TodayItEnds

Amazing Job!!

Congrats on an amazing job you have done. You are an inspiration to me!

Amazing job, you are an inspiration.congrats!!

Great news Cindy!!

Can I please borrow your wife? I don't see why it would be a problem and I'm going to look for it. I'm just done with shakes and I force them down. A new flavor would be heaven.

Nope she is one in a million, I lucked out!!

Trust me the Syrup makes a huge difference and I called my NUT this morning and she said therefore fine to add. LMK if you try it!

I use caramel in a chocolate shake. I also have vanilla and hazelnut. Haven't used the hazelnut yet. They make shakes so much better I wish I knew about them when I was on liquid stage.

I wish I did as well, hazelnut sounds yummy as well. I am trying the Salted Caramel today!

its important to find a shake you like and can repeat. i lived off of the Syntrax fuzzy navel in the summer and warm weather along with the Syntrax Cappuccino, blended with ice and some skim milk for that iced coffee in the morning thing. sometimes half cappuccino half chocolate. at 8 months i switched to the syntrax matrix Cookies and cream for the mug-cakes because its sort of like a pancake thing in the morning ( i was a big donut guy and this gives me that fix) so its very important to find what works for you!

Pre-O I Loved all the syntax shakes, post-op I have not be able to get down any of the five types I had in the house. It was so disappointing to me since they were my staple before surgery.

I love the salted caramel one

Trying it today, Cant wait!!

I'm 2 years out and I have always used Torani and Davinci syrups to flavor my shakes, plain Greek yogurt, coffee and hot chocolate. I have caramel, French vanilla, hazelnut, almond, Irish cream, English toffee, peppermint, pumpkin, gingerbread, raspberry and tiramisu in my cupboard right now.

Thanks for the suggestion about trying it yogurt since I loved yogurt pre-op and the texture of it now makes me not want to eat it! Peppermint and Almond sound great!

I love using them! Vanilla bean, salted caramel, hazelnut, almond and peppermint are my favorites!

Ok so I obviously need to get Peppermint & Almond since those are my favorite flavors in general. Thanks for the reply.

I got a s'mores flavor, I love it. I have the vanilla too but usually reach for the s'mores first.

S'mores flavor sounds interesting, this is getting out of control I want to try them all now, LOL!

Oh I am so excited I found this thread. I just ordered 4 bottles on Amazon prime. They will be here Saturday

Please post in this thread and let us know how you like them, good decision!

I want to try the cookie dough one. I haven't found it in stores, so I guess I should order it online.

I have not seen that one anywhere yet but once again another one of my favorite flavors. If you find it, let us know how it tastes!

So my wife knew I was getting beyond frustrated with my Protein Shakes and picked me up some Torani sugar free English Toffee Syrup for me today to try. Wow what a difference it made, I added it to my Unjury Classic chocolate shake and loved it. Not only did it taste great, for some reason the shake was so much easier to drink and never felt pressure with it going down. I still paced myself since my Dr. requires an 8oz shake to take at least an hour to finish but I for once I did not have the "How am I going to finish this shake feeling!" It made it feel like Water was going down if that made sense.

So has any members on here tried these and if so, any other flavors you would recommend? Also how much do you use for a 8oz shake? Also being they are sugar free, fat free and made with splenda is there any reason why we could not add these to our shakes? I will ask my NUT when I see her next week. I am 17 days post-op and at the pureed stage of the diet. Unfortunately I wish I had found this when I was doing two/three shakes a day for last month. I would highly recommend to anybody have issues getting down their shakes, to ask their NUT if it is ok to add it. I can't wait to be able to add banana to my shakes but not for another month I was told.

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions!!

I ate a lot of Ricotta Bake and fat free refried bean with cheese melted on top. I also had mashed up avocado (I know yours says no veggies yet but consider this one. Other veggies,/fruit may be too fibrous to try right now). I could not bear pureed meats so I just did the best I could starting some foods and then kept getting my Protein from shakes or powder. I would mix 1/2 scoop of vanilla powder with 1/2 container of yogurt (Danton Light and Fit strawberry Cheesecake Greek yogurt or Key Lime Greek were my favorite). I also mixed 1/2 scoop of chocolate Protein Powder with a sugar free Chocolate pudding snack. This stage is tough. You just have to get thru it. Remember you r stomach is still healing so be easy. If something doesn't work, try something different the next meal. Hugs! You will all get thru it!!

Thanks so much for some great new options that I had not though of. I greatly appreciate your post!

I'm doing purées right now too, Greek yogurt, mashed potatoes, Popsicles and lentil Soup have been my staples.

I tried a 1/2 scrambled egg today. And couldn't even finish that. But can finish one of those light & fit 4 oz yogurts in 30ish minutes.

It's weird.

I have no clue why I am not allowed Mashed Potatoes yet, that would make this stage go easier.

thanks for your post.

Refried Beans, chili and Greek yogurt - all with added unflavored Protein Powder were my go-tos when I first started the purée phase.

Chili is a great idea, need to try that soon. Thanks for the tip about adding unflavored Protein powder!

Breakfast: one egg with milk and soft cheese (makes it softer a bit more moist and adds protein). I tend to have it with smoked salmon mashed with a fork that is my food porn right now! They do say to have 3 meals a day but I barely feel hungry once I've had one meal so I just substitute with liquids, mainly Protein Shakes or Soups. But I will try the Ricotta bake. Sometimes eat the same thing I've had that two days in a row and love it.

Yum, smoked salmon does sound great. I can't wait to try the Ricotta bake as well. So many people seem to love it that I can't wait to try it! Thanks for your reply.

My surgeon and I had a wild time on scheduling my surgery.

He was traveling and could either do mine sooner.....or postpone for a month.

I was very fortunate that he moved it up for me.

The result, however, was an early 1st post-op appointment (6 days) and a delayed 2nd (4 weeks).

I stayed on the liquid diet until after the 4th week's appointment, thus I skipped the pureed portion. I'm grateful for it because I wasn't tempted to mess with some of the junk that I see some folks include during pureed stage.

My stomach was able to heal for a bit longer and all went well. Zero complaints.

I am glad you posted that because, I think giving our Stomachs some extra time to heal is a great idea. I was shocked that some people I know where eating Pureed foods at day 5. I started mine at Day 16 so far, so god. Thanks for you post!

Good luck!!

I had my first egg yesterday at 15 days out and took my time and went down much easier than expected. My Nut just made said it had to be moist, not dry and it was yummy! Good luck and hope when you have one you have the same experience I did!

I'm really struggling with the puree foods right now, so I can't give you advice on it unfortunately. I spoke with the nurse today and told her that after I eat, I immediately feel crappy. Not throw-up crappy, but a sour stomach and I get a headache.

She told me that there shouldn't be ANY chunks and pureed to the point that I could drink the food....umm...so should I just go back to liquids then? Who wants to drink chicken? ???? I asked "so why does it say I can eat cottage cheese?" She didn't really have an answer for me.

If my nutritionist would just call me back for once, I could hopefully get some answers and understand what I really need to be doing. Sigh.

I agree, would rather not drink chicken! I am having the same lack of call back from my Nut as well.

Hope it gets better for you soon!

Dear TodayItEnds, this whole thing is a crap shoot. I am 8 weeks post today and I started purees and realized very quickly that what works for some does not work for me, and what I'm supposed to gag on goes down smooth. Like, eggs. I loved eggs, I've tried them 8 ways to Sunday post opp, with mixed results. Never is it better as an experience than "meh".

Soft and wet is where to start. Undercooked Salmon is better going down, for me, than dry overcooked trout.

I liked cheese - it went down easy. chicken slurry was ...

Yogurt popsicles- awesome.

Soft noodles on bone stock. Sublime.

Just get in you a taste of it, you are just trying to survive what you did to yourself at this stage.

Thanks for the help, will try some of your suggestions over the next few days. I can't wait to be 8 weeks out

http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html

Check out this blog.. She has some great ideas!

Today I tried:

egg salad for lunch

meat loaf and mashed potatoes for dinner

Mind you only about 2-3 tbs, if that. The mini chopper she shows here is a life saver for this stage. I've always had one but you can pick one up for $10-15

Cindy

Ps: the ricotta bake..yum!!! Love it.

Thanks Cindy for the link. I keep hearing about the Ricotta bake so I think I need to try that for dinner tonight. Great idea on the mini chopper, will need to pick one up. Stay in touch and glad you are doing so well!

Congrats on getting sleeved and just remember the more you can walk the quicker it helps with the gas!

For the many experts on here any advice/recommendations for this stage? My surgeon cleared me to it today at two week post-op but I don't see the dietician again until 2 weeks.

What I have read through the paperwork it moist food, like fish, tuna, chicken etc..

Everything fork mashed and total of 6 ounces a day spread over three meals.

No Water 30 min before eating and then no Water 30 minutes after. Chew 20 to 30 times,

Still no vegetables or fruits which to me seems a bit odd especially if it would be pureed.

I find it amazing how we all had the same surgery and all of our nutritionalist have us all on such different diets at the same amount of days from surgery.

So I just ate my first egg, I took my time about 20 minutes and chewed like crazy and it never hurt at all which I was shocked! Was anybody else able to eat one egg right off the bat? I was kinda of worried I did not feel anything!

I actually still felt hungry afterwards so I decided to not push me luck and just start with one for today!

Any help would be greatly appreciated! So happy to not have to live on shakes anymore but seems really tough to get 70 to 75 grams of Protein in per day (surgeons request) without them.

Congrats on an amazing job well done!

Can't wait to try that

Hopefully in two days!!

Sounds amazing

Crazy to think exactly a week ago this second, I was getting a VSG. So I thought it would be beneficial for others who are considering WLS for me to post the Good and the Bad so far 7 days post op things I were surprised by. I know I am only just starting my journey but these are things I was not prepared for, if that makes sense.

Bad:

1) Anesthesia: I pretty much was in a coma state for an additional 9 hours after surgery was completed. They tried everything to get me awake and had no luck. Once I was semi-awake I spent the next 12 hours trying to put words/sentences together and to be honest it was not easy. So without putting the blame on anybody, somebody messed up big time with my anesthesia. My wife actually passed out, out of fear after trying with my sister and nurses to wake me up for hours. They were putting huge shots into me and I was not even flinching. My eyes were pretty much rolled back and it scared them all. When I finally came around I had no clue where I was or what was going on. So this was not even one of my fears going in but by far the worst part of the surgery for me so far.

2) Taste/Smells: I had read about this going in but did not expect to be such a drastic change. For two months Pre-Op I tried so many different shakes, sugar free puddings, sugar free jellos etc… so that once I got home from surgery I would not have to waste time trying new items and I would already know what were my favorites. Pretty much everything I liked pre-op, I absolutely hate now and what I did not like pre-op, I love now. For me this so strange, I have been a vanilla lover for over 40 years, now I only like chocolate. Hopefully this will eventually change. Normal everyday food, smells are so intense. I was not prepared for this. I have yet to have a meal with my family since food smells overwhelmingly strong. When I open the fridge to get skim milk out it is like being in a Garden of food. I smell everything!

3) Sleep: I was expecting sleep after surgery with pain relievers and such to be so much easier. I knew I was not going to sleep well the two nights at the hospital but I pretty much did not sleep for more than 3 hours each night for first 3 nights at home and I never took a nap during the day. Lying down is by far the most uncomfortable time for me so far.

Good:

1) Pain: The pain was never nearly as bad as I expected or lead myself to believe it would be. I did get my VSG done Robotically so not sure if that made a huge difference but after three days I was off all pain meds. Hope it stays that way. Gas pains are not nearly as bad or frequent as expected either. However hiccups were much worse than I imagined!

2) Exercise: I thought it was going to take me much longer to get back to where I was pre-op (walking 5 to 6 miles daily) I am already doing over 4 miles a day and am not pushing myself too hard. For me, I think it was huge to get in the best physical shape I could for a morbid obese person months prior to surgery. Besides losing 30 pounds last two months prior to surgery (Over 60 total in last year prior), exercising 75 to 120 minutes a day was a huge plus for me. I think it really helped with my recovery time as well.

3) Hospitals & Surgeon: My Dr. & his Bariatric Team were amazing in every aspect. You hear how surgeons are usually stereotyped and I lucked out because mine was exactly what I needed. He was personal but also a huge motivator to get me out of bed and walk, walk, walk. He even a few times visited me just to do laps. His lead Nurse was an angel. All I kept saying to myself was I put off WLS for 15 years because of fear of hospitals/Drs. Etc… I was so stupid but better late than never. There are some genuinely amazing, kind people who work in this field and I should not have let prior horrible experience’s with Dr.’s going all the way back to my childhood put this off for as long as I did!

Hope this helps others in one-way or another. Had my Week One weigh in today and was already down 11.25lbs. First time in the 200’s in over 15 years! If anybody has any questions feel free to message me or post in the thread. Good luck to you all both Pre-Op and Post-Op!

Sorry it took me so long to update this thread. Thanks for the many personal messages sent to me over this last week. Crazy to think exactly a week ago this second, I was getting a VSG. So I thought it would be beneficial for others who are considering WLS for me to post the Good and the Bad so far 7 days post op that I was surprised by. I know I am only just starting my journey but these are things I was not prepared for, if that makes sense.

Bad:

1) Anesthesia: I pretty much was in a coma state for an additional 9 hours after surgery was completed. They tried everything to get me awake and had no luck. Once I was semi-awake I spent the next 12 hours trying to put words/sentences together and to be honest it was not easy. So without putting the blame on anybody, somebody messed up big time with my anesthesia. My wife actually passed out, out of fear after trying with my sister and nurses to wake me up for hours. They were putting huge shots into me and I was not even flinching. My eyes were pretty much rolled back and it scared them all. When I finally came around I had no clue where I was or what was going on. So this was not even one of my fears going in but by far the worst part of the surgery for me so far.

2) Taste/Smells: I had read about this going in but did not expect to be such a drastic change. For two months Pre-Op I tried so many different shakes, sugar free puddings, sugar free jellos etc… so that once I got home from surgery I would not have to waste time trying new items and I would already know what were my favorites. Pretty much everything I liked pre-op, I absolutely hate now and what I did not like pre-op, I love now. For me this so strange, I have been a vanilla lover for over 40 years, now I only like chocolate. Hopefully this will eventually change. Normal everyday food, smells are so intense. I was not prepared for this. I have yet to have a meal with my family since food smells overwhelmingly strong. When I open the fridge to get skim milk out it is like being in a Garden of food. I smell everything!

3) Sleep: I was expecting sleep after surgery with pain relievers and such to be so much easier. I knew I was not going to sleep well the two nights at the hospital but I pretty much did not sleep for more than 3 hours each night for first 3 nights at home and I never took a nap during the day. Lying down is by far the most uncomfortable time for me so far.

Good:

1) Pain: The pain was never nearly as bad as I expected or lead myself to believe it would be. I did get my VSG done Robotically so not sure if that made a huge difference but after three days I was off all pain meds. Hope it stays that way. Gas pains are not nearly as bad or frequent as expected either. However hiccups were much worse than I imagined!

2) Exercise: I thought it was going to take me much longer to get back to where I was pre-op (walking 5 to 6 miles daily) I am already doing over 4 miles a day and am not pushing myself too hard. For me, I think it was huge to get in the best physical shape I could for a morbid obese person months prior to surgery. Besides losing 30 pounds last two months prior to surgery (Over 60 total in last year prior), exercising 75 to 120 minutes a day was a huge plus for me. I think it really helped with my recovery time as well.

3) Hospitals & Surgeon: My Dr. & his Bariatric Team were amazing in every aspect. You hear how surgeons are usually stereotyped and I lucked out because mine was exactly what I needed. He was personal but also a huge motivator to get me out of bed and walk, walk, walk. He even a few times visited me just to do laps. His lead Nurse was an angel. All I kept saying to myself was I put off WLS for 15 years because of fear of hospitals/Drs. Etc… I was so stupid but better late than never. There are some genuinely amazing, kind people who work in this field and I should not have let prior horrible experience’s with Dr.’s going all the way back to my childhood put this off for as long as I did!

Hope this helps others in one-way or another. Had my one-week weigh in today and was already down 11.25lbs. First time in the 200’s in over 15 years! If anybody has any questions feel free to message me or post in the thread. Good luck to you all both Pre-Op and Post-Op!

I hope you are better soon, I feel so sorry for you and hope this nightmare is over soon!

Hello everyone congratulations on ur new life changes I'm having my surgery on Wednesday 1/13 I can't wait I'm not nervous I'm more excited about everything I just in a lot of pain nd I keep having these headaches nd I can't take the medication that really helps with the headaches bcuz it has aspirin in it so I just have to deal with it or take some tylenol with codine nd I have to take that after surgery if needed but I don't want to take now nd need it later nd my body rejects the medication so I'll b in pain from the surgery so I'm stuck in a situation... Best of luck to us its a new year nd new us coming soon....if anyone would like to add me as a friend please feel free.... I'm sorry I'm from Illinois an hour from Chicago

Best of Luck to you and everything will go GREAT. Just think a year from now where we all will be at

I actally sent you a message a few days ago since I saw we would be getting our surgery around the same time. Keep in touch and let me know how yours goes this week and I will do the same!

I can't believe I am less than 24hrs away from Surgery. Not even able to put into words everything that I feel and that is in my head right now!

You will do amazing and most important thing you are not only doing it for yourself but your two boys... Same exact reason I am doing it!

Keep in touch this week and stay positive, we are almost there.

So sorry that so much has happened to you. You will overcome this, try to remain positive and God bless u!

I live in NC & am having the sleeve done Tuesday Jan 12th! Very excited..I, too, have been overweight all my life. I am

56y/o and have been trying to have WLS for more than than 10 years. God's timing is perfect though & everything has just fit into place. Since June, I've lost 40 pounds under supervised weight loss period required by insurance. I've lost 15# just on pre op diet. Much luck to you & stay in touch!

Congrats on such a great amount of weight loss prior to surgery. Glad to see so many of us having it around the same time. For somebody whom has considered WLS for 15 years, finally the time is perfect as well. Best of luck and God Bless. Keep in touch!

Holy crap guys, it's almost game time freaking out a little

Lol I woke up and said the exact same thing to my wife, I originally thought why do I have to wait so long! Now less than 48 hours and I am like Wow this just got so real!

I just keep saying to myself that I have mentally preparing for this day for at least 15 years and I have never been in the shape I currently am (walking 90 to 120 minute & 5 to 6 miles per day)

I have lost 60 pounds last 18 months in preparation for this, so there is not a better time for me to do this then now.

We all got this!!

Good luck to you all and please keep in touch with your progress!!

Surgery day is Monday for me as well!

Good luck with your surgery.

Feel free to keep in touch along the way!,

I have my surgery scheduled for 1/13/16 I'm excited nervous and grateful over all. I only have to do one week pre op diet and I started that today. I went from planing on getting a balloon, to wanting the lap band, then was suggested the sleve so I just went for it. If my doctor is confident it's the best option for me I trust him completely cause I am ready to TAKE MY LIFE BACK!! I'm 21 years old. I wasn't really too heavy until a few years ago. I'm 5'2 and around 230 lbs. I used to be way smaller but hey I fell in love and my boyfriend and I found time together by eating out together. So here I am! Still in love with the same man but not so much in love with my self. Already I'm missing so much out of life. I turned 21 in July and still haven't celebrated since none of my friends recognize me from the extra weight. I've kinda been hiding away. I was recently diagnosed with pcos, have always had depression but now with horrorible anxiety. So I must say today is the day I change forever so glad I have found this forum with others going through the same thing

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

Good luck to you! You will do great and I wish I would not have waited so long to do my WLS since I really relate to everything you are saying and I have been doing that for over 20 years. Would have loved to enjoy my 20's & 30's and I guess better late than never. Keep in touch and let us know how it all goes for you next week.

Thank you and best of luck to you too. Today is my first day on this site so I apologize if I don't respond to anyone. It takes me time but I will get the hang of this.

You will get the hang of it quickly! It is such a great community to be a part of and the help from other members who have already gone through this has been AMAZING!!

Hello Todayitends - I am also having surgery on Monday. So I welcome the opportunity to have a "partner in crime". I also have only told 2 people in my life as I feel there is still a stigma attached to WLS as well.

Same Day, same situation...We got this. Sent u a message!

Hello. My surgery is on 01/14/16. I too have been lugging around my "get me to bariatric surgery backpack" literally 20-25 pounds of test results,food logs, seminar papers and everything possible to prove I am in need of the procedure for over 14 years. I came close 3 times however two times I had to care for my ailing parents which both passed. The third was having to have an emergency surgery. My MD suggested waiting 6 months for another surgery since the last one was hard on my body. Once ready the insurance said all pre approval appts and attempts had to be in the last 6 months. I was stuck in a catch22. I had a hard time finding a surgeon that I liked and was comfortable with. Once I found him another roadblock, he came down with a neurological problem and stopped practicing the day he found out. The other problem for me was my weight varied from a BMI of 41.0 to 39.8 when starting the program only to have my BMI go close to 38 and be told I lost "too much weight". I finally found a doctor who said that is a bunch of BS. That is the sole reason most people need the surgery. Most can lose some weight but most gain that back plus more. After calling the insurance to let them know my trials and failures and that the bariatric team wanted me to repeat the program again she was upset. She said that the insurance could have covered the surgery twice over. She called the team and within the hour I had a surgery date. I stood frozen, scared, excited and hopefully.

I am on Facebook and have found a person who agreed to privately converse since I too have not announced that I am having this procedure done. I have only told a handful of people, the ones that truly care about me and support my decisions. There were a few I told that I knew were against it and didn't understand but how I approached it was saying "even though I value your opinion, there is something I want to tell you but all I need from you is for you not to judge or criticize me but support me." There was silence after I uttered those words but thankfully everyone I chose to tell but their tongues very well. Those that have gone thru my struggle for years 10+years are excited for me and my new life.

Wow this has been a beyond long journey for you to get to. However, be proud of everything you have had to overcome to get to this point and just remember you will succeed with this!! Please keep us updated how it goes!