I'm 3 days post-op and I'm SO hungry. I keep dreaming about chewing on some pizza or chips...even when my stomach is full with liquids, I still crave food. I strained the noodles out of chicken noodle soup so I could drink the broth today...the noodles looked so delicious. Why am I so hungry for food???? I know that when I do upgrade to purée and the solids, I'll be able to eat only a small amount. And that's fine. But I'm going crazy right now not being able to just bite and chew something

You're breaking up with food, I was like that too but in a week it subsided. I was on puréed food from the day I was discharged from the hospital so I don't think it's just because you're on liquids. Ar one month post op I was allowed to add in whatever I wanted to my diet and honestly I really haven't changed my diet much at all but I also didn't eat true puréed foods. I promise it will get better!! Good luck!

I had to have soft foods way past the scheduled move to real food. Everyone is different. My tiny tummy really revolted with regular foods. I am just starting to eat a little lettuce etc. It does get better but it can take a while for some.

I definitely had to get used to not always eating. The first 4 weeks were pretty hard. I was so used to always "thinking" about what I was going to eat or what I had just eaten. It took me a while to fill in my thoughts with "NEW" thoughts about things other than food. I had an addiction and with the sleeve it changed everything.

I'm not suggesting this, and it may have been a bad idea but I did chew some solid food and not swallow it. I spit it out. I just had to chew some food. It got me thru a few rough times. It only lasted a week or so.

If you aren't too much into "tough love" you may want to skip my next few paragraphs.

First of all, you don't NEED food. You feel like you do, but that's just your fat brain trying to back control of your new body. Your liquid or pureed diet will give you all the nutrition you need and this is the time to maximize your weight loss while allowing your staple line to heal.

Remind yourself that most of your stomach was just chopped off and STAPLED back together. That's serious business. You don't want to get any little food particles stuck in that staple line possibly causing an infection or abscess. There is no amount of food worth that.

As far as chewing and spitting? I'd caution you against going down that road. That's just knocking on the door of an eating disorder. That's a really bad habit to get into. Your liquid/pureed stage only lasts a few weeks for most, a few months for some (me!) and surely you can get by without chewing for that long. It's hard, and it sucks, but if you take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, you can make it happen.

Brush your teeth often. Nothing tastes good with a minty mouth. Rinse with Listerine, that stuffs nasty in your mouth for hours. Take a walk and get some fresh air. Paint your nails. You can't eat with wet polish. Call a friend, go to the mall, get out of the kitchen.

You can do ANYTHING for a few weeks if you really want to.

It's not that I feel like I need food and can't go on without eating it...I have no choice there. I also have plenty of things to do to occupy my time. But I just want to chew something tangible. The thought of the liquids is nauseating

Sort of just venting about that. It's frustrating. I don't do well on all liquids