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String cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit, actually cottage cheese mixed with yogurt is delicious. That's all I can think of at the moment. I have to say again that I have never lost 2 lbs a week. I lose 5 lbs and then I won't lose anything for at least another 2 months. I exercise 6 days a week. I have to agree that it's very hard to get everything in that we are supposed to. Fiber is a big problem. Can't drink for an hour yet drink 64 oz of water per day. Protein first bla bla bla. It's hard to balance it all.

Tammy: You are experiencing what I think we all do. Once the novelty of the band wears off, we start to revert back to making poor choices. You don't have to be hungry. Just don't choose peanuts a good protein but high in calories. You should be eating protein every 4 hours. So pick a protein drink or have a cracker with some low fat cheese, yogurt with frozen berries. You know the choices you should be making and the nurse was correct to remind you. We all need checking up once in awhile. Also, measure for awhile. your total meal should never be more than 6 -8 ounces. 3 oz of protein and veggies the rest. Not soft foods but foods you have to chew, chew, chew so the thought of eating more turns you off. Good luck Doddie

I eat something always with in 30 mins of getting up ...my nut says for me thats what i need...most days its just a greek yogurt with flax seed.....then I do try to eat a lunch and dinner...because I like to sit down with my family for meals...during the day if I am hungry I do eat...something of protein......for the most part I dont need snacks.......good luck !

At 2 months post-op, this is what my typical day is like. Breakfast options: 1 single serving non-fat greek yogurt with about 1/4 cup fruit, some torani sugar free syrup, a sprinkle of Eggface's Protein granola or some sliced almonds. 4 of Eggface's "bites" (I make them with turkey sausage and shredded apple for breakfast) 1 scrambled egg with a healthy spoon of Jimmy Dean turkey sausage crumbles, sometimes wrapped in a mission low carb whole wheat tortilla (I can't eat it all if I wrap it in the tortilla) lunch: tuna salad, chicken salad, turkey ham salad, etc made with olive oil mayo and crunchy veggies (usually about 1/3 cup), with cucumber slices leftovers from dinner "lettuce wrap" made with 2 slices of lunch meat, 1 slice of sargento thin sliced cheese, wrapped in lettuce leaf. Usually dipped in home guacamole. I buy the 100 calorie packs from Wholly guacamole. Dinner suggestions: crock pot salsa chicken- cook a couple of chicken breasts with about 1/2 cup salsa and then shred the meat. I make it into "tacos" by adding some shredded lettuce, veggies, etc. Eat in a lettuce wrap or in a low carb tortilla. This always leaves plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day grilled fish, chicken breast or turkey burger (I use my George Forman grill) and make sure they stay moist! turkey meat balls with a little sugar free spaghetti sauce and veggies such as zucchini, mushrooms, black olives, etc veggies: well cooked cauliflower squash zucchini green Beans sweet potato (not often, it's a treat) mushrooms onions lettuce cucumber slices Snacks yogurt (if I didn't have it for breakfast) apple slices (no skin), sliced super thin with sugar free almond butter or string cheese hard boiled egg Eggface's "bites" turkey meatballs with a smear of barbeque sauce lower fat cheese Good luck! If you haven't found it yet, go to www.theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com. She is a Gastric Bypass patient but the recipes all work for us too! Wonderful ideas, even for early post-ops.

I'm still newly post-op but per my surgeon's plan I can eat soft foods. I'm still struggling with basic Protein portions so I haven't incorporated many soft foods yet. Here's what I had today: Breakfast: nectar Protein Drink (32gm protein). Lunch: 3/4 deli slice cheese spread with a toddler spoonful of lowfat sour cream and a black bean soupy mixture I make, rolled up and cut into pieces. Snack: 2 oz Greek yogurt with SF salted caramel syrup and a few dashes of cinnamon. Dinner: was still full from snack. I made a batch of quiche lasagna to keep for when I feel like I can manage a soft food. I ate about a spoonful of the egg/ricotta/cheese "batter" and it really stuck with me for a while (easily the densest thing I've eaten in more than 2 weeks). After dinner: I've made what I call a PBJ protein drink - vanilla Protein powder, PB2, SF Peanut Butter syrup, SH strawberry syrup and soy milk. I still feel stuffed so I may or may not be able to finish it tonight.

If you mix cottage cheese with yogurt it makes more of a thicker yogurt. Seems to mask the cottage cheese taste some.

Oh Kat.. I'm so sorry to hear about all the grief surrounding what should be an awesome experience. Abbey's husband sounds just awful and neither you nor Rick have any reason to be treated the way you have been. I certainly understand Rick's anger and your hives. Take care of and support each other. We're here for you to lean on. Our prayers to your family. I've been good on my eating again today. I had a slice of cheese and a couple of bites of yogurt for Breakfast and a piece of talapia for lunch. Kris brought Ethan some french fries and she had chinese take out. She's left for her doctor's appointment and Ethan's mom just came and got him. She got out a couple of hours early today and I'm happy I have some quiet time before choir. I just took some peanutbuttered pinecones rolled in bird seed out and hung them from the tree branches. We had a ton of birds this morning.. a good sign of a storm. It's still snowing out and the Bobster has already done one pass on the driveway with the snowblower. I better take advantage of my quiet time and get some house cleaning done. Ethan tends to leave it like a tornado hit it. BBL...

Both my kids are high functioning ASD - I know what you mean! We mostly avoid artificial/processed food, but the pre-op diet was tough. I'd already picked up a few Sucralose products during the insurance mandated diet, but went full chemical sugar free for the last few weeks of super low carb. Man, it was *nasty*. But I've seen the pictures from my surgery and my liver looked FABULOUS, so I'm pretending it helped my liver shrink and am moving on. Like elisa5150, I did use sugar free stuff the first month or so - especially the sugar free popsicles - but also Gelatin, Protein powder, and some protein hot chocolate. Now, I use flavored stevia drops for kefir or yogurt (yay live cultures!) and a little xylitol (a sugar alcohol) in my tea. Some of Protein shakes (Orgain) have stevia and erythritol (another sugar alcohol) or monkfruit and inulin (Jamie Eason Lean Body for Her). Personally, I do really well with xylitol and okay with erythritol (though their "naturalness" is highly debatable). And while current research increasingly makes it look like sucralose and other traditional artificial sweeteners are really messing with gut health, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that stevia, monkfruit, xylitol, or erythritol have much effect one way or the other. There are natural(-ish) protein powders out there - as long as you can keep the carbs and protein where they're supposed to be. (My NUT recommended youbars - they make custom Protein Bars with options for natural sweeteners.) We love grass fed butter and cheese, though I'm sticking with olive oil and coconut oil for now. I do have a tub of natural coconut oil based vegan butter spread I use every once in a while, but I wouldn't give up grass fed dairy for margarine if I had a choice. Mostly, though, my new stomach prefers savory moderate to low fat food, so I try to work with that as much as I can. When I was still eating dairy, I discovered I could mix herbs (Penzey's Fox Point seasoning) into low fat Greek yogurt and use it as a dip. Still got my protein, but didn't have to sweeten it. Which is probably for the best. I don't think living on artificially sweet or fatty things is necessarily better than living on real sweet or fatty things. So, good fats when we eat them - grass fed beef; pastured eggs; olive & coconut oil - and all in reasonable amount. If a dish is too fatty, I can't eat enough to meet my protein goal. Sort of a self limiting problem, so I don't see the need to drag margarine into it. As for sweets... research just keeps making it look like artificial sweeteners wreck your gut and make you crave more sweets. Which kind of makes sense since some "bad" gut bacteria has been tied to increased sugar consumption/desire for sugar. And sweets have gotten me into a lot of trouble in general, so I feel like this is the time to develop better habits. Thank heavens I did full on high fat/low carb Keto before surgery - I rarely had sweet things anyway and it still kicked my butt! But it really did kick the sugar cravings and I am so glad I didn't have to deal with that post surgery! It's made it way easier to explore healthy options that don't involve so many chemicals. Now to try and get back on my gut health protocol and try and get my kids onboard. Wow - sorry this is so meandering - it's the middle of the night and we have a small herd of cousins over for the first Christmas break sleepover. Brain. Fried. Let me know if you need product ideas - I feel like I've researched them all . Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

first of all, yes, being really nervous before surgeries is pretty normal. secondly, if you can lose the weight on your own, then go for it. Up to about 5% of people are able to lose their excess weight and keep it off long term. I, unfortunately, was not one of the 5%. I had surgery at age 55, after literally decades of losing and regaining the same 50 lbs. Same story every time - I'd lose it, hit a brick wall, and then it'd eventually all come back on - within a few months. I finally got to the point where I had to stop kidding myself. I couldn't even keep 50 lbs off, and I had over 200 to lose! So for me, surgery was really my only choice. Maybe you'll be one those who'll be able to do it and keep it off. There are some out there. And btw - surgery doesn't guarantee you'll be able to lose most or all of your excess weight and keep it off - but it greatly improves your odds. not sure what to tell you about protein. I only eat meat a couple of times a week, but I do eat a lot of dairy (including yogurt and cottage cheese). I also add protein powder to some things. In addition, I still drink protein shakes, at five years out, because they help me get up to my protein goals (most people don't need them after the first few weeks or months - but I have to have 100+ grams a day to keep my prealbumin level up, and a protein shake a day really helps me get there) you do have to be mentally ready for this, because the surgery only does so much. It's a lot of work, esp after the first few months. But the difference is, your efforts actually pay off. I was able to lose - and maintain - and enormous amount of weight, which I'd never been able to do before.

Hi Everyone! Seems like everyone is doing really good for the most part. I feel a little frustrated that the weight came off SO FAST in the beginning but is starting to come off a lot slower - but slow and steady wins the race I guess! I'm having a hard time with fluid intake. It's more uncomfortable drinking stuff than it is eating..I find that ground beef goes down the best so I've been doing lots of ground beef and hamburger patties and just chewing chewing chewing! Also eating lots of greek yogurt these days and cheese. I love coming in here and reading everyone's progress. Keep it up everyone, we got this!

Mine is March 9. I had two weeks of mostly meat and veggies (yogurt and jello or popsicles for snacks) and now I am on two days of “liquid” which is protein shakes, jello, popsicles and yogurt. I am dreading dinner cause it’s going to be so hard to convince my mind that a shake is enough (although I was fine for breakfast and lunch so I know it’s in my head)

Hey guys, sorry I've been MIA, had a tooth pulled, didn't know it was gonna put me out of commission for 2 days!!! Globetrotter thanks for keeping the post going! Today's food for me is still mushie since my jaw is killing me! Stopped the pain meds since they made me coma-like, and sick to my tiny stomach! PreB- Protein shake B- Yogurt w/ blueberries L- no ideas D- no ideaa vites- already gone water- going down (keeping a log so I at least get to 40 oz trying to increase) exercise - will take a walk outside at lunch, it is going to be near 70 today! NEXT>>>>>

Wow welcome to all the joiners of this thread For the record I have 200 lbs to lose total and I know I can achieve that goal! A friend had bypass a litte more than a year ago and is now already fighting to keep from gaining her back. She lost 200 lbs in a little less than a year and will spend the rest of her life with an alterred body that may or may not be able to absorb necessary nutrients. It will take me a couple 2-3 years to reach my goal and that is ok. The band isn't for everyone and for some the bypass is a good choice, only you can ultimately decide that. I say try the safer first if it doesn't work well for you, you can always switch to some other wls method later. Dezadoo youa re in week 2 it looks like. Mushies at week 2, while I am not your doctor, I truly believe you are safe to move on to mushies, just always excersise caution, go slow and start with stuff like yogurt and move up to stuff like scrambled eggs and refried beans. As for hunger, you will be hungry till you get restriction Grats on being banded

Hello Ladies, it has been awhile since I have been on this site. I sure hope everyone is doing well and by reading the lastest postings I see that you are. It has already been 7 months since my surgery and I am now down 98#. I was hoping to be down 100# yesterday but that did not happen. I have thyroid issues, taking med for it and my weight loss is a littls slower because of it. I am not complaining (well maybe a little) but I am so happy to be down 98# at this time. I see that some of you are having trouble with protein intake outside of shakes and I must admit I am too. Starting last week I have limited myself to 1 protein shake a day and I make it my breakfast because it is just easy for me to do it that way. I always did hate breakfast and I get sick of eggs so a 30 gram of protein shake is how I start my day. I am still getting some of my protein from cottage cheese, greek yogurt and low fat cheese. At least once a week I have beef chili and once another night I might have grilled chicken breast. Sometimes I will make it turkey but for some reason turkey is not tasting too good to me anymore. I have starting drinking V8 juice low sodium 8ozs a day to help get my veggies in and I have serving a fruit a day and that is it. My fruit is usually cantalope 1/2 cup or watermelon 1 cup. I am afraid to eat anything more than that. The watermelon takes care of my sweet tooth and I did not have it everyday. I have tried the quest bars since they have 20 grams of protein from GNC but I did not care for them, I tolerate them but that is about it. The holidays are coming up soon and I am so afraid. I am doing water arobics 3 times a week and I am getting to the point I need to add something along with this. I need to get myself a part time job soon!!! I do not care what it pays I just need to do something. Take care ladies, Cheryl

Kate, I am going to disagree with your assessment of my eating habits. I believe I HAVE found what works for me. I love Protein drinks and it is a good way to get my protein. To get enough protein on a full Vegan diet you have to eat a lot of weird food that I don't like any better than I like meat or fish. I eat my cottage cheese, eggs, plain greek yogurt etc and I am happy with it. I have lost > 60% of my excess weight in 5 1/2 months and they only promise 60%. I am basically happy with what I eat. I eat some veggies every day and a small amount of fruit about 3-4 times a week. Before I had surgery I was drinking whey Protein from Walmart for Breakfast and an evening snack and loved it. Just because I can't tolerate the taste of steak and pork chops doesn't mean I'm not getting my nutrition. I am doing what works for me. I enter every single bite and drink that I take on MFP and I get 80-120 gm protein/day and am satisfied with what I'm eating. My 3 month lab follow-up lab work was the best lab results I have ever had since I was in my 40's. So I don't think it's broke and I'm not gonna try to fix it:)

You just would want to cool to under 130 before you add the protein otherwise the texture will not be good, But try it, I have been using the instant sf ff instant pudding and stirring or blending it into yogurt and it is awesome. The other night I put about half cup of low fat cottage cheese, vanilla yogurt, and maybe third of the pack of pistachio pudding mix, added a splash of skim milk, scoop of unflavored protein powder. blended it and it tasted like a decadent desert. I am pre op so I may hate this after surgery, but for right now it is helping me get my body ready for surgery. and just trying different things

Chef Dan just asked if Pro Lynn is bi-polar... ROFL! Crazy men that I work with!!! At each others throat. Marianne and I just sit back and laugh. The fill... I can't tell if its working yet. I feel like eating, I ate 1/2 a yogurt around 9 and by 10:30 I was looking for something, I ate cheese. I felt full at 1/2 a yogurt but it sure didnt' last long. I guess that means I'm not TOO tight. I know its still mushy time and mushy/liquids never did satisfy me much, so I'm anxious to eat real food and see how I'm feeling. Love ya girls.

It's strange how pre-op diets differ so much. I am "very low calorie" for 2 weeks. 2 shakes, 2 ff greek yogurts and 1 small meal per day up until the day of surgery. Maybe they tailor the diet to how much you weigh, or if you have diabetes, or? I just find it interesting.

I was tired of the Protein shakes the day after discharge. I have tried yogurt, cheese and eggs, soup and today a little tuna, the jury is still out on the tuna. I also ate some Peanut Butter with half a banana. It gets old quick. My concern is that I am eating right at 4oz but haven't pushed it to see how much I can tolerate. I'm full after one bite of anything so it's hard to read my body as far as being full. Best of luck to you!! i know what you mean about reading the fullness. I know in early out but I find that even with purée foods in not sure when I'm full since I wasn't very hungry to start with. I am looking forward to eggs, cheese, and tuna.

I like nibble's,list, all pretty doable. If you want not to do the protein shake for lunch plan, how about cottage cheese with wzterpacked fruit like pears, tomato,or tuna, Greek yogurt, even plain scrambled,eggs or boiled egg. Something besides jelly and pbutter on white bread, baloney sandwich with. chips or 2 fat chocochip cookies. those last 3 got you where you are today. Even a glass of white milk is better than those ooey gooey Satanic cookies. Granted I am allergic to chocolate but I have indulged in their 1st cousins peanut butter and butterscotch chip soft cookies. Not only a moment on your lips, forever on your hips but they never flew by my thighs. My thunder thighs would feed 2 cannibal families Easter Dinner. Right now it is 5 pm, and Grouchy Ghrelin says I'm hungry. Not just in my head, I want a tossed salad with a sliced hard boiled egg and sliced tomato in it, dressing on the side, thank you! Why don't I go get it? Because I'm posting instead of letting GG win the argument. I hope Dr Needleman wrecks his little red wagon in July with my surgery. I'll even accept a Jackson-Pratt drain in gratitude! I too want to FEEL BETTER!😝🌈👍

Hmm. It varies for different things for me. I've gotten nausea with some things. Stomach cramps with others. Gas. Diarrhea. It just depends. For example, I don't deal well with sucralose or fake sugars (though I'm okay with stevia) and it's way TMI, but you asked so... I get really REALLY bad gas. My stomach makes noise and EVERYTHING. And then it ends up with diarrhea so... no fake sugars for me! 😅 I was bad with dairy for a while, but I tolerate it better now than I did early on, which is good because I love my cottage cheese and yogurt! I haven't tried jello since liquid phase because it caused indigestion for me and it was painful and super uncomfortable! I tried it twice in the hospital and twice and home and was so done after that. On the bright side... I have yet to vomit. Everyone was telling me I'd for sure get sick and vomit and I'm almost two and a half months out and haven't vomitted even once. So I say HA to all those who told me I'd get sick!

April 16 is my surgery date. I am super excited. I am keeping a positive attitude. I have read about the signs of complications and am aware of them, but not I am prepared at this point for when I come home from the hospital. I have already started the pre-surgical diet, by easing into the full liquid phase. I thought it might be easier to do it this way. I made my last "big meal" a night out with my daughter. When we got to the restaurant, I found myself picking something totally healthy. Tasted wonderful, but was VERY healthy and I found myself very mindful of what I was eating and how I was eating it. It was then that I really realized that I had already made a huge shift in my way of thinking and knew I was really ready for this. Oh, I had broiled fish, steamed broccoli and a small side salad, light on the dressing. I do sugar free yogurt for breakfast, two protein shakes during the day and then eat a salad with some form of protein for dinner. At times I have some sugar free pudding for a snack. That has been my ease into the full liquid thing. I have to do the liquid phase for one week before surgery and then three weeks after surgery before moving to pureed foods. Best of luck to all of us! Happy loosing.

I was tired of the Protein shakes the day after discharge. I have tried yogurt, cheese and eggs, Soup and today a little tuna, the jury is still out on the tuna. I also ate some Peanut Butter with half a banana. It gets old quick. My concern is that I am eating right at 4oz but haven't pushed it to see how much I can tolerate. I'm full after one bite of anything so it's hard to read my body as far as being full. Best of luck to you!!

When I moved on from the liquid phase I started with Oikos Triple Zero yogurt, farina cereal with almond milk, sweetener & cinnamon. During the soft food stage, I added scrambled eggs. When I moved on to the modified regular diet, I had eggs with other cooking methods, high protein/ low carb bagels with light cream cheese, oatmeal with mashed banana or sweeter & cinnamon. I have also had protein waffles & pancakes with sugar-free syrup. I recently purchased the keto bread from Aldi and had that toasted with egg & cheese for the first time today. I often still start the day with a protein shake, just to make sure I get that protein in. I think I want to start making smoothies with some fruits, veggies, & added protein now that I am getting close to 3 months out. I hope you get some good ideas! It is helpful to hear what others eat!

Yeah, my go-to on weekdays is a 30-gram ready make shake (either Ensure or Premier Protein). The increased protein (Carnation is 13g) would help keep you full. I drink mine around 7:30 and don't start to feel any hunger until 11. If you need something else, like a small snack to get you through to lunch, I would get Breakstones cottage cheese (comes in an individual package like yogurt does) or individual servings of plain Greek yogurt (you could add some of the Carnation powder to it to increase protein and make it tastier).