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And good luck with your surgery!

I didn't worry about fat content at all, especially that early. In fact, I still don't look at the fat content of most things I eat. On my surgery day my doctor's dietician actually laughed when I expressed concern about the drinkable yogurts she recommended not being non-fat. She assured me that there's no way I could consume enough calories at that point for fat content to even be an issue. So I ate regular (4% fat) cottage cheese, all the cream soups I wanted, and regular cheese and Greek Yogurt. Avocados were a favorite in puréed stage and I eat mixed nuts everyday...all of which are fairly high in fat. I did go with skim milk for awhile, but switched to 1% once I hit goal. Besides, we need fat in our diets for a number of different body functions including our ability to absorb fat-soluble Vitamins like A, D, E, and K. This has worked for me, and everyone is different, but I wouldn't worry about fat for the first few weeks.

I mixed unflavored protein powder in broths and every cream soup I could find....chicken beef, hot and sour broth, tortilla soup broth, lobster bisque, tomato soup, leek soup, cream of shrimp, asparagus, mushroom, spinach, chicken..... Dilute and strain the cream soups because they often have little chunks.

The Fluid thing was definitely hard for me and seems like Flagyl hits everyone the same way....I could barely eat/drink for almost a month. Just FYI, I was also advised to take Saccharomyces Boulardii and Probiotics. I ordered the Saccharomyces online and the best probiotics will be something multi-strain and found in the refrigerated section of a good health food or whole food store. Garden of Life has several products that are 30+ strains and over 50billion CFU. The only problem is, the vanco and flagyl will kill them like they are killing everything else in your GI tract. To save money, I'd start taking them a couple days before you end the antibiotics and continue for several weeks. Good luck!

I actually think it was the opposite. I was at least 5 pounds lighter on their scale than when I had weighed at home 2 days earlier. And was 11 pounds more when I weighed myself at home 5 days postop. I figured the huge fluctuation was water weight (fasting preop and IV fluids/ swelling postop) but I guess it could have been the difference in scales. Huh, maybe MY scale weighs heavy

Sure...but I don't really have a set recipe. it varies greatly day to day. 1) mix whatever Protein powder flavor I'm in the mood for with Water or milk (milk for chocolate, vanilla, cake batter and red velvet cake flavors, water for the Syntrax Nectars and Garden of Life powders). I use 1 1/2 scoops in about 24 oz of liquid. 2) add a heaping teaspoon each of Metamucil and benefiber, or 2 heaping teaspoons of Suprafiber or 2 heaping teaspoons of Garden of a Life Raw Fiber. Each of these have a slightly different taste, so I change which one I use based on the base protein flavor. 3) if I'm adding fruit (bananas, berries, peaches, mangos, etc) I will blend it with water and then add it to my smoothie. I found that blending the whole smoothie makes it too frothy. 4) sometimes I will add PB2, Torani SF syrup (caramel, gingerbread, pumpkin pie, hazelnut and Irish cream are my favorites ) real juice or Mio or Dasani or propel zero powder to mix up the flavor. 5) add ice to bring it up to 32oz and throw it in the fridge at work. This is what I drink for a midday "snack" in between appointments. The type of fiber and fruit I add dictates the consistency..some are thicker like shakes and some are more like lemonade or iced tea. I can PM you some of my favorite combos, but finding (or inventing) new flavors is 1/2 the fun for me. The only real disaster I had was when I tried to make a "Carmel apple" smoothie with Syntrax nectar apple, Matrix vanilla and Torani caramel syrup. Yuck!

Not sure what a I got IV in the hospital, but really had no pain. Went home with Supradol, a sublingual NSAID, but didn't need to take it. I saved it and did take it when I had back pain a couple months after surgery. Worked great.

So sorry you had to go through that, but glad the vanco worked for you! After two rounds of flagyl (that made me incredibly sick, too ) and two rounds of vanco I finally had to have a fecal transplant. And don't worry, your body will recover and get back on track. I've done great since recovering. And yes, it's the antibiotics, not the surgery that causes C. diff. After going through all that I actually had "no antibiotics" added to my medical alert necklace. Of course the surgery didn't help because I couldn't drink enough to keep up with the diarrhea and needed IV fluids for dehydration 3 times. The infectious disease dr I saw said she sees 10 new cases a week and many of them had never even been hospitalized before. The CDC had issued warnings about C. diff and antibiotic use. They are calling it the new MRSA. And it's finally killed enough people that they are finally researching better preventative and treatment options.

That's a great NSV!

I don't post it on my Facebook page or anything, but when people ask about my weight loss most of the time I tell them I had surgery. So much easier than lying everyday (and , yes, I get asked everyday) It's been nice educating people about WLS, because so many know "someone" that had complications, or died, or gained all their weight back. The ones I don't tell are usually clients who I don't necessarily like and have no desire to have any conversation with outside of work related stuff.

The regular. I don't think the light comes in all those flavors. I never really bothered counting calories and fat, so I was just looking at variety when making my purchase.

Its most definitely possible to lose 100% of your excess weight. So far I've lost 106%. Those numbers are just the average. For every person that loses 100%, there's someone else out there only losing 30-40% of their excess weight. Ever watch "my 600 pound life"? There was one episode with a 500+ pound woman who only lost like 30 pounds 10 months after bypass. She refused to follow her postop meal plan. Cases like her's definitely lowers the statistical average. How much you lose and keep off is entirely up to you and how committed you are to sticking to a new, healthy lifestyle and making smart food choices for the rest of your life.

No doctor can force you to take anything even if it's in your best interest. But I guess he can decline to do your surgery if you don't agree to his conditions. And when you say you are against birth control, does this mean condoms and diaphragms/spermicides or just iud's, pills, vasectomies, and other hormonal or surgical methods? Just asking because getting pregnant too soon postop would be unhealthy and unsafe for both you and your baby. Short of abstinence, I wouldn't know what to suggest you do to be safe.

My surgeon in Mexico does it this way....Always has. I actually specifically looked for a surgeon that oversews the staple line in this manner. I'm a vet tech and that's the way my veterinarian closes both GI and bladder incisions. Creates a strong incision that heals well and minimizes the possibility of leaks.

I couldn't drink plain Water till about 4 months out. In the meantime I drank lots of Herbal tea (either hot or iced), diluted fruit juices, diluted Lifewater, water flavored with Mio, Dasani and crystal light flavor drops, decaf coffee (again, both hot and iced). I also got 1/2 my Fluid requirements from Protein smoothies. What are you taking for your constipation? After my 2 month bout of diarrhea from a C. diff infection, I have assumed very hard poo which only passes every 2-3 days. I add either Suprafiber or Metamucil and benefiber to my protein smoothie every day. I also try to eat whole grains bars, Beans and other foods with lots of Fiber. Kashi Go Lean has a Cereal variety that has 13g protein and 10g insoluble protein per cup. I often have 1/2 cup of this mixed in plain Greek yogurt as a snack. All of the fiber has helped make things passable, but if I haven't gone by the second day, I take Milk of Magnesia that night and I always have a BM the next morning.

I don't own a scale, so I try to check my weight about once/week at work so I have something to post on my ticker. It's probably not super accurate since I am fully clothed, sometimes with boots and jacket and sometimes before breakfast and sometimes after a lunch or snack, depending on when I remember to do it. But it gives me a general idea of my trends.

Everything is too sweet to me, too. I dilute the RTD shakes 1/2 and 1/2 with water or milk and I usually use twice as much liquid for the powders as what the instructions call for. I even have to dilute non-protein drinks like Lifewater, fruit juice, etc. I can't eat presweetened or flavored yogurt either...way too sweet. I get plain Greek yogurt and flavor it with Torani SF syrups, puréed fruit or protein powder so I can control the sweetness.

Taking everything at once can be irritating to your stomach. The irritation and acid can feel like hunger. You should also split them up because of absorption issues. Omeprazole can interfere with absorption of vitamins. (B 12 in particular). Omeprazole actually works best on an empty stomach. And like it was said before, calcium and iron (In your multi) shouldn't be taken together.

Ditto to everything lipstick lady said. I'm just over 7 months out, and I definitely get hungry, but it's easy to satisfy. I try to eat every 3 hours or I get REALLY hungry and then it's hard to eat slow. Just this week I downloaded the "eat slow" app to time my bites. I don't use it for every meal, but I kick it on for those times I'm starved and would otherwise eat too much too fast and be uncomfortable.

And ditto to what Cowgirljane said. Your BMI is pretty low, so you are already close to what a lot of people set as goal. They just had to lose way more to get there. You should look at percentages of total excess pounds, not just number of pounds lost. Actually, I take that back. You shouldn't be comparing yourself to others at all.

I don't track or measure, but just looking at your fitness pal numbers raised a big read flag to me. I've read a lot of people try to get 50% of their calories from protein and 25/25 from fat and carbs. According to your sample week, you are eating 24% protein, 35% fat and 41% carbs. So sounds like you need to shift your diet to way more protein, a little less fat and way less carbs,

Actually my post op liquid stage was almost 3 weeks. I went for variety... I made dozens of different flavored Protein shakes. I probably never had the same one more than 2-3 times the whole time. I also added unflavored Protein powder to broth and diluted/strained cream Soups (chicken, beef, tortilla Soup base, hot and sour soup base, lobster bisque, butternut squash soup, leek soup, cream of chicken, mushroom, asparagus, spinach, shrimp) Just keep your eye on the big goal and don't focus on those short two weeks. It's seriously insignificant compared to the rest of your life.

My plan was as follows.... Day 1-3 Clear liquids Day 4-17 full liquids Day 18-27 puréed Day 28-40 soft moist foods Day 40+ regular foods (except seeds, nuts and crunchy stuff which I was supposed to wait 3 months) I actually had to introduce stuff even slower than recommended. I could barely eat solids at 6 weeks out much less 1 week.

. December 4, 2013 238 pounds Day I started preop diet 8 months later.... . August 4, 2014 146 pounds 4 pounds below goal and still losing.....

Syntax nectar...tons of flavors but my favorites are apple, cherry and lemonade. Syntrax matrix vanilla...I like it much better than the premier vanilla. Muscle Milk...again, tons of flavors but I usually get cake batter, red velvet cake, vanilla or banana cream. Garden Of Life Raw Protein chocolate and vanilla. I also us Torani SF syrups or PB2 to add even more flavor variety. I also added unjury unflavored powder to broths, bisques and cream Soups for a savory break from all the sweet shakes.