Eating with a DS, PART 2: Another Day in the Life (pics!)

LouLou, that is a great question and no offense taken. This was something I worried about quite a bit pre-op.

Part of the reason I eat as much fat as I do is that I get constipated if I don't. I think this is largely due to my calcium and iron intake. Pre-op, I was so worried about diarrhea, but now I actually have to consciously eat fat and take stool softeners to keep from getting backed up.

My system has gotten into the groove of "going" once a day. It is always first thing in the morning. 

I won't lie, the quantity is EPIC. It is amazing, but I guess it nice to know that the malabsorption is working. I have to allow myself about 15-20 minutes for everything to clear out. I just "budget" the time in my morning ritual. It's a good time to get caught up on my paperback novels.

So, once in the morning, and I'm usually done for the day. Sometimes, if I eat a LOT of simple carbs (e.g cake + ice cream at a birthday party or something), I'll have a "bonus poo" before bedtime. LOL!

 Your bites look wonderful AND realistic.  To me, this looks like what a normal sized person might eat in one day.  Even the fancy coffees that could have been from Starbucks and once added to some our weight gain can now be transformed into healthier versions with protein added.

Right now I am enjoying a 22oz latte with 6-8oz half&half and 50g unflavored protein added and I'm loving every minute of it this lazy Sunday morning.

Looking over your list (and thinking about what I eat on a daily basis) REAL food, not diet crap, fills the plate.  None of this fat free, sugar free, chemically engineered foods.  Splenda is probably my worst culprit and even at that I have been adding in Stevia to cut it.  I have to watch sugar, cause over indulgence will cause problems, but sugar in general is not an evil thing, when treated carefully.

Replacing empty carbs with protein has been so much easier since surgery.  I don't have a football sized stomach to fill anymore so I don't feel a huge need for a ton of bread to fill in the empty spaces and give me a full feeling.  If I eat bread, it's because I want to enjoy it, savor it and a little satisfies A LOT! (especially with a generous schmear of european butter)


I can't afford $$ to eat 4 babybels at a time, those are my special treats but I can put away a few string cheeses. Anytime I buy specialty cheese, camembert, morbier.. gone in 60 seconds!  Cheese and fruit are even better when they are gift wrapped with prosciutto.  I can't help it, I have caviar tastes on a hamburger budget :)

It's nice to go out to a restaurant and know I can pretty much eat anything I want on the menu.  Before surgery I imagined I would have panic attack looking for something worthy of my DS.  But then I remembered that my stomach, though smaller was STILL a normal functioning stomach.  I just avoid the "void" filling pastas simply because the void no longer exists.  I do make eat a little pasta from time to time but I make it at home with Dreamfields.  

And drinking with my meal, hallelujah!  When I first came out of surgery I remember having to eat without drinking while my tummy was healing.  Everything was still swollen so I needed to fill that real estate with food.  It was pure hell for me and I hope I never have to revisit that time ever again!  Now I can enjoy a beverage before, during and after with my meal, making it that much more pleasurable to eat.  The preservation of my pylorus (pyloric valve) has made all the difference in my quality of life with the DS.

I LOVE MY DS!

~GG

I am a splenda addict and have tried every brand of stevia I can - none of them are palatable at all to me. When you cut your splenda w/stevia can you taste the stevia? Are you using a commercial stevia blend? I'd love to switch but just can't get used to the taste.

 I use the "Sugar In The Raw" brand stevia in the big bag size, like for baking.  I use them same big bag kind of Splenda too.  When I cook with it I go half and half and as can not take the Stevia 'weirdness' taste by it's self.  Some of those other stevia name brands have an added sugar alcohols.

Hey Lynn, I use Sun Crystals. They are all natural sweetener with a blend of pure cane sugar and stevia. Come in small package like splenda, and have 5 calories. Taste like sugar to me. Never baked with it. Karen

OK - I might not have tried this one, I'll give it a go and if it still yucky I'll just half it with my splenda.

Thanks ladies!!

Thanks for sharing your own experience, GG. 

In general, I do find I am eating more real food. I can't stand the taste of a lot of processed stuff anymore. 

I do enjoy real sugar in moderation, but I have to say I am also a Splenda-holic (as you can see from my eats). The Vermont SF maple syrup just tastes so good to me, that I don't find the carbs in the real thing to be worth the trade-off. All my beverages contain sweetener too. But that's about the only "fake" food I routinely enjoy.

The Babybels were on special at BJ's and I'm going through them like nobody's business! Next week, it's back to Sargento for me, since they're almost out.

A sale? I might head over there today to check it out :)  The diet drinks/ artificial sweeteners are almost always the exception for me.  Diet drinks are the #1 fake food I consume.  The sweeteners only come into play if I want to make a food that requires a TON of sugar.

You'll never see me eating fat free versions of food products like, sour cream, cream cheese, half and half.  Those foods an abomination to the culinary world.
~GG

The special on babybel's is with a coupon, so be sure to get one or print it out before you go: www.bjs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CouponsDisplayView. It's $1.50 off.

It's funny for me to think of the days when I used to do a low-fat diet, because now I read the labels a lot more carefully and see how much sugar and other carbs they load in that stuff! High fructose out the wazoo. 

If you are near a Sam's Club, they have babybels there.  SOOOO much cheaper than at the regular grocery store.  I eat 2-4 of them a day.