No satisfaction - ThinnerTimes

Dawn Crippen · 07-05-2008, 08:22 PM

Does anyone else have this problem? Remember sitting down and enjoying a meal with your family and feeling satisfied afterwards? I do...but 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. I tell myself, it's OK Dawn, you are looking so much better. Nothing tastes really good anymore. I am hungry...just not any good.

Dawn down 45 lbs

Godsblessedme · 07-05-2008, 08:36 PM

me me me! 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?

Phoenixfire · 07-05-2008, 09:32 PM

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

Baja Big Dog · 07-05-2008, 11:13 PM

Ive said it before, Ill say it again, going into this WLS thing unprepared to me is a real deal killer...

By prepared I mean something similar to what Kaiser make you go though, a 24 week (and don't miss ONE) class, training you and educating you on what is in your future, Ive talked to failures of WLS, and every one went into this with the "easy way" mentality, don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying this to you, if this is your M.O. than this is for you.

These classes teach you the good, the bad, and the ugly, and Kaiser has some pretty good success numbers of people that loose the weight and keep it off.

I read some folks complaining about what the insurance company is making them go through to get the surgery, and although they often times want you to go to with loss programs, that in my opinion do not prepare you for what is about to happen to you, no help dealing with the urges to eat, graze, stuff ourselves, in other words, the habits that made us the way we are (were) prior to WLS.

I agree with Fire, get some help, and may I say get it NOW...don't let the ball keep rolling and getting bigger, if you know what I mean!!

Good luck, and don't give in the the food demon!!!!

Godsblessedme · 07-06-2008, 08:50 AM

Quote:

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

sweetheart, i'm a full time student and a newly single mother of 3 i dont use this board as a "distraction" are you kidding me! I post alot on threads because i've gone thru it or going thru it. I would want people to do the same for me. I have done quite well with rebuking the nasty food thoughts that come to mind in the beginning of being post op. and if you actually read my response i said SOMETIMES! I eat right and excersize (not a ton but i do excersize)

Quote:

but then I read the ways you're doing things that KEEP the scale from moving down

i'm not sitting on the couch eating crackers anymore nor eating crap i'll eat a peice of fruit or a no sugar yogurt etc. good choices so how is that doing things to keep the scale from moving down? thats what i mean by "grazing" on healthy food! and that is only sometimes or once in a blue moon.

dawn, i think your doing just fine and i think that you can help these "hunger feelings" of non satisfaction by maybe eating more fruit and veggies in your diet.

Dawn Crippen · 07-06-2008, 09:30 AM

Sorry guys I didn't make myself clear. When I said "satisfied" I meant mentally fullfilling. I'm happy to say I eat three bites and physically I am full, but mentally I'm not satisfied. Not like I use to. But I do believe my mind set needs to improve. I know now that food is only fuel .. I need to accept it and move on.

Dawn surgery 2-12-08 45 lbs gone

I_love_Hello Kitty · 07-06-2008, 09:54 AM

I don't know if this is true for everyone...but now that I am almost one year out, I do feel fufilled with my eating. I can sit down at a meal with my family...or at a restaurant with friends...and eventhough I cannot eat AS MUCH..I enjoy eating and it gives me pleasure. I didn't feel that for a very long time after surgery, but I have felt it for 2 month or so now....if it gives you hope...know that you can feel fufillment and satisfaction and enjoyment from eating again...you just won't ever be eating the way you used to...and thats a good thing.

(also...when I was about 4 month out I posted something similar...about not enjoying eating...so I do think, from my experience at least...it changes)

Phoenixfire · 07-06-2008, 10:58 PM

Godblessedme wrote i'm not sitting on the couch eating crackers anymore nor eating crap i'll eat a peice of fruit or a no sugar yogurt etc. good choices so how is that doing things to keep the scale from moving down? thats what i mean by "grazing" on healthy food! and that is only sometimes or once in a blue moon.

If I have misunderstood your postings about the frustrating stalls you've had and the grazing and food choices you posted that you thought were keeping you stalled, then my mistake. I must have misread or misunderstood your posts. After another poster wrote me and said that they wanted to say what I did, but were afraid to due to being on the receiving end of backlash, it seemed that my post was actually quite accurate.

Believe it or not, my post was intended to highlight something that I and others had observed about some of the frustrations you've written of here. Sometimes others outside of ourselves, others who are further down the road (or even pre-op!) can see things that we may not see clearly. That's one of the great things about TT: insight from the outside. And it is helpful if we are open to hearing it and confronting ourselves with things we may not want to hear.

However, if you feel I am completely off base and that nothing I wrote applies to you, then I'll leave it at that. I realize there's a fine line between giving someone a head's up about the things they are doing that are inhibiting their weight loss vs. giving someone a head's up about something they don't think is true in their case. If that's what has happened then I get it, and it was not my intent to put you on the defense or offend you.

I hope you find success and acheive all the goals that you have set for yourself by having WLS. That's what I and others here hope for all who come here for support pre and postop.

Phoenixfire · 07-06-2008, 11:04 PM

I echo this Kitty, and have found the very same to be true, and have actually really enjoyed that I don't eat as much yet still am satisfied. It's a real sense of reinforcing selfcontrol this far out

Great to hear that you've found this...it's one of the things about being longer term post op that you should embrace and be very proud of yourself for!

Quote:

Originally Posted by I_love_Hello Kitty

I don't know if this is true for everyone...but now that I am almost one year out, I do feel fufilled with my eating. I can sit down at a meal with my family...or at a restaurant with friends...and eventhough I cannot eat AS MUCH..I enjoy eating and it gives me pleasure. I didn't feel that for a very long time after surgery, but I have felt it for 2 month or so now....if it gives you hope...know that you can feel fufillment and satisfaction and enjoyment from eating again...you just won't ever be eating the way you used to...and thats a good thing.

Phoenixfire · 07-06-2008, 11:44 PM

Dawn, maybe what you're going through is the reality of food being a gathering place for loved ones to break bread together and come together. Having a restricted diet can make this time a challenge. I posted more on this in another thread so I don't want to prattle on in duplicate.

But it's something to think about. Food is where we gather, and when our food is changed, the gathering feels different

It's a hard part postop that we don't always hear about. Maybe this is part of what you're feeling down about? Just something to think about maybe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawn Crippen

Sorry guys I didn't make myself clear. When I said "satisfied" I meant mentally fullfilling. I'm happy to say I eat three bites and physically I am full, but mentally I'm not satisfied. Not like I use to. But I do believe my mind set needs to improve. I know now that food is only fuel .. I need to accept it and move on.

Dawn surgery 2-12-08 45 lbs gone