Help -- a little pain when swallowing/eating too fast!

OK, guys, I need your advice. My RNY was three weeks ago yesterday, and everything is truly going great.   I have some days when I feel tired, but otherwise it's been incredibly smooth sailing. Last friday, the dietician let me go onto pureed foods, which was a big relief, so much easier, tastier, and easier to do protein than on a liquid diet. My problem is, I'm having some pain upon swallowing, unless I eat things really, incredibly, agonizingly slowly.  My entire "meal" consists of about 1/2 a cup of some type of pureed, slurried protein source, chicken, beef, tuna, or eggs, plus about 1/4 cup each of some mushed vegetable and mushed soft fruit.  Nothing has made me sick in the sense of causing nausea or vomiting, but after a few swallows, it hurts in chest/lower throat area, and I do have a little gas.  I'm eating my little meal in about 10 minutes.  I know I'm eating too fast and taking too big of spoonsfuls. I know, I know, I know, I'm supposed to be eating this meal over about 45 minutes.  It just seems so hard to spread it out over so much time, and it seems like an incredible waste of time to sit there and stare at food for so long, I've got better things to do with my life than that.  This is one of those mind over matter things, and my mind isn't winning yet.  It's so hard to untrain old habits. How do I learn to slow down, chew very slowly, etc?  My god, pre-surgery, I could have taken out an entire Chinese buffet in 45 minutes!

This is a tough one for me and I'm out 7 1/2 months now.  It took a long time to get to 20-30 minutes per meal.  that's what I still do.  You're right though, sitting and staring at the bit of food doesn't help.  I took to doing crossword or time Soduku puzzles while eating (especially when I was really struggling.  It allowed me to concentrate on something else for a minute or 2 between bites.  I also got the smallest spoon I could find to ensure I took only small bites (I used a baby spoon for a while and now I still don't use anything bigger than a teaspoon)  I also use a smaller plate and a smaller fork just as a reminder for myself. I usually do OK with timing my meals now (but it took a while to get there). Best of luck, this is just another of those things we need to learn to be more successful. Brian

Maybe you could try to not make it like a normal meal. Don't sit there for that long trying to eat. Rather take a bite and go do something then come back and take another bit etc. WE devoted a lot of our time to eating before WLS. Now we can't and the first life changing event is to find something else to do with all that extra time. This is a big adjustment and not just for you but for anyone living with you as well.

Thanks, guys, those are good ideas.  I'm going to try to incorporate my "meals" into daily routine -- maybe I'll vacuum a little, go have a bit or two, dust a little, etc at breakfast. I'm also supposed to be eating 6 small meals a day, but I'm lucky to get 3 in.  Food SOUNDS good in theory, until I get it to my lips, then it's mostly just nasty.

Read a magazine, book or I get on the lap top. Something that will help later on is to cut your meat or what ever and put the utensils down, chew, chew,  chew, read book or what ever to kill a little time, then pick up utensils and start again. One thing I do for example, is when I am eating a steak I never cut more that the bite I am going to eat right then. Prior to surgery I would cut a strip of steak and cut it into several smaller bites. Now I just cut off one bite at a time. Later on when you have figured out how much you can hold it will get easier. I some times get into a hurry even now and will feel like I swallowed a brick. When I do I just back away from the table. Some times a really small sip will help.  pan head

All of the transitions from one stage to the next can be difficult. Use that negative reinforcement to LEARN New eating habits. Slow Down, Slow Down, Slow Down. If you put in the effort now to establish new eating habits, Then when you are at goal and just maintaining, It won’t be a struggle.  Just Normal routine. Yes? Do the hard work now, and the rest is easy street. By-Pass or circumvent the hard part of re-learning how to eat now, And that work just gets passed on to the future. Smaller spoon. (yep, try a baby spoon) Put the spoon down between bites. These are both helpful tricks for many. Just my thoughts…. Best Wishes- Dx

SLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW  WWWWAAAAAAYYYYYY DDDDDDOOOOOOOWWWWWWWNNNNNN! It still takes me 1 hour to eat half a sandwitch and I am 14 months out. If I don't chew everything to nearly liquid, I can get pluged up. Like yesterday. I was eating a roast beef sandwitch (well 1/2 of one anyway) and got about half way through (about 1/2 hour) and decided I was done. I then waited 1/2 hour (as per my docs orders) so I could have something to drink. I got about 1/2 way through the coffee and felt the brick start to form in my chest. It took nearly 4 hours of pain before things started to get better.  Eat slow, chew well and take your time. Yep it is a pain in the behind but the results are much more than worth the effort.  Once I got to solid food, I started taking a mouthfull and chewed that mouthfull for the full 10 minutes. I would move it to one side of my mouth then take a real small bite of it, and chew on the small bite until it was liquid, then swallow, move a little more over and chew chew chew. After a while I could get through the full 10 minutes without getting bored. Now, when I am out with people for a meal, I just take my bites a little quicker but still only get about 4 in before everyone else is done with their meal. I then just pack the rest for later. I will normally get 3 to 4 of my meals from one "normal restaraunt meal" It sure is less expensive for sure!

I'm not very much ahead of you timewise. I'm a little shy of 7 weeks out so I'm dealing with this same problem, and not very well at times. About 3 weeks ago I got that uncomfortable feeling in my pouch that told me I needed to get up and walk around for a while before I took my next bite and it suddenly occurred to me as I started to get up from the table that I already had my fork loaded with the next bite while I was still chewing. There's no doubt in my mind that I've done this all my life and it just now occurred to me. So I made up my mind to force myself to put down my fork and put my hands in my lap between each bite as if I was in some kind of etiquette school for debutantes. Three weeks later I still catch myself doing the same thing and have to unload the fork and put it down. I experimented around with eating with my left hand as a way to slow myself down, but it pissed me off too bad to continue. I felt  like Micheal J. Fox when I tried it. Another thing that's irritating is having to go reheat your meal a couple of times before you finish. But, small sacrifices for getting your life back. Somehow or another guys like us have to train ourselves to quit being aggressive and impatient when we get a fork in our hand. It's tough. Good Luck.