JustWatchMe

A born scientist. I like to get creative in the kitchen. My family does not share my enthusiasm.

This is only my second day of solid food, but I've learned a lot in 24 hours. I have no fill yet, so some of this surprises me, and kind of makes me worry if my fill three days from now will make me too tight. But anyway, I feel the soft stops and it's amazing. The key is eating slowly. Way slower than I'm used to. At every meal so far, as soon as I feel anything at all, I stop for a minute. What I mean is, the first bunch of bites don't give me any feeling of "being there" in my esophagus or stoma. But then one bite suddenly will, if I listen for that sensation. If I do wait for a minute, I might or might not hiccup, or lightly burp. Soft stops!!! If not, I take another bite. If I feel its presence again, I'm getting to "done". Both times that I felt the soft stop, I could tell I was already satisfied and done. So that tells me I need to eat slowly enough for the soft stops to happen before I wolf all my food. I can't tell you how happy I am that I can feel these signals. I'm so glad I learned about them on this forum before my first day diving into solids. So far, no runny nose or watery eyes for me. Just the burp and hiccup, at two different meals.

LOL, love it, Martha!

Ddsweighin, don't stress over the weight gain. Perfectly normal the first month post-op. Stay on your eating plan and it will come off soon. Your body's been through a trauma, and it's healing. After the first three weeks I started to lose at a good pace. Two weeks post-op I developed a head and chest cold, and it hung on forever. I'm still coughing sometimes and I'm now six weeks post-op. I'm pretty sure the duration of this cold had something to do with being compromised by surgery, having a breathing tube, etc. I'm prone to bronchitis in the winter anyway. It's getting better, but slowly. If you're truly worried about any specific symptoms, call your doctor. Really! They can't help if you don't. But feeling generally lousy from time to time the first month is par for the course. For me, walking and lots of Water improved things. The days I felt crappy I was usually dehydrated and didn't realize it until I logged my calories, water and exercise in MyFitnessPal. Good luck.

My protocol required two meetings. I ended up doing three. Pay attention at the first one. For some reason I had interpreted his comments about stopping tv snacking as a gentle suggestion. At my second meeting the following month, he told me he wasn't signing off because I hadn't broken the snacking habit. Boy was I p!$$3d. I got mad, and then I got busy. I broke that habit by the next meeting. That was in November. I have not tv snacked since. Only afterwards did I understand that he was right. If I couldn't or wouldn't change that behavior, no way would I succeed at WLS. I didn't realize until then that this process really requires discipline on my part. No easy fix here.

Years of arthritis and obesity have done a real number on my knees. I get the cortisone shots in both knees three times a year, but this last time I stretched it to six months. Banded in March, I'm off NSAIDs for life now. Tylenol is a joke. But as I lose weight, it gets better. I've been walking on the treadmill 3.0 to 3.2 mph no incline without a problem. I bumped it to 3.5 for a few days this week and promptly lost my enthusiasm for exercise. LOL. I was trying to make my two miles go faster. One day I tried jogging at 4.0 and that lasted a minute. Too hard on my knees. Unlike TMF, I tried a regular bike a couple of weeks ago and my right knee screamed in pain with every up-bend, even without resistance. So I think knee pain is very individual. I do know one thing. If it hurts, stop doing it and try something different. Pain is not the same as being tired. Pain means stop.

These posts are both amazing! Congrats to all!

Congratulations! Take good care of yourself and keep us posted!

@@gowalking, you have gorgeous gams!

Doubts surface at every phase. But here's my experience so far. I'm feeling so much better than I did in February. I have energy, I sleep better, my skin looks good, I've stopped taking (%@? from (%@?-shovelers, and I know this was the best decision I've made in years. It hasn't been a cakewalk, but here's the thing. It HAS been better than any typical day of my overeating former life. By far. Good luck tomorrow and keep us posted!

"It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. Helps me get through my dreadmill, um, treadmill workout each day.

Mine was a five day clear liquids pre-op diet. The only suggestion I have is stick to three "meals" a day without snacks. At least for me, it helped stave off hunger after the second day. If I had anything in between, it woke up my hunger. Make sure you get plenty of protein in those three meals and don't flush them through with water right away. Protein kept me satisfied longer. Immediately pre-op and post-op is the hardest, they say, but you can do it. I'm six weeks post-op and today is my first day of solid food again. I'm in heaven. Good luck and keep posting!

I agree with the poster who said you need a positive choice in the selections. I love going out. Today is my first day of solid foods post-op and I went out all during my liquids phase. I can tell you who has the best soups in town. LOL. You can always find something. Most casual restaurants wil serve breakfast all day, so in a pinch, get eggs. My "normal" friends eat breakfast out a lot for dinner. I'm going out tonight, in fact, with my normie friend. We do every week before our exercise class. It behooves us to not overeat because we'll be exercising right afterwards. I also look online if it's a restaurant I've never been to before, but I've done that for years. Restaurants are a big part of my life, and that won't change. But there is more selection than ever, so I don't feel it's a problem. The only caveat to that would be during my liquids phase, a family member wanted to go to Red Lobster. I didn't want to go, only because that's a place I really used to overindulge on fried food and biscuits, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to have a normal soup. Plus, that family member doesn't know about my surgery and I didn't want to draw attention having only soup. Lucky for me, the outing got cancelled anyway. Dodged a bullet there. So I guess it depends on who's your dining companion. For me, it's almost always the five people who know about my surgery, so I'm cool. For other outings it might get tricky, but I've found that most people don't really give a flying fig what you're eating. They're focusing on themselves.

After a zillion years of liquids (7 weeks total), I had my first real food today. I made two scrambled eggs with a teaspoon of butter and salt and pepper. They were a little dry, which was what I was aiming for today. I ate slowly and chewed. Well, after 3/4 of the plate, I felt my band working! I think my band is just in shock that something came down the chute slowly today, but I'll take it. I felt the "soft stop" that @toomuchfun described. One bite was fine, and on the next one, I could feel the food kind of sitting there. I could have kept going, but I knew the next bite would feel uncomfortable, so I stopped. I STOPPED! Wooo hoooo! My dog is happy too, because he got the rest. I'm bringing a small meat and cheese pack to work for lunch, and my Water bottle. I am so excited. My band, whom I have named E.T., is really there and doing its job. In the time it took to type this, any residual hunger is gone. I also just hiccuped. Another "soft stop" signal. Lesson: eat slowly and listen to E.T. Have a great day, everyone! I will for sure!

Truth be told, I was only half engaged during my nutritionist sessions pre-op. Now, however, I have a million questions for her. Try to take notes and don't be afraid to phone them.

My approval was one month from submittal. My surgery was three weeks later.

Got too far beyond in laundry and literally ran out of underwear today. Lo and behold, I found some smaller, prettier delicates in the dresser that I have not worn for several years. They fit! Yahoo! (Yes, I am doing laundry tonight.)

I did it! I made it 5 days pre-op and 6 weeks post-op on liquids. Tomorrow morning is scrambled egg time. This weekend I plan to try the recipe that someone mentioned about making eggs/cheese/etc. in a muffin tin in the oven -- I thought those would be good to freeze and reheat for an easy Breakfast. Does anybody make those, and what ingredients do you use?

Martha, yes, you'll have gnawing hunger. For a couple of days. Then it will get easier. No, you won't blow it. You'll get support and encouragement from all of us. We're gonna do this!

What an important post. food gives me joy. I need to find joy in something else. The psychologist asked me to figure out what else can give me joy, and I still can't answer that. It was five months ago.

@@HealthyNewMe, that's wonderful! You keep me inspired and motivated. Way to go!

Welcome to Bandland! Take care or yourself this week and keep us posted.

... the band does not go around your head.... @@lisacaron, I love this!

Last day of liquids.... Yay! I'm setting my alarm clock half an hour early tomorrow to have time to slowly eat my scrambled eggs! Woot woot!

Yep, where my port is. Still tender at almost six weeks if I push on it.