FluffyChix

I usually just KISS to keep me from adding about 200 cals of unintended food for the day. This happens especially with crunchies. So I will add a boiled egg, or Hillshire Farms Naturals meat (ham or turkey=3sl for 50cals). But if I MUST, then I make cheese crackers from a 1/2slice of 2% Kraft American Cheese, and make some Vitacost Peanut Butter Slim into peanut butter and have cheesy peanut butter crackers for about 50cals. They taste close to Ritz Bitz. I also get the Parmesan Crisps from Sam's and have 5 pieces with a slice of HSFN meat. I also do Lite Laughing Cow with RBP or Cucumbers that I toss in Claussen Dill Pickle Vinegar. The white cheddar and smoked gouda are good this way. I also use a couple of pork rinds and dip Fluffernutter into it. I make Fluffernutter with equal parts Vitacost PB Slim and some WF marshmallow dip. Mix like hell. Then eat with a pork rind or two. Super low like about 50cals of snack there and cures a cookie snack attack. Sometimes I use 5 Quest Protein Chips + 1/4c of either turkey taco meat or 1/8c turkey taco meat + 1/8c charro, black, or refried beans. This is a much bigger "snack" and has a big calorie cost to it--more like a meal but satisfying and sadly--addicting.

I think you might be able to eat it if you prep it. Take the edge of your knife and catch a strip of celery. Pull it down to remove the outer layers that contain the major strings. You're left with tender, inner celery that has an almost cucumber texture. Make sure to remove the entire outer skin and strings on the stalk. Or you can peel it with a veg peeler, but this can be a little trickier. Then chew like hell! And if you have any strings in your mouth after chewing and swallowing the apple sauce, just spit em out! When in doubt, spit it out!!!

Good. Hang in there. I'm sure they will do an echocardiogram and maybe a stress test. I always have an abnormal EKG. They don't seem concerned and it didn't stop me from having surgery. I have some other heart issues due to chemo/radiation and they still did surgery. I also have leg/feet/ankle swelling. It's really gotten better with the right meds and the weight loss.

Congrats on the pound sweetie!!! Please let us know what the doc said, ok? You know, it's funny, this week I've and last I've been dragging trail!!! So dang fatigued. I just chalked it up to new BP med and lower BP, but maybe that's a trend for where we're at post surg? Thoughts? Anyone else going through serious fatigue right now and surgery in Feb?

Wow. I'm sorry about this. ((hugs)) But you do not want cardiomyopathy! Are you following up with a cardiologist?

That is BLOODY fantastic!!! You win the day Diana!!!!

In theory it sounds interesting, but if you come in with high trauma and they are busting ass to save your life, for some reason, I don't think many will be intricately searching your tat sleeve for signs of medical alert status. Dunno. Me=skeptical, but hey, I thought the internet was a fad.

Oh man! Stalls suck but stay the course. Now is the time to knuckle down and weigh and measure and be accountable for every bite so you're sure you're not the cause of it! ((hugs)) And congrats on your losses!!!! 249 - 210 = 39 lbs girlie!!! That's outstanding! It's about 4.875lbs per week!!!! Gimme! Gimme! I want! I want! I need! I need!

Wednesday Weigh In! How is everyone doing? What is the latest in your life? Share an NSV! Surgery date 2.20.18 SW 222.4 CW 196.0 (-26.4lbs since SD) GW 150 Hope all of you are having a great week!!! (My NSV is that my tape measure is down 1 inch since the beginning of the month and I can feel my ribs! )

Yep. I include cals and carbs. And I can't wait for the day I have approval to dump the chewable vits and go with swallowed vits! It's about 10 calories of my daily calories and 25% of my daily carbs (2g c for multis; 3g c for the calcium cit! Ugh!)

So doesn't your insurance cover the visits to an RD? If so, that's all you need for medically supervised diet. You would get the referral for the RD from your surgeon/bariatric team. Call their office for one. Bypass your PCP. Make the bariatric team contact the PCP for her letter of rec. She's biased, but work around her. You will benefit the MOST by going to your RD that works directly with the doc and the bariatric team. I would have been in worlds of hurt if it weren't for my RD helping to streamline the process of getting all the docs to send to insurance.

I had RNY in February. I only had issues cuz I was backed-up and didn't know it -- so had vomiting and cramping until I got things cleared out after surgery. LOL. Since then, I only had one minor issue from making a poor choice. Otherwise, my journey has been a cake walk. The real concern was my fear that I was messing my surgery up cuz things have gone so easy. Very VERY little pain. No issues with food or fluids. I write about it here:

Congrats!

LOL, yeah so then how do I do my updates? ROFLMAO! Maybe it's my cue to sit back, relax, live my life and not try to update my journey? Or to only do updates 3 every 3 months? Hmmm, may need to think about this too!

Hahahaha! Good to know! Welcome! And what position do you occupy? Ok, so wow...I could go either way. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board to decide. LOL.

Pleasedtameetcha! I'm the sheriff round these parts. You must be the mayor! So um, yeah, answer the question. Which one is it? Months counted by actual weeks? Or months counted by the surgery date. (ie Feb 20=M1; March 20=M2; April 20=M3, etc) Welcome to Crazy Town City Limits Population 2

Oh hey, just try using English Breakfast Tea and pour in an ounce or two of peaches and cream! I bet it's even good in iced tea. Use decaf peach tea! Will have to try this for the summer! Thanks hon!

Thanks sweetie! I really can't believe it's 8 weeks. Hey such mind-numbing detail but are you tracking by actual 7 day weeks? Or are you going by months? Cuz I'm technically 8 weeks today but a couple days shy of my 2 month surgiversary date. The devil is in the details. Right? So is Crazy Town, population 1.

My goals set on MFP are: 550 cals per day Protein: 55% (75g) Fat: 30% (18g) Carbs: 15% (20g) I currently weigh and measure. I put a 1/2c measuring cup on the scale and weigh/tare everything into it until it's full. When the 1/2c is full, nothing else goes in. I start with protein and depending how hungry I am for veggies, I add 1.5-2oz of protein pieces into the cup. Then goes veg. Then if anything is leftover I add 1/3oz avocado and 1/3oz grape tomatoes.

Yes, there is a great deal of question whether statins have any effect on ANYONE--but especially on women. The studies tend to point that statins have not reduced all cause mortality. If memory serves, but don't trust Chemobrain. It used to say that men with ACTIVE heart disease and who have had a cardiac event benefit from statins. But in my belief, changing your diet and exercise (resistance training rather than, or in addition to cardio) will make REAL improvement in your cholesterol--rather than the improvement shown on paper with statin use. It has to do with the VLD particles and what type they actually are and what statins reduce. (VLD=very low density lipoproteins).

LOL. The day of surgery, the nurse brought me a big ass gabapentine horse pill and told me to swallow it. And I did. From then on til I stopped them a few days later I was swallowing all my pills without crushing or emptying. I now take Ca Cit capsules as large as the gaba. I don't know if they screwed up? And I was supposed to have them stirred into a medium? Dunno...I lived though! (Surgeon had told me anything smaller than a pencil eraser was fine to take whole.)

Dr. Stephen Phinney is a very well respected doctor dealing with sports medicine, obesity, and fat metabolism research. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjboeDBvMHaAhWr5oMKHUu1ByYQFgh7MAc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F2035468&usg=AOvVaw37sFAG0U0ffNbCu_BYXz-v You can buy books on cholesterol that give you the true story: Uffe Ravnskov - Cholesterol Myth Jimmy Moore & Dr. Eric Westman - Cholesterol Clarity Dr. Atkins wrote about this phenomenon. He did say that there is a small population that will have very high tris and it's a genetic issue that needs different treatment. Google: rapid weight loss and transient elevated triglycerides for more research.

Update: 8 Weeks Post | 196lbs (-26.4lbs from SW of 222.4lbs--hey, that's 3.3lbs/wk--I'll take it, even though it means I'm "just average!" ) Food: 1/2 cup by volume; 3.5-4.0oz by weight if it fits within the 1/2cup volume; 60-65g protein/day; 450-550cals; <20g carbs, <30g fat. Eating 5-6 small meals per day about 3-4 hours apart. Regular food without restrictions. Liquids: 120fl oz of liquids per day. Vitamins: 2 Celebrate Chewable Multis; 1500mg Ca Cit; 100mg B1; 1000mg B12 eod; 18mg Celebrate Iron Chewable eod. Exercise: Walking 7 days x 1 hour/day. Interesting observations last week. I had a "semi-cheat." I call it a semi one because I only ate 750 cals for the day--but I ate out of control at a meal and exceeded my 1/2cup volume goal. I try to keep this a hard core rule to keep me on track. It actually didn't even qualify as a true binge or cheat, everything was on plan and I only exceeded carbs by about 15g for the day. So not a belly buster. But still it signaled that I had lost sight of the main goal and focus of my plan. Week 7 felt plagued by more hunger. I've read where this does happen, almost overnight. You wake up and one day you know you can eat more and your hunger "brightens." And this is what it felt like. I just felt like, dang--why not take a little break, a reward and ease the obsession a bit? Why not go have a cheat meal, or a date night? Where's the fire? Where's the rush to get to goal? It didn't help that the week before I'd lost 7+ lbs thanks to a new diuretic and by Week 7 the weight loss was cut in half. So I wasn't getting a scale fix. Seeing a loss of 2lbs a day on the scale is intoxicating--even though you know it's only fluid loss. It's much harder to watch a 0.4lb loss per day. But statistics show that people who weigh daily lose 15% more weight than those who do not. To me, the scale holds my nuts to the fire and reminds me of the gravity of my undertaking. So daily weighing will continue until morale improves--so will the daily beatings. So I started dallying with green smoothies because my lying rationalizing bi*ch mind kept whispering, "You need greens." And by greens it meant, "Gimme some sugar bio*ch! I need my fix!" Cuz we all know that to eat any good amount of greens post surgery where all you can handle is 1/2c of food that needs to primarily consist of protein, equates to green smoothies. And green smoothies come with fruit and fruit comes with fructose (a liver bomb) aka sugar. And so that just added fuel to the fire of hunger. It took me a few days to figure this out and realize that I needed to circle the wagons and refocus on my objective and goal. It's so easy to fool ourselves that we're not cheating, we're not slacking off. And it is so human. So by the end of this week, I refocused and went back to my basics. I realized that my morning protein lattes (6oz decaff + 1-2oz PP + 1oz SF Torani Syrup) are very satiating. They also make me less hungry for the remaining day. I'm easily able to skip afternoon snack time because of priming the pump in the morning with about 15g of protein. So I reinstituted them. They may remain for quite some time. I also went back to my typical menus that work and focused on eating chicken, turkey, fish, and shrimp. Yep! Check! The result is that the end of Week 7 feels like I'm back in control. Hunger has gone away again. I feel energized to continue my quest to normal BMI. And I'm back with as much energy about being 100% successful as I was the day I had surgery. I had such zest and optimism on that morning--like the surgery was going to change everything. And it has. I just have to keep that at the forefront of my memory. This surgery has changed everything. I am no longer the same person that I was. As such--I no longer do certain things with food...it's just gonna take a little while to convince my lying bi*ch ass little junkie brain that I mean business and that there's a new sheriff in town! More later...

Matty the danger (IMHO) is in diet fatigue and recidivism. I truly believe from watching the vets here who are long-time maintainers, that some of them may have hit black ice momentarily, but regained traction quickly, going on to meet THEIR personal goals, not just some national average. The AMA uses statistics like this in order to determine a global "best practice" standard of care. But in my opinion "average" should not be anything any of us are aiming at for success, cuz average is well, kinda mediocre, isn't it? I want to be outstanding--not average. Remember, an average is a bell curve. There are outliers in each average--so there are people who did well-more than the mean average and those that didn't lose very much at all, in addition to the glut of people who fall at the belly of the curve. It takes those outliers to define the average. As long as you don't give up, and keep focused on your goal, you will make it. You're doing so well!

Ok, I understand if you laugh. LOL. I'm the old fart who's just learned about the wonders of The YouTube. LOL. And after many years away -- during which time FB moved on and broke up with me and changed...I'm now trying to get into the Bariatric Pal Group and I'm completely bamboozled! If anyone can or wants to help, I'd appreciate it! I joined the group--answered the 3 magic questions and joined. I got my email confirmation and clicked on the helpful "Visit Group" link in the email. And this is what I see. The group is not showing up in my Groups area. And the posts from the groups are not showing up in my personal feed. What on earth am I doing wrong? I don't want to join again. LOL. I think I might have already joined twice as it is! ROFLMDAO! TIA!!!! Sincerely, Clueless in Houston