Originally Posted by Phoenixfire

Dawn, wrote: "after my surgery on 2-12-2008 I no longer feel satisfied. I dont care if its a protein shake or a chicken dinner or whatever...I dont feel satisfied and I really miss that feeling."

The feeling you have is DEPRIVATION. You feel deprived, right? Well........were you prepared for this post-op? Because it's just the way it is when you have WLS. Food becomes fuel, not a means of getting the feeling of satisfaction that food used to give you. Unfortunately, if you have a goal of getting that feeling back, and feeling satisfied, then you're going to have a very hard time losing weight and keeping it off. Because you're focusing on the short-term of what you're MISSING rather than the long-term of what you're GAINING. You can gain a lot by being at a healthy weight, which is why you had surgery right?

No, it's not easy or simple. Because face it, we didn't deprive ourselves of anything before surgery did we? And that's what got us fat. The self-discipline our pouch requires is the challenge WE have to do ourselves. It is hard work. I hope nobody told you before surgery that it would be easy...because it is not. It's the hardest thing to do: change your whole relationship with food. Now, food is fuel for you. And yet there are ways you can eat things that are good for you and satisfy you. Have you found those healthy and satisfying foods yet? They're out there, and a lot of people on here know a lot more than me about great recipes and food alternatives. I know my personal favorites, but doing some reading here will help you find some that will give you some pleasure in eating, trust me.

Godblessedme wrote: "i dont feel "satisfied" either after i eat. sometimes thats bad because 20 minutes later i'll graze again not good. i hear ya i'm hungry alot too maybe theres somthing really lacking do you eat lots of veggies and fruit?"

I'm not quite sure what to say or how to say it the right way, but I read of your struggles to keep the scale moving down, but then I read the ways you're doing things that KEEP the scale from moving down. What I wrote above is the same reality that you are facing (and I did too along with everyone else who had WLS-successful or not). Grazing will never lead to success. Hunger can be sated with the right food choices and following the pouch rules for dummies. If we want to succeed with our new pouches, at some point we have to have a "lightbulb" moment that wakes us up to our old ways will just leave us our old way: fat. I'm puzzled by your posts, because while you post A LOT on nearly every thread, it makes me wonder if this is a distraction for you so you can avoid the mental work/brain surgery involved after WLS: to orient yourself to a whole new relationship with food. Have you considered seeing a weight loss counselor? It might help with addressing head-on the issues that cause you to do the things that you don't want to do. Just a suggestion from someone who has been there before and has found a way to beat the demon of my old patterns, and has kept those new patterns for a long time now.

Good luck both of you, you CAN do it, really