want to eat more salads

[Jashley]

I need to get my diet back in order. I've eaten what ever I wanted (for the first time in my life - it was wonderful!) for a little over a year. I've gained weight in stages. Now I'm up 15 lbs in the last year -total of 20 lbs over my goal.

I've lived low carb for years before surgery. Doing just low carb isn't going to cut it. I don't go into keto any more. So I'm hoping to add more vegetables to my diet.

I would like to eat a salad for lunch or dinner. I would like to snack on veggies and dip and celery sticks & PB at night instead of carbs or sugar. If I eat more than 1 cup of salad, I get diarrhea the next day. The kind that makes you hesitate to leave the house (hate that). Cooking veggies is better, but I still can't eat a lot.

Should I take more iron and calcium (without magnesium) to counter balance it? My labs can handle it. I've tried this before and it was like trying to plug the Mississippi delta - so I need a better way to do it.

Will increasing veggies over time make my system adjust by getting used to the fiber?

Are we just not supposed to eat that much fiber any more?

Any advise would be welcomed. Thanks.

 

[southernlady]

Focus on adding protein and fat first. If you eat plenty of both of those, you won't have nearly as much room for carbs.

I do eat salad ONCE in a great while but mostly as a way to eat protein and nice fat DRESSINGS!!! And maybe try 1/2 cup or even a quarter cup at a time not a whole cup.

PB is a good option...but off a spoon. Many veggies are very hard on a DS'er's gut...you will just have to try and see.

Unfortunately you have turned your system into a carnivore not an omnivore. While veggies are good, they just aren't as good for you as they use to be. I take Fiber pills to help me get the fiber I need and occasionally have beans or veggies.

 

[Jashley]

Thanks for responding to my question. The reason I want to add more veggies to my diet is because my body is very efficient at breaking down protein into sugar. After 15 years of eating low carb, my body has adjusted to the diet really well. After 7 years, I stopped going into Keto, could never get above a slight pink on the stick (unless I starved myself), and will actually gain weight on the diet. To lose weight I need to do low carb plus low calorie. It sucks.

And unfortunately, I have stretched out my stomach so I can eat a lot of food now. So when you say save room for the protein and focus on that ... I can eat all the protein and then some. I've become a little chow hound this past year. I'm going to have to figure a strategy to shrink my stomach back also.

I was hoping to use veggies for the "grazing calories" fix at night, and to cut my total calories eaten per day. And they are cheap to eat - where as protein (food) has gotten unbelievably expensive this year. I eat eggs and my protein powder so I get the best bio-available protein I can. Hoping to cut back on meat to cut calories, save money, and have much better late night snacking habits.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Are you DS, sleeve or RnY?

 

[Jashley]

Are you DS, sleeve or RnY?

I have a DS, and I'm 2.5 years out.

 

[southernlady]

Count macros, NOT CALORIES! Being a chowhound is fine as a DS'er IF you stay away from carbs.

Okay, so how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs did you get yesterday or the day before?

 

[Jashley]

Protein: 60 from protein powder drink, 50-60 from food.
Fat: unknown - but I don't do low fat. I eat high fat everything.
Carbs: 40-70 gms. I cycle on and off to keep the body guessing.

My body is very efficient at breaking down protein into sugar. I never go into keto unless I cut my food intake. I have fought this issue for over 10 years and never understood why this was happening, and read just in the last couple of years that our bodies adjust to low carb and will convert excess protein into sugars. That explained it all - wish I had known about that a decade earlier. The more drastically I cut my carbs, the worse it got and I still did not lose weight. I didn't gain - but never never lost.

Only time I lose weight is when I stop eating. Too bad life is good right now. If I get upset and stop chowing down for 3 days, I will lose 4-5 lbs.

 

[Jashley]

I went into history at other forums - Proboard was one of them - and saw I had this same issue at 4 months out. I stopped losing weight then also.

It's surprising to me that I ate simple carbs (a lot of them) for a week two times in the last year. That put on 12 lbs out of the 20 lb total. But when I cut the carbs back, the weight didn't drop down again. So it doesn't come off like it did before.

So I will double my fat, snack a little on veggies at night, and cut the carbs way down. Get back on track and do high carb every other Sunday to shake it up. I hope this works.

And I need to quit 'coping through calories'. I eat all day long as a stress release. I'm not hungry. But I continue to graze. Bad habit, and hard to break.

 

[southernlady]

@Jashley who was your surgeon and do you have a copy of your operative report?

 

[Jashley]

I thought that would have shown in my profile - maybe I don't have it completed. My surgeon was Dr K in LA, CA. I got in on the Verd Hostpital certification program so I was a self pay for a ridiculously low surgery cost (bless you Dr. K) if it was a self pay. My surgery was 12/2012. I went from 240 (actually 210 since I purposely gained 30 lbs to try to up my BMI - play the insurance game 3 months before surgery) down to 140 lowest. Really spent most of the last 2 years at 150 lbs.

The first 30 lbs came off in a matter of weeks. But then it was just put on, so it was really easy to get off. From 210 to 160, I lost weight I had been carrying for years. It quit after that. I had to cut my portions to lose after that.

Through stress and bad habits, I eat a lot more than I used to. I have stretched out my stomach out a lot. I used to eat 1/2 cup of food at a time. Now I eat 2 cups of dense food 4 times a day. Cutting my carbs back to 20 (I started logging into FitPal) should melt something - I hope.

It does not come off like it used to.

 

[Jashley]

Yes, I have my surgery report from Dr. K. Not that I understand it LOL. I asked his office point blank what my CC was 3 times, and each time they sent me the 2 page write up from my surgery which does not tell me the length of my CC. I hazard a guess it is more than 50 CC because Dr K and I talked about it before surgery and I told him I didn't want a 50CC, that I had read about all kinds of issues and wanted a 100CC (pre-surgery gitters of a clueless twit). He responded with "We'll see."

One of these days I will have to drive 6 hours to his office and ask him in person.

 

[Charris]

@Jashley , Dr K will Skype, talk over the phone or email back and forth with you. You don't have to drive that entire way. I know a couple of people who do a Skype type thing with him and he is very quick about answering emails.

 

[southernlady]

Now I eat 2 cups of dense food 4 times a day.

Start by cutting back the size of your portions, just eat more often. Maybe back to the 1/2 cup but lots of times.

And while cutting carbs are you eating more protein and fat?

 

[Jashley]

Thank you for telling me that. I have emailed, written a letter asking for this info, and called his office twice. I always got his staff, and they would never answer the question. (but this was at least a year ago) They would tell me they would "send me my surgery notes from my file" and it was always the same 2 pages that talked about the the various sections (I know what it referenced), but no where in 2 pages did it state what the length of the common channel was. Frustrating.

I will try emailing him with my ID info and see if he can tell me in 10 words or less what my CC is. If I have a 100 or 200 cc, that would explain a lot.

Thanks again.

 

[Jashley]

Cutting carbs means I have to eat more protein and fat. I haven't starting cutting the portions yet.

I eat tons of protein, and my freezer is full of dead animals. I just didn't realize how many carbs I was sucking down. A lot more than I originally thought.