What's on your Menu Today (Wednesday) RNYers?

Good luck with getting the fridge fixed!

Sort of a funny story (I thought so anyway): My SIL re-did her kitchen recently and bought a new fancy French door fridge. It stopped working in a week (frosted up between freezer and fridge).  The dealer came and defrosted it and a week later the same thing happens!  So she calls again and they say she needs 3 service calls before they will replace it.  So... 1 more call and she gets a replacement. One week later.... again! Turns out the company had a whole batch with a bad circuit board, which was finally replaced and all has been fine since.  Anyway they sure don't make them like they used to!

Awww Daisy, I love your enthusiasm and advice and support!  Isn't it crazy to think back almost 3 years when I used to start the post?  I had to think about your QOTD - I honestly can't remember how I found this site, but I had never known anyone who had WLS and I wasn't sure about RNY or how it worked or IF it would work.  I still remember seeing Grim's signature line and being like, "WHAAAT?  He lost WHAAAT?".  Seeing people who had lost tons of weight made me feel like I could possibly do it too.  And similar to what Cynthia (NYMom) said, I threw myself into WLS like it was my job.  I was militant for that first year.  No grits, no desserts, no alcohol, no chips...I was protein, protein, protein.  And posting on the menu thread gave me a like-minded community of folks (since my friends and family were super supportive but really didn't need to hear me obsess over my 3 oz of meal lol) and also gave me great ideas for meals and snacks.

Now, I try to ready the menu post everyday but don't post everyday, since at 3 years out, my menu looks dramatically different than someone who is newly post-op.  I wouldn't want someone in the honeymoon stage to eat like I do!  My pouch is more mature and I am trying to figure out this maintenance thing every. single. day.  I wish I could say it was easy, but for me, it's a daily struggle.  Make good choices, eat protein, avoid slider carbs.  I am good at my 100 oz of water and my workouts, but I definitely have foods that I wouldn't have touched with a 100 foot pole in that first year or so!

I have met some of you all in person and love keeping up with your comings and goings on this thread.  So thanks for "getting it" and being such an incredible support, Daisy and all of you!

And as Grim said (and pretty much everything he says is RIGHT), Daisy speaks the truth.  Do your best to take advantage of the honeymoon period, peeps!  This **** ain't easy, the further out you get :)

I think it is important to see a full range of post op menus. I had no idea that there would be a time that I would be hungry again, so it's good to see where everyone is and what the "new normal" will be at different points!

Good morning everyone!

When I started researching wls (again) this past spring a lot of my searches brought me to OH and it soon became a daily read. A lifetime of hanging back in the shadows kept me reading for months but not posting and I didn't start posting until I had my surgery date. I did manage some decent pre op loss and I attribute a lot of that to the information I learned here. I attempted to follow a maintenance type diet to see if I felt it was doable in the long term and started working on the necessary ha*****anges. Recently I've been making an effort to post more but it's getting harder to keep up with the length of the treads and there's still a big part of me that feels like I'm at a party with a bunch of people I kinda know but I'm interrupting their conversations. 

At a little over two months out I know I need to remain focused and maximize this time. I think I've been doing a good job of that and I've definitely increased my daily activity. The thing is with the exception of the incident were cashews made me feel terrible I haven't experienced any of the other stuff that you guys talk about. I haven't had any trouble getting things down, nothing has gotten stuck and there hasn't been any foods I can't tolerate...besides the cashews. I'm not complaining and I have read that that can change around this point out from surgery, but I struggle a little with not feeling the restriction. 

QOTD I come back here daily because what I've learned here has had a huge influence on the success I've had so far. You guys are a wealth of information, experiences and understanding that can't be found in my real life. 

B- coffee w/ sf hazelnut

L- chicken breasts, 1 tbs tzatziki

D- chicken leg, no skin

S- protein drink, turkey bite

Totals 580 cal, 87g protein, 5g carbs

Have a great day all!!

When you say you struggle with not feeling restriction, do you mean you don't get full?

Not exactly that I don't feel full because that does happen sometimes, I guess it's more that I haven't felt like finishing my planned food was ever an issue. I weigh/measure everything I eat, eat and then stop but don't usually get anything that I would describe as a full/restricted feeling. I know we're not chasing that feeling but I was expecting to have those times I've read about when you start a meal and don't finish because you feel the restriction. 

Ok, I understand now. I have a hard time eating dense meat. I have no issue with soft things, eggs, cheese or slider foods, but meat I can only eat a few bites and I have to stop. I'm sure this will get easier the further out I get, but it makes it hard to get my protein in.

What you are describing is exactly what I was expecting but since I started eating dense proteins I haven't had a problem with them and they have become the majority of my diet. I have sf creamer in my coffee, some cheese and will add some kind of sauce to things either during cooking or after but I haven't added back much else to my plan. Once I started dense protein I got away from things like eggs and yogurt, and with the exception of a few bites over the holidays I haven't been adding veggies. I still have a protein drink in the evening to keep my protein numbers up but that's almost as much for convenience as it is for protein.

I think this means that you are just planning very well for your pouch.  I am sure, at some point, you will have something that will make you feel full.

I have a sneezing fit at least once a week, and sometimes more than that, because I took one bite too many.  Ugggh, it actually really sucks.

I really appreciate hearing your point of view, thank you. I hadn't thought to look at it from the "maybe I'm just planning well" perspective. There is a lot of self doubt that comes with entering uncharted territory and when I try to look at it objectively it seems ridiculous to be worried about not feeling crappy... oh brain, why do you do this to me?? Reading about post op life and living it are two totally different animals.