The Liquid Stage

When my father had the lap band procedure done back in America about 3 years ago he had to do liquids for 1-2 months, and ate several meals a day. But his diet was definitely different than mine! When I asked my surgeon about the meal plan, and the differences, he said that its not a universal plan. Each hospital (and doctor) had their own ideas on what's the best path. So here is the breakdown of the path I'm on.

I have to eat 9 meals a day, every 2 hrs. Each meal consists of approximately 2 deciliters (or 1 cup) of liquid. At no point did I have to do a clear liquid stage. Day after surgery I was supposed to consume 1600 ml of food. So straight from the word go I was going to be eating a lot the entire day!!!

As far as calories and proteins go… I was told the most important was to get in all the meals, and to get at least 60-70 grams of protein. More is better in this case. My nutritionist said the calories aren't so important and didn't give me a number to stay around. A couple days after being released from the hospital though I spoke to her on the phone as a follow up and told her about how I'd been eating the last few days. You see, I decided to make up an excel document and record my food eating schedule and estimates of calories and proteins. First full day home from the hospital and I ate almost 100 grams of proteins and about 1200 calories. That seemed like an awful lot for a weight loss surgery that so drastically reduced the size of my stomach to ensure quick fullness and reduced eating. So when I told my nutritionist all about this, she told me that 1200 calories was the estimated amount that they had on file using the suggested meal plan they gave me when I left the hospital. So I guess I'm doing good then!!

However, when I go to forum websites like Lap Band Talk and see threads where countless people mention that they are between 500-800 calories a day, I can't help but feel like what the hell is up with the food plan I'm on! That being said, I've 12 lbs in the first week after surgery. So I guess the diet can't be too wrong right?

So here is an idea of how I eat each day during this oh so fun liquid diet stage.

Time	Meal	Food	Calories	Proteins (g)
8:00	Breakfast	Sour Milk (Fil)	110	7
10:00	VLCD	Smoothie + Protein Powder	200	25
12:00	Lunch	Soup + Cottage Cheese	185	6.5
14:00	VLCD	Smoothie + PP	200	25
16:00	Drink snack	Tea, Juice, Vatter, etc	0	0
18:00	Dinner	Soup	140	3
20:00	VLCD	Smoothie + PP	200	25
22:00	Snack	Yogurt	120	7
24:00	Snack	Milk	80	6.8
Totals			1235	105.3

VLCD = Very Low Calorie Drink (i.e. Slimfast)

Now this is high for me on a day to day basis. I find it really hard to get in all of these meals. I decided to not buy the special powdered meal replacement drinks for my VLCD's, and have instead been making my own homemade smoothies with fresh fruits and .5% fat yogurt and protein powders. That really helps me to meet my protein requirements and get my calories up.

You might be looking at the table thinking "Holy crap that's a lot of dairy!" Well I was told I have to have at least 500 ml of diary a day to get the needed calcium and stuff. I love milk, so it's not that big of a deal. But I have felt rather overwhelmed by it as of late, so I like to replace one of the non VLCD snack times with another small bowl of soup. I feel like between the yogurt, fil, and smoothies, I'm getting a lot of sugar and not enough of the hearty salty balance from only 2 soup meals out of 9 meals. So I don't usually make those high of numbers. My numbers are usually around 1000 cal and 80 g of protein these days.

Oh, I should also note, that all of this is smooth consistency. No lumps. No chunks of meat or veg in the soup or fruit in the smoothies or yogurt. After 4 weeks of post op liquid stage I get to move onto pureed. Yum!

So there is the breakdown of how my daily meals go. Aren't you jealous?