Had enough. Newbie needs info.

I wish you the very best of luck! I thought I wouldn't be hungry, either but to my surprise...I got home from the hospital after the surgery on liquids and was absolutely starving!! I had no choice but to add some shredded chicken to my broth in order to feel full. I'm supposed to be on pureed foods now but I just cannot tolerate it. The flavor is fine but I find the texture absolutely revolting and just cannot stand it. I cut my food up into really small bits and I chew them really, really well. I'm terrified of getting a blockage but I don't know what else to do. I also eat cream soups. I guess all we can do is the best we can do and hope it works out, huh? Let me know how it goes!

Why would that be bad? Besides, if you don't eat something even broth with something in it, your metabolism will do that starvation mode thing anyway. I probably would have opted for some well cooked veggies but that's me. I am a graduate of Optifast where I starved myself for 7 months and didn't cheat once. I lost 128 lbs. I regained it when I started having to eat due to pregnancy. My body took every morsel I hate and plopped it right back on my rear beause my metabolism was so messed up from starving. I tired so hard to not gain it, I wrote down everything I put into my mouth. I was so angry I gained it back after all the effort to eat only 1500 calories a day and exercise. My bod wasn't having any of it. I guess that might be why people experience plateaus even with the surgery. You would think that if you are doing everything right, not eating what you shouldn't an keeping faithful to the plan, you would loose. However, our metabolisms slow down when we don't eat enough. So, it's seems it's a balancing act. However, what do I know, I'm still fat with all my wonderful experience. Cream soups. Hmmm. Is it permitted to make them with soy milk? Or Fat Free buttermilk? I make a red pepper soup with roasted red peppers from a jar (water packed, not oil) and pureed veggies, veggie broth, including a potato to give it some "creaminess" would this kind of soup not be permitted on the post-op diet? The soup has no oil, just veggies and I usually put in a splash of F/F/buttermilk and one potato in the pot. I also make the same soup from tomatoes and basil. .

Well, I'm not really afraid of the calories, I'm afraid of getting a blockage because what I eat is not pureed and its supposed to be. I like veggies, too but I chose the meat because I know my body needs protein for healing (and we are supposed to get a bunch of protein every day which is why they have us drink protein drinks). So far so good, though. As far as the cream soups, I don't know about the soy milk or buttermilk, I've never tried that although it sounds interesting (I use 1% milk) but the nutritionist did say to avoid "white" foods such as potatoes, rice, etc. We are also not supposed to have real watery soups, either because that will cause the solid food to go through our stomach faster. I like the sound of your soups except that there doesn't seem to be any protein in them. I would add some chicken maybe. I've also read on this site that a lot of people have problems with tomatoes after surgery because of the acidity. It can be really interesting because you really don't know what you will be able to eat and what you can't (I've discovered I don't like scrambled eggs anymore--I'm trying egg substitute now).

Ok, Dr. Pinnar I think his name was, wanted to charge me 650 bucks just to do a personal info session and the pre-liminary stuff this week. Then I have to wait. The heck with that. Called Dr. Anez's office, they can do Lap-Band and here's good news...Blue Cross and Blue Shield for Federal employees will be covering Lap Band effective January 1, 2007. So I have my appointment for the December 15th for the preliminary review stuff and after that hopefully I can get the procedure in a reasonable amount of time. One step closer.

Well that sounds great. I just got done looking over the new benefit booklet and noticed the change as well. Time will go by quickly once you start all the appointments. I got fussed at by my Dr. last night because of not eating pureed foods. Sigh. Guess I have to follow the rules after all. Yuck. I think I'd rather starve.

EW, I would work and experiment with the food if you haven't already. For example, what foods would you eat that are naturally in a mashed state that taste good too you? I know they don't want you eating white mash potatoes, but what about mashed sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes have a lot of fiber, mash well, have lots of vitamins and are versatile. For example, you could use the sweet potato to make your broth richer and "creamier" just like you could use other veggies like avocado (lots of protein in it as well) or butternut squash. I eat a sweet potato every day for lunch lately. I cook it in the microwave and then put some fat free pumpkin spread to make it taste like pumpkin pie. Very good for you and the spread ( actually it's Wiliams Sonoma's Pecan Pumpkin butter) has 30 calories a tablespoon and I don't use more than 1 tablespoon. As far as meat, if the meat is shredded instead of pureed, would that be ok? If so, then you got all kinds of barbeque style meals. Like chicken shredded thin with some sort of mild fat free B-Que sauce maybe? What about Tofu to thicken soup? Tofu has a ton of protein and takes on the flavor of what you are cooking it in, so it will taste like chicken if you are cooking it in chicken broth. I use Tofu to thicken soup, although I hate the consistency when it's just in firm chunks or stir fried. I think necessity is the mother of invention. If this is the way I gotta eat for the rest of my life then I know I gotta make better choices and make food that will nourish my body and help lose weight and keep it off my butt. I think we all want to enjoy food, and learn new ways to nourish our bodies and hopefully nourishing food will also be enjoyable, tasty food. I know it will be a challenge, because I need to be wary of eating too much, but if it tastes awful everyday, I won't get the nourishment in I need or cheat on something I shouldn't have. There needs to be a balance. Of course, it would have been so much nicer if I could have done this without surgery. It's all so neat and tidy in theory, then in practice, well...people are people and things go wrong. I've failed so many times and picked myself up and failed again. I just have to accept that I may have to give up something that's hard to give up because in the end, I have to ask myself, "What am I willing to sacrifice to reach my goal? Ultimately, my answer has to be...food that I like to eat but will make me fatter.