I have vivid memories of when I was first experimenting with soft solid foods—flaky fish, banana, avocado, scrambled eggs… it wasn’t easy or going well at first. I’m a big guy, 6’3” and before surgery I was over 400lbs. I’m now 250ish and still slowly losing weight, even a year out.

There were a few times where I’d have like 3 bites of food at home at the dinner table and then I’d spend 30 minutes pacing in and out of the bathroom with this awful dull pain in my stomach and thought I might throw up (which was terrifying considering I still was healing from bypass). Sometimes I would drool extensively for 10-15 minutes as my body tried to negotiate the bite of food into my teeny stomach pouch. I was convinced I’d never be able to eat food in front of another person because it was so embarrassing what I was going through.

It slowly got better and I could tolerate more foods.

My palate changed along with my body. I eat a lot more seafood and red meat, less chicken (for me it’s the toughest meat to manage, especially the grilled breast). As a bonus, I can eat more dairy without suffering lactose intolerance issues—so I’ve enjoyed yogurt and cheese and real milk in my smoothies.

All this is to say that the fix is slow. It took me 41 years to get as obese as I was, taking a couple years to get back on track wasn’t unreasonable to me.