I'm not gonna lie...

Yes I did drink pop today.  It was an interesting experience.  I missed the taste of Coke Zero so I decided to have a few sips.  Not painful, just made me burp a lot more than usual.  I drank through a straw today as well.  Again, not painful, just burpy.  I dont find myself falling back into my old food habits really.  I will have one bite of pasta, or a little crumb of bread just to taste.  I savor that taste and thats all I need, really.  Sure, I want to have more bites, but I stop myself. For dinner tonight I am having subway tuna salad over lettuce and pickles.  Still can't kick my love afair with pickles.  It was my old habit to drink pickle juice. I am scared all the acidity will hurt me now.  I am eating cucumbers now quite a bit. I dont get in nearly enough water everyday because plain water hurts my pouch, so the cukes give me some more water.  I did get that Mint Cookie powder.  It is delicious, but I did have a small dump after I had it.  I think I am having issues with Alkali.  The SF Carnation Instant BF does that to be too, but only the chocolate one.  

Honestly, I do not believe I am lactose intolerant.  The Protein poweder with milk makes me sick, but plain milk does not.  I had a taste for chocolate milk so I took a small half teaspoon (serving size is 2 TBS) of Ovaltine in 8 oz of milk. It was a nice little treat and I was fine afterwards. I will wait a few weeks and try the Matrix powder again.  

I guess my biggest confession of the day is that I went to ALDI.  I got our family groceries, snacks for my hubby and things for me to eat for lunch.  The only thing "unhealthy" I  got was Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer.  It has 5 grams of sugar per serving which is our cut-off. I used to use a lot.  I think now I will try to measure the serving size and see what happens.  I have so few " treats" I can actually get now!   

Speaking from experience, if you're having to eat crumbs because you really want the taste but on the other hand are saying you "aren't falling back into old habits" and that the crumbs are "all you need" and go on to tell us of your cheating with soda and getting sugary food... your old habits are laughing at you right now.

Me, I feel for you. You're not even 2 months out and it's hard adjusting to the new life and figuring out a whole new way of eating and living all while recovering from major surgery. Food issues are HARD. And you're going to be the one to live with your choices. And that's hardest of all.

If you see a therapist, I would suggest you request an appointment, if not, you might consider finding one.   You need to think about why you think you need "a treat"?

You are sabotaging yourself very early on - you will not find ONE veteran RNY'er that wishes they had started eating carbs or drinking soda earlier - but plenty who wish they hadn't started at all!

There are many of us that drink soda or chocolate milk, or eat bread or pasta - but most of us will be a lot further out than you.   I still have a hard time eating bread and pasta - I can't imagine doing that in my second month!!!

You have the rest of your life to eat everything in moderation but you only have 12-18 months to really lose all your excess weight - it is sooooo much harder to do after your malabsorption has gone ...
and if you don't learn all your good habits now, believe me, you probably never will!

I wish you well.

  I dont see how I am fallin back on old habits. One little bite of someting I have not had in a few months... Just to see if my tastes have changed.  I eat my protein, my vegetables, I take my vitamins and I dont eat crap anymore.  I follow my guidelines from my surgeon.  How am I sabatoging myself having one sip of pop?  I did not sit here and say that I will be drinking it every day. In fact, I probably wont try it again until after a year or two.  Is it wrong to experiment?  My habits have changed dramatically.  I measure everything, i eat slow, I don't eat anything that is not allowed by my surgeon.  

One taste of a food I used to eat does not make me crave it.  I just wonder if it is different.  I have already found a lot of my tastes have changed.  If I was sabatoging myself, I would not be losing weight steadily.  

I know I have food issues, we all do.  Right now, my marriage is having problems and work is stressful, but I am finding other things than food to help me cope.  I have done a complete 180.

I post here to keep myself honest.  I know criticism comes with that.  I feel I did not explain myself well in my first post.   A treat is something you have once in a while, not everyday.  I have been confronted with chocolate, red velvet and all those lovely office foods I used to eat, but I say no. They did not make me happy before and they will not now.  Perhaps treat or reward is not the right word to use.  

 You have not had a chance to lose much weight at this point so you aren't seeing that results are more rewarding than going back to old eating habits. Everything that you put in your mouth adds up eventually.  You need to prove to yourself that you can live without it long term.   You can do what you want to do but that is just my opinion.

No one is criticizing you, they are just giving you the benefit of their experience, not just their own but what they  have seen in the many years they have been around.  If you see someone walking down the street and they tell you there is a big hole there do you keep walking?  Or do you trust them that they know the neighborhood better then you do, having lived their for many years when you have just moved it?  I wish I had listened to people with my first WLS when they warned me that I was going down a slippery slope but I ignored them because I was doing so well and I thought I had it handled and that this time it would be different.  It wasn't and I had to come back with my tail between my legs and admit that there are certain foods I cannot play with and certain things I cannot do because I am different.
I have noticed that you have a large amount of weight to lose.  Do you want to lose it all and reach your goal?  Then you are going to have to be very diligent with your eating.  Now isn't the time to see if you still like certain foods.  Assume you do and move on.  Once you reach your goal you can be a little more flexible with what you eat but use this time now to learn self discipline.  Show yourself that you can follow the rules and you don't need to make your own.  Many have tried before you and most weren't successful.  Listen to those who have been successful and have kept their weight off over the long haul.  Recognize that your best thinking got you to where you needed to have your body surgically altered permanently in order to have a better chance of no longer being morbidly obese.  Ignore your best thinking and let yourself learn a new way to deal with things.

correct me if I am wrong, BUT  soda.. all types not just regular is OFF LIMITS for life, as is using a straw. so you admit to doing both,  both of which my surgeon inssts is a big no no.
 
that being said;

everyone makes the choice to cheat or not to cheat and I dont believe for a minute that there is a single person on the face of the earth that has had bariatic surgery of any kind has not eaten or drank something they shouldnt or have been told not to do.  so it is what it is!  each person has to decide for one's self how much they want to get out of having these surgeries after all they are a tool in our weight loss not the cure,  you get out of it what you put int it.

ultimately do I think you are sabatoging yur weight loss? I cant say will one day of cheating screw your weight loss and body up? I dont know but I dont think so. but I do wish you luck.

Soda and straws are NOT "off limits for life" for everyone. Different surgeons have different rules/recommendations.  My surgeon permitted straws after the pouch staple line had healed and, although she preferred that people stop drinking soda, she did not "prohibit" it... just encouraged moderation.

FWIW, I started using a straw as soon as I was permitted to (using a straw very often helps people increase their fluid intake) and although I did not have soda for the first 6 months (well, I probably tried a sip at some point before that) and drank it VERY rarely until after I was a year out, I now drink a diet soda more days than not and am mainatining my weight with no ill effects from the soda at 5 years out.

Lora

I drink soda, maybe once a week or so, and have no problem with straws but for me, it's the cumulation of things that disturb me about the OP's post ...

I don't think that there is any *one* thing that will put you off track in your honeymoon period - but a cumulation of little things may get you off track.   12-18 months really is a small window in the grand scheme of things ... and over the last 8 years I have seen so many people usurp their surgeon's plans and then turn up after a year or so later because they have not lost their excess weight or they are gaining - it really is about establishing good habits early on that makes you a success as a veteran.

I don't think the OP is doing anything other than pushing the limits - no *one* thing will derail you - but if you don't work on your head while your body is changing, it is VERY hard to be successful in the long term.

I don't want to criticise the OP - she is trying to work her program - I just wanted to offer some experience ...

I am an "all things in moderation" kind of person...  but only once people are in maintenance... and I have both lived the experience myself and watched what happens to clients when they are on a diet and feel deprived (overeating once they break the "diet")... but this is not a diet, it is learning a new way of living.

No, one sip of soda or one bite of pasta/bread/cookie/whatever isn't that big a deal individually.  The problem is that you are only a couple of months out though, and -- as others have pointed out -- because we all have/had food issues to begin with, the slope can be VERY slippery.  You can be sliding down at a rapid rate before you know it.

I would just encouarge you to embrace as fully as possible a completely new way of eating.  There will be plenty of time for bread and pasta later if you so choose.  Once you lose the caloric malabsorption and your pouch naturally explands and you can eat more, it will be your new healthy eating habits that will be the primary thing standing between you and weight gain.  How many times have you seen people come back here a couple of years down the road and say they have gained weight back and need help remembering how they were supposed to be eating?  They gained the wieght because they never truly embraced the new eating.

In a response to someone else you indicated that you weren't sabotaging yourself because you were still losing consistently.  You are at a point, however, where you will lose weight consistently (well, as consistent as weight loss is) no matter what you eat.  You could be eating 600 calories a day in nothing but Cheetos, pretzels, and pizza and would still be losing weight.  You would probably feel like crap and not be healthy, but you would still be losing weight.

Embrace eliminating the unhealthy foods as mcuh as possible.  Limit the treats, and keep a watchful eye on those small nibbles of things so they don't become a problem.

Lora