I never realized before surgery how much of my social life revolves around food. All my thin friends always want to go to restaurants, and I used to think it was just me. People also are surprisingly pushy about getting me to drink alcohol, like I'm some sort of weirdo if I don't get a drink. They're always asking when I can eat or drink things. "Let me know when you can ______!"

I also had no idea that after surgery you can't take ibuprofen (used to eat it like candy), that I would have to separate eating and drinking liquids, and that soup is a bad idea. The pre-op class was really surprising for me. The salad thing also surprised me but I can eat a little salad with my other food just fine, and straws and diet soda don't really cause me any issues. I'm fortunate that I haven't found anything I can't eat yet. I ate popcorn at the movies this weekend (got a kids' pack) and diet soda and was perfectly fine.

I never realized before surgery how much of my social life revolves around food. All my thin friends always want to go to restaurants, and I used to think it was just me. People also are surprisingly pushy about getting me to drink alcohol, like I'm some sort of weirdo if I don't get a drink. They're always asking when I can eat or drink things. "Let me know when you can ______!"I also had no idea that after surgery you can't take ibuprofen (used to eat it like candy), that I would have to separate eating and drinking liquids, and that soup is a bad idea. The pre-op class was really surprising for me. The salad thing also surprised me but I can eat a little salad with my other food just fine, and straws and diet soda don't really cause me any issues. I'm fortunate that I haven't found anything I can't eat yet. I ate popcorn at the movies this weekend (got a kids' pack) and diet soda and was perfectly fine.

Be careful with pop my nutritionist says it will slowly stretch your stomach over time if you go back to carbonated drinks.I've always found the not drinking while eating very difficult...but it does make me feel full sooner if I don't drink and eat.

Socially the first year when eating at restaurants I would just get an appetizer and I started having wine around 9 months. As for soup...I eat that all the time not sure why that's an issue.

Most things that seem an issue the first year all fade away eventually.

But vitamins and protein so important to keep up! I ended up with a vitamin D deficiency at 6 months post op cause I got lazy with vitamins. It caused me a lot of lower back pain until I got my vitamin D levels back to normal.

I don't really believe the soda thing because there is no conclusive evidence either way that says it causes pouch stretching. Either way, I have maybe one diet soda a week.

My dietician says no soup because it goes through your pouch too quickly to be satisfying. I've found that to be true for me so I'll do only chili occasionally or something similarly hearty.

On 7/9/2017 at 9:13 PM, Roux-en-McClanahan said:

I don't really believe the soda thing because there is no conclusive evidence either way that says it causes pouch stretching. Either way, I have maybe one diet soda a week.

My dietician says no soup because it goes through your pouch too quickly to be satisfying. I've found that to be true for me so I'll do only chili occasionally or something similarly hearty.

I read that the carbonation just pushes the food through the pouch quicker causing you to get hungry again sooner and people tend to overeat and can start gaining the weight back. It doesn't stretch out the pouch. However, everyone is different in regards to what works best for them. Interestingly, I didn't know soup had a similar effect to what I read about the carbonation in soda. Good to know.