Hello everyone! I have surgery scheduled for 7/17/18. When I went to my nutritionist visit she suggested that I start practicing my eating by taking small bites (she said small like the tip of my pinky) and chewing the heck out of it. I still have my preop diet class that I will be attending in a couple weeks where they are going to be giving more detailed information about pre op and post op eating and of course my pre op appt (which is only 1 week before surgery). But I am wondering what those of you who have already had the surgery would suggest to prepare for the drastic change to our eating habits. I still don't know what kind of preop diet I will be required to do, if any (other than the day before surgery). Also, I started taking a daily PPI (Protonix) at my surgeon's request and they want me to continue this after surgery as I do get acid reflux a few times a week. Am I going to be able to take that in pill form in the first few weeks after surgery? Does it even come in a liquid form? The pill is pretty small and thin but I have seen a lot of folks talking about taking liquid forms of medications for the first month or so after surgery. Thank you all in advance for your advice and input, I appreciate it!

You definitely have to learn to eat slower, which is something I'm still working on. I had no issues taking pills just days after my surgery.

Try to wean yourself off of caffeine and sweets! Start drinking lots of water now.

Sleeves on April 25, 2018
HW: 256
SW: 238
CW: 222
GW: 165

Practice not drinking while you eat. It is a total reflex for most of us and a hard habit to break. I have to move my glass to another area or put a paper towel over it so that I remember. Good luck!

I wish that I had started to learn how to eat slower. After surgery I still ate fast (though much less) and that caused me pain and discomfort. I have since started to eat slower but, if I learned how to do it earlier it would have saved me some pain.

Yeah I know I am really going to have to work on eating slower and taking smaller bites,etc. I eat very quickly right now. I have always eaten very fast and it can be really embarrassing. My husband used to be a smoker and everytime he would cook dinner he would go out and smoke afterwards and then come back in to find me finished with my plate. So that is something I will work on. Refraining from drinking while eating will be hard too. I've always drank a lot throughout my meal (probably to compensate for my massive bites!). I have a good 6 weeks to practice all of this so I will start to implement it. Thanks everyone.

12 minutes ago, Chunkysoup said:

Yeah I know I am really going to have to work on eating slower and taking smaller bites,etc. I eat very quickly right now. I have always eaten very fast and it can be really embarrassing. My husband used to be a smoker and everytime he would cook dinner he would go out and smoke afterwards and then come back in to find me finished with my plate. So that is something I will work on. Refraining from drinking while eating will be hard too. I've always drank a lot throughout my meal (probably to compensate for my massive bites!). I have a good 6 weeks to practice all of this so I will start to implement it. Thanks everyone.

Good luck!

Put your spoon or fork down in between bites. I have found no matter how small my food is, if i eat or drink too fast it hurts. Think of your sleeve like a pipe. If you try to put too much in at one time, it overflows. Your sleeve will do the same. You will be able to take pills again. Most people are only on liquid pain meds the first few days.

I need to start practicing as well. Some tips I've learned while researching what I need to do:

• For not drinking with meals: Don't even make yourself something to drink until after you've finished eating. I've even thought about not making a drink until I'm done cleaning the kitchen after a meal. That gives me more time to keep busy and it won't seem like such a long time to wait for a drink.
• For eating smaller bites: Purchase toddler utensils or Bariatric utensils (adult sized handles with smaller ends - available on Amazon). Also purchase small plates and bowls or portion control ones. I really like the ones with circles on them so you can measure your food on your plate in secret so you don't have to announce to the world you're monitoring your portions.
• For chewing slowly: Cut your food into small bites (but not all at once!), put one bit in your mouth, set your utensil down, sit on your hands. Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, and chew some more. Then just sit a minute a take a deep breath, then get another bite. DON'T EAT DISTRACTED - This will be my biggest challenge, I'm the multi-tasking queen.
• To break the gulping water habit: Don't use a straw (my addiction!), barely open your lips and let the water drip in. Do this throughout the day, don't wait until you're thirsty to drink.

I made myself a pact that I would start practicing on July 1, but now that I've typed this all out I might as well start tonight!

Edited May 31, 20188 yr by Ylime

16 hours ago, Ylime said:

I need to start practicing as well. Some tips I've learned while researching what I need to do:

• For not drinking with meals: Don't even make yourself something to drink until after you've finished eating. I've even thought about not making a drink until I'm done cleaning the kitchen after a meal. That gives me more time to keep busy and it won't seem like such a long time to wait for a drink.
• For eating smaller bites: Purchase toddler utensils or Bariatric utensils (adult sized handles with smaller ends - available on Amazon). Also purchase small plates and bowls or Portion Control ones. I really like the ones with circles on them so you can measure your food on your plate in secret so you don't have to announce to the world you're monitoring your portions.
• For chewing slowly: Cut your food into small bites (but not all at once!), put one bit in your mouth, set your utensil down, sit on your hands. Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, and chew some more. Then just sit a minute a take a deep breath, then get another bite. DON'T EAT DISTRACTED - This will be my biggest challenge, I'm the multi-tasking queen.
• To break the gulping Water habit: Don't use a straw (my addiction!), barely open your lips and let the water drip in. Do this throughout the day, don't wait until you're thirsty to drink.

I made myself a pact that I would start practicing on July 1, but now that I've typed this all out I might as well start tonight!

Great advice. I also saw last night where someone recommended using toddler utensils. I've already got plenty of that so I'm covered there! Right now I am focusing on drinking at least 64 oz of water per day. My surgeons office wants me drinking 96 oz a day...So I am trying to get in a minimum of 64. I'll start practicing the the other things probably by mid June.

You have to wait a long time at least half an hour after eating to drink. I would practice drinking waiting 20 mins and then eating. I still forget to drink first sometimes and then I eat and then I am thirsty for ages waiting to drink.

In the beginning to help make sure your sips are small, I would just get a large cup of ice. I could only take a sip as it melted. This really helped.

3 hours ago, domi said:

In the beginning to help make sure your sips are small, I would just get a large cup of ice. I could only take a sip as it melted. This really helped.

Clever!

Another thing to add to the "practice" or maybe "prepare" scenario: If you are not planning to tell others about your surgery, this is a good time to lay ground work. Start walking/exercising, start managing your portions, start eating healthier. That way, when the weight really does start to drop quickly, they'll be expecting it and won't be so nosy.

If you have acid reflux, did you talk to your doctor about bypass over sleeve? Sleeve can make acid reflux worse, that’s what my doctor told me.

Before surgery, I worked on not drinking while I eat (stop 30 minutes before/wait at least 30 minutes after) as well as eating 5-6 smaller means per day instead of ~2 big meals a day that I used to. Both made a big difference!

I quit sugar and simple carbs 5 months before surgery. If I had any carbs, it was oatmeal, whole wheat and so forth. I also started counting every calorie I ate and keeping track. This because I knew I over eat and I needed numbers in black and white to keep me straight and honest with myself. I also quit caffeine and anything carbonated. Just let all that go. It really made the transition after surgery so much easier for me.

My tip for after surgery would be to cook "wet" dishes. Since you cannot drink during a meal time, you don't want to try to struggle with eating dry meat or veggies. I did things like make spaghetti sauce with ground turkey mixed in. No NOODLES of course. I make a lot of different soups and I blend up a lot of veggies so they are easy on my stomach. Try exploring some wet dishes you can make now so you have some ideas for post surgery.