heidikat72

I typically use the following blogs:
the world according to eggface
the bariatric foodie
also a lot of blogs about paleo eating have bariatric friendly (or easily adaptable to bariatric friendly) recipe ideas

Your nerves were cut during surgery so don't rely on any "fullness" cues to tell you to stop eating for a while - at least a month. Stick to the measurements from your practice's guidelines as far as how much to eat at a time - don't go over. However, if you start to feel things "stack up" into your esophagus, stop and wait for the next meal. Also, I'll often even now get a single hiccup or my nose will start running - weird but that is now my cue to stop eating because another bite and i'll end up miserable. For now, as long as you are meeting Fluid and Protein goals and taking your Vitamins, you'll be fine nutritionally.
also, initially - i just always assumed it was head hunger and when it came over me (it was intense day 7-20) I started an activity. Preferably for me an activity with my hands - hard to eat and knit or color at the same time! I just needed something to distract and reset my brain. For a lot of us, eating is a boredom activity so we have to learn to combat the boredom in another way.
Hang in there! There's a lot of new feelings to sort out during this phase but you'll figure it out!

press a pillow firmly against your abdomen while coughing. the pressure helps hold things in place and hopefully it won't hurt as bad.

press a pillow firmly against your abdomen while coughing. the pressure helps hold things in place and hopefully it won't hurt as bad.

yep so much this. had no problem at thanksgiving. struggling right now. grew up kinda poor and christmas was less about the presents and all about the food and treats and family traditions of certain items. From baking Cookies with mom after finishing my homework - like seriously a different batch of cookies every night for about two weeks! To making fruitcakes and fudge with dad and mom and all the other special items and meals with the whole family pitching in to prep and cook together. And getting special treats (candy) from my mom's family in england that we only got that one time of the year. Christmas was all about decorations and indulgent foods. Having the onslaught of holiday treats being brought in at work this week hasn't helped (since everyone places them on the file cabinet next to my desk and all the co-worker gifts of cards and candy. So far, I haven't indulged at work and my great nieces are getting an nice stash of candy to divide between them. but it has taken every ounce of willpower and a lot of getting up and going for a walk around the building!

I respond similarly to how your son responded for you. I simply say I wasn't very hungry but it is delicious so I'd like to take the rest home for later so can you please bring me the box? and smile sweetly

Hope it all settles down soon! At least now you know and have a plan so I'm sure that is at least a mental relief!

I think most WLS patients have to watch what they eat for the rest of their lives. Do you track calories, carbs, Protein, fat, etc? Most people track on their phones and keep under a certain calorie/carb level.
Other than that you have to play with it. Some people can eat all things in moderation. Others eat almost no carbs. If you track you will be able to see which foods help you keep the weight off and which ones don't.

I respond similarly to how your son responded for you. I simply say I wasn't very hungry but it is delicious so I'd like to take the rest home for later so can you please bring me the box? and smile sweetly

I respond similarly to how your son responded for you. I simply say I wasn't very hungry but it is delicious so I'd like to take the rest home for later so can you please bring me the box? and smile sweetly

yep so much this. had no problem at thanksgiving. struggling right now. grew up kinda poor and christmas was less about the presents and all about the food and treats and family traditions of certain items. From baking Cookies with mom after finishing my homework - like seriously a different batch of cookies every night for about two weeks! To making fruitcakes and fudge with dad and mom and all the other special items and meals with the whole family pitching in to prep and cook together. And getting special treats (candy) from my mom's family in england that we only got that one time of the year. Christmas was all about decorations and indulgent foods. Having the onslaught of holiday treats being brought in at work this week hasn't helped (since everyone places them on the file cabinet next to my desk and all the co-worker gifts of cards and candy. So far, I haven't indulged at work and my great nieces are getting an nice stash of candy to divide between them. but it has taken every ounce of willpower and a lot of getting up and going for a walk around the building!

I really the idea about the list of reasons why I'm doing this! I'm going to make mine right now. I'm trying to be social and ignore the good smells of food. Thank you for the support
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I had surgery at HUP June 17th with Kristoffel Dumon (Penn Medicine)

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

I totally feel this honestly I don't think there is anything you can do but dig your heels in and be stubborn. I saw on here once "No food will taste as good as skinny feels." It got me through a couple family event my mom insisted I be apart of (a baby shower) there was a ton of food and I swear every where I turned in that damn place there were baked goods and nachos staring me down. At one point I sat down and BAM an entire platter of nutterbutters in onsies and literal faces staring at me post op thanksgiving my family literally just sits another platter of Cookies in front of me knowing that's not an option. At the end of the day it's good to make yourself suffer through some of these events. You know the restrictions aren't always going to be there and it's good to show yourself you can handle yourself in these situations and still be alright. You gotta keep living and being apart of your family after you get it done but your going to have to change alot to be a success in the long run. Don't let this ruin a holiday that I believe is more about family then anything, do your best to enjoy them even if your out of your element. You got this! And congratulations on your upcoming surgery day!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

Sometime before surgery I made two lists on my phone. List 1 was all the reasons I was having the surgery. List 2 is a list of all the things i'm looking forward to being able to do as I get healthier. In the tough times/weak moments (even still) I pull out those lists and remind myself why I'm doing this. Helps get my head back in the right place.
At parties and so forth - since you're on liquids make sure you always have a Protein shake or Water in your hand and whenever you feel tempted to snack, drink. Also focus on being the social butterfly in the room and talking to people, mill about so you aren't standing next to the same cookie tray/yummy appetizer tray etc letting it tempt you for any extended period of time.
And to encourage quality time with family rather than being a hermit, suggest going out and doing an activity - even just taking a walk through the neighborhood, going to see christmas lights etc - anything that isn't focused on food.

Not everyone has trouble with liquids immediately post-op. Those issues are usually related to swelling and people have varying amounts of swelling. You are just one of the lucky ones with minimal internal swelling, so yay for you! Your recovery should be much easier for that.
Head hunger will be STRONG immediately post-op if you aren't experiencing nausea, which, again, lucky you! It's somewhat common to hiccup as a sign of fullness. Just make sure you are weighing and measuring out ALL of your foods and liquids and ingesting them on a schedule. You can't rely on signals from your healing stomach yet.

I slept on my back for two weeks. I did NOT want to take any chances of pulling something loose. Every time I would roll over on my side, I'd get a tiny twinge and go right back on my back. I was a huge sissy pants. But it got better fairly quickly.

I have loved having an IUD. The only factor that might affect the pill's efficacy is the hormone dump as the fat stores are lost. I would check with your surgeon and see what s/he says. I think they generally believe the pill remains effective, they just want people to be aware that people who previously struggled with fertility can suddenly become very fertile with the hormone dumps associated with the weight loss, and that a reliable method of birth control is absolutely needed following surgery.

Hey there -- this is tough -- but I agree with Little Bill and others ... this feeling that you can't control yourself with food right after surgery is a path to destruction for your surgery -- and for your own mental health. I am not a mental health professional (and I don't play one on TV), and even if I were, this would not be the right format to try to work out what is going on. If you had surgery locally, ask your team if they can recommend a psychologist whose expertise is food issues. And if they don't have anyone to recommend, or you went out of the country -- google it in your area. From a physical perspective, this is super dangerous. But for your own positive mental health in the future -- it is also dangerous. Truly -- good luck.

So glad to hear your doctor's visit went okay. Sounds like you have gotten the message that you really need to be taking this seriously, Your life is literally at stake. I wish you much success going forward!