BigViffer

For variety, you should also try hummus. There are tons of flavors and all with good protein counts. I love black bean hummus. That was my first food of real substance and it was so savory I was literally dizzy from the experience!

This is interesting to me. The day I went home from the hospital I was giving a prescription for pills. The only restriction was that I could only take one pill at a time. I thought that was funny until I had to take a pill. I've taken meds for so long, I could take a handful without so much as a sip of Water. I had a hard time the first few weeks, but I got used to it. I don't remember exactly when things changed, but I do know that I take 4 pills now at a time with just a sip of water. Also, be aware that some medications are not supposed to be crushed. Slow release pills being a good example of one. Check with your pharmacist and your surgeon of course.

How funny, this is the exact reason I had the gastric sleeve done. My pain was not caused by a minor herniated disc though. I had a major car accident when I was young and have serious bone related issues 20+ years on. My back of course is in terrible shape. For 15 years I had a prescription for muscle relaxers and pain pills. Demerol, vicodin, ultram, percocet... the list goes on and on. Also had cortizone shots and facet injections. For 15 years! The straw the broke the camel's back was last September when I had a major herniated disc that caused excruciating pain in my left buttocks, hamstring, and around the knee. I've known pain; I've had all my teeth knocked out and shoved back in while I was awake, had my jaw pieced back together, degloved my hands, broken both ankles, shoulder reconstruction, epididymitis and some other things... but all of those I could drown in pain killers. I could not get any relief from the pain this time however. Now I know that I will eventually need the back surgery that they have been recommending for the past 10 years, but I do not want to sacrifice the mobility that I have currently until absolutely necessary. I went to the back surgeon and he said that he would not perform the surgery until I lost 100lbs. Then he recommended gastric surgery to me. Not the first time it was recommended, but it was the first time I wanted it. My kids are just now in the 10-12 range, I want to be able to do things with them. I want to be around to see what they accomplish. At my age, health started becoming a more important issue that it had before. I'm not old yet, but I do have health issues. This was the turning point for me to not just do something about my back pain, but also about my lifestyle. Because of my health issues and comorbidities, I was approved and scheduled for surgery fairly quickly. Had my surgery Feb 17th of this year. Here comes the amazing part. Before surgery I was taking pain meds, arthritis meds, diabetes meds, high blood pressure meds, and I was getting ready to start taking high cholesterol meds. On my one week follow up, I was taken off all of them. I was feeling better at an incredible pace. I was incredulous, so I asked the surgeon how it was possible that even though I had only lost 15lbs at this time, how could all of my arthritis pain have diminished so quickly? Blood pressure and sugar I can understand, but not arthritis. Turns out it really is the stuff that we put in our bodies that makes a difference. I also think that my body was focusing on other things at the time and I just didn't notice the old familiar pains at the time. So here I am, 7 months later and I only take 1 diclofenac, 1 prevacid , and my Vitamins every day. I haven't had so much as a spasm in my back or legs since surgery. I don't worry tying my shoes or picking up a quarter I dropped out of fear that I won't be able to stand up straight afterwards. I hope that your results eventually as good as mine. The only thing I had to give up was gorging myself on restaurant food and huge family meals so that I could move and be active again. I think I made a pretty good trade.

I like wasabi edamame, tofu, soy creamer, and a few other soy Protein dishes. An acquaintance told me I needed to avoid soy because it can cause breast to develop in men. Obviously I was against that idea! From the research that I did post-surgery, I have found that the concerns come from mass doses of soy protein. The average person just will not be taking in enough to impact you. The people that would have to worry would be the 100% vegans that will not take any protein that has anything to do with animals. The most abundant source of vegan protein is soy and pea. Most of my protein comes from meat, dairy, or Beans. whey is the most popular form of protein. So if you are a competitive vegan weightlifter, you may have a reason to be concerned. Otherwise, you should be safe. Of course, please speak to a NUT and/or your surgeon before making any decisions.

@@4MRB4PHOTO - I think I didn't make a good impression with some people on this forum from one of my earlier threads. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/343777-guys-room-is-everyone-else-overly-emotional-or-am-i-just-an-ae/ You might enjoy it for what it is and not what it was perceived to be.

lol, thanks for that.

I think it is funny that since joining this forum I have been called an a_shole, a d**k, rude, and a few other names. And I have not once called anyone else a name. And what makes that even more humorous to me is that it is the people that try to appear the most supportive and compassionate to the more emotional members. However none have bothered me until this last one calling me rude. At worst I could be called callous, but I would prefer dispassionate. The worse thing I have said was that people were getting self righteous. All that tells me is that if you aren't with those people, they will not abide you. lol, edited to correct spelling!

@@4MRB4PHOTO - Bravo! Witty use of Pastor Niemoller quote. But alas I doubt some people here will catch the reference. Or if they do, they will probably claim Godwin's Law!

@ - Technically it isn't karma, it's irony. Karma would be if someone skipped my posts because they were too poorly written. Irony would be when my mistakes were noticed. Thanks for the well wishes. We'll just have to agree to disagree on everyone having worth. I am being literal and I believe you are being figurative. To everyone else, I apologize for the light-hearted thread turning ugly. It appears I bring the best out in people.

Are you seriously going to say that you have never, not even once thought that you were better than someone? Anyone? I just cannot believe that at all. Have you never watched the news and seen the drug users and abusers, child abusers, pimps, wife beaters, drunks, and politicians and not once thought that they were beneath you? You think I haven't learned that I am no better than anyone else. I think it is backwards. I don't think you have learned that you are better than others. You think me judgmental, I just call it standards.

I swear I am going to give you the 80's teen slow movie clap for that comment.

Just to reiterate and emphasize, allow me to quote the original posting. I clearly state that everything I said was a joke. Since many here did not get that, allow me to show the definition: Now, after I clearly said that it was a joke, I even gave some advice for anyone who was willing to heed it for perhaps better answers or at least more answers. The people who seem to be offended by this apparently missed the humor or may have even thought I was referencing them. I do not know. So, to put a band-aid on this ouchie, I'm sorry if my joke offended you or if you felt it belittled you. Now this is the part where we all come together in a group hug and feel better because we all came out winners in the end.

Have you not read any other topics in the Rants section of this forum? Most of them are pedantic. And in regards to the posts that I cannot decipher I do exactly what you say, I close the thread and divert mine eyes onto something else. As for the people dying and the world collapsing around us; if some of the people on this forum have a difficult time with spelling and grammar, do you really thing I can have a conversation with them about the pros/cons of humanitarianism and the differences between competing political ideologies? I'm sure it must be nice to be perfect, but I wouldn't know. I don't think I am perfect, I just know that I am better than many. And I also don't get self righteous on forums either.

I'm 6'1" and my surgeon said anything over 75 grams was good enough. Of course, shoot for 100, but don't freak out if you fall short. You're NUT will probably have you focus on getting 30 - 35% of your calories coming from protein.

I have a store that I buy my protein powder from called The Vitamin Shoppe. If you buy any powder and don't like it, you can take it back for full in store credit. There was a chocolate powder I tried that I hated. I made 3 shakes out of it just to make sure it wouldn't grow on me. It didn't. It was $45 and I took it back for a caramel powder. Straight swap!

I guess I can't relate to the being judged part. I can't think of a time when someone else's opinion mattered to me. Especially in regards to my appearance. Even at my biggest, I can't recall being mocked. Then again, since I don't really care what others thought, I could have just missed it. Many people are here for support, I get that, but I'm not. I'm here for information. And amid all the cruft that gets posted, you can actually find some pretty good information. But no one on here can support everyone else on the forum. If that were true, there wouldn't be people that agree with me and no one would think this thread was something to be ashamed of. Since some people think that we should support everyone, why aren't you supporting me? Don't worry, I'm not serious. Just pointing out an observation. Here's what I'll do. I'll find all the threads that are excellent examples of grammar and spelling holocausts and you guys can then go support them and answer their questions.

Another problem with the straw is that it will allow you to take in more volume of liquid. Your new stomach is still pretty inflamed and will have hardening scar tissue that will not be very elastic. The increased volume of liquid may surpass your stomach volume. And then you puke. That being said, I use a straw now. My surgeon told me in the beginning never ever use a straw. At a follow up visit, he asked how I was doing holding food and liquid down and I replied that everything was pretty great actually. But my liquid intake was still pretty low. He then told me I could use the straw since I was not having any vomiting issues. Powerade is a good idea at this stage too. The electrolytes are just salt. It will help you retain the fluids you need at this point.

lol, that is insidiously brilliant. I hope you were laughing maniacally when you typed that out.

None of those things are off the list according to my surgeon. But he also said there is no benefit to eating them. I did try a regular Pasta once. Puked. It was awful tasting and uncomfortable the moment I swallowed. I have tried chickpea pasta and it was great tasting and loaded with Protein. That was about a month ago. Even though it is not bad for me, I just don't crave pasta that much anymore. Nor bread for that matter.

I can forgive spelling errors for the most parts, just because I understand the prevalence of mobile devices. I can also forgive grammar problems with people that English is a second language. So the examples of lose/loose and there/they're/their I can chalk up to autocorrect or translation problems. However, when someone post a paragraph that I have to read several times, then check to make sure they are from US, then read again and I still don't understand it; I just close the tab. I imagine the spell checker on their computers and/or mobile devices are just like, "I got nothing dude. WTF are you trying to say?!"

Many people posting on here appear to need this. I have plenty, so I will share with anyone who needs it! " " There. It's a big chunk of spaces and line breaks! You can use these to end paragraphs, begin new sentences and even change the thoughts you are trying to communicate! But wait! There's more! Take advantage of this one time offer and I will throw in the complete set of standard English punctuation! , . ? ! & ( ) : " ; ' And if you order in the next 5 minutes, I will show you how to disable the CAPS LOCK KEY! All joking aside, I realize this is a web forum and it is meant to be more casual and laid back, but if you put just a little effort into making your posts easier to read, you will not only get more replies to your threads, you will most likely get better replies as well.

I have a desk job as well. I took 8 personal days off work because sitting at home was boring me to death. My work was not stellar during the time I came back. I was a zombie. No energy whatsoever. But I also couldn't walk around the neighborhood because of snow and ice. And I had to wait until my wife came home to take me to the mall or bigger stores for me to walk around in. If you can afford to do it, take off as much time as you can to recover and talk lots of walks outside. Everyone is different, some bounce back withing days, some take weeks. Don't push yourself because of pride.

Oops! I did not see that. That was not intentional. Since you are still new here, you'll soon see that men's only and women's only sub-forums are not always clearly marked when looking through unread threads. I'll remove the post.

removed. I did not mean to intrude on a women only thread.

My wife has worked around surgeons and doctors for so long that she passed some knowledge down to me. There are certain things that people just firmly believe that are wrong. Many people want the doctor to give their child a shot instead of "just a nurse". But what they don't realize is that the doctor doesn't give shots that often and is really bad at it from lack of practice. Nurses to many a day and therefor are better at it. Same thing applies to surgeons and their assistants. Many times the assistants have better bedside manners and they are more familiar with complications and questions post-op. Surgeons are good at what they do, which is dealing with people when they are knocked out. The assistants are the ones that are going to be giving you the real information and dispensing it as well. They also can translate what you are saying to what the surgeon needs to know and vice verse.