etc. etc. etc.

I'm on there as DirtyOldTown (after the Pogues song).

The thing that satisfies my sweet craving is Halo Top ice cream, which is just the business, man. It's between 60-90 calories a serving with about 14-15 grams of carbs. And it's actually good. A pint of that will give four servings, which I tend to space out over a few weeks.

Here are my measurements the day before I started my pre-op diet vs. today. (All sizes in inches because Americans are weird that way.) Before/After Neck 18.5/15.5 Chest 50.5/43 Stomach 57.5/41 Waist 49/39 Bicep 12.5/11 Thigh 27.5/22 Hips 50/42 Weight 336.4/218.4 How about you folks?

I know it's scary at first. But you're doing a great thing for yourself. Hang out for a while and read more threads! You'll see there is plenty of good news coming your way.

On the one hand, the way they reorganized the forums means the activity isn't so scattered around. More people participate and that makes it livelier. On the other, it means the top of the page is always dominated by new board members posting variations of the same few themes: I'm scared about doing this; I just did this and I'm freaked out; I did this a few weeks ago and I am worried I made a mistake; am I only the only one experiencing [common problem we already have ten threads about]... Etc. I don't mean to be unkind to the newer folks. We've been there. We get it. I know it's scary and I don't mind easing some fears. But man, it sure feels like a feedback loop at this point: new posters post problems worrying them which makes newer posters worry, who post more threads worrying which worries even newer posters... It just makes the top of the board weighted toward fear. Not sure there's anything to be done about it except try and help people relax and take it easy, though.

I've gone from two multi-vitamins, three calcium chews, and one iron pill a day to one multi, one or two calcium chews, and one iron pill a day. I have blood tests in a few weeks so we'll see if I am holding steady. I really think I'll be fine, especially with the calcium. I drink so much skim milk, I doubt I could be low.

People who are just getting started and are having a rough time tend to seem more numerous than they really are on the forums. This is because the newer folks are more likely to start new threads when they have an issue that they'd like feedback or support on. This makes the top of the forums seem heavy on people with issues. It makes sense: people are more likely to worry when everything is new and less likely to start threads later one saying "Wow, I was worried for nothing!' or "It turns out this is all okay!" But if you click into the longer threads, you see a lot more people with moderately to extremely positive results. There's an ongoing thread right now about how great it is not to recognize yourself in the mirror because you've gotten so thin.

The thing I have most enjoyed is that I no longer get the "bull in a china shop" treatment. When you're really big, people have this passive aggressive way of being crappy about it, where they act like they need three times more space to get by you than they really do. They act like you're driving a semi truck down the hallway instead of being just 4-6 inches wider than anybody else. That's done now. I don't miss it.

I got some of these from Whole Foods the other day and they asre pretty good, even if they do sound weird:

Depends... You didn't accidentally eat 20,000 calories one day did you? (I'M KIDDING.) Yep, it's just water weight/bowel factors.

I made a low carb crock pot crustless pizza this weekend. I made it from this recipe, though I made my batch smaller, with only one kind of cheese, and added a bunch of mushrooms. But it was gooooooooood. https://www.recipesthatcrock.com/crock-pot-crustless-pizza/ The only thing was, like an idiot, it never occurred to me to check the cook time... four hours. I ate pretty late the night I made that this weekend. Anyway, I had leftovers and had some for lunch and it was good. A fair amount of calories, but almost no carbs, so by eating lean for my other meals, I was able to fit it in.

Holy ****.

I like all of theirs I have tried. My personal rankings would be: Bananas & Cream -> Chocolate -> Strawberries & Cream -> Caramel -> Vanilla. All of them are pretty good, but the banana one is my favorite by far.

There's a thread about Genepro here already that is probably worth reading: The money quote is this: "[They] claim that 1 tablespoon of their product contains 30 grams of Protein when the tablespoon itself only holds 15 grams."

I do miss eating normally sometimes though, yeah. I'm at a scouting event with my kid and the other folks are eating deep dish pizza and chocolate cake. I brought a protein water and a sad little bag of chicken meatballs. It was fine until they decided they had extra pizza they "didn't want to go to waste" and like six people offered me a slice. Get thee behind me, Satan.

My BMI went below 30 this morning. My pulmonologist said if I went below 30, I can probably get rid of my CPAP. I'm also now the lowest weight I've been in the thirteen years my wife and I have been together.

After this fun thread from yesterday about lunches, I thought it would be interesting to see what people have for lunch. I go through weeks on weeks of having nothing more than a shake, so I'm interested to see what others do. Today, I had a Chobani plain greek yogurt with a tablespoon of chia seeds. That particular yogurt is low in carbs, which is good since I'm trying to limit mine. Adding in the Chia seeds gives it fiber, which helps keep me out of the various ohmahgawdI'msoconstipated threads. I let the chia seeds soak in for a few minutes so that they soften and taste better, and then a mix in a little water or tea to make it moist again (otherwise it turns to paste).

I looked for the baked cheese crisps (parmesan or gouda) tons of places before finding them in the fancy cheese section at Whole Foods. On the one hand, they're $6.99, which is expensive. On the other, I can only eat about 8 of them with a meal, so I get like five servings out of that $6.99, so it's okay.

I had a Starkist Tuna Creations packet, ranch-flavored, sprinkled with seasoning salt and spread onto baked gouda (100% cheese) "crackers." The baked cheese things made it way better. This made for a 150 calorie, 20 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbs lunch. I usually go lighter for lunch so that I can have something better for dinner or a more interesting snack later.

You ever leave a glass bottle in the freezer to get it cold, then forget about it and it breaks? That because stuff expands as it freezes. It's not good to fill something that can break or be damaged with something that expands. Carbonated beverages expand. Some bariatric patients say they can get away with them. But like creekimp13 says above, virtually all surgeons will insist this is a terrible idea. Me, I got really into hot tea, which has been a nice substitute. And it settles my stomach rather than upsetting it, which is a bonus.

There's a deep dish pizza place in the Chicago area (where I live) called Lou Malnati's that does a crustless deep dish. Basically, it's a Chicago style deep dish, but instead of a crust, the bottom is sausage. It's very good and has almost no carbs. If I plan for it by being VERY low calories in everything all day leading up to it, I can order a personal crustless while my family orders regular pizza. I eat half of that for dinner and the other half the next day. It gets me through. I realize not everywhere has this as an option, but there are DIY crustless pizzas. I even saw a crustless pizza recipe for the crockpot the other day.

Today, my Eastern European mother-in-law called my wife to tell her I should not lose any more weight. For those of you unfamiliar with Eastern European mothers/mothers-in-law, they are famous for constantly telling you if you're fat, telling you what you should not be eating because it will make you more fat, telling you that you would look nicer if you were not so fat, and in general, finding every possible reason to call you fat. So this was a milestone that goes into my calendar. I still have plenty more weight to lose though, she just saw a flattering picture of me. I still have a gut and love handles.

There are some people who say they can drink beer, but most doctors say not to drink beer, champagne, or anything else carbonated. The reasoning is pretty simple: you have a surgically altered stomach held together by staples that is trying to heal... filling it with something that expands is... not smart. As for the other stuff... they recommend less strongly against that, for different reasons. It's very easy to substitute one overindulgence for another. Plus, those calories still count, and that chips away from what you can eat. And finally, yes, as noted, you will feel the effects harder and faster. I'm able to occasionally have a glass of wine at the end of the day, when I don't need to drive and I've planned the calories and carbs into my day. But I find there's a very slippery slope where if I go beyond that, I tend to try and keep talking myself into more... more booze, more food. It's not good. So I try and keep it to one. And not every day.

If you have a very large amount to lose, the extra percentage you lose with bypass is probably totally worth it. And the malabsorbption thing you get with the reroute is probably much less intimidating.

I went with sleeve because it seemed to have very good results (second only to bypass) but some of the lowest rates of complications. I also liked that it lets you keep the natural order of your digestive system... a smaller stomach of course, but the same flow.