Creekimp13

3.5 years out...I can eat about a cup at a time (and sometimes less) if it's a fibrous food that doesn't slide. If it's a slider, I can eat more...comfortably. Had about a cup and a half of thinned oatmeal this morning with pecans and blueberries...no problem. Last night I was eating steak and brocolli...and gave up at 3/4 of a cup. If you're drinking with meals you will be able to eat a lot more than if you don't....which is one of the reasons we are told not to drink with meals.

I gained nearly 50 pounds on paroxetine in my 30s. It was awful.

Coco wheats were one of my most favorite things to eat post op. I still love them. Most people don't know how rich in iron they are. Good stuff for people who avoid meat.

I can't fathom your pain. Please make sure someone knows that you might need help with fluids. Make sure others close to you understand your medical needs so they can help you remember to drink, or take you to the doctor if needed for IV. I know it's impossible right now, but you need to keep up with what's necessary for your health. Let someone help you. I am so very sorry.

I'm not a huge fan of spray on tans. Maybe it's the way my skin cells shed, or maybe i don't exfoliate enough, or just have weird dry skin? I don't know. But when I get a spray on tan, I look Orange for a little while...then my skin sheds a little and I look weirdly speckled. I don't care for it. I also don't like the smell of the spray tan, particularly after a shower or swimming. However...since I'm a white vampire, sometimes it's nice to have a little color. I use Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Makeup (in Medium) It's just makeup for your legs (arms, bust, whatever you need)....but it looks much more like a real tan to me. It sets up well and doesn't get on your clothes. (If I wear white, I do dust it with a little translucent powder, but i'm not sure it's necessary) You can swim in it for an hour or two. It scubs off with warm water, soap and a washcloth...but you do have to scrub a little. I actually like wearing sleeveless again cause of this stuff. It really does look nice on legs. Another cool thing about Leg makeup...it reduces the look of scars, freckles, stretchmarks, veins Being opaque, I bet it's a decent sunscreen, too.

I think sometimes it makes other people insecure about their own weight when someone near them loses. Sort of this realization....omg, she's lost weight. Am I the fattest person in the room now? omg...she's nearly my size...and she looks really good....does she look better than me? I think this is particularly true among younger single people, but it can also be an issue with middle aged farts and beyond. No feeling worse...than when your friend has been feeling insecure about her weight/wrinkles/hairloss/age related woes/etc.....and her freaking husband notices you've lost weight. Ugh. "Damn, your friend looks good!" He doesn't mean to be an asshat...but it's a knife in both of your hearts and you just feel rotten about it.

Indeed! Good luck at your appointment:)

Folks, PLEASE check the education credentials of the person giving you nutrition advice. In some states, there is absolutley zero education required to call oneself "a nutritionist" and give people dietary consultations. Many bariatric groups will use lay-trained staff to push a particular doctor's dietary approach. Don't use these people. They are unqualified and it's dangerous. Nutrition is complex and individual and it's a SCIENCE. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietitian-vs-nutritionist#nutritionist Check the laws in your state: https://theana.org/advocate Ask to see the credentials of the people treating you at appointments.

Impossible to say. They're all different. They might measure you, take pix, weight. They will talk about your history with diets. They will talk about your comorbidities. They will talk about your surgical options. They will all have a different list of what they require. The good ones will require you see a therapist, a dietician, and attend a support group meeting. They will offer access to things like exercise classes and healthy cooking classes geared to bariatric patients. You'll likely need a lot of medical tests. Blood panel, upper GI, chest xrays, ekg, presurgical stuff. Typically, you get a date after you do all or most of your prereqs. Wishing you the best.

I wear a fitbit and really like their food tracking app. You can do custom stuff that it saves...so if you have a recipe or something that you make often..it's there. I also like watching my sleep and steps.

When you say that you don't have period anymore, what do you mean? Are you truly postmenopausal? (have not had a period in over a year) Average age of true menopause is about 51 (in the US, at least). I'm 49 and I'm all over the place skipping periods, then starting up again with a vengeance. This perimenopause thing is the pits. LOL. I absolutely get crazy hungry and crave everything right before my period is due. And my weight will often tick up 3 pounds and make me nervous. But it'll come right down after I get my period because, weirdly, when I have my period my appetite plummets. Evolutionary biologists believe this whole phenominon of binging before menstruating might have been a defense mechanism against predators smelling blood. Menstrual apes will stick around home and roam less, eat less....and will eat a lot beforehand so they don't have to forage as much. Keeps them downwind of the cheetahs maybe? Heck if I know, but it's an interesting theory as to why we get the muchies. Keep in mind that estrogen is stored in fat...and a big weight loss will cause elevation in estrogen. So, the weight loss itself could be causing hormonal symptoms like you're describing. You might not need HRT, but it's not a bad idea to see what your doctor recommends. But yep...you're not the only one who is a bottomless pit right before menstruation. (or what your body percieves is going to be menstruation) Best wishes!

See a bariatric therapist. What you are going through is pretty common. Two years out, a lot of the real mental/emotional work happens. You've fixed your body, now you need to fix your brain to maintain. Identifying your triggers and coming up with alternate ways to get what you need (and fix what you're using food to medicate)....is essential for maintenance. Least it was for me. Don't panic. There is time to figure this out, but you need to take baby steps toward doing it today. Don't go into a denial spiral and ignore your hard work coming undone. A lot of folks do that...when therapy could have really helped keep them on track. Wishing you the very best.

I think it should be noted that a mile could be a lot different for someone who is 250 pounds overweight vs someone 80 pounds overweight. Age, comorbidities, fitness before surgery would all figure in. Best person to ask is your doc:) Best wishes!

I literally walked over a mile in the halls of the hospital within 6 hours of my surgery. I was wearing my fitbit and this is an accurate number. Nurses were totally ok with it. They told me to take it slow and rest when I needed to...and I did. My bestie came to the hospital and walked with me and we talked, time got away from us as it always does...and before I realized it, I realized I'd walked a mile. I had an exceptionally easy time after surgery compared to most people. Very little pain. Zero nausea. Woke up ready to sip sip sip and go for a walk.

I had to do two weeks of liquid diet. On day 3 I was so hungry I could have gnawed my leg off. Miserable, horrible, awful experience. That said...it does shrink your liver, which makes your surgery safer (more room for your surgeon to work) This, too, shall pass. But I feel your pain. Stick with it. A day at a time.

Flank pain can be a sign of worsening dehydration. Make sure you're hydrating well. Mention it to your doctor if it doesn't improve.

I hate "weightloss journey" too. I don't mind if anyone says it....it's my personal hang up, too. It's just so cheesily coined from My 600 Pound Life or something. My eye twitches over it. It's really not a bad term or anything...it just feels overused and cliche and makes me grit my teeth a little. I picture two dogs and a cat on a log with a bear or something. I have issues. LOL.

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.

This isn't my clinc's plan, but it's solid advice from a solid authority. Mayo Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the US. This is just an overview, but it's got some of the specifics you're looking for. (I know it's for bypass, not sleeve....but right after surgery, the advice is virtually identical) https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/gastric-bypass-surgery/in-depth/gastric-bypass-diet/art-20048472

It's all about the sugar. If you can get the reduced sugar juices (Ocean Spray has a line of 5 calorie a cup cranberry mixed juice drinks)...they're actually pretty good and were on my approved list. I drink V-8 juice because my plan has a fiber requirement and it's got low calories, decent fiber, and lots of biodiversity. 50 calories for a cup of tomato, beets, carrots, celery, spinach, parsley, lettuce and watercress...2g protien, 2g dietary fiber. Really not a bad deal. The big problem with fruit juice is that it's a sugar bomb with few benefits. The sugar will give you rebound hunger (when your pancrease goes...OMG, there's an insane amount of sugar coming in! Quick, pump out a TON of insulin! And the insulin eats up the sugar and you're left with high blood insulin levels that stimulate...guess what? Hunger. For more sugar. Our bodies are assholes, essentially...lol) Avoid full sugar drinks. Even if it's natural sugar. Natural sugar is actually more bioavailable and gets sucked up faster causing big blood sugar shifts that cause the above mentioned issue. Whole fruit is good. With whole fruit, the fiber slows the sugar uptake, the fiber provides media to grow good gut bugs, the phytonutrients from fruits are good....but the sugar bomb is not. If your brother has a way to make you low calorie juice drinks (carrots, ginger, spinach, a splash of 5 calorie cranberry drink, cinnamon) and the end result is under 50 calories......I think this would probably be ok once in a while. If it's going to have full sugar juice in it (even fresh squeezed) you should probably avoid it.

Fat is the last safe prejudice...people are stupid casual about insensitive fat remarks. And yep, as thinner people now...we get an earful of that from people who would have filtered around us when we were heavier. It's messed up and sad. I've heard some awful remarks about fat people from people I would have otherwise said were typically very kind. It's shocking and disheartening. The problem with how unkindly this was said...is that it's probably a truthful observation clinically. Cross over or transfer addiction is very real. Most bariatric clinics don't meaningfully address this component of obesity. They don't provide enough support to address the core issues of how folks ended up obese to begin with. They want to cure the symptom (the obese body) without understanding the whole illness. In my opinion, that's a huge mistake.

I think one of the reasons I really felt I had to take control of fast food....were the conversations I had with my therapist about how I used fast food in the past. It was a huge reward/comfort/coping mechanism (read binge trigger...disordered eating symptom). If I was having a challenging morning, I'd promise myself to make it easier with a Mc Big Breakfast on the way to whatever difficult day awaited me. 766 calories of what felt like self nurturing, but was really self sabotage.....particularly when paired with the rest of the day's stress eating. If I had that day when I had a million errands and the dreaded task of buying groceries.....I rewarded myself, justifying that after carrying in groceries and putting everything away, woe is me Cinderella....I DESERVED to have the monster bucket of KFC with all the sides for dinner....because it was self nurturing to let someone else make dinner. (self nurturing turned into 850 calories of chicken meal, plus ice cream...oye) Anytime I had to do something unpleasant...I'd build in the silver lining. A doctor's appointment isn't so bad if you get fries and a fancy coffee afterward. Even after seeing the veterinarian, I had to stop to get the dog a plain burger as a reward for being good....and of course, something for me for undertaking such a task. You can justify fast food with hospitality and generosity. Oh, I knew Suzy hadn't eaten, so I stopped for her. If you're being considerate to others it's a perfect excuse to reward (sabotage) yourself. Hey, I'm being a good doobie, good for me, I deserve fries, too. Sometimes the fast food was an enhancement to happy times. How many times have I celebrated a little good news with fast food or a donut? Take the kids to the zoo, everyone's tired, let's get a burger and make it an extra fun afternoon. And of course you get fast food nonstop while traveling or on vacation to bring a little of home with you. Oye. Fast food was a huge emotional reward. It represented medicating stress, it represented enhancing pleasure. It represented nurturing that I needed and wasn't getting. And it represented a metric feck ton of over budget calories and addiction behavior. So yeah...fast food is complicated. There's a reason we crave it and it's not all about it tasting good. Sometimes after surgery we feel tired and overwhelmed and want that comfort habit, that celebration, that medication for stress. And that is NOT the way to eat any food if you want to break the cycle of disordered eating. Promise yourself other ways of nurturing yourself. Try to avoid food rewards/coping....but at the very least, if you do a food reward...make sure the calories and nutrition can be balanced. Make part of nurturing giving yourself a nutritional win. Also...if you nurture yourself with food, learn to ask for help with nurturing instead. At my house...whoever does the grocery shopping now is exempt from cooking that night. Someone else has to cook...which makes the grocery buyer feel appreciated and cared for....and keeps her from bringing home junkfood. Do other stuff that makes you feel good. Have yourself a deep bath, order a good movie or book, schedule a massage....do something nice for yourself that gives you a similar warm fuzzy feeling without the colossal calories. At the end of the day.....fast food isn't the problem. It can be consumed sensibly if we're ready and understand why it's dangerous. Lots of places are offering some healthier options. The real problem is unmet need, stress that needs soothing, celebratory traditions that are ingrained but unhealthy. I did a lot of talking about fast food and modifying fast food traditions with my therapist. It genuinely helped.

I eat fast food all the time. But I make better choices. At McD's I'll eat an egg mcmuffin and a coffee with cream and splenda. At Wendy's, I love their grilled chicken strawberry salad and eat about 2/3 of it. At KFC, I've been known to eat two chicken legs, original, no sides...and an ice tea. At Burger King, I'll eat half an Impossible Whopper. For some people....stopping at fast food is too triggering and leads to free for all binging melt downs. For me, I've found that I need to face my triggers to feel in control of my eating habits. I purposefully go to fast food places for lunches (not always, but regularly when working) and order sensibly. I know exactly the number of calories I'm eating and make sure the rest of my day fits. I read the nutrition information before I order, make a plan, and stick to it. Fast food places don't bother me anymore. I don't feel threatened with feeling out of control anymore. I feel like I can eat there and still eat responsibly. I like fast food. In moderation. With my eyes wide open. I like feeling like I've slayed that dragon and it holds no control over me anymore.

Though regain and difficulty with maintenance is very common....Few people who are struggling with regain stick around and post on this board. Most folks here are new to surgery and excited about possibilities, going through the process...high energy. You will see a few people talking about regain on the veteran's forum and revision boards. If you want statistical information about percentages of people who reach goal, regain, what is considered "a success" in the industry...talk to your bariatric surgeon. They are excellent, tough questions that you really should ask.

I never experienced pain or spasms of any kind. Do you just mean it's hard to swallow? Difficulty swallowing, or feeling like you can't swallow anything else because your esophogus is full of saliva....is pretty normal for a couple weeks after surgery. Can you describe what you're concerned about in more detail? Do you have someone at home set up to do your post-op care and answer bariatric surgery questions medically? If so, I'd contact them. If not, I'd try to find a bariatric group here to establish a relationship with in case this needs follow up.