A newbie to the December Board!!

Hi! My name is Nancy and I had Lap RNY on December 20th 2007. I am so excited to find this board as people are on the same stage I am. I have had up and down moments since WLS. I have difficulty with eating and have gone through different moments of a lot of throwing up. I exercise at least 5x a week and that feels good. I have lost 89 pounds as of last week. I do not weigh myself so I have no idea if I am ever in a plateau or not. Well I look forward to visiting here often! Nancy

Nancy you are doing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! 89 pounds. WOW!!!!!! That is so exciting. I am down 62 pounds since Dec 19th. This is the greatest feeling. You are doing much better than me in the excersise department. I only walk a couple times a week. Keep up the great work.

Thank you! You are also doing fantastic! Just think that is 62 pounds you will never have to carry with you again!!! I have found that the exersise is the one thing that helps me drop the weight. If I have a week where I am not feeling well (like this week) and I don't go to the gym everyday I really feel the effects of it in the weight loss department!! Keep up the great work!

Hi Nancy, It is nice to meet another December '06 patient! Congratulations on your 89# loss, that is wonderful. We've been trying to keep a weekly posting of our exercise progress and hope that you will join it and help keep the rest of us going, too. I haven't had much good progress to report about exercise lately but still keep working hard at my very physical job and do my pilates and stair stepper on the weekend in addition to gardening and adding in extra walking with shopping. That isn't as good as going to a gym but it beats sitting in front of the tv. What kinds of foods give you trouble or is it a hit-or-miss thing? Since getting my last stricture dilation I have been very successful with most foods but prob. because I limit myself to very well chopped meats and always add a sauce of some sort. (fat-free sour cream, diet ranch dressing, salsa, etc.) Molly

Thanks Molly, I would love to keep up on the weekly exercise programs. I think I am maybe a little dehydrated so I am actually going to give the gym a miss today. I even had a gym date this morning (unfortunatly it was with a girl friend and not a male friend!!)... Anyway I think anything extra that you didn't do before surgery that you do now is excellent for your body. As for foods it is definaly a hit and miss thing. I have never had a stricture (or not that I know of). Breakfast is good, lunch is usually ok but dinner.... I hate dinner... and that is when I used to eat, eat, eat so I wonder if there is a bit of mental food hating going on. I am trying to have new and different foods becuase I am struggling with it. So any suggestions of foods that go down well for people I would appreciate. I have a very sensitive stomach (I always just thought I was picky... but have discovered that I am not picky but my stomach does not like a lot of things). I hope you have a great week! Nancy

Hi Nancy, Welcome to the December board. I will post some items that I posted before in reference to food that i have tried. You can try them to see if you are able to tolerate them. Great job on the exercise, that is soooo important. And your weight loss is phenomenal!! You know, crabmeat is delicious and something you can try. Have you had the inside of a taco, or an enchilada. Those go down pretty easy. Also, I really like the beef fajita tacos, they go down real well for me but I have to eat and chew very very well and sometimes I get a part of the meat that I know will cause problems , I dont swallow that part. You may want to try chicken tortilla soup, they sell at boston market and taco cabana. when I go to chipotle, I order a burrito in a bowl and I get 1 tortilla with it, I can manage to eat 1 tortilla, no more than that. I enjoy chinese food- spicy schechuan (Sp???) chicken is delicious. It is very tender, had a "gravy" that was spicy and had broccoli in it which goes down well. I will also eat a spring roll with it. Very good. Meatballs are good, either with ragu or with gravy. I ate a corner of a hamburger last Friday and it went down good. I dont do too much bread because I am a carb-addict. I will indulge myself sometimes and I really go light on fried foods but do enjoy them occasionally. I share with my friend at work at the BBQ place, we had ribs and sausage and 2 sides--I ate 1 rib and the small saucer of beans. I made some beef stew last week--lots of veggies and I just used lean stew meat, browned it in a skillet and used the beef stew seasoning mix. I even made cornbread (used soy milk) and had a microscopic piece of that. Thats good to make on a cold day when you have time for it to cook the meat really well and get it real tender. Good source of protein. Tonight, we went to seafood and I ate 2 shrimp and 1/2 piece of fish and was full. I buy the flash frozen individual tilapia fillets. Those are excellent, easy to prepare, full of good protein and nutrients and very good for you. I also use the pre-seasoned chicken breast at walmart, they are individually wrapped so you can thaw 1 at a time and put it in a pan and saute or put on the george foreman grill or regular grill for a few mins, you can then chop up with some spinach and a little dressing for a salad. And yesterday, I put some chicken wings on the grill outside and cooked them, then put them in some low-carb bbq sauce and put in the oven. They were very good and I even took them to work today for lunch. Remember, moist meats work the best, you dont want it too dry or it might get stuck and cause pain and you dont want to drink while you eat. I drink a protein drink for breakfast every day. I want to start drinking one when I get home in the evening after my workout but havent gotten there yet. My friend and I often share plates at lunch and we are always trying new things so if you have a particular restaurant in mind and want suggestions, let me know and I will see if I can help with some suggestions. My friend is really getting a kick out of this, we split the cost and I take what little I am gonna eat and she has the rest. Sometimes we will split the leftovers, most times I dont want to see the food again so I make her take them home. She is eating less, losing weight and saving money by splitting lunch with me. Overall, I dont dump real bad, I just feel mild symptoms of what appears to be dumping and that is enough to get this ole girl to stop eating/drinking whatever the offending food may be. I drank part of a protein shake from walmart that had too much sugar, I did not fini**** because I started feeling the pounding heart and yucky stomach feeling. Thats all the sign I need so I immediately stopped drinking it. NOTHING is worth that feeling. I hope this helps. Its trial and error to find what you like. Angela