I have a surgery date of feb 20. My MD told me to start drinking from a medicine cup to get use to sipping liquids. I can't imagine myself taking an hour to have a meal- I usually eat fast, hardly chew, and gulp. Did it take a long time for banders to learn how to eat again?? How do you know when to stop eating- do you get full immediately? Right now, I can eat for ever without really feeling full.

I was just banded 2 1/2 weeks ago. At first it took me 30 minutes to eat 1/4 of a cup of anything. But now I just try and eat slow and take small bites. You will learn pretty quick how to eat. It's really nothing once you learn how your body works. Just make sure you really listen to your body, when you feel full, just stop.

Congratulations on your upcoming surgery!

It hasnt been like that so far for me at all. I drink normally and I eat just a bit slower - but I'm still eating relatively soft foods. I will have to slow down and chew more as I introduce more foods but having to take an hour to eat a meal isnt realistic either. I was told 20 minutes or so max, much longer and the food would already be passing through the stoma while I was still eating.

Oh, but I get a definite feeling of fullness, exactly the same as before, pretty quickly on a lot less food. I have no trouble recognising it, it feels just the same as it always did, just sooner.

I usually eat fast, hardly chew, and gulp.

This was me. It will only take a couple of episodes of punishment from your band to make you stop gulping. That's what the whole thing is about--and believe it, it works. If you gulp, the food will NOT go down and pretty soon, it will have to come up. This ranges from mildly inconvenient to very painful, but no matter what you will want to avoid it.

Learning when to stop eating is a little harder, but it's essentially the same process. If you take one or two too many bites, even if you're chewing well, the food will come back up. Then you must learn for next time to stop before taking that one last bite. Your body will probably give you a signal when you're full--what we call the "soft stop." You have to pay attention to your body and don't override those signals. The band has no sense of humor about these things. :confused:

I am just over 6 mnths out & have learned about 90% of how to eat. The other 10% is for me to still use all the rules everytime. But it really took me many , many months before I learned. Like Alex said after the first couple times you PB you'll start learning alot quicker. Its the physical pain you won't want to experience. But I am so stubborn & it has taken my "HEAD" alot longer to catch up to my gut. I have pbed way to much and actually learned (stupidly) how to handle pbing, kinda dealing with it & than eating around the band. So my advice to you is to really learn right off the bat to only place a certain amount of food on your plate at a time. Eat it & promise yourself not to eat again until schedualed. Otherwise you may find yourself nibbling your weight right back to where it used to be. Follow the rules & chew & chew & put the fork down between eat bite & no drinking& so on...well you know the rules. You need to develope habits of a bandster asap. Good Luck

I'm still learning at 12 weeks out. I have a big sliming problem in the evening (sigh). It shouldn't take you an hour to eat, think 20-30 minutes, about as long as it used to take you to eat dinner out at a restaurant. The reason you want to go slow at first is so you can really listen to your body, you will figure out when to stop, and if you don't stop the food will come back. There is a definate learning curve, Good Luck.

I know everyone is different but is there a list of Foods that we should stay away from. I learned the hard way with bacon,didn't know I should stay away from that and when I called my Dr he said "oh, well I will put that on our list of foods not to have". Strawberries and celery and of course steak is all I was told. Thanks for any info

Hi Juju,

This has been tough for me. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten sick because I forget and start eating normally. I am finally getting it now. Small bites, chew, chew, chew...

Karen

Well i was banded in aug and my first two fills i could eat just about anything and was wondering why everyone was talking about PB ing and stuff. Pork and dry chicken would kind of get hung up but a sip or two of water and i was good. THEN i got a fill last thursday and OMG i cant eat anything ( 1/2 cup maybe) and No bread and my bites MUST be SMALL and well chewed. I knew this day would come. i have been practicing but had gotten lax about chewing and small bites. It only takes on opps to remind you.