Sunnyway

I've come to realize that I am also a sugar/food addict. I've read a ton of books, some of which I will share with you. OA, a 12-step program, is an excellent support group. I haven't joined OA but I know its out there and available to me.
I had WLS in 1990, received no nutrition guidance, and was pretty much left to my own devices. I lost weight during the post-op honeymoon, but as time passed I could eat more...and I did! I regained every pound I had lost and returned to my original set point, where it stayed for the next 25 years despite a variety of weight loss program. I could never keep lost weight off.
I only recently learned that my RNY can be revised. I wasted a lot of time, but I'm going to give it another shot. This time I have lots more information at my fingertips.
Pre-operatively I have sworn off sugar, flour, wheat, rice, starchy vegetables, and processed foods. The first couple of weeks were hard but now I rarely get cravings or head hunger. I've lost 43 lbs. since the first of April. I know that abstention is the only way to prevail over addiction. I intend to continue with this post-operatively also.
Since you already know you are a food addict, I recommend the following:
Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction, by Vera Talman Weight Loss Surgery Does Not Treat Food Addiction, by Connie Stapleton
Why Diets Fail (because youʼre addicted to sugar), by Nicole Avena & John Talbott
Baratric Surgery & Food Addiction, by Philip Werdell (written for the clinician, but I found it valuable}
You might find Kay Sheppard's books relevant, since she advocates 12-step programs: Food Addiction: The Body Knows and From The First Bite: A Complete Guide to Recovery
One more book that I highly recommend is The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients, by Colleen Cook. I've also discovered that there a plethora of Bariatric Cookbooks now. My favorite is The Bariatric Guide and Cookbook, by Matthew Weiner.

I've come to realize that I am also a sugar/food addict. I've read a ton of books, some of which I will share with you. OA, a 12-step program, is an excellent support group. I haven't joined OA but I know its out there and available to me.
I had WLS in 1990, received no nutrition guidance, and was pretty much left to my own devices. I lost weight during the post-op honeymoon, but as time passed I could eat more...and I did! I regained every pound I had lost and returned to my original set point, where it stayed for the next 25 years despite a variety of weight loss program. I could never keep lost weight off.
I only recently learned that my RNY can be revised. I wasted a lot of time, but I'm going to give it another shot. This time I have lots more information at my fingertips.
Pre-operatively I have sworn off sugar, flour, wheat, rice, starchy vegetables, and processed foods. The first couple of weeks were hard but now I rarely get cravings or head hunger. I've lost 43 lbs. since the first of April. I know that abstention is the only way to prevail over addiction. I intend to continue with this post-operatively also.
Since you already know you are a food addict, I recommend the following:
Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction, by Vera Talman Weight Loss Surgery Does Not Treat Food Addiction, by Connie Stapleton
Why Diets Fail (because youʼre addicted to sugar), by Nicole Avena & John Talbott
Baratric Surgery & Food Addiction, by Philip Werdell (written for the clinician, but I found it valuable}
You might find Kay Sheppard's books relevant, since she advocates 12-step programs: Food Addiction: The Body Knows and From The First Bite: A Complete Guide to Recovery
One more book that I highly recommend is The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients, by Colleen Cook. I've also discovered that there a plethora of Bariatric Cookbooks now. My favorite is The Bariatric Guide and Cookbook, by Matthew Weiner.

There are a ton of bariatric cookbooks on Amazon including those for Air Fryer, Instant Pot, and Crock Pots.
I particularly recommend The Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook, "Easy recipes for Eating Well after Weight Loss Surgery" by Matthew Weiner. I also like The High Protein Bariatric Cookbook, by Stacy Gulbin and Weight Loss Surgery Cookbook (for Dummies) which is a companion to Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies which every WLS patient should keep handy.
I would encourage everyone to read The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients by Colleen Cook, available on Kindle. Hard copy can be found on used book sites like Abe.com It is not a cookbook, but address long term success post surgery.

Forget Snacks entirely unless they are Protein or vegetable. They grease the slippery slope to regaining what you have lost. I speak from experience. I am approaching RNY revision and I will not make the same mistakes again.
The pre-op food plan and the (clear/full liquid/puree) stages post op while we are not getting hungry give us the opportunity to establish a new way of eating. If we seek sugar-free or Keto snacks we are merely making some substitutes for the OLD way of eating. It's too easy to find ourselves eating sugared and carbohydrate snacks and food when we don't happen to have the "-free" type.
Just because substitute snack foods are sold on bariatric sites does not mean they are good for us. If we are wise we will ignore those products.
Eat whole foods, fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, quality poultry and meat products. Avoid sugar, sugar substitutes, wheat/flour products, and processed foods. We can get plenty of tasty food to eat with these choices.
I encourage you to obtain and read these two books by Dr. Matthew Weiner: A Pound of Cure and The Bariatric Guide and Cookbook. There are lots of other bariatric cookbooks available, too, including some for Air Fryers, InstaPots, and CrockPots. These will help you learn your new way of eating.

Some people seem to be able to go back to drinking a lot at a time & others not so much. In my third year, I’m in the not so much camp. Two swallows is my max. If I have that third swallow I have discomfort at the least or my restriction pain at the worst. As with eating, go slowly (swallow, wait, swallow) so you stop before the discomfort.
I believe if you sip all day long you never let yourself get dehydrated & then want to guzzle ‘gallons’ at a time. I rarely feel thirsty now & never get to that point that I think I’m ‘dying of thirst’.

Sipping throughout the day. If you need to "guzzle" because you're really thirsty, that means you are already dehydrated. You might be able to consume more ounces at once by guzzling, but for me, it actually hurt and made me throw up. This went on for about two years. Still, four years after my surgery, I can only drink about 6 oz in a minute or two. Honestly, drink as much and as frequently as you want but make sure you're not hurting yourself.
I actually had a glucose tolerance test recently and they had to cancel it because I couldn't drink all of the sugary liquid in the time they needed. I ended up throwing up.

Good Morning,

Day 5 post RYN surgery here in Toronto. Pain has gone and wounds are healing nicely. I have lost 25 lbs. in total with 17 lbs. since 8/10 pre-surgery SlimTime and now 8 lbs. since surgery. I was able to get 60 grams of Protein in me for the 1st time since surgery but still feeling very sluggish and tire very quickly. I try to walk for 5 minutes every hour but need to sit and rest. I also have a very raspy voice oddly enough that makes me sounds weak.
Anybody who can let me know their experience and when I might turn a corner on energy would be great. I like being active and don't want to push myself too hard too soon.

110 lbs in 6 months
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I had a consultation and the doctor has availabilities in two weeks- much sooner than I'd thought. I'm depressed, largely in part due to body image issues. I'm worried I will want to eat solid food on my immediate post-op liquid diets. I am also concerned about the depression that I am experiencing now and how it will bare on my surgery. Experience and hope welcome.

Tell your brother, "True, I've eaten too much in the past -- but at least I haven't put my foot in my mouth today."

If he thinks the liquid diet is so easy, invite him to join you during your first post-op week. It should be no problem, right?

I have stopped telling people what I'm doing. I had a nurse friend—a nurse, for crying out loud!—who thought it was cheating because she literally thought I was going in for some kind of large-scale liposuction and was going to come out the hospital with abs. Other people have told me horror stories.
So I'm not going to tell anyone else. I've started telling people I'll be out for hernia repair surgery, which may or may not be true. I'll find a different way to explain the tiny portions of food.
In the meantime—remember this: your surgeon is giving you a tool to help you with THE most restrictive diet you or anyone you know has ever followed. The gift of not feeling that awful gnawing hunger, the gift of literally not being able to fall off the wagon while you figure your stuff out.
And anyone who decides to poop on that deserves any tongue lashing you want to dish out.

Here's the Weight Loss Magic Soup I've been making. It's delicious, filling, and has only 57 calories per cup:
32 oz chicken stock
3 cups V-8 juice (you can use low-sodium V8 or even Tomato juice, homemade or store bought)
2 cans Italian diced tomatoes
1 small onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 package sliced mushrooms
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans
1 can kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
3-4 cups shredded cabbage
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper, to taste
In a large frying pan sprayed with cooking spray, sauté garlic, onions, carrots, and mushrooms for about 5 minutes.

In a large crockpot, combine sautéed garlic and vegetables with the remaining ingredients. Cook on high for 2-3 hours, or until vegetables are cooked. (I have made this in a large stock pot on the stove instead of in a crock pot.)

This makes a large batch of Soup. If you would like to freeze portions of it to use later, undercook the vegetables just a little. Pour the soup into freezer Ziplock bags and let as much air out as you can. Lay the bags flat on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once the soup is frozen flat, it is easy to layer in your freezer and won't take up much room. To thaw, place the bag in the fridge for 24 hours and then reheat.
https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/weight-loss-magic-soup/

the difference this time is that it will actually "work" as long as you put in the effort. On previous diets, I'd lose 50 lbs (that is, on my more successful tries), hit a brick wall, and then the weight would eventually come back. You are constantly fighting biology. This time, you won't be fighting biology. That has all been reset.
a 10-20 lb regain, usually in year 2 or 3 (after you hit your lowest weight), is very common - I knew that going into it and purposely lost a little more than I wanted to, knowing it was quite likely I'd end up where I wanted to be in the first place. But gains beyond that are due to bad habits creeping back in. You do have to be diligent. I still closely monitor myself, and I'm over six years out.

You are not alone & you’re not a F-up. We all likely have experienced various degrees of success losing weight in the past but I’m 100% positive we all failed at keeping it off. If we had been successfully at keeping the weight we’d lost off we wouldn’t have been obese & lined up for the surgery. And I’m pretty sure at some point & in varying degrees we all worried that the surgery wouldn’t work for us either.
I’ve never ever been able to maintain a low weight for longer than a month or two. I’d get complacent, think oh eating this won’t hurt. But it did. And very quickly I’d have gained a lot back & I’d be lying in bed at night saying tomorrow I’ll eat better just as @Officially Not Fatty Matty said.
What’s made this time different for me is that I realised that I had to really look at what I had been eating, my eating habits & why I would want to eat. I also had to come to accept that this wasn’t a short term diet restricting what I ate for a few weeks or months but a complete forever change of what I ate. I realised if I went back to the way I used to eat, I’d fail again & end up exactly where I had been - obese. If I hadn’t had these ‘come to Jesus’ type realisations I know I would not have lost all my weight & actually be maintaining it.
Yes, the surgery helped by reducing my hunger & reducing how much food I can physically eat. But most importantly it gave me the time to reflect on the what, how & why I ate & start to put in place the changes I wanted & needed to make to be truely successful this time. The change of mind set was vital. I was able to do this myself but others seek the support of a therapist. Don’t be reluctant to seek help if you need. There are lots of people on this forum who have had lots of success doing so.
It can be very scary to try to imagine & understand how & what you will eat in the future & how you will cope without your old emotional crutch foods. Food grief is real. A therapist can help. The cravings, our emotional drives to eat & our own proclivities never go away, we just learn to better recognise them & develop strategies to manage them.
Any one can learn to cook (my sister-in-law’s 74 yr old father just learnt cause his wife died) & this is a great time to experiment. You don’t have to get good enough to enter MasterChef. Simple basic home cooking is all you need but if you enjoy it … I always cooked but have to admit I cook pretty simply now. Food has a different purpose. I look at food more as a source of energy & not as a way to satisfy some craving, an emotional support or social activity. It still has to be yummy but the nutritional content is equally or more important. Sure I have cut a lot of things out of my diet but I still enjoy everything that goes into my mouth. Honestly, when I look at fast food ads, social media pxts of overly sweet foods, massive portions, etc. I’m revolted now. My stomach actually turns over.
This is my story & what has been working for me so far. Reality is I’m still pretty much a newbie & am still learning. Like @Jaelzion, I don’t know what the future will bring. Life can throw a lot of crap at you at times. I’m in the dangerous third year when the possibility of the 10lb+/- bounce back regain is high. But damn I’m gonna work hard at continuing to watch my calorie intake & being careful about my food choices.
All the best.

I’d say ketosis too. When on a low calorie diet, your body starts to break down your fat for the energy it needs - ketosis. As the fat breaks down keytones are produced. These cause the unpleasant odours as they escape the body via sweat, saliva & urine hence the bad breath, bad body odour & for many women a smelly crotch. It can be really embarrassing.
Apparently keeping your Water consumption up can help - dilutes the odour & flushes it from your body more quickly. It does improve when your body adjusts to fat burning but it just takes time. I found it only lasted a couple of days after my surgery & was much milder than when I was on a low calorie diet a couple of years before - I was a walking stink bomb then. 😱 Presume I adjusted more quickly because my body had experienced it before. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Shower regularly, reapply deodorant frequently, maybe get some body wipes for quick refreshes during the day & keep breath mints handy.

Best of luck to you! I'm sure it was hard staying in the hospital for so long, but glad to hear you are on the mend. I am having a revision surgery (though it is band to bypass). I've also had gallbladder surgery, so wondering just how much scar tissue there will be because of that and the band. I'm sure you will do great. Again, good luck!

Agreed! My surgeon recommended it.

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Have you tried an abstinence diet, swearing off all sugar, wheat flour, and processed foods? in preparation for revision surgery, I have been following this since April 1 and have lost 36 lbs. I know I will have to do this for life. I started with all-liquid for 2 weeks and then the abstention diet. The first two weeks were hard, but I no longer have insatiable cravings.
I recommend reading A Pound the Cure by Matthew Weiner, Bright Lines Eating by Susan Peirce Thompson, and The Success Habits of Weightloss Patients by Colleen Clark.

I tried a salad a about 6 weeks.
Things to keep in mind: Don't let salad fill you up and take the place of needed Protein. Chew VERY well. Lettuce isn't something we're used to chewing.

Hi all,
Well i survived my revision. I was in the hospital for 4 nights. There was scar tissue from when i had my gall bladder removed 35 years ago and working with the gastric bypass i had 15 yrs ago made it a 5 1/2 hr. surgery. I have a slight pain going on yet and still move a little slow. So, i am on the mend, listening to everything my doctor is telling me. I see the doctor and nutritionist august 26. i will finally go on to pureed food on Monday and i can't wait. i'm kind of tired of eating the same stuff on this liquid diet stage. Taking one day at a time. Thank you to all who have thought of me going into this surgery. It was a little rough at first, but each day gets better.

Um, SADI is not a mini bypass hun. It's another name for the SIPS/Loop Duodenal Switch surgery. And because the sleeve is, quite literally, the first part of the surgery they probably didn't feel the need to mess with your stomach and just went ahead and did the intestinal bit. They should have at least checked to see if there was any stretching in your original pouch, but if they didn't see anything wrong with it's size then they wouldn't have felt the need to mess with it because that would have been pointless if it wasn't necessary. If your surgeon didn't at least check your pouch then I'd complain, but if they did and didn't feel the need to mess with it then you're fine. Yes, it massively sucks that because they didn't work on your pouch you have your hunger hormone and can eat more than you would right after surgery, so that's bound to be difficult. I, myself, didn't have a revision, but had the full SADI/SIPS/Loop DS surgery 19 months ago right out the gate. It's a powerful tool and malabsorption should work really well for you weight loss as long as you watch your intake. Keep in mind that the Protein and Vitamin levels necessary are much higher than for the VSG so what you're eating is very important. Also, keep in mind that you're still really early in your revision and there's always that pesky stall that most people get right in the first month of weight loss. Buyers remorse in the beginning is normal. I know I felt it for the first two weeks or so, but I got over it pretty quickly after that and I just wish I'd done it for myself sooner. I hope everything works out for you and I wish you luck on your new journey!

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