dizziness

 I am 4 weeks out and I am still having trouble with the protein.  The drinks, especially and I have started getting dizzy upon standing.  Has anyone experienced this?  I saw the dr last week and he said everything was fine, to not worry to much about the protein at once...just small amounts as tolerated.  ( I was getting very sick)  Now I am worried about it.  Any ideas....

Have you had your BP checked lately???  That's probably why you're dizzy.

 I did have it checked the other day and it was 112/72.  They didn't seem to think that was a problem but I am also on bp meds. I guess I call the drs office

Definitely call your surgeon's office. it could be absolutely nothing, but you should get it checked to be sure.

Here are my tricks:

1.  First thing in the morning, put one scoop of unflavored protein powder in a dish on your kitchen counter.  Every time you get something to eat, try to put a little bit of the protein in it.  Just start with a little pinch in your yogurt, pudding, soup, sugar free hot chocolate, whatever.  Just a pinch, stir well and see if you think another pinch will still be edible.  Even using just a little pinch at a time, by the end of the day you'll have gotten an extra 20 grams of protein or so.  And if you are really just using a pinch at a time, it should not affect the taste or texture of your food at all.

2.  Eat Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.  For the yogurt, buy plain and mix in something for flavor.  If you mix in a spoonful of sugar free cheesecake flavor pudding mix, it will taste like real cheesecake.  (you can add a tiny pinch of protein powder too and you'll never even know it's in there).

3.  Make protein ice cream.  See theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com.  I've only known one person ever to say they didn't like it.  It saved my butt in the beginning.  I didn't find a protein shake I could stand for the first few months but I had protein ice cream every day.

4.  Go to Vitamin Shoppe or GNC and buy some ready to drink shakes.  Just single bottles so if you don't like them you aren't stuck with a whole case.  Try these, if you can find them: Oh Yeah! brand in chocolate, cookies n creme and/or banana (lots of people seem to like those flavors, though not everyone does, of course); Isopure smoothies, not the ones that look like Gatorade, but it says smoothies on the bottle; Cytosport, which to me seemed a lot like the Isopure only I actually thought the Isopure was better - but I know some people that hate Isopure but love Cytosport, so try them); Atkins ready to drink, especially the mocha one  if you like mocha stuff; any others that look like they might be good.

5.  If you haven't tried hot protein drinks, try them.  You can find tons of recipes at bariatricfoodie.com but basically, say if you wanna make protein hot chocolate, you mix the protein powder with a little room temp liquid until you get a paste, then pour in ho****er/milk and the hot chocolate powder and stir.  Make it warm enough to be hot chocolate, but not super hot - like, don't add boiling water.

6.  Try the Unjury chicken soup, if you haven't.  Get a sample on their website.

7.  If you like coffee drinks, I have found that a spoonful of Maxwell House International French vanilla cafe mix (sugar free, decaf) makes almost any vanilla shake taste better.  Covers up the protein smell, too

 Thank you Kelly...those are some wonderful ideas.  I just got the unjury chicken soup yesterday in the mail so I will be having that today.  The protein on the counter sounds perfect, I can do that.

I do have a question though, I have not been able to find a greek yogurt that has the less than 3grams of sugar and fat.  What do you use?

Any plain Greek yogurt is fine.  It has some sugar in the form of lactose, which all yogurt has because it's made from milk.  Most people tolerate that sugar fine.  If you can drink milk, you can eat plain yogurt.  Flavor it yourself with sugar free pudding mix, no sugar added jam, splenda and fruit, or whatever you like. 

In one of the classes i took before my surgery, they talked about positional dizziness. They said it's normal and that we just need to take things slow. They said When you sit up, take a minute before standing up. Just tale your time for everything to avoid getting dizzy

When I have problems with dizziness or headache, I normally look at my fluid level. Are you getting enough liquids in? I am 6 weeks out and still have trouble getting my fluids in. I have also had 3 dilatations (last one was yesterday) and had 2 trips to the ER for IV fluids. Watch the fluid levels carefully.