gamergirl

Italian sausage bites with roasted delicata squash, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

Our thanksgiving celebration at the Brazilian place. Yum!

Wow you look great! I remember you from "before". Congratulations!

Wow! You look AMAZING! I don't know how old you are, but that's the body of a woman in her 20s.

I know EXACTLY what you mean about the guilt. All the beating up of myself I did...the surgery made me realize that I didn't really have the fighting chance you refer to earlier. At 230 lbs, I struggled to lose weight at 1200 calories and 4 miles of walking daily! After 6 months of that I had lost a grand total of 10 lbs. Sooo discouraging. So grateful for the sleeve.

Thank you so much!

Wow! That's a lot of stuff. Do you have pics you've posted? I'd love to see. I think you too went to Sauceda right? I had fully intended to go to him but since all I need is belly flap removal the cost was not so prohibitive so I decided to get it done here.

Loose skin under your neck that looks like turkey wattles

I too hate my chicken neck! I didn't realize Botox would work for it? Does anyone have before and afters of its? Some of it seems to be getting a little better but it's the first thing I see when I look in the mirror :/

Ooo yum! If you want To take pics and send me the recipe, I'll gladly post it on my blog and give you credit for it? There are a lot of people that seem to benefit from the recipes so it's a good thing to do for our fellow sleevers. LMK if you'd like to do that.

I thought I'd also share how much our faces have changed btw.

Learning experience. Those two words encapsulate my year after surgery all right. I learned that I can only lose weight if I eat under 42 gms of carbs and under 700 calories. Little wonder I never lost weight without the sleeve! Who could eat so little with an entire stomach?! I learned I would always choose carbs over Protein if left to myself. I learned I didn't have many issues with head hunger, but that I will always always always be addicted to sugar if I allowed myself to eat it. I am still learning to say no to cake and donuts daily. Yup I crave them all the time. I don't have them all the time though and I'm counting that as a victory. It's been an amazing experience. The one thing that I did learn for sure is that building habits was important. Because sleeve capacity DOES increase. And we CAN eat endless quantities of junk. My two sons are normal weight, and my husband and I eat at much as they do in a sitting. So all that's happened is that I eat like a "normal" person now I guess. Very easy to slip and eat crap and gain weight. Just like for my "normal" skinny friends. You're in for quite a year ahead of you. I hope you enjoy the victories and don't let the stalls gets you down.

Those are one of our fav recipes. The kids love them too which makes it easier to make for every one. Besides...BACON!!

I agree with this. I thought I might want to be 140 lbs. My body decided I would be 152 lbs. I accept it. It's still better than 230 lbs. Once I accepted 152 I dropped a few more, but mainly, once I accepted it, I started to like my new body and that's made all the difference with respect to happiness.

As long as I eat Protein first, my sleeve still works. Check out my before and after. I didn't eat but 1-2 bites of the rice, mainly just the salmon and two spears of asparagus. Still can't hold a lot of protein and I'm 15 months out.

I blogged all my high protein, low carb recipes for the first year or so at www.twosleevers.com haven't cooked a lot lately but need to start again. I started this thread because so many people felt like they would be food and taste deprived but really, we are not. Meat, veggies and fat make for a lot of variety and taste.

My favorites are quest, Atkins, powercrunch, and detour. On the Atkins you have to watch the calories and pick low cal ones but all the above are under 200 calories, high in protein, low in net carbs. The quest also give me fiber which is difficult to get with a small stomach since once im done with protein, I am too full for anything else.

I haven't yet had my tummy tuck. It's scheduled for Dec 16th. I went in for a consult a few months ago and was told I only needed the skin removed. I must say I'm shocked i didn't need muscle repair. Part of me thinks he's going to open me up and go oops! And that I will meed it anyway but that's probably just paranoia talking. My husband eats without tracking. Never has tracked or monitored. Initially he ate what I did but that's no longer true. It works for him. He doesn't get nearly the Protein he should but he can manage his weight to within a 6-8 lbs up and down. I on the other hand, am extremely carb sensitive. I could eat 700 calories but if my carbs are over 80 gms, I put on weight. So tracking is not optional for me. I also put on weight if I eat much above 1200 calories. If there's one thing I've realized its that one size doesn't fit all either before or after vsg. I think success is a matter of finding what works for you. That's the main thing the surgery did for me --Helped me realize that I was super carb sensitive and I was not going to lose weight without giving them up. I know many many people who succeeded without that--and many who don't.

Interestingly it's not laser focus but there's still daily focus. I log everything I eat, I still weigh daily and measure out my food, I still track carbs and protein I still eat protein first, I still restrict calories to 1200 daily. The more things change, the more they stay the same right?

shrimp with cheese and bacon. I passed on the rice and beans. coconut oil sugar free fat bombs. Yum!

I am very touched that you guys still remember me! I've been crazy busy with work and was recently told I was "suffering from exhaustion". Well that forced me to take today off work and I came looking to see what was happening on BP. Just in time to see this post! I'm grateful for this site. It gave me exactly what I needed when I was first sleeved. Been at goal for a while and maintaining. life is good

@@deedadumble and Susis You rang?

I do LCHF. About 50% of my calories come from far, 25% each from carbs and protein and I try to keep carbs under 70 gms since I'm in maintenance. While losing, I kept them under 42 gms. I love it. It keeps me very full and my blood work has been great over the last 15 months since surgery.

My husband made these wonderfully spiced sausages. If you're sick of bland food, this adds some nice flavor without being too hot. Ingredients 1 lb ground chicken 1/4 c cilantro 1 tsp chopped mint 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice 1 tbsp Thai Red curry paste 1 tbsp Asian fish sauce 2 garlic cloves finely diced 2 tsp minced ginger 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 1/8 tsp black pepper Method 1. Mix all ingredients together. It will be a bit sticky. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes for all flavors to meld. 2. Heat a saucepan until hot, pour in a tablespoon of oil and spread it around. 3. Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, put 1 oz sized dollops of the mixture about 2-3 inches apart. Smash them down into circles 4. In 2-3 minutes when the bottoms are brown, carefully turn over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. 5. You can either cook them all and freeze them in a ziplock baggie, or cook just what you need for meals. 6. These are very soft and they were easy for us to eat. 2 patties contain 16 gms of Protein.

Article in the huffpost today: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4043980 Here's Why Your Favorite Foods Are So Hard To Resist Renee JacquesThe Huffington PostOct 16, 2013 It's no secret: When you buy Doritos, you're going to finish the entire bag. There are countless reasons why people have so much trouble putting junky Snacks down. And many of them are by design: Companies spend billions on marketing their products and conducting scientific studies to figure out how to engineer their foods to keep you eating. Consider this: In a Connecticut College study released just yesterday, neuroscience students found that eating oreos activated more neurons in the pleasure centers of rats' brains than did consuming cocaine or morphine. And New York Times writer and author of Sugar, Fat, Salt, Michael Moss recently wrote about ten components added to Doritos that make them extremely tasty and difficult to resist. Unsurprisingly, salt and sugar were major ingredients. In fact, the salty additives in Doritos give them a "flavor burst." That "burst" dissolves in your saliva, sending signals to the pleasure centers of your brain, explained Moss. Do these foods sound "addicting" to you? Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, and author of many books on nutrition, says there should be a distinction between having a strong desire for food and being addicted to it. "I think of the word as meaning a physical dependence. We physically depend on food in general, but never on one food in particular," Nestle tells HuffPost. "Food companies create food products that people want to eat. Is wanting the same as addiction? I don’t think so but there’s evidence that foods trigger the same neurological pleasure centers as do addictive drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, but not nearly to the same extent." Read on to discover exactly how some of your favorite foods may be keeping you coming back for more. You love pastries because they're packed with carbs. Lots of starchy foods contain complex carbs that your body breaks down into simple sugars. A study conducted on mice in 2012 found that foods high in carbs, fats and sugar can actually change the brain. The researchers at the University of Montreal discovered that after being exposed to diets with high levels of fat and sugar, mice revealed withdrawal symptoms of depression and a greater sensitivity to stressful situations. They also had higher levels of the CREB molecule, which is known to play a role in dopamine production. Much of this is still emerging science, and it's impossible to say that eating lots of sugar will necessarily make anyone feel happier, but humans are naturally drawn to sugary high-carb foods. "We evolved to love the taste of sugars as an infant survival mechanism," says Nestle. "The brain needs sugar to function and carbohydrates are the most efficient source of it." You love Cheetos because they literally melt in your mouth. How fast can you eat a bag of Cheetos? Probably pretty quickly. That's because the manufacturers of the puffed corn product have mastered the art of "vanishing caloric density." The Cheeto is extremely light and fluffy, therefore making it easy to rapidly melt in your mouth. Moss discovered that this junk food ploy tricks your brain into thinking you're not eating as many calories, so "you just keep eating it forever." You love Fruit Loops, popsicles and gummy bears because they are bright and colorful. Now, of course, that's not the only reason why you love these tasty foods, but their vibrant coloring has been known to play a part. Food companies add color to their products to make them more appealing. Dr. Linda M. Katz, Chief Medical Officer for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, reports that color additives are incorporated into foods to "enhance colors that occur naturally" and to "provide color to colorless and 'fun' foods" (like popsicles and soda). "That’s what food companies do to sell foods," says Nestle. "That’s their business. People don’t like eating grey foods." You love canned sauces because most contain excessive sugar. When we think of satisfying snack foods, tomato sauce isn't really on the list. But that doesn't mean it's free of the additives that make more typical junk foods more appealing. If you look at the ingredients list on a can of Prego tomato sauce, for example, the second ingredient after tomatoes is sugar, one of the three addictive components of fast food, according to Moss. The New York Times reports that just a half-cup of Prego traditional sauce has about two tablespoons of sugar. That's the same amount of sugar as in two large Oreos. Nestle says the added sugar in canned tomato sauces "makes them taste better and covers up the off metallic taste from the canning process." But before you head to the kitchen to make your own, note that sugar can be found in canned tomatoes -- a common ingredient in homemade sauce -- in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. If you're craving tomato sauce, you're better off avoiding any kind of tomato product that comes in a can. You love candy because your body has not adapted to its intense flavor. There are a bunch of reasons why you can't resist munching on your kid's Halloween candy loot, but you can blame part of it on evolution. In an article on Prevention.com, Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of Michigan, explained that the human body has not yet evolved to handle the intense trio of sugar, fat and salt that comes in candy bars. Gearheardt wrote that before processed food was developed, sugar was "found in fruit and guarded by stinging bees; salt was a simple garnish; and fat was a nutrient that had to be hunted or foraged." The tastes taken together are still very new to the human body. You love fries and potato chips because they have the perfect mix of salt and fat. And they're fried. According to Michael Moss, the coating of fat and salt on potato chips and french fries is what makes them so irresistible. Moss writes in his New York Times piece, "The starch in the potato causes the same glucose spike as sugar, but is absorbed into the bloodstream much more quickly." That spike will drop very fast, causing you to reach for another fry or chip. You love soda, juices and sports drinks because they are sweet, sugar powerhouses. Kelly Brownell, director of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, claims that sodas and sports drinks are the “single greatest source of added sugar in the American diet, and the research linking sugar-sweetened beverage intake with obesity and diabetes is stronger than for any other food or beverage category. The average American consumes 50 gallons of sugar-sweetened beverages per year." The Nutrition Source revealed in a guide titled "How Sweet Is It?" that cranberry juice cocktail, orange soda and cola all have much more than 12 grams of sugar in a 12 ounce serving, with some packing upwards of 40 grams of sugar, which is the same as about 10 teaspoons of sugar. That's a lot of sugar. As with many of the items above, high sugar content plays a key part in making popular foods and drinks so hard to put down. But why so much sugar? Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at University of California, San Francisco has a theory that he outlines in his viral YouTube lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth: So why do I call it the Coca-Cola conspiracy? Well, what’s in Coke? Caffeine, good, good. So what’s caffeine? It’s a mild stimulant, right? It’s also a diuretic. It makes you pee free Water. What else is in Coke? We’ll get to the sugar in a minute. What else? Salt, 55 milligrams of sodium per can, it’s like drinking a pizza. So what happens if you take on sodium and lose free water, you get? Thirstier, right. So why is there so much sugar in Coke? To hide the salt.