Suggestions regarding what you’re eating
You gotta keep trying to eat food. You didnt have this surgery to to be a
totally malnourished cripple, didja? You could live on protein shakes and
vites, if you are willing to get a good vitamin and mineral supplement regimen,
and drink 6-8 protein shakes a day. Are you taking calcium citrate, iron (not
ferrous sulfate!), vit C, B complex, zinc, and a dry E, dry A & D? But,
eventually, youre gonna hafta eat. Its just not realistic to think you can
live on drinks for the rest of your life. And you wont want to. Eventually,
your appetite will return, youll be recovered, and your friends and family will
get tired of sitting in your living room while you drink protein. Theyll wanna
go out to eat, to holiday dinners, etc.
I would up the protein drinks - women need *at least* 60 grams of protein just
to maintain. You are healing, burning fat, and you want to build muscle, all of
which require more protein. And you’ll absorb only part of the protein you
consume. Try using 1.5 scoops of protein powder per shake, and take 2-3 a day,
minimum.
I would lose the milk, juice, yoghurt, and some of the “plastic carbs” (SF
pudding, etc). Better to replace these with protein drinks. Also, protein bars
are dense food ask yourself why you can eat these, but not meat?
Make your protein drink with water and ice. Try some pureed vegetables? How
come you’re not eating any? I find that vegs sit easily in my pouch, a few
bites of veg makes it easy to eat meat. Kind of makes a bed for it. The meat
may be bothering you because it’s dry. Try tuna salad with real mayo (no
sugars), soft cooked roast pureed with pan juices. Don’t worry so much about
lean, or fat free . . . fat satisfies, sugars make us crave. We malabsorb some
fats, but sugar is absorbed from lips to butt. Better to eat fat than sugars -
whether they be from milk, fruit, the sugar bowl, wherever . . . besides, we
need fat to burn fat.
This is what works for me . . . YMMV.
Good luck - also, don’t worry that you can only eat a few bites of dense protein
at a time. That’s pretty normal. The dense protein stays on the pouch, and
yours is prolly still swollen, so has *very* little space. The reason you can
eat much more of some soft foods, like yoghurt, is that those don’t stay in the
pouch. They’re liquid enough that they just flow out.
Rachel
320highest/305pre-op/195now/150ish or whatever works for me!
Open Distal (60″ CC) RNY 3/12/03
Dr. Ki H. Oh, Fed. Way, WA
Rachel Hawkridge in Washington State.