Gaining Weight 2 Years Out

And come to DS Support Group at St Vincent's! You just missed this month's, but next month it's the 4th Tuesday.

What everyone else has already said about the ditching the regular soda and increasing your protein.  I use www.myfitnesspal.com to record what I eat - so I KNOW how much protein I'm getting everyday.  If I "guessed" I would always be wrong! 

On the labs and supplements.  What is your supplement schedule?  What labs are you having run?  Do you keep track of your labs in a spreadsheet?  In addition to upping you protein you need to start focusing on your labs and supplements, if you haven't been.  And NO you can't depend on your surgeon to tell you what labs to run, if your labs are "good", etc.  Here's the basic Vitamin/supplement schedule that a LOT of people follow and then tweat after having their labs results back.  Once you have your labs you are going to want to get a copy in YOUR hands. 
Basic DS Vitamin Plan
Suggested Labs to Run
Spreadsheet for Tracking Labs

Are you in Indy? We have DS-specific support group the 4th Tuesday of every month, and a less formal DS dinner the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Jessica P posts about them here and you can get in touch with her (send me a PM if you don't know how) to get on her mailing list for event locations & dates.

Come to the dinners, we'll show you how to eat!

I work in downtown Indy.  I will try and make it to the next one.   

OK. Hope to see you there! Here is the calendar of events:

www.google.com/calendar/b/0/embed

HIJACK:  Holy smokes Chad!!  You look amazing!!  Wow!  The DS truly is awesome.  Congrats!  Hugs, Felicia

I can not add anything more but wanted to just ditto what EN said, she's amazing in her knowldge and wise in what she posted. Loved her advice, its hard to do at first but little by little it will all fall into place. GL. Oh and dont beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon, just pick yourself back up, dust off and start running again.

 
I too recommend starting an account on MyFitnessPal.com.  It has a very comprehensive food database, so whatever you eat, they very likely will have nutrition information on it.  You can set your own protein, calorie and carb goals.  If you use it at every meal, every day, you'll get a clear picture of what you're eating and the effect it has on you--gaining weight, feeling blah, etc.

I'm one of those people who faced protein malnutrition.  I had problems with vomiting.  Right now, I set a goal of 180g of protein per day, 150g of which I get from protein shakes.  I'm feeling a lot better, and my weight is pretty steady.

I gained 2 lbs in the past day or so eating pizza.  If you've got a goal you want to stay near, carbs are not your friend!  

As far as your labs go, I'm shocked that your doctors only had you draw once per year.  You should really have them pulled more regularly.  I too have been on a schedule of every 3 months for my first year.  It made all the difference in catching the protein malnutrition fairly quickly.  I'd say getting labs drawn every six months after the first year makes more sense.  A lot of stuff changes in that amount of time, especially when people have dietary changes and/or vitamin intake changes for whatever reason.

I'm more than 11 years post-op and I get my labs done every 3-4 months.  I do NOT want to let things even start to go in the wrong direction if I can help it.

 *choir girl*! Abeit, my gain was from pregnancy. Needless to say, if you need to vent about getting off the carb train, I'm here. It's a ******g hell ride.