Six months post-op+ : The Sophomores Thread

[GreenTealael 25,330]

6 hours ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

Veggie question:

We're all reasonably far out from our surgery, and our capacity has increased a bit. So, for those of you who only eat 2-3 meals/day, how do you get your veggies in? If I'm trying to get my Protein in 3 meals, there is absolutely no room for veggies/fruit, NONE. So, I eat maybe 6-7 times a day. Some are Protein + fruits/veg. Some are just fruits/veg. On the mixed meals, I hardly ever eat the protein first. (This is one reason that most of my meals are still sliders.) I love the fruits/veggies. Any advice is much appreciated.

I honestly barely eat fruit outside of a few times a month these days if it's not in my yogurt. But i eat all of my hard protein on top of salad or cooked vegetables and go bite for bite...

Edited March 30, 2019 by GreenTealael

[GreenTealael 25,330]

12 hours ago, sillykitty said:

I think this may very well be the case. We all know how much I love me some carbs, the higher the glycemic index , the more I love them 😍. I eat so few meals that don't include a fair amount of carbs, I couldn't tell you if eating dense, moist, chewy, succulent Protein alone would trigger my hunger. I mean last night I had wings, but then had a beer, so, yeah, hungry.

When I get to a place where I'm gaining, or am just sick of being hungry, I'll definitely test this out. I'm kind of in the ultimate honeymoon period right now, so I'm just going to enjoy my carbfest while I can. I actually may need to start adding in some more fats, because I hit my all time low, my ticker weight, again this morning. Good news is I have a metric ton of macadamia nuts in the house right now from my recent trip to the Aloha state.

Interesting how we are all so different. One thing I can say for certain is I have no hunger response to artificial sweeteners. I have been a long time diet soda, addict, I guess. I only gave it up for a short while post op. (Did you know a Double Gulp is 64 oz? 🤣) So I was drinking diet soda during times when I had no hunger, and it was my Fluid I'd drink to stave off hunger when I was doing IF.

Found this!

[Rosie T 72]

On 03/30/2019 at 11:45, Orchids&Dragons said:

Veggie question:

We're all reasonably far out from our surgery, and our capacity has increased a bit. So, for those of you who only eat 2-3 meals/day, how do you get your veggies in? If I'm trying to get my Protein in 3 meals, there is absolutely no room for veggies/fruit, NONE. So, I eat maybe 6-7 times a day. Some are Protein + fruits/veg. Some are just fruits/veg. On the mixed meals, I hardly ever eat the protein first. (This is one reason that most of my meals are still sliders.) I love the fruits/veggies. Any advice is much appreciated.

I have been missing veggies and fruits. I’d previously been all food and no Protein Shakes and I recently went to one shake a day for either Breakfast or lunch to help boost my protein intake and then I feel more flexible at mealtime knowing I got a big whopping 30 grams of protein in already so I have room for my apple or strawberries or carrots. I feel unhealthy without a good portion of fruits and veggies each day and that trade off is working well for me at the moment.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

6 hours ago, Rosie T said:

I have been missing veggies and fruits. I’d previously been all food and no Protein Shakes and I recently went to one shake a day for either Breakfast or lunch to help boost my Protein intake and then I feel more flexible at mealtime knowing I got a big whopping 30 grams of protein in already so I have room for my apple or strawberries or carrots. I feel unhealthy without a good portion of fruits and veggies each day and that trade off is working well for me at the moment.

Yep, Good plan! This was the thing my RD taught and said that she has many patients years out, still doing a morning Protein Drink so they can also eat their veggies and a bit of fruit!

[FluffyChix 17,415]

21 hours ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

Veggie question:

We're all reasonably far out from our surgery, and our capacity has increased a bit. So, for those of you who only eat 2-3 meals/day, how do you get your veggies in? If I'm trying to get my Protein in 3 meals, there is absolutely no room for veggies/fruit, NONE. So, I eat maybe 6-7 times a day. Some are Protein + fruits/veg. Some are just fruits/veg. On the mixed meals, I hardly ever eat the protein first. (This is one reason that most of my meals are still sliders.) I love the fruits/veggies. Any advice is much appreciated.

Ok, so for one, veggies are pretty sliderish for me. And I can eat about 1 1/4c of food. So let's just pretend my protein goal at ideal weight (120lbs or 54kg) for a 5'4" completely average woman (defined by insurance charts used in WLS to compute data) is 65g of protein per day.

54kg X 1.2g protein/kg of ideal body weight = 65g of protein (needed to maintain optimal health) for light activity.

65g protein / 7g per ounce of weight on average = 9.3oz of dense protein by weight

So now I know about "how many ounces" of protein are needed to make my protein goal. If I'm having a protein drink or protein drink as a coffee creamer, it makes things even easier. On days I do IF, I will often use a protein drink to up my protein levels toward my goal.

I will eat 3oz of protein at a meal which makes about 2/3-3/4cup of food. And, I fill the rest with veggies to about 1 to 1.25cups of food. I'm getting in 1-2 eating windows--each lasting about 90 minutes. So I might begin the eating window with a cup of veggies (salad, raw veg, or cooked veg) + healthy fat and cuz they are sliderish, then I will easily get them down and out of me within about 30-40 minutes without much rise in insulin and almost no rise in bgs. I adore broth with leafy greens and mushrooms, or salads, or raw veggies with avocado/yogurt dip (Green Goddess). Then at the last 30 minutes of my eating window, I will eat my complex meal of protein + veg + healthy fat and can eat the full 1 to 1.25 cups of food at that time.

I make my totals most days. The days I don't, I rely on autophagy to swoop in and save the day.

By doing this I'm usually able to get close to 16oz of veg per day (12-16oz) + 9oz protein.

Edited March 31, 2019 by FluffyChix

[Orchids&Dragons 9,047]

31 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

I will eat 3oz of Protein at a meal which makes about 2/3-3/4cup of food. And, I fill the rest with veggies to about 1 to 1.25cups of food.

That's my problem, I guess. I doubt I ever manage more than 2 oz. of solid protein at a time and if I do, I'm done. There's no room for veggies or anything else. I do have a Protein Bar for breakfast most days which knocks off the first 20 g or so of protein but it usually takes me close to an hour to eat it. Today, I'm still working on one I opened nearly 2 hours ago. Dr. wants me getting at least 75g protein because of my loss of muscle. And probably because since I mostly eat sliders, they may not stay long enough to be properly absorbed.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

2 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

That's my problem, I guess. I doubt I ever manage more than 2 oz. of solid Protein at a time and if I do, I'm done. There's no room for veggies or anything else. I do have a Protein Bar for Breakfast most days which knocks off the first 20 g or so of protein but it usually takes me close to an hour to eat it. Today, I'm still working on one I opened nearly 2 hours ago. Dr. wants me getting at least 75g protein because of my loss of muscle. And probably because since I mostly eat sliders, they may not stay long enough to be properly absorbed.

Ok, but that's normal for where you are hon! And you need to talk to @sillykitty to find out about her small tummy. So you can be sure to get everything in. When I was having 2oz, I was eating 6-7 times per day about 2 hours apart, trying to go as long as 3hours between meals, but mostly eating every 2 to 2.5hours. Some meals were only protein and some meals were only veg. And at 2oz per meal I was DEF still taking in a protein drink a day--just so I could get my veg in.

[Orchids&Dragons 9,047]

1 hour ago, FluffyChix said:

Ok, but that's normal for where you are hon! And you need to talk to @sillykitty to find out about her small tummy. So you can be sure to get everything in. When I was having 2oz, I was eating 6-7 times per day about 2 hours apart, trying to go as long as 3hours between meals, but mostly eating every 2 to 2.5hours. Some meals were only Protein and some meals were only veg. And at 2oz per meal I was DEF still taking in a Protein Drink a day--just so I could get my veg in.

I guess it feels like I've been doing this so long that I forget I really started over on Halloween

[sideeye 1,440]

Check out vegan food - not necessarily as a life choice, but as a few-meals-a-week option. I’ve just had an edemame Pasta and bell pepper bolognese that blew my mind, it was so good.

I’m still on vacation but just wrapping up my 5-day wellness retreat. Yoga, hiking and vegan food has knocked 8lbs off me IN FIVE DAYS. Unreal. The chefs here are absolutely amazing and they stress that this is a vegan detox, not a mandate to go full vegan, but I can tell you that even with the tiny portions I was sending a good part of my meal back to the kitchen because the food was so filling I couldn’t manage my full serving. And I was already on 2/3 of the normal serving (my restriction rivals SillyKitty’s, my issue is grazing or spacing out a single meal over too long). Also I’m in optimal ketosis; I was already borderline when I arrived, but now am in the high-performance range.

I’ve been losing weight at a snail’s pace since my big Montezuma weight drop in November, so this is kind of a nice kick-start. And no, none of this has to do with the alternative cardio program because on arrival at the retreat I was only about 2lbs down - but alternative cardio starts up again today AND will now include some mountain-climbing, so fingers crossed for keeping this rolling.

[Vizslamom 92]

The more I learn about nutrition, the more complicated it all seems. My biggest fear is wrecking my metabolism. So I eat 1200 calories a day, and sometimes more. Losing at a 5# per month rate - just fine for me. I’m also eating healthier than I have my whole 57 years of life. And I’ve come to peace with cake and really enjoy a piece at celebrations. I still have to stay from that demon chocolate.< /p>

[Healthy_life2 8,324]

On 3/30/2019 at 10:45 AM, Orchids&Dragons said:

So, I eat maybe 6-7 times a day. Some are Protein + fruits/veg. Some are just fruits/veg. On the mixed meals, I hardly ever eat the protein first. (This is one reason that most of my meals are still sliders.) I love the fruits/veggies. Any advice is much appreciated

Are veggies/fruits sliders if you stay within your calories and macros?

[Orchids&Dragons 9,047]

3 hours ago, Healthy_life2 said:

Are veggies/fruits sliders if you stay within your calories and macros?

Absolute sliders. The only numbers I track are calories and Protein. I'm in the 1200 calorie range, 60-75g protein.

[okayestmom 232]

Waiting to have my gallbladder removed. Several stones. Liver is off the charts. Came in Jan, but was advised it wasn’t my gallbladder despite elevated liver enzymes no CT scan. This time I am peeing bilirubin. Got CT scan that showed several stones. Just finished the ultrasound and am waiting for that to be read. Pain is pretty intense right now.

[GreenTealael 25,330]

1 hour ago, okayestmom said:

Waiting to have my gallbladder removed. Several stones. Liver is off the charts. Came in Jan, but was advised it wasn’t my gallbladder despite elevated liver enzymes no CT scan. This time I am peeing bilirubin. Got CT scan that showed several stones. Just finished the ultrasound and am waiting for that to be read. Pain is pretty intense right now.

💜 Get Well Soon & please keep us updated 💜

[GreenTealael 25,330]

New Challenge for interested parties!