heynowkc

Good grief.

Honestly I had a lot of people try and help and encourage me to lose weight in the many years leading up to my weight loss surgery. The difference is that I was often very vocal about my on-again/off-again attempts to lose weight. So the people who approached me about it were friends, co-workers/bosses, and family who I trusted and had discussed this with before. Or well.. anyone that knew me. I'm such an open person. If a stranger had approached me about getting healthier (nevermind suggesting WLS) I would have been more embarrassed than anything. But friends and family? That's another story, at least for me. I actually always 100% appreciated their attempts to help me! I know 99% of people would probably be offended. I guess I'm just a different breed. However, I have only had health insurance as an adult for the last year and a half. If WLS was ever brought up (and I can't remember it ever coming up during my "insurance"-less years) it would have been an impossible suggestion for me at the time. Edit: While I am only remembering the direct attempts to "help" me, there are subtler ways to be a positive influence -- I liked the idea of giving out your blog address (if you have one). Just "oh hey I have a blog, you should check it out!" Or I don't know, sharing a super yummy and healthy recipe/meal with an acquaintance you know struggles with poor food choices. Inviting someone for a walk or a non-food related event with you. I do think that most grown adults are aware of their options and the difference between healthy eating/living and knowingly putting themselves at risk. Some people just aren't ready.

Me too. Definitely given me some great ideas for what to look out for. I really want to try their avocados next since they're supposed to be so good.

Sadly, the truth is that I can no longer come to this site without seeing at least one rude/judgmental/accusatory/unsupportive/antagonistic/snarky/overly (overly overly overly) defensive/snobby reply to at least one thread where someone was struggling and/or genuinely looking for help and support. I've never been the target of these replies, but if I were, I'd feel like I was being attacked/written off/judged/etc. with no good reason. There is still a lot of good info/support here, and it's a wonderful place for pre-op questions, but unless you're looking for your own personal drill sergeant it's not the most kind/caring/information sharing type of "support group" that I'd wager most people are looking for. This post is basically saying that to people who don't like the drill sergeant method: "There's something intrinsically wrong with you and you're not ready for weight loss surgery anyway and you need to seek psychological help, you whiny, whiny baby." Well I'm sorry, but I take issue with that. First of all who are you to tell someone they're ready or not? Based on some arbitrary make-believe guidelines that have zero to do with WLS. What does one thing have to do with the other? (PROTIP: That was a rhetorical question. The answer is "nothing at all.") Also, this ENTIRE thread is a whiny reaction to something "someone that you don't know" posted on a message board. Isn't that a little hypocritical? (Also rhetorical!) This is basically how I feel about the whole thing. I'm no wilting flower, so I can take the tough stuff (and spit it right back out) and be no worse for the wear. Some people are far more sensitive and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if anyone is free to come here and dish out "tough love" then the people who are defending the "tough love" approach need to also recognize that people might, just MAYBE, publicly complain about it. You're putting yourself out there on the internet, not everybody is going to like what you have to say. It doesn't mean they're "universally defining" you or whatever you say, but it does mean that each of us gets to define our reactions to it for ourselves, whether publicly, or privately. So, my advice is: deal with it and stop complaining that not everybody likes every little thing you say.

I found out that I was having surgery a half a day before I had to start my pre-op diet so I didn't really have much time for a "funeral." I ALSO worked late that night, so I was getting home around 10PM. On my way home from work I got cheeseburger sliders and french fries from sheetz. I don't even like cheeseburgers or french fries from fast food places! It was just the only place open and I couldn't think of anything else. The cheeseburgers were TERRIBLE (I know this about myself: I hate fast food burgers. I have NO IDEA why I thought it would be a good idea????) The dumb thing is there are a million other food options at Sheetz. The other thing is that their french fries were actually REALLY good. It was my FIRST time ever eating them. So it was both a birth and a funeral at the same time? Apparently, I am really bad at decision making when I am panicked! But luckily I had Breakfast the next morning to look forward to. I started my pre-op diet at lunch the next day. I was picking up my supplies mid-morning at the doctor's office and was told it was OK to eat a regular breakfast. I had two fried eggs, a couple pieces of bacon and some toast with butter and jelly. MUCH better than the dumb Sheetz disaster of the night before. I often wonder if I'd had more time what I would do for my "food funeral." I bet I would have had sushi. Or maybe mexican. Shrimp fajitas with flour tortillas and tableside gauc with my chips. I can still eat sushi (just skip the rice) and I can have fajitas and guac, just no tortillas and chips. So.. probably... food funerals are more symbolic than anything.

I am three months out and too chicken to try most raw fruits, but the one's I've tried I haven't had any problems with. I've had strawberries, blueberries, grapes, a melon sampling from a salad bar (one bite of honeydew, one bite of cantaloupe, one bite of watermelon) and pineapple. (I've also had canned peach.) I have YET to try banana, apple, pear, fresh peaches/nectarines/plums, oranges/clementines/etc. I have a very small capacity (around 3 ounces) so I haven't eaten a banana simply because I know I can't eat the whole thing and don't want to peel a whole banana just to eat a few bites!! I haven't even used one in a smoothie/shake because I figure that's just extra calories I don't actually need. I am sure I will change my tune eventually.

@@MacMadame You're awesome for putting this together.

If you can find something that fits in with your dietitian's guidelines I don't see why you can't try it. It's pretty difficult to find those though! I am not allowed any kind of carb-foods (Beans, rice, crackers, noodles, bread, sweets, potatoes, corn, etc.) so for me it's especially difficult. HOWEVER, I did find one I loved the other day: Atkins Crustless chicken Pot Pie This has chicken, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach. NO rice, beans, breading or noodles at all. And it tastes AMAZING. I love the cauliflower and the spinach in this especially. Really makes it special. I can only fit about half of it (actually a little less) into my stomach so what I usually do is cook it ahead of time at home and then split it up into my snack-size sistema plastic containers. (I get the sistema stuff at target or world market.) For half of a container it's about 165 calories and 11 g of Protein. I have issues with frozen meals anyway because if I'm going for anything marketed as "healthy" I notice they tend to make up for loss of flavor by adding lots of spice to things that oftentimes aren't even traditionally spicy and I can't do spicy at all. So finding something like this one is a great find for me.

I just stopped at costco this weekend and picked up a few things. bai5 variety pack of drinks. These are a great price. About 1.20-ish(?) per bottle. (I am doing math in my head, very dangerous!) Anywhere else they're AT LEAST 2 bucks a bottle, so this is a great deal. And this was my greatest Costco find yet. Sabatino's Roasted Garlic & Basil chicken Meatballs with Mozzarella. They're 140 calories for 3 meatballs (which is about all I can fit into my stomach!) and 16 grams of protein! They are already fully cooked (refrigerated) and come in a pack of 50. (2 packs of 25.) I froze one pack and browned the other pack for lunches this week and spaghetti night on Tuesday. (My parents will have them with spaghetti noodles but I'll just have three meatballs and be happy.) I have been craving meatballs for some reason and these really hit the spot. The only trouble is the sodium content. There is a picture of the package and all the nutrition info at fooducate here. I'm really starting to appreciate Costco now that I have become more familiar with the store since joining a couple of months ago. One thing I love is they always seem to have lamb and their boneless leg of lamb is a really simple way to cook and serve it - no bones to deal with. We butterfly it, do a rub on the inside, then roll and tie it, then do a rub on the outside. Sear it, then roast it in the oven. Yum yum. Their lamb chops were amazing too. I haven't tried any of the others. The other thing I LOVE is their Steelhead trout which they always seem to have as well. It is red in color like salmon but is actually a sea-run rainbow trout. We used to eat this ALL THE TIME in Pennsylvania but since moving to Virginia over 10 years ago we could hardly ever find it in any stores. Costco to the rescue apparently! One other reason to love Costco is that they pay their employees a living wage! Their average employee makes something like $20.00 / hour!

You and me are in the same boat then. I actually enjoy myself when I get into a regular routine. It's getting INTO that routine that's the hard part. Especially when you're so busy! I've got jury duty tomorrow and I'm hoping to get dismissed early and hit the pool for Water aerobics in the afternoon. I just need one good week to get me settled into a routine.

That's too pricey for me. Plus I'd be afraid it wouldn't work!! Haha. Sounds strange but I have an explanation, I promise. You know those "handlebar" like things at the gym that the trainers use? They measure your body fat percentage. Anyway I have tried using them many times over the years at different places but they ALWAYS reply back with an error message. I don't know if it's specifically something about ME or if it's just that I have a very HIGH body fat percentage? I am not sure. But to this day my body fat percentage remains a mystery.

I am three months out as of this week and I still find going out to eat (socially or not) difficult. What can I/Should I eat? Will they let me order from the kids menu? (Some places will, some won't.) I have decided that the next time I go out to a real restaurant I will just do what one of the other posters said. Order a full size healthy meal, eat a small portion, and box the rest up for leftovers. With the amount of food they give you that could last me a while!! Luckily I have kids with friends and they know about my surgery so they can just order an extra kids meal for me, or I will share with a toddler, haha. That's what I did when I was back on solid foods. We went to Red Robin (a burger chain) and they ordered a kids meal for their 10 month old, grilled chicken breast (on a stick) with steamed broccoli. I could barely eat any. I think the 10 month old ate more than me! The funniest thing is going to my monthly book club meeting. We have it at Wegman's (a grocery store chain) which has seating/meeting areas on the second floor. We meet there and eat together first, then have our meeting. Last time I just went to the seafood department and got a couple of pieces of their prepared shrimp and a small spoonful of cold brussels sprouts salad. I think the people think I'm crazy when I ask for such a small amount of shrimp. But I don't mind. One time the guy at the counter was like "I threw an extra one in there for you!" (After he'd weighed the amount I asked for.) And I didn't have the heart to tell him I wouldn't be able to eat it, haha. Last time I could only eat two of the shrimp! (Their shrimp is gigantic!) Whenever I've gotten food at a salad bar/food bar from a grocery store, it's a huge benefit to have such a tiny stomach. You can portion out exactly how much you can eat, and since you pay by weight, you only have to pay a couple bucks for your meal!

I was kind of the same way on pre-op. No hunger and didn't drink all my shakes. They wanted me to have 3/day but I only really needed 2 to get all my Protein in.

Quick question. What kind of exercise are you doing? I'm still mostly doing walking and some strength exercises but haven't really gotten back to the gym more than once or twice a week (I was going 5-6 times / week before surgery!). My progress is similar to yours (my surgery was 2 weeks after you) but I have 100 lbs more than you to lose. I am just curious if I should really be stepping it up and getting back to Water aerobics. It's just been a pretty brutal winter with a sinus infection that lasted several weeks and then lots of snow. The past two weeks have been warm, but I'm still in my old routine! I have a plan to amp it up, but am just curious what others are doing!

Over the winter costco had a sale on a Weight Watchers scale (14.99) and I bought it because my expensive (always inaccurate) scale had recently broken. Anyway, this one is always accurate with me. No matter how many times you step on it back to back it will give you the same weight. I wish I could tell you the model number. Some reviews for other models online seem to suggest that many people have the same problem you have, but I have NEVER had any issues. The trouble is none of these look exactly like mine at home so I am not sure which one to link you to. If you have a Costco you might try looking there. I think the regular price was 19.99 and it's a 400 lb capacity.

I don't have before/after pics but I've lost 67.2 lbs since surgery on Dec 17th. (And a total of 136.2 since Oct 1st!) I will probably wait until I'm 100 lbs down from surgery to take after pics. Since I have so much to lose, even though the numbers are big the loss is not that visually noticeable yet.

Thank you for this sane reply.

I take two calcium chews daily (morning and night), two Multivitamins daily (morning and night), and one B12 under the tongue tablet every other day. So it's really not so bad. I notice that some people take a lot more, but my Vitamin contains many of the things people are taking separately (like biotin) so I am lucky that I found a pill that includes these things. I get my multivitamin from GNC. I take the women's ultra mega once daily pill, but I take it twice daily because my nutritionist said it's needed. They usually have pretty good sales at GNC. Like buy one get one free, periodically on their website. That's when I stock up.

I haven't really been craving sodas even though I would drink any type of soda (diet or otherwise) in my "past life" haha. The thing is that I get bored with Water sometimes, and since I am not a coffee drinker, other than hot herbal tea with truvia, I haven't found anything I like that much. So, after thinking about it for the past few weeks, I actually bought some of the diet sodastream syrups to mix with plain water (not carbonated). Just to see how they would taste. I have tried the "Diet Dr. Pete" flavor. (They also have diet root beer, cola zero, diet cola and diet orange I think! Maybe more?) It's pretty good and has no carbonation or calories. I figure it's no worse for me than those Crystal Light powder mixes or Mio liquid drink flavors. The problem is I usually find those way too citrus-y/tart for my tastes. I'm not opposed to citrus things but with the flavored powders it's kind of overpowering and actually sometimes bothers my throat in a way that's super hard to describe. Almost any flavor does this even if you only use a small amount of the powder. Anyway, the Diet Dr. Pete turned out pretty good. I have only had one glass, maybe 14-16 oz. worth. Definitely something I would recommend for a treat every now and then if you're wanting the flavor of diet soda (or just for more variety in drinks) but no carbonation. It's not cheap, about 5.99 for a small bottle, but the label says it makes about 50 8oz glasses worth. So overall it's not a bad price.

I have added you. I am heynowkc

34

Recently switched from the Bariatric Advantage Multivitamin. Now I take GNC Women's Ultra Mega One Daily (but I take it twice a day per the dietitian's orders). They recently had a 50% off sale and so I bought 5 months worth! Watch out for sales.

Hey guys. Just checking in. I had surgery on Dec. 17th. I feel like I am in a stall/slow down period but I haven't stopped losing completely. I'm just losing a lot less than I was, but also because of the weather and being sick off and on, I've had a hard time getting to the gym. I have decided that this week I am going to go at least 5 days, I was getting 6-7 days in BEFORE surgery so this should be a cake-walk for me. I haven't done any strength training since surgery, so I'm going to start that today. Anyway, as for eating, the past couple of weeks I have noticed a discomfort whenever I eat. It's not the full feeling that comes after I have eaten all that I can, just an uncomfortable feeling that is hard to explain that starts right after the first bite of food, depending on the texture/consistency. Like if I eat yogurt (which I rarely do) I wouldn't feel it. But if I ate a bite of meat I definitely would. It is making eating a really unpleasant experience for me. But because I'm still clocking everything I eat, and very carefully measuring Protein, I still try and eat whatever I've portioned out for myself until I feel full. Maybe I shouldn't and should be giving my stomach a break. Maybe if I did that every now and then that weird feeling would go away? My capacity is very limited I think. I'm not sure what other people are eating per meal. I can eat about 2.5-3 ounces of food per meal and then if I eat any more than that I feel very uncomfortable. At the beginning I was SO careful so I didn't experience much nausea. But over the weekend I had an incident with a chicken and asparagus stir fry that didn't go down well. I honestly think it's because it was boneless skinless chicken breast and is a little bit tougher/more dry than other meats I've eaten, and I wasn't eating as slowly as I should so I may have eating one or two bites too many. I've lost about 60 lbs since surgery and 130 overall. (Lost 70 lbs before surgery.) Am feeling really good but am annoyed at the slowdown I've experienced over the last 3 weeks or so. I know this is normal and everyone experiences these slow downs and stalls, but I have so much weight to lose that I get nervous about my progress all the time. I think getting back to the gym, especially reincorporating strength training, will help! Oh! I forgot to add that I have been having real trouble with Protein shakes lately. Every now and then I would eat two bars instead of one shake and one bar per day. This past week I've almost exclusively eaten the bars instead of drinking the shakes. Now whenever I TRY to drink a shake it makes me completely nauseated!

Definitely check with your doc first, but if it's not already in any of the vitamins you're taking it's definitely worth it to look into it. My multivitamin (GNC's Women's Ultra Mega One A Day) already has 100% iron 200% zinc and 100% biotin. I take it twice daily because that's that my dietitian wants me to do. So I won't be taking EXTRA iron unless my numbers come back low. I don't know why this quoted you twice. I can't seem to delete one quote without messing up the formatting of the other.

I am a little over 2 months out (Dec 17th was surgery) and I haven't experienced hair loss yet. I have lost about 58lbs since surgery, and 127 since the beginning of October, so that's a LOT in just under 5 months time. I feel like I really should have started to lose by now... However, here's the thing: I have always had trouble with my periods -- since the last year of high school, and as a result have always had serious issues with anemia. One time I was so anemic that my hair started falling out, not in HUGE clumps, but enough to worry me and send me to the doc. It was discovered that I was so anemic I needed a blood transfusion. (This is the only out-patient transfusion I've had as a result of my period -- I'd been hospitalized twice before and had extensive transfusions both times.) Anyway, the ER doctor I originally went to was an idiot and just told me I was losing my hair. It was a clinic doctor I went to later that recognized that Iron DEFICIENCY is a major cause for hair loss and she checked for other symptoms, and sure enough, that was the problem. After this incident, I never had significant problems with hair loss again. Over the past several years I have had better health care and have been able to (mostly) keep my period under control and my iron levels are now in the normal range for the first time in YEARS. In the past, I have also had trouble getting enough Protein in throughout the week. Some days I did, some days I didn't. Prior to surgery, and after, I am (most days!) getting more protein in than I did pre-surgery which is great for my iron levels. Based on my experiences and correlating that to what the article said about iron deficiency, I really think the key is to keep an eye on your iron levels, take additional iron supplements if needed (they have types that are easier on the stomach) and see your regular doctor as often as you can to make sure your levels are OK. I obviously don't know this for sure, but I feel like if the Biotin, Water, protein, and Multivitamins don't seem to stave it off, then maybe a little extra iron will help!