Spinoza

I am almost two and a half years post sleeve. At your stage I was eating around 800 calories I think, but if I've learned anything it's that we're all totally different!

Well into maintenance, my typical day is:

Breakfast: full cream milk latte. I have never eaten breakfast at breakfast time and never will.

Mid morning: one or two fried or scrambled eggs, depending on how hungry I am. Generally one.

Lunch: a salad with some Protein (last night's dinner meat, tinned tuna or deli meat - sometimes cheese). Or more often Soup - usually homemade and usually with either chicken or pulses for protein. Or occasionally, if I'm feeling really lazy and can take the sugar hit, 100g tinned baked Beans with cheese and hot sauce.

Snacks, probably three a day at this point: cheese (and usually a couple of crackers with that); 150mls [approx] full cream milk kefir or a kefir yoghurt; nuts (30g approx); seeds (20g probably); deli meat; fruit (I eat at least one portion of berries or an apple every day). I tend to keep lots of meat snacks in the fridge as they're filling and help me reach my protein goal.

Dinner: whatever I've cooked for everyone else but without the carb element, or just a tiny bit. Basically protein and veg - in that order. But that includes fried chicken, bolognese, casseroles, sausages, roast dinners, fish pie (no potato topping) - everything I used to eat before my sleeve.

Supper: I do most of my carb intake here. Toast and butter, porridge (oatmeal to you lot) with stewed fruit, crackers with butter (or cheese if I haven't cheesed out by then).

Exercise: I do a 1 hour aerobic exercise class 3 days a week. I walk between 2 and 4 miles every day and I jog about a mile once or twice a week instead of walking. I am still amazed by what my new body can do. I probably should do more.

This is my diet 90% of the time. I have lots of days when I stray badly off the path and eat chips (crisps) and occasionally chocolate. I also drink wine every weekend, which I accept is totally empty calories with no nutritional value. I just track everything and try to adjust if I can. I've had a couple of regains of a few pounds now (4ish), but so far I've been able to jump on those, ditch the rubbish (carbs mainly), up my exercise and get back to 140 or thereabouts. It's no problem at all - a couple of weeks of being more vigilant about what goes into my mouth and a few runs instead of walks. I really hope I can keep doing that. I may have to accept that my set weight is higher than 140 but I am loving it here!

Just checking that that isn't all you're eating!

I'd also check with your team that the takeout food that you are eating fits into your overall plan. We have such a small capacity at 2 months that we really need to pack nutrients into every meal. Rice and noodles have nothing to offer at this point. The chicken definitely does.

In addition, the months after your surgery, when your appetite is zero and your capacity is small, are your chance to re-train your tastes. In a year's time much bigger volumes of takeout will be much easier to get through and much more apt to cause you not to lose what you should, or even to start to regain.

I totally understand that your cooking facilities are limited and that makes things hard. I hope everything goes well for you.

You're doing amazingly. What you have done is lose 13lbs in 2 weeks or so after your procedure. And 37lbs pre-op. Unbelievable.

Weight loss isn't linear - it stalls and accelerates and stops and reverses. What matters is that the trend is down in the longer term - that's what gets us to where we want to be. Not the odd week where everything goes backwards (although - they are so annoying).

Trust the process, it really does work. 🤩

If you need to increase your calories then these seem fine (and you'll be reading the room by now, LOL, they're just about fine if you can't have something else) but there are loads of alternatives to food made with artificial sweeteners you might want to think about.

When I was at your stage and missing calorie goal I had a couple of spoons of raw nut butter (no sugar) or some cheese, or a few whole nuts. I ate a tiny portion of porridge with whole milk or had some full fat greek yoghurt. I am a sugarholic though so I completely avoided anything that tasted sweet.

I hope it goes well for you!

Oh the boots are insane. The heels are perfect (I'm tall and can't do big heels). Hope you enjoy the meet!

Denim dress is lovely too. But it's not *THOSE BOOTS!!!!*

You've done amazingly well - especially given the awful time you had post op. I hope it's all better from here forward and that you lose lots more before you settle at your new set weight. 😀

I cried and cried the day I got into the overweight category of BMI - albeit totally arbitrary. Felt such an achievement. We need to Celebrate all our wins, big and small.

You already look amazing. You've done so well. I hope this surgery gets you to where you really want to be.

Oh we will always be kind here. We are mostly much older than you but who doesn't love a young thing mixing it up and asking the right questions!?!? Sounds like you have your parents to guide you but your journey will be completely different (because everyone's is).

I know that you'll be hoping to hear from really young people and I'm really hoping to hear from them too because that's a voice that has been missing here before.

I suspect your skin will be much more forgiving than the older folks but that stretch marks might limit that a little bit. It means less to me than other people who I know have had surgery to tidy things up. They can share their experiences as you go along.

Anyway - welcome. It's lovely to hear from you and I wish you all the best on your journey. 🤩

Ah - sorry - forgot what I actually started out to say. Arabesque is right (as she usually is). If you can go back to your original programme do. Protein first, veg second, carbs third or not at all. No sugar, it's ridiculously addictive and produces insulin spikes that make you crave it more. Perhaps consider a Keto week to get you started and minimise cravings - so protein and green leafy veg only?

You really can still change your life. The surgery is still working, you just need to get back on track. It is really really hard though. The hardest thing you will do and continue to do. But is IS doable because you have a secret weapon (SLEEVE!!!!)

We live in a world where millions and millions of dollars are pumped into making us eat far more than we need, of food that doesn't even nourish us or keep us healthy but makes profit for big food companies. It's so difficult to find a way through that. I would say it's impossible to do it alone when every supermarket and shop has ultra processed food showcased at every turn (that tastes so good because all the millions of dollars are aimed towards that and that alone).

Please post here lots and let us know how you're progressing. We are all human, we all make mistakes, big and small, but we're all here for you.

Lots of good advice here. I do love this forum - between us we have hundreds of years of lived experience of WLS. So little judgement and so much sharing of wisdom. 😍

I use the 'together we have lost' panel to the right of the posts on every thread. Wouldn't have a clue how to work it otherwise!

I love your jacket story too - relatable for most of us!!!!

No this isn't my experience. If I stuck to a low calorie diet (VLCD) I invariably lost weight. I've done that numerous times since my teens. What I could not do was keep that weight off. I regained it all plus more, every time. WLS seems to have changed that for me (so far - 2+ years post op).

Can you give us a little more info? What diet were you sticking to, when and for how long?? I think it would be very unusual not to lose ANYTHING ever on a low calorie diet? Far more common to lose a bit, stall, lose a bit more...etc etc

Well first - have a fantastic time! I've also done theme parks before and after surgery and the difference is absolutely night and day. You'll have a ball.

So yes - days in the parks are long and the food choices in there are all really unhealthy. I'm gonna say something different to Amber above and that's that you might want to be using your immediate post-op period to retrain your brain to tell it that processed foods aren't good, lack nutrients, aren't worth the space in your stomach, and are what got you here in the first place. But I know we're all different - that is the joy of this forum for me!

Salads with grilled chicken or fish might be your friends for this trip if you can tolerate them. If not, as summerseeker says, a small cold pack with cheese and deli meat. A few nuts and seeds go a long way - again if you can eat them this early.

I didn't do this at really. I was a chocaholic so I just ate my usual (industrial) quantities of that. I rarely eat it now but I'm sorry to say that when I do I still adore it. I wish I'd lost my taste for it but I never have. What I do have though is a steely determination not to be obese again - it's working so far.

So interesting to read these replies - we all come from such different places! I was also a binge eater. I went for the sleeve because it felt less disruptive to my anatomy - didn't mind at all losing a big chunk of stomach. I also actively did NOT want a high risk of dumping (although I know some sleevers do). My one worry was my reflux getting worse. I gambled on it not getting worse because any other time I had lost a significant amount of weight it had actually improved. I won my gamble. The sleeve is suiting me very well so far.

You have done amazingly, through all of the setbacks you never gave up. So happy to hear you so happy with your new life 😍 I am absolutely gunning for you to take a well-deserved trip to onderland!

OK. I would email the person saying you need to lose this set amount well in advance. Set out your loss to date. Explain what the surgeon told you and how you formed a reasonable expectation that anything under 130kg and you would be good to go. Explain that you have been restricting your diet in the expectation of a surgery date and that your loss since referral is actually 11kg, far in excess of the required 3.5kg.

I hope that you CAN lose something ahead of your date but I think stacking up the evidence about the conflicting advice you've been given might give you grounds to complain if you're turned down. Don't wait till the day of surgery to say all of this. Call them out right now on what they're asking.

Oh really interesting and useful - thank you for the link!

Yeah weight bearing exercise for sure. Walking, jogging, running, dancing.

3 hours ago, KathyLev01 said:

I was so disappointed that my stall lasted so long, I took out the tape measure one day and decided to measure myself. In all I lost 15 inches !!!! That made me happy again

PS.... I'm still KathyLev ...I got a new computer,but I couldn't sign in ...so I had to start over with a new acct. *sigh*

Oh noooo KathyLev that's so annoying!

I have never measured myself on any diet. Am totally focused on weight loss and have absolutely no idea of any body measurements, LOL. I know that others do the opposite.

@GreenTealael your post is super interesting including the before and after bodies. Thank you for sharing!!!

LOL I'm not sure I would call it 'good' but it performs a function! It's just a thing I make when I need it.

I don't understand *all* of your post but I do get the thrust I think.

I told 3 people about my surgery - my immediate family. I won't tell anyone else ever I think.

You need to decide who has the right to the full facts and then decide what to tell others no matter how invested or interested or just gosh darn nosey they decide to be.

Everyone else I told I was sticking to a strict low calorie diet. Which is absolutely true (I couldn't have told lies).

Could you just adapt this or something like it as a response to all the enquiries OP? Completely factually accurate but just not sharing your private stuff?

3 hours ago, ms.sss said:

another gratuitous OOTD swimsuit shot! my abs are becoming a little more prominent...not because im exercising or anything, but because we have barely eaten while we've been here! i am NOT a fan of all-inclusive resort food and basically have only eaten over easy eggs and cabbage and the tube of Pringles i bought on the plane, ha. Oh, but i have probably drank my weight in vodka sodas omg.

Haha I am SUCH a fan of all inclusive food that we've only had one holiday since my surgery that allowed me to indulge. I can always find something to pick at, and usually multiple things to fill up on. NOT GOOD!!!

Hope you are having a lovely time wherever you are.