Holidays

You can certainly still bake and I would look to theworldaccordingtoeggface blog for recipes. She has bunches. Lot's of good stuff you can eat.

What you may not be able to do that early out is be able to stand the smell of the stuff. Or the look. Odd things can happen with your senses after surgery. I went through a few weeks (maybe 3) where I couldn't stand the smell of sugar.

And you may not have the energy. See how it goes.

Someone on here posted she wears a dust mask while baking to avoid tasting--remember thinking a thousand dust masks wouldn't work for me.  I choose to eat the same 'ol simple things that don't require a recipe but do notice recommended recipe sites seem to be theworldaccordingtoeggface and bariatricfoodie.  Wishing you a Happy Holiday and even a Happier Surgery Outcome.

I bake all the time - my sons each have severe food allergies that make buying commercial, processed foods impossible for them to eat.

I agree that food will be the last thing on your mind for several months and either you can bake as usual without tasting or skip it.  Big deal.

But you can continue to do all the things you loved to do pre-op as a post-op if you can control yourself around it.  For me I have decided  (it's been almost 2.5 years now so I think I have a handle on things) that there are things that I don't eat anymore.  Period.  I don't try to find substitutes, or alternatives.  I just do not eat certain foods at all.  Now I don't even consider them food for me.  So I bake bread and cakes and cookies and pretzels and whatever for my sons and it's like I don't even blink.  It isn't food for me. I would never have eaten their baby food, or drank their bottles, or eat my dogs food and for me it is kind of the same.  I know that doesn't work for all of us but since I am a very black or white kind of person, I know this to be true about me.

I hope you have a sucessful surgery and that you find the right wayfor you to deal with post-op eating.

I used to bake poppy seed bread for everyone in my office for the holidays.  I decided after I had WLS that it's not necessary.  My feeling is that if I won't eat it, why put myself through the trouble of baking for others?  And believe me, everyone understands that I chose to make permanent changes to my lifestyle.  They aren't butt hurt that they didn't get my delicious bread.  They'll survive.

Holiday foods will be very secondary to you this year, as others have said. On soft foods, you could sample a bit of baked sweet potato (not the sugary sweet potato casseroles that turn a decent vegetable into crap), a little mashed potato, and possibly a bite or two of turkey. You'll know when you "arrive" at the day where you are with eating. But don't pu**** - you'll only be a couple of weeks post op and your body will be very much in a healing mode. 

Baking sounds like a mine field to me. How do you know you can "stop the tasting"? I'd skip it for now - plan another little gift item to give away - and avoid any issues with temptation. So many here - more than I can count - test the waters way too early to just "see if I dump." If you don't - you'll be tempted to push the limits. If you do - well, you'll find yourself laying on the bathroom floor which isn't fun. Either way it's a dangerous path. 

Just for some perspective, I do a little baking now, 6 years post op. But I keep it very simple and last year gave loaves of holiday breads. MUCH harder to sneak a slice of bread than a cookie!