Hi, sorry you are having food issues with not wanting to eat and problems with chicken. Congats on your weight lose so far, you are doing really well. So you are trying to keep carbs low. so what about yogurt, eggs, fish (tuna) salmon whatever, cheese, you would be surprised what you can come up with. Also I know there is a recipe section on MFP maybe that would help you out. Maybe if you planned your meals the night before that might help to. These are just a few suggestions, I am sure others will speak up. Again good luck with the up coming surgery and your new life.

P.S. Just looking quickly at your journal all looks pretty good, the only thing I can suggest is see if you can weigh your eg tomatoes 100g instead of 1/2 tomatoe.. you will get more accurate info. because tomatoes come in different sizes so 1/2 doesn't mean as much as 100g when it comes to logging. Plus make sure your get in all your water, if helps with weight loss as well as our bodies needing it. Hoped some of this helped.

I want to start w/ congrats on your weight loss! I can't imagine the level of discipline in must take for you to have done this. I looked at your food log and it looked pretty darn good.

Hmmm, so I'm not sure I agree with 2 things. #1 Food in my mind should be enjoyable. I look forward to cooking and I love my creations. I look forward to my vegetarian chilli with cheese in the afternoon or a delicious avocado salad! Of course there's a thin line between food obsession/addiction and being a foodie if you will. #2 is more so a question than a disagreement. Why don't you want to boost your fat intake? I haven't seen a study to date that shows fat causing inflammation or non-corporate sponsored research saying fats cause heart disease. Yes, fat increases your low density LDL (the good part of your LDL), but carbs is what impacts your high density, small LDL which leads to atherosclerosis. I'm not a clinician or medically trained, so this is information you can research further on your own, but I will leave you w/ 2 youtube videos that discusses obesity and metabolic syndrome.

With that said, avocado has been a huge calorie booster to my diet. It's excellent fat, fibre and low in carb. Almonds/peanuts is an awesome snack as well. I don't eat low fat/no fat yoghurt (or anything as a matter of fact). Besides the higher fat versions usually have 1-3g more protein per serving and less sodium. If you strain your own yoghurt or buy greek yoghurt, you remove a lot of whey which has a decent carb content. Snacks like hummus has decent protein for the serving size and baba ganoush also adds on the calories w/o the significant carbs. I usually add 1/2 tbsp heavy cream to bulk up my fat intake. Before I went vegetarian, I went after fattier fishes like salmon and used to eat dark meat chicken. Post op, you may find lean meats difficult to swallow w/o discomfort or adding mayo/yogurt to make it more of a tuna salad consistency.

I've been struggling getting in much more than 600-650/day (I'm 4 months post-op tomorrow) most days. I eat high fat, moderate protein, low carbs (I net 25-40 g carbs per day). Although I'm not diabetic, eating grain products makes me hypoglycemic post-op, so I cut that stuff out altogether. I researched what's best to replace my carbs (for a while my intake dropped to 450 cal/day) and found fat isn't the demon we make it starting w/ sources like Dr. Lustig, Dr. Mercola, Tim Noakes and Dr. Eenfeldt. I agree w/ your doctor definitely on limiting carbs and so would these guys. I came across a study some time ago that reported that patients who remained below 90g carbs post op were more successful in maintaining maximum weight loss. Below are some resources that have helped me.

Best wishes with your pre-op diet/surgery and I hope this helped. Feel free to PM me if there's anything further you want to discuss.

http://bariatrictimes.com/recommended-levels-of-carbohydrate-after-bariatric-surgery/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSeSTq-N4U4

I'm sorry to hear about your dad, really. I definitely encourage people to stick with the recommendations of the health practitioners treating them, considering I am not one and I do not have the training to or have a full understanding of your medical history. What I do encourage is a questioning attitude in recommendations since the pyramid diet recommends 60% (or 1200 cal) of a 2k cal diet to come from carbs. This recommendation has failed to improve the health of Americans and the world, so I definitely have a more questioning attitude when it comes to diet, health and fitness. As for fat causing heart disease, I'm afraid the evidence to that isn't really there. I'm sure their are people adversely affected by fats by itself, but my guess is that it's not large enough to impact meta analyses or smaller group studies. If you do a good search for fat is good or fat is bad, you'll see a lot of reports explaining that it's not what we thought. Definitely talk to your nutritionist about your understanding of food and perhaps they can provide some clarification.

Switching to whole grain is definitely a good start! With the presence of fiber it can slow down your absorption/conversion into sugar. I understand the eggs thing. It's one of those things that was just okay, nothing I'd buy, because like you, I don't like the smell or the consistency if fried. Boiled? Forget about it! Scrambled or omelet I can tolerate with some lemon juice and pepper to cut the smell. I didn't eat eggs for almost 2 years, then decided to try it again as something quick for breakfast and found it pleasant enough.

It's really unfortunate, but more of our meat is unsafe. Tuna wasn't my favourite, but swordfish and abalone were. Swordfish is unfortunately in a high mercury category. Perhaps you can try fishes that are lower in mercury like Salmon, N. American Mackerel and Tilapia. I've included the FDA website that shows some expected mercury content in various sea foods.

http://www.fda.gov/food/foodborneillnesscontaminants/metals/ucm115644.htm

You're already tracking your salt on your mfp food logs, so you're definitely helping yourself in that perspective. It's a long journey. Please let us know how things go for you!

I was thinking if you wrapped your sandwiches in lettuce instead of any kind of bread and had a bowl of oatmeal for your whole grain, you might be more satisfied and eating less processed food. I didn't see if you mentioned being lactose-intolerant. If you are NOT lactose-intolerant, I recommend Kroger Carbmaster No-sugar milk, if you have it in your area. 1 cup is only 60 calories, it has plenty of calcium and much fewer carbs than regular skim milk. It also would taste good on your oatmeal.

Yes, I like oatmeal. I miss it since I got my sleeve. Carbs don't like me. So if you're allowed to have them, make them the best you can. Oatmeal has a low glycemic index and is an unprocessed whole grain which is why I recommend it. it does tend to stick to the ribs when you put a little milk on it. i'm not talking flavored oatmeal, I'm talking old-fashioned oats (about a buck for a 16 oz cannister at the grocery store) or even better steel-cut oats.

Don't know if you're allowed artificial sweeteners. If so a little splenda will make it a nice treat.

And congrats on your weight loss. It's quite an accomplishment. You are on the road to better health. Keep going!

The monkfruit sugar, which is what I use, has a glycemic index of 1. I think it tastes best of all the artificial sweeteners.