets and I am over 3 years out.

A lot of people enjoy guac and hummus with their meat.It helps coat the meat and make it more moist, goes down easier and adds flavor to dry white meat chicken. I like to go to Zoe's kitchen and get a steak or chicken kabob and a side of hummus. I dip the chicken or steak in the hummus. YUM. O. Plus two kabobs from Zoe's is like 3 or 4 meals!

The Sleeve was my first surgery and I was terrified. But I was out before I even really knew it and was waking up. I felt like I had never even gone to sleep, like I blinked and I was waking up.

Welcome to being a sleever. I eat so I don't pass out. I don't get excited about food unless I am eating out and I get to try something new, otherwise it's kind of a pain in the butt. And frankly I like it this way. I lived 38 years getting way too excited about shoving food into my face, looking forward to a meal 8 hours in the future, of letting food run my life. I love that I could not give a crap what I am eating tomorrow, so long as it is Protein rich, I'm aight with it.

Mushy, chewed up corn chips won't rip out titanium staples, so stop telling people that alarmist crap. The people that might pop a staple are few and far between. We're not sewn up with bubble gum and fishing twine. I really hate to see people trying to scare new patients into compliance. It simply does not work this way.

SEcond of all, OP, you know EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING WRONG. You know what you're eating that is off plan and you know your thinking is off. If you want people to say it's okay, this is definitely not the place for it... Bariatric Pal is known for being... aggressively real.

I"m sure your doc gave you a meal plan. Pull it out, stick it on the fridge. Plan ahead and follow it. Because right now, any weight loss you're experiencing is purely due to Portion Control. In a not very long amount of time, weight loss is more about how YOU help your sleeve and less about the sleeve doing it for you. This is your golden ticket. Don't waste it, because in three months you'll be gaining weight and not sure how to take it off.

The pre op diet and every post here, all the links, all the youtube videos are set up to give you the education you need, but it's worthless if you don't plan to actually make changes. THE SLEEVE IS NOT MAGIC. It doesn't work no matter what you eat.

It really depends on the person. I managed to keep my T&A, it is just much smaller and I am pretty droopy. I was a 44H. Now 32G. A lot of people lose quite a bit of fat in the breasts. Some people deflate, some people retain. It really... just depends. The only guarantee is that your band size will most certainly shrink.

I ate pork and beef much more than chicken at first. It's fatty and it goes down SO MUCH easier. LOVE the stuff, though beef is very dense and I eat too fast and well... take your time because it's not as nice on the way back up. :/ I will be 4 yrs out in Dec and just a few weeks ago I'd eaten some beef too fast and thought I might need to spend some time in the bathroom but I made it thru.

Everyone is looking great! Pictures tell the story! My loss was so slow that pics really kept me from jumping off the deep end. I could SEE the changes, especially when I compared them to pre-op. Take pics. LOTS and LOTS of pics!

It also takes a while for the brain to catch up with the smaller you. Introduce your brain to the new, changing you as often as possible. People will think you're vain.... let 'em. You NEED to look at the new you as often as possible. IT really does take awhile to adjust.

FACE! I was 273 pre-op. Now 143. 130lbs down. I will be 4 years out Dec 21.

You can try the Protein powder w. Water. Maybe as a last resort. I find that kind of gross but it might tide you over. If you have a backpack or fanny pack I would plan to bring some foods with you. Pack and plan to be away all day and take in what you can. They can question you if you want but you have a medical reason to bring in your own food. Keep your eye out for soft stuff you can eat-- Soups, etc but you'll have to basically depend on your food stores. Take a cold pack to keep your cheese, etc cold at the bottom of the bag. At least you'll have something to snack on until you're off of the grounds and back at your car where you have food you can eat. Make some egg salad or tuna salad and stick it in a ziplock and keep it cool with an icepak or in a cooler in the car.

Also see if you'd be able to leave and come back. You could go to your car and have something to eat and go back. At 2 weeks out though I don't think you'll be all that hungry, but I know very little about the duodenal switch only that the sleeve is part 1 of it and based on how I felt at 2 weeks out, some Snacks should be okay.

I LIVED on pintos and cheese from taco bell during the fist few weeks. Even now I will go through there for some Beans and cheese.

It is not easy. Takes a lot of dedication and you might want to throw things the first couple of days. GEts easier the longer you're on it. Might be easier to say that you need X amount of cals per day so you know how many shakes/ cups of Soup etc you can drink. I was honestly so tired of food that I started my pre op diet a few days early. It was a great relief to not have to be concerned with what I was eating every day.

Carbonation does not stretch the sleeve. It's something docs tell their patients to get them to not drink carbonated beverages like soda but mostly beer. By the time carbonation hits the stomach it is mostly flat. You'd have to stick a nozzle down your throat and pipe carbonation straight into your stomach in order to stretch it with carbonation.

The sleeve CAN stretch. My surgeon has done re-sleeves on patients whose stomachs have stretched. However it takes a concerted, long running effort. You have to really try really hard-- as in consistently abuse your sleeve-- in order for this to happen.

What likely has happened is that the part of the stomach that is removed that produces Ghrelin-- not enough of it was removed so your hunger signals have come back. This is something you will want to have checked just to make sure. Don't guess.

If you feel like you can eat a ton without feeling any restriction (and by that I mean dense Protein, not slider foods. Can you eat an 8oz yogurt or drink a 12 oz Protein shake with no problem? Can you pack in an entire piece of fish, eat a whole burger patty? Then your sleeve may have stretched) What a lot of people think is "I can eat a whole bag of doritos now, so my stomach is stretched!" Nope. Doritos turn to mush once you chew them up. Slides right out of your stomach, doesn't provide you with any satiety or sustenance and in a short amount of time you're foraging for food again.

Secondly, excess acid production feels a lot like hunger. It's not always that burning feeling. Not to pander or placate but make sure it is not excess acid, either. If you're not on a PPI or have stopped taking it, get back on it.

Lastly, nothing can help you but getting back on track. Kick it back to basics- Protein, produce, lots of Water, move your tush. Give yourself some time to get your act together. You should see those lbs slowly start to come off.

Regain is a natural part of the weight loss journey. DOn't let yourself feel down or depressed about it. Get mad and get that weight back off. You'll feel better once you're working at a new goal.

Also have them check your hemoglobin. I am severely anemic and these are things I experience when my Iron is really low.

I go to Nut the 15th. Yes it is hard to get Fluid in. But i am trying to be more aware


Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

My sleeve is like,"Im only gonna warn you once and then it's on., b*tch"

And then when I am heaving over the toilet, I can just hear her saying, "I told you. Didn't I tell you? Don't try me."

Lesson learned, right? Don't try your sleeve... it's the new boss!

This is what I love about the sleeve. The ability to lose and KEEP LOSING past all those points I had aimed for before but was never able to achieve on my own. Congrats I am sure it will feel fantastic! Make sure you Celebrate your milestone-- do something nice for you!