1 Month Post Op this week

So, Friday I hit 1 month Post Op.  I hit the 4 weeks yesterday.  I was on liquids for 3 weeks, and have been on soft foods this past week.  Good news... I am down 31lbs since the Pre-op Diet, 21 since surgery!!

I am starting solid foods, but am nervous.  How much is enough??  One of my problems before surgery was that I had no concept of full, only hungry and stuffed.  I would eat and eat until I felt sick.  I heard someone mention here that full is just the absence of hunger, without the pain of fullness.  Wondering if that is a good way to describe it, and how to separate the mental hunger from physical. 

I would love some of the veterans here to give me some good rules for starting to learn to eat solids again. 

The "rules" I have been given include:

• Do not drink while eating
• Protein First, then veggies, carbs last if room
• Avoid sugars (duh here)
• East slowly, chew completely

Any other guidelines or advice to live by???

My nutritionist started me on 3 Tablespoons for a meal, with 2 protein drinks between meals.  I can definitely tell when my sleeve is full as I start to get a tight feeling in my stomach.

 

I don't think you should have to worry about overeating as your sleeve will definitely let you know when that happens and you will begin to learn the different feelings that come from eating.

 

Keeping a journal of food eating and perhaps times of meals will help you with identifying whether it is a real hunger or mental hunger.  Good luck.

Well unfortunately it is difficult to tell when you should stop eating if you don't measure. I don't think 3 tablespoons is enough, but I can tell you more than a few ounces is. The downside is that your sleeve will let you know for sure when you have had one or two bites too many. You just have to sort of gage where you are in the process. I have tried counting bites, but unless you are very consistent about your bite size, that doesn't work very well and it is also different depending on what type of food you are eating.

I am getting better about how much to eat, but I find I am still eating too fast and not chewing well enough. It is something I have always struggled with and logically I know it is critical to my long term success and health.

I think measuring food is very important both for not eating too much & also for accurate logging of calories etc. I started with 1/2 Cup cottage cheese loose type foods or 1- 2 oz of meat /dense protein. From just reading Frisco's post on "under eating our sleeves",  I don't think we want to eat to the feeling of full so measuring keeps things consistent. follow your surgeon's plan for the exact amount -some people only get 3 meals a day so they eat more at one sitting. I eat 5-6 very small meals and stay under 600 calories/day. Best wishes on your success and enjoy the taste of solid foods again just take it slowly ;-)

Hey Sleeve sister!! Good to hear you are doing well. We have lost the same amount of weight post op! I am at 22 lbs I think if my math is right. Amazing!! I have been on solids for a week now and doing really well. My strategy is to undereat the capacity of the sleeve at all times. I don't feel hungry at all in any event so that is not an issue. When I eat, I pre weigh everything and make sure that I don't take in more than 3 oz at a time - that is protein and veg. combined. I haven't added in carbs yet and probably won't for a while. I am happy without them, don't miss them at all actually so will stick to incidental carbs for now.

I usually have a soft boiled egg for breakfast or a few tbpsns of greek yogurt
then I have a shake with 24-30 g protein

At lunch I will usually have fish of some kind and a bite of vegetable either a green bean or a broccoli or a caulifour or something like that - zucchini, brussel sprout, carrot..

then I'll have a snack around 4h30 which is sometimes a piece of cheese or a slice of deli turkey or a spoon of hummus or a bowl of soup or a cup of unjury chicken broth

at dinner I'll have some sort of a meat, chicken, fish, seafood or the like with a bite or two of veg. sort of like lunch

and that's it. Keeps me happy and my sleeve says nothing at all.

chew everything to pulp, eat slowly. It takes me a good half an hour to 45 minutes per meal.

I drink about 45 mins after and that works for me.

I had an apple slice yesterday and that was fine too. Packed one for a snack today with cheese.

Life is good!!!

Good luck with solids and progressing to a normal food plan!