Eating Under Your Sleeve

So as a follow up to the last question I asked, the resounding answer I got was to "eat under the sleeve". How do I know what my capacity is? I know it sounds dumb, but I can't figure it out. Thank you so much for your help!

 

Purpletmar 

 YES!!!  Its a MAJOR CONTRIBUTION from the Japanese community ... Japanese ARE RAISED, taught since childern...to  UNDEREAT their stomachs capacity!  A CULTURAL TRADITION!!  Praise VSG!!.....I just posted about this last week  after I read an article from DR. OZ....in an OLD Oprah magazine.   
I AM  SO TURNING JAPANESE anymore

Its called HARI HACHI BU


http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/4492426/Undereating-MY -sleeve-Japanese-style-Hara-hachi-bu/

Seek thee Frisco - he can guide you ....

Aren't we so lucky we have VSG! This is so totally do-able! Even if we aren't Japanese...
Try not to look at it as a DIET FAD!! But on the other post...I have a link to the OKINAWA DIET

Here's some more...also below some pointers for US to UNDEREAT our SLEEVE's CAPACITY!!

Here's Dr. Oz's article in its entirety! The other link didn't work I think...

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/6-health-secrets-from-around-the-globe-2514400.html

Hara Hachi Bu: Eat Until You Are 80% Full
My husband is one of those naturally thin people. He has been thin his entire life and has never had a problem with food. As someone who has been up and down the scales and until 20 years ago when I lost 50 pounds and learned how to keep it off, flirted with various forms of binging and purging, it has been a fascinating learning experience to watch what this "naturally thin" creature does around food. Early in our life together, we were at the dinner table and I noticed that he was just sitting there thinking. There was still food on his plate but he had put his fork down and it looked like he was pondering something important. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm thinking about how I will feel if I take one more bite. I think I've had enough but I'm just checking in to make sure." It was then that I knew for sure that he was from an entirely different planet than me. On my planet, you ate until there was no more food on your plate. I was taught to clean my plate as a child. The reward for doing so was dessert. The amount on my plate was often determined by someone other than me. This style of eating had absolutely nothing to do with what my body needed, how full I was, or how I'd feel if I took one more bite. I never learned to listen to my body when it came to food.

The Japanese practice something that makes such sense that I can't believe we don't start teaching this to our kids. It's called "hara hachi bu". It means, eat until you are 80 percent full. You have probably heard about the Okinawan people and how they often live to 100. They are the longest lived, healthiest people on the planet and they practice hara hachi bu. Of course it helps to eat healthy food as well, but simply learning to eat until you are 80 percent full would do wonders for us Americans. Most of us have no idea what 80 percent full feels like. We do know that if we eat until we are full, in 20 minutes we are likely to feel too full, as it takes about that long for the stomach to communicate with the brain just how full it is. But how do you tell when you are "80 percent full"? Here is what registered dietician, Susan Dopart, has to say on the subject:

It takes sometimes 15-20 meals to reset the muscle memory of the stomach to get used to less food and people need to trust that will happen. Most are used to eating until full, which is past satiation and which keeps weight on.


Susan suggests eating just half of what you normally eat and then checking in to see how you feel. According to Ms. Dopart, once we begin to feel any stomach pressure we are at the "80 percent full" stage. She also tells her clients to eat until they are no longer hungry, instead of eating until they are full.

Many of my clients say their hunger/satiety mechanism is broken. I understand this, as mine was as well. If you override your body's natural inclination to stop eating when it has had enough, over and over again, I think that natural signal can go into a coma. According to Susan, however, it can wake back up after about 20 meals. I can tell you that after years of maintaining a fifty pound weight loss, mine is working again. However, the challenge now is to listen to it and honor it.

It would probably be helpful if you weigh or measure your food if you aren't already doing so. I would think at about 3 months out you could eat 2-3 ounces total at a meal. Take a couple of ounces of protein and if you can eat it and aren't full yet, next time either have a little more protein or add some veggies. Your capacity will vary depending on the food. I am over a year out and can eat 6 oz of yogurt without a problem, but only 3-3.5 oz of dense protein.

Great Question !!! I for one loved the respose and agin learned something new

Some of it is trial and error.

With your sleeve, especially early on when it is at its tiniest, there are only about 2 or three bites between under-eating your sleeve and eating until you're uncomfortable.

Two tips will help you:

Always measure your food. Always.

If you feel uncomfortably full, you ate too much. To undereat your sleeve, serve yourself less next time.

I am an avid follower of the Frisco "undereat your sleeve" philosophy, but on my way there I did make a few mistakes. It's consistently overeating that's the problem, not a few mistakes while learning.

LOVE this stuff!!!!

I measure my food, but I generally stop eating at the point where I feel like there is somthing in my sleeve. It's not full or discomfort, just an aknowledgment of 'something.' If I do that, over the next 10-15 minutes the feeling increases to the 'full' point without eating another bite.  

My capacity for dense protien is about 2- 2 1/4oz.  I can 'get in' 2 1/2oz if I pu**** but it's not very pleasant. 

Weigh and/or measure your food.  Your surgeon's office should have given you a guideline. I still weigh my food.  I made a frittata today and divided it into 3 parts because of its weight. Each part was 2-2.2 ounces.  I stay between 2-3 ounces right now.

Also, eat slowly. The ONLY time that I have overeaten is when I ate fast or distracted. I didn't notice that I had eaten more food until it was too late. The discomfort of over eating is not worth it. I now know not to eat while on the phone because I eat too fast. When I am in a restaurant, I separate my portion before I start eating.  I didn't eat out until I knew how to do that.