Make the process easier on yourself: Eat real food!

Frisco posted an excellent article earlier on committment which shouldn't be overlooked.  On that post were many comments from vets which are equally valuable.  So read that post if you're new to the sleeve or in the planning stages.

As I read over it though, I felt like adding my two cents to complement what was said there: "If you eat real food, this process becomes AMAZINGLY simple."

Guess what?  Quest bars, and (most) protein shakes, aren't real food.  Powdered protein supplements aren't real either.

Granted, you can make a "natural" protein shake.  However, lots of people aren't nearly honest enough about the calories in them.  On top of that, it's easy to let it run away from you due to the types of ingredients (think peanut butter) or portion size.  All of this gets overlooked because: "it's natural", or "contains spinach so is good for you", or whatever else being used to justify behavior.  Either way, shakes should be a temporary bridge between surgery and getting back to real food (and off "liquid calories").

Now as I sit here today...  I'm trying to figure out whether to add a sixth meal to my day...

Every day is 1,200-1,300 calories spread across five fixed meal times.  Everything I eat is straight up natural & unprocessed except for one laughing cow cheese wedge and three ritz crackers to spread it on.  The rest is fish, eggs, veggies, fruit, hummus (a well made unprocessed version), and nuts.  Because it leans so heavily toward real food, the portions are well balanced with the sleeve restriction.  Still, with all of this, I continue to lost body fat, which is down to 15% now.

So with my level of exercise, and metobolism, it looks like it will take 400 more calories to level everything out.  In "food" terms, that's like 10 ounces of fish, 3-4 apples, 2-3 servings of nuts, or 5+ cups of vegetables.  To anyone familar with a sleeve, those quatities are HUGE and simply unmanageable by sprinkling them into my existing meal plan.

My real point to all this is that by eating nearly all natural food, calories and hunger are never a problem.  This method opens up so many more options because you're in the driver seat thinking "how can I add more" instead of thinking "what can cutback".  All you have to do is make the right choices to ensure your protein is on target (mine runs 90-100 grams easy) and that you continue to under eat your sleeve (more sound Frisco advice to follow LOL).

And, before anyone thinks that I'm some health nut, I assure everyone here that my diet before the sleeve was as bad as anyone here on OH.  My food groups consisted of fast food, restaurant food, chips and soda.  The last meal I had before starting my pre-op diet was two chili dogs, a large bag of Doritos and a extra large slurpee.

 

Real food rocks and totally works!

My nutritionist also cautioned me on using the shakes and powders too much.  Starting with this pureed phase, they want me to wean off of the shakes so I don't need them anymore.  I'm also thinking really hard about what I'm putting into my body and trying to put in just good stuff.  I desperately want to stay away from carbs, I don't really miss them, but I don't want to bring that craving cycle for them back again.  I'm going to just keep trying to stick to lean meats right now while on pureed foods and then slowly add in other things, but I want to just get my protein in so I don't need the shakes anymore.  In fact, one of the surgeon's rules is NO LIQUID CALORIES (whi*****ludes shakes).  So after I can eat solid foods, I should not have any liquid calories...period.  So, In essence, I agree with you on the shakes/powders.

To avoid carbs on this route, mostly just avoid fruit for awhile.  To some degree limit veggies, but you don't need to eliminate them.

Run some samples through MFP until you get the mix right. 

That's one thing that I really do miss right now is fruit.  I love fruit..and hate veggies.  :(   Once I'm given the all clear on food, my plan is to eat my protein and a bit of a green salad each day.  This way I'll have all my protein in, and then add in some healthy stuff too.

 

No supplement can satiate as well as real food! well said!

I really like what you are saying, but here's where I get confused.... The nutritionist at my surgeon's office tells us to eat 3 meals a day.  Granted, at just under 6 weeks out, I do realize that I am still working from a position of post-surgical restriction.  But, how would I ever be able to get 90-100 g of protein in without shakes if I can only eat 3 meals a day?  I'm doing it WITH shakes now, and cannot get the protein in.  I'm starting to question whether I agree with the 3 meals a day concept.  To me it makes more sense to eat 5 meals a day, but make them meals - not snacking.  I get the concept that you don't want to graze all day, but how in the world else can you get everything in if you are not eating it in smaller quantities more frequently?

At this point in time, I am amazed if I manage to get 500-600 calories in, and I have no room to eat anything other than protein.

Sometimes you have to know when to ignore the NUT.  In my case, I learned by accident.  When I looked at how much 4 ounces of lean protein was back in the beginning, I couldn't see myself eating that much at one time.  That's what it took to get the right amount of protein.

At the same time, I found that I got little hungry if meals were spaced too far apart.  I learned a cardinal rule of the sleeve: if you don't eat, and your stomach is empty, you will still get hungry.  We aren't super human in that respect.

So I solved two problems at once by switching to a four meal a day cycle.  That's what I followed the entire duration of the weight loss phase.  Only in the last couple of months, post goal phase, have I added the extra snack really.

Mostly the latest adjustment helped me get more regular veggies, fruit and nuts.  During weight loss phase I skipped all fruits and nuts and held veggies in a tighter check than I do now.  Now I limit veggies to what the sleeve can reasonably allow without pushing it.  I don't even worry how many calories or carbs veggies bring to the table.

I hear you.  I am having  my year appointment with my nutritionist this week and am going to be discussing this with her. 

I find if I eat home made, healthy and clean I have to eat that 6th meal to get everything in. My weight has been stable since the start of December. and I really am happy where I am at.  Some of my friends on the other boards think I should try to lose more, but I really like where I am at.

So to maintain where I am I am eating 6 small meals, usually with protein and either fruit or veggie included in the snacks and of course the meals. The evening snack was causing me a control problem (I couldn't stop eating) so I switched it to a protein shake, which pretty much eliminated the evening binge attack. I am sure my nut is not going to love that!

I love fruit and veggies and try to eat 2 fruits and at least 3 veggies a day.  I wonder if these are too much volume and not enough calories and that is why I need to eat so often to get all the calories in. (I am eating 1500 calories a day to maintain)  The f and v don't seem to cause cravings in these amounts.

I definitely over think

Anne

I'm only 2 weeks post op but I'm a planner.  As I look to the future, getting the daily amount of protein my NUT wants me to seems very confusing.  She has my target protein to be 95 - 110 grams.  Pre op is was easy because of the shakes with 30g per.  With the limit stomach room and limited to 4 mini meals, how do you get that much protein?  Would anyone care to post a sample day or 2 once you are realest from post op restrictions and ready to take on the world?