VSG

I don't ever suggest lying, however I do suggest not volunteering information. Very often when we are nervous, or self-conscious, we over-explain what we are doing when the reality is people care much less about it than we do (with a few exceptions).

I answer questions if asked, but otherwise do not comment on my ha*****anges or food consumption. In my recovery from my BED, I noticed this very fascinating phenomenon: I was obsessed with food, and most people around me weren't. This mystified me! I realize that, literally, aside from my friend's 90 year old grandma who basically attempts to force feed everyone (hello, Sicilians?) no one gives a crap.

Really, our diet isn't so vastly different from a lot of skinny people's diets, after the fact. Also, another interesting phenomenon. The way I eat out now is pretty much like my always-skinny friends, except I do eat way more protein since I'm a weird ketogenic diet person. Still, when I (rarely) eat carbs it's in the amounts they do. It's weird to me that I avoided observing this for so long. Tangent aside...

On some occasions I did get comments. I simply stated I wasn't hungry or didn't feel like eating at this time. I just don't worry about it. If people persistently ask, I answer, but I try not to volunteer information. If someone asks about my weight loss (it's pretty obvious when you've lost like 460 pounds or whatever) I am candid and honest, however.

Do what is necessary for your sanity and don't feel bad about it, but also don't stress about it. As Grim mentioned, just eat soup. "Hey, it's my last chance for winter soups since spring is coming, right?" Yogurt is also a "liquid," too, remember, without chunky fruit. If they have poor boundaries, it's better to share less or nothing, anyway, as people with poor boundaries are like energy vampires.

While I'm not a fan of smoothies or juicing when they are high sugar, there's a way to make them lower carb and WLS friendly - the smoothies, anyway. That's another option.

A third is something like polenta, or a ragu. If you're on soft food by then, fish is another option, too! Fish with some mashed sweet potato? Delicious!

Bear in mind though that you will be eating maybe, at most, 4 ounces at once per meal. There's not going to be a way to hide that.

I agree with Gwen with having a script and sticking with it... Lots of good ideas here...

Sure you can hide it. I am an ICU nurse and work with almost 200 nosey women. I told only 8 people about my surgery including immediate family. I felt it was nobody's business. If anybody asks, just tell them you just had norovirus (or food poisoning!) and your stomach has been off every since. You're afraid to have explosive diarrhea when around others. Usually when the words explosive and diarrhea are mentioned, people leave you alone and the conversation stops there. Then sweetly ask them a question about their personal life (new job, grandkids, kids, husbands, whatever).

ON a side note, I'm having a vsg revision to ds soon and I've told even less people about this than my first surgery. I stuck my neck out to help others get through wls in real life only to have them spread my personal life to others. it was very hurtful the first surgery and I'm not subjecting myself to that again. I also lost friends the first surgery because they could not handle my success and I realized they weren't even friends in the first place.

Good luck! And just keep it all in perspective, especially why you had the surgery in the first place. To be HEALTHY!

Your eating will be completely askew, and while you can say you're on a diet, over time it's going to be more and more evident that something is happening. If you're not sure, just cancel the visit.

At first I just moved food around on my plate but soon realized that no one really pays attention to what I eat, or don't eat. The food poisoning story sounds like it would work. Whining about how much you wish you would get your appetite back might be a good touch.

Only my hubby and our two teen daughters knew about my surgery. I buried my mother six weeks after I had surgery -- BIG ITALIAN FUNERAL, out of town for me with LOTS OF ITALIAN FOOD. I spent a lot of time talking and pushing food around on my plate. I was pretty much on a regular diet, but could only eat about 1/4 cup of anything at that point. I made sure I had shakes with me to drink either in the car or the hotel to get my protein in.

In the end, no one noticed how I ate, but everyone commented on how good I was looking. When asked about how I lost the weight, I said I was following a program established by my physician that was high protein, low carbohydrate and portion-controlled.

Every last word of that is true. If anyone asked why I wasn't eating the pasta, I said that it wasn't allowed by my physician at this point in my diet so I was going to stick to my plan.

I'm down 82 pounds (I can't seem to figure out how to get my weight to change on the board here) and my family, including my sister, still don't know.

Other than an occasional stitch in my side, I probably could have hid that I had VSG the very next day hehe. If they ask, I see no issue saying you're jus****ching what you're eating because well, we all really do that.

Congratz on your surgery!

Do you even have to go? Why put yourself through all of those mental gymnastics? Either go and tell people to mind their business, or dont go and not even have to worry about it.