So, I am 8 days post surgery, and I agree with so many that this is much harder than I anticipated. I’m wondering, outside of the difficulty with drink/food, what has been the hardest part for you?

For me, it’s definitely been understanding my body again. Before surgery, it was easy to tell when I was hungry, when I ate something that didn’t sit well, or when I overate. Now, I can’t tell one pain from another. “Am I hungry?” “What does that cramp/gurgle mean?”...

What about you?

@redhead che, today I feel the same and I am even a different stage of the proceedings. People tell me Look at how far you've come. And I want to say Where? I just feel like I'm running in place, I do not see travel miles mounting up!

Stalls. stalls. stalls.

3 minutes ago, AshAsh1 said:

Stalls. stalls. stalls.

yes yes yes! I just broke through a month and a week ish stall. Longest one I've experienced. Bouncing between the same 2 lbs is like STOOOOOOP.

13 hours ago, Mhy12784 said:

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've completely ignored my body's sense or lack of hunger since surgery.

I decided what Protein Fiber and calories numbers I needed to hit, and just set up a routine where I would eat meals at the same time everyday no matter what. And I just simply spread out my calories over the course of the day to hit those numbers.

6am I'm eating Breakfast. 3pm I'm eating lunch, 6pm dinner, 9pm my late protein snack.

I don't care when or if I'm hungry, when it's time to eat it's time to eat. And as long as getting my protein fiber and staying within my rough caloric range that's all that I care about.

Otherwise I'm not getting hungry enough that I have to eat thanks to the surgery, and it's hard to imagine that I'm overeating as long as I'm making smart choices and staying in my calorie range

I'm the opposite. I only eat when my body tells me it's hungry. Some days all I have is two protein shakes, to meet my protein requirements.

1 hour ago, sillykitty said:

I'm the opposite. I only eat when my body tells me it's hungry. Some days all I have is two Protein Shakes, to meet my protein requirements.

I guess it depends on how much more you're trying to lose and how quickly.

Like I wouldn't mind losing maybe up to 10 more pounds, but it's not a goal of mine. I wanna not just maintain but increase my lean mass. So I'm trying to keep things constant. Plus I feel that if you under eat one day because you're not hungry it will lead to hunger spikes, cravings, and that can lead to poor decisions and be a slippery slope. But by constantly eating when you're supposed to, it'll keep you in a more stable place

19 minutes ago, Mhy12784 said:

I guess it depends on how much more you're trying to lose and how quickly.

Like I wouldn't mind losing maybe up to 10 more pounds, but it's not a goal of mine. I wanna not just maintain but increase my lean mass. So I'm trying to keep things constant. Plus I feel that if you under eat one day because you're not hungry it will lead to hunger spikes, cravings, and that can lead to poor decisions and be a slippery slope. But by constantly eating when you're supposed to, it'll keep you in a more stable place

I agree. I'm still looking for maximum weight loss at this point, with 40 more lbs to go.

I don't have a lot of physical hunger fortunately, so I'm trying to take advantage of that. I haven't detected a pattern of rebound hunger, for me.

Part of how I got to my weight is eating mindlessly, out of habit or boredom. So I've tried to be mindful of that. The other part is my job requires a lot of social meals. So a good part of the time I'm eating when I'm not particularly hungry. So I try to balance that with when I'm home, I only eat when my body tells me to.

I'm 4 weeks out and I am also rediscovering my body. Even though I'm cleared for soft foods, I can only tolerate soft veggies and fish. I can't handle chicken, pork or beef, something I learned the hard way. All I think about eating is vegetables and I have to force myself to eat the fish because I want to eventually wean myself off the protein shakes, so I try to get protein from fish and beans etc.

On 6/27/2018 at 8:17 PM, MdmMargott said:

Stalls. It just sucks when I wake up and number on the scale is the same as yesterday.

Social eating and drinking. I never realized how much socializing is around food and i just feel so uneasy in these situations at the moment.

Fear of not losing the weight/gaining all of it back/not being successful. It's always at the back of my mind.

Social situations changed for me when I reframed it as being about people, not food. I'm there to enjoy the conversation and the company. To gain comfort from the relationships. It helps me not obsess about what I can or can't eat or start rationalizing a bad choice. I was on my pre-op diet at a dinner party with some close friends, so I had to not eat anything but my salad and afterwards I went home and cried because it was the first time I simply enjoyed the company of the people in my life and I didn't think constantly about food. It was so amazing and also sad when I realized how much life I missed by thinking always about food. I can't say I'm "healed" but I'm able to catch the food obsession and remind myself it's not about the food. I'm an introvert so social situations can be stressful so sometimes I have to remind myself every few minutes, but it helps.

I'm a teacher and not being able to drink alcohol in the summer is a lot harder than I expected. I didn't realize how much I use alcohol to relax over vacation. I haven't found a way to reframe that one.

I feel the scale pain: my weight stays in the same two-pound range for weeks and then drops suddenly, then goes back up a couple pounds before starting the whole process again. It's super frustrating, but over the long run the weight loss does happen, eventually. Just not on my brain's schedule.

The mental aspect of all of this is the hardest for me. I didn't expect that at all. Learning how to cope with stress without food or alcohol has been hard too. And stalls! The scale makes me crazy but I can't stay away from it!

What a great topic. I struggle with eating beyond my comfort zone when eating out. Fortunately I don't really need to go out much. Next time I go, I'm going to try asking for a to go box be delivered with my meal so that I can eyeball the portion I'll eat and pack up the rest to be leftovers. No endless picking until I feel painfully full. Early on when I returned to work I realized I was stress eating. I recognized what I was doing midway with a veggie straw to my lips. I was bound and determined not to let stress eating sabotage me, so I revamped my self care: journaling, meditation, activity/exercise (a real mood ad energy booster for me), therapy, and for awhile I was doing massage every 3 weeks.

Hi Defincupark!

A lot of docs put patients on a PPI prescription post surgery so stomach acid churning doesn’t get confused with hunger. It really improved my rumbly tummy syndrome.

Day 8 is tough. Before you know it, months will fly by and a new normal will feel great. At to months, it is hard to remember how difficult those first weeks were.

It gets so much easier and better!

Still being hungry when I was told by all the professionals "you won't feel hungry anymore". It's like a nagging aunt, but I don't give in and like above, I try to keep to a meal/snack schedule and I plan MY meals out but the family meals too.

going out of social situations are hard now. With people i know it's not a big deal but maybe I wanted to save my food and they just eat it, or I'm at a party and there's nothing that I've tried yet I panic, because lately my stomach has hated two or three (or more!) Things per week and I run to the bathroom. I'm scared that's going to happen. I do bring my own emergency stuff though and hide it in a coffee cup. Nasty or snarky comments from peop!e I kinda know I am not fond of. I'm 11 weeks and 52 pounds down so I'm noticeable