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i used to hate him with a fire of a thousand suns too...until i watched Masterchef Junior several years ago and realized TV is fake (who knew?? lol). He employs TOTALLY different persona on the Junior shows. He's actually kinda sweet and nurturing on them. I figure his ass-hole-ery on Hell's Kitchen is all for show - or maybe it his schtick on Junior that is...either way, he's probably just a regular guy. 🤷🏻‍♀️ (plus those people that appear on the shows probably already know what they are getting themselves into and have their own share of schtick going on...) ...in any case i watch it anyway cuz i love the food and cooking! i'll just fast forward if it gets to cringey.

I have a Garmin smartwatch that logs all my activity. I use the Baritastic app for logging food. I saw the dietitian today and she was only so so helpful. She didn’t review my chart, I guess, because she thought I was moving to purée. I’m might go rogue soon and just do my own thing! 🤣

Yes. 5-6 Protein shakes and clear liquids. Sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles and low sodium broth(which is disgusting). That is it! I think it is ridiculous. I am trying my best, but it is not easy. I would love to have just a bite of anything!! They said I could have 1 bite of protein, but I know I won't be able to stop at 1 bite. Especially after not eating food for a week now.

Low fat Cottage cheese -- you can jazz it up with different savoury or sweet seasonings -- a bit of cinnamon and splenda was a favourite of mine, but so was garlic, dill and a touch of salt. (And honestly, just black pepper was great. I missed pepper.) Refried beans or pureed kidney beans / chick peas. (Or hummus on a lazy day). I mixed my refried beans with a bit of enchilada sauce (choose one with no added sugar). It gave deconstructed bean burrito vibes. Pureed sweet potato instead of regular white potatoes. Again, you can make it a sweet dish with cinnamon, or turn it savoury with a bit of salt, garlic and black pepper. You can do the same with butternut squash. Add a little water / broth to make it a smoother consistency, and throw in a scoop or two of bone broth powder or unflavoured protein powder so you're still getting that protein in. Have you tried any strained or pureed soups? Particularly the cream-of-whatever soups, pureed chowders, etc. I also liked some of the protein soups at the bariatric pal store enough that I still used some of them as sauces 4mo out. The BP Bacon Cheese soup is good (but salty) and the Proti-Diet Chicken soup is not quite a cream soup but not a broth either. (It's salty too. Honestly, I feel like most powdered soups are/were too salty for my tastes but watering them down a little further usually works)

I agree with the others, you need to put yourself first. It’s your health and your life. If you get a surgery date, grab it with both hands. All because you can’t eat them doesn’t mean you can’t make them. While I was losing, I had 40th, 60th & 21st birthdays. Went out to dinner and socialised. I just chose not to have any dessert or birthday cake. Actually there were lots of things I couldn’t eat during that time. Didn’t stop me attending nor stop anyone else eating those things. I make the desserts at Christmas - always have so I understand traditions. I was fortunate that I had reached goal by my first Christmas & I had a little taste of some of the things I made but not everything. For example, my family loves pavlova. All because I wasn’t going to eat it didn’t mean I wouldn’t make it for them. It is the season of love & giving after all. I rarely eat desserts or sweet things. My choice. I make exceptions at Christmas, weddings, and the odd other special event but that usually means only a couple of times a year & I’m very cautious of portions when I do. There are lots of us who make foods for others or bring foods to share they don’t eat themselves & not just at Christmas or other seasonal celebrations. If you do experience dumping, & not everyone does, you’ll work out if you can eat any of the foods that set you off in the future. Many find they can have a small taste or find alternatives. Not eating cake or having dessert is a very small negative if you dump on sugar. The benefits of the surgery & your weight loss far, far, far outweigh that negative.

personally i just PREFER to exercise (any exercise) on an empty stomach. i just feel lighter and more nimble vs when im full of food. i've never heard of it being good or bad for you tho...i thinks its just personal preference.

Hi there! While there are not many things you can control, there are a few you can. Tracking your lifestyle choices will help you figure out how they may affect your weight loss. Try logging/tracking everything (food, activities, mood, etc.) until you follow up visit with your team. This can help because this study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6887647/) supported that adherence to multidisciplinary team follow-up was an independent factor for increased weight loss at 1 year, but not in type of endoscopic procedures. Also try tracking your eating length (how much time you take to eat start to stop) these two things could be significant to your progress because these studies (https://www.cghjournal.org/article/S1542-3565(15)01714-0/fulltext https://www.soard.org/article/S1550-7289(17)30865-1/abstract) show that ESG increased gastric emptying T½ by 90 minutes and delayed gastric emptying for solids. The retention of food after ESG led to early meal termination in 11 minutes and reduced food intake…changes in gastric emptying and time to satiation are some of the plausible mechanisms that lead to beneficial effects of ESG. So your surgeon is giving you great information that the restriction *should* kick in with solids. Please keep us updated ❤️

Well I had a revision (no surgery on my stomach) so I won’t even talk about portion. Also, I’m pretty active (2-3 hours of at least walking) so take this with a grain of salt but my calories are around 900-1000, protein is 90 plus, net carbs are 60-70, sugar is usually under 20 but my max is 30, fiber is still too low but around 10-15 with the fiber powder, fat is 20-30, water is about 80, and calcium is usually around 1800 or above. I was told that calories alone don’t mean much at all and carbs and fat depend significantly on what kinds of carbs and fat. Carbs from fruit and veggies are usually fine in our portions and healthy fats like olive oil, avocado and nuts or low fat dairy are okay too but you do have to measure of course and not have them multiple times. It’s when you get into the processed stuff that you have to watch them numbers so much closer. They sneak things in. I have noticed that the low carb stuff is usually really high in fat. My goal is to keep it to Whole Foods as much as I can. So far I have had the occasional low carb wrap, Turkey jerky, yogurt drinks, and quest potato chips in terms of packaged food. Ooh and that burrito wrap I had to seriously budget for. But I mean like twice or three times a month. Your team will have the best info for what’s right for you though. So many things make these numbers different for everyone. Did you ever find an app that you can access to log your food?. It has really helped me. Usually when I sit down to have lunch, I enter my breakfast, my lunch and play around with ideas for dinner and snack and see how that works out in terms of macros. I always have fish and frozen low carb veggies that I can pull out of the freezer if I am too high for the day. I found these burritos that supposedly freeze well I wanted to make but they used a real tortilla. They do not have the big ones in the low-carb version. I looked everywhere but I needed the bigger one and order get enough protein. I wanted to make those four nights in a row but every time I entered them I was going over on something. I finally was able to have them last night but all I had was my morning proffee and five egg whites with pico de gallo for lunch. Then I added a little bit more cheese because I was 2 g low on protein. Anyways, it makes it so much easier to be able to plug these things in and you can delete and try something else if it doesn’t work or add or subtract snacks. The only thing that I do not enter, but I always allow myself to have. I kind of learned on the preop diet was the sugar-free popsicles they’re actually 15 cal I believe but they were free foods on my preop diet and I keep them that way in my mind. It keeps me thinking that I’m never going to be not allowed to have food. Mentally it somehow makes me think that I don’t have to starve. I can always have something.. I actually really enjoyed them the tropical flavor ones on my preop but I haven’t wanted sweets very often since. I have had them a couple of times when I wake up late wanting something though.

Well, it wasn’t exactly an AI generated recommendation. It was an AI generated summary of all the articles that applied to the question I asked Google. So basically One of the articles them gave that recommendation is below and you can read the full article of course and determine whether it’s a reputable source and applies to you. I agree with not going by a cookie cutter approach regardless of where it came from. Especially the Internet, but it logically does make sense to me so it would definitely be worth talking to your doctor about and asking for a specific plan for you. I know for me, my body is fighting cancer and processing chemo right now which both increase metabolism. Currently I’m logging like 1000-1500 cal more a day and still losing (albeit a little slower to appease my doctors). It changes your metabolism when your body is fighting something and it does burn more calories during times like this. How many that would be something your surgeon may be able to help you with a refer you to someone who can. I am very fortunate that I am at a big fancy breast center and they have an oncology dietitian that is helping me throughout all of my different treatments that I have in store for me over the next year to keep me on track for both that and my bariatric journey. i think the most important part would be to just be mindful of the fact that healing does require adequate nutrition and not to be at too much of a calorie deficit because yes, we will heal like we did from our bariatric surgery but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was the ideal circumstance or that we we’re healing as fast as we could have. I know you are itching to get out and back to your activity asap as I would be and good nutrition is very important for faster healing. I’m not saying that means you need to eat as much as you were eating when you were working out like crazy, but if it was me, I would focus primarily on fueling my body to get better faster, without gaining of course, and really focus on the weight loss once I was back on track (it won’t be that long). I mean if you can lose a bit great but if your body is screaming out for nutritious food it’s probable that there is a reason. The nutritionist that I am working with would not give me a specific calorie amount instead she told me to still try to avoid cookies and chips, but to eat when my body was craving nutritious food and she checks in with me every week to see how I am doing and make tweaks Does your surgeon have a nurse practitioner that you could talk to if you give them a call? Or was your dietician from pre surgery very helpful (mine was worthless 😂). Maybe you would get a more in-depth response from them than your surgeon who’s always super busy.

Thanks everyone. I think me panic was more stress induced than anything else. So I've just gone through my house again, and threw out everything that I shouldn't eat again. I definitely think I have a food addiction so I think I will check out overeaters anonymous. Honestly, I never something like that existed! My weight is back on a downward trend (.5kg or 1lb) since Monday so I'm starting to see the light at the end again. I'm flying on Sunday so I've been feeling stressed about that which doesn't help. Thank you for all your support. Sometimes I just need someone to press the "bullshit" button and snap me out of the funk. Back to onwards and downwards.

Hey all! I had the sleeve in 2017 and never got to my goal weight and I had GERD. So fast forward to 2024 and had my sasi. All is well except now I can’t keep any food down. I’m having diarrhea several times a day for the past month. Any one else had issues like this? Oh and then I found out I have fatty liver. 😫🤷🏽‍♀️😵‍💫 scared! Smh

Very common for you to experience temporary changes to your sense of taste and sometimes smell after surgery. Everything became super salty or super sweet and certain textures (like the grainy texture of the shakes) became off putting for me. And yes, sometimes foods you didn’t enjoy before become enjoyable though that can change back. For me it was smoked salmon which I strangely began eating regularly once on real food but a few weeks later it was back to nope it’s too strong & rich. I actually embraced the aversion to sweet and lost my desire for a lot of it.

For me the physical hunger is completely gone now. With my sleeve it was also gone but it did come back. It was around 6 months that it started coming back if I’m remembering correctly. It comes back for most people to varying degrees of intensity. The best case is that you take that time to really change WHAT you eat, not just how much because when the hunger comes back you will likely eat larger portions and if it’s less healthy food you will probably begin to gain. At least I did. With my revision I have changed what I eat entirely. I didn’t do this with my sleeve. I had just a few menu options so it’s no wonder I got board with it and started to eat off plan more often. This time I did research and found several healthy recipes to try and I found quite a few that I enjoy so I don’t get board at all. You may not recall but I have Bipolar and Anxiety. I have found that freezing some healthy meals has come in real handy at times when I am not up to cooking. I also am in touch with my surgical team more often for office visits as well as the support group meetings and those help tremendously. Post op I also had more frequent appointment with my psychiatrist and psychologist as well. I just asked for all of the support I could find because it is a lot of change which I don’t do well with but now that I am two months out and i have a little routine I am feeling better than ever. The exercise that I am finally energized enough to do has helped my mood tremendously and the weight loss and the social aspect of the group fitness classes have helped with my self esteem too. I have so much more structure and routine now which is actually really great for Bipolar. I am able to fall asleep at night and stay asleep and I wake up at the same time and exercise, I set recurring alarms for vitamins/food and I log my food with the Baritastic app and my fitness watch keeps track of all of my activity. I show all of that data to my NP at my checkups and she helps me make adjustments to my nutrition. You will probably see a nutritionist for food related questions but I had a newer surgery called the SADI and the nutritionist wasn’t very helpful with regard to the macros after I got back to normal food. As long as you are managing your mental illness, though, you should be just fine. Just don’t hesitate to ask for whatever help that you need in order to be successful.

This makes the most sense to me. I will eat whatever is in the refrigerator already prepared. If it requires me to “put it together” after a stressful whatever that day, I am less likely to make the correct choice. It’s weird to say but I can eat the same thing over and over and over and over again. It’s easier to just eat leftover leftovers than to have to make another decision. I’ve been trying to meal prep on Sundays for hubby so he can have healthy lunches for work but his food plan and mine don’t always mesh. I did make a plan for this week and so far it has been easy to follow because most everything is cooked for breakfast and lunches and he sometimes cooks the dinner, especially if it is something that I can’t tolerate(tuna, anything spicy, bbq anything, Asian & Mexican are all hard for me. I love it but it doesn’t love me right now). I guess I just never equated making my meal plan at the beginning of the week can also be my tracker. I thought I had to do both and I was failing miserably in my mind… I am at least following my meal plan 75-80% of what I had originally wrote down. I don’t work tomorrow, so I think I will plan out the weekend and next week… then cook and put it in my single serving containers.

I realised my response above was a bit lacking on practical recommendations. Let me try to summarize what I'd suggest: Since you're right where I'd want you to be in terms of weight loss per month, don't change anything at this point. Only consider changing if you find the weight loss completely stops for 2 months or more. If weight loss does stop for at least 2 months, I'd actually recommend UPPING calories by 250-300 calories a day. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, especially considering that a negative energy balance is the only way to lose weight, but let me explain. Remember when I said above that one of the main jobs of our metabolic regulation system is to keep us from dying? No matter what we do, our metabolism slows when we diet. The rationale behind upping calories (by a small amount), is that we want to convince that system that the "bad times" have passed, and it's okay to ratchet up metabolic processes again. I'd recommend eating this increased calorie amount for at least a month, but two months would be better. Somewhat surprisingly, most people won't gain weight if they do this because their metabolism will increase to compensate. After that diet break, only then do we drop calories for a month or two in order to drop some more weight. You can keep up this intermittent dieting (not to be confused with intermittent fasting), until you get to your goal weight. I know this sounds like a slow process, but I promise, in the long run it's actually faster than if you just tried to keep cutting calories to get to your goal. Please keep exercising for your health, but also so that once you do get to your goal, you'll have a much easier time maintaining the loss. I would strongly recommend a minimum of 3 days per week of aerobic exercise and 2 days per week of strength training. This will set you up really well to maintain weight, as well as for excellent health as you get older. Don't be afraid to seek out a good mental health counselor. None of us got as big as we were by having a healthy relationship with food. The vast majority of people that fail to lose weight or that regain lots of weight after bariatric surgery do so because they fall back into old poor eating habits.

@SpartanMaker PS= plastic surgery, being non-active my weight has gone up but the macros you suggested I started yesterday and I felt satisfied with focusing on Whole Foods, mostly protein and it worked out. My issue is that working out I felt leaner, and didn’t have bloat, even if I didn’t have a “perfect” day or “binged” on some sweets. I felt like I created a terrible habit and now I am trying to get back in the mindset where I was when I started this journey. You have given me awesome advice! Thank you for giving me some of your wealth of knowledge! @ShoppGirl im sure some of it is inflammation, I notice that if I wait to weigh myself later in the morning I’m weigh less than right in the morning. I figured that the implants weighed a couple of pounds but dang seeing me be 5-7lbs heavier is messing with my head. At first I told myself it’s okay if I gained a little I was getting too thin, now I’m like AHHHH nooooo I can’t. No one truly knows these feelings and mental strain this is if they were not obese at one time. I try not to talk about these feelings to anyone but this platform because I always get “you look fine, why are you worried, your overthinking” thank you for chiming in, I appreciate your intake!!

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.

I've been surprised by my lack of constipation. I was so prepared for it to happen that I ordered the biggest value container of Miralax to keep on hand... and I used it twice in a year. I am regular like clockwork and have been since about the second month or so. BUT, I have had the vomiting I mentioned in another post, which I wasn't really prepared to have happen. I have been surprised by how different it feels to eat different types of foods in various quantities. For example, if I eat 3oz of chicken or beef, I'm very full and sometimes can't finish it or have more than a bite of a side dish. But I can eat a very large salad or other non-starchy veggies and it doesn't make me feel stuffed. A few bites of bread can sit really heavy but I can eat crackers without feeling that way at all, where I would have assumed they would be about the same. Also surprising is that what you eat, how much you exercise, and how much weight you lose in a week do not necessarily go hand in hand the way you think they will. Some weeks you will drop several pounds, other weeks you will not lose an ounce. You can do exactly the same thing both weeks. Your body will do what it wants. Beyond making good choices and sticking with a healthy lifestyle you can sustain (longterm sustainability is the MOST important thing), there's not much you can do to make a meaningful difference in how much weight you lose and how quickly.

Because restriction isn't everything. It's easy to eat around your restriction. Restriction doesn't stop hunger, or food noise, or just wanting to eat food that is delicious but calorie dense. I had 20# of "good" regain. I got too thin after WLS, and I didn't like how my body looked at that weight. The normal bounce was good for me, and is what I've found to be my ideal weight. Over the last 3.5 year I slowly gained weight. At 20# over my ideal weight, i didn't like what I saw in the mirror. So I got on a GLP routine and quickly and easily dropped the excess weight. IME, GLP's are going to be revolutionary. I'll likely use them as needed to regulate my weight indefinitely.

Thank you I’m sorry about your mom. It’s so hard to wait to get help and especially hard to see your loved ones have to wait. I definitely avoid eggs lol they don’t make me throw up but they do cause other issues eggs, lactose except for hard cheeses, chicken - except when it’s ground up, pork, anything fried, salad dressing, mayo, steak, and a lot of beef, protein shakes, protein bars, nuts, corn, onions, juices, oranges, avocado, most turkey, products, and turkey itself, pineapple, any food product from Starbucks - I am 100% sure this is preservative oriented, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, spinach (sometimes can tolerate cooked) I’m not really interested in sympathy, but you can tell there’s not a whole lot left. This is pretty much why I am now affected less than I was because having figured out the list I do end up eating something from the list eventually as I have no choice or I won’t eat. I’m sure I’m missing 10 or 15 items. I would think if it was a parasite my blood work would not be as good as it is. And my blood pressure is 120/72. I’m considering trying a protein shake that is clear to see if the other things that are in them causing the issue or if it’s actually protein but mostly, I’m just looking forward to getting a colonoscopy and an endoscopy to find out what the hell is going on

Lots of people have posted about food, so I’ll tell you my behavior changes I make. I measure my protein on a scale. My personal dietitian told me 4oz protein per meal, or diabetic protein count 20grams. I record it either online in a phone app, or write it down. I can eat as much raw veggies or baked, or steamed veggies as I like, but only at meals with protein. No root vegetables due to sugar content. I drink 2litters of water, sometimes more during the day. I take my vitamins daily. Three meals look like that, then I’m back on track. If I’m hungry, one boiled egg before bed. That’s what the dietitian told my 5’10 son too. When we really want results we share and compare information to hold each other accountable, including weighing in on the scale. I watch the glucose goddess online for tips and recipes, and Dr. Weiner. In maintenance the fruit, nuts, seeds, cheese can come in one once quantities- those are “extras.” Alcohol is only for maintenance, just major holidays. Recap; weigh/ measure food, record it, share with a trusted friend or family to keep yourself accountable. Your dietitian should be telling you what a portion of protein is for you specifically.

Okay, first, once you have the surgery you will not physically be able to eat that fast without throwing up and/or being miserable with pain. So you'll learn real quick to slow down when the time comes. Trust me. In the meantime, here is what you do to practice and start training yourself. First, if you can, make a commitment to only eat from a real plate while sitting at an actual table for the next two weeks. No eating standing up in the kitchen with two minutes to go before you have to leave or grabbing a handful of something from the pantry as you walk past. Second, get yourself a timer. It can be a kitchen one, or one of those little sand ones that go for a minute, or just the timer on your phone. Whatever works. When you sit down to eat, take a small bite of food. This means something about the size of your thumbnail, or even half that size. Set the timer for one minute. Put your fork and knife down. Chew. Keep chewing. Chew more than you have ever chewed before in your life. Your food will be like paste. You should feel no lumps in your mouth. At this point, swallow. If there is time left on your timer, sit and wait. Only when the timer goes off do you pick up the fork for another bite. Before you take that bite, ask yourself if you feel like you need another bite. Presurgery, your answer is probably going to be yes. But post surgery, this is a point where you might start to think wait, I feel pretty satisfied. This is when you want to stop eating, because with a limited capacity, you will fill up really fast and might overshoot and feel ill. If that's all you do, you will be fine. If you want to be more mindful, ask yourself some questions as you eat. Maybe ask what you like about this food and think about that. Think about the texture and taste. Think about how your body is responding to eating. Do you feel tense? Are you relaxed? Are you feeling any emotions as you start eating, and do those emotions shift as you eat? Use some of your time between bites to write down some observations. You don't really have to do all of that, but on the other hand, you might be surprised by what you learn if you do. Also, I will say that I struggled a lot with this presurgery but the slow eating is second nature now. When I forget, I don't feel well, so I have a lot of incentive to slow down. You will too! Just do what you can to practice now so your nutritionist is happy with your progress. I will almost guarantee if you keep a notebook for the next week or two with what you ate and when, how long it took from start to finish, and some reflections on the food and how your body was feeling while you ate, you will pass with flying colors.

First: All because you can doesn’t mean you should. It takes around 8 weeks to fully heal. That includes all nerves that were severed or damaged to be back firing again & sending accurate messages to your brain around, hunger, satiety, damage and your restriction. It’s why sticking to the portion size recommendations you should have been given is so important during the healing stage. (If you didn’t get them ask your team for some guidance.) You don’t want to damage your healing tummy either (all those sutures and staples holding your tummy together). Secondly: Do you need the next bite or just want it? There is a big difference between needing to eat and wanting to eat. Stopping to think about each bite you take is part of mindful eating and reflecting on your eating vs. mindlessly shovelling food into your mouth. If you just want the next bite (to make you feel better, out of habit, or other head hunger related desires) put your cutlery down & sit back from the table. Sometimes you may take another bite after a few minutes, other times you don’t have any more. The goal is not to eat until you are full but until you are satisfied and have had enough for your needs (for your body to function effectively). It takes at least 20 minutes for the message you’re are full to get through. If you are eating quickly when the message gets through, you’ve eaten more than you need and are over full. The goal also shouldn’t be to eat until you feel the restriction. If you feel your restriction you’ve eaten too much, or too fast or food that is too dense. The restriction fades in time so you can’t rely on it as a long term maintain e tool. The two axioms have been very important to me and helped me stick to the plan I was given in the losing stage and then to maintain in the years after. I’ve often shared them & I hope you may find them helpful too.

I must invest in a slow cooker. My mum had a great recipe for slow cooked beef stew (she had gastric bypass so it was really soft beef) and I've been wanting to make it for a while. I don't quite know the recipe since she never wrote it down and I can't ask her anymore, but she always like to experiment in the kitchen so I think it's better I find out on my own anyway. I'm hoping I can get a cheap one on pay day so I can start actually cooking in the soft food stage.