HealthyLifeStyle

I am in shock. I have gone from a size 20 jeans, to an 8, in only 7 months! I went from a 2x in shirts to a medium, or small, depending on the material, and brand. I still see myself as chubby, because I have loose skin around my hips, and abdomen. I wonder what size I would be in, if I didn't have the extra skin? I am looking fwd. to having some type of tuck, removal, etc. of my extra skin. I only have 5 months to go before I reach my 1 yr. The time is flying by. I have never in my adult life, been this size. I was always the chubby/fat kid in school (always teased, and bullied). I yo-yo dieted most of my adult life, but would often give up if I wasn't losing quick enough. Only to gain the weight back, and then some. It feels good, but weird at the same time to actually be this small. I have to learn to be kind to myself, and accept how I feel, and look now. It is not easy.

Just tried the Bariatric Pal Hot Cocoa. It is so good! It tastes just like regular hot cocoa. I was very surprised.

Just here to let you know that I took some advice. I was craving pasta so badly. A few of you told me to try Chickpea Pasta. I was very unsure about it. I bought some, and it was in my cabinet for a couple of weeks. I kept saying that I would try it the next day for dinner, but then I would talk myself out of it. LOL Well, I finally bit the bullet last night. I made chicken sausage, with peppers, and onions, then put it into low sugar spaghetti sauce. Boiled up some of the "pasta", and it was absolutely delicious! It was a little bit harder than regular pasta, but it took the craving away. Now I can experiment with it some more. I love this site because a few of you have given me some great ideas to try. Thank You, and keep them coming. ☺️

Just curious to know if and when you started to exercise after surgery? If so what are some of the things your doing? I do some light stuff, like walking my dog around the neighborhood. I suffer from Fibromyalgia and am in a lot of pain most days. Looking forward to swimming very soon as the weather is getting nicer. I don't want to join a gym because I know I will never go and it will just be a waste of money.

I have not done any exercising at all. I am almost 6 months post op. I had the bypass, and have lost 75 lbs. to date. I have gone down 5 sizes. I feel that if I exercise, I will lose too much weight. I already look too skinny. I can't eat more, to compensate. It is still hard for me to eat a lot. I still get full easily. I am looking fwd. to the weather getting better, so I can at least take my dog for a walk around the neighborhood. Is this bad, that I am not exercising at all right now at this stage of WLS?

Has anyone else had issues with food or drink getting stuck? Stuck so that its acting as a stopper/cork. If I drink water, I have to wait a while before taking another drink. If I don't wait, it just won't go down, and I have to spit it out. I literally can't swallow it. The same thing is happening with food also. I also noticed that when I eat, I get excessive phlegm and have to continually spit out into my napkin in between bites.

I have been eating "Pure Protein" bars but I think there is something in it that is causing me to have a belly ache. Probably artificial sweeteners. I hate to give them up because they honestly taste like a candy bar. What is everyone else eating for protein bars? I am looking for something that actually tastes good, low in calories, and doesn't have artificial sweeteners (if there is any such thing).

Hello I am close to being 9 months post op. I recently began discussing getting plastic surgery with my husband, and parents. They are all trying to talk me out of it. They think it isn't necessary because they think I do not have enough extra skin, I am too old (52 this yr.), I will be in too much pain, etc. I am getting frustrated with them, and won't talk to them about it anymore. I know its my body, and I can do what I want, but it would be nice if I had the support from them. What, if anything can I do to gain their support? Have any of you dealt with this before?

Just got off the phone with my nutritionist and she didn't help me at all. For those of you who have been following my posts, you know I had some questions for her. I asked her if I had to keep drinking 8 cups of water per day and let her know that I had to cut down to 6 because I get way too full even at this stage (9 months out), and then can't eat, and am losing more weight and can not maintain. Her answer was "Yes you have to drink 8 cups (64 oz.) of water per day". Then I asked if other liquids count towards the goal. Her answer was, "Yes, and you have to drink 8 cups of water per day also." Well that makes no sense. I then asked what could I do to gain a few lbs. Her answer was to "drink full fat milk, eat nuts, Peanut Butter or Almond Butter". I told her that I eat those things everyday, but can not drink milk due to lactose intolerance. Then she says, "Ok so eat yogurt, cottage cheese, and cheese". I told her that I can not do that because those things are dairy. So then she tells me to drink whole milk, instead of my almond milk. By now I am ready to start yelling at her. I know she wasn't paying attention to me. Then she tells me to eat more often, so I tell her that I already eat 5-6 times a day to which she tells me that I should be eating 5-6 times a day. LOL I give up. WTF lady? She also told me I should be having more protein so I tell her about my constipation issues and that I already eat 90-100 grams of protein a day. I let her know that the doc says I need to cut back a little bit on this, and she tells me that I should be drinking protein water. OMG!! Whatever. So now I am just going to have to do it my way, and see whatever works for me. I am going to cut back my water intake to 4 cups a day so I am not so full, and hopefully can eat more. I also will cut my protein down. I don't know what else to do at this point. I need to be able to eat more so I can put some weight back on. Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks

I finally bit the bullet and decided to try going to a restaurant yesterday for lunch with my mom. We were at the mall and ended up at Red Robin. I have been there a bunch of times before surgery and knew that had some healthy options. When the waitress came to take our drink order I let her know I do not want anything. My mom orders iced tea. She comes back to the table with my moms iced tea and a big glass of water for me. I tell her that I didn't order any water, and could she please remove it. She gives an attitude. When she comes back for our order, I let her know that I am very nervous because it is my 1st time ordering out at a restaurant since COVID #1, and I also tell her about my surgery #2, and let her know I am nervous about ordering because I want to make sure the order is correct, as I can not eat certain things. She rolls her eyes, starts to talk really fast, and is now rushing us. Mind you there is hardly anyone in the restaurant at this time. It is after the noon time rush. She literally had only 1 other table besides ours. I decide on the Turkey Burger, ask if its grilled and she tells me yes. I let her know I am on a very strict eating plan, and can not have butter, oil, salt, etc. I want it plain and on a lettuce wrap with tomato only. She asks me if I still want the chipotle mayo and I let her know I can not do spicy anything. I ask what the side options are that are healthy and I chose broccoli. My mom orders the veggie burger with the lettuce wrap, and broccoli as well. Our food gets to the table. Mine looks great so I take a bite and burn my tongue because it had the friggin chipotle mayo I told them I did not want. I hate spicy and couldn't even do it before the surgery. Upon further investigation, I see that the tomato is missing also. My moms is in a regular bun after she told them she wanted the lettuce wrap. My mom motions to her and she clearly sees her and ignores us. We finally see the manager go by and motion to him. He comes over and we explain what is going on. We let him know about the mistakes and we just want them fixed. My mom even says that it is not the waitresses fault but probably whoever made the sandwiches. Here comes the waitress again now with our corrected order. She never apologizes, gives us a major attitude, mumbles something under her breath and walks away before we could even check our food. I double check to make sure my order is right, this time their is no mayo on it, but my tomato is missing again! OMG My moms was correct this time. I didn't even bother to ask again because at this point we just wanted to hurry up and eat and leave. Time for the check....she tells us as she is walking by in a very fast speaking tone that we can check out using the table top kiosk. My mom was buying and always uses cash, she tries getting her attention once again to ask her how does it work, as we only know it to use a card. When we look at the total we knew it was wrong because it was for 2 orders of everything we got. Now my mom is pissed (it takes a lot). She gets up and gets the manager, explains how the girl has been rude to us the entire time, orders wrong, etc. The manager tells us we owe nothing, and we ate for free. He also tells us that he is firing the waitress today. Ummmm ok that is your problem and not for our knowledge, but now at least we know why. Wow! What a bad 1st experience that was. I am afraid to try other places.

Has anyone else having trouble with constipation from eating the calcium chews? I get the bariatric pal vanilla ones.

Thank YOU!!!

Yes, even though I am 9 months out. I double checked with my nutritionist last week and she told me that this is a rule I should always go by. Also, if I drink up till I eat, I won't have room for food. I still get very full quickly.

TY for understanding. I was also a waitress and was never rude to anyone. It just really made me mad when she was being rude to my elderly mom for no reason.

Thank You for your understanding. It was not a difficult order. My mom even told her that she knew it wasn't her fault and probably that of the sandwich maker.

How did I make up my own menu. Turkey burgers is on the menu and so isn't the choice of getting a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. I asked to add a tomato and hold the mayo. I asked if the turkey burger was actually grilled and that I didn't want added butter, or oil, etc. It was not a difficult order. I have worked as waitress at different places before and this is not a difficult thing to do. If you read my post. My mom even said to the waitress that she knew it wasn't her fault, and probably the fault of the sandwich maker. This waitress had an attitude from the very beginning. She was very rude to my elderly mother and I. If you want a decent tip, then act like a nice person. I always tip on the heavy side if the person deserves it. Just because I asked her to remove the water shouldn't be a red flag for crappy tippers.

Ok so the only reason I told her no water was because that was a suggestion from someone else on here when I told everyone I was apprehensive about eating out for the 1st time. I really didn't think about it, but I guess I just didn't have to take that advice and could have had the water sitting there. No biggie there. I was very nice about it when I asked to have it removed. My story was very short and all I said was that it was my 1st time out since Covid and that I was on a strict eating plan. It took all of 30 seconds to tell her that. I certainly didn't go out of my way to make any "demands". I simply told her no oil, butter, or salt, or mayo. Lettuce wrap and add tomato. My moms order was veggie burger with lettuce wrap and it came in a bun. How is that being demanding? Our order was messed up twice, and the waitress was very rude to us from the beginning. So tell me again how did I make "additional demands"???? I was told by different people on here that I shouldn't be nervous about letting wait staff know about my dietary needs, and now after this experience, I am more nervous about eating out than I was in the 1st place.

TY not be rude to myself and my elderly mom. She was very rude to us.

I did not want a fine dining experience. I simply wanted the waitress to be nice.

TY I worked as a waitress so I know exactly what it is like. I always got paid less than minimum wage plus tips. She was just plain rude to us.

There was no shortage of waitress/or waiters at this place. I know first hand about being a waitress as I was one for various places, including low and high end. She was just extremely rude to us for no reason. When I go out I always tip at least 20% and if they are extra nice I tip more. TY

TY Like I said it takes a lot for my mom who is 74 yrs old to get mad. This waitress was just being very rude to us.

Hello all. I am 9 months out and still have not gone to a restaurant. Mainly because of Covid. Now that it seems to be getting better, I am still very leery about it. I am so afraid of not being able to find something I am able to eat. I know that most places try to accommodate people with special diets, allergies, etc. but I have never done it before, and a little embarrassed also. I am looking for some advice on what other people do when they go out. How do you discreetly order without saying, No butter, no salt, none of this or that without feeling weird about it? I don't want them to think that I am being "too picky" or a pain in the but. Better yet, I am afraid that my order would still have the stuff I can't eat on it and I would not be eating healthy and the way I am used to.

Thank you very much. Me too! LOL

So for those of you who have been following my posts. My doc had told me to take Miralax every single day due to constipation. When I was no longer constipated and now getting diarrhea every day, I called the office and they told me to cut down to every other day. Then when that wasn't working either, I called them again and they told me to keep taking it no matter what. So I had to make my own decision at that point and stopped taking it all together. It has been over a week now and I have been regular. I am not one to tell others not to listen to their docs, but I know my own body, and had to do what I thought was right for me at the time. Sometimes the docs are not always right.