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I was in my late fifties when I had the surgery...Obese, had one heart attack resulting in surgery, Diabetes with daily injections, high BP, triglycerides, cholesterol, you name it all out of control. I lost my Brother and sister who had the same bad lifestyle I was living. Dr. said I was critical and unless I lost weight, it would not be long for me...I was seeing as many as 5 specialists on a routine schedule. NOTHING was working, because I did not have the discipline. Even when my life depended on it. Tried every diet under the sun for the last 30 years...could not succeed at anything..would start out good, then failed miserably because I did not have the will power and discipline to follow any diet. PCP refereed me for bariatric Surgery, as a Last Resort...never considered it before nor thought I would be a candidate. That was almost 4 years ago...lost ALL my excess weight, have a very low body fat %.....I run 3-5 miles a day. Play softball in a league with guys 20 years younger. can outrun, out perform almost all men I meet my age. I go to the gym as much as possible because I now enjoy and proud of the things I can do there. I am now a vegetarian, and try to eat only the best foods I can find. I feel like a million bucks, a new man, a new life, physically, mentally and socially. Even my employment and financial situation has improved beyond my expectations. Young people tell me they hope they will be like me physically and health wise when they get to my age. What I could not do by myself, surgery as done for me...I will never Diet, or worry about gaining weight for the rest of my life. I still enjoy the foods I want, and eat/drink ,many things people on diets would never dream of doing. Lap band surgery as changed the way I eat, taken away my hunger and cravings, not because I want it to be so, but because physically, from surgery, things have been altered prohibiting me from doing those things. Never had a single problem or complication, as long as I don't force the issue. And I have learned not to. Agreed, in the beginning it was not all roses. Thing about the bad is that it is adjustable, and there is a learning curve where people need to learn new habits and adapt a new lifestyle if they want the band to work. Alas, some refuse to change....some don't want to give up some things that were killing them the first place. I don't even want to think where I would be if I did not have this surgery. I doubt I would be alive, that's for sure. When people say they are not sure, I ask them what is your alternative? You really think there is something else that will work? Then go do it. Show me....Did I want to have to have this surgery? Absolutely NOT! Wish I never had to do it. Don't like the idea of having something foreign in my body wrapped around my stomach. Wish I could do it like other people who are not overweight do it. But truth is I could not. Diets do not work for me. All things considered, I don't regret it one bit. I wake up everyday looking forward to what a great day it's going to be, and what new adventure - experience it will bring. I get a little mad and annoyed , and yes saddened....when people sell this surgery short and don't let it do everything it can do, then complain it does not work or it's a never ending uphill, frustrating struggle. (it's just a tool...phooey!) To each their own I guess....I'm here to say it does work. 100% and then some.

I was vegan for a few months. It was pretty easy. In order to get all the protien needed I am not sure you could be vegan, but vegetarians eat eggs, dairy and fish so I think that would be ok.

LipStickLady, Good question! And a lot of good answers. Thanks for not making us differentiate between Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To each her own, and no reason to filter any great answers just because they’re traditionally one meal or the other! Vegetarian chili is a hit at our house. It’s super easy, you can make it ahead of time, it makes a huge recipe, and it’s so healthy. If you want, you can just have the chili. Otherwise, you can top it with shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, sliced avocados, or plain fat-free Greek yogurt. For the diners who aren’t watching their weight, they can mop it up with bread or serve it over rice. For the diners who require meat at every meal, you can add ground beef or turkey. It has cans of Beans (chickpea, kidney, black, whatever you want), diced celery, onion, and bell peppers, and chili seasoning. Pretty simple! But if I’m too lazy to do even that, eggs with spinach can do the trick easily for a one-person, quick meal. Great ideas here – thanks to everyone for sharing!

I'm deathly allergic to all seafood and have been known to have reactions to strong airborne smells. I'm also vegetarian so I'm probably not one to ask for recipes, but I would think anything that could be made in a crockpot could be made in this. I've had my eye on it for a while but haven't bought it yet. You could try Eggface or even pinterest for healthy crockpot meals.

hi,,,thats great...congrats to you! i am 4 weeks tomorrow, and i also lost 22ibs....my port is a little sore when i bend still....but i am walking and trying to have protien...i am a vegetarian, so my choices are limited. Did you get filled yet?? do you need to, are you feeling full??

I am a vegetarian and am on a general soup diet. They said pre-op diet wasn't mandatory in my case(dunno why). I m just being careful. My favourite soup is a mix veg(bottle gourd, tomato, spinach, cabbage); just give it a whistle in a pressure cooker and grind everything in mixer (no straining), and add a little black pepper pwd and some KCl( a type of salt we call 'sendha namak' which flushes out unhealthy toxins from our tissues and helps detoxing the liver). Occasionally, I take some cucumber or bottle gourd juice, lemon-honey water and green tea and cooked pulses.

Hi I've just been searching for this topic as I've recently realised I have just started showing symptoms of Reactive Hyplogylcemia. I'm exactly one year post-op sleeve surgery and I had no idea us sleevers could suffer these symptoms. I'm a vegetarian so trying to cut out carbs has been a huge challenge for me and must admit that recently they have come back into my diet and my weightloss has also stalled. I now find that if I try and exercise in the mornings I have a massive hypo attack, the shakes, sweating, low blood sugar, feel like I'm going to faint, need to sit down and then an urgency to eat something. I then continue to feel terrible for the rest of the day like I'm all washed out and very tired even though I've done almost nothing. This is a very worrying new complication of the sleeve surgery that I did not sign up for and I'm trying to find out as much as possible about the condition so I can learn how to manage it. I'm confused as to whether I need to cut the carbs or increase them? I've been eating about 1,000 calories a day but burning around 2,700 cals per day (I wear a BodyMedia monitor so I know exactly what I'm using). I'm now really worried about this new development.. I'm seeing my surgeon next week for my one year review, I will be asking about this as from what I've researched, it seems as though there are a lot of people post bariatric surgery complaining of the problem and not much can be done from what I know??. Mine so far has been manageable but I am very worried it might get worse and I've read some people having their Pancreases removed which seems very extreme!. Any help or advice would be gratefully received. Prior to surgery I had PCOS, under-active thyroid and had been told years ago that I was insulin resistent but I never had diabetes. I must say, had I known about this complication it would have made me consider very carefully whether I should do this? Please has anyone any advice as it is worrying me a lot??

Gotchya- after becoming a vegetarian I have found alternative protein sources that enable me to be both satisified and get my quota's and eat veggies all the time... If you like to read.. get this book- Eat to live- it will change your thinking....

That is a good strategy about not watching the scale. I am considering doing the surgery in California. My Dr has 10+ years doing vertical sleeve and has done thousands. His experience is that his vegan/ vegetarian patients struggle with hunger and weight loss. He does not want people to rely on smoothies and shakes post-op and move to real food and get Protein from real food sources. He was the one who asked me to post here and seek experience of others and come up with a eating plan that I can enjoy and live with for rest of my life. He does work with a nutritionist and I will be seeing her in early Jan. I have found that if the nutritionist is not familier with vegetarian diet, they often do not have suggestions beyond tofu and Protein Shakes. I need at least some of my meals to be similar to what my family will eat. So rajma with greek yogurt and cauliflower subji is fine for me but I know I will not eat tofu and drink protein shakes every meal. I think you get that. I just want to eat smaller portions and feel full. So do you avoid rice and wheat completely - No rice or rotis? 85 lbs is just amazing and your approach and attitude to food seems so .so.. rational. Are you still losing or are you more in maintenance mode. Did you have any medical issues that got resolved with your weight loss?

My NUT told me that it's very difficult for vegetarians but it is possible. I am not a vegetarian so I did not ask her to elaborate however there is a program she provides for those who are. Somewhere there is a resource that will help you. Good luck

@@forgetit - I'm sorry that's not what I meant to say. My point is your conversations & meeting with your surgeon or nutritionist need to be a give and take, an actual conversation or discussion about what works for you and your body specifically. My program gave us a manual to follow. Yes it had general guidelines for all bariatric pts, but when I meet with the nutritionist I then discussed with her what would work for me. I am vegetarian and have several food allergies. I can't have artificial food dyes or most artificial sweeteners. My food plan took that into account. On a message board such as this you will a million different answers based on the wide variety of programs out there. When I recommend someone ask their doctor or nutritionist, I mean take the same questions you are posing here and ask them. Let the professional explain their reasoning. The all liquids phase is tough for most of us. Not much to do there but grin and bear it. I did find that using unflavored Protein powder helped. I did 2 shakes and the had vegetable broth with unflavored Protein Powder in the evenings. I hit my protein goals but having that savory broth in the evenings made things a little bearable. Lastly if you are already on a PPI you may need to increase the dosage. It's not unusual. I started at 20 mgs and had to go up to 40 mgs to get relief. pastas, rice and breads? A year out I don't eat them much and honestly, I don't want them. On the occasion I do have Pasta unless it's in vegetable Soup or something, it's bean base pasta. When I have rice, it's black, or brown. Hang in there. The early days are a challenge but worth the struggle.

Since surgery, I like plain old split pea Soup. I sometimes add a little black pepper and/or liquid smoke for more flavor. Have you tried the vegetarian meat substitute? It's really processed soybeans that are dried and flavored like beef or chicken. When you add hot Water and a lot of imagination it almost tastes like ground beef. It likes to take on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with. It's sometimes called textured vegetable Protein, or TVP. You'll have to watch the salt content, if that's a problem. I've found it branded by Augason Farms at our local Wal-mart stores in their food storage or large food quantity/container aisle.

Dear ESV, Just hang in there!I consider myself a vegetarian but I do eat fish...I am curious if you do? Anyway I also eat a lot of cottage cheese (with salsa on it, go figure!), hummus, egg salad, cheese of any kind, and lots of tofu and veggie/mushroom stirfry. I also LOVE the regular Boca burger although I still have some difficulty chewing it enough!I dont eat any low fat or diet foods but my restriction keeps me from eaing more than a small portion...

Fiddleman, the chicken skewers look like something my husband would like (I'm vegetarian but do cook meat for him). Did you find them fresh or frozen at Costco? Thanks.

Hi, I had my fourth fill last Thursday, July 3rd. I now have 6 cc's total in a 14 cc band. I had complained to my doctor that I didn't feel enough restriction, and my hunger was still not under control. My doc gave me another 1 cc fill, and I went home on full liquids (he requires 12 to 24 hours of liquids after a fill). The next day, I went on soft foods and I could eat a lot, in my opinion, more than one cup at a time. After about 2 or 3 hours later, I was looking for more to eat. The following day, I went to my favorite Mexican Grille and I managed to eat nearly one whole vegetarian burrito bowl! I thought to myself, "Wow, this is a lot of food to be eating in one sitting." I was beginning to worry again. My hunger has been really crazy since the fill, but last night while I was eating some baked fish, the food seemed to get stuck as I got closer to finishing it, and it was the only food I was eating. I really thought I was going to PB for the first time, so I just stopped eating, took a tiny sip of water and let it go down. Thankfully, it did. Perhaps I was eating a little too fast. Now today, my restriction is much better, better than before. I ate a normal breakfast this morning and felt satisfied. It is now about 3 hours later and I am NOT looking for something to eat. Great, I feel good! I think I am experiencing a "delayed restriction." Is this even possible? Has anyone ever experienced a delayed restriction after getting a fill? Thanks!

I am vegetarian, so it is mainly soy for protein. I try to stay around 10% fat, but since that is completely relative, yours may vary. cheese is my vice, though, so some days I overindulge.

How does this work for you? Can you process nuts? Beans? Boca burgers? How has the band changed your vegetarian life style? Made it harder? Easier? I would love to hear from you!!

carbs namely white ones are really hard to get through the band. I have gone totally vegetarian so it is possible to do it while banded

I usually told guys I was dating about the lapband IF it came up. Like if they asked why I wasn't eating. I didn't make a big deal of it, I usually just told them casually that I had lapband surgery so had to be careful about how and what I ate. The majority of guys just accepted it and moved on. Some asked how much weight I'd lost, but usually not more than that. I only got stuck once while on a date, and I simply excused myself and went to the toilet and PB'd. He was none the wiser when I returned, even when I didn't touch the rest of the food or any of my wine afterwards. The only person who really asked for more details ended up being someone I ended up being in a relationship with, and who I'm still with now. He says he was mainly concerned that he would do something to make me stuck, or eat something that might tempt me, and he didn't want to be cruel. He learnt over time though, and being vegetarian, he himself is used to always being careful about what he eats, so he doesn't think I'm odd because I'm the same. But I must say, I did end up in a long distance thing with someone on here once, and talking with someone who is also banded makes it way easier, because they just understand. But it does in fact limit who you can date!

My understanding is that it breaks down to bioavailability. While collagen derived Protein is able to pack a punch with the amount of protein vs the volume, my understanding is that it is not easy for the body to digest. Here is a good article that talks about different proteins: http://www.nutritionexpress.com/article+index/authors/mark+g+taylor+ms/showarticle.aspx?articleid=896 I would discuss the types of Proteins with your NUT and Dr as well. If you like pea protein and it's giving you what you need, and your Dr/ agrees, I se no reason not to use it, many vegan and vegetarian sleevers use it. Good luck!

Iron deficiency can cause hair loss and dry brittle hair. Sometimes it will NOT show up as anemia. It is VERY common in bariatric surgery patients, particularly women who menstruate. (or are vegetarian, or give blood regularly) Make SURE your doctor is testing your Ferritin level and not just your hemoglobin. You can be incredibly low on available iron and not be anemic. Non-anemic iron deficiency could explain your hair loss. And make sure you're taking your iron supplements separate from your calcium. Also, taking it with vitamin C helps.

Breakfast is the meal I struggle with everyday. I need suggestions. My NUT has told me to move on from shakes (11 weeks post op). Every morning I feel like toast. But if I eat a piece of toast, it sets me off on a bad road for the day where I crave carb/snack foods all day. I need high protein/low carb suggestions. What do you eat for breakfast?

I'm vegetarian and due for surgery may 2nd how are you getting on with the veggie side of it Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

congratulations on the adoption! I think you are very smart to stay here for the surgery given your family history with anesthesia. My mom is a retired OR nurse and she always says who you pick as your anesthesiologist is just as important, if not more, than the surgeon. I would see if you can ask around about who's the best and request that person. Also, in your case, it might be a good idea to ask for a pre-op consult with the anesthesiologist due to the family history. The regular CPAP use will be extremely important for a successful anesthetic procedure--not just a hoop to jump through. It WILL make a difference. Your oxygen sat rate can be affected by sleep apnea, which is very important peri-operatively. As far as attending the group meeting, I so know what you mean. I hate group things, and if you want your privacy and are well known in your community, that would be a double concern. Can you call your surgeon's office and ask if they have an alternative option? You may be able to get a private consult with the medical staff and/or may be able to do an online tutorial. My surgeon's office offered both and I skipped the group meeting. Post-op, I also don't do the group meetings--I see my PA and RD separately (in part because I'm a vegetarian, so much of what's talked about in group meetings doesn't apply to me--and partly bc I also like my privacy and am not big on group sharing type stuff). Good luck...I'm sure that everything will be great, and that you will be a happy, healthy dad and husband as a result!

My pre-op diet is very low-fat vegetarian (carbs ok, but keep overall calories low). What a difference between mine and the Adkins diet!