CrankyMagpie

This is the wrong thread for that question, Angie. We all either just got sleeved or are just about to get sleeved. You'll want to ask somewhere with people further along in the process.

What do you all mean by "no restriction"? How much can you eat in a half hour period? For comparison purposes I (sleeved 10/3) can eat 4 oz of yogurt or roughly 3 ounces of cottage cheese, refried beans, smooth tuna salad, or custard. It takes me 20-30 minutes to get through that much. If I eat more than that much, or I go too fast, I don't get the "full" signal you hear people talk about on here (sore shoulder, etc.), but I definitely feel pretty crappy and kind of sick.

They gave me antibiotics in my IV line before/during surgery. I don't know if it'd be enough to knock out a UTI, but they also didn't test me for that at any point. I hope the UTI clears up and you get your surgery as scheduled. ❤️

Just comparing notes, in case it helps... I still can't drink plain water. I'm getting 90% of my hydration with hot tea (mostly decaf--I don't count the caffeinated tea toward my total) and protein shakes. And it is close to 64 ounces per day, but it's not ever very much more than that. Besides hot tea, I can stand to drink protein shakes cold or at room temp. Room temp Powerade Zero is only a little bit harder than a protein shake, but room temp water hurts. Cold beverages also do OK, mostly--it's chilly enough out, now, that I just find myself gravitating toward the hot--and I definitely eat more sugar free popsicles than anyone should (even though it's cold, yes ... they seem to help when I start to feel nauseated from dehydration, though, and also they taste good ?). I think not going rollerskating (or ice skating?), this soon, might be better than going, unless you're a lot less likely to fall than I am. (Who isn't, though? ?) We're still pretty early on in the healing process. I do little walks most days, and since I'm still on blood thinners, I figure I also still need to be up and moving a little bit every hour I'm awake. But none of it is especially epic exercise, and I'm not going to beat myself up about that until after I've been cleared to go in the pool and lift weights and get out of breath. (Those first two happen at the 1 month post-op appointment, and the latter, I don't know? I have in my notes, from somewhere, that we're supposed to exercise only at a "moderate" pace until sometime after the 6 week mark, but that's not from my surgeon.) I don't know what to say about the food. I feel so bad if I eat too quickly that it's a pretty good policing mechanism. Like you, though, I wish I'd practiced more. The constant gurgling has gone away, and now I feel hungry 3-4 times per day, like you'd expect. It probably helps that very little of what I'm eating now is so appetizing that I feel rushed to eat it, lol. I think this will all get better with time. I hope you find a way to get your liquids in soon, though! ❤️

People on Weight Watchers, I'm sorry, WW, use it. If nothing else, it's a way to add something like creamer to your coffee for almost no points. Lots of other weight loss plans use it, too, not just WLS patients.

I don't know if he mentions this in the book, but a fun one I learned last year: if you want to absorb the most nutrients from your food, add (ideally fresh-grated) black pepper to your meals. (This is especially true if you're eating something with turmeric and you want the benefits of curcumin.)

The title is a little misleading. It's more "childhood abuse" than "sexual abuse," isn't it? Like, I could absolutely believe that sexual assault survivors also have a harder time, but having a high ACE score does not mean one was sexually abused, necessarily. If you have a high ACE score, you also have much higher chances of developing chronic illness. Therapy, meditation/mindfulness, and some other interventions can help, though.

Sorry, though, I seem to have lost my mind when I posted this. I used half splenda, half xylitol. Stevia tastes like metal to me (unless it's mixed with monkfruit, for some reason). Sorry, sorry!

My team does a post-op checkup at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, a year, and then every year thereafter. No labs at the 1 week, and I'd be a little surprised if they insist on them at the 1 month. But I kind of expect they'll order them at 3 months, 6 months, and then every annual appointment. The nutritionist meets with me at each of those appointments, too. It is kind of brief and not super helpful, and after my 3-month I may try to find someone I mesh better with. (As long as they do the 3 month soon enough, it's prepaid as part of my surgery. Besides, things don't get especially challenging until after 6 months, it sounds like.) I'm getting my psychological help elsewhere. Their psychologist is nice and pretty helpful, but she's not covered by my insurance.

This is my go-to recipe calculator: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp Since what counts as "a serving" varies so much for me, here is what I do to get the protein per serving: Weigh the pan I'll be using Use a recipe calculator set to "this makes one serving" to get the total protein for whatever I'm making. Cook the food. Weigh the pan again once I'm done cooking. Subtract the first weight from the second (to remove the pan and find out what the food weighs). Now I have the total protein (from the online calculator) and however many ounces of food the recipe makes! Now divide the total amount of protein by the total amount of ounces to get the protein per ounce. When you measure out your meal, you can weigh how many ounces you serve yourself and figure out how much protein that is by multiplying.

I made this today, and it's awesome: https://www.bariatriceating.com/2015/04/egg-custard-perfect-bariatric-food/ (I used half stevia, half xylitol, because that makes for a better flavor than stevia alone, but you should use whatever you like.)

I had surgery roughly a week before you did, and I've dragged my spouse out to walk with me most days since then. It's been good. We've had a chance to enjoy some local parks (I'm not above driving a couple of miles to go on a more interesting walk :)) and to talk to each other. Pick parks that you know have benches to start out. Being able to take breaks now and then has helped me a lot!

This isn't short, but the part that debunks "just eat less and exercise" is at the beginning, in case they give up part-way through: https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/ This is about the Biggest Loser folks and why they almost all regained: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/6-years-after-the-biggest-loser-metabolism-is-slower-and-weight-is-back-up/ Also, I'll be the hold-out on this thread and tell you: you do not have to tell your family you're having weight loss surgery. I haven't told all of mine, and I won't. Yes, they'll need to know you had abdominal surgery, so that they understand why you need help with some stuff around the house, but there are a lot of organs in the abdomen. If you do choose to tell them, I hope it's because you have reason to believe they'll come around to being supportive and not because you feel like you have no other option ❤️

Vitamins: I have the BariatricAdvantage Multi-chewy vitamins (in cherry, but my doctor's office let me try the orange, too). They taste just fine, but two of them at a time is too much and makes me feel sick. This wasn't a problem pre-op (when I tried them at the doctor's office), but new tum is definitely not into them. Puree/soft phase foods: If you haven't had a chance to try Bariatric Eating's egg custard, do yourself a favor and make some. (If you're on lifting restriction, maybe get a kitchen buddy to help you get it into and out of the oven. The water bath makes it heavy. I waited until my spouse was home to make it, and that felt like a good call.) I followed their recipe with only one variation: I did half Splenda and half xylitol, because I find that mix doesn't taste like fake sugar to me. It makes a really thick, satisfying, delicious custard.

My team lumps puree with soft food and suggests you start with easier things (ricotta, cottage cheese, yogurt) and gradually move down their list over time. But ground meat is totally on the same list (at the bottom! but on it) as yogurt, for me. I've had good success with going through their list and adding a new thing every day or two, as I feel comfortable. On day 6 of this phase, I just added tuna salad made with Greek yogurt and mustard and nothing "chunky." (I made it more "gloopy" than my usual recipe, too. Didn't want to risk it being too dry.) Maybe that's too slow a progression, though? I'm being so cautious. I hate throwing up.

7-10 days full liquids, 3-6 weeks purees & soft foods (which they sort of lump together). They gave us a list of soft foods and suggested we work our way down it. (Each level has two things on it.) It starts with cottage cheese and ricotta, then yogurts and Greek yogurts, then sugar-free puddings/custards and soft-cooked eggs, then fat-free refried beans and low-fat tofu, then chicken or turkey made in a crockpot and baked fish that flakes easily (cod, salmon, tilapia, crab), then canned tuna/salmon/chicken and thinly sliced lunch meats, then ground meat and soups (lentil, for example) and chili. I'm on my 6th day of phase II, and I'm good with cottage cheese, ricotta, Greek yogurt, refried beans, and really gloopy tuna salad (made with Greek yogurt and mustard and without anything chunky in it). I cook my eggs thoroughly, so I'm holding off on that, and with the lifting restriction, I'll need someone to move the custard and its water bath into and out of the oven for me, so that's this weekend. Also maybe this weekend: ricotta bake! I'm trying not to rush things, but I'm also trying to work my way up into somewhat denser proteins so that I can drink fewer protein shakes.

Don't tell them if you're uncomfortable doing so. Your body, your choice. I'm handling it differently with different groups of people. My spouse has known since it first crossed my mind, and he's been a million percent supportive and would have been a million percent supportive if I backed out of doing it, too. "Whatever your play is, I'll back it." He's so good. ? My brother knows. His wife had it done a few weeks before I did, after having lap-bad years ago. He's starting the process, soon, too. I waited until after surgery to tell my mother, and when I told her that I had it done, I said "I didn't tell you beforehand because I didn't want you to worry." She took it pretty well, and she's being pretty supportive. There have been a couple of semi-snide comments ("if my insurance covered it, I'd have done it the fast way, too, but I'm stuck with the slow way" (uh, she doesn't know my insurance didn't cover it)), but those are on the mild side of what I've heard from her in the past, honestly. I've told four friends, and there are a couple of others I just haven't seen since surgery that I'll probably tell, too. There's no real reason for the others to know, and most aren't rude enough to ask. People at work know I had a surgery and that I don't want to talk about the details. I'm honestly really just hoping to change jobs before the weight loss is noticeable, but if it doesn't work out that way, I'm maybe going to say "it's a common side effect of the surgery I had done in the fall, but my doctors aren't worried about it, yet." (Which will be really unexpected and uncomfortable if they're congratulating me on weight loss, but I'm always in favor of shutting down people's commentary on other people's bodies, anyway.)

If your team is cool with it, don't let me talk you out of it! You can always change it up if your labs come back short on something. ❤️

Whatever number I put on here is random. The number in my head is 165, but if I lose just an average amount, I'll be somewhere closer to 190. Which is fine. Life at 190 pounds is fine. BMI is bull?, scientifically speaking, but 165 puts me at a lower BMI rating and, one assumes, better treatment by medical professionals (because they use BMI for every-dang-thing, despite what nonsense it is). So it's worth striving that extra little bit, to me, if I'm still feeling good when I hit Goal 1.

My team doesn't support their use, and I haven't seen any scientific evidence that they work. (I mean, I'm not saying "I don't use them and you shouldn't either," because some people on here do use them and, presumably, still have perfectly fine numbers when they do their blood tests. I'm just saying that I, personally, am uncomfortable with them, in part because my team is opposed to their use.)

You are going hard for carbs lately. Keep it up. I think that, in the future, we will look back on our current anti-carb obsession with the same derision as we look back on the anti-fat nonsense of the 1990s. It's a fad. It will pass. Nutrition science is in its infancy, and every single nutritionist I've ever met, and most I've followed online for any time, have been dogmatic. There are dogmatic vegetarian/vegan nutritionists, dogmatic anti-carb nutritionists (bariatric teams seem to hire them disproportionately often), dogmatic "three meals/no snacks" nutritionists, dogmatic "eat small amounts all day" nutritionists. More than one nutritionist I've had the misfortune to deal with has been entirely ignorant about the research surrounding BMR changes brought on by diet, probably because their paycheck required them to stay ignorant. They all (all of them I've met and nearly all of them whose websites I visit) cherry-pick their sources, ignoring the things they don't want to integrate into their practice. Nutrition "science," as practiced in client-facing situations, is just survivorship bias writ large. "Well this all works for ME." MEH! ... Hi, I'm CrankyMagpie, and I didn't know I had a rant waiting to get out, but here we are.

I'm now a little past two weeks out. I was allergic to something they used during the surgery, and I broke into hives all over my torso a week out. I'm still dealing with that, though I think maybe it's getting a little better now. My incisions are all looking good, no pain to speak of. I'm on soft/puree foods (my team doesn't make a distinction) and have worked my way through Greek yogurt, ricotta, cottage cheese, and refried beans. I'm a little afraid to make the jump to chicken, baked fish, or canned tuna. Or eggs--I don't "soft cook" eggs; I cook them all the way through, so I was planning to keep holding off on those for a bit. But I know once I get some kind of denser protein source in my daily life, I won't have to drink so many protein shakes. That's a pretty big enticement. Drinking enough liquid is only hard because I have to stop half an hour on either side of eating, and I'm still sleeping a lot. But I can drink normal (pre-op) amounts, per sip, as long as I don't actually gulp. I can walk a mile, if there are benches where I can stop and rest for a few seconds here and there. (I needed that pre-op, too, because of arthritis. My arthritis is less bad at the moment; now, I stop mostly because I'm still not supposed to be getting out of breath, and most of the places to walk around here have hills.)

Don't take any more Advil until after you've talked to your surgeon. I'm not supposed to take it for something like 3 months. Don't take Excedrin either. If your surgeon prescribed you some kind of pain med, that's OK, and Tylenol is OK, but those are your only safe options right now. Are you hydrated? Try getting more liquids in; that should help the headache.

I've definitely seen people say they don't eat fruit. Even in this thread, people seemed surprised that anyone might eat 3 whole servings of fruit in a day, like that is wild and mind-blowing. I probably will, some days, when I'm not so restricted? My throwing in beans might just be leftover annoyance at Paleo. I don't know if there are that many people who go out of their way to avoid beans, post-WLS. I hope not! They're amazing, nutritionally!

Ooh, which zombie novels? (If you don't mind saying.)