FOOD CONFUSION!!!

WOW!!! about the ribs. I gave up pasta already, bc I love pasta.. LOL!!! But Thanx

Yeah, I was shocked and after 5 months, I am still learning about the band and what I'm allowed to eat and not allowed.

Pasta in moderation is fine for me - I need to take it slow if I really want to eat it and have lots of sauce.. :)

Kim

PASTA~~~  Cant do it... Maybe one piece of penne, but no more...
Sometimes I can eat bread.. other times no...


Chicken is ok if I make it moist and saucy...
Same with most meats...

Also some of it ,for me, has to do with emotional ties to food..

Im a big SNACKER In the past I didnt eat breadfast and went 15 hours without eating. Then I would go into starvation mode then Im eating everything I can get my hands on...I have changed alot in the last few weeks. It still is a lil HARD. But I will get it together...Thanx for your input!!!

I've been lucky and have actually had my food allergies (Intolerances) go away since surgery and can now eat most things, but like everything else - i try to eat a only little bit of the non protein stuff.

Rice - soft, not a problem
Bread - very soft and doughy (fast food hamburger buns, very fine/soft yeast rolls) - not good and they get stuck, but french bread or more grainy bread - small bites, not a problem (I think I tear off a nickel size piece at a time).
Chicken - white meat, not a problem - just chew it carefully and slowly.

Wait, now that I'm thinking of it, I will say that I seem to have an issue with processed meats - hot dogs (meat only), some hamburger - it just "doesn't work".

These are just me and you will need to learn about you and what works/doesn't work for you - as the others have said.

Kim

Everyone is different. Follow what your NUT and Dr suggest. I have found that I can't do any breads, lunch meats, scrambled eggs, chicken or hamburger. I also am very careful after each new fill. Sometimes what I ate before, the newer restriction now won't allow me to eat. Try pea-size bites and chew approx 25-30 times. I haven't tried any pasta yet, but I am OK with rice.

Best of Luck, Kim

I kinda look at this a different way from how most people do on here.   I haven't give up anything I love to eat.   I have given up pasta for the first yr but only because it was my choice and I was never a pasta eater anyways lol.

But I still eat my pizza, I eat chips and salsa and yes that time of the month I eat my candy bar for my cravings and I eat bread in moderation .

Eating them foods isn't what got me fat, what got me fat was NOT eating them foods in moderation, watching how often you eat them foods, and when to eat them foods.    What got me fat to be very blunt and very honest was making a pig of myself.

Instead of eating two slices of pizza that a normal human being should be eating I would eat 6-8 slices  that is not normal .  That is what got me fat no portion control it wasn't the foods , it was me shoving those foods into my mouth . The sad part is I have always cooked healthy at home so eating healthy wasn't the problem , as far as fixing foods eating to much of them foods see that all comes back to portion control once again

The band is teaching me portion control right now and my band is completely empty because I dont  want to give up eating breads, or being to restricted not being able to sit down with my family and eat breakfast, to me that is not what the band is designed for , the band to me and my meaning is  portion control not to give up foods but I can go 4-6 hrs of not wanting to eat also even with my band empty

This is how I do things though and how I feel about the band.   What I'm doing might not work for others but  I just dont want that kind of restriction on foods :o) .

Right now I'm doing just fine I just hit 303 today I'm four pounds from being under 300 pounds and five pounds from losing 50 pounds all less then six months of having the surgery :o) and that is still eating the same foods as I did before I had surgery but I dont let food control me no more I'm in control of the food.

With the constant reminder of the band in me to not to overeat and my mind in that mental state of one cup of food is enough for me I can stay full for a good 5 hrs at a time and my band is empty .  My doc got onto yesterday about skipping meals.  I did that before I had the band hard habits are hard to break sometimes lol.

My doc has about a handful of patients like me and each of them have been very successful and have hit goal without a single fill in their band so hopefully I will be like them if not when the time comes I will go and get a small fill but it will be a very very small one .

You will need to figure out on your own what you can and cant eat though, and you need to figure out how tight you really want to keep your band.

Last night at my support gorup we talked about fills and like I said in another post there is about half of them that keep their bands like me.  It's all up to you on how you want to do things :o)

Some people need that kind of restriction where they cant eat certain foods, then you have me and there is some others here on the board they just dont post often that the band inside them is enough of a reminder not to overeat .

You will know once you get the surgery and go from there :o)

PS Veenie just from your post me and you both went through the same experiences of panic attacks I think you are going to be just fine .  Them scares we had will be enough to help you also . Use it if you have to because that is a constant reminder for me :o)

Thanx Steelerfan1...lol. Im a Cowboys Fan.  Well anyway, I soo understand what you are saying. I got scared about all the different foods. You have made me feel soo much better. I will keep you posted on everything. Like my guardian angel...

Figuring out what to eat and what to avoid can be really confusing, because other bandsters will tell you 12 different things, and your nutritionist and/or surgeon will tell you 1-2 things, and your body will tell you another 20 things, and those 20 things could be entirely different tomorrow than they were today.

In the 3-1/2 years I've been banded, I've had to avoid certain foods for short or long periods of time, but never had to give up anything I absolutely loved except for the foods I've always known can get me in trouble, like sweets and salty snacks. I have more fill and more restriction now than ever before, yet I can eat almost anything if it's a small quantity and I eat carefully.

But in my first year post-op I followed my nutritionist's instructions to the letter. Fortunately she gave me very detailed instructions. I had worked so hard to get my band, I didn't want to risk doing something stupid that could endanger my band or my weight loss, so I played it 100% safe. Maybe I avoided some foods that I could have eaten OK, but so what? I lost all my excess weight and it was only one year out of my life...a life I had managed to mess up royally by eating everything and anything I wanted for 54 years. The other good thing about the playing safe approach was that I used that time to turn band eating skills into a habit I don't have to think about any more, so that when I did start to experiment with food a bit more, I didn't get into trouble very often.

The first food that I ate even though it was on my nutritionist's no-no list was fresh asparagus - my favorite vegetable. It tasted divine and I was so happy to get it off the no-no list!

Jean