Hey all, I'm rounding out week one of mushy foods and I don't know about any of you but mushy food has been a god-send for me. I was losing my mind the last week of liquids. Also, it's helped jump start getting a few more pounds off.

I just thought I'd share a few of the meal ideas that have been working for me, make sure that these are acceptable foods for you, and what you're surgeon is telling you!

2 Scrambled eggs fluffed up with a tablespoon of skim milk and half a slice of Sargento low fat cheddar. (Use just the whites if you want to shave even more calories, but I'm finding that 200-300 calorie meals every three hours or so are just fine for me)

Deviled Eggs have been a great snack. Just hardboil two eggs (or one) slice them in half, add a little bit of mustard and a TINY bit of mayo (or yogurt, or no fat sour cream). My friend enjoys hardboiled eggs with mustard powder on them instead of making them deviled which saves her calories. However, I find that slicing two eggs into four portions makes me feel like I"m getting a little bit more. (I've learned to play head games with myself haha)

Lasagna - brown a half a pound of the lean ground beast of your choice with some italian seasoning and garlic powder (I used elk, because I'm lucky to have an endless supply of game meat. If you can get your hands on it do, it's super lean and is about as organic as you can get. If you really want a red meat and can't don't have a game hook up, I recommend using bison which you can ussually find at a local supermarket). Drain any fat out of the meat. Stick that in the blender with some beef broth. Before you blend it though cook some frozen broccoli and/or spinach until it's super soft then throw it in the blender with the meat. Puree that up. In a small baking dish layer the meat/veggie paste low/no fat riccotta cheese and/or low/no fat cottage cheese. Top it with Pasta sauce (I like the dollar cans of Hunts because their are no chunks in it!) Rip up a baby bel or laughing cow or low fat string cheese and throw that on top of the pasta. Cover and bake at 350 twenty or so minutes! Using the elk and calorie counting this out it's approx 333 calories if you eat half of it. Which is gonna probably be more than you can eat so I counted it as about 200 calories per serving a serving being one fourth of the entire dish.

If you like sushi - mash half an avacado with 1/3 of a 6 oz. can of tuna a tablespoon of mayo (or sour cream/yogurt) and a tiny bit of asian hot sauce. Bam you got mash sushi! This is a little higher in fat and calories than you may want as avacados are higher in fat/calories, but for me it was a good satisfying meal and I felt I can afford that kind of fat calories if it's an occiasonal treat. Also, for me it's one thing to have that amount of fat calories coming from a organic piece of fruit as opposed to a bag of chips or a hot dog or whatever, make sense? Real vs. processed!

And my most favorite meal that I've had so far! Greek Smoked Salmon Salad!!

Blend 2/3 of a cup of plain no fat yogurt (or no fat sour cream) with 1/3 of a cup low fat mayo (low fat mayo is usually pretty gross but in this recipe it's fine) a tablespoon fo lemon juice 1 teaspoon of dill weed 2 teaspoons of dried parsley and a teaspoon of lemon pepper. Mix that all up nice and then add 1 medium cucumber chopped up as tiny and finely as you can, 1/2 a bell pepper chopped up again as tiny and finely as you can, 1/2 of a red onion chopped up as tiny and finely as you can. 2-3 ozs of smoked salmon chopped REALLY as finely as you can. Blend that together refrigerate for a for hours. Delicious! I'm not sure what the calories on this is the recipe I modifed it from says 423 calories per serving (which is a 1/3 of the entirety) but that includes peeta bread and 14 ozs of salmon so I'm gonna assume it's closer to 200 calories per serving. I found 2-3 ozs of smoked salmon was plenty of salmon for this recipe but you can use 14 ozs of non-smoked if you want it chunkier and less rich.

Anyway, I hope that these come in helpful for some one! You can still eat very well while on mushy if you get creative. Be slow though and see how something sits before you mow down. I'm finding what some people can eat with the band other people steer clear off. This is just what's been working for me. Also if you have any recipe ideas you'd like to share, please do! I'm always on the hunt for new ideas!

Wow, thanks for the recipes. I'm not there yet, but when I get to the mushy stage, I'll definitely be trying your recipes. I've been trying to think of some high protein food that I'll actually be able to eat and not have to depend on my liquid protein drink for all of my nourishment? Do you feel any restriction with your band or are you just using will power at your stage? You probably don't have much of a fill in yet, right?

I'm passed the mushies stage, but wow these are great ideas! Thanks! I'll be giving them a try.

DDRobins -

I haven't had a fill yet, but I'm still only able to eat arond a cup or so of mush as it stands at the moment. Probably a combo of swelling and my tummy shrinking from liquids and what not.

When people stress the head hunger, they're right. That's been my biggest battle is not just snacking when I feel like it. I'm a big night binge eater and so to combat that I've started to go to bed a little earlier which helps.

As far as dealing with what people have called bandster hell, how I'm dealing with that is KEEPING MYSELF BUSY!!!! Spending time with friends, going on easy hikes (I've lost around seventeen pounds and I think a lot of that is I've made sure to walk every day and believe me it's already easier. I started out at 318 I'm down to 301 and I can already tell the difference). I've been reading books as opposed to watching tv/movies as I know watching tv is a trigger for me to want to eat. We went to the movies the other day and I brought a flavored sugar free tea to subsittue candy and threw an ensure in my bag as good measure in case I got head hungry worked well for me. Um, doing crafts like needle point, bought some coloring books and have colored. Rewarded myself for being good the first week by buying a plant and a cool flower pot and spent and hour repotting that plant. Um.... using the money I'm saving and staying good with my diet to do things for me that I don't normally do (getting a manicure today). Just staying really busy and being as active as my body will allow me to be. Can't wait to get the go ahead to go swim.

The mental part of this has been the hardest part - but eating when I'm hungry and only when I'm hungry (maybe the occaisonal skinny cow ice cream bar in the evening if I'm being cray-cray) has acutally made me feel a lot better.

Finding out how food centric my life was before vs. the last three weeks has been a real eye opener. Before when I would do weight watchers I cheated all the time because I could. Now that the band is in there and it's life or death important that I don't eat my friends tater tots at the bar has kind of helped me keep myself on the ball.

I'm really lucky to have a support system. If you don't have one, get yourself one. Find at least one person who will listen to you and support you and be helpful. I've got a few friends who've joined me in solidarity so I'm lucky for that. Journalling is also a great way to get your feelings out and waste some time if you feel like eating (it's hard to eat and write haha)

Another recipe - non fat veggie refried Beans seasoned with taco sauce, half a slice of sargento low fat cheddar, no fat sour cream, and some chalula. Tastes as good a taco bell bean burrito!

This was fantastic.

I am not banded yet so I thought the "mush stage" would be baby food, yogurt, etc....what you describe is REAL food LOL and sounds delish, either in the mush stage or after.

Thanks for sharing!