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How did everyone do this weekend? I think I only had 2 servings yesterday (and one of those was my mom's cheesecake). Yogurt already for breakfast this morning, probably some more later as well.

I missed this when it first started, but I'm game. I've been making smoothies with vanilla yogurt in them already, and I try and have milk with/for Breakfast. I'm snacking on some cherry yogurt now. I didn't get any cottage cheese at the store this time, but I've been having a good amount of that too. I'm not into the soy or rice milks. I've been considering the Carb Countdown or whatever it's called, but usually I'm with 1% (yucky skim).

Ewwww I can't do the Ricotta! I know a lot of people love it, but I hate it! I'll stick with cheese, milk, yogurt, and ice cream.

Try adding unflavored Protein to your soups. I use unjury which I had preop and still almost 2 years later love. When I think I'm not getting enough protein (remember protein helps us not to look like sharpees when we loose the weight) anyway, I add the unflavored to soups and sometime yogurt and I love the chocolate with my coffee in the morning - makes a great mocha. From experience, I know that just drinking shakes can drive you mad - spice it up, look for recipes that you can use to incorporate the protein into. Checkout unjury.com they have a number of recipes for protein shakes, drinks...

Today I am 6 days post-op. For the previous 5 days I haven't had any real desire to eat or drink anything. No real appeal in eating, and in some cases, thinking about foods made me feel a little queasy. Today - I feel hungry. I had a 5.3oz yogurt for breakfast (took about 90 minutes to eat, I think from about 7:30 to 9am). It is not just after 10:30 and my tummy and mouth say "eat!" Logically, I know that I have only consumed 120 calories today and I need to continue to eat and sip small amounts to heal but a part of me is thinking "This is how it starts all over again. You're hungry all the time. You won't stop eating. You'll gain every ounce back and THIS WAS FOR NOTHING." This paranoia is compounded by the fact that I had, what I believe, was my first case of extremely mild dumping syndrome. I had been having trouble finding any drinks appealing and thought a very watered down bit of pineapple juice would do the trick - I was right. I had about 1/2 cup pineapple juice to 2 cups water over the course of a few hours. FOr those who don't know, a serving of pineapple juice can exceed 30 grams of sugar. I expect I may have had about 10. I've now become obsessed with the idea that my pineapple juice has reawakened the sugar demon and all is lost. I know that sounds incredibly dramatic, but I've noticed over the last few days that these kinds of fears keep sprouting up. I can't shake this fear that this isn't a fresh start, just a pit stop on the same ol', same ol. Ugh. Anyone else dealing with similar feelings? How did you cope?

I love blending frozen mangos and strawberries with greek yogurt the problem is it gives me sugar spike and makes me hungry. What other alternatives can use that doesn't have as many sugars. I don't like the texture of yogurt so it needs to be something frozen and with flavor Sent from my SM-G950U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

How did you make out with the mashed potatoes. I did try a few bites but got scared so I went and grabbed some yogurt....

Nup. I dont like them and I dont find them necessary, I eat a smaller version of the healthy breakfasts I always ate - Cereal, fruit and yogurt usually. Maybe an egg on toast. Very occasionally just a piece of toast. liquid calories dont fill me up anyway. I'd be looking for something else to eat an hour or two later and I dont believe in Protein at the expense of carbs either.

Has anyone experienced a problem with "crashing" after eating in the morning or at any other times during the day? I find that since my fill on Monday... When I eat solid food in the AM it is followed by what I imagine is a bloodsugar drop with shaking...sweating... weakness and a generalized "I feel like Jello" sensation. THis usually happens within 10-15 minutes after eating. The first two times it happened I had FF/SF yogurt mixed with a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and this morning it happend in a milder form after having 3 bites of scrammbled eggs and cheese. I'm not really terribly concerned... I just find it interesting and a bit odd and I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced this?

I definitely agree with you about the liquid diet. I am on day 6 of 14! My doc has set this schedule up for me: Week 1 & 2: Clear liquids only- tea, sugar free Jello, broth, juice Week 3: true liquid diet - Protein shakes, fat free puddings, yogurts, cream -based Soups (strained!) Week 4 & 5: puree foods Week 6: Begin eating real food - trial and error - rule of thumb - stopand sip! I am so looking forward to being through these first 2 weeks. I just drink lots and lots of what I can. I haven't been getting light headed or anything yet. Good luck!

My surgery was 6/9/11. I am doing ok for the most part I guess. I am ready to start mushies that much I know for sure lol .. I am sick of pudding, cream of wheat, and applesauce.. and greek yogurt I LOVED before .. now I cant even stand to smell it :/ I bought regular vegetable soup yesterday, and some italian wedding vegetable, and minestrone .. all the Light version. I tried the Vegetable one today and did it in the blender. SO GOOD. Dr said its more than fine as long asthere are no chunks. I dont know about you all but creamed soups made me gag after surgery.. the creaminess in anything is not appealing to me anymore. Im having some pain in the area where my draining tube was.. feels like muscle pain.. so im not worried about it for now. Other than that... its going ok for the most part. I cant wait to start mashed potatoes!!!!!

One more thing ... when I was researching the surgery, my nutritionist warned me that I may become lactose intolerant. Luckily, I wasn't. BUT, she did say that most people who become lactose intolerant are usually just intolerant to straight milk products - you can usually have cheese and yogurt. Have you tried Carbmaster Yogurt? It's 3 grams of carb, but has 12 grams of Protein. (I find it at Fred Meyers, but it is also available at Kroger and/or Albertsons.) It goes down super easy for me - I also mix in 1/2 scoop of "unflavored" Protein powder to get the protein count up to 21g. YUMMY!

Yup, that is exactly what i said in the beginning too. . . i wished there would have been a trial thing or something you know "try before you buy". . but unfortunately there wasn't. . .take some prilosec or nexium or some sort of acid reducer for your heartburn. . eat more Proteins (yeah I know your sick of that) like cheese, tuna, fish, egg (might not agree with you) yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. . . keep only soft foods in your new tummy. . .the hunger pangs are really not good, have those all the time, but that is something the nexium or prilosec should help with a bit. . . then face the fact your literally stuck with this thing and do the best you can to accept it and live your life. . . this is the best advice i can give you. . .been there, done that. . i've dealt with it, and now i carry on having lost quite a bit over the past 4 1/2 months. . . would I do it again? probably not, but am i glad i did it? yes i am. . . good luck and keep us posted. . .

Hi all Canuck Lapbanders. You know I was thinking ( which can be dangerous by the way) but after reading many of the posts here with all of your stories of success, difficulties and support that we all give to each other and recieve, I was thinking as an individual, one person is not a LOUD as many. Many of us do not have the money for this surgery from what i read, and borrow or do without to take this on. The other surgery,gastric bypass has higher health costs, waiting times and HUGE risk to the patient including MORTALITY! The costs of obesity wreaks havoc not just on our emotional health but health costs and diabetes , heart disease, coronary heart disease, etc costs our health plans millions a year . The insurabce plans will pay for breast reduction as an example and I would think that changing an obese person to someone of good weight and health would be just as important and overall save money to the system. I advocate that we talk here first and then organize it so that as a group collectively we protest to our government. We can see first how we feel about what i am saying and then go from there and organize how we do this. I am a nurse, i also have worked in the media and if we get the media on our side , we would have some clout. We can decide to write letters, or as a group sign something collective and on the same day across the country, we get together near which ever big city we live in and protest at that house of legislature. If Toronto, was on the news that day on television, and say Montreal, ottawa, etc across the board, then we might be heard. Now do you think I am just suffering from cottage cheese/ yogurt fatigue or do you think this might be something that we collectively can do?

I am a little over two weeks post-op and I have recently started on mushies. I have been following the diet pretty closely, eating mostly hummus, yogurt, cottage cheese, soup, and protein shakes. The last few days I was wondering if all my food was going bad because it seemed like everything I was eating had a bitter taste, but now I realize that the bitter taste is in my mouth, not my food. Has anyone else experienced this? Also, I know this is "bandster hell" time, and I don't have much if any restriction left, but I have not lost any weight in the last week in spite of the fact that I am eating much less than I used to and very little carbs. I quickly dropped about 10 pounds in the first week and then nothing this week. UUURRG! I already have a fill scheduled for four weeks post-op which is the earliest I can get a fill.

I find that I experience "head hunger" when I am bored. I do not get hungry as a general rule but if I am bored, I find I cannot stop munching. I try to choose Protein (cheese or cottage cheese with yogurt, nuts or jerky) when this happens and then I look for something to do so I will not keep eating. There have been times (usually in the evening) when I realize I have eaten several hundred calories of food and still feel "hungry". Then I get anxious that I am not feeling the full feeling and may be stretching my sleeve. This just feeds my anxiety which frustrates me and I try drinking Water to "fill me up" till I feel that full feeling. I know what the problem is but still struggle with the emotions and boredom. Trying to avoid boredom is hard, just as hard as avoiding food.

Hi. Congratulations on going thru the surgery! You will lose weight, don’t worry! People have stalls and your body is reconfiguring your new system. I have been advised to stick with the doctors orders, hold off on all temptations and focus on staying hydrated and getting your protein in. Once you have healed you can add in an exercise regiment and a diet if you still aren’t satisfied. I think the soft food diet is cottage cheese, yogurt, beans and puréed foods. stay strong!

It completely depends on what I'm eating. I measured everything early out so I can not relate to "7 bites" of anything. Slider foods such as chips, pretzels, nuts, bread, Pasta, rice, potatoes, chili, yogurt etc I can eat 6-8oz. For dense Protein such as steak, chicken, ribs, I max out at about 3-5oz. To this day, I can not eat an entire chicken breast. Like the ones that are served with a grilled chicken salad at restaurants. I can eat 3-5slices of the chicken breast, but that's all I can get in. Taco Bell- 1 soft taco minus the top part of the tortilla pizza Hut (or at home Frozen Pizza) - I can eat 1-1.5 slice of pizza minus the top crust, and it depends on the amount of toppings and sauce. Chilis- I can eat 3 Southwest eggrolls or 3 slider burgers without the top bun and a few bites of whatever side dish I want As far as a steak, I order an 8oz ribeye, cooked medium, I can eat almost half of it, if I eat super slow, I can have a few bites of veggies/starches. If I add bread or sliders to any of my protein foods, I can fit a bit more in. If I stretch my meal out over more than 30-45 minutes I can fit in a couple more ounces, if I stretch it over an hour (like social situations, dinners out with group of friends/families), I can quite a bit more, but I still can not eat what I ate pre-op. If I add condiments such as A1 steak sauce, ranch dressing, gravies, sauces of any sort (this is called food LUBE), I can eat more. In maintenance, I eat an average of 1500-1800 calories per day. I no longer count anything other than protein and calories. I eat anything and everything I want, and yes, I eat white carbs, and drink soda and have for over a year in maintenance with zero effects on my weight. But, this is my experience, and others have found that they can not eat like I do in maintenance. I do steer clear of candy, ice cream, cakes etc because I just don't like those things on a regular basis. My weakness is chips and crackers, and I do eat them, I just don't eat huge amounts of them. I can not eat biscuits or pancakes this far out, but I can eat 1 small Eggo waffle if I really want to have something like that. Restriction changes for just about everyone the further out we get, but there is a max capacity. At 2-3 months out, I was good to get in 1-2oz of dense protein with zero room for veggies. Rice, pasta, bread, tortillas all hurt my sleeve and now those are all slider foods. But, I'm nearly 2 years out, and I've been eating roughly the same amounts since I was 8-9 months out. I've found ways to cheat the sleeve, and I do use those tactics occasionally to get in extra calories. Some days, I just want veggies, and I believe my body tells me to eat what it needs. There are plenty of days when I do not get in my protein, and then there are other days when I all I want is meat, cheeses, eggs. I've found a balance with what works for my body, and my nutritional needs. And, no I'm not maintaining my weight loss anymore because I'm pregnant. I maintained my loss for a year before I started gaining a few pounds with the pregnancy.

I'm on antibiotics for H. pylori and my surgery is this Thursday. They made me incredibly sick until my doctor allowed me to take them with yogurt. I haven't had any issues since. Thank god

Didn't your doc give you any nutritional advice/menu We are to eat healthy - Low Fat - Limited Sugar - Limited Carbs Always eat Protein 1st.. BF - Greek Yogurt & Fruit - or Egg Beater w/a little ham & cheese - or Steel Cut oatmeal - or a piece of meat or a pt shake w/fruit lunch - salad w/protein - or Meat & Veggie dinner - Fish/Meat/Chicken - Veggies &/or Salad - 1/4 c rice Snacks - 100 cal popcorn - Yogurt - SF Fudgesicles - SF puddings

I use unjury unflavored Protein. It's not 100% tasteless but it can be masked easily. For instance, tonight I used my magic bullet and puréed a cup of frozen strawberries, cup of frozen mango (I buy fresh then wash, chop and store in the freezer, which is cheaper than buying frozen fruits) a splash of Water, a packet of stevia and a scoop of Protein powder. I've discovered that for me adding milk or yogurt makes the protein taste more pronounced so I just use water for this kind of shake. Or another shake I make is a pack of sugar free hot chocolate mix, 1/2 frozen banana 4-8 oz of 1% milk, ice cubes and scoop of protein. You can add a spoon of Peanut Butter too! Hope this helps. DOS:1/28/13 HW:358 DOS:338 CW:312

Hi folks! I was banded on 1/25/06 and am 3 weeks post op. I was sick of chicken broth too. I lived on sugar free fudgesicles, cream of potato soup (strained), cream of mushroom soup and other cream soups. They tasted wonderful after all the broth. I also had low fat yogurt. It all went down fine. I found that if I were hungry, about mid-morning I would drink 20 oz. of crystal light and the same in mid-afternoon. I got creative one night when I fixed pork chops for my family. I took the pork chops out, put cr. of mushroom soup in skillet and had soup that had the pork flavor to it. (but we routinely use the m. soup for gravy on meat and/or potatoes.) It did give it a nice taste! Be creative.... Thank God though for those sugar free fudgesicles during that time!!

I am 1 week post op and I'd agreed the nausea is the worst part. I can't deal with the smell of broth at all. I'm pretty much living on Rockin refuel protein milk. Taste just like chocolate milk. And oikos triple zero Greek yogurt. Both high in protein. I was getting sick of so much sweet taste so I added tomato juice with sea salt it really helped. Must be working I've lost 29 lbs my first week. Oh yeah and lots of water. It's starting to get easier. Trust me I'm only 1 week out I feel your pain. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using BariatricPal mobile app

I am in my 14th week and never had issue with liquids or soups. I could eat a whole container of yogurt as soon as I was on that stage. I could drink a whole mug of soup (I wasn't necessarily interested in it, but physically could do it). I also drank 8 oz of protein shakes as soon as I started on them. I experience the sense of restriction primarily on dense proteins and to some degree veg although the sensation of fullness is really different on veg. When I am full on an animal protein it is an immediate and sudden sense of discomfort. With veggies and denser carbs (beans, whole grains) it is a more gradual sense of being sated and I can eat more ounces. My sense is this is pretty common and I would not be too concerned.

I was also banded December 11th. I went for my post op check 12/18/08. Found out I had a hernia which he repaired when he put the band on. I've done really well. I had lost 12 pounds. I'm on creamed soups,yogurt, and protein shakes. I go for my first fill on January 22nd. Continued success for everyone.