Jolanda

Ugh, poor you, what a thing to happen! All the best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Enjoy, yes (especially chocolate). Crave, no. So I'm fine if I don't buy chocolate: or just get the 70% dark version which I can't eat more than a piece or two of... I've noticed I get some kind of reaction to super sweet things like candy or even fruit smoothies and the one time I ate a piece of cake I got a weird feeling: heart racing, faint nausea etc. So staying away from Cookies etc. is easy. If I could choose I'd like to get sick once just after eating chocolate, that would take care of that issue.

I lost 26 pounds the first month, most of it in the 2 weeks following the operation. Now (6 weeks post operation) I've been losing about 3 pounds a week.

For me at least there was definite discomfort when trying to run for the first 4-5 weeks after surgery, the stitches felt tight. Now I'm 6.5 weeks out and I can run without any sense of discomfort.

When I lost weight rapidly once before (just dieting, high protein, low carb) my hair thinned too: no new hair grew at all. I started taking some hair loss preventing supplements at the advice of my hairdresser and it did restart the growth. I suppose it's the body's way of prioritising: if there's a famine (which basically a 600-800 calorie diet is) then you take care of the important parts, which doesn't include hair...

I had some kind of shrimp noodle salad yesterday at work and felt really sick afterwards, even though I ate only about two or three tablespoons of it. I blamed the mushrooms but could have been the noodles, then? But that's just fine with me: I have lived without bread, pasta and noodles for a year and lost a lot of weight, so I can live without them still. It's truly empty calories, and a lot of them, so I'm really happy if they make me nauseous

Egg and meat just by themselves seems to be difficult for me too. What goes down well: all kinds of soup, also with meat in, chewed well; yoghurt and those things, stews, even salads now as long as I eat really slowly (a plate of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sweet corn and red peppers takes over half an hour to eat). You just need to try a small bite, wait a while and see how you do. From what I've gathered it's very much an individual thing. Good luck, it does get easier!

I'm struggling with the same thing but only occasionally (6 wks post VGS). What I've noticed is that chewing for a long time really helps - it seems to take the air out of foods like salads etc. that otherwise cause severe burping for me. I have problems with chicken and yes, meatballs, it's such a compact food that it seems to settle in the stomach forever. Mushroom in any form seems to make my stomach boil and cause discomfort. For me, it's easiest to eat while watching TV or reading or even talking on the phone (I know, contrary to all the nutrition lectures) because then I can take a bite, put the plate down, chew for a ridiculously long time (at least 30 times) and then wait a couple of minutes before the next bite.

I had the operation 6 weeks ago and I can relate to how you're feeling! I haven't been crying, but it is a big adjustment. I still have trouble buying little enough food: things keep getting past their sell-by date in the fridge and it makes me crazy having to throw that much money away... But I did calculate that I'd save the money I put on the operation in smaller food bills in 4-5 years anyway. While you're on the liquid/mashed food diet it also gets boring not eating, but once you can eat a tiny bit of everything it helped for me at least. Good luck!