Little Green

Beans and nuts are not the only plant-based foods that contain protein. Literally every plant-based food contains protein. Rice and broccoli have protein. Potatoes have protein. Pasta has protein. Wraps and breads have protein. How to get to 46 grams of protein on a 1200 calorie plant-based diet without using shakes? Protein is not some magical hard-to-find nutrient. It's in everything. And yes, in the beginning, the real estate in your stomach will be limited. Obviously supplementation is required then, just like it is for people eating meat. As you can eat more, you'll be able to fit plenty of plant-based protein in your stomach. This kind of fear-mongering is silly. If people after WLS can eat fast food and pizza "in moderation," you can eat sufficient plant food to meet your protein goal. And if you're worried, have a vegan protein shake or eat a vegan protein bar. And yes, you absolutely can get too much protein in your diet. High protein diets are hard on the kidneys in particular, and animal protein is linked with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. I love how eating meat is a given and you don't have to worry or do extensive math or have some strategically planned diet to be nutritious, but eating plants - OMG, no, call a medical summit to analyze it first! Sorry... I really should not post late at night while on a liquid diet. My attitude is terrible.

Right now? 30-50g a day because I'm on the liquid diet, lol. Post-surgery, long-term, I'll probably be at 65-70% of my diet as carbs because I'm a vegan. (Those carbs will be from fruit, veggies, beans, oatmeal, potatoes, bread, rice, and other whole grains, and very few if any from sweeteners or processed food.) That's way more than most post-WLS patients, who tend to severely restrict carbs, so this might not be the answer you're looking for. I recommend reading How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger or watching Forks Over Knives on Netflix for some info on how plant foods like I mentioned above help you maintain a healthy weight and protect you from disease. You can also check out Dr. Matthew Weiner on YouTube, who's a bariatric surgeon who promotes plant foods ahead of the standard protein diet. Just thought I'd share my opinion in addition to the many keto and low-carb comments you'll see on this thread. *makes angel face*

Thanks, you guys To make a long story not quite as long extremely long, sorry, once I got started I couldn't stop, I did this to myself by accident. In December I asked to get a sleep study done to see if maybe the reason I can't sleep on my back is due to breathing issues, and possibly get a CPAP machine to help me get through the post-surgical period where the incisions make sleeping difficult. I didn't realize this is a months-long process, which one of the nurses in the sleep lab has been graciously expediting for me by finding cancellations every chance she has. Unfortunately, I failed my in-home study because I could not use the machine properly - it would stop reading and flash a yellow light in my face every time I rolled on my side, and, again, I can't sleep on my back. They want me to repeat the test in the lab, which I'm fine with, but I said because my surgery date was already scheduled, I would need to do that after surgery. They said fine, we hung up, everything was okay. Except not. Because. Even though I passed all the apnea questionnaires, and no medical professional ever told me I have sleep apnea and need a sleep evaluation, because I took it upon myself to ask for the referral, almost as an experiment to test my hypothesis, now they have it in their system that I have a pending sleep study. So now they need the resolution of that before we can proceed with surgery. Because liability and legal issues. Which I was made aware of last week, when the coordinator told me she would be getting in touch with the sleep lab to sort it all out. Cool. Except when I called yesterday to find out the status, she told me I had been taken off the schedule because of this issue. Um, what???? Why wouldn't you tell me that upfront??????? So, yesterday in my no-carb liquid diet stupor I was frantically trying to be the go-between with these two offices, explaining that I need some kind of document or note faxed to the bariatric office saying that the sleep doctor is okay with me waiting until after surgery to repeat my test. For some reason I can never get in touch with the bariatric coordinator until the end of the day and the offices all close at 4:30. So the best the sleep lab could do was send a note to the sleep doctor's MA. She called this morning and said she spoke with the bariatric coordinator to clarify what was needed, but that the sleep doctor was not in the office. She said she'd talk to him tomorrow. So... I'm hoping that when I call tomorrow, they will have faxed over the necessary document and the coordinator will give me some good news about the date. We will lose our health insurance on 2/28 unless we can get my husband back to work, which is a jungle of red tape and hurry-up-and-wait situations. And we have no idea what's going to happen if he doesn't go back by 2/20 which is the end of his 2-year disability period. He doesn't have to work, he's on SSDI, except that I don't work because I'm in school full-time, so that's our only route to health insurance unless we want to derail our entire life plan and have me go back to work before I finish my degree. (And he wants to work, anyway.) So to have all of that happening at the same damn time is just... overwhelmingly overwhelming. The coordinator, who really is very nice and is trying her best, answered "I can't say that," when I asked if the 15th was completely off the table. So there is a chance that that slot was not filled and she can put me back in. I also said I could do it earlier. But the thing is I have to attend a class which is ONLY ON WEDNESDAYS FOR SOME REASON before I can have my surgery. So it's either tomorrow (today) which is obviously not happening, or next Wednesday as planned, or else the earliest my surgery could be is 2/22 if I can attend the class on 2/21. You can see why all of this mess causes intense full-body shutdown. I don't know what's happening and that's the worst part. I'm just desperately hoping that everything can go ahead on the 15th. We've planned everything out, my mom has taken time off, we're moving ourselves and our cats into her house this weekend (surgery is in a different city), I've notified all my professors and my family, etc. Since I've gone this far I'll confess I cheated my liquid diet last night out of stupidity and stress. I fasted for most of the day today not to punish myself but because I felt like crap physically. I ended up having 3 protein shakes over the last 6 hours or so, so I'm at 495 calories and 90g of protein. I'm a hot frickin mess, y'all.

*waves* I'm feeling pretty rough at the moment. There have been some bureaucratic shenanigans that might move my surgery date which is extremely upsetting due to all of the issues with my husband's disability and our health insurance, and ever since I found out about it I have been a wreck. They told me to stay on my liquid diet, though, so that seems like a good sign. I should hopefully have a definitive answer tomorrow.

You're so sweet and your words are always appreciated, @kakatlady612! You can be my RNY gramma any time

Sorry, I hit send too soon. I love how you felt free to dismiss the entire conversation that we had in a few sentences when you clearly have literally no idea what you're talking about. You don't know who Joe Cross is, you haven't watched his stuff, you didn't even know what plant-based meant. That would be like if I commented on a crossfit post when I know almost nothing about it. In fact, though, I feel certain I know more about crossfit than you know about plant-based diets. So pardon me if I didn't find your argument particularly persuasive.

@orionburn I'm on my pre-op liquid diet and I'm not the one. I will be as kind as possible in my response. You're in the vegan & vegetarian forum so do not come in here and laugh about eating animals. It's not funny or cute, and it's very disrespectful. I leave my veganism out of the main diet forums so you can leave your meat-eater jokes out of the vegan/vegetarian forum. Thanks! The evidence is overwhelming that a plant-based vegan diet absolutely is superior to other diets. (Evidence produced by real studies done by real researchers in real medical journals, not some fringe blogger types.) You're welcome to access the numerous resources in this forum to learn about this evidence if you're open-minded enough to do so. The fact that this way of eating is superior obviously does not mean WE are superior. Nobody in this forum claims to be better than anyone else. My beef with Joe Cross is that he is clearly riding the wave of interest in veganism/plant-based eating without making it crystal clear that he includes animal protein in his diet not just occasionally but every single day. That's deceptive. I think it's probable that a large swath of his followers and supporters are buying his books and products thinking they are supporting a vegan lifestyle - meaning they wouldn't be buying if they knew he's eating animals everyday. To me, that's just wrong. I'll weigh in with a different perspective from @fruitandveggies on the term "plant-based." While I do agree it's often being used as a softer way to say vegan without saying vegan, it also distinguishes a healthy whole foods diet from a vegan junk food diet. Soda and candy and all kinds of highly processed meat/cheese substitutes are vegan but they are excluded from a plant-based diet. The term "whole foods plant-based" is a mouthful so people just say plant-based, or sometimes they just say vegan for the sake of recognition. I started off not liking the term vegan but have come to embrace it so sometimes I say plant-based and sometimes I say vegan. It doesn't matter, they mean 85% the same thing and both completely exclude animal products.

I just cannot imagine living my life that way forever. Particularly with RNY when you aren't absorbing everything... out of 1000 calories, how much are you absorbing? And then presumably you're exercising at least a bit and trying to fuel the rest of your life... nope, can't do it. I will be upping my calories as soon as I can tolerate it, volume-wise. Eating the right calories of course 1800-2200 calories of veggies, whole grains, nuts, beans, fruit... way different from 1800-2200 calories of burgers, fried foods, pizza, etc.

Did you? Do you plan to? Do you wish you had, or hadn't? It was recommended to me and I'm currently watching it now. I don't want to link it in case it upsets some folks but it's called "Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RNY) procedure with Dr. Jon Bruce, FACS, FASMBS" on YouTube, and it's from the channel Bariatric Specialists of North Carolina. I think it's pretty interesting so far. I'm feeling a little emotional but not grossed out or anything. Just making it more real.

I'm sure you're good for the 15th - unfortunately it seems many times these silly systems take ages to talk to one another even though they're all in the same hospital. I would be extremely upset as well so I know it's easier said than done, but sit tight and try not to stress. Tomorrow you should get some answers Hope you're still in the 2/15 club, cause it's the best place to be! (Sorry Fluffy. 2/20 can be second )

LOL Barbara, I love you Per your invitation, I checked out your Facebook page and sadly did not see any discussions of this doctor calling you a fat pig. I did see a ton of complaints about the liquid diet, which, believe me, I totally agree with you about that! I also couldn't find anything for your speech on Hillary's nomination - but I'd love a link!

There are delicious high-fiber crackers that are made with seeds and super healthy. I like the Mary's Gone Crackers brand the best and they have a few herb flavors. Found them at Target and Food Lion but I'm sure they're at other places too.

If you're asking about overall fat loss, like where does fat go when we lose weight? The super weird thing about fat loss is that you lose the majority of it through expiration - meaning you breathe it out. 84% ends up as CO2 and is exhaled. 16% is water and you sweat or pee it out. It's so bizarre because we all have this image of fat "burning" or "melting." But nope... just breathe it out!

Are you talking about shortly post-op, OP? I've been wondering the same thing. My favorite hummus vehicle is warm, soft, fluffy pita but I know bread doesn't go down well for awhile, too gummy. So I'm thinking maybe mixed in with beans? Or just, like you said, eaten with a spoon.

Yes! Beans, people. Eat them every day, every meal, every minute. (Just kidding.) Beans, beans, good for your heart.... and your breath, apparently.

February 15th club!!! Welcome!!!!

Looks like they may sell something called "Red Classics" in sugar-free which includes cherry, strawberry, and raspberry. I will see if I can find any!

Strawberry and banana sounds amazing!! No Hyvee here. I wonder if Walmart has a store brand of popsicles with different flavors. Shall investigate.

No need to laugh at yourself. This diet is a b!tch and there's so much to worry about! Truthfully I'm a bit concerned about the high protein as well, but our kidneys should hold up all right for 10-14 days. Sanity first!

Yeah, why not? Worth a try!

Looks like you are splitting one of the protein shakes in half? Don't do dat. Just have 3 premier protein shakes. That alone is 480 calories and would put your day around 670 calories. Maybe do 1.5 scoops of the Syntrax. Fluffy, I love ya girl but this diet is hard enough at 850 calories. Don't kill yourself at 500 calories.

I think they are actually Popsicle brand LOL. I didn't know that was a brand. Maybe it's like the Kleenex/Crockpot phenomenon. They have two sugar-free boxes, one is regular flavors (cherry, grape, orange) and one is tropical flavors (pineapple, "tropical" orange lol, and fruit punch). I like the regular flavors the best - taste like childhood!

Click the photo for a higher quality version so you can read it better (if needed).

I'm feeling pretty good today! I needed a bath and a break from reality so I stayed at my Mom's overnight (nothing against my husband, no fighting or anything, just some alone time) and soaked with a bath bomb in her big tub. Slept in a bit today, although not as much lol. My parents drink decaf coffee so I finally got to have some coffee!!! Just the smell alone was enough to make me happy. As for the bolded, I sure can!!! Any excuse to show off my planner! I'm using an hourly planner as my food journal. The stickers and such are just for fun, not strictly necessary. So this is my diary for the first three days. I get 5 servings of protein every day plus unlimited broth, popsicles, jello, etc. The lowest calorie protein shake I have is one of the vegan ones which is 130. The rest are between 160 & 190. So average calorie of a protein serving, we'll call it 165. 5 x 165 = 825. Add a few servings of broth and a couple popsicles at 10 or 15 calories a piece and that's 30-50 calories more. Everyone's diet is different. I get to have two protein bars a day, thank the sweet Baby Jesus! What does yours look like and why are you having trouble getting your calories up?

I got pretty sick feeling last night immediately after having some broth mixed with protein powder. Thankfully I didn't throw up. I took some dramamine to help with the nausea and slowly ate a couple popsicles to give my stomach something small to do. Those things helped tremendously. Haven't felt nauseated again since then. I definitely think this diet throws the body into shock. You're not alone!