Smye

@@wascott, per pancake. Another recipe I'm working on is slightly junkier, more work, and not yet had all the bugs worked out uses an egg, some Protein powder as the flour, Water for the liquid, and a mashed banana for texture. You could always play around with that - depending on which ingredients are not allowed at the moment.

New recipes: Almond pancakes and berry Syrup

Hello BariBrothers, BariSisters, BariFamilies, and general lovers of healthy, good food. My name is Smye and I live on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest. WHO IS SMYE? I've always been a big guy. I hit 100 pounds when I was 4-years-old, was 200 pounds before I turned 10, and was bumping 300 on my 13th birthday. I grew up in a fast-food home, 2 of every 3 meals were eaten in the car and I continued to 'grow.' After college I decided to turn my life around (despite hating the clichéd phrase) and started my farm with the goal of raising 80% of my own calories. Over the course of a year, my partner and I started a large garden, built a green house and started raising ducks, chickens & goats. Three years later, I was far healthier, felt better, and felt grounded - yet I continued to grow. Whenever friends would come to stay with us, helping me haul hay, split wood for the woodstove or process a goat, they would all inevitably ask the same question "I don't get it dude, why are you still fat? You work hard, eat well, and still you're huge." I'd smile, shrug, and wish I could figure it out myself. Turns out I was just eating too much of all the right things. When I hit 415 in January 2015, with the help of my doctor and an enormous amount of research, I decided it was time to pursue bariatric surgery - that dreaded procedure for the 'weak' I'd kept in the back of my mind for 15 years. On February 12, 2015 I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy and I couldn't be happier about it. Between beginning the pre-op diet and the end of April, I lost 91 pounds. I had more energy than I'd had in years, fit into clothes I haven't worn since high school, and found myself better able to navigate the socio-political mazes of life. Let me be clear, however, this has not been easy. Bariatric surgery is never the easy way out, nor is it for those who are weak. I'm sure I'll post specifics at a later date, but I want you to understand that my choice to have surgery, and my success in the meantime, were not in any way simple, straightforward, or comfortable. This has been FAR harder than any diet I've tried in the past, and it's going to be a lifelong effort to keep the success I've got, let alone losing the 100 remaining pounds I need to shed. But wow, has it been worth it. WHAT IS BARI-DELICIOUS? First, some background: During both my pre- and post-op appointments with my nutritionist, I was horrified by the suggested things I could eat once I was back to 'regular foods.' The suggestions I received were flavorless, full of preservatives & junk, and/or otherwise reminiscent of the American 'instafoods' that are, in my opinion, a large part of the original obesity problem I faced, that many of us face. I reached out to other bariatric patients, both on the web an in-person, and while several folks had one or two recipes for decent food, the majority offered me bland, uninteresting junk. Even those with a recipe or two had only those options and were struggling even then. So what is Bari-Delicious? Bari-Delicious is a space for me to share with you some of the real, whole foods I've been enjoying lately without hurting my sleeve or deviating from the dietary guidelines provided by my NUT (who is excellent, by the way and has been super supportive, despite my complaints above). Not only am I losing weight, I'm loving every meal as much as, or more than, pre-op. I've spent the last 7 years accommodating good foods to meet my partner's corn, dairy, and gluten allergies without losing any of the flavor or texture with 80% of all ingredients sourced from my own small farm, so it wasn't a huge jump to make these recipes low carb, high Protein and, above all, delicious. There's no need for food to be tasteless, uninteresting or questionable in it's contents. If there's something you'd like to see that's not here, please email me here and I'll do my best. I also make sure to try everything myself and feed it to my executive chef neighbor before I post it to make sure I'm only sharing excellent food with you. Whatever happens, my promise to you is that the blog will be a place where REAL FOOD, REAL WEIGHT LOSS and REAL DELICIOUS happen.

What procedure did you chose and why did you chose it over the other options? The sleeve - I chose it to avoid the malnutrition issues of other procedures and the inefficacy (statistically speaking, obviously some have great success) of the band What was the general reaction from family and friends? HOLY COW! YOU'RE MELTING! What was the biggest surprise during the process? The nausea day 1 post-op How long was your recovery? 12 days and then back to work full time How fast did you lose the weight? 101 lb in the first 3 months so far How has your life changed since having the procedure? Not siginificantly thus far, feel better though Would you do it again? In a heartbeat Any regrets? Just that all the new clothes are ridiculously expensive What should I be aware of? That there will be people who see you losing weight and shame-spiral themselves which can be pretty uncomfortable. What, if any, foods do you miss that you can no longer have? None, just had to get creative. Check out my recipes

@@wascott, you sir, are brilliant. That would be excellent!

@@proudgrammy, Holy cow, what a story! Thank you so much for your willingness to be vulnerable and share your story with us! You're doing amazing work and your life is astounding. Keep us posted on your continued success and have a blast in Alaska, I'm super jealous! My partner and I are coming up on 7 years though, so I suppose there's plenty of time for us. And thank you for the support & congratulations, both here and elsewhere - I'm thrilled you're here.

@@BLERDgirl is dead on, the stevia is indeed incredibly strong. I keep a small jar of dried powdered leaves in my tea cupboard and use 1/16th tsp for a cup of tea when I want it sweet. And, yeah, ragweed. Forgot about that one.

New recipe posted Paella, the quintessential seafood dish of Spain and the ultimate sensory experience in a pan.

As others have said, honey will get you. Overall you're better off to work on weening off the sweet, but in a pinch some powdered stevia leaf is a good bet. Not the overly processed white stevia powder from the store, but the leaf from a stevia plant - you can buy them at most hardware and gardening stores. OR - a sorbet I make for my partner that's not terrible is 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries and 1 scoop unjury unflavored Protein powder, put into a food processor and let process for 2-5 minutes until sorbet-like. YUM! And VERY sweet.

@@naomi6929, I've got a lot of recipes on my blog barideliciousfoods.BlogSpot.com that fit into Phase 4 readily. Check it out and let me know what you think.

@@jess9395, I understand it's pretty user specific. However, my own surgery story left me nauseated to the point that, for the first time in my life, I would have preferred to die than spend another day like that. At that point I was on the Scope patch, emend, zophran and dexamethasone. Once I got the Phenergan, however, everything was right with my world. Now I just use zophran every once in a blue moon for nausea that's bad enough to keep me from doing my daily routine but nothing so bad as when I needed the Phenergan.

New Phase 1 Recipe Protein Gela-o A few other updates to the blog: I've added pages for each post-op phase in the tabs. There's not a lot in them yet but more is coming I've added a WHAT'S COOKING? page for you to see what recipes and other projects are on the horizon, how far along each recipe is, and add your own suggestions

@@VSG_Hopeful, I hope you like it, let me know if you have any feedback or ideas for other things you'd like to see there. Also, check it again in the next few days as I have a few new features up my sleeve that I think will make it MUCH more usable. @@wascott, HA! Thanks so much for posting that For future readers, I've now embedded links in the text as well, the blue words are all links to the blog.

@@ShellMilliner, I'm thrilled to hear you like it. Let me know what you think of the recipes you try - the more feedback I can get the better future posts will be. Also, do let me know if there's something you're not seeing that you would like to try. Keep up your good work!

New recipe posted: Chipotle Philly Cheesesteak - somehow it's good for you 

@@Shakti, I'm with wannabthinsoon on this one. I can try to find you the research jennifer Minton mentioned if you like.

@@wascott, thank you! As you can imagine, I'm pretty pumped right now. It's weird though to think that only 3 months ago, I felt like I'd never get there.

@@wascott, either way good luck and keep us posted. You'll get through and it's well worth it! Just don't forget to ask for help if/when you get frustrated or stuck

@Italian Gal, I'm glad to hear it. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see.

Just a few quick updates: 1) I hit 100 pounds lost today 2) A bari-friendly Philadelphia cheesesteak is coming tomorrow 3) New Phase 1, 2, 3, and 4 pages will be live on Saturday 4) The new batch of pink pickled eggs is ready - photos will be up on Sunday - YUM!