Creekimp13

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.

My surgeon's group wanted us to reach 1200 calories a day as soon as we could. I did this at around 3-4 weeks out...eating 6 little 200 calorie "meals" a day. We were told to stay at 1200 during all of loss phase.
I know this is VERY different advice than what many clinics give their clients. Some want people to stay below 1000 calories for a very long time to "take advantage of the window of loss". My doctors are part of a study addressing how extended periods of very low calorie diets may be corelated with rebound weight gain due to negative metabolic shift. They believe that for the best LONG TERM outcomes....eating calories closer to maintenance for healthy weight sooner...is better.
I eat 1600 calories a day now, and have maintained the last two years with no weight gain.
There will always be individual experiences and exceptions to every rule.

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.

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.

It's not so much that they didn't read labels but that they didn't really understand what my dietary needs were. They kept saying I should eat salad and vegetables because they were low in calories, whereas I needed to prioritize Protein. It was frustrating when other people thought they knew better than I did what I should and shouldn't be eating.

First off, let me say that you should always listen to your doctor and nutritionist...rather than crazy people on the internet, myself included.
But here's my rant today. And for what it's worth....this is just MY feelings on this nonsense. I'm no expert.

Ya'll need to eat. Not overeat. But also NOT UNDER-EAT. Eat healthy food you enjoy.
I know how it happens. Your weight loss gets sluggish and stuck and you think OMG, this isn't working, I'm Failing at this! You start to panic.
And what does a lifelong self-destructive dieter DO when they start to panic? They go exteme.
They go...ok, my doctor said it was ok to eat this much.....so I'm gonna try to eat HALF of that to speed up my weight loss!
I'm going to work harder than anyone! I'm going to eat less! I'm going to force this weight off of my body...because this is my last chance and I'm freaking out and I can't fail at this, so I NEED to do better and cut back!
Only, here's the thing. You don't need to cut back. You need to stay the course, nourish your healing body, have good energy to boost your metabolism and lose weight sensibly.
Why do people do VLCDs? (very low calorie diets....1000 or less calories a day)....they do them because they show results in a hurry.
And there is nothing people like better than a lower number on the scale...regardless of how they're achieving it. Or how harmfully they are achieving it.
When you eat less than 1000 calories a day, did you know you lose more muscle than fat...even if you are eating tons of protien grams?
When you lose muscle, you slow your metabolism, endanger your organs that have muscle (heart anyone?), and decrease your bone density. None of this is a good idea.
And when you're eating starvation level calories, your body tries like hell to keep you from dying....by, you guessed it, slowing your metabolism even further.
And the carb thing...can we talk about that a minute? You DO want to avoid carbs that are metabolized to sugar really fast, like sugary foods and refined white flour items because they can cause your pancrease to over-react and send too much insulin and you'll end up with rebound hunger....but other carbs, particularly ones that have good Fiber content to slow the sugar can also have good protien content...and they don't do the rebound hunger thing. They give you great available energy.
Why do we lose so much weight so rapidly when we do Keto? We don't really....but the first five pounds is so quick and shocking that it MUST work! (except you're not losing fat, you're losing the Water that your liver stores extra glucose in.....and you've stripped your liver of its emergency reserve of energy. And yeah...you can make the sugar you need from other things through gluconeogenesis....but it takes amino acids that your body is typically harvesting from your muscles.) Don't do that thing where you lose the five pounds eating keto....then eat a few carbs and go OMG, look at the weight I've gained!....and go keto again and lose the same five pounds of water. It's an illusion. (Not saying keto people can't lose weight...they do lose weight fast...but they also have about five pounds in lost water from glucose storage, no emergency stores, and their bodies may be consuming their muscles)
Food for thought (literally!) Guess what organ runs exclusively on sugar? Pure glucose. Your brain. Your brain burns over 300 calories of glucose every day. At just 2% of our body weight....our brains burn about 20% of the calories we use each day! The CPU needs fuel.

Lots of people lose weight rapidly with Very Low Calorie Diets after bariatric surgery. They have these amazing results that other people notice and are in awe of. They lose to goal eating very little and feel very accomplished about their self discipline and their amazing fast results.
And then guess what happens?
At goal...they are still people who have never learned how to eat sustainably for life. All they know is starvation and self deprivation. And starvation doesn't work long term.
Please learn to eat sustainable amounts of calories. Do it early so you don't fudge your metabolism into starvation level calorie requirements.
One of the best ways to have a robust metabolism...is to do exercise every day. It doesn't have to be the gym or something you find tedious. Do things you enjoy....but keep moving.
It's hard to build your robust metabolism.....when you're too tired to do anything but go to work and go to bed...because you're starving yourself.
Please eat. Don't overeat. But eat. Learn to eat right, not starve. Starving is not the cure and in many cases sets the stage for significant regain.
Do it right, even it it's slower than other people. Do it sustainably. Learn to coexist with food, not avoid it. (easier said than done)
Don't get discouraged by small losses. Just keep losing to goal with small sensible tweeks. You don't have to suffer extremes to have success.
Learning to control your diet moderately...is the best skill to have when facing a lifetime of sustaining a significant weight loss.

This end my rant.
Totally ok if you think I'm nuts/wrong/whatever. Take what you like and leave the rest.
Peace and best wishes to everyone on this crazy road.

That sounds nuts to me. See if you can opt out. I took one dose of pain meds the night I spent in the hospital, and that was it. Didn't need any more. Obviously, pain will be different for everyone, but I have never heard of anyone taking a pain pump home? Has anyone here gone home with that?

Ask your doctor. Could be a scar tissue adhesion. I doubt it's anything serious. Will likely go away with time. Can't hurt to ask, though. Err on the side of safety and see what your doc says.

Honeymoon glow. Ride it all you can, lose as much weight as you can, work hard to change your eating habits. Eventually, your old habits will come a knocking...be it in a few months or a few years....but working on these healthy changes is absolute key to longterm success. Great work! Keep at it!

Honeymoon glow. Ride it all you can, lose as much weight as you can, work hard to change your eating habits. Eventually, your old habits will come a knocking...be it in a few months or a few years....but working on these healthy changes is absolute key to longterm success. Great work! Keep at it!

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.

I've always loved all kinds of food, and strived to eat healthy. But healthy eating doesn't matter if you're still eating too much. I was very similar to Catwoman in the way I ate, and even though much of the food was healthy, my portions were huge. My "why" was always that I ate such huge portions and I never seemed to feel full.
I can't prove it, but I was poor growing up, and although we got enough to eat, there wasn't abundance. It's almost like when I got older and had plenty of food available I wanted to make sure I ate as much as I could in case the time came when there wasn't enough. I never felt satisfied no matter how much I ate, and I always ended up stuffed.
This surgery is like a miracle to me. I get full, and I can stop eating now before I am studded and I am SATISFIED. It is such an amazing feeling!

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I would never go back to an all liquid diet. I could never sustain it for more than a day or two. Plus I don't want to be thrown back into "diet mentality" again, and I'm afraid that would do it (at least for me).
I'm also mostly vegetarian (I eat meat maybe once a week tops). I eat a lot of Beans and dairy products, though, so I don't have trouble meeting my Protein goals, but I usually have a Protein Shake as my mid-morning snack just so I don't obsess about protein all day. I know if I have that shake, I'll always meet my goals. Plus, I'm one of those odd birds who actually LIKES protein shakes!

I had one in the hospital, but they didn't send it home with me. They just gave me some pain pills (which I don't think I even opened - i really had very little pain)

I don't know why, but suddenly, since I made the decision to pursue VSG, weight loss is becoming easier. I haven't changed my diet too much, I don't think—I still eat a variety of food—but yesterday I put on a smaller size jeans and they buttoned with no tugging, and today at the gym I had to cinch my weight belt in another notch before doing strict presses.

Reduction in stress corresponding to a reduction in cortisol? Unconsciously starting to wind down my overconsumption? Psychosomatic? sleeping better? My body anxious to "repair" itself? I don't know which of those it is, but I'm not going to complain about it!

I was glad for the pain pump. It helps keep your tummy numb. I came home with mine and was instructed to remove it three days later. I think they are very common now for WLS surgery.
The liquid diet is super hard and very trying at times, but you can do it! I was on liquids for 15 Days and once it was over I was so glad. I had surgery on July 15 and yesterday I got to move to normal foods. Just try to remember this is temporary.

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 lot of what I eat is close to vegetarian and I'll admit, sometimes I add up all my protien grams and say screw it....and drink a protien drink just to not stress about it.

I'm finally coming back to the boards after a very long hiatus. Yes, I've had some dreaded regain between health issues, Covid, etc. and decided I need to do some sort of "therapy" even if it is socializing on here again. I admit that one of my main reasons for avoiding coming back here is exactly what you are posting about. I kept telling myself that all I'm going to here is go back to what you used to do, drink water/take vitamins/protein-protein-protein. All goes back to WLS being a tool and if your head isn't in the game you're boned. I know I'm not alone in this, and yes, it's so frustrating, embarrassing, and infuriating to be going back up after all the progress I've made. The elephant in the room is that deep down I know 90% of my struggles are mental. When you've spent 40 some years struggling with bad food relationships that crap doesn't just go away with a smaller stomach.

My husband misses my ginormous boobs. My back does not.

Yeah, i think it varies widely among insurance providers. I didn't have a pre-op diet to adhere to other than the 2-week liquid one.
Suffice it to say, I lost zero weight “pre-op”, but did lose 11lbs during the 2-week liquid one.
I dunno if this strategy will dictate my long term success or failure…I guess only time will tell.
P.S. I’ll be 3 years post-op in October and have been maintaining my weight pretty steadily for over 2 years.

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 drank Decaf the first year after surgery, then was told it was ok to switch back to regular. I drink a lot of regular coffee now...no issues.
It's true you can't take a lot of NSAIDS, but my surgeon allows us to take a couple of doses a month for things like Migraines and bad periods (After we are a year out....the first year of healing is completely restrictive)
I take my ibuprophen with an antacid now, and never more than a few doses in a month.

Crap, I don't drink...so maybe I'll just take a hit of pot each time someone on My 600 pound life says:
1. Miserable. (ie: my life is miserable)
2. Switches out "my size" for "my weight"
3. This is my last chance.
4. "Dr. Now doesn't understand....."
5. "Weightloss Journey"
6. "Progress"
And TWO everytime Dr. Now says:
1. "What happened?"
2. "you are killing yourself."
3. "Eating habit!"
4. "How you all doing?"
5. "If you need anything, let me know."
6. "I'm proud of you!"
Take off one article of clothing each time the patient fails to meet a weight loss goal.
If it's the Penny Sager episode....just smoke the whole bowl, take ALL your clothes off, and watch in stunned silence with your mouth hanging open.