Vegetarian Post Op ?

thebrick · August 31, 2007

Good Morning everyone,

My surgery date is set for Sept 7 for LapBand. The nutritionist at my surgeons office is less than helpful. I know more than she does. My question is, has anyone who is a vegetarian had the surgery? What did you eat after? Everything says chicken, ground beef, etc. I have been a vegetarian for 9 years and won't give that up.

Looking for ideas.

Thanks

Barbara:whoo:

insubordination · August 31, 2007

I'm a vegan rather than a vegetarian. I can eat all the same stuff I could pre-op, though not nearly as much. I can only take small bits of things now. Sometimes, I can't fit in as many raw vegies as I would like and I try to make the most nutrient dense choices. I'm surprised your nutritionist did not go into vegetarian options. How remiss! All my sheets mentioned meat alternatives & legumes. If you have any specific questions, please ask. There are quite a few vegos on here.

Post-op liquid phase, I had different vegie Soups, strained. I put hommous in them for extra Protein. Later I made thicker Soups like lentil and minestrone. I also had raw fruit and vegetable juices. Since you eat dairy, you will have options like yoghurt and whatnot.

The main thing is that, later down the track, you will still be able to eat all the healthy types of food you like and will not die from Protein deficiency. You can just eat about a third of the amount of food (or less) than you do now.

By the way, I was banded a bit less than three months ago so am still learning but I have already lost 44pounds/20 kilos.

I hope the other vegetarians come out of the woodwork.

faithmd · August 31, 2007

I am not a vegetarian perse, but do mostly eat vegetarian. I eat meats very, very infrequently. I LOVE tofu, it works well with the band so far. I even have had some deep-fried tofu (I know, baaaad) and it went down great. There is a thread here in the food section about Tofu recipes, good stuff there.

I love the Imagine Soups, you can find them at many grocery stores. Trader Joe's has many foods in their frozen section for vegetarians that will work post-op.

I found that I really enjoyed vegetarian refried Beans (fat free) mixed with some salsa and cheese and greek strained yogurt instead of sour cream (more protein) in the mushy stage.

powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury has some wonderful non-flavored Protein powder you can sprinkle in just about anything to increase your Protein intake.

thebrick · September 2, 2007

That's good to hear. The though tof never having a salad or raw veggie was a little hard to take.

When the "nutritionist" was talking about stage 2-3, she kept saying chicken salad, tuna salad, beef chili...... I reminded her again I was a vegetarian. She didn't even know what stevia was.

I really appreciate the input. It makes it easier to adjust.

Barb