Monday, October 24, 2011

Suggestions?

So, I'm in need of some suggestions. I'm supposed to be having 1100-1200 calories and 60-80 grams of protein per day. My NP told me to cut out bread, pasta, and rice and just eat protein rich foods and veggies and sometimes fruits. I've been eating things like chicken, lean lunch meat, green beans, protein shakes, and for a snack, string cheese. My problem is that I'm getting enough protein from 3 meals and a string cheese, but everything's so low cal that I'm not getting enough calories. Today, for example, I had a protein shake w/ canned pumpkin added (203 cal, 35 protein), lunch was 4 oz canned chicken, 2 tbsp bbq sauce and 3/4 c green beans sauteed in 1 tsp olive oil (235cal, 21 protein), and dinner was 2 things of string cheese (160 cal, 12 protein) since I had class. That's a total  of 598 calories and 68 grams of protein. It's a problem, because I'm sustained on the meals that I ate. I don't want to eat more calories just for the sake of eating more calories, but I know that I have to do something so my body doesn't think it's starving. So, my question to you is, what tips do you have to add extra calories to food without adding bread, rice, or pasta? I also am not much of a condiment person...won't do mayo or sour cream. Any advice would be appreciated. Hope everyone had a great weekend, and here's to a good week ahead.

xoxo

4 comments:

trishajo said...

add some nuts! cashews, almonds, even regular peanuts. they're high in fat, but i only eat about 15 pieces (half pieces of peanut) at a time. good snacks. quick protein.

also - try adding some greek yogurt with some granola and fruit. Yo Crunch brand is my favorite, some others are Fage and Otheos. You can add some fresh blueberries to plain greek yogurt with a tablespoon or two of granola.

do you use My Fitness Pal? If not I highly suggest it! :)

Rhonda said...

One suggestion might be taking out the protein shakes in the morning and replacing them with a piece of fruit and a protein bar. Something like Atkins would be good, or EAS, which are tasty, a little higher cal, and still have 25 grams of protein! The best options really are solid proteins (obviously it's not a requirement), but not everyone can eat early... so I understand the need for the shake.

Also, I like Trisha's idea for nuts, just make sure they're unsalted!

Andrea said...

Yeah nuts are a good idea. I like to eat avocado. It has a lot of fat, but the good kind.

Lolli said...

adding to the nut suggestion, and this is also something i started to pre-band so I havent tried it since the band, but make your own trail mix. I'd get the plain white, very lightly salted, no butter popcorn and divide it into little snack baggies, then add some almonds, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. You'll have these ready made for weeks! High protein, and like the others said, nuts have high fat but the good kind.

My doc also said not to eat just to get all your calories in if you are not hungry and that your body thinking it's starving is a myth. I looked it up and alot of docs think that as well.