Brand New and Scared

I don't meal prep at all. I never have and never will. I'm not organized enough for that, and I don't really have the space for it anyway. Kudos to those that do it, but it would be way overthinking things for me. Most days, I have no clue what I'll make for dinner until I look in the freezer and decide right in that moment. I wing it 95% of the time..lol. If meal prepping were mandatory, I'd be screwed.

I'm maintaining my 140 lb weight loss after 4.5 years, and I'm a total dumpster fire as far as meal planning and prepping goes. I make a grocery list, but that's about as "preppy" as I get. As long as you keep a decent amount of good food choices around, you'll do fine.

As far as making adjustments in your eating goes-if you don't already eat a low carb, high protein diet-starting one as soon as possible will be a huge benefit to you. Getting simple carbs and sugar out of your system is not fun, but it's very possible. Low carb, high protein is the lifelong diet standard for the majority of WLS post ops, so why not start now? Pre and post op diets can vary greatly, but "protein first" is common no matter what after surgery.

I have kids, but they're adults and older teens. My youngest sons were 12 when I had my surgery. They were classified as special needs due to a minor cognitive delay that was already pretty much resolved by the time I had surgery, so,sadly, I can give no tips on that. My sons pretty much eat like I do, but I never stopped giving them snack foods or starches with their meals. I just have to deal with cooking pasta or rice being okay with not having any. It really sucked at first, but I got used to not eating it, and now....I don't even think about it. Starchy foods and sugary foods are a huge no-no for me. They have zero nutritional value, and they make me feel ill anyway.

I know this is super wordy, but I hope it's been some help. Good luck with everything! ( Sorry for any typos and grammatical boo-boos. I likely won't catch them at all. )

How are you defining meal prep? For me, meal prep is to plan dinners for the week on one day and grocery shop for the ingredients on another. Then I cook dinner five nights a week - two of those five nights I only make a protein and the other two nights of the week are leftover nights.

However, it's also "easy" enough to cook up proteins in bulk, but whatever method you find easiest and then freeze them. Then you can just make a carb or veg for your kiddo. (In my house, we always have rice in the fridge for the people who are not me, since I do that in my rice cooker as needed.)

How do you handle meals now? I could probably give you better advice to fit your style if I knew where you were starting from :)

We can do anything if we want it bad enough :) Like others have said, meal prep doesnt have to be super complicated. Plus, if its just you, its even easier... For my wife and I we just buy a pack of ground turkey and brown it w/ taco seasoning and toss into a big container in fridge. Then we each eat from it until its gone, and do it all over again (we're very easy when it comes to cooking and eating the same thing over and over lol).

I love to cook, so I'll make nicer meals that last a few days and just eat off those. If its just you + one child, then can last even longer and be frozen even :)

Definitely start with a consultation or an information meeting with a local surgeon -- can be any surgeon that seems decent, just to get some general 30,000' information about the options and what to expect. Then you can begin your own research (well, ahead of time really even) into all the options, questions, etc for a formal consultation with PCP or a surgeon, as well as to bring onto the forum

Welcome to OH

Hi! You've come to the right place for info, and you can use the search bar to search any topics you are curious about--chances are good someone else had the same concerns before :)

like what was previously advised, go to the RNY and VSG boards and look at their daily menu threads to see what we're all eating and you can also see when people have had their surgery so you can also get a sense of how people are eating at different stages from pre-op to years out.

if you're considering surgery, first find out what is covered by your insurance, what the requirements are (for example I had to do a 6 month supervised diet) and find surgeons that are in your network, unless you would be self paying. From there you can set up consultations with surgeons in your network, and the surgeons themselves may also have pre-op requirements in addition to the insurance company.

One thought is to go to the Cafe Frisco section of the lapsf.com website. Frisco is a long time member here on OH and was very active in the past. The only thing he knew how to cook was to order a pizza. After very successful vsg, he realized he needed to learn to cook in order to maintain weight loss. So he came up with many easy and healthy recipes that are posted in the above site. He takes fabulous pictures of the foods and they are awesome. Its a good way to start improving your eating habits. GL. You will find help here on OH. Diane S

Welcome, know that you are among friends. Many of whom, like myself, have a history of PCOS (comes with the metabolic syndrome) and abusive relationships (which caused some to use their weight as a shield).

When it comes to food prep, it really isn't hard, especially with Purdue pre-made grilled chicken and pre-made protein shakes.

There is a lengthy process, depending upon your insurance, that you will have to go through before you have the surgery. But this is a good thing, as you learn how to change your eating habits and also address the emotional side of your weight gain.

Welcome aboard!