Food

VSG vets, when were you able to start eating "normal" food, or food that everyone else was eating? Also, how long did your phase 3 last?

Everyone's programs and "phases" are different. What is your phase 3?

As for "normal" food...what exactly do you mean by normal?

phase 3 for me is intruding proteins like eggs, tuna, beans and gradually moving to chicken and it says pureed (sp?) As far as normal, I mean what the rest of your family or friends eat.

never, eating that way is how I got to be morbidly obese.

Honestly I'm never going to be able to eat everything that my family and friends eat.

So if by "normal" you mean eating exactly the same things that others eat, then my answer would be never. In my opinion, the only way to be successful long term with WLS is to commit to changing the way you think about food, and your relationship with it as well. For me that means knowing going in that I will never eat the foods I used to eat, and I will never be able to eat like everyone else I know eats. Most people eat way too many carbs, especially processed and simple carbs. I often eat with family and friends. I just make the right choices, and leave the bad stuff to them. Simple.

Long term success with WLS means focusing on protein and low carb forever. A permanent change to the way you eat, not a diet.

My surgeon's plan had us eating real food at the one week check-in. It was clear liquids for the week post-op, and then real food after a supervised class.

My surgeon had us on liquids (protein shakes) along with jello, pudding, yogurt (no chunks) and we could do soup if it didn't have chunks... that was the first 2 weeks post op. Then she moved us to soft foods, chewed well, as tolerated. We had clear instructions as to which foods to try first (refried beans, eggs, etc.) and to introduce only one food at a time in very small quantities to see how we handled it. I did pretty well with it, and was eating most foods at about 6 weeks out.

I was able to start solid foods in week 5.

I'm 3.5 years out and will never eat like a "normal" person. I'm always going too recovering form the disease of obesity, regardless of what the scale says.

The VSG way of eating is a lifetime way of eating. (And this is true for the other surgeries as well.)