"I don't get it, why are you so fat"

[Smye 694]

Hello BariBrothers, BariSisters, BariFamilies, and general lovers of healthy, good food. My name is Smye and I live on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest.

WHO IS SMYE?

I've always been a big guy. I hit 100 pounds when I was 4-years-old, was 200 pounds before I turned 10, and was bumping 300 on my 13th birthday. I grew up in a fast-food home, 2 of every 3 meals were eaten in the car and I continued to 'grow.'

After college I decided to turn my life around (despite hating the clichéd phrase) and started my farm with the goal of raising 80% of my own calories. Over the course of a year, my partner and I started a large garden, built a green house and started raising ducks, chickens & goats.

Three years later, I was far healthier, felt better, and felt grounded - yet I continued to grow. Whenever friends would come to stay with us, helping me haul hay, split wood for the woodstove or process a goat, they would all inevitably ask the same question "I don't get it dude, why are you still fat? You work hard, eat well, and still you're huge." I'd smile, shrug, and wish I could figure it out myself.

Turns out I was just eating too much of all the right things.

When I hit 415 in January 2015, with the help of my doctor and an enormous amount of research, I decided it was time to pursue bariatric surgery - that dreaded procedure for the 'weak' I'd kept in the back of my mind for 15 years.

On February 12, 2015 I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy and I couldn't be happier about it. Between beginning the pre-op diet and the end of April, I lost 91 pounds. I had more energy than I'd had in years, fit into clothes I haven't worn since high school, and found myself better able to navigate the socio-political mazes of life.

Let me be clear, however, this has not been easy. Bariatric surgery is never the easy way out, nor is it for those who are weak. I'm sure I'll post specifics at a later date, but I want you to understand that my choice to have surgery, and my success in the meantime, were not in any way simple, straightforward, or comfortable. This has been FAR harder than any diet I've tried in the past, and it's going to be a lifelong effort to keep the success I've got, let alone losing the 100 remaining pounds I need to shed. But wow, has it been worth it.

WHAT IS BARI-DELICIOUS?

First, some background: During both my pre- and post-op appointments with my nutritionist, I was horrified by the suggested things I could eat once I was back to 'regular foods.' The suggestions I received were flavorless, full of preservatives & junk, and/or otherwise reminiscent of the American 'instafoods' that are, in my opinion, a large part of the original obesity problem I faced, that many of us face. I reached out to other bariatric patients, both on the web an in-person, and while several folks had one or two recipes for decent food, the majority offered me bland, uninteresting junk. Even those with a recipe or two had only those options and were struggling even then.

So what is Bari-Delicious? Bari-Delicious is a space for me to share with you some of the real, whole foods I've been enjoying lately without hurting my sleeve or deviating from the dietary guidelines provided by my NUT (who is excellent, by the way and has been super supportive, despite my complaints above). Not only am I losing weight, I'm loving every meal as much as, or more than, pre-op.

I've spent the last 7 years accommodating good foods to meet my partner's corn, dairy, and gluten allergies without losing any of the flavor or texture with 80% of all ingredients sourced from my own small farm, so it wasn't a huge jump to make these recipes low carb, high Protein and, above all, delicious.

There's no need for food to be tasteless, uninteresting or questionable in it's contents. If there's something you'd like to see that's not here, please email me here and I'll do my best. I also make sure to try everything myself and feed it to my executive chef neighbor before I post it to make sure I'm only sharing excellent food with you.

Whatever happens, my promise to you is that the blog will be a place where REAL FOOD, REAL WEIGHT LOSS and REAL DELICIOUS happen.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Smye

[wascott 395]

Love your blog! I'm looking forward to trying some of your recipes out once I'm post-op and able to eat some solid foods again.

[maggie409 765]

I love juicing and I was hoping to incorporate some of those recipes into my diet. I don't her have a date for my surgery but I am very interested in your recipes. I love whole foods.

[Smye 694]

@@wascott, can't wait to see you on the other side. I'll also have some phase 1 and phase 2 stuff up there pretty soon you might be able to use. Let me know if there's anything in particular you want or need and I can work on it in the meantime.

@@maggie409, just check with your NUT before you go too crazy. Fresh juice is incredible, but in terms of macro-nutrition is basically sugar Water. In the right amounts, I'm guessing your NUT will say go for it, and he/she is likely to be alright with green juices, but I'm guessing fruit juices will be too high in sugar for more than special occasions. I will say though, I absolutely used strawberry and cranberry juices to make my homemade Jello in phase 1 and it was excellent! I also frequently cook down a small number of berries to use in place of Syrup on Protein pancakes or instead of jelly on PB&J.

[Brigiter 40]

As soon as I leave post op phases I will try CauliBread I LOVE your blog! Thank you thank you thank you! @@Smye

Edited May 13, 2015 by Brigiter

[Smye 694]

@@Brigiter, absolutely! I'm just glad my trial & error can pay off for more than just myself. Also, as I told Wascott, some early-phase recipes are coming soon - just as soon as I ensure they still taste good to phase 4 folks

[ShellMilliner 233]

@Smye I discovered your blog yesterday in another thread and have been pouring over it. Making my shopping list and must try list. Thank you so much for sharing your personal story as well as helping support others.

[Smye 694]

@@ShellMilliner, I'm thrilled to hear you like it. Let me know what you think of the recipes you try - the more feedback I can get the better future posts will be. Also, do let me know if there's something you're not seeing that you would like to try. Keep up your good work!

[VSG_Hopeful 51]

Hi, could you share a link to your blog?

[wascott 395]

@@VSG_Hopeful Here's the link:

http://barideliciousfood.blogspot.com

[Smye 694]

@@VSG_Hopeful, I hope you like it, let me know if you have any feedback or ideas for other things you'd like to see there. Also, check it again in the next few days as I have a few new features up my sleeve that I think will make it MUCH more usable.

@@wascott, HA! Thanks so much for posting that

For future readers, I've now embedded links in the text as well, the blue words are all links to the blog.

[LeeRN 32]

Hello BariBrothers, BariSisters, BariFamilies, and general lovers of healthy, good food. My name is Smye and I live on a small farm in the Pacific Northwest.

WHO IS SMYE?

I've always been a big guy. I hit 100 pounds when I was 4-years-old, was 200 pounds before I turned 10, and was bumping 300 on my 13th birthday. I grew up in a fast-food home, 2 of every 3 meals were eaten in the car and I continued to 'grow.'

After college I decided to turn my life around (despite hating the clichéd phrase) and started my farm with the goal of raising 80% of my own calories. Over the course of a year, my partner and I started a large garden, built a green house and started raising ducks, chickens & goats.

Three years later, I was far healthier, felt better, and felt grounded - yet I continued to grow. Whenever friends would come to stay with us, helping me haul hay, split wood for the woodstove or process a goat, they would all inevitably ask the same question "I don't get it dude, why are you still fat? You work hard, eat well, and still you're huge." I'd smile, shrug, and wish I could figure it out myself.

Turns out I was just eating too much of all the right things.

When I hit 415 in January 2015, with the help of my doctor and an enormous amount of research, I decided it was time to pursue bariatric surgery - that dreaded procedure for the 'weak' I'd kept in the back of my mind for 15 years.

On February 12, 2015 I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy and I couldn't be happier about it. Between beginning the pre-op diet and the end of April, I lost 91 pounds. I had more energy than I'd had in years, fit into clothes I haven't worn since high school, and found myself better able to navigate the socio-political mazes of life.

Let me be clear, however, this has not been easy. Bariatric surgery is never the easy way out, nor is it for those who are weak. I'm sure I'll post specifics at a later date, but I want you to understand that my choice to have surgery, and my success in the meantime, were not in any way simple, straightforward, or comfortable. This has been FAR harder than any diet I've tried in the past, and it's going to be a lifelong effort to keep the success I've got, let alone losing the 100 remaining pounds I need to shed. But wow, has it been worth it.

WHAT IS BARI-DELICIOUS?

First, some background: During both my pre- and post-op appointments with my nutritionist, I was horrified by the suggested things I could eat once I was back to 'regular foods.' The suggestions I received were flavorless, full of preservatives & junk, and/or otherwise reminiscent of the American 'instafoods' that are, in my opinion, a large part of the original obesity problem I faced, that many of us face. I reached out to other bariatric patients, both on the web an in-person, and while several folks had one or two recipes for decent food, the majority offered me bland, uninteresting junk. Even those with a recipe or two had only those options and were struggling even then.

So what is Bari-Delicious? Bari-Delicious is a space for me to share with you some of the real, whole foods I've been enjoying lately without hurting my sleeve or deviating from the dietary guidelines provided by my NUT (who is excellent, by the way and has been super supportive, despite my complaints above). Not only am I losing weight, I'm loving every meal as much as, or more than, pre-op.

I've spent the last 7 years accommodating good foods to meet my partner's corn, dairy, and gluten allergies without losing any of the flavor or texture with 80% of all ingredients sourced from my own small farm, so it wasn't a huge jump to make these recipes low carb, high Protein and, above all, delicious.

There's no need for food to be tasteless, uninteresting or questionable in it's contents. If there's something you'd like to see that's not here, please email me here and I'll do my best. I also make sure to try everything myself and feed it to my executive chef neighbor before I post it to make sure I'm only sharing excellent food with you.

Whatever happens, my promise to you is that the blog will be a place where REAL FOOD, REAL WEIGHT LOSS and REAL DELICIOUS happen.

Where can I find your blog?

Whoops found it *chuckles*

[ProudGrammy 8,322]

I don't get it, why are you so fat"

@@Smye

i don't get it either

as a "youngun" i was never aware of what/how much i ate

i don't think i was conscious that i might have been starting a trend toward eating too much

but never fear, my mom was around

she started "mentioning" my weight when i was about 14

i wasn't TOO HEAVY, but i needed to loose about 20 lbs

it would have been great if i had nipped the weight problem in the bud

but it did not happen

not from lack of trying

as time went by i continued to gain weight here and there

i married an "ok" guy when i was 19 years OLD

had a wonderful daughter 2 years later

his "contribution" to our daughter took him about 5 seconds

took me 9 months!!!!

4 years into marriage my now "ex-husband" actually went to my parents "commenting" on his "displeasure" of my weight

8 years after i got married "more" of me got divorced at age 27!!!

but i now had gotten rid of about 180 lbs due to divorce!!!

got even more depressed

food never argued with me

5 year old daughter and i moved in with my parents til i could get my feet on the ground

(get a job and save some money)

in a couple of years my parents suggested i go to a dating service

so self-conscious i was afraid

but....

parents REALLY wanted me out of the house

but they care for me and trying to help me

they paid for me joining a dating service

i was afraid but

i met my wonderful husband

one of the things we had in common

we were both over weight

we went out to eat allll the time, loved it

tom would say sometimes and laugh

"i want some popcorn, let's go to the movies"

surprise - I continued to gain

heaviest weight 235 lbs (I am 5'3)

after yo yoing through the years

enough was enough

i now had health "issues"

high blood pressure, diabetes, wore CPAP

enough was enough

went to dr. proceeded with all the hoops of insurance to have the sleeve

hubby was so helpful and supportive pre-op and post-op

even took a week off from work to help me out!!

turned out it wasn't necessary, but it was great!!!

my new life started 12/15/11 (DOS)

it took me almost 58 years before i started my journey

but i did it!!

the rest is sleeve history

struggles here and there, still sometimes

one year almost to the day after WLS

i lost 105 lbs reaching my goal weight of 130

i am maintaining for the past 2.5+ years

fluctuate here and there, but life is good

i no longer have high blood pressure,diabetes, no more CPAP

a HUGE NSV for me happened at about 6 months after WLS

i had lost 60 lbs

we found out the hard way i was taking too much medicine for my epilepsy (since i weighed less)

all is good now - only need 1/2 my dosage - most wonderful thing that happened to me

life continues to be great

healthy and happy

as i've mentioned before

"I' am cute as a button!!"

I "mentioned" a couple of times to hubby a few months after my goad

how it would be great idea if he would loose 100+ lbs

i realized very quickly, i was talking like my mother

never mentioned it again

i would love it if he did loose weight

buttttt through thick and "thin" life is good

next year my 39 year YOUNG daughter will Celebrate her 20 years of marriage !!!

she has given us the 3 cutest grand-kids in the world (present company excluded)

but, she had to move out of state 4 years ago, hubbies job

her leaving was "ok"

but she had the nerve to take our 3 grand-kids with her Ethan (7), Andrew (11), Morgan (14) LOL

next year on our 25th wedding anniversary we are cruising to Alaska

this is my story, and i'm sticking to it

to the few that were brave enough to read this in its entirety

you are a better person than I am

i think i dozed off a couple of times while i was writing this "short" story

i write as much as i talk

Oh No!!!!

this has been a lot about personal stuff

therapeutic for me

thanx for listening

@@Smye,

congrats on loosing 101 lbs

you are now in the century club

keep up the good work

i know you will

good luck

what was your question again??

kathy

[wascott 395]

@@proudgrammy Thanks for sharing your story, Kathy. Congratulations on reaching your goal. Have fun on your cruise to Alaska. I did that a few years ago and LOVED it! I then flew to Prudhoe Bay and land toured back to Anchorage. So beautiful.

[wascott 395]

@@Smye Here's some ideas to ponder....

After being on a low carb diet for 2 weeks I find myself lusting for many different carb heavy foods. For some reason pancakes sound really good. I also would love to eat something that crunches. Not like how celery crunches but like how a tortilla chip or pretzels crunch.