Little Green

I'm not sure what it is, dagnabbit! And woohoo, 11 days to go!

I can't believe you read the majority of this hot mess of a thread!!! Haha, that is so sweet of you to say, thank you for the encouragement!

Made it to 10 pounds lost this morning! Not exactly where I wanted to be but I can't complain. I'm still feeling ill occasionally but not as bad, so hopefully it was just an adjustment period. One odd thing is I'm having heartburn between meals, not every time but at least once a day. And I've had a reflux issue twice. I rarely ever get heartburn and definitely only get reflux once in a blue moon (maybe 3-4x in my whole adult life). Not sure what the connection is. I'll call my surgeon Monday morning just to make sure. I'm feeling good. I feel kind of disconnected from surgery, to be honest. I think I was so I incredibly engaged and anxious the first time I was in "go mode" that this time my brain can't get the anxiety juices flowing. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Just trucking on having my protein shakes and water, biding my time.

I feel like utter dogshit. I'm very weak and I've almost fainted twice today. I don't really know what's going on, as it seems my body should be fairly well-adjusted at this point. I rested at home most of the day today with the exception of a walk, which was cut short by the first instance of almost fainting. The second instance was as I was getting out of the shower just now. My HR shot up both times, which I didn't think much of during the walk but certainly showering shouldn't give me a 140+ bpm heart rate! My urine output is normal and light in color so I don't think I'm dehydrated. I'm getting about 750-850 calories per day with around 50-70 grams each of protein and carbs and around 30 grams of fat. I'm feeling better now that I've been lying down for awhile, but I still wish I knew what was going on. I'm hoping today was just an off day because honestly I've got stuff to do and I can't lay around in bed for the next two weeks.

I appreciate the humor - but you knew what I meant. She just made me nervous by going on about it.

No He's still active in terms of occasionally answering comments and such but no new videos. I would love to hear what he's up to now and if his views on animal protein have shifted as plant-based diets have become mainstream. He and Dr. Nowzaradan are like my WLS motivational gurus haha, I should build a shrine!

Thank you, you actually reminded me that I had some of these in the pantry! I put them in the fridge and tried them yesterday - they are instantly my favorite, they taste so much better than the other ones. I think it's because they're getting their protein from soy milk, which is quite neutral-flavored, instead of pea protein or other form. (It's not that the others taste awful, they just taste really sweet and artificial.) However, I hope my surgeon doesn't read this lol because they don't quite qualify for the pre-op requirements, only 11g of protein instead of 15. But my other shakes have 20+ grams and the bars have 18-20 grams so it should still balance out over the day. So far my favorite Svelte flavor is cappuccino. Today's day 6, I'm still feeling all right hunger- and mood-wise but I'm starting to feel run down and the dark black/purple eye circles are back. I've been in bed most of today, dozing. I've lost 8 pounds so far, and I hope to lose another 2 lb by tomorrow to hit an even 10 pounds for the week. My goal is to hit 25 pounds lost on my liquid diet - going to add in a daily walk and hopefully get to a better sleep schedule as well, to help things get moving.

Day 3 of liquid diet and I'm doing fine this time around. I've stopped obsessing about it and I find myself not hungry at all and not fixating on food. If I get hungry I just drink a shake or eat a bar, and if I'm not hungry I don't worry about it. Whether I do 3 servings a day or 4 a day or 5 a day doesn't really matter to me at this point, even just having 3 gives me 60+ grams of protein which is more than sufficient. The premade vegan shakes aren't quite as tasty as Premier Protein but they're easy enough to get down. Still loving my vegan protein bars, they are so delicious!

I'm so sorry to hear this. There is some interesting research linking animal protein and diabetes, with many folks dropping their blood glucose and getting off meds within weeks after eliminating it from their diet. Check out Dr. Neal Barnard, who has some great books and videos about reversing diabetes. Quoting from his website, "...Dr. Barnard’s program [was] three times more effective than the American Diabetes Association dietary guidelines at controlling blood sugar." For what it's worth, several of the popular keto/low-carb bloggers have turned out to have developed high bg and A1C numbers after years of a supposed diabetes-proof diet - particularly Shawn Baker and Jimmy Moore.

Howdy all! After a crazy rollercoaster with my surgery date back in February and March, I'm finally almost to my new surgery date of May 17! I'll be starting my liquid diet this week as my surgeon wanted me to do 3 weeks instead of 2. Nice to meet some May buddies

Girl you have lost 50 lbs in 2 months! That's freakin fantastic!!!! Congrats on the pants, too

Thanks @Frustr8! Hallooooo little miss Fluff! I've missed you too. I know I promised not to leave, but you know how it goes. Anyway, at least I'm back, right?! The surgeon's office called today and asked me to do a 3-week liquid diet, starting tomorrow instead of May 3. My surgeon appears to be concerned about my belly size and made several comments about it at yesterday's appointment, so I'm guessing that's why. I'm fairly proportionate, I thought, in terms of weight distribution - though I'm definitely apple-shaped, so I see her point. I feel a little off about it, though, like maybe she's not confident about my safety for some reason. I've seen men 100 lbs heavier than me with much larger bellies than me get through surgery safely so I'm just hoping she's being super cautious. I can't actually start my liquids tomorrow; my choir has our semester performance and if we do not attend we cannot receive a passing grade in the course. I really don't want to faint after standing on stage under hot lights for three hours, and nor do I want to fail my class right before I get my degree, so I'll have to start Friday. I'll report back

Met with the surgeon again today to redo the consent form. All is good! Liquid diet starts May 3, class and pre-op labs May 9, surgery May 17.

Not true. Someone I know on this forum had issues with a single dose of oral NSAID. Look, people with RNY cannot take NSAIDs, ever. I had to sign a paper saying I wouldn't. That is a big, bright shining line behind which we are safe. "Oh, a dose or two here or there, as long as it's not high doses, or for too many days in a row" is a fuzzy line that patients are notoriously bad at toeing. Stay behind the bright line of NO NSAIDs EVER!

New surgery date... May 17

I'll do that, but I still don't see the relevance. Enjoy your crickets?

Legumes are an awesome source of protein. Brown rice, peas, and soybeans (the 6% that aren't grown to feed cows & pigs, that is) are also easy on the environment. These are all normal, natural foods that aren't freakin' crickets, and you can find plenty of protein powders made from them. I mean, I'm not trying to be a vegan a*****e, but I just don't get it. And gorillas, elephants, and rhinos eat exclusively plants, so what's your point?

But... why? And is the iron heme or non-heme? I will seriously never understand the obsession our society has with bizarre supplements. Just... eat food. Mostly plants. No crickets required.

I think as a bariatric patient you should generally err on the side of caution. The only vitamin supp I'm really concerned about is calcium because of the research Dr. Greger has talked about that shows calcium supplements can increase the risk for CVD, blood clot, and stroke. So... I don't know. I'll definitely be taking everything as recommended immediately following surgery. But it's the long-term I have concerns about. If after 6-12 months I'm eating enough greens, chia, beans, and fortified soy milk to meet the 1000mg dietary recommendation, I might opt to stop the supplement for the reasons mentioned above.

http://gamechangersmovie.com/ I haven't seen it yet-- I'm not sure it's out yet actually, but Dr. Greger mentioned it on his Facebook page and said this is the best and most evidence-based vegan documentary he's seen yet! James Cameron is the executive producer and it also features Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think this is going to be HUGE! And hopefully reach a ton of people to get them eating the healthiest diet! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Hope you're doing well, Fluffy.

Thank you peoples! Just wanted to give a brief update. My husband went back to work today, yay! It ended up being very easy once we got our hands on the medical records, so all the worrying was for naught. Thankful for health insurance I've decided to postpone my surgery. I was honestly thinking about canceling the whole damn thing, which is why I took some time to think about it before being rash, lol. I feel like I was a sprinter and I had trained for weeks... and I was on the starting block, whole body tense and waiting for the gun, and instead they were like................. just kidding go sit on the bench for two weeks and come back. I needed more time than that to process things. So it'll be May some time, waiting on a call for the date. I regained some weight after I stopped the liquid diet so right now my goal is to lose 30-35 pounds between now and May. Then if I lose 15-20 on the liquid diet, I'll be under 300 for my surgery.

No, I don't. And I'm not the OP, so I'm not sure why you issued this sarcastic response. Editing is only allowed during a brief window, maybe 10-20 minutes after the post. So I legitimately don't understand why the fact that the posts are edited is worth a critical comment.

Hmm? I'm not sure I understand this criticism.

I'M ADDING EVERYONE WHO MADE FUN OF COUNTRY MUSIC TO MY BLOCK LIST IMMEDIATELY.