Have you tried drinking V8 juice? When I found myself unable to eat as many vegetables and still get my protein in, I started drinking V8 juice. I don't like the fact that it is so processed, because I don't like any food that is so processed. But you need to get your protein in before vegetables.
If you love veggies passionately, then get your protein in early and you can eat vegetables the rest of the day. My doctor told me I needed 50 to 70 grams of protein and that's also the amount that's listed at the FDA site. Men need more but I don't know the number off the top of my head.
It is far more important to get the protein in because it's something that there just isn't very much of in any food that you eat. So, cheese, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, high protein meat and small amounts and protein drinks or powder. You can get all your protein in during breakfast and lunch. In fact you will still have plenty of calorie allocation at lunch because you will have gotten 50 grams of protein by then. So you can just go ahead and Chomp down on those veggies!
That's just one idea of many. Make sure you're taking your vitamins and minerals and make sure you have your doctor do a metabolic panel on you at least once a year so you can see what your levels are and that will help better to guide you.
Although I generally despised the protein shakes, they are a fabulous way to get your protein in if you don't feel like sitting around and eating 4 oz of this meat or 6 oz of that meat or 1/2 cup of this dairy product or whatever.
It makes sense that they wouldn't allow you to use your card at a buffet, but I have to ask you, why are you going to a buffet? That's one thing I learned really quickly. Buffets are a huge waste of money after you have had gastric bypass surgery. Buffets are designed for people who want to load up plate after plate after plate of food and have 20 course meals. It is the height of American gluttony and it's something that people really get in trouble with.
But I don't mean to infer that you are a glutton: please don't think I'm saying that. Every restaurants you go to and buy food in the United States they are going to give you a portion size that would easily feed two people. Their portion size might feed four people who had gastric bypass surgery. Return To Your Roots and weigh and measure everything. And if you go to a buffet, try to find the leanest protein they offer.
Veggies are not something that people should rely on, especially salads, after bypass surgery. You can get enough vitamins and minerals in using supplements and most people who eat salads and then can't figure out why they can't lose weight may be overlooking that salad is much more than just lettuce. If you put five leaves of iceberg lettuce on your plate and just chewed those without any dressing, that would be one thing. But you know, Americans love ranch and all the other creamy dressings. And a tablespoon is how much you're supposed to use according to the label on the side of the bottle. But we easily use the quarter cup or more. Just look what they bring you at Denny's if you ask for the dressing on the side. You cannot coat every leaf of your salad unless you put a ton of dressing on.
I think I think that it's just really important to develop mindfulness around food. And I think based on the little bit that you have said here oh, you need to learn to balance your proteins with your veggies. It can be done. I wake up everyday and eat exactly what I need in order to have a balanced diet and I don't even have to think about it twice. But if I have a salad with a creamy dressing, I dilute the dressing with milk before I put it on the leaves of lettuce.
But did you know there are 4 grams of protein in a serving of broccoli? Here's the FDA website where you can search each food and find out the nutrient value of each:
FoodData Central
I don't know exactly when I started eating vegetables as a standalone item after surgery but it was within a few weeks. Sometimes I had to puree them or saute them until they were extremely tender. I mentioned iceberg lettuce earlier. Iceberg lettuce is one of those things like celery that actually requires more calories to eat than it adds to your calorie count. These tight cellular vegetables do not break down easily. You have to chew them like crazy and they continue to digest in your intestines. But don't try that with corn or tease, which are two high carbohydrate vegetables that are really delicious and easy to eat. They don't break down easily and I think the reason we love them so much when we are overweight is because we instinctively gravitate to things that have higher calories because that usually means a higher sugar content.
I have a lot of food items and there nutritional content memorized and they're just part of my thinking process now. But I also look up a lot of food before I eat them, especially brand-name Foods. And I hardly ever eat at restaurants, but that's more because I like to have control over what I put in my body. God knows what they're doing back there in the kitchen. I have worked in restaurants and I could tell you horror stories.
You can get little books that contain every food item alphabetically or whatever and list the calories or the protein content, or you can buy cookbooks that are specifically for post-op diets. The problem with cookbooks like this for me is that is usually a list of about 50 items that you have to go through before you can cook it. I'm exaggerating a little but I just do not like the going through list in order to get 1/8 of a teaspoon of this or a pinch of that. I actually cook instinctively and generally only use cookbooks for baking. Nevertheless, I have been told there are lots of good cookbooks out there and if you do a search through our old posts, you will find the titles of many of them.
I keep a journal with nutrient breakdowns.
