Sajijoma

Biochem makes a great Protein Powder that has no artificial sweeteners in it. The sugar count is at 6 g so be aware so may dump on it, some won't. It does contain stevia though, but it's not as strong as it is in other Protein Shakes I've had.

It sounds to me that you aren't completely following your plan or that they didn't advise you well. You mentioned that you had chicken and you went back to eat it later over time. Is this outside the realm of meals? If so, that is definitely not conducive to weightloss, because you are eating around the restriction of the pouch by just waiting til it will fit and eating it. Also starting solids early can be really dangerous and has the potential to stretch your swollen pouch and cause damage including leaks and a pouch that will not be your best tool for the journey. Your body needs to heal. I know the liquids get so boring, but you really should have stayed on them for the full time and then waited to be advanced by your nutritionist to the puréed and then soft foods and on to proper solids. You also need to think of your pouch like a funnel. Eating Soups or whatever will slide right on through the bottom of your pouch(which is why it's referred to as slider foods) they also contain almost no Protein. To keep your muscles and hair in it's best shape, you need to focus on protein and protein and more protein. Don't waste real estate in your pouch on noodles and empty calories. I'm almost 11 months out now and I still don't eat Soup or noodles or anything like that. I focus on my Proteins first and if I have room after my weighed and measured portions of protein I will have veggies or occasionally some fruit and that's it. You don't need the other stuff and it takes time, but you will learn to love not eating them if you give yourself the chance to develop the new habits.

I was 38yrs old and 386lbs the day of surgery and I am 11months out now and 230lbs. I've had lots of stalls though.

@@Gordita81 congratulations on the start of your journey! It is so worth it!

 

Update from me. It's been a few month since the last pic. Hw:429 sw:386 cw: 230

I just wanted to add something new to this thread. I've bought a lot of super cute, stylish clothes lately at Macy's. I love Mod clothes and have found 4 gorgeous Mod dresses there and even buying a pricey dress still costs less than buying a frumpy tent that I hated back in the day. So money well spent if only for a few months of pleasure! [emoji6]

@@gowalking thank you! It's so true! If I never lost another pound from this day forward, this surgery was still a success. I can do everything I set out to do. Play with my kids, fit on the swings/slide at the park with them, go places I couldn't physically go before like on mountain hikes, and buy normal people clothes in the normal people stores and never be forced to buy online only ever again.

My guilty pleasure is going to the mall and buying clothes without having to worry that they don't carry my size. I march my happy butt into Macy's and Nordstroms and Gap and American Eagle and know I am walking out with something new to enjoy that fits. Yes, it's probably an utter waste of money, but I love shopping and I can go with my daughter and not feel like I'm embarrassing her with her fat mom who can't even fit between the racks much less buy anything in the entire mall. I've been to the mall 3 times in 2wks and am planning To go again next weekend. Previously I hadn't been to the mall for 11yrs because of my size and condition.

I was fine to do everything I needed to do even before 2wks had passed, BUT those extra weeks off are great because you will have a lot of fatigue and you are still trying to learn your new body and routines. Ideally, just for that, I'd say take 6wks if you've got it to use, but you likely will be back up doing it all in much less time than that.

For me, I lost the majority of my excess hair around 3 months up to about 5 or 6 months. Then it stopped. My hair hasn't grown back as thick all over yet(mainly because my hair has always grown slowly), but it is growing back and my brilliant plan to get a volumizing hair cut has left me with mushroom head [emoji38] I actually have to flat Iron it down a bit to live with it. When my hair started falling out, my NUT had me increase my Protein and as long as I keep up on my protein, it has stayed put. There have been a few times where I fell short too long and dealt with a couple weeks of she'd in til I upped my protein again. I know I'm one of the lucky ones though.

I take the Bariatric Advantage Calcium chewy bites 500's and BA EA chewable multi in mixed fruit flavor. I like it. I also use Patch MD Iron, and Vitamin D/calcium, and glucosamine chondroitin(because since wls my joints have all gone to hell...actually they already were hell I just couldn't hear them screaming from all the pain of being overweight. Now I hear them!)

I've got 3 months til my 1yr surgiversary. I'm hoping I can hit 199 by then if I work hard enough. It's my fantasy goal. If I don't make it, Imm not gonna cry, but I'm aiming for it to see if I can make it happen.

@@Cervidae how far out are you now? I'm on my phone and can't see the timeline or stats.

I'm so excited for you. I started the exact same weight as you as well as being 3lbs over date of surgery weight as you. I'm only 4 months out but you are my inspiration!

Sent from my SM-G930P using the BariatricPal App

you will get there! I didn't really believe I would even though everyone was like "oh yeah, you'll make it". I had failed so many diets I had to actually staple extra pages to my survey at the surgeon's office documenting my efforts to qualify for surgery. To actually be "normal sized" it's like a dream. Now I can't stop shopping! this is a dress I bought yesterday. Still a little tight and it was a L, but in a month or so it'll be falling off. Ignore the pants, I was too lazy to take them off. Haha

Congratulations! Isn't that a wonderful feeling?!

The first time I fit into normal size clothing I thought it was a fluke, so I changed stores and went to a store that caters to younger people. No fluke, I fit into normal size's!!

I tried on 3-4 brands just to be sure. All but one fit, so that's as good as it gets for me.

Thank you all! It really has been an amazing week for me, discovering I am no longer "plus sized". For all of you still waiting for that day, it will come and I look forward to reading your posts as well. I feel energized and jazzed to keep up the fight knowing I have conquered one of my biggest demons now. My next one will be getting to onederland!

For me it's getting used to all the people who want to know how much I weighed before, how much I've lost, what size I wear which half the time I don't even know, or wanting to see before pictures and making comments like "wow look how huge you were" or "you are so tiny now" and I don't feel tiny. I still feel huge and it feels like they are still ridiculing me for my weight even though that's not my weight anymore. I have to take lots of pictures to be sure that I am progressing because it's hard to see when I look in the mirror. When I hold the pic in my hand, it's obvious that changes have happened, but my mind still plays tricks in the mirror.

@@gowalking thank you! ❤️your signature really does say it all. Nothing tastes as good as normal feels for sure! It's an amazing feeling and I never thought I'd get here. I can't wait to see what my end result will be! [emoji4]

It is cut temporarily but not forever. From my experience though at 10 months out from RNY, hunger is a very different animal. I no longer get that gnawing at my bones hunger. It's more like "I should eat" and so I do.

I was lucky I guess in that my gall bladder had gone bad during my first pregnancy so I went in without one, but my surgeon says he has seen so many people need to come back for gall bladder surgery that he opts to take it out as part of the procedure for sleeve and RNY patients.

I love all the options. I just have to watch myself because I want to keep shopping and looking beautiful in new clothes, but realistically I know I won't get much use of them because I'm still losing and go through a size every 2 months or so. It can be daunting. I also have had to learn that just because one pair of pants fit doesn't mean I have to buy every color or wash because there are so many more options now! [emoji4]

I didn't use a binder of any kind after my RNY. What I did use and I feel made the best decision for me was bike shorts. It gave just the right amount of compression to hold everything in place and I didn't have to spend $35 on something with no further use. The shorts I used for exercise until they fell off so I got my money's worth out of them.

I did things ass backwards because that's my style. LOL first I sought out the surgeon Google search, word of mouth, location to home, and everything I could find on this surgeon to see if he was a safe bet and then I looked to see if my insurance covered it. I have Aetna so I was able to look up my benefits online and see what all was covered and thankfully it was. They also fast tracked me to a 90 day prep for surgery program because I was well over 40 BMI even though I had no known co morbidities and because I went to a Center of Excellence, I only paid 10% of the cost instead of the standard 20% I would normally have paid. I made the reservation for the seminar and went in and got all my questions answered and really by the end of that night I had scheduled my first nutritionist visit and first surgeon visit because I knew it was the right thing for me. After that, I had 4 visits total with the nutritionist, 1 psych eval with the in house psych, and 2 visits with the surgeon over the 90 days and then it went to insurance and was approved within 3 days and I had surgery a week later. It all happened so fast I didn't have time to panic or obsess about anything, which worked out just great.

My children were a big factor. I couldn't be the mom I wanted to be for them and I felt like I was really just ruining their childhood because they were having to help take care of me and take on jobs I couldn't do anymore because of my weight. I also nearly lost the last 2 and myself in childbirth because of my weight and the strain the weight and pregnancy put on my heart. I wanted better for them. I wanted them to have a full time mom and one that could play with them and inspire them so that they didn't end up on the same path I had been on. Almost 10 months later, my kids are definitely reaping the benefits of better health and a mom who is more involved in their lives.

I didn't have a lot of questions for my surgeon at my first appt because I had gotten them all answered at the seminar. There were 3 of us there that night so we had a chance to ask all sorts of questions that perhaps would be lost to a bigger group. I asked him about how many patients he had lost either during the procedure or the following 6 months. I asked why they leave the stomach that was detached from the pouch in. I asked what the long term prognosis for keeping the weight off was, the highest weight he would operate on(I was 429lbs at that point and afraid I was too big to get the operation locally). I asked about the straw thing and just anything that came to mind. You need to walk into this knowing all the risks and benefits and intricate details you wonder about because this will be a huge adjustment to your life and you need to make your decision based on facts and not fantasy-not that I think you are, but wow there were people in our pre op surgery class eating doughnuts and drinking soda and thinking they would be able to return to that "and just eat less total" after surgery and arguing with the nutritionist and she told them they absolutely could not drink soda or expect to eat doughnuts without consequences. I chose the RNY. I did ask my surgeon for his opinion and he told me either would be a good choice for me, but with my starting weight as high as it was, that I would get the maximum benefit from RNY as the fact I had a history of reflux meant that I wouldn't be needing a second op later to convert to RNY should it become worse-as it often does with the sleeve. I knew I only wanted to do it once and do it to the best of my ability. Something interesting he said in chatting had me knowing RNY was better for me was that cancer runs in my family. If you get esophageal cancer-as is common with reflux patients like I was, they can use the lining of the old stomach to repair and rebuild your esophagus down the road. If you have the sleeve, the extra stomach is removed and with it your best chance for a solid repair that wouldn't be easily rejected since it's part of your own body. To me that is important. Good luck at your appointment. It really for me was the best decision of my life.