Scared to eat,,,,,,

OK...is this weird or what? I am almost 1 month out from surgery. I just got moved to stage 3 diet on Thursday, but i am scared to eat. I am supposed to move to regular food next week, but I cant even manage to get the nerve to eat eggs or tuna.

Is this normal? I have never in my life been scared to eat (thus the need for surgery :) and now I am terrified.

Hi Bre----glad to see you are posting and that you've been cleared to move to Stage 3!  Congrats!

I understand how you feel COMPLETELY!! I was terrified the first bite I took---it was of a scrambl'd egg & I chewed it into nothing in my mouth before I even dared to swallow it!  Then I just waited for something horrible to happen.  But, nothing did. I managed to eat one scrambled egg & it sat really well & I felt really good after I ate it.  Now, I am on Stage 3, still, and eating one egg or I love the seasoned tuna in the foil bags...Chipolte Mango is my favorite w/1TBsp of lite mayo...yummy....I've eaten some green beans...about 5, total...lol....but, basically, my morning meal is still a shake then lunch is an egg & dinner is fish.  I have had grilled chicken a few times--once at O'Charlies (they were fantastic about just grilling me a piece with nothing on it...it was really good, too!) and once at Cracker Barrel...where I had one chicken tender off my daughter's plate.  Everything went okay....I get full very quickly. I can't really do 3oz yet, which is what I need to work up to, but I am getting all my protein each day between the morning shake & then, at night, I mix my crushed vitamins & medicine into a Carb Masters Yogurt, which is really good & 12gm of protein (80 cals)....so, that works.

So, don't be scared....just start SLOW---really SLOW---and chew, chew, chew....by the way, I have never blended anything....which isn't really what we are supposed to do, BUT I chew about 50 times before I swallow anything...chew, chew, CHEW everything so it's just basically nothing when you swallow.  And, of course, no drinking 30 minutes before & after you eat...but you know that (I find that to be really hard...I am very thirsty after I eat...so I am watching the clock).

Jill, the dietitian at Centennial, also told me a trick about the protein.  Since the serving size for eggs is "2 eggs", she said to set a timer for 30 minutes.....eat as much as you can...slowly & chewing, until the timer goes off. Whatever is left that you can't eat...throw it out....don't keep eating or it will promote "grazing" later.

You are doing FANTASTIC on your weight loss...over 50 pounds...HOOOORAYYYY!!!! Amazing!!! Good luck on moving to Stage 3!!!! Let me know how it goes, sugery sister!!

xo, Micheala.

Micheala, just a word of caution - watch out for Cracker Barrel. They season and cook everything in PURE LARD (probably why it tastes so good ). They are one of the ones that will not give their nutrition content out either.  It's one place you have to be very careful of - even their healthy sounding stuff ain't good for us WL folks.

UG....no lard for me!!! Thanks for the head's up!!! I actually am so NUTS about what I am eating that I had them make me one grilled chicken tender with nothing on it & told them I had food allergies (it just seems so much easier than explaining bariatric surgery...and, I guess dumping is like an allergy...lol)....and so they said they would clean the grill (ug...so, what's it look like when they don't clean it...scary!) and just put a plain chicken tender on there....I didn't eat anything else from there...I actually had the green beans at Demos', and they just brought me plain old green beans....so, luckily I am safe!!!

Thanks again for the head's up!  Micheala.

 Bob,

You are right, you do have to be careful, but if you use some of the info most nutritionist teach you, you can make good decisions at a place as evil as Cracker Barrel. Me and my wife, Missy, had to go out of town recently, and we ate fine at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, each of use had a poached egg (definitely not cooked with LARD and a  1/2 piece of country ham (very easy to eat around the fat and I'm sure less sugar or fat than the sugar cured ham or turkey sausage). You just gotta be smart when you eat out, ask lots of questions, or be willing to accept the consequences, if you don't. I've learned to as I can and have dumped from sugar and fat, so I use caution when having to eat out. Just because turkey sausage, may sound healthy, doesn't mean it doesn't have just as fatty meat used to make it as it's pork counterpart. Use some sense, ask lots of questions, and put the fear into your waiter than you may not be happy with you meal if they don't help you with what you need, they want you to be happy so they get a tip.

Good luck, we all have to learn how to eat healthy when we go out, as we can't always be home to cook.

I was scared too, but everything went down surprisingly well,  My FAV was  Fat Free re-fried beans with FF melted cheese and some mild salsa.....YUM YUM!   I still eat that sometimes.  I was a south of the border addict pre surgery.  This satisfies my taste for it. 

The soft scrambled eggs were pretty easy to digest for me too.  I also smashed them up and made some egg salad, which was easy for me to eat.  Tuna and Chicken were a little heavy at first.  Baked talapia was  and is good for me too. 

You are going to have to try to branch out in order to tell what you can tolerate and what you can not.  You won't know until you try it.  

Hang in there.   It will be OK........As Scott would say  BREATHE  and as Cathy would say.........GO FOR IT! 

Good luck and keep us posted. 

I've been sort of afraid of different aspects of eating since I had my sleeve about a 14 months ago.   At first, I was afraid of hurting myself, and then when I realized that I didn't have any "full" feeling or anything, I was afraid I'd stretch out my sleeve.

Since the DS surgery, I don't worry so much about stretching.   I know that has nothing to do with you.   I think it's just kind of common for us to be afraid to start eating.   The surgeries are such a Big Deal and we kind of feel like it's a last-ditch effort, and we're SO afraid of doing something wrong.

I think it's like everything else.   You'll gain more confidence as you go along.   Good luck on your journey!

Dennie