PdxMan

Just make sure the quinoa is well cooked. You don't want that expanding in the stomach. While it has protein, dollar for dollar, your real estate is better used elsewhere.

Nice ... I'm still in physical therapy. Cleared for long walks, though, and did do a spinning class during a "trial" membership at 24 hour fitness. They say I may be able to run again by the end of this month. We'll see. Good luck to all who have events coming up.

LOL!

Yes, I posted a link to that thread on one of my recent posts on this thread for her to follow and perhaps contribute there.

There is nothing I cannot eat. I just choose not to eat breads, pastas and rice as they are basically nutritionally irrelevant. I have about 8 oz of space in my stomach now and I want to lease it out to foods with the nutrients my body needs. Now, when I was running competitively a year ago, I would eat pasta the day before a race to carb load, but that would be about it. If I need carbs now, I eat veggies.

Ever see Leaving Las Vegas? Addiction is a cunning, baffling, powerful foe. People caught in its grips would rather die than confront themselves. Being active in a 12 step program, I have seen this in real life more times than I would care to.

This just sounds so unhealthy mentally. You want to commiserate with other folks who are wanting to go back to being in an abusive relationship. Another option might be to seek some counselling as to getting to some root issues with your eating disorder. This may be the scariest, healthiest thing you have ever done, but you may learn to love and embrace your new lifestyle as so many others here have done.

So, you are definitely not the only two here who didn't have complications, yet regret the surgery. I understand that there is going to be that population, for sure. I don't want or mean to discount what you are going through, but I really enjoy working with everyone here on VST through their struggles and triumphs. I feel it is a blessing in my life to be able to try to pay it forward. It is one of the principles of another program I follow. HERE is a post I just made today that holds the same question that I just don't get. You did your research. You knew what to expect. You, like me, had successfully lost weight previously, but regained it back. You, like myself, were tired of this and wanted something that was going to help you to NOT regain that weight back, so you chose the permanent WLS surgery, the sleeve. Not the band, which could be removed ... not RnY, which could be reversed, but the option that forced my hand to be all in. I wanted to stop abusing food and I can only assume you did, too. Do you think you may just be in the mourning phase I spoke of? Do you really want to go back to abusing food? Is it like the wife who wants to go back to the abusive spouse because, "I love him, so!!"

Just remember your capacity is ridiculously small. Your body's nutritional requirements are still quite high, so whatever you eat, make sure you are getting the fats, carbs and minerals your body needs. Mashed potatoes may make you feel sated, but how is their nutrition for the amount of real estate they are going to take up? I was a big fan of Soups. Thick soups, not runny ones. Smoked ham and lentil with onions and carrots. Turkey chili with onions and carrots. chicken veggie, too. As I progressed through the pureed stage, I pureed them less and less. They are well balanced meals and provide everything your body needs. (maybe not what it wants ... know what I mean?)

Laura, are you on a mobile device? You missed her post from page 2. To summarize, she is sad that she cannot abuse food the way she used to. I remember feeling the same way at about the same point. It is difficult to let this relationship go, but it is time.

I'm on a web browser, so no, I read 'em all. Until later tonight when I am on my phone, then ...

Don't you know everything is better if you just keep it in the closet. God forbid if we should ever ACTUALLY have to confront any weakness we have in our lives. Let's bring back Don't Ask Don't Tell. That was a great policy. It doesn't exist if we don't know about it. Right? Ignorance is bliss. Damn, I miss the Easter Bunny.

Also, to piggy back off what I wrote in my earlier post, I think mobile devices are also to blame. HUH?! That's ridiculous!No, really. People are researching using their iPhones. I have one and use it all the time reading here, but I also use a web browser. When I am reading using my iPhone, I don't read all of the posts in a thread. Just the initial post and maybe the first or last response. Do I get all of the thoughts and experience from all the other posts? Nope. It is too much of a pain in the ass to scroll through and turn pages ... Hey ... I'm lazy. I admit it.From a webpage, I read more posts and see all of the information in people's signatures. There are great links people have in their signatures because they are sooo relevant.Sorry, but researching a life changing surgery on a mobile device is just a bad idea, IMO.

21 months on the 8th. If you view this page from a web browser and not a mobile device, you can see all my stats in my signature.

I think you are mis-understanding my post. If there are issues with a relationship, the surgery had nothing to do with it, per Anna's post. As far as your issues, I believe I have spoke directly to them in my posts on this thread. Do you discount everything I have shared with you? Is there nothing in there you can glean? I hope I don't sound belittling, because that is not my intention, but you are really young in the post-sleeve process. It took time for me to realize just how I used and abused food. It was an awakening for me as I was willing to learn a new relationship with food. I hope you, too, will acquire some form of willingness to change.

I assume you wanted to make a change to your eating habits and that is one of the reasons you got this surgery ... right? I had to abandon my old ways of eating completely for a totally new relationship with food. I am no longer a slave to food and it is exactly what I needed. It just takes time. Be patient and listen to what your body needs.

Well ... if you are getting no carbs in, you will have low energy. Your glycogen stores have been depleted. Your body will convert fat and muscle to replenish, but at this stage, it is not able to do this efficiently, yet. I know you are not a big fan of veggie soups, but this is what your body needs at this point. This is part of the difficult first post-op stages. Sometimes we have to respond to what our body needs versus what we want. Take your drained lipton soup, throw a couple carrots in the microwave until they are mushy, mush them real well and add them to your broth.

And you put the blame for these issues on the surgery? Really? You have no role in this at all ... right? I know people have regrets regarding the surgery, but from what I have seen, that has been due to physical complications. I can see that. But confronting the emotional side of how we abused food should have been a known obstacle we would have to confront. Now that it is in front of you, it is up to you to how you are going to react.

Just curious ... did you read my response?

So, what are you eating for your pureed stage? I was doing smoked ham and lentil soup. After complaining to my NUT about low energy, she suggested upping my carbs, so I added carrots, peas and more onions to my soup. It did the trick. If you are doing the low carb route, you will have low energy.

I think you are doing the right thing. If you get *full*, you may be putting undo pressure on you new suture line. No good can come from that. I would get the hiccups or runny nose. If you push it, you could slime. If you don't know what that is, search the site for it. There are about 1,000 posts regarding it.

Well ... it's the least *volatile* position ... right?

Yeah, that was the good news ... now, for the bad news ... at one year, you may begin to throw caution to the wind and wish some foods were not as easy to go down. At least, that is my experience from reading threads from folks 1+ years out. They are amazed at how much they can eat without difficulty, but admit they don't follow the guidelines. So, for some folks, this is their magic time to get their best weight loss results because of the difficulty. I still follow the guidelines pretty closely and have been able to maintain, I believe, because of this. I accept this as being how my body communicates with me now. When I am full, it is uncomfortable. That is a good thing. Some folks will cry out, "IT HURTS WHEN I GET FULL!!" Uh ... and ...

4 days here. Scissors. Yup.

Well, I have good news for you. I see that you are at the 6 month post-op mark. For me, this was the point when things just started to get *easier*. It was when I caught the first glimmer of hope that one day my life might return to some form of normalcy, as far as food went. At 6 months I could eat one piece of red meat (tenderloin) and it didn't hurt. If I tried a second bite, it did hurt, but knowing that I could have one bite let me know that I was progressing. I was also able to eat salads comfortably, too, at 6 months, which I loved and still do. Up to this point, eating was a chore, but it isn't anymore. I think the most remarkable unexpected thing about this whole thing was I had an expectation that I would no longer be obsessed with food. Funny thing is, I probably am even more obsessed with it, but for different reasons. Before, I was obsessed with what I was going to eat next. Now, I am obsessed with the nutritional value of what I am eating. I think about food even more now, but for far better reasons.