Sunnyway

I really hope someone can give us some tips because avoiding artificial sweeteners is a major objective as I go forward. I'm a sugar addict, too, and I suspect that my continued use of artificial sweeteners is making my recovery more difficult. So-called "natural" sweeteners like stevia and monks fruit are still heavily processed and no better than Saccharine or Aspartame.

A dietitian suggested adding a probiotic supplement and meat tenderizer (!) to my diet daily.

Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly my issue. I'm not an emotional eater or a binge eater, but if something I know is delicious is right in front of me I WANT it. It's extremely difficult for me to turn away from the temptation. As a sugar addict, I am abstaining from all forms of sugar and flour, so I KNOW BETTER, but I'm still inclined to reach out ant take the yummy item, even though I am again past the withdrawal stage.

The Orgain Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt and Peppermint Hot Chocolate are delicious. Have you tried Purely Inspired products? They are also plant-protein.

Absolutely normal. You are doing fine. Give yourself grace, the process will work!

I recommend the Baritastic app. It tracks your protein, carbs, fats, calories, water, exercise, etc. and provides you with charts to see your progress as well as a daily log for writing your thoughts and activities. It's much easier than looking up each food item in a calorie counter. It will measure grams as well as ounces, so its compatible for you.

Just don't take your Calcium citrate with your daily vitamins. If you are prescribed 1500 mg Calcium citrate, it should be taken 500 mg at a time. I take m daily vitamins (Bariatric Pal One-a-Day) in the morning, and my Calcium citrate at lunch, mid-afternoon, and at supper. I have my vitamins & supplements in a basket on my vanity so I see them when I brush my teeth and get ready for the day, so morning works for me. However, I think you could reverse the order with no harm.

Inspiring! I do aquatic cardio workouts 5 hours a week now pre-surgery. As soon as I'm cleared post-surgery for weight lifting, I'm going to get a personal trainer at the YMCA and begin strength training. My bariatric clinic includes sessions with a personal trainer, but the affiliated gym is 75 miles away so the local YMCA is where I'll go. I think that shrinking my excess skin is probably hopeless, but I'm going to do as much as I can before considering plastic surgery.

I have bad knees, one of which was replaced but still hurts two years later. As a result, I cannot walk long distances even if I use a cane or rollator. Instead, I do aquatic exercise and use fins and a kick-board to swim laps at the local YMCA pool. I started using the pool before I had total knee replacement in a "Hip & Knee Class" recommended by my orthopedic surgeon. I liked it so much that I continued in the class for a year after surgery. Then COVID struck and everything shut down. A year later, in April 2021, I was so discouraged by being at home all the time and not getting exercise, I called three people who had been in the "Hip & Knee" class and suggested that we return to the pool. The YMCA was not yet holding classes, but the pool was open again. We knew the routine down pat. We started going for an hour each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In September, the YMCA started offering aquatic classes again. The four of us signed up for the "Senior Stretch & Tone" aquatic class AND the "Knee & Hip" class back to back! Yikes! The class meets only on Mondays and Wednesdays, but we go on Fridays, too, so we get five hours of exercise weekly Since the Senior Stretch and Tone class uses some of the same exercises that the original Hip & Knee class used, we started using the second hour of class to develop strength by swimming laps using kick-boards and flippers. The fins make us work harder, kicking from the hips instead of the knees, and we are getting a good aerobic workout, By increasing the number of laps by two each time, I finally swam 1/2 mile or 18 laps last Friday. I'm going to try to increase by two more laps each time I go. I want to be able to do a mile (36 laps) by summer. I'll have to take a break after my upcoming revision surgery, but I've been told that as soon as the incisions are healed I can go back to the pool. Maybe by spring I'll have lost enough fat that I will no longer float like a beachball, and will be able to actually SWIM rather than kicking.

I love this! This is a tip that could actually help me if I do succumb to temptation. It won't dissipate backsliding from abstinence, but could help me mentally to avoid doing it again. Thank you!

Amy, why not just bite the bullet and learn how to cook? For the sake of your own health and that of your also overweight husband... Many recipes are very simple. My brother insisted he couldn't cook until he was retired and how he's producing beautifully plated simple gourmet meals. It can be done! Here is one more cookbook which may be less daunting than the others I suggested (not that those recipes were terribly difficult either): The Easy 5-Ingredient Bariatric Cookbook, "100 post surgery recipes for lifelong health", by Megan Wolf. Most of the recipes can be made in 15-20 minutes. Both you and your husband can eat the same meals; you don't have to fix separate things for him. It wouldn't hurt to engage him in the cooking process, too!

200 oz of fluids is insane. That can't be good for you. Most bariatric clinics ask you to drink 48-64 oz per day, which includes your shakes and bullion. Did they tell you to drink that much? If not, take tiny sips to swirl around your mouth for your cotton mouth, rather than gulping down more water. Are you simply not pooping or do you feel like there is feces that you are utable to pass? You don't have much fiber in your diet while on the liquid diet so you may not need to poop as often. Miralax, Senocot, Milk of Magnesia, and Colase are other products that help with constipation. Have you consulted with your clinic about this?

It may help you to read a book about WLS. Both of these are good.

Here's what I found on sugar-free Fudgsicles (not "no-sugar-added" Fudgsicles--watch out!). At 40 calories I might consider them for a rare treat, but I wouldn't eat them frequently.

I've been video-conferencing weekly with a highly recommended counselor who specializes in eating disorders @$115/hour. However, while she is both a dietitian and a counselor she usually works with bulimics, anorexics, or bingers. I don't have those problems. The first few sessions were frustrating because she kept up her usual spiel directed to those forms of disordered eating. I gave her a list of reference books before our first session, but it was obvious she had not read any of them. I had to educate her on food addiction, bariatric surgery, and my experience with my own wonky metabolism. I sought a counselor because I've gone off the rails a few times while pre-op when confronted with some really delectable food in front of me that I could not resist--namely coffee cake, strudel, pizza, Irish soda bread. As soon as I ate them my sugar/flour addiction was triggered and it took weeks to get over withdrawal again and to get back on track with my pre-op food plan. I don't want to do that after surgery so I was looking for tips and tricks for avoidance of temptation. Well, I'm not getting that type of advice. However, I am getting nutritional/dietetic information that I have not gotten from my clinic's nutritionists. I'll keep talking to her for the next two weeks because my RNY-RNY revision is just 17 days away. I'll wait and see post-surgery. The honeymoon period won't be difficult to me. The problem will arise once I'm eating "real food" again. Good luck finding a compatible counselor at a reasonable session cost.

Yes, it is, but it will be better after the first 5-7 days during which you are suffering withdrawal (and hunger). Fill up on broth, sugar-free jello, and sugar-free popsicles, as well as tea and/or coffee (if permitted by your doctor).

The pre-op diet is difficult not only due to fewer calories, but because you are going through withdrawal from carbs. Every time you stray from the food plan, you with struggle more because withdrawal starts all over again. Consider the possibility that you are a sugar/food addict. Trigger foods are often sugar, flour, rice, potatoes, bread, pasta, processed foods. If you abstain from these things the food plan gets easier every day. If you doubt it, look at my pre-surgery losses in the chart below. I confess that I have strayed and the setbacks were painful, but I now know that this is what I must do for life. Any of these books may be helpful.

Strength training might help. I doubt that any of mine will tighten up because I'm so old (73). I've lost 62 lbs pre-surgery, lost 33 inches to date, but NO inches lost on my upper arms. I swear no one will ever see them. I wear sleeves even in my swimwear. I may have a trip to Mexico in my future.

Don't overthink this. Soup is the meal. Just spoon it up normally. There is no prohibition from swallowing your soup any more than there would be for swallowing your protein shakes.

There are lots of recipes online for the pureed stage if you use google search. There are also many bariatric cookbooks available that cover all stages from home-made protein shakes, soft, pureed, and "normal" food. Here are some of the cookbooks I've accumulated.

Your relationship with food can return to where it was pre-surgery. The restriction doesn't last forever so don't rely upon it. It's up to you to learn a new way of eating and cooking.

Continue to follow the volume guidelines provided by your clinic. If you keep eating beyond the guidelines you won't gain the benefit of the surgery to learn a new way of eating and cooking. If told to eat more than 1 cup per meal, stop then even if you are neither full or satisfied.

The sharp pain probably a result of one of the incisions, definitely not due to overeating. If you do overeat, you will get a pain in your chest in the area of the sternum, and may get "foamies" or hiccups. You can up-chuck (regurgitate) to relieve the sensation. It will not damage your pouch to do so. It's unpleasant so you will soon learn to identify when you don't have room for a single bite more.

You will eventually be able to eat anything. Enjoy the benefits that restriction and malabsorption give you now because they don't last forever. Use the honeymoon period to learn a new way of cooking and eating.

My RNY-RNY revision is now scheduled for December 21. I am so ready! I just hope that it doesn't get postponed due to COVID. I was told that all of the hospitals in my area are full due to COVID patients, but the clinic is reevaluating the surgery schedule week by week.