Hello Madam,

Anyone else, please feel free to chime in. My question is; once you start on soft food and then on to a regular diet, how in the world did you manage to stay below 30 carbs per day? Can you give a few examples of what your days consisted of, food-wise? I like to think I'm pretty good with watching carbs but man, below 30 is tough! I'm managing between 40-50, which isn't too bad, but I want to keep steady loss continuing and avoid any more stalls if possible.

This transition phase is trickier than I expected too; going from sip, sip, sipping alllllll day long to several hours per day total around meals is tricky. Also, I find I want to lightly graze throughout the day rather than have actual meals. I know better though and am working towards that. I also find I am having more head hunger but am dealing with that ok. I think it's just now that so many more food doors are opening back up that I want to play!!! Oh yeah, and it does seem that my sleeve volume has gone up quite a bit even though I can only eat very small portions, of course. Guess all the swelling is gone and the healing is pretty much done. Yay. Luckily, nothing has disagreed with me so far, I have been eat just about everything I've slowly introduced to the new tummy.

Thanks so much for everyone's support in this amazing journey!

Carol

I only ate mashed potatoes minimally. They helped me when nothing else would settle with my tummy. But, that only lasted temporarily.

I eat fat-free or 2% milk cheeses, pork rinds, beef Jerky, and those steak nuggets. Plain, non-fat Fage Greek yogurt was a staple I could only eat 1/4 cup of it, with 9grms of carbs per cup, I was getting a little more than 2grms per serving. I sweetened it with Splenda.

I stuck to 3-4 meals per day no snacking/grazing. Once I got to full purees/soft foods, chicken/tuna/egg salad became staples, along with laughing cow low fat cheese. I ate A LOT of deli meat with laughing cow and cream cheese.

I definitely didn't eat cooked carrots, or other high glycemic index veggies. I never cared about net carbs vs. carbs. A carb is a carb for me. I ate a lot of green Beans and steamed broccoli florets as well. An entire large stalk of broccoli contains 20grams of carbs. I figured if I'm eating 3 little florets that can't be too many carbs.

It's pretty easy really, not to eat a lot of carbs. Stick to meat, eggs, cheese, and fish. I ate a lot of chicken salad,egg salad, tuna salad, ground turkey meat cooked with taco seasoning, and added a little cheese and sour cream on top. Greek yogurt does not have nearly the carb count as the other yogurts. I flavor them with sf syrup.

I like to roll up a slice of virginia baked ham and a piece of cheese. You can put the flavored cream cheese on there too, if you like. Really, if you stay away from rice, Pasta, bread, etc, you can have just about anything else.

The distinction I make is in avoiding processed carbs or white carbs. I allow myself high carb foods like beans, quinoa, small amounts of whole grains. I don't eat them daily but I don't avoid healthy carbs. I don't allow myself white rice, white potatoes, sugar, corn syrup, white flour. If I eat a grain, it must be a whole grain.

The carbs I count are unavoidable carbs like the ones in greek yogurt, skim milk and the few carbs in my protein drinks.

I miss vegetables..I haven't been including them lately and I want to start adding them back in. I'm just working on finding space for them in my daily portions.

it can be hard to get the veggies in. I know we're supposed to do protein first, but sometimes I eat veggies first for that exact reason.

I don't particulary watch "carbs"; however, I'll have some type of bread or steel cut oatmeal in the AM and try and focus on putting "healthy" things in my body (protien, Fiber, non-processed foods). One caution I'd like to throw out is...watch your thinking about carbs...learn about the balanced approach because something that has carbs can also be high in fiber and protien which are good for you and kinda counter each other (Beans or legumes as an example). There is a balance...in ALL MY DIET books, TAPES, VIDEOS :lol0:(I'm laughing as I type that)...the 2 books I found to be helpful about nutrition were Dr. Phil's book (the book makes sense, it just has his name on it...not really a fan) and YOU on a diet by Memet Oz (Dr. OZ).:thumbup1:

Balance, portion control and excersize are key....balance all three:-):lol0:

The distinction I make is in avoiding processed carbs or white carbs. I allow myself high carb foods like Beans, quinoa, small amounts of whole grains. I don't eat them daily but I don't avoid healthy carbs. I don't allow myself white rice, white potatoes, sugar, corn syrup, white flour. If I eat a grain, it must be a whole grain.

The carbs I count are unavoidable carbs like the ones in greek yogurt, skim milk and the few carbs in my Protein drinks.

I miss vegetables..I haven't been including them lately and I want to start adding them back in. I'm just working on finding space for them in my daily portions.

The 2 veggies I find go down easily with a cheese and/or meat protein are, baby spinach leaves (steamed or boiled) and broccoli (cooked tender). I have not tried any others yet but I can easily get a decent portion of either with a soft fillet of fish or boiled and seasoned shrimp. I try to eat a serving daily with dinner.