Orchids&Dragons

My take-away from the article is that the pre-surgery psychological screening needs to be more in depth. It seems like the norm for people to have only one meeting with a therapist ahead of the surgery. That's probably not sufficient to catch eating disorders unless the patient is exceedingly honest.

It was an interesting article, but the statistics are unclear. 8% of their eating disordered patients had had bariatric surgery. What they left out, and I think this is the significant point, is what % of the 8% had an eating disorder to begin with and what % developed it after surgery. Right now, from the article, they are only showing correlation, not causation.

In this sense, my esophagus issue is a blessing in disguise. I can't swallow most of the things I'm tempted to eat. Unfortunately, the freezer-ful of ice cream would go down just fine. Although, I really miss hard cheese, jerky and raw veggies!

Is your head-hunger negotiable? i.e. can you tell yourself, ok, I'm hungry. I'll eat 1/2 oz. of almonds. If I'm still hungry in half an hour, then I'll get something else. I often use a chai latte as my negotiating tool.

I also believe head hunger is real. The "hunger" we feel is our brain recognizing some sort of stimulus. People shouldn't feel defensive about head hunger, but they should recognize that it needs to be "treated" differently. Just like phantom pain for an amputee is real pain, but putting ice on the missing foot won't make them feel any better. I really don't have a good way to avoid head hunger, my house is chock full of triggers. I just try to keep really low-calorie stuff around as an option when I'm "head-starving", like sf popsicles. I haven't found that distracting myself works at all. But I won't eat anything substantial if I'm not due for "food". I'm not the "just tough it out" kind of girl.

What a wonderful discovery!

Ever since I had issues with the stabililty of artificial sweeteners in the heat, I'm pretty leery of liquids. Crystals seem to be more heat stable. But, if stevia is stable, I'd love to use the liquid. I won't even keep stuff like Mio in my purse because it stays in the car when I'm home and the car gets pretty hot.

Happy Birthday!

Very pretty! I could never commit to a tattoo. A week later, I'd wish it was a green dragon instead of a red one, or Tweety instead of Sylvester, or whatever. Commitment issues! Amazing I've been married nearly 29 years

Congrats!

What is the advantage of liquid Stevia?

McDonald's has egg McMuffins all day. I order it with no cheese, then just eat the egg and ham.

OK, this is helpful. I've been keeping smoothies to the same 30-30-30 time period and also trying to limit them to 8 oz. Neither option was very successful. Since pretty much everything I eat are sliders, I limit both time and amount or I could be "sliding" all day. But if you are all successful sipping on these for a longer time period, I'll give that a try. Thanks!

Probably depends on whether you do a lot of lifting at work. Your surgeon can tell you how long he/she recommends.

Absolutely. Maybe not 8 oz, but 2-3 anyway for starters.

Where do you find the nutritional info for these? LOL!

It will get better. Right now, your belly is all swollen. The weight will drop off as the swelling goes down. Just keep slogging through. This part is tough but you can do it. When do you transition to purees?

In my husband's case, it was severe chest pain. They thought he was having a heart attack. But, I'm sure it's not the same for everyone.

That's fantastic. Congrats!

Since there are a lot of smoothie aficionados out there, I've got questions: When you make a smoothie, how much do you drink as one "meal"? And, how do you save leftovers? This is confusing for me since smoothies are sliders, so I'd appreciate your input. Thanks!

Great articles, thanks, Ash!

@BajanSleeve I'm sorry you're having such a struggle. We all want you to succeed. Are you taking acid-reducing medicines? Acid mimics hunger. If you're not, try an experiment. Next time you're hungry, chew a Tums well and wait 10 minutes. See if you feel any different. Please, just give it a try. What have you got to lose? (And no, Tums are not appropriate for calcium supplements, but they still work fine to neutralize excess stomach acid. With my smaller stomach, I've never needed more than one.) And, I take Tums in addition to prescription-strength Prilosec.

Welcome to the site! It's a very friendly and supportive community! We really love veterans here and will appreciate your experience and wisdom!

Are you able to drink more than 1 oz. at a time, or is that as much as you can handle? By 6 days post op, most doctors will let you increase the increments to 2-3 oz. at a time. That lets you get the water in much more quickly. But, only if you can handle it. I would drink my little cup, then stare at the clock for 10 minutes before I could drink another little cup. Made me crazy. It was much easier when the doc. said I didn't have to stick to the 1 oz. measure.

Holy cow, that is so hard to believe!