We "can't" have that food...

I would like to know why we figure we "can't" have a certain food. I see a lot of posts on here lately about "I can't have that yet" or "I can never have that again".  Yes, if you're eating mayo at 1 week it's pretty goofy but when do you figure you can take control of your own diet instead of what your surgeon/nut will or will not "allow" you to have.

Personally, I try a food and if it sits well, does not make me sick/dump and has a good amount of nutrition in it - it's an "okay" food. My nut told me that hot dogs were not "allowed" because they are not a quality meat. Yeah well, she's not paying for the sirloin tips she wants me to have so guess what, I eat hot dogs because they have protein.

When are we going to decide to take control of our own diet and lives?
Sorry for the rant, just ....blargh!

I do NOT have any forbidden foods.  Not only is that not realistic long term, my personal and professional experience with dieting is that deprivation makes people crave those forbidden items and makes them eat more of them when they finally DO give in and have them than they would have eaten if they have just allowed themselves to enjoy a small amount in the first place.

If I really want a particular food, even if it is not the healthiest choice, I will usually allow myself to eat a small amount of it.  Moderation, both in amount and frequency, is the key,  There are some people, though, who just have a very hard time exercising moderation and the only way they can make this suirgery work fro them is to have foods that are "not allowed". 

It is all about each individual finding what works for them. 

If you get fat free Ball Park brand hot dogs, BTW, the nutrition stats on them are actually halfway decent (chemical additives notwithstanding)... 50 calories and 5g of protein...

Lora

The only way I dub a food as "forbidden" is if it makes me ill. I eat pretty much anything I want but the kicker is: I don't want unhealthy foods! I crave fruit, beans, cottage cheese and such.  Occasionally I'll crave something sweet so I'll have something like no sugar added ice cream with peanutbutter in it..oh my =) I try to just make healthy choices and thats what works for me =)

We have taken control of our lives and we had WLS and we are changing our old bad eating habits.  You don't have to buy expensive protein like sirloin.  But we don't need to be eating processed meats with a lot of nitrates, etc. in them either.  Everyone on here has been given a different dietary plan.  Some people eat no complex carbs and some do.  Some are really strict and some allow everything.  But control should not be letting yourself eat whatever you want even if it is unhealthy by most standards.  Chicken is not sirloin and offers good protein.  Fish and seafood is even better when it comes to being healthy.  Dumping should not be a measure of what is right or wrong since many unhealthy foods have little or no sugar and won't cause dumping anyway.  Control means taking control of not eating junk food and high fat foods.  That is what all of this is about.  Otherwise, we're just eating the same stuff that caused us to be overweight but in smaller quantities.

Ohh, trust me =D I know about chicken and fish - tilapia or mahi mahi are my FAV and I can get bags of those at costo pretty cheaply.  My nut is just one of those "spend 20 bucks on 3 ounces of meat" type of people ...wanting me to go completely organic ..no processed meats what so ever ..any and all deli meats are bad etc.  LOL what american can afford that?...def. not me. My point was exactly what you're saying! Don't need sirloin, there are good, cheap options available =)

The dumping thing ..thats only one way to tell "for me" if a food is bad *for me* ... For exapmle..I don't dump on natural sugars..so I have to follow a sort of diabetic rule of thumb for say..bananas - I may not 'dump' but my blood sugar does spike up if I eat more than 1/2 a banana.  I normally look at the carbs but that's pretty much it. I watch sugar, carbs and if something has no protein in it at all, I'm not likely gonna purchase it anyhow.

Sounds like a good rules.  I am supposed to have a minimum of 91g of protein a day.  So, I generally don't eat any meal that offers me less than 20g of protein in a max of 4oz servings.  I still have to supplement with protein drinks some.  It can be hard to meet my protein goals in a given day.  I seem to have a low tolerance for sugars when it comes to dumping.  I have only dumped twice and i hope i never do it again.  Both times were from things I didn't know someone had added to the food.  I am eating so much fish/seafood now I may grow fins, but I live in Florida and fish is fairly inexpensive here and easy to find fresh as well.  Oh, turkey burgers, etc. are great too and chicken thighs! :D

Took me a while to be able to tolerate chicken but I can now and one chicken thigh is my limit lol I get too full if I fini**** sometimes. I've been sick recently and don't know why but my pouch has been REALLY grouchy..she doesn't even like her cottage cheese which is a staple for me. SO, I bit the bullet and made some instant taters (I don't normally do potato because it makes my heart go nuts fromcarbs) ..BUT I made some gravy with wheat flour, garlic, pepper, little salt and a pinch of ceyenne pepper..but I put 2 scoops of unflavored protein powder in with all the dry things and sifted them together.. ended up with a mushy lunch that went down wonderfully but it had about 30g of protein :)

I agree with you to a point. Where I would disagree would be early postops. I think during the healing stage you should dance with the one who brought you..ie ..follow the doctor's post-op diet.
I see a lot of posts from early outs that want to jump ahead. I think you need to give that pouch some good healing time.
I have no forbidden food but there are foods that make me sick as a dog.
Deb T.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with you deb!! I didn't 'play' with foods until I was well past 9 months out, didn't push how much sugar I could 'technically' have until a year. That was when I had my first bit of actual chocolate candy and it was only a bite of what my fiance was eating. The difference from before is that now that one bite makes me savor the taste and texture as before I would have bought the whole case and licked the fingers of whatever scout was selling the darn bars to get any and all sugar!  

I really cannot stress how important it is for early post ops to follow at least the basic rules and not to push the rules either. I see so many early EARLY post ops asking about sugars, carbs, what else they can have, doesn't make me angry but it makes me sad to see someone go through such major surgical procedures only to still be relying on someone else to tell us how to eat and live.  For the first 9-10 months, yes I let my surgeon's office 'approve' foods but once I got a routine down and learned what was healthy and what a healthy serving size is for myself, THEN, I considered my surgery a success.

Oy I've gone way off topic LOL sorry, time for bed - I can't even understand my own typing lol I'll look it over in the morning to see how off base I was!

I agree. For those of us who are well past the early post-op stage...we need to start establishing a healthy relationship with food, all food. Making something forbidden is just not realistic for long term success for most people in my opinion. For instance, I'm 20 months post op. Tonight we are having home made pizza. I made the whole wheat crust myself earlier this week. Is it the best choice? Nope. Would 3oz of grilled chicken with some green beans be a BETTER option. Yes. But is it better than ordering some greasy slime from Pizza Hut? You bet!

I don't eat pizza every day, or even every week for that matter. I will happily enjoy my 2 slices tonight, and possibly a cookie! All this after eating "on plan" the whole day prior and being right back 'on plan' tomorrow. No guilt. No shame. Just me LIVING a normal life.