BigSue

I LOVE the BariatricPal Belgian Chocolate Caramel and French Vanilla Caramel. They taste like candy!

Your weight is basically meaningless for the first few weeks. You just went through a major surgery and your body is catching up with the changes! It is virtually impossible to gain actual body weight right after surgery (weight fluctuations of a few pounds are very normal and usually just related to water retention), so right now, you need to focus on healing and getting enough water and protein. You might even want to stay off the scale for a while so you don't stress out about it needlessly. A lot of people just weigh in once per week so they don't see those fluctuations. You're doing great -- just stick with your program and you'll keep losing.

I highly recommend Leslie Sansone videos on YouTube for cardio. There are tons of free videos available and they're great. I do these every day. There's something for everyone, from beginners to advanced, and the videos vary in length from about 10 minutes to 50 minutes (I often do two or three shorter ones back-to-back just to mix it up). I use resistance bands for strength training. You can get a decent set for about $50 and there are free videos on YouTube for that, too.

Looks like you're doing great! It's a stall -- happens to almost everyone, often more than once along the way. It's just your body catching up with the changes. If you stick with your program, you will keep losing weight. There's a lot of superstition around stalls and how to break them (different people will tell you to increase calories or carbs or protein or exercise, and others will tell you to decrease calories or carbs or protein or exercise, or do a pouch reset diet, etc., etc.) but the truth is that all you can do is stick with your program and wait it out. That's why everybody has a different trick to break the stall -- it would have happened no matter what they did, so if they changed something, they think that was what broke the stall. Just be patient and keep up the good work.

Rao’s is the best but if you want something cheaper, Newman’s Own marinara is very good and has no added sugar.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, but there are things you can do as a customer to make things go more smoothly. Yes, it's her job to serve you, but it looks like you might have overwhelmed her by giving her so much information about your situation. She just wanted to take your order, and probably wasn't prepared to hear your whole story about your COVID anxiety, your surgery, your medical restrictions, etc.. It's not really fair to put that responsibility on the server. It's probably standard protocol for them to bring water to people who don't order a beverage, and assuming you didn't get charged for it (which you typically don't, even if you ask for water), did it hurt anything to have an extra glass of water sitting on the table? It's good to be assertive about what you need, but you don't need to go out of your way to make additional demands.

Have you moved the scale recently? Having it on an uneven surface can cause bad readings. Also, try changing the batteries -- some scales show erratic readings when the batteries are low.

Yes, most of those are well-known problem foods for WLS patients. My program says no rice, pasta, bread, or tortillas for at least the first year. Rice is hard to eat because it absorbs water and swells up in the stomach, which is uncomfortable when you have such a small stomach. Many WLS patients say that pasta sits in the stomach like a rock, and bread can form a lump that is hard to digest.

I lost about 70 pounds in the 5 months before my surgery.

No, I haven't tried those... ANy particular flavors you recommend?

My current obsessions are chia pudding and homemade sugar-free gummy bears. I love making different flavors of chia pudding; my favorites are chocolate raspberry (tastes like brownie batter!) and pumpkin spice. I never knew how easy it is to make homemade gummy bears -- just some gelatin and flavoring (either 2 packs unflavored gelatin + 1 single-serve sugar-free drink mix, or one unflavored gelatin + 1 flavored gelatin; I've also made them with real lemon juice and lime juice). I bought some gummy bear molds on Amazon, and voila: sugar-free gummy bears that don't cause diarrhea. I also recently discovered Skinny Girl salad dressings. They're fat-free, sugar-free, and 10-15 calories for 2 tbsp. I've tried balsamic vinaigrette, roasted garlic vinaigrette, poppyseed, buttermilk ranch, and honey dijon, and I love them all.

My surgeon didn't give a timeframe for different meats, but I've only eaten ground beef once since surgery, in chili, about 6 months out, with no problems. I normally substitute ground turkey for ground beef (just because I've heard that a lot of WLS patients tolerate ground turkey better). I've also had pork (pork loin, carnitas, and pork chili verde, all cooked in the Instant Pot) with no problems. I ate a smoked pork rib around 3.5 months out and a bite got stuck on the way down -- not pleasant, but I had some leftovers that I took off the bone shredded, and covered with sugar-free BBQ sauce and that was fine. The key with most meats is to make sure they're moist. I mostly cook meat in my Instant Pot, shredded, with a sauce. It is easy to digest that way. I can eat grilled chicken now as long as I cut it in small pieces and chew it well.

LOL, I don't know of any laws against it... I put some of my light dressing in a little 2-ounce container and stashed it in my purse. When I got my salad, I discreetly took out my dressing and poured it on my salad. No one was the wiser.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten at restaurants since my surgery, but the few times I have, I've gotten salads, and one time at a Mexican restaurant, I got a tostada (which is basically a salad on a tortilla, and since the tortilla is at the bottom, no one can tell you're not eating it). You just have to be careful about salads because of the dressing. I ask for the dressing on the side and bring my own light dressing. A lot of restaurants also have meals like grilled chicken breast with a choice of sides, and you can get a side of veggies. I like to get salads because I can eat a more "normal" portion of salad, but not a whole giant chicken breast.

You need to follow your surgeon's instructions for post-op diet. Did you surgeon give you instructions for your diet progression?

There are many different artificial sweeteners, and some of them can have side effects. I looked at the ingredients in the Pure Protein bars, and they are sweetened with maltitol, which is notorious for causing digestive discomfort. You may be able to eat protein bars that use different sweeteners without those digestive side effects. Here's a video with some good info on different types of artificial sweeteners: And here's a good article summarizing the different types of artificial sweeteners: https://www.sweetashoney.co/the-best-keto-friendly-sweeteners/ My personal favorite protein bars are Built Bars (which are sweetened with erythritol). I think they taste better than candy bars!

Congratulations!

Congratulations! 150 pounds -- that's awesome.

I can't be the only one here who has fallen completely in love with chia seed pudding! I've seen a lot about how healthy chia seeds are, but to be honest, I thought they looked kind of gross. I finally decided to give chia seed pudding a try, and it's delicious! The basic recipe is 1 tbsp chia seeds + 2 ounces liquid (I usually use a combination of almond milk and sugar-free flavored syrup) + sweetener. There are so many options for flavors, and here are some I've tried (I'm partial to the chocolate ones because a tablespoon of dark cocoa powder makes it taste like BROWNIE BATTER!).

Skinnygirl fat-free, sugar-free salad dressing is amazing! I've tried the buttermilk ranch, roasted garlic vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, honey dijon, and poppyseed, and I love them all. They all have 10-15 calories in a 2-tbsp serving. $1.98 at Walmart.

It's a marathon, not a sprint. You didn't gain the weight overnight and it won't come off overnight. Stalls are very common and you just have to stick with your plan and be patient.

This was one of my big fears, too, that deterred me from getting WLS sooner. I had read a lot of people's personal WLS experiences, and many of them seemed to talk about their pouch ruling their lives, and stuff about how they never know how their pouch will like something they ate, etc. I really hate vomiting and I was afraid that if I had WLS, it would happen all the time. I am 10 months out and I haven't vomited a single time since surgery. There were a few close calls (early on, it's not uncommon for a bite of a dense/dry food like meat to get sort of stuck on the way down, which is very uncomfortable and can result in nausea, but in my case every time this happened, it worked its way down eventually). I have been extremely careful about what I eat, so I'm not even sure if I get dumping syndrome. My surgeon said I should make sure not to exceed 15 grams of sugar or 15 grams of fat in one meal to avoid dumping. I've stuck with that and haven't had any issues. I actually see it as a benefit of the surgery that fear of dumping keeps me in line. There have been some occasions where I ate a few bites more than I should have, but I didn't vomit -- just felt kind of stuffed for a while. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing how your individual body will respond to the surgery, but there's a good chance that if you stick to your plan, you won't have to worry about vomiting.

Sorry I don't have any helpful advice on losing the weight, but I just wanted to say your bariatric team is there to help you. It is really common for pregnancy to cause weight gain, so you shouldn't be embarrassed about that! Especially since you've worked so hard to get back to your goal weight (but even if that wasn't the case, you have a new baby! cut yourself a break). I'm sure they've seen other people with similar issues, so I hope they are helpful.

When I first reintroduced meat after surgery, I frequently had problems where a bit of meat felt like it got stuck on the way down, and it was very uncomfortable until it worked its way through. In addition to cutting meat into small pieces, you should make sure it's moist (it should be swimming in sauce), not dry, and chew it really well. The good news is that I stopped having this problem after a few months -- but I still make sure to keep meats moist. I make a lot of Instant Pot recipes for shredded chicken, which is easier to eat than, say, diced chicken.

Do you drink Crio Bru? I LOVE that stuff! I add a little almond milk and some sugar-free flavored syrup and it's delicious. It's also really good for adding protein shakes. I used to add a couple of ounces of protein shake to my Crio Bru (I don't need to do that anymore because I can get enough protein from food now).