Last Meal Syndrome

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

It’s Friday night, and your long-awaited bariatric surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. Ahead of you are two days of the freedom to eat anything you want, in any quantity. You’re supposed to be on a pre-op liquid diet, but when you walk into Cheesecake Factory with your friends, your resolution to order Soup goes down the drain (literally as well as figuratively). You grasp the menu in sweaty hands. What to order, what to order? You’ll never be able to enjoy food like this again, you think. Don’t you deserve to order one of everything on the menu? After all, it’s your last meal!

Sound familiar? Last Meal Syndrome is very common among people facing weight loss surgery, and chances are you've already suffered it sometime in your life, perhaps the day before you started New Diet #832. Since New Diets almost always start on a Monday (there may be a law of nature covering that), you spent every minute of Sunday gorging on all the foods you could no longer eat come Monday morning. You ate so much that you made yourself slightly ill, and you probably didn't taste half of that food in your haste to cram it into your mouth.

Overeating because of anticipated deprivation is an old, old habit. Until the earliest humans learned to plant seeds and cultivate their own food supply, nutrition was largely a matter of opportunism. If you caught a big fish or felled an animal by heaving a rock at it, you ate it all because you didn't know when another meal would swim, crawl, walk, or fly by.

Although I sometimes joke that being self-employed as a writer is terrifying for me because it's a hand-to-mouth existence, at no time in my middle-class American life have I ever been truly threatened by significant food deprivation. My repeated bouts with Last Meal Syndrome have been caused mostly by my emotional over-attachment to food. When starting a new weight loss diet, or contemplating my coming bariatric surgery, I was terrified not that I would starve, but that I would suffer from emotional pain, boredom, or stress unrelieved by my usual comfort: whatever food I wanted, when I wanted it, in any quantity I wanted. Intellectually I knew that I would be able to eat small amounts of healthy foods and thus lose weight and gain better health, but the spoiled, petulant child within me feared and hated the very thought of that.

A few days before I was banded, my husband asked me, "Are you going to have anything special to eat before your surgery?"

I said virtuously, "I'm on a clear liquid diet for the next three days. I can't eat anything at all, never mind something special." My surgeon had told me that if my liver wasn't in good shape (that is, having a manageable size and texture), he would bail out of my surgery. After all I had gone through to get to the operating room, I wasn't going to blow it, and it wasn't (as I reminded myself) as if I would never be able to eat again in my entire life. I was facing food deprivation, yes, but for a matter of days, not years.

Now, let's get one thing clear here: I'm not claiming superiority over pre-ops who give in to Last Meal Syndrome and Celebrate their own private food festival a day or a week before their surgery. My compliance with my surgeon's instructions was driven by fear, plain and simple. I wasn't (then or now) a paragon of virtue. But in the last 4-1/2 years, I've learned something important that newbies and wannabes may not realize about the adjustable gastric band. And that is:

The only food deprivation you will suffer after band surgery involves the QUANTITY, not the quality or nature of the food you eat. With a properly adjusted band, you should be able to eat a wide variety of foods you like. You don't have to give up Cheetos or Haagen Daz or McDonald's or prime rib of beef forever. All you have to give up is eating those foods in excess. It's true that when your daily calorie budget is limited, your health will depend on your making the best possible food choices - eating a piece of cheese instead of the Cheetos, a Skinny Cow ice cream bar instead of a gallon of Rocky Road, a Happy Meal instead of a quarter-pounder, two ounces of prime rib instead of the whole cow. You and your band will still be able to tolerate just about anything, so when you look down the road that your bandwagon will travel, you should see plenty of nice places to stop and eat instead of a dry, barren desert in which you'll have to subsist on stale melba toast and lukewarm Water.< /span>

That's the good news. Now here's the bad news:

After band surgery, you'll be able to eat a wide variety of foods you like. Yes, I know I already said that, up there in the good news paragraph. But the tolerance of almost any food you can imagine means that you will have to exert some self-control to avoid overindulging. Now you may be thinking, "If I had any self-control, I wouldn't need weight loss surgery." If the need for self-control is a deal-breaker for you, maybe you should consider a different bariatric procedure, one that will allow you to eat anything at all and lose a pound a day. I'm not convinced that such a procedure exists, because I've heard too many gastric bypass (and even duodenal switch) patients moaning about significant weight regain, but by all means give the Magic Weight Loss Surgery a go. Maybe self-control will never be an issue for you again.

My thoughts about self-control would fill up another whole article, so right now I just want to reassure you that eating with your gastric band is not necessarily going to involve an endless series of bland, dreary meals. It's not going to be like the mysteriously popular diet that requires you to eat nothing but cabbage soup three times a day. It's going to involve eating like a normal person who enjoys food but has a small appetite. Depending on your experience of restriction after each fill, you may have to forgo certain foods at times, but just because you can't comfortably eat a bagel with cream cheese today doesn't mean you'll never again be able to have a few bites of toasted bagel. Your food tolerance is going to depend not only on your fill level but also on your eating skills. The day after my first fill, I suffered my first stuck episode after taking a huge bite of a grilled cheese sandwich. A year later, with a lot more fill in my band, I could eat that same sandwich for lunch because by then I was used to eating slowly, taking tiny bites and chewing the food very well. I probably wouldn't eat the whole sandwich because I'd get "full" so quickly, and that's a good thing!

[Dulci 108]

The night before I started my liquid diet, I ordered pepperoni, sausage and black olive pizzas for dinner. I intended that meal to be my farewell to pizza and I ate almost an entire medium sized pizza myself.

I am six months past my surgery date and nearly 50 lbs lighter. Tonight for dinner, I ordered that same pizza and I savored every delicious bite. However, tonight I was satisified after I almost finished a single slice.

I am in the "green" zone and there is nothing that I cannot eat.

[mags2u 57]

Dulci- I am think I'm in the green zone after my last fill, but I too can eat for the most part what I used to eat. Just not the same amount. Great article Jean!

[Sandrie 23]

Love the article. Thanks it makes me feel a little less nervous for my upcoming surgery. May 9th is when my appetite will change forever but for the best.

[SashaWLS 412]

OMG this article is me!!!! I must have had 100 last meals. So many in fact, that the day I started the liquid diet I thought to myself "Thank God THAT's over!!" I just got banded yesterday, so I have no idea how this is going to work over the long stretch, but it's a relief to have the surgery over and done with so I can find out.

[Rebecca Cain Salpacka 100]

Great article...i had my "last meal" last night...my pre-op diet started today...for my meal i had Taco bell....chicken quesadilla, a soft taco and a side of cheesy potatos. I pray i wont have a sudden urge to eat the night before surgery.

[DRSharp 14]

Great article. I just had my initial consultation today and am already experiencing last meal syndrome...and I should know better!!! (Wife is a very successful bandster) I suppose part of it is a coping mechanism to deal with the stress of a major life change. I have somewhat of a bucket list of foods that could form dough balls or cause slips.

[KarenElaine 44]

I hadn't thought of a last meal. My initial consultation is just over a month away unless I get in early due to someone's cancellation (sure hope so). I'm gluten free which has its own obstacles. I've been trying to find out how to prepare for this liquid diet. Then the cut in carbs and increase in Protein. How much of each?

[KarenElaine 44]

I hadn't thought of a last meal. My initial consultation is just over a month away unless I get in early due to someone's cancellation (sure hope so). I'm gluten free which has its own obstacles. I've been trying to find out how to prepare for this liquid diet. Then the cut in carbs and increase in Protein. How much of each?

[AmyInOrlando 348]

This last meal syndrome could have been the story of my life on a weekly basis. Awesome insight. I'm going to read it again and again. The only reason I decided to have the VSG was to physiologically limit the amount of food I could eat. I am a volume / binge eater. I don't ever want to eat an entire pizza in one sitting. I want to be satisfied with one slice. I want to believe what it says on the container, that a pint of Ben and Jerry's really is 4 servings, not one (or 1/2 if they're BOGO at Publix). Thanks to the writer. Great article.

[skinsluva 6]

It’s Friday night' date=' and your long-awaited bariatric surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. Ahead of you are two days of the freedom to eat anything you want, in any quantity. You’re supposed to be on a pre-op liquid diet, but when you walk into Cheesecake Factory with your friends, your resolution to order Soup goes down the drain (literally as well as figuratively). You grasp the menu in sweaty hands. What to order, what to order? You’ll never be able to enjoy food like this again, you think. Don’t you deserve to order one of everything on the menu? After all, it’s your last meal!<br />

<br />

Sound familiar? Last Meal Syndrome is very common among people facing weight loss surgery, and chances are you've already suffered it sometime in your life, perhaps the day before you started New Diet #832. Since New Diets almost always start on a Monday (there may be a law of nature covering that), you spent every minute of Sunday gorging on all the foods you could no longer eat come Monday morning. You ate so much that you made yourself slightly ill, and you probably didn't taste half of that food in your haste to cram it into your mouth.<br />

<br />

Overeating because of anticipated deprivation is an old, old habit. Until the earliest humans learned to plant seeds and cultivate their own food supply, nutrition was largely a matter of opportunism. If you caught a big fish or felled an animal by heaving a rock at it, you ate it all because you didn't know when another meal would swim, crawl, walk, or fly by.<br />

<br />

Although I sometimes joke that being self-employed as a writer is terrifying for me because it's a hand-to-mouth existence, at no time in my middle-class American life have I ever been truly threatened by significant food deprivation. My repeated bouts with Last Meal Syndrome have been caused mostly by my emotional over-attachment to food. When starting a new weight loss diet, or contemplating my coming bariatric surgery, I was terrified not that I would starve, but that I would suffer from emotional pain, boredom, or stress unrelieved by my usual comfort: whatever food I wanted, when I wanted it, in any quantity I wanted. Intellectually I knew that I would be able to eat small amounts of healthy foods and thus lose weight and gain better health, but the spoiled, petulant child within me feared and hated the very thought of that.<br />

<br />

A few days before I was banded, my husband asked me, "Are you going to have anything special to eat before your surgery?"<br />

<br />

I said virtuously, "I'm on a clear liquid diet for the next three days. I can't eat anything at all, never mind something special." My surgeon had told me that if my liver wasn't in good shape (that is, having a manageable size and texture), he would bail out of my surgery. After all I had gone through to get to the operating room, I wasn't going to blow it, and it wasn't (as I reminded myself) as if I would never be able to eat again in my entire life. I was facing food deprivation, yes, but for a matter of days, not years.<br />

<br />

Now, let's get one thing clear here: I'm not claiming superiority over pre-ops who give in to Last Meal Syndrome and Celebrate their own private food festival a day or a week before their surgery. My compliance with my surgeon's instructions was driven by fear, plain and simple. I wasn't (then or now) a paragon of virtue. But in the last 4-1/2 years, I've learned something important that newbies and wannabes may not realize about the adjustable gastric band. And that is:<br />

<br />

The only food deprivation you will suffer after band surgery involves the QUANTITY, not the quality or nature of the food you eat. With a properly adjusted band, you should be able to eat a wide variety of foods you like. You don't have to give up Cheetos or Haagen Daz or McDonald's or prime rib of beef forever. All you have to give up is eating those foods in excess. It's true that when your daily calorie budget is limited, your health will depend on your making the best possible food choices - eating a piece of cheese instead of the Cheetos, a Skinny Cow ice cream bar instead of a gallon of Rocky Road, a Happy Meal instead of a quarter-pounder, two ounces of prime rib instead of the whole cow. You and your band will still be able to tolerate just about anything, so when you look down the road that your bandwagon will travel, you should see plenty of nice places to stop and eat instead of a dry, barren desert in which you'll have to subsist on stale melba toast and lukewarm Water.<br />

<br />

That's the good news. Now here's the bad news: <br />

<br />

After band surgery, you'll be able to eat a wide variety of foods you like. Yes, I know I already said that, up there in the good news paragraph. But the tolerance of almost any food you can imagine means that you will have to exert some self-control to avoid overindulging. Now you may be thinking, "If I had any self-control, I wouldn't need weight loss surgery." If the need for self-control is a deal-breaker for you, maybe you should consider a different bariatric procedure, one that will allow you to eat anything at all and lose a pound a day. I'm not convinced that such a procedure exists, because I've heard too many gastric bypass (and even duodenal switch) patients moaning about significant weight regain, but by all means give the Magic Weight Loss Surgery a go. Maybe self-control will never be an issue for you again.<br />

<br />

My thoughts about self-control would fill up another whole article, so right now I just want to reassure you that eating with your gastric band is not necessarily going to involve an endless series of bland, dreary meals. It's not going to be like the mysteriously popular diet that requires you to eat nothing but cabbage Soup three times a day. It's going to involve eating like a normal person who enjoys food but has a small appetite. Depending on your experience of restriction after each fill, you may have to forgo certain foods at times, but just because you can't comfortably eat a bagel with cream cheese today doesn't mean you'll never again be able to have a few bites of toasted bagel. Your food tolerance is going to depend not only on your fill level but also on your eating skills. The day after my first fill, I suffered my first stuck episode after taking a huge bite of a grilled cheese sandwich. A year later, with a lot more fill in my band, I could eat that same sandwich for lunch because by then I was used to eating slowly, taking tiny bites and chewing the food very well. I probably wouldn't eat the whole sandwich because I'd get "full" so quickly, and that's a good thing!<br />

<br />

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[Gmachris 15]

Thank you for this excellent article 2days pre op, it has brought me back to where I need to be mentally.

[jfarmer03 20]

Thank you for this excellent article 2days pre op' date=' it has brought me back to where I need to be mentally.[/quote']

I'm 4 days pre-op and I definitely needed that!!!!!!!

[Jim1967 3,569]

My last meal was Mexican with many Guinness from the tap. I told myself no more carbonation from surgery day on. So far I have stuck with it. It is amazing how all my cravings are gone. I will forever refer to myself a recovering binge eater and it still amazes me how much of a grip food had on me.

Loved the article as usual Jean. You really know how to write for us all and speak our language and keep it interesting...