I'm trying to get a game plan together and try to be as pro-active as possible ... what was or has been the hardest part of your journey?

The first month is hard. I hated the pureed stage, it was a chore to eat. Nothing was good. I also had trouble not drinking during meals. Learning to eat slow was also difficult, but you learn to do it or you pay for it. I also really missed "real" food during the first month. However, all those things are temporary and they are worth it. Now at 3 months, I am dealing with hair loss, but so far it's not too bad. I'm sure if you ask anyone on here they will all say that all those things are worth it to get your health back. That's how I feel.

Had surgery 5 days ago got home yesterday. Hardest thing is knowing what to do now. Still dont know how much my new stomach can hold or what it will tolerate. Very cautious on lifting or really doing anything much physical. Guess my body has some teaching to do!

Glad ur home.rd trial n error I'm still learning to.I'm 2 wks out...31 pds in 11 days I am ecstatic!!! Baby yourself. ..learn to say no...stick to protocol. ..I've prepared myself for 15 yrs...the last 6 month's I was directed to this by 2 of my specialists an when they did I rusted an went for it...so happy I did..I no I'll have ups an downs. ..it all goes with it..love this forums. ..hugely helpful..use it an don't b afraid to ask! congrats!

The hardest part for me was the first month. The vomiting and nausea from the anesthesia and I had spasms that were awful. I hated drinking because it felt like my tummy was attacking it. I also couldn't tolerate my protein shakes until month two, something about the milk. Would I do it again? Hell yeah I'm out of the 200's and haven't felt this good in years!

I am 7 weeks out and I think every phase so far has had a difficult part. After surgery is hard with the weight gain from the IV's in the hospital and the liquid stage, not to mention the reflux. Not drinking while eating has been difficult for me. Now that I have more tolerance for food sticking with 70% Protein and 30% vegetable has been more difficult. At this point I sometimes mourn food. You go to your favorite restaurant, you order and you can literally only eat 3 bites of it. Sometimes I find I just want to eat my food. Also, eating too fast. Hard to make 3 bites last a half hour! Overall it has been worth it though.

Thank God we can moan and groan and whine and whine and everyone here gets it! Nowhere else can we find this support!

I am about 4 1/2 weeks out, and the worst part for me is......The vitamins!! It makes me nauseated to simply look at the container they are in.

Try liquid vitamins!

I have a list of things that have been difficult for me.

-The pre-op diet - This obviously isn't a post op issue, but it was one of the most difficult things I've had to do throughout this whole journey.

-Drinking while eating - I still drink while I'm eating. I only take small sips and never drink much, but I can't have a meal without some sort of liquid.

-Eating slowly and chewing thoroughly - Case in point, while writing this post, I was having a piece of chicken. I was really hungry and ate way too much of it at once and didn't chew well. I ended up heaving in the bathroom. You'd think I would learn, but when I get really hungry it's hard to control myself.

-Exercising - I'm about 3.5 months out and I'm still tired all the time. Makes it very difficult to be motivated to exercise.

-Taking Vitamins - I know I'm probably deficient in multiple vitamins because I always forget to take them. It's more of a pain to me because I also have to take a thyroid medication, which can't be taken with the Iron, Calcium or Multivitamin.

-Getting in my Protein - I've been VERY bad about this. I probably average 60g of protein per day. My surgeon told me I need to be around 90-100g. I know I could supplement with the shakes, but they tend to give me stomach issues.

-Finding foods to eat - I was never fond of cooking before surgery, which is one of the reasons I was fat. Fast food was so much easier. I've tried to get better about that since and made a few "WLS friendly" recipes. Haven't really cared for any of them. So probably the biggest challenge for me is finding healthy foods that I actually want to eat.

Edited July 29, 201412 yr by Melodica

I'm only 3 weeks out and in the purée stage and it's hard!! Hard to find the tasty purée food that won't make me feel yucky.

I'm still eating cream or thick vegetable Soup (no chunk) and Greek yogurt with fuits purée. Only train my stomach with egg or fish once a day because I find it's difficult to get in and I can eat very tiny amount, sometimes is less than 2 tablespoons.

Today I tried 2 new things for dinner though, grilled chicken purée with caviar of eggplant, absolutely yummy but still, I cannot finish 1 tablespoon of each.

The hardest part for me has not been with eating at all, but in dealing with body posture issues after losing the weight. Being obese for a good part of your life creates nuances in body posturing that are hard to correct. It gets better over time though, the more you work on it.

The hardest part for me has not been with eating at all, but in dealing with body posture issues after losing the weight. Being obese for a good part of your life creates nuances in body posturing that are hard to correct. It gets better over time though, the more you work on it.

@@Fiddleman I can soooooo relate!!! What r u doing to address it? I run and bike and do yoga and have my first appt with a personal trainer this week. I've been seeing a chiropractor and doing the exercises he gave me and it's helping some, but it's still a struggle! Anything more I could be doing?

The hardest for me has been actually seeing myself as "thin". I still don't see it most days. If I ever here what someone weighs I think to myself wait I weigh x pounds less than they do but they look so much thinner. I guess I still see myself as being big.... Its crazy.

The hardest part for me is thinking I've excersised so hard followed dr info and not lose I pound

@@Fiddleman I can soooooo relate!!! What r u doing to address it? I run and bike and do yoga and have my first appt with a personal trainer this week. I've been seeing a chiropractor and doing the exercises he gave me and it's helping some, but it's still a struggle! Anything more I could be doing?

I do a lot of body weight exercises, which forces good posture in the back. Yoga helps. t squats work really well to correct the upper back scapula issues, shoulders and connecting muscles. Taking the kinks out of the spine with a foam rollar feels really good. Also stretching backwards over a chair or couch helps. It is not easy. 2 years since I have reached goal and I am still working on the back muscle inflammation resulting from serious spine issues in a way where it is not constantly uncomfortable. However, I am happy to say I have made lots of improvement where my back is starting to have the natural muscular curvature of a healthy male. There are so many small supporting muscles in the back the require strengthening for all the muscular systems in the back to balance out. Another trick I discovered: This may sound a little quirky, but it also like to stand in a stairway with two rales, stretch my arms out in a y above my head and lean into the stairwell, letting gravity collapse my spine downward. This stretches and cracks everything in my back from gravity. Oh, but it works so well. My problems may be worse than yours because I have two sections of my spine that have degenerated, causing discs to mingle and mangle. Even though I am 38 my dr said I have a spine of a 60 year old. For a while, was hoping these issues would heal, but it looks like that is not going to happen. I have a lot of inflammation daily that I try and manage. I try and self treat when ever I can to relieve the discomfort doing some kind of stretch or another throughout the day. Anyone know of a perm way to fix this type of degeneration in the spine? My PCP said essentially he can help manage symptoms, but wasn't mentioning anything about surgery except last ditch effort. I found NSAIDs do not really help as much as I had hoped they would so stopped taking them a few months back; it is better to just self adjust and get rid of the misalignment that causes pain. I am pretty resourceful in this way.

Craving for food I can't eat, not being able to eat like I was pre-opt (not over eating), and the strange noises my body make after drinking something