BurgundyBoy

Daisygirl try 1/2 a shake every two-three hours, with clear liquids between if needed. That may help keep you level. I prefer hot broth with various spices to make it more interesting to plain broth or water. If you are doing this for 2 weeks you will go into ketosis since your carbohydrate intake will be low. Thus: expect you may not feel great with the "ketosis flu" for the first 4-5 days, then (happily) followed by the clarity of thinking and lack of hunger than ketosis brings on.

Scrawny toes.

If this persists you might use Pedialyte or broth with a little little salt... If you are not urinating then you are dehydrated

Just pick yourself up, dust off the crumbs left on you by the Evil Weight Loss Spirits who tried to sabotage you, and do what you have done to lose all this weight to date. All of us have things like this episode happen. You'll be more resilient in the future. One learns much more from one's mistakes than from one's successes. Your success is not constrained by an episode of overeating and drinking wine; to the extent the episode informs you, your long-term success is more likely, not less likely. IF you were not paying attention and this became your nightly practice, that would be different. I think that is what you should be fearful of! So I think you are doing marvelously.

@Kio Regards to Leah and congrats on new job! re: cycling question - your point about cycling in traffic is well made. During the week, I usually cycle on a former rail line, the Minuteman Bike Path that goes from the Alewife subway line stop in Cambridge MA to Bedford MA via Arlington and Lexington. It can be crowded during commuter hours. Once in Bedford there are surface and forest roads that go into (historic) Concord, and Carlyle and down to Dover - for those of you not familiar with the Boston area, these are small towns to the west of Boston. I also cycle on the streets early in the morning, say 6-7 am, on weekends since there is little traffic then. The Minuteman trail connects to a bunch of other ones that by and large are on lightly trafficked roads north and west. A lot of people also like to cycle on Cape Cod on the path that runs from mid-Cape out past Wellfleet.

Emma, most everyone on this Forum was an emotional eater. Binge eating would also be common. Having an healthy relationship to food involves breaking the cycle of emotionally binging away. This is not rocket science, nor is success uncommon. WLS changes your metabolism and the physiology of your hunger: once hunger is out of the picture, and you have size restriction, it's very easy to only eat small portions ... you are satisfied with way less. You learn to prioritize eating what you need to stay healthy and what tastes good. You can indulge but instead of indulging by eating a huge amount, you indulge by eating well. Quality over quantity. I'm clearly at the extreme, but I belong to food and wine societies (as I did before my surgery) and enjoy myself a lot. I'm only 18 months out but am finding this is NOT hard to do. It just requires a (relatively small) amount of awareness. There is no scientific evidence that dieting will help the vast majority of people change from being obese to normal weight. Dieting works in way less than 1% of people. People who diet are constantly hungry and have abnormally slow metabolisms, both of which make keeping weight off nearly impossible. I had a BMI near or at 40, and now my BMI is 25. The number of people who can diet to those numbers and maintain the weight loss is less than 1 in a thousand. In other words, dieting does not work, and there are good reasons why it fails. In contrast, there is abundant evidence that WLS leads to very substantial weight loss in the majority of people. Most everyone benefits. Look up the success statistics and/or talk to a bariatric surgeon. My personal experience is that the uncommon person who regains all their weight usually has emotional or psychological issues that were not dealt with. Some people regain weight during extreme stress. It is good you are self-aware of your own circumstances, and you should be cheered by the fact that many many people with bipolar disease have successfully lost weight and maintained the weight loss. Both of the above paragraphs are based on actual numbers and science. Rarely have I made good decisions in life when I was frightened and scared. I think you have good reason to thing you, like most other people, have a good chance of success with WLS. By that I mean > 90% success. Urge you not to be scared, but to carefully identify your strengths and weaknesses and how you could shore up the places where you need may be not as strong. _____________ I had pizza on Friday - but what I really did was have one bite of the tip of the piece, confirming that the topping was good and the crust was ... boring. I scraped off the topping and ate that. Could I have eaten 1 or 2 pieces of pizza? Yes. But could have eaten and wanted to eat are different. Only the topping was really worth eating. Can you drink wine? Yes, but it is a lot of "empty" calories. I drink wine every day, having had a sleeve and not a bypass. You have to be accountable to yourself and be honest, and that includes alcohol.

Only comment to add is that you may find you have more energy if you are in ketosis. A lot of people describe a kind of even alertness and level energy during ketosis. You just may find a bit more energy if you can minimize carbs and continue to focus on protein. I think you are still too close to surgery to not expect to feel some additional fatigue. I took naps for more than a month after surgery, but don't remember the exact week I could stop. re: the transition, remember that being cleared to try solids doesn't mean your intestines are ready to eat shoe-leather steak, solid-as-nails overcooked shrimp, and hard-as-rocks hard boiled eggs. If you do try them, chew them into LITTLE pieces so they do not end up being stuck! A lot of people after surgery have a pretty small juncture (if they had a bypass). My surgeon fixed a hiatal hernia that she found when doing my surgery, and when I got out of surgery she told me the juncture between my esophagus and stomach was now about the size of my little (5th) finger. I did find that if I ate big pieces -> they would get stuck.

@Samantha123 You can do this. You went from 140 kgs down to 69 kgs and you still have your bypass. In my view sugar meets the criteria for an addictive substance - you can't get enough, you continue to "use" (eat) it even though it has negative consequences, and it activates the pleasure centers of the brain. Stopping your intake of sugar leads to withdrawal displeasure, and almost everyone continues to eat sugar despite the desire to cut down or cut it out. So it's no wonder that you find this difficult. But you have already done this in the past, so you have the capacity to do it! Throw foods with sugar out of the house along with any trigger foods. You can do this!

@Kio Lovely post! I recently went kayaking with my wife and son and it was a blast. I couldn't even fit into a kayak a few years ago, which was the last time I tried. The last time I had gone canoeing with my son - we swamped twice. You might be surprised how much you enjoy it, if it gets you on the quiet beautiful water...

@CheeringCJ is NOT mooning us. Unless she has turned her hands around in some novel way.

Madhouse, just throwing a little encouragement your way - just keep plugging away and the pounds will go, it just may take time. I shocked myself by losing 10 pounds in the last 3 months having been at the same weight for quite some time. I got a bit more serious about my exercise, shifted the balance of my diet to fewer carbs and more protein, and what do you know! Maybe all it would take is a small nudge or shift ... But you are a SUCCESS being 90 lbs down. Pat yourself on the back!

@Ilianita Great progress. Not much longer and you'll be 100 lbs down! What has made you most happy about your loss to date? Consider posting that on the NSV thread! Best wishes!

Yes, agree with the others you are at the hardest place now. I assume your protein shakes have 0 or low carbs? As you go into ketosis it should get better. Without knowing the details of your pre-op diet, if you are using one brand - maybe you could find some other protein shakes that are also 0 or low carbs. You should be able to speak with your Nutritionist ("NUT") over the phone for any suggestions. You DO NOT want to consume any carbs (in the shakes or in any other form) now since you are nearly over the hump! Good luck! Post here and whine, complain, weep, and moan, but don't have any carbs!

You sound depressed. Of course people go through funks, episodes of depression, anxiety, and whatever else they were prone to before the surgery. Part of your journey may be to develop new habits when you are down that do not include eating. - Talk to the psychologist or psychiatrist at your surgical site, or at a minimum your GP/primary care. Talking helps. Are you going to the post-surgery support group? Misery does love company, and talking about things is helpful. When I have felt overwhelmed I talk to friends, family or professionals, and they help me to see that things are usually not as bad as I have thought, or that there is a route forward. - Walk. It's a form of exercise you can do without using your hands, and it will improve your mood. Even a mile a day will help out. - Post some before and now pictures here and let everyone tell you how much better you look. It will cheer you up and help motivate you. - Be sure you are getting enough sleep.

K take a look at lentils too. They cook quickly (orange-red ones) and the green-black ones (puy lentils) are delicious by themselves or with some olive oil as part of a vegetable salad. I have relatives who are vegan - lentils and beans are the foundations of their protein intake. I frequently make puy lentils and after they are cooked dice in some red or sweet onions, parsley and olive oil, and have it at room temperature. Lots of fiber in beans and lentils too. Last night for dinner I had a small piece of sous-vide steak and some mixed veggies in black beans. Delighted you are off TPN.