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I was banded a little over a month ago and haven't yet had a fill, so my answers may change once I have. I do have a bit of restriction now, though. I have had some wine and a couple martinis since I was banded. My physician's office knows this and just said to do everything in moderation. I definitely drink less than I did prior to surgery, and I am thrilled with my loss so far, so I'm going to continue to enjoy life and have a drink once in a while or even some pizza. awhenry-- I had half a piece of thin crust pizza one evening and just ate it slowly and savored it...it went down fine, but, again, I don't have a fill. You can also consider making pizzas on whole wheat pita or a whole wheat tortilla after surgery. Again, this might not work for everyone, but if they are toasted and you chew and eat slowly, they should go down fine. I think it's thick, chewy crust that would give people problems. Some people completely avoid carbs, and I respect that and think they are amazing, but that's not me. I am a vegetarian and see the value in whole carbs, though I haven't had any "white" carbs since surgery. So far, I'm losing more than 2 pounds a week without a fill...if that stops, I'll cut out more carbs. I think the important thing is to always make sure you get all your Protein, whether you are eating carbs or not.

"Some of my faves - Chia seeds are great, can sprinkle them in everything, 2 T equal 6g of Protein. Tempeh = 16g per 3 oz serving. Black Beans 7.6g per half cup. Peanuts are 7g per 1/4c (or 2T peanut butter), cashews are 5g per 1/4c. Lentils and lima beans are up there too but I don't like those too much hehe. I LOVELOVELOVE lentils and limas...I eat lentils 3 or 4 times a week, with curry spices or onions or tomatoes. I adore them. I love limas too but they don't love me...do you think it could be the skins on them? Thanks to you and your suggestion a while back about kefir, I bought some at Whole Foods and loved drinking it. It had been a while since I'd had any, so I wanted to give it a trial run before I bought the grains to make it myself. And tell me how you prepare tempeh? I can get it at our military grocery store, surprisingly, so I'm willing to give it a shot." _____________ Yeah, it may be the skins on them . Wow, great to hear you are drinking kefir! It's so so so good for our gut health. Tempeh can be substituted for ground beef in any recipe, just crumble it in your recipe as you would ground beef. Some like to broil it with a layer of cheese or put it in Soups, chilis, salads or stews. I remember seeing a vegetarian tempeh chili recipe once. Like Tofu (it's just the fermented sibling of tofu hehe), it takes on the taste of whatever you use as spices. Found this page, I'll probably try some of these too. http://www.crazyvegankitchen.com/15-of-the-best-vegan-tempeh-recipes/

I am not a vegetarian but I LOVE all of the morningstar farms meatless frozen products, especially the griller- style "burgers" the buffalo "chik" patties and the "sausage" patties. The grillers have 15 g of Protein. Slap on a slice of reduced fat cheese, reduced sugar ketchup, and some pickle relish and you've got a quick tasty meal with lots of protein. Sent from my SM-J700P using the BariatricPal App

might be B12, which is found in animal protein, helps with clotting, etc. Lack of B12 can also cause crazy itching and sensitivity to spicy and acidic food. This is common in vegetarians, and they often need a supplement. Or could be from aspirin or ibuprofen, which can affect your platelets and cause bruising.

Hi Barbara! Welcome! Best wishes on your upcoming surgery. Unfortunately, I don't know much of anything about being a vegetarian. I do know that I haven't regretted my decision to get banded. The weight I've lost so far has already gone a long way toward helping me feel healthier. Good luck!

HI Barbara and welcome to LBT , I have asthma and took prednisone too and blew up, well since I have lost weight the asthma has all but disappeared and havent taken anything like prednisone or antibiotics or anything since Dec 06 and I used to have to take it all the time. Blood pressure meds are gone too. I m not a vegetarian . Good luck and welcome!

If you are sure you don't want to, then no one should give you any grief over your decision. I would just urge you to think it over and be sure before you give up your surgery date. But if you are sure, then I'm glad you stopped in time. I didn't have as much to lose as many, so I too had the idea that I should lose with diet and exercise. I was going to get a lap-band about seven years ago, and then changed my mind because I was going to do it myself. While I am glad I didn't get the lap-band, I did waste those seven years not losing on my own, and actually gaining some. I spent seven years avoiding work events with my husband, seven years not buying clothes, seven years feeling worthless and gross. Seven years of mostly socializing on the internet, not in person, etc. So one day, I woke up and said "I can't do this on my own" and started the approval process. I got approval and my surgery date in under two weeks. I put it out of my mind during those two weeks, and I had a really easy pre-op diet (low fat/vegetarian). The day of surgery, there was a delay, and I LOST IT. I was crying. I wanted to leave the hospital. I wanted that IV out of my hand. My poor husband was at a loss for what to do. I was determined to just do it myself through diet and exercise. The pain was going to be too horrific to bear! The nurse came to check on me and gave me some valium and I went through with the surgery. The discomfort was there afterwards, but nothing unbearable and three months out I have to remind myself that there was discomfort. The point of all that is that I think it is completely normal to have second thoughts about a huge decision like this. Many have posted that they have thought about not going through with it. It is a huge adjustment. Your head is going to rebel against this, even if it IS the right decision. That's why I say give it plenty of thought. 4ALongerLife is right, for most the battle with the pre-op diet hunger does not really exist after surgery. You might have head hunger. I eat more out of obligation than anything right now. A liquid diet for two weeks before surgery would have been very tough for me. I might have "cheated". I think the surgeons know that many will cheat on that diet. Best wishes to you! Keep us posted, regardless, okay?

I feel like an unwilling vegetarian since surgery! I eat Greek yogurt, cheese, lentils, beans, protein shakes etc. meat just doesn't sit right. I'm 7 weeks out.

I'm a vegetarian. If you need any suggestions, let me know!

Hi Jill, I think my doctor had me on the pretty standard diet. It was all Clear Liquids for the first week. The second week I could add creamy Soups, sugar free Jello pudding, and cream of wheat. The third I was able to add soft scrambled eggs, liverswurst, string cheese, oatmeal, fish as long as it was soft and moist. He also said that I could eat meats as long as they were pureed. I skipped that offer. As a meat lover I found that it offended my senses. The fourth week I added vegetarian sausages to my diet just so that I could have the taste of meat without actually having the calories or fat that go along with it. Morning Star Breakfast patties are great, they have 10 grams of Protein each and they are only 80 calories each. But now I'm back up to regular foods and everything seems to be going fine.

I looked up recipes and figured it out. Despite being a vegetarian for 9 years I have not yet ventured into seitan yet. It does not appear appetizing.

Read labels. I've been vegetarian a long time and I still read labels. A lot of meat subs are heavily proceeded and carb heavy. Morningstar & Boca are the 2 biggest culprits. I rarely eat either of those brands. I do eat a lot of Greek yogurt (fage 0%) and eggs. I also eat beans, nuts (cashews, pistachios & almonds mostly) and I supplement with unflavored protein powder. I try to combine proteins when possible. I make my own protein drinks with protein powder, yogurt & whatever fruit or nut butter to flavor. I may have black beans with a sunny side up ragged & shredded cheese for a meal. I also eat seitan & tempeh

Hang in there. It does get better. I am almost 8 weeks and I noticed that I started to feel so much better once I started to eat some food. Yogurt, beans, cottage cheese (since I am vegetarian) really helped a lot. I think that it is super important to find a protein drink or powder that you can tolerate. I've tried so many of them. Even the unflavored Unjury didn't agree with me. I did have good luck with using high protein milk and Unjury Chocolate Spendor and Syntrax Nectar Latte Cappuccino. Also using sugar free syrups to alter the shake flavors helped me. Now that I have a system down that I can tolerate, I have been feeling much better. I feel better than I did before surgery.

I am just curious if there are any fellow vegetarians that have had lap band surgery or in the process of having it?

That's good to hear. I am a vegetarian and was just concerned about protein but I think I will do great I was just wondering if anyone had any great suggestions. They put me on the Atkins diet for 2 weeks preop and it was really hard for me being a vegetarian but I learned How to really watch carbs which will definitely help in the future

I am vegan, I was vegetarian for years, had just not given up cheese but gave that up after the first of the year. I was banded in June 2012.

I don't eat Red meat, and that was due to the band so I accepted and went with it since the benefits are obvious...I don't care for dairy products either...but I still eat chicken and fish.... So I'm not sure what that nakes me, other than healthier..... I'm sure, the more I learn and the more I adapt, I will become more vegetarian eventually.....

I'm not a big fan of protein. I know I'm going to have to change that way of thinking, so my question is after the surgery, can I have vegetarian refried beans with black beans added in. Since that's a can of each, it makes ALOT, but of course, I don't even eat all that NOW...but are beans an acceptable substitute for hard proteins....

The most important things I did were increasing my water and protein. I am a vegetarian and was eating plenty of healthful fruits and veggies but some days I was probably getting 20-30 go of protein. I started logging my food and getting 60-80 g of protein, which naturally made me eat fewer carbs too. I would say getting in the habit of logging your food intake is really important too.

Hey, BariatricPal Members! Happy Fourth of July! This summer holiday is filled with parades, barbecues and concerts, and we hope that your holiday involves family and friends! Any weight loss surgery patient or potential patient can use a little advice to get through a three-day weekend, so that’s why we’ve put together this newsletter! Here is what you’ll find. Pay It Forward This Independence Day July 4 Barbecue: What Are You Bringing to the Party? Go, Team USA, at the FIFA World Cup! A Little Honesty, Please! (From Yourself, to Yourself)! Have a safe holiday weekend! We hope you find some time to spend part of it with us. Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder BariatricPal.com Pay It Forward This Independence Day On July 4, the United States celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence as a significant step in the separation from the United Kingdom. Since then, Americans have enjoyed a degree of prosperity that is unparalleled in most places in the world, and many of us are grateful for the freedom that we have to express our thoughts, pursue our interests, and choose our friends. This weekend, we suggest that you take a few minutes to reflect on some of the things in your life that you are grateful for, whether that includes your family and friends, your job, or your freedom to make decisions that affect your own health. We also suggest taking a few minutes to help someone else out in any way that you can think of. You could help your neighbor clean out the garage, volunteer at a homeless shelter, or read a book to children at a local library. Your way of helping may be as simple as logging on to BariatricPal and giving a struggling member a few words of encouragement. Kindness can only make this country better! July 4 Barbecue: What Are You Bringing to the Party? Your friends or parents invited you over for a barbecue this Fourth of July weekend, and you know what that means: ribs, hot dogs, baked Beans, potato salad, coleslaw, and cupcakes. Unfortunately, you know from past years that there is not going to be anything that you can eat. What can you do without being rude? Be polite, of course! No good guest shows up to a party empty-handed, so why would you? Think about the foods that you need to stick to your diet during the barbecue, and bring them. Just make sure you bring enough for several people because these healthy treats may be the biggest hits of the afternoon. First, make sure that you bring some lean Protein. You might bring a package of vegetarian burgers or turkey burgers to be grilled along with the other meat. If you don’t think the host will be willing to grill your protein for you, bring your own pre-cooked veggie burger, low-fat cheese, or hard-boiled eggs. Another option is to bring a high-protein salad to share. You might try chicken breast, egg white, or tuna salad made with Greek yogurt. You’ll also want another dish or two to eat with your protein. These are a few foods to consider bringing. Classic green salad with a bottle of dressing on the side. Raw or grilled veggie kebobs with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper pieces, and zucchini slices. A cut-up watermelon so that you and the other health-conscious guests can have something to eat for dessert instead of brownies and chocolate chip Cookies. Frozen bananas. These may simple, but a half of a frozen banana can keep you from digging into the ice cream. When you bring enough delicious and healthy food for everyone to share, you can be certain that you will be able to stick to your diet at a barbecue and still be able to enjoy the occasion with everyone else. Go, Team USA, at the FIFA World Cup! Soccer is nowhere near being as popular in the U.S. as in many parts of the rest of the world, and it lags far behind the major sports of football, baseball, hockey, and basketball. Many Americans do not watch any Major League Soccer games during the professional season, and can’t name the top American or international players. Still, that lack of interest changes once every four years during the FIFA World Cup. As the games play out in Brazil, millions are watching these incredible athletes. Whether you are a patriotic American who roots for Team USA, or you have chosen your favorite teams based their stories or on your or your family’s ancestry, you can use the FIFA World Cup 2014 as motivation to get in better shape. You may not have the athleticism of these seasoned and talented athletes, but you can use a soccer ball to get yourself moving. One great idea for getting some exercise is to bring a soccer ball with you whenever you go to a picnic or another outdoors event. Take it out and kick it around with your friends and family when you have a few minutes to spare, and you’ll burn a few calories without much effort. You would be surprised at how much of an effect this can have on your weight loss when you do it regularly. You don’t need to be a good athlete to have fun and burn calories with a soccer ball. If you’re not up for sprinting up and down a soccer field during a full-out game, try one of these lower-intensity alternatives with a soccer ball or another kind of ball. Kick the ball around with your friends and family. Play dodgeball. Play monkey-in-the-middle. Play kickball. Whenever you make exercise fun and convenient, you are more likely to do it. So, keep your soccer ball handy and get it out whenever you can! You’ll also be showing your support for the World Cup teams. A Little Honesty, Please! (From Yourself, to Yourself)! This topic comes up all the time on BariatricPal, and it’s worth mentioning here as a little reminder. The only way you will be able to lose weight and keep it off is to be honest with yourself with respect to your food choices, portion sizes, and exercise. What other people believe doesn’t matter. Tricking yourself into thinking you are following the plan when you really aren’t will not lead you to lose weight. If you hit a weight loss plateau, you start to feel sick frequently, or your health numbers are not as good as your doctor expected, ask yourself these questions. “Am I measuring every single bite?” “Am I drinking enough Water every day in between – not with – meals?” “Am I eating a source of lean protein at every meal and snack?” “Am I choosing nutritious foods or sugary, fatty foods?” If you’ve fallen into a few bad habits and you’ve noticed that you might not be telling yourself the whole truth and nothing but the truth, a three-day weekend like the Independence Day weekend can be a good time to get back into it. Use the extra time to figure out what you can do better, and how you will make it happen. Good luck, and let us know how it goes on BariatricPal!

The mexican food are attracting more and more people to it. This is because that the mexican food are characterised by its intense taste as well as by its unique flavouring too. There are many mexican restaurants in west la . the people living in west la as well as the tourists who come here as per their vacation looks forward to eat mexican dishes which has a top spot in the food chart. The mexican food restaurant west la is of good quality. From this, we can understand the popularity of the mexican dishes in west la. A wide varity of dishes are showcased in the mexican cuisine of those restaurants that are located in every nook and corner of the city. The mexican manicotti is one of the sought after dish in the mexican restaurnats in west la. A lot of people order for this yummy dish.mexican manicotti is a typical non ? vegetarian dish which is mainly prepared from chicken. There a few ingredeints that are used up in preparaing this tasty dish. First of all we require manicotti shells for preparing this dish. Cooken chicken low fat cottage chicken as well as greeen chillies which are sliced are the other chief ingredients of this yummy mexican dish ? mexican manicotti. There are other ingredients too. A cup pf cilantro, clove garlic minced are used up. Red bell pepper which are chopped up are used in this dish. Salsa as well as chopped or sliced ripe olives are yet other ingredients that are used up in this mexican dish. Tomato sauce are also used up to give an extra taste to this dish. You also have to add monterey jack cheese to make it very rich as well as yummy in taste. The following are the list of ingredients that are used up in preparaing this dish.

Ehrm… I am definitely not one of those guys who is fond of sharing intimate details on the Internet, especially when its fundamental goal is a lack of privacy. But I am here, because I am so scared of this surgery and have a pretty limited support structure. Hopefully opening up here will let everyone know who I am and where I’m coming from in terms of this surgery. Basically my story is … I am a fat guy. Of course all of my friends and family like to use terms like big-boned,fluffy, squishy, stout, and my personal favorite full-bodied (makes me soundlike a wine). My fiancé likes to say there is “more of me to love” and I am her “big teddy bear”. I tell everyone that I am fat; I’m not ashamed of it. This fat man started his journey as a fat kid, a roly-poly chubby cheeked fat kid; and I loved it. I never had a problem with being picked on, fat kids are funny and I knew how to box. I also did all right with the ladies, not as good as my friends, and I had to work a bit harder… but good enough for me. Fast-forward to age 22, and I realize being fat is a lot of stress on your body. My joints started hurting, my BP started rising, and little brownbear had trouble finishing. So I got on an organic vegetarian diet and lost about 30 lbs… leading to me crouched over the fridge eating a pound and ahalf of Canadian bacon at 2:30 in the morning. I then tried weight watchers, jenny Craig, Atkins, and pretty much everything else. I’ve lost over 100 pounds and gained back over 150. I am now a 300lb 25-year-old assistant professor who is scheduled for VSG on the 27th of December and sh*t-scared. My obvious fear is dying on the operating table. But I think a deeper and much stronger fear is that this surgery will ruin my long running relationship with food. I love food. Food has always been there for me: in kindergarten, when I gave Stephanie Miller my cupcake and got a kiss on the cheek in return; tacos on my tenth birthday when I got hit by a car; lo-mien when my aunt died of breast cancer in 7th grade; burgers when I fell in love with Kelli Moreno freshman year, and half a cheesecake when she broke my heart junior year. Food has been with me through high school, college, grad school, and my dissertation. And I am so afraid of losing it. And I know this makes me sound like a total lard ass. My support system for this surgery consists of three people with varying opinions : my mom, my dad, and my baby sister. My mom’s support is unconditional, she would support me in any decision I made. My sister is supportive and a bit jealous, probably because she spends so much time trying to stay in those size 2 mini-skirts. My dad is … less than thrilled, more like disappointed. The first thing my dad did after I suggested this is call me a coward. He said that a real man can handle his problems without resorting to shortcuts. To be honest, he brings up a good point. How can I tell my students to struggle and work hard when I am cheating? As you can see, my dad really knows how to get to me. I guess you’re asking why I am doing this surgery if I have so many doubts? Well my trigger was when my fiancé dumped me (I know technically she is no longer my fiancé, but I refuse to call her anything else). Now I know what you’re thinking, she did not dump me because I was too fat…. Well at least I choose to believe that. Jill was diagnosed with lupus at the tender age of twelve years old, and has spent the last ten years in and out of Doctors offices. She and her folks are hesitant to settle down with an “obese” individual who has an increased risk for medical issues. So even though love is blind, it prefers a BMI under 28. Thatis the main reason that no one else knows about this surgery and no one will. I know her family would never approve, and don’t want this surgery to be a barrier. I refuse to be known as the fat guy who needed surgery to stay healthy, even though that is the obvious truth. I am not sure what I am going to tell everyone when they notice the changein my sizes, both portion and waist, but I’ve got a few ideas. I’m thinking of telling everyone that I had a bleeding ulcer that had to be removed. It has the benefit of showing the exact same post-operational symptoms and explaining my weight loss and portion size. I feel like a jackass for doing this, but I am determined not to let Jill’s family know I had WLS.

Regular as rain. I poo at least once a day. I had my first BM on the 3 day I after I came home from the hospital. My doctor started me on stool softeners in the hospital. I was on them for 30 days and haven't needed any assistance since. I'm vegetarian so a lot of my Protein also comes from plant based sources that are also high in fiber like Beans so that may be helping. I do notice on the days when I can also get in green leafy veg or salads along with exercise and plenty of Water, I am even more regular. On those days I may go twice.

this is my favorite: Morningstar vegetarian ground beef crumbles heated up in a skillet with taco sauce, then sprinkled with fat free cheddar cheese and a dollup of light sour cream. Pair this with some refried Beans and it makes a great, and filling, dinner.

it really depends on the product and what the stamp is itself. sometimes food (non-meat) is ok past the date - and what is the date - a sell by, or expiration? but with animal flesh, such as chicken, you have to be more careful. better safe than sorry - either eat it before it expires or throw it out... i don't like to waste either (and i'm a vegetarian, so i don't eat meat anyway) but with meat you have to be even more careful.