Gah! Need some variety!

Ok... 11 days post op.. 3 weeks of opti before that.. I am absolutely SICK of sweet sweet sweet crap!

I seriously limited my sweet and artificial sweeteners for years before this surgery. Now all the protein shakes are chocolate or vanilla... and sweet sweet sweet.

There is only so much soup I can take... I always throw tons of unflavored protein powder in... but gah!

What I wouldn't give for a nice crisp salad with fresh veggies from the garden...

Cottage cheese... yogurt are ok.. but again.. there's that kinda sweetness to it since it's milk based.

More and more I find I am having to force myself to consume the foods... because I simply have no desire for more sweet.

I know I'm not far out... and variety will come.. but please I need some suggestions! lol Is it too early to start thinking super soft eggs????

/rant

Louise ;)

I ate hummus..... I added peanut butter to the protein shakes..... I ate whatever soup I wanted; just pureed it. Soft boiled eggs aren't too far off.

Get yourself some Unjury chicken soup flavored protein. Just follow directions or it will clump a bit, but OMG it was soo good. Also have you tried some broth? Chicken/beef... I found that when I was so dang sick of sweet, that having some broth really saved the day. Sure some of them have more salt.. but at the time, I was just glad for nothing sweet. Also by day 11 I was being told that if I pureed my eggs down I could eat them.. sadly eggs did not go well for my tummy and still don't yet unless I get egg beaters

Hang in there, soon you will be on pureed or soft foods and then a whole new world opens up.

What does your surgeon's office say about eggs? I was eating poached eggs at about 2 weeks out.

I just found a chili lime seasoning blend from Trader Joe's. I add it to my cottage cheese and it's great!

I second the unjury chicken soup. It tastes very salty to me (and I usually love salt) so I don't use it all the time, but it's a refreshing break from all of the sweet protein options.

If you're a coffee person, I have made some of my own coffee shakes using decaf instant coffee, plain protein powder and water, plus or minus a tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder. It's not sweet and tasted like an iced coffee without cream or sugar (if your you're into that sort of thing).

What about eggface's baked ricotta? refried beans with a little salsa and cheese? Hummus in a variety of flavors (Zoe's kitchen has some great ones). I actually went to Taco Bell and got their pintos and cheese, and there was simply something so wonderful about those at the time...

PATIENCE. You will only be on the limited diet for a few weeks, and there are TONS of non-sweet options once you reach the puree stage.

Eggs are usually OK during the mushy/soft food stage, though MANY people have trouble with eggs. I couldn't stomach them until about six months out.

Salads: exactly how I got super morbidly obese.

Hang in; the early stages pass quickly and soon you'll be on to pureed food, which allows for more variety.

I don't find plain Greek yogurt to be sweet at all. Maybe it depend on the brand you use?

I added salt and pepper to my cottage cheese sometimes. Other times I added a spoon of home made marinara sauce to the cottage cheese, and heated it up, then added some parmesan. It sort of tasted like the inside of lasagna (I wasn't able to eat ricotta that early out, but loved it later in the puree stage).

Early out, I made lots of home made chicken soup broth so I could control the amount of salt I was taking in. I counted it toward my liquid goals, and it was yummy and a nice change from sweet.

Once in awhile I also had an espresso cup of veggie juice, to cut the sweet. It was allowed on my plan, but I had to read a lot of labels in order to find a brand that had no added sugar. I could only manage a sip or two of it, but it was a nice change.

Plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt and Ricotta cheese are plain high protein bases that you can use to mix in any variety of spices and flavors. I never felt deprived from savory flavors once I discovered that I could add sauces, chicken flavored protein powder, herbs and parmesan cheese... Get creative!

But on a more real note... yeah--it sucks for a few weeks. But this is your golden opportunity to detox from all the things that got you to the place of needing surgery to begin with. If there was a way to eat all the things that taste good and still lose 100+ pounds, we wouldn't be here.

I promise that I am not saying to "suck it up" or anything that harsh, but I am encouraging you to change your mindset from feeling deprived, to feeling grateful for the opportunity to learn new ways to eat while not feeling so hungry. It's a pretty special time that you won't get back!