Arabesque

The weight loss period is a great time to try new foods & new ways of cooking. Just remember your tummy can be pretty fussy for the first few months. It may turn its nose up at things you used to enjoy or you eat something one day without an issue but the next day your tummy says no way. I was told the reasons to avoid breads, rice & pasta during weight loss is that they are filling & are not nutritionally dense foods. When you’re only able to eat say 1/2 cup of food it’s best if all that food is nutritionally rich. Remember every meal should be protein first, then vegetables or fruit if you can. Honestly, I still follow this thinking. Cauliflower rice & zucchini noodles are great alternatives when you’re losing. When you get into maintenance try some the low carb high protein breads, soya bean or chick peas pastas, etc. I tried a small amount of the soya bean pasta a few months back out of curiosity but it sat heavily in my tummy. But that’s me you may be fine. I don’t miss breads, pasta, rice at all.

Can’t comment on any issues with taking blood thinners & the sleeve but there are a lot of way better blood thinners than Warfarin out there now. Years ago everyone was prescribed it but now you rarely hear about it. I also remember some of my mother’s friends who were taken off it saying they generally felt a lot better on their new prescriptions. If you have concerns contact the doctor who did your surgery. It’s the safest I also always check drug interactions & now ask where the medication is absorbed - stomach or intestines.

Oh, you should have worn the evening gown @ms.sss. Glam wear is always right even on a driveway. It would have brightened everyones’s day & the neighbours’s too. Mind you, you still looked great in your jeans & cap.

I disliked the protein shakes too & as soon as those first two weeks post surgery passed I never drank another one. I’m a big advocate of drinking yoghurt & wished i’d discovered them sooner. They can be a bit thick but you can dilute them with additional milk. Also bone broths are a good source of protein. Congrats on your surgery.

The portion size thing can be a bit freaky at first. I was only eating about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of food at 6 weeks. I couldn’t eat a egg. So 2 to 3 bites is pretty normal. Just make sure you’re waiting between bites. As you progress you will eat more. At 6 months I was up to about 1/2 cup. Now I eat about 3oz of protein & some vegetables or about a cup of thick soup, etc. It’s just under a recommended serving size. I ate using teaspoons & buffet forks & I put my food on tapas size plates & bowls or side plates. It’s like a psychological trick so you think you’re eating more.

The shock of the surgery & reduced caloric intake accelerates your natural hair loss cycle. You can’t do anything to stop it as shedding hair is a natural bodily process. All the supplements you could take may only help your regrowth not the hair you are losing. It’s already dead & has to be shed for new growth to occur. This hair loss cycle is something you just have to live through unfortunately even though it can be frustrating. It does slow back to your usual shedding rate. Just give it about 3 months +/-. As you’re losing you are regrowing hair. It’s just regrowing at it’s usual rate & isn’t as obvious as the loss. You don’t usually notice your regrow but it happens all the time. You may also eventually notice a change in the texture of your hair from the anaesthetic. It affects the regrowth. I noticed at about 12 months my hair had become more flyaway & finer.

My dietician recommended BioCeuticals Women’s essentials. You can get these in America now. They included all the vitamins I needed & that is even as a menopausal woman. Lol! Two easy to take capsules once a day. I took one in the morning & one at night to reduce the nausea they caused me (all vitamins give me nausea ☹️.) Initially I also took a vitamin D capsule but my levels were very good & I was able to stop taking it. I think they told me to take the vitamin D at first because I avoid the sun as I’m very fair. My blood work came back fine every time so I didn’t need additional iron, calcium, etc. as some do. Good luck with your surgery.

Yes, it is hard to reach your fluid goals to begin. My surgeon told me that. Same with meeting protein goals. He said as long as I was making a real effort to get there it was ok & I would make it. One thing to remember is that all liquids count towards your fluid goals so those two protein shakes are fluid too. I used to dilute my shakes (added 1/2 as much water again). They still tasted disgusting though! I also made very milky rolled oats for breakfast. One serve lasted me for days but the milk added to my fluid goals. Honestly, I was a big water drinker before surgery but now I sometimes find it almost too heavy. I still struggle to take more than a big mouthful or two at a time. Two things I discovered was I find it easier to drink from a glass than a bottle & warm drinks are easier than cold.

No judgement here at all. You have to really want to do this. You’ve probably read & heard it said the surgery is only a tool. It is. It’s like buying a treadmill or a gym membership. If you don’t use it, make the changes & take advantages of the benefits it affords, nothing will change & you won’t be as successful with your weight loss. It’s hard work. A lot of reflection on what you eat, why you eat & how you eat. There are permanent changes you will have to make. Some people make a lot of changes some only a few to reach a point where they are happy & the changes are sustainable in their lives. But changes have to be made. If you’re not ready yet, hold off having the surgery. If you’re not in a place to make the changes & reflect on your eating habits, surgery is not the right option for you at the moment. One day you may decide this is what you really want to do then you can grab all the opportunities the surgery gives you. Good luck whatever you choose to do.

Unfortunately they were created with the aid of my GHD curling wand. I always had straight hair then about 5 yrs ago I suddenly developed a kink at the back. So the back half of my head has a bit of a wave now but the front half is stick straight. So I spend time putting in some bends in the front to match the back. And yep, mine only last a couple of hours too. That’s the two hours in look. It was wavier. ☹️ Whoo hoo @kristieshannon. That dress reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker’s naked dress in Sex and the City. First season I think. You look fab & your shoes are a perfect complement. Love the bunny slippers @Sophie7713.

Yep. A lot of oestrogen is stored in the fat in your body. As you lose weight the hormone is released into your blood stream. Younger women report heavier or more frequent periods. My menopausal symptoms disappeared. No hot flushes. Whoo hoo! But they came back when my weight stabilised. Congrats for getting into cooking again.

Make drinking yoghurt your snack. It counts as fluid as well as a food. I used to get 22g of protein from the 260ml bottle of Yopro. Sipped on it for a couple of hours. You can make your own by adding milk to yoghurt. Throw in some protein powder for an extra boost. (I also added Benefibre, collagen & silica.) Your protein shake is a fluid too so doesn’t necessarily count as one of your meals. Well, that was what I was told. Also told to include an egg in my diet every day if possible. Two eggs scrambled (added extra milk to make them very soft) was breakfast for three days & almost 10g of protein per day.

I had stress & diet related reflux for years before surgery & overproduced acid to complicate it more. I also can’t burp so that added to the fun. I had changed a lot of my diet to avoid stimulating the production & to not aggravate it over the years. I took Nexium only as needed. Post surgery my reflux is different. I take Nexium every day. I get more throat burning than before if I forget my Nexium or eat hard protein before bed. No bad taste in my mouth anymore. No strong cutting pain across my abdomen if I had too much acid in my tummy. (They thought I had stomach ulcers but no.) And my hiccups are way better. (They used to be horrendous. Painful at the time, sometimes causing vomiting & then painfully sore muscles the next day.) So the sleeve surgery has helped a lot & while I still have reflux it’s easily managed.

Your rate of loss is very personal. Some older women lose quickly, others more slowly. Just as some younger women lose slowly & others rapidly. You may have fewer or more stalls on the way. I do remember people used to say it was harder to lose weight as you get older. Not bariatric surgery related. Just one of those things people said. Old wives’ tale or fact I don’t know. In saying that, I was 2 months shy of 54 & menopausal when I had surgery. I reached my goal at 6 months (31kgs/68lbs) at a pretty average rate. I then lost more in the year after - just over an additional 11kgs/25lbs. A good friend, a year older & also menopausal was slower, about 9 months to lose a similar amount to reach her goal & she’s way more active than me. Good luck. You’ll get there in your time.

Not meeting or being close to your protein goal would be a contributing factor too. Protein is very good at satisfying hunger. What are you eating if you’re eating so little protein? Generally we’re told to eat our protein first at any meal than any vegetables, etc. you may be able to fit in. At purée stage, probably 80% of what I ate was protein. The rest was stock, gravy, mayonnaise, a few vegetable puréed in soup, etc. added to help purée the food. Scrambled eggs, milky rolled oats, mashed boiled eggs & mayo, yoghurt, puréed chicken breast with stock/gravy, puréed soup, ...

Exactly. While you’re losing weight, your body will burn the additional calories it needs to function from your fat stores. By the time you get to your goal weight & maintenance you will be consuming more. The point of maintenance is to reach a balance between the food we consume (calories) & the the calories the body needs to burn to function. This will keep our weight more stable. The reason we were all overweight, & likely unhealthy , before is because we ate way more calories than our body needed to function. The excess was stored as fat. The benefit of eating healthy nutrient rich food is that we’re providing our bodies with all the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) it needs to function effectively & optimally. Before we likely ate a lot of empty calories from foods that provided little in the way of useful nutrients & an excess of what we didn’t need & cause health issues - high fat, high sugar, high salt, etc. Caffeine is a false energy as it’s a stimulant not a source of calories for your body to burn. It has no nutritional value. That’s why it’s seen as a drug albeit a legal one. Good luck with your surgery.

I’m not a medical person but it seems odd they’d prescribe Celebrex as it’s a NSAID which we’re not supposed to take after surgery (damage to the stomach lining). Tylenol doesn’t have blood thinning qualities so it’s the only over the counter pain med you can really have pre & just after surgery. But it does cause issues if you’re diabetic. Ask your medical team why you have to take them before you go to hospital? Any benefits would have worn off after 3-4 hours & I don’t think any of them are cumulative. I didn’t have to take anything. The hospital provided all the meds I needed pre & post surgery but I’m in Australia so it may be different here. Good luck with your surgery.

I put on a lot of weight when I hit menopause too so again when my hormones went haywire. In the intervening years I bounced between 60 & 75kg. Menopause begins & I’m suddenly 91.

Aaah, The vagaries of the scale. Mine can weigh more or less depending upon which tile it’s sitting on in my bathroom. My mother’s weighs about a pound more than mine. Wearing different shoes & clothing can give you a different result too. My doctor made me take off my skirt once because it was leather so heavier & they were concerned I was losing too much. Track your weight at home. Weigh yourself at the same time, in underwear or naked, at the same time, post or pre bowel movement. As long as you’re consistent. There are some easy to use apps to record your weight. Some fancy scales will send your weight & other body stats to your phone. As long as your trend is going down you should be fine. Did your nutritionalist say anything about the different weights?

My taste buds changed after surgery. Lots of things I used to enjoy tasted disgusting. I used to love vegetables but all I could tolerate for months was cabbage & cauliflower. Some people say their sense of smell went into overdrive too & the smell of some foods turned their stomachs. But it does go back to as it was in a couple of months. Because I cut out a lot of sugar, artificial sweeteners, etc. out of my diet, I lost my desire for it. Foods that were sweet became excessively sweet & inedible. A very good thing for me. Best thing that happened for me was that I was lactose sensitive (milk bad, yoghurt & ice cream risky, cheese ok) prior to surgery thanks to a lovely little parasite that had lived in my lower tummy for decades. Post surgery, I have no issues with lactose. The surgery did what multiple high dose antibiotics couldn’t - got rid of the parasite. It was cut out. Yay!! It’s a perfect time to break old eating habits & try new foods & recipes. Don’t give up on something if you can’t tolerate it the first time. Give it another try in a couple of weeks. Our tummies can be pretty picky for a while.

First congratulations on your surgery. In weeks 5 & 6 post surgery many of us on on soft food (minced meats, fish, eggs, rolled oats, slow cooked casseroles/stews, chunkier soups, etc.). But there are many different programs. What did your surgeon recommend you should be eating at this stage? Do you have a nutritionalist? If you don’t, ask your surgeon for a recommendation to one who has experience with bariatric patients. They should be able to recommend foods you could be eating for breakfast, lunch & dinner & offer guidelines for a healthy, balanced eating plan. At weeks 5 & 6 I was eating about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of soft food three times a day & a drinking yoghurt. I was advised to aim for 60g of protein each day. Again some surgeon’s recommend more. I wasn’t given a caloric goal either just the portion size recommendation & that was a plenty big enough serving size. It can be challenging to find foods that taste nice & your tummy will tolerate the first couple of months. I worked out a fairly simple rotation of food I could eat & then slowly added new things. Plus if you’re like I was & you aren’t hungry or interested in food it can be even harder. I just made myself have something. Two bites is better than none in regards to getting your nutrients in. 32lbs is not an ‘only’ amount. That’s averaging about 6lbs a week. Pretty darn good. Celebrate every pound you lose.

Like @ms.sss, I’m not a standard case either. I’m the weight I was when I was 12 which is the year before high school for us. It’s also the age I began menstruating & from when I started to put on weight - about 5kg a year & I was exercising more & eating less. Prior to that I was not overweight. Damn hormones! The calculator was way out for me too. It gives results on the 60 - 65% average weight loss stats. But it is guide as to what you could expect. PS - Pretty amazing cake @Crick.

I never got the pouch thing. Isn’t it still your tummy just smaller? Kangaroos have pouches to raise & carry their young. A pouch is like a pocket, a sporran or a backpack to store extra things. Let’s ban the word pouch. BTW - Moist never bothered me. I use ‘journey’ a lot here - sorry.

So glad things are going better for you. It’s great news. Congrats on your progress too. Standing, walking, being sick less often - terrific. It’s all coming together for you.

Perfectly usual to have questions & to start feeling nervous when you’re close to your surgery date. My bmi was 35 when I met with my surgeon. No pre existing conditions, except for sore feet, but they likely wouldn’t have been far away. By 6 months I was at my goal of 60kg & a bmi of 23. At 12 months I was 50kgs. At almost 2 years, I fluctuate between 48.5 & 49.5kgs (bmi 19). I struggled to find my sweet spot in maintenance. I just couldn’t seem to consume enough to balance what I was burning. My metabolism has slowed a little & I’ve been pretty stable this year & I’m eating less than in the first 12 months of maintenance - about 1200 calories. And no, I’m not all bony. I was always told I had a medium/large frame but I actually have a small/medium frame. And I look like me. People I haven’t seen in years & only knew me as obese, still recognise me. It’s still my face just with a lot less fat. I have cheekbones & only one chin now. ? This is my story. You’ll find some have similar stories & experiences & others quite different. It sounds like you’re motivated to find success on this program which is a big part of the battle. The doctors will give you the average results. Like in years 2 & 3 many have bounce back weight of about 10lbs & most only lose 60-65% of the weight they have to lose. But with all averages, the stats include those who do better & those who don’t do as well. They also include those who chose not to lose as much to better fit the lifestyle they want or don’t lose as much for other reasons like physiological issues, medications, etc. But all have lost weight which is a win. Good luck on your journey.