New and SOOO many questions, worries, etc

[vickilynn1973 1]

I am starting my 2-week liquid diet this Friday 12/21/12, and have RNY on 01/04/13!! I live in NE Arkansas, and will be having surgery about 2hours away in Little Rock with Dr. Mark Gibbs. I am 5'3" and at 250 as of now. I am super excited about this life change, and so grateful my TriCare covers me! I'm not really worried about the surgery itself, I've had a tough hysterectomy and gall bladder removed so I figure this surgery cant be much worse than those. I am mostly scared that I will be losing my best friend, aka Food! I eat for comfort, out of boredom, for fun, emotionally, for everything! So I'm worried I won't be good at dealing with the "head hunger" everyone speaks of! I am also not very good at menu planning, so I am pretty worried about food ideas, introducing new foods, and coming up with ideas to keep me full and not wanting junk food!

Can someone give me some ideas for after my 6 days of post-op liquids? Soft, pureed, etc? How often do you eat daily? Explain to me more details of "Sip, Walk, Rest"-- is that all day everyday? How about how to measure your food? What tools do you use? And how do you introduce new foods?

Sorry for so many questions, just hoping someone can tell me some good ways to deal and cope! Love this site and so glad to be here! Blessings to all!

Vicki

[punk.rock.mama 101]

Hi VL!

Congrats on your approval and commitment to a new lifestyle! I am almost 6months post op (8/9/12) and am going to try to answer some of your questions based on my own personal experience!

When I started this process myself I was 26ish and weighed a staggering 400lbs. I had just been in a car accident in 2009 and several months later was pregnant with my first child, of whom the father left me shortly after conceiving. I was forced to move back to my hometown (across the country) and aside from being on bed rest I also live with fibromyalgia and borderline personality disorder. It was decided by my doctor that to save my life and give my daughter a decent shot at hers I should undergo the screening process, it took me two years and more effort than I have ever put into anything before in my life.

I was on Optifast for three weeks and was convinced I was going to die haha

The surgery itself was a pretty negative experience for me as I react poorly to anaesthesia and once they were inside it was discovered that I had severe perforated ulcers, so in the end I lost about 5feet of intestine and almost 7inches of bowel. As soon as they bring you to your room from recovery you are encouraged to get up and walk around a bit, this will be the hardest thing you have ever been asked to do, you are full of air and in a considerable amount of pain, but the simple act of walking is the BEST way to reduce this pain, I was hooked up to an iv for fluids for the first day after surgery which made me have to pee like crazy, so EVERY time I had to get up to pee I took that long excruciating walk to the end of my ward and back.

As for the first few days, you will be relying on a timer and a medicine cup for all your fluids, you will be more thirsty than a hangover in a desert, and you will have ZERO hunger, luckily all your intake for the first week or so is EXCLUSIVELY clear liquid, I HIGHLY suggest powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury chicken Soup Protein power, it is very tasty and packed with medical grade Protein. but you may find yourself going mad with the repetition of sip, walk, rest which will literally take every ounce of energy you have to complete for the first few days home but will ultimately be the best thing you can do to heal/adjust.

The next few weeks will be the hardest (in my opinion) as you will be getting bolder as you introduce new foods to your diet one by one, all I can stress on this is to follow your meal plan/introduction guide letter for letter! it may seem impossible to eat baby food for two weeks or to survive on puree for the first few but I decided I was different and I could take a bite or two of chicken and pita in the first couple weeks and I vomited SO violently that I ended up in the emergency room with popped stitches, I was EXTREMELY lucky not to have ruptured my pouch. (there is a section in this forum with a million recipes and meal ideas for each stage)

While I am now on all the regular expected foods I still struggle with head hunger/craving, especially as my birthday thanksgiving channukah and christmas are all food celebrated events around this time of year, I have learned lots of little tricks to help me control these craving, my first line of defence is activity, am I bored? Can I walk off the craving (stats say if you can distract yourself for as little as 5mins the craving will pass) and more importantly, am I due for a meal or a snack, and if I am I always try to make sure I eat a protein first, this will satisfy both the actual hunger and keep you feeling fuller longer whereas carbs tend to lead to more frequent/intense events of craving.

Another great trick I have come to rely on is TEA! There are many speciality tea shops that carry herbal, non-black (caffeine free-rooibos) teas, I use these to quell my sweet tooth (there are lots of naturally sweet dessert style teas) as well as my HUGE weakness which is chai tea, I have become utterly addicted to cinnamon chai rooibos from david's tea, not only does this help satisfy my sweet tooth but it keeps my hands/mouth busy from wanting other "grazing" foods but also keep same hydrated (extremely important and quite difficult aspect of the surgery aftermath)

As for your concern about the comfort, entertainment, fulfilment that food has in your life, there is no simple way to approach it, you simple MUST find alternate coping mechanisms. I tackled it the way I saw it to be, an addiction. I had to cut every form of negative coping I had out before I even had the surgery. I do not smoke, drink, do drugs (marijuana was my only illicit usage before the surgery) nor do I gamble, shop, go to bars or even to social events centred around food (staff parties at restaurants, dinner/lunch dates ect) and as for eating itself I try to stick to schedule, aka three actual meals a day and four micro Snacks a day, here is an example of what a day of food looks like for (again, I am in the full foods now after almost 6m)

as soon as I get up I pour a cup of iced tea-250ml (home made, herbal/fruit, sweetened with stevia)

breakfast: Protein shake (as I find it difficult to eat in the mornings-also I buy a pre-mixed sugar free shake in a can for convienence to drink on my way to work)

when i get to work i fill my Water bottle half way - 500ml to sip on until lunch

snack: 1/4c cottage cheese (fat free of course) and 4 cherry tomatoes

lunch: 50g grilled chicken, one slice of mango, one slice of avacado and one tbsp quinoa

same-fill my water bottle half way - 500ml to sip on until I leave for the day

snack: 1 celery stalk, 1tsp reduced fat cheeze whiz (I like to mix my unflavored Protein powder into anything with a strong enough taste to mask it)

I fill my Water bottle again halfway before I leave work for the commute home

dinner:50g grilled turkey, 1tbsp apple sauce, 1 baby red potato (like the mini mini reds)

snack:8-10 grapes and 30g cheese (reduced fat of course)

and I drink another 250ml about an hour before bed

so my water intake is 8c, my protein is 80g and my total calories are 785. Plus whatever is burned during exercise or gained in the calcium/multivitamins ect.

I hope this has answered SOME of your questions, if I forgot anything or you want to know more just post again and I will try my best to keep the flow of info going

Good Luck!

[TinyMamiOf3kids 1,280]

Can someone give me some ideas for after my 6 days of post-op liquids? You will feel tired at first

Soft, pureed, etc? I skipped all that basically cuz I forgot to eat Lolz got used to liquid so surgeon put me on solid food which was very hard for me I felt like I was dying so I ate a lot of mash potatoe.

How often do you eat daily? 3 meals per day a little snack pretzels fruits

Explain to me more details of "Sip, Walk, Rest"-- is that all day everyday? Only in the beginning the sip yes walking should be as much as you can at least 4 times a week.

How about how to measure your food? I have measuring cup & a food scale

What tools do you use? None got the buddy thing but forget to write down what I eat Lolz

And how do you introduce new foods? Every 2 weeks but I'm past that stage