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That’s interesting. Cultural differences?? It’s always promoted as Yum Cha here in Australia and we all call it that. Shall we go for Yum Cha? Does that Chinese offer Yum Cha? Funny the differences in terminology around food. Cookies - biscuits. Jelly - jam (not to be confused with marmalade). Romaine - Cos. Courgette -zucchini. All purpose flour - plain flour.Aubergine - eggplant. Fries - chips. Ketchup - tomato sauce. ….

My partner does keto (very successfully) and has for years. He stays a mile away from processed foods that purport to be keto friendly. Ditching those allows for much more leeway with your carb goal. Cook everything from scratch and you will honestly never go wrong. In the immediate post WLS period it's hard to do full keto, or full any eating plan. Once you progress through the stages you can have whatever protein you like or can tolerate (and bear in mind that might change after your second procedure so don't be afraid to experiment!) plus green leafy veg/salad/mushrooms/cauli/broccoli/celeriac/whatever and smaller quantities of other veg (should not be a problem for you as all quantities are small quantities post WLS)! Cauli rice is fab with loads of meals. Sauce wise my partner eats bolognese/ragu - just no pasta. Curry - just no rice. Casseroles with no carbs and limited veg. I add the juices of meat or fish to the final protein part of the dinner and sometimes dress that up with a little cream or spice paste.

Okay. If left to my own devices I basically eat like a child. In terms of health food I really only like chicken breast and mahi fish and i don’t love either of those. I also tend to like mostly higher carb veggies and higher sugar fruits. Lucky me, right?. Anyways, the only common veggies I seem to hate are Brussels sprouts and mushrooms and I like most of the typical fruits but I still need to manage to stay low-ish with the carbs. Three years ago post sleeve I ate grilled chicken or grilled fish with a veggie every single night. Just those two proteins on the grill with a couple basic spices and veggies and it got SOOOO boring that of course I didn’t stick to it. What I need is some recipe ideas that add variety to my low carb diet so I have better luck sticking with it this time around. I am going to get a cook book once I speak with my dietician (who I just left a second message with) if there is one that’s appropriate for SADI but I just hoped others would share their favorite recipes to get me started. last night my husband made me a fajita wrap with grilled chicken, sited peppers and onion and just a bit of reduced fat cheese and a low carb wrap and I thought to myself if I had more options like that I think I can do this. I am thinking I probably need to branch out to cuisines other than my typical American, Mexican, and Italian but I may need a little nudge. I am currently looking for a Mexican recipe with caluliflower rice. And I’m wondering if cauliflower pizza is a good option for once in a while and if so is the frozen one okay. I think my store has one by California kitchen. It’s 29g of carbs so I would have to be an angel the rest of the day but is there a better option? Also, I don’t hate the zucchini noodles or the spaghetti squash but I feel like that needs a really good sauce or something to make up for what’s missing. Any suggestions for sauces?

I was today years old when I learned that I’ve been saying it wrong this whole time! All my life i've said: “let’s go to Dim Sim” When I should be saying “let’s Yum Cha” dim sum is the food, yum cha is the process of going to get said food! (yep, I googled it…now I’m off to impress family and friends with this newfound knowledge)

If you're allowed, I found heating up a serving of tomato soup with unflavored protein powder was much more satisfying for my dinner than a shake. Just check that the combined calories and carbs of the soup plus the protein is roughly in line with a meal replacement shake. I used the Tomato Basil from Pacific Foods with 2 scoops of Syntrax unflavored and it was right in line with a Bariatric Fusion meal replacement shake but with a hot and savory flavor instead of sweet/cold.

Oh @ShoppGirl, this is why I was so so glad I never had to count carbs. I was just told keep carbs low and I still generally do (usually keep to two serves a day). I go by complex carbs are always better than simple carbs and low processed carbs cover highly processed ones so whole & multi grains wherever possible. And I ignore the carbs in fruit & vegetables - too many other good things in those. My thinking was those old food pyramids separated fruit & vegetables from ‘carbs’ so that was good enough for me. Have you spoke to your dietician about this conundrum? They may be your best source of guidance around this.

Hi @Allie727- I had my procedure done in January at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. From what I’ve read online, compared to what they recommend for post-procedure guidelines, they recommend a pretty strict diet. Did the clinic provide you with how much food to consumer at each phase, along with how many calories? Here’s what they had me follow: - Weeks 1-4: Liquid diet (protein shakes + regular Gatorade). 60-80g protein, 64 oz liquids, less than 1,000 cals a day. I was probably only consuming 400-500 a day. - Weeks 5 & 6: Pureed foods (no more Gatorade). 60-80g protein, 64 oz liquids, 600-700 cals a day. A meal should be 2-3 ounces of food. - Weeks 7-10: Soft foods. 60-80g protein, 64 oz liquids, 700-900 cals a day. A meal should be 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup. I just started a regular diet/regular food today, 3/24. 60-80g protein, 64 oz liquids, under 1,200 cals (but I have a call with the dietitian in a week to see if that’s correct. A meal should be 1 cup to 1.5 cups. Like you, protein and water has never been an issue. I’ve never really felt restricted. I definitely feel full after I eat, but not sick-full at after eating. They also recommend you take at least 30 mins to eat. I found that if I finish my food quicker than that, I’ll get a stomach ache. I felt bloated earlier on post-procedure, but that slowly goes away. 6 weeks out, I had lost about 34 lbs at that point, but everyone is different!! Hope this helps!

Hi- I had my ESG done around the same date as you and hoping to hear an update. I live in San Diego so opted to have it done in Mexico. But I’m wondering if that was the wrong choice. I feel very little restriction 6 weeks out. I can eat a significant amount of food before a sudden full feeling comes on. I have no issues meeting protein or water goals. I can comfortably drink a protein shake in a minute.. I’ve had 10lbs weight loss and no weight loss since starting solid foods.

Oh wow. I wish I had a Whole Foods. Those would be perfect for me because it’s just myself and my hubby who also eats smaller portions. I need to actually go into the grocery store and look for something like that. I know that places are carrying more of the healthy options but I have been doing pickup and I don’t get the chance to really see what’s out there now.

I don’t typically buy prepared foods but when I saw these in Whole Foods I knew they’d come in handy for this stage. They’re really tasty actually and I’ll probably buy them again, although I don’t know how often once I’m participating in family meals again. Buying enough of those small packages to feed my household is an expensive proposition.

Yes, I have run out of containers to store it all in and no point buying more as also running out of room in my freezer 😁 I take such small portions it takes ages to go through what I cook or buy, I got a small (150g) bag of salad the other day and that so far as done two meals and I will get at least a third if not fourth meal out of it. My eyes are still bigger than my stomach when it comes to judging portion sizes. Currently on rotation I have; spicy bean stew, carrot & lentil soup, bolognese, lasagna soup, lentil soup, peanut butter chicken and a couple of other 'surprises' as I don't remember what they are until I defrost them 😂. The great thing is that as I made them all at least I know the ingredients and that they are suitable for my after the surgery. Tomorrow or Tuesday, when I have a few more containers ready, I am going to make a chicken soup. I get a monthly food allowance as part of my salary and I am finding it hard to spend the money as need to buy so little now.

I am so glad that you are still reaching out to your team and posting here. I won’t get too far into my story but because of “confusion,” about my mental health, interactions with meds and embarrassment the help I got from my team was not working for me and I gave up. I continued to gain and now I am back here facing revision weighing a little more than when I started this journey. People here are very helpful and understanding but your team should be giving you answers too. Sounds like they have a plan for the next step if need be and that’s great. if all else fails, The phentermine is the one medication that I could try which did work amazing during the day for me but I suffer from insomnia and when I can’t sleep I eat. So, the meds worked wonderfully during the day but at night, with my larger sleeve and being awake so many times, I was able to consume too much for the whole day and I still gained. But I can see how if you sleep throughout the night it really could work. I didn’t get to try mountjourno or any of the other brands it’s sold under because of financial reasons but if you can swing it, I have heard AMAZING things about that medicine too (there are some side effects for some people to consider). People claim they think they must know how skinny brains feel after taking it. They just don’t ever have to think or worry about food. One lady has to set alarms if she is busy to remind herself to eat something. Another drawback is how long you have to take it. Some say when you go off it you start to gain. They are doing studies now where they are trying to work out a maintenance dose that may be less than the regular dosage though. There are also places that are starting to “compound” it at compounding pharmacies. I wouldn’t necessarily trust the stuff from random sites online but my PCP was telling me they were working on getting it in their office and it is less than half the normal cost that way. I don’t know much about the other weight loss drug options because I couldn’t take them with my bipolar meds Interestingly, i just seen an ABC special Oprah did on weight loss injections the other night. (Ironically it was the day I went back to see my surgeon so I thought maybe it was meant to be which is why I inquired about them with my PCP). I’m really hoping that reached someone that has the power to change how accessible these meds are. I asked my pcp and she said it’s probably going to take a little while like everything else and she thinks at this point I shouldn’t wait on surgery for that but if your interested keep asking questions because these things tend to just change in the middle of the night and the word takes a while to reach you if you not the one asking. Anywahs, kudos to you for not giving up. Let your team do all they can to help you and keep posting here!!. I think when I stopped that I lost all hope. I was so isolated. Surrounded by skinny family and having only one heavyset friend who is perfectly content being that way I don’t have a lot of real life people who understand me the way that this community does. I felt so ashamed and I didn’t want to drag down the vibe here with my failures. Since I have returned I have been welcomed with open arms and honestly don’t know why I ever doubted that I would be. Keep doing what your doing and you will work this out. I know it. 🤗

I also feel like I can eat more than I should be able to. I have heard of others resetting their surgery by following the same post op liquid diet for a week and then soft foods for a few days and then normal again. I haven’t tried it but i am interested in trying it.

It was divine, yes! And I honestly didn't believe for a moment that 2 tablespoons of food would suffice, but it sure did. It was oatmeal made with protein. For lunch I served myself a four ounce serving of cottage cheese, and managed to eat 2 ounces before I was full. And dinner was broccoli and a chicken meatball pureed in broth, also a 4 ounce serving, of which I could only eat half. Everything tasted so good though. So, so, darn, good.

The staged return to eating is in place for a reason - to protect your healing tummy. There are a lot of sutures & staples holding your poor digestive system together. If you had a 12 inch wound with stitches on your arm wouldn’t you do all you could to protect it & ensure you didn’t damage or strain it or hinder your recovery? It takes about 8 weeks to be healed from the surgery. Yes, foods (liquids) can taste awful after surgery & it can continue for a while until you are more fully healed. I found the shakes disgusting but you have alternatives. Thin soups like broths (bone broth are high in protein), consumes & cream soups (tomato, pumpkin, chicken, etc.). Just strain them to ensure there aren’t any random chunks of meat, vegetables, herbs, etc. in it. Make your own yoghurt drink by blending Greek yoghurt with milk to a thin consistency & add any flavour powders you may like. Protein water is another option. All these count towards your fluid goal during the liquid stage. Just sip, sip, sip. The portion recommendation I was given (1/3 - 1/4 cup) didn’t begin until purées so liquids were just three ‘meals’ (shake, soup) a day so a cup each. I diluted them to help with the flavour & texture (for the shakes) & didn’t care if it took hours to drink them. Plans can be different about caffeine but if yours is no caffeine try decaffeinated or green or herbal teas. I found warm drinks much easier to tolerate & soothing to drink.

Oh yes. Food for weeks. I still cook more than I need but I do it on purpose now because I love having leftovers. Simply freeze the leftovers/excess for easy meals on another day. Just bag it up in appropriate serving sizes. (I love zip lock bags.) My freezer is filled with single serves of soups, bolognese, savoury mince, steak, chops, savoury egg muffins, … chicken, beef, lamb & pork. Don’t feel like cooking? Just defrost a meal & all I have to cook or prep are vegetables or salad if needed. Bonus you only have to cook dinner from scratch a couple of times a week. Found it very useful for work lunches too. Popped one of my frozen meals in my bag & reheated it at work. Easy.

The food police. That’s cute. I have to admit when you said you used to be a chef I reluctantly opened the recipe thinking it was going to be really hard but that doesn’t look too difficult. I am adding the ingredients to my Amazon and Walmart carts now. Thanks!!

I am three years post sleeve contemplating revision surgery and I am trying not to do food funerals this time. I still don’t have a surgery date though so let’s see how I feel as I count down the days. . I am thinking I am going to have the SADI so I really May have stuff I can never tolerate Again. Now I’m thinking…maybe just one last meal, lol. But if you are like me and carbs make you crave carbs maybe stop these a few days before your scheduled to start the pre op. Otherwise the preop will seen that much harder. Just FYI also, With the sleeve I was able to tolerate anything post surgery and I’ve heard the same from a lot of people who have had bypass (although they can sometimes only have very small amounts of certain things).

Yes! Happy to share! It's this one: https://www.wholesomeyum.com/keto-banana-muffins-recipe/ I doubled the banana flavoring emulsion (I got mine from Amazon) and I added vanilla. None of the box mixes were low carb enough for me and I used to be a chef so I have a bias towards homemade things. 😂 I can empathize with the carb cravings. When I eat carbs I crave them intensely for days afterwards. There are a lot of people who make judgments about those of us who use artificial sweeteners, and though I prefer the real thing, I simply cannot have it. My body HATES carbs, it just doesn't know what to do with them and whether it's a piece of cake or a bagel, it will bloat me and I'll want 3 times as much the next meal. It is just not worth it. And now with the surgery and my designer insides, it isn't worth the gas and such either... The only exception I seem to be able to make is a small amount of very dark chocolate. I think the reason it doesn't cause the carb cravings is because my craving for the minerals in it is stronger. LOL And even with that I can't have it two days in a row without cravings kicking in stronger... I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask those close to you to support you with limitations around what they offer you. I asked the same thing of those close to me and they were happy to do so because it gave them a tangible way to help me with my goal. We don't gain weight in isolation. Food is a social thing. We ask our social circle for support around other goals like going to school or raising our children, we should be able to ask for support with this too. It increases our chances of success!! The head game will do you in every time. Having people close to you wise to that helps tremendously in my experience... As long as they don't turn into food police. 😂

I followed a recipe to make soup tonight. It came from a bariatric cookbook so I wasn't really thinking about quantity being an issue. At least not until I was done and went to dish out a serving. This recipe said it made 8 cups of soup. I was able to eat 1/4 cup. At the current rate, that means I will be eating this soup until the sun explodes. Did anyone else struggle with cooking early on? It feels like such a waste of time to make a single, tiny serving, and yet, between difficulties eating reheated/dried out food and being overwhelmed by accidentally making 32 servings of soup, I really wish food would just magically appear on tiny plates in my kitchen.

Oh and I forgot! Regarding your original sleeve: I know you'll be aware that after my sleeve I had reported being able to eat bigger volumes than I had expected. This was a constant throughout all my food stages. Given my eventual regain do you think there might be a merit to reducing the volume of my sleeve when you do the SADI?

The vomiting has probably caused some swelling. You'll probably need to baby your tummy with very easy to digest foods in very small quantities for a few days. And I wouldn't try any red meat for quite some time. Are you already allowed to have that? It's very hard to digest. My program says 3 months before beef, pork, and lamb.

Thank you both. Spinoza thank you I know with my mental health issues that my journey doesn’t look exactly like everyone’s here but some version of what happened to me could happen to everyone I hope my story helps someone. I know that so many people here have helped me along the way. I wish I wouldn’t have gotten so embarrassed and stopped posting last time. Things may be different now. But, I put my story out there and from now on I am looking forward. BlondPatriotinCDA That’s what I try to tell my husband. He has always been very fit and he tries to empathize but he just doesn’t understand and sometimes he says all the wrong things. Recently He said I don’t get it, you quit smoking why is this so difficult for you. I said because I don’t have to smoke three puffs a day to survive and not smoke anymore than that. I know if I had one cigarette I would be a smoker again. In fact i did and I was until I quit the second time and now I know I can’t have just one. But, I do think knowledge is power and I will know when I do go off plan again which I inevitably will. I will know that give it a few days and my body will stop screaming at me that it’s starving because that’s what it takes for me. I eat carbs and my body craves them for a few days afterwards then the cravings are a lot less. Then I’m good until the next holiday or dining out temptation or if I’m really stressed I eat off plan. Those are my triggers. I’m hoping that information will make it easier for me to get back on track next time. This time I already told all my loved ones to please try not to offer me food that is not a good choice for me and I am eating low carb already. I also just declined a lunch invitation with my craft group being honest that I’m too tempted to eat bad when dining out. Maybe once I get back on track I said but for now I need to stay focused (to a group of mostly really skinny women who probably totally don’t get it but they didn’t say anything at least). Anyways. Yes. My plan is to keep chatting here with people Who actually get it and to try to find that therapist and pay out of pocket as Spinoza suggested because this is it. It is not like they usually revise a third time and even if they did the complications and risks are scary enough the second time around. This is my do over and I have to do it right this time.

Okay this is long and boring at parts but here it goes. I am 3 years post sleeve and I have gained all my weight back . First of all I was on the smaller side to have the sleeve but I do still have all the same struggles and if I had waited until I was older it was just a matter of time until I was a higher bmi having the surgery. The fact that I have lost and then gained it all plus some within less than years is probably proof of that. Anyways, with the sleeve I did lose a big chunk of weight. I went from 235 to 168 which I could not have done with regular diet. But, i was always able to eat a little more than I should at every given stage and everything was easy for me. From day one I had no gas pain and water was easy to get down, then fluids and protein which were easy to keep down, I had no food intolerances and advancing through each stage. I was living my best life watching the pounds fall off but I was alway able to eat just a little more than everyone else at the same stage. Well, while the hunger hormone was gone and I was focused I was able to eat exactly what I SHOULD be eating and I measured my portions to the Amount I should be eating and I was satisfied. So lost most of the weight the dr suggested I would. i held that weight for a few months but then the hunger started creeping back and between the hunger and the extra room in the pouch I started gaining in spite of still making healthy food choices (my food was fine but my portions were too large and too frequent). Well, even though I knew I was losing control my friends and family continued to look at me as doing great..I was still on the road to getting to where I needed ti be in their eyes. I was ashamed. I was failing yet They kept complimenting me and offering me food. They were saying things like your doing so good, you can have one slice or pizza or one brownie. It won’t kill you. It’s okay that you’ve gained a couple pounds I’ve gained a couple it’s Christmas. You can lose that. Well I have since learned that no I cannot just have one of anything to do with carbs or I crave them for a week but I didn’t know that back then Anyways, was still going to my surgeon asking for help but I have bipolar disorder and the meds I take for it limit what other meds I can take so I cannot take many of the weight loss meds they had to offer. And the one I can take worked wonderfully during the day but when it wore off I ate all night Fast forward a few months and I stepped on the scale and I was back over 200. That sucked but I wasn’t giving up. went back to my surgeon asking about revision to bypass. I have heartburn gerd whatever you call it and clearly the sleeve wasn’t working so I wanted to know my options. Well let’s go back. I knew I didn’t want to have surgery if I was going to just repeat the yo-yo that had just happened so I decided I wanted two opinions this time. Well the second opinion dr had a cancellation so I seen him first. He was on board. He was going to bypass a shorter amount of bowel so i had less absorption issues and my meds Would work fine he said which seemed to be his concern even though it wasn’t really my question. I just needed my dr to say that it shouldn't be a repeat of last time and I was going forward. Well even though the bypass was an option he presented to me to start he said he wouldn’t do a bypass for me. He thought it would be a bad call with my mental health issues. This was confusing to say the least because I have one dr saying it’s fine and another dr I really respect saying it’s not and I started this thinking bypass was always an okay option in terms of mental health but worried the surgery just wouldn’t work for me. I am of course concerned about my mental health so took some time to think about it. I tried for a while to find a bariatric therapiest but none near me are taking any new patients. I even asked the surgeon and he said he would look into it but be never did. Anyways I called around for the better part of two days. They all just do the evaluations now for surgery. I have had every hormone test and lab they have that could possibly be the problem. I changed all my meds in case they were the issue. I tried everything myself and my doctors could think of but I kept gaining. When I revisited the idea of surgery I was scared. Anything that was going to upset my mental health again just isn’t an option I decided. I already know what life without my medication is like and I do not want to go back there. I continued to gain. I got back up to 245 and I am miserable. I am so depressed when I look at what I have let happen to myself. I had a chance and I blew it. I am disgusted when I look in the mirror. I decided that the weight is causing me to be more depressed so I needed to get some real answers. I went back to my surgeon. Not to ask him to do the surgery but exactly why he thought it was a bad idea. The plan was to take that info and talk to the other surgeon to make sure he had considered that and see why he wasn’t worried about it. Well, surprise…my surgeon is on board now with doing a revision for me. When I asked why he said no before he said something about a nite in my chart that said I wasn’t complaint with my meds back them and he didn’t know I have a psychiatrist and psychologist and take my meds but now he is comfortable doing surgery. So, frustrated I had to wait until I gained almost 50 more pounds to get here but excited he is willing to do it I am researching the other surgery he thinks will be a better fit for me called the SADI. At the same time I am still not buying the note in my chart thing. Cause that was never true. I guess the important takeaway for those of you here that are just starting out is even if you do regain don’t lose touch with your team and don’t give up. I feel like my dr wavering in whether he would do the surgery didn’t help but I could have asked more questions sooner and I wouldn’t have so much to lose this time. Plus, hopefully you guys can take the weight loss meds and won’t be facing a second surgery.

I talked to the nurse the other day about some vomiting issues I had been experiencing, about 5 times in total over the past 2 weeks. While the first time was almost certainly due to overcooked/dry food, there was concern over the other times, especially a few days ago when I was sick twice in a day with quite a bit of pain and multiple times of fairly aggressive vomiting. I had a longer, more complicated surgery than usual (6 hours) due to some scarring and issues with my intestine, so my doctor decided I should go back to the liquid phase until I see him on April 2. Not gonna lie, 11 days of protein shakes and yogurt is not what I was hoping for. I thought they would say just avoid the foods that were making me sick. But I guess the doctor feels my systems need more time to heal. I can have some simple creamed soups, though, and plan to supplement those with unflavored protein because I can't stand the shakes and protein waters. At least I'm having no issues with hydration.