CJ Sunshine

OMG, I so relate to this post! I read on here about people who are eating solid food almost immediately after surgery...now, 5 weeks out, I cannot even imagine that! I just moved on to soft foods, which includes fish and dark meat chicken and I can barely get 2 ounces in...and some things (ground turkey to be exact) just don't work! I'm grateful that in the first weeks my diet was so limited. I didn't care about food anyway and it made it easy to get my protein in...plus it all went down so easily. My recovery experience would have been very different if I'd tried solid food quickly.
I'm still needing a shake for Breakfast, because otherwise I couldn't possibly get enough protein in...even with a shake and fairlife milk in the morning, some days I still come up just short (although most of the time I hit my 80g).

I haven't needed it yet, but I've read a lot of people recommend Devrom. It's an internal deodorizer. You can buy it at the drug store or on line.

B - Premier Protein - your choice of flavor 30g
snack 1 - Oikos Triple Zero - pick your flavor 15g
lunch - 3 ounces albacore tuna with 1 tb mayo - 20 g
Snack 2 - sugar free pudding 1g
dinner - 3 ounces shredded chicken breast rotisserie with BBQ Sauce to moisten used cautiously - 22g
88g Protein
I'm 14 months out and still use shakes for Breakfast because they work for my schedule

You know how you have a favorite color? Yeah.. imagine going under the knife and your favorite color is red. Everything you own is red. You wake up, and red is too bright. You're drawn to all things blue.
That pretty much sums it up. Taste, and otherwise. I used to HATE cars that were non-metallic colors. They looked like toys. I like em now. So strange.

I guess I'm lucky...since my surgery 5 weeks ago, I have no appetite and no hunger..Once in a while I think I'm hungry, but then I eat a couple bites and I'm like, "yeah, I'm good."

sounds like you need to undo that memory and replace it with a good one when you get to goal!!
I want to take my wife to either Hawaii or Germany...two places I've been that she hasn't and that I really want to share with her...

Yes, I don’t think I will be able to avoid replacement, but I’m only 49, so the longer I can postpone it the better!!

I have set an intermediate goal...250 lbs. I need to get under 250, to have knee surgery (which I'm hoping I won't need when I get there)....but that's the maximum my orthopedist said he could do the surgery....I figure when I get there, I may decide to set another goal.

You are being too hard on yourself! You are losing at a great rate...and p.s., your co-workers are not just being nice. There is a dramatic difference and you are doing great!!! Give yourself credit where due. You are doing an amazing job!

One of the most healing things I've ever done for myself was put out pictures of me at all different sizes....those are all parts of me and I don't want to be ashamed of me...thin, fat or somewhere in between, I'm worthy of being remembered and so are you!! I bet your husband isn't embarrassed when you are in the picture...bet he loves you for who you are regardless of the size you happen to be...

sounds like you need to undo that memory and replace it with a good one when you get to goal!!
I want to take my wife to either Hawaii or Germany...two places I've been that she hasn't and that I really want to share with her...

A brand new wardrobe. I've been grabbing a fewer cheaper items to get me through but I can't wait to do shopping for "real"

Enjoy Disney! December with all the holiday decorations there are lots of photo ops. There is a great one in the animal kingdom lodge lobby in front of the tree.

sounds like you need to undo that memory and replace it with a good one when you get to goal!!
I want to take my wife to either Hawaii or Germany...two places I've been that she hasn't and that I really want to share with her...

Great topic! Maybe a trip to Paris or something like that -- because I'll be able to WALK again!!

I am 5 months post op. I have very little appetite typically. It’s more like a signal that says time to eat every 2-3 hours.
Every now and then I am hungry all the time. It seems to happen after a phase of rapid weight loss. The past 2 weeks I lost 10 lbs then I was hungry all the time. I just ate according to plan. Then after two days of that I am not hungry any more.
When I am hungry my calories get up to about 1000 so I don’t sweat it.
I think there are more hormones at play here than we know or the doctors tell us about.

You are being too hard on yourself! You are losing at a great rate...and p.s., your co-workers are not just being nice. There is a dramatic difference and you are doing great!!! Give yourself credit where due. You are doing an amazing job!

Thanks for an insightful post...
Most experts cite the late 1970s/early 1980s era as the start of the modern day obesity epidemic in the US. Prior to 1977, the vast majority of people were normal weight.
What changed in the late 70s/early 80s?
Health authorities urged us to adopt low-fat dietary practices. Before 1977, typical Americans ate more than 40 percent of calories from fat. Today people eat about 30 percent of calories from fat. Due to low-fat recommendations, healthy fats in peoples' diets were displaced with processed carbs and unhealthy fat (read: margarine, shortening, industrial vegetable oil). Society changed due to the shift away from agrarian living and, later, the shift away from industrialization. Not as many people work in labor-intensive jobs in farming, ranching, factory production lines, construction, etc. We now live in an information-based society where many people earn their incomes while seated behind a desk. More people than ever sit on their asses while entertaining themselves behind some type of device screen: smartphones, tablets, computers, TV, gaming...you name it. Entertainment involved purposeful movement and actually doing something in past generations. Yes, my observations are unscientific, but the cold hard statistics point to a rise in obesity, type 2 diabetes and other lifestyle diseases soon after the late 70s/early 80s.
I think my anecdotal observations are at least somewhat valid.

So I'm almost a year out (11/21/2016) and I'm about 105 pounds down.
My weight loss has slowed now, probably to about 2-3 pounds a month since June (as expected), but it's still happening and I've now started to be more active -- Tennis, swimming... I feel terrific and as you can see, there's a radical change. I'd like to lose another 20-30 pounds, but I'm going to do that with more exercise.
The first picture is a before and after of my face. Then there's some full body shots, or close to full body. Just to give you an idea of how radical this change was, prior to surgery, I was the following:
358 pounds and a 50/52 inch waist size.
Today
249 pounds and a 38 waist size
For me, personally, I'm back to where I was when I was in my late 20's, I'm 52 years old now. Health? I feel amazing, more energy, more sleep, more life.
Hopefully, this will inspire people. I know when I saw the pictures of people who made progress, I got inspired.
 

I also named my pouch. Let me explain where I got her name. My mom had a Quaker Parrot, she would like you one time and then the next she would tear you up!! So my pouch has part of her name!! PRISSY POUCH as her name was PRISSY BIRD!!! My pouch has a mind of her own. One time I can eat something and then the next time I try to eat it my PRISSY gets in a full PRISSY mood!! My pouch also rumbles like crazy. I am Lactose Intolerant since my RNY. I don't POO like before either. I always had "the back door trots" before my RNY, now I tend to go the other way. Which as bad as it hurts at times I really don't miss the other GO!!!

I am also a SIPS patient (they just don’t have a SIPS option on this forum)... since I moved to purées, things have quieted down a bit. I think I may have become a little lactose intolerant post surgery. I’ve been told that can change again, but for now, I think too much dairy was part of the problem. In those first weeks, my diet was largely dairy. I seem to be able to tolerate some dairy but not quite so much.

I hope not! My surgeon is brilliant and considered one of the best, but I wouldn't call him the warm and fuzzy type! However, he is smart enough to have hired warm fuzzy types to run his office...the PA, nutritionist and other staff all have giant smiles!

I just finished my liquid phase and moved onto purees this week. I puree everything and I often have to add a bit of broth, to get it thin enough...otherwise it does not sit very well. I haven't thrown up, but a couple of things just feel like they sit in my stomach like a lead weight...pureed homemade beef stew looks utterly disgusting, to be honest, but actually tasted pretty good...I just try not to look at it while I eat it...

what a great visualization!!! Thanks for this morning's inspiration!

I'd never heard that before...interesting...