Daisee68

Congrats! That is definitely a NSV and one of the best ones in my opinion!!

Well I confess, I drink it occasionally and through a straw! I try to limit it to a few sips per week. My surgeon nor NUT agree (with diet soda or the straw). Having said that, I will say the diet soda is definitely addictive so the more I drink it, the more I find I want to drink it. I probably waited 6 months before I tried. Just because I do drink it doesn't mean I or you should. Oh and I had bypass not sleeve. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't like the taste and/or it would be uncomfortable, but alas, it is not.

Yummy! I make this every summer (leaving out the oil) for pool parties and my family requests it! Can't wait to make it again...

While I had nausea for a long time, I did not experience dizziness or diarrhea. Those 2 things make it sound a little like dumping but it seems odd you would dump from those foods. I think I would probably call your NUT and see if you can get some advice from her. Looks like you are only a couple if weeks post-op? Maybe the symptoms are unrelated to food? What I mean is you could have dizziness from lack of fluids and so little food and the diarrhea is just a side effect for some people. Are you able to tolerate any Protein shakes? The Premier Protein ready to drink shakes are very good. (I thought the Injury was gross both pre and post-op). Especially if you are having diarrhea, please be sure to dri k lots of Fluid so you do not dehydrate and land back in the hospital. Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App

OK. I'm on the treadmill now. It won't undo what I did but it's better than sitting on the couch pouting about it! Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App

Great advice and feedback. I am afraid I completely gave in and didn't even bother trying any of these practices today. It is that darn road trip. I had to stop to go to the bathroom and promised myself I wouldn't get anything - but of course I did - even though I had healthier Snacks in the car! I logged it all and have already hit 1400 calories for the day by 4 p.m. and I have a charity event to go to tonight with a fixed menu (not buffet) so not many choices (and had lunch out with a client at a steakhouse where there were limited choices - I got grilled porkchops but they were covered in butter so likely I am actually over my calories because I have to just guess). Sad thing is, I am not even FULL! Of course I'm not - it is crunchy crap that grinds up really small! I have met my Protein goal for the day so I can try to completely avoid dinner, but that is unlikely. And I have no time for exercise as I left the house at 7 a.m. and won't be back home until 10 p.m. (I am actually home now but didn't have time to exercise and shower and get ready all over again.... I guess I could do a slow walk on the treadmill and try not to get sweaty). Anyway, severely disappointed in myself. Oh and not to mention I did this same snacking thing on Mother's Day! I have no self-control which is how this post started in the first place - willpower isn't the way I will do this obviously but I sure wish I could defeat this demon! The good news is, I am not going to wallow in it and continue to make bad choices today. I just have to make good choices for dinner and not just figure "I have already ruined the day - might as well keep going".... Sorry I know this is more rambling. Just disappointed in myself...

Trust me - most have struggled with it pre-op. Once you are post-op, you will see how full (overfull) you get it you do it so it becomes a habit very quickly. I did not do it pre-op but it was easily the first (and easiest) rule post-op.

@@Sajijoma - 105 pounds in 6 months is a slow loser??!! I would hate to meet your NUT. She IS nuts! You are doing amazingly well - especially given you have had stalls. Please ignore her "on paper" goals. That's crap. You are doing great!

I was in a 24 or 26 size dress at my highest. (I had a size 26 dress that I adored and just got rid of begrudgingly. There was a time when it was actually a little tight.) Today (11 months post-op and 16 1/2 months from beginning the whole journey), I bought a size 12 dress. I feel so skinny in it! I can't even believe it fits!

It can really vary depending on insurance and I don't know the UHC requirements but it is roughly generally 3 to 6 months

Geez you should here my stomach today! It has made noise ALL day! Empty, full, thirsty, quenched, etc.... No idea what is going on!

I thought you might be elsewhere. Hope you can find something!

Yes @John1958. Presuming you are in the States, yes those things should generally be available anywhere like Walmart, Target, grocery stores, pharmacy, etc.

You might try Miralax. It is very gentle. Many others drink a tea called Smooth Move tea which contains senna or you can buy SennaLax (senna in pill form). Colace works if you aren't too bad. And I am sorry to tell you this, but it only gets worse after surgery, so if you can find something that works for you now, it may be your best friend for a while! Congrats and good luck on your surgery next week!

Very well said @@Christinamo7 ! Thank you! Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App

@@VSGAnn2014 - no she just meant that given we will likely all have extra skin that 27 BMI is a more realistic goal than say 23 or 24 BMI before we have skin removed due to the extra weight the skin adds. She is none too pleased with me talking plastics yet though. She says to wait until I am at least 18 months post-op minimum. I am 11 months now. I intend to wai t until after summer but not likely until December.... At least for the first round. Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App

I was diabetic pre-op. They took away my med in the hospital and I haven't taken it since. Diabetes runs in my family too (grandfather, aunt, mother, cousins, etc.) My highest A1C (pre-op) was 6.8. My last A1C (at 10 months post-op) was 5.7. The lab paperwork says that 5.7 is considered pre-diabetic; however, my endocrinologist told me he considered me in complete remission and I didn't even need to bother taking my blood sugar anymore. Did they do a fasting blood sugar that said you were "pre-diabetic" or an A1C that they felt you were "pre-diabetic"? A1C is a rough average of the last 2 to 3 months. Things like illness can run your blood sugar up, so it is possible you just had an odd time somewhere during that 2 or 3 months. You might wait 2 or 3 months and then ask a dr to run A1C and see where it comes back. Likely nothing to be concerned about but drs are being pushed to recognize "pre-diabetes" more often now rather than waiting until you are officially diabetic so sometimes overly cautious.

Well, for what its worth, that does sound low to me. My NUT told me a good goal for pre-plastics was a 27 BMI. I know there is a lot of controversy regarding BMI, and I really wanted to be in the "normal" BMI range. So I set my weight goal for 173 (I am 5'10") which is 24.9 BMI - just enough to be considered "normal". BUT my ob/gyn told me this week, she thought I was right where I needed to be and figured I had at least 20 pounds of loose skin. I know @JaimeLogical has stated not to expect a lot of real weight loss from plastics (depending on the person of course), so I am not quite sure what to expect weight wise. What I do know is that I broke through 180 this morning (179.6) and I am a little anxious about not being able to stop this train. I really don't want to be too thin (which sounds completely crazy to me given I was over 300 pounds for 20 years!), but I am also now considering more about how I want to look than what the scale says. I have a PS consultation on May 20 and hoping I can get some better insight from him at that time on whether I should slowly start increasing calories to start to stabilize instead of lose. (OK, I feel like I made this about me instead of you - sorry for that! Welcome to ramblings from my head! All this has been rolling around there a lot lately!) Consider figuring out your weight for a 27 BMI and use that for your initial goal. Once you get there, you can reassess if you want to set it for lower. PS - Awesome job on your progress!! AND my behind seems to have slid down the back of my legs too! Quite odd to look at....

Glad this resonated with you guys and some more great advice from others. I like the concept of really understanding I don't have to buy everything in the store at once! I used to HATE going to the grocery store. (Probably because it gave me the excuse to eat fast food and order pizza delivery). Now I go once a week, but I do still throw out a lot of food. I am buying less and hating it less, but I have always been fascinated by the concept of just marketing for what you need. My sister (who feeds a family of four) will often shop sparingly too (depending on what is going on that week). I always thought it a waste of time, but now I wonder if it was part of healthy shopping..... Thanks @@Inner Surfer Girl for that! And as always the great advice! I am reading that book you often recommend, The Emotional First Aid Kit. It is a LOT of really good information. Hard to take it all in but what I have read is such real life applications to easily put in use. @@VSGAnn2014 Love what you said about thoughts only giving the power we give them! Carry on warriors! We will get there together!!

@@Threetimesacharm - LOL! I am just glad my ramblings made sense to someone else! It was helpful to me too to put it out there in writing and get it out of my head.

That is a tough one. You can try caffeine with a Tylenol. The caffeine seems to help. And I will confess that I have taken an Advil probably 3 times since surgery. Once when I just could not get rid of the headache. I made sure to take my PPI about 30 minutes before. And the I took an Advil with 2 Tylenol. I AM NOT A DR SO I AM NOT GIVING MEDICAL ADVICE HERE. You can also look up acupressure. There is a spot on your hand between your thumb and forefinger that will sometimes give relief when pressed correctly. You can also try a massage. I had a massage therapist a couple of times be able to relieve my headache. Or lastly, ice pack on your neck will sometimes finally give relief. I hope some of these suggestions help and/or someone else will weigh in with some natural alternatives for you!

So every once in a while, my therapist says something that really hits home with me and she said something yesterday that has been rumbling around in my head since then and thought I would share. I have a food addiction. Specifically to crunchy salty treats - Cheezits, Cheetos, Ruffles Potato chips, etc. I still on occasion binge on these items (and yes it is possible because these things crunch up in to tiny pieces). I lie to myself and say I will portion them out and eat them in reasonable portions and I always start that way, but in the end, I always grab the bag/box and finish them off. Sometimes I feel sick from it. Sometimes I don't. I don't want to do this, but yet probably once every 2 or 3 weeks, I do this. (I am 11 months post-op for those curious.) (Please don't post and lecture me about this. I know it is an issue and I am working on it. That is not the purpose of this post.) Anyway, as my therapist and I were talking about this, she asked me to describe how I felt when I am approaching the snack aisle at the grocery store or the snack aisle at the gas station (when I am on a road trip for example) and after thinking about it, I answered "anxiety". What I mean is, I start feeling how much I want those Snacks and yet how much I don't need them and how I am going to be strong enough to avoid them. She said "Think of the addiction as an outside force. This is something coming from outside of you and you need a strategy to overcome that voice. Some people come to me who have worked for months and months on just sheer willpower and come in completely exhausted. They just cannot fight with sheer willpower anymore." The exhaustion part of that statement is something I keep thinking about. How many of us did Weight Watchers or Atkins or South Beach or whatever diet and we did SO well but one day, we were just so exhausted with counting our points or our carbs and just gave in to the exhaustion and grabbed what we wanted, and then the next day and the next day and the next thing we knew we couldn't get back on track? All along in this journey, I have feared maintenance. I mean I have lost weight before only to gain it back and then some. But she said to me I needed a mind shift. Don't live in this sheer willpower stage. It won't work. Understand that I have an addiction which comes from outside of me and figure out how to defeat it. My specific plan we came up with - when I am approaching that aisle and hear (or feel) that desire for the food, OUTLOUD say NO! (Ok, not so loud that others stare at me, but you see what I am saying) And then replace the thoughts with music - something to drown out the voice until the urge passes. She said to turn around and leave if I had to. I said "leave the grocery store if I am not through shopping?" and she said "absolutely - if you just cannot deal with it at that time, then leave. Leave your cart there or just checkout with what you have. You can come back later." I haven't had to put this in to practice yet, but I have been thinking about music to put on my phone to get me through that (or that I can sing in my head). A theme song if you will to get me past it. Eventually this will all become a little easier - a little farther between the cravings. It already has - otherwise I wouldn't be down 141 pounds. I hope I defeat him completely someday. I am not sure if I will. For now the addict monster is still there and I am learning how to defeat him and wear him down a little at a time....

Mine was awful at about 2 to 3 months. It actually scared me because the noises changed. More than one time, it made such noise it woke me out of a dead sleep!! It actually turned out that I had a stricture and I wonder if part of the noises I heard were related to that. At 11 months post-op, I still have noises sometimes but not near as bad. Sometimes, it means I am thirsty and Fluid will quiet it. Today (and honestly more than once) I found myself talking outloud to my stomach saying "OK! OK! I am going to get some water! Give me a minute!"

Wow @RyanTN. Thanks that really helps too. I am a woman and am 5'10". I don't exercise like that so I can see that I wouldn't take in near as much but it does make me think that 1200 calories for the rest of my life to maintain isn't reasonable. Appreciate your response Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App

Thank you very much @lauraellen! That answer was very helpful* Sent from my HTC One M9 using the BariatricPal App