FluffyChix

Thanks girl! From this list, it doesn't look like any of the RTD drinks are gonna be any good from my perspective. The only one that would work is Skinny Girl and the reviews on it suck. The sodium is crazy high and it only has about 16g protein/11fl.oz.. I'm major bummed right now. All the others have soy (which I can't have cuz of hormone + BC), or are too high carb/sugar. Like maybe in mourning over it...le sigh.

You know what? This P*SSES me off so dearly!!! I used to be a food purist and it nearly drove me and Mr. Fluffy cra-cra. So I had to take a chill pill and climb down off the ledge. Now I'm a near-hedonist and pretend I don't see some things, cuz my budget is beyond tight these days. But the one thing I'm still purist about is bad fats (i.e. transfats and super esterified fats). Sigh. I had not seen this about the Premier Protein, which leads me to believe that perhaps all of the creamy RTD proteins have it? I use it cuz it's one of the only protein drinks that also uses protein concentrate, rather than protein isolate. That's important to me, cuz they don't seem to be quite so insulinogenic on me, since they don't hit my blood stream so quickly. But now that I know about the partially hydrogenated oils=transfats=bulltothesh*txinfinity, I am gonna have to kick these to the curb. Thanks for the heads-up girlie!!!

I love using the Isopure unflavored in broths. (Make sure the broth isn't more than about 130-140 degrees or it will clump. I also use reduced sodium Better Than Bouillon + the protein for a quick meal some days. Also, I have added it to a little V-8 then warm it until it's a tomato soup thing...but I'm not sure if V-8 is legal from a sugar perspective? I also have added it to pot roast and other pan drippings to make a protein broth for me. I hear you can add it to low carb milk, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt to up the protein content.

The amount of info is mind boggling and yes, so much of it seems to often contradict--especially between surgeons! I love this place so far. Such great people here. I'm just a newbie too and am still pre-surg. My R/D told me in the beginning and maybe for the first six months to a year, that I will need protein drinks in order to reach my daily protein goals. She explained that the protein drink supplements would not be counted as a meal--they are extra to the meal. She made the suggestion of adding Premier Protein to my morning decaff coffee, or adding Syntrax Lemon Tea Protein Powder (which tastes like the old Lipton Powdered Ice Tea from the 60s) to my regular decaff brewed tea in order to get liquids in at the same time, I'm boosting my protein intake. She said it would then allow me to eat that 2oz of protein at a meal and only eat 3 meals without snacking. But, please don't listen to me about nutrition. LOL. I know low carb and keto and know about cooking, but I'm just barely a newb and am trying to figure out the whole eating pre and post WLS! ((hugs)) and hope we can get to be friends and cheerleaders for each other!

*newbie disclaimer* This is so true for me. I try to stay somewhere between 15-30g net carbs per day. I try to keep it loose so I don't get overly restrictive--and the daily carb count fluctuates greatly depending on appetite. The type of carb matters hugely to me. Most of my carbs come from low glycemic veggies and a tiny bit of dark berries (1oz servings), some nuts, some dairy, some eggs. I have to get that fiber from veggies and nuts/seeds in or suffer with constipation--no matter how much magnesium I shove down my gullet. I can eat 32g of net carbs from leafy greens, and low carb veg and still lose even though I'm a little over my target. But, if I took in 32g of net carbs from Triscuits, pasta, potatoes, winter squash, bread/toast, etc, I will be screamin' hungry and will have huge issues controlling my craving for more, more, MORE--plus, I will gain weight overnight--about 2-4lbs of fluid! (On fat, I generally want the best type possible including full fat dairy. But since I've been trying to fit a certain low calorie spectrum, I switched to some strategic reduced fat dairy...but I'm very particular about it. Fats for me include: some small amount of animal fat like grass fed butter, lard and tallow, but mostly extra virgin olive oil, avocado, nut oil for dressings, nuts and seeds and as my cals can go higher will include full fat dairy like small amounts of raw cheeses and sour cream/Greek yogurt. I don't eat a whole lot of dairy though cuz it is very insulinogenic and has more hormones than other protein/fat sources and with a hormone positive breast cancer history, that's not so good.)

Congrats to you. You're beautiful! So sorry about all of your griefs and trials, but I pray you will use them to become stronger and more resilient!

Good luck to you my dear!!! Can't wait to hear how it went. Doncha just love sissies?

Congrats on your surgery, girl!! Woot! Yeah, so it sounds like from what everyone says, you are in the dreaded 3week stall. Just keep on, keepin' on! The way I handle quantities is I have a cheap digital scale. So if a serving is 1 cup, they usually have the gram weight for that serving. I just put my serving dish on the scale and tare it (zero it out), the put how much I'm gonna eat on it. Then I enter the actual weight in grams in MFP and it's done in about 2 seconds. Best purchase evs! Hope the scale moves soon!!!

Oh mah gosh, I hear ya on the arms and side boob stuff! I was looking at my arms today as I dressed and just shook my head. I've literally ZERO idea what will happen to Lefty, but I'm reasonably sure the right arm will be flappin in the breeze. I'm going to try hard not to let that play head games. Your attitude about it is great! I'm betting your side boob will disappear as you go further down below 200lbs. It's so EASY to lie to ourselves about weight loss isn't it? I've never gotten more than 30-40lbs of my ideal weight at any time in my adult life. And I so get that voice inside saying, "Wow! You feel great and look terrific! Why lose anymore? Let's go back to our old pattern of eating!" But, losing enough to make sure you are not at "high risk" is so incredibly important. And then there's the whole regain thing. You know? Like should we go low enough that the regain will put us right where we want to be? Someone said, the drawn look in the face goes away after the body has time to kind of reapportion itself? Maybe your face will fill out a bit, or you will start to prefer the new angles? Your gyozas sound fabulous! Get thee behind me Satan! LOL. *snort* Ok, gotta go get ready for tomorrow. Going to get he results of my pelvis and hip MRI. :-/ Uggh. Hoping they don't want to do a biopsy and will instead just want to give me a cortisone injection to the hip. Hugs and TTFN!

Wowza woman!! What a transformation!! Cudos to you! You have great proportions on your measurements! Lucky! I agree all the way, cept I actively WANT to lose my booty and thunder thighs! *snort* With the recon of the foobs, they took a buttload of fat off my upper chest area, side boob, and back so I'm fairly "thin-ish" up top with very hard, tight foobs (mannequin-style, kinda like Barbie's little sister, Skipper--ick!) But it all goes wrong at my xyphoid process. I do carry a bunch in my tummy, ass, and thighs, but also in my neck and shoulders (and huge arms, especially Lefty the Lymphedema Queen). Loved hearing about your wedding and congrats on fitting into your corset! Can't wait to read more about your journey and look forward to becoming friends and cheerleaders for each other!! ((hugs))

Good ol' Sister Mary Pat! *snick--hahahahaha*! Those sins of omission are a real b*tch aren't they?

Hi Kasensmom, I'm pre-op dieting too. I'm sure others will be along to help with brekky ideas, but this is what is helping me. I know that dinner is the most important meal for me to have satisfaction and variety. I'm so busy during the other meals that I'm mentally ok with just eating repetitively to satisfy my macro needs for pre-op weight loss--as long as I can get my food very quickly. So I make breakfast and lunch "lean" and fairly spare meals--super quick, 10 minutes or less. That way, I have a tiny bit over 1/3 of my daily cals/carbs, etc for an interesting dinner (energy permitting). So my go-to breakfasts are pretty much the same thing day in and day out: 1) Green smoothie: 16g Isopure bananas and cream protein powder, 1 1/2 oz frozen chopped spinach, 1 oz frozen blueberries, 1-2 oz avocado, 5g whole psyllium husks, 12oz water, 4 ice cubes. Immersion blend until smooth. This satisfies me 4-5 hours. 2) Peanut butter smoothie: 31g Isopure chocolate protein powder, 6g Peanut Butter Slim (Vitacost) Powder PB, 5g psyllium husks, 12oz water, 4 ice cubes. Immersion blend until smooth. This satisfies me 4-5 hours. 3) Premier Protein PBB smoothie: 7fl oz Premier Protein Bananas and Cream RTD, 4oz So Delicious SF Vanilla Coconut Milk, 6g Peanut Butter Slim (Vitacost) Powder PB, 5g psyllium husks, 1oz frozen chopped spinach. Immersion blend until smooth. This satisfies me 4-5 hours. 4) Egg/egg white scramble or omelet: 1 egg, 100g egg whites (carton: Real Egg Whites), 2 sprays olive oil spray, 1 slice Hillshire Farm black forest ham, 1 1/2oz baby super greens trio, 2oz mushrooms sliced, 2tbsp green salsa. This satisfies me 4-5 hours. (sometimes I will add 1 wedge of laughing cow cheese - jalapeno jack, white cheddar, smoked gouda or swiss flavor) Hope it helps. With those 4 choices, I have satisfying no-brainer breakfasts each day that hold me solidly 4-5 hours.

Brilliant! I will be stealing, I mean borrowing this!

For me personally, I have to pursue physical therapy and building my stamina through walking--which is about all I can do right now. So for me, not exercising, would essentially disqualify me from surgery with my current doc. But I do understand Dr. Vs position. I think he's mainly saying, the magic bullet for long term success is getting your food and head right. You know? But what I DON'T know, LOL, is the answer to the question by the OP. Should we or shouldn't we exercise during WL?

Here's the YouTube the OP is referencing.

*insert newbie pre-surg boilerplate disclaimer* My take away from Dr. Vs video is a bit different. I feel like he was saying that exercise is not a magic bullet to achieve long term weight loss success. He pointed out that many people use it as an unproductive punishment, rather than a natural evolution of fitness. He said that weight loss after surgery is controlled by diet rather than exercise. And that before we go to the gym, we need to be sure to confirm we have 1) A great post WLS diet in place and 2) We have our head/psychology/stress management in good shape. Then and only then will exercise benefit our long term goal of staying healthy and at a normal weight. I think he makes sense here to some degree. And completely agree that what works for my fluffy ass, isn't going to necessarily be true for anyone else. (Example: So for instance, I'm fluffy and might think, "Dayum, I'm fluffy cuz I like Dr. Phil too much and I'm not disciplined enough to get to the gym each day." So I try harder to go to the gym, I'm just 2 months post surgery, and eating too few calories to support an intense, extended ass whoopin' at the gymn--barely meeting my protein requirement. I do my circuit, come home, am exhausted and hungrier after the activity...and I flop down in my easy chair, turn on Dr. Phil, am starving and yet, beat and end up eating more volume/calories or eating off plan with easy slider food (like a whole can of Pringles or falling into a bag of Lay's, cuz my body is demanding more calories, those types of calories don't stretch my pounch and go down SO DAYUM GOOD. I end up undoing all the good of the activity and worse, to the point that I would have been much better off, just staying on my post surg diet, doing something to address my stress levels and processing the headwork that contributed to my fluffy state and not exercising in the first place. Or--I only go the gym 1 time a week cuz it makes me feel like a crap sandwich and so I beat myself up for it for being such a loser which makes me depressed and I end up turning on Dr. Phil, grabbing the can of Pringles, etc--and then find it nearly impossible to force myself back to eating as I KNOW I should. Weight gain/guilt ensue...) There was a fairly recent study that shows some argument that exercise alone will not help weight loss. But, I do know that doing exercise like slow burn and resistance training absolutely helps improve insulin resistance, which directly affects weight loss and how calories are processed by the liver post workout...so, yeah. Interesting question and love the discussion!!

Holy guacamole! What an amazing transformation!!! So on a scale of 1-11 (cuz you know, our amps go up to 11), with 11 being the worst, how bad was your post-surgical pain for all this? TIA!

What a fantastic report girlie! Hope you don't mind if I follow your journey. What an inspiration?! 89% of excess weight loss is amazeballs and being down from 497lbs is just. fantastic!!!!!! I'm so excited to watch as you get your mobility back!!! Cudos on using the cane and walker and ditchin' the wheels, bayyyybeeee!!!

Oh mah gosh, this is such an excellent idea!!! So sorry your daughter suffers! ((hugs to you and her)) Thank you so much for laying this idea out for me. Cuz it just might be the secret to my chronic pain issues!!!

Good luck! Congrats!

Yay!!! Congrats to you!

Welcome! I'm a newbie too and can't be of real value to you. But I can sure cheerlead for you! Congrats!!

How exciting! Good luck.

I understand the whole concept of not combining eating and drinking at meal times and agree--it's super, duper important to feel satiety for as long as possible after eating a protein forward meal. So do any of you still eat soup? Like, you know, REAL soup: vegetable beef, Italian wedding soup, pho...the kind that is brothy with solids (prot/veg) floating in the broth having fun. I am a soup-nut/soup-evangelist and LOVE me some brothy soups. Are there any solutions other than: take a steaming cup of STFU and pull up your big girl panties--cuz which is more important to you, having a successful tool long term and reaching goal, or eating the danged ol' soup? (BTW, not talking about creamy, pureed soups.) Experiences appreciated! TIA!

I'm sorry you're struggling. Wish I could help! ((hugs))