Food Before and After Photos

[lvidacovich 372]

7 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

Actually, Fluffy was concerned about your volume. What volume/meal is your doctor advising? I know I was still only eating a couple of tablespoons of soft foods at a month out.

I'll have to look at my handbook but 3-4oz per meal seems in line with what expectations were.

My handbook is at home so I checked some others out that were online including Tufts and 3-4 oz seemed correct for the full foods and even the end of the soft foods phase.

My doc also seems to move faster than most. I had 2 weeks liquid, 2 weeks soft and then I was cleared for anything other than salad and raw veggies.

Edited November 26, 2019 by lvidacovich

[ms.sss 14,757]

20 minutes ago, lvidacovich said:

I'll have to look at my handbook but 3-4oz per meal seems in line with what expectations were.

My doc also seems to move faster than most. I had 2 weeks liquid, 2 weeks soft and then I was cleared for anything other than salad and raw veggies.

You're a dude, taller and with a higher starting weight. Your progression is going to be different from the female, shorter, lower-starting-weight perspective. Listen to your body, and follow your prescribed plan if it works for you. Which is exactly what you are doing. 👍🏼

With that said: Take direction from the medical professionals with a healthy dose of self-advocation/research. Not all doctors/NUTS have the same view, and a single view may not be applicable to all people.

Also: 40 lbs in 5 weeks is A-MAY-ZING.

Edited November 26, 2019 by ms.sss

[FluffyChix 17,410]

1 minute ago, lvidacovich said:

I'll have to look at my handbook but 3-4oz per meal seems in line with what expectations were.

My doc also seems to move faster than most. I had 2 weeks liquid, 2 weeks soft and then I was cleared for anything other than salad and raw veggies.

Let me just tell you that 3-4oz in the book is referencing VOLUME!!!!!!!! It took the longest time to understand this for me. But VOLUME is king. As in 3-4oz by VOLUME = 1/3c-1/2c of VOLUME per meal.

Wanna guess how much Protein that is by weight?

Well, go put a measuring cup on a scale. Then cut your meat up VERY tiny. Or use ground beef/turkey--well drained so it isn't wet or saucy. And drumroll please...

1oz = 1/4c VOLUME.

So to this day at 20+ months, I still set a measuring cup on the scale and I know my limit is supposed to be 1cup. But I do 1 cup of solid + 1/4 cup of slider (1oz grape tomatoes + 1oz avocado) cuz it makes me feel greater satiety and lasts longer with me feeling "not hungry." And then I WEIGH my protein into the cup first. THEN I weigh my veggie into the cup. That means AT BEST I get to have 1-2oz of veggies by weight to fill the remaining cup of food BY VOLUME! And I'm 20+ months out. NO WAY would I be eating 3-4oz by weight at 4weeks and 287lbs. No way.

So if my meal = 3oz of protein BY WEIGHT, guess what?

chicken butt.

That means I have between 2/3-3/4cup of food JUST FROM PROTEIN BY VOLUME!!!! And I'm 20months+! You are 4 weeks! Holy schnarkies Batman! I get you're a dude, but honestly capacity is capacity irrespective of sex at this point in your healing.

I say this cuz I care about your well-being and outcome. I get you're a dude. And dudes are more metabolically blessed than us post-meno women. But in my time here, I have seen many dudes your size NEVER make it to goal and who regain substantial portions of their weight cuz they never bothered to learn NEW BEHAVIORS with food and satiety. Just saying....You do you, boo.

[lvidacovich 372]

1 minute ago, ms.sss said:

You're a dude, taller and with a higher starting weight. Your progression is going to be different from the female, shorter, lower-starting-weight perspective. Listen to your body, and follow your prescribed plan if it works for you. Which is exactly what you are doing. 👍🏼

With that said: Take direction from the medical professionals with a healthy dose of self-advocation/research. Not all doctors/NUTS have the same view, and a single view may not applicable to all people.

Also: 40 lbs in 5 weeks is A-MAY-ZING.

Thank you! I'm happy with my progress so far. I have my next appointment next week so I'll chat with them and make sure I'm on the track they expect.

[FluffyChix 17,410]

1 minute ago, lvidacovich said:

Thank you! I'm happy with my progress so far. I have my next appointment next week so I'll chat with them and make sure I'm on the track they expect.

More importantly talk to them about HOW TO DO VOLUME and where you need to be for your stage of healing. You do not want to unintentionally fork your surgery doing what you perceive to be correct.

[ms.sss 14,757]

8 minutes ago, lvidacovich said:

My doc also seems to move faster than most. I had 2 weeks liquid, 2 weeks soft and then I was cleared for anything other than salad and raw veggies. 

I had more or less the same instructions, but with a more gradual progression: 2 weeks Fluid, 1 week pureed, 1 week minced, 1 week soft , then cleared for EVERYTHING after that.

...though even though I was cleared for everything, it didn't mean that I actually went for everything. I chose to stay low-cal, ultra-low-carb for the entirety of my weight loss phase. This was against my NUT's direction, but she wasn't overly concerned with my choices. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[lvidacovich 372]

4 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

Let me just tell you that 3-4oz in the book is referencing VOLUME!!!!!!!! It took the longest time to understand this for me. But VOLUME is king. As in 3-4oz by VOLUME = 1/3c-1/2c of VOLUME per meal.

Wanna guess how much Protein that is by weight?

Well, go put a measuring cup on a scale. Then cut your meat up VERY tiny. Or use ground beef/turkey--well drained so it isn't wet or saucy. And drumroll please...

1oz = 1/4c VOLUME.

So to this day at 20+ months, I still set a measuring cup on the scale and I know my limit is supposed to be 1cup. But I do 1 cup of solid + 1/4 cup of slider (1oz grape tomatoes + 1oz avocado) cuz it makes me feel greater satiety and lasts longer with me feeling "not hungry." And then I WEIGH my Protein into the cup first. THEN I weigh my veggie into the cup. That means AT BEST I get to have 1-2oz of veggies by weight to fill the remaining cup of food BY VOLUME! And I'm 20+ months out. NO WAY would I be eating 3-4oz by weight at 4weeks and 287lbs. No way.

So if my meal = 3oz of protein BY WEIGHT, guess what?

chicken butt.

That means I have between 2/3-3/4cup of food JUST FROM PROTEIN BY VOLUME!!!! And I'm 20months+! You are 4 weeks! Holy schnarkies Batman! I get you're a dude, but honestly capacity is capacity irrespective of sex at this point in your healing.

I say this cuz I care about your well-being and outcome. I get you're a dude. And dudes are more metabolically blessed than us post-meno women. But in my time here, I have seen many dudes your size NEVER make it to goal and who regain substantial portions of their weight cuz they never bothered to learn NEW BEHAVIORS with food and satiety. Just saying....You do you, boo.

I do appreciate your concern. And I can guarantee that the 6 mini meatballs I ate would have been less than 1/2 cup if I ground them up. I'm still barely able to get 1 egg with some cheese down. To give an example I used to regularly eat 4 or 5 egg omelettes with 8oz of sausage and cheese in them. I would have eaten that whole bag of mini meatballs on some rolls with sauce and cheese lol.

But now I'm scared I've already stretched out my sleeve too much and it'll fail to give me weight loss.

[lvidacovich 372]

4 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

More importantly talk to them about HOW TO DO VOLUME and where you need to be for your stage of healing. You do not want to unintentionally fork your surgery doing what you perceive to be correct.

This is good. I'll make sure that I understand their suggestions and if it's weight or volume they're referring to.

[FluffyChix 17,410]

That's all I'm saying. Cuz I KNOW and SEE how you are applying the tool. And you're doing great! But so much of this is total mindset. And what I was saying is this early out, it's important to not seek returning to that pre-surgery time when you could eat more. Cuz what happens is it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy and it's done by eating just 1-2 extra bites per meal every day, day in and day out--missing your satiety cues from surgery. It kinda makes you blind to recognizing satiety in it's earliest signal. Right?

[lvidacovich 372]

Just now, FluffyChix said:

That's all I'm saying. Cuz I KNOW and SEE how you are applying the tool. And you're doing great! But so much of this is total mindset. And what I was saying is this early out, it's important to not seek returning to that pre-surgery time when you could eat more. Cuz what happens is it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy and it's done by eating just 1-2 extra bites per meal every day, day in and day out--missing your satiety cues from surgery. It kinda makes you blind to recognizing satiety in it's earliest signal. Right?

You're 100% on. I need to embrace the restriction and not try to fight it. I'll stick to weighing and voluming (is that a think) my foods and not push things!

I even texted my wife last night that I made WAY too many meatballs and stopped at 6 when I started to feel like I was full. Thank you chix!!

[sillykitty 10,708]

18 hours ago, lvidacovich said:

Curious - why does everyone seem to make bigger/normal portions only to eat 1/3 or less? I can't imagine than an omelette reheats all that well?

I usually don't. My bf served up the meatballs and Protein Pasta in the pic. He honestly knows better as well, I just don't think he was thinking (too distracted by his Eagles losing 😂 😭)

[lvidacovich 372]

1 minute ago, sillykitty said:

I usually don't. My bf served up the meatballs and Protein Pasta in the pic. He honestly knows better as well, I just don't think he was thinking (too distracted by his Eagles losing 😂 😭)

I 100% understand football taking over things I should know to be doing haha.

[sillykitty 10,708]

Holiday season has arrived ... Pork Tamale

MFP nutritionals seems to be way off for tamales. Far too few calories, fat & carbs in every listing it seems.

[FluffyChix 17,410]

22 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

Holiday season has arrived ... Pork Tamale

MFP nutritionals seems to be way off for tamales. Far too few calories, fat & carbs in every listing it seems.

Let Fatsgiving officially begin! Tamales.....

[MarvelGirl25 2,168]

40 minutes ago, sillykitty said:

Holiday season has arrived ... Pork Tamale

MFP nutritionals seems to be way off for tamales. Far too few calories, fat & carbs in every listing it seems.

I start making these tonight with a few family members! So delicious but soooooo much work!