Well I received good news and bad news today. I finally broke the weight loss stall from St Pattys day when I stood on the scale (yay!!!) Then I went to the docs to review my labs. My A1c was 5.9!!! so my diabetes is under control with metformin alone. My total cholesterol was 170 so no medication needed for cholesterol. My blood pressure was 116/72 so no blood pressure medication needed (thats a total of 3 old medication stopped!)

Now the bad news: My potassium was low again (even though I am taking a perscrition potassium supplement) My thyroid tests were low so I will have to increase the synthroid dose (I know I will never get off this one). Finnaly, My Protein is low. I am going to have to up my protein intake more.

I worry I am getting malnourished. It has been almost a year on this diet (no grains, bread, rice, Pasta, cereal) and I don't seem to be absorbing the Vitamins despite taking double daily required multivit and prescription potassium, magnesium, zinc, Vit A, Vit D. I am so close to my goal weight but I don't want to sacrifice my health to get there. The surgeon says to continue the diet, my PCP is concerned that I am malnourished and wants me to add grains & cereals into my diet to get the vitamins I am not absorbing from the supplements.

I am frustrated.

Hi Lark,

I don't know if it will help you but recently I have been heading down the low carb/paleo path and have been reading lots of interesting things about the food/body/mind connection. I really think there is something to it. If you are interested in checking it out there is a lot on Amazon. One person who stands out as having a lot of commonsense about this approach is Maria
Emmerich; she has a few books on Amazon and a blog - mariamindbodyhealth.com; I also have gotten a lot out of the Low Carbing Among Friends cookbooks - lots of tips and resources. Finding a way to live healthy and not only feed my body, but to also heal it, from the years of neglect is one of my goals in this journey, I am really inspired looking at your accomplishment in the past year! Awesome job

Are you getting plenty of healthy fats in your diet? Are you taking your Vitamins with a meal containing some fat? Vitamins A,D,E and K are fat soluble and need to have fat present in your GI tract for your body to absorb them.

Another thing to try is a different brand of multi. I take whole food based vitamins (not specifically bariatric) with the idea my body can absorb and utilize "the real thing" better than synthetic vitamins. The whole food vitamins also contain a lot more micronutrients than just aren't duplicated in "artificial" Vitamin supplements. Kind of along the lines of your PCP wanting you to get real nutrition, not just supplements.