So...it really hasn't all begun yet. I am on the full liquid diet still. I still feel like a patient. I have been unwilling to cheat because I read about leaks and feeding tubes and medical bills and I can't do ANY of that if I can avoid it. But, I am now a few days away from mushies and I have made a menu plan, but its that next phase. I am scared! I want to succeed. I want this to be the time that I learn how to treat my body well and then after I learn it, I want to be able to do it over the long haul. The surgeon talked about the different ways people eat around their sleeve and I don't want to be one of those people. I know it all comes down to choices, but just going on track records, when it comes to making the right choices for my body I have never done it before. Why will this be different?

It WILL be different! Everyone one of us chose this surgery because we can't do it alone. The sleeve is an awesome tool. It gives you the restriction and you choose what you feed it. Make the right choices (95% of the time - no one is perfect) and your body will respond.

I know it's hard to believe .. but you will succeed. And, when you have a rough day, just call on us to help you through. You are just getting started on getting healthy and learning to take care of you. Best of luck!

I'm having the same fears. Especially in this liquid-only phase, I find myself craving that 1/4 of a hamburger. Four french fries. A small taco. Amounts that I probably will be able to eat, but not the best food choices. As mentioned above, my plan is to eat healthy 95% of the time, but to allow myself to indulge the cravings once in a while. The good news is that I won't be able to go overboard with the indulgence. There's just no way I'll be able to finish a double quarter pounder and large fries anymore! And I've warned my wife and some friends I work with about ways I've heard other people cheating and asked them to point it out to me if I do it.

I do feel much more positive and optimistic about this than I have about any diet that I've done. Gotta keep the optimism and positive feeling going to succeed and, with the pounds melting off, it's been easy to do so far!

I'm so impresseed with your resolve. Your right!!! We cant afford the bills of a leak. Your brave for coming this far (my surgery is on april 21). I've noticed that I find a thing of the day to freak out about. Of course your scared, but this is probably your thing of the day. Your body won't let back slide and with that little extra tool in your belt you will be successful.

I hope no one tells me how to "eat around" my sleeve. I don't even want to know

Hang in there.... the hard parts almost over.

Stacey

I'm on liquids right now too, and I keep thinking about eating something real, even healthy foods. It's the fear of a leak that stops me as well. I can't wait to move on to mushies.

I think it will be different this time around for me because, although I am craving some junk food, the cravings and hunger are only a fraction of what they were pre-op. Before I was like an out of control animal with food, now I feel like I have the power to make the right food choices.

Guys, cravings are NORMAL. You have to stop beating yourself up for them, or letting them rule your life. The idea of the sleeve is that it puts YOU back in charge; by limiting the portions you can eat without physical discomfort, it makes it very difficult to "cheat" unless you're TRYING to sabotage yourself. Plus, the ghrelin changes supposedly make real hunger (as opposed to head hunger) much more manageable. You can beat head hunger, if you substitute healthy new habits (say, exercise) for your bad old habits. Believe the numbers: as opposed to diet and exercise, where the vast, vast, VAST majority of people fail to lose the weight and keep it off, most WLS patients (particularly sleevers) manage to lose the weight AND keep it off for at least two years (it's still new enough for there to not be much long-term data, but the weight isn't showing an upwards trajectory like it always does with diet and exercise). So, if you can't trust yourself, trust science and statistics -- they say you've made the right choice... the one with the most chance of success. It's not a work-free solution, but you can make it work!

BAM! Okay. I have never been scared of work.

Guys, cravings are NORMAL. You have to stop beating yourself up for them, or letting them rule your life.

This right here ! ! ! Skinny people crave foods and Snacks. It's completely normal and acceptable. I figured out a long time ago that if I deprive myself, I binge. Then, the guilt would set in, and I would practically beat myself up emotionally because of my binging.

The sleeve makes everything much more manageable. I still crave stuff, but choosing the "right" food first helps, and then if I have any room left, I will have a few bites of whatever I am craving.

Of course, all this takes time. Establishing brand new thought processes about food was really challenging. Losing that long standing relationship with food was kind of a mindtwist, but I can honestly state that food is just different for me now. I didn't believe some of the veterans until I experienced it myself. It took a couple of months to just let go, and let the sleeve do what it was meant to do. I attribute a lot of my success to the loss of my ravenous hunger, and the other part would be that I was super compliant the first few months. I didn't really have any other choice. I was hellbent on not failing, and truly taking advantage of how I was feeling.

You can do it. You can WIN, and you can WIN big with the sleeve.

I adore you guys. Thank you so much for the love and the tough love and the encouragement! Thank you!!!!!

Be encouraged, im so happy for you, i wish u a speedy recovery and i pray away all the scared feelings. The best is yet to come.

Don't worry. The sleeve will not let you overeat. It's extremely uncomfortable when you eat too much and you will learn quickly not to do it.

That does not mean occasionally I eat some chocolate. My portions at meal times are so small that it doesn't seem to matter if I have a treat now and then.

Another things is sugar makes me nauseous now. I can eat a little bit, but anymore than that, I feel sick! It's great, really.