I was just wondering how people are managing to cook for the rest of the family when you've been sleeved? I am 3 and a half weeks out, and as a stay at home mum/wife do all the cooking. I find that when I've finished cooking I'm already full, just with trying and tasting in what i think are tiny proportions. I used to taste loads while cooking and then eat with the family, I guess that's one of the reasons I put on so much weight! Any thoughts, advice or experiences with this???

I am an above average "home cook", by no means a chef, but I would consider my talents around interemediate to high level of cooking. I used to taste, and season, taste and season, then realized, I wasn't actually eating. Over the course of an hour prep time, a nibble here, a shake of spice there, and more nibbles, I would get satisfied and wouldn't eat an actual meal. During my losing stage, it was grazing, and that really just set me up to graze more, and not sit down and eat a complete meal. I had to nip that in the bud super quick because I wasn't hitting my Protein and calorie goals, and before I knew it, I was down to 119lbs in my maintenance stage. It wouldn't have negatively affected me if I would have eaten a meal with all the tasting, but I just wasn't "hungry" for the meal once I was done cooking. I had mentally satisfied my "hunger", and didn't want to eat more.

I cook every night for my family, and on the weekends, I cook 2-3 meals per day. It kind of depends on what all we have going on. I considered it grazing, and that totally sabotaged me in both the losing and maintenance stage.

I cook dinner for my family every night and started as soon as I got home from surgery. Since I was on clears at that point, I got out of the habit of sampling as I cook. Now I make my husband do it - I'll call him in and have him tell me what, if anything, the food needs. I'm not eating most of what I cook these days anyway, so the seasoning should be to his taste. If he's not home, I make it the way I think it should taste, but I don't taste the foods myself.

I agree with Tiffy that it's a bad habit that you should try to break. It's very hard to hit your calorie/protein goals by grazing. Everyone manages their new diet differently, but for me weighing and measuring everything I put in my mouth is a must. If I don't do that I tend to seriously under or over estimate my calories for the day. If I do that for a few days the scale stops moving and I have to start all over again.

Now that I can eat pretty much anything, I have to really focus on the Protein part of my meals. I can't waste space tasting sauces or nibbling green Beans if I want to have room for that protein.

Good luck.

~Cheri

Yeah...me too. I still sample some while cooking, but less than I used to. And then I just eat less for dinner. I don't cook as much as you guys so to me it is not a huge deal. But on a day I cook all day b/c I want to, and cooking things I like a lot, like fried chicken strips, I will graze a little all day long. But then there are days I don't eat enough b/c I'm busier so I guess I figured it all balanced out. Usually when I eat a huge day and add it up it is maybe 900 calories and to me that is fine. But then there are days I eat like 650. Before I probably ate 3-4000 a day so to me it is still no biggie.

The main thing is not to eat if you are full. I don't want to stretch my sleeve, although I could tell at 6 mos I jumped to 6 oz or so of food at a time. Seemed like it suddenly happened overnight. But definitely I try not to stretch it out any faster than it will naturally relax on its own.

Now that I can eat a little more I really try hard to stay away from breads b/c I could actually eat 2 little corn tortillas with meat now if I tried. YIPES! That is double what I used to eat. So I limit myself to 1 or none and focus on the Protein. Usually I fix 1 taco very small and then fix a little pile of meat with a salsa I like and some veggies like tomato or whatever. One night I did manage to eat 2 pretty big pieces of garlic buttery french toast - real crunchy - it was so good but I felt super guilty.

I can tell now I have to govern myself a little bit. But once I'm full, I'm done. I've always kinda been that way unless I was just plain self destructing.

Some days I am definitely able to eat more than others.

If I'm upset or tense, it is super hard to eat now. Especially if the kids are fighting and my husband is mad at them right at dinnertime. I kinda laugh inside b/c it is like having the tummy of a really delicate tiny woman that would get nervous and said she couldn't eat. But I really can't. I get really ticked when people argue at dinner. It affects/effects me now. haha

My husband tells me I'm becoming a small woman "tiny like" he says. I like that. woo hooooooooooooooooo

I basically told my husband and son that they were gonna be on their own for awhile. Not every wife can get away with that (jeez, that sounds medieval...!) but we have a pretty good relationship and my hub doesn't mind cooking. My 15 yo is pretty good at making sure he gets fed too (yep, he has the gene...). An added bonus is that we live at a scout camp so there are always 3 squares in the mess, worse case scenario. Not the best options but no one's going hungry.

Now that I'm 7 months out, we pretty much eat as a family, same meals with the exception of Pasta or rice and anything high carb they might be craving and I feel like cooking. I don't mind as I usually have a few bites of something yummy leftover or easy to throw together for myself. I'm delighted how easy it is to cook things like spaghetti and not want to devour all of it, let alone any of it!

Good Luck!

C

Pumpkin: How funny that you mentioned that you can't eat when you're upset. I can't either! If my toddlers are screaming and stressing me out or if I'm in a bad mood for whatever reason I absolutely cannot eat. I have the same issue if I'm really hot. This is a complete 180 from before because it was food I turned to when I was feeling stressed or upset and now that simply isn't possible.

God I am struggling today, have been grazing all day, I wish I could leave it to my husband and children to sort themselves out but my husband comes home really late from work and the girls are too little to cook for themselves! I'm gonna have to make some drastic changes, or else I'm not gonna the the weight I was expecting. I lost mor weight than it says on my ticker, haven't weighed myself though so it's not updated. Sighhhhhhhh