Little Green

I think it's common to maintain or even gain weight when you first increase the intensity of exercise. Muscle repair = water retention or something like that. That could be why. Don't despair, I know that's hard to hear after all the bumps in the road you've had! Stay the course and you will make it.

I'm not feeling well. I think I way, way overdid it yesterday and I still didn't meet my fluid or protein requirements. Today I feel dizzy, weak, and in pain. I am going to get up and walk, obviously, but that is going to be secondary to meeting my requirements and resting.

Also, obviously, I'm not even attempting to use plant-based protein sources at this point. When I get to pureed food I'll see how much protein I can tolerate in whole food form and then either continue supplementing with premier protein or start supplementing with 1-2 of the plant-based shakes.

I didn't sleep much last night; the recliner gives me a massive back- and headache after a couple hours. I showered this morning for the first time and tried napping in the bed on my side; it took a little while but I got comfortable and slept about 3.5 hours straight, definitely the longest stretch since surgery! So I'll try sleeping there tonight. After drinking Miralax (in four ounces of decaf coffee... heaven) this morning, I had a small, soft bowel movement this afternoon and my stomach is feeling quite upset and rumbly; I think I'm going to stick with the smooth move tea for now and only use the laxatives if I get to the 5 or 6 day range in between BMs. No need to force things along at this point. Right now I'm trying the clear Premier Protein water in tropical punch flavor; it's extremely sweet (artificially) and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. This is just a sample bottle but I was going to order more if I liked it. Not sure about that now, but we'll see. Overall my pain is okay. I'm feeling more uncomfortable and stiff than I am actual pain today. I'm pretty happy with my new stomach so far and its acceptance of iced drinks, room temperature drinks, warm drinks, protein shakes, tea, etc. I might try some sugar free jello and see how that does.

Yes! You stated this so eloquently. I'm not going to weigh in prior to my 2-week follow-up and then after that I think I'll reserve weigh-ins for once or twice a month. (At my weight it will be awhile before clothes stop fitting so that won't be a good guide for me.) I did the obsessive naked post-BM don't-drink-any-water daily morning weigh-ins for almost two years and it was exhausting and depressing especially when you knew you did EVERYTHING right and the scale wouldn't budge. As bari patients we have a program to follow - hydrate, walk, eat nutritious whole foods in small quantities. If we do that, we cannot fail. So long, scale!

How have you been doing the last few days? I hope you're feeling better & the new meds are keeping things controlled.

Post-op day 3 was pretty good. My surgery pain is lessening and has been somewhat replaced by gas pain although I can get pretty good temporary relief from that by passing gas. That's hard to do sitting down but easy (and fun!) while walking. Not sure when to expect a bowel movement; I had some smooth move tea today and will likely start miralax tomorrow. (The liquid docusate they gave me in the hospital was so disgusting that I would rather an impacted colon than swallow it again.) New pain has come up in the form of stiffness and soreness in my back, neck, and butt, from limited mobility I'm sure. I walked less than 800 steps today and I'd like to hit 1000+ per day coming up here shortly as the pain continues to recede. I'm going to start stretching my pain meds farther apart; I think they do "help" but mostly in the sense that they put me to sleep; I'd like to be more awake and alert during the day. I still have burps from time to time but no vomiting and very little nausea; the nausea I do have is coming from my vertigo, I think, which seems to be in a slight flare. Today I had about 1.25 premier protein shakes, so didn't come near my 60g protein goal, and probably 35-40oz of water, well short of my 60oz goal. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get on a schedule for such things to see if I can accomplish more. It's not that I necessarily feel full and have to stop; I just don't have any interest in it and the naps/fatigue get in the way. Besides plain water I had a bit of the smooth move tea, two tiny sips of decaf coffee, and maybe 2 oz of thinned-out tomato soup, which was delicious. I keep dreaming about pureed foods, even though I'm not hungry physically or mentally. I think my first meal is going to be refried beans with guacamole and some thin salsa. I also have some good plans for hummus, mmm hummus. Oatmeal with banana and peanut butter. And once I'm strong enough I plan to get the crockpots going with several different kinds of bean chilis that I can puree. For right now I'll just focus on walking & sipping!

Well, I made it! I'm still fairly loopy so I'm going to keep this short. I had a good surgery with no complications, but struggled to wake up afterward so I had to remain on breathing support for another hour or two once I was in recovery. Originally (once in my room) I was using a PCA pump with Dilaudid which helped for my pain but put me to sleep almost immediately so the 2nd day we switched to liquid oxycodone so that I could stay awake a bit more to walk and move around. I spent 2 nights in the hospital; I was afraid I'd have to spend a third because it took me a long time to get walking, but I improved pretty rapidly on the morning of the second post-op day so I went home yesterday around 5pm. My pain in the belly region is pretty intense; there's one spot in particular that feels like it's ripping or tearing when I move a certain way. Overall it's better than before, though. I didn't have any gas pain until last night and thankfully it's all in the belly area, so I can just get rid of it the normal way LOL, no issues with gas pain in my chest or neck or shoulders like some have. Water and protein shakes are staying down fine, I've had a few burps here and there but nothing has come back up or caused pain. We stayed ahead of nausea with the patch and IV zofran so I haven't felt like I needed to throw up at all. I have the dissolvable nausea pills at home now for when/if I need them. Okay I think that's all the thinking and typing I can handle for now. Thank you all so much for your support. You mean the world to me!

I'm here in the waiting room, waiting to go to pre-op! Last weigh in was 342, from 358, so 16 pounds lost on my liquid diet. I'll see you guys on the other side. ?

Well I just took the half bottle dose of magnesium citrate for bowel prep for tomorrow... we'll see shortly whether or not I'm full of sh*t! I had a massage and a float session today, both were very relaxing. I'm feeling pretty good, overall, not as anxious as I'd imagined. Plan to relax some more with a bath before bed, and hopefully I can sleep tonight! We'll be leaving for the hospital around 6:45am, I believe I am the second case of the day. I'm *almost* allowing myself to believe surgery is going to happen! I won't really believe it until I'm in the OR but... almost!

I haven't lost much weight in the last week, only 4 pounds. So I'm at a total of 14 lbs down. After 18 days on the liquid diet I would have expected to be at 20 pounds or so (because my starting weight is higher than most). I have had a few odd hormonal things happening - I have PCOS with amenorrhea so I haven't had regular periods since I was 17, but the last couple of weeks I've had on and off spotting that started 4 or 5 days into the diet. I don't know if that could factor in or not. I'm just hoping my liver is small enough for a safe surgery and that my surgeon won't be disappointed. I still have today and tomorrow to go, of course, maybe I can take off another 2-3 pounds.

Thank you so much for reading! Yes... omg, lol, it really has been a rollercoaster. I'm glad the last couple weeks have been mostly smooth sailing for me! You will do a fabulous job on the liquid diet and we'll be here to cheer you on!

Hang in there. You will be with me soon

72 hours until Surgery Eve! The last couple days I've started having trouble with my head hunger on the liquid diet. Right on the home stretch I graduated with my associate's degree Thursday night and my parents, brother, and husband were all there. Afterward, despite everyone saying they didn't want me to have to go out to eat while on my diet, I insisted we all go out. The table was covered in chips & salsa and fried pickles and steak and chicken & waffles (my husband) and the smells were overwhelming. Ever since then I've been dying to eat. Not unhealthy food specifically, just food. My husband made a black bean burrito last night and I nearly cried smelling it. I'm still not having much actual physical hunger but the drive to eat is in full force. I just keep reminding myself that in two weeks (from surgery day, I mean) I can have pureed foods like beans and hummus and chili and veggies and applesauce. It's not that far away! This stage isn't forever... it's just for my safety and recovery. *repeats 100 times* Having said all that, despite the recent issues I absolutely LOOOOOOOVE the Svelte protein shakes. I've got 5 flavors now (thanks, Amazon!) - chocolate, vanilla, cappuccino, spiced chai, and banana créme. I love them all, although cappuccino might still be my favorite. I'd like to use them exclusively after surgery but only being 11g of protein I'm not sure that will be possible. I could just about hit my protein goal (60g) with five of them but that's 55oz of protein shakes in addition to the 60oz of water I'm supposed to be having, which seems like a lot to tolerate. I might have to do one premier protein per day since that's 30g and that'll give me more leeway. I want to stick to the plant-based shakes but I'm going to try and be as flexible as possible during the liquid stage, it's all about staying hydrated & healthy! Tomorrow I'll be finishing up laundry & house prep and then Tuesday afternoon when my husband gets home from work we'll load up the car and the cats and hit the road for my Mom's! I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case, I'm having surgery in another city near where my parents live, in the hospital where my husband was treated after his accident. It's a large, teaching hospital and is a center of excellence for bariatric surgery - so I felt safer there than at a regional hospital in my area. I'll be at Mom's until the weekend of Memorial Day (10-ish days). So that's why we'll be heading off Tuesday night! On Surgery Eve Day (Wednesday) I booked massage and floating therapy sessions, and I'll have a bath in my parents' big tub that night as well. By then I assume I will be nearly catatonic with anxiety so I'm trying to take every precaution against losing my mind I doubt I will actually be able to relax but hopefully the relaxing settings will at least give me the opportunity to do so!

I had my pre-op appointment today which included the nutrition/surgery day class and the lab work. As soon as I walked into the hospital my brain and stomach remembered that I'm having surgery and went into overdrive with anxiety, nausea, etc. I'm feeling better now, though, so that's good. I'm not anxious about whether I should have surgery, or even the specific procedures, etc. -- I just want to wake up afterward. I'm just having "end of life" thoughts about things I have or haven't done or said and regrets and fears about what happens if I don't make it through. I know that is soooo dramatic lol, and I can't wait to laugh at myself. 7 days to go! The lab work was all normal and my bg was 76, it was about 4 hours after my morning protein shake so not exactly postprandial but still a great number. (I'm not diabetic, I just worry. I can't wait until I don't have to be paranoid about medical conditions I don't have!) One more week... so hard to believe it's nearly here!

I definitely feel like I'm in whatever mode! Thank you so much, friend, and I hope the same for you!

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.