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lauraellen80

Gastric Bypass Patients
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Everything posted by lauraellen80

  1. lauraellen80

    Starving

    I often top my Greek yogurt with a couple tablespoons of a lower-sugar, higher-Protein granola. Bear Naked and KIND are the ones that I've found with the best stats.
  2. lauraellen80

    Made it to goal. Hurrah?

    I'm still convinced that all my new size 6 (and in once case, 4!!) pants must just be mislabeled... all of then... even though they are different brands, styles, and from multiple stores.
  3. lauraellen80

    Made it to goal. Hurrah?

    Same thing happened to me. I hit goal just before my 6-month mark and went "Oh. Okay...?" I thought I'd be going crazy celebrating, but no, not so much. I like your attitude--"I think it comes down to now that I know what I have accomplished, I think I know what I am capable of. I want more." I am trying to get to a mindset more like that and less, "But I still feel fat... but I'm still bigger than most of my friends... but look at my gross fat stomach..."
  4. lauraellen80

    Starving

    It does sound like you are getting a lot of carbs and maybe not as much protein as you think you are. In regards to the Cheerios Protein cereal, they are actually being sued for making misleading claims about it's protein content-- see this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyhuehnergarth/2015/11/13/is-cheerios-protein-a-sugar-bomb-with-just-a-smidge-more-protein/
  5. lauraellen80

    What Can I Do With...Vegetables?

    Tonight I made one of my fave Weight Watchers recipes, Brussels sprouts sautéed with garlic and caramelized onions, with some balsamic vinegar added at the end. Mmmmmmm. I also like to roast all sorts of veggies in the oven with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and whole cloves of garlic. I make Greek style green Beans with garlic and tomatoes. Hmmm... apparently I like garlic.
  6. lauraellen80

    A year ago, I couldn't have...

    ...walk more than 100 feet without my back hurting. Now I can walk both my 65lb dogs for 1+ miles no problem. ...get up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Now I can jog up the stairs easily. ...cross my legs. Now I can and do all the time, even though I shouldn't!
  7. lauraellen80

    Do You Eat Breakfast? What Do You Have?

    I've always been one to eat Breakfast every day. Pre-op, I usually had cold Cereal... relatively healthy kinds (and with skim milk), but waaaaayyyyy too much of it. Or two pieces of toast with an ungodly amount of Peanut Butter and a huge glass of milk. Or I'd stop at McDonalds for a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel combo with a large sugary mocha. Now, my regular breakfast is 1/2 a packet of lower-sugar oatmeal made with skim Fairlife milk, and 1/2 scoop of vanilla Protein powder stirred in, and a veggie sausage link. Once I get to work, I have a couple cups of coffee with some 2% Fairlife milk and Torani sugar-free syrup. If I'm off and go out to breakfast, I usually get a Denver omelet with cheese and eat 1/3-1/2 of it (and skip the toast and potatoes...well, I might have a tiny bite of potatoes if they look really crispy and delicious).
  8. lauraellen80

    What’s Your Restaurant Secret?

    Nothing wrong with saag paneer--just skip the rice and naan. I had paneer tikka masala when I was still in my soft food phase.
  9. That's a good way to put it! It wasn't the special holiday meals that made me morbidly obese. It was me treating every single meal like it was a holiday meal that did it! It was eating huge bowls of cereal--or multiple donuts--for breakfast, drinking high-calorie coffees, getting lunch (always with curly fries!) at Arby's, stopping at Wawa (the most amazing convenience store ever) on the way home from work for a "snack" before going home and eating a huge carb-heavy dinner, and treating myself to pints of Ben & Jerry's or Blizzards all the time! I did very well at Thanksgiving--I had a little bit of everything but made sure I ate my turkey breast first, and though I did eat some leftovers over the next week, I kept it within my daily limits and stayed on track.
  10. Yeah, my surgeon's plan says no alcohol for 1 year post-op. I have taken a miniscule sip of a fancy hipster cocktail my husband had ordered, and of champagne to toast a friend's wedding, but neither was even enough to coat my tongue, let alone swallow.
  11. I'm 6 months post-op and at goal. My husband's family has requested that I make my baked French toast for Christmas morning Breakfast, to go with the egg & sausage casserole my sister-in-law is making. I'm planning to eat a little bit of the French toast along with the eggs and work it into my meal plan for the day, since it's a favorite of mine that I only have once a year. I'm also planning to take a nice long walk with my dogs in between the festivities to work off the Christmas treats! The only thing I'm really going to miss this year is that I can't have my traditional shot of Bailey's Irish Cream in my coffee on Christmas morning.
  12. lauraellen80

    Cereal

    I just hit (and am now below) goal, but For a couple months now I have had a couple tablespoons of granola on my Greek yogurt almost every day. I buy either "Bear Naked" or "Kind" brand granolas that have higher Protein and lower carbs/sugar than most and are not as processed. Now, I usually have my yogurt for an evening snack, so if I had something earlier in the day that put me higher in calories and/or carbs than I would like, I cut back or leave off the granola. For me, regular Cereal with milk is a huge trigger, so I am not planning on having that anytime soon, if ever. But I do fine with the granola.
  13. I'm six months out today and 77.2 lbs down from surgery day (103.6 lbs down total). Hit my goal weight last week and finally got my waist measurement under 30" today. Whew!

    1. ProudGrammy

      ProudGrammy

      great weight loss - welcome to the century club - i've been waiting for you LOL - keep up the good work - congrats - kathy

  14. lauraellen80

    Does Your Family’s Kitchen Support Weight Loss?

    I do the grocery shopping, and my husband is 1) very supportive of my surgery, and 2) also trying to lose weight himself, so he doesn't mind that I no longer buy bread, cereal, pasta, His mom is living with us currently, and she has her own section of the cupboard where she does keep some of that kind of stuff, but I just pretend it's not there. I do love to bake, but I try to get it out of the house immediately and give it away to people when I do so that it's not around tempting me.
  15. lauraellen80

    Diahrea and incontinense

    Like the previous poster, constipation is more of an issue for me.
  16. lauraellen80

    Vitamin and Calcium Research for VSG

    My surgeon told me that he's not convinced that sleeve patients need the calcium the way RNY patients do--this was when I asked about a potential link between calcium supplements and heart problems (which came up when my dad was in the hospital for heart failure recently). He told me that he was OK with me taking 1/2 of the recommended calcium citrate, saying that the risk is small but so is the benefit. I haven't had my 6 mo labs yet, so we'll see where I am then.
  17. lauraellen80

    Defining "normal" weight and BMI

    Yeah, I'm not sure. But even now at below 135, my fingers don't touch when I do that.
  18. Soooooo... I hit goal today...? Actually, .4 lb below...? I don't feel "done," really, so I'm ambivalent, I guess... thinking of shooting for another 10 lbs...

    1. gowalking

      gowalking

      You do know that the majority of women in this country are size 12 and above, right? If you are a size 6, you are a small lady. I'm a size 6 in jeans, and a size 8-10 in dresses. I spent two years in therapy because my head could not keep up with my physical changes. I suspect you are at that point in your journey. What you are feeling is very legitimate...as I felt the same way. If you cannot get your head around your new size, think about talking to a professional. I know it helped me tremendously. Good luck!

    2. VDLT

      VDLT

      I wonder if you really are bigger than the women you know or if you see yourself that way. Are you close to any of them, I mean close enough friends to ask what size they wear? When I first lost weight with the band I felt that way too and then I asked a friend who I thought was way smaller and we were the same size. Granted she was taller but it made me feel better. BUT... judging by your after picture I think you look fantastic and no bigger than the average woman in most places.

    3. lauraellen80

      lauraellen80

      @gowalking -- I'm in therapy already; I started pre-op. I'm definitely going to be bringing this issue up at my next session. I guess there is a part of my brain that keeps saying, "Oh, come on... those size sixes must just be a fluke. Maybe they were marked wrong... yes, even though you wear a six in different brands from different stores. There's no way you could be smaller than a 12, I mean seriously," @VDLT -- I'm really not close enough to any of the women I know to ask their sizes. But I am certain that I am truly bigger than they are--most of them are marathon runners.

    4. Show next comments  15 more
  19. lauraellen80

    Defining "normal" weight and BMI

    Well, that just sucks. I'm supposed to be 110 pounds by that formula. I haven't been 110 pounds since 5th grade. I was between 115 and 125 when I was dancing.
  20. lauraellen80

    Beware Peanuts!

    Most days, I have either a mix of cashews, pistachios, and almonds or the Blue Diamond dark chocolate and salted caramel almonds for a mid-afternoon snack, but what I do is weigh them out in 1 oz servings and pack them in a little container to take to work. When I look at the amount that is an actual serving, I think about how my pre-op inclination would have been to grab a handful 2-3 times as big! So easy to overdo it on nuts!
  21. I'm not a medical professional, but what you're describing sounds like reactive hypoglycemia. I know there are others on this forum who have dealt with it--try doing a search. Are you hitting your Protein and Fluid goals? Are you limiting starchy foods? If not, that's a place to start.
  22. lauraellen80

    Can VSG work with coffee?

    I drink 1 or 2 cups a day, starting about a month post op. I use 2% Fairlife milk and sugar-free Torani syrups. No problems so far!
  23. lauraellen80

    I'm 102 pounds down

    I'm glad that I'm not the only one for whom picking up dog poop without pain is a NSV.
  24. I lost in the face first, which is also where I always gain first. I also noticed my shoes fitting more loosely pretty early on, and my legs slimming down. I'm less than 5 lbs from goal, but I am struggling with getting my waist slimmer--I wanted it to be under 30", ideally 28", and it's still between 30" and 31". But my middle is also when I have the most loose skin, so that may just be how it is.:/
  25. I am so sorry. That is just awful. But you're right, you need to make sure you're taking care of yourself, too. About a month after my surgery, we found out that my dad was in heart failure and had to be immediately admitted to the heart hospital. I booked a one-way ticket and flew out to Indiana from Pennsylvania first thing the next day and ended up spending over two weeks there while he had all sorts of tests and eventually a triple bypass (he made it through and is doing fairly well now). Scrounging meals in airports and hospital cafeterias was not how I anticipated that my introduction back to solid foods would go, but I managed. I brought Protein powder and my shaker bottle with me (since I couldn't fly with RTD shakes)--I'm sure my seatmate on the plane was annoyed by my ordering a milk from the drink cart and proceeding to vigorously mix a Protein shake right then and there, but oh well! I picked up cheese sticks and other portable protein Snacks, and packed a little cooler every day to take to the hospital. I walked the halls of the hospital a lot, and drug my mom outside to take laps around the building when I felt like she needed a break. Bottom line is--you'll be better able to give your son the support he needs if you are as healthy as possible. Being readmitted to the hospital for dehydration is definitely not going to help! Keep plugging away at the Water and protein. I'm keeping you and your family in my thoughts.

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