Arabesque

Australian health insurance works differently. No prerequisites or approval required from your insurance at all. @PCOS_Mama94’s 12 month wait would likely be because she didn’t have health insurance before. Here, health insurance is not tied to your employment. We choose our own health fund & the level of coverage we want. And we pay for it ourselves. When you first join a health insurance fund in Australian you’re not covered for any pre-existing conditions until you’ve been a member for a year. Mine all happened in a matter of weeks. Referral from my GP then three weeks for my appointment with the surgeon then about another three weeks till my surgery. He asked if that date suited & it was fine. Yours will likely allow some flexibility of date choices too. How long you will wait will depend on your surgeon’s requirements & schedule. My surgeon only wanted the two week pre surgery diet (he recommended the dietician). Said he didn’t think I needed to see a therapist but gave me the names of some if I wanted to see one. Then just the presurgery check - blood test & ecg. But friends had to wait longer because one had to have a couple of therapist appointments first & another had a 3 week pre surgery diet. Hope you’re keeping safe in Sydney at the moment @PCOS_Mama94 & hope the prolonged lockdown you’re experiencing doesn’t delay your surgery. Fingers crossed things go smoothly for you.

Congrats on your weight loss so far. Whoo hoo! Don’t forget everything you drink counts towards your fluid goals. I don’t enjoy plain water as much since surgery so to up my fluid I drink a large mug of green tea every day & flat sparkling water which I intersperse it’s water. While I was losing I also drank a drinking yoghurt (protein & fluid two wins). I also sip water during the night - just keep a bottle of water by my bed & sip when I wake or get up to pee. The BMI range takes into account your skeletal frame. The higher weight for large frames, the lower weight for small frames. But you may feel happier & healthier being more or less than the bmi recommendations. Just be aware your frame may not be what you think it is. I was always told I had a large frame based on my wrist measurement but in reality I have a smallish frame. My wrist size was large because I was obese & had fat all over my body including my wrists.

Every body recovers differently. A friend was back at her job after a week. Another took three. I took 4. I was pain free after a few days but was knocked by brain fog, low BP & low energy. I suggest take the two weeks but negotiate with the option to extend your leave or return part time if you need it. All the best with your surgery.

It’s funny how I still find myself doing something & suddenly realise there was no way I would have been able to do it before surgery. Yesterday I was standing in one leg undoing my laces to take my shoes off. Not sitting & not heaving up my leg to try to reach the laces. Just standing on one leg with the other leg raised by itself & being able to balance & reach to undo the lace without even thinking about it. Even after two years you still discover little nsv.

What vitamins did your surgeon &/or nutritionalist advise you will need? Don’t go rushing out buying heaps of vitamins you don’t need. Everyone has different needs so find out what you need first. I was told to take a multivitamin & vitamin D with magnesium. I only took the vitamin D & magnesium really briefly because my blood work showed I had more then enough & didn’t need for it to be supplemented. I then had two large expensive bottles I didn’t need. I’m menopausal so you’d expect I’d be told to take calcium but my bone density is excellent (rock hard bones) & again my bloods showed I had more than I needed. Same with iron. I had very regular blood tests for the first year - every 2 months (3 months in my 2nd year & 4 months now in my 3rd) - so if anything got low my medical team knew about it but everything was fine & still is (fingers crossed) & I haven’t even taken a multi vitamin since month 8. Sorry about your car wreck. Hope you weren’t injured in any way.

Honestly, I was eating less than 300 calories a day but that was when I was at the liquid & purée stage so first month. It slowly increased to almost 900 at 6months & then 1200 for me to maintain at about 18 months or so. But that’s me. Your needs will likely be entirely different. I was never given a caloric goal just portion sizes which I was advised to slowly increase as I was able. I was also encouraged to snack from about 2 months (?) usually twice a day. I ate yoghurt &/or cheese &/or fruit. As I was adding more vegetables to my diet, the snacks ensured I was still meeting my protein goals & eating some fruit too. Broadening my food options for a more balanced diet was more important to my nutritionalist from soft foods. As with most things bariatric, those who are given caloric goals seem to be given a variety of calories to aim for as they progressed. A lot of people are successful eating several small meals like @Bluebonnetgirl versus 3 meals a day. Or they put the leftovers in the fridge to finish later which I often did. You’ll work out what works best for you. Personally, I think your nutritionalist is not being realistic or sensible. Part of this process is to make us more aware of what, how & why we eat & introduce healthier ways of eating & more nutritious foods. Then when you get to your goal weight you have adopted a sustainable nutritious eating plan. How can you introduce fruit & vegetables into your diet if you can only eat 300 calories a day? All you are eating must really just be protein. An extremely low calorie eating plan is not sustainable nor healthy in the long term.

All plans are different. Mine was two weeks each liquid, purée & soft. But we all heal at our own rate. Some can move more quickly through the stages with their surgeon’s ok but some need longer because their tummy just isn’t ready yet. The purpose of the staged return to eating is to aid healing & not to stress & strain your tummy. You have a lot of stitches & staples inside holding your tummy together. All because you can’t see them they’re there. If you had a long wound with multiple stitches on your leg or arm would you be out running marathons or lifting weights before it was fully healed & risk infection or tearing the stitches? Your surgeon may want two weeks at the liquid stage because they want to be more confident your tummy is ready to move to more denser food & further reduce any chance for an issue. Whatever your surgeon’s plan follow it - they’re pretty experienced & knowledgeable about this. And if something does go awry (unlikely but …) they have a starting point to be able to treat your issue. It’s only two weeks!

That’s the thing isn’t it. Our cravings, habits or emotional drives to eat are always with us. They don’t disappear as we lost our weight - unfortunately. It’s a constant battle to manage them & reduce their power over us. Portion size & calories. I’m only 2 years out but that’s the key for me. And nutritionally dense food of course. As you know if you eat more calories than your body needs to function you’ll put on weight. If you eat less than your body needs you’ll lose. Sure you could go back to protein shakes temporarily as a kick start to reduce your calories & start to break your cravings. Or you could follow keto or other diet for a couple of weeks too. But it really comes down to reducing those calories & portion sizes & making nutritionally sound food choices that will be sustainable in your lifestyle. Can you go back to your dietician/nutritionalist for some hints & tips to refocus you? Have a look at some of Dr Matthew Weiner’s you tube videos about metabolic reset diets & his Pound of Cure book. https://m.youtube.com/user/DrMatthewWeiner Good luck.

You may not be doing anything wrong. We all lose at our own rate or you could be experiencing a prolonged stall - they do happen. There are lots of different plans & caloric recommendations. What does your plan recommend? I wasn’t given a caloric guide just portion size guides but I’d randomly check my calories & was barely eating 900 calories by 6 months when I reached goal but that was me. Make sure you are not just reaching your minimum protein goals but aim for your average to be in the upper end of the range you were given. Have a chat with your dietician to review your current diet to ensure all you’re eating is nutrient rich, low fat, low sugar, low carb. I presume you are tracking & logging your food. It’s easy to misjudge portion size & food mass if you’re just eyeballing it or to misunderstand nutritional content. I still do random checks of what & how much I’m eating.

I really only took a multi vitamin. I briefly took a vitamin D & magnesium but I didn’t need them - blood work showed I had more then enough. I stopped the multivitamin at 8 months post surgery. I was in maintenance & my bloods were really good & they have continued to be so. Just had my regular three month blood test this morning so fingers crossed all is still good at 27 months post surgery. My aim was to ensure I got all the nutrients I needed through what I ate not supplements. But we all absorb & store nutrients differently. What you need may be different to what someone else does. Your blood work should dictate the vitamins you need to supplement your diet. Speak to your medical team to identify what you need.

The surgery changes things. During the surgery, a lot of the area that signals hunger is removed. After surgery our sense of taste & for many the sense of smell are temporarily altered & some things taste or smell awful. Plus liquids go through our digestive system more quickly & some nerves have been damaged so you don’t really feet that full feelings while on liquids & into the purée stage . Once the nerves heal & you’re eating solid foods you’ll start to feel full again. I wasn’t hungry or really wanted to eat for ages. I first felt hungry about 8 months after surgery after a busy day when I hadn’t eaten much. But it felt different - actually didn’t know what was wrong at first. Real hunger feels different to hunger that is driven by our head, emotions & habits. To combat not being interested in eating I tried to eat to a routine, still do. I I ate to my plan & to ensure I met my protein & fluid goals. I didn’t care if I didn’t eat the full portion as long as I was eating something. And honestly, to begin my food choices were pretty narrow because of my altered tastebuds. It did get better & easier after a couple of months. I actually enjoyed this period because it gave me the opportunity to really assess the food I used to eat & decide how I wanted to eat in the future. Not sure about the twisting feeling. My first thought was it’s your restriction but that’s usually a tightness or heavy weight across your upper chest. Do you want to thump your chest to move the food? Foods that are too dry or coarse can cause that tightness, foamies (gluggy saliva) or make you gag &/or bring it back up. As can eating too quickly or eating too much. Speak to your medical team to be sure. Did you have a therapist assigned to you during your pre surgery process or did you have one to support you through your eating disorder? Many weight loss patients continue to seek the support of a therapist after surgery. If you didn’t or don’t have a therapist look for one with experience with bariatric patients &/or disordered eating. Your medical team should be able to give you some recommendations.

Liquids go through your digestive system very quickly so you don’t really feel full on this stage. Also you’re nerve endings have been damaged during surgery so until they are healed your sense of feeling full is reduced. Consequently, it is even more important to keep to your plan & stick to the calories &/or portion size recommendations (& meet or try to meet your protein & fluid goals of course). You don’t want to put stress on your poor healing tummy & all those internal stitches & staples. Also it takes time for the full message to get through so when you feel full you’ll likely have had too much it’s one of the reasons we are encouraged to eat slowly. What you’re feeling is likely head hunger. Most of the area that signals hunger in our body was removed during the surgery. So if you are able to feel real hunger it would be very minimal. Many of us discover that real hunger feels different from the head hunger that used to drive us to eat. Personally I get restless. Working out why you want to eat (emotions, cravings, habit or actual hunger) is part of the challenge. Do you need to eat or do you just want to eat? There’s a big difference. Good luck & congrats on your surgery.

Like @catwoman7, I don’t think it is traditional dumping. I do wonder if it’s linked to your sugar levels too especially as it occurs in the morning. I have random occurrences of hypoglycaemia & it always occurs sometime in the morning. I experience general weakness in my tummy & bowels, cold sweats, jelly legs, nose runs, etc. Haven’t noticed a racing heart though. I find it passes quickly - like 10 minutes or so. Drinking something (water, tea, etc.) &/or eating a little fruit helps a lot. I often keep a protein bar in my bag when I go out just in case. My last attack was about 3 weeks ago after a 2km bush walk up a mountain. The time before was about 3 months ago when I was standing in a queue for almost an hour on a warm day. I added honey & blueberries to my rolled oats every morning to give me that little sugar hit to help offset the chance of an episode. Definitely check with your medical team though. I should add, I used to experience these hypoglycaemic episodes for years before my surgery usually when exercising. (I skipped a lot of meals to try to control my weight!) Coupled with my tendency to low blood pressure they weren’t fun because my vision would narrow & my ears would become blocked as well. Became a great excuse not to exercise though ?.

Volume is good to begin when your food is liquid, puréed & soft but it’s easier to weigh solid meats like chicken breast or thighs, fish fillets, steak, chops, etc. when you’re ready for those. I continued to use volume to measure fruit, vegetables, & wet/sloppy foods like soup, stews, rolled oats, etc.

Happy two year sleevesversary @kristieshannon. You look amazing & isn’t it wonderful how much you’re enjoying your life now.

What about trying a crustless quiche or impossible quiche as we call them in Australia. You add flour to the filling mix & when it bakes it settles & forms a denser layer at the bottom. Very quick to make too. Lots of recipes about. Some are less than 300 calories a slice. Once you have the basic recipe you can add any ingredients to the filling: salmon smoked or tinned, tuna, zucchini, asparagus, … This is a basic one - no calories though. https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/impossible-quiche-2/8244d479-b108-4b9c-9727-25e7041d8fd2

Very common. Your body goes into shock after surgery & with the reduced calories your natural hair loss cycle accelerates. You still are growing new hair as you usually do it’s just you’re losing faster so the loss is more noticeable. Hair loss because of an accelerated hair loss cycle is not uncommon after childbirth, any major surgery or after experiencing a stressful event too. It does slow back to your usual rate of loss after about three or four months. How much you lose though is very individual. There’s nothing you can do to stop it. The hair was scheduled to be shed at some time. Remember the hair you’re losing is already dead. Some people will say they took supplements or used special hair products but they still kept losing for about that 3 or 4 months. I cut my hair to just above my shoulders so the new growth wouldn’t have to grow a lot to be the same length as the hair I had. I found by about 12 months later, my hair was just as thick as it was before. Yau’ll get through this.

Like @ms.sss I too lost more than my original goal because it took a while for me to work out the calories I needed to maintain. That is the number of calories my body needs to function. Eat fewer calories, you lose weight. Eat more than your body needs, you’ll gain. I slowly increased the calories I was eating as I was physically able until I reached the number of calories I needed to maintain. I lost another 11odd kilos over a year after goal. Been happily sitting at about that weight (+/- 1kg) for about 9months. But I’m really still a newbie. Time will tell. I do have wriggle room if I do succumb to the 5 odd kilo rebound gain in years 2 or 3. Even though my BMI is on the lower end at around 18.7, I’m certainly not bony nor look undernourished. Honestly, you can look a little drawn when you get near your goal but it all seems to settle after a couple of months. Eating a little more: a few more carbs, vegetables, fruit, etc. all helps. A year ago, my uncle very kindly (not!) told my mother I looked like death. Now he tells me how great I look. As for looking older. I don’t think I do. Most importantly, I can actually see my real face now: cheekbones, jawline, eyes, etc. because there’s no fat distorting it shape. You may meet your goal, you may not or you may exceed it. Age, genetics, weight loss history, metabolic rate, etc. influence how much weight we can lose after surgery. But let’s be honest (some straight talking coming), in the end we control what we put in our mouths & that is the biggest influence on our weight. I think your weight is individual. Not just a number on a scale or a number you’re ‘supposed’ to be but how you feel in your own skin. Happy, healthy & enjoying life.

Never had a pain pump at hospital or at home. Just meds. I never experienced any real pain - may be lucky maybe just good meds. I remember I took one of the super strong pain meds on the morning of day 4 & never took a thing afterwards. Don’t actually think I needed it that morning. Just took it to keep up the schedule. I didn’t take any of the oxy I was given after my gall removal after the one I was given the morning after my surgery before I was discharged. But yes, everyone experiences pain differently. Just seems an unnecessary additional charge when they an prescribe pain meds if you need them. If you can’t swallow them, just crush in a little of your protein shake. Good luck with your surgery.

I have carbonated water almost every day but I let it go flat or near flat. Pour out a big glass in the morning & sip it over hours. I always drank heaps of water but I find it can be a little heavy now so I mix up my sips of plain water with flat sparkling water (I enjoy the minerally taste). PS - I’m not good with carbonation. The gas gives me bad hiccups. Always has so it’s just not a sleeve thing for me.

It’s a daily battle isn’t it. Sigh! I’d go back to tracking & logging what you’re eating. It’s so easy to let things slip into our diet or to increase portion size. We become less vigilant. A treat becomes a regular thing…. There may be things you’ve been eating you haven’t considered for their calorie, carbs, sugar or fat content. Plus the last 12/18months hasn’t been easy from the perspective of our emotional health either which brings it own set of challenges. I do random checks of my diet, & I think I always will, to try to keep on top of calorie & portion creep. I’m also the person peering myopically at the nutrition panels (why is the font always so tiny) of products at the supermarket. Good luck.

Always a lot of advice here so never be afraid to ask. Maintenance is when you hit the point of balance between the calories you’re consuming & the calories your body needs to function. Eat more calories than your body needs, you gain, eat less you’ll lose, eat the amount it needs you’ll stabilise. Out of curiosity, why are you still having protein shakes for two of your meals? You may not be consuming a broad range of the nutrients you’re body actually needs. What are your bloods like? I know every plan is different but … It was important to me, my surgeon & my dietician that I transitioned to eating ‘real’ food as soon as possible. Man cannot live on protein shakes alone. My diet had to be sustainable in the long term & for how I wanted to live my life - not just losing but maintaining. Personally, I haven’t had a protein shake since I began the puréed stage. I even stopped multivitamins at about 8months (I was at goal then). Good luck. I hope you find a way forward soon.

Your stall will break when your body is ready. They always do. Your body is going through a lot & needs to take a moment. I never changed a thing I was doing when I stalled. I figured I didn’t want to stress my body more by changing my calories or activity again. The stalls always broke. You’ll soon work out your weight fluctuation window. Mine is about 1kg (2lbs). It’s just life. Unless you are eating or drinking the exact same amounts of the exact same thing, & you’re peeing & pooping the exact same amounts every day, you’ll will see fluctuations. The trick while you’re losing is to look at the downward trend & not just on your daily weight. Good luck & congrats on your weight loss so far.

I don’t have a lot of loose skin - not handfuls but still good pinches & crumpling. I’ve decided not to go the surgery route. Like @NovaLuna, I can easily cover it with clothes without the need of any support underwear (& that includes in fitted clothing) & no one knows it’s there but me. I feel I sort of earned my loose skin. It’s a reminder every day to stick to my program. Plus I tend to scar pretty badly. Rather have some loose skin than scars cause I’d be wanting to cover them anyway. Actually you can see the little pinch of looseness at my waist in the first pxt. Standing up straight though it’s really nothing. So I’ve been pretty fortunate.

Don’t worry @STLoser, @shoppgirl & @SummerTimeGirl, you will eventually be able to eat more fruit & vegetables. Just slowly incorporate more. At the beginning I could only eat 2 or 3 green beans or a small floret of cauliflower. I started adding heaps of vegetables to soups, omelettes, bolognaise, etc. as well. Now I easily eat a good cup of mixed vegetables like green beans, asparagus, broccolini, sugar snap peas, etc. every night. I also eat lots of lettuce (it’s a slider for me). I have blueberries with my rolled oats every morning & another serve of fruit most nights. (Fruit is a good snack, a natural sweet substitute. Plus high water content & fibre.) I get 4-5 serves of fruit & vegetables in every day. Yogurt is high in protein & was a handy & easy source for me (mine gives me 15g yoghurt tub or 22g yoghurt drink). I still eat it as an afternoon snack almost every day or sometimes I dice up fruit to add to the yoghurt & eat it as dessert. Every little bit counts.