When they said eating and drinking would be your full time job, they weren’t kidding!

I am 43 days PO and starting my soft/solid stage. Last week the bariatric nutritionist wanted me to start eating 800 calories a day and it really interferes with getting my fluids in every day since we have to wait 30 minutes prior to eating and 30 minutes after to be able to drink again.

I have to wake up at 6:30 am to start my day of eating and drinking and don’t finish until 10 or 10:30 at night - and I rarely get to 750 or 800 calories.

I know as time goes on my stomach size will improve in order to take more in at one time but for now I try to listen to my body and be patient!

Has anyone else felt like this and how did you deal with it?

Hugs to all!!

Same. I have to start drinking my water at about 7 or 8 AM, then I wait about 20 min to eat. After I eat, I usually wait 45 min to an hour before I start drinking water again. However, I'm trying to discipline myself to only eating my regular 3 meals and a snack per day. The reason for this is because I'm a teacher. I can't just be eating and drinking all day. I'm teaching/speaking/lecturing/working one-on-one with my kids for 49 min at a time from 8:15 AM to 4:00 PM. I get a lunch and a conference period somewhere in the middle of the day. My last water bottle is usually consumed after 9 PM. What I did at the beginning was set reminders on my phone for my water and my vitamins. After a while, though, it just becomes part of your regular day. Always have a water bottle in your hand. Have one where you sit to watch tv, have one on your desk, take one with you in the car (you can take sips at the red lights), carry one in your purse. I also invested in protein shots. Bariatricpal sells 3 oz shots of 25g of protein. I use them at the end of the day if I haven't consumed enough protein throughout the day.

I drink about 70-ish ounces a day. I'm retired though, so I have the time to drink all day. I don't know how I'd do it if I had to be on the go like most of you ! I'd always have to be within 2 minutes of a bathroom ! Some liquids seem to fill me up more . If I drink sugar free fruit juices I can't eat as much. It's a balancing act for sure

I’ve noticed on days I work it’s definitely harder to stay on track. I work with my hands so it’s hard to stop and drink and go back to work, maybe one of those “beer hats” would work ?

in the beginning I had a 32 oz bottle and I would fill that up with a bottle of water and ice, but the ice would melt and it was hard to keep track and I never felt like I was making progress. So I switched to filling mason jars with 8 oz of water and numbered them. It seems to work much easier for me at home and I can see the progress. Since doing this I’ve hit 64 oz a day. When I go out, I take the water bottle with ice with me and just drink all the time and assume with the ice I get more than a 16 oz bottle of water.

The sooner you can meet your goals, the better you will feel. I struggled for months to drink enough, I was so very nauseous, warm sat the best with me. I survived but felt lousy until I did the drink quota. Soon you will be able to do bigger sips and then its so much easier

I can drink 80+ oz of water a day. But that was washing out all of my electrolytes. My nutrition wasn't enough to keep that balancee. So now, I drink 64oz of water, and 16 oz of Propel water so I don't cramp at night.

It is hard to balance the water/food ratio! As we go from liquids to solids we have to adapt. When the nutritionist told me to get 800 calories a day I was like, “where am I going to put it?” I feel most comfortable around 600 calories and 50oz of water, but she said I have to get the calories up in order to keep my metabolism going! It’s definitely a balancing act and we have to listen to our bodies!

It is hard to balance the water/food ratio! As we go from liquids to solids we have to adapt. When the nutritionist told me to get 800 calories a day I was like, “where am I going to put it?” I feel most comfortable around 600 calories and 50oz of water, but she said I have to get the calories up in order to keep my metabolism going! It’s definitely a balancing act and we have to listen to our bodies!

Yep. ALL. DAY. LONG. It's worth it though. It really becomes second nature as time goes on.

Lol! All day every day. I found drinking through the night helps. Basically sip every time I get in or out of bed (& because I drink a lot I pee a lot so I drink even more ??). Establishing routines help too. For example I sip every time I get in or out of my car. I sip at every red light. When I worked I sipped every time I started an email & again when I sent one (I had lots of emails). A friend told me recently she plays the drinking game in meetings - every time certain words are said she drinks. (She also said she initially started by drinking whenever someone said something stupid but she couldn’t keep up with the drinking ???.)

You’ll work out the routines that work best for you too.

Edited July 27, 20233 yr by Arabesque

2 minutes ago, Arabesque said:

She also said she initially started by drinking whenever someone said something stupid but she couldn’t keep up with the drinking

That is absolutely hilarious!!