Hello, and some questions from a vegetarian newbie

Hello everyone. I've been lurking for several weeks and have learned so much from all of you. I thought it was time to say hello and join you.

I am not scheduled for my VSG yet, but hope to have a date within the next few weeks.

I wonder if anyone has insights to share about the following?

1. I'm a vegetarian (dairy, cheese, and eggs okay), and don't really enjoy or know how to cook. I haven't seen any posts by vegetarians and wonder if being a vegetarian makes living with a sleeve really difficult. I'm imagining that in order to keep my meals high-protein and low-carb, I will be eating a lot of cottage cheese, cheese sticks, eggs, protein drinks, and tofu-based items, without a lot of the lentils, etc. that vegetarians usually rely on. Any comments?

2. Also, how bad are the issues around bad breath and flatulence/unpleasant BMs when you are on a post-sleeve eating plan? Will I be trading obesity for being utterly offensive to be around?

Thanks in advance for any insights! Again, I have learned so much on this forum and really appreciate the widom and sense of community here.

:-)

Hi and welcome. I am a whole food vegan who had to change her ways for VSG. There was no way I could see to do it. Vegans get all the necessary protein, etc, but do it with volume and high carbs. Not VSG compatible.

When I am at goal I hope to at least go back to vegetarianism. There are some vegetarians around here and they will chime in and help you, I am sure.

For myself, I want to limit my cheese due to the fat content and I don't eat tofu. I am a bean and grain eater, which is out for now.

But the biggest issue is (I am 5 weeks post op) my acquired aversion to many foods. I would say this is the biggest struggle I have had since surgery is my tummy isn't friendly to a lot of foods and it can vary from day to day. I am thankful I have not made any foods off limits cuz the pool of what my tummy will accept is limiting enough.

PLEASE do not read this as my trying to talk you out of being a vegetarian. That isn't it at all. More power to you. I am having tummy rebellion with dairy (Although I haven't touched milk) and the whey shakes make me quite ill. This has made me decide that I will eat meat as "medicine" until goal then see if I can switch back.

Others will chime in.

Annie

 Good luck, Annie! I hope your tummy starts letting you add more foods soon!

 Hi,
I was a vegetarian/vegan on/off throughout my life.....right before surgery I was doing RAW VEGAN....however, I did switch to meats and high protein diet, because that was told to be the best for after the sleeve.

With that said....now in maintenance....I eat less meat but try to get it a portion or two daily...I eat a lot of eggs, cheese, and greek yogurt...still protein shakes here and there.......but I still think it would be difficult to meet the protein required going all vegetarian or especially going vegan again and especially with my picky palate....I don't like lentils, hate tofu, and I only eat beans occassionally in chili or something.

Of course for me, I am sooooo happy I had the VSG, and the change in diet hasn't been hard...but then again vegetarianism was not extremely important to me, like it is for some....

I've never had issues with bad breath from the VSG or flatulence or unpleasant BMs...so not sure where you've heard this....I haven't heard this as being common from most post-ops....maybe if you are in ketosis from a very low carb diet, because that does give bad breath....but I did not do the very low carb diet post op.....So no, I don't think you are making a bad trade at all.....I love being thin and don't have any issues you mentioned....

Just FYI, it is possible to be a vegan...even a raw vegan...with the sleeve. The secret is dense vegetables, beans and protein shakes. I use Sun Warrior Raw Vegan Classic protein, which is a complete brown-rice protein (not an add, there are other vegan proteins out there, I just don't know if any of them are raw except this one).

I am a vegan and get about 125 grams of protein a day.

Hi -
I'm a vegetarian, and I was for 15 years before getting sleeved and continue the lifestyle without issue after getting sleeved.  There is absolutely no reason that you'd need to eat meat in order to hit your numbers.  I can get my 80 grams of protein and keep my carbs very low with my diet  (of course, it is also easy to screw up and have too many carbs, but meat eaters could say the same.)

If you are committed to vegetarianism, you can absolutely continue to be a vegatarian after your sleeve!

If you don't like to cook, there are so many great meat-free alternatives out there.  I recently have fallen in love with Trader Joe's Chickenless Chicken Strips.    9 strips (very filling) is 110 calories, 20 grams of protein, 1.5 grams of fat and only 3 carbs.  Not bad.  :)  I usually season it with something, for variety... but trust me, it hardly qualifies as cooking. 

There are wonderful cheese you can experiement with.  If you eat eggs, egg white omletes are loaded with protein and have very few carbs.   Tons and tons of good quality "fake meat" products (boca burgers, morningstar farms), none of which require any more cooking that pressing "start" on a microwave.    I actually really love tofu - extra firm and cubed with some stir-fry veggies... but that requires more effort.

So, again, my point is... if you are committed to being a vegetarian, there is NO REASON to start eating meat just because you get the sleeve.   It might require a little (very little) more thought and planning to get the numbers you desire in terms of protein and carbs -- but that is no different than before you were sleeved.  Vegetarians should always be mindful of good meat-free protein sources, no matter the size of their stomach.


As for your second question, I haven't had any flatulence or unpleasant BMs.  If anything, I have it much less now that before (maybe because I'm eating less, so there is less to "process"??)   I had bouts of bad breath early when my body was in hardcore ketosis and adjusting... but my husband promises me it was never even noticable.  I just *felt* it, if you know what I mean.  Pop a (sugar free) breath mint and you'll be fine.  My breath is really the same as it was before surgery at this point.

 I have tried to go Vegan a few times for health reasons, but for VSG, I do eat meat, dairy and eggs.  AND actually feel very good.  Volume of food seems to matter more than we think.  Since volume is so much less with the VSG, your body has time to digest things.

I do use a Vegan protein called PlantFusion and love it and have done really well on it.  I still have a shake every morning for breakfast and it has been over 7 months now and I am not sick of it.  Love the simplicity. 

Also, I do once a month cooking and just freeze small portions of things.  Stir fries, meats, etc.

It took awhile to figure out the right combination of stool softeners after surgery.  I have Crohn's Disease, so never in my life had I dealt with constipation.  Figured it out after a couple weeks of misery.  But now I take 2-3 Colace, a stool softener, a day and it works out perfect for me.

Okay, I won't lie to you, BM's smell tons worse when you eat meat, dairy and eggs, just how it goes.  But I will say, it is managable and mainly only smells up the bathroom.  I do know it also depends on how much fake sugar you consume and I keep mine very limited.  My protein uses Stevia and that is the one I try to stick with when uses it.  I do get some splenda, but keep it to a minimum.

Blessings on your journey!

I like to try the vegetarian and vegan protein powders because they usually (not always) don't have the fake sugars. I've found quite a few protein shakes that I like, but my favorite so far is called RAW.

As far a your flatulence is concerned, if you fart now, you will fart after surgery. It's different for everyone. Personally, I'm not a farter, although I do partake when the need arises. Changes in what you eat will determine the size of the methane cloud that follows you around.

I'm not a vegetarian/vegan. Just FYI.

 LOL, nicely put!

Actually, I'm a vegan but I use a complete raw vegan protein powder for shakes. You could use any standard protein powder. I do believe you need to go high protein to maintain your muscle mass.

Bad breath typically comes from ketosis on a low carb diet. I did low carb; many successful sleevers do. But know that the breath is a factor of the diet not the surgery itself. I also had some constipation problems early on. I stil take a dose of Miralax or Colace every day and all is hunky-dory.