ShoppGirl

Exactly. If it were the men having to do it they would whine until the standard of care would change. I’m sure that they could easily give you the option to do it at the hospital under twilight anesthesia (especially if you have not given birth and it will be worse), but because most women can “deal with it” and don’t complain they aren’t going to change it. A friend of mine who has had two children just recently had an issue switching hers. The strings were cut too short and they weren’t visible so they had to go digging and searching with hooks. The regular gyno couldn’t get it so she had to go back and see the surgeon who was finally able to remove it but she said THAT was awful because it took so much longer and even when they scheduled for the surgeon knowing that it wasn’t routine anymore they still didn’t have her take anything!! I know that for some people it’s not a big deal but we all know that our bodies are different and our pain threshold’s are as well. There really does need to be more consideration given to these things. I’m glad that you have that visit behind you and hopefully have 8 years until you have to deal with it again. Maybe they will make some changes to the procedure by then. 🤞

I don’t have any advice on the pain relief to add but I do want to say I’m so sorry that sounds awful. Also, i agree 100% that they overlook female procedures when it comes to pain relief. I had to get my IUD removed the other day because of a medical situation and they didn’t even tell me to take something over the counter to this time. When asked I was told I wouldn’t need it. Lucky for me mine was only in for 11 months so it wasn’t bad because of less scar tissue or something but still. I also had that camera thing for polyps in office before they decided they couldn’t get them all and needed the big one in hospital and since I can’t take NSAIDS that they usually suggest I was told I didn’t need anything and that was a horrible experience. I was advised that it wasn’t anything as bad as giving birth. I said so that’s the new yardstick. I said do YOU want to go give birth on your lunch hour and then go about YOUR day. I mean I know it isn’t nearly as bad as giving birth because it’s only minutes in duration, but the cramps are pretty painful nonetheless. And is it really a comparison. Are we just letting women suffer through other stuff we can control the pain for just because childbirth is painful and we can’t fix that? I swear if men had to do this procedure they wouldn’t even try it in office first. They wouldn’t expect them to deal with the pain or the inconvenience of having to do the same procedure twice.

I started with just walking. My friends all live a descent ways away so we made phone dates in the beginning to get me going. It worked perfectly. I still felt accountable to them even though they were walking around their own neighborhoods. I also stuck close to my own house for a while. I did as many laps around the block as I could but I didn’t go far away just in case I would start hurting or something it would be a short distance back at any point. After I gained a bit of confidence, I checked out the community center and they have fitness classes there for cheap. There is no contract and you can try out as many different classes as you want. I like cardio and yoga and still do the yoga now (plan to get back to cardio as soon as my health permits). There are also videos online but for me, having the group of women that are starting to be more like friends is pretty helpful in keeping it fun. As others have said, though the best exercise is one that you don’t hate. And you may not love it from day one but you should get a pretty good idea of whether you hate it pretty quickly. 🤣 Try a pretty good variety and you will find something you enjoy I’m sure while getting some good exercise along the way.

Ugh. It pisses me off when doctors make any of us feel like some number they come up with is applicable to each of us when even we know that all of our bodies are unique and the complexity of obesity. A weight difference of three pounds could be ANYTHING!! i know this is a little different because it chemo but it’s really not because like anything it’s not true weight gain so an example is when I come home from chemo I weigh about 6-7 pounds more than I did that morning and the next day. But everytime, the following day I drop it all. I don’t understand the science but it’s something to do with inflammation that any of us could have for various reasons to some degree. Also three pounds I know for a fact I have lost from a bowel movement. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning and I weigh about 3-4 pounds less than if I weight myself later in the day. . Long story short three pounds is absolutely nothing to stress about and if your doctor does then either smile and nod and tell them you will do better or express how ignorant they are being but whatever you do, DO NOT let that get under your skin!! Your loss is incredible. As @Justarwaxx suggested, Don’t let anyone negate how hard you have worked. Instead Celebrate your amazing progress and if anything use his or her ignorance to fuel you and keep going. 100 pounds is absolutely Amazing and takes real lifestyle changes to accomplish. All you have to do at this point is to stick with it and the rest will come off in a matter of time. The time may vary person to person but it will happen. You’ve got this!!

Lots of great advice. You can start with walk pushups too if your arms are really wimpy like mine. They seem fairly easy but if you do them correctly and you do a lot they actually do build you up to be ready for the raised ones.

I get your anxiety as I struggle with it as well and I’m pretty sure that I worried about the same thing but I would be surprised if they would have scheduled your surgery or your preop appointment if the surgery hadn’t been authorized. These surgeons are beyond busy and their office and surgical time is limited and worth a lot of money. Think about it, If they schedule you before they should and end up with a slot they can’t fill the Surgeon loses money and I’m sure they aren’t very happy if that happens too often. With the preop and authorizations required for this surgery it’s probably pretty difficult to fill an opening. They would need someone else that’s just been approved by insurance and still has over two weeks notice to do their preop appointment with the surgeon and start their preop diet and that date works for them and their driver. Most likely those people would’ve already been scheduled with their own date or they won’t be able to do surgery that date for one reason or the other. Long story short, they probably already got your approval and just didn’t tell you. That or they deal with your insurance company alot and they know the exact criteria and turnaround without a doubt. You really should be fine.

It’s soooooo cold it’s hard to get up and get my exercise done early like I’m used to doing. I’m sure it’s been cold for many of you already in other parts of the country, but this is not typical for me. How do you guys get going early when it’s so cold? Also, I want to eat more when it’s cold too. Its like my body is not used to it and thinks I need to store enough to hibernate for the season. I don’t have anything i absolutely have to do today so I reluctantly got up and made breakfast then got back into bed to eat it. It’s almost noon so I guess I should do my walking now and then get my shower while it’s warmest but this plan won’t work long term. I have things to do. 😆

Good for you. It’s important to love the skin you’re in. You are so much fitter and healthier already than when you started. Everything else is just a bonus in my eyes. Buy the dress now, do the thing you’ve been putting off now, live your life NOW!! You have come so far already and if you are like me you already feel 100 times better. The way you feel and your health are so much more important than any number on the scale. Try to make the scale second to the priority of being healthier. That would be a good resolution for many of us.

It was so weird though that BRAT diet is Bananas, Rice (white), applesauce and Toast (white) so basically carbs and not protein and not much else. Well between the diarrhea which is why I was on the diet and the food without any nutrients I was getting weaker by the day. I was staying pretty hydrated so I think that majority of it was just the drastic change in nutrition. Just one week with All them carbs and I was up hungry several times a night (craving sugar), lazy and fatigued all day and it was just snowballing by the day. I don’t ever want to go back to feeling that way!! I can’t believe that was our normal for so long and we had no idea how much better we were supposed to be feeling. The nurse is the one who told me to do that diet and I questioned it with my history but she insisted but as soon as I seen the Dr she said she never would’ve put me on that diet and took me off. I hate when the nurses overstep their authority and won’t just ask the darn Dr. Anyways, it’s a warning for me about how that diet makes my body feel and I don’t want to do it again.

This is such an amazing feeling and a wonderful way to go into the new year!! Congrats!!

Well today was round 4 of my chemo and immunotherapy and steroids, etc. Messing with my tastes a bit on certain stuff Things don’t taste gross just not good. I came home and i did chicken breast with a little ceaser side salad and a tiny bit of spinach tortolini. I know that last one was not ideal but it made the meal go down easier if that makes any sense. I guess it’s a balance for now to get the rest of what I need in nutrition wise and it was cheese filled so still protein. 🤷‍♀️ I am about to go eat some mixed fruit now for my snack. I also did five miles walking and tomorrow morning I have yoga. I think that getting my nutrition and exercise is really helping my body deal with all of this because I did the stringer one up front so it’s been two months and i don’t have alot of side effects yet. The doctors are pretty amazed. Knock on wood I am able To keep it up because I had to do that BRAT diet for a week and I could feel myself getting weaker and my sleep was off and I wasn’t wanting to exercise. I am REALLY trying to keep to my habits as best as I can. I hope everyone else is doing well with juggling their bariatric journey with “life” as well.

It’s always best to refer to whatever literature your dr gave you but I was told that anything that I could fairly easily cut with the side of a fork was considered soft food. i was lucky and didn’t have any issues with intolerances but i did go real slow starting with eggs and fish. I stuck with stuff I know was fine from days before for breakfast and lunch and had one new food for dinner. That way if I did have any issue I was home and I knew the most likely culprit.

Did you have a problem drinking while you were in the hospital? I was lucky that I did not but It’s not uncommon to have to take super super tiny sips for a little while but usually they won’t release you until they see you can get down some fluids. They gave me tiny little medicine cups to measure out I think it was one ounce of water and then I was supposed to take tiny sips from that. If smaller sips don’t help It can’t hurt to call and run it by your doctor though especially if the pain is intense. I think any new pain or pain that gets worse after the hospital should be reported to them just in case. They should have a surgeon on call after hours if they are closed for the holiday. Also, keep track of your fluid intake for the next few days and ask them if you should arrange for fluids if it continues to be really low (your probably good for a couple days if you spent any time in hospital on an IV but I’m not sure you did if your surgery was yesterday Especially if your having any diarrhea on top of not getting your fluids. I had no clue they could do this as an out patient and it was just a copay. Was way better than waiting until it got out of hand and ending up in the ER. Sugar free popsicles may help get fluid too. Also different temperatures if fluid sometimes help. Room temp or warm (not too too hot). Another thing that comes to mind is whether you are on a PPI. That may be something to ask about if not.

A lady in my craft group just sent a message that says “365 New Days, 365 New Chances.” I just love that. Happy New Years Everyone, Let’s Make This One Great!!

Some people can just have a taste but I learned after my sleeve that I am not one of them. I can’t have one slice of pizza or one brownie. Even if I manage to have just one that day I will crave more unhealthy stuff the following days. At bedtime I have been doing the sugar free popsicles. That seems to be working. If you have actual hunger then something with protein would be a better option. Like a Greek yogurt maybe. Can you budget the calories so you can do that. I think the triple zero is only like 80 calories. That should keep you full through the night though.

I don’t know about you but pre WLS when I was eating bad I would not get on the scale and it spiraled way further out of control because I basically ignored my changes in eating as they gradually got worse and worse. You didn’t do that, though!! You got on that scale and took accountability. As females our bodies are designed to pack on pounds and hormones make things even harder. You are not the only one that has times of the month that their bodies make them want to eat more. I think all we can do is give ourselves a little forgiveness if we slip sometimes. Maybe try your free foods. Did you have those on your pre op diet. I had several on the list but the ones I recall were sugar free popsicles, pickles and lettuce. If I was hungry, I was told I was allowed to eat as many of those foods as I wanted. And to this day I still consider them to be free foods. Those are the only calories that I do not log on my calorie app. I allow myself to have them when I am hungry so I never feel like I am starving. Just maybe not getting what I would prefer to eat.

Exercise may end up being your “you time” if you find something that you enjoy doing. I never in a zillion years would’ve pictured myself exercising and I have not always been obese either. My issues began when I was like 25 so I was active And fit but never did actual exercise in my life until post revision. Well, no I absolutely love YOGA. That, and my crochet group are my time. I shut my phone off for both and I am just present for the entire time. The YOGA makes me feel so good for the entire day. I love it.

Ooh and Amazon has the core power shakes in chocolate which I am 99% sure are the same as fairlife. if not, they use fairlife milk and they are really good. People say that their kids will even ask for them because they are just like chocolate milk. According to google the fairlife is lower calorie and core power is a workout recovery drink but I found it comparable to premiere protein and it worked for me for weight loss. Maybe check it out to see how it compares to fairlife.

If you find some protein shakes are okay except they are too sweet try mixing them with coffee. This helps a great deal. Cold or hot. I mix iced coffee with a premiere protein caramel shake and it’s like an iced coffee. I actually kept this habit after all the others went out the window from my sleeve because I like them so much. Well that and the premiere protein caffe latte shake. I just prefer to mix my own now because I do decaf coffee and the caffe latte has caffeine. Both options are good but I’d say the caramel with coffee is less sweet of the two if sweetness is the issue. Also, the change in taste for sweet is often temporary so try again in a month or two and keep checking because this most likely will go away at some point.

https://bariatricbits.com/single-serve-baked-ricotta/ Thats the ricotta bake recipe

Wrong thread. Sorry

Are you measuring and logging everything that goes into your salad? Not all salads are created equal and it’s not uncommon to underestimate what goes into them. A salad can have over 800 calories pretty easily if you aren’t careful. The usual culprits are the dressing, cheese, crouton's, nuts/granola, avocado, bacon, etc. If you don’t use measuring tools at least for a while it’s pretty difficult to know if you are getting just one serving or more. And if you are getting more than one serving of a few of these things you may as well just have a cheeseburger calorie wise and you may not realize it. I hope this helps.

I was also allowed scrambled eggs and I made pureed egg salad (that wasn’t bad). My saving grace were refried beans with a little 2% cheese and the ricotta bake. Just be sure your tomato sauce doesn’t have chunks or that you puree it if so. I got a little kitchen aid food processor. Not cheap but cute enough to leave on the counter and I use it now to make pico and guacamole so it wasn’t a waste (they do make much cheaper ones though if you have room to store it I just have a tiny kitchen). I imagine you could use a blender or nutra bullet in retrospect in a pinch but it doesn’t give you as much control over the consistency. The nutra bullet comes in handy to make drinkable yogurts and smoothies later too. The drinkable yogurt you should be able to do during the puree phase as well (i just used yogurt, fruit and almond milk).

While I absolutely do not agree that it’s likely you will GAiN weight on 800 calories, 800 Calories can be a pretty good amount of food depending on what you eat. for example this is 757 calories and it’s 100 g of protein. breakfast: Caramel “Proffee” made from a premiere protein caramel shake with iced coffee mixed in. (It’s really good and filling with the protein btw). lunch: three eggs omelette with 2% cheese (1 ounce) and tomatoes and onion (1/2 cup). dinner: grilled chicken breast (3 ounce) and zucchini and onion (1/2 cup). snack: oikos triple zero yogurt I use the Baritastic app and I always have the same breakfast but then before I have lunch I plug in my plan and an idea for dinner to make certain it’s okay macro wise. I do pay some attention to calories but protein, added sugars and fat are more important. I also pay attention to my carbs because on some days my exercise is higher and I actually need to increase them a bit. If your dietician is not asking about your activity and your food choices and inky giving you a cookie cutter plan without real guidance I would be asking more questions. These plans need to be tailored to you specifically. if you are having a difficult time finding foods you like that meet the criteria you are definitely not alone. I had to do a ton of research and trial and error with recipes to find a couple weeks worth of meals that I enjoy and I was doing 900ish calories. I scoured the web and found low calorie recipes and also ways to cut calories from things I knew I enjoyed. Basically type “healthy” in front of anything you like and you should find ways to make a more bariatric friendly version. Some days you may need to reduce calories further by having two shakes or egg whites instead to budget for a higher calorie dinner. I don’t love to cook so I make double batches of things and freeze them in individual portions. this has been my lifesaver. For the 800 calories you may have to do a lot of lower calorie lean meat and veggie type dinners unless you cut calories during lunch. For instance instead of 3 eggs you could do five 5 whites and you could even omit the cheese if you need to cut calories further. i would imagine you could still lose on a little higher calorie budget and you have more flexibility in your menu but it may not be as fast as you would like. Either way, check out Baritastic (or another calorie tracking app). It’s very helpful to see exactly what’s in different food and to play around with these meal ideas on an app because you can add and delete and adjust the measurements to figure out how to make things work to fit your plan.

Does anyone have any favorite products or suggestions of stuff I should try from the bariatric pal store? I have quite a few points saved up from posting on here and I was gonna order their vitamins to show my dr next month but I need to order more to get free shipping.