Jen - a work in progress

I was wondering the same thing the other day. I have my first post op follow up on Monday and will ask.

While I no longer get a period myself, I know someone who hadn't gotten one for a long time and then all of a sudden after surgery they started again and were irregular. They were told that it's from the change in your hormones and your body due to the surgery. Eventually your body will find its balance again.

Weighed myself this morning and I'm down to 218 from 238 in 2 weeks! Yay!! I've been power walking just about every day which has obvious been helping a lot.

I get that feeling from time to time. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I didn't chew enough or if the texture of the food is too rough or dry.

CW 218 GW 180 My original goal was to hit 180 before Christmas but my weight loss may slow down before then so idk. Oh well, we'll see how this goes! Good luck everyone!

My NP told me to take milk of Magnesia. It takes several hours to kick in but it works and was easy on my stomach. It doesn't react in the stomach like some other methods do.

I had samples of bipro that I liked prior to surgery that sounds similar. I got them from my dietician so I may ask her for more to see if they taste good still. Also, I tried to powdered milk in my skim milk (fortified milk as my dietician calls it) and I didn't like it. I'm not a big milk drinker to begin with so I sometimes add a drop of light chocolate syrup to it for some flavor. Not the best habit going forward, but right now I'm still operating within my allowed calories.

I have not. I'll pick some up and try it. Thanks!

I can't either. I don't puree it. I just make sure I chew until I can't chew anymore lol. Close enough for me!

I can have it for the first 2 weeks as long as it is pureed. I had pureed chicken and yogurt for my first meal in the hospital. They recommended I try it in the hospital so I get an idea of what's expected as far as consistency and texture if I make it at home. I didn't start with liquids like some people had to unless you count the day of surgery where I only had Water. My first meal was lunch the day after surgery. This may also be why they don't want me having Protein shakes. I can get a good deal of protein from the meats, if I would just eat the meats. It was hard to eat the first few days, but after about day 5 or 6 something just clicked and I was able to eat more with ease.

This is Stage 2 for me. I should be starting this about 2 weeks post op. However, looking at it, I already tried some of these foods early. My 2 wk post op follow up is on Monday 11/10.

Stage 2

Here are my stage 1 meal plans. I did just notice that I can have Carb Solutions (21g/cup) or Hood's Carb Countdown (15g/cup) in place of milk. Never heard of them before but apparently they are found in the dairy cases. They say fortify the milk with powdered milk and add powdered egg whites to foods for extra Protein. I fortified my milk once, took a few sips and poured the rest out. It was gross! And I have a love-hate with eggs so I'm not even gonna go there.

I think the biggest issue is me being so picky. I tried tuna, but I really don't like tuna and threw it out. I've never been a fan of seafood with the exception of crab legs and shrimp and I'm not sure if those are allowed yet because of the texture. I only recently started eating salmon, and it's ok in small amounts but after 4 days straight, my taste buds were done with salmon. I started out trying to use protein shakes against his wishes (I'm a bit of a rebel lol), but they don't sit well with me and made me feel like throwing up, so I stopped using them. They seemed to be too foamy or something. I'd let them settle for a few minutes before drinking them but that didn't help either. I'll try picking up some string cheese. I was eating sliced cheese and cheese curds (I swear that it reformed into a giant cheese curd in my intestines and I felt it working it's way all the way thru... TMI). Maybe string cheese will go down smoother. I'm making my kids some chicken legs tonight for dinner and will pull the meat off of some for myself. It won't be pureed, but I'll chew chew chew amd then chew chew chew some more lol. I guess I kinda looked at my meal options like this... I can have some malt-o-meal and get maybe 2g of protein or a yogurt and get 12g = yogurt won. Same with cottage cheese for 7g or a yogurt for 12g. I'm going to buy more eggs today and whip up a batch of deviled eggs. I'll make enough for the kids and then save some on my "Mom's only" shelf in the fridge (my kids would clean me out if I didn't have one lol). I'll attach my meal plans and options they gave me.

various kinds but mostly Yoplait Greek 100 vanilla which has 13g per container or Dannon Oikos but those tend to be higher in sugar (although I can tolerate them without any symptoms). It takes me about 45 mins to eat one, but I can finally eat a whole one. The first few days I was lucky to eat lol. I was sipping on soups, but they don't have any protein worth counting so I stopped. They were basically fillers. I'm tempted to add another cup of milk in with my waters for an extra 9g of protein.

He's against protein shakes altogether. They want me to get me protein from food sources, but also don't expect me to hit 60g right away. I get 18g from the milk. I get about 12g from the Greek yogurt for Breakfast and 7g from the cottage cheese at lunch. I was trying to eat salmon for dinner which gave me about 14g. That totals 51g. If I just stuck with 2 Greek yogurts for 24g + milk 18g + meat for dinner 14, I'd be pretty darn close to 60g. I'm just sick of yogurt now. My foods are supposed to be pureed for the first 2 weeks and I can't eat pureed meat, I just can't lol. After the 10th I can go to fork mashable foods, which may help. I just get bored with food and then don't want to eat. I'd call but I kinda already know what they're going to tell me.

So 1.5wks out and I'm bored with yogurt and cottage cheese. I'm not supposed to have Protein shakes and the Un.jury I purchased doesn't sit well with me postop anyhow. That will be going back to the factory. I'm not a fan of eggs in the least bit but the deviled eggs are really starting to sound good. I'm out of Protein food options! I'm a picky eater and it pretty much sucks! I'm looking forward to being able to eat chicken and steak again for protein. I was eating salmon but I'm tired of that too and I don't really care for fish to begin with. I keep up with my Water and 2 glasses of milk every day (which gives me 18g or protein). Idk what else to try right now... It's frustrating... On a positive note: I'm down in weight and was goofing off and checked some of my measurements and saw I lost a few inches as well. Yippee!! Lol

I take a chewable multivitamin twice a day. I have a brand from my hospital pharmacy that is super cheap, but Flintstone vitamins are an option as well. I don't take any other vitamins right now. They told me to wait. I was sleeved 10/23

my surgeon doesn't allow it either. They actually blood test you for nicotine right before surgery. If they detect it = no surgery. They tell you that up front though. No surprise tests and the end of all your hard work, you know that it's coming.

Gotcha! I never heard it called that before lol.

I was sleeved on the 23rd. My surgeon is like yours and doesn't like protein shakes. They know this early in the game, we aren't going to get all of our protein in. Mine does expect me to work up to it tho. They also are more worried about the water intake more than the food right now. Working on getting in 64oz of water is more important to them. So.... For foods, I am still in my puree stage and eat greek yogurt, cottage cheese, salmon, chicken. I have ventured out to eat a slice of mozzarella cheese (8g of protein/slice) which took a while to really chew up good. I'm only now able to get in more since I am a little more healed, but it's not near my goal yet. I am almost up to 64oz of water. Take it slow and build up to your goal each day. We'll get there soon.

my first post op will be at 2 weeks. I was given a list of my post op appointments timeline. It listed when a follow up was expected, who I would be seeing, and what is expected to be done at that specific appt (physical, blood work, NUT eval, etc).

Most people I have spoken with lost majority of their weight in the first 6 months. That's the prime time (for most people) for the fastest loss before your body recovers and adjusts to the major change. The remainder came off over the next year or two or more. I wasn't implying you only lose for 6 months and then that's it, it's over. Hopefully nobody interpreted my comment that way. Everyone is different and has different goals and follows different programs. That being said, everyone's weight loss will be different. Some are able to reach goal in 6 months, some take 2 years. Some spend months trying to stop losing because they surpassed their goal but can't get it to stop. Every experience is different.

Idk what hubble bubble is. The problem with smoking is that it hinders the healing process. It'll slow it down and the healthy tissue takes longer to regenerate. So hold off on smoking for fewer to no healing complications. But again.... Idk what hubble bubble is, that may not even be relevant for ur situation...

My surgeon required 4-6 weeks off of work. I'm scheduled off for 6 weeks but may consider going back at 4 weeks. I'll see when I get there.