Meals

I am two months post-op and my surgeon says that I should be eating three meals a day with two snacks and serving should be 1/3 cup but my question is how do you eat a balanced meal? I do good to eat a piece of deli meat, or a cheese stick at one time. I can't get how to eat protein, veggies and complex carb all at one time. Can someone please help?

I usually don't eat balanced meals.  I can't eat enough food at one time.  Or, if I tried to make it a balanced meal, it would be a meal consisting of two tablespoons each of several different foods, but I'm not going to prepare several different dishes just to eat two tablespoons of each.  Most of my meals consist of one food.  Like today, I had a protein shake for breakfast.  I had a slice of pizza for lunch (which is pretty balanced compared to most of my meals, it had cheese and veggies and grains in the crust).  I had yogurt for one snack, an apple for another.  I had tomato soup for dinner.  Over the whole course of the day, I get a variety of foods, although on many days I get fewer than the five servings of fruits and veggies that are generally recommended for a healthy diet.  However, with all the vitamins I take, I get the nutrients I don't get from food.

I find it almost impossible to get a balanced meal at 1 sitting. For supper tonight I had turkey meatloaf that has spinich and mozzarella cheese in it, with a red pepper sauce so it had a few food groups in it... But as far as "balanced", I just don't have the space to do it in 1 meal.

Kelly is so good at this stuff!  My NUT wants me to incorporate some veggies with my protein now.  I do eat primarily protein with a small amount of veggies now. My concern for protein is resolved by having an IsoPure Protein Drink from GNC.  It has 40 grams of protein @ 160 calories and no sugar.  I will either drink a half or whole depending on my protein needs.  I got tired of the shakes. My program doesn't push for snacking, but if needed it's fine.

I love the Grape as it tastes exactly like a Grape Nehi Soda but none of the sugar. As far as the vitamin needs my program suggests the  " Bariatric Fusion" complete vitamin and mineral supplements we require.  I just chew 2 "orange cream flavored" (tastes good) tablets in the morning and 2 at night.  

You know four of the Bariatric Fusion only gives you half of most things recommended by the ASMBS, right?  To meet the ASMBS guidelines you'd need eight a day.  Plus you still need B12 in a sublingual, shot or nasal spray.

is that all the vitamins you take, Bariartic Fusion ?

The company that makes Bariatric Fusion markets them to WLS folks and tells them they will only need four a day and no other vitamins.  That is far less than what the ASMBS recommends and I think they are doing something really unethical by telling people that's all they will need, but that's what they do.  After a couple years of taking them, people end up posting here on OH asking about symptoms of multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies and asking how to get their levels back up to normal.

Kelly, I was not aware.  I'll contact my NUT to question the program I'm on. Thanks for the info!

Getting a completely balanced meal, at every meal, after RNY is very difficult even once you are more than a year out.  Since most of the meal is (and always will be of you want to maintain the weight loss) protein, the best you can do is get in a few bites of a veggie or a little bit of fruit at a particular meal.

For me, at six years out, the bulk of my diet is protein, but I strive for "balance" in that I get some vegetable, some kind of fruit, a little bit of fat, and something with some fiber (if the fruit and veggie don't have much) over the course of the whole day.

Lora

I'm with Lora :)  Try for balanced days more than balanced meals.  When you can hold more even balancing the day will be easier.

The closest I get to a balanced meal is a salad (meat, veggies, sunflower seeds, cheese) or 3 inch flatbread sandwich (grain, veggies and meat/cheese) or soup often has many food groups (beef, Barley and veggies)

Most of the time I get only one or two kinds of food at one meal or snack, such as apples with PB  or cheese and whole grain crackers or meat and veggies