What's on your Wednesday Menu, RNYers?

A Nurse Practitioner, licensed to work with an physician but can diagnose and treat you without you needed to see the physician. They work in tandem with physicians to help reduce costs (they're cheaper and bill at lower rates) and lighten the physician's work load.

Nurse Practitioner (np)

Thanks all!

The other issue I see is drinking either with food, or soon thereafter. See, "not sipping it until I had some protein in my pouch." The ONE rule my surgeon is absolutely inflexible about is the no eating and drinking at the same time. Patients in his practice (at least the successful ones) wait at least 30 minutes after eating to drink. All the posts I've read where you talk about drinking (either your big beautiful reds, or beer), you talk about having it with your meal. The easiest way to unintentionally increase your calories and derail your loss?? Drinking and eating at the same time. Here you get the double whammy of drinking calorie dense liquids, while pushing that precious protein through your pouch quickly. A recipe for disaster in my book. But that's just me and I'm a rules follower . . .

I've seen two studies that showed the number one thing that those struggling with regain had in common was drinking with meals.

Valid point. I've rationalized an oz or two of liquid when consuming dry foods, as this seems to have no practical difference to eating wetter foods. The "at the same time" part is literal, like as I'm chewing, add a sip of liquid to help slurry it up some. When I mix whey protein with my Greek yogurt, I usually have to add in a little water or milk, vs. when I use regular yogurt.

I weigh my food and liquid prior to eating, and photograph it too. Mostly this is done so that I can REMEMBER what I actually ate, and how much of it I ate, when I'm updating MFP with the "actual" numbers that night or the next morning. It also helps when I'm looking back to see things like liquid intake. If I'm eating some thing like meat, it's hard for me to get enough saliva to swallow it properly. Mixing a little water in with ground beef is gross, but taking a bite of ground meat, then sipping the same amount of water while I chew it seems to work fine.

I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about things like this. When I go in to see my doctor I have a page of questions, prioritized, to ask him about. I am constantly querying the medical study sites to find out if there have been studies on these kinds of things.

I follow most rules, but it the rule interferes with something that is of value to me, I'll ask questions to better understand the reasoning. In the medical field there are a lot of things that are counter intuitive. I've often found that reading the original studies helps me better appreciate the reasoning for a rule. A few times I've found a rule that was miss applied. Even then I usually go back and ask the doctor for his or her reasoning. Opting for the RNY over the VSG is a great example. Because I was just over the line with co-morbidities, I assumed that the VSG would be my best option. After consulting with a couple of surgeons, and reviewing the actual studies done on long term success rates, I followed my surgeons recommendation to go with the RNY.

So yes, I'll occasionally sip a small amount of liquid with a meal, if it helps me chew and swallow. I obviously don't do that with wet foods, or small amounts of food (1/4 of a protein bar is eaten in slivers over 30 minutes).

The liquid that helps you swallow ALSO helps that food slide right through your pouch, which defeats the purpose of surgery.

Absolutely! But at the same time, we don't downgrade Greek yogurt because it is more moist than dried chick peas... I prefer sashimi over canned tuna because it's slipperier. If I could AFFORD sashimi I would be happy to consume it all the time... alas budget. None the less over the weekend I made a concerted effort not to sip anything. I'm finding some condiments I can pair with drier foods that seem to elicit more saliva than others, like pickled ginger and dill pickles. I also tried dippiing bites of my steak into (plain) yogurt to help make it easier to swallow.

You're probably not going to want to hear what I have to say, but I have to say it.

At 6 weeks out from surgery your menu isn't the greatest. The strawberries have no nutritional value and are a waste to be eating right now. You yourself said the strawberries squeeze out room for natural protein. Protein bars and I don't care what kind they are should be eaten as emergency type thing unless there is some odd complication that is preventing one from getting their needed protein in by eating meats, fish, eggs, etc.

As for the micro brew. I don't care if it is 1oz or 12ozs alcohol this early out is a very bad idea.

From your previous posts you have struggled on and off since surgery. Just a few weeks ago you said you were cutting out the protein bars what happened?

Why are you doing this to yourself?

Oh the agony of TRUTH!!!

I'm trying to look at myself, and think through your very legit question "Why are you doing this to yourself?" I don't want to just list lame excuses, at the same time I want to share my thought process and better understand myself.

I took the protein bars off my meal plans after very good advice on here about not needing to get my 1000 calories in each day, and the warning that they can be a slippery slope and you could end up going to "candy" rather than actual protein sources.

I've dropped my calories down, now they're around 650/day, and I've been trying to get my protein in from "real" sources.

At my one month post op appointment on Friday, the NUT reviewed my food diaries with me. She advised me to start using 'added protein' to get my levels up over 75g/day. She was fine with the reduced calorie levels, but she wants me to put some nutrient dense fruits and vegetables back into my diet (hey, at least she didn't think I needed to add carbs back!).

My blood-work came back fine, except for Iron, so she suggested I eat strawberries when I take my iron supplements (taken twice a day) as they compliment each other. She also said I could have watermelon and count the volume a****er intake.

Am I taking her advice just because it's what I want to hear? Am I taking it because it makes sense to me? Maybe it's a little of both...

Prior to WLS I ate too much. But what I ate was a classic Mediterranean diet. I had limited carbs (I used to joke that I was on a liquid carb diet - my carbs came from wine). I ate lentils, beans, fish, chicken and limited venison for my red meat dishes. Most of my dairy was fermented, like fresh (raw milk) goat yogurts and soft cheeses. I knew I would miss my coffee, red wine, and homemade bread but I didn't expect to miss my fruits and vegetables as much as I do! Today's lunch was Gyro meat on baby spinach. I have hardly touched the baby spinach because I am trying to get all the meat in me first. I've been totally indoctrinated into the EAT FRESH NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS camp and it's surprisingly difficult to steer away from those "good foods" that no longer actually benefit my body.

For what it's worth, I haven't eaten a strawberry since I read your comment (so not since breakfast). I also haven't had any of the protein bar but I'm planning on eating some as soon as I get more water in (and then wait 30 minutes).