I figured I’d throw together a post for those who are early on in their Sleeve journey as well.  None of these are gross, like the TMI Post.  Some of these things are particular to me, and may or may not work for you.

• Buy either a plate or a mug warmer, heck buy two if you work (home and office).  It’s going to take forever to eat your mushy foods or your soups while your on liquids, this will help keep them warm.
• At least for me, I have a really hard time getting liquids in, in the morning.  I feel stuffed after 1/4 of an 11oz protein shake.  If I have a hot mug of decaf tea first I seem to do better.  Yogurt also seems to go down ok some mornings, too bad milk and yogurt smell like a cow pasture to me now.
• It’s really hard to remember protein and supplements when you’re not a home.  I did OK with the protein on my weekend away, but I forgot about many of the supplements since I was so busy doing other things.
• Your first day (or days) back at work might suck a bit.  I’ve only been in the office for an hour and I’m already ready for a nap!
• Even though you used to be able to gulp down water, you can’t any more.  It hurts a bit!
• If you are one to track your food like I am, be prepared to have some issues with some of the online food journals.  Sparkpeople doesn’t let you go below 1,000 calories a day.  LoseIt! doesn’t let you break down servings into small enough portions.  Myfitnesspal.com seems to be doing OK though.  Each of them have things I like about them, but right now I need to use the one that makes the most sense post op.
• Tearing a stomach muscle makes getting up and down tough, sitting up tough, etc.  Lying flat down seems to be what’s best, but I cant really do that at work!
• Eating slow is tough.  I wish I would have listened to people’s advice pre-op and actually practiced eating slowly.  I now use a clock and make sure to take extra small bites via appetizer utensils, once a minute.
• There are times I think “holy shit, did I really do this?” It took so much planning and work to get approved for surgery that it feels a bit surreal that it’s actually happened.
• I 100% do not regret having this surgery.  I feel like I might regret it when I want to watch a movie or TV and just eat an entire bag of chex mix for example, or chow down on Thanksgiving dinner, or go out for sushi and over do it.  Then again, that’s what got me here in the first place.  I now have built in portion control.
• The later in the day the easier it is for me to get things down into Sleevie McGavin.  Water and food become much easier to consume.  This is a good thing, otherwise I’d be pretty dehydrated at this point.
• It’s incredibly hard/frustrating to not be able to do everything for myself still.  Since I have a weight limit on how much I can carry, and I’m not supposed to be doing a lot of bending over (muscle tare related, some of the simplest things like laundry or picking something up off of the floor I just can’t do.
• I’m doing a really good job at this point of getting at least the minimum amount of protein in, usually 20-30 grams more, as well as all of my supplements.  Yay!
• Fairly certain that the dreaded 3 week stall is upon us.  I have weighed the EXACT same amount every single morning this week, not even a fluctuation of 0.2.  It’s frustrating.  I’m just hoping that it only lasts a week!