Eating In Front Of Others

[neener 8]

Hey guys! I'm not sleeved yet, but I'm wondering what the diet looks like immediately after and then long after the surgery? My family gets together twice a month for meals and to catch up and I know already if I don't eat they're all going to question me. Since they are very negative I don't want to say I'm getting WLS. One of my family members is anorexic and less than 100 lbs and no one says a word about it (I've tried...I get nowhere). Yet I'm waaaayyy judged for being fat. Guess it's more sociably acceptable to be veeerrrry skinny instead of fat. :-) Oh well. So what do you eat, and what do you say to people when they question you about your post/pre diet?

[UTGal99 327]

I would encourage you to skip the first get together since you will be just newly sleeved, but after that I would recommend you have Soup and bring some type of pudding dessert dish to share. The next month you would be on to purees, blended food and you could just say you're not very hungry (feeling under the weather). This would get you to about 8 weeks out now and you are pretty much on solids at that point. Then you could just tell your family you are really watching your portions and exercising.

The truth is...this will be very hard to keep a secret from your family. I would say you are probably going to need to find a way to tell them in your own time on your own terms.

Just my 2 cents....

[traceyinflorida 499]

Depending on your doctor, the first two weeks is liquid only. Protein Shakes, broth, yogurt, sf pudding, sf Jello. Second two weeks is mushies or pureed...cottage chese, apple sauce, chicken, tuna or shrimp salad put in a food processor to become mushy. Next couple weeks is soft foods like fish. After that regular food, but you will find you cannot eat more than about 1/2 cup and in my case I could not eat more than 2 oz of dense Protein. Now I can eat about 3 oz.

If I were in your shoes with family in the early stages, I would just say that I am not feeling that well and my stomach has been bothering me to explain why I am not eating anything. At the next gathering, if asked, I would just say I am watching what I eat. If they ask if you are on a special diet, I would say no, not really. I am just trying to cut back on carbs and sugar. Keep yourself busy with doing dishes, clearing the table and chatting with someone to take the focus off what you are eating, or not eating.

[Lissa 2,631]

Good advice above. You could just say you're on a restrictive diet under a physician's care (you are) and that you want "this time" to be successful. If your family members are the type who will talk about you, then let them. If you don't make an issue out of it, most people won't even notice a difference in your eating habits. That's been my experience. Wait staff are the only people to notice how much/little I eat, except for my workout partner. She didn't notice until we went out and a waitress asked if my food was okay after I pushed the plate away.

If you're up, moving around and helping with dishes, etc., as someone above suggested, no one will notice anyway, I think.

You will find a way to tell them eventually, probably after they all notice how fast you're losing a bunch of weight.