ShelterDog64

I'm a daily weigher...but I don't freak about the numbers, I just use them to keep myself in line. Like OutsideMatchInside, I didn't weigh myself, 'listened to my body' and ended up fat and miserable at 262 lbs. I'm watching myself this time around, and if I start to gain over a week or 2, I'll make changes. I can't imagine NOT keeping tabs on my weight.

I agree, it's too soon. Good decision

There's a Maintenance forum (https://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/1206-maintenance-forums/), as well as a Complications (?) forum...but you can post anywhere and someone will see it and answer Welcome!

I've had a few bites of popcorn since my surgery and it was fine, because popcorn isn't a *thing* for me. I can take it or leave it. Nutrition-wise, it's not worth the space and otherwise not worth the time it takes me to floss my teeth, so it's probably a 'safe' thing for me to have around. Popcorn sounds like it might be a *thing* for you, so I'd caution you to avoid it or be veryveryvery careful when eating it or spending time around it. My *thing* is sweet baked goods. I'd cut one of my kids for a blueberry scone or a slice of red velvet cake. So they aren't a part of my life...I can't be trusted alone with them, and they aren't nutritionally worth the space in my stomach. You truly have to make your decisions about food very carefully and very thoughtfully. I crashed and burned at about 5 months on a cookie binge...took me 2 weeks to stop wanting to buy cookies/bake cookies/order cookies at restaurants/steal cookies from Girl Scouts. YMMV, but it seems to be a common point among us all, having a *thing* that might be a good idea to avoid.

Ricotta bake (theworldaccordingtoegghead.com), yogurt, soft fish, cheese, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, soups that aren't strained (yay!), vegetables cooked until they're very soft, like cauliflower or squash.

Like Outside and Introversion said, your weight gain is likely water because you're almost certainly increasing your carb intake. I also want to echo their cautions about the 'cheat' mentality. It's deadly. You CAN eat anything, if you plan for it. Take away the implications of 'cheating' and turn that into 'planning'. I just ate macadamia nuts glazed with Kona coffee. Are those a great choice for someone just under one year post-op? Of course not, but I planned for them, and adjusted my day accordingly and will adjust tomorrow as well. It's not a 'cheat' and can't do me any harm if I plan, adjust and move on.

*Not anti-vitamin. I am anti a day of largely eating nothing but protein and having room for nothing else in the balanced eating equation. I know I signed up for needing a Multivitamin for the rest of my life by doing this.* I've always been very big on getting my nutrients from food, but even with my ability to eat a more balanced diet, I'll never get what I need from food now. Ever. Heck, I was anemic and vitamin D deficient BEFORE surgery...I have no hope of ever meeting those needs on my tiny meals. However, now that I'm fully committed to using vitamin supplements daily, I feel better and healthier than I ever did back when I was eating without limits. Weird, but true.

My feelings post-op were very similar to yours. I was stunned by how much I missed eating a salad, and I literally got teary and ridiculous one night watching my husband eat grilled asparagus...I could have punched him. I'm now almost 11 months out and I can get my needed protein AND some vegetables in at each meal. We're on vacation and at dinner last night, I had tuna poke, jicama slaw and a lovely local beer. The difference was that I had 3 oz of tuna, 3 bites of slaw and only one beer I do, daily and plan to for the near future, add a scoop of protein to my morning coffee. That give me a jump-start of 30g for my day, making getting ~80-90g much easier. I also will just eat a small lettuce/kale/tomato/cuke salad as a 'snack' if I'm really craving veg that day. I dress it with a splash of coconut oil and vinegar and eat just that, with no protein to fill me up. I will tell you that it's very very hard to see what nearly 1 year post-op will be like when you're still in your first 3 or 4 months. People tell you things and you think that's not how it's going to be for you...all of our experiences are individual and different in their totality, but we all have some commonalities as well. Your capacity WILL increase, you WILL have days when you overeat, under-eat, eat stupid things and days when you are a cover model for "Bariatric Success Weekly". I'm a planner by nature and like to control things...I've had to let go of so many of the things I was SURE were going to happen/not happen and that's been very good for me. It's been a wild ride since last June but I don't miss the 90 lbs I left in the dust I wish you much success, and I'm sure you will be very successful with the amount of thought and effort you're putting in...take care!

Sleeves aren't a fad, they're a clinically proven option for weight loss surgery.

You vitamin needs post-op are dependent on what kind of surgery you'll have...I had the VSG and my vitamin needs are different than a RnY or DS patient. Your surgeon's office should be able to tell you what you'll need. As to starting them before surgery, I did just to ensure that I was in the best shape possible going into surgery. I started about 3 months out, stopped them for a few days right before surgery then started up again afterward. Good luck!

**I think hearing your story helps me realize that even though he's not as supportive as I wish he was, it could be a lot worse.** I'm glad that's your take-home from Bayougirl's story. And Chris, I hadn't 'heard' your whole story before...how AWFUL. I'm glad you got out of that relationship! But anyway, I and many others have spouses at various places on the 'support continuum' and our marriages are doing fine post-op, in fact some are even better due to us feeling better about ourselves (better sex life, better self-esteem, more energy, etc). A good, healthy marriage shouldn't end because a spouse isn't wearing that cheerleader outfit...hell, mine IS a huge cheerleader and sometimes I could punch him in the throat because he IS always so unfailingly chipper and sure I'm going to do GREAT

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_bayview/medical_services/specialty_care/bariatrics/nutrition_after_surgery.html Google "bariatric post-op diet" and you'll get hundreds of hits...I'm a fan of Johns Hopkins

I used Mio drops (the blackberry something ones, check the labels because only a few are sucralose-free) that are sweetened with stevia...they're pretty good if you only use about half as much as they recommend. You can also get lemon and lime powder, then sweeten to your taste. Atkins Lift protein water is nice, but pricey.

Are you taking a PPI like Protonix or something of that sort? Stomach acid production can give you that 'hunger' feeling, but it's also likely to be in part 'head hunger' which you just have to power through. Keep doing what you're doing...as you move to more solid food, you'll start to feel the restriction of your sleeve.

At your stage, all I concerned myself with was meeting my protein goal and my water goal. IME, if you get the protein where your program wants it, the rest will follow in the first 6-9 months. I'm a big dairy consumer, plain greek yogurt is a must in my diet. Before I was able to consume slightly larger amounts, I always mixed unflavored protein powder into my foods....into the yogurt, into refried beans (another lifesaver in the first 6 months for me), and I still put a scoop in my coffee every morning. I made the ricotta bake from Eggface's website and added protein powder after I cooked it. I try to eat pretty clean, don't use protein shakes or bars any longer...beef jerky is the one over-processed food I still eat. It really satisfies me, and it travels well in my purse/car. If you can eat meats already and tolerate them well, tuna is great...those pouches are so easy to rip open, squirt a bit of mayo or a spoon of plain yogurt in and you've got lunch or dinner. I also eat salmon or steelhead at least once a week and another fish once a week, usually cod or whatever is fresh at the fish market. Pork and beef are hard for me, even at 10 months, but chicken sits pretty well. Grilled chicken thigh with ras el hanout seasoning is my new obsession, with some kale or chard alongside.

I take Lexapro for a generalized anxiety disorder, and I didn't have to skip any doses. Took my normal at night the night before surgery and took it again the next night. I had a PharmD check my meds to ensure that they were appropriate for post-op use (I have allergies, so I take Zyrtec and Singulair, and I was also on a med for fibromyalgia and one for hypertension that I didn't need at all after my surgery).

MHOUSE, I've never been able to stomach vitamins, even when I could eat mass volumes of food they always upset my stomach. I was SO grateful to find the patches, and my doc wholeheartedly approves of me using them. I just had a follow-up appt, at 10 mos, and my labs are all great. I use the multivitamin, the iron, the vitamin D and the B-12 patches. ( I quit using the calcium patch on my doctor's advice.) I hope they work out for you!

It's not at all uncommon...we store estrogen in our body fat, and as we start to mobilize and use that fat for fuel, the estrogen is released. It was bad enough for me that I resumed having periods after menopause. As my weight loss slowed, I'm amenorrheic again. Two menopauses for the price of one

Ha! Get this: **We found more than a dozen patients who have complained of knicked spleens, holes in their stomachs, or severe health complications. And they all have one thing in common. They all used weightlossagents.com (an online booking company based in Florida outside of Miami) and had surgery in Tijuana with Dr. Almanza.**

I'm 10 months post-op today and I've just started to feel normal when I eat. I don't feel my restriction much and I don't have as much burping/gurgling/etc with food.

I use patches...eliminates all the organization issues for me. I shower in the morning, put them on and take them off at bedtime. My labs are perfect

I'm going to chime in with pretty much the same as you've gotten so far. Your husband is against elective surgery, and that's his opinion to have. He's said he'll be supportive, but now it almost seems like you're setting up ways for him to fail you in that support. My sense, from the other things you've posted about him, is that he's doing the best he can in a situation where there's no 'win' for him. Give him a little space and don't place a lot of expectations on HIM...this is YOUR choice, not his. Look around your WLS support group, your close friends and/or your extended family, and try to find people there who can be the things your husband can't. But a word of caution...going into this thing requiring help/support/affirmation from others is not a great idea. You need to be comfortable enough with your own decision and strong enough to get through it on your own before you have the surgery.

What are you talking about? None of the surgeons from the facility where I had my surgery done can work anywhere but at a military treatment facility in the US. My point was that there are MANY MANY WL surgeons who do a high volume of surgeries with no mortality on their record. Is it possible for you to answer the question about a recent patient death at ALM? An unqualified "NO" would do, but all this prevarication clearly points to "YES". It looks shady as hell.

My god, I can name 4 doctors at our facility alone. Sandy, has there been a recent patient death at ALM? You haven't answered that question yet, unless I missed it.

Oh, I get the anxiety! It gets so much easier as time passes, hang in there!