XtinaDoesIt

At the risk of sounding awful, I'm just going to say, I've ALWAYS hated sharing food! In fact I generally will buy extra snacks so that no one asks me for mine. And when they do anyway, I scream nasty things to them in my head but smile and share anyway. The thing is, I've always been a pretty slow eater. People think that means I don't want my food but I do! For example, I can make popcorn last the entire movie because I eat them one at a time. My boyfriend eats popcorn by the handful and is done by the opening credits. When we share, I've had 10 bites and he has eaten the entire bag! Thus, I get my own popcorn or pretzel bites but then I come off looking selfish or greedy when I don't want to share mine. It's annoying. Or when we go out to eat, I purposely save half my meal until later but most of them time he will ask me if it's OK for him to have it later that night. Anyway, all of this I to say, I see it being way worse now! Lol. I find myself always telling my boyfriend to stop eating my food. I'm going to eat the rest later (maybe! But I should at least have the option). All of these high protein snack are soooo expensive. I brought those bariatric protein reeses cup (yum) but can only eat one at a time. He will eat my second one and have his own set. The box came with 10. They are now done and I only had 3 cups. I'm not supposed to have popcorn yet but I ordered this gourmet bag for charity before my surgery that finally came last Thursday. My nutritionist said I can have them at week 6 and I WAS going to patiently wait for then but my boyfriend asked me to open them to try it out (They were heaven!) He then proceeded to have one serving at a time over the last 2 days and now they're done. I ate more then I should have because I felt like I should atleast have some before they were gone. I feel like arguing about food is sooo petty but it's starting to annoy me. It doesn't help that he did not have the surgery but seems to be losing more weight than me eating/drinking all of my protein! Lol. Im really not mad he is losing weight too but I just feel like he can maybe contribute to purchasing all of these expensive items. It makes it a little harder for me to stay on track when all the things I buy are finished so fast. I'm sipping on plain water as a type this because I didn't realize all the crystal lite was finished! I should just get over myself right? I was the person who generally brought the groceries before surgery. I still buy normal groceries but now also include specific things for me. What do you guys think?

I'm a high school science teacher. I had my surgery Monday Feb 8, took off for 2 days and then taught remotely for 2 days. Luckily, I was off the next week for midwinter break because I struggled with remote teaching for those 2 days. The pain medication made me tired and I just really wanted to take more naps. I was fine after 2 weeks BUT have accommodations to teach remotely for the rest of the year. I think I would have needed another week if I had to go in in person.

OMG Yessss!!!!! That's exactly what it sounds like!

WOW! You seem like you've got this! All I did prior was cut back on alcohol. I think if you can manage those changes you'll be better off than I was and I'm doing alright! The only thing I can think of is to try out recipe's and new snacks that are post surgery friendly so that you already have an idea of what you like. Also trying to reduce your sugar intake (drink less juice, soda etc.). I actually found that I love crystal lite...

LMAO!!!!!! I weigh myself every morning before I ingest anything and after I use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I weigh myself atleat 3 times to make sure the number is accurate. When I was on my million day stall (by million I mean 15) I stopped for like a week though. But my scale and I have since reacquainted and patched things up.

Today one of my students commented on stomach sounds! I teach remotely! Lol. I thought I talked too much but my stomach is out of control now. I don't know why it needs to make so much noise all of the time! It happens when I eat, drink or breathe! Anyone else have a choir in their tummy? And how long does this last? I'm a month out this week.

No triggers for me. I asked my doctor the other day " how will I know when I'm full?" He said "just listen to your body." So umm.... yeah, I still don't know. I just stop eating after about 45 mins of trying... Sometimes, I feel like my food may be coming back up and take that as a sign... but sometimes that happens after 2 bites and I know that can't possibly mean I'm full. I think it just happens if I eat too fast or if the mean isn't sitting well with me. Wish I had a sneeze or something...

I'm 4 weeks out so I'm no expert but I'm also not a big/good cook. I've cooked twice since post-op. I started puree/soft foods 2 weeks ago and this is what I do... For breakfast and/or lunch, I eat yogurt or have a protein shake. My nutritionist said I can have turkey bacon so sometimes I throw some in the microwave and have that. For dinner: I've been eating canned salmon (not big on tuna) and canned chicken. They last a pretty long time and there are some really simple recipes for them. I don't consider that cooking because mostly I saute them with frozen onion and peppers, season it and I'm done in 10 mins. If I want more flair, I'll add a small amount of teriyaki sauce or oriental sauce. As far as fast food, I've also had rotisserie chicken from the Peruvian restaurant by my house. It went down better than the canned meat! Right now for the most part I just eat meat so it's pretty easy to track. I have a digital scale and I just measure out 3-4 oz. The 2 meals I cooked were 2 different types of chili. Both of which only had like 5 ingredients. I had leftovers for a few days. I haven't been to a restaurant yet but I like all the advice that BigSue gave on this. I'll def keep them in mind!

Yay! My nutritionist said I can count protein drinks. She said no to soup though but that's okay. Thanks for the advice! I wouldn't have thought to ask without it! I'm still not a 60 oz but I don't feel like as much of a failure now

It was delicious! My boyfriend loved it too! I think this is going to be my go to canned chicken recipe! I'm only 4 weeks out and this went down easy for me. Thanks so much for the share!!!

I have a feeling my nutritionist will agree with this rather than BigSue...

I hope I remember this one when I get to have solids.

Great! I'll ask my nutritionist if I can do that too! Thanks!

I just decided to do a version of this with the canned chicken I bought but haven't used yet... That way I can have it tonight instead of defrosting my chicken. I'll let you know how it goes!

Yum Yum Yum... defrosting chicken now.... I did something similar with frozen turkey meatballs. I wanted to try turkey chili in the crockpot and only had a bag of frozen target meatballs. I didn't like them pre-surgery so they were still in my freezer but they tasted great after simmering in chili all day!

Im struggling to get 60 oz of water a day. I can gulp the water fine but between the hour + it takes me to eat anything and the constant fullness, I just don't seem to get all my water in. Can I count any liquid (like protein shakes, soups, and icees) as part of my water intake? Or should it just be water?

My skin has been really dry too. I'm not reaching my water goals so that probably has something to do with it. Its so hard to drink all the water because it takes so long to eat and then Im so full. I sip throughout the day but find myself drink only 30-40 oz of water a day. Maybe I''l just try to drink 8 oz of water at once on a schedule instead of sipping throughout the day. Anyway, I'm going to try this lotion too. Thanks!

I like the timing of this. This way I can still have 2 drinks while dining out.

I've been really light headed too. I never thought to check my blood pressure. I just assumed it was from the lower calorie intake. I'm going to keep better track of it now. I'm on meds for blood pressure and tachycardia and the last time I went to the doctor my BP was low too. How long do you think my pressure should be low for before I mention it to my doctor? And is there some kind of correlation between the meds and weight?

Hi Jenna, I also had/been having a pretty easy recovery. I had my surgery on Feb 8. Sometimes, I do feel hungry though. I can tell when it's just head hunger when I'm am hungry for something specific. Like when I am craving something salty or one of my old snacks. But if I feel I should eat something and go for yogurt or something I think that's hunger.. maybe. Lol. Im also just figuring it out. My body hasn't been super consistent with food right now. Some days I feel hungry, some days I can't get down more than a few bites of protein. It's still pretty early for me... I decided not to freak out about anything... until I'm 3 months out.

2 months of that does seem tough! Every surgeon is different and it's important to follow the recommendations of yours as they will be the ones doing the surgery and know what they need to be successful. But if the surgeons plans don't seem like something you can successfully do, I would say something. Is there a nutritionist in the clinic you could speak to to come up with a more realistic plan? I would hate for you to be discouraged from the start. For reference, my doctor told me I did not need to lose any weight before surgery. I was told to increase my protein intake and water intake but I was allowed to eat normally. I was put on a liquid only diet a week before my surgery, clear liquids the day before. I didn't have any complications. I'm 5'5 and my starting weight was 267.

I wish I knew this before my surgery! My dry mouth was so bad after surgery it supercede my pain. All I could think about was my dry mouth, I almost had an anxiety attack because of it! The nurse ended up giving me this toothbrush sponge which was a god send. I definitely would recommend this to everyone!

I posted something similar last night... Then read about 10 of these post that were posted this month alone so we are in good company. I feel better. This link was the funniest one. It helped.

I don't know why but this makes me laugh! I hope that doesn't offend. I haven't experienced sneezing but it will probably go away when you heal some more. I know it hurt for me to cough or laugh a few days out of surgery so I hope you are ok!

WoW! Thats awesome!!! Congrats! Thanks for the encouragement!