Down South Aussie

Today I entered Onederland! Started my Journey on Jan 15th at 305.6lbs, managed to lose 75.6lbs before my Surgery on June 5th and an additional 30.2lbs since then! On my way to a goal weight of 160lbs. It has been a journey, yes it is true the scale is a cruel taskmaster, but I'm a results driven person so it was very hard for me to stay off the scale or to see numbers go up some days or stay the same through my stall. While they were operating there was a growth discovered on the outside of my stomach which proved to be cancerous, but given the size, location and that fact that it was completely removed during the surgery I have been given the all-clear by the oncologist saying it was a blessing in disguise because otherwise it would have grown and grown until it became a really big problem. Good thing I didn't listen to all those who asked me if I still wanted to go through with the surgery given my success pre-surgery. Funny thing is the most common surgery for stomach cancer is a sleeve. I have gone from a 46 in pants at Christmas to a 36 and from a 3XL in my shirts to a L. I'm loving my new lease on life, even the rest of my family is losing weight! So here I am, The first big goal has been achieved, time to keep marching onward and down!

I'm about to go on vacation in about 10 days and having spoken to my nutritionists they had mentioned I should try to stick to my diet plan in that I should maintain a schedule. You won't be able to maintain the same controlled foods the way you do at home but you should still be able to stay within guidelines. For instance, there is a great burger joint that I love where I am going so i will have something there for sure, but instead of 2 patties with extra cheese and bread buns I will have 1 patty wrapped in lettuce with the onions and tomatoes and most likely make 2 or 3 meals out of it. The burger they use there is extra lean so it should be fine. I may not get my grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon that I eat at home but I can get good lean cuts of lunch meats and salad and hummus and so on. I will be taking some of my food cups that are 4 oz in size so that I maintain my portion control and will still eat 5 times a day and make sure to be getting my liquids in and protein first, all be it in different forms than I might be used to. My thought is that when you allow yourself to stray too far from the habits you are forming you start on that slippery slope, just a little today is ok, tomorrow just a little more is ok and all of a sudden you are way far from your regular routine and then you have problems. but hey just my 2 cents.

The funny thing about this is that it is asked so often, i asked it as well when i was getting ready for my surgery. The answer is it varies with each person, me personally i took 9 days and could have gone back much sooner, but i work a desk. So looking at the surgery itself, i was up the day of surgery and walking miles within the ward, i went home the next day after walking 7 miles within the ward, that being said one of the ladies i went through class with had a sleeve done on the same day as me and ended up being in the hospital for 4 days and went home on oxygen. So your recovery will be your recovery and that will drive your time off. The other factor for you is you will most likely be on restricted duties with the amount of weight you will be allowed to lift. Up until today i was restricted to 20lbs or less lifting to prevent hernias at your incisions.

Walk, walk walk and then walk some more. One of the problems you have is that the gas will gather in certain spots, one of which is in the large intestines as it crosses along the top of your abdomen, right before it descends down to your colon. Now can you guess what your stomach pushes on when you put something into it? yep you got it; the large intestines where it crosses your abdomen. The good news is it will pass (and i mean that both ways ) but walking is the best bet to keep things moving along and stopping the collection of gas within your intestines.

I had very similar reactions as i was transitioning to soft solids. The simple truth is yes as you move back on each step you will be taking in more calories, but at the same time you should also be seeing more and more caloric burn from additional movement and exercise. one thing my nutritionist did for me was put me on a machine that gives you all types of numbers along with what my expected daily caloric burn would be both with just laying around and living and factoring in my exercise. right now i am burning 1958 calories just to stay alive, but then factor in the 1200+ that im burning through exercise each day and it starts to put things in perspective that the 500 or 600 calories you might be taking in is still just fine. Best bet if you feel unsure is talk to your nutritionist or surgeon and they can let you know if you should be worried, but i think you should be just fine right now.

Very true, I have a nutritionist appt next Monday so I'm going to ask if I can step on their fancy machine and see where my muscle mass is vs pre surgery. thanks

I know, I know I know.....NOT ANOTHER STALL POST!!??!! i promised myself I wouldn't post one of these, I was prepared for the stall, it is happening, but I have a question... did anyone put weight on during their stall? i was at a rugby tournament all weekend, watched what I ate, took in my fluids, took in my protein, my exercise was down ( only 5 miles a day compared to my 8 - 10 that I normally do) Yet somehow managed to gain 1.6lbs over the weekend, so I'm just curious if anyone else experienced this during their stall? thanks.

Good to hear your doing well. I was really surprised, I had 1 dose of morphine in the hospital and nothing but Tylenol otherwise, nothing in the last 36 hours. My incision on the right is a little sore but not bad, otherwise I don't notice the other incisions.

I'm 5 days out too. I wouldn't say I'm hungry, but yes the need for something of substance is most definitely there. I have added some chicken soup by unjury once a day and that helps significantly. I will also have a sugar free ice pop that I will chew, just to try and convince my mind that in having something that needs to be chewed. I picked up some blended veggie soups today and will be talking to my dietitian tomorrow to clear those and I will add some unflavored protein to them, hopefully they are ok with it because the fickleness soup is great because it isn't sweet. I know my nutrition store has some soups that I'm going to look into as well. Mental games are what we have to do I guess for the first few weeks. good luck.

So I'm curious what others have done to get through the liquid stage? I am 5 days post op and I'm doing great, I really don't feel hungry but this puts me at almost 1 week without any solid food. I know this is all in my head but I can be around food, even help prepare food for others no problem, but when I see others actually eating that food my cravings kick in. Again I don't feel hungry, but I get almost depressed, kind of angry at just the idea of not being able to actually EAT rather than drinking my food. Any tips or tricks for getting over this hurdle?

Yes please! Just saw saw your post with the recipe, thanks.

Thanks, I was sleeved just 2 days ago and right now I just have some goals to get me through the liquid stage, but I'm glad to know things eventually stabilize.

Small update, came home last night and still doing good. The best part is that I am on no pills other than what is required for the surgery recovery. No cholesterol tabs, no high blood pressure tabs and best of all no diabetes meds!

Yeah it is uncomfortable to take a really deep breath, but working with the inspirometer it is getting much better, it's a process.

The problem with keto as it was explained to my by my physician was the fact mpact on the liver can be bad and cause damage. So while you can adopt much of the keto principals going full keto was a going to be a problem if it was done for an extended period of time. It also worked for me in years pre op period but so did the diet that my dietitian had me on at the end.