FluffyChix

Hey Matt, offering peace and good intentions for you. Remember to deep breathe! Look up 4 square breathing on The YouTube if you don't know about it. Totally changed my life and how I deal with stress and anxiety!

I had to go research what my RD said about expected weight loss. I couldn't remember if she'd told me 60 or 65% on average and it's that average that they use to calculate where they kind expect you to land. It's 65% of EBW lost within the first 18 months--but the first 6-9 months is considered the "honeymoon period" where the greatest weight loss typically occurs. EBW is calculated by taking your ideal weight (100lbs for the first 5 feet, then 5lbs for every inch over 5 feet = women ideal weight). Subtract your ideal weight from your Day Of Surgery Weight and you will have your projected weight. Right now, you only need to worry about realizing the pre-operative weight goals set for you by your doc and RD. The EBW clock starts with the morning of surgery weigh-in. Bariatric surgery is technically considered successful if the patient maintains a 50% loss of EBW over 5 years. If you truly modify your behaviors, work on building better eating habits and relationships with food, do the headwork, work with a therapist to heal wounds and addictions and emotional eating relationships with food, you can do much better that the projected amounts and you can maintain better than the gruesome 50% statistic over 5 years.

Woooohoooo. Today I'm dong my first 24 hour fast since the potassium crap. So dang ready for it. I will eat dinner tonight at 7:30pm for the full 24hour experience. Then tomorrow are tests and the PCP so will do another 24 hour fast until 7:30pm. I may go ahead and do Thursday for 3 consecutive days of IF for the week and be done for the weekend other than 16:8 normal days. Weight has bounced up over the weekend to 152.4lbs but it's still very close to the new low. So I'm happy. But the elusive 1st Goal is making me its little bi*ch. LOL. Meh. This too shall pass. @GreenTealael love the new avi! You look very old-worldly and ethereal--your calming nature is shining through! You have a lovely aura! (I seriously do love it though--and you do have a beautiful spirit!) Oh, btw, potassium is back to normal again. Yay team!

I'm in!!!! Color me clear!

You should make cheese shells! Give the kiddos the tortilla shells. This is from my SUPER old blog when it was on blogspot. Feels like a million years ago. So dang good though! http://fluffychixcook.blogspot.com/2012/07/tuesday-taco-nights-are-low-carb.html

Dear Alex and Team, Thank you very kindly for my belated Christmas Birthday presents! They represent a veritable trifecta of fun and I can foresee hours and hours of emoji fun in every post from here until the end of time. 🦄 🖕 You complete me. Sincerely, 🤓 Rainbow Brite in Houston

^^^^me.me.me.me!

No, other than to add the full fat versions of food such as, real vinaigrette with olive oil instead of WF zero cal stuff, full fat cottage cheese rather than 2%, same with Grk yogurt (full fat rather than ff), regular cheese rather than low fat cheese. Then to add a snack or a 4th small meal composed of calorie dense food rather than volume such as 2tbsp nut butter with 2oz of an apple or 1ounce of almonds + berries. She would ideally like me to add back some whole grains if I can tolerate them, but works within my needs cuz of the high insulin levels still hanging around and the higher blood sugars hanging around...oh and to switch to fattier cuts of meat: chicken thighs rather than breasts, salmon rather than cod, that sort of thing. Neither of us think that it will be difficult to raise me to the point of maintenance--maybe 250-300 extra cals per day based on what I've experienced so far and my blood work. She knows I don't tolerate grains well...

I get ya! LOL on the title! Hilllllllllllarious!!!

Yum!!!

These! I originally wrote a Dear Santa letter in December, but I don't think these appeared until just recently. (Although to be fair, I didn't ask for the 1-finger-salute--it was a pleasant bonus. ) 🦄 🖕

So from the time I was cleared for Stage 4 or 5 foods (diet for life), we had this instruction: 1. Add new foods slowly, 1 thing at a time to note any reactions or intolerance. 2. Eat protein first, followed by low glycemic veggies, including small amounts of healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds). Include whole grains and low glycemic carbohydrates and fruit if room is left. (Avoid added sugars, white rice, pasta and potatoes.) Most of my meals consist of: That's usually about 90-98% of my diet about 90-98% of the time. lean proteins (mostly fish-salmon, white flaky fish, shrimp/shellfish, chicken, turkey, sometimes very lean pork, beef, and also venison/lamb/bison/emu/ostrich) crap tons of leafy greens (at least 2 meals and I try for 3 meals to include either raw or cooked leafy greens + mushrooms) crap tons of low glycemic veggies concentrating on the brassica, cruciferous, allium, summer squash, and lily families a modicum of daily prebiotic fibers from things like (inulin, psyllium husks, oat FIBER (diff from oat flour), jicama, asparagus, onions/leeks/garlic, sometimes a few beans) at least 1 or 2 servings of lacto fermented veggies such as Kim Chi and Sauerkraut. sometimes a "snack meal or breakfast" with a combo of plain FF Greek yogurt, a little 2% cottage cheese and dark berries, or I will have a snack with 2oz of GS apple with peel and 1Tbsp of nut butter or almonds/walnuts/pecans I add 1 fat to each meal now--usually in the form of either evoo, avocado oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, nut butters. If there is something that I absolutely want I will eat it. I will have a cheat meal (not a day...just 1 meal) whenever I feel like it. But I try to account for that meal before I ever indulge and make concessions to be super light the rest of the day, or make sure I've done some strength building exercises and done plenty of my walking that day in addition to eating light the remainder of the day. If I want a bite of contraband...I will take that bite and leave the rest. I will usually order a good meal to oppose that "wicked stray bite." I've lost 70lbs in 8 months post op and have lost 135+lbs in the past 18months. I've lived this way for most of 18 years and feel ABSOLUTELY zero deprivation. It's just the way I eat and anticipate eating this way for the rest of my life. I still refer to it as a diet. I always will. I plan. I plan to live my diet for success and the second it quits working, I will modify, modify, modify!

Wow! So let me get this straight...lifestyle and diet modification is a MUST in order to experience long term weight loss? You really won't maintain long term if you continue to eat the things that "brang" ya to the Obesity Ball the first go-round? I'm actually pretty stoked to see this study. Thanks for posting it. I've believed that we had to change, and change fast and permanently since the year leading up to my surgery, and despite no matter how kind and gentle I shape my responses about this, I'm constantly slammed by "people who know better." People who want their proverbial cake and eat it too...(I'm not talking about the occasional "cheat" meal. I'm talking about people who think this is magic bean surgery that does all the heavy lifting for life and requires no effort or help from them. Who deny responsibility for their own behaviors re: food/alcohol/drugs/etc). This is most especially true on FB...not quite so much here in BP online community. Thanks for posting this. I'm def. gonna save it!

I get your drift, but um, who is "Vincent and the Doctor for $500 Alex?"

@GreenTealael wrote: "I ate a piece of regular chocolate that was offered to me. Also I'm all about inner beauty and development of character/personality. So as soon as someone likes my appearance I use the sorting hat and they are (mentally) sent to Slytherin...But I adorn myself to be appreciated... Sigh ..." Sorry, it wouldn't let me just click the quote button.. So let me get this straight for future reference, cuz I do like to give people reactions that help them blossom and succeed in life. When I see you post new photos or avis, I'm NOT supposed to comment on how hot you look or how beautiful you are, or that I see such XYZ blah blah blah and then congratulate you? Instead I should make a comment something along the lines of: "That is a very insightful and astute angle you exposed in that photo--very thought provoking. It really emphasizes the beauty of your soul and reveals the true gentle nature of your spirit..." Cuz lort I do not want to be in Slitherin'. Unless I could be Moaning Myrtle. I'd like to be Moaning Myrtle and annoy people periodically cuz that's just the way I roll. hehe

Nooooo...roflmao--not unless my lymphedema arm gets better. LOL. Yes, absolutely! Even better! *snort* Bariatric Crap I Turn Into a LIQUID Salad. (JAL=just add lettuce hehe)

Here's the recipe I used yesterday out of MFP. I made it up cuz we now think Mr. F. has a coconut allergy that makes his mouth swell. (BTW, the protein powder is the unflavored one). But, honestly? The recipe for Mile High Silver Dollar Pancakes (and the Bake Mix I created) are the best ever and worth the time of making them up and keeping the biscuit mix made up. But they might need to be adjusted to make them more bariatric friendly. Here's the link to them. http://fluffychixcook.com/mile-high-silver-dollar-pancakes-low-carb-gluten-free-options/ Here's the link to the FCC Low Carb High Fiber Bake Mix: http://fluffychixcook.com/mile-high-keto-biscuit-mix-low-carb/ LOL, aren't you glad you asked? Ha. This is my old blog that I used to keep before my lymphedema got so bad. It was a low carb keto blog, but many recipes would have to be modified to make them lower fat and bariatric friendly...but truly some of the best "bready" stuff on the net IMHO that was rich in fiber (prebiotic fibers and soluble fibers).

They're my low carb pancakes. I will post the recipe tomorrow.

Ha! Loose skin indeed! Girl, you rock, period! And you give me encouragement that we lose as much as we can to get to our healthy weights where we can do everything we've always wanted to do and the skin is gonna take care of itself. Cuz I know you, and see little if any evidence of loose skin. I'm not lyin'!! You continue to inspire me to be a better and better me and to not settle just cuz some statistic says that's "how much I can or am supposed to lose." Congrats on 124lbs lost!!! That's amazing and phenomenal! And congrats on continuing to maintain your losses and take care of business when the scale wants to make you its little bi*ch!!!! Again...goes to inspiration and you rocking the casbah!!!

Yes. And I actually like Longo with quite a lot of IF, SIRT1, longevity research. The reason I'm even posting is because she's now posted this information in at least 2-3 forums in the last week and continually preaches poorly about any other dietary choice than her own. And I feel she is shoving it down our throats and beating us up (making assumptions about our diets) for following our doc's and RD's plan, being rude about our choices and denigrating our intelligence. LOL.

Hilarious! My average protein intake last week was 60g. I'm gonna die!!!!!! Nooooooooooo!!!! And so are you! hehehe LOL, and I don't know about you, but most of my protein comes from fish, shrimp, chicken, turkey, and then *gasp* get prepared...eggs/egg whites/some limited dairy/ as well as *bigger gasp* some nuts, seeds, a couple of beans when I'm feeling defiant and a crap ton (about 1# a day) of very choice leafy greens, brassicas, cruciferous veggies, mushrooms of all varieties, alliums, and summer squashes--even a winter squash or root veg now and then when I feel a wild hair...OMG! Dying. I tell ya! It's cognitive dissonance--pure and simple. She makes assumptions about the low carb/keto woe and she has not one bean of information about it, and yet repeatedly slams us. And, last I heard, wasn't the advice to eat protein first coming from our docs and RDs? I don't know about you, but I followed my doc's plan. Didn't you? ((hugs))

Congrats!! You look lovely! Love the polka dots!

Glad you're gonna get checked out! Good to know it's not Uranus! 🤣

No worries! I just wanted to expand on your point! I don't get that you are saying "it's my way or you're going to the hells!" 😂

Ha! Good for you. We all have to do "ourselves." I'm 56 years old and no forkin way do I want to go quietly into that dark night of looking like my mom or granma. I wanna be smokin hot, and look like I'm Miss Behavin' so people look at me and wonder what I'm up to and why I'm having so much fun! I also want them thinking I'm a much younger sister to my real self. LOL. My sis is 67 and is a stone cold fox who people think is so much younger than she is--actually, younger than me--cuz she's tiny and has a knockout figure, personality and puts herself together so well. She's my role model.