floralnudibranch

Hello, I am so glad to have found this forum right before my surgery. I am an American, but I currently live in Egypt and I will be getting my VSG on January 26th! I have lived in 4 countries in the past 3 years, which has led to poor choices in food and exercise. I think it's mainly because of adjusting to local food, navigating what food you are buying (sometimes there aren't even nutritional labels), and as I previously loved late runs at night that is something I left behind states side because in some countries I have lived in it is considered quite odd and you get lots of uncomfortable stares. I know it's a long shot, but I wonder if there are any people with a similar situation? Also, for my main question does anyone have any advice on simple at-home exercise routines to start after post-op (once it's safe of course)? Or just generally good foods that can be eaten without worrying about specifics of nutritional values that aren't the basics of meats and vegetables? Even yogurt sometimes stresses me out because I know it can have high sugar content. Before going down the VSG path I kind of gave up on the food selection because it was impossible to know what is in everything. Alternatively, if anyone has found any great resources for limited ingredient recipes, I would love suggestions!

I might be able to find a store that I can order from, but most of the time no ingredients or nutritional values are listed. Sometimes it will be if it is imported, but it's usually very expensive. Although I speak Arabic pretty well I can't read or write so when there are ingredients I'm not sure what they are, and sometimes they are in German because they import a lot from Germany. It's a struggle😒 I really like the list you provided of ingredients, I will be sure to incorporate those into the pantry. Thanks!

Nice tip! Will definitely be adding that to my notes, especially since I know how to find all of that. I am a little concerned about dates as they have an extremely high sugar content and all my friends have told me that dates were their family trick to regain weight whenever they lost too much from being sick. So beyond Ramadan, I try to avoid them 😅They scared me away

I do! I actually saw the new exhibit of 22 mummies at the new museum that was built in Cairo, wouldn't dare disturb it though😅

@Sleeve_Me_Alone thank you for the in-depth response! I will definitely be looking into all of your suggestions. Some of them already look great. Also, I just had a conversation with my surgeon and his team said "Eat what you want and enjoy your life" so I guess I don't have to worry about a pre-op diet. I didn't think that was common, but I guess I got lucky.

Thank you for the suggestion! I have been looking at Pinterest and I think I may not have narrowed down my key terms well enough. I've also been looking at pre-op diets, but it's all Powerade, Jell-O, and specific brand beverages which seem to have electrolytes... I just haven't ever found anything like that here. I'll keep poking around tho for ideas. I haven't looked at skinnytaste much so I will have to check it out. I feel like I'm working from a bit of a disadvantage since most popular recipes books have a lot of ingredients I don't usually have access to, I got out of habit from hunting for the right recipes for a while. Also, thanks for the workout ideas- I'll take that advice Anyway, after perusing the site a bit more I think I might have made this post under the wrong forum- as I now see one more specific for food and nutrition. (Sorry, I'm a Newbie)

January 26th