What am I going to eat now?!

[clk 3,519]

What the heck?

I am nearly three months out. I have struggled since surgery to eat. It's not painful, it's just unappealing. I have no hunger, I have no desire to eat and I am generally repulsed by food. Except during PMS, of course. That's the only time I want to eat, and the only time I ever feel anything resembling hunger.

Lately, whenever I drink my chai latte Protein Drink, or have anything else with dairy, I experience very uncomfortable and unpleasant side effects. It happens with milk, cottage cheese and even yogurt. Some things simply make me feel nauseated, but other things make me incredibly sick. I even tried mixing my Protein powder with Water to see if I could avoid the issues, but THAT makes me sick, too. I tried switching my milk to Lactaid, since I had to do that during my pregnancy, but even that makes me feel sick. Speaking of pregnancy, I'd almost believe I was pregnant by the way I feel nauseated all day if I eat dairy in the morning. But I'm not - I swear.

I'm at a point where after eating one small meatball I'm done. I feel disgusted by food and it's incredibly difficult to eat enough calories. I really think that my frequent lapses into the under 500 calorie zone (and I'm often under 400) is partly why I'm such a slow loser. I can make it all the way to dinner time and never eat a single bite or drink a Protein Drink, and I only eat at that point because my sleeve is empty and the acid starts to bother me.

I like string cheese and beef Jerky but I struggle to get a stick of cheese or a few pieces of jerky in, too.

My big help was the protein drink, but now it seems that isn't an option. I'm also about to move to a country where string cheese and beef jerky are not going to be food options. I'm planning to order some cases online and ship them but there will be a period where I'll simply be without. I can hand carry some while we're traveling but I don't know that living on jerky is a great idea.

What am I going to eat now? I really need ideas and advice. Everything makes me feel sick - either physically, or mentally. I'm never going to drop this weight or be healthy if I can't eat.

If it helps, we avoid pork and shellfish completely, so those aren't possibilities.

I'd appreciate any ideas. Maybe there's something I can take to make the milk not bother me as much?

~Cheri

[Jordien 30]

I'm still only a few weeks post-op so not sure I can help much. How are you with vegetables? Vegetable Soup? chicken? Salmon? Can you eat soft meats and fishes? (not shellfish) I was thinking if you can get in some meat or fish with vegetables, you'd be good? Not sure, but good luck!

[Tiffykins 673]

I had a bit of lactose intolerance, but I could tolerate greek yogurt and some cheeses. I took Probiotics during that time, and it seemed to help.

They also make soy, veggie and other Proteins for those of us that are lactose intolerant because whey is a milk product. The lack of appetite and food being repulsive is not going to last forever, I promise. I went through the same thing, and it didn't last that long. The one thing that broke me out of the repulsive food stage was to start trying new foods with different flavor profiles. I also over seasoned food. If the recipe called for a 1tsp of something, I'd throw in 2-3tsp for extra flavor. I swear I threw so much chili powder, fajita seasoning, lemon pepper and garlic pepper during that stage because I needed lots of flavor.

[clk 3,519]

Thanks for the ideas.

I'm so sick of tuna now since it's one of the foods that goes down pretty easily for me. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to simply try fish filets, but I'll try that tomorrow and see how it goes. I am not so good with vegetables unless they're mush. I want to eat them, I just can't eat that much and it seems somehow wrong to fill up on vegetables instead of Protein. Maybe a nice stew would do the trick.

Tiffykins, thanks for the great ideas. I hadn't considered that I might need to spice things differently or more heavily. I used to stick to mostly garlic, onion, salt and pepper but maybe switching things up will help me out. Come to think of it, I've enjoyed only one meal post op - and it was a restaurant taco, with several shakes of hot sauce on top. I did try a soy Protein shake but all I could think about was how much it smelled like baby formula, so I won't be doing that again. I like greek yogurt, and you're right - it doesn't bother me as much as regular yogurt or cottage cheese. I've always considered the varieties here too high in carbs and calories but since I'm hardly eating it can't hurt to boost those numbers anyway. There is no Oikos or Fage here, just a German packaged brand called Elina's, and only the fruit or honey varieties. It's delicious though, even if it is mostly fat.

Honestly, I was half hoping someone would have a miracle solution for the dairy thing. Hopefully the dairy issue won't be so bad if I can stimulate my appetite again.

~Cheri

[Maddie 9]

Cheri, I wish I did have a miracle cure for you. I'm only 4 months out, but I had a stretch there, when everything smelled terrible, looked terrible and tasted terrible. I just kept trying different things and sometimes retry others. I still don't want to eat much, but it's WAY better. I think many of us go through this phase. I do hope you get something to work for you soon. Take care of yourself.