I don’t like either of those foods, so I’m struggling to imagine eating only that for so long!
OMG YES. Five years ago I lost 20+ pounds while doing a medically-supervised low-calorie weight loss program, but I gained it all back about 6 months later. Some people have wondered why I don’t just do that again and “stick with it” this time. {sigh}
Yay!! Of course I need to talk with the doctor/nurse practitioner about it, but I’m happy to hear that I’m not completely off the mark.
You know what? I will! And I deeply appreciate this offer. My boss and my direct report are the only people at work who know (so far), and my employee’s sister had a sleeve gastrectomy a few years ago. She’s agreed to let me email her, too. I will take absolutely all of the support I can get…and I hope to do the same for someone else eventually.
LOL!
A friend who moved far away and who I only “see” on FB now recently lost a lot of weight, and when he posted a selfie for the first time in a while I made the same “what happened to your face?!” comment.
In the United States, insurance commonly covers bariatric surgery, but not the expensive weight loss drugs approved by our drug regulator (FDA). So the only other things most people try first are generally unproven.
I had my gastric bypass in 2007, and lost 80 lbs. No regrets. My doctor asked me if I wanted a band put in to keep me from stretching my stomach back out. I said yes; I’m so glad I did. If I eat too much, it is painful.
The surgery changes the way you eat, of course, but not just the amounts. When you have to chew your food to mush in order for it to digest properly, it kind of sucks the joy out of eating some things. I don’t like McDonald’s anymore. When I really had to chew up a McDonald’s hamburger, I realized it didn’t taste that good to me. I started concentrating on the quality of the food I was eating. I rarely eat out and never eat fast food.
I have tricks to make sure I always have some kind of protein available. For example, I will buy a good steak on sale, cook it so that it is still rare, let it rest, then cut it up into bit-sized pieces. I then freeze them separately on a baking tray lined with wax paper. When they’re fully frozen, I put them in a Ziploc bag, put the date on it, and stick it in the freezer. Then I can pull out a few pieces and heat them in the microwave.
I drink soda and have no problems with it. I can’t guzzle it, of course, but I still enjoy it.
I navigated the gradual change clothing-wise by buying clothes from Goodwill until I was finished losing weight. I didn’t want to invest much in transition clothes.
You feel the effects of alcohol much, much quicker and some people become alcoholics as a result, so be careful with that.
The surgery did not change my cravings for carbs and sweets and that was a struggle for a little while.
I didn’t mean drugs, specifically; I meant other methods of losing weight. For example, some of the things I’ve tried include a medically-supervised low-calorie program, therapy, a meal delivery service, gym memberships, and calorie counting.
You’re right, though, about insurance not covering the cost of many weight-loss drugs – or “fancy” diabetes meds. Three of my meds are covered well enough, but when I tried Ozempic last year I simply couldn’t afford it more than once. And after Januvia got added to my prescription list and I went to refill it at the start of the calendar year (when the annual deductible of my high-deductible plan had just reset), I nearly fell over. Likewise with certain “accessories”: I can stick my fingers all day every day for very little $, but preferring a painless glucose monitor (the FreeStyle Libre) costs $80/mo.
I know that my weight and the resulting health issues are my own fault, but the insurance companies sure don’t make it easy to get help.
Thank you for posting!
Good to note. How soon after surgery did you start drinking soda again?
I just started thinking about that the other day! I figure I won’t want to spend much on clothes during the first year, while most of the weight is coming off. I still have some things from 5 years ago, when I lost 20+ pounds doing a medically supervised program: they barely fit me then, and I’m hoping they’ll be good for a few months. Goodwill is an excellent tip!
Thanks! So far, the bariatric center is saying to have absolutely no alcohol during the first 12 months, and after that to only have it sparingly (a few drinks a year). I’m not a big drinker, so I don’t see it being much of an issue. I’ll likely be too nervous to ever have beer again (alcohol and carbonation! oh my!!) but I could see maybe having a little wine at the 1-year mark.
I am not looking forward to that.
Did you notice any change in your appetite? Obviously you get full faster, but do you still get just as hungry?
I probably tried soda after about six months. I would shake the bottle slightly to flatten it a little and then carefully sip it. Now I don’t need to do that, just watch how much I take in when it is first opened. I only have a little each week. I have mostly gone to the Bai drinks, which are not carbonated and don’t have aspartame or caffeine.
Immediately after surgery, I didn’t have much of an appetite but after a week or so, I did get hungry, but you’re full on very little food. The surgery did not change my appetite. There are times when I wish I could eat more if something is particularly good, but I can’t and it’s painful if I do. It’s interesting to go out to eat with other people. They’re just getting started and I’m done after a few bites, so I try to eat slower.
You do get a lot of mileage out of your food. When I cook a pot of chili, I get about 20 one-cup servings that go into the freezer. Same with soup. So I’ve saved money and sometimes that allows me to get better protein. Good steak when it’s on sale, things like that.
I like to think that I could cook, but I’ve lived alone for 26 of the past 27 years – and 12 of the past 12 years – and it’s never been worth the effort for just me. I suppose that not many healthy, ready-made meals come in convenient 8-oz servings, though, so I’m guessing I’ll need to learn how to make some basic stuff. Like, maybe a simple chili. Or maybe I can find a fellow post-op singleton who lives nearby and cooks, and I can pay them for servings.
I’ve always been partial to spicy and flavorful, but since my surgery, I have not found any homemade food that beats chili for high protein, low calories, price, flavor, and whatever other criteria you might have in mind. (Yeah, gas could be a problem, but maybe not for a singleton.) Enjoy!
My advice for people who have problems from the gas in carbonated drinks:
(Note - this only works at home, not elsewhere, sorry.)
Get an empty bottle the same size as the one you want to drink. Pour the soda into the empty bottle via a funnel. The funnel is critical. In my experience, time (such as letting a bottle sit open overnight, or even stirring your glass with a spoon) is a very poor way to get rid of the bubble. Exposure to air will do it very quickly, and that will happen when you pour into the funnel, when the soda sloshes inside the funnel, and when it comes out of the funnel into the second bottle.
You do not need to spend a lot of time on this. However fast the funnel drains will be fine. The great majority of bubbles will be gone in the first pass, and that should be enough for some people. If it still has too many bubbles, repeat once or twice, and you’ll be amazed how flat it is.
Yeah, the hunger comes back just as fast. Everything is proportional: Less food eaten = less food to digest.
The big change was learning the difference between “full” and “satisfied”.
Sounds like a joke, but that was my problem most of my life. Every meal, every time, I just kept eating until I was full. And if I wasn’t sure whether I was full or nut, then I kept going until I was stuffed.
But having to eat tiny portions - and the pain that came with overeating - taught me when to stop. “I know it’s delicious, but you better stop now, because one more bite and you’ll be sorry.” And it’s true - one more bite really can make the difference.
That doesn’t sound like a joke at all, Keeve: when I did the medically-supervised weight loss program five years ago I also did some behavior therapy*, and I still remember the moment I realized that “full” and “not hungry” were different things!
I laugh derisively (on the inside) at my neighbors who get regular delivery of meals in a box that they can pretend to cook themselves. But maybe that’s a way to go since you don’t so much have to plan a meal and shop for the ingredients - just pick a menu for the week and have it at your fingertips.
That reminds me of the new sensations my body was sending me. We all know what hungry feels like, and we all know what full feels like. But as my insides were healing and adapting to the new setup, I starting feeling things that I had not felt before, and I was unable to interpret. Was I hungry? Or was I full?
So the first thing I asked myself was , “Is this a danger signal? Should I be calling the doctor?” But I felt that it was NOT dangerous, that it had something to do with the contents of my new stomach. So I told my body, “I hereby designate that sensation as telling me that I don’t need more food yet.” And so it was, and when it changed to hunger, that’s when I ate. And the pounds started melting off.
Or, you can buy larger portions, split it into appropriate-sized portions, and refrigerate or freeze the rest to be eaten later. I’m always sad when there aren’t good leftovers in my fridge. There are 3 in my household, so we cook a lot. But I like restaurant leftovers, too. And my local supermarkets all have food to go that do, indeed, come in “family sized” portions, but can be cut up and frozen pretty easily.
(Not that I want to discourage you from cooking, but I don’t think you NEED to learn to do that.)
I’m sure I’ll wind up doing this at least some of the time. But the issue won’t just be portion size: I may find that it’s actually easier to start making my own stuff, so I can better control what’s in it.
Yeah, my grocery stores have those, too — but, they tend to have little (or questionable) nutritional value. And the store brand stuff is often too sweet/salty for my taste.
There are very few food options out there that I’m not aware of/haven’t tried…
Fair enough. My supermarket’s vegetables tend to have too much sugar, but the fish and chicken preparations are okay. Some are a bit too salty.
I’m a picky eater. My husband is a picky eater (in different ways) and we cook a lot of our own food. But I think I would find it very tedious to cook just for myself.
I’m a single person, probably with some food issues, and I haven’t figured out an answer to cooking yet. I’ve not had any bariatric surgery but between gastroparesis from diabetes (T2) and then taking “Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors” (Bydureon, Trulicity, Ozempic, et al) I have hardly any appetite and can’t eat much (volume) anymore. So I pretty much have the food capacities of a bariatric patient.
The only things I can really eat regularly are cereal and fruit. So, that’s kinda what I eat. Everyone has loads of advice WRT cooking and prepping but I can’t manage any of it. It sucks.
So, good luck to you on that journey. Once you’re post-op, if you’re having cooking/eating issues, hit me up. We can commiserate together.
I eat cereal for lunch most days (including today), and I always have cups of mandarin oranges in my fridge (I just had some with my dinner).
I can see the whole food thing being a challenge for me post-op. I plan to take advantage of the bariatric center’s support group meetings, and I figure I’ll be asking for suggestions along those lines.
I’ll definitely keep the commiseration offer in mind…thank you! And, sorry you’re having to deal with these issues, too.
In the late 1990s, I worked at a hospital that had a bariatric surgeon. Most of the patients were in the 250-350 pound range, and they had to have a battery of tests before he would go near them, including upper and lower GI scopes, and a psychiatric evaluation. The latter was the most common reason for him denying them surgery, even if the insurance approved it.
I later worked at a grocery store, and two of the employees there had procedures done by him. One had a very dramatic weight loss, the other one less so but she still lost a lot of weight, and both of them were done for medical reasons, not just cosmetic.
The one person I know of who had skin reduction surgery had it done at the same time as a hysterectomy for uterine cancer, and it was done then because they thought they saw a spot of cancer in her abdominal pannus. Her oncologist said, “That’s the first time I’ve ever know anyone who was happy about possibly having more cancer!” That recovery, from the abdominoplasty, was more painful than any other procedure she’s ever had done, but she wanted it anyway, and they took off 26 pounds of skin, so it was definitely a big deal.
I started a thread here about THIS procedure, which is not covered by any American insurer (what does that tell you?). Check it out at your own risk.
My boss and my direct report are the only people at work who know (so far), and my employee’s sister had a sleeve gastrectomy a few years ago. She’s agreed to let me email her, too. I will take absolutely all of the support I can get…and I hope to do the same for someone else eventually.
