14 Days Out - Appetite and Mood different by the minute

That amount of food is alarming to me, but I was still on full liquids at two weeks out. We didn't get soft food until week 4. And I wasn't cleared for real food (like chicken breast****il week 9. All that is to say that different surgeons have different plans for advancing diets post op. I'm assuming you're following your surgeons instructions.

There are actually people who advance straight to regular food within that first week postop so what you're eating is not unheard of. Just be really careful about volumes and chewing. Even if your plan says three ounces of chicken breast it's absolutely ok to only eat one ounce and be done.

I know you already know these things, but just as a reminder and for the lurkers: it's imperative to not eat more than your surgeon allows. (I'm not saying you personally are doing that). You won't feel "full" or anything else until you are on the verge of damaging your staple line. They cut the main nerve to our stomach so there is literally no way for us to have the full feeling or any real feeling until many weeks post op.

Eventually we have to learn to trust our pouches, or sleeves, and eat accordingly. But this early out we have to trust our surgeon's plan.

Good luck and keep posting. It's one of the best ways to stay focused, no matter what stage of WLS life you're in at the moment.

What kills me are the people who ask how long they should wait to have alcohol, or if 1 week post-op is too soon to have a drink.

Hiya. At 14 days post-op, I was on pureed foods. But we all have different diet progressions. Did you go straight from liquids to your Forever Diet?

My plan was very clear about 3 meals a day, no snacks. My guidelines, for my forever diet, are as follows:

1. 4-6oz per meal, meals last 30 minutes
2. Stop if full before that
3. 64oz fluids/day (zero calorie or things like Crystal Light which aren't zero calorie but are super, super low)
4. 60-80g protein/day
5. No drinking within 30 minutes of eating
6. No eating between meals
7. Chew 15-30x before swallowing

My plan had nothing about calories because it's hard to go over on your calories if you're following these guidelines. During my pureed stage, which was weeks 2-4, my meals were limited to 2-4 ounces.

(Just to be clear, those are my forever diet guidelines. At 14 days, when I was cleared for purees, I started with 1 ounce of food per "meal" and was still having 2-3 protein shakes a day to reach my protein goal.)

So.. basically, if I had eaten three meals a day and reached my protein goal, I wouldn't have eaten more for the day. (First "meal" for me is always a protein shake.)

Does that make sense?

Also - grats on the walking!! When I started, I walked outside since I haven't got a treadmill. My street is 1/4 mile to walk to the end and back again, so I'd try to increase the number of "laps" I did each day until I got to the point where I could walk for an hour. Then I switched to the gym and worked on building my speed with a treadmill. Then, after I was past the 6 weeks recovery period, I thought it might be "fun" to try that running thing. And I've never looked back :D

RUNNING! That is amazing. I would be amazed if I was able to run at all as my knees just feel shot. I used to always say, if you see me running, you better run too because there's something chasing me! If I can actually run when I'm down a significant amount of weight, I will be celebrating and signing up for 5k's! Ha, at my age I'll be able to run in the seniors category. LOL! I'm looking forward to using my kettlebells 3-4 times a week again. I've found them to be the most efficient and total body workout (cardio and strength) that I've ever used. I like to call them a gym with a handle.

My surgeon's plan is pretty clear. I'm to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours - 3 meals and 2 snacks. Minimum of 60 g of protein per day, so if I'm low on protein, I may have 3 snacks. My daily average has been around 600 calories or so, though at this point the protein and liquids is my main focus.

I'm finding that 3-4 ounces protein per meal is totally satisfying me. I can eat pretty much anything I can squish with a fork, but no nuts, seeds, fruit with seeds, jerky ...things like that. So basically just soft foods. If my "satiation sensation" hasn't kicked in yet, then I'm really looking forward to when it does!

My surgeon let me pretty much skip the pureed stage after the 2 weeks of full liquids. Regardless, his program has us going from pureed to soft as soon as we can tolerate it starting in week 3. I have healed up really well, and he says the pureed stage for me would just be torture, as long as I take small bites and chew thoroughly and keep it to 3-4 ounces. Oh, and no water 10 min before meals and 30 min after.

He was really thrilled with my progress at my post-op appointment and I trust him implicitly so I'm just going to keep doing what he tells me to do.

My first meal is always a protein shake as well. I love my protein shake...even before I started this program. Easy to whip up in the morning and take to with me to work.

Are you back to work already?

No, I'm not going bac****il after the 4th of July. I could have gone back this week and would have done fine, but I wanted to take a little extra time to do some stay-cationing.

Hey everyone,

It does look like a lot of food, but after you mentioned how small the fork is, I thought "Is that all she gets!" I am just under three weeks until surgery and looking forward to the " losers bench!"

An interesting thing is that it might look tiny to you now, but soon it will look like plenty. My mind is still adjusting. Good luck on your surgery!