Doctor Appt Details

Well I went to see my surgeon on the 31st. Here is the low down. I have been feeling good lately, no complications. I asked her what type of surgery I had ... distal or proximal (I couldnt remember) How bad am I??? ... I had distal. Anyways I told her that I was shocked that I can eat so much and that my hunger has been so incredibly bad. She just smiled and shook her head yes and said that from month 9-18 it gets really hard. Which we all knew it would get harder. BUT it is more like REALLY REALLY hard. I asked her if it was normal that I could eat a whole sandwhich and she said yes that it stretches quite a bit and can hold 12 ounces. twelve! eegads! 'sigh' I already miss the old days! Anyways she said for me to eat ONLY 3 meals a day and NO SNACKING IN BETWEEN!!! YIKES!!!! I sure hope I can do that. I said... well I notice that when I have my breakfast by the time its lunch I am just totally ravenous and want to eat everything in site like my hunger is out of control. She said thats normal right now. YIKES!!!! so all in all I am just as I should be and have to just deal! well I pretty much knew I had to deal anyways. I am going to try my darndest not to snack in between. She told me that if I needed a snack to make it the snack around dinner time and make it healthy. sheesh... I am gonna do this though! I was shocked I thought we were supposed to have 6 small meals a day. Ah well. Every doc is different right? I just thought I would share my details with all of you Elizabeth M

Elizabeth, Thanks for sharing your appt details with us. I have been eating only 3 meals a day for the last month or so. I find that if I do that and have very minimal snack days (maybe once every 7-10 days or so) that I get full and stay full much longer. Also it seems I can get past the head games much easier, I actually feel like I am eating a meal with my family. I think many times we take eating 6 small meals as a license to do all day grazing; after all its only, one or two bites here and a few bites there, not many calories or much at all. When I eat my meals I do as Dina said a few posts back, I eat at a steady pace right along and get full much faster and stay full. I never drag my meals out to 30 minutes, 10-15 minutes max. I dont know if I could eat a whole sandwich now or not because i havent had a sandwich since having WLS. I had a bad problem with bread, trotillas, waffles, pancakes (things like that) sticking early on and so I just tell myself it will still stick and havent tested the water to see if I am still right or not. Makes it easier to avoid all those nasty carbs!!! Best wishes and keep on with the battle!!! Janelle

Janelle, You know, you (and the doc ) are totally right. It does make sense when you look at the habit of all day grazing. Its very similar. I have to be super careful of that! I can do that VERY easily and is a nasty habit that I need to break. I eat pumpkin seeds which is TRULY a grazing type of activity! One of my biggest challenges is to give up those seeds. I eat them after dinner just about every night. My husband told me one day... you know everytime I come in this room you are chewing! I said well I eat a seed at a time and it takes awhile. BUT then I thought...you know hes right and its a grazing thing and thats bad! I need to stop the chewing! seriously though, its hard to cut the meals down to only 3 with no snacking. But I am going to make it my new lifestyle and new habit. Once I get that down pat I will be good to go!!! Thanks Janelle! Elizabeth M

i haven't been checking the boards for months now but am so glad I checked in today. Your email was so informative and answered a lot of questions for me. I've lost about 90 pounds since WLS...even LOST weight over the holidays. But since then, I've been going through the same thing as you..hunger! all the time! And finding I am able to eat MORE...like you, the whole sandwich (instead of about 1/2 like before). Am relieved to find out I am "normal". Am going to cut out the grazing (moo!) and go to 3 meals a day. THANKS!!!!