Cooking after weight loss surgery can be challenging. Food waste, running out of ideas, trying to cook for the rest of the family, and a busy lifestyle are just some of the challenges many of our patients commonly face. Today’s blog will focus on our top 8 tips for cooking after weight loss surgery, to hopefully make this easier for you!
- Plan your menu ahead of time. This saves you time, money and helps to minimise foods waste.
- Make in bulk and freeze in individual portions.
- Add more low starch vegetables at every opportunity!
- Frozen meals are okay to have on hand as a backup. Life isn’t perfect and sometimes unexpected things come up, that leave you with little time to prepare a healthy meal. If you are out of meals you have made and frozen yourself, having a couple of reserve frozen meals is often helpful. When selecting a frozen meal just be mindful of your choice. Try to apply the same framework of protein + lots of low starch veg and minimal carbohydrate. One brand in particular that we like is the ‘Delicious Nutritious’ range at Woolworths.
- Make simple swaps i.e. try adding plain yoghurt to soups instead of cream, or make a cauliflower mash to add to the top of a cottage pie instead of mashed potato.
- Keep frozen vegetables on hand. Absolutely nothing wrong with these nutrition wise, in fact some studies have shown frozen vegetables contain higher levels of nutrients as they are frozen close to harvest. Making sure you always have these available means you can bump up the veggie content of your meals easily, and you do not have to worry about your fresh veg going off before you can use it all.
- Enjoy your regular family meals – no need to prepare a separate meal for yourself! For example, the whole family will benefit from a few more veggies hidden in the spag bol sauce, and a salad to serve on the side. That way you can still enjoy the same meal, and just have no or a little bit of pasta, and more veg!
- Don’t forget about healthy snacks! Over time once your appetite increases you may find yourself looking for a snack. It is important to make sure you have nutritious choices on hand. Think about keeping some hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, or vegetable sticks with hummus.
