Soul Food???

I think for many of us eating is social. It's part of our heritage and sadly why so many of us are overweight-eating is a "big" (no pun intended) part of our gatherings! Yet, I have many relatives who have always ate "Soul Food" yet never became obese becaue they do so in moderation. I'm at 5 months on the VSG and I can eat about anything but of course it is limited. So even at gathering I do protein first, veggies and then what dessert I have room for. (Love sweet potato pie!) I cannot eat much as as I mentioned earlier it's all about being social which I have always attached to eating, now my mind have been reprogrammed. Yet, I still WANT to eat because that is always what I have done. So sad that sometimes I just miss the eating for the eating even when I am not hungry-that tells me a lot about myself and why this change was necessary. For the most part, I do stay away from Soul Food but I won't say I cannot or never will eat it. I will, but in moderation and only if I am actually hungry!

Thank you for posting this. I am scheduled for surgery on Feb 18 2015 and am so worried i will mess up. I am a great cook but my weakness is fried chicken and whiting. I have been thinking to beat the possible cravings I should fry a chicken breast to get the most out of my protein but if cravings are not a huge battle then I should be fine. 

If you are having the Duodenal Switch, then you will not have to give up fried chicken or whiting. In fact, you will likely need the fat from frying, since DSers malabsorb 80% of the fat we consume. That said, simple carbs (white flour, white pasta and items made from them), and simple sugars (candy, table sugar, syrups, etc.) will likely give you gas from Hades, and "the runs". 

I will be six years out on the 25th, and along with curing my severe morbid obesity (SMO), It freed me to eat like a normal person.

The primary things you will have to deal with are getting your protein in every single day, and being absolutely anal about stickintg to your vitamin regiomen.  I'm not advertising, but Vitalady has an excellent vitamin package for DSers and ERNY's  (Extended RNY - they get a "food pouch for a stomach, and a further bypass that is similar to the DS configuration.)

My DS has freed me from the fear of food, and gaining weight with it,  and with just a few exceptions, I can ( and do!) eat anything I want. While you;re losing, you may want to limit your carbs to maximize your weight loss, but once you reach goal....anything goes!

Good Luck! 

I eat soul food!

Hello JazzyOne9254,

I'm in the process of having a Gastric Bypass Revision and I must be honest with you...the Soul Food is one of the maisn reasons for the revision surgery. I too, love greens cooked with bacon, candied yams, ham, etc...However, that's why I'm in the situation that I'm in now. After those Sunday and Holiday dinners I would be sooo miserable to the point where I would HAVE to lie down for at least an hour before I would feel like getting up again.

I know you posted this a while back. But, I figure it can't hurt by responding now, based on my experiences. I certainly hope that if you've decided to eat Soul Food, that you are doing it, wisely.

I wish you the very best!

--Staci

Staci-

What are you revising to? 

I have the Duodenal Switch, starting at 397 on surgery day (405 at my highest) and after I made it past my first 200 pound loss (one year to the day of my surgery, 2/25/09) I began to loosen up my eating routine with regard to what I did and did not eat.  I never did simple carbs or simple sugars, but I did do complex carbs after my protein, and small, tasting-size portions of the traditional desserts like Sweet Potato pie, which if sweetened artificially, and made with 100% whole wheat crust, counts as a complex carb (think fruits and vegetables and whole grains) with added fat (shortening in the crust) which all DSers need, since we malabsorb most of the fat we eat.  Sound like justification to gorge?  NOT! Immediatley post op, I couuld barely hold three ounces of pureed food.  No I can eat 8 to 10 ounces per meal, depending on the density of the food, the textures and whether they are really absoptive if you drink with meals -some DSers do, some don't, but for most it doesn't matter, as the category determines how much of what you can eat.  I've always been a meat lover, so protein  has always been been first for me.I also use meat in the greens - smoked ham hocks or smoked turkey tails,whatever I'm feeling, not just salt pork...more protein *and* fat - fat makes it easier to "go" with all the calcium that DSer's have to take.

I don't cook it as often, because it's just me, but when I want some, I will fix it for myself, and freeze the leftovers for another time.