Friday, February 26, 2010
Have confidence in your surgery - trust the pouch!
When we have our surgery and return home from the hospital, we are all very tentative and afraid of what is next - how will we feel when we take those first sips, or bites?
So we start off with thin liquids, progress to thicker liquids, then to purees, and then softer foods and begin to panic that we do not sense a true fullness.
I read everything that had been written, both good and bad, about this surgery, I was one of those who knew what to expect on paper, and I remember writing the post questioning why I didn’t feel full and worrying about it. 'I am eating soups, ricotta, thick icy protein shakes, and bean purees, yet I don’t feel full... I only stop because of fear'.
Well, now I know that in these squishy food stages, we are eating a very small amount in each bite, and the food is running out of our pouch while we are putting more in so there is never really any true satisfaction created by the food actually accumulating and filling the pouch, pressing the sides, and sending a signal to the brain that it is FULL.
Once we progress a little further however, it hits us like a ton of bricks... shrimp, fish, chicken... WHAM! I realized that even mid bite, sometimes I would have to spit it out as I didn’t want to swallow it. From that moment of clarity forward, I got it. I always use my pouch as a tool. I have learned that if I fill it with moist protein foods first, until I feel that I am nearing that feeling of satisfaction those last few bites are vegetables or protein blended with vegetables to create a soft fill.
I know many post ops that never get over the fear of eating - they eat that single tablespoon to 1/4 cup of food, and never go past it. They stop eating before all the wonderful strong signals manifest themself! They never feel that creeping awareness of satisfaction, or that hiccup signal, or fullness as they stop before these signals come about.
Many who don’t achieve satiety are never full and graze by eating small amounts all day long. Always somewhat filling the pouch but never to satisfaction, which is the strongest feeling we can create for ourselves. I know people who only take three bites of food but repeat it all day long - they don’t gain weight, they still lose - but they never enter that post op comfort zone where you know that you don’t have to worry about consumption as long as you choose to eat proteins first. The live in fear and have no comfort that the pouch will stop them.
In addition, the feeling of satiety or fullness lasts a very long time once it is triggered. Once I hit that zone, I don’t want to eat for a very long time. They are often hungry as they never trigger their own response!
These two bite grazers live in a perpetual panic because they never use their pouch as a tool. It is almost like a trapeze artist at the circus - the net is there to catch them, but they are in such fear that they never fly high or really soar as they never have that confidence that they won’t fall. They never trust or test the net!
If you are one of these post ops that at 5 or months post op, measures your food, and stops eating before you feel full, learn to rely on your food choices and your pouch rather than your measuring cup. I do believe that it will allow you to relax and rely on your pouch as the tool it is meant to be and give you the feeling of lasting fullness that escapes you.
posted by Susan Maria of BariatricEating.com @ 9:47 PM
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