things. He was ready. He eventually got the go-ahead. The day of his surgery, his wife recalls she was an emotional wreck. I tried to dissuade -LRB- him -RRB- from having it. What if they made a wrong cut ? What if he did n't wake up ? What if he had a heart attack on the table ? The surgery was a success, but he was far from the ideal patient. Shortly after surgery he ate a popsicle too fast and starting throwing up. When he got home, he continued his trial-and-error period, getting sick as he learned his limits. Imagine after you eat your big Thanksgiving dinner -- times 10, he says of overeating with his smaller stomach. And you ca n't do anything about it. You 're just so miserable and it's either got to come up or go out. He started out on a liquid diet, then pureed his food. Slowly he introduced solids. We did n't go to happy hour or dinner with friends because he was uncomfortable, Debbie Benzine says. I started hiding out to eat because I felt guilty. It was like being a baby and learning to eat all over again, Benzine says. He realized that meat -- steak, chicken, turkey -- was too tough for his stomach to handle. But popcorn went down easily. He developed 10 rules for himself, and other bariatric patients, and the weight began to fall off. In six months, he had lost more than 125 pounds. The hardest thing for him was filling time. He had to learn to reward