How small are we supposed to cut our meats and solids down?

[kentx05 3]

I believe I was told that when cutting a solid or meat, it was important to cut it down to the size of a dime. I find that very hard. It takes me forever to even eat the smallest meal. Is this true? Does the size we put it our mouth have to be the size of a dime or a quarter? It's hard eating a 4 oz piece of chicken breast by cutting it into dime sizes.

Edited September 6, 2010 by kentx05

[jalomum 1]

I am assuming from the tone of your post that you have not been banded long, do not have good restriction and have never had anything stuck. Am I right?

Once you get good restriction you will find that anything too big or insufficiently chewed will get stuck and reading other posts will show you what that is like.

Getting to restriction slowly is to give you chance to adjust your habits and behaviours asssociated with food i.e. quantity, quality, method of eating.

When were you told about the dime-sized thing? Before or after surgery?

If you were banded fairly recently then size may not matter as much but you do want things to pass through your band and not over-load your pouch. As you get fills then size will become more important as I am sure you will find out :-)

Good luck with your journey :-)

[danielle b 32]

Awwww....yes, size does matter!!! I thought my piece of steak was small enough....come to find out...after about 15 minutes of stuck pain, I actually threw up (this was a first time for me). I have had food stuck many times....but throwing up was a first. And I got to see what was stuck....I obviously did not chew well enough, piece of steak came up fairly whole. Oh the things we must learn ) So, I past up my steak and mashed potatoes tonight and had a Peanut Butter sandwich....:smile:

[kentx05 3]

I am assuming from the tone of your post that you have not been banded long, do not have good restriction and have never had anything stuck. Am I right?

Once you get good restriction you will find that anything too big or insufficiently chewed will get stuck and reading other posts will show you what that is like.

Getting to restriction slowly is to give you chance to adjust your habits and behaviours asssociated with food i.e. quantity, quality, method of eating.

When were you told about the dime-sized thing? Before or after surgery?

If you were banded fairly recently then size may not matter as much but you do want things to pass through your band and not over-load your pouch. As you get fills then size will become more important as I am sure you will find out :-)

Good luck with your journey :-)

I am 29 days post surgery. My first fill will be this Wednesday. I've never had anything stuck and of course my restiction is not that great right now. I'm sticking to my pre-op way of eating other than eating only one Protein shake rather than 2. So I guess size does matter after the first few fills?

[dman3998 0]

it is HIGHLY probable that after your 1st fill, if the doc does it right, you will know the difference I can practically guarantee that after your 2nd you will get to experience all the joys of eating too fast not chewing enough and getting too large of a piece down. from sliming to a full bore PB! :smile: