Got the plan from my surgeon..reasonable or drastic?

Hello all! I am 3 1/2 yrs post op rouxen-y and have gained back most of my weight. I went to see my surgeon a week ago very discouraged and frustrated. I expected him to basically yell at me or lecture me about being so non-compliant. But to my surprise he was reasonable. Anyway..this is the plan he put me on..I am just curious as to how others' plans compare and opinions on if it seems reasonable, doable, or too drastic at this stage of the game. :

1. Back to shakes..so 2 shakes a day each with 2 scoops protein(I ordered UNJURY) with skim milk a little yogurt and maybe frozen fruits. One shake is at 11am the second at 3,  nothing before 11am except some coffee or small amount of juice.

2. Regular dinner within reason and I can have a little something sweet with it. Nothing after dinner at all.

Exercise is a bonus but not required at this stage. He just wants me to get this part down first. The goal is for me to lose about 2 lbs a week and by March follow up have lost atleast 20lbs.

What do you think? I am gonna do my best, very hard for me as I love to snack and eat breakfast. But not sure what else I can do.

Kristen

First let me say that I don;t mean any of this to be mean... I am just trying to be honest.

I would NOT go back to shakes.  I don;t know anything about you, but at 5.5 years out, most of the people that I have seen *****gained a signficant amount of weight back did so because they never really embraced a new way of eating.  They changed their eating long enough to get the weight off and then once they were done losing, they became complacent and allowed too many of the old eating habits back in.  The only people I know who bhave been successful long term have been people who truly learned a new way of eating.  We are ALL living proof that DIETING (which is what doing 2 shakes per day would be) never works. IMO -- both as a RNY patient and a licensed counselor -- all going back to shakes will do (no matter how far out you are or how much (or little) weight you have regained) is reinforce a dieting mentality (and that just kicks in that diet-deprivation-regain cycle that kept us all overweight for so long).

My suggestion would be to go back to eating they way you were eating when you were 6 months out (assuming you were being compliant with food choices at that point in time): protein first at every meal, very limited carbs (with NO "white" carbs), measured/limited portions, and NO drinking with or right after meals.  Doing that will reinforce the healthy, new eating plan you need to be on in order to control the weight long term. 

Just my 2 cents' worth.

Lora

****rogirl makes good points but I think the shakes and very limited calories might be what you need, to lose some weight fast and motivate you to keep going.

I agree with Lora. It is proven that losing weight after two years out becomes much more difficult, especially after regain. Doing a crash diet of mostly shakes will probably help the weight loss, but it will do absolutely nothing to teach her how to eat properly.

What would happen after your period of shakes? go back to normal eating and gain the weight again? You need to follow the rules of eating or you will not lose weight and will probably gain more.

I personally say follow Lora's advice. She is a vet with long term success.

I also want to say that I understand needing that weight loss as motivation. But she lost a lot of weight, but still wasnt motivated to eat according to plan. Its time to buckle down or deal with the weight gain for the rest of your life.

I think that 2 shakes would not do for me. I would split the shakes into 4.  I know I could have 4 shakes and 1 meal. And water and coffee and tea together. But I would need some fat - so I would use unsweet coconut milk instead of skim milk. 

Can it be done? sure... If I were you - I would try for 2-3 weeks... grind my teeth and see what happens. Apparently what you are doing is not working for you. 

Good luck.

I would give it a try for a week and see how you do.  I would also consider splitting the shakes into 4 instead of two, for me personally it would give me something to look forward to.  You will probably feel some hunger sooner than eating a well balanced protein first meal.  Not eating breakfast would be the most difficult for me.

If I were in your position right now this is a plan I'd look at doing.  I'm not recommending you do this as if you trust your surgeon and want to be compliant to his suggestions, please follow through first.

 

Breakfast:  1 boiled egg, 2 slices of turkey bacon

Snack:  cheese stick, 1 serving of microwave turkey pepperoni OR protein shake

Lunch:  4 oz lean meat or seafood (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, crab, etc.) and 1/4 - 1/2 c. green leafy veggies

Snack:  Yogurt or cottage cheese OR protein shake

Dinner:  same as lunch

This is basically my game plan most days anyway.  Am I perfect, heck no but when the scale goes up I go back to this program.

Good luck, please post for support and share your victories.  You CAN do this.

 

I would go with Lora's suggestions.  This surgery, as drastic as it is, is still only a tool, to learn to eat properly.  It gives the dramatic weight loss in the beginning to satisfy the fact that you are doing so well and it gives the time to learn a forever way of eating.  Grazing will never be good.  Empty carbs, lots of fats, will never be good.  Protein first, always and forever.

We all know people who have had several procedures only to gain it all back.  Do you really want to go through all that again?  We all know people who have made this journey and have been successful and it all has to do with following the rules.  This has to be a real commitment to yourself that you are going to follow through.  I am sure wherever you had your surgery done gives you some sort of book to follow.  I will be using Barix and they have what they call their bible and it is a forever program.  If anyone should get off-track (and this happens), it is easier to drop 5 pounds than 50.

I was hoping the Band would do it for me, but I guess it slipped and put me in 4 years of bullemic, fat hell.  As soon as my thyroid gets to where it should be, I shall be ready to proceed.  My surgery date was to have been tomorrow.  My bad for not taking my meds as I should have.  I have definitely learned my lesson there.  Hopefully, when I have labs done on the 26th, it will be good enough to reschedule me, as 2013 IS still going to be MY year!

Kristen I am not a doctor and def. not YOUR doctor. I would hope you chose one you trust and can listen to.

While I can only assume he's going to take you back to shakes and one meal to see weight loss and then maybe progress you through the stages learning to eat right this time I would ask him to clarify what his life long intentions are for you.

I do have one issue with his nothing before 11 am unless you don't get up until 10:30 am. but again I'm not a doctor.

I still can't eat in the morning so I do a protein shake for breakfast each day to break the fast that sleeping causes. I'm not sure what my blood sugar would do if I waited til 11 to eat either that would concern me.

I think that whether or  not you choose to follow his plan you need to change something. You also need to get to the bottom of why you chose to get a life altering surgery and then not change your lifestyle to make it successful. You need to ask yourself the tough questions of why if you were noncompliant to begin with you will be compliant this time going forward? Be honest with yourself and if you need to, seek counseling to resolve some of the tougher questions and maybe tougher answers you find.

Isn't there another surgery that they can do to adjust stoma and pouch size when this has happened.  The only reason  that I am eating better right now is because my body won't let me eat the bad stuff or large quantities.  I would love you to get back to that starting point again and maybe the second time will be a charm...with therapy!