Arabesque

Some great advice from the others. Heartily recommend Drs Matthew Weiner & John Pilcher too.They are great sources of information. Try not eating until you feel full. Aim for had enough. I ask myself do I need that next bite or do I just want it. Remember to keep eating slowly too. It takes a good 20 minutes for your full message to get through (mine can take way longer than that). So by the time you feel full you can easily have eaten more than you need/should. Wouldn't hurt to check your portions & track your calories for a couple of weeks just to ensure you are not over estimating - it’s easy to do. Also, maybe check in with your dietician to review the best portion sizes & calorie goals for you for where you are now.

It’s not only a full time job but a lifetime job. I found eating & drinking to a routine very helpful while losing & maintaining. I still watch what I eat (nutrients & calories) & how much I eat. I know I can’t eat whatever I want otherwise I’ll be back where I started. Of course I have more flexibility now in regard to certain foods & how much & how often I have them. Some great suggestions from the others. You can start by slowly incorporating a couple every week or two & see how you go. While you are still losing it’s very important to stick closely to your eating plan. Though I would question a plan that says you can eat whatever you like at 4 months. Maybe go back to your dietician and ask for more guidance around your food choices, & ideas for ingredients or cooking styles you can swap in or incorporate. Also you may find speaking with a therapist helpful. Many do. A therapist will help you work through your eating & relationship with food, what drives you to eat, support you develop strategies to manage challenges like cravings. You can do this.

@ms.sss said exactly what I was going too. Done all those things too. I still have facial droop, nasolabial folds & jowls though my skin is more even in texture, tone & colour so still a win in my book. Unfortunately, the skin on your face has stretched just like the skin on your body. However, once your weight stabilisers, if it hasn’t yet, you will notice your body & face sort of resettles & you may notice you look a little better & brighter in the face. I’ve accepted this is how I look I mean I am almost 59 & I’ve earned this face. I take great pleasure in seeing the real shape of my face, having a jaw line, cheekbones & not having really droopy eyelids. I’m still vain enough though to keep up the Botox, filler, SecretRF (same as Morpheus8) & retinol, vitamin C, serums, & other aspects of my skin care routine. lol!

These things can & do happen. Constipation is often an ongoing issue for many of us at least until we’re eating a broader range of food like vegetables & fruit. Try adding a soluble fibre to a drink, shake, soup, yoghurt, or similar to help. I used to take a stool softener if I hadn’t gone for three days to keep on top of it. Remember too you’re not actually eating that much so you don’t have much to actually poop out especially in the first couple of months. So don’t expect to go every day. Meeting or being close to your daily fluid goal is extremely important because of dehydration. Sip, sip, sip. I still drink during the night to ensure I reach mine. (Have a drink whenever I wake.) Your throat can be swollen for a little while after the surgery though it does generally pass in a couple of days. Do mention it to your surgeon when you go for your check up if it’s soon otherwise give them a call. Try drinks at different temperatures in the meantime. Many of us found warm or hot drinks more soothing than cool or cold drinks. And again sip slowly. Also remember we all heal & recover in our own way & time. This is a pretty major surgery & some take a little longer or can experience some challenges with certain aspects like hitting fluid or protein goals, or experience a little more surgical pain, have more gas pain, take a little longer to get their strength back, tolerate or not tolerate certain flavours, textures, smells, etc. Like your weight loss, your recovery may be a bit erratic. Easier today, but tomorrow not as much, then the next day is okay. Look back over a week to better see your progress. You can be sure that it does get better & easier in time. All the best.

Aaah, vanity sizing. They’ve been slowly making clothing bigger for years but don’t change the size on the tag. No one wants to admit they’ve gotten bigger & need a larger size. ? I had an aunt who swore she’d always wore size 7 shoes but ignored that fact she was much, much larger than she was when she was young so her feet were larger too. She’d rather squeeze her feet into a too small shoe than admit she needed a larger size. Though I’m an Australian dress size 4 or 6, I wear size 10 knickers & my bras are a 10 band. I believe underwear is the only clothing items that have remained the most true to & consistent in size over the years. But then I do recall bra manufacturers making band sizes larger some years ago because women were getting broader across the back. Mmmm?? And don’t get me started on size guide measurements. With some brands, using their measurements I would need 1 or 2 sizes larger than I actually wear in the brand.

That’s interesting. Cultural differences?? It’s always promoted as Yum Cha here in Australia and we all call it that. Shall we go for Yum Cha? Does that Chinese offer Yum Cha? Funny the differences in terminology around food. Cookies - biscuits. Jelly - jam (not to be confused with marmalade). Romaine - Cos. Courgette -zucchini. All purpose flour - plain flour.Aubergine - eggplant. Fries - chips. Ketchup - tomato sauce. ….

Oh @ShoppGirl, this is why I was so so glad I never had to count carbs. I was just told keep carbs low and I still generally do (usually keep to two serves a day). I go by complex carbs are always better than simple carbs and low processed carbs cover highly processed ones so whole & multi grains wherever possible. And I ignore the carbs in fruit & vegetables - too many other good things in those. My thinking was those old food pyramids separated fruit & vegetables from ‘carbs’ so that was good enough for me. Have you spoke to your dietician about this conundrum? They may be your best source of guidance around this.

The pouch reset diet is an old wives tale. You can’t ‘reset’ your pouch. You can only reset your head & thinking. If you think you are eating more than you should, watch your portion sizes carefully & your frequency of meals. Portion control will always be something we have to take care with because as the months pass we are physically able to eat more. Our restriction eases. Our tummy, while still small softens & is more pliable. And our hunger returns. We can also learn how to eat around our smaller tummy. I was told to eat about a cup at 6 months but as your surgeon said everyone’s journey is different and you may have different needs in regard to how much, what & when you eat. Check with your dietician for the best portion size of proteins, vegetables, etc. & frequency of meals for you. Then you just have to keep to those recommendations. As I always say, all because you can (in this case eat more) doesn’t mean you should. I’m glad your surgeon is so supportive & is willing to look at other ways of helping you to lose more weight & get closer to where you want to be.

Chinese yum cha lunch with girl friends yesterday & a part way through my meal pxt. Half of the Moreton bay bug spring roll & one of the three prawn & scallop siu mai. Took about 45 minutes to eat it all but I was sipping a glass of Louis Roederer champagne & the bubbles were giving me a bit of trouble. Was still worth it though. Lol! PS - Bugs are a local lobster variety. Very yummy: sweet, rich.

The staged return to eating is in place for a reason - to protect your healing tummy. There are a lot of sutures & staples holding your poor digestive system together. If you had a 12 inch wound with stitches on your arm wouldn’t you do all you could to protect it & ensure you didn’t damage or strain it or hinder your recovery? It takes about 8 weeks to be healed from the surgery. Yes, foods (liquids) can taste awful after surgery & it can continue for a while until you are more fully healed. I found the shakes disgusting but you have alternatives. Thin soups like broths (bone broth are high in protein), consumes & cream soups (tomato, pumpkin, chicken, etc.). Just strain them to ensure there aren’t any random chunks of meat, vegetables, herbs, etc. in it. Make your own yoghurt drink by blending Greek yoghurt with milk to a thin consistency & add any flavour powders you may like. Protein water is another option. All these count towards your fluid goal during the liquid stage. Just sip, sip, sip. The portion recommendation I was given (1/3 - 1/4 cup) didn’t begin until purées so liquids were just three ‘meals’ (shake, soup) a day so a cup each. I diluted them to help with the flavour & texture (for the shakes) & didn’t care if it took hours to drink them. Plans can be different about caffeine but if yours is no caffeine try decaffeinated or green or herbal teas. I found warm drinks much easier to tolerate & soothing to drink.

Oh yes. Food for weeks. I still cook more than I need but I do it on purpose now because I love having leftovers. Simply freeze the leftovers/excess for easy meals on another day. Just bag it up in appropriate serving sizes. (I love zip lock bags.) My freezer is filled with single serves of soups, bolognese, savoury mince, steak, chops, savoury egg muffins, … chicken, beef, lamb & pork. Don’t feel like cooking? Just defrost a meal & all I have to cook or prep are vegetables or salad if needed. Bonus you only have to cook dinner from scratch a couple of times a week. Found it very useful for work lunches too. Popped one of my frozen meals in my bag & reheated it at work. Easy.

Would I be right in thinking your nutritionalist is recommending a keto like diet? They are big on no root vegetables & no corn, peas because of their naturally high sugar content. (Potatoes are often a no because they are considered a starch.) I regularly ate carrot & sugar snap peas. I threw frozen corn & peas into soups, mince dishes, some slow cooked dishes, omelettes, etc, I usually just microwave my vegetables with a splash of water & a dab of butter but also will stir fry & occasionally roast (especially cauliflower with a little hummus & zataar to serve). I love vegetables & enjoy them best simply with salt & pepper but don’t be afraid to try herbs & spices. The only vegetables I don’t eat is potato, sweet potato & pumpkin (they tend to sit heavily) except a very small piece (bite or two) with a roast dinner. My thoughts were & are vegetables are vegetables (except potato). They are highly nutritious (all those vitamins, minerals & fibre) so a valuable addition to our food choices. And the little we eat, especially in the first months will have minimal impact on your calorie intake & weight loss. I mean 1/4 cup peas is 30 calories if you can eat that much. Plus the ‘sweet’ vegetables are naturally sweet so they don’t count towards your sugar intake. Certainly didn’t affect my weight loss or maintenance. I say eat your vegetables, just watch portion size & what you serve or add to them. Like no honey glazed carrots, sour cream or cheese sauces at least for a while.

Plus you just had a pretty major surgery. Your body sleeps when it is trying to heal & recover & this is what it’s doing now. It does improve but you may have random periods of low energy over the next months. There'll come a day when you wish you could still justify an afternoon nana nap. Enjoy them now while you can. ?

I kept losing for almost another year after I reached my goal. It began at a similar rate of loss as I was experiencing but gradually got less & less until it stopped. Over that time I increased my calorie intake (added more & more snacks) & my portions got a little larger. I was eating about 1300 calories when I initially stopped losing but eat about 1500/1600 to maintain at about the same weight now. Like @Spinoza, I’m a believer in our changed set point. This is the weight my body is happy at & this is the weight it wants me to be thanks to the surgery. Could I eat my set point up? Yes, if I wanted. I mean that’s what we did before - ate our set point higher. Our original set point wasn’t an obese weight. Don’t forget you may initially stop at a lower weight than you expected but it may give you wriggle room if you experience the bounce back regain around years 2 or 3. Give your body time to resettle. Lots of things change when your weight starts to stabilise. Just give it time. Slowly increase those calories. Get in touch with your dietician for ideas of what you can add or how you could adjust your current eating plan. Good luck.

Great suggestions above. I’d suggest taking an electrolyte drink with you or sachets or tabs you can add to your water when you top it up. It will give you extra boosts of energy. Just be warned they can be sweet so dilute them by adding extra water to the mix. Enjoy the hike - how lovely to share in your daughter’s field trip.

Interesting question. Some say it’s the weight you need to lose to put you at a healthy BMI. Some say it’s the weight they personally want to lose to put them in their happy weight zone - a weight that worked for them in the past or they think will work for them in the future. Personally, I think of it simply as the weight you want to lose to get to your goal regardless of how you worked it out or chose it. Not as a sort of standardised amount of weight defined by someone else (surgeon, dietician, etc.) or statistical data. This (weight loss) is all about you & your experiences & no one else’s. As you know not every one reaches their goal & statistically average weight loss with sleeve or bypass is about 65% of the weight you are to lose (based on BMI defined excess weight). And then there are those who find they’re happier at a weight that is more or less than the goal they initially chose. They all lost excess weight & are healthier for it.

I’d give the smaller a meals ago @NickelChip & @PandaMom1977 I know a few who did 6 small meals versus 3 larger meals. I was able to have one snack a day a couple of months out (can’t recall exactly when now) & I still snack now to get in calories & protein. One snack is my leftover breakfast. May be try making your plan approved meal but eat it across two sessions. It may help you get over this quirky, fussy tummy stage plus until you can eat a little more in regards portion size. Oh yes the protein shakes were awful. I discovered yoghurt drinks. So much nicer. Make your own by simply blending yoghurt with as much milk as you need to make it a drinkable consistency. Add whatever flavours you like. My high protein yoghurt brand (Australian company but they don’t make them anymore - grrr) made the ones I drank & I’d get 25-35g protein depending on the size.

Your petulant, fussy, temper throwing tummy is showing its face @NickelChip. Your tummy decides one day it doesn’t like something yet you ate it fine before. Then on a few days or week or two later your tummy is all yum this is delicious. Or something you didn’t enjoy before is suddenly very tasty. Don’t be surprised if this continues for a few more weeks. It’s like your tummy is relearning about foods, textures, flavours, etc. I always found smoked salmon too rich. I’d eat a little but rarely. Then suddenly in soft food was eating it every day - spread it with cream cheese & wrapped it around wedges of cucumber. Then suddenly my tummy said no.No more smoked salmon. I was always able to eat eggs easily, then last year, after 4 years my tummy said nope not eggs. I actually haven’t gone back to them but I will again at some time. What I do remember is when my tummy says no, my restriction kicks in more quickly and I feel very full after just a couple bites. This may be what you @NickelChip & @PandaMom1977 are experiencing: your sensitive & fussy tummy making itself known, your nerves reconnecting & sparking & your restriction starting to work. It will be interesting to hear what the GI X-ray shows @PandaMom1977.

That’s funny as I wondered if being empty nesters now had changed how you ate. More date nights. Lol! All the food you & A make look pretty darn good to me.

Small steps in the right direction are still wins plus they’re often easier to adopt & adapt to.

That’s just the two meals I was with them. Ha! I think they’d do home delivery or ready meals almost every day. They justify it by saying t’s a time thing (running around with 5 children) but we waited 90 odd minutes on Sunday night for the meal to arrive. The children were ravenous & gnawing on their arms by the time it arrived. We could have gone to the shop, bought a chicken, roasted it & vegetables in less time. I’m someone who predominately cooks everything from scratch so it wigs me out a bit (a lot). Lol!

I had Vietnamese last night for the first time since my surgery. I had forgotten how much I like viet food - the clean, fresh flavours. I had prawn salad which I always enjoyed. I ate 5 prawns & the very small disappointing amount of cucumber, carrot & lettuce & a little of the mint. Bought home a bowl 2/3 filled with 2 leftover prawns & all the noodles. My brother & his family eat far too much takeaway. Eating with them twice in the last two weeks is why I’ve eaten takeaway twice too which I rarely normally do.

Slow, deep breathing can also help as you breathe surgical gas out. Try marching on the spot or while sitting & raise & lower your arms to move the gas up behind your lungs so it is absorbed there & breathed out.

I second @NickelChip’s suggestion of trying warm/hot drinks. They are very soothing & the peppermint or ginger tea should help with the indigestion gas. Plus being hot, they force you to ensure you’re sipping. Get a thermal cup to keep them hot or pop your cup in a microwave to reheat as needed. Are you on a PPI yet? They reduce your stomach acid which is likely the cause of this gas. You’re still producing the amount of acid you needed to digest food when you had a large tummy & ate much more than you are able to now (especially after surgery).

Yes, it will pass (though they are still frustrating & upsetting) but it doesn’t necessarily mean your weight loss is over. I lost another 11kgs (24lbs) in about another year after I reached goal. And many others will tell you the same. While they lost the bulk of their weight in the first 6-12 months, their weight loss continued very slowly for another 6-12 months or more. So it’s not over until it’s over. My surgeon & his colleague also suggested I increase my calories when I was dropping below goal. I said I can only eat what I can eat. My dietician made a couple of suggestions like adding full cream milk powder to any milk based drink or dish. I tried it but found it very sweet. Over time, I was able to eat more both in volume & calories & was eating a wider variety of food sources just like I had along the whole way until my loss stopped at about 1300 calories. I eat about 1500/1600 now & maintain at basically the same weight. Maybe touch base with your dietician for some ideas or things you can swap in much like @ms.sss suggested. Remember to celebrate the weight you have lost & every pound you lose next even if it takes weeks to lose it. You got this.