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I am 5 days out of being sleeved. Left the hospital on stage 2-pureed stage. On the list it says we can have cottage cheese. I really want to have some. Question is : do I have to strain it, blend and strain it or eat it just like that? Thanks.

Nikkita you are not alone! I'm a bored-eater too, a grazer, and constant snacker. I had surgery on December 9th too (sleeve sisters!), and its been torture feeling like im never gonna be able to eat and feel satisfied again. I think the holidays make it worse, like at work today everyone brought in a ton of food, and its sitting all around the office. I'm trying to focus on working, and drinking my protein shake and water, but its hard cuz i have to walk by the food every time i leave my desk. I feel left out, and sad, but im not gonna risk hurting my sleeve for one second of satisfaction of taking a bite. We just have to be strong, and before you know it we'll be able to eat like normal people again, just a lot less!

depends on how much protein you are getting from your meals vs your protein drink. I've always found that before surgery, protein drinks gave me a feeling of fullness more than real food did. I figured it was because of the higher amounts of protein.

Your doctor will want you to get all your protein from solid food eventually, but now you have to take care of your new tummy. I get all my protein from chicken, cheese, peanuts, etc. Glad to hear you are doing well!! Keep up the good work!

It could be that you are eating too much in one session and the pain is from the pressure the back-log puts on the inside of your oesophagus when it can't get into your pouch straight away. Is the volume of food you eat more than the volume of the Protein bar and that is why one meal is fine but the other painful? I hope you work it out...it is a learning curve isn't it :-D steep one too!

Hello everyone! Hope all of you are well Weighed myself and I am officially 44 pounds lighter at 6 weeks post op. I can pretty much tolerate anything and my stomach is one hell of a trooper! I've been mostly eating the healthiest options I can with what I have. I have whole wheat stuff every now and then but it's so filling I can't even finish one slice with the crusts cut off! Rice is just so filling, I don't find it worth eating and I don't miss it. I usually have chicken and fish. No meat or pork just yet, and I only miss steak. I noticed that chips are TOO easy to eat so I try and stay away from those. I hate to say that I did have chicken nuggets once and my body just does not like junk food anymore. I feel weaker after I eat bad things and I can feel my heart working a bit harder, so it's not worth it anymore. It also makes me feel tired. I sometimes have ice coffee with skim milk and sugar subs. I love nuts and sunflower seeds but ill have to cool down with those since they're high in calories. Other than a craving or two here and there, it's been great! A struggle the first three weeks but I'm feeling so good. Energy is up! And my old jeans fit again! Best thing is that I can finally start working out this week!! Can't wait for those results

I've stalled for months... but usually that is due to becoming careless about exercise or food choices. The last instance was an indicator that I needed another fill. Before WLS what are now "stalls" would have been periods major weight gain! I can go on autopilot for several months without gaining a pound, and that is a good feeling! I've actually been able to diet to a slightly lower weight that were I am now at almost 2 years out of surgery, but I was not able to maintain the weight over the winter months and eventually gained and lost on a yo-yo course. The band at worst provides stability and the weight stays off. At best, I see a few pounds being shed every few weeks.

Hello VST Family, For me, I have gotten lucky! I am now 8 weeks out, and my scale is moving again. (yeahh as of this mornning I am 200.0 flat!) Kool, huh? Anyway, I don't want to sabotage my scale numbers and I have gotten lucky. My family is sick and tired of the traditional "holiday foods". My son came to me and asked me NOT to cook the traditional turkey\ham and fixings. Instead, he wants .........LASAGNA. (Yeahhhh me! Easy food. :smile1: Sooooo, I will be making a Lasagna for him and meatloaf and veggies for me! I will also be cooking a Peach Cobbler for him. Also.....I have to work that day, which means there is no room for me to put on the lbs. Soooo, I was thinking - "How are you going to keep the lbs off over Thanksgiving?" P.S. No licking the deserts if you are fresh out of the gate; it will only make you sick....hehhhe

gosh, maintenance is a pain in the butt. I am at a point where I am just going to eat healthy, increase my exercise and just be happy being me. If I lose more weight that's great, if I don't, I still feel healthier and have a lot more energy than before. I'm going to focus on protein and veggies and water and cut the sugar out of my diet as much as possible. After all, sugar is addicting and it triggers us to eat more. Yep,,,,,, no more added sugar for me. Oh, and I am really going to cut out processed foods completely. I can do this! It's worth it! This is maintence and a new way of life.

I had my gastric sleeve surgery on 5/6 and had been doing great until 3 days ago. I started having a constant ache in my stomach with constant burping. I have tried tums hoping it was just indigestion, but that did not help. Everything I try to eat or drink tastes weird and I do not want to eat or drink anything because I also get more discomfort when I do. I have been able to force down enough water, but protein and any other pureed foods, jello, or broth has been a struggle. If anyone has experienced this and has some tips on how to get through it that would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like it to me! I don't have a stomach cramp, but the food just backs up and comes on out. Not projectile vomiting, just more or less an 'overflow'. I seldom have food feel 'stuck' but am having some experiences with it just backing up. If I've eaten meat, it usually lasts 2-4 hrs for the episode to be over and the extra saliva (slime) I produce can amount to about 2 cups. The next day I'm sore and try to stick to liquids or mushies.

I was banded on Dec 6th and will be back to normal food on Monday. I've started to eat "normal food" again, e.g. Today I ate Turkey and very well cooked vegetables and chewed it up really well. (The vegetables were pretty much mushy ). I even allowed myself a little Christmas cake and a glass of wine! I am still shocked in how little I can actually eat. I usually eat all day on Christmas day and feel stuffed and sick. Today I ate just the right amount and felt great! Who knows why all these Dr's have us on different diets. I guess their experiences are different and hopefully they are only looking out for our best interests. I've lost about 26 pounds since surgery and feel really good. So will continue doing what my Dr tells me and of course common sense.

10th July 2009 've attended the recall appointment at the out clinic today. Great big drama but I'll spare all the details. In short appointment for 1pm didn't get seen until around 4.45pm. (waiting, waiting and more waiting). Nice registrar named AJ, asked loads of questions about my old CT scan back in 2003, explained quite a few things along the way. He also took further bloods and informed me that I had to contact the ultrasound depart. on Monday to book a CT scan for both Abdomen and Pelvis. Was able to get the answers to a number of questions that have been pondering in my mind for months. Did I say he was really nice, lol. So it's looking like August surgery date, don't know when I'll get my scan, but I guess should the scans come back ok, then I'll have surgery in August. Just praying that everything is ok. Did I mention that I've decided to try and keep a journal of my journey. I'm keeping notes about good foods and recipes - sources of vitamins etc in my blackberry. Trying to contact Fit and Fresh about purchasing some products directly from them. No response yet. Will keep you updated.

You look fabulous, please tell me what exercises (if any) you have done, you look very toned to me. Also what is your typical food menu week? I want to learn from such a success!!!

My question would be what does your doctor consider mushies. My first week of mushies was yogurt or cottage cheese. Oatmeal would not have been approved by my doctor nor eggs. Both of those would either be second week of mushies or solid. My recommendation would be to stick to less dense foods for now such as cottage cheese, ricotta or yogurt.

Hi! I'm a new sleever, march 5th I have a few questions for everyone. 1) I can't seem to eat slow enough. I take too big of bites or just shovel it in. I can see that I'm slower then the husband and kids but not slow enough. I end up sick at dinner. Almost always. 2) is one is coupled with 1. I don't stop eating in time...so i get over full....and it leads to vomiting. I've tried measuring out my food. I guess I should measure even less. My brain is having a hard time comprehending that I can't eat a whole egg I guess. Did anyone else struggle with these problems? What did you do to fix it? I was also wondering if anyone knows how many calories I should be looking at 5 to 6 weeks post op? Thanks for any replies....I hope to get my crap together! I hAte throwing up! Allie

I'm thinking split pea Soup for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure why this feels Thanksgiving - maybe because it was one of those left over meals my mom always made. A Thanksgiving themed Protein shake is also a must - pumpkin, Kale, banana or Sweet Potato Pie made with cinnamon bun whey protein. Any other ideas / recipes?

Why 4-5 weeks? Seems long to me I was banded yesterday and they said liquids for a week, then mushies for a week, then soft foods , then real food......be careful! And don't rush it but check with your dr

Well, this the longest I have gone without any weight loss. In fact I'm up a pound. I am trying to up my calories a bit for awhile and then bring them back down, just to fool my body. This is so frustrating....I was losing 2 or more lbs a week for a long time, and now in the last 10 days, I have gained 1lb. I'm tighter then the past, so, I'm going to use a little hot water to help in the morning. I am thinking about just changing my food routines as much as possible to get things going. I'm going to pretend like the 1lb gain is muscle this week. There now I feel much better.

How far out from surgery are you? While I was on clear and full liquids, I like the ProtiDiet liquid beverage concentrates. They taste better to me than Isopure. You might also want to try bone broth. My NUT said that bine broth has more Protein than regular broth. While on liquids, it's hard to get enough protein without using supplements, but it gets easier as you progress to more solid foods.

This is my very first post. I have been reading many of them on here since I was sleeved on 11/18/15. I am 5 weeks out and headed out of town for vacation. As per the doctor's instructions, I am eating eggs, most fish and seafood, and mashed veggies. I am doing very well and have tolerated small amounts of food thus far. While on vacation I am supposed to introduce chicken and raw veggies. Any suggestions for traveling & having to eat out?

I love Fridays I hate Fridays too. Why? Because this is the day that I don't keep track of my calorie and protein intake. Why do I do this? Doctor's orders, she doesn't want me to obsess, and also not to eat the same thing every day (which I do), so that it confuses my body (I kind of imagine my body going "hey what the heck? Eggs? Veggies? Omlette? Where's my chobani??????") trust me I feel the same way, I'm having chobani withdrawls. I hate Fridays..... I'm so tempted to figure out how many calories the egg white omlette is, but I can't. It's only ONE day a week. Four days a month. DARNIT! The MD and I are going to have to talk about this.... On another note, I realized I cannot keep any snack food in the house. Last night on my way home from work, I just got really stressed thinking about the future and how I have no control of it and I hate it (yes if you haven't figured it out by now I'm kind of a control freak). I was on my phone with the dbf while I was getting ready for the gym and I said "I cannot wait for this vacation because I need a week to really figure out what I want in life" so then of course he thinks it's about him (which to be honest, it is) and thinks he can read my mind and knows what I need to figure out (but darn he was right). And of course I got stressed out. So I went to the gym. 40 minutes on the elliptical, with cramps, thought I would feel better. Nope still stressed out. Go home, have dinner (portobellos mushroom pizza, peas, and a little bit of hot antipasto) still stressed. And of course when I'm stressed where do I go? THE KITCHEN!!!! and sitting right there is a bag of trail mix. I usually only have an 1/8 cup of serving before bedtime. And here I am sitting on the couch hand to mouth with trail mix. Then I realized wth this isn't going to solve the problem, and I throw the 6.99 bag of trail mix out. Along with any other snack food (which there wasn't a lot to begin with). Until I get my emotions in check, no snack food in the house. Tonight, I'm going to dbf house for Chinese. I'll probably have shrimp chop suey. This weekend will be spent cleaning the house (how the heck does one cat shed so much?), laundry, then dbf comes over and I'm trying a new recipe-taco pie, which I just realized I didn't get the ingredients yet at the grocery store DARN! Sunday I am just vegging out to catch up on my DVR. 43 days until Key West....sigh Have a good weekend! XOXO, Andrea

Also, don't be afraid to ask what is in the food and how it is prepared. We have some items in our work cafeteria that I was unsure about (ie. their cottage cheese, was it lowfat, etc). They brought out the container for me to see. On their Breakfast yogurt parfaits they emailed their main office (our caf is run by Sodexho) and emailed me back the nutritional values. Lastly, when going out make the obvious choices of grilled over fried, order foods w/ the sauce on the side, minus mayo, things like that so you know there are no heavy added calories.

Hi all I have not posted in quiet some time... busy... you know... but I am at 9 months and I thought I'd give an update. for all the challenges that this type of surgery can present (in my case pretty minor, a little extra skin, frustration over slow weight loss etc.) I would absolutly, hands down do it again. I was so scared at first. I remember I started crying in the elevator on the way up to surgery... just overwhelmed with the idea of permanantly altering my body. The people on this forum did soooo much to help me stay sane before and after. My biggest challenge has been that I am a slow looser. I "only" had 57 lbs to loose, so I expected to be at goal pretty fast. I think there were two months when I lost more than 10 lbs, but other than that its been pretty slow (relatively speaking, I could have never achieved this without surgery). A couple of months ago I was diagnosed with hypothyridism and have since started on meds. Although I feel better, I still only lost 2 lbs this month. I have 8 to go. It may take me 4 months to get there... but I guess I'll get there. Before surgery I was a binger. I would go on a super restrictive diet until I couldn't stand it... then binge on everything I could get my hands on. Yesterday, after doing my monthly weight in and discovering I had only lost 2lbs I slipped back into "bing" mode and had about 5 chips with queso and two Peanut Butter Cookies. The cookies make me kind of sick (I think I have a little dumping syndrome, which is probably for the best). That was all I was able to eat for the rest of the day. Granted... not the best way to deal with frustration (I'm really working on finding better coping skills and thats the first "binge" since surgery) but, if I'm going to binge 500 calories is a lot better than 5000 (not and exageration). If your considering surgery... don't let this put you off....most of you will loose much faster and if you do happen to be a slow looser, its a little frustrating, but eventually the weight comes off (I was considered low bmi pre-surgery, I think most people with higher bmi's loose at a much quicker pace). Although I am so happy about loosing the weight... I am most pleased with the psychological changes that have taken place. I have a sense of being satisfied most of the time now. Its not that I feel restricted to "only" eating small amounts of food, its that small amounts of food are emensly satisfying, much more so than huge amounts of food used to be. It's allowed me to let go of that constant focus on what I will eat next... what diet I will go on next etc. I feel like I can just live now. Bottom line.... I would do it again in an instant!!!!! I hope you are all doing well on your journey thanks for reading stacey

you said it so perfectly, bg. to be free of food ruling you would be the biggest joy. I too did this because I know I can't count the points of every morsel for the rest of my life. I hope the LB teaches me to recognize when to stop and allows me to have a "normal" life someday. hang in there lady! I know I suck at keeping secrets so I have told those most important to me. and human nature being what it is I'm sure word is spreading as we speak. But I will have to set limits with them as to what they are able to say to me about it. I will not tolerate negativity and if they can't get be supportive, I don't have time for them in my life. these are the times when you find out who really cares.