Arabesque

I made a few dietary changes to manage my reflux & kept it under control for years. Would only need to take a ppi randomly like less than 5 time a year. (Usually when I’d break & have too much champagne or too many gin & tonics LOL.) I dropped caffeine (except the little in green tea), carbonated drinks (except for the occasional tonic, flat sparkling water & champagne), spicy food, very rich creamy or fatty foods. Rather adjust my diet then put up with the discomfort, bad taste in my mouth & the most hideous hiccups I used to get. I had sleeve surgery because I managed my reflux. I still have reflux & I still follow the dietary changes I’d made. I need to take a ppi every day but the symptoms I get are different. My hiccups aren’t as bad as they used to be (yay) & I occasionally get a little burning in my throat late at night now but that’s all. The other symptoms are gone. Best to have a conversation with your surgeon as to whether a sleeve is okay for you. You’ll probably have to have an endoscopy to see if your oesophagus has been affected.

Your new hair will be growing but you just can’t see or notice it but then you usually don’t notice new hair growth anyway. Hair grows slowly (only quarter to half an inch a month) but one day you’ll notice little fluffy fly away hair that will be two or so inches long. Oh yeah I agree. I’ll take a little hair loss for a big weight loss too. Wish my hair grew back at least wavy. I spend ages putting kinks & waves in my hair. I did get some kinks (on the back half of my head) when I was peri menopausal but that didn’t last ☹️☹️.

Or is it just a stall? You can many of those while you are losing. A stall is just your body taking a break to readjust to all the changes: diet, weight loss, activity. Glad you’ve reached out to your team. They’ll be best placed to advise if you do need a tweak to your eating plan especially if you are following a more intensive exercise program. And they will be able to advise what specific foods (not just a blanket ‘add carbs’) are best to add to your diet. Congratulations are your progress so far.

Contact your surgeon or go to your local emergency centre. Any unusual or strong pain should always be checked out to be certain of what’s going on. Hope you feel better soon.

It usually starts around the 3rd or 4th month & last about 3 months or so. When you start, how long it will last & how much you lose is an individual thing so you may be more or less the usual which is ok of course. You’ll start to notice an increase in the amount of hair you shed like when you wash or brush your hair. Remember this is just an acceleration of your natural hair shedding cycle. The hair you are losing is hair you would be losing. It’s just happening faster for a short time. Your still have new hair growing but just at it’s usual rate. Keep meeting your protein goals & taking your vitamins. Don’t stress about it - stress makes everything worse. It will pass.

This is far from an easy way out. I’ve never worked as hard with a diet as I did after my surgery. I changed what I eat & how I eat & did a lot of mental work to discover why I ate. I also did a lot of research into nutrition & discovered what worked for me & my body. We’ve all dieted & exercised in the past & successfully lost weight & like you we all put it back on too which is why we turned to surgery. We’re ridden that merry go round many times. For every person you find who says I followed this diet & lost weight & maintained you’ll find 1000s who tried it & failed. The diet industry is a multi billion dollar industry for a reason & there’s a reason the number of weight loss surgery procedures is increasing. By the way, exercising only contributes to 10-20% of the weight you have to lose (read somewhere recently that it’s really only 5-10% 🤷🏻‍♀️). We don’t say surgery is a tool for nothing. Just like buying a treadmill or a gym membership (for which you’d be congratulated), if you don’t use the treadmill or go to the gym nothing has changed & you won’t achieve anything. Same with the surgery, if you don’t use it you wont succeed. Many of the surgery benefits don’t last forever (like the lack of hunger, the restriction, etc.) which is why you have to take advantage of the time they do & establish new & better habits. Something we never did with other diets. You are making the decision to have surgery for excellent reasons: your health & your family. And you have years of weight loss/gain experience on which to base your decision. Sadly though, you may never convince your husband. Thinner people will never truely understand the challenges & anguish faced by those with weight issues. At least you’ll find plenty of support here. I wish you all the best. PS - Don’t be surprised if your husband & his family start sharing ‘horror surgery’ stories. It seems to be what happens next in plans to turn you off surgery. When they start with the friend of a friend of a friend, ask to speak to the one who had the surgery (they likely won’t exist or the story has been twisted) or share stories from here.

It’s likely not a stall because you’ve been plateaued for so long. Stalls usually last 1-3 weeks You may have reached your body’s set point. The weight at which your body is happiest &/or your consuming the calories your body needs to function at this weight. I ate 1300 calories & maintained at 49kg for a good year. I eat 1400 calories now (because of additional protein) & maintain at 51kg. Like @catwoman7 said you could lose more if you reduced your calories (& upped your activity) but is a lower intake sustainable? Only you know that. And remember not everyone reaches a healthy BMI. (BMI should be used as a guide not a rule anyway.) it’s got to be a weight that healthy for you & your life. But, have a chat with your dietician & see what advice they can offer.

There are lots of different pre surgery diets. Mine was 2 weeks keto. But generally they’re either two shakes & one meal or three shakes only. With these the first week (or there abouts) seems to be the most difficult. You’re breaking lots of habits, cravings & addictions (caffeine, sugar). Plus if food was a comfort for you this is also ‘taken away’ from you so it can be more challenging because of the emotional/psychological roller coaster. It’s all so very worth it though.

And the hormonal flush. Enjoy it.

What does your plan recommend? You should be starting to try lots of different foods now. Just chose the more tender cuts & keep things moist with some sort of sauce or gravy & eat slowly & carefully. Your tummy (or tastebuds) will quickly tell you if it’s not for you yet. And if something doesn’t sit well, don’t give up on it. Just leave it for a week or so & try again. From two months I was adding beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, … to my menu plan roster for dinner. Mince, lamb cutlets or blackstrap, chicken thighs, steak, pork tenderloin, etc. I was also eating some vegetables: steamed green beans, cabbage & cauliflower florets. (Very little like 2 or 3 beans & a floret😁.) I was also cooking with tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery, onion, spinach leaves, capsicum like in soups, bolognese sauce, omelettes, savoury mince, braises, etc. I ate scrambled eggs or rolled oats for breakfast & fish (not tinned), 1/2 a sausage (butcher’s not supermarket mass produced) or dinner leftovers for lunch. I never had another shake from week 3 purées. Just watch drying meat out to much while cooking so maybe no char grills or bbq for a little while.

I’m with @ms.sss: taboo schmoo-boo. Go the Botox. Honestly, I’m not a fan of the idea of young girls & young women getting Botox & fillers but once your life starts to show on your face I think it’s certainly worth exploring. I got my first lot last year (Dysport not Botox) & I love it. I actually went in to explore filler but because I have a bee allergy was advised against it (the neutraliser causes the same reaction in your body as a bee sting so I’d likely have an anaphylactic reaction). I also am ‘under dosed’ so I still have some forehead movement & I feel it looks more natural. I also get it in my chin to reduce the length of some of my marionette lines & reduce the old lady chin dimpling. The only down side is mine doesn’t last long - about 2 months as I process it more quickly. ☹️ But the only way to truely get rid of the droopy facial skin is surgery & I’m not interested in that … well at the moment. Ha! I look at my face & I think yeah I have wrinkles & droop but I am 57. I’m supposed to have them & I’ve earned them. But I have cheekbones now, one chin, my eyelids aren’t as hooded, I have a jaw line & people say they can see the family resemblances with my brothers, nieces & nephews. Best of all is that I actually look like me now. My face isn’t distorted by layers of fat. That’s how I look at it though.

Ok, you ate something you probably shouldn’t at this stage but you realise this & that’s the positive. And yes, some people do slip at any time as they’re progressing so you’re not alone. The real question is what are you going to do next time? This is a great learning opportunity. Why couldn’t you resist the nachos? Was it something you wanted? Was it out of habit? Was it because others were eating? Did you need to eat? Was it your lunch or dinner time? Etc. Once you’ve worked out why you can start thinking about how you can manage this or similar situations in the future. Like, next time I go to the movies I’ll drink water or tea or I’ll sneak in a shake, some jerky or string cheese, etc. Eating nachos now while you’re losing isn’t a great idea but in the future sure you may be able to have some but you’ll work that out. PS - Actually you didn’t skip dinner. A shake is a meal replacement so you still had a meal. Just something to watch if you are on a three meal a day plan but plans are different.

You’ve likely strained/stretched your anus or maybe even caused a small tear. Add some soluble non swelling fibre to your diet & maybe try a stool softener. I used to take one if I got to day 3 without a BM. Though some need a stronger or higher dose. If I left it longer the poop would get harder, more compacted & more painful to pass. Iron is renowned for causing constipation so it likely did contribute as did your reduced diet. Not going every day is okay because we’re not eating a lot & it’s nutritionally dense so we don’t have a lot to poop out but it is beneficial to keep on top of it & try to establish some sort of routine.

You will have a lot of swelling which would be making drinking painful. Plus, you’d have discomfort & bloating from the procedure. You will feel better & it will get easier. Try warm drinks as they are more soothing. All you can do is sip, sip, sip. Some set an alarm so they sip every couple of minutes, you can count all liquids you are consuming including any shakes, broths, etc. as your plan prescribes. Don’t worry if you aren’t exactly hitting your fluid goal to begin but as long as you are pretty close & making an effort to get to it. Watch for symptoms of dehydration though just in case. PS Ensure you’re taking short walks to help with the bloating too.

As @Sleeve me alone! said elevated cholesterol levels is common post surgery. Mine went up too. It’s all the cholesterol being released into your body as you lose fat & the high protein diet (especially animal proteins) & lower vegetable diet add to it. My surgeon & doctor monitored it but it started to go down when my weight loss finally slowed & I was eating a more balanced diet in maintenance. It was always about 5/5.1 before surgery (not bad but not good), went up to 5.8 (danger, danger) & is 4.1 now (gold star 😉). Try swapping in some plant proteins & rolled oats into your diet & see if that helps while you are still losing.

You’d really know it if it was your gall. That pain is excruciating. I would have thought I was dying if I didn’t know what it was. Literally rolling on the bed in agony. Covered in sweat. Could barely get up & drag myself to get some pain meds. Not that they helped. The surgery was actually pretty easy. My surgeon used the same incisions he did for my sleeve so no new scars. No special diet after. Knew what to expect post an abdominal surgery but the gas pain was pretty bad but I had none with my sleeve. I wasn’t put on ursidol or similar. Which I’m actually glad about as the side effects aren’t the best: nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, hair loss & we already had enough of those without making them worse. And you wouldn’t know if it was the meds or your recovery & weight loss causing or exacerbating them.

I didn’t feel hunger for more than a year so I ate to a routine because I wanted to ensure I got in all the nutrients I needed. I didn’t want to rely in shakes, vitamins or supplements. Doing this didn’t affect my weight loss at all and it helped me refocus how I looked at food. Three years out & I still have times I’m not hungry. Actually been going through a hungry but not hungry stage for a good month now. I’m not eating all my usual portions &/or dropping snacks (I snack to add to my protein &/or calories). I always try to be close to my protein goal though during these times so eat protein first & will reduce vegetables, etc. If I’m not hungry at lunch I’ll have a high protein yoghurt which isn’t as heavy to digest as meat. I should explain I’m a do I need this next bite or want it eater. So I don’t eat until I feel full but until I’ve had enough & don’t need anymore. I don’t feel too full to eat but more I don’t want to eat but I know I have to have something. I also still eat slowly - like a tub of yoghurt takes about 45-60mins. As @The Greater Fool said it comes down to habits & these were the ones I established which carry me through.

Try some mineral salts - magnesium especially. You may be flushing (peeing) or sweating some of those out of your body. But see what your doctor says first.

You can develop gallstones for many reasons including high cholesterol, menopause, high bilirubin levels, diabetes, losing weight quickly. For many of us, losing weight also releases extra cholesterol into our bloodstream causing our levels to temporarily rise. Some also have gallstones before surgery which were never picked up. I had to have my gallbladder removed 25 months after my surgery. I had high bilirubin levels, am menopausal, & saw my cholesterol go up while I was losing & of course had lost weight. I had one stone which was discovered about 6 months after surgery during a liver scan. We don’t know how long it had been there. The stone never caused me a problem until one night & oh boy! I was maintaining when my gall was removed. After it was removed I stopped absorbing protein as well as I had been - it can happen. My nails became weak, started losing hair again, things were taking longer to heal, etc. & my three monthly blood test showed why. I had to up my protein intake (from 50-60g to 60-70g) which did result in a small gain of 2kgs in a month but I’ve maintained that for a good 7 months. (Also upped my HRT meds at the exact same time so both contributed to the gain.) I was also prescribed Creons, pancreatic enzymes, to help with protein absorption.

Sorry you’re not feeling well. Just wondering though if the dairy in the shakes may be upsetting your tummy while you are sick?? Often dairy products cause extra mucus production & are best avoided when you have a runny nose. Blander food may be easier to tolerate. Soups may be your best bet at the moment. Just a suggestion. Hope you both recover quickly.

You can include all the fluids you drink so that includes the milk in your shakes & the Gatorade zero not just water. So you are a lot closer to your goal than you think. Most of us consume a variety of fluids to reach our goal. It can be difficult to reach that 64oz goal in the beginning but as long as you are making an effort & are getting closer & closer to it you’ll be ok. Try keeping a glass of water beside your bed & sip every time you wake to add in a couple more ounces. (I drink about 8ozs overnight.) Congrats on your progress so far & for being creative in your meal options. Yay!

Some surgeons/insurance require an endoscopy as part of your pre surgery health checks. But because you’re having your surgery overseas best would be to contact your surgeon in Turkey.

One thing I did to keep my mind off eating was clearing out my wardrobe & drawers of clothing & underwear that were too big. So feel hungry? Clean out a drawer or a wardrobe. I reviewed my clothing several times as my weight dropped. Besides distracting me it also reinforced how I was progressing. Packed up clothing into things to toss, keep, donate or give away to friends. Also pulled out clothing I’d kept in case I lost weight in the past & sorted out what I could wear again.

Why not try a sports store where they do those tests to see how you walk & the pressure points on your feet. I did & ended up with a brand I’d never heard of but boy they were great shoes. They were cheaper than those big name brands too not that price was a consideration. Comfort & support was all I wanted. I did it again after I lost weight. I had different needs & a different brand was recommended. They’ve been great too. You don’t have to buy from the store. You could go elsewhere to buy their recommendations.

First treat BMI as a suggestion. Same with any goal you may choose. Body type, your build, age, lifestyle, health, genetics, etc. all influence what is the best weight for you & you can’t put a number on a scale against them. The other factor which you can’t do much about is your body’s natural set point. This is the weight at which your body seems to naturally settle. My surgeon did ask if I had a goal. I chose a weight which was the lowest I reached during my weight loss & gain cycles. It put me at about a 23 BMI. He thought it was sensible & achievable. I reached that in 6 months but continued to lose as I tried to find my maintenance balance. Initially my surgeon & doctor were concerned about my lower weight but it turns out I don’t have a larger frame as everyone thought! As one doctor said you’re actually quite a tiny person aren’t you & they all stopped worrying. Plus I don’t have bones protruding - I have plenty of flesh (fat ha!) on my bones. I’m about 2kgs heavier now than where I had initially stabilised for a year. (I believe an necessary increase in my HRT dosage & protein intake contributed to the sudden weight gain - all happened in the same month.) and I’ve been stable here for a good 7 months. My body seems happy at around this weight & so am I (except for those 2 kgs 😉). You’ll settle at a weight that is healthy & works for you and it’s okay if it ends up being more or less than you initially thought. My food choices & the way I eat to maintain my weight doesn’t restrict me living my life as I want. It’s been a sustainable way of eating for 2.5yrs now. I might make slight changes in the future but for now it’s working. I guess that ‘s the real goal. Being at a weight you can maintain in a healthy, sustainable way that allows you to enjoy your life as you want. PS - the slowing down of your weight loss is perfectly normal. It slows as you get closer to your body’s set point & your calorie intake is nearer to what your body needs to function effectively & healthily. Can you lose more if you want? Sure if you reduce your calories & intake your activity but can you maintain that without impacting your health or your life?