Jobber

There's really no need to until you are advised by the program. Plus shakes get old fast, you want to wait long as possible. Good Luck in your process.

Until I was in the market for protein supplements myself, I never really noticed other people buying these things in the stores I frequent. This weekend at Sam's Club I saw about 10 different carts with cases of premier protein in the bottom of them. None of the shoppers appeared to be body builders, most were "overweight" but this sparked my question. Would it be fair to assume that many of these people at Sam's this weekend are in the WLS process or do people use these for other reasons than WLS or body building? Meal Replacements? What else?

I never really thought about using a little bit for something like coffee, that's pretty smart, plus you can make it mocha or french vanilla. I just discovered peanut butter powder this weekend and I mixed it with chocolate protein isolate in almond milk. OMG, it's freakin' amazing.... Total Kcal 247!

Good Luck to you IANMS. I was thinking about starting this process a few years ago because of a person I met who had lost over 200lbs through WLS. I never once felt like they "took the easy way out" because I talked to her about the whole process and her experience. it was truly an inspiring experience. I knew I was going to do it after meeting her, but then my best friend's wife had the surgery and it was completely ineffective for her. I was forlorn and somewhat put off about getting it going. I found out later that she wasn't losing weight because she was drinking all her calories. Not just alcohol, but milkshakes and other bad sugary drinks as well. She finally decided to cut these things out and the pounds started melting away, it was just the catalyst she needed along with exercise and getting in her water. I know it will be hard, but there's no other way to do it. Good luck to you!

Prepackaged foods kill your tastebuds with salt and make people hate less salty things like vegetables; it's a fact. You're a product of your upbringing and if you're fed these things growing up, chances are you're going to continue the trend. Education on nutrition and applying this knowledge is important. Its the main reason most insurance companies for WLS require the months of nutrition appointments and/or classes. You must change your ways or your surgery will not be worth it. I know what I'm supposed to eat, I minored in nutrition in college, but my problem is that I don't apply what I know most of the time and I have a deadly relationship with full-fat dairy products, also loaded with sodium. This is going to be my biggest challenge going through this process, I wish you well. Like most of the others here said already, go slow. Try new veggies, but try to avoid over-salting them. Use herbs, garlic, non salt containing spices. If you like spicy things, use that, it's a great sub for salt. All the Best!

that sounds really good, thanks!

What's in the stuffing, may I ask?

Congrats @Matt Z, sounds like you went through a lot. I wish you continued success on your journey.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation with my wife. I think he sees you asking him to order food that way as another way to remind him yet again that you're doing this and he's getting more insecure about the whole thing. He'll come around if he truly supports you, but then again, it may also expose his true feelings as well. If you don't have a healthy foundation in the first place, I think this process is going to show what your relationship is made of for better or worse.

I was just jealous of their glory and had to resort to insults to conceal it....

Makes sense, I would imagine you can get sick of the same thing so many meals in a row. Thanks

No offense, it reminds me of the fake vomit you could buy at a joke store back in the day...

Thanks all, I guess I'll learn what I can do once I go through this myself and adjust accordingly. My plan is to eat the same things I feed the rest of my family so I just take a little at a time.

So this might be a stupid question, but does everyone save leftovers for subsequent meals or is there a lot of food being thrown out? Seems very wasteful if you're not eating everything prepared.

My main nemesis is cheese, glorious cheese. I have a love/hate relationship with it and it's mostly why I've gotten to the point I am at now. I'm hoping this surgery is going to help me with this obsession. Thanks for sharing, I'm learning a lot about WLS from this site, much more than in the classes and Dr visits.

@leebick may I ask what foods you know "go down way too easily"? I want to get a feel of things I want to start letting go now while I'm in the "pre-op" phase. Thanks

I had my first NUT appt and they mentioned making sure to keep protein levels high while dieting during the pre-op 6 month phase and I know she meant through food, but has anyone used protein shakes or powder as meal replacement prior to surgery or any liquid diet? I'm tracking my nutrition using my fitness pal and seem to be lacking in the protein department. I searched protein in this forum and only got 300K results so I couldn't find this easily, most were about supplementing protein post-op. Thanks in advance

Thanks Ash, I think this sounds like solid advice. If I haven't learned that from using slimfast, it sounds like it's going to be a similar experience with these.

*pork

Sort of like when I did Atkins diet for a couple months in the early 2000's. I like turkey and port more than anything, but recently I've gotten into Bison meat. It seems to be even better for you than chicken since it's so lean.

I can understand getting burned out on shakes, about 15 years ago I did slimfast and lost about 50 lbs and by the time I stopped, I was so sick of the shakes it started making me nauseous when I smelled vanilla. Thanks for the advice.

I agree with this. it was my PCP who started me on the path to WLS and straight told me that she would write a letter of medical necessity if I needed one. This was after almost 5 years now of attempts under her supervision using various dieting, appetite suppressants and pills that turn your poo to grease, etc. How would you start this process by not consulting with your PCP first, that seems unusual to me, no offense?

I second this. Every Ins co is different and has different requirements.

Yes. My wife said somethign similar before I even had my first surgeon appointment. I posted about it here and got some very good advice to invite her to my first surgeon and NUT appointment. I changed my user name because she's smart and may find this board now that I'm in the process and mentioned that I'm frequenting online forums to get educated, so she would know it was me asking why she doesn't support me, etc... and that would be a big problem. Good news is that I followed the advice and played it cool. Once we had the surgeon and his supporting resident sit down with us to talk about the process, he also explained why so many struggle and fail. I consider myself very lucky to have had him do that and it was based on some strategic questions I had lined up prior. I really want my wife to be on board and I was taken aback when she asked me after the appt if I had decided if I was going to go through with the surgery. This doesn't seem like much, but to me, it was a huge win because when we've talked about it before, it wasn't even a question she would ask, it was more of "you don't need this, just diet and exercise and stick to it". I repeat your sentiment of "DUH". I've been doing this for 20 years now and not had much luck... Anyways, I played it cool when she asked me and said I hadn't decided and that I wanted to go through some of the process and get further along the 6 months before deciding. I knew that was probably the best way to let her know that I'm not just deciding to do this emotionally and that I'm doing this based on my research and experience instead. That will strike the final blow in swaying her to my side, I have no doubt. She's my everything so making sure she's on board is everything to me. Good luck to you. I don't have any good advice beyond making sure that your SO knows why you want to do this, which is to be around longer for them and for your family, not because you want to lose weight and run off with someone else which is probably what some spouses think.