FluffyChix

Wow! What tha hayull is a pain ball?

Sadly the protein in bone broth is not the total protein you need. It's a great ADDITION to protein, since it's very high in collagen/gelatin. But if you depend on the protein from bone broth to fund your total daily protein, you will not be getting in solid, quality stuff. This is coming from my RD, not me. Sorry to bear bad news.

Good luck tomorrow! You're gonna be a super star!

Congrats on your upcoming surgery!! You'll do great hon!

The simple answer to this from an outsider's perspective and pre-surgery is, don't cheat. Stop the cheating. Go back to the basics of your post op diet: protein first, low carb veggies and if there's room then high fiber, low glycemic fruits, lower glycemic carbs like quinoa and brown rice in very limited amounts. Don't drink 30 minutes before or 45 minutes after meals. Weigh and measure everything so that you are only getting your 3oz of lean/low fat protein per meal. Eat slowly, take small bites, chew to smithereens, practice mindful eating. And even when that carb monster grabs you by the throat, resist, resist, resist. Do your exercise faithfully. Congrats on the new baby and the weight loss!!!

When I finally "first" decided to "do this thang" called WLS, I went on a super strict diet I called my "low everything" diet. I tried to mimic what it would be like from surgery day to post op of about 6-9 months. I could do it, but when I added food, I just could not stick to a 1cup total quantity per meal. I was super starving at that point--so I added more volume to fit within my calorie ranges. I'd been doing this crazy diet without taking proper supplements, and without my docs approval. And so fast forward almost 3 months and I met my surgeon for the first time. Well, to put it lightly, she was a little concerned. At the time I was still bouncing between 400-600 cals per day and losing next to nothing. I was sooo exhausted feeling (and I'm keto adapted, so that really shouldn't be happening). She told me that if I didn't get my pre-surgery calories up to at least 900-1000 cals/day that I may not have much help from surgery and that I most likely wouldn't experience that big bounce of initial weight loss. Sorry for taking the scenic route in this story. So, to make her happy, I slowly started adding back 100cals every 2 weeks to get to the 1000cal/day threshold. At 600 cals, I was pretty happy with VERY VERY little hunger. Some days I would have hungry, hungry hippo days and would overeat protein, but would still basically manage to hit 600cals or only slightly over. But for the most part, food was just a non-starter. I felt tired of course, exhausted, but not hungry for the most part. Since that first appointment, I was low in thyroid and B1. I've been on a thyroid supplement plus 100mg B1 and taking a multi Vit, Vit D3, calcium, and magnesium. I'm feeling much more energy (for the most part--still have dog-tired days, but it's better), BUT! Now that I've hit 1000cals/day, I've barely lost any weight in the last 11 days (-1.4lbs), and I'm a Starvin' Marvin! I could eat all the time. I'm back to thinking about food a LOT. And I'm having trouble making my protein stick in the 60-80g per day range (complete proteins). Do any of you have the problem that the more you eat, the hungrier you are? Or the earlier in the day you eat, the more you want to eat all day? (Oh, I also have Syndrome X, which is the post-meno version of PCOS with severe insulin resistance). TIA! (Here's a MFP for today's prospective food.)

bahahahahaha!

Thanks guys! I hope you are all right! haha! @Berry78 Gosh I your reasoning and math skills too! IKR on the fat and so little makes so many cals! I often used to look at people who were doing keto and some of the young ones were adding fat EVERYWHERE! And I'm like, you know, you really don't have to do that...cuz you're gonna hit keto numbers just by the fat in the meat, nuts, and dairy.

As I peer at you from over the top of my plain, dry, pitiful leaf of spinach...I think I honestly might hate you--or might pray that a dingo eats you by morning.

@JohnnyCakes She currently weighs 154lbs and is looking at having an RNY. So she really doesn't have to worry about losing too much weight in the first 3 months following surgery--as she heals?

I was feeling this way. But now that I'm eating 1000cals/day per the surgeon (pre-op, weight loss diet), I'm thinking about food all the time. It's like something terrible got woken up that was asleep when I was eating 900 or less cals/day. (This is a great subject! I started a new one about eating too much cuz I didn't want to jack your thread!!)

@fruitandveggies Congrats!

@russdroppings Did you know the pen is mightier than the sword? bahahahahahaha!

I actually like the Isopure RTD Alpine Punch, Grape, and Green Tea but here's what I do to them: Alpine Punch-dilute 50/50 with water + 1 squirt Grape Koolaide SF water drops + 1 squirt HEB tangerine SF water drops Grape-dilute 50/50 with water + 2 squirts Grape Koolaide SF water drops Green Tea-dilute 50/50 with more decaf tea and add a couple wedges of lemon I do love other drinks: Premier Protein-6-8oz RTD drink + 4oz SF Vanilla Coconut Milk + 16g Hershey's SF Choco Syrup + 6g PB Powder (Vitacost)=makes it so much less sweet. Synthrax Nectar-love many of the fruit flavors but I stick with: Lemon Tea Fuzzy Navel Grapefruit Isopure Protein Powders: Unflavored-in broths and soups Vanilla Cream Dutch Chocolate Bananas & Cream-this is the best cuz I love to mix it with PB Powder, frozen spinach, blueberries, and psyllium husks for extra fiber. Super filling and not very sweet. I blend it all with 4 cubes of ice and it tastes delicious. I use water to make it, but you can boost it even more with Fairlife Skim Milk if you needed to. I only use 1 scoop (32g) per 12oz of fl, not the 2 scoops they recommend.

Ugggh! What a disappointment! So sorry to hear this for you. And so sad about Irma! Please take care of yourself and stay safe!!!

What @Berry78 said! Also, I am betting the asthma is caused by the protein drinks. Can you drink a non-whey based protein drink? ((hugs)) and sorry you feel alone and are having such challenges!

You need to really lean on your surgeon to understand your particular needs and to see what they advise, then make a decision from there. For me personally, my surgeon was hoping for a sleeve for me because of being post cancer and having to take a cancer drug for 4 more years. She wanted to avoid the possible malabsorption of the drug. But my EGD came back showing pre-cancerous cells in my esophagus, stomach, and duodenum because of GERD, so I think that pretty much will mean that I have to go with the bypass--which is the way I was leaning anyway. If I'm gonna do this, then I want to have one of the maximum chances of having a metabolic reset and give the highest chances for a risk of cancer recurrence.

@Newme17 I think that's the situation with any special diet, LOL! Be careful not to burn the tortillas in the micro, they smell terrible when you do! After a couple, you will know how long it takes. Oh, and I flip them now and then so the opposite side will dry out. You can only do 1 or 2 at a time. Hope you like them! Your brother's party menu sounds like fun!

Holy moly! What a transformation!! I bet you feel so light and free. Thank you for your inspiration and willingness to share!!! Congrats to you!

I vote on it being the crackers and chips...hon.

@Véronique You're hilarious girl! I wanna party with you!!!

Wow! What a great thread!!! I want to add my "can't waits" here so future self can come back and have a ginormous laugh at me. I can't wait for/to: 1. Quit hurting every. dayum. day. 2. Have a lower risk of breast cancer recurrence. 3. For my blood sugars to normalize, even if I eat a 1/3 cup of beans or peas! 4. Sit on the floor--and be able to get back up without the fire department's help. 5. Get in and out of the car/no-extender seat belt without the jaws of life assisting me. 6. Paint my toenails with my bright orange, happy toes nail polish. 7. Soak in a garden tub until I have prune hands. 8. Feel confident enough to have sexy times with Mr. Fluffy. (Sorry Mr. Fluffy, but at least you're a solid eight!) 9. Be smaller than my 2 skinny ass sissies (yeah, I'm that girl). 10. Say "how do you like me now, b*****s" to all the skinny high school mean girls who made my life hell. (yeah, I could probably be Carrie). 11. (Cuz our amps go up to 11) Do all the fun, athletic-y, outdoorsy things again: hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, tubin', dancing...

ROFLMAO! You have magic pants too!!!

I'm a foodie, trying to be a reformed foodie! I used to keep a low carb keto food blog and even with low carb eating, I wanted to still be able to immerse myself in food and meals and eating. Damn! I spent a crap ton of time thinking about food, shopping, preparing, then talking about it! Then a light bulb went off for me! Now I seek to MINIMIZE the amount of time I have to think about food, shop for it, prepare it, etc. I'm happy eating the same 2-4 things for breakfast and lunch, day in and day out. I do still appreciate variety for dinner, but instead of thinking in terms of "how much" of xy or z I can have for that meal, I think of how "little" I can eat to satisfy my immediate hunger. I also used to want complex, multilayered meals packed with yumminess. Now I want to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). I focus on bare naked lean meats/proteins and some low glycemic veggies (maybe a salad too), and only TINY amounts of low glycemic berries and fruits in very limited quantities. It's a total paradigm shift that makes meal planning a piece of cake. I basically use a garanimals system for food ingredients. That way you can mix and match your dinner. I keep our most favorite veggies on hand--some of them prepped. If you don't like chopping things, you can buy bags of frozen chopped onions, peppers, and chopped/sliced frozen veggies that will allow you to pull out a few ounces at a time for each meal. At the beginning of the week I will decide what proteins we will focus on for dinners that week and then will cook them: grilled chicken breasts or George Forman chicken breasts, grilled sirloin or flank steak, venison, ground turkey/onion/spices, turkey or chicken meatloaf muffins, etc. I will usually pick 1 meat, 1 fish/seafood, and 1 ground meat to cook for the week. I also keep some low calorie/low carb/low fat sauces on hand (cuz I stay at a specific caloric level each day, so I've found some low/no sugar prepared sauces that add variety without breaking the bank and with "fairly" innocuous ingredients). By doing it this way, using pre-prepared ingredients I can quickly "customize" a meal on the fly that only takes about 5-10 minutes to prepare. The most I do on any day for dinner is cook a veggie, make a salad or cut up an avocado and tomatoes, and warm up a meat (some days I do a tiny bit of sauce and cheese on it--other days I just keep it simple with plain meat). I feed 2 adults this way. And because of this, my exposure to food and temptation and food thoughts has gone down so much--so has my appetite! I struggle to get in 1000cals per day pre-op per my surgeon. I'm actually now working to get to 1200cals/day pre-op and it's rough! Because I don't eat any junk (the biggest junk I might have is pork rinds with something), and concentrate on very small 3oz portions of cooked lean protein and low glycemic veggies--it takes a LOT of food to get to 1000cals! I wouldn't say the pre-op weight is flying off of me, but I've now lost 50+ lbs since May3 and am having my 2nd appointment with the surgeon on Monday. I will have lost about 19 of the 25 lbs she wants me to lose before surgery in 6 weeks. So planning and prepping works and really helps meet goals. Hope this helps. Sorry for being long-winded!!

@crocodoxie Love the diluting thing. It really takes the sweetness down. I also add peanut butter powder to shakes (choc, van, banana) and it cuts the sweet even more. Do you know if we can use peanut butter powder when we're on full liquids crocodoxie?