Swanton_Bomb

You lost 50 lbs. in less than 2 months and you are questioning whether or not it is working? That is incredible progress! When have you ever lost even close to that on a regular diet plan? It is working.

I'm faking being sick (my stomach...all I can handle is liquids right now, not a total lie) and staying home. I don't feel that badly about it. I am on purees and there is no way to hide that. Frankly this was too private to share with anyone other than my husband and mother, and this surgery is misunderstood. I don't need people asking a million questions, pitying me (or being jealous, depending on their angle), I don't want people being the food police and asking me "Are you allowed to have that?", I don't need people judging me months from now if I don't lose enough according to what they think I should lose. The next big family dinner will be Christmas, and by then I will be on solid foods. I am hosting so I will make sure one of the dishes is a fish dish, and I can eat around the lasagna noodles (basically ricotta bake) and since I'm hosting I'll just keep busy. My plan for future holidays is to enjoy what I want in small portions, protein first. Happy Thanksgiving to all, whatever you are doing. The food has become the star of the show but the idea is to be thankful. I'm thankful to be losing weight and getting healthy, I am thankful that my husband supports my choice, I am thankful to be watching the traditional Thanksgiving Dog Show with my little munchin, and I'm thankful to have moved on to scrambled eggs and ricotta bake (officially today!). May you have many things to be thankful for as well.

My doc says I can switch to capsules in a month or two once I am ok to swallow those giant pills, so I will go back to my GNC Mega Women's. The chewables, even the baratric ones, don't seem to have the best profile.

I lost the gained fluid that I had panicked about in two days, significant swelling of my upper belly remained but was gone by day 6 or 7.

I am only 2 weeks out, so I have no idea how the post-op hair loss will hit me, but in my previous experience with biotin, it helps your hair grow faster but not thicker. So I have been taking it in the hopes that when I do start to thin the hair lost will grow back more quickly. It will make all hair grow quicker: head hair, facial hair, leg and arm hair, but if you don't have facial hair now it won't start growing and it won't grow faster, but if you remove your hair you may have to do it more often.

I'm curious about this too. I am on full liquids with some pureed foods and most days I am between close to 500 and it is very hard to get my protein at lower calories since I can't use foods like fish or chicken. Dairy is where most of my calories come from and that has natural sugars and fat, so it isn't as high in protein as something like tuna. I worry I am having too many calories, but all of the foods I've had are on my plan and I was just told to make sure I get at least 60 grams of protein. I am staying away from a lot of foods I am allowed to have, such as hummus and soup because even though I love them (and they taste so good right now after all the sweet stuff), I don't want to waste the calories or stomach real estate on low protein foods.

I am a teacher, so I basically work in a giant petri dish. I have found that elderberry extract (I use the capsules, not the syrup) is a decent but not foolproof preventative, and the Zicam gummies are fantastic if you take them at the first sign of a cold.

Congrats on your hard work, you look fantastic!

You literally don't even look like the same person. You look younger, and you have the look of a naturally thin person. How long did the total transformation take?

What a jerk. It's one thing to not support, it's another thing to refuse to do a physical. I hadn't seen a doctor in years at the time of the surgical seminar, so I asked the surgery coordinator what doctors they worked with a lot. They referred me to a doctor I really like and I will continue to use him as my PC. I would ask the surgeon's office, they will refer you to someone who supports WLS as a tool. BTW, why does he oppose it? Does he think there is a medical risk for you, or does he just think you can lose weight without it? A lot of doctors have extreme bias against heavier people.

My experience was very different. It was short, 20 minutes at most, and felt more like a consult with a nutritionist than a psychologist. She grilled me a lot about my eating habits which was uncomfortable because obviously they weren’t good, otherwise I wouldn’t be there. She was particularly concerned with sugar intake. Not what I expected but that may have been because she worked directly in the surgeons office. She only took cash, which I thought was strange.

Wow, the idea of losing 50lbs. in 3 months is still unfathomable to me as a recent post-op. I would be thrilled to death with 30. You look fantastic. What strikes me the most is that even though the focus is not on your face in the pic, you look far younger to me.

Day 7 or 8, but it was HARD. My NUT told me I can now have things like thinned out oatmeal or cream of wheat, but I can't afford to waste the stomach real estate on something that has no protein! I wasn't able to do shakes at first and it is still very hard to choke them down.

Wow, 120lbs in only 6 months! You must be working hard. Congrats!

I was told I only had to do chewables for a month or two until I could handle the horse pills again.

My surgeon recommends not getting pregnant for at least 18 months, and if you do, to see a high risk pregnancy specialist for an OB. Good luck with whatever you do.

Yep. That soup had more sugar than a can of Coke. Imagine drinking a can of Coke after having almost no carbs for a week (or longer if you were on a liver shrink diet). Most soups not high in sugar, just stay away from that one.

Good morning everyone. Do you have any favorite weight loss tools to recommend? Favorite apps, websites, cooking equipment, protein supplements, etc.? I have downloaded the Bariastic app and I like it a lot, I just wished it showed fiber and sodium totals, but overall it has been more effective for me than My Fitness Pal or The Daily Plate because of the reminders. For the kitchen, I'm thinking about getting an Instant Pot.

This was so inspiring to read. You look absolutely beautiful but what was even more striking was how happy you seem with your life now. Thank you for posting a sample of your daily menus and calories, that was so helpful. May you enjoy this happiness and good health forever.

Not exactly, but I'm on full liquids but after 5 days yogurt and blended black bean and lentil soup, 7 days cottage and ricotta cheese. No eggs until the 15th day, no poultry or fish protein until the 21st. It's easier to have options besides shakes but the downside is that it is harder to get your protein in because those foods are so filling. I can manage a 1/4 cup of ricotta, which is 8 grams of protein, a lot less than a shake. I am combining the two. The thicker foods, strangely go down easier for me.

If they know, then flat out tell them you can't handle restaurants yet, and if they are eating tempting food at home leave the room if you need to. Today my husband was eating pizza rolls. I don't even like them normally but they smelled like heaven after drinking all these overly sweet shakes with their nasty aftertaste. I went and did a load of laundry while he ate them so I wouldn't have to smell them.

That's it. You have probably had hardly any carbs on the liquid diet, mostly just protein, so this high carb/sugar soup spiked your blood sugar and then you crashed. I'm a newbie but I know that in the past if I was doing super low carb and suddenly had a lot of sugar it had a big impact, more of an impact than that meal would have if you were not low carbing.

Was it high in carbs or sugar?

Thank you, Jazzy. It's no big deal because I'm not really hungry, just annoying. Fortunately, this is temporary!

You look fantastic! And what a milestone, to be off those meds. You should be proud!