AZhiker

Try Intermittant Fasting with alternate day restriction. I have found that continual caloric restriction really slows down the weight loss. Restricting to 500-600 cal every other day, alternating with normal intake (maybe 1000-1200) can trick your metabolism into thinking it is not really starving and can keep humming along.

I am 6 months out and just now able to eat a salad without discomfort. It is the rough texture that is the issue. And it sure takes a LOT of chewing! I was craving salads and veggies early on, as well. I got bunches of greens and blended them up with water. I then strained out the dark green water and used that in my smoothies, soups, drink water and anything else I was eating. I think it gave me a lot of good vitamins and phytonutrients and made me feel like I was getting my salad and greens, but without the roughage that was so irritating.

Ok, so I am trying to break this 6 month stall - sooooo close to goal, but just keep gaining and losing the same 3 pounds. I have been doing 16/8 IF for over a month and doing fine on that. But I am going to tweak it this week and add alternate day IF, as well. Today I had 500 calories. Tomorrow I will have about 1100. Wed will be back to 500, Thurs will be over 1000, etc, until the end of the week. I know when I consistently cut the calories - like to 500-600/day, my weight loss grinds to a halt. I then get hungry (or stressed) and tend to overeat or eat compulsively the next day or so. Interestingly, when I have done that, I actually lose pounds. Soooo...…. I just need to control the ebb and flow of the intake - making it healthy and disciplined - writing everything down, and alternating the restriction with more than I usually eat. I am also upping my exercise just a bit - adding 30 more min. of either walking or elliptical, along with my usual 20 flights of stairs, 10,000 + steps ,and leg and arm routines daily instead of every other day. I watched the You Tube of Dr. V that someone posted, about mindful eating. Very good. I am going to practice that , as well. It took me half an hour to eat just my salad at lunch today! So I am asking for some accountability partnering here. I will follow this plan and then report back next Sunday with the results. I feel much better with a definite plan of attack that is objective and measurable. I've been struggling with head hunger a lot recently, and I think this new plan has already helped with that. Thanks to you all, for the support and encouragement you have given me and everyone else. This is such a good forum.

If it aint broke, don't fix it!

Be sure to take your D3 and calcium together but apart from the multi. The calcium and iron don't go well together for absorption.

You might need a doppler to see if you might have developed a blood clot. I would let your surgeon know immediately. It could also be electrolyte imbalance, but they will always want to play it safe rather than sorry. I developed phlebitis in one of my leg veins after RNY. Doc sent me for a doppler and turned out I had 3 blood clots with none of the usual symptoms!!!!

2 weeks, but no lifting.

When you look at something you crave, say to yourself, "I can't have that yet, but I will have it again.....later."

I weaned off with decaf, which I thought I would continue after surgery. But, low and behold, I couldn't tolerate it at all. All of a sudden, coffee tasted terrible. I tried a sip the other day and it was just awful - not at all like I remember. Funny thing is that green tea started to taste sweet instead of astringent. I drink decaffeinated green tea or herbal teas now. I am very wary of the acid in coffee, as I have Barretts esophagitis and even developed a Barretts polyp. So I don't want to do anything that would increase the risk of cancer or ulcers. I don't miss the coffee at all. Diet Coke is another story! I stopped Diet Coke about 3 years ago and it was agony. It took the better part of 2 years before my car stopped wanting to pull into the McDonald's drive through! That stuff is soooooo addicting! But I haven't had a sip since and I know if I did it would probably taste terrible. Again - a good addiction to break. The acid is bad for stomach and teeth. Did you know that soda (regular or diet) is listed as a factor contributing the fatty liver disease? There is nothing good about it. A couple weeks before surgery, I went off all sugar. What a blessing! I don't want dumping, so that was a no brainer. Without sugar and caffeine, my energy levels are so consistent, with no afternoon slump. One of the best things I've ever done as far as diet goes.

I had the on-Q when I had thoracic surgery to remove a tumor from my esophagus. It is a little tube that is inserted at the surgical site. It connects to a softball sized sphere that is full of the pain medicine - not narcotic, but an anesthetic kind of like novocaine or lidocaine. The sphere slowly compresses on itself until it is empty. This can take several days, so the anesthetic is continual. You wear a little pocket with a strap to hold the sphere. The tubing is often sutured into the skin to prevent it from sliding out accidentally. It is used for surgical sites that are extensive and painful - maybe like a big hernia repair, an open gall bladder removal, or like my chest surgery where I also had a chest tube and intercostal nerves were involved. It is not used that much for basic laproscopic surgeries which have minimal pain compared to open surgeries. The sutures on mine were very bothersome. Every time I accidentally caught the tubing on something it felt like my skin was being ripped off. I've never heard of someone having it for laproscopic weight loss surgery. The pain associated with WLS is from gas (Gas is put into your abdominal cavity to expand the field of view. It is sucked out, but any residual gas has to dissipate into the tissues on its own and that can be uncomfortable. I had NO gas pain after gastric bypass.) The other pain associate with WLS is surgical pain of the procedure itself. There is a lot that goes on underneath those little laproscopic incisions. But it is not unbearable. For comparison, I would say my broken pelvis and ribs from a horseback accident were MUCH more painful. That was a 9/10. My thoracic surgery was a 6-7/10. My total knee replacement was a 5/10. My gastric bypass was 4/10. I needed morphine maybe twice in the hospital, percocet for a day at home, and then tylenol for about a week.

I would suggest NOT doing IF until you are much farther out post op and able to eat more with each meal. It's so important right now to get all your protein in, and as much nutrition as you can. That could be very hard to do in a small window of eating time. I was doing IF long before surgery, but I still waited until closer to 5-6 months post op when I started again. You are already in a pretty extreme caloric deficit, simply due to the surgery. IMHO, it is best to work on trying to get all your protein and food groups in for now. IF will always be there as an additional tool.

I think my neck has actually shrunk up a bit in the past few months. The turkey wattle doesn't seem as pronounced as it was at first. I think the same is true for my arm flaps. So there is hope for even old dogs like me.

I am going to get Jason Fung's book, "Intermittant Fasting," which I expect will be just as good as his book, "The Obesity Code" which gives so much good information about what actually makes people fat. Another really good one is "Younger Next Year for Women" which is a take off on the original "Younger Next Year." This is an excellent break down on the physiology of exercise and how much amazing stuff it does for us. Just got my labs back and my HDL cholesterol is over 70! That's just from exercise over the past 6 months.

My face is so wrinkly now , as is my neck. I think I look like an old goon, but...…. several people have told me I look so much younger! Go figure.

No wheat, sugar, refined carbs, processed foods soda, coffee, or alcohol for me. Don't miss any of them.

15 pounds in 4 weeks is awesome! That's almost 4 pounds per week. Why are you worried?

Give up addictions now. Don't go through recovery and withdrawal at the same time! Sugar, soda, caffeine, bread/starches, artificial anything. You will then be set to launch immediately into your new healthy lifestyle.

Did your doc give you a script for Zofran?

You remember the camp song, "Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them in a bow? Can you throw them over your shoulder like a Continental soldier? Do your ears hang low? Well, you can figure out what body part to substitute for 'ears"!!! I hear you! I have to pick mine up and shove them into my new little bra to make them stay anywhere above my waist. I now know what "rocks in socks" means. Ha!

Me, too. Along with live culture yoghurt daily. Once the temps cool down around here, I hope to start making my own fermented veggies and pickles. I also try to eat mushrooms and tempe at least 3 or 4 times a week for prebiotic loading. I've also read that any root veggies such as beets, turnips, parsnips are really good for gut biome. Sugar kills it, however! No sugar here! I'm too scared of dumping.

Soft, mushy ones. I wasn't allowed to eat any veggies for 8 weeks. Once I could eat them again, they had to be pretty soft - well cooked broccoli was good. Canned pumpkin/yams another good one. I like to make pumpkin custard, using more eggs than normal pumpkin pie to up the protein. I use a little Monkfruit sweetener and bake without a crust. It's a great way to get in an orange veggie + protein. Canned beets, well cooked green beans, turnip all good. You can put green leafies in the blender for smoothies. 6 months out and I am just able to eat raw veggies. They have to be chewed to mush and swallowed very carefully in tiny bits. More often than not, I make a veggie soup with shredded carrot, cabbage, onion, shredded broccoli stems. Made with bone broth as stock, it has protein and is a good filler if I get the "hungries."

Well, poo! I just had labs drawn. I have taken 10,000 mcg Biotin daily for 6 months. I just looked at some articles that say it can interfere with not only thyroid tests, but some others as well. It takes about 5 days for thyroid test to return to normal levels after biotin is stopped. I stopped all my vitamins for only 1 day before the lab draw, as directed. I was really hoping to see some accurate results of my thyroid tests, but looks like it will have to be redrawn. I think I will stop the Biotin anyway. It did not prevent hair loss at all, and I now wonder if my recent energizer bunny manic state and inability to stay asleep is due to excessive biotin.

Give it time. This is a big surgery and there is a LOT of healing. It does tend to wipe you out for a while. Get some walking in every day, but don't push yourself to the point of exhaustion. Your body will tell you when you can start doing more. Healing is the biggest priority right now.

I agree- see someone else. I had GERD and Barrett's esophagitis with a Barrett's polyp. My surgeon did not even give a 2nd thought to doing gastric bypass because of the history. He told me that anyone with bad GERD before surgery could have it worse after a sleeve, and in those cases, bypass is the better option. My GERD is gone now. If you have GERD now, you may end up with a revision to bypass down the road, and IMHO, why not just get the bypass now and be done with it.

My only issue right now is too MUCH energy. I am too wound up and can't shut down. I get to sleep OK (when I finally DO go to bed) but then wake up every 2 hours thinking it is time to get up. Midnight, 2 am, 4 am, etc. When I finally get up at 5 am I am wide awake and ready to go, even if I only got 4-5 hours of sleep. I got labs drawn last week and will have my 6 month follow up this week, so will see if everything is normal. I am especially interesting in the TSH level. I will also be seeing my sleep doctor in a couple of weeks to see if I can go off the C-pap and will ask her about it as well. But it is very strange. I'm not complaining - I get a lot done - but I feel a bit like a manic energizer bunny. Anyone else have this with IF or with weight loss in a short time? I've lost 100 lbs in 6 months, so I am a bit of an outlier, for which I am thankful, but wonder if the rapid change has something to do with either my hormones or brain chemistry, and if IF is a contributing factor.