Food And The First 2 Weeks Of The Gastric Sleeve

[Jellyfish 2]

Divorcing food is as difficult and emotional as divorcing a person. I am serious. I don't regret having this procedure done because I've lost 30 pounds and I'm 1 week post op. However, seeing delicious food in front of you and knowing you can't eat it because you're fresh out of surgery really burns. In fact, knowing I can't eat it because it'll make my stomach hurt and I'll probably throw it up is what really burns.

I've been watching videos of food recently because I haven't seen solid food in pretty much 2 weeks. It's probably not a good habit but its already a habit so the way I see it, I can't eat but I can at least look at it. I thought that my stomach is healing fine and faster than usual, so the other day I had some tuna. It was about 1 spoon full of tuna. My bodies reaction wasn't pleasant. Long story short, my stomach is 100% not ready for solid food or even soft food but that doesn't stop food from looking good. I want to lose 100% of my excess weight. At this point in time, The reason I want to lose weight the most, is so I can eat. Is that weird? I want to eat lasagna one day and with absolutely no thought of my weight in my head. I want BBQ porked. I want to have Georgian, Armenian, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, Caribbean, Italian and more in my regular life. Obviously, not all at once. I'm very scared by love of food. People say you have to reset your mind with this surgery.

I feel that, although i don't mind giving up sweets things like soda, candy, Cookies and deserts (not a fan of sugary things), I don't want to give up meat and carbs. After I reach my goal weight, I'm really hoping that I can find the perfect balance of eating things I love and maintaining my weight loss and health. This has just been on my mind all day. I think this is my initial shock to realizing that the sleeve is permanent. Unfortunately I have been feeling hunger as of late but It's definitely a lot more manageable than in my pre-op diet.

How do you people feel about food? How has your day to day diet changed? What do you eat when you eat out? What foods do you find affect your weight the most? I know the VSG allows one to eat what they like in the end but I know many people cut things out completely because of the fear for weight gain. How do you guys feel about food?

[circa 333]

I don't care about the food - as long as I'm not hungry, I could care less. Would it be nice to have a big juicy burger tonite? Yup - but I can't yet so I won't until I can. There's a bigger picture. You MUST deal with your head hunger. Get counseling before you end up turning this REALLY bad.

[fattymcfatterson 107]

I have not been sleeved yet, but tonight as I was eating my dinner i was thinking... "MMMMM this _________ is so good." "OMG, if I get this done will I not be able to enjoy this ________ ever again?" "Maybe I can just eat this part of it, and be ok." "Wait, maybe my new stomach will reject it and my tasebuds will freak out." (I tend to eat very acidic foods which is not good for me). Then, the reality for me sets in: If I die of high bp complications or diabetes, I won't get to eat ________ either! Or be there for my husband, or be there for my stepsons... Would I give up the next 40 years of eating _______ and drinking DP to have a biological child before my time expires? YES! I am 40.5 years old and 100 lbs overweight. My uterus "best if used by" date is quickly approaching. All this stuff I am addicted to and enjoy, is that which is slowly killing me!!! I feel the drastic change I am deciding to make is better then the drastic consequences of not getting my bp/pre-diabetes/cholesterol under control after 20 years of failing at every diet and putting the weight right back on. "Food" has been the "friend" that has slowly but surely been killing me for the last 20 years and I am ready to put it in it's place. Which is NOT in my ARTERIES or on my a$$. SO although I can not speak from the sleeved side, I can speak from the side of carbs/lasagna = DEATH for me. I am trying to get my thought process changed before "divorce court" and begin my separtion now.

[Jellyfish 2]

I don't care about the food - as long as I'm not hungry, I could care less. Would it be nice to have a big juicy burger tonite? Yup - but I can't yet so I won't until I can. There's a bigger picture. You MUST deal with your head hunger. Get counseling before you end up turning this REALLY bad.

It isn't practical to think you won't be hungry forever or you're going to be on this vertical sleeve diet forever. So I wanted to be REAL and just talk about food.< /p>

I don't think I have head hunger. I haven't eaten solid food in two weeks. I'm not dealing with head hunger. I'm dealing with actual hunger. Our bodies are actually in starvation. That's where the weight loss is coming from. Therefore, my body is in fact hungry. Thanks to the sleeve I don't feel the hunger as severely but I am in fact feeling a small amount of REAL hunger. As for this ending really bad, what are you talking about? I had one spoon full of pureed tuna and all of a sudden my situation is dire?

Because you just had your surgery and your dreaming of being thin, I understand that your hell bent on being against food but food was never my enemy and I don't want to live with food as my enemy. I just want to live with food in some kind of reasonable balance and I wanted to see how other people feel about food. That was the point of the original post and you didn't really have much to say. You had surgery on the 27th. I didn't feel any hunger at all on day 4 because of the IV drip i had in for 2 days. My body felt very satisfied. However I had surgery on the 24th and I've been on Water and sugar free apple juice. I consume maybe 100 calories a day thanks to the apple juice and so my body has kind of gone back into starving mode and so I don't think it's unreasonable for me to think of food.

[LilMissDiva Irene 3,282]

Everyone will react differently post op. No one is in the wrong here on how one feels. I was on the side of no appetite post VSG. I was almost repulsed by food...

However, I do know that isn't how it is for everyone. It is really hard and I guess I can understand this because that is how it was for me post lap band. It was quite miserable to be hungry and not be allowed to eat. I fully get the need to vent about this! I don't have many suggestions, only hugs!! Stay strong, soon enough you will begin to be able to move along in your food stages and things will begin to get better for you. It may not be until you hit the mushies phase, but still you will get there Jellyfish.

[Jellyfish 2]

I have not been sleeved yet, but tonight as I was eating my dinner i was thinking... "MMMMM this _________ is so good." "OMG, if I get this done will I not be able to enjoy this ________ ever again?" "Maybe I can just eat this part of it, and be ok." "Wait, maybe my new stomach will reject it and my tasebuds will freak out." (I tend to eat very acidic foods which is not good for me). Then, the reality for me sets in: If I die of high bp complications or diabetes, I won't get to eat ________ either! Or be there for my husband, or be there for my stepsons... Would I give up the next 40 years of eating _______ and drinking DP to have a biological child before my time expires? YES! I am 40.5 years old and 100 lbs overweight. My uterus "best if used by" date is quickly approaching. All this stuff I am addicted to and enjoy, is that which is slowly killing me!!! I feel the drastic change I am deciding to make is better then the drastic consequences of not getting my bp/pre-diabetes/cholesterol under control after 20 years of failing at every diet and putting the weight right back on. "Food" has been the "friend" that has slowly but surely been killing me for the last 20 years and I am ready to put it in it's place. Which is NOT in my ARTERIES or on my a$$. SO although I can not speak from the sleeved side, I can speak from the side of carbs/lasagna = DEATH for me. I am trying to get my thought process changed before "divorce court" and begin my separtion now.

There is nothing wrong with loving food. I think we often fail in our diets because we make food our enemy and we attempt to remove food we enjoy completely from our lives. It hasn't worked in the past. I don't think carbs or lasagna is death. I love lasagna but I've only had it once in the last year. I want to have a normal relationship with food. I want to eat the things i like. I just want to find a balance between eating stuff I like such as greek food and having good health and normal weight. I think both can exist at the same time.

Maybe I should point out I never liked sugary foods. I hate donuts. I don't think hamburgers are especially delicious unless they are made fresh. I like eating things like Vietnamese baquettes, caprese sandwiches, BBQ, Lasagna and so on. I know that many of the sleeved people out their eat the things they love in some kind of moderation and maintain their weight loss and health. I wanted to discuss that. Not this fear tactic of a heart attack or diabetes because I have a very healthy heart, normal cholesterol, normal blood pressure and no other health related issues. Thanks for commenting tho. I get where you're coming from in the pre-sleeve aspect of it but I'm on my second week of the sleeve and I'm thinking about what my eating will be like 6 months from now.

[circa 333]

It isn't practical to think you won't be hungry forever or you're going to be on this vertical sleeve diet forever. So I wanted to be REAL and just talk about food.

I don't think I have head hunger. I haven't eaten solid food in two weeks. I'm not dealing with head hunger. I'm dealing with actual hunger. Our bodies are actually in starvation. That's where the weight loss is coming from. Therefore, my body is in fact hungry. Thanks to the sleeve I don't feel the hunger as severely but I am in fact feeling a small amount of REAL hunger. As for this ending really bad, what are you talking about? I had one spoon full of pureed tuna and all of a sudden my situation is dire?

Because you just had your surgery and your dreaming of being thin, I understand that your hell bent on being against food but food was never my enemy and I don't want to live with food as my enemy. I just want to live with food in some kind of reasonable balance and I wanted to see how other people feel about food. That was the point of the original post and you didn't really have much to say. You had surgery on the 27th. I didn't feel any hunger at all on day 4 because of the IV drip i had in for 2 days. My body felt very satisfied. However I had surgery on the 24th and I've been on Water and sugar free apple juice. I consume maybe 100 calories a day thanks to the apple juice and so my body has kind of gone back into starving mode and so I don't think it's unreasonable for me to think of food.

That has nothing to do with it. I do feel hungry daily and I eat. I didn't say that its unreasonable to think about food, you brought the emotional "toll" of divorce into it. That is an emotional and mental addiction to food. You're watching videos of food - you're mourning it. Mourning is an emotional and mental process.

[Lilee84 648]

I can see where you're coming from and I get it. Pre-op and pre-pre-op diet I ate what I wanted, in moderation, but I stayed away from fast food, fried food, red meat, pork, sweets, chips, Snacks and anything generally labeled aw "unhealthy," and ate only chicken, fish, fruits, veggies and otherwise healthy foods. I've had those eating habits for 15 years but alas, here I am.

Will some of our taste buds change post op? Possibly. I'm sure there will be 1 or 2 things I can't stand once I begin to reintroduce food into my sleeve. But I think the biggest change will be the amount of the food we eat. I'm sure some will see drastic changes in what they can tolerate or what they want to eat, but I really feel like the portion sizes will be the biggest difference. Yes, eventually we may be able to eat an ounce or two more, but if my understanding is correct we will never be able to eat the portion sizes we used to. In my opinion, as long as we keep in mind that our new standard of "moderation" has effectively reduced to a toddlers portion, and we don't try to overdo it or somehow cheat our sleeve, we should all see success.

[Writergirl 230]

I was sleeved on the 24th and since coming home from the hospital I have been obsessed with food. Not that I really want to eat it. But I am starved. Last night at 4 a.m. I laid in bed sobbing for all the starving children in the world, because I've been relentlessly hungry for going on four weeks and it's not pretty. So I understand where you're coming from. However... last night I started to think about my long-term approach to this. Just like every diet I've been on, I can either embrace it and succeed, or try to "beat the rules" and fail. I think the window of opportunity for fast weight loss with this thing seems to be about a year. I'm going to try to be really serious about this. I didn't mutilate my body only to fail once again. So, although I know a mourning period for food is coming, I hope to get over it quickly and just give myself every opportunity to succeed. I found a therapist before my surgery and have an appt set up for two wks from now. She had the bypass, so she knows how I'm feeling. I think it's important to have someone you can howl and cry to as you mourn. Good luck... this surgery ain't for sissies!

[Jellyfish 2]

I was sleeved on the 24th and since coming home from the hospital I have been obsessed with food. Not that I really want to eat it. But I am starved. Last night at 4 a.m. I laid in bed sobbing for all the starving children in the world, because I've been relentlessly hungry for going on four weeks and it's not pretty. So I understand where you're coming from. However... last night I started to think about my long-term approach to this. Just like every diet I've been on, I can either embrace it and succeed, or try to "beat the rules" and fail. I think the window of opportunity for fast weight loss with this thing seems to be about a year. I'm going to try to be really serious about this. I didn't mutilate my body only to fail once again. So, although I know a mourning period for food is coming, I hope to get over it quickly and just give myself every opportunity to succeed. I found a therapist before my surgery and have an appt set up for two wks from now. She had the bypass, so she knows how I'm feeling. I think it's important to have someone you can howl and cry to as you mourn. Good luck... this surgery ain't for sissies!

Lol. Exactly but I don't think their is anything to howl and cry about. I don't understand why anyone is mourning food. I don't think anyone has sabotaged their diet by breaking the rules. I think we sabotage or diet by saying we will never eat ___________ again. For me, I know I'm gonna eat the foods i love before I die unless an accident happens because it's not realistic to think that in the next 50 years, I'll only have _________. We need to lose this weight. Then develop a healthy relationship with food. A normal relationship. It seems many people on this thread are pretending, as they have done in every diet they've probably been on, that this time their gonna stick to their nutrition plan for life. I think NO ONE can live the rest of their life on a nutrition plan. If the diet failed in the past, its cause it wasn't realistic. It's ok tho, I've found people on youtube who have had the sleeve, lost the weight and are HONEST about what they actually eat. Many of them eat much healthier for the most part but they do go out to eat like normal and order delicious foods. That's the reality of this thing as a long term tool. 10 years After you've reached your weight loss goal, what do you think your diet will look like?

[Jellyfish 2]

I was sleeved on the 24th and since coming home from the hospital I have been obsessed with food. Not that I really want to eat it. But I am starved. Last night at 4 a.m. I laid in bed sobbing for all the starving children in the world, because I've been relentlessly hungry for going on four weeks and it's not pretty. So I understand where you're coming from. However... last night I started to think about my long-term approach to this. Just like every diet I've been on, I can either embrace it and succeed, or try to "beat the rules" and fail. I think the window of opportunity for fast weight loss with this thing seems to be about a year. I'm going to try to be really serious about this. I didn't mutilate my body only to fail once again. So, although I know a mourning period for food is coming, I hope to get over it quickly and just give myself every opportunity to succeed. I found a therapist before my surgery and have an appt set up for two wks from now. She had the bypass, so she knows how I'm feeling. I think it's important to have someone you can howl and cry to as you mourn. Good luck... this surgery ain't for sissies!

I don't see what this has to do with the question I asked you. I am glad you have a therapist. I don't need one. All I need to do is be HONEST and admit that if I live another 60 years, at some point I will eat BBQ. That realistic. I specifically pointed out that I'm gonna work to lose 100% of my excess weight so that I can eat something without feeling bad. That's me being realistic. I was just asking people who are sleeved, more about food and how they go about eating the things they want and still maintain the health and weight management aspect of it all in a normal, realistic way. You didn't address any of the questions I asked. I was already referring to long term diet.

[Jellyfish 2]

That has nothing to do with it. I do feel hungry daily and I eat. I didn't say that its unreasonable to think about food, you brought the emotional "toll" of divorce into it. That is an emotional and mental addiction to food. You're watching videos of food - you're mourning it. Mourning is an emotional and mental process.

You completely missed the point of my post. You ignored the questions I asked and now you are now projecting your issues with food unto my posts. If you need counselling, you can go an get it. I love food. I don't think the love of food is unhealthy. I don't think it's sabotage. I simply need to find the right balance of healthy choices. I never said anything about a big juicy hamburger. That was all you. You're doing the same thing you've probably done every single time you've gone on a diet which is to say, "This time I'll stick to it." This is not a diet. This is a life change. Eventually you are gonna have to eat and you are going to eat some of the foods you ate before surgery. Be realistic. It's just a matter of eating the right portions and enough healthy food to maintain your weight and health. This is not a diet you can sabotage. This is a life style we are building. Mine will have lasagna and BBQ in it at some point because this isn't a fad. This is what your diet will be FOREVER but if you want to tell me your going to eat salad for the rest of your life then go ahead and lie to yourself. There is no doubt in my mind that someday you will have a hamburger again.

[LilMissDiva Irene 3,282]

I don't see what this has to do with the question I asked you. I am glad you have a therapist. I don't need one. All I need to do is be HONEST and admit that if I live another 60 years, at some point I will eat BBQ. That realistic. I specifically pointed out that I'm gonna work to lose 100% of my excess weight so that I can eat something without feeling bad. That's me being realistic. I was just asking people who are sleeved, more about food and how they go about eating the things they want and still maintain the health and weight management aspect of it all in a normal, realistic way. You didn't address any of the questions I asked. I was already referring to long term diet.

It IS unrealistic to think any of us will never eat "bad" foods again. I certainly do, I won't hold that back! I'll tell you what, life in maintenance is a whole heckuva lot easier than pre-op. I do workout a lot so I simply don't gain weight. If I'm eating healthy majority of the time, and doing my workouts - I'm maintaining. For me, it's just that simple.

I did have to diet a lot though to get all the weight off. But I'm pretty much relaxed now (well not RIGHT now, trying to get toned back up...) and it's really nice.

BTW, BBQ chicken is not considered a bad food choice. It's pretty tasty and has a lot of Protein.

[circa 333]

You completely missed the point of my post. You ignored the questions I asked and now you are now projecting your issues with food unto my posts. If you need counselling, you can go an get it. I love food. I don't think the love of food is unhealthy. I don't think it's sabotage. I simply need to find the right balance of healthy choices. I never said anything about a big juicy hamburger. That was all you. You're doing the same thing you've probably done every single time you've gone on a diet which is to say, "This time I'll stick to it." This is not a diet. This is a life change. Eventually you are gonna have to eat and you are going to eat some of the foods you ate before surgery. Be realistic. It's just a matter of eating the right portions and enough healthy food to maintain your weight and health. This is not a diet you can sabotage. This is a life style we are building. Mine will have lasagna and BBQ in it at some point because this isn't a fad. This is what your diet will be FOREVER but if you want to tell me your going to eat salad for the rest of your life then go ahead and lie to yourself. There is no doubt in my mind that someday you will have a hamburger again.

Here's the problem - you didn't read MY post. Nor do you know anything about my situation. I don't have a therapist, and I'm not obsessing over food. I'm not watching videos of food because I can't eat it. If you can't recognize what you said in your own post, that's ok. Its a situation you have to deal with. So before telling me that I have failed at diets, you should probably do a little bit of research. I never said I failed at diets. I never said I wasn't going to eat again. I don't obsess about food and watch videos about it.

[Jellyfish 2]

Here's the problem - you didn't read MY post. Nor do you know anything about my situation. I don't have a therapist, and I'm not obsessing over food. I'm not watching videos of food because I can't eat it. If you can't recognize what you said in your own post, that's ok. Its a situation you have to deal with. So before telling me that I have failed at diets, you should probably do a little bit of research. I never said I failed at diets. I never said I wasn't going to eat again. I don't obsess about food and watch videos about it.

This isn't about you. You came unto MY THREAD and told ME I need to go get counselling cause my situation is bad. I've was watching cooking shows and food shows alot yesterday. I don't normally watch TV. My tv doesn't even have the cable plugged into it. Yesterday I found myself watching food shows online cause I was home, I was bored and after two weeks of not eating, I'm a little hungry.You are trying to make me feel ashamed of that but to me, I don't think I did anything wrong that warrants me have a obsession that needs therapy. So anyone who watches episodes of Iron chef online needs to see Doctor Phil?

This isn't about you or your situation. I don't care about your situation. I made my post so I can have a forum on something I WANTED to talk about and not be insulted or told I need help by someone like you.