Lauren’s Surgery News

That’s funny, Lisa. On the way to the restaurant, I said to Lauren, “No more sauerkraut balls.” Made me a little sad. Those were so good. We had a great time with you today. Love you!!

Hi Tiff,

Basically, we watch portion sizes which is a real eye opener. Not a bowl of cereal, but whatever the serving side is. Whole wheat is best for breads and cereal. I don’t like milk and I’m pretty sure I’m lactose intolerant, so I’ve started using low fat vanilla Silk milk on my cereal and I love it. It looks gross, but tastes great. Also, for meat, we eat mostly boneless, skinless white meat chicken. 3 oz. servings. Instead of eating 1/2 a box of my favorite crackers, I eat 6. Use less salt and really watch fats. We’ve cut out most junk food, but do eat pretzels and baked chips in moderation. The nutritionist said we could eat as many fruits and veggies as we want. Think of them as free food. The thing is, you can’t eat a ton of them without getting sick of them, so you don’t overeat like you would with cheese, chips, or sweets. I love V-8 juice, so I got it in the low sodium variety. At first, I didn’t like it, but have gotten used to it. The nutritionist said that no food is off limits because if it is, that makes you crave it and think about it all the time. So if you have a craving, eat it and get over it. Otherwise you will eat stuff to try and squash the craving and usually end up eating that food plus what you have been craving. I think a lot of it is psychological because if you know you can eat anything, you don’t want it. It is weird. Plus, with Lauren, knowing that Dr. S will have an easier time operating on her if she is healthy with a strong heart is very motivational. Lauren seems so much more active and energetic now. She feels good too. Another thing is that we look at nutrition facts for restaurants and know what will fit into our plan. We eat three meals a day and can have up to three snacks a day. We try and keep our snacks to around 100 cals. each. We usually end up eating around 1200 cals. a day. If you don’t want to lose weight, you could increase the calories. It’s just the age old simple method of eating healthy food and more exercise. It is by no means easy, but well worth it.