12 Days Post OP

SO! I am officially 12 days post OP and feeling pretty well to be honest. There are some small annoyances from the largest incision but they are pretty few an far between. I haven't had any complications so far with the exception of the occasional hiccup that is kind of painful. I am down 34.1 lbs since I started my pre op diet which I believe is pretty darn good. I have a visit with my surgeons office on the 5th and I am hoping to advance my diet all liquids are killing me. I have, a few times now, had feelings of regret when my roommates are eating pizza in front of me or when my fiance is enjoying a burger or a brat. But i just keep my focus on why I'm doing this and although its really tough I know that in the end it will be worth it. 

Question 1: I feel like I might be running into a little bit of a constipation issue. This seems to be a common theme with the diet and surgery. If you have experienced this what have you done to help this along?

Question 2: What are some good foods to try during the pureed stage and on average in the beginning how much could you have before you felt full? I can have things like water and tomato soup now without much real issue as long as I go slow while eating it and I dont have any trouble getting in my water, vitamins, and protein. 

Question 3: If your reading this and you have already succeed with your surgery and you have met your goal. How much exercise did you honestly do? I want to exercise but I also want to ensure that whatever I am doing is going to help me achieve my goal.

If you have ANY tips, hints, suggestions, or ideas please let me know I am VERY open to things like this :-).

Question 1: I feel like I might be running into a little bit of a constipation issue. This seems to be a common theme with the diet and surgery. If you have experienced this what have you done to help this along?

I rarely had this issue, but when I did, I followed my surgeon's instructions which were Milk of Magnesia + Senokot or Dulcolax. Worked like a charm.

Question 2: What are some good foods to try during the pureed stage and on average in the beginning how much could you have before you felt full? I can have things like water and tomato soup now without much real issue as long as I go slow while eating it and I dont have any trouble getting in my water, vitamins, and protein.

I did well with Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, refried beans, poached eggs, and what I would call my puree casseroles. For those, I would take a bit of meat, add some complementary sauce, and puree them together. Then transfer to the microwave, top with a bit of cheese, and warm it up. Some combos that worked well for me:

chicken breast + marinara sauce + mozzarella

turkey + peanut satay sauce + jack cheese

ground bison + bbq sauce + cheddar

tuna + sriracha mayo + pepper jack

sardines + curry sauce + swiss cheese

You get the idea.

I had strict guidance on how much to eat - no more than 3 tablespoons per meal. That amount kept me satisfied. Don't look for a "full" feeling -- if you get that, you've gone too far. Plus your stomach is still healing and may not be able to accurately relay signals about whether you are sated or not. So look more for a feeling of "non-hunger" or not particularly needing to eat anymore.

Good luck!

Those are a bunch of delicious sounding recipes!!! That is exactly what I was looking for :-) Thank you very much for the speed reply!

+1 to everything Bufflehead wrote. I just wanted to add, I also didn't start feeling "full" until I was like 2-3 weeks post-op. That's why I made sure to weigh everything out to be like 3 oz, as per my plan. Now that'm almost 6 weeks out, I can definitely feel fullness - though I still measure out all my food, the feeling really hits me when I eat too fast (something I still struggle with).

Best of luck to you!!

Question 1: I take Metamucil pills every day, and Miralax did the trick when I had a hard time relatively soon post-op.

Question 2: For the puree stage, I ate a lot of lentil soup (whizzed in the blender with protein powder), ricotta cheese with a little bit of tomato sauce, and Greek yogurt. I could do canned tuna with some mayo as well, but not much of it. And VERY small amounts, maybe 1oz total at a time, in teeny bits-- like the size of a pencil shaving.

Question 3: Generally, what you eat is more important than how or how much you exercise. Not to say that you shouldn't, or you can get away without it! But I didn't really get into much exercising (cycling****il I was at least 3 or 4 months out.

I think that I am going to try to pick up some miralax tonight I hope that helps move things along! Did you notice any differences once you started the Cycling? I am looking forward to the exercise I just dont want to over do anything! I am really excited to see what me and Mr. Sleeve are going to like once I can eat a little bit of food again. I like that picking up head hunger from real hunger has gotten pretty easy for me lately!  :-) Thank you very much for the speed reply!

I think the cycling helped a lot because most people see their loss slow down a LOT after a few months. I couldn't do much at first, maybe only a few miles, but by the 9-month mark I could ride hard for an hour and get a REALLY good workout, and I think it helped a bunch!

I find it both sad and exciting that at even my age it has been so long since I have really done anything that I used to really really enjoy that I have forgotten how fun it was when I could do things. I find that as my weight is coming off a bit I have less desire to just be complacent with what I can do and I want to do a bunch of things. Its been almost 7 years since I have been skydiving... I am starting the down payment on my Class A diving licence. My goal is to start skydiving/parachuting lessons next year to get my full certificate!

Oh wow, that's exciting! It's always neat to see how people start to try new things as their weight isn't holding them back anymore. I'd think parachuting is crazy... but I know others say the same about me when I bust out the spandex and ride 50 miles on a Saturday :)

I'm 24 days out

Q1 took MOM once and maybe never again , yikes.  Benefiber, miralax now my go to. Will get better once you start soft foods. Also make sure enough fluids

Q2 cottage cheese with puréed peaches or pears. Re fried beans - I use Say Yes to Beans to prevent the gas that comes along with it.  Puréed canned chicken with mayo and mustard... Still did soup and protein shakes - I use Unjury products.

Q3 not long term by any means but have managed 30 minutes 5-6 days per week. Light hand weights for my arms.