Anyone have any trouble eating? or breaking the drinking with a meal habit?

[StartingOver27 0]

I'm into week three post op and I am having trouble with meals. I'm not hungry but I need to eat 5 or 6 small meals. I understand that. But the bites are problems because I'm so used to rushing. I'm hating the whole no drinking during a meal. I am trying my best. I've gotten go where I don't even pour myself anything and hide my Water bottle in the back of the fridge to keep from grabbing it.

But when I eat it's painful at times like I've swallowed bricks or blocks with sharp edges and I've chewed my food down to absolutely nothing. And I crave a whole bunch of things but as soon as I smell them or even look at it I am sick. So good I guess, I'm down 33 lbs and doing good all except the eating thing.

What are good foods to start with other than tuna fish ( I eat that almost every day. And love it.) I want to start eating for vegetables but the ones I crave aren't going to do anything but cause pain because they are hard to digest. Any thoughts?

[Kelly827 9]

I eat chicken. I make it in my crockpot so buy the time it's done it's flakey and soft and goes down very easily.

[StartingOver27 0]

I eat chicken. I make it in my crockpot so buy the time it's done it's flakey and soft and goes down very easily.

I did the same but couldn't hardly keep it down. It felt very heavy and icky. I am not being a wimp or anything but I don't like the heavy feeling. I've been able to eat pork like pork roast and fish ( catfish and tilapia and tuna) I've had the canned chicken that you use for chicken salad and that I can eat like it's going out of style.

[music1618 879]

I will be honest with you it is the one rule I have never been able to follow. I could just never get used to it. I don't drink a lot but I need something to help wash the food down.

At my year post op visit I asked my doc about it and he said it was ok as long as I had swallowed my food first and it was in my stomach.

Please note every doctor is different and you need to follow your doctors rules. I do not condone rule breaking, but wanted you to know you are not alone in your struggle.

[klovitt0171 9]

I have some of the exact same issues. I used to rush when I would eat and then always gulped my drinks at meal time. I am used to drinking at least 2 liters of Water a day & this sipping stuff is difficult & not drinking at meal time. I am only 1 week post op and I know it's all part of the journey & retraining ourselves like starting over. I'm trying to remember why I did this & do things the right way & hope eventually it will be the norm.

I've read a book and found during your stage you can eat eggs (scrambled right & could even add ricotta cheese), I found a recipe for an vanilla egg custard that I heard was really good & I'm going to make that tomorrow. I had cottage cheese w/ sugar free strawberry preserved in it tonight & that was good. You might look on Amazon.com there are several books & cookbooks that might help. Keep up the great work- I'm ready to get over initial pains & soreness & get to losing stage!

[terry1118 1,274]

I did the same but couldn't hardly keep it down. It felt very heavy and icky. I am not being a wimp or anything but I don't like the heavy feeling. I've been able to eat pork like pork roast and fish ( catfish and tilapia and tuna) I've had the canned chicken that you use for chicken salad and that I can eat like it's going out of style.

From what I've read it's not uncommon for a lot of people who've had WLS to have trouble w/chicken and/or turkey. My surgery was 13 months ago and I still can't eat chicken. I can eat ground poultry, though. I love shrimp, scallops, turkey chili, refried Beans, tilapia, smoked salmon, turkey meatballs, buffalo balls (meatballs made w/ground chicken, blue cheese, and hot sauce), spaghetti squash w/meat sauce, sushi w/brown rice, steamed clams, and Greek yogurt w/chopped pecans.

[StartingOver27 0]

I have some of the exact same issues. I used to rush when I would eat and then always gulped my drinks at meal time. I am used to drinking at least 2 liters of Water a day & this sipping stuff is difficult & not drinking at meal time. I am only 1 week post op and I know it's all part of the journey & retraining ourselves like starting over. I'm trying to remember why I did this & do things the right way & hope eventually it will be the norm.

I've read a book and found during your stage you can eat eggs (scrambled right & could even add ricotta cheese), I found a recipe for an vanilla egg custard that I heard was really good & I'm going to make that tomorrow. I had cottage cheese w/ sugar free strawberry preserved in it tonight & that was good. You might look on Amazon.com there are several books & cookbooks that might help. Keep up the great work- I'm ready to get over initial pains & soreness & get to losing stage!

For me the problem is I'm not a huge egg fan and I don't even want to think about cottage cheese. : ( but I did look at Amazon as suggested and called the doctor to see what I could try out of the cook books I am looking at. He said some of the same as you suggested and also suggested yogurts. I'm not a fan of that either. But I'll give it all a shot because I went to eat a piece of kraft cheese and started gagging and heaving before I could finish chewing the first bite and I used to love that!! There are many things I "crave" but it's all in my mind. My body isn't craving it. Like we passed a pizza place and oh I wanted it. My fiancé got a slice and I was all ready for my bite and as soon as I went to put it to my mouth I felt sick. So needless to say lots of the things I crave are all in my head.

I can do small gulps but not big ones and as far as the rule breaking goes I am going to try to break the habit before going around the rules. Lol. It's one of those things that I might be able to do but like the other person said I need or feel like I need something to wash it down with.

[klovitt0171 9]

I've always liked eggs but go through stages when I get burned out on them. I've never been a big cottage cheese fan either- I think it's texture for me but when I add in flavor I like it really helps. I bought SF strawberry Jam which was kinda good w/ it. My daughter loves to mix w/ applesauce. I'm trying to eat it as one meal because it's so Protein packed.

I am the same way with cravings!! I know mine are all in my head cuz I haven't been hungry at all! I saw a man w/ bag of M&Ms at airport & I wanted some so bad but knew I would most likely get sick from possibly even eating one so I just had to think about something else. So hard we're going to have a lot of these mental stumbling blocks but hopefully they'll get much raided each day. I'm not doing puréed foods yet but excited about that because I think retried Beans with cheese sprinkled & melted on it sounds good to me. I love mashed potatoes too but know I need Proteins more than potatoes. It's kind of a fun new challenge in life!

[Moxy 58]

The no drinking during meals and half hour on each side is so you wont get hungry again when you flush the food out of your tummy. i follow this to the letter. i follow all doc orders to the letter becasue i dont want my tool to be a failure.

Everyone is different with what they can eat, i am 7 month post op and i STILL cannot digest tunafish. its painful, sits in my stomach for a couple hours and then i throw up. i eat mainly chicken from cans so its really moist and make shredded chicken tacos with it,(top with fat free sour cream salsa and low fat cheese!) or buffalo chicken wraps. i can tolerate tortillas really well and they pack well too for road trips in a lunchbag cooler. Crock pot chicken is a life saver as well.

I can eat some fish like tilapia (fish tacos !) and swai but nothing heavy like salmon or tuna.

[InfiniteButterfly 438]

I do drink a slight amount during my meal: I have a couple swallowable Vitamins that I can't take on an empty stomach, so I take them at the end of the meal with a tiny sip of Water (just enough to get the pill down) That keeps me going for the half hour until I can start drinking again. I have the same struggle with not drinking while eating. It seems that's the only time I really want to drink

As far as other soft foods...refried Beans? They are my life-saver when I'm so sick of eggs I can't stand it. I just started back on tuna...I couldn't tolerate it for a while although I loved it pre-surgery. I've been trying a lot of different fish (our grocery store has been going insane with the sales), and I've had Mahi Mahi and lobster without issue (the lobster I had to pretty much mash with my fork) It makes me wish for more huge seafood sales :/ Salmon I can do in limited quantities: I bought some salmon burgers which are incredibly good, and as the meat is already flaked, it's wonderful so long as it's not overcooked. Unfortunately, most meats haven't sat terribly well with me, other than the seafoods, so eggs and refried Beans are a large part of my post-surgery diet. I do tend to eat a lot of thinly sliced lunch meat with cheese as well. Wrap a slice of low-fat deli ham around a cheese stick (I usually split mine down the middle and wrap each half with half-a-slice of deli ham or turkey)

[StartingOver27 0]

I do drink a slight amount during my meal: I have a couple swallowable Vitamins that I can't take on an empty stomach, so I take them at the end of the meal with a tiny sip of Water (just enough to get the pill down) That keeps me going for the half hour until I can start drinking again. I have the same struggle with not drinking while eating. It seems that's the only time I really want to drink

As far as other soft foods...refried Beans? They are my life-saver when I'm so sick of eggs I can't stand it. I just started back on tuna...I couldn't tolerate it for a while although I loved it pre-surgery. I've been trying a lot of different fish (our grocery store has been going insane with the sales), and I've had Mahi Mahi and lobster without issue (the lobster I had to pretty much mash with my fork) It makes me wish for more huge seafood sales :/ Salmon I can do in limited quantities: I bought some salmon burgers which are incredibly good, and as the meat is already flaked, it's wonderful so long as it's not overcooked. Unfortunately, most meats haven't sat terribly well with me, other than the seafoods, so eggs and refried Beans are a large part of my post-surgery diet. I do tend to eat a lot of thinly sliced lunch meat with cheese as well. Wrap a slice of low-fat deli ham around a cheese stick (I usually split mine down the middle and wrap each half with half-a-slice of deli ham or turkey)

I don't eat cheese. I can no stand to eat a cheese stick I can eat slices or shred but sticks or blocks I can't for some reason. I've never been able to really eat cheese by itself. But I had a cheese wedge with soft strawberries and it was amazing. I had lunch meat today and it was good. I also had crab a couple of days ago and almost died. So some seafood I can't have yet and I love crab and yet no cravings for it.

The drinking with meals is a slow habit to break but I am working on it. I have a small sip at the end of my meal to help with the taste and dry throat feel.

Something else is I steam cauliflower and blend it into potatoes with sour cream and small bits of cheese. I know it sounds weird but I am sick of mush. Lol

[hcabrooks197 20]

I am having to do a pre-op diet starting today that makes me do all the same things I would have to do at post op.(just not same sizes, but under 1200 calories) So today at lunch I had Outback steakhouse. I had a 6 oz steak and a house salad with some kind of Tomato dressing. (It was the lowest calorie) I did great but it took me 45minutes to eat. I did great but I couldn't wait to be able to take a drink. Then I failed! I drank my whole drink basically in 30 minutes which should have taken probably 2 hours. So I am going to really have to watch my drinking habits.