Sara51692

I have my tongue pierced and had to do the same thing! SO weird. I put it back in as soon as I was able to in the hospital because I was scared the hole was going to close up!

I posted this on another thread, so I'll copy it here.... I'm in my pureed stage now. Hopefully your NUT can give you some recommendations like mine did! She helped me out a lot. I'm allowed scrambled eggs on my pureed phase (even though they're not pureed). So I do those sometimes, usually one egg + one egg white. I do a pureed "meal" of refried Beans, salsa, and cilantro pureed with a topping like guacamole or ff sour cream. I love doing pureed cauliflower with cheese - it's delicious! And for Protein, I recently started trying pureed chicken salad (which my NUT recommended) and it's not as bad as it sounds! I also love doing frozen banana pureed with PB2 powder (and a splash of skim milk if it needs it) - it's quick and can be used for any meal. Tofu is also on my list of things I'm allowed to have so I did that one night too. I also made a pureed eggplant parm casserole one night -- an eggplant puree topped with a ricotta cheese puree, tomato sauce, and a tiny bit of breadcrumbs on top! It was really good.

I only had an immersion blender until a week or so before surgery, and then I went and got one of the less expensive Ninja blenders that comes with three bowls - two food processors and a blender and the Ninja "top" that you put on them and then press the button to mix, and I'm so glad I got it. It's way easier, during the pureed stage, to toss things in there that aren't Soup than it is to use an immersion blender for it. For instance, making a single, tiny portion of refried Beans pureed with salsa? It would be impossible for my immersion blender to do - 90% of the food would just be stuck under it's little thing where the blades are! I also couldn't make my frozen banana/PB2 powder puree/ice cream with an immersion blender. Hummus is also so easy, quick, and comes out perfect in an actual food processor/blender. Long story short? I'm glad I bought something other than my immersion blender for all the non-soupy type applications, especially during the pureed stage. But I'm sure, with a little more work, I could have gotten by with my immersion blender.

Yes, lots of leftovers! I made the eggplant casseroles in little ramekins for single-portion servings, and I only ate half of one of those for a meal. For the cauliflower, I just portioned it into little containers or took out the amount I was going to eat. And for the refried bean meal or chicken salad, I actually make a little amount of it at a time and then pack it for lunch or eat it for dinner. I can eat around a 1/2 cup of food right now. Sometimes less, depending on the food. A lot of people I've heard from can only do around 1/4 cup though. A half of a cup works for me right now though, so it doesn't bother me. @Sharon1964 is right though -- you're going to get your own guidelines from your surgeon, his/her team, or a NUT of your own. I hope my ideas help you when you get to that stage, but you may not be able to eat the same things. You'll just have to wait and see.

@@MIMISAN I'm in my pureed stage now. Hopefully your NUT can give you some recommendations like mine did! She helped me out a lot. I'm allowed scrambled eggs on my pureed phase (even though they're not pureed). So I do those sometimes, usually one egg + one egg white. I do a pureed "meal" of refried Beans, salsa, and cilantro pureed with a topping like guacamole or ff sour cream. I love doing pureed cauliflower with cheese - it's delicious! And for Protein, I recently started trying pureed chicken salad (which my NUT recommended) and it's not as bad as it sounds! I also love doing frozen banana pureed with PB2 powder (and a splash of skim milk if it needs it) - it's quick and can be used for any meal. Tofu is also on my list of things I'm allowed to have so I did that one night too. I also made a pureed eggplant parm casserole one night -- an eggplant puree topped with a ricotta cheese puree, tomato sauce, and a tiny bit of breadcrumbs on top! It was really good.

:o I laughed out loud when I read that...then cringed.

I was so weirded out when one of my bandages came off and I saw staples instead of stiches on the incisions! I knew they were using staples for my stomach, obviously, but I just assumed the incisions would be stitched. Strange!

So I have an event next week, it'll be right around my one month surgiversary. I asked my surgeon, since there will be alcohol there, if I would be able to have something noncarbonated. He told me six weeks originally, but I wasn't sure if that included the pre-op diet time. He replied and said at one month out, I should be fine as long as it's in moderation, obviously. I was so worried about it and he was totally calm about the whole thing. I've had nothing but the best aftercare from my surgeon, so I trust him and I'm planning on having a drink or two next week. Obviously, everybody needs to listen to their own surgeon, but clearly there is a lot of variation in post-op rules.

Yeah I thought there was a reason my FitBit app was automatically set to that..... I'm just not sure what a reasonable goal is for now!

Flinstones!! They're not just for kids. =)

Add PB2 powder. Peanut butter and banana is pretty much the most amazing combination ever. I'm on pureed and my NUT allows this. It's a great quick breakfast to make!

My surgeon only said to wait a month after surgery for alcohol. None during the pre-op diet phase either so about 6 weeks overall.

I'm only a few weeks out. That must be really frustrating! I'm sorry to hear you've gained it back. What would you say led to you gaining it back? If you could go back, what would you change? I'd love to hear your answers.

My surgeon is out of Norwood Hospital in MA -- not too far! I'm only a few weeks out. I quit caffeinated Diet Coke a few months ago and quit all Diet Coke for my liquid diet. I've missed it a bit but I'm not doing too bad without it. Haven't asked my surgeon or NUT yet about long-term if I can go back to caffeine or carbonation or anything. I'm not even going to try anything like that until at least 6 months post-op -- we'll see!

I just ordered a container of Unjury unflavored yesterday....figured I'd use it at some point or another. Haven't tried their other flavors, but might eventually.

I've pureed a mix of refried Beans, salsa, and cilantro and have eaten it with guacamole and ff sour cream- it's really great! I've also done pureed frozen banana with PB2 powder and a little skim milk - tastes better than ice cream! I just tried pureed chicken salad last night too and it wasn't horrible.

Thanks everyone! I'm definitely going to have to experiment and see what app will work best for me. And I've been approximating for most of my meals lately except ones where its very easy to measure, so I should probably get better with that to make sure I'm not eating too much!

I really believe tracking will help me even though it somehow feels like torture when I can't record everything perfectly. I think I'm going to invest in a kitchen scale finally. I've had one in my Amazon cart for almost a year but just haven't really felt the need for it before

I've never heard of either of these! I'll definitely look into them. =)

I work for a small company and I'm a new employee....I was so scared to tell my manager or anyone here because every single one of them is skinny! That's not even an exaggeration. They're all very thin. So I decided to tell my HR manager first about taking the time off and ask her how I should tell my manager. She ended up being SO supportive and helped me tell my manager. Then when I came back to work, a coworker was wondering where I had been and didn't want to pry, but she's so nice that I just told her. And she goes "I knew there was a reason I liked you! I had gastric bypass 11 years ago." She had it when she was 18 years old, looks great, is married, and just had a baby -- great inspiration for me and she's already given me advice. My friends have been supportive. Some of my family is, some aren't. That's been the roughest part.

Good point - I know I'm always going to have trouble getting the protein in. I'll check out SparkPeople -- sounds like a good resource!

Yes, I'm the same way!! Probably why I've had so much trouble losing weight in the past....if I can't do it well enough, it's not worth doing... I tend to obsess over things, and I've found myself spending an obscene amount of time scanning barcodes for every little ingredient I use, entering details myself, searching MyFitnessPal for comparables, or staring at the serving sizes trying to make estimates because I measured in tablespoons but apparently the serving size is 1/3 cup, so I convert both to mL to get the correct amount....and that takes a ridiculous amount of time when I'm only measuring guacamole. It's nice to hear from someone who is having tons of success without tracking all the time. Maybe that will calm me down a bit.

That's what I was going to get, but then I started hearing it wasn't good for mixing into hot things, and I definitely want something I can mix for hot or cold. What's been your experience with it? What do you add it to?

Haha! I thought 10,000 steps a day was the norm -- am I totally off? What sort of mileage/step count is everybody trying to do?

So I started using myFItnessPal when I got home from the hospital 3 weeks ago (had surgery 5/26) and I'm a bit of a perfectionist...I'm having trouble with measuring and estimating the calories in my food. Sometimes I do well with measuring, especially when it's only a few ingredients (like the refried Beans, salsa, cilantro combo I do for pureed), but I'm normally the type of cook who doesn't follow a recipe and just throws things in and estimates amounts. The only problem I have with MyFitnessPal is that searching for some foods will give you several different results and it's hard to know which to use. So my question is, for those of you who do track calories/everything, how accurate would you say you are? Do you just make educated guesses or do you really try to get it exact? How do you do it for home-cooked meals? It's not too hard to track right now in the pureed stage, but I'm worried about when I get to normal food that it's going to very hard for me to keep tracking, so any advice now would be greatly appreciated! I've heard of people who religiously bring a measuring cup with them and measure things everywhere so they don't overeat. Anybody do that?