Thanksgiving

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! I am used to pigging out, on and off all day. This is really the first Thanksgiving I won't be to.

I bought a portion plate divider off eBay to place on top of my dinner plate. I figure that would help some.. but for those who have celebrated a Thanksgiving already as a VSG'er ..how was it ?

Did you have total control or did you kind of pick a little at everything?

I will be off my finale stage by then forever solids, so I'm a little excited.

I'll still be on liquids. Super bummed.

Will still be on liquids as well, bummed with you.. :-(

I had my one week follow up today and met with a NUT, she said turkey broth mixed with some spices to make it taste like stuffing...lol I asked if turkey gravy counted as liquid.... unfortunately she said no. Such is life. On the plus or negative side depending how you look at it I am down 11lbs and OFF ALL my sugar meds and off my Blood Pressure meds. So WIN WIN for me!!

Ken

Oh man that stinks! Turkey broth? Yuck! I'm going to freeze a couple things to purée later.

I was fairly new to being sleeved on my first Thanksgiving after surgery. I was sleeved 9/28 so I was full into solids at Thanksgiving time. I was still not very interested in food at all though. I did eat but it was just a little bit and I made sure to have turkey first to keep the protein as my focus. I did let myself have just a bite of stuffing and a bite of mashed potatoes because for me personally if I feel totally deprived of everything then it makes me want it that much more. I have had to go at this from a position of finding balance in everything and I feel that it has worked for me and I have been quite successful. I made sure that first year to just eat super slowly and have my main attention be on my family and enjoying that time together.

You'll be less than a month from surgery at Thanksgiving? If you start picking at things all day, your friends and family will see a side of you you really, really don't want them to see. You will make yourself sick as a dog.

Take it very, very easy. Measure out a portion that you would eat any other day, and do not exceed it. Then socialize.

My surgery was mid-August last year. So by Turkey Day I was pretty much on a full diet but still not that far out from surgery.

Here's my personal advice:

DON'T eat ANYTHING you haven't tried at home first.

Not everyone has odd reactions to food or develops intolerances. But especially in the early days, something won't set just right in the sleeve, and a family gathering is not when you want to start experiencing dumping or anything like it.

I did pretty good... ate a couple of ounces of turkey and then let myself have a bite of stuffing, and a bite of a couple of other things that sounded good. To this day I don't have a clue what got me, but about 20 minutes later I started sweating and nauseated and cramping. Got hubby to drive me home (30 min drive) and then I started throwing up. Since I ate about 4 things for the first time post-op, there's no telling what it was that my body didn't like.

This year I don't anticipate any problems at over a year out, and my plan is to eat 2-3 oz of turkey, and then have small bites of anything else that sounds good. I'm lucky that I still have good restriction from my sleeve, so as long as I eat slow enough to recognize that I'm full, I do pretty good. Sometimes the food is so good that I mourn not being able to keep eating more, but that one bite too many makes me incredibly miserable for about 20-30 minutes, so I do my best to avoid it even if I really want to eat more. :)

Nibble proteins. Leave the rest of it alone. Maybe a teaspoon full of mashed potatoes. Maybe a bite of green beans. Forget the rest of it. You are too soon out.

My surgery was 8/23/16, so I was three full months out at Thanksgiving. I had about two ounces of turkey. A taste of mashed potatoes. A taste of green beans and one bite of cranberry sauce. That was it. And I cooked the meal. (I did have one bite of stuffing, but my stuffing has sausage in it - so I made sure I had a sausage bit and not just bread). I don't like pumpkin pie, so that wasn't an issue.

I just used my good china like I did for everyone else at the table. The joy of the day is being with people you love and has very little to do with the food. Really.