ShelterDog64

You could also take a scoop of Peanut Butter, mix with however much Fage plain yougurt and then get it close to freezing. I use whey Protein Powder and Fage. One scoop and about 5 oz yogurt will give you 30-35 grams Protein. Thats more than an entire pint of Halo.

They do have Peanut Butter and with Sugar Free Chocolate sauce it is heaven on earth, lol.

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!

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.

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.

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!

It kills me to see people saying "I only lost thirty pounds in a month"! Like, idk about you but before this surgery it took me TWO YEARS of swimming 5 days a week and counting calories to lose even 15 lbs. And even without my various hormonal issues, when's the last time you'd hear of someone on Weight Watchers complaining they "only" lost 30 lbs in a month? It makes me so sad, because people should be happy and ecstatic at their progress and instead they're getting impatient and down on themselves and saying "well my weight loss isn't as fast as I like so I might as well just eat like crap" and sabotaging themselves.
I'm happy to be losing weight at the "slow" rate I am, because my body needs all the time it can get to adjust to the changes, especially my skin. Slow and steady is just fine by me. Although I understand someone who is a much higher BMI and more disabled by their weight is probably more anxious than I am to lose because they are ready for that new quality of life and not just the numbers on the scale...
but there's still the girls MY size and smaller ho have also been struck by this impatience and skewed perspective. It's sad to see people go through that. I'm glad I had such a comprehensive program with a good psychologist who helped prepare me for the ups and downs of this journey so I didn't drive myself bonkers from unrealistic expectations.

I've lost 22lbs since surgery and am definitely losing boobs. A lot of it is my copious amount of back fat going, but on the front I looked at myself in profile and noticed my boobs DEFINITELY look pretty deflated now (cries). They were never perky in the first place (I had floppy boobs even as a D cup in high school), so this is pretty saddening for me. They still look good in a bra at least, but I now know I need to be saving to have a breast lift at some point. I started in clinic at a 38G and am now wearing a 36DDD bra. I got it second hand and it fits nice but I do want to get properly sized and make sure it's actually RIGHT. Honestly though I've been wearing a lot of sports bras, I have an under armour and nike one, both with molded cups, size 36E and 38DD. I like them because I think they may get a little longer wear than a normal bra because the sizing isn't quite so exact.

It is hilarious because when you watch 600 lb life, those people are literally 1/2 a ton and they only lose 30 pounds in a month. And most of them are in the hospital that first month on a stricter diet than those of us at home.

@ShelterDog64
I answered your age question in PM, don't want to give up too much personal information online. I know you have lost most of your weight, but you still aren't even a year post op.
Plastic surgery prices and demand is lower in the fall/winter, which is why I picked that time to have my surgery. I really was shooting for Fall of 2017, but I think fall of 2018, maybe even 2019 might be better, it just depends.
My skin has no snapback. I've had stretch marks since I was a kid just from growing. My skin just genetically is not very elastic, at least not in my body, face is amazing. The way I am losing and my fat is settling is really different the closer I get to goal. Like if there was only one surgery I could afford it would be arms. That is the must do, Everything else I can hide.
For me, a breast lift is just vanity so I can go braless and wear strapless dresses. Men don't care what tits look like as long as they can touch them. Physically my breast do no bother me, especially since they are much lighter.
My apron bothers me, it flop, but I don't get infections and I don't have issues with it. My belly button does get gross and I have to clean it carefully, but at the end of the day that is all something I can hide in clothes.
As much as I would love to get my thighs done, people with thighs like mine don't end up with good results from thigh lifts. i would still never be able to wear short shorts of a bathing suit without shorts, so it is a waste of money.
I think you might find when you get to goal, that things look and feel a little different. In your second year, you still might lose weight. Back when vets used to post here, a lot of people would comment that they lost another 5 to 10 pounds without trying. 5 or 10 pounds doesn't seem like a lot for heavy people, but once you are under 200 that is a size or worse a size and a half (being between sizes is the worst!) depending on where it comes from. If you get your body snatched and lose another 10 pounds from ????? on your body, you are diminishing your results. It is a lot of money to spend, better to wait and get it right than to do it and want a revision.

I seriously need to give this stuff a try. I don't normally have ice cream in our house because my husband will eat an entire 2L container in one sitting if it's there, and not only does that cost way too much, but it also puts him in a terrible guilty mood for days... but now that summer is coming up it might be nice to have a pint around just for me. just have to buy a flavour he won't eat lol. do they do Peanut Butter?

@ShelterDog64
If you can control yourself with ice cream. Halo Top has a Red Velvet flavor. Luckily they seem to have a quality control issue. Sometimes it is amazingly delicious like a Southern Grandma made it, and other times it is just okay. Which prevents me from getting it all the time, Even if you can't control yourself and eat the whole pint, a pint of Halo top is minimal calories.

At almost 11 months out, the only things I've found that I just can't eat are pork, eggs (other than poached) and celery. They cause me to have horrible foaming and sliming. Ugh.

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!

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.

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!

I try to eat as much Protein as I can, but I still make a point of eating at least some veggies at my meals. Yes if I eat some carrots that means there's slightly less room for another ounce of protein, but I also like to poop without bursting blood vessels soooooo...
Protein first is definitely the golden rule to follow, but I try to eat at least half my serving of meat, a couple bites of vegetables, and then back to meat again. My dietician wants me to eat more carbs at my meals but I'm not even thinking of that until I am able to eat full servings of veggies and meat in one sitting.

I could have written this post myself (cries laughing)

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.

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.

https://www.amazon.com/Optimum-Nutrition-Platinum-Hydrowhey-Hydrolyzed/dp/B01DY8NG5K/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1493951334&sr=8-1&keywords=red%2Bvelvet%2Bwhey&th=1
Big fan of red velvet too. Check out this recipe:
https://www.optimumnutrition.com/en_US/news?id=red-velvet-protein-cheesecake-squares

it isn't a picnic, I'm not thrilled with my body, but the longer I stay under 200 and keep losing, the more improvements I see. Like if I had surgery at 18 months post-op I would have selected completely different surgeries than I would select now.
There are improvements with time. We live in a society where everyone wants a quick fix. You even see people complaining here about slow weight loss when they are losing a lot of weight in short time period relative to the normal population. Loose skin and a different body can be very annoying. I am still annoyed a daily sometimes hourly basis, but time is really making a lot of changes. Also the more you lose the better it looks. What most people are complaining about as loose skin still has fat in it, I know mine does. It is loose thin skin but there is still fat. The more fat I lose, the thinner the skin is and easier it is to hide, compress and deal with.

I feel like by waiting, when I do have plastics my results will be so much better. It sucks to wait and I really don't want to but I am really looking at Fall of 2018 for plastics now instead of fall of 2017.

@Caryn68
I'm surprised you are still a G. Where are you getting measured?
My boobs stayed pretty much the same but my band changed, and cup sizes are based on the difference in the under and over bust measurement subtracting the bust measurement. I went from a 50DD and I am a 36G. I'm not sure I will get below a 36 band size without skin surgery.
I guess you are dropping uniformly. It is interesting how we all lose weight differently.
I never gained weight in my boobs, just my band size, so I knew they were not going anywhere.
I was thinking about a lift, but as more time passes I just don't think I want to deal with those scars and the risk of losing nipple sensitivity. I'm going to need enough surgery as is. I can live with the boobs.
@B.Annie
Mine looked pretty sad for a while but the longer I stay under 200 and my weight is somewhat stable (losing slowly), they are looking better each week. They aren't perky but they have settled very nicely.
ETA: Mine point south too or they did, they always have, that is how they been since I developed but! The past 3 weeks or so I notice they have lifted. They are still large relative to my size but they are not as heavy. I can do a lot more with them, like wear bralettes, go bra less in tight bandage dresses and tape them up easily. So even though they are not perky, they are very easy to manage now.
I really wonder about people that rush to plastics. The more time I spend in this weight range. the better my body looks. It is really readjusting and taking care of itself. Once I stop losing I think I will wait a full year before plastics. If I had rushed into them 6 months ago, when I wanted to, I had a completely different body then than I do now. Waiting is paying off.

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!

Sorry if I came off preachy like. Not trying to be a hard ass about it. Its just that I been down that road, and the bloating, oh dear god the bloating wasn't worth it. So if I can spare someone by not going though the same bone head mistakes I went though early on, then I will try.

Your stomach isn't made out of latex, it's not going to react like a ballon. And especially if you have the sleeve it's a myth that it will stretch it. With the sleeve all, or at least most, of the stretchy part of the stomach is removed. And even if a little bit or the stretchy part is left carbonation is no where near strong enough to stretch it, nor would the small amount left be able to stretch enough to make a huge difference. You might go from being able to eat 4 ounces to eating 4.5 ounces instead. And any stretching that MIGHT occur would not come from carbonation, it would be from forcing in too much food at once time. The research supports this.
The myth of the stretching came from the bypass pouch which can stretch, but even then again carbonation isn't strong enough, especially once combined with stomach acid, to have any true effect. It's much more likely to stretch from eating too much though.
Surgeons are human, they are not infallible. They make mistakes, and many are prone to telling horror stories to scare their patients into doing what they want them to do.