Indymom

I had Taco Bell at lunch - one crunchy taco and the inside of a meximelt. Dinner at father-in-law's house was chicken & noodles (I ate mostly chicken), a small salad and a half a biscuit.

There are lots of great recipe sites for different ways to cook chicken and beef. You can cut the recipes in half so they don't make so much, and you'll probably still end up with leftovers for other meals (or lunches). I've found that being creative with various recipes keeps me from getting bored.

Chicken is always my go-to. I like beef too, and can tolerate it pretty well, but my sleeve LOVES chicken! I have experimented with lots of different ways to cook it so it doesn't get boring. I got burned out on cottage cheese and greek yogurt after my first couple months post-op so I pretty much don't eat much of either of those anymore.

There are a lot of threads around here on this topic. Someone recommended body brushing (google it for info); strength training can potentially help too if you do lots of tricep extensions, etc. There's not really any miracle cure unfortunately.

When I was that far out I could only eat about 2 oz at a time, so 3 oz might be a little too much. I agree that you need to eat a little more slowly and try to listen to your body - it will tell you when you're full!

Awesome progress and you look great! Way to go!

Watch out for greasy, fried foods. Your head will want them . . . you'll remember how good they taste . . . but chances are they will make you feel really icky when you eat them. I let my daughter get a small bag of Lay's potato chips as a treat at the gas station the other day. WIthout really thinking I grabbed a handful of them and munched on them . . . of course they were tasty, but about 5 minutes after eating them I really regretted it. I figured out some workarounds, though - when someone orders mozzarella sticks at a restaurant, for example, I just peel off the greasy, nasty breading and dip the melty cheese in the marinara sauce. YUM. Instead of chips I do multi-grain baked crackers with laughing cow light cheese. Not exactly the same thing but it helps when I'm craving the "crunch" of something.

Your posts are really negative; have you considered talking to a counselor/therapist about your feelings? I find it concerning when you post about "hating yourself" and "cutting the fat out of you." I think you should talk to your surgeon's office right away and perhaps get a referral to a therapist.

If you're not counting carbs religiously I would also agree that the sugar is likely not too much of an issue. That said, eating even a small amount of deep-fried, sauced foods may be the start of a path you don't want to go down . . . as your capacity increases you may still have the desire to eat those same foods - and it may have impact on your weight loss. I try to stick to Soups (I LOVE hot & sour!) and non-fried dishes like chicken & snow peas, or moo goo gai pan, or garlic chicken. I don't do the eggrolls; sometimes I'll get dumplings (potstickers) and just eat the filling.

Just voted - good luck!

I make homemade meatballs with lean ground beef . . . I find that the fat content is nearly as low as the turkey meatballs (so many of them are made with dark meat that tends to be a little higher in fat). They are a great meal though!

Most of us had this surgery because we had issues controlling our impulses to overeat - whether the bad foods that you have listed above or just too much of any foods. I have allowed myself some of these foods in moderation - luckily I don't want to eat too much of any sweets - too rich for my sleeve. chips tend to be too greasy for me, and I was never a milk drinker, so I definitely don't have the desire for whole, full-fat milk.

Hotdogs make me sick since surgery - too high in fat and generally too greasy. Chicken sausage might be OK but you may want to take it out of the casing and either puree it or chew it very, very well.

You'll get mixed responses to this question. My nutritionist didn't have any guidelines relative to low or no-carb . . . but many others do stick to a very low-carb diet. I find that I have to stay low-carb simply because I don't have room to eat many carbs once I get my protein & veggies in, but I'm not sure whether or not it impacts my weight loss one way or the other.

I generally make a breakfast scramble of canadian bacon or turkey sausage, southwestern egg beaters, sliced mushroom, diced tomato, and 2% shredded cheddar cheese. Lots of protein and it fills me up for the entire morning!

I had some very emotional moments early out. I got so tired of the monotony of mushy/pureed, bland foods and Protein shakes. It wasn't that I necessarily craved anything "bad" - I just wanted something with some flavor and texture! Looking back, it really did pass quickly - but it certainly didn't feel that way at the time. Hang in there!

I don't think my nutrition guide specifically referenced seeds, but I wasn't cleared for most fruits until 3 months (which included strawberries). Probably not a bad idea to wait a bit, seeds could get lodged in your healing staple line and cause infection.

I am 7 months out and am about 30 lbs from goal. I started at around 265 and my goal is 150. I'm hoping to be at goal by the end of May but I think that might be a little aggressive . . . we'll see!

I think I was up to about 3 oz at 4 months out . . . now I can eat 5-6 oz total at about 7 months out (depending on how dense my protein is). It still doesn't look like much food. When I go out to eat with people (like work clients that don't know about my surgery), I usually order a salad with grilled chicken on it. I can usually eat most of the chicken and some of the veggies, and I just push the rest of it around until we're done. It works pretty well!

I am 7 months out. A normal day for me looks like this: B ~ 1/4 cup egg beaters, sliced mushroom, tomato, 1/2 oz shredded cheddar cheese (scrambled together) L ~ 2-3 oz lunchmeat or chicken (or other protein), sliced veggies like cucumber or tomato, 1 oz reduced-fat cheese or a wedge of laughing cow light swiss (sometimes with a few multi-seed crackers) D ~ 2-3 oz Protein of some sort (chicken, meatballs, beef, etc.); small salad with balsamic viniagrette; small serving of carbs (1/3 of a baked potato with light sour cream, small serving of Pasta, etc.) Snacks ~ sometimes a small portion of buffalo chicken dip with 3-4 tortilla chips; veggies; cheese/crackers Today I had a hangover and went to Denny's with the husband - I had a slice of ham, an egg over medium, and about half of 1 pancake. YUM. I was stuffed but it was SO good!! I generally don't "crave" carbs unless I have a hangover (and that's not very frequent) so I typically do pretty well with fairly low-carb dieting. This isn't necessarily because I feel I lose faster with less carbs, but I just find there's not room for carbs once I get my protein and veggies in. I feel like I eat a fairly normal diet and my portions aren't so small anymore that people look at me weird. Early out I would bring my tiny little servings of food in my itty bitty tupperware and the girls at work would crack up, but now nobody bats an eye.

I used unflavored protein in decaf with a little milk and splenda (you could use stevia too). You could buy a small bag of it at GNC to see if you can tolerate it. There are lots of other ways to mix the unflavored - you can still taste the protein a bit, but I tolerated it much better than the sweet flavors.

These rock. I ate them all the time once I was cleared for chicken . . . I actually have gotten tired of them because I was eating them so much, but they are great protein and taste wonderful.

I agree that the Syntrax sample pack is a good option. I'm not sure if there are 'brick & mortar' stores where you can buy it, but I know you can order from BJ's Bariatrics: http://www.bjsbariatrics.com/ They have online ordering available (I'm lucky that their storefront is in my town, so I was able to go in there and browse when I was still doing Protein supplements). I liked the roadside lemonade mixed with a little lemonade crystal light and Water. I also liked the cappucino flavor mixed with decaf (but it was pretty sweet).

I was also a quantity eater - sometimes good things, sometimes bad things. I could eat a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips without even thinking about it. I used to LOVE Taco Bell and would gorge myself. I would also drink large sweet teas from McDonalds or McCalister's Deli. I still enjoy some of these things periodically but they are a treat rather than a regular everyday thing like they used to be.

I usually get my Multivitamin at CVS when they have them on sale buy one get one free (or half-off). It is these - keep in mind these have Iron so you can't take them at the same time as your Calcium. I take my calcium in the morning and at night, and take one multi at lunch and one in the early evening before dinner. This was one of the multis on my nutritionist's "approved" list. http://www.naturemade.com/Products/Multivitamins/Multi-Complete-LSG