Tips on healthier eating?

Since I'm unable to get weight loss surgery anytime soon I figure I need to do something because it's so hard living like this.  My joints hurt, my back hurts, I'm always out of breath, I sweat all the time, my blood pressure is high, nothing fits etc. etc. etc.  I'm sure you all can relate or could relate before you did the hard work and lost the weight. 

Anyway, my eating habits need to change plain and simple.  I've been doing some research and thought about encorporating protein smoothies into my diet in addition to eating healthier, smaller portions etc.  I was wanting to encorporate these smoothies as a meal replacement....at least replacing one meal a day if not two depending on how it goes.  I've been looking up different recipes online and a lot of them call for soy or almond milk.  My brother loves soy milk and had me try it one day.  It makes me gag everytime.  I just cannot handle it.  I don't know if it's something I'd get used to over time, but right now I just can't drink the stuff.

Anyone have any good recipes for protein smoothies that actually taste good and are low on carbs?  Any advice on this at all as to whether this would be a good or bad idea?  Thanks in advance! 

I think you should let go of the 'smoothie' idea-- smoothies are essentially fruity milkshakes. The sugar content of fruit will throw your efforts off. Your idea of protein is correct though. Have you tried a pre made protein drink like premier? Has what you need without the sugar and carbs. I like syntrax protein powders- which I mixed with regular Low fat milk. I've never tried almond etc milk. 

Best tip is to watch your calorie intake -- keep it at about 1500 daily. That should be a pretty drastic reduction from your intake now. If you replaced two meals a day and ate a sensible dinner you should make excellent progress. You will be hungry initially- but that will taper off.

Everything peach pie said above was right on point.  The only thing I will add is almond milk is way better then soy when you get the vanilla one when you need to use milk.  

Eating dense protein will work better than sugary smoothies because it will keep you feeling full for a longer time. Smoothies will go right through you and leave you feeling more hunger.  People who have surgery have to drink protein shakes because their new stomachs are too small to physically eat enough protein.  Protein shakes will not help you lose weight.  Eating dense protein and skipping the carbs will.

Don't eat starchy or sugary foods like bread, pasta, rice, crackers, cookies, etc.  Your meals should be meat and non-starchy veggies.  Limit fruits to one very small serving per day.  Fruit is read by the body as sugar and it will slow or stop weight loss.  You don't have to eat traditional breakfast foods that are usually high in carbs.  Nobody says you can't eat a pork chop for breakfast.  Eating simple carbs makes you crave them more and it's easy to eat a ton of them.

Measure your portions out and then stop eating.  You will have to retrain yourself on what a proper portion looks like.  If you eat VERY small meals 6 times a day it might help you.  Eat by the clock.  If you feel hungry in between scheduled meal times, ignore it.  You are not starving if you are eating a little something every 3 or 4 hours. It won't hurt you if you don't give into that feeling of hunger.  Hunger is not an emergency requiring immediate action.  Many of us have never allowed ourselves to feel real hunger.  Remember that the absence of "full" does not mean hungry.  

Losing weight is as much a mental game as it is about eating right. Getting the head stuff figured out, like "why am I eating when I just finished lunch 30 minutes ago",  is the hardest part.

First, I'd make a list of reasons you want to lose weight. Keep it handy and where you can refer to it daily.

Then, start tracking your food intake. This was huge for me pre op. You will start to understand where all your calories are coming from, and you'll start to see behaviour patterns ( I.e. Stress eating, car eating, boredom etc.). I use my fitness pal. Once you see the patterns, you can address them. Before I started tracking, I just believed I was hungry all the time. But that wasn't the whole picture.

as peach said, you're on the right track looking for protein. But I'd probably avoid shakes altogether and focus on dense protein. I know pre op, there's no way a shake would satisfy me for a meal. And if you get too hungry, you're going to eat something more, and then feel like a failure. We've all been there. The only reason I made it through the liquid pre op phase was because I knew I was having surgery.

instead, once you know what you are eating, look at eliminating/reducing certain things. Namely carbs. Each week or two, focus on cutting out one thing. Like, drinking your calories, or finding pasta and bread alternatives. Gradually working towards primarily eating a diet of dense protein, low starch veg and  few complex carbs and fruits.

i know it's not fun to hear, but gradual sustained changes to behaviour are really the best bet you have for lasting weight loss. 

and these are all things you would need to address if you were to have surgery anyway.

for protein forward recipes look up recipes with keto, paleo, Atkins, south beach, etc. You will find tons of recipes. 

Good luck, keep posting!

My first suggestion would be for you to track your food.   Count all your calories, carbs, sugar and protein going in.   Additionally, eat all proteins first, then focus on non starchy veggies.   Stay away from simple carbs, such as rice, pasta, anything with white flour.  Swap out veggies that have simple carbs such as potatoes, rice and pasta with veggies like roasted cauliflower or brussels sprouts.  Broccoli and cabbage are good alternatives as well.  When cooking, be sure to limit the amount of fat you use.  Use olive oil or coconut oil when cooking and limit butter as much as possible.  

As for smoothies, I would steer clear of any traditional smoothies.  They are high in sugar and the fruit can impact weight loss, if you are using fruits high in sugar.   Berries have the lowest sugar count, so when wanting fruit, choose strawberries, blueberries or raspberries  

Premier Protein is low in carbs and you can make some nice low calories, low carb/sugar meal replacement shakes using it.   Here is the link to Premier Protein's shake recipes.  They have some great ones that you can incorporate into your daily menu  The macros are listed, so you will know what the calorie, carbs, sugar and protein counts are.   Keep in mind, that if you alter the recipe, by adding more fruit or a different fruit that is higher in sugar it will hinder any weight loss.  

Also, I use the ready to drink packs of PP in lieu of milk to make my sugar free pudding, whenever I have it.  It cuts calories, carbs and sugar and adds protein to a snack.   There are many things you can do with protein powder and ready to drink shakes.  

Best of luck to you!

Nik

You've gotten a lot of great advice.  

Let me tell you what I did pre-op, when I decided it was time to CHANGE or else.  I did a lot of research and I found a high quality protein powder.  I went with Optimum Nutrition Double Rich Chocolate and mixed it with unsweetened Almond Milk (either vanilla or original, I don't care for the chocolate).  I use a Blender Bottle for this.  I replaced breakfast and lunch every day with this shake.  Before, I never really ate breakfast, so that was a new thing.  I worked hard to stop snacking during the day.  Then I'd eat a "regular" dinner, but I focused on eating protein-forward and healthy-person portion sizes.  

I don't advocate "smoothies" and "recipes" since these are usually ways to put crap into your body which won't benefit you.  Liquids go through your system faster, smoothies are normally full of sugars or things that taste sweet enough that they'll trigger your cravings for carbs and sugars.  I like the protein powder I mentioned because it's a darker tasting chocolate so not as sweet as many and, therefore, it doesn't make me crave sweet things.  

I did have exceptions - occasionally I'd go out for lunch with friends so I wouldn't have a shake on those days for lunch.  But, even while out, I worked on making good, protein-forward choices.  I'd ask for a to go box with my meal since portion sizes are ridiculous and if it was on the plate I'd eat it.  So I'd box it before I started eating.  

This helped me to lose ~25 pounds in the three months prior to surgery.  I didn't feel deprived, since I wasn't being ridiculously strict - I could eat out for lunch, for example.  

I also found a therapist during this period and started working on my brain.  There is no doubt in my mind that this helped me to succeed.  

Basically, I spent those three months reprogramming my brain and how I thought about portion sizes and healthy eating.  

All the above is great advice.  That said, if you are a smoothie person, I found this website. I still make these for my kid  who is a vegetarian, does not get in her protein and is an athlete who watches her micros.

https://dashingdish.com/recipes/shakes/

I did drink smoothies for breakfast during my supervised diet, but I didn't make giant ones like I did before, and I limited it to one or two small fruit servings and added protein powder.  I did make the switch to unsweetened almond (or cashew) milk in my smoothies - I don't like to drink it plain, but it's fine in a smoothie or protein shake (by the way, I was limited to two small fruit servings a day, so if I made a smoothie for breakfast, I couldn't have any more fruit that day).

other than that, my dietitian had me limit my calories to 2300 a day (I started at 372 lbs, so if you're a lot lighter than that, you'll want to decrease that limit as 2300 might be too high for you).  She had me focus mainly on protein and non-starchy veggies, gradually working my way up to 100 grams of protein a day.  She also said to make sure my snacks were (or included) protein, and that if I was going to have a carb, it needed to be paired with a protein (for example, baby carrots with hummus)

also, I was supposed to exercise at least three times a week.  Even walking was OK (I usually swam or did water aerobics, though, since I have arthritis in my hip and knees, and with all that extra weight, I couldn't walk very far)

All great advice above!  I agree with tracking your food... all the good, bad and ugly.  Even on days when you overeat, track it!  It helps to be accountable. 

I just wanted to add to start moving and focus on the reason why you are the weight you are.  The surgery changes you physically but the mental stuff is something we ALL have to deal with and without changing your mentality and facing the reason you are overweight, the results the surgery brings may not last.  For me, exercise also helps me mentally and gives me other goals to focus on rather than weight and the scale. Good luck!!