Little Green

You are not alone!!!! There's a few of us who are doing a mostly plant-based bariatric adventure. I plan to supplement protein via shakes/bars for the first few months since as @Creekimp13 pointed out we do need more to get by as we heal and lose significant amounts of weight. But I definitely plan to eat as nutrient-dense as possible - focusing on all areas, not just protein alone. I'm still planning out what I want to try - and I know it will be trial and error with my new stomach anyway - but some of the things I'm thinking about are mashed bananas/banana ice cream, veggie juices/smoothies, blended oatmeal with bananas, flaxseed, and protein powder, blended veggie soups, and whole fruit sorbets as ways to get nutrients and fiber (and FLAVOR) in during the soft food phases. It doesn't all have to be ricotta bake and yogurt! I LOVE Dr. Weiner's videos. He is the first person who made me believe I could be successful at permanently changing my diet. All of the low-carb, high protein, "fruit is so unhealthy, too much sugar!" stuff that is often preached in bariatric circles was so depressing to me. Really, beans and fruit are unhealthy? Eat a chicken breast and then if you have space, a bite or two of broccoli? I just didn't think I could live that way and that was all I saw when I read about post-op diets. Now I know, thanks to Dr. Weiner as well as Dr. Garth Davis, that bariatric patients can thrive eating veggies and fruits and legumes. I also firmly believe that just because a diet helps you lose weight doesn't mean it's nutritionally adequate or protects you from disease. Fruit intake (2+ servings a day) is strongly associated with reduced risk of cancer so it bums me out reading posts from people who say they just don't bother with fruit because of carbs. Hope this post is not too inflammatory! Don't hate me, y'all! I just got excited for you, OP, cause I love where your mind is!!! I totally agree with you and hope you can find a happy place where you and your surgeon will both be happy with your choices! Good luck

Seriously - isn't ratatouille so beautiful?????????? OK I'm going to bed

^ Jeez, how many times can I say "truly enjoy," "truly savor," etc.??? Sorry for the repetitive phrases - it's super late and I need to be in bed! Hopefully you caught my drift anyway.

Most definitely - we all do! That was awesome for you to go to the support group. You'll definitely still be able to enjoy food; that's something I talk about with my therapist -- about changing my mindset from "enjoying food = stuffing myself on fatty food past the point of fullness" to "enjoying food = creating colorful, nutritious food flavored with herbs and truly savored and appreciated." When I'm struggling I think about my ideal self preparing my ideal meal - for some reason a colorful ratatouille is always something that I picture, or something piled high with colorful ripe berries. Setting the table and sitting down with my husband, talking and truly savoring the food - both for its taste and for the ways it nourishes my body. That image is a far cry from eating a brown bacon cheeseburger and brown fries and a brown soda, in my car by myself, with my mind numbed to the shoveling of food into my mouth. Which image portrays someone who is truly enjoying food? That's what motivates me. Yes, at the beginning I'll be limited in what I can eat while the weight loss phase is in full-swing. But once your body adapts and you leave the "honeymoon phase," if you've used your tool wisely you'll have transformed your relationship to food and you WILL be able to enjoy it, truly enjoy and savor it.

I have experience giving Lovenox shots to my husband after he was injured in a car accident. He will just crow with glee if I have to give them to myself at home I know for sure I'll have them in the hospital. Hopefully won't have to take them home with me!

I'm so thankful that my surgeon has very reasonable protein recommendations - only 50g minimum for women. That should be easily doable with protein drinks at the beginning and hopefully with food as well once I can eat more. Can't imagine having to reach 80 or 90g or risk being fussed at by the surgeon!

Yay!!! I'm so happy to read this update. Great job making it through everything, Brandi!

Huh, I've never heard that part about ketosis. I thought the purpose was calorie restriction to induce visceral fat loss around the liver. I know you can maintain ketosis long-term on up to 50g of carbs but usually it's recommended to stay under 20g to induce it for the first time. Many protein shakes and bars contain sufficient carbs to total more than 20g, right? My diet in particular is 5 shakes OR 4 shakes, 1 bar OR 3 shakes, 2 bars. I could stay at 25g carbs if I did all five servings from Premier Protein shakes. But if I added, for example, just one Pure Protein bar, that's 15-25g just right there, plus 20g for the 4 shakes. It's been several years since I was interested in keto so maybe the recommendations or guidelines have changed.

I'm so not judging you for smoking but I just wanted to caution that I don't think this is the best advice and I'm shocked your surgeon allowed you to have the surgery while smoking regularly. Smoking greatly increases the risk of blood clot which is already a very elevated risk after this type of surgery. It can also impede healing due to damage to the blood vessels. I'm so glad you made it through just fine (and I definitely understand not wanting to fight two demons at once). Just worried that this is not the right advice for OP.

Thank you for that info! I'll be on the lookout, especially since a lot of the protein bars and shakes have so many weird ingredients. I wonder if it goes by any other names in manufacturing.

Thanks for clarifying! I was so confused. You are definitely correct about the band, though. It's so funny because @Alex Brecher had the band and he was so successful that he started this website and his career in bariatrics! So while statistically the band is pretty poor, there are definitely success stories out there (just like with losing weight without surgery). But, as the statistics show, on average you'll definitely maintain weight loss better with the sleeve or bypass than with the band.

Omg. I am hoping to have surgery 3 weeks after my sleep study! Not sure I could even the machine in time, now. Blah.

Hey there! Could you point me to where you found this information about the sleeve? It was only approved as a standalone procedure in 2011, so the first 5-year studies are coming out now, with no longer-term studies yet available. Curious as to how it was demonstrated statistically that the sleeve performed better in weight maintenance over the bypass.

Dr. Weiner always says on his YouTube videos that you can tell real hunger apart from head hunger because you'll be happy to eat something healthy when you're really hungry, but that if you are craving greasy bad food and feeling sorry for yourself over eating an apple, it's head hunger. I'm pre-op so I have nothing to add myself - but I really appreciated the OP, @Creekimp13!

Okay, I got my samples in! I have to say, I got SO MUCH STUFF for just my $10 in shipping! I think I got at least 11-12 servings of the different kinds/flavors of vegan protein powders plus a couple little packets of supplements and the full-size green shaker bottle. That is a great value. It's really nice of them to offer such a comprehensive sample pack! The first one I decided to try was actually not the Veggie Elite protein mix but the Veggie Meal Replacement. The Veggie Elite mix seems like a workout-specific mix, like you would have with the whey powder. Basically just protein in a specific amino acid profile. The Meal Replacement has a different amino acid profile in the protein, plus Omega 3 & 6 from flax (I think it has DHA/EPA as well), plus an antioxidant blend of various herb/fruit powders and extracts, AND a probiotic blend. That packs a lot of punch! It's 190 calories with 22g protein and 8g fiber. Pretty impressive. They also included a Veggie Protein mix, which is basically the same as the Meal Replacement except without the probiotics, and it's fewer calories. So they have 3 vegan products - Meal Replacement, Veggie Protein, and Veggie Elite Protein. So the mix I made was the Veggie Meal Replacement powder in Chocolate Mocha flavor with 8oz chocolate soy milk (FULL DISCLOSURE: it is sweetened!), a couple oz water, and a few ice cubes. It's really not bad at all. It's slightly thicker than the premade Premier Protein shakes I've been trying - which I believe is true for all powders vs. premade shakes - and because it's got a tiny bit of stevia (about a gram), it's got a slight aftertaste. So, is it delicious? No. (And I haven't tried it with water or unsweetened milk yet.) But it's a protein powder. None of them are especially tasty and we're not drinking them for that reason. I don't think it would be fair to hold the vegan protein powder to a higher standard than the milk-based ones. In a whole food diet I don't think vegan protein powders would really have a regular place, because it's better to eat the actual peas and brown rice instead of just their protein - and better to eat the berries and herbs instead of just their extracts. But for bariatric patients in the early stages where volume is limited and stomach space is at a premium I definitely think these are a good choice. I'm so excited! Definitely going to be making an order of the full-size products. I also found Orgain on Amazon and at Costco, so I might give that one a try too. Apparently Garden of Life has an unflavored protein powder but the reviews on Amazon were pretty bad. So between the MRM powders and the Orgain I think I'll be okay for a bit. And I always have the Premier Protein as a backup. Sorry for the long post! Hopefully these details help someone

My surgeon had a little questionnaire to fill out, like on a scale of 1 to 5 how often does X or Y happen (ex: chance of falling asleep after lunch, chance of falling asleep while sitting quietly, etc.) and depending on that she made her recommendation for testing or not. (I always pass those tests because I sleep on my belly and don't have breathing issues - only when I try to sleep on my back do I feel the issue.) Usually the main symptoms of sleep apnea are severe snoring, gasping while sleeping, and higher than average daytime sleepiness.

How are you doing, @Brandi.? I would love to read an update from you if you're able. I hope you were able to get some help over the last couple of days and figure out what's wrong and get some relief. We're rooting for you.

I've heard awful things about Monat... hair splitting and breaking or even falling out, which reps blame on "detoxing" LOL - hair is dead, how can it detox?! Not sure about Biotin, either. I just stopped taking it myself (pre-op) after reading that it can interfere with results of lab tests. I cut my hair short and plan to keep it that way until I get through the hair loss phase. I figure it will be less noticeable on a short style than in a long style with ponytails, etc. Good luck!

Yep, sad but true. He keeps it pretty vague (I scoured his website and twitter lol) and besides the reference in FSND2, this is the only article I could find where he flat-out states he is not vegan: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16203/why-im-not-having-a-vegan-thanksgiving.html So he eats fish & chicken, and occasionally red meat, and dairy as well. And I do agree that lowering the amount of meat you eat will make you healthier even if you don't go vegan, so the 70/30 thing isn't that bad, but if you are going to call yourself plant-based and build a business on being a fruit & veg diet guru, you should not be eating up to 30% of your diet from animal protein! Smh!!!

My favorite cereal is the Kashi whole wheat biscuits. They have a lot of fiber and protein - they are lightly sweetened so keep that in mind. (My favorite flavors are the cinnamon harvest and the autumn wheat.) I'm pre-op so I'm not sure when I'll be able to eat them after surgery, but the wheat soaks up a lot of the milk and they get quite soft and mushy so I am thinking I might be able to swing them in the soft food phase. Whole wheat has protein, plus you can sprinkle in some ground flaxseed for more. Add your milk and depending on serving size you could get 12-20 grams of protein in a bowl.

That is so awesome! I love seeing doctors resist the professional peer pressure to do things that aren't evidence-based. (Dr. Matthew Weiner has a video on YouTube with the title, "Bariatric Patients, Eat Your Veggies First!" and with all the "protein first, protein first!" talk, that rebellious title just tickles me.) I do agree with your surgeon about the #'s on losing weight once you're severely obese. It seems like the metabolic and hormonal changes that the fat tissue causes in the body are really difficult to overcome. For me, the #'s for people overweight from childhood (check) and BMI above 50 (check) were so abysmal that even before I considered surgery I had trouble believing I would ever lose weight. I felt like I was fooling myself. I'm glad I finally chose to go forward with surgery and I look forward to maintaining weight loss for the rest of my life! Congrats on taking the first step! Surgery will be here before you know it.

I'm waiting for my at-home sleep study on January 23. This wasn't required by my surgeon but I requested it because I can't breathe well when I sleep on my back and I know post-op I'll need to sleep on my back for awhile. (I'm currently using a wedge pillow but it doesn't help much with the breathing issue. Definitely more comfortable, though!) The sleep doc recommended it as well due to the increased risk of difficulty breathing while on pain meds immediately post-op. I'm not saying that I hope I have OSA or anything, but I would feel a lot less anxious if I had a mouthpiece or CPAP machine to use for the first little while after surgery. We'll see.

My surgeon is not anti-caffeine but recommends stopping it prior to surgery because of risk of withdrawal. You'll need to be focused on getting water and/or nutrient-rich liquid during your first couple weeks post-op and you won't want to waste that stomach space on coffee. As you can eat more there's no reason not to have caffeine IMO. All this talk about diuretic effects seems to ignore the fact that caffeinated beverages are made WITH WATER.

I'm going back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando and I'm going to ride all the rides instead of holding my mom's stuff! Might be a graduation trip, maybe in 2020 which would be 2 years after surgery.

I gained 4 pounds at my last diet visit (still 3 pounds down overall at that point). I asked my surgeon to tell me honestly what she thought about my weight. She said she would say 2 things - 1 on the record and 1 off the record. The off-the-record response was that as an experienced surgeon she did not feel pre-op weight loss was always correlated with success afterward because pre-op we are still struggling and fighting against the hormones and the screaming hunger monkey on our backs along with all the anxiety of making this huge decision to have WLS and saying good-bye to certain foods and that lifestyle forever. The radical changes in hormones and hunger levels after surgery are the tool we use to lose weight combined with willpower - whereas before surgery we ONLY have willpower at our disposal. The on-the-record response was that she wasn't happy about the weight gain, and I needed to be extremely focused during the remaining pre-op period. She said I was still down overall which is an accomplishment because many patients struggle not to continue gaining. However despite that, she counseled me to strive to lose as much weight as possible because the smaller your belly at surgery the safer it would be. That was a month ago today and I've lost 13 pounds since then. I think she truly understood how I felt and both answers were what I needed to hear - that yes, it's hard to lose weight pre-op and don't beat yourself up, but also don't get complacent and strive every day to make good choices for yourself and your safety. That mix of answers worked for me! As far as insurance and whatnot, I was 367 on my consult day and 364 my last diet visit. They submitted the paperwork 12/18 and I was approved 12/22. So, no issue. Take it as a sign you need to be more focused, but don't go crazy with anxiety about it.