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Score! I bought a tube of dill paste from the fridge section near the vegetables. I squeezed some into greek yogurt, added 1 ounce of soy milk, and it made an incredible side to go with my dinner! Will work for fish, tuna, hard boiled eggs, etc. Makes a great helper for chewing. Today I ate Shwarma (chicken thighs) 3 oz @ 16g Greek Yogurt with Dill 1 oz @ 3g Vegetarian Moussaka. -- Although I am in the purees stage, I can no longer eat that texture. I will gag and starve. So I sad for an hour and chewed responsibly, and I got this meal in. Hurray.

My approach has been simple...I was fat/obese simply because I ate too much..enough for 10 people.... Now, after weight loss surgery, I eat about 1/10th of what I used to....so since I eat so little, I try to make the best of what I do eat....eating the best foods I can, being selective for organic, etc... I have found that quite naturally, I started to omit certain foods from my life...like red meat, all breads, Pasta, rice, etc, etc.... I still eat chicken and fish, but I find I am eating less and less chicken.... Do I still have foods with sugar, carbs? I'm sure I do....but like I said, no matter what I eat, it is miniscule to what I used to consume,,,,Weight Loss Surgery I did not start out thinking vegan, or even vegetarian, but naturally, mainly because of the band and the food restrictions that went with it, I'm slowly headed that way....

As I look around these forums being started some of the most common complaints are "people won't support my decision by bringing healthy foods." Um, not their job to cook healthy for you because you made a life changing decision. Just because they bring the foods they have always brought doesn't mean they are trying to destroy what you are doing, it is just all they know. You can't blame them, be mad at them, or accuse them of being destructive to your diet. You personally HAVE to find a way to deal with this. Everywhere we go there is food. Parties, funerals, celebrations, ANYTHING, there will be unhealthy foods at all of these. It's just like this, if I have a party, I provide the food I want. In one party I could have a vegetarian show up, a gluten free person and one who is allergic to dairy. I can't prepare for all of these different kinds of people. If I have something they can eat, great. If I don't, they should have brought their own, or have eaten before they came. It is no different with our new lifestyle. This isn't to say that it doesn't suck to watch people eat fried foods, fatty foods, or chocolate cake in front of us, but just because they are doing that doesn't mean they aren't supporting us. They are living their life they way they want. We can't change others, only ourselves. Have a fantabulous, skinny day! Today is better than yesterday and together we will feel better!

I tried the Boca crumbles last night with taco seasoning and ate it as a lettuce wrap! OMG, it was so yummy and I ate it again today for lunch. I made tortillas for my family and let them eat it without telling them it wasn't meat. and they loved it and couldn't believe they had another meat free supper. The vegetarian lifestyle is fitting my new lifestyle very well and I'm at the point where I don't really miss meat or chicken anymore. I am still exploring fish options because I've never really liked fish. I am allergic to shrimp but would love to try in case I am no longer allergic, but I'm kinda scared.

Hormones are stored in fat and as your body burns the fat these hormones are released into you're system causing hormone related issues like acne and being emotional. It happens mostly in the first few months when you experience rapid weight loss. It will last a few weeks and will ease up gradually before ending. I had acne for about 4-6 weeks starting about one month out but ending before three months out. Also, it is common for RNY patients to become lactose intolerant, either suddenly or gradually. It could be permanent or not. Do as your doctor says. It may be temporary. Good protein sources are eggs, seafood, Beans (refried, black, kidney, etc), Protein shakes (some can be made w/water and some with soy or almond milk). Try a protein that is not whey-based. I know there is one that is powdered egg whites, and others are available. If you have access to a nutritionist through your doctor you can ask them for suggestions. Or search this site - I've read of others who are vegetarian one/or lactose intolerant who would have some helpful suggestions for you. Good luck!

Having Lap Band surgery, it soon became difficult to eat Red meat, and my Dr. concurred it would..... For years, my cardiologist and other Dr.'s have been trying to get to to cut back on my meat consumption for health reasons.... Seeing how Red Meat is not very band friendly, and it was something other people wanted me to do, I stopped eating it altogether....that has been over 3 years now. I would not say I am a vegetarian, I still eat chicken and fish...but since I am eating so little due to the surgery, I am very conscious of what I do eat and I am eating less and less chicken.... Some people become vegetarians - vegans for moral reasons, for me it is purely for health reasons and I have been able to tell the difference.... BTW, I also cannot eat things made from flour/dough such as breads, Pasta, etc...no rice either...

Yea, I've been a vegetarian most of my life! I also like the veggie soy crumbles, add a little taco seasoning or mix it in with marinara, eat with spaghetti squash. Yum!

Is anyone having any particular type of food aversion? I have always been your typical American carnivore and now I hate meat! Well, I don't hate it but the minute it crosses my lips, it makes me nauseous! I'm highly frustrated by this and never planned on being a vegetarian but that's how I eat these days!

I wish I could swap to a vegetarian diet, but I'm soy intolerant, and it just seems like a helluva lot of work if you can't eat soy (I know there are other ways to get Protein as a vegetarian, but my NUT said it would be really difficult to get the recommended protein) That said...I eat little meat, because very little meat agrees with me. Fish, eggs, cheese and refried Beans are my friends. Sometimes chicken. But no beef or pork. I guess I would be a pescatarian (pity I really don't like fish, but my stomach tolerates it, so I eat it)

@@Lthomas were you a vegetarian before your surgery? I tried the Morningstar patties and I didn't really like them, but I love the "chicken" nuggets and patties. I've also discovered Amy's spinach pizza. Yummy!! I bought some tofu to try soon just not sure how to cook it.

I'm a vegetarian..I eat a lot of yogurt, cheese, nuts, veggie burgers and tofu. I like the fake sausage patties from Morningstar for Breakfast.

I'm just curious on how many folks have given up on meat and follow a vegetarian diet. I have had to give up meat, which I loved before surgery, because it just does not sit well in Winnie the pouch. Since I cannot tolerate meat anymore, and actually crave veggies (I used to not like veggies before surgery), I would love to hear if this is common and if you were ever able to tolerate meat again. And how do you get your Protein in without meat. Protein shakes don't sit well either, by the way. I had RNY on March 5, 2014, and had some complications for the first 3 months and was in and out of the hospital several times.

I use Protein shakes to try and get my protein in with low calories (Im a vegetarian), but eat your veggies, drink your Water, try to eat high nutrition foods, salads, Soups, avoid junk food, booze, refined sugar, extra salt... eat some raw if you can...Its just two days a week, so use them to really be good to yourself. You can spread the cals over the day, or save them for one bigger meal in the PM. I have a 100 cal Protein Drink in the AM, then eat the rest at dinner. The idea is to find a strategy that you can keep up... if its too out of the norm for you, then you won't stick with it. You want to be on this plan more or less for the long haul. Its not a weight loss diet, its a longevity program for overall health.

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!

Roasted soy nuts or roasted edamame (yummy and satisfyingly crunchy). Roasted seeweed (they sell at trader joes, 60 cals for an entire pack and satisfies the chip/crunchy craving. Pb2, nuts, beef jerky (I'm a vegetarian and don't eat jerky but seems like a good snack).

Hello March Sleevers, wanted to know what kind of daily meal menu are you guys following 3 months+ post surgery. Please share your sample menu? I was sleeved on 18th March and have lost total of 55lbs, 42lbs since the day of surgery. Happy with the outcome, though some shortcomings. From being plus size 2X I am now size L T-shirt and from size 18 to M or 14-12 in pants in the regular clothing section. 2 days back I noticed hair loss. I am pre-dominantly vegetarian and getting my Protein intake mainly from lentils. Quantity of food is still very less, like 5 bites per meal. I am wondering if this is causing hair loss. I workout 2-3 times a week, doing resistance training and 15min of cardio; I get a massage once a week hoping it will help with loose skin on my upper arm. Would love to hear from you all

HI everyone, I don't think there are many WLS members that are 70 or older. I think it will be interesting to know about our experiences and how it has affected our lives. I was 72 when I had RNY. I was type II diabetic and taking more insulin all the time with more problems coming on. Dreading the problems of aging with the weight and poor health as I approached 80, was the motivation to find a surgeon. I really did not know very much about the process. The surgeon was head of a uniersity medical bariatric department and very easy to get to know and feel comfortable with. I'm amazed how much better I feel and the additional energy. I feel like 45 again instead of 75. My interests are gardening, art, interior design, making glass beads, and cooking. We own and run a B&B so I make a gourmet breakfast and feature food that is healthy and delicious. We get a lot of vegetarians and gluten free guests. It is hard work but I have help from my husband. It would be impossible to do as the old me but the surgery has been successful and made many new possibilities. I hope you are enjoying life and good health too. I live in Crawfordsville, IN

I chose other. For me it wasn't about the fear. Well when I first heard about the surgery, but after doing research for a few weeks I wasn't afraid/ I was willing to accept the risks. It was more about my age at the time. I was 16 I'm now 18. I didn't have the resources or maturity. Now I have a job, I drive, I have money I can go out and buy my own groceries. I'm better at cooking (back then i could barely saute an onion). Now I can be responsible for my own health. I have also had time to reflect. I don't look at food the same, I'm now a vegetarian, soon to be vegan. I question everything I put into my body, and ruled out a lot of foods/ ingredients. I think im in a good place to do it now

I am in a very similar situation and am hoping for some advice. I was banded in July 2007 and since then have lost 70 of the 170 of my goal. There was a lot of time in between fills as I moved to Ireland two years after being banded and then to India for six months where I lost 40 of the 70lbs and now I'm back in the US. I went in for a fill about a year ago and then around 4 months ago started having issues where I was vomiting nasty black tar in the middle of the night and had HORRIBLE reflux. Just yesterday it was determined that my band had slipped slightly. My band is now empty and will be for the next couple of months, I only had 2cc in my band in the first place and now my nurse is telling me I can NEVER be that full again :-( this news to me is basically telling me I'll be basically empty forever! I'm so discouraged and I don't really know what to do. Has anyone ever been told after a slippage that they can never be as full as they were when the slippage occurred? Also what are some opinions on why I may be stalled? I was diagnosed with hypo thyroidism and am currently not on medication. (long story short my husband doesn't really understand the culture of being medicated here and he doesn't feel I should be "wasting money" on taking medication for hypothryoidism. He thinks that me being overweight is simply my fault for not eating as well as I could be [even though in my opinion I don't eat THAT badly]) on top of that it's hard for me to get my Protein in because he is also a vegetarian and thinks that meat and cheese is bad for you and god forbid I be able to convince him otherwise. I'm at a loss, I don't understand why I'm not losing anymore and I don't know what to do about my hypothyroidism and I'm not sure what to think about never being able to go above 2cc again either! please help!

I don't know what you'd need to take Vitamins for that you wouldn't want to take extra anyway. Other than B12 (which really we should all be taking regardless), you can get everything from plant sources. And that's if you're vegan. If you're just vegetarian, it's even less of a problem.

I've been treated for hypothyroidism for 20 years now. Most of the time when I have a blood test done, they have to jockey around my dose a little. I don't think there's any kind of problem with hypothyroidism and surgery. There are some other sources of Protein besides just meat but I think it would be difficult to do this diet as a vegetarian or someone who doesn't like meat. I chose bypass because of my acid reflux which was pretty severe. My doctor explained that the lower part of the stomach is where most of the acid forms, so when you detach that from the digestive system and only have a tiny upper stomach, most reflux goes away. I'm 2-1/2 weeks out now and he didn't prescribe any antacids and I haven't had the slightest bit of reflux even when I lay down after eating (something I could NEVER do before). I was told I would be on chewable, sublingual or liquid Vitamins for 6 weeks. I'm really sick of the chewables already because they taste nasty (IMHO). But, I can do it until I can get back to swallowing pills. I haven't heard of anyone having to stay on chewables or crush vitamins for life. I hope you can find the information you need to make you feel confident or you postpone the surgery until you feel ready. Best wishes.

Hi there, I'm hypothyroid, but only 1 1/2 weeks out, so too early to see how that will go. But I'm not overly worried about it - I'll just monitor my levels and tweak as needed. I agree with everyone else that it doesn't seem like a good idea for you to rush into this so quickly when you're still just starting to learn about what this will mean for you. I've thought about the sleeve since I first started having trouble with my band back in 2009, but I still needed about 6 months to prepare from the point that I was seriously ready to do it. As far as recovery time goes, everyone is different, but most seem ready to go back to work in 2-3 weeks. I'm planning to go back on Monday, after 2 weeks, and I think it will be okay. I'll probably still be a little tired, but will try to make my first week a little easier than usual. As far as Vitamins go, I'm taking chewable vitamins from Celebrate. It's really not a big deal. If you're taking vitamins regularly, that should help you manage your anemia, but I'm not a doc and not sure about this one... As far as heartburn, I think everyone is advised to take a PPI after surgery, but I think only 15-20% or so have serious heartburn issues and need to continue these meds longterm. About the food you eat. I know there are some vegetarian sleevers, so I imagine you can create a diet plan that works for you, perhaps including more Protein shakes and such. The unjury unflavored protein is easy to add to anything, like your morning coffee/tea, etc. Would be a good thing for you to discuss in more detail with a nutritionist. Lastly - you and your husband should look at the health risk/benefit profile together. It IS a major surgery, and there are risks, but the risks of morbid obesity are greater. But if you feel you haven't given diet/exercise a good enough shot, that would be a good idea to do as a next step. Good luck in your process! It is a lot to take in.

Endless , My husband is vegetarian also. He is having his sleeve done the end of July. What are you using for your main protein source? how did you handle it in the immediate post op phases? Thanks for any insight

I suggest getting cookbooks for different cuisines and trying those recipes. Indian vegetarian recipes are anything but boring! You may want to try "spinach saag." I'd try adding a little plain yogurt & unflavored protein to it after it cools to 140 degrees or less.