Arabesque

I eat green beans almost every day (with asparagus, sugarsnap peas & broccolini). I’m spoilt, I have access to fresh green bean all year round - my family grows a lot of beans. 😉 I usually just microwave them with a little water & butter. So yummy. I love them with garlic & a splash of sesame oil too. Delicious raw too. Crunchy goodness.

Definitely keep working at meeting your fluid goals. Add fibre to your shakes, broths, etc. everyday like benefibre (avoid ones that swell in your tummy). You’re eating very little constipation is understandable. Unfortunately constipation is an ongoing issue as we’re losing weight. If I hadn’t had a bowel movement by day 2 or 3 (depending on what stage I was on) I’d take a stool softener. This way I never let the constipation get too bad. I also still tried to go everyday. Not forcing anything, just sitting & relaxing for awhile. Sometimes gravity can help. As can jiggling your knees up & down so I’ve heard not that I’ve tried that. Good luck.

That pink colour is so lovely on you @kristieshannon & @Dtrain84 looking smoooooth. Congrats @ANewJourneyAwaits on your weight loss. And such a bright & cheerful colour to celebrate. I love red. A face to face would be fabulous but I’m not intending to board a plane for some time yet even with the vaccine - flying incubators - shudder - especially with the number of hours I’d be trapped on board. Maybe one day we’ll be able enjoy travelling safely again & we won’t have to quarantine whereever we go. Damn virus. It’s sucked the joy out of so much. Waaah!

Gurgles, groans, moans, burbles, whines, ... I swear I have a poltergeist inside just without the rattling chains. Does it more often when I eat dairy but can also do it late at night when I haven’t eaten for hours. Though, I have to admit it’s not quite as frequent now. Hilarious it did it just now as I was writing this. 😆😆😆

No expert but it sounds like postural hypotension. Your blood pressure drops on standing - all your blood rushes to your feet & takes a moment or two to re equalise. Consequently your vision narrows or darkens, you may feel a little light headed or momentarily dizzy. At worst you can faint. Stand slowly & wait before moving until everything settles. It happens to me multiple times a day. I always make sure I have a chair, wall, table, person, etc. nearby I can touch to ground myself when my vision goes. With anything that is unusual for you, feels strange, is painful, etc, on this journey see your doctor. Good luck.

Fabulous find @kristieshannon. And not having to worry about belly popping buttons is a great win. I loved when I realised I didn’t have to worry about buttons straining & gaping across my chest. NSV are the best. A zoom cocktail party? What an idea @BayougirlMrsS. And we wouldn’t have to worry about stumbling home afterwards. 😂😂😂

Give it time. This all very new & you’ll have a lot of learning on the way. I’m about 22 months out & I still don’t eat bread, wraps, or similar. It’s a combination of my choice & I expect it will sit heavily in my tummy limiting what else I can eat like the soya bean pasta did when I tried that. I do eat multigrain crackers which I started in maintenance. I suffered from painful hiccups for decades & it wasn’t until I was prescribed Nexium (esomeprazole) did I find some relief - it actually stopped them after a few minutes. Have you been prescribed esomeprazole? Many sleevers do as it helps with the acid production & reflux. Also are you eating/sipping slowly? Eating or drinking too quickly can set my hiccups off. Your tummy is pretty sensitive & cantankerous to begin (like a two yr old). A lot of things can cause it throw a tantrum & upset you one day but then be fine the next. Treat it gently to begin. A lot of us had a very limited diet for some time - eating the same couple of things & then slowly adding foods when we could tolerate them. Lots of trial & error. Now I eat anything I want. As for alcohol, check with your medical team. I had a glass at about 2/3 (took hours to drink) & then nothing for a while. I still don’t drink often. Maybe once a month. Don’t miss it. The worry about alcohol is addiction swapping - food to alcohol. Good luck.

These pxts of our alcohol stashes are fabulous. Don’t feel nearly as guilty now - tee hee! I love a good cocktail napkin. Your mum is the best @WishMeSmaller. I love a good martini. Gin of course & plenty of olives - gotta get your daily serve of fruit in. A friend used to make a pretty mean chocolate martini but he’s in Denmark now - waah! And there used to be a great little cafe/restaurant in Brisbane that made a to die for lychee martini too. So good! And I so do enjoy the salty goodness of a margarita. Ok @WishMeSmaller, @BayougirlMrsS & @ms.sss we just need to find a date for our cocktail party. Welcome @dms75. Hope to see lots more of your posts. We do go off on tangents sometimes,, like fridge shots, here sometimes but it adds to the fun.

Don’t worry too much if you’re not getting all your protein in to begin as long as you’re close. I never hit my protein goal the first couple of weeks. I wasn’t hungry or interested in eating. I hated the sweet too so I went to soups & bone broths which were so much better. And yes it does get better & easier as you move to more solid food & as you get further along on the journey. Do you take gummies multivitamins? They have so much sugar/artificial sweeteners - that’s how they make them gummies & sweet like. I took Bioceutical multi vitamins (don’t know if they’re available in the US). They’re a regular sized capsule so easy to swallow. Good luck.

That’s the trick. Always blame others for doing all the drinking in the house. 😂😂😂 My pxt didn’t include my gin stash either. I keep the gin in my everyday fridge ... for easy access 😆. Mind you I’m lucky if I have a drink once a month now & only when socialising. If we were together, I’m sure there’d be plenty of ‘socialising’.

Everyone is really different with how they recover post surgery & how they react to the very low food intake. One friend went back after a week no problem. Another took three weeks. I took 4 weeks & still struggled (low energy, low blood pressure) but I usually take longer to recover after being unwell so not totally unexpected. Best advice is to allow a week but negotiate with your work to come back reduced hours if they’ll allow it or if they’ll give you another week at short notice if you need it. Good luck with your surgery.

I know what you mean about celebrity products @ms.sss. Have you seen how much the Rock pushes his tequila & energy drink on Instagram? I’d unfollow him but his posts with his daughter are gosh darn cute. Mind you friends & I bought Bill Murray’s vodka. We have a bit of a soft spot for Bill but the main reason was the skull head it came in. I mean I haven’t drunk vodka in decades. How about some alcohol fridge porn. The fruit & vege drawers are full of champagne cause what else would you keep in them. Lol! Bill’s skull is behind the Hendrix’s gin. Actually. I might need to restock. There’s a few empty spots. Guess what I’ve been doing today? Yep, Mother of the Bride dress shopping again. My friend loves the dress we found except for the round neck which I can understand. No luck at all today & we’ve exhausted all the well known & lesser known labels. She’s becoming depressed about it. Everything is either waisted (which she can’t do cause of her body shape), round necked, wrong colours, too short.... Sigh.

Really? They said not to count them as part of your fluid intake? I was told from day one that any liquid can be be counted so soups (liquid part only), broths, protein shakes, drinking yogurt, tea, milk, etc. (My father had kidney issues & he was told any liquid counted as part of your daily recommended fluid intake regardless of the form they took even high water content fruit like oranges, watermelon, etc. counted.) Another example of different plans, requirements & expectations from different doctors. No wonder we get confused sometimes.

Do they look older or just look their age? You may look drawn, tired & maybe older as you’re losing weight but I found when I got into maintenance, was eating a little more & eating some good carbs, I didn’t look as ‘hang dog’. I’m often told I look years younger than I am & I certainly look younger than my girlfriends (but that could be just good genes.) I can see the real shape of my face now. I have cheekbones & a jaw line. My eyes even look bigger cause I don’t have heavy fatty droopy eyelids anymore. Sure that one marionette line on the right side of my face is more noticeable but I’d rather be thin with a deep line than obese with a blobby face without definition. But that’s me. We all have things that bother us about ourselves. I still think I have fat thighs which is crazy. Moisturise (hyaluronic & retinol ones are good), regularly exfoliate gently, avoid the sun or slather on the sunscreen, add some collagen & silica to your diet. I did some radio frequency but that only gives short term results.

For my friend. She’s always been very laid back beachy boho in her style and we thought this was a nice nod to her style & the wedding style while being elegant enough for her being mother of the bride. And it’s not boringly conservative or expected. The attendants are wearing soft natural colours: sand, calico, sage green, white linen, etc. so the dress should look good in the photos. Big wedding especially in COVID times: 190 attending. Think I’ll pack my silk ‘formal’ mask just in case. Well I’m totally going not beachy in my wedding look cause it’s just not me @ms.sss. The outfit I had bought for when the wedding was to be last September is 2 sizes too big now - waah! I bought this recently. Are you surprised it’s black? 😆 The skirt is a silk satin type fabric & the top is a mesh bodysuit. Yes, I’ll be having to do that fumbling between the crotch thing every time I go to the bathroom - oh the bad 80s memories. Am doing flat slides for the wedding on the beach & was changing into the light crystal heels on the right for the reception until I found out it’s cocktail & we’ll be standing on sand covered with matting. Yikes! Now I’m thinking the black with ankle ties on the left as they have a lower block heel so I shouldn’t sink down in the sand &/or stumble & face plant it. They may look too heavy though. Mmmm??? Yay, for you being allowed some freedom again @ms.sss. Love you did a day trip to the liquor store. Did you buy any of Snoop’s wine?

Honestly when you first lose your weight, you may look drained or drawn. But, once you’re into maintenance, your weight stabilises, you’re eating more & eating some good multi/whole grains, that drawn look disappears. I also think after a few months in maintenance your remaining fat seems to rearrange itself. I know that sounds strange but I swear it happened to me. And at 24, your skin is full of its natural elasticity unlike we over 50s whose skin elasticity is much depleted. ☹️ Just think when you lose the weight you’ll be able to see the real shape of your face, your jaw line, your cheekbones. Even my eyes look better & bigger cause my eyelids aren’t as heavy & droopy anymore. I was even told the other day I had lovely cheekbones & I was like cheekbones? What? Who me? But if it does bother you there are things you can do. I added liquid collagen & liquid silica to my drinking yoghurt several times a week while losing. I don’t know if it helped but it didn’t hurt. The are non surgical treatments like radio frequency which stimulate collagen growth. Or you could try fillers, etc. They’re all short term but ... Good luck with your surgery.

Oh, yeah, stuck food’s not pleasant. And then that sudden vomiting to bring it up. At least we vomit differently now without the awful bile & I don’t have all the muscle spasms either but that could just be me. Try soft foods at this stage. Stews, casseroles, minced meat based meals, chunky slow cooked soups, etc. Foods half way between purée & solid. I found chicken thigh meat much easier to tolerate ( has way more flavour than breast meat too). The changed taste buds is pretty common too but it is temporary. Don’t give up on any food cause while you may not enjoy it or be able to tolerate it now, yuh may be able to soon. Lots of trial & error along the way. Good luck.

Lots of good advice above. There are more than 300 000 people who are active/inactive members of this forum, from all over the world, who’ve had no complications. Sure some people do have complications but that happens with any surgery but very few considering the number who’ve had the surgery. Sometimes the complication arises as a result of a pre existing or undiagnosed issue. I’d also remind them that continuing to be obese is more dangerous than the surgery. It’s your health, your life. And I’m sure you made this decision after a lot of thinking, research & considered all the options available to you. Good luck with your surgery & with speaking with your family.

Yes it will pass. It’s one of those quirky temporary side effects. Just sounds like it’s more severe for you. ☹️ My sense of smell wasn’t affected only my taste buds. And sometimes textures were strange. Congrats on your surgery. Hope everything is going well for you.

We’d have so much fun. Partee!! 🎉🎉🎉

Your hair cut is lovely @Lynda486 I’m jealous. I’d love to have those gorgeous waves of yours. I have to sleep in plaits or twists like Ms.SSS did to get any kinks in mine. Sigh. Lookin’ hot @JMJames92. Spent two days Mother of the Bride dress shopping with a a girlfriend whose daughter is getting married in about 8 weeks. (The wedding was postponed from September last year - thanks COVID.) Oh my God. So difficult to find something that’s not boringly conservative or too young, shirt or revealing that still has a soft beach’s vibe. It’s a beach wedding on a island resort of the coast of Queensland. Think @MarvelGirl25 is on to the right idea with eloping. I haven’t offered to go shoe shopping with my friend though I did find some pretty sandals with brushed gold & silver straps with a touch of fuschia online that might work with the dress. We ended up choosing this dress. I think we did pretty well.

I always disliked the smell of salmon, though I don’t mind eating it. Try poaching it in milk. The flesh is very delicate & flaky after so much easier to eat. Plus the milk seems to absorb a lot of the oil (& yes I know that’s where the omega benefits are) & the strong odour. Besides the smell, the oiliness could also upset you. The initial changes to our taste buds & becoming very sensitive to smells does revert to how it was pre surgery in time. Have fun experimenting with foods.

Scallops & asparagus for dinner? My favourites. I’ll be there soon. 😁

It’s one of the reasons we’re advised to eat slowly. It takes time for the message you’ve had enough to get through. You don’t ever want to reach that I’m stuffed stage of being full. Just I’ve had enough & don’t need any more. I still take ages to eat 30 - 60+ minutes depending on what I’m eating. When I was losing & eating small meals I ate over 20 minutes. Sometimes I distract myself between bites by watching tv or reading when eating. I know some say you should focus on your eating but I find it works for me to be distracted. I don’t shovel in the spoonfuls then. Put your cutlery down. Sit back from the table. Wait a couple of minutes before you have the next bite. I used to ask myself if I really needed that next bite or did I just want it. Still do sometimes. There is a huge difference between needing that bite & wanting it. It’s not unusual for me to pick up my fork & then put it back down again because I realise I don’t need that bite. Much like discovering what real hunger feels like for you versus head hunger, you have to discover what enough means for you. That is what the physical, mental or other signals are for you. I don’t get that running nose thing either so I’m very conscious of the portion size I’m eating & don’t overfill my plate beyond what my portion size should be. I get like a heaviness in my chest. This is followed by a slight tightness before my restriction really kicks in though sometimes it does very quickly with no warning. Good luck with your revision surgery.

Like Catwoman7, I haven’t found it difficult to follow this rule either. Though, I have found I can sometimes, not always, have a sip closer to when I eat now - up to about 10minutes before & after. But if I drink while I’m eating, my restriction kicks in & I can’t eat anything else. When I eat soup, I try to eat the solids first then the broth to avoid or at least limit the restriction discomfort. (I make very thick soups heavy on the meat & vegetables & thin on the broth to help.) If dining out, I order my drink as soon as I arrive then sip until my meal order is taken. I don’t drink again until after my plate is removed &/or when the others are eating dessert/having coffee. It’s pretty easy to manage.