Steak (rib eye)

"Protein salad"  tiny bit of lettuce loaded with cheese, meat,  and real fat ranch

Brok's pizza

Greek yogurt sweetened with splenda and SF jelly

Fried cheese with spenda and SF syrup

Atkins meals have just come out.  Man I wish they had those when I was loosing.  But they are a new staple here.

Protein bars and shakes

Ricotta Fluff

Faux Cheesecake

Chicken fingers, fried chicken,  KFC Double down.  (makes about 4 meals early out, now I can eat a whole one)

No carb burgers (lettuce wraps)

I don't know.  I never got bored.  The weight just flew off.

Oh I ate one very very dark chocolate bar a week.  It has very few carbs the darker the chocolate you get.

Hope this helps.

~Becky

I still use Centrum Chewables (two a day) as my back-up for all my other vites I take.  I also like chewable Vitamin C so I use that.  It is like a treat that I take after I have downed my handful of other vites.

By one month out I was taking everything VitaLady recommended.  She didn't have a starter pack then.  I don't think I would have used it anyway.

I got full labs at 3 months and started the tweaking process then.  The first year I got labs quarterly and am getting them twice a year forever.  At 2 1/2 years out I had to tweak.  I think it is just part of the journey.

~Becky

I wouldn't have been dissappointed.  I would have been furious.  Is this surgeon known for doing the DS or was he planning to do a sleeve all along and just didn't tell you?

I'm so sorry this happened to you.  But maybe your situation can be a warning to others.  TALK to your surgeon in depth about your demand to have a DS.  Study your surgeon's reputation.  Talk to others who used your surgeon.  Make sure your surgeon knows you ONLY want a full DS.

~Becky

Start with a long round of Flagyl.  Then make sure you've cut any possible offenders out of your diet.  It really is doable, finding what causes yours and controlling it.  I know it is horrible now, but it can get much better.

For me, it takes Flagyl if I ever get really out of sinc, then I eat a lot of yogurt and stay away from gluten.  That pretty much keeps my gas tolerable.  I still have some, but EVERYBODY has some.

~Becky

I'm sorry you had that experience.  I'm not sure she's well.

But nevertheless not a way to run a business or speak with a customer.

I follow her plan but get my advice from Major Mom (Gina).   You might ask her if she will help you.  She has always been there to help me.  With every labs she advises me as I have no one else who can.

~Becky

I use the Atkins high protein bars.  Some of them are almost no protein so you have to label read.  I think the lowest I will go is 15.  I try to keep them to one a day.

I like that they are right at hand at my local Walmart.  I don't like how expensive they are!!  But I pay it.

~Becky

The vitamins are not negotiable.  You will have to take them for life.  Most surgeons and their staff do not know what vitamins we need or even how to interpret labs.  They probably won't order all the labs you need as well.  So that means you have to be able to work around that and be very creative and persistent.  Your health depends on it.

You need to start vitamins BEFORE your labs show you are deficient.  It is VERY hard to bring up deficient labs.  The right thing to do is to start VitaLady's plan, either pre-packaged or individual bottles as soon as you can and tweak when you get your labs.  I got labs every 3 months for the first year and now get them twice a year.  It is critical that you find a lab that knows what they are doing.  I've been to labs that were clueless and took 2 hours to draw my labs because they had to look up how to do most of them.  Hospital labs have been very competent in my experience.

The way you eat will change for life.  If you go back to a high carb diet you WILL gain weight.  Start now to get recipes for low carb meals.  Some foods may cause you severe bloating/gas and other problems.  Don't be surprised.  Don't try new things away from home!!

You probably can't eat too much protein.  If you don't eat enough fat you may get constipated.  There are lots of ideas about how to manage constipation because unmanaged it can lead to anal fissures which hurt like HELL and are VERY hard to heal.  Too much diahreah may cause them too.

A gallon of water a day.  This will help with constipation too.  And it is so easy to get dehydrated with the DS.  And that can make you feel like crap.  I am constantly drinking water ALL day long.  I have a bottle of water with me every waking moment.  I sneak it in to movies, church, etc...

Bone density.  If you don't get enough Calcium, Magnesium Citrate, and Vitamin D you will loose calcium from your bones.  Your body will not let you become calcium deficient even if it means making your bones so brittle that you can break them very easily.  Get a pre-op bone density scan (it is like a simple exray) and then at least yearly after that.  A lot of us take Calcium every couple of hours throughout the day to prevent Osteoporosis.  You don't want things to get to the point that you have to take a drug like Fosomax.  Be diligent about all your vitamins, water, protein and you will do great.  If you think your surgeons plan is sufficient your labs will tank and your bone density among other health problems will happen sooner rather than later.

On this forum Major Mom (Gina) is excellent at providing advice if you post or email to her your lab results and your supplement regimine.  VitaLady herself can also advise you.

So those are some of the down side to having the DS.  It is not all puppies and rainbows.  But if you want to loose the weight AND keep it off it is the best surgery available today.

Getting rid of co-morbids (high blood pressure, high cholsesterol, diabetes, etc...) is certainly worth taking a few handfuls of vitamins every day.  And living life THIN is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.

I love my DS and my only regret is the decades I lived obese. 

Hope this is helpful

~Becky

You are pregnant?  And they didn't refer you to a hematologist?  Do you have a high risk OB?  Now I am really worried.

~Becky

Did you get a tummy tuck with your hernia repar??  I hope the pain goes away SOON!!

~Becky

Sue,

What cream cheese pancake recipe are you using?  I do a cream cheese/egg recipe called "Oopsie bread" that I cook in little puffs and eat with butter, splenda and cinamon.  Sort of a take off funnel cake or pastry puffs. The recipe calls for puttinig them in ziplock bags overnight and that then they have the consistency of a burger bun but I haven't tried that.

~Becky

I was a relative light weight with a high weight of 262 at 5'8" but I had chronic pain.  I had many MRIs, lots of drugs, Physical Therapy.  It was all due to the weight stressing my joints.  And I barely did anything because it always hurt.

Now?  I do more in one hour than I could do in a month.  The DS took YEARS off of me.  No more pain, or drugs for pain.

It is really amazing the difference.

~Becky

Oh my god.  Who told you to WAIT until you are deficient in the fat soluble vitamins BEFORE you start taking them?  You have no idea how hard it is going to be for you to bring them up when it would have been a LOT easier to keep them up or raise them from where you started.

That was bad advice that you took. 

~Becky