34 Years Old, 3 Kids and Ready to Start Over! Houston, TX

I'd like to add that I've had no cravings or appetite for "bad" foods. I have a big sweet tooth and I can pass up candy, cake, ice-cream, whatever! A couple times I've had a spoon full of ice cream or a bite of cake but that's it. I've felt very satisfied with that little bit and haven't wanted anymore. That's a crazy feeling after a lifetime of always wanting more! This feeling alone is worth having the sleeve surgery.

Before surgery I drank wine very often--probably too often. The couple sips I've had since surgery have really turned me off! I'm not sure if this is permanent or if my tastes have actually changed. I'm learning other ways to relax without having a couple drinks in the evening. This is another thing that makes me feel less guilty every day.

Well I'm almost 6 weeks pre-op now. I've lost about 22 pounds overall. I've only lost about 4 pounds so far in March. I have NO idea how I'm losing weight so slowly. I'm eating soooo little. I'm usually the type who follows doctor's orders by the letter and I assumed I'd be the same way with this surgery. Little did I know how difficult this would be!

First, I almost never get my 78g of protein in. Really, the only way to do this is to drink two protein drinks with milk (60g all together) and then have a couple other high protein foods. The problem is, I can barely tolerate protein drinks anymore after 7 weeks of drinking them. Sometimes they make me really nauseated and one time I even threw it up. I've tried many different brands. The ones they stay down the best are the ones lowest in protein.

Second, it seems impossible to get in my minimum goal of 48 oz of fluids. Oddly enough, water makes me nauseated. I drink as often as possible but it truly is a full time job to try to get my liquids in. Before surgery I was a water drinker and it never bothered my stomach.

Third, the amount of food I take in is very low. I love that I can take only a few bites and I'm full. It's a great feeling! However, it's difficult to take in much protein or calories that way. I pretty much only eat high protein foods. Even with all of this, I am hungry often! Now, I don't have much of an appetite so even when I'm hungry, I have no interest in eating. But it does get old (and painful at times) to be hungry so much of my life. I can fill my stomach and an hour later I'm hungry again. I wake up hungry when I sleep.

So, all of this, I guess, has slowed down my metabolism and created very slow weight loss. I am VERY tired and sleepy most of the time. I'm never ready to get up in the morning and I'm always looking for a nap. This has been the hardest part of the whole lifestyle change. With three young children and two dogs, life doesn't slow down for me. I have a really hard time simply maintaining the house and taking care of everyone. Sometimes just taking a shower and getting ready to leave the house wears me out so much that I just lay back down for a couple hours! Fortunately, my husband has taken up much of the slack. He prepares dinner many nights and gets the kids ready for school in the morning. And he's not picky about how messy or clean the house is. Now it bothers me like crazy to see clutter everywhere! But not enough to dig through it all either. I am so lucky to have him!

I hate to sound negative. There have been lots of positives. First of all I'm down 22 pounds! I'm not down a pants size yet but the smallest of this size are baggy on me. I don't have the constant guilt of eating horribly and knowing that I'm gaining weight. I feel like a great role model for my kids as far as the way I'm eating in front of them. I can eat pretty much everything. I haven't tried steak and really dry things like jerky and pita chips or tortillas don't go down well. But everything else I've had (which is a ton of stuff), feels great. I've had no throwing up, stomach aches, heartburn, reflux or diarrhea. Really, I've had no pain since surgery either. I feel very lucky with all of this. I can go to a restaurant and enjoy a regular meal with friends and family and be completely satisfied at the end. I usually split a meal with one or more of my kids and take the rest home for another meal. Even though I don't have my usual energy, I do take at least one walk a day and sometimes we go on an extra long walk or hike in the woods. I'm anxious to start a harder work out regimen.

Overall I am very happy with my sleeve and I know things will improve. The problem is that I know that it's MY responsibility to make things improve and I'm hoping it gets easier to get my fluids and protein down. I'm hoping that over the next month I regain my energy and start losing more weight. It's deflating to be this tired and hungry and NOT be losing weight! Last time I lost a bunch of weight the natural way, I lost 10 pounds a month for 5 months with no plateaus.

I spoke to the dietitian at the hospital about my problems and she thinks that my body is rebelling (through hunger, slow weight loss and tiredness) from having too few calories. She actually suggested that I add juice and more fruits into my diet. I'm very nervous about having juice because I don't want to get used to the sweetness. She would like me to shoot for 1000-1200 calories daily. Right now I'm well under 1000. She also stressed the importance of the vitamins. The chewables nauseate me too (I can't tolerate artificial sweeteners) so I've ordered swallowable vitamins. She said that the water making me nauseated is probably just a phase and that I should try adding lemon or drinking juice to combat it.

I'll add updated pics soon. Thanks for listening. I read everyone's reviews on here but I'm not great at commenting. Thanks everyone for reading this and writing your own updates. They are SO helpful to me!

Things are looking up! For the first two days the nausea was horrible. Then for the next two days I was afraid to have much of anything for fear it would make me nauseated. Then on day 5 I set out to refuel and rehydrate myself. Until yesterday I was still mostly light headed and extremely weak. I focused on getting in my 78g of protein and lots of fluids. The protein is pretty easy. It takes 2.5 shakes of Unjury and milk to get to 73g protein. I'm on the "full liquids" phase until day 14 (I'm currently on day 9). According to my pamphlet that means water, juice, broth, protein powder and cream soups minus the chunks. By day 2 of that I was wondering how I was supposed to continue for another week! I'm tired of broth. Juice is high in calories so I don't want to get used to the sweetness of it and that leaves little else to eat! I called the bariatric nurse at the hospital. She was sleeved three years ago so I felt like she'd have some insight. She said I could blend up a banana and some peanut butter in the protein shakes for flavor and added calories. Yay! You would have thought she'd said I could have a steak and onion rings! Haha. She also said i could have any creamy consistency soup (doesn't actually have to be "cream of...") and blend up the chunks. She actually suggested going to a restaurant and getting the broccoli and cheese soup and not eating the broccoli or blending it up. Well, that freaks me out because I can only imagine the calorie content there. But it was nice to have a half banana and some pb in my protein shake and have blended chicken in my cream of chicken soup. Just a different flavor and some more nutrients. Yesterday and today I have woken up without being weak. I am still not rearing with energy but I'm able to walk my dogs a couple times a day and walk my kids to and from school as well as be alert all day long. If I did have a job, I would say that yesterday (day 8) would have been the first day I could have gone back to a desk job. It was the first day I felt competent driving too. My mom still has my toddler at her house. I could probably just now take care of him just fine. Before now I wouldn't be able to keep up with his constant needs, pick him up to change diapers, put him in his crib, etc.

Now starts a different question: How many calories to ingest daily? In ALL the reams of paperwork the doc's office and hospital gave me about eating, there is NOTHING about calorie count in there! Before yesterday I'd only been taking in maximum 600 calories a day. Yesterday it went up to 1,000 with the pb, juice, extra creamed soups and banana. I have no clue what I should be eating now. I've looked around online and of course the suggestions range from 600 to 1,200 calories per day. I do know that it's possible to over eat even at this stage. I easily could have done more pb and bananas and been much higher.

On that note, I am able to eat quite a bit. I'm eating slowly but I really don't feel a stopping point. I'm not pushing it though so maybe I just having found the stopping point yet. And maybe bc I'm on liquids only, it moves through my stomach so quickly that I'm not getting that stuffed feeling. It does worry me slightly because I want to be one of those who can only eat a bit before I'm full. That being said, I don't think I'm eating too much because I'm watching it very closely.

I can see weight loss in my face and over all as well as feel it in my clothes. I'll weigh at the doc's office next Tuesday. O've vowed to not become obsessed with my weight loss number. As long as the number is always going down and not up, I will be happy. I don't want to get caught up in the speed of the weight loss like I always have done in the past. Besides, anything less than what I was (and definitely not getting bigger by the day), is better than before. I want to keep a positive feel about my weight loss this time. Not the impossibility I've had before which I believe has led to the subsequent weight gains.

I'd love feedback on your experience with calorie counts. Thanks everyone!