MEAL PLANNING - UGH, RIGHT?

We spent x years before weight loss surgery going through life, often from one drive through to another or from the pizza place to the Mexican restaurant to the Chinese restaurant.  Some of us actually cooked - what did we make?  Big pots of mashed potatoes, rice and beans, lots of breaded meats and fish, lots of bread period.  Crunch was critical, with sweets, and lots of them for dessert.

Then we had WLS and we are told we can’t do this anymore.

What happens next?  We look to other people we know, listen to the doctor, the nutritionist, anyone who has been successful and try to repeat what they did.  Then we realize - wait a second, this liquid phase is going on for way too long.  I am 3 months or 6 months post op and I’m still relying on my protein drinks to get the required protein.  Guess I’ll be doing this forever.  Oh well, sometimes you have to give up things to get what you want so I’ll just give up food and I’ll be skinny and fit and be able to buy all of the clothes I want wherever I want.  Who needs food anyway?  Right?

OR - you find 2 or 3 foods that work- protein drinks, Greek yogurt, tuna, and maybe even chicken.  So you prepare these foods and eat them the same exact way day after day.  This works for a while, but then the boredom sets in and you find yourself thinking - hmmm, this wasn’t supposed to be a diet but it sure does feel like one.

What do you do next?  If you’re like many you start allowing some foods back into your life that may not be the best choices and what happens?  Your weight loss stalls, or worse yet, you start gaining weight.  Panic time, right?  So you go searching for the diet that’s going to work for you this time.  What is it?  Is it the 5 day pouch test, is it going Paleo or doing the Weight Watcher’s counting or maybe it’s Nutri-system and their prepared meals.  Whatever it is, it’s a DIET.

I don’t know about you but I swore I would never diet again after having weight loss surgery and you know what?  I don’t need to and neither do you.  Remember at that pre-op seminar and all those meetings with the doc, the PA, the NP, the RD when they said it’s about changing your lifestyle and using your tool?  I do.

So what does changing my lifestyle mean?  It means I do not diet for a month and then go back to eating anything I want.  This didn’t work before WLS, why would it work now.  It’s a short term Band-Aid with NO staying power.  Lifestyle change regarding food means that I am accountable for choosing protein rich foods and low carbohydrate vegetables that will keep me full and satisfied AND taste good.  If they don’t taste good I am not going to ever be satisfied.  Furthermore, I plan my meals for the week, sometimes exactly, oftentimes loosely so I have adequate supplies in the fridge and freezer and cupboards to throw together something tasty and healthy.

After my first year of eating a 3 oz can of tuna for lunch every day I vowed I would only eat delicious food and that’s how it’s been for the past 11+ years.  I have taken some of my favorite foods and incorporated them into tasty recipes that meet my nutritional needs in terms of protein and calories and I have learned to use vegetables in ways I never would have imagined 12 years ago.  Who would have thought that 25 calories worth of cauliflower “rice” would ever be able to replace 120 calories of steamed white rice?  And that is just one simple example.

I challenge you all to create tasty meals, using your food scales, measuring cups, measuring spoons, Google and reading labels.  You’ll find that as you educate yourself you too can prepare tasty meals that everyone can enjoy.

To aid your learning you can order our book Eat Your Way To Success And Learn How To Control Hunger - A Weight Loss Surgery Friendly Cookbook for some great ideas.

Go ahead and play with food, play with some recipes, and share your successes with us.  I too have had a few epic fails I rarely talk about.