Week one following vertical sleeve gastrectomy

I’m not going to lie, the first week after the sleeve surgery has been a hard week. Not only does it include healing up from the surgery, working through some pretty intense gas pain (who knew gas could make the muscles in your shoulders feel torn?), and experiencing new sensations in the gut, but the first week is a clear liquids only diet.

The good news here is that the hunger hormones are gone so there are no real hunger pains. Instead, now I can feel when my guts don’t have anything in them. You know that your innards are always massaging and moving so that food and water are always being worked through your system. It’s strange that now I can actually feel some of that. My insides are so empty that sometimes there is this slight pain that feels like my intestine trying to process air like food.

Week one foods (plus my little Adipose, Doctor Who fans)

But the most trying thing for me is that this stage is super boring and the liquids are almost all sweet. One week ago during the pre-diet, all I could eat were protein shakes, which were a whey (or milk) protein. In the shakes I can use pudding mixes, jello mixes, syrups, and even fruit. Doesn’t actually sound too bad, but the reality is that every single food that went into my mouth was sweet. (I developed thrush mouth that week because of the disruption to my ph levels). And now a week after surgery, almost everything is still sweet tasting and lingers on the palate.

Week one after surgery consisted of the following foods:

• Ensure Active Blueberry and Pomegranate Protein Drink
• Popsicles
• Beef and chicken broth
• Flavored water
• Decaf tea
• Powerade Zero
• Regular water
• Jello

With the exception of the broth, everything tastes the same.

Tomorrow I begin stage two of the recovery diet, as I call it. I could not be more excited to taste something different. I went shopping for soups, puddings, cream of wheat cereals, yogurt, soy milk… I could not be more excited to taste these foods than I am right now. Variety makes a world of difference.

I know that this will all be worth it. I know it already just from seeing my weight change in the last three weeks beginning with pre-diet.

My stats

Beginning weight: 281

Current weight (three weeks): 258