ok so i was banded on the 15th.. and im just about to start my mushy foods week. now i know we need to eat 5-6 small meals a day and of course it has to be healthy. could you guys give me some examples of what you eat on a day to day basis? how do you eat smaller portions while still being able to get your daily servings of fruit, veggies, protien..etc?

P.S. im a vegetarian, so if you have any tips for me, it would be greatly appreciated

thanks!:biggrin:

well when i was in the soft food stage i ate yogurt and added some protien powder to alot of what i had.. i had soups , pudding , mashed potatos, mushy broccoli, beans.. i never put anything in the blender. but adding unflavored protien powder to ur food helps with keeping u full also i wasnt alout to eat 6 times a day only 3 with 2 protien shakes inbetween and that was only for the first month now im only aloud 3 meals a day and that it d0c doesnt want me drinking my calories.. but hope some of my info helped.. good luck

When I was eating mushy food, I did a lot of yogurt, cottage cheese and scrambled eggs. The eggs made me fill full the longest. I eat only 1/4 C per meal and 1 scrambled egg would do it for me.

Refried bean, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, yogurt. I also make a pot of split pea soup and put small portions in the freezer. It was wonderful to eat something homemade.

My surgeon's regimen is actually very limited---it emphasizes Protein (JUST protein) at the beginning. Two months out, veggies are added back in, and three months out, fruits.

He also is a three-meal-a-day guy. I find that I do better with 5 smaller meals (same number of calories over the course of the day). Not really because of hunger at this point, but because if I don't have protein supplements as Snacks, I don't reach my protein goal. (I aim for 80-100 g/day.)

I start out with a warm Protein Shake soon after I get up. I need this because I take a number of supplement capsules, and the warm liquid helps the Gelatin dissolve so they don't get stuck.

After I exercise, I have brunch. This is usually around 10-ish. It definitely is my carbiest meal of the day---usually chicken chili with black Beans and a little cheddar. (I'm weird; I prefer savory stuff like this to Breakfast food.)

For lunch, I have 3-4 ounces of protein (turkey, tuna, something like that) and 1/2 c. nonstarchy veggies. Sometimes I add a fruit. If I do, I save the veggie for dinner.

For dinner, I focus on protein. If I haven't had a veg for lunch, I'll have it now. But usually, I'm tighter at dinnertime so I don't tend to want as much.

Before bed, I take more supplements, and have another warm Protein Drink.

All told, I get ~800-1000 cal/day. Meals are protein, protein + nonstarchy veg, and protein + fruit (some days).

I won't add grains/starches other than legumes in until I reach 75 percent of excess weight lost. We're asked to commit to a year of really focusing on loss, with this very restrictive regimen. After that, things loosen up quite a bit.

So far, so good :eek:

for mushies or generally?

I tend to eat Cereal and fruit kind of things for breakfast, or shame, skip it all together.

Mid morning I've started eating a snack simply because I've started teaching and I have a defined break then. I usually have a piece of fruit and the other day I had a small bowl of vegetable soup.

lunch is soup, or a salad (with chicken, tuna or egg) or crackers and cheese.

I dont usually eat in the afternoon, when I do, its not good, lol, usually its when I'll give into sugar cravings.

dinner is meat and three veg - last night corned beef, mashed potato/pumpkin and steamed veg.

during mushies I made a lot lentil dahl, soft salads of avocado/skinned tomato/skinned cucumber/chick peas and a can of flavoured tuna, yogurt, soups etc.