Disclaimer: The advice on this website has come out of my own experience in my own particular situation. Where it contradicts your nutritionist’s advice, please ignore mine. Your nutritionist knows best.
We can have gastric surgery for a variety of reasons. Like mine, your surgery might have been to treat or prevent cancer. Or you may have undergone one of several forms of bariatric surgery to lose weight. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. We now have a much smaller stomach capacity, meaning we can only eat in small quantities and therefore have to eat more frequently.
From now on our day will no longer be punctuated by three square meals. In fact, we’ll have to stop thinking in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner, or, indeed, of ‘meals’ as we’ve known them. Instead, we’ll have to arrange our day around frequent pauses for a small serving of cooked food or a nutritious snack. We’ll also have to rethink simple pleasures like a cup of tea and a biscuit which might displace one of our meals and the nutrition it contains.
After your surgery, your hospital or surgeon might provide or refer you to a nutritionist. If they don’t, I recommend you find one, but ensure they are properly qualified and have experience with recipients of your particular type of surgery. If your surgery is for weight loss, you might also be referred to a psychologist to help you prepare for the surgery and to navigate your new situation. Again, let me repeat, if your counsellors, in your personal situation, disagree with any suggestion I make, please listen to them first.
Straight after your surgery you may only be able to eat very small servings and a limited range of food. Over time your nutritionist will be able to advise you on your appropriate portion size and when to introduce new foods. You can also consult your own body.
A good habit to cultivate is being mindful of your eating process. Chew thoroughly, eat slowly, observe how you feel and stop immediately if you begin to feel uncomfortable. Being mindful will also help you enjoy your food from the first bite, so you don’t have to eat more than you need to gain satisfaction from it.
While people may tell you that if there’s too much on your plate you can just leave it, it isn’t that easy. You might be enjoying the food and naturally want more, or just hate to see food go to waste, and you can easily eat too much before the effects become apparent. I would suggest that you take care to only put as much food on your plate as you know you can eat. One strategy to help you keep your portions small is to serve your food on small plates or bowls.
Once your system has settled down, you’ll be able to gauge what the best portion size is for you long term. Many of the recipes and recommendations on this website are based on a portion size of 300 – 320gm (or 1¼ – 1½ cups), which you might need to adapt by reducing the ingredients even further. Meanwhile, you’ll also find a wide range of snacks and mini meals in smaller portions.
While your nutritionist may be able to give you general information about eating and nutrition after your surgery, on a day-to-day basis you’ll still need to work out for yourself what and how you should eat. The following entries may help you muddle through.
» Early Days after Stomach Surgery : – eating and cooking as you recover from surgery
» Small Portions with Next to No Cooking : – shopping for ready to eat food in small portions
» Eating In with Next to No Cooking : – accessing ready to eat meals in your appropriate portion size
» Eating Out after Stomach Surgery : – tips for eating in your appropriate portion size while outside your own home
» Keeping the Weight Off : – healthy ways to approach maintaining weight loss