hope2getitdone2

Don't get frustrated..it doesn't last long! I can only give you my view point from being 3 weeks post-op.
You have to sip CONSTANTLY that first week....don't let yourself get thirsty even...I used a pill cup to control how much I was sipping...poured myself an ounce at a time.
By the end of week 1 and into 2 your sleeve will start to let you take bigger sips and it just seemed to just increase a bit each day after that.
Today I can take a decent sized drink..but not a big gulp. If I focus on drinking I can take down a 20 oz bottle in about an hour.
You can do it!!

chips, ice cream, crackers, Cookies, popcorn
Pretty much if it tastes super greasy/sweet, it's a slider

Please give me some examples of some slider foods?!?!

Sleevefox,
Well, what happened? was it serious? I am reading all this and wondering what was the diagnosis from the doctor you seen the next day?

Did you tell the/a doctor about the last coughing up blood episode?
I agree with PDXman.
coughing up blood is not normal to the sleeve. You should put a call into the on call doctor right away or go to urgent care.

Coughing blood is very serious. I would head to the emergency room. This is not something to mess with.
Are you OK with the consequence if it "doesn't get better"?

The gas is not that bad. It's the gas they blow your stomach up from the leak test when having surgery. At first I didn't know what it was, just pain, until I talked to the nurses. Then....you better believe the first twinge I was up. I was at Lucerna also. So very nice. Relaxed by the pool, went for walks....the staff was pleasant. Room service good....

When I booked directly with Dr Kelly I was told that we would be at Nova. Also, when we were there all the consents were in Spanish.

Wow. I'm not very social so I never thought much about social forums. I see now that I need your support. Jenni, Arts, Sharika & KathyP, thank you for posting. Arts......your mind vs. matter methodology makes sense and I found that super helpful. Jenni.....I need to focus on my Protein intake as well. I love 1% milk, yogurt, lean turkey and low-fat cheese, but I probably need to concentrate on making Protein Shakes a way of life for a while. Sharika....it sounds like you're in a good because you're walking. I don't feel like doing anything after work; but, I'm not going to beat myself up just yet. I just started taking B12. Maybe that will help. KathP, please stick with the rookie - I need you to tell me like it is. Once again to all, thank you. Please stay in touch.

I believe this entire board is willing to be with you both. Here is where you are (IMHO)... The surgery is over and NOW the real work begins... This Real Work is control of your head. My brain is evil (I call him Skippy) and Skippy wants me to be sad, and hungry and lethargic. Skippy wants me to give up and go out for Krispy Kremes.
Get your head's in this game and let us help. We are ALL with you!

Ladies, I volunteer! I don't know how good I'll be, but my surgery date was May 13, 2013 and I'm an email junkie
I have lost 55 lbs since surgery. I have my weigh in numbers from the 2, 4, and 6 week check-ins at the doctor. But I want to tell you, like you'll hear until you want to scream, everyone is different.
We had major surgery! They yanked out part of our body! You're healing! Follow your doctor's advice about your diet phases (they sound slightly different than mine), and put the scale away! Only weigh once a week. Remember that as you heal you're only getting in a minimum number of calories just because of swelling and stuff. So you lose a lot, and then your body starts hoarding everything, and then you adjust and start losing again. So it's a bit wonky at first. The weight will come off. It has to!
Our surgeon's office had a In-Body body composition scale, and it could spit out what your resting metabolic rate is, which is how many calories it takes for your body to function. So, at my pre-op weight of 268 and 5'10" tall, my resting rate was 2100 calories. At my 3 month appointment (around 220 lbs, I think), It was still around 1800-2000 calories. (my numbers are at home) So since I'm only getting around 1000-1200 calories a day, I'm losing weight. It's not fast, but it's still losing.
And I say it's not fast, but I'm apparantly still on "bypass rate" in terms of my average weight loss. I did lose a lot pre-op, which put me in good shape for post-op recovery and getting back to the gym. But don't rush going back to the gym. Walking and sipping are the initial things to do, until you're back at full calories (the new "full", about 1000 / day) so that you don't pass out (which I came close to doing until I remembered about the major surgery!).
Keep hydrated. Keep getting your Protein. Because you want to lose fat and not muscle. Things will happen, but we didn't get overweight overnight, so we won't get thin overnight either.
As I said, I volunteer to help. I'm on the board generally at lunch, but send me a private message if you want my email address for outside of here...
Good luck!

There are so many fears associated with this surgery and being obese, it takes a lot of courage to pursue this surgery and the lifestyle changes required to lose the weight. First talk your surgical concerns over with your doctor. I asked mine "how will I know if there is a problem with the staples and I am leaking"? He explained the symptoms and what to look for that might indicate a problem - that was comforting because I live over 2.5 hours from the city where I had the surgery, and was afraid to be caught in the boonies with a complication. Second - your food issues will still be front and center if you have the surgery or if you decide not to have surgery. Food and food related events are something that every food addict needs to deal with. I suggest working with a counselor or therapist to learn how to set firm boundaries and to deal with the conflict that will arise by changing your eating habits. I won't lie, it isn't easy. I am 9 weeks post surgery and doing well, but it is a daily struggle against what my brain tells me I "want" to eat and what I know is healthy for me. I am still coming to terms with this life long process, but I am seeing positive results and daily am getting closer to my goal of a healthy body weight and relationship with food. Some friends / family members will be very supportive and other (those who never have struggled with weight) will never get it. Sometimes those unsupportive people have to take a back seat in our lives while we do what we know is best in the long run. Good luck to you, there are a lot of wonderful people on this site that will answer your questions and help you on your journey.

Lol, girl I didn't leave you much left in that list!
But potatoes/corn are really not that good just starchy carbs... Meat/ veg/ dairy good things for the most part. You know the best thing is keep it simple. The less ingredients there are when you buy something the better.
Ok I gotta go cook dinner!
For them turkey burgers and corn on the cob,
For me the turkey patty cut up on a bed of shredded cabbage and carrots (coleslaw mix minus the dressing)

You are not going to die, you just are having trouble adjusting. The first couple of weeks are no fun and require a whole new mindset. My first month was not pleasant.
My words might seem empty, but I really have been where you are now. So here are some helpful tips and a reality check.
you MUST get in enough liquids to stay hydrated. Use a shot glass if needed and sip slowly every 15 minutes. Set a timer. If you don't you will be back in the hospital in no time. Can I suggest Isopure 40gm Protein (apple melon was tolerable) to get in some Protein? Also, drink Power Aide Zero diluted during the day to get in the electrolytes necessary to survive.
Think of food differently. You are now eating / drinking to survive, not for pure pleasure.
You didn't gain this weight in a week, nor are you going to lose weight in a week...so commit to the long haul.
Your body is pissed off. You probably used to consume 2000 calories a day & now you are drinking/eating under 750. Of course you are tired.

Understand you are in a metamorphosis and change is not always easy. Accept that and move forward. Things will gradually get better so hang in there. Hugs.
I love my sleeve and have no regrets.

The drinks with sugar in them have to go. This made the biggest difference for me pre-surgery. I loved kool-aid and soda. I just went cold turkey. Crystal Light helped a lot, but there are many kinds of sugar-free drinks. It also helps one get used to just drinking more Water. Diet soda is iffy especially since carbonation is a no-no after surgery so no point getting used to it. Seriously, the drinks with sugar have absolutely no nutritional value and increase calorie count tremendously. I didn't think I could drop them but I don't miss them at all.
Edit: Oh, and on the main topic, I know how you feel! Grocery shopping is the only shopping I ever liked to do and shopping for liquids was no.fun.at.all (especially since I was still in a lot of pain). It was so pointless and there was no joy in it and no meals to look forward to. But when I got to mushy foods and soft foods it got a little better. And now, 3 months out, I LOVE IT more than I ever did before. You should see how giddy I get over the new ingredients I can try and finding them in my local stores.
Also, I am a low carber but there's more to it than meat and cheese. But I also like to cook and love finding new recipes and have spent hours finding and even creating my own low carb recipes so that does help.

The issue isn't the sleeve - it's everything else. That's not a judgement. If anything, it should be reassuring.
Your sleeve is the same size, roughly, that it was around a year out.
So work it. Make that choice to do this. Get those trigger foods out of your life and do the hard work of detoxing so you can get back to basics.
You have a choice here. You can make it count, or not. I do not mean to be hard on you. I want to see you here in six months, having shed a great deal of your regain, reassuring newbies that it can be done.
Losing weight is hard. Eating a strict diet is hard. Forcing ourselves to give up comforting habits is hard. Learning to cope without using food as a crutch is hard. And yes, having emotional and hormonal changes that affect not only the way our bodies hang on to fat but also our desire to eat those foods is also challenging.
You did not slice out 85% of your stomach to be where you were a few years ago and I know that. So pick it up. shake this off and pretend tomorrow is your first day post sleeve on solids and eat accordingly. Track. Measure. Weigh your food. Get starting weight and measurements for yourself. And GET ON TRACK. You can do this. You aren't the only regain post. Do not slink off into the shadows to hide your shame. Get your butt out here, be real, and be a success. Be active here. Get support. Get motivation. And don't beat yourself up unnecessarily. What's done is done. Tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to change the way this story ends.
Good luck,
~Cheri

Wife and I both had WLS. In both the grocery purchase department and restaurant department life has taken a definite upturn. We can buy better groceries and much less of them. In the restaurant we can split almost anything and even have some for take home.
We do not at all feel deprived.
Equipped with a freezer, a microwave, proper storage bags and tupperware we are the masters of eating well on the cheap.
That's fun for us.

It's just temporary. Give it some time. I'm four and a half months out and I LOVE to grocery shop.. EVEN MORE THAN BEFORE.. Now I can buy the expensive items that I NEVER could afford before. I bought four ounces of 10 year aged extra sharp cheddar last week at $21.00 a pound. It was DELICIOUS! I also buy seafood and expensive cuts of meat, and AWESOME looking produce. I'm not just looking for things that will fill up my enormously large stomach anymore so I can focus on QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.

I think just going back to the basics, you don't need to starve yourself with the 5 day pouch test.
Just cut out the carbs and junk. Eat dense Protein and veg, you can still eat as much as you need to feel satisfied. just make sure that its foods that count.

This is not a race.....We are going to have set backs and trouble with maintaining the slimmer us.....There is no reason why you can't get back up on the horse and ride again.....The sleeve is still there...The tools you need are still there...
Plus the fact that you came on here and told the truth about how you are doing.....I give you a lot of credit for that one.....
You can turn things around...You have a lot of people here backing you and what you are doing...Use the forum to express yourself.....
I personally think you have already decided to work on yourself again....Good for you!!!