I'm getting ready to start "real" food and I'm wondering where vegetables fit in. I've read a lot of what you bandsters eat and I don't see a lot of veggies in people's diets. Do you just get your vitamins from pills? Or am I missing something? I know protein is of most importance, just trying to figure out how to do all of this!

I eat vegetables and have no problems. Others do. I can eat a small salad with romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and cukes. I stay away from raw broccilli and cauliflower. I can eat them cooked. I eat cooked green beans and peas also. I stay away from corn so far. I've only been banded since Sept 17th.

Good to know...I'm going to cook up some veggies with my fish tonight! I miss my veggies!

Good luck. Just remember that everything you eat should be moist. This isn't a vegetable but last week I made a mistake of eating a few bites of very dry chicken. I also didn't chew very well( I was in a hurry). Well, I paid for that. It was soooo painful and I just wanted to throw up. It was obviously stuck. I had some drool coming out of my mouth. So I took a few sips of water and walked around a bit. This really helped, although I still had some pain there for the rest of the day so I ate very soft foods and warm liquids for the rest of day. Since them I either put fat free gravy or make sure everything is very moist!

aaaah veggies. i'm only day 5 post-op and i can't wait until i can finally have steamed broccoli with cheese sauce again :rolleyes2:

There's another thread on this at the moment too, in

Australia, we dont really do Protein first. I actually make veges at least of equal importance if not more - when I'm eating my dinner I eat as much veges as I do protein, I certainly dont eat half a chicken breast and then find I'm too full for the veges.

I think in general bandsters arent eating enough veges. Our nutritional recommendations here are at least five different veges every day, and 2 fruit. That's really hard to do, particularly if you're overly focussed on protein foods.

What helps me:

blend some fruit into a smoothie for Breakfast - or your Protein shake if you drink those. Kills two birds with one stone without challenging stomach capacity too much.

Eat some salad for lunch most days - a salad, or I often have wholegrain crackers with avocado and tomato on them - with some cheese or tuna two.

three different steamed veg with your dinner.

As a bandster, the serving sizes will be smaller than ideal, but that's how I do it. But like I said, I dont do protein first.

of course, where possible, have your protein as a bean or legume and that also kills two birds with one stone.

I love my veggies too!! I do salads, seedless cucumber slices, those frozen singles by Green Giant of broccoli, green beans etc... For a real treat I go to Subway, get a salad and top it with chicken breast and load up on all of the veggies....YUM!! :rolleyes2:

Vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. The basis of our eating should be Protein AND produce. After that come high Fiber carbs and two servings of low fat dairy. I started eating this way before banding -- lots of veggies! --I lost 67 pounds and never felt better.

Frankly I am shocked at how many people here aren't eating vegetables. IMHO they are making a huge mistake. After all, this supposed to be about our health....

My steamed broccoli and carrots went down great! Ahhh...veggies!

I had some vegetables (mushrooms/onions) this morning mixed in with my scrambled egg plus a cut up tomato. For dinner, I had chili (thick with beans/onions). Yesterday, I had a veggie fajita (no tortilla) for lunch with a little refried Beans and the leftover veggies for dinner.

I personally think vegetables are as important as the Protein. I'm not doing as well with the fruit but I may have to try the fruit smoothie idea!

~~anne

I'll bet they would be good roasted too!

Speaking of roasted here's a quick recipe that you can make and I eat it for a few days.

Cut into chunks and place on cookie sheet:

red onion, yellow and green squash, different color of peppers (yellow, orange, red and green) sliced mushrooms. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil and toss then season with Lawry's.

Bake in oven 20 min at 400 degrees. YUMMMMMMM!

This was my answer to shish-ka-bobs!!!

I love my veges... raw... cooked... doesn't matter to me. Like Tess, I too like to occasionally go to Subway and get a salad. They'll turn any sub into a salad. Really love the Sweet Onion Terryaki!

Brad

My doc said to introduce veggies, but like everthing else, only introduce one new item at a time incase you have an intolerance to it. And, in the beginning eat your veggies steamed/cooked to make them softer.

Oh, I always loved the teriyaki chicken sandwich...so it makes a good salad? Hmmm. Thanks for the idea!

~~anne