What I wish I had known

[7 Bites_Jen 479]

That you will NEVER be able to gorge yourself on your favourite morsels ever again and you need to be prepared for that.

It feels like grief - like you've lost a dear friend. Again, this is the mental aspect, but it is very tangible for me.

Ridiculous, of course - because you can eat your favourite morsels.. There's just a sadness that sometimes descends on me, when I realise I'm going to be maxed-out after 5-6 bites...

Oh, how I'd love to be able to eat a normal sized piece of home-made lasagne, mixed salad dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and a piece of garlic focaccia... all washed down with a glass of spicy pinot noir...

This, is what gets me most....

I definitely had a mourning period. I think we all do, to an extent. You'll be able to eat those things again, just not in the huge portions you remember.

[7 Bites_Jen 479]

Me too. I thought I was being a good Scout and laid in all kinds of (expensive) Protein powders. There's a scoop out of a couple and the rest have never been opened. Turns out I can't/won't tolerate that stuff no matter how hard I try.

Same!!

[DeniseM 238]

I also stocked up on a bunch of Protein Drinks that most of them ended up getting returned because I couldn't tolerate the taste after surgery. My advice- buy one of every kind of Protein drink/flavor you can find and keep track of where you bought them so you can go buy more of the ones you like and don't have to deal with returning the ones you don't like.

[sixbuttons 102]

I wish I hadn't stocked up on ANYTHING! Nothing really made me sick, but there were things I just didn't want to eat. Jell-O was WAY too sweet for me to handle and I had bought 5 or 6 packs before surgery. I still have a fridge full of Jell-O. I have to agree with the whole "missing things you love" comment! Even though I haven't been hungry in the 4 weeks since my surgery, I sometimes think, "Man, I'd love to eat a couple slices of pizza!" And then I think even if I did try to eat pizza, I'd probably only get 3 or 4 bites. I really miss the way food made me feel! But at least the scale is going down and not up! I do wish I'd done this YEARS ago before I had gotten so big.

[Shells_Almost_There 357]

I'm only a few weeks out, but I sure wished I'd listened to the advice to stop drinking while eating. I'm at the stage now where I can't drink 15 minutes before I eat or 30 minutes after and it's the worst learning curve in the world. So frustrating. I already struggle getting in all the ounces of Water per day, so this just made it that much harder.

I too over-bought the Protein powders and about a million cans of cream Soups that I will now donate to the next food drive that comes around. Lots of money down the drain, but live and learn. (LOL, you know this one!)

Finally, agreeing with many above, I wish I'd had surgery two or three years ago when I first started looking into it, instead of waiting. But, in the end, things work out for a reason and having surgery is the best decision I've made for myself...maybe ever!

Edited October 17, 2013 by Shells_Almost_There