blackcatsandbaddecisions

One month in, 16.4 lbs lost after surgery, 74.2 lbs total loss. Feeling great, just started on soft foods. Basically just eggs and cottage cheese at this point. Hit a huge milestone- I now have less than 100 lbs left to lose! I’ve got a long road but I’m heading in the right direction.

PACU is the post anesthesia care unit. It just means you’ll be cared for there (in the same area you get set up for surgery generally) instead of a separate room. You’ll probably get a lot more attention to be honest. I wouldn’t worry in the slightest.

And a Ferrari is not really any good if a person can't drive 😩

It’s my one month anniversary of surgery! Oh man I was not feeling great this time last month. I’m glad I’m done with that. I’m feeling great now, no pain anywhere, no problems with getting liquids. In the last month I lost 16.4 lbs, for a total weight loss of 74.2 lbs. I’ve had a stall but I expected that. I know I need to start exercising more. I literally just started soft foods and so far so good, but I’ve not exactly tried a lot.

One thing I will say is I was a bit concerned because I had no restriction whatsoever with liquid after the first week, and that kind of alarmed me. Like everyone says though, it comes with actual food. I feel like it’s in my esophagus when I’ve eaten too much.

Thank you so much everyone for replying to my post! You've all been so helpful. Just thought I'd provide an update. I took a good hard look at things, started writing down everything I was eating, and figured out I had gotten into a really bad habit of grazing all day long. I am a crisis responder who works nights 12PM-12AM and wasn't planning for meals. I would just grab a bunch of Snacks (fairly healthy but still not the best) and head out. I decided to make a change by giving myself actual meal times and planning for them, with 2 snacks a day. For my weird schedule I'm having Breakfast (an egg and bacon or sausage) at noon, lunch at 3PM (a salad with protein), and dinner at 7PM (Some sort of Protein and veggies). I've been having nuts around 5PM for snack #1 (thank you for the suggestion!), and then around 9PM eating for the final time with snack #2 of fruit or popcorn. It's working.. I'm down 10 pounds and feeling better! I really appreciate all of the suggestions, encouragement, and help here at Bariatric Pal and am prioritizing a daily visit to the site again like I used to. Take care everyone! XOXO

It’s my one month anniversary of surgery! Oh man I was not feeling great this time last month. I’m glad I’m done with that. I’m feeling great now, no pain anywhere, no problems with getting liquids. In the last month I lost 16.4 lbs, for a total weight loss of 74.2 lbs. I’ve had a stall but I expected that. I know I need to start exercising more. I literally just started soft foods and so far so good, but I’ve not exactly tried a lot.

One thing I will say is I was a bit concerned because I had no restriction whatsoever with liquid after the first week, and that kind of alarmed me. Like everyone says though, it comes with actual food. I feel like it’s in my esophagus when I’ve eaten too much.

Hi, fellow November buddies! Wanted a bit of a snack today, and needed more Protein. I scooped up a bowl of vanilla Two Good yogurt (I can't do the other SF yogurts for some reason, but probably any vanilla one would work), added a scoop of unflavored protein, and then a tiny squirt of orange tangerine Mio. Was like a melted creamsicle. Really yummy! Just in case anyone needs something different ☺️

Eat a lot more veggies. Try to eat a big salad (watch out for the dressing) or a bowl of vegetable Soup before meals. This greatly reduces overall caloric intake. Studies also show that eating an apple before a meal reduces overall calories. I lost 15 pounds on the 2 week pre-op diet. It is not out of reason to think that you can lose 9 more pounds in 3 weeks.
Juicing will absolutely make you more hungry because you are getting all the calories and sugar from the food, but none of the Fiber. One rule of thumb is to never "drink your calories." It's just too easy to get way too much, and the juice is not very satisfying since it lacks fiber. Fiber fills you up, slows down your eating, and slows down the digestion of the food instead of just dumping it all in at once. Eat the WHOLE food - the whole apple and carrot, not just the juice. Think about the volume of juice you get from an apple, a carrot, a cucumber, and 1 cup of spinach. You could swallow that right down with no problem, I'm guessing. But how would you feel about eating the whole apple, whole carrot, whole cucumber, and the cup of raw spinach? Pretty full, right? That's the difference fiber makes. Do you know that fiber is what your gut biome thrives on, and that very very few people even get close to the 30 gms of daily fiber that is recommended? In short, CHEW your calories, don't drink them.

Hey all, thanks so much for the advice and thoughts! It's definitely helpful to hear from those who have been through the same things.
He came with me to the initial consult and asked the doctor all kinds of questions that I hadn't even thought of, which was really nice, and he said he was satisfied with her answers. Since then, I've had a couple of appointments and he's interested in what I'm learning and how I think it's going. I'm also making some incremental changes in my diet/habits to start getting ready for this massive change, and he's been supportive so far. It seems like he mostly needed to get over the initial fear.
Thanks for also pointing out how spouses can start acting weird once it all starts sinking in; I'll try to be mentally prepared for that at least. My husband did make a comment about me getting skinny and leaving him, and I told him that if I wanted to leave I wouldn't be waiting to be skinny first lol! Still, it was a moment of vulnerability and I can work with that if I know what's bothering him.

One month in, 16.4 lbs lost after surgery, 74.2 lbs total loss. Feeling great, just started on soft foods. Basically just eggs and cottage cheese at this point. Hit a huge milestone- I now have less than 100 lbs left to lose! I’ve got a long road but I’m heading in the right direction.

My weight loss surgery story actually started back in early 2019, but I chickened out before my first appointment because I was worried that I would have postop complications and the cost would go beyond the base rate. I gave up on the idea of weight loss surgery at that time, and decided that I would do it on my own. I think everybody here knows how well that went.
At the end of the year I found out my husband‘s job would be ending, and we took that as an opportunity to try to find a job where he would have insurance that I could go on that would cover weight loss surgery. He got a job that covered it, and I joined his insurance plan, and within the month I was set up with my first appointment.

my first appointment ended up being converted to telemedicine because of Covid, but that actually worked out great for me because my doctors office is two hours away. We had a six month waiting period, and for the first two months I will be honest I was working from home in quarantine, and I made absolutely no effort to lose weight and I did not make any progress. My third appointment was going to an in person appointment and the Bariatric class, and I was terrified that I would be up in weight and be disqualified. So for 2 weeks prior to that I went on a low carb low calorie diet. And I don’t know if it was me telling myself it was temporary or the realization that the surgery was coming helped, but I just kept extending and extending the date on my low carb diet. I ended up losing 48 lbs before the liquid diet which was greatly needed because I started at 339, and my surgery weight was 282. I’m 5’10 and my goal weight is 165.

The liquid diet was no big deal, maybe because my diet was already very low calorie. I think I ended up losing about 8 pounds or so on it. It was a full liquid diet, and I did not vary from the diet at all. I want this to be the part of my life where I’m not constantly having a “little extra” or “just this bite” and I figured it would be a good test of willpower.

surgery was a bit rough. I was in a fair amount of pain when I woke up, and I felt very nauseous. I could definitely feel my stomach, and it did not feel good. I wasn’t able to keep any Water down, and the pain meds made me very sick. I ended up throwing up the small amount of water I’d drank snd the pain meds up all over myself the first night. But the next day was a tiny bit better, and it got better every day until day 4 I felt great. I ended up being able to drink water totally fine, no problem with Protein or anything.

I think my surgeon is a bit old school because I have a 4 week post op liquid diet too. No mush or purée stage here. I’m currently finishing up week 2 of the post op liquid diet, and like the preop diet I’m not going to cheat or go off plan. It was a long road to get here and I am going to do everything in my power to make this work.

So far I am down about 10 lbs post surgery, so I don’t think I’m going to get the dramatic 30 lbs weight loss in the first month or anything but that’s fine. I’m down close to 70 lbs from my high weight, and it feels great. I’ll try to follow up every month or so with progress.

HW:339
SW: 282
CW:271
GW: 165

It’s my one month anniversary of surgery! Oh man I was not feeling great this time last month. I’m glad I’m done with that. I’m feeling great now, no pain anywhere, no problems with getting liquids. In the last month I lost 16.4 lbs, for a total weight loss of 74.2 lbs. I’ve had a stall but I expected that. I know I need to start exercising more. I literally just started soft foods and so far so good, but I’ve not exactly tried a lot.

One thing I will say is I was a bit concerned because I had no restriction whatsoever with liquid after the first week, and that kind of alarmed me. Like everyone says though, it comes with actual food. I feel like it’s in my esophagus when I’ve eaten too much.

Well I had my first bites of food tonight since late October. 2 week pre op liquid diet plus 4 week post op liquid diet made for a loooooong stretch. For my first food I scrambled an egg. No problems at all eating it, def felt full afterwards. Was so nice to not have Soup for dinner.
I am 73 lbs down (15 post surgery) and coming up on my one month anniversary on the 10th. Not losing super fast, but happy to be where I am!

Iced latte with a milk that also has Protein, so cows or, as I have it, soya milk. That is my go to in the morning as I never want food until lunchtime, so I at least get in some fluids and protein. The coldness also soothed my stomach early on after surgery.

All my days are about the same, since I’m still on the 4 week post op liquid diet right now. My current biggest treat is to add some PB2 into my chocolate Protein Shake. Now that’s excitement!

I think with waiting for surgery, waiting to lose weight before/after surgery, and a lot of things in life, patience is the virtue it was always said to be. I used to play chess competitively and I remember the coach telling people so often that the only thing that lost them the game was impatience. Look to your end goals and work backwards to figure out your steps to get there. If you can’t do anything to advance right now, then look for an action that at least won’t hurt your progress. And when you get an opening to move forward with your goals, be ready and go!

After my initial consultation I started making changes to my lifestyle and eating better. I ended up losing 78 pounds between then and my surgery date (mid March to mid September). I didn't at any point think that hey maybe I won't need to do the surgery, but I wanted to get myself in a good place to allow it to have the best chance of success.

Aah you fell into the ‘I’m making healthier food choices but I haven’t lost weight’ trap. A lot of us have. It’s portion size that often trips us up. We make the good choices & choose grilled over fried, add more vegetables, etc. but our plate is still full. It’s just another thing we have to learn on weight loss journey.
Full liquids seems to be your best option at this point. Have a chat with your nutritionalist first to help you through these couple of weeks. If your surgeon still does decide to delay your surgery, don’t give up. It will happen for you. Through this journey, you’ll probably have a few slips, trips & challenges. This is just your first. Just pick yourself up, regain your focus & move forward.
Good luck.

I lost a lot of weight prior to surgery following a diet similar to this:
Unsweetened almond milk latte for breakfast
One string cheese as a snack
Premier Protein for lunch
High protein/low calorie dinner like eggs and a vegetarian sausage

It sucks but it’s effective!

I lost a lot of weight prior to surgery following a diet similar to this:
Unsweetened almond milk latte for breakfast
One string cheese as a snack
Premier Protein for lunch
High protein/low calorie dinner like eggs and a vegetarian sausage

It sucks but it’s effective!

I was by myself the whole time as well- Covid has really made things crazy.

I ran into someone today who’s husband got sleeved in August. She told me his weight loss has stopped-because he has started drinking soda again, and eating snack foods it sounds like. It just really highlighted for me how vital it is to not try to find ways to go back to how I was eating before. This surgery is not a slam dunk, and it requires a huge change in our relationship with food.

I lost a lot prior to surgery (50 prior to the pre op diet) during my six month period. I didn’t treat it as a last ditch effort, but as setting myself up for as much success as possible. I timed it well and didn’t fall below 40 BMI until after insurance approval.

It never crossed my mind to be like “oh I lost it on my own so let’s cancel the surgery”. I think mostly because I’ve done it on my own before! And then regained. And then done it again! And regained. I know I need help keeping it off, not just losing.

Hate to break it to you, but stuff like this doesn’t work. If it did, we’d all be using it instead of getting WLS. It’s a “get thin quick” scam by people who want to profit from our desperation to lose weight.

Post op liquid diet during thanksgiving! I had bariatricpal Tomato Soup. I’m thankful for a lot, but also grateful our big family thanksgiving was cancelled this year so it was just me and my husband/kids. No need to explain turning down the turkey!

Not a traditional thanksgiving in ANY sense, so I hope to be looking back next year with a good sense of humor at my Covid-cancelled Tomato Soup thanksgiving. We all have years of great thanksgivings ahead of us.

Same! We canceled plans due to Covid, so it was just us and the kids. I'm keeping my surgery private so the pressure to explain was lifted.

My MD doesn’t even have a puree stage at all. It’s 4 weeks post op all liquid. I’m at day 15 post op and cottage cheese sounds amazing, but oh well.

I wouldn’t recommend picking and choosing different diet plans from different surgeons. I trusted my surgeon enough to let him surgically remove most of my stomach, I’ll trust his post op advice as well. Plus, I need all the boost I can get with weight loss as I still have 100 lbs left to lose, so liquid diets suck, but they sure do get rid of those lbs.