Hello there. My name is Jenn (you may know me from my personal blog, 
Obviously if you are serious about maintaining your daily recommended protein levels (my surgeon recommends 60g-80g; or 80g-100g if I am planning on doing a lot of activities or physical exercise), then you will want to keep a ready supply of liquid protein shakes, powdered protein shakes and various protein-heavy snacks on hand. But what if you’ve run out, you’re waiting for an order to arrive, you’re not at home, or you simply don’t feel like drinking another blasted shake? Fortunately most kitchens will have at least some of the following items, all of which contain a decent amount of protein (6g – 12g) per serving:
- Cheese (look for: sharp cheddar, colby jack, mozzarella)
- Milk (1g of protein per ounce!)
- Oat bran (5g-6g per 1/4 cup uncooked; cook with milk instead of water to add additional protein
- Eggs
- Yogurt
- Egg noodles
- Peanut butter (roughly 8g of protein per tablespoon; take care, however, as a lot of peanut butters contain a lot of sugar!
- Beans (chili, kidney, red, black, etc.)
- Ham and bean soup
There are plenty of other protein-heavy foods, but off the top of my head here’s a decent list to get you started!
One thing I didn’t fully absorb prior to having gastric bypass surgery is that I will take vitamins and mineral supplements for the rest of my life. I order my vitamins and supplements from Bariatric Eating. Here is what I take every day:
Morning:
3 multivitamins
1 vitamin d
1 vitamin b12
1 calcium supplement
Early afternoon:
1 calcium supplement
Evening:
3 multivitamins
1 calcium supplement
Night:
Iron supplement
Obviously, popping open various containers of pills several times a day got to be a pain, so I picked up a spiffy little pill organizer from Target. Then I went back and got three more, so that I’d have just about a month’s worth of pills organized at once.
That organizer was just $6.24, and it’s nicely designed, and I really like the pop top style of each lid. 
I can’t believe I’m even writing about this, but one side effect that I’ve started to experience recently — for the past ten weeks or so — is constipation. And after doing some research, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is something I may be dealing with for the rest of my life, simply because of what I have working against me. First, there’s the need for high-protein foods that deliver protein without requiring consumption of large amounts. I often turn to cheese, which we all know is a binding agent. Next, I take iron supplements daily, which can also cause constipation. And finally, some people experience chronic constipation after having their gallbladder removed. This is caused not by the removal of the gallbladder itself, per say, but because gallbladders can compensate for sluggish livers by pumping bile into the intestines. In my case, I apparently have a sluggish liver, since I’ve been eating cheese and taking iron supplements for many months prior to when the constipation started, which was less than two weeks after I had my gallbladder out 1.
So, what am I doing to combat the issue? First and foremost, drinking lots of fluids. Second, reducing my cheese intake. And third, starting off each day with a half dose of Miralax. Between the ever-present bottle of Miralax and my pill box, I feel like a little old lady!
- Nothing is more traumatic than battling constipation/related issues while having fresh stitches and being afraid of popping something! ↩
I’m off to a good start with the 5 Day Pouch Test. I actually started last night, when it was a little after 10:00pm and I realized I still needed another 15g or so of protein, but didn’t feel like eating anything solid (yeah, I get lazy). So I grabbed a Pure Protein Supreme Whey Shot, which, FYI, is the nastiest tasting protein drink I have ever had. But it packs 25g into just 2.9 oz of fluid, so I do my best to mentally ignore the screaming and writhing of my taste buds long enough to swallow the stuff down (2-3 swallows, usually, since my pouch doesn’t have the capacity to hold 2.9 oz in just one go).
I had another one for breakfast. Yum. Heh.
As much as I loathe those things, I may go ahead and order a case or two of them, since they do pack so much protein in them! If I could stomach one every morning and then another every night, that would just leave me with 10g-30g of protein to get in throughout the day, which would be easy enough with the various protein snacks I keep around, plus regular food.
Now that I’m a year and a handful of months post-op, I think it’s a good idea for me to get my pouch back in optimal shape by following the 5 Day Pouch Test. Essentially, I go back to “square one” by following five days of careful food consumption. I start with liquids, and work my way up to soup, then soft solids, then soft protein sources, then “solid” protein sources. I think I might try to do this once a month, just to keep things in tip-top shape, and to keep my mental awareness of how I am approaching and handling food at an optimal level.
Wish me luck!
(Reposted from a blog entry I wrote at Jenn.nu last summer)
Many opponents of gastric bypass surgery and morbidly obese individuals who are considering or are at least interested in it feel that the surgery is the easy way out, that it’s somehow a foolproof solution to losing the weight, keeping it off, and being skinny and healthy and gorgeous and confident for the rest of their lives. It’s not. It’s a tool, and like many other tools it can be misused or abused. Granted, you can’t just go “off” of gastric bypass like you do a low-carb diet in order to indulge in Christmas dinner or a night out with friends, but there’s the crux of the matter. There is no “going off” or “taking a break” from gastric bypass. Like it or not, you’re in the long haul. Except… except that you can sabotage gastric bypass surgery. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen myself, I may have been guilty of it myself once or twice (more about that in a paragraph or two), and there are plenty of people who are prime examples of how gastric bypass surgery isn’t a solution, but a tool, and one that can be misused. There are plenty of people who gained back not only the weight they loss after initially having the surgery, but more on top of it! There’s even a procedure known as the StomaphyX that has been invented in order to reverse the weight gain, which is caused by a gastric bypass patient’s stomach pouch becoming stretched out.
Gastric bypass surgery is a lifelong commitment that should be taken very seriously. Don’t just leap into your choice to have gastric bypass surgery. Research it. Read the medical facts on what takes place during the surgery, what the recovery is like, and what life is like three months, six months, a year, five years down the road. But don’t stop there. Find people who have had gastric bypass surgery, and ask them questions. What was life like before surgery? How has life changed since having surgery? What can you eat? What can’t you eat? Do you ever have any regrets, even if they’re just momentary pangs of remorse?
Life after gastric bypass surgery isn’t just a matter of sitting around while your body burns calories. It’s true that you burn energy just by being conscious, but just as you had to be physically active prior to surgery, you need to be physically active after surgery. Despite the surgery, it’s still a matter of burning more calories than what you consume. And even with the surgery, it’s entirely possible to consume more calories than you burn. A prime example of how this is possible is with the brand of protein powder I am using up as fast as possible, because I didn’t realize how fattening it is: while it only has 2g of sugar and a generous 25g of protein per scoop, when made into a protein shake — that’s 2 scoops combined with 6 oz. of milk — it packs over 400 calories. FOUR HUNDRED CALORIES. IN A PROTEIN SHAKE. Two protein shakes a day would put me at 800 calories. Bits of fish, a protein bar, some cheese, etc., and before you know it I’m at 1200 or even 1400 or even 1600 calories. If I’m not doing enough physical activity to burn that off (and let’s face it, with my 50+ hour work week it’s hard to be as physically active as I ideally should be), well, there you go… the wrong kind of ratio.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of protein, and what a chore it can be to get enough of it after surgery. A lack of protein causes hair loss (been there), fatigue (been there), and muscle atrophying/wasting (hopefully haven’t been there). A protein deficiency will also slow down your metabolism, which will make it harder for you to lose weight. Bariatric surgeons generally recommend 60g – 80g of protein per day, while keeping your calorie consumption at 1200 or less (this may vary among individual surgeries). Fat gram consumption should also be minimal, as well as sugar. Protein-rich foods include meats (particularly venison and fish), cheese, eggs, and yogurt; but it’s practically impossible for a post-op gastric bypass patient to have the stomach capacity to consume enough of those items to total 60g of protein. (For reference: a 4 oz. hamburger has almost 30g of protein, but a gastric bypass patient’s stomach pouch is about the size of an egg) What compounds matters is the simple fact that many post-op gastric bypass patients are unable to consume much meat because of simple intolerance. I’m one of those patients. My stomach pouch is touchy, and besides the general intolerance to pasta, rice and bread, it also greatly dislikes ground beef, more than a few bites of chicken, shrimp, and anything more than a few teensy bites of the filet mignon variety of steak. I’ve been rendered a reluctant vegetarian for most of the time.
Gastric bypass patients must know thy enemy: sugar. Tolerance of sugar varies, but in general most gastric bypass patients can’t handle much more than 10g or so of sugar at a time, because the smaller stomach size and loss of three feet of small intestine cause the sugar to dump into the blood stream much faster, triggering Dumping Syndrome (which I have talked about here). Worth noting: high amounts of fat are also known to trigger Dumping Syndrome. I don’t know if it’s a trigger for me, because for the most part I eat a low-fat diet.
Adequate hydration is another problem that is not often talked about in regard to gastric bypass surgery. You would think the water would go down easily enough, but the reduced stomach size and small opening of the stoma (the connective tissue that creates the exit “hole” from the stomach pouch) doesn’t allow water to slip through easily, either. I learned the hard way that there is no gulping or chugging of water, even when I’m very thirsty. Small sips, and just a few at a time. Anything more than just a few small sips and I’ll wind up hurling up the liquid violently — more violently than when I throw up food. You’ll need to remember to drink a lot, as over time you’ll get accustomed to not drinking so much, and will probably run around for days or weeks at a time being a little hydrated, if not even moderately hydrated. The dehydration can lead to, among other things, postural hypotension, which is a real bitch to deal with and can be somewhat debilitating (yes, I speak from personal experience).
And then there’s the vomiting. Unless you are one of the lucky few, you will vomit after surgery. You will learn through trial and error what you can and can’t eat (I can, for example, eat a few nibbles of a soft pretzel, a biscuit, or crusty bread; but I cannot, under any circumstances, tolerate even just a bite of pretzel bread). You will probably have very little tolerance — if any — for regular pasta (egg-based noodles, on the other hand, you may have some luck with), rice, or bread. Meat is iffy — some people can do beef, others can do poultry and fish, others can do none at all. Cereals, both hot and cold, are hit or miss — though generally cream of wheat is do-able. As you learn what you can and can’t tolerate, even in just teensy little bites, you will vomit. You’ll also vomit randomly, and inconsistently. What you’ll be fine eating one day will come right back up a few days later. And if you don’t throw it up right away, you’ll get the dread “foamies” — excess saliva, triggered by your body’s need to expel the contents of your stomach, will build up in your stomach pouch, expanding the food and making you even more uncomfortable, until finally everything comes up — first the saliva, then the saliva/food mix, then finally the food itself, the culprit of the vomiting.
You will need to take vitamins and other supplements — most likely calcium and iron, possibly a few others. But you can’t just pop a pill or chew up a gummi or two and be done with it. You need to take vitamins in higher doses than normal people do, because they take those vitamins to supplement a regular diet, whereas gastric bypass patients take them to compensate for the severe lack of vitamins and other nutrients from solid food. You can’t just swallow pills, either, particularly those that are slow- or fast-release. You need to look for specialty gummis, chewables, quick dissolves, or small pills that you can cut in half (you’ll also go through a pill cutter about once a month, since you’ll be using it so much). These types of vitamins and other supplements are hard to find and pricey, and since you need to take more of them than the average person, they’re pricier still. I spend about $60 on supplements a month, and I take 12 of them a day — four halves of calcium pills plus two vitamin gummis in the morning, and then again at night. I’m getting my levels checked out next week, and will most likely be adding additional vitamins, a B12 supplement and iron to the mix once I’ve confirmed where I’m at with maintaining the proper levels of everything essential to my health.
Gastric bypass surgery forces you to think about food in a whole new way. You have to be more vigilant than ever about what you put in your mouth and how much of it is going in. You have to chew, chew, chew (when I first started eating solid food after surgery my teeth actually hurt from the amount of chewing I had to suddenly do!). You have to swallow small bites. You have to stop after a few bites. You can’t drink at least thirty minutes before or after eating, because liquid mixing with solids in your stomach pouch can cause food to push through too fast (triggering Dumping Syndrome or potentially stretching the stomach or even the small intestine, which could lead to further problems), or cause the contents in your stomach to expand, causing vomiting and/or stretching of the stomach pouch or stoma. You have to remember to eat, because the lack of appetite and hunger pains will create instances where you go around for hours, or even an entire day (guilty) without eating. You have to carry drinks with you at all times and sip, sip, sip, so that you don’t become dehydrated. You have to take loads of chewable/dissolvable/very small vitamins and other supplements on a daily basis, because you simply can’t get enough from the solid food you’re able to consume.
In addition to consuming enough protein, vitamins, minerals and fluids on a daily basis, there are also long-term risks to think about, including anemia from low iron or a B12 deficiency; weakened teeth or bones due to calcium deficiency; kidney stones; gallbladder stones and gallbladder attacks, which can lead to the need for surgery to remove the gallbladder (something I’ll probably be facing within the next few months); and even various neurological disorders that can result from poor nutrition or certain vitamin deficiencies.
With all of that said, I would just like to point out that I am not comparing the ease/difficulty of gastric bypass surgery with any other type of weight loss method. I am simply pointing out that it is not the easy choice that many people believe it to be. Gastric bypass surgery is a tool, and one that must be used properly and monitored closely if you want to lose weight, keep the weight off, and stay healthy.
Now that I’m at a very manageable weight, I’m going to do my best to lose these last 25 lbs (though to be perfectly honest with you, I’ve been stuck at the 185 lb range for four months and I’m beginning to think that I’m actually at my body’s “idealish” weight, and it’s the loose skin on my upper arms, breasts (a bit), stomach (horrendous), thighs (moderate) that is making up the rest of the weight. Blah.
Anyway, there is a gym that is about ten minutes away, and their monthly memberships start at just $35. I really did enjoy using the treadmill before, and I’ve already contacted the gym to inquire about getting a personalized training sessions that’ll set me up with that equipment to use, how often to use it and how long to use it with each session, so that I not only target my problematic areas (loose skin that I hope will tone up a bit with help), but my entire body overall.
Since my work schedule has changed a lot this year, and I have more time to do what I need to (like write about mens wedding bands) as well as what I want to (like watch TV and actually sleep more than six hours at a time), I am definitely going to make this happen. ♥
Wish me luck!
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