KAATNS

Great list and ideas!

THATS AMAZING, AWESOME, WONDERFUL, TERRIFIC AND SO DARN EXCITING....SHOULD I GO ON?
What a superb accomplishment...keep up the great work!

Wednesday mornings I weigh and measure myself....and today, I was 199.4!!! I made it to ONEDERLAND!!!
Before my surgery I made a list of both scale and non scale goals I wanted to reach, and it feels amazing to keep checking them off!

let me say GF, if i can get to 67, i pray to the doberman gods i can look as hot/sexy as you do right now.......this is AWESOME

It is an emotional journey. I'm man enough to admit that this whole process has made me cry at times. You're not losing it, it's totally normal. It's not a small decision or one you make lightly, but it is a great decision for you future and your health.

After weight loss surgery, you need to plan your meals ahead of time. You always want a high-protein, low-calorie option to be available at meal time. You might find yourself carrying your own prepared food with you to be sure that you have the food you need. Sandwiches are good “go-to” option, but not just any old sandwich will do! This article can help you build sandwiches that are good fits for your meal plan.< /span>


What is Wrong with the Sandwiches You Used to Eat?
A typical workday might have started off with a trip through the drive-through for a Breakfast burrito or sandwich, or a bagel and cream cheese sandwich at work. lunch could have been a brown bag Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich or a trip to a nearby restaurant for a sandwich, burrito, or burger. Where might these options leave you?
Sausage, egg, and cheese croissant or biscuit from a drive-through (600 calories with 42 grams of fat)
Bagel with cream cheese (500 calories with 70 grams of carbohydrates)
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (600 calories and 40 grams of sugar)
Club sandwich (1,000 calories and 2,500 milligrams of sodium)
Chicken patty sandwich (60 grams of carbohydrates and 1,100 milligrams of sodium)
Beef, bean, and cheese burrito (900 calories and 40 grams of fat)

Your breakfast and lunch sandwiches could have added up to over 1,500 calories. Add in beverages, sides (hash browns, fries or chips, anyone?), and Snacks, and you could have been at 3,000 calories by lunchtime!
These Choices Don’t Work After Weight Loss Surgery!
Needless to say, these options do not fit into your weight loss surgery diet.

First, some of those sandwiches have more calories than you are supposed to be eating in a day, not to mention that some also contain more saturated fat, sodium, and sugar than you should have in a day.
Second, those sandwiches emphasize starchy breads and fatty Condiments, not the lean Proteins and nutritious vegetables you need to stay full and nourished after weight loss surgery.
Third, they can cause complications. Doughy Bagels and fried chicken, for example, can cause obstructions in lap-band patients; fatty sausage and sugary jelly can cause dumping syndrome in gastric bypass patients; and these low-nutrient foods can fill you up and cause malnutrition.

Luckily, this does not mean that you need to give up the convenience of sandwiches and the pleasure you get from biting into one. There are plenty of ways to make sandwiches that are weight loss surgery-friendly: low-calorie, high-protein, convenient, and delicious!
Protein Fillings for WLS Sandwiches
Start by choosing a lean source of Protein, just like you do when you plan all of your meals. These are some healthier options compared to what you might have chosen before weight loss surgery. Don’t forget to measure your portions if you are making your own sandwich, or eyeball your portions if you are ordering in a restaurant.
2 scrambled egg whites (30 calories)
2 ounces of canned light tuna (60 calories)
2 ounces of chicken breast, lean ham, turkey breast (80 calories)
2 ounces of fat-free cheese (90 calories)
½ cup cooked Beans or 1 vegetarian burger (120 calories)
2 ounces of turkey or vegetarian bacon or breakfast sausage (130 calories)

Load up on Vegetables and Fruit
Vegetables and fruit are the next food groups to add to your meals. Vegetables especially are low-calorie, so add more if you want a bigger sandwich. Try classic combinations, or get creative. You can also experiment with herbs such as fresh cilantro, basil, and dill. These are some ideas.
Lettuce and tomatoes with meat and cheese
Grilled eggplant, zucchini, and/or bell peppers with beans
Cucumbers and sprouts with fat-free feta cheese
Diced celery, carrots, onions, and Water chestnuts with tuna
Spinach and mushrooms with egg whites
Pear or apple with fat-free cheddar cheese
Cantaloupe with ham and/or fat-free cheese
Blueberries with egg whites

Breads and Alternatives
Most bread is high in carbohydrates and low in protein – clearly not what you need for your nutritious weight loss surgery diet. Besides adding calories and carbs, bread can cause obstructions in lap-band patients and make gastric bypass patients sick or overly full. When possible, skip the regular bread.
Bagels
Tortillas
Subs
Croissants
Biscuits
Regular sliced bread

Instead, choose whole-grain, high-fiber, low-calorie breads, and consider open-faced sandwiches, with the filling on 1 slice of bread, instead of regular 2-slice sandwiches. These are some good options.
Reduced-calorie bread (45 or fewer calories per slice)
Light English muffin (50 calories per half)
Mini whole grain bagel (60 calories per half)
Low-carb tortilla (50 calories per small tortilla)
High-fiber, light wrap (90 calories per wrap)
Also, look for creative, non-bread alternatives.
Lettuce leaves to make lettuce wraps or cups
Egg roll or wonton wrappers
Sheets of dried seaweed
Grilled eggplant
Your fork (skip the bread and just eat the filling)

Keeping Condiments Under Control
The condiments that you add can make or break your sandwich, both in terms of nutrition and taste. Skip the full-fat Mayonnaise, dressings, dips, sour cream, and butter, and be wary of high-sugar jam, barbecue sauce, and honey mustard. Instead, consider the following condiments.
Salsa
Fat-free mayo, dressing, dip, or sour cream
Regular mustard
Plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
Hot sauce
Shredded fat-free parmesan cheese
Reduced-calorie, trans fat-free margarine

Some Breakfast Sandwich Ideas to Start Your Day Off Right
Egg whites scrambled with spinach, mushrooms, and fat-free feta cheese on ½ English muffin
Cottage cheese and strawberries wrapped in lettuce leaves
Shredded fat-free cheese and lean ham toasted on a slice of reduced-calorie, whole-wheat bread and topped with salsa and tomatoes
Egg whites cooked with turkey bacon and broccoli in a small, high-fiber wrap
½ whole-grain mini bagel spread with fat-free cream cheese and topped with canned salmon with diced celery and water chestnuts

Lunch Sandwiches
Lettuce wrap filled with diced chicken breast, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and bell peppers, and soy sauce or light Asian dressing
Dried seaweed sheet rolled around tuna salad made with fat-free mayo, chives, and celery
Pinwheels made by layering slices of turkey breast, lean ham, and fat-free cheese slices, spreading them with mustard, and rolling them
Bean burrito with black beans, fat-free cheddar cheese, salsa, and fat-free sour cream on a small, high-fiber tortilla
Chicken breast with sliced apple and light vinaigrette between slices of grilled eggplant
Tomato sauce, fat-free mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms on a light English muffin
Toasted Rueben sandwich with low-fat Swiss cheese, shredded cabbage or sauerkraut, lean corned beef, and fat-free Thousand Island dressing on a light English muffin

Are You Ready for Some Sandwiches?
You can eat these sandwiches at home, or make them ahead of time and carry them with you in a reusable container. As a weight loss surgery patient, you should own plenty of reusable containers with tight-fitting lids. If you do not already have some, they are worth the investment so that you can carry healthy foods with you wherever you go.
We hope that you enjoy these sandwich ideas and that you are inspired to make some of your own healthy, high-protein sandwiches!

sorry to read this donna as we were banded nearly same date/time frame.
i concur with karen (sending you hugs) and all the best to you...hang in there
beautiful woman.

came home and did my step aerobics....

Walk/ran on the treadmill for 65 min and 20 min on the elliptical some weight training for total of 1500 calorie burn

50 minutes....I'm impressed...really! I'm on the treadmill every day and 50 minutes is great....

me and hub and kabo the doberman walked....i kept a very fast pace (i know fat burns in oxygen)
...it was a mile with 2 steep inclines (my thighs felt it let me tell you)..
as nike says...carolina girl, just do it

I was at Walmart and stumbled upon Farm Rich Sundried Tomato Basil chicken Meatballs. 1 serving = 6 meatballs (3 oz), 100 cal, 3.5g fat, 3g carbs, 15 g Protein. I baked 1 serving in a ramekin with 1/2 cup marinara. Top with some Parmesan and a little sautéed spinach with garlic and onions. Very tasty and with 22g protein.

Ditto!!

My surgery is scheduled on Valentines Day! I hope to fall in "love" with my new journey!

i am so sorry about your father.....
yes you can get yourself on track.....no need to dribble drama (that you are ashamed etc) leave that BS at the door GF.......you are a beautiful woman inside and out......and we all know it.....i should hate you because you are so pretty.....but i dont
so right now, get back in the saddle.....RIGHT NOW
whats done is done and never to come back or be returned to us to do over
eat good foods and in the allotted amount the dr advised you and exercise (go walk if you are stressed or take a hot bath to unwind some) or yell or vent...
food only gives that instant food gasm for a moments time and then we feel like sh*it afterwards......so dont go back to dieting traps......you are not on a diet.......eat to lose weight....eat to live your life.....and understand its a process.....make yourself well...start today..start now.

So stinkin' proud of you CF!

You never "have" to tell. Order soup!! LOL

My band taught me that even with WLS, I still have to WORK...... That it's a TOOL, and I have to USE that tool. Yes, I admit that for years I thought WLS was "the easy way to weight loss." Man, did my band teach me differently. Every day at the gym doing an hour of cardio, every decision I make about fueling my body instead of gorging, reading and learning and understanding my body and my needs have all come from what this band has taught me. I told my dearest friend today how much I have been taught by my band!

Great post!! My band has taught me that I am a stronger person than I ever thought. ...both physically and mentally. I am BRAVE. Brave enough to admit I had a problem, brave enough to ask for help, brave enough to undergo surgery, brave enough to keep fighting afterward. Brave enough to go after the life I always wanted!!

Great thread; thank you!
Hope, possibility, relief, perseverance, inner strength, fortitude -- those are a few things that come right to mind, along with choosing myself and my healthy future first. And it's just early days here. Oh, one more word: gratitude!

Wonderful post Cheryl!
I have learned to be mindful. Ever so much more then looking both ways before I cross the street! I have learned to be mindful of the things I put in my mouth. Mindful of the things I am even thinking about allowing myself to consume whether they be liquids or solids.
I have learned to mindful of the things that cause me anxiety and stress and what their affects on my body truly are. I am mindful of the way I view myself. Not only my reflection in the mirror but the attitude I project toward my self and in my day and to those around me.
When I am not mindful, buddy and buster (my band and plication) like to let me know it. Sometimes they are vocal with their discomfort and displeasure of my absent mindedness, sometimes they can be totally embarrassing if I am not focused on their needs and I will need to find the nearest receptacle to help set them to rights, and at the worst times they are woefully painful when it is clear that I am blatantly ignoring their subtle hints and signs and it can leave me feeling worse then being punched in the gut.
There are many things that can take me out of my body and even drive me out of my mind!!! My band reminds me that right here in this moment is where I belong. Enjoying the texture, aroma and flavor of the bite, or the sip and not plowing my way through life onto the next thing. My band helps to keep me mindful and present in my life, even when I am not eating or drinking the lessons are not lost on me, and if they are....a reminder could be just a forkful away.

I always thought of my band as the house and I needed to be the interior decorator. Filling my body full of nutritious foods. There are things that my band has taught me about life and one would not think that but it has. So what has my band taught me?

To have patience and plenty of it because no matter what you think if you don't have patience with your weight loss then you will give up and fail.

To love myself. Yes and I say that TO LOVE OURSELVES. I would have to think that most of us if not all of us did not love ourselves because we loved food more. I love myself enough to know now that I was poisoning my body for years with disgusting fatty, sugary foods that made my life hell.

To be a better person because I had an opportunity to get what I needed that some will never get and to understand that this issue with food is more then just my issue and to never put anyone down because of it but to help them learn the right way of living.

To know that I don't need a million pounds of food to live but that my body runs efficiently off of what I give it and I don't need more. Sometimes it could be less lol but there is always those ice cream moments.

That failure is only an option if I decide to fail. No one is to blame if I don't make this work but me.

That being thinner does not make my husband or family or friends love me more. If they can't except you fat they really can't except you thin. Love is unconditional as it always should be.

That I did not do this for anyone except my self. I did not lose weight because my husband thought I was too fat and he never thought I was too fat I did. Nor did I lose weight because people said I should. I did it because I wanted to and no one influenced my decision to have surgery or to not have it.

That I have way more will power then I thought I ever could and that is the truth because there is always temptation for all of us food lovers and mine is sugar.

These are just the tip of the ice burg but they are some good lessons I have learned. I never thought this was easy from the beginning and its not four years later because maintaining is harder then losing it was. But now I control where my future rest and its up to me to see that I get there come hell or high Water. What has your band taught you?

i have a battery operated scale *that i use all the time* as i prepare my meals for week a head of time.(also use to put in freezer)..i also use a Blender Bottle for my Protein shakes and def splurged on small lock and lock containers to put my food in (Snacks etc) in order to grab and go....and i have blogged on this forum to (help) me.. and anyone else who wants to read my stuff
this i found has helped me greatly

"Full" is a John Phillips Souza parade marching down your gullet into your Belly Beast kicking aside the route markers and stomping down the geraniums in the flower bed and mashing the garden flat.
"Satiety" is a bird song in a forest opening as you sit enjoying the sunrise.