Week 1 Post-Op

Hi All,

I am in week one of my post-op diet. I am doing well physically. I had virtually no pain after discharge. Mentally, I must admit that I sometimes wonder "what did I do to myself?" when I see my family eating "normal" foods and meals since I am the only one on a modified diet. Plus, the fact that I make the meals for my family (if I don't they end up eating out every night which gets crazy expensive). Do not get me wrong, I am happy I had the surgery but I recognize that the surgery did not correct my mental "hunger" or desire to eat. I definitely wont deviate from the post-op diet since I do not want to experience any complications. However, I do worry about the future once I do not have those restrictions. Clearly, I should start mental health counseling to deal with this issue. I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Any wisdom to share with me?

I experienced every word you said. As the weight dripped off of me I became more and more excited. I never counseled because I came here read the menu tread at took advise from the vets here. It seemed right for me because a lot of counseling is done by people who never had WLS and I found they really don't know what we actually go through. Also when it was available I never missed an in person WLS support group. Only WLS patients understand the true struggle it takes to keep it off. Find a routine and a good exercise program. Your gonna loose all the weight that is a given but then it is just how bad you want to stay at that weight. Good luck with your journey. Also as soon as you are healed and can eat real food again find recipes that will be friendly for you and your family will also eat. Today I have chicken chili in the crock pot. They add cheese sour cream and tortilla chips or macaroni I eat it plain. Everybody wins.

Hi. Congrats on your surgery. I'm 8 weeks out now and believe me, the time does pass. I also cook for the non WLS persons in my home.

Concerning cravings and head hunger, I experienced this by week 2. Fortunately, the program I'm in required 8 weeks of Life Skills counseling, presurgical support groups, mental health evaluation with a requirement to follow through with the psychiatric recommendations as well as dietary and exercise physiology counseling. I realized I have what is called "Binge Eating Disorder" and sought out an eating disorders counselor. She has never had WLS but if counselors had to have experienced everything they are qualified to treat, they'd be one trick ponys. She has been a Godsend to me these past few weeks, and I'm learning to separate head and physical hunger and have been developing strategies to deal with this. I absolutely do not want to fail WLS and counseling is an important part of my plan. My biggest areas of head hunger triggers are emotional, especially disagreements with my husband, and boredom. Don't be afraid to seek out an appropriate counselor to help you create a successful outcome for yourself. WLS isn't magic, its a tool, and the things that pushed us to eat before will still be there. It's through facing those issues that we change our relationship with food. Good luck to you.

Sue and Treenie,

thank you for your response. both of you have given me valuable advice. I definitely feel that the support from the website if great. I may decide to join a support group locally if it ever gets back together (COVID :-(). I will think about the counselor also.

lana

Sorry Teenie for the misspelling on your name.

Hi Sue,

I am a RN and I recently accepted a job with our Bariatric Team. I am interested in the life skills classes you had to complete. Could I get some details on it. I think it may be worthwhile to suggest to the team. I think it sounds like a great idea.

The Noom program (app) does a lot to help you understand head hunger, mindless eating, goal setting that is not related to a number on the scale or measuring tape, and rewarding yourself with non-food rewards. It was the only program that didn't make me feel like I was fatally flawed because of many past weight loss failures. It helped me realize that I have a lot of bad habits that's seriously I didn't think I had bad habits because I know about nutrition, psychology, and health. There may be a free version of the app. I am no longer a subscriber but I have access to certain parts of the program just not coaching and support groups.

I will take a look at the app. Thank you for the recommendation

I will say when I had my lap band I never really experienced this until later. But it was had the farther out I got and I still could not eat things like steak and proteins.

This time awaiting my revision it has been very hard. I look at my family and I think its gonna be awhile before I can eat that or my coworkers and I am struggling at times. I worry because there has been so much doubt this time around that I am going to doom myself.

I am 5 days in on my preop and I have lost 9lbs so I guess it is nice to see that but it is hard!

Morgan