Discussion: Favorite Before and After WLS Foods

We all know that our food choices and taste change after RYN surgery.  Here are my top six foods before my RYN last April: - Bogangles Fried Chicken, mash potatoes, biscuits - Meat Lover's Thick Crust Pizza and beer - Fried Chick-Fil-a Sandwich with fries and a Pepsi - Quarter Pounder with Cheese with fries and a Pepsi -NC Barbeque with slaw and hushpuppies  - All types of cake, pie, ice cream, banana pudding, and lots of candy Now - Chick-Fil-a Chicken Strip Salad with FF Honey Mustard Dressing and water - Chicken fixed various ways with sauces and stuff with water - Steak with baked sweet potato and green beans and ice tea - Lasagna and a salad with water  - Thin Crust Cheese Pizza and a salad with water  - Healthy Choice Fudgesicles or Edie’s No Sugar Added Fruit (Lime, Grape, Orange ) popsicles

 So how has your taste change?

I'm still waiting on my RYN surgery date (Sometime in July or August).   Your 'favorite before and after' gave me a needed relief today.   I've read so many positing wasn't truly sure if I could ever 'really' eat food again...   Thanks Mike

Tim, I am onlyh out a short while since WLS surgery.  For some reason my stomach after the VSG is just not interested in eating.  My mind tells me when I am hungry.  But, the way I look at food now is:   Food is just an energy source, some good, some not so good.  This thinking has helped me not over eat and my gravings are nill. My favorite food to eat is the SF popsicles! Gotta love em. Kent

Well, lets see.  I am 7 months out and down 157 from heaviest. Before RNY I usually ate: - Diet Coke - Beyer's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - Dairy Queen Blizzards  - Jersey Mike Club Sub (Footlong) Turkey, Ham, Roast Beef & Bacon w/Swiss Cheese - 2 for $3 double cheeseburgers from MacDonalds or Hardees - grilled 16 oz steak w/mushrooms and mashed potatoes or baked potatoe soaked in butter - Hardee's $6 dollar cheese burger with extra bread&butter Pickles - MacDonalds Quarter Pound Cheeseburger (usually 2 at a time) - Sausage and Mushroom Pizza from an Italian restaurant - Sausage and Mushroom Calazone Post Op - I don't really have a favorite food that I crave anymore because food doesn't have the pleasurable appeal it use to have, but some food that go down well and taste appealing would include: - Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe bar refrigerated with a cold bottle water to sip on - Tropical Smoothie - Citrus or Strawberry Splenda smoothie - Chef Boyardee Ravioli - Cheddar Cheese slices - baked Tostitos with mild-medium salsa - Wendy's Chili - Taco Bell Crunchy regular Taco - cold bottle water - Sobe Vitamin water - mashed potatoes with melted cheese on top - blueberry lowfat yogurt - Orange Juice - meatloaf I have not had or tried to eat a cheeseburger since surgery.  Almost scared to for fear it will go down and stay down.  Likewise I gave up soda before surgery and with the exception of a swallow or two  3 or 4 times and 1 Sonic Diet Limeaid (w/cherry) have not had soda.  I had about 3 teaspoons of SF ice cream once but that is another trigger food I have basically sworn off and fear going back too.  Now that I have not had them, I really haven't wanted them.  I still occasionnaly go to Hardees and get mashed potatoes and green beans, MacDonalds and get thee yogurt and fruit parfaits w/granola, Jersey mikes and get the meatball and swiss sub in a tub (no bread) and no DQ or Breyers.  Amazingly, I am happy without it.  I get excited about dropping belts holes and pant sizes, dropping time and being able to jog farther than last time during my jog/walks for 2-6 miles at a time.  I get excited about cutting my yard in 1 hour with no rest breaks (pre-op 2 hrs w/3-4 breaks). I guess the focus is less on food now which was part of the WLS goal. Thanks for putting the question out there TA,...you stealth dude!

Howdy Tim!  Long time no talk to!  This is a great thread to get started as it will likely show the evolution we go through as time goes by as far as what we're able to eat.  Over time it certainly does change! WHAT I ATE BEFORE Pizza - and lots of it...thin crust fan (the more pepperoni and cheese the better). Cheeseburgers and Fries (Double 1/4 Pounders) Chinese Food (fried chicken with various sauces with rice, eggrolls, crab rangoon etc) Buffalo Wings (I could polish off anywhere from 16-24 at a sitting!) BBQ Ribs (Full rack, with fries, beans, slaw, garlic toast - all of it!) Mexican Food (huge burritos, tacos, etc....usually 4-5 items at a Taco Bell at one time) NOW I EAT Chicken, Fish, Shrimp - baked or broiled...never fried Salads - with cheese and meat Thin Crust Pizza (cracker thin crust to minimize carbs with cheese and a meat)  Quesadillas (low carb tortillas with cheese and meat) Wendy's Chili (and home made) Smoothie King Smoothies - Gladiator (low carb) Smoked Meats (ribs, brisket, chicken, fish, etc) Quad Shot, Sugar Free Vanilla, Skinny Latte (one per day) Sugar Free, Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookies (no flour) There are things on this list that one could argue is junk food - not healthy choices (quesadillas and the pizza), but I make sure that I choose wisely and either order it or make it in a way that's conducive to my situation...lower carb, high protein...and also easy to save and warm up for a second or third meal.  Besides high fat or sugary foods which I still dump on (thank goodness), I eat pretty much what I want to.   I do find myself making wiser choices than I did in the past and portion control is no longer an issue.  I very seldom crave anything and truly I now eat to live versus living to eat as I did prior to WLS.    For those who crave and suffer from head hunger the key is finding acceptable alternatives to craved and trigger foods.  The alternative is never as good as the real thing - but living and being healthy is better than death by a long-shot!  Tim - Keep the faith my friend! Cards Fan STEP OFF THE SIDELINES AND GET IN THE GAME!

Mike, Great to heard from you bro, I have missed you around the board. Glad to see the surgery is behind you now and I hope life has smoothed out these days. I'm still going at 110MPH, same as always. I'm feeling great and adding new challenges everyday. My son Bill is being inducted into the National Honor Society tonight. He has a 5.0 GPA and is 9th out of 534 kids in his HS class. One more year and he is off to college. So far Duke, UNC, or NC State are his top choices but he is being courted by Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Penn,  and he even got a letter last week from Cambridge, England. He scored in the top 1% of the on the pre-SAT in October so our mail box is full of offers these days. It all comes down to "show me the scholarship (money)" at this point. He wants to be a prosecuting attorney (DA type). I wanted him to pursue engineering like his old man but he really likes the law. I proud of whatever path Bill takes, as long as he tries his best and works hard to reach his full potential. Got to run, good to hear from you, I was hoping this thread would show the new guys there is life after WLS.  Take Care,

Well lets see,  before WLS - Chicken fried steak and biscuits smothered in sausage gravy,w/ mashed potatoes. - Pizza any kind and many slices. - Ice cream, pie and cheese cake. - Chips all kinds - Mc Donalds, Wendies, Burgerking, Kentuckey fried (all the left side of the menue & some of       the right) - French fries and Onion rings - and the cops favorite DONUTS!!!!!! Now: - shrimp, shelfish, and fish baked or broiled or steamed. - Chicken grilled usually with different sauces. - baked and mashed potato sweet and red - salads Greens, chicken and egg as well (W/ low fat mayo) - chili home made - taco salid (taco bell and home made) - sugar free fruit bars and fudge bars - pure protein bars - protein shakes and smothies

Tim, I can’t say that my tastes have changed or that there is anything I liked before WLS that I do not like now; but what I eat and how much I eat has certainly changed.  Wasn’t that the purpose of WLS to begin with?    For instance, I liked pizza before and I still do, it’s just that I’ve gone from being a thick crust guy to a thin crust guy, and I only eat one slice.  I still enjoy the taste of pumpkin pie, ice cream, and cheesecake, but they make me dump so I avoid them; likewise with fried foods, bread, and pasta.  Some of the foods I have learned to appreciate more are boiled/steamed vegetables, even Brussels sprouts and rutabaga.  For me they add variety (and moisture) to a meal.  Eating the same baked meats, chicken, fish, etc., and cottage cheese all of the time gets old.   Have my tastes changed?  Nope.  Have my eating habits changed?  You bet.

Wow,
After thinking it over for a while, I can harldy believe how much my tastes have changed over the past 15 months!

Pre-WLS:
- Extra Large Dunkin' Donuts Coffee very light & very sweet with 2 Boston Cremes EVERY MORNING.
- 3 Slices of large NY-Style specialty pizza topped with baked ziti or cheesesteak & an extra large root beer.
- Taco Bell, Taco Bell, Taco Bell!
- An 18-20 inch Sub/Hoagie/Grinder (depending on where you're from!) with ham, turkey, salami, & extra provolone
- A HUGE bowl of rigatoni in vodka cream sauce along with an entire bottle of red wine after an appitizer & salad... topped off with a canoli & coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream fror dessert.
- Pint after pint of Black & Tan (Guiness Stout over Bass Ale)
- An entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey or Chubby Hubby (I ate this 5-6 nights a week... easily)

Now-a-days:
- Oatmeal with protein powder, almond butter & Fiber One
- Grilled salmon & asparagus
- Light tuna, spinach & black bean dip on a low carb/high protein wrap.
- Lipton Diet Iced Green Tea
- 6 oz tenderloin with steamed broccoli & 1/2 sweet potato
- Egg white omeletes.
- An occaional glass of red or port wine.
- Fage 0% Fat Total Greek Yogurt with Fat Free / Sugar Free Jello Pudding Mix.

Yeah... things sure have changed. But, in no way do I feel deprived. These days, I'm taking in 3000 - 3200 calories a day. (although I wouldn't recommend this unless you were training as hard as I have been lately! )
I eat every 2 hours and honestly enjoy every bite as much as I did all those other foods from before.

Be Well,
A.J.

PreOp 1)    14 oz. KC Strip  medium, bake potato, steam broccoli, bread

2)     Pizza = thick crust - meat lovers

3)     Prime Rib - grilled, sweet potato fries, bread, mixed veggies (steamed)

4)     Popeye Fried Chicken or the Colonels

5)     Barbecue  all type of meat.

NOW:

1)    Lobster Humidor

2)    Stuffed Crab

3)     Fried catfish and hushpuppies

4)     16 oz Porterhouse - med.

5)     Thickburgers from hardees, and dozens of white castle burgers.