Tufflaw

Had my first followup today. The doctor wasn't in but the PA checked me out and everything is good. She did put the kibosh on the corned beef hash though No potatoes allowed. Although I did make the Shelly's Ricotta Bake found here: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html and HOLY CRAP it was delicious. I'll attach some pictures of the whole thing and my slice. Really really good, only 200 calories a serving and I think 16 grams of Protein. It was not easy to stretch the meal to 30 minutes. I have to try some more recipes from there.
 

So I was bored of my usual stuff today and decided to try something new. Got a can of corned beef hash at Target, heated up 4 oz, put 1 oz of shredded cheese on top, mixed it up and OH WOW it was so good, easily the most delicious meal I've had since I started my liquid diet.
I didn't blend it first since it was pretty chopped up and I chewed a lot on each bite, basically I pureed it in my mouth. Really good and it did feel a bit heavy in my stomach but otherwise no problems. For dinner I couldn't help myself and had it again, although this time I did 2 oz, with 2 oz of fat-free refried Beans, also with some shredded cheese on top. DELICIOUS. I think I over did it though, felt really stuffed at the end and almost nauseous but not quite. It's settling now and I think I'll try to do 30 minutes walking on the treadmill if I can do it. I'm tired of walking in circles around my living room.
Realized afterwards that I'm not supposed to have potatoes yet, I have my first followup tomorrow with my surgeon so I'll ask if it's OK. I could eat this stuff every day if I'm allowed!

I'll try to be as detailed as I can to help others about to go through this.
My surgery was scheduled for this past Wednesday 12/21, I was told to go to the hospital at 7:30 AM. My wife had to take the kids to school so my mother brought me. No waiting, immediately they took me into the back to start getting ready, and my mom was able to come. They filled out some forms, put the IV in, gave me a shot of Heparin (blood-thinner) in my stomach (didn't hurt) and told me I'd get an additional shot every 8 hours until I got discharged.
They gave me a few pills and some horrifically nasty stuff to drink (everything I had to drink in the hospital was terrible). Some of the nurses came by to introduce themselves, the anesthesiologist came by to chat. I had been concerned because I had been coming down with a cold but all I had left was a slight cough so it was fine. My doctor came by to let me know I would be going in soon. He had a busy day, at least 6 surgeries! I think I was number 3.
So about 9:45 or so they wheeled me in. My mom was given a tracking number, and there was a monitor in the waiting room where you could find a patient's tracking number, and it would light up green when they were in surgery, and blue when they were in recovery. They said they'd call when I was out of surgery (they didn't).
I went into the room and laid down on a very narrow table and got strapped in. My doctor wasn't in there yet, but they needed to prep me anyway. They put a mask on face and told me to breath deeply, and bam I was out. My next recollection was waking up in recovery with an oxygen mask (they give everyone oxygen via mask for two hours post-surgery) feeling very woozy and nauseous . I told them I was feeling sick and they gave me something that helped. Soon after, they brought my mom and wife back to spend some time with me, but I was really in and out.
Shortly after, they had me stand up and walk around a bit, and then they sat me in a lazy-boy type chair for a while, then I walked around a little more. Walking felt OK, felt some tightness in my stomach around the incisions but it wasn't unbearable. Then they put me in a wheelchair and brought me to my room which I was sharing with another guy who got the same surgery from the same doctor that day (he arrived later).
They put me in the bed and asked me a bunch of questions to get me admitted. After that it was mostly just sleeping as much as I could. Every two hours I had to get up and walk for several minutes. They got all the bariatric patients up together so every two hours it was like the world's worst conga line and we shambled down the hospital hallway. I made sure to go to the bathroom after every single walk so I wouldn't have to get up unnecessarily. They let me have ice chips and thank god for that. I didn't have a sore throat from the surgery although I'd heard some do.
It was a long night, people kept coming in to check blood pressure, give me heparin shots, take blood once I think, maybe twice. The next morning some folks from the hospital came in to give me and my roommate a holiday gift of a poinsettia which was nice but I would have rather kept sleeping.
In the morning they brought me down for a GI check. I had to drink some absolutely foul liquid four times while they took x-rays of my stomach (standing) to check for leaks. No leaks! So I was cleared for Breakfast. Breakfast was some Water, some orange Jello, and some Protein things to drink, they tasted completely disgusting and I couldn't finish them. When they saw I tolerated it well, they brought lunch, which was scrambled eggs, Powerade zero, and more horrible Protein drinks including one marked Prostat that I think I was supposed to drink but it was so awful I couldn't take more than a sip.
I had noticed over the night that was having pains in my back and shoulder, I was told it was gas pains and they would go away, I just needed to keep walking. The surgeon stopped in at some point to check in, told me my surgery lasted just 26 minutes, amazing. He said I did a good job with the liver shrinking diet.
About 2:30 or so I was discharged. I was able to dress myself which was nice. I had an appendectomy and umbilical hernia repair last December, and felt much worse after that, and couldn't dress myself when I left the hospital.
The drive home was uneventful, when I got back I took a little nap, but I got up to walk every hour or so. For the first day or two I noticed some ankle and calf pain when I got up but that went away and today it's almost all gone.
For dinner my wife made me some pureed tuna with low-fat mayo. I ate two ounces and could barely finish it. I drank about 2/3 of a bottle of Protein shake (the Premier Protein, same thing I drank on my two week liver shrinking diet), took me a looong time to drink it. Then drank some water, not that much, I was being very cautious. When I swallowed it felt very weird, like I could feel it settling into my stomach. Didn't hurt, but just weird. I didn't have any real unbearable pain. When I stood up it hurt where my incisions were. If I coughed it hurt a lot but that went away.
Spent that day (thursday) just relaxing and walking and trying to get down some fluids.
Sleeping was uneventful, I took some of the percoset they prescribed and that helped. I slept on my back the entire night which is rare for me. Friday I felt a little better. Ankles still hurt, and my neck was killing me, I assumed it was the gas pain. Breakfast was two scrambled eggs which took over an hour to eat but I finished almost all of them. I finished the Protein Drink and tried some powerade zero which was delicious. Lunch was the rest of the tuna (3.4 oz, ate the whole thing), and dinner was egg salad with low fat mayo, and a little bit or paprika and mustard for taste. I ate 3 oz and it went down pretty quick. At some point during the day I took a shower which was great. No problem at all standing for several minutes.
Sleeping was again uneventful. Today I woke up late, so no breakfast. I had more egg salad for lunch and it went down fairly quickly with no adverse effect. Drank a Protein Shake (11 oz) and 16 oz of powerade zero, no problem at all going down. Before the surgery, the doctor said it should easier and less painful day after day, week after week, and that's been true so far.
I had read about "sleever's remorse" and yes I've felt it too, starting with when I first woke up in the hospital, and it comes back several times a day. I think once I reach the point where there's no pain, and I can eat solid foods again, and get back into my regular routine and see the effects of the surgery it will go away. I know that this was the right thing for me to do, and even though maybe right this second I feel like I wouldn't do it again if given another chance, I'm pretty confident that I'll be happy with my decision in the coming weeks, months, years, etc.
So that's the journey so far. I'l be happy to answer any questions anyone has, and good luck to anyone who is still pending surgery!

I'm about 2.5 months post-op and one of my friends said something interesting to me today - he said it sounds like my voice changed since I've lost all the weight. I asked him what he meant and he said the pitch was a little different. Has anyone else heard this or noticed this? My voice sounds the same to me but I hear it everyday so I wouldn't notice any changes.

Well one week ago today I was leaving my office and mentally preparing for surgery the next day. Now I'm 6 days post-surgery and feeling pretty good!
Losing about a pound a day, and it's easier to eat and drink every day. I still get some weird feelings while eating every so often, but nothing too bad, and drinking feels totally normal. Walking and moving around is easy and pain-free. Two days in a row I had some blood spots from the large incision on my shirt but I'm pretty sure that's because my daughter went to hug me too fast and headbutted me right in the abdomen - that sucked.
I've been able to eat the following, all homemade and pureed: Egg salad, tuna salad, turkey salad, chicken salad, yoplait light yogurt (boston cream pie flavor, yum), also scrambled eggs with some ricotta mixed in. I went to my sister's for christmas and brought some turkey salad in a container but she had tuna there so I ate that instead, it wasn't pureed but it was mashed enough and I just chewed a lot, and it was fine. I have about 3 - 3.5 oz per serving.
The chicken salad was a bit of a disappointment. I bought some chicken breasts and put them in a crockpot overnight with some low-sodium chicken broth, mixed in some garlic powder, onion powder, and some barbecue sauce just for taste. Cooked for 8 hours, it smelled delicious! Shredded it, cooked another 30 minutes, then in the blender to puree. Tasted a lot like chopped liver - which I like - but not very good chopped liver. Mixed in some low-fat mayo and it's not terrible, just not as delicious as I was hoping Still better than the liquid diet though, I guess.
Doing OK with liquid intake, that isn't really a problem, and my Protein intake has been right on point. Still taking in less than a thousand calories a day but I'm not hungry. That should increase once my portion sizes increase. I'm waiting for the day the MyFitnessPal app doesn't give me a warning at the end of each day that I'm not eating enough!
I'm proud of myself that I haven't cheated ONCE since the whole thing started, going to try to keep that up. My wife made a pumpkin cheesecake for the holidays and it looked unbelievable. Right consistency for me too, but I decided to stick with the post-surgery diet. There will be time for cheesecakes (small portions) in the future when I'm at my goal.
Edit: Don't know if these have been posted elsewhere, but I read two very interesting articles today in the NYT about bariatric surgery, in case anyone is interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/what-is-bariatric-surgery.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/bariatric-surgery.html

Yeah I get that weird feeling when I'm eating but it's pretty much gone away when I drink. I think it's just the food going down. Before the surgery I asked my doctor how I would know if something was wrong, he told me that it should be better day after day and week after week, so if there's a problem I'd know right away. And he was right, I feel better every day. Good luck!

Yeah real simple. Morning Premier Protein shake (11 oz - chocolate). lunch Premier Protein Shake (11 oz - vanilla). dinner Bariatric Advantage Protein Shake (powder I got from my doctor's office, blended with cold Water and crushed ice), either vanilla or chocolate. Snacks: 1 Protein pudding (sugar-free Jello pudding mixed with one serving of Protein Powder and 8 oz of milk, would make 4 servings). also 3 or 4 sugar-free ice pops. Sometimes I'd have a fourth protein shake if I felt like it. Lots of Water. I was allowed to have low-sodium broth, I tried it once and it was disgusting, too bland, inedible. I was also allowed some greek yogurt I think and milk but I never bothered. Strangely I never felt hungry at all, although most nights I got cravings for real food, mostly chicken parm. In 2 weeks I dropped exactly 25 lbs.

Yeah I was surprised. I always thought it was liquid diet the first week, but a friend of mine who had the same surgery with the same practice (different doctor) told me they gave him scrambled eggs the next day, and same thing for me, I guess every doctor is different. They gave me a diet plan for next few months. The first month is just pureed meats. Second month I can add veggies. Third month I think is fruits.

Still plugging along, everything is going great! Hit some more milestones - down 70 pounds now and BMI below 35 so if I had started at this weight I would officially be ineligible for surgery even with the co-morbidities.
I had a bunch of t-shirts I had gotten over the last few years that were a little too snug at the time. Tried some of them on but now they're too big So I went too fast to wear any of these. I guess that's OK, would rather have the weight lost than wear some shirts.
Had my first "bad" food last week and I survived! Went out somewhere with my family and didn't bring any food with me. For lunch I got a little wrap with turkey, carrots and lettuce, that was fine. About halfway through I ditched the wrap and just ate the turkey. Then we took the kids to the local ice cream place where they have homemade ice cream and I decided to try a scoop. Man, it was good! But I felt like crap later. No pain or anything, just sluggish so I won't try that again. It's still a learning process.

Hey man I feel you, I was nervous right before too.
I watched your entire video, and basically you're me. Same height, age, approx starting weight, two kids, similar back story. I even work in law enforcement too.
DON'T BACK OUT. I'm only a little more than two months out, and I'll say what you said you've heard other say - Best thing I've ever done. I'm sure you've also heard, the only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. When you have the feelings of wanting to back out, think of this - if you hadn't backed out last time, you'd be at your goal weight be now and enjoying your life a lot more. If you back out now, you'll have to go through this again in a few years, when you could be enjoying being at your goal weight and all the health benefits it brings.
For what it's worth, I loved my italian food. And you know what - I don't miss it AT ALL. I'm sure I mentioned this in an earlier post, but during my two week liquid diet (and holy crap you only have to do one day you lucky bastard) I was craving chicken parm like I needed it to live.
Immediately after surgery, I lost all craving for it completely, and that is still the same today. I remember how good it is, I know that I would probably enjoy it if I had it right now. And I COULD have it right now if I wanted to (just less), but I have absolutely no desire for it. You're not going to miss it. And even if you do, ask if the food is worth the years of your life you'll lose to being overweight. For me it was a no brainer.
I wish you the best of luck, if you have any questions afterwards don't hesitate to drop me a line, you're welcome to call me if you want, just send a PM if you want my cell. Good luck and welcome to the club!

Been away for too long! Everything is going great, hit some milestones. One I hit today - I'm down over 66 lbs in two and a half months. When I did Weight Watchers about 9 years ago, it took me about 9 or 10 months to lose the same amount - and then I put it all back on and then some No chance of that happening now though!
Also some non-scale victories. The big one - I can wear my wedding ring again! I had to stop wearing it for a long time, it just got too tight! Started wearing it again a few days ago, feels good.
Also cool - i have about 8 suits I rotate through for work. Before surgery, I was down to three I could wear, the rest were too small. And the three were getting a little tight too. Now, I wear all of them. The original three are way too big and I had to get them tailored. The other five are starting to get loose, going to need tailoring soon. That's a welcome expense, especially with what I'm saving on food.
Tonight I saw a recipe on Facebook I had to try, and I made a GRILLED cheese SANDWICH with cauliflower toast for bread, and turkey bacon. The toast wasn't as crunchy as I would have like, but not bad at all! I could actually only eat half, saving the rest for tomorrow. I'm attaching a pic for your enjoyment. Hope everyone is well!

That's awesome, good luck with the scrambled eggs! I make them similar to the way Gordon Ramsey makes scrambled eggs (but without the creme freche, if that's how you spell it). I put a little splash of skim milk and an ounce of shredded cheese, put the pan between low and medium, wait about a minute, pour in the eggs, shortly after start scrambling, then take them OFF the heat and scramble for a minute, then back on the heat for a bit, then off, and that's it. As soon as they're solid I'm done. Eggs are creamy, fluffy, delicious. I used to like that a little al dente and with the crispy edges but this is SO much better and easier to eat too. Here's the video that inspired me -
Also, lucky you with the mashed potatoes! I was told I wasn't allowed to eat them because of the starch

Well the liquid diet was no fun, but actually in retrospect (and while I was doing it) not as bad as I thought it would be. I was actually fine during the day, it was the evenings that were tough. Dropping 25 lbs in 2 weeks was pretty nice too!
I can't speak to the other surgeries, but I did have an appendectomy and umbilical hernia repair a year before I got sleeved and the recovery was tougher for that and more painful, for what it's worth.
Can't speak for your doctor, but I wasn't intubated when I woke up, they had an oxygen mask on but they do that for everyone.
Good luck, don't let your nerves talk you out of saving your life!

It's so strange how all the different doctors have different rules. I did a 2 week liquid diet pre-op, but I've heard of others who only had to 3 days. Or 2 weeks but could have a small "real" dinner. And apparently my doctor is a rarity in allowing soft foods starting the day after surgery.
Now I have two scrambled eggs with cheese every morning, totally fills me up.
i keep trying to think of new things to keep from getting bored. Yesterday my whole family was eating turkey meatballs for dinner and I wanted to join in, so I microwaved three of them (3 oz), ground them up in the food processor, heated up 1.5 oz of meat sauce, mixed it all together .5 oz of shredded cheese, heated it up a little more in the microwave, and it was DELICIOUS!

Finished the last piece of that Ricotta bake today, going to make more tomorrow, it's my new lunch every day now, holy cow it's so good.
Tried some mahi mahi tonight for the first time ever, also first time I ever cooked fish. Not sure if I did it wrong but it was pretty bland, just bleh. Finished 4 oz. though, lots of Protein and it was something new to try. I have another piece in the freezer, maybe I'll cook it up and then blend it in the food processor and add some mayo, make a little seafood salad.
Everything is going great, although I get little blood spots every day on my shirt from the large incision. The PA at my checkup said not to worry, but at some point it should stop, right? Anyone else noticing this 10 days after surgery?
Also I noticed on my little signature ticker thing that my BMI is below 40, so I guess that's a milestone, woohoo!

Still plugging along, everything is going great! Hit some more milestones - down 70 pounds now and BMI below 35 so if I had started at this weight I would officially be ineligible for surgery even with the co-morbidities.
I had a bunch of t-shirts I had gotten over the last few years that were a little too snug at the time. Tried some of them on but now they're too big So I went too fast to wear any of these. I guess that's OK, would rather have the weight lost than wear some shirts.
Had my first "bad" food last week and I survived! Went out somewhere with my family and didn't bring any food with me. For lunch I got a little wrap with turkey, carrots and lettuce, that was fine. About halfway through I ditched the wrap and just ate the turkey. Then we took the kids to the local ice cream place where they have homemade ice cream and I decided to try a scoop. Man, it was good! But I felt like crap later. No pain or anything, just sluggish so I won't try that again. It's still a learning process.

Agreed, near the end of the 2 week liquid diet I was so miserable but it's so much better after the surgery. Good luck!

If this makes you feel better - I think the preop diet is so much worse than postop. I have so much more will power after surgery. It makes it so much easier!

Yeah real simple. Morning Premier Protein shake (11 oz - chocolate). lunch Premier Protein Shake (11 oz - vanilla). dinner Bariatric Advantage Protein Shake (powder I got from my doctor's office, blended with cold Water and crushed ice), either vanilla or chocolate. Snacks: 1 Protein pudding (sugar-free Jello pudding mixed with one serving of Protein Powder and 8 oz of milk, would make 4 servings). also 3 or 4 sugar-free ice pops. Sometimes I'd have a fourth protein shake if I felt like it. Lots of Water. I was allowed to have low-sodium broth, I tried it once and it was disgusting, too bland, inedible. I was also allowed some greek yogurt I think and milk but I never bothered. Strangely I never felt hungry at all, although most nights I got cravings for real food, mostly chicken parm. In 2 weeks I dropped exactly 25 lbs.

I'll try to be as detailed as I can to help others about to go through this.
My surgery was scheduled for this past Wednesday 12/21, I was told to go to the hospital at 7:30 AM. My wife had to take the kids to school so my mother brought me. No waiting, immediately they took me into the back to start getting ready, and my mom was able to come. They filled out some forms, put the IV in, gave me a shot of Heparin (blood-thinner) in my stomach (didn't hurt) and told me I'd get an additional shot every 8 hours until I got discharged.
They gave me a few pills and some horrifically nasty stuff to drink (everything I had to drink in the hospital was terrible). Some of the nurses came by to introduce themselves, the anesthesiologist came by to chat. I had been concerned because I had been coming down with a cold but all I had left was a slight cough so it was fine. My doctor came by to let me know I would be going in soon. He had a busy day, at least 6 surgeries! I think I was number 3.
So about 9:45 or so they wheeled me in. My mom was given a tracking number, and there was a monitor in the waiting room where you could find a patient's tracking number, and it would light up green when they were in surgery, and blue when they were in recovery. They said they'd call when I was out of surgery (they didn't).
I went into the room and laid down on a very narrow table and got strapped in. My doctor wasn't in there yet, but they needed to prep me anyway. They put a mask on face and told me to breath deeply, and bam I was out. My next recollection was waking up in recovery with an oxygen mask (they give everyone oxygen via mask for two hours post-surgery) feeling very woozy and nauseous . I told them I was feeling sick and they gave me something that helped. Soon after, they brought my mom and wife back to spend some time with me, but I was really in and out.
Shortly after, they had me stand up and walk around a bit, and then they sat me in a lazy-boy type chair for a while, then I walked around a little more. Walking felt OK, felt some tightness in my stomach around the incisions but it wasn't unbearable. Then they put me in a wheelchair and brought me to my room which I was sharing with another guy who got the same surgery from the same doctor that day (he arrived later).
They put me in the bed and asked me a bunch of questions to get me admitted. After that it was mostly just sleeping as much as I could. Every two hours I had to get up and walk for several minutes. They got all the bariatric patients up together so every two hours it was like the world's worst conga line and we shambled down the hospital hallway. I made sure to go to the bathroom after every single walk so I wouldn't have to get up unnecessarily. They let me have ice chips and thank god for that. I didn't have a sore throat from the surgery although I'd heard some do.
It was a long night, people kept coming in to check blood pressure, give me heparin shots, take blood once I think, maybe twice. The next morning some folks from the hospital came in to give me and my roommate a holiday gift of a poinsettia which was nice but I would have rather kept sleeping.
In the morning they brought me down for a GI check. I had to drink some absolutely foul liquid four times while they took x-rays of my stomach (standing) to check for leaks. No leaks! So I was cleared for Breakfast. Breakfast was some Water, some orange Jello, and some Protein things to drink, they tasted completely disgusting and I couldn't finish them. When they saw I tolerated it well, they brought lunch, which was scrambled eggs, Powerade zero, and more horrible Protein drinks including one marked Prostat that I think I was supposed to drink but it was so awful I couldn't take more than a sip.
I had noticed over the night that was having pains in my back and shoulder, I was told it was gas pains and they would go away, I just needed to keep walking. The surgeon stopped in at some point to check in, told me my surgery lasted just 26 minutes, amazing. He said I did a good job with the liver shrinking diet.
About 2:30 or so I was discharged. I was able to dress myself which was nice. I had an appendectomy and umbilical hernia repair last December, and felt much worse after that, and couldn't dress myself when I left the hospital.
The drive home was uneventful, when I got back I took a little nap, but I got up to walk every hour or so. For the first day or two I noticed some ankle and calf pain when I got up but that went away and today it's almost all gone.
For dinner my wife made me some pureed tuna with low-fat mayo. I ate two ounces and could barely finish it. I drank about 2/3 of a bottle of Protein shake (the Premier Protein, same thing I drank on my two week liver shrinking diet), took me a looong time to drink it. Then drank some water, not that much, I was being very cautious. When I swallowed it felt very weird, like I could feel it settling into my stomach. Didn't hurt, but just weird. I didn't have any real unbearable pain. When I stood up it hurt where my incisions were. If I coughed it hurt a lot but that went away.
Spent that day (thursday) just relaxing and walking and trying to get down some fluids.
Sleeping was uneventful, I took some of the percoset they prescribed and that helped. I slept on my back the entire night which is rare for me. Friday I felt a little better. Ankles still hurt, and my neck was killing me, I assumed it was the gas pain. Breakfast was two scrambled eggs which took over an hour to eat but I finished almost all of them. I finished the Protein Drink and tried some powerade zero which was delicious. Lunch was the rest of the tuna (3.4 oz, ate the whole thing), and dinner was egg salad with low fat mayo, and a little bit or paprika and mustard for taste. I ate 3 oz and it went down pretty quick. At some point during the day I took a shower which was great. No problem at all standing for several minutes.
Sleeping was again uneventful. Today I woke up late, so no breakfast. I had more egg salad for lunch and it went down fairly quickly with no adverse effect. Drank a Protein Shake (11 oz) and 16 oz of powerade zero, no problem at all going down. Before the surgery, the doctor said it should easier and less painful day after day, week after week, and that's been true so far.
I had read about "sleever's remorse" and yes I've felt it too, starting with when I first woke up in the hospital, and it comes back several times a day. I think once I reach the point where there's no pain, and I can eat solid foods again, and get back into my regular routine and see the effects of the surgery it will go away. I know that this was the right thing for me to do, and even though maybe right this second I feel like I wouldn't do it again if given another chance, I'm pretty confident that I'll be happy with my decision in the coming weeks, months, years, etc.
So that's the journey so far. I'l be happy to answer any questions anyone has, and good luck to anyone who is still pending surgery!

Hey man I feel you, I was nervous right before too.
I watched your entire video, and basically you're me. Same height, age, approx starting weight, two kids, similar back story. I even work in law enforcement too.
DON'T BACK OUT. I'm only a little more than two months out, and I'll say what you said you've heard other say - Best thing I've ever done. I'm sure you've also heard, the only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. When you have the feelings of wanting to back out, think of this - if you hadn't backed out last time, you'd be at your goal weight be now and enjoying your life a lot more. If you back out now, you'll have to go through this again in a few years, when you could be enjoying being at your goal weight and all the health benefits it brings.
For what it's worth, I loved my italian food. And you know what - I don't miss it AT ALL. I'm sure I mentioned this in an earlier post, but during my two week liquid diet (and holy crap you only have to do one day you lucky bastard) I was craving chicken parm like I needed it to live.
Immediately after surgery, I lost all craving for it completely, and that is still the same today. I remember how good it is, I know that I would probably enjoy it if I had it right now. And I COULD have it right now if I wanted to (just less), but I have absolutely no desire for it. You're not going to miss it. And even if you do, ask if the food is worth the years of your life you'll lose to being overweight. For me it was a no brainer.
I wish you the best of luck, if you have any questions afterwards don't hesitate to drop me a line, you're welcome to call me if you want, just send a PM if you want my cell. Good luck and welcome to the club!

Just had an interesting dinner, 3 oz of TURKEY salad. My wife took one of those turkey chunks they sell at Aldi's, it's pre-seasoned, she blended it up good and added some low-fat mayo, delicious with the seasoning it already had!

Well one week ago today I was leaving my office and mentally preparing for surgery the next day. Now I'm 6 days post-surgery and feeling pretty good!
Losing about a pound a day, and it's easier to eat and drink every day. I still get some weird feelings while eating every so often, but nothing too bad, and drinking feels totally normal. Walking and moving around is easy and pain-free. Two days in a row I had some blood spots from the large incision on my shirt but I'm pretty sure that's because my daughter went to hug me too fast and headbutted me right in the abdomen - that sucked.
I've been able to eat the following, all homemade and pureed: Egg salad, tuna salad, turkey salad, chicken salad, yoplait light yogurt (boston cream pie flavor, yum), also scrambled eggs with some ricotta mixed in. I went to my sister's for christmas and brought some turkey salad in a container but she had tuna there so I ate that instead, it wasn't pureed but it was mashed enough and I just chewed a lot, and it was fine. I have about 3 - 3.5 oz per serving.
The chicken salad was a bit of a disappointment. I bought some chicken breasts and put them in a crockpot overnight with some low-sodium chicken broth, mixed in some garlic powder, onion powder, and some barbecue sauce just for taste. Cooked for 8 hours, it smelled delicious! Shredded it, cooked another 30 minutes, then in the blender to puree. Tasted a lot like chopped liver - which I like - but not very good chopped liver. Mixed in some low-fat mayo and it's not terrible, just not as delicious as I was hoping Still better than the liquid diet though, I guess.
Doing OK with liquid intake, that isn't really a problem, and my Protein intake has been right on point. Still taking in less than a thousand calories a day but I'm not hungry. That should increase once my portion sizes increase. I'm waiting for the day the MyFitnessPal app doesn't give me a warning at the end of each day that I'm not eating enough!
I'm proud of myself that I haven't cheated ONCE since the whole thing started, going to try to keep that up. My wife made a pumpkin cheesecake for the holidays and it looked unbelievable. Right consistency for me too, but I decided to stick with the post-surgery diet. There will be time for cheesecakes (small portions) in the future when I'm at my goal.
Edit: Don't know if these have been posted elsewhere, but I read two very interesting articles today in the NYT about bariatric surgery, in case anyone is interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/what-is-bariatric-surgery.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/bariatric-surgery.html

That's awesome, good luck with the scrambled eggs! I make them similar to the way Gordon Ramsey makes scrambled eggs (but without the creme freche, if that's how you spell it). I put a little splash of skim milk and an ounce of shredded cheese, put the pan between low and medium, wait about a minute, pour in the eggs, shortly after start scrambling, then take them OFF the heat and scramble for a minute, then back on the heat for a bit, then off, and that's it. As soon as they're solid I'm done. Eggs are creamy, fluffy, delicious. I used to like that a little al dente and with the crispy edges but this is SO much better and easier to eat too. Here's the video that inspired me -
Also, lucky you with the mashed potatoes! I was told I wasn't allowed to eat them because of the starch

Been away for too long! Everything is going great, hit some milestones. One I hit today - I'm down over 66 lbs in two and a half months. When I did Weight Watchers about 9 years ago, it took me about 9 or 10 months to lose the same amount - and then I put it all back on and then some No chance of that happening now though!
Also some non-scale victories. The big one - I can wear my wedding ring again! I had to stop wearing it for a long time, it just got too tight! Started wearing it again a few days ago, feels good.
Also cool - i have about 8 suits I rotate through for work. Before surgery, I was down to three I could wear, the rest were too small. And the three were getting a little tight too. Now, I wear all of them. The original three are way too big and I had to get them tailored. The other five are starting to get loose, going to need tailoring soon. That's a welcome expense, especially with what I'm saving on food.
Tonight I saw a recipe on Facebook I had to try, and I made a GRILLED cheese SANDWICH with cauliflower toast for bread, and turkey bacon. The toast wasn't as crunchy as I would have like, but not bad at all! I could actually only eat half, saving the rest for tomorrow. I'm attaching a pic for your enjoyment. Hope everyone is well!