TheRealSergio

The reality that "patients don't have much room for vegetables after consuming necessary protein" is one that makes me think about the rest of my life. I have to say the thought of living on 4 meals of almost exclusively protein, and a bunch of supplements (to round out how terribly unbalanced that is and keep me from essential vitamin deficiency) is a little depressing. Not I-wish-I-hadn't-done-this depressing, but still kind of depressing. I mean, I am not just someone that wanted to lose weight, I am someone that wanted to be reborn as someone that could nourish themselves sanely with balanced meals. My last meal with an intact stomach was a tiny portion of grilled chicken breast, a tiny portion of spinach, and a tiny portion of brown rice (It was probably a 350 calorie meal tops) and the daydream that someday I could eat this tiny balanced meal and be satisfied Stage 1 (liquids and protein powders) has got me thinking: what if in the future I use protein powders more aggressively, having two 100 calorie / 25g protein doses (either in water or broth). If I did that, I'd have the protein requirements of the day practically covered, then I could eat these tiny banana-volume meals, but enjoy more BALANCED ones, with a tiny tasting of a protein (without having to fill up on protein just to make my "quota"), and accompany that with the room to eat some deliciously prepared leafy greens and some low glycemic index unrefined carbs. I guess stomach capacity is such a premium for a post-op bariatric patient, that it seems unbalanced and wasteful to dedicate almost all of it to protein eating, and then turn to multivitamins for the rest of my nutrition. Curious what folks are doing and if this question even makes sense to anyone.

I had vertical sleeve gastrectomy 3 days ago on April 26th. The first day was quite painful for me, but they confirmed I had no staple leaks and sent me home. These last past 2 days have been a steady improvement day by day, less abdominal pain, diminishing acid reflux, and I have been tolerating the protein powders and liquids of the "liquid phase". I just watched the helpful videos of a YouTuber https://www.youtube.com/user/OneLifetoSleeve/videos If anyone finds this message, if you have any other supportive discoveries you've made that you would like to share, I would really appreciate them. This is hard. Some support would feel nice.

The first 3 days were hard. I have settled into liquid foods and really feel much better now 9 days out. Of course I shouldn't base my views of the future on what things are like now. Thanks for at least asking how I am. The intent of the requests was to find more helpful video stories like the one I mentioned above. I am a little less than a month away from the next monthly meeting of my surgery clinics support group which i am looking forward to attending (if not wishing there was something more frequent to rely on)

YMMV. For me, I am seeing getting 60g of protein in solid food as an enormous space requirement from my sleeve, that seems to preclude the possibility of eating what remotely looks like a balanced meal (it would have to almost all be protein with no room for anything else) To the various times in your response that you assume I am pre-op, I point out (as my profile says) that my surgery was April 26th and I've lost over 20 lbs in the last 8 days post op. Yes I have no experience with Stage 3 eating, and was looking for experience of others (including but not limited to yours) and not "planning" anything in stone. Not anti-vitamin. I am anti a day of largely eating nothing but protein and having room for nothing else in the balanced eating equation. I know I signed up for needing a multivitamin for the rest of my life by doing this.

I am 3 days post-op from vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I think it would be invaluable if someone who is down the way towards goal or in maintenance were available to mentor me. (I believe that is principle employed quite profitably in 12-step groups)