I was sleeved on July 2 and am down 12 lbs. I am missing chicken and vegetables. My worries are once I am on real food, will I be abled to control portion size. The other issue is, I was raised by the maxim to eat everything on your plate. How can I change that behavior (especially when eating out)? Any suggestions?

Congrats on your sleeve! Once you are back on a solid foods diet, you will begin to feel how much your sleeve restricts the amount of food you can eat. Your other issue is one big old habit that we don't change overnight. The emotional part of this pr ocess, in my opinion, is tougher than the operation. There's lots of tips and tricks you can try to get you started to change your thinking forever about not having to "clean your plate." You'll get lots of ideas here from others. For starters--ditch your big dinner plates. Eat meals from a salad plate and always anything you eat from the smallest dish possible--it tricks your head into thinking you're getting more to eat because the dish is so full. When you eat at restaurants--before you even begin your meal, ask your server to bring the "to go" container and place half (or more) of your meal into the container BEFORE you begin to eat your meal.

It's always a good idea to seek help from a bariatric therapist to learn good strategies on how to set up your forever eating and lifestyle plan tailored to YOUR specific situation. There are also a lot of great self-help bariatric books published in the past few years that deal with the emotional stuff.

Rest assured, your concerns are very normal, especially this early on. Many, if not most of us, have felt this way at one time or another.

I also grew up with that train of thought... "there are starving people in the World... eat everything..." But, my attitude quickly changed as I simply could not eat everything. Your stomach is like 85% smaller so it just can't handle eating those large portions any longer. The best part is that you won't feel deprived either. After the few oz you've eaten, depending on what stage your on, you will feel pleasantly satisfied.

Take one day at a time & follow your Dr's instructions for each phase. You'll do just fine.

Hang in there!!

My favorite book is by Cynthia Alexander, "The Emotional First + Aid Kit" (the bariatric one). It helped me recognize common situations in which I fell short and brought food home that I had trouble staying away from & lots of other helpful advice.

Thank you so much for the feedback. I will definitely try the dish option and the to go box when eating out. I had also thought of just ordering from the appetizer menu--as long as there is something I can est.

I totally felt like you did early on. Especially because the liquids and purees were not satisfying me so I thought that there is no way the solids will. Boy I was wrong. There are even days when I order a big plate of food only to feel silly when I realize how little of it I can eat at one sitting. My hunger is still here, my mind still thinks I can eat a whole plate of food or a couple of bites of appetizer and then my entree or half plate I ordered. But alas, I can not. And that is cool! You will not be able to clean your plate, I guarantee you. But keep in mind, some days a few bites and I'm done and other days a few more and I'm done. Every day my restricdtion varies a little, not sure why. You are going to be great don't worry!