12 days out and need some serious guidance

Thank you in advance for reading this post.  I am 12 days out and got the green light to start soft food yesterday.  My insrtuction are to eat until the first feeling of fullness.  The problem is I don't feel full at all.  How much would be a reasonable amount of food should I eat until I feel full?  Please give me some examples of you experience.  I ate for breakfast;  2 eggs and 1/2 cup if refried beans with a little cheese on top. Dinner last night was maybe 3/4 cup mashed potatos.  After I ate, I felt that I could of ate more.   I'm not feeling nauseous. I just don't feel good before or after I eat.  I'm doing all the vitamim, protein, and fulids as instructed.  I honestly feel that everything I consuming is not staying in the new stomach and going directly into the small intestine and leaving me feeling hungey and empty.   Please if you could give me some guidance and tell me of your experience it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Will

Will -=- Greetings!  The hardest thing for us food addicts to do is eat slow.  I have used the following technique in my eating. It is called the 30-30-30 rule. Now some docs don't use the same procedure, but you can adjust it to your doc's. I quit drinking 30 minutes before eating. I chew the food 30 times if not more. I eat for 25 minutes, taking a bite every 2 minutes[ THAT IS HARD, use a timer] at 25 minutes I wait for 5 minutes and if still hungry, eat for 5 more minutes Finally I wait at least 30 minutes to drink again. Lately I have waited at long at 60 minutes and still felt full. As you start eating more you will learn new habits that fit your situation at the time of eating. Do not drink during your meals. If you feel the urge to drink, I use cottage cheese to try and satisfy the urge to drink, it usually works. Good luck on your journey and keep us in touch with how it's going! Take Care, another lefty from Ventura KIM

Will, It took me months to figure out the sensation of being full (satiety) after surgery.  I typically measured my food especially when I moved to more solid foods.  When the measured portion was gone, I stopped.  Whether or not I was actually getting full, I do not know...I can say I was rarely hungry though.  I was also (and continue to be) very diligent about getting my daily requirement of protein through protein drinks.   The soft foods you're eating now - just as the liquids you were on in the beginning push through the pouch rather easily so one is often surprised at the amount that you can take in.  As the food gets more solid the sensation of being full will start to develop. One thing that hold true to this day for me...if I overeat I typically pay a price for it...I either "refund" or at very least get the foamies big time.  That's one of the great things about the surgery for me...that and dumping (or the fear of dumping).  So it's kind of self-correcting in case you do overeat. Will be interesting to hear how others managed through this.... Cards Fan "STEP OFF THE SIDELINES AND GET IN THE GAME!" Rest in Peace #32 - Josh Han****

this is a topic that simply gets by all the doctors and staff. why? because they didn't have the operation. the reason you don't feel full is because your nerve endings in the pouch haven't formed or healed yet. so......you get no sensation until they do. so what do you do? measure your food for starters. just eat 4 ounces or so of something and stop. simple as that. keep doing that until you feel full. for me it took forever. not a few months but more like 7. then learn to listen to that feeling for the rest of your life. if you do, you'll start leaving food on the plate and lose weight. the full feeling is the real piece to the eating puzzle at least for me. i stop when i'm feeling full. oh man, hardest thing on earth not to clean the plate but i try not to. sometimes i can be full really fast, other times not. in time you'll catch on to what your gut tells you but until that time, don't stretch it all out shoveling food into it. just eat small meals all day long.......carbonblob

I'm a Bander but, I have the same problem. When, my surgery was done, they used a 30cc balloon to determine where on my stomach the band should go. As I move towards more real food, my RNY wife has portioned out a meal on my plate that represents a meal to her. Now, her pouch is the same size as my upper stomach and she feels full yet, I don't really feel any different than before eating. I'm afraid that if I eat until full, I will dislodge my band or, stretch my upper stomach. One thing I do know is that, as I transition to food more, am I am hungier. They say: "Eat until you are not hungry not, until you're full." WT2 is that all about?! I have never been "not hungry" without feeling full. The Technician at my surgeon's office(she's awsome) said that I won't really start feeling "restriction" until I have my first fill. I just don't know what to do when it comes to chewable food. At least with a drink, I can tell myself that it is enough of what my body needs and intellectually rationalize that I don't need anythig until my next regularly scheduled feeding. But, I don't know what to do with food. Like tonight, I have a Lodge meeting. We share dinner togther. I have no idea what to do when it comes to that. I'm almost afraid that I should drink a meal at home and not eat at Lodge.

Hey Will, I had the same quandry in the beginning. I am 5 weeks out now and most of that has resolved itself. In the puree stage I would limit myself to about 6 ounces. No fluids for half an hour before or after.  I have been on soft food and chewing now for 4 days. i know when I don't chew well enough. The food will get stuck going down. After that I am done with that meal. I had the same sensation today with breakfast. A little to much rice crispies and banana. If I eat too fast  I will miss the sensation of being full and have problems.  If I take my time I can tell without the consequences. 20 minutes is about right for me. I am going back to measuring. Start with two ounces of protien then 2 oz of vegies, then 2oz of fruit, and if after 20 mins some carbs. Have yet to make the carbs. I can almost finish a small serving of wendy's chili.  Hope this helps. I am glad to see the good Lord is trying to teach some other than me patience.  Tony J.  

Thanks all for the information.  I am feeling better the last 2 days, so maybe I'm over the hump. Thanks again, Will