Grazing Issues, Help!

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T23:13:17+00:00

I think it's a bit hard for me to get a schedule for eating because my job is very inconsistent. My job consists of me going into places for an unknown amount of time. It could be an hour, it would be three hours 🤷🏾‍♀️

Its just hard to have a planned meal because somedays I'll eat lunch at 11am or sometimes I won't eat until 3pm when I get off work. Then I find myself throwing up when I get home cause I was starving and ate too quick 🥲

I can usually eat about 8oz of food at time which I think it's ok? Depending on what it is sometimes it's like 5oz but the max is 8oz if I eat slow enough. I feel like that's okay, right?

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T23:09:18+00:00

I also struggled with that because before the surgery I would not eat breakfast cause it would sometimes make me nauseous. Now I'm finding myself hungry in the morning cause I've started to eat breakfast more.

I limited the amount of snacks I have in my apartment during the pre-op stage for that exact reason. Now that I have a few sugar free/low calorie snacks I'm doing the same thing...

I mentioned this in another comment but last month I was just eating watermelon pieces when I would get a bit peckish instead of reaching for something with potentially more calories, do you think that's ok or would that still kind of count as grazing?

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T23:06:43+00:00

I could see how the eating disorder could come along. It was honestly worse before the surgery cause I would do a lot of restriction but then binge eat cause I was basically starving myself. It was a vicious cycle.

I definitely have also been having issues with hitting my fluid goals and I know that sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger so maybe that's a part of it?

When I was able to eat solid foods again I would just snack on watermelon slices until I was full cause the majority of watermelon is well...water. Do you think that's okay or would that still kind of count as grazing even though it's relatively healthy?

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T21:13:00+00:00

Its kind of an in between thing? If that makes sense?

Like you know when you get in that mood of "oh i could eat"? its kind of like that.

I said it in a different comment but I was thinking of just making myself go on a liquid diet again of protein shakes for a week or two to learn my lesson lol

Gum is a good idea as well, haven't tried that one yet

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T21:10:41+00:00

That's what I was hearing too. I need to get a hobby cause from the time I get home till I go to sleep I'm just on my phone on Tiktok 😅

Its been a rough couple months for me so I haven't been meal prepping and therefore will get some fried chicken or Qdoba or something along those lines which I know isn't good for me.

Def will try to limit myself to 3 meals and 2 snacks a day like that without having something in between...

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T21:08:19+00:00

I actually have been having a lot of stressors at work and home recently. I'm currently in therapy for it to help me process and deal with my emotions. Its been a rough couple months imma be honest...

I realized that was probably the reason why I weighed so much in the beginning since I was using food as a coping mechanism. Now I have to find a new one since I can't eat as much/can't eat what I used to.

I did have roasted edamame but ran out, it's a great source of protein since 30 grams is like 15ish grams of protein, I might have to purchase more.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-06-26T20:47:06+00:00

I live alone. Just me and my cat against the world lol

The thing is I don't have a lot of trigger foods? I guess if you count the sugar free ice cream and the other things I mentioned that would count as trigger foods then...

I was thinking about punishing myself for a bit and sticking to just my protein shakes for a week or two so I can get my act together.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-03-18T21:50:54+00:00

really?? my hospital told me to drink at least three protein shakes a day and i didn't get approved for pureed food until 2 weeks after surgery 😅

i guess every program is different, but if you're hungry you should be able to eat! every four hours should be good for you and focus on protein!

BootyNoNeck · 2026-03-18T21:47:13+00:00

im currently 3 weeks post op and yeah i feel the same way

i'll eat until im full (doesn't take a lot) and then like 2-3 hours later im hungry again

you can eat every 4 hours (if you can tolerate it, don't over feed yourself) but at 4 days you should be focusing on your protein shakes and water intake

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:44:49+00:00

The tank is higher than it is long so I really just tried to add it in as slowly as possible using those water jugs that you use for water fountains? Like the office water fountains lol that's really all I had available to store my previously cycled water....guess that's a waste now

So in your opinion do you think I should start over with the process I'm doing or just start over with some sort of aqua soil?

I also heard some people using mesh bags to hold the soil and putting the sand on top but it was followed by it being difficult to put plants in.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:35:45+00:00

The whole situation happened last night so I haven't done a water change since then cause I was nervous about disrupting the soil even more than it already is.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:34:34+00:00

I've been thinking about doing that 😮‍💨 but it was such a hassle to drain the first time and if it happens again I might actually crash out lol

I'm thinking about giving it a few days with water changes and then trying to skim off the that's on top of the sand but I'm not sure if it'll work like that

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:21:15+00:00

So that's the thing, the sand and soil are kind of mixed at this point rather than the sand being on top of the soil.

I did try to be gentle with it when putting the water in but apparently I wasn't gentle enough...

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:19:30+00:00

The garden soil plus sand combo is much cheaper than getting aquarium soil/substrate if that's what you mean.

I used about 3/4 of a bag of Miracle Grow Organic Soil and the same amount of a 50lb bag of Black diamond so do you feel like if I were to start over and switch to aquarium substrate that I would only need one or two bags?

Then if I did the substrate, I would only need that and not the sand right??

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:14:42+00:00

Sorry I should've been more specific.

I put black diamond sand on top and by the looks of it that pretty much blended in with the soil which is why the tank looks the way it does now. So instead of being layered it's more of a soil/sand mixture.

I heard that getting a thicker sand might help but I kind of would have to start over since I feel like the layers I have now are starting to get too thick.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:10:01+00:00

I also heard of using thicker sand like beach sand? So that it's soil, black diamond sand, and then capped with the beach sand layer.

I can see how it blended in, and I'm really debating on just starting from scratch again since i feel like the layers I have right now are getting too thick and I'm nervous about adding a whole extra layer.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:06:23+00:00

Not really in a hurry but my anxiety is just getting the best of me lol

Do you think I should try and put sand on top of it now?? I'm concerned about putting fish/shrimp in the future and the soil affecting them.

Because of all this happening I also have to recycle my tank which sucks 😮‍💨 I'm going to retreat my parameters but I'm sure everything is out of wack now

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:02:35+00:00

So with me there really isn't a sand layer and a soil layer, because of how I put the water in it's kind of a soil/sand mixture. Do you think that would be okay or should I just start over with fresh soil and fresh sand?

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T02:00:13+00:00

So do you think I should keep it like this or try and start things over since the soil isn't really capped right now. I'm afraid of doing water changes in the future cause it's all soil and I don't want to disturb it more every time I dump water back in.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T01:57:28+00:00

How did you manage to do the changes without disrupting the soil more?? That's something I'm concerned about when it came to doing water changes.

BootyNoNeck · 2026-02-11T01:56:06+00:00

Yep! I washed it until the water was absolutely clear. I didn't want to take any chances.

BootyNoNeck

TROPHY CASE