Creekimp13

I drink diet soda. One can a day. No big issues. I admitted it at my last yearly visit and my doctor said...you're maintaining well and your labs are great...without actually saying it was ok. I kinda cornered my doc on the fallacy of carbonation "stretching your stomach" and he admitted it didn't, but said that they try to strongly discourage people from taking up carbonated beverages again because so many of the people who suffer a lot of regain go back to full calorie soda and beer with diet soda being a bit of a "gateway drug". Also, diet soda isn't particularly healthy or helpful. It's a habit with little benefit that carries the potential for problems for those who will eventually return to full calorie beverages. So...I get it. Still....damned if I don't enjoy that one can of diet soda a day. My current favorite. Diet Mango Pepsi. Yep, I'm guilty.

Lynn, they don't keep them with the shrimp and seafood. At the stores around me they keep them in the freezer with more promotional items, seasonal stuff. Typically it's a freezer on the floor you look down into where they have stuff like fancy pizza, fancy ice cream treats, meal kits....not necessarily by the frozen foods. I think these are officially a seasonal thing, but I've seen them there for at least two years, and this year they've been available since April at least (at my stores).

Awesome nutrition, cleaned, chopped and ready to go...and it's just plain delicious. Look at those low calories! You can eat half of this with a couple of mini-tortillas, or a side of refried beans and a little cheese. Or some lettuce, tomatoes, onions and avacado. Or, just eat the whole damned thing. You can. (might take ya a couple of sittings) Just a super easy, nice convenience product. Keeps in the freezer until you're ready to eat it. You can make it in a pan, or on some foil right on the grill outside. About $5.

I, too, had tremendous hunger soon after surgery. A lot of people think you're crazy when you say you're starving this early out, but I've been there and I feel your pain. DO reach out to your surgeon. If you lay down and have hunger pains you might also be having acid reflux and they can help you with that. DO drink your protien shakes. They might not seem like they're filling your up, but they're giving you the nutrition you most need. DONT skip ahead with your eating schedule. Tell your surgeon's office what you're going through. They might allow you to try one particular thing from the next eating level that is safer than risking you making a bad decision. Talk to them. My team was awesome and helped a lot when I was going through this. Best wishes.

It's always best to follow the advice of your doctor to the letter. For the first year, I tried very hard to follow the drinking with meals rule. I still took the occasional little sip, but tried hard to limit it. These days, if I'm honest, I drink with most meals. I don't drink the volume I used to. If I drink 2-4 ounces with a meal, this is a lot for me now. I used to drink a couple of glasses (of water, soda, coffee, tea) at meals. Limiting fluids at meals becomes a habit. I have also heard that pushing the food through without it being mixed with enzymes properly or doing the initial digestive breakdown that nomally happens in the stomach can result in bloating, diarrhea, general digestive upset symptoms...which makes sense. Yes, limit fluids at mealtimes as much as possible. No, you're not gonna die or do terrible damage if you take a sip here and there. If you did....you'd never eat soup again.

See if your bariatric group has a therapist they recommend who works on food addiction issues with folks who have had weight loss surgery. Get someone on the job who is better aligned and more knowledgable about your needs.

I don't understand being offended, but you are dead right that many are. I think this block is a barrier for so many folks...it's a shame. Instead of taking an unvarnished look at the events leading up to the behavior (so you can understand it, honor it, find an alternate way of nurturing the needs you tried to fill with food).....so many folks prefer to embrace yet another of the extreme diet strategies they've been using (unsuccessfully) for years...returning to the same patterns of crash fad diets and regain. I don't get it. To me...."lets starve ourselves with liquid diet again!" makes very little sense and seems self destructive. I don't mean to upset anyone by saying that, cause it seems to be the popular go-to when things go south....I just hate seeing people who have worked so hard continue to suffer.

Bingo.

I've maintained almost 4 years at goal by eating a TON of carbs. So...there are a lot of ways up this mountain dietarily. I eat high fiber, keep my calories under 1600 a day, and eat very little refined sugar or white flour. (I keep my refined treats under 200 calories once or twice a week) Stuff I eat a TON of: Oats, Fruit, Veggies, Beans, Chickpeas, Lowfat/Nonfat Diary, Potatoes, VERY lean meats, whole grain breads. Lots and lots of fruit and veggies. (and it shows...my cholesterol and all labs are excellent...and this matters as we get older) Stuff I don't eat: Anything with animal fat. Fried stuff. (I do stir fry with a little olive oil) I don't eat Refined sugar. I don't eat White flour. Substitutions I make a lot: Plant protein instead of animal. Olive Oil instead of butter. High fiber...I try to get 25g a day or more. Oatmeal in food processor in place of white flour in recipes. Best advice I can give.....three of them actually: 1. See a bariatric therapist. The causes behind disordered eating are not addressed by your surgery. 2. Get active! Increasing your activity, even if it's just adding a couple hundred more steps to your routine every day...it will keep your metabolism singing. 3. Count calories. It sucks, but it's necessary. Wishing you the very best!

I remember how tough that was! You're doing great! Best wishes:)

Maybe carbs are not the issue.

I thought about it and went back and forth for over ten years before I did it. Those are ten years I can't get back. I could not be happier with my results. I'm not an overly skinny perfect person. I'm pretty average normal now. I eat about 1600 calories a day and walk quite a bit, but don't go to the gym or anything special. I eat a MUCH better diet now and still have the occasional treat (I can tolerate anything so I have to be kinda careful, but it's not as hard as it used to be) Best advice I can give a newbie....make sure you have access to a bariatric therapist. Dealing with the whys behind disordered eating has been critical for me. The stomach surgery is a fantastic tool, but you can eat yourself fat again if you don't address the reasons behind the behavior. Wishing you the best. I have absolutely no regrets.

For me, eliminating all processed sugars and white flour...had an immediate impact on my weight loss. I lost like crazy just doing these two things. I still ate a ton of carbs, but I ate good whole carbs with dietary fiber...beans, potatos, chickpeas, nuts, whole grains, whole fruits and veggies....and stayed away from white bread, processed foods, stuff with added sugar and no fiber like juices and jellies. I also eliminated processed products with fats, fried stuff, and fatty meats. Learned to put low fat plain yogurt and salt and pepper on my baked potatoes....replaced butter and animal fat in cooking with extra virgin olive oil. Everyone has a different diet they prefer...I tend to follow Mediterannian or Mayo Clinic diet. Getting your steps is brilliant and will get your metabolism going like crazy. I started at 5000 steps a day and gradually increased in little baby steps to 12,000 a day. I get 20,000 some days now because I really enjoy walking and being active...but most days are 10 to 12,000 now. Being active will help you so much. Best wishes! You got this!

Very good idea to go in for a consult with your doctor. Best Wishes!

It's individual and everyone's nutritionist will say something different. At your stage I ate 100-200 calorie "meals", but I ate them about 6 times a day spaced apart. A lot of people eat less early on. If you have questions about nutrition, the best place to take them is probably your bariatric group. They'll steer you in a good direction. Many will have sample menus available for each eating stage to use as a guide. Best wishes!

Good carbs with lots of fiber keep my gut microbiota in balance, and are a hell of a lot healthier for my kidneys than ketosis. I eat good fats, good carbs, high plant protien, moderate animal protien, high fiber. Sustained goal weight for over 3 and a half years eating a metric feckton of a carbs:) I'm extra careful with my refined carbs, though. Very little processed sugar or white flour in my diet now (huge change from before). Almost all my carbs are from whole grains, whole fruit, beans, potatoes, other whole veggies now....but I do eat a lot of them. The occasional treat of refined stuff, but not too often. Maybe 200 calories worth once or twice a week. Carbs are not the enemy

Matty, you had coffee out my nose with this. LOLOLOL. Thank you for the best laugh.😘

Thinking about this a little more. I love men, and I don't mind expressions of friendliness...even when I know there's a little superficial sexual undertone...it's human nature. It's flattering for the most part. Unless a guy is being super creepy stalkery...it doesn't *bother* me and it honestly does give me a little swagger to feel attractive. (and, damn, after a couple decades of morbid obesity, it's NICE to feel attractive!) I don't feel *violated* by human nature. Hell, I've been known to smile at a cute guy or two, myself! My point was more....sometimes the conflicting feelings are hard. The past hurt kinda taints the enjoyment of new compliments. I still enjoy getting noticed, but you get to a certain age or have a certain amount of life experience where it all seems like nonsense and you're left baffled by how important it used to seem. I dunno, I might be expressing this really badly. Maybe "uncomfortable with not being invisable" was the wrong wording. I'm not overly uncomfortable....I just think it's all sort of ridiculous. And sometimes I just want to shake my head and run away cackling like a loon. Maybe it's the menopause. I rant a lot. In circles. LOLOLOLOL

Pics came out really small...if you can't read it, there are two servings per package. 70 calories per serving, or 140 calories for the whole package. 11g of protein per serving or 22g in the package. It's got shrimp, onions, peppers, spices, other veggies? Smells amazing on the grill. I love Aldi!

I think it's important to talk about what we're eating. We do a lot of that. In minutia. We lable foods good and evil. We obsess about the "right" diet, calories, choices, etc.... But that's really the easy part. The hard part is figuring out WHY we're eating. WHY we ate ourselves to morbid obesity, and what need we were trying to address when we put that food in our bodies. I feel like if those needs aren't figured out and meaningfully delt with this whole process is really vulnerable to failure. I feel like we never talk about why we ate so much. I'm not saying we need pity party hour with extensive confessionals chronicallying every challenge, insecurity and poopy life event...lol. But I feel like sharing those little eureka moments were we've identified some little unmet need that resulted in bad choices....would be a good thing. For instance.... I used to get the KFC six million calorie dinner with the 12 pieces of chicken, 3 sides, biscuits and the chocolate chip cake....after grocery shopping. It was almost an unwritten thing. I deserved it. In some weird justification, I figured that I was shopping, carrying stuff in, putting things away, selflessly giving up time to a task I sort of despised for my family. Of course I deserved chicken! But really, what I wanted at the core of things....was support. I wanted to feel appreciated, and rewarded for being a good doobie. I wanted to feel nurtured after a stressful task that I hated. These days....we have a new rule at the house. The person who does the grocery shopping gets to relax and take a bath while the other person does the cooking. And you know what? It works. I feel appreciated, supported. And I eat a more balanced decent dinner and have a win. That feels good. I learned that I geninely don't like asking for help...and that I need to more often. Just writing that makes me cringe. My bariatric therapist did a lot of talking about the "whys" of over eating, and finding ways to get the desired needs met that aren't self sabotaging. I wish we talked about the "whys" more.

Ask if they recommend a good bariatric therapist in your area. Have a consult, or file the contact away for later if you need it. Research the surgeon's credentials and reputation. Research the hospital where the surgeon does surgery. Make sure you like what you learn. Make sure anyone on staff who will be giving you dietary advice is in fact a registered credientialed dietician. If you're planning a surgery this fall, talk about the potential impacts of Covid19.

Ugh. The longer I look at the boards, the more mental health pathology I see associated with weight loss surgery. People are nutty. Ignore the nonsense. I won't even begin to guess why you've seen a weight bump. Sometimes it's just a damned mystery. The human body is freaking incredible at surviving...and it has tons of tricks up its sleeve to maintain homeostasis when it likes where it's at and doesn't want to change.

Ultimately, it's no one's job but yours to figure out the best stuff to put in your body. People will always eat awful stuff because it's readily available and tastes good. People will equate offering food with offering affection, support, etc. (even though for someone trying to lose weight, this is backwards and crazy...it's just habit and they don't think about it) For some people it's a manners thing...I can't eat in front of someone else without offering to share, regardless of what I'm eating. Doen't matter if I'm eating a protien bar or a donut...if you're hanging out with me and I think you might be hungry...I'll offer you half. You can always say no. Sometimes, I make a mindful decision to eat junk food. I budget for it in my daily calories and I like proving to myself that I control food and food doesn't control me anymore. I like eating junk now, because I don't enjoy it as much as I used to and I don't feel out of control. I know that sounds crazy....but seriously...there is a satisfying victory in consuming 200 calories of something I used to be totally out of control with...and go...you know what? That's good, but I can take it or leave it now. I LOVE that I can take it or leave it now. And I really love that I'm being dead honest about that, because I have spent a lifetime lying to myself about food. I very honestly am not as reactive about food as I used to be...and that's a HUGE victory. Yep, I still like fat, sugar and salt. Most people do. But I can take them or leave them, and I can budget a sensible serving and not have my nutrition day ruined. I credit part of that to revamping my eating habits and microbiota due to the surgery, and part to food addiction work with my bariatric therapist. Both have been incredibly important.

Have you had your gallbladder out? Typically, gallbladder pain is on the right, but in the occasional odd person, it can present on the left.

That was my experience, too, catwoman. Maybe things have changed? They offered me a pain pump during recovery (at the hospital) and I opted out. I did take one injection of pain meds before going to sleep the night I spent in the hospital and had a pretty restful night. But yeah, that one shot was the only pain medication I took other than a few tylenol. I was comfortable...very little pain. Pain meds give me constipation like crazy, wanted to avoid them as much as I could.