csmccord Member

Ah, the whole 6 month waiting thing. I remember that. I'm 22 months post-op for RNY. Make sure you take care of all of your presurgical requirements while waiting. It makes the process so much easier, and you just coast into the surgery date without having to scramble around to do tests, etc. Also, if you are still…

From what I've read in my research surcalose has the same effect on the insulin rollercoaster that processed carbs such as sugar, white flour, etc have. Personally, I try to use nothing but Truvia, which is a Stevia leaf extract.

5.5 weeks post op? Need to worry about calories? Nope. Worry about protein and listening to your body to learn the full signal or your reaction to being full. Most bariatric patients have a tell for when they are full. Mine is 3 or 4 hiccups in a row very quickly. I have learned to the hard way to never eat past that…

I think you'll notice that the closer you are to surgery, either pre or post, the more you think about it. Once you get more than about 6 months out it becomes just part of life. I still weigh the majority of my food, but I don't officially track, as I know the approximate values for most of the foods that I eat. So, for…

I went through the RNY process about 2 years ago. There are many similarities in the diet and recovery time of both surgeries, so I could certainly help out if you need it.

We need to know how far post-op you are. But Dannadl's advice is sound. Work on protein first and foremost. If you are anything less than 6 or 8 months post-op, don't worry about calories just yet. Just work on getting a good 80 gm or protein or so a day. In my almost 2 years since surgery, every time I've had a stall,…

How far post-op are you? Honestly you shouldn't be worried about calorie counts until you are at least at few months post op. I didn't start tracking calories until about a year after my RNY. Concentrate on listening to your body to tell you when to stop, and work on getting your protein counts up.

I think the biggest downside to the RNY is the mal-absorption. At my 18 month check up I was speaking with my DR about this. He said that over time the body adjust and will start getting the macro nutrients at a normal rate again. However the micro nutrients (vitamins+minerals) would still not be as readily absorbed for…

Yeah, I don't find cookbooks particularly helpful when you have resources online. What my wife (she had RNY as well) do is is Pintrest as essentially an online cookbook. She has boards setup based on type of food (mexican, italian, indian, etc) and we have one board for new ideas, and a separate one for our meals for the…

Glad to see you making a change! Give it at least 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference! I'm willing to bet it will.

I'm 22 months post RNY, and here is my list of biggest things to do now, and post surgery. Now: 1. Get a few sample packs of protein powder. DO NOT BUY TUBS NOW! Your tastes will change after surgery, and you might not like what you bought before surgery. Then you are stuck with 50 or 100 bucks of protein that you can't…

YES! Food scale! It's so much more accurate than measuring with cup measures. The scale more accurately reflects the actual serving size. Take oatmeal for example. A serving of oatmeal is 40 gms or 1/2 cup. Now, I've actually done this. I've measured out a half cup. Now, I actually took a knife and ran the flat edge along…

I make protein oatmeal. This recipe is surely more than what some can eat, but it works for me. Base Recipe 40 gm oatmeal (1 serving) 1 scoop protein powder 1 cup So Delicious Almond+ Milk (Almond milk with extra protein) Then for flavors I'll do one or other... Chocolate protein with 24 gm (2 servings) of PB2. Sometimes…

First, protein - What about it makes you sick? Is the taste? If so there are a few things you can do. Since you are only 4 weeks post-op, you're probably in the soft foods/mushy stage. This is going to limit what you can really do, but there are options. 1. If the chocolate, vanilla thing is what's getting, you try…

That's got to be the weirdest thing I've heard in my 3 year journey now! From reading about people's journeys on the forums here I've found there are very different approaches to recovery from surgery as well as diet. However, there are a few things that seems to be the same no matter what surgeon does the surgery. They…

Honestly, for about the first 8 months, I didn't care about calories. I worked on getting my protein up to what they wanted and concentrated on portion sizes and portion control. Maybe with the revision since you have less left to lose, you're journey is different, however mine, I never worried about calories until I was…

Grace, what kind of surgery did you have? I'm 22 months post RNY and my surgeon didn't want me to drop the protein until about 12 months post op. He wanted me getting between 50 and 60 gm a day from the supplements itself, and about 90 or so gm a day total. His reasoning was that bariatric patients simply can't eat enough…

How far post-op are you? I found that after a few months, when I had recovered, and had lost significant weight, that I didn't need to sleep at long each night. I used to need a minimum of 8 hours a night to be functional, and now I'm wide awake after about 6 hours. I'm not sure if it's the weight loss, or the fact that…

Yeah, the tough love thing here might be the best route. I'm 21 months post RNY, so yeah, I get it. I get wanting to drink during or after a meal, especially if it was salty. Here is why you don't want to, ESPECIALLY at only 7 weeks post-op. 1. You still have a very small pouch. It starts out the size of your thumb from…

Brave doing crackers and cheese on the mushy phase, especially right at the beginning of it! You should count yourself lucky that nothing happened to you! Eating solids early can tear holes in your new pouch due to staple lines still healing! That's why they tell you to do liquids first! I had 2 weeks of liquids only, then…

For other protein powders to try, you could get a sample pack of Nectar from Syntrax. They are pretty good and have flavors such a crystal sky (Fruit punch), lemonade, iced tea, etc. They aren't too bad tasting. Greek yogurt is also a VERY good suggestion. I'm 21 months post op and still have it almost daily! Helps me with…

Nectar is good stuff if you are looking for something other than chocolate, strawberry or vanilla. I mean, who else makes ice tea, or fruit punch flavored protein?!

I have only dumped probably 2 or 3 times since surgery. So yes, I do dump, however it takes me being very bad to do it. For example I can handle two or three cookies at a time. I can handle 2 services of ice cream, which is something like 30 or 40 gm of sugar. So, my threshold is MUCH, MUCH higher than others. From what…

I attribute much of my success to the fact that my wife had the RNY 6 weeks before I did. We have the same diet, the same mind frame of what we want to accomplish, and it's very easy to support each other. We both understand what the requirements are, and what dumping feels like. We both know that sometimes there are bad…

Ashburn, VA (30 miles west of DC)

Moisture is the name of the game right now. Anything that is moist. Maybe tuna or chicken salad using greek yogurt and a bit of mayo. Eggs, beans, soups with most of the extra liquid drained off are all good options. My biggest suggestion is to only try one new food a time though. Sometimes post surgery our GI system…

Are you taking sips of the liquid? Right now, your pouch is about the size of your thumb from the tip to the first joint. It's incredibly small right now! You need to slowly sip at liquids and not gulp or take large swallows. Sipping is the most important thing right now. You should always have a bottle of water with you,…

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a slice or two or pizza, as long as it fits in with your macro goals. If one slice will satisfy you, why not have it? Maybe compromise and have a salad first, then have that slice of pizza second? There is nothing wrong with carbs, as long as they fit your macros, and are eaten…

I actually emailed my surgeon's office about this procedure, which they don't do. They said that they were aware of it, and that it's not that new. They don't recommend it as they found the addition risk of long term acid reflux combined with the unproven advantages over a traditional bypass offputting. If it were me, the…

Ever since my Marine Corps days 10 years ago, I've had a bad left knee. It still hurt during and after exercise even after losing 100 lbs. I have found ways to mitigate it though. This is my routine: Mon, Wed, Fri - Cardio 10 min warmup - walking 3.3 MPH with 2%-4% grade on treadmill. No pain. 10 min running at 7.9 to 8.5…