Yesterday I got the ok from my team to move onto all foods as tolerated but more specifically, raw fruits & veggies, nuts, grains (if I choose) but not potatoes, rice, bread.....

So I have had fresh blueberries and a cutie mandarin so far and did fine with both (last night/today). It was heaven! LOL

My question is....even though I dream of a huge salad with tons of veggies and a little chicken...(I know that isnt happening)....how did you start incorporating fruit/veggies (mainly raw veggies) and still hit your protein goals. I know protein first for life and I will keep that up but I really want to try having some veggies. I will prob have 5 small meals a day (plus a shake spread out through the day) and I was thinking of trying hummus and carrots tonight for my last meal. I also will have cooked vegs with my meals more if i can fit them. Fruit is pretty easy cuz i can just toss a few berries in my yogurt.

TYIA

I'm almost 3 years out. Here's what my day looks like:

Breakfast - shake with 1 cup of Fairlife Skim Milk, protein powder and frozen fruit of my choice and coffee (35-ish grams of protein)

Morning snack - Skyr Icelandic provision yogurt and a piece of fruit (10g protein)

Lunch - Mixed green salad with 4 ounces of chicken and 1 tb of balsamic vinaigrette (31g protein)

Afternoon snack - cheese (1.5 ounces) and grapes or another small fruit (10 g)

Dinner - 3-5 ounces protein, small salad and small veg (asparagus, broccoli, etc.) 20+ grams of protein depending on the meat at dinner.

I usually add another shake in and some carbs, but that's because I work out for about 1.5 hours each day burning anywhere from 700-1000 calories in a workout and I can't go into that much of a deficit or my body will eat muscle instead of fat. I'm training for a major competition. Hope this helps.

I started playing with small salads at about a month our when our plan opened up to "anything" tolerated. I found that if I cut back my normal meat serving of 3 oz to 2, that I could fit in about another 3 oz of salad as the combination seemed to be somewhat slider-ish. So I would have a couple ounces of leftover chicken, steak or ham along with about 10g each of cheese, chopped spinach (I preferred that to lettuce as it has a somewhat better nutritional profile) tomato, avo, scallion, snow peas, broccoli, pepper, etc. (whatever was in the fridge). My basic guideline was that I was getting enough protein in over the day, and by that time it was fairly predictable for me. I also started having more "combination" meals - stews and stir fries - that were heavily meat at first, but got progressively more veg intense as time and capacity increased. Overall, I sought to achieve at least an "homage" to a normal, balanced diet within the limits of my post-op weight loss needs, and this helped ease the maintenance transition markedly when that came as I didn't have to change diet concepts from "dieting" to "maintenance".

This doc promotes a "veg first" approach after a few months, and while I don't quite get on with everything he says, the volume progression that he notes is consistent with my experience, and going more veg heavy over time is a good way to fill out that increasing volume with something that is bulky, low calorie and high nutrition.

My overall daily goal (several years out) is for ten servings of fruit and veg which I rarely hit, but am consistently in the 7-8 servings range, and rarely under 5. That's along with 100-120g of protein, so it isn't sacrificing that. Of course, adjustments need to be made for personal protein needs and personal calorie/metabolic limits. Overall, my diet today is not much different than it was while losing post-op, other than the non-protein segment was lower, but philosophically the same.

@RickM - that was a really helpful and interesting video! Thank you.

Thank you for the replies and video- very helpful and interesting.

On 03/13/2019 at 09:50, CurvyMom said:

Yesterday I got the ok from my team to move onto all foods as tolerated but more specifically, raw fruits & veggies, nuts, grains (if I choose) but not potatoes, rice, bread.....

So I have had fresh blueberries and a cutie mandarin so far and did fine with both (last night/today). It was heaven! LOL

My question is....even though I dream of a huge salad with tons of veggies and a little chicken...(I know that isnt happening)....how did you start incorporating fruit/veggies (mainly raw veggies) and still hit your Protein goals. I know protein first for life and I will keep that up but I really want to try having some veggies. I will prob have 5 small meals a day (plus a shake spread out through the day) and I was thinking of trying hummus and carrots tonight for my last meal. I also will have cooked vegs with my meals more if i can fit them. fruit is pretty easy cuz i can just toss a few berries in my yogurt.

TYIA

I think we’re right around the same surgery time and I’ve been tolerating spinach and 50/50 blends well. I do have to watch the stems are pinched off or they can sort of catch. It’s my go to if I have just a bit of leftover protein. But obviously, trust your gut (literally ???)
And thank you @RickM ! Very informative video. There should be a video only link thread on here ?

Just now, DanaC84 said:

I think we’re right around the same surgery time and I’ve been tolerating spinach and 50/50 blends well. I do have to watch the stems are pinched off or they can sort of catch. It’s my go to if I have just a bit of leftover protein. But obviously, trust your gut (literally ???)
And thank you @RickM ! Very informative video. There should be a video only link thread on here ?

Good to know- i had cauli fried rice today which is fine but I really struggle with protein + veggie at the same time cuz protein fills me up so fast. Drives me bonkers but I guess this is life...for now at least.

and I think the sugar i fruit is making me crave food- just food in general- I need to experiment but today i was hungry and I haven't been hungry at all yet. Only change is fruit.....sigh

49 minutes ago, CurvyMom said:

Good to know- i had cauli fried rice today which is fine but I really struggle with protein + veggie at the same time cuz protein fills me up so fast. Drives me bonkers but I guess this is life...for now at least.

and I think the sugar i fruit is making me crave food- just food in general- I need to experiment but today i was hungry and I haven't been hungry at all yet. Only change is fruit.....sigh

Yes, I do tend to fork through it to pick up more of the protein. I have to watch my fruits too. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with wls or just years of conditioning from being a diabetic. Some mind sets are hard to lose.

19 hours ago, CurvyMom said:

Good to know- i had cauli fried rice today which is fine but I really struggle with protein + veggie at the same time cuz protein fills me up so fast. Drives me bonkers but I guess this is life...for now at least.

and I think the sugar i fruit is making me crave food- just food in general- I need to experiment but today i was hungry and I haven't been hungry at all yet. Only change is fruit.....sigh

This is totally normal for where you are in the evolution. I too get hungrier when I add in too much fruit. I can do about an ounce or two of berries or a green tart apple with peel a day without increased hunger.

One thing my RD told me which works great for me - still at 13months out is that fill pouch with protein at meals. But you can plan mini meals that have mostly veg! In the early days that helped me.

Early On:

Breakfast: Protein shake (or green smoothie with protein powder + frozen spinach + blueberries + psyllium + unsw. cash milk) = 30g of protein

MS: red bell pepper, celery or cucumbers or carrots and a yogurt ranch sauce

Lunch: 2-3oz protein: roll up with meat/cheese + 1oz of some raw veg (cucumber, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, avocado)

AS: Mixed green salad like Rick outlines + feta cheese + pumpkin or sunflower seeds or walnuts/almonds/pecans

Dinner: 2-3oz protein (grilled or pan sauteed) + 1oz cooked veggies + 1oz avocado/tomato

BS: 1/2oz almonds + 1oz Granny Smith Apple

NOW at 13months: I try not to snack, but do schedule a bedtime JIC snack. And if I'm hungry through the day, then the ONLY thing I get is 1 hard boiled egg OR raw veggies with yogurt Ranch dip

Breakfast: I still alternate green smoothies with eating egg puffs with spinach and mushrooms

Lunch: Salad with 2oz protein or Green Soup with bone broth and veggies + 2oz protein

Dinner: 3-4oz protein + 1-2oz cooked veggie + 1oz avocado/tomato

BS: 1/2oz almonds + 1oz Granny Smith Apple OR 1 GG brancrisp + 1-2tbsp almond butter

Just now, FluffyChix said:

This is totally normal for where you are in the evolution. I too get hungrier when I add in too much fruit. I can do about an ounce or two of berries or a green tart apple with peel a day without increased hunger.

One thing my RD told me which works great for me - still at 13months out is that fill pouch with protein at meals. But you can plan mini meals that have mostly veg! In the early days that helped me.

Early On:

Breakfast: Protein Shake (or green smoothie with Protein Powder + frozen spinach + blueberries + psyllium + unsw. cash milk) = 30g of protein

MS: red bell pepper, celery or cucumbers or carrots and a yogurt ranch sauce

Lunch: 2-3oz protein: roll up with meat/cheese + 1oz of some raw veg (cucumber, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, avocado)

AS: Mixed green salad like Rick outlines + feta cheese + pumpkin or sunflower seeds or walnuts/almonds/pecans

Dinner: 2-3oz protein (grilled or pan sauteed) + 1oz cooked veggies + 1oz avocado/tomato

BS: 1/2oz almonds + 1oz Granny Smith Apple

NOW at 13months: I try not to snack, but do schedule a bedtime JIC snack. And if I'm hungry through the day, then the ONLY thing I get is 1 hard boiled egg OR raw veggies with yogurt Ranch dip

Breakfast: I still alternate green smoothies with eating egg puffs with spinach and mushrooms

Lunch: Salad with 2oz protein or Green Soup with Bone Broth and veggies + 2oz protein

Dinner: 3-4oz protein + 1-2oz cooked veggie + 1oz avocado/tomato

BS: 1/2oz almonds + 1oz Granny Smith Apple OR 1 GG brancrisp + 1-2tbsp almond butter

This is AWESOME! Thank you so much. I just copied this whole damn thing to my email and notes on my phone and I am going to try to follow this - I miss veggies so much! Thanks again.