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WildGrits

Gastric Bypass Patients
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Posts posted by WildGrits


  1. I am no guru when it comes to nutrition but I have a child with real food intolerances so I am pretty well read on the subject of IBS-D and IBS-C.

    If you are suffering from IBS-D your answer is soluble Fiber. That works as a bulking agent. Soluble fiber, which dissolves in Water, can help lower glucose levels as well as help lower blood cholesterol. Foods with soluble fiber include oatmeal, nuts, Beans, lentils, apples and blueberries.

    If you are suffering from IBS-C your answer is insoluble fiber. That helps push the food along without adding bulk. Foods with insoluble fibers include wheat, whole wheat bread, whole grain couscous, brown rice, legumes, carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes.

    OK now I am going to say some unpopular things.

    IF you were on any antibiotics, you need to replenish the flora in your gut. Instead of Probiotics in pills form, I would look for Kefir. Lifeway makes all sorts. Just makes sure to check your sugar content as you shouldn't have over 9grams in a food item.

    As part of that meal, introduce something whole grain. Also, red meat and cheese are good places to find B12. Before buying processed food items, try going more raw.

    Use the app "My Fitness Pal" to help you keep track of your food. 60-80 grams of Protein. A minimum of 35 grams of fiber a day and of course vit b12 and Calcium. I know they LOVE to tout pills but you should really be getting your intake of nutrition via foods not pills.

    Oh and for what ever reason you are on for stomach issue meds, try this one and see if u have improvement. Heather's Tummy Care Peppermint Oil -- 90 Enteric Coated Softgels

    Good luck. It took me about a year and 3 months to be at goal.


  2. I FEEL YOU!!!

    Before my surgery I did my psych appointment and could verbalize things that my head really didn't believe.

    This is just a tool, I will have to do the hard work. This surgery will not fix my marriage. This surgery will not make my job better. You will be left with sagging skin.

    A year and a few months after my surgery I had reached goal. I was an apple so my legs and arms didn't have a ton of sag. My belly and boobs where their own story. There was no way I was going to be able to go thru life with all this skin. It was the one true down fall.

    I started looking at plastic surgery out of the country but end up getting a personal loan to have an extreme Tummy Tuck and new boobs done locally. Let me say that plastic surgery hurt more than the Roux en Y. After that was all done, I still was unhappy. Those were not my boobs. I still had no waist due to having very narrow hips. The surgery did not make me pretty. That was the hardest thing to face. It takes a lot for me to look at that person in the mirror and be OK with myself.

    On a good note, the parts of me that I didn't have plastic on did shrink up, like my bingo wings and chin. I do have deep smile lines but when I looked into having them done, I decided no cause even fat I had them just not so deep. They would probably go away if I wasn't dehydrated all the time. I hate drinking since the surgery.


  3. I'm sorry to hear that you are not where you hoped to be.

    I think you have made a very valid point. A lot of us gained weight or were always heavy due to addiction/self medicating. The surgery will not make the addiction go away. All it is is a tool to help you from being hungry.

    I too have super crappy feet now. Although I still carry weight in my rib cage, my feet and ass are both void of any sort of cushioning. My husband has leather seats in his car. You can tell where I sit as I have made two permanent dents in the seat from the ass bones poking thru.

    I will sadly say that I have learn many things about myself during this journey.

    First a high point. I have been very successful with my surgery. I am so thankful that ins covers it.

    But, The surgery will not make you unaddicted. It will not improve your marriage, your body image, your work, relationships with others or anything. All it will do is help you to not be hungry so you eat less. If you allow head hungry to rule then you will sadly pay the price.

    I too was having some emotional issues this past year. Both my kids went away to college and I was just having some real anger issues. I tried Wellbutrin with no luck. Finally I just decided to stop fighting it and take the Vit B12. It has made a decent change. Now mind you I rock my blood work all the time. I have no low levels of anything. But I am reactive Hypoglycemic.

    I guess if you are still suffering with addiction issues, spend some time being introspective. Find out what is the thing your are self medicating. Without identifying the core issue you cannot escape the pattern. I have really had to do some serious soul searching these past few years. Doing so has allowed me to be a more loving person to the people in my life who deserve my best. I have a long way to go, but at least I am more honest with myself.

    Good luck. If you need someone to IM, feel free.


  4. I was out a month. I could have gone back earlier but I work a 13 hour day three days straight. So I figured I should be very healed before I tried sitting in a desk chair that long.

    I still had drains a week out so there was no way I was getting dressed in work clothes.

    The time off before hand doesn't seems prudent. I can't think of any reason why some one would need to.


  5. If you have lost 75% of your goal in one year then I only have one thing to say to you.

    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    There are a lot of reasons people are mean to folks after weight loss surgery.

    One main thing I hear over and over comes down to one thing.

    People hate change.

    In their mind we have broken some unwritten contract and they are mad. We were the fat one. This is especially true for us who were the biggest in the group. They can eat their cake with out guilt cause they might gain weight but they will never let themselves get fat like WildGrits.

    And then you change the game and all of a sudden they say mean things. I loved how some people said things like I'm full of myself. Well I have always been full of myself. I'm a snarky lil firecracker and always have been.

    You were wise to distance yourself from others people and their chaos. That must have been very hard. Good for you for putting your needs where they belong, the priority.

    I'm not big on support groups. But I am in a Facebook group which was a big help. Maybe you could start a new one. I would invite u to ours but its people who had surgery the same time I did and has become pretty quiet.


  6. This is why I didn't tell anyone either.

    How does your medical support system feel about your weight loss?

    If you feel you are not losing as fast as you should, do you have any idea why that is?

    This surgery has been a great tool for me. It has helped be do what I couldn't do alone. But at the end of the day it is only a tool. It is still up to me to work a healthy habits and fight a daily struggle of over eating.

    I have used an app called My Fitness Pal. It really helps to keep you honest with yourself as to what you are putting in your mouth. Really helpful with keeping track.


  7. If you have hit a point in your life where you are sick and tired of your diminishing health. You realize what you have tried has not given you the results you want. Well then you are ready for a change.

    Is this change the change for you? Only you can answer that. This is not the easy route. But it is a life changer.

    Any questions feel free to ask. People here try to be honest. But remember this is your journey, not theirs.


  8. The RNY surgery is a seriously extensive surgery. You will be healing for about a year. If you are having problems getting fluids down, try sugar free popsicles.

    Your whole abdomen is inflamed. One of the biggest mistakes people don't even realize they are making is that you have to SLOW DOWN your drinking. You cannot drink like before.

    Another thing that causes pain, very bad pain, is the pain meds.

    Did you go home with a script for liquid meds?

    Guess what is in that:

    In addition the following inactive ingredients are present: anhydrous citric acid, artificial cherry flavor, FD&C Blue #1, FD&C Yellow #6, high fructose corn syrup, methylparaben, polyethylene glycol, propylparaben, purified Water, saccharin sodium, and sodium citrate.

    Do you see it?

    If you are going to continue with pain meds, switch to regular strength Tylenol, crush it and put it in yogurt or applesauce. Yeah it's gonna taste terrible but no more of that crazy side and back pain you get from the liquid solution.

    Keep on hand or sugar free popsicles, Gas X, and Tylenol.


  9. Two things I noticed made me moody.

    The first one was the fact that I could no long console myself with foods when I was upset about something. I had to actually face emotions I use to eat away.

    The second thing was once I hit Ketosis, I was spilling over with all those hormones that were stored in my fat for decades.

    Both pass but I still have rough weeks every once and awhile,


  10. If you feel the cold now and didn't before, it's not from just fat loss. It's from brown fat loss.

    It sits like a huge collar around your neck and collar bone and shoulder blades.

    So if you have a boney neck and shoulders, then you are more apt to be cold because brown fat is the insulation in us.

    Scientists are only now just beginning to understand what the functions of brown fat are. From what we can tell so far, main differences between the two are:

    • White fat is the result of storing excess calories. When we consume too many calories, the body converts them into a contingency energy reserve in the form of white fat.
    • Brown fat generates heat by burning calories. When it is cold, brown fat's lipid reserves are depleted, and its color gets darker.


  11. Starting in December I have been battling fatigue, headaches, and dizziness. A few bouts of hypoglycemia and now I have a glucose meter for the first time in my life.

    I am not going to lie to you or myself. I know what happened. Cookies, subs, pizza, carbs/starches have crept into my diet. I don't gain weight but I have made myself extremely unhealthy. I told myself I could live a little and go back to behaving after the first of the year.

    So now I sit here with no energy, past my goal weight loss and not able to walk the 4 miles I was walking before this started.

    One thing I have learned is it is easier to diet than it is to maintain.

    But today I am getting real with myself and gonna be more accountable for my actions. If you are going through this, really look at your behaviors.


  12. I was surprised to find this thread is so current while I was searching Reactive hypoglycemia post–gastric bypass. I was having a few sugar drops recently so my GP had me do a two hour glucose test.

    My two hour blood draw was 36.

    To me the scariest thing was that the week before I had two incidents in one day where the room started to spin and I was sweating profusely. After driving myself home from my blood work I entered my kitchen and then the symptoms kicked in. So how low could I be getting before symptoms? I would have never driven if I had known I was that low.

    Tomorrow I go to an Endocrinologist. I have never been a diabetic so I am not very happy with this new issue.


  13. I totally agree

    Gas from eating to quickly is so common for me. I find there are certain times I just eat way too fast. Mostly dinner cause I have hard dining room chairs and I no longer have any padding on my butt so I find myself rushing to get out of that chair.

    Another thing that became hard was low fat food. They are just too dry for me to get down no matter how hard I try. I have to make sure they have a sauce on them. Pork is a no go for me now.


  14. On Facebook there a many groups with recipes. One I follow is Bariatric Recipe Exchange.

    I was and still am a huge fan of Soup. I look for ones with 7 grams or more of Protein. Just be careful of the ones with rice, they can hurt early on.

    I remember a hugely popular recipe when I was starting was Baked Ricotta. Just take a bowl and spread ricotta on the bottom, nuke it. Then add a layer of spaghetti sauce and then a bit of shaker cheese. Nuke it again and enjoy.


  15. It does pass for folks.

    When your body is squeezing the fat cells for nutrients during extreme weight loss, lots of toxins and hormones are released. Those hormones can be a nasty thing while its happening. Also stored in fat cells are fat soluble Vitamins. That's one of the reasons it is important to keep your blood work appointments while losing weight.

    If you are on any meds, it is wise to keep a running appointment with the prescribing Dr as your Rx might need to be tweaked many times.


  16. If you think you are moving slow, reach out to others who are a few months ahead of you and read about their experiences. It really helps put things in perspective. Only do this with people who have had the same surgery as you because there is incredible differences in what each one does.

    My surgeon explained it this way, "The Roux en Y is an extremely invasive surgery, just under heart surgery. It will take an extended amount of time for the body to heal."

    That being said, the first few months you will lose weight but a few things work as factors. You have a lots of tissue in the body that is trying to heal now. It will be swollen during this time. If you take certain meds or have diabetes, it will take longer for the body to repair the damage.

    A helpful thing to do is make sure you take full body measurements. During those plateaus I found I was actually experiencing my skin shrink in. So when you feel discouraged it is good to not just rely on the scale but to have other ways to check your progress.

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