stacyrg2

I eat deli meat all the time. Boars Head has a line of all natural meats that limit the additives. It's a lower calorie/high Protein food that completely works with my program
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I'm much farther out than that, but I use a decent amount of butter when I cook my eggs. The butter helps keep the eggs moist. I don't have a problem adding fat. Your body needs fat to function. I use butter, full fat cheese, etc all with my dietitian's blessing. This is just another point of view, but just wanted to share that I don't fear fat
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Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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My exasperation is directed at your surgeon, not at you, by the way.
It seems too many docs are sending people out into the world without any information to help them be successful, and as an RN that just drives me batty.
If you've been released to a full diet, but not given any specific diet plan, you'll need to do some research and figure out how you're going to approach eating going forward. I suggest contacting your team and asking for a referral to a nutritionist if they don't have a plan to give you.
Most of the successful vets on this board will tell you that their success has been based on some form of a low-carb eating plan. What "low-carb" means varies from person to person and plan to plan. I can tell you that a total carb intake of less than about 50g per day will put your body into a compensatory metabolic condition known as ketosis. This is the goal of most ketogenic diets such as Atkins or to an extent South Beach or some Paleo programs.
For reasons we aren't quite sure of, ketosis makes me personally very ill. So my program is to stay away from refined sugars and carbs, but my carbs end up being about 80-100g a day, focused on complex carbs like whole grains, long grain/wild rice, some potatoes, etc. I can't give recommendations about my program, because I'm not to maintenance yet. I don't have any information about how it's going to work long-term, we're kinda playing it by ear.
Regardless of how low you take your carbs, you need to focus your limited sleeve capacity on your Protein first at every meal. Protein and fluids will always be your primary concern. If you have room, then you can get your veggies and a little bit of carbs in. food choices need to be about nutrition, and your relationship to food becomes about fuel instead of comfort or emotion.
Most programs require you to not drink anything 30 minutes after you eat, because it will essentially flush the sleeve and you'll get hungry faster. Programs vary on how many meals a day and how many total calories, the danger is in getting into a habit of grazing all day because you can load up on too many calories very quickly.
Hope this helps get you started.

what are your diet instructions from your surgeon?

Sorry to say, but I still think this is a a bit on the P/A side although I do think honesty is best. This kind of feels like a guilt trip and again, this was your decision, so it's not fair to your friends to make them feel bad about their decisions. If you can't go along with it, simply opt out of social situations until you can. If you choose not to opt out (I didn't), bring something diet friendly for yourself and eat when they eat.
EMPOWER yourself to make great decisions. "Catching them later" is only going to make you resent yourself and your situation. Asking for their understanding? Meh. I didn't even understand what I was putting myself through until I was actually going through it.

I need to be mindful about being honest in my responses --- as passive/aggressive behavior is one of the things that got me in this situation. So in the future when asked a question like "do you mind if we get pizza," I need to learn to say -- "actually, I do -- I am just not ready for this yet. But you guys need to go ahead -- and I will catch up with you later. My choice, my decision -- and I hope you can understand." I need to know it is OK to say that I DO mind things, and to take actions into my own hands. Thanks for helping me work through that, even though that wasn't your goal!

You have the RIGHT to be anything you want, but you don't have the right to dictate the actions of others.
They didn't have surgery, you did. They aren't post op, you are. food surrounds us no matter what stage of the game you are in and that's not ever going to go away. It's up to you to adapt to your new world, it's not up to the world to adapt to you.

You have the "right" to feel as you do. The question is whether the feeling is reasonable. Your friends asked for your input iand you withheld the truth. There's no way of knowing whether they'd have skipped pizza, but you had the option of going off to do something on your own for a while or staying and drinking your liquids. Majority rules and the world isn't going to stop for you. You say you wouldn't have "done" that to them. They really didn't "do" anything to you.

I've been hesitant about posting some things here simply because my surgeon's practice is a lot less conservative than most of the plans I've read about.
But eventually, I've been okay posting as long as I say "my surgeon wants me to do XX". People should be listening to their own surgeons and not fishing for permission to behave badly here.
If you're not going to listen to your surgeon, why are you even considering surgery? Obviously doing what YOU think is best has gotten you morbidly obese and sick. YOU are not a good source of behavior. Listen to your surgeon instead.

Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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Probably wasn't your best idea. It won't hurt you as far as your stitches and suture line, but I'm guessing that the pure sugar hitting your system wasn't in your surgeon's plan for you.
Hope you feel better soon!

Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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Applause
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Over the last few weeks, I've seen a number of posts about "cheating" on the diet plan in the days and weeks immediately following surgery, and I am very concerned about this trend.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on TV, and I am not dispensing medical advice.

However.

I am a registered nurse, and what I'm about to say is an informed and educated opinion.

Surgeons tend to give VERY detailed instructions about what to eat after a stomach surgery, and for VERY good reason.

Even when the surgery is arthroscopic and looks to be a very tiny surgery on the outside, it's a VERY BIG surgery on the inside. The VSG surgery leaves a staple/suture line the entire length of the stomach. That incision has to heal, and if you could see it, it would look like raw beef. If the incision were on the outside, we would be very careful with it, keeping it clean and bandaged while it healed. Of course, it's on the inside, so we can't do that. But we need to keep in mind that it needs to heal in the same way.

We have to eat, and that food will be against that raw incision. At the same time that we have to protect the healing stomach, we also have to get in plenty of fluids and nutrients, specifically Protein, in order to support healing. Protein is the primary building block for tissue, so it's critical to healing. Carbs are mainly just energy sources, so they're not as important, especially given that people having bariatric surgery have plenty of energy in their fat stores. This is why protein is stressed so heavily over carbs in the diets.

Additionally, the stomach is now in a new shape, and it basically has to learn how to function as a slender tube instead of a big bag. There's a learning curve. Kinda like a newborn baby's stomach. We don't dump steak and salad into a newborn's stomach for good reason - it doesn't know how to deal with it. Similarly, we don't want to do that to our new sleeve. We start off with stuff that's easy on the suture line and easy to digest, and as the suture line heals and the sleeve learns its job, start working our way up to "real" food.

So over the years, doctors have learned what foods are best for a healing stomach, and that translates into the post-op diet progression instructions.

Typically, that looks like this: Clear liquids, then full liquids, then pureed foods, then soft foods, then slowly move into a "full" diet beginning with high moisture content foods first. When moving from one stage to the next, it's typically advised to add just one food at a time, in small amounts, and see how it's tolerated. A food that's not tolerated well can be tried later on as well. If an entire stage is not being tolerated, back up to the previous stage for a while, and then try again more slowly.

Surgeons tend to specify how long to stay in each of these stages, what types of food make up each stage, and how to transition to the next stage. Every surgeon's instructions are a little different, and it's based on their experience and sometimes changes based on the patient's specific medical case.

The general idea in the very early weeks is to eat foods that will not stress the healing suture line, and do not have particles that are known to cut into the raw tissue or get embedded into the suture line. If a cut or embedded food particle gets infected, it can become an abscess and develop into a leak. A leak can be life threatening, and at the very least cause the patient to have to be hospitalized and possibly have more surgery to correct it. Foods that are particularly known to cause issues are those that swell up like rice, have seeds like strawberries, or have rough hard edges or hard to digest fibers like wheat crackers or raw vegetables.

There are people who eat all sorts of things against their doctor's orders and have suffered no ill effects, but this should not be used as an argument that the doctor's orders are not important. Similarly, you will find some people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day and drink a pint of whiskey every day but live to 100. They are not representative of most people, and should not be used as the example other people follow.

The reality is that some people will develop abscesses and leaks because they ate things before they were cleared to by their doctors, and there is no way to predict who will have the complications and who will not. And the consequences can be as severe as death. It's not common, but that's how bad it can get. That's why the doctors give the instructions they do. They're not just testing you or trying to make your life hard. They are giving you the best information they have to keep you safe.

Violating these orders is not "cheating" on a diet. It's risking your life. I am not being overly dramatic with this statement, it is a fact that it has happened. You are risking your safety and your health if you violate these orders. It's not about "being human", it's not about "food addiction". It's about your safety and your health. It's hard to be on liquids only for 2 weeks (or more). Some people have huge cravings, or "head hunger" as we tend to call it here. Or just want desperately to chew something. No one is saying it's easy. But it's necessary. Distract yourself. Eat/drink anything that's allowed on your plan - freeze it, heat it up, try something that's opposite of what you've been having to shake it up. Walk around the house or the block. Suck on an ice cube. Count to ten or a hundred. Post about how hard it is, and ask people to help you get through it. But muscle through. It's nothing less than your health and safety.

As for why one surgeon will have his patients on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks while another only does 2 days? Or why one will skip a phase entirely? Each surgeon has different experiences that inform his practices. One is not right and the other wrong. They are each operating out of what they were taught and what they have seen in their own patient groups. They may have even modified the plan because of a specific health concern in your specific case. As a patient, you need to fully understand what your surgeon expects, and if you have a problem with the protocols get it straight with your surgeon and team BEFORE you go under the knife.

If you don't trust your surgeon and his protocols, find another surgeon. I personally would question a surgeon who doesn't allow any Protein drinks including the clear ones for 2 full weeks post op (saw that in one patient's instructions on this site) and likely wouldn't work with that surgeon, given what I know about the needs of protein for healing. But after surgery is not the time to be questioning the surgeon's protocols. Get those questions asked and answered to your satisfaction well before the surgery date.

If you are having surgery, and you have not been given your post-op instructions, at the very least for the first 2 weeks post-op, do not proceed with the surgery until you have that information. We have people posting here stating that they were sent home without clear instructions as to what they were supposed to eat or drink, just a vague statement about "full liquids". That is not sufficient information, and instructions should be given WELL BEFORE the surgery, not after. You should fully understand what will be expected in the weeks after the surgery before consenting to the surgery, or your team is not doing their job.

(This ends my sorta rant about post-op diets and "cheating")

Good luck to everyone!

Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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Sleeve damage, maybe. Mindset damage probability is a lot higher. Your sleeve is a tool. If you don't follow your guidelines, you will damage it. Then the issue becomes, why did you bother?
The more important issue though, is what kind of mindset you have. If you aren't willing to make the tough choices, your sleeve, and all you went through to get it, will do you no good. Is that what you want?
Keep in mind, what you do, what you decide, affects no one here but you. We can offer advice and opinions, but none of us are living in your skin. Only you have to live with your decisions.

The head hunger is horrible at that stage. Call your surgeon as soon as you know he will be in and ask if you can progress to soft food. I had a friend that did that and he allowed it. If so, stick with things high in Protein like refried Beans, Riccotta Bake, soft eggs etc. Mac and cheese and mashed potatoes are not ideal for a post bariatric diet. I did soft/pureed diet without mashed potato one. Once you start eating more 'real' food, the cravings and head hunger should go away.
On another note, a positive attitude is everything in order to be successful with these surgeries. I suggest you do an attitude adjustment or you will struggle. Start by losing that huge chip on your shoulder. That alone should be a few pounds.

Yes, I'm like 50. :eye roll: And yes, I'm exactly the same in person. Are you going to start calling me names and sending idle threats my way, too? Have at it. I'm not scared of you. Snort!

It sounded very much like a threat and believe me, I'm NOT your baby. But advice? Ok, I'll bite. Follow your advice or to what result?

Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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Let's see, a couple of bites fill you up but you only want to take couple of bites of potato or mac and cheese (both extremely WLS friendly foods, by the way). So really the poster you called out was correct. You want to load up on carb heavy food. I would suggest you run any deviations in your food progression by your surgeon or his/her medical staff. I know less than 2 weeks post op those foods were NOT on my plan (hell, 2 years and 7 months post op, they're still not on my plan). At this point, your body needs Protein to heal. Where is the Protein in those foods? And trust me, they will fill you up and you won't get protein in, until you become ravenous again and the cycle starts over again.
That is just MY opinion. You are free to listen or ignore it. What you are not free to do is call me names or threaten my ass. Rather than threaten posters who refuse to validate your choices you should consider their advice like a rational person since everyone who offered an opinion is much farther out than you and amazingly successful. If you want validation and not advice why don't you save everyone the trouble and state that in the subject line. And, in the brilliant words of Lipstick Lady, feel free to block me if any part of this post sets you off. Good luck with your future endeavors.
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So, name calling followed by a threat?
Huh. Merry Christmas to you.

So you are 12 days post-op and you've ONLY lost 12 lbs? That's a pound a day!!! I hope you don't set yourself up for failure with unrealistic expectations. Also, you lost 12 lbs on the pre-op diet. You've lost 24 lbs in less than a month. What are you expecting? This is great weight loss!!!
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Carbonation doesn't stretch your stomach.