FluffyChix

This is an awesome post. I can see, though (I bolded this part), where working out and building great muscle definition might make the skin surgery better? And might make your body tone look even better--even without skin surgery.

You know this is awesome. @Berry78 Can I tell you I love you? You draw MARVELOUS pictures that really make the math concrete! I think we should all "draw" up a series of these glimpses into daily protein post op so each of us know how to get to the finish line each day! This looks so completely do-able! Plus the Fairlife milk you drink is super high in protein for milk and much lower in natural sugars. So maybe that's a work around for the OP too?!!

How funny! We were talking about this yesterday! How we love to make the ricotta bake using cottage cheese cuz growing up our mom's made lasagna with cottage cheese, not ricotta! So tonight we're making a lasagna bake (without pasta) with cottage cheese again. It was soooo good!

You know James, this really brings up a good point about the use of "substitutes." We're all so different! So I'm of the opinion, when you ask questions like this, OP, you almost have to examine personal triggers. Over time, with my personality, I don't do good with absolutes and abstinence. I always backslide if I put something entirely off limits. But if I know I "can" choose something if I really wanted it bad enough, it doesn't carry as much power over me. You know? But that said, sweets have never been a trigger. My triggers are crunchy, salty, pasta-y, potato-y, ricy carbalicious temptations, along with cheesy, gooey nonsense. So using artificial sweeteners really aren't one of the things that triggers shenanigans in me. But brown rice and quinoa (supposed healthy carbs) will light my fire as quickly as Uncle Ben's white converted long grain rice and Hungry Jacks Potato Flakes (2 former secret guilty pleasures)...so I do try to avoid them as much as possible. I can't say I will never indulge in them, especially if I follow my new anatomy rules of protein first, veggies, then if room--a bit of carby nonsense. I just won't make dishes with them as a main ingredient. It would be the same thing for me with artificial sweeteners if sweets were my thang. I mostly believe that the dose makes the poison. And if that dose is like a hit of heroin, then run! Runaway! But if not, I'm not absolutely sure that it matters which artificial substitute you use. Just my 2 cents. What do y'all think? Do you think real life works this way??

I use SweetLeaf or Vitacost liquid stevia. For certain things I also use Truvia and also Sukrin (another stevia blend that is "mostly" natural). Oh, I also use Sweet n Low and on occasion will use the eleventy billion of bottles of sugar free Da Vinci syrups I've had forevs. What can I say? I have a little eff you spunk in me.

Noooo! This is the General Forum There's just a lot of us women here. And I'm probably responding from a very female place. My apologies to you. I truly am not judging you. I really was curious to hear where you are in your head with processing this and what the picture of "life after WLS" looks like to you. "A pint and a steak" just sounds like a perfect guy meal. Which is why I said and meant what I said. The Guys' Forum seems much more relaxed and laid back about life after surgery--although it isn't very active right now, but there are some super guys there! I'm not much on "off limits" stuff, but some things will be off limits to me and some things will definitely be on a once-in-a-very-blue-moon rotation. I hope steak isn't on that list. Beer, wine and alcohol, and "bad" fats such as transfats will certainly top that list because of their effects on the post WLS livers. I wouldn't want to have a surgery that is supposed to help reduce my fatty liver, while then going and drinking and it makes me develop cirrhosis because of how hard this surgery/and quick weight loss is on the liver. Big irony, yes?

LOL, you probably should have posted this in the Guys' Forum so I wouldn't fluffy in here and be a buzzkill! The dudes are much more mellow and realistic about stuff like steak and beer!

I love your exuberance about your coming WLS. Wish I didn't have so long to wait for mine! But I just have a question cuz we're all SO very different! No judgement here, just curiosity. I'm using this time while I wait for surgery to research all the things. All. The. Things. Trying to figure out and get my head in the game so I don't act like the movie Groundhog Day and repeat the weight gain after surgery. I do not want to ever have to lose weight a second time. So from the things I used to eat that are now sitting strapped to my ass (and have been for about 47 years), to the knowledge that once a food junkie always a food junkie...I know I have to stay away from certain things. One of those things would be beer (other than a once in a blue moon thing, or maybe only a pull off someone's bottle of beer). Why would you work so hard, go through so much pain, money and endure so much upheaval, just to look forward to going back to eating and drinking the same stuff that got you to the dance in the first place? I've no problem with the idea of eating 4oz of a steak in the future. I don't believe that's what made you or I fluffy. But the beer? Um, yeah...not to mention that even after 6mos to a year, alcohol is really pretty hard on the liver. The surgery isn't magic. Things that made you fat before will still make you fat for future you once you start ingesting them again. You will be able to figure out how to eat around your restriction... In my unsolicited pre-surg opinion, it seems to me, that a really good activity would be to look at the things that contributed to your present health situation. Catalogue them. Write them in red on your mirror so you read them every day--and often. Then steer your new anatomy and path so very far around those previous things that you cut a very wide berth from them!? Don't you agree? I'm pretty sure you know that a 4oz of steak and big bowl of sauteed greens and garlic didn't make you husky. Right? Sorry to offend you and not trying to kill your joy. Just seriously curious about what's going on in your mind right now as you process what's about to happen to you?

@MarinaGirl I'm working toward WLS with my surgeon and bariatric team. Sorry, can't help you with post WLS. I would seriously talk to your bariatric team/doc about it and about how steroids will affect your new anatomy.

Here's what mine will be: 80-100g protein/daily, 60g carbohydrate, very very low fat (~1000cals/day) Pre-Op Diet (2 weeks prior to surgery) 1. Drink 4-5 (80-100g protein) servings of a liquid protein meal replacement* daily: Isopure Zero Carb Bariatric Advantage Bariatrix Essentials GNC Total Lean Shake 25 EAS Myoplex Lite Chike Unjury Jay Robb Premier Protein RTD Premier Protein RTD Clear *Supplement should contain at least 20g protein per serving in a 6-8oz serving. The first ingredient should say "Whey protein isolate" or "Soy protein isolate." 2. Drink 64+ ounces of sugar free fluids in addition to the above protein drinks: water Crystal Light or other flavored non-carbonated waters Sugar Free Jello Low Sodium Broth Sugar Free Popsicles Sample Day: 8am 1 serving protein meal replacement mixed with water or skim milk 9:30am 1 sugar free Jello (and 8oz water) 10:30am 1 serving protein meal replacement mixed with water or skim milk 12pm 1 sugar free popsicle (and 16oz water) 1pm 1 serving protein meal replacement mixed with water or skim milk 2:30pm 1c low sodium broth (and 8oz water) 3:30pm 1 serving protein meal replacement mixed with water or skim milk 5pm 1 sugar free Jello (and 16oz water) 6:30pm 1 serving protein meal replacement mixed with water or skim milk 8pm 1c low sodium broth (and 16oz water) But everyone's surgeon has a different plan, so PLEASE follow your own surgeon's plan for success! Good luck!

I know, you hear you're not supposed to combine low fat and low carb and low calorie (which it will be de facto) cuz it will make your thyroid tank. Ask your doc though. For me, I was still getting enough fat in the protein (I aim for 60-70g per day currently) and also eat some avocado. When I was eating around 1000cals/day, my fat was around 60g daily. At 800cals/day it was around 40g. It's hard to stay on the low carb wagon, but totally worth it not to balloon up with the steroids and deal with hunger/binging all the time. ((hugs))

I will wear a bathing suit and cutoffs in public and go tubin' on the Frio and Guadalupe. I want to go camping without dying of heat prostration. I'll dance at the Garner prom and hang out at the low water crossing below our camp and maybe splurge and drink a beer with the fam as we watch the world float by.

@BoiledDenim I'm so sorry you have to use them!! I take daily inhaled steroids and have for years. I also have cortisone injections into certain joints as needed about every 6 months. I go up about 2-4lbs for a couple of weeks following each injection. When I have to take oral steroids I drop SUPER low on my carbs--like under 20g net/daily. I average between 10-20g of net carbs daily during that time and take my calories down super low also. I would average around 800cals/day, keeping fat super low also. It really helps with appetite suppression. But I'm already a low carber, so never have to go through any of the conversion from glucose burning to fat burning. But, if I was taking steroids and eating high carb? Holy moly. Binge City.

Hi. It's Monday. It looks like it's gonna be a craptastic day. And it's a well-known fact that the VERY best threads live in your Guys Only area. So, could you little monkeys start some racy Guys-Only threads in the Guys Forum to keep me amused today? kthnxbye...

Ok, I fixed it. I was using the ticker for my personal purposes of tracking total weight from highest weight to goal, rather than using it for the current weight loss efforts.

Oh man, me2!!! Let me know how you like them! I think Premier Protein or The World According to Eggface actually has a recipe for them. I just poured the drink in the molds and they worked well enough...you know?

Welcome! I'm not sure when my surgery will be, but will know more this coming month. There's a great group of people here and tons of information to learn from during this time!! Jump right in. The water's fine!

@Berry78 Thank you so much. I've kinda "agonized" over this 87lb loss thing and being 50% of excess fat to my first goal. And I don't really know if I'm "allowed" to be excited? My weight loss history is so complicated (like most of ours), and I'm not even sure if I'm tracking the right way? My highest evs weight was 325 (2001). So fairly quickly I lost from 325 down to 260lbs and got stuck there for years. I maintained that loss for so long! Then cancer/cancer treatment and cracking the weight loss "stall" code through alternate day fasting with extreme calorie restriction and voila! I lost down to 218lb, but I was in radiation at the time and they told me to quit losing or they would have to refigure my radiation treatment plan. Then ballooned back up to 287lbs (which was the highest most recent weight--in May). So technically, this go round, I've lost 50.4lbs--which I still feel really awesome about, but it's not the full 87.4lbs. You know? So how do I really count the pre-surgery weight loss? Should my starting have really been 287, or the 325?

Gosh she really is! In the episode where she was dancing?? Holy cow, I felt like I was watching me and having those emotions! @Apple1 I agree, I adore Randall so far!!!

(Once in a blue moon. Don't hold your breath for the next one! )

LOL and thanks for posting! So, not to start a war or anything (and sorry you guys feel violated--I for one pledge to stay out of your room and apologize for being a voyeur on how a guy's brain works with relation to WLS issues), and I think it was said here, but new hot threads are posted on the right side of screen. It doesn't let you know to which forum it belongs--so you really can't tell whether you land in the Guys' Forum or in Gynoland, or where exactly. And sadly, if someone's like me, I post, then go up to mosey along back to my previous forum, only then do I see...wholly guacamole! I'm in the Dude Room. Derp. My bad. So a thousand apologies in advance. But why not go back and start posting there again? It seems ashamed to throw the baby out with the bathwater just cuz of us "ignerent cracker women!" (pssst -- you know we've been trying to bust into y'alls clubhouse since we were all just bitsy, right? Y'all have always had more fun than us!)

The people I've seen have been members of a WLS board, who announce that they are back on their metformin or insulin or diabetes drugs. I've no proof, but would suspect that they are "cheating" and eating C.R.A.P., but that's pretty uncharitable of me. Maybe they were just "too far gone," that by the time the absorption issue resolved post WLS, their diabetes came out of remission? Or maybe their beta cells finally gave out? Dunno...

I actually believe that any type of diet that reduces weight and limits caloric consumption "can" put diabetes into remission or a dormant state--regardless of macrobiotic content. It will do it until such a time as recidivism occurs or a threshold of insulin resistance is re-acquired. I think perhaps the only "almost curative" method of curing diabetes is through WLS (for some). But that may be partly mediated by caloric consumption and weight. We do see some WLS patients re-develop their diabetes and have to go back onto medicines. So, I'm not sure that once acquired, diabetes can ever be cured. It can however, be put into long term remission as long as many factors are controlled such as: weight, activity which all speak to insulin production and resistance levels, degree of initial impairment prior to intervention, etc.--but this is only my opinion based on little else other than 17 years of reading about the subject (which means nothing at all).

@Apple1 I don't discount your experience. I believe that there are many paths to the same result. And what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. The information I shared doesn't come from me, but from biochemists and doctors in medicine--also from my oncologist who is a proponent of the whole foods, plant based diet. Not trying to be argumentative by any stretch. I do want to add that you cannot 100% attribute your blood sugar control to your new WHPB diet. The surgery has also altered your hormonal chemistry and physiology and does play a significant part in your new found blood sugar control. (Which is fabulous!!!)

Wow those look fabulous!