Hi, I'm a newbie, 12 weeks out on Tuesday. Sleeved 4/19.

33 year old female

5'0"

HW: 240 lbs
SW: 190 lbs
CW: 163 lbs
GW: 110 lbs

I'm currently on Phase 3 Soft / Semi-Solid. 600-800 calories, 80 grams Protein. I work out 1 hour 5-7 days per week - weights and track in my wheelchair. Currently averaging 2 lbs loss per week.

I'm a paraplegic with Spina Bifida fighting a pressure wound on my foot. I'm desperate to get all 80 grams of protein without going over my calorie limit. I try Protein shakes but they take 1 1/2 hours to drink. Solid protein only takes about 20-30 minutes to eat but I can only get down about 2 oz at a time. With both I'm full for hours after and I have yet to ever even feel hungry. I have not had any problems with any specific foods. Not allowed to eat Beans, nuts, seeds, peels, raw veggies yet. I measure and weigh everything I ingest except Water and coffee.

I'm curious if any of the veterans out there struggled to get 80 grams of protein at this stage and what they did about it? Any sample meal plans? Anybody using a wheelchair and / or trying to heal pressure wounds? By the way, this is not a diabetic ulcer.

The nutritionist gave me a sample plan but it has a LOT more food on it than I can currently handle. I wouldn't be so worried about working my way up to more food if it wasn't for this wound I'm trying to heal. I have to get in 80 grams for wound healing.

Thank you for any input you can give!

After surgery the three most important requirements are meeting your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. I had RNY gastric bypass and I am 3 years post-op. So my program is similar but not the same as the requirements of sleeve patients. I hated drinking protein shakes. But I drank them because I could not reach my protein goals without them. But as my meal volume increased, I was able to phase out my protein shakes. I went from 3 a day, down to 2, down to 1 and finally at a year and a half when I reached 1 cup meal allotment per meal I stopped drinking protein shakes completely. I was able to do this because I concentrated on high protein meals. Soft foods (chili and soup) went down much easier than hard foods such as steak, so this is what I mainly ate. I have included some recipes at the end of the following article in case you might wish to try them. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Sometimes I still struggle at 22 months post op. I can only eat a couple of ounces of dense Protein at one sitting so I am still drinking one Protein shake per day.

I will also use cottage cheese and Greek yogurt as Snacks which helps but there are days where my 70gram protein goal is still short at the end of the night. I will usually have a half of a Protein Bar or some beef Jerky to push me over the top.

Part of my struggle is my inability to eat eggs post surgery. I still cannot eat them without getting very sick to my stomach so I don't.