Food addict/ post op cheating...

[OreinaO 2]

Hi. I was banded 12/8/9. I ate a single dorito chewed to creamy apple sauce consistency 2 days post op. I ate some tuna last night, a few bites chewed WELL, pickles (sliced, chewed well), and about 14 doritos tonight.... mind you I am chewing like a pro. I am still supposed to be on the full liquid diet and I am following it, ok.... but i am surviving off potato Soup, special k Protein Shakes, ice cream, and popsicles.... i got the band so i could reduce my portion sizes and train myself SLOWLY to be a healthy eater, yet still enjoy my faves.... i just need some advice. I fear band slippage. I also feel little restriction and can eat ALOT.... so yeah... HELP!!!

[TwilightLover83 0]

hey there! congrats on your surgery & such. I dont mean to be blunt, but I think you really need to stick to your doctor's diet plan for you right now. I believe you said it was liquids. It's CRITICAL that your band has time to rest & heal itself, or band slippage might be in your future. You gotta be focused to what you want. When i catch myself WANTING something naughty, i stop and ask myself- do you want that blizzard or whatever more than i want weight loss? It typically stops me bout 90% of the time. I've been lucky enough to have my cravings pretty much go away. As far as popsicles & ice cream you are eatting- you are doing sugar free popsicles? & an extremely light ice cream i hope. Those are just extra calories. My doctor says 600 calories daily for the first year (yeah that doesn't sound like alot) & then after the first year 1,000-1200 for maintenance. food journaling helps! Goodluck!

[soocalchic 1,087]

Just because you can eat it doesnt mean you should. Now you ae very early into your weight loss journey. Know that the doctor has you on a liquid diet because your gut needs to rest while it heals. When you eat solids your gut needs to churn in order to digest the food. This can lead to band slippage problems later on down the road. Your band has been sutured in place and eating early can damage those sutures. Now do as you may but Fritolay isnt going out of buisness anytime soon and there will be plenty of doritos for you to eat when you are allowed to do so. Don't sabotage yourself this early on. Try to have some self control. The hunger pangs subside in a couple of days. Just drink plenty of Water and your Protein.< /p>

Edited December 19, 2009 by soocalchic

[OreinaO 2]

i am sticking to no sugar added ice cream and MOST of mmy popsicles are. like I said I have MAJOR food addiction and I am proud of myself for doing as well as I have. and i know Ill improve, I just dont want to mess myself up. I am trying to stick to the doctors rules because I KNOW they're there for a reason, but I also know it will take time for me to be able to undo the years and years of bad thinking in reference to food.

[OreinaO 2]

is it normal to have basically NO restriction though? this was my concern. i mean, i am not hungry, but i can eat a MUCh larger amount than I expected. idk. i am just a noob trying to figure all this out!!!

:smile2:

[bella5425 0]

the liquid stage is rough, it gets better w/ the mushy stage but not to come across harsh but we are all food addicts. those rules are in place for a reason so the band can heal. you can cause slippage if you keep steering off the liquid path regardless of what consistency you are chewing from. i have lost 110 pounds now - my band was put in nearly 8 months ago and the liquid stage...i lived off Soup and popsicles and i just cried for days on end. i missed food desperately....we all know what you feel like being an addict but if you care about this investment, you have got to white knuckle it until you can move to the next stage. you are doing yourself a total disservice at this point. sorry to be so harsh.

[soocalchic 1,087]

is it normal to have basically NO restriction though? this was my concern. i mean, i am not hungry, but i can eat a MUCh larger amount than I expected. idk. i am just a noob trying to figure all this out!!!

:smile2:

Are you sure you have no restriction at all? have you tried drinking Water too fast? You can usually feel a tight feeling in your chest. Some people dont pay attention to the signs. I understand that you are a food addict we all are and its hard to abstain from food. I find that its alot easier to do liquids only but it takes a couple of days to get into it. You do know that you just had major surgery and that you had a device implanted and sutured into your stomach. Advancing your diet can have dire consequences. You dont want to over do it and end up throwing up. I'm sure they explained to you that throwing up is not good this early in the game. If you have any questions send me a message I would be more than glad to help you out.

[Sarah.R 2]

Yes you probably have no restriction but like the first person said it's supposed to be a liquid diet for a reason. I don't want to sound rude but theres a reason doctors give you a post op diet plan not just because they wanna be rude - It's for your health I mean how would you feel if you ended up back in hospital not even a month out because you ate? Even if you chew heaps it doesn't matter, your body needs to heal from the surgery. I honestly don't want to sound rude about it but that's the way I think. You only have to do maybe a month of liquids/mushies and then you can trial food again so why not wait until then to go back to eating doritos and whatever else you want?

[Pam92 0]

:smile2::scared2:Boy this thread was written for me! ! ! I am having trouble with staying on the wagon of only liquids and mussy foods also. Reading what everyone has written has been very inspiring. I also feel no restriction on my band which was put in place on 12/9/09. I wasn't sure where I should feel the sensation of being full. It helped to read that it should be in my chest. I was expecting it in my belly. I have felt somethink in my chest between my breast. Would that be it?

I want to thank everyone who wrote to this thread and I look forward to answers to my questions. God Bless ya ALL!:wink2:

[soocalchic 1,087]

:smile2::scared2:Boy this thread was written for me! ! ! I am having trouble with staying on the wagon of only liquids and mussy foods also. Reading what everyone has written has been very inspiring. I also feel no restriction on my band which was put in place on 12/9/09. I wasn't sure where I should feel the sensation of being full. It helped to read that it should be in my chest. I was expecting it in my belly. I have felt somethink in my chest between my breast. Would that be it?

I want to thank everyone who wrote to this thread and I look forward to answers to my questions. God Bless ya ALL!:wink2:

Yes maam like i said sometimes if you drink too fast you will get a hung up feeling in between your brests. If i drink too fast i get a hiccup some people sneeze some burp you will find your full signal.

[UpperWestSide 3]

The fullness I feel is almost always in my upper belly or chest. That is just the way it goes.

Now we are all saying we don't mean to be rude here (and actually no one has been even close to rude-well maybe I will be). But what the heck are you thinking? As Bella said, we are all food addicts which is how we got into this situation in the first place. Don't allow that to send you down the road of totally undoing what you just went through. You put yourself on the road to good health but you are allowing yourself to sabatoge it.

Did you do a pre-op liquid diet? I did 2 weeks worth followed by 2 weeks of liquid and 2 weeks of mushies.

I stuck to the liquid before the surgery because I did not want the dr. to go in and find I could not have the surgery. Nor did I want to lose the band post op because I gave into those horrible cravings. If you managed to get yourself through a pre-op diet then you can follow the post op rules. Come on, we know you can do it!

[luvj0nz 0]

This is the best thread I have read yet regarding eating and the post op diet. I was banded 12-21-09 and I feel a little hungry not much it's mostly cravings, but I am fighting my way through as well. I am on full liquid at this point per docs orders and there are things like, sugar free pudding, creamy grits with added Protein powder and you can put almost anything fat and sugar free in blender and puree, it's the consistency and the calories that matter. I have been real creative in my eating so I can stay healthy right now, I mean Christmas day was so freakin hard, there were short ribs, roasted chicken, cabbage, red velvet cake plus I baked two sweet potato pies - Shoot! The liquid diet just freakin sucks but it is a small price to pay for a HUGE reward!

Thanks to all you guys who contributed to this thread - YOU ROCk. Oh and by the way I did throw a small spoon full of rice, cabbage and chicken in the blender with my broth and unjury Protein unflavored and had a delicious Christmas dinner **wink**.

Enjoy the rest of the Holidays Everyone!

[barbie1978 22]

yes, so quickly after surgery you won't have much/any restriction. Most doctors don't put any fill in your band until it heals, which is why you can eat more than you expected (even though you SHOULDN'T BE EATING YET!)...

Unfortunately so many people 'slip' or 'cheat' post op....there's nothing you can do about what you've already had...you can only move from here. Try to find more things for your liquid stage...protein powders you can mix with drinks...SF popsicles saved my life! You can bite a piece off and chew it, yet it's a liquid...OMG i remember how HUNGRY i started feeling and how much it helped...did it satisfy me? Well my new stomach, yes...but my HEAD HUNGER? No....but head hunger is what got me here to begin with...and the band doesn't make it go away. You have to learn to recognize head hunger and find something else to satisfy it....go for a walk, brush your teeth, drink Water (liquid loading)...anything but put food in your mouth that you DON"T NEED and CAN"T HAVE yet....

You'll get through this! We all did....You'll move on to mushy/pureed foods soon...don't hurt your band by eating too soon!

And MY full signals are burping...i get a single hiccup when my new stomach is a little TOO full....and the indicator that i've had too much or eaten too quickly (even though my HEAD doesn't think so) is chest pain...from the middle of my chest up towards my shoulder...it SUCKS...

[jms462001 9]

hey there! congrats on your surgery & such. I dont mean to be blunt, but I think you really need to stick to your doctor's diet plan for you right now. I believe you said it was liquids. It's CRITICAL that your band has time to rest & heal itself, or band slippage might be in your future. You gotta be focused to what you want. When i catch myself WANTING something naughty, i stop and ask myself- do you want that blizzard or whatever more than i want weight loss? It typically stops me bout 90% of the time. I've been lucky enough to have my cravings pretty much go away. As far as popsicles & ice cream you are eatting- you are doing sugar free popsicles? & an extremely light ice cream i hope. Those are just extra calories. My doctor says 600 calories daily for the first year (yeah that doesn't sound like alot) & then after the first year 1,000-1200 for maintenance. food journaling helps! Goodluck!

No disrespect to your Dr., but 600 calories a day the first yr sounds very extreme and I doubt many Dr's or nutritionists would recommend that. Most can lose well on 1000-1400 depending on their activity level. I think less than 900 per day would be dangerous.

To the poster, it does get easier, much easier. Like the others said, eating the types of foods you are eating so early on could be dangerous even if you are chewing well. You can stay full on liquids if you consume enough of them and concentrate on Proteins. Try to make your Protein drinks as thick as possible so that they stay with you longer. If you are allowed cream Soups, consume a small amt as often as needed to stay full and add some unflavored Protein Powder. Do not worry about calories now. Consume as much as you need of allowed foods to keep you satisfied. This is your time of healing. You may gain a few pounds before your first fill and that is expected. There is plenty of time for good weight loss after you start having fills. The important thing is that you allow yourself to heal well and do not suffer so much from extreme hunger which is not necessary!! Good luck to you in your weight loss journey. One year from now you will look like a new person and this period of time will seem so small in looking at all you have achieved and how simple it was overall!!

[illuminationlady 7]

I am 10 days out of surgery. I had to have all the Fluid removed from my band the day after surgery. From the beginning I had little restriction. But I do have it and know when I'm hungry. The first week I did Protein shakes twice a day. Early on I had the creamed Soups and applesauce. I am now able to do Cream of Wheat and scrammbled eggs (not at the same time, though). I am still on a strick diet and do have a Protein shake at least once a day with fruit in it. But I have been very careful and weigh myself every day. I do 30 minutes of walking every day. I am doing well. I am healing nicely. And, most importantly, losing weight.

To the thread starter: Be kind to your body. No more Doritos (for now) and your body will begin to shrink and you will feel a whole lot better. Best wishes to you.