Little Green

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.

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.

MY world revolves around you.

I'm sorry you're dealing with the nut allergy! That's sooo frustrating. Definitely glad to hear that your NUT is open to a plant-based diet! For whole food concentrated protein, like you said, beans are definitely the way to go. You can eat hummus or refried beans as well, they are a bit smoother/less filling so you might be able to eat more that way. Another good option is soy, particular soy milk. Make a smoothie with soy milk or add it to your oatmeal and that's 8-12g of protein just from the milk depending on how much you use. (Most other plant milks are low in protein.) In terms of non-concentrated protein, you can get it from literally any whole food. Whole grain pasta has a pretty good amount, about 4 grams in half a serving (1 oz dry). Most plant foods will have 1-3g in a serving and throughout the day that adds up. For plant-based protein that's more processed, like a supplemental protein (which you will definitely need this early post-op) there are some really tasty protein bars I've found called Nugo which are vegan and made from soy protein. I believe many of the flavors do not contain nuts, but you'd have to check to be sure. You can buy them on Amazon or in the protein bar aisle at Whole Foods. (And maybe other places!) You can also look for protein powders made from pea protein, brown rice protein, etc. as well. Orgain is one common brand. I just found some ready-made vegan shakes (like premier protein) at Target that I believe are Evolve brand, but I haven't tried them yet. Hopefully they taste all right! Probiotics... well that's a whole other discussion LOL (basically if you're not eating animal products you likely don't have a big need for probiotics as the plants help your gut bacteria stay happy on their own) but to answer your direct question, there are some fermented plant options! Sauerkraut if you like it, and kombucha tea are two good places to start. You can also make yogurt and kefir from soy milk, although I haven't done it myself (yet!) so I can't give you specific guidance. Good luck!!

I knowwww, I feel like we got in WAY too early and now we have to sit and wait for the general public release lol. But, they just posted a new teaser trailer on their facebook!

I didn't need a referral. I saw my PCP about 3 months after my consult and said, "I'm having bariatric surgery, here are my plans." (She was and is super supportive, thank goodness!) Many PPO insurance plans don't require referrals, so check that out before you find another doc and pay a copay. I'm usually against doctor hopping but unfortunately many still stigmatize WLS when it's the only thing shown to work for this population. In this specific instance I would definitely recommend finding a new PCP if your insurance requires a referral.

Okay no it does not help anymore............. you bamboozled me! LOL. I haven't called the office yet to tell them I'm postponing until May, so still have March 8 as the official date. We would have been almost twins!

Yes. That does help. When do you start?!

No. Whole fruit consumption promotes weight reduction. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5084020/) So stick to smoothies (as opposed to, say, juicing) and having fruit as a snack, and you'll be just fine!

Sooooo not fair. I'm so jealous!

Omg the Penny Saeger reference The documentarian used to be me.... I was f-cking psycho in my MyFitnessPal days.... And the bolded? Well... ME

No sugar added means the popsicles are likely made with fruit juice instead of an artificial sweetener. Gotta be careful with those stupid marketing phrases and always check the ingredients/nutrition info. So, no, those popsicles would not be appropriate for the diet. My surgeon's diet didn't specify exact grams or quantity of macros/calories but just said to have 5 servings of protein shakes with each shake being 200 calories or less, 15g of protein or more, and 8g of sugar or less. Combined with unlimited amounts of broth/jello/popsicles that's around 800-1000 calories per day and 80+ grams of protein. Again, that was not specified as the goal, but that's how the math works out. On my surgeon's diet, no, you would not be able to have almond milk or SF pudding, only jello. That seems acceptable for the protein powder, but I don't know your diet's requirements. Did you get any documents or literature related to the diet guidelines? If not, I would call and ask the dietitian. I'm telling you information based on my surgeon, but your surgeon could have a totally different philosophy.