Lately I've been worried that I'm eating way too much and too often. I've also been eating way too many carbs...so, today, I got my butt in gear and I'm pretty darn proud of myself! I'm almost 3 months out and I'm stuck at 37lbs lost. While I'm ecstatic about even that much being gone, I feel like I could be doing alot better. I started thinking alot about the 6 month honeymoon phase of weight loss and how I only have 3 months left of that period. Today I've had:

Cucumber slices with 2oz. chicken salad- 15protein
16oz. Water
String cheese& turkey pepperonis- 17 protein
16oz. Water

For dinner, I'm having a frozen Morning Star veggie burger and a veggie. I'm doing MUCH better today and hope I stick to it

oh LayLay - i'm glad you're back on track. i didn't realize you'd become a carb-girl!

one thing that worked REALLY WELL for me was wrapping some protein [thinly sliced deli turkey, chicken, or ham; or a some cooked chicken or something like that] in a large lettuce leaf, and then sprinkling some salad-y veggies on it [cucumber, tomato, a few shreds of carrot, some pepper slices] along with some cheese.

keep us posted - and more important - keep up the great work!

Yesterday's menu looks like a definite great step in the right direction! I find that once I've cut out carbs for a while, I don't even crave/want them anymore, so the longer you stick with it, the easier it will likely be to CONTINUE to stick with it

And I need to follow your lead (says the girl who had multiple mini Butterfingers just this morning ). Hopefully, I can reel myself in a bit after today, a sI will be working remotely for the rest of this week instead of being here in the office surrounded by leftover Halloween candy

Another question for you ladies. Today I had ricotta cheese topped with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. I measured everything and this was the outcome for nutrition:

18 grams of fat
16 carbs
315. Calories
21 grams protein

Is this too many carbs and/or calories?

my Nut says about 15 carbs a meal...its not too bad! Glad to see you are doing well! I am eating well today too...It really is one day at a time!

Thank you! It sure is one day at a time. Much harder than I thought it would be, but, I'm trying. My main problem is I get very bored always eating the same things.

laylay - what was the total serving size? and how long did it take to eat it? i'm just wondering because between the 18 grams of fat and the 16 grams of carbs, it looks like there's not quite enough protein for that amount of fat/carbs.

how did you feel after you ate it? and the only reason i'm asking this is because i know you're a really new post-op.

Jiffy- it was probably close to a cup of food. I felt super full after eating it. I'm having a super hard time finding new, good things to eat

see, hon- it's like this. if you feel "super full" or 'too full" or 'oh no did i eat all that - i want to ..." then chances are that you've eaten too much. you've overfilled your pouch - overeaten - didn't stop in time - there are many ways to say this.

stop when you're comfortably full. satisfied - not uncomfortable. had enough. And that should be reached in not more than 20 minutes after you start eating. it seems to me - based on your posts and reading into them a little bit - that your meals might be too big, and that you might think you still need to be a member of the clean plate club. and you don't have to be.

see how satisfied you are if you eat 1/2 cup of the ricotta/mozzarella/sauce mix [you sound so italian!!! love it!]. and if you want another tablespoon or so, then go for it. but a cup is a huge serving for you - i'm not sure that i can eat that much even now!

also, veggies will fill you up as well. honest! a small salad - like a few slices of cucumber and tomato - might help you as well. one of my favorite combinations early on was chopped cucumber, tomato, and pepper mixed with a couple of tablespoon of hummus. delish! and good protein too.

we have to re-learn everything we ever thought we knew about eating - and this is part of it. other parts that i had trouble with were chewing things to a paste.

also - here's my grandmother's eggplant parmigiana. she ALWAYS made it this way - it doesn't taste like anyone else's and it ends up being high protein and low in fat. she was a very talented woman!!!

peel an eggplant and cut it into slices - about 1/4 inch thick. salt them, and let them sit in a colander for about 30 minutes. rinse off the salt, and pat them dry.

spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and spray both sides with pam. bake at about 350 until they're soft [somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes - keep checking them].

for an 8-inch square pan, you'll need about 2 cups of sauce - you can either make your own or use store-bought. for each cup of sauce, beat in one egg. from the bottom of the pan up, layer: sauce, eggplant, grating cheese, sauce, eggplant, grating cheese. sometimes i slip in a layer of mozzarella, but that wasn't in Grandma's recipe. and then bake it at 350 until it's all hot and bubbly.

you could also put in a layer of ricotta, and/or a layer of cooked sausage, seasoned ground beef, or sliced meatballs.

Enjoy!! and it freezes well

Thank you Jiffy. Its been a long 3 months. I'm still learning and am still worried that I'm going to stretch my pouch too much. I want to be a huge success with this surgery but I feel like I'm not doing enough at the moment. I'm reading alot and I'm trying. Tomorrow is a new day.

I'm trying to figure out where those 16g of carbs came from - was it mostly the sauce? You should be able to find a lower-carb sauce than that. I buy a store brand ("Simply Enjoy") pasta sauce (which they carry in multiple varieties: marinara, garlic, vodka sauce, etc.) that only has I believe 4g net carbs per 1/2 cup.

Personally, I don't limit my fat intake at all - if you're eating low in carbs, fat won't hurt you. It's the combination of fat and carbs that ends up sending cholesterol out of whack and clogging arteries and all the other evil stuff that fat gets blamed for. So, against most dieticians' recommendations, if the fat doesn't make you feel icky (I know some RNYers who dump on high-fat foods), I wouldn't worry about it. I also never count calories since, again, they're less impactful when eating low in carbs - I can lose weight on 2000 calories a day of low-carb, high-fat foods, but if I add carbs back into the picture, I have to much further restrict my calories to be able to lose.

When I want something Italian-ish, I mix my jar of pasta sauce with LOTS of MEAT - ground beef or turkey and maybe even some sliced up Italian sausage - and then eat that with melted cheese on top. You'll get more protein than with just cheese and sauce when you add the meat in there, and you'll likely end up eating less sauce overall when it's mixed in with the meat. For a veggie kick, also good to add some frozen chopped spinach - can't really taste it, but if we learned enything from Popeye, it's that spinach is good for us! Plus it can also act as a bit of a bulking agent that will also help to cut down on total portion sizes for the other components.

If you're feeling like spending a little time in the kitchen, I LOVE this stuff:
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/spinach_lasagna.html (I make mine more like the "variation" on the bottom - more meat, more sauce, and more cheese, and then I have a whole pan of it to last me all week!)

I'm with jilly about the carbs in the sauce - unfortunately, many jarred sauces have way too much sugar in them, and even corn syrup. having said that, i usually make my own, BUT i also keep a couple of jars of sauce [the ones made with hardly any sugar] on hand just because. they're easy to dress up.

see - people with RNY dump when they've eaten too many carbs or too much fat. that fat/carbs combination you ate just looks like it would send many people over the edge of 'too much.' Like with Jilly, i don't worry too much about the fat in food - but i sure try to limit the added fat i eat.

So, the one thing in that combination that you can really control is the carbs. having said that, therefore -

here's my grandmother's marinara sauce - it's really easy and fast. for a large can of tomatoes, warm 1-2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil in the bottom of a decent size saucepan. sprinkle with dried oregano - 1tsp should do it, but feel free to change that amount if you prefer. if you want to add some hot pepper flakes, that's fine too. let the oregano kind of melt into the oil, and when you can smash the garlic with the back of a spoon, dump the can of tomatoes in [you can use chopped, diced or whole - if you use whole, just be sure to cut the tomatoes up. and, although i usually use the ones without puree, you can certainly use the ones with puree].

simmer for about 30 minutes - tasting occasionally - until the flavors are blended and the sauce a bit thick. if the tomatoes are really sour [and they shouldn't be], add sugar a teaspoon at a time. i often don't need to add sugar, but you never know where the tomatoes came from or how ripe they were, so you have to check.

anyway - almost no carbs, and very little fat.

Oh. and one more point. are you eating more mushy foods than chewy foods? at three months, it's time to be moving into non-mushy foods. they take longer to eat, are more filling, and stay in your pouch longer than the mushy stuff [even though the mushy stuff might be easier to eat and better tolerated].

and yes, darlin. there's a LOT to think about and even more to change. It'll take some time, but i'm really impressed that you want to work the tool. now that you've moved, have you found someone for your followup care? it might help to check what you're eating with a dietician who's knowledgable about the gastric bypass.

Jilly - have you tried the Barilla high-protein pasta? it's soy protein, and there's more protein than carbs in it. i've had some success with it. and it tastes really good! i was VERY surprised.

Jilly and Jiffy- thank you so much. I don't know what I'd do without your help! I have to call my insurance today and get a doctor to see about my follow up care.