M2G

I'll start. I saw this on FB yesterday and actually tried it. It was delicious. However, I cut the recipe in half and it made 8 patties. I put all the ingredients in calorie count and it came up with 41 cals per pattie. I didn't have Panko but subbed Progresso bread crumbs and used that in my recipe analyzer. Oh the family gave them a thumbs up also! Cheesy Cauliflower Patties 1 head cauliflower 2 large eggs 1/2 c cheddar cheese, grated 1/2 c panko 1/2 t cayenne pepper (more of less to taste) salt olive oil Cut cauliflower into florets & cook in boiling Water until tender about 10 minutes. Drain. Mash the cauliflower while still warm. Stir cheese, eggs, panko, cayenne & salt to taste. Coat the bottom of a griddle or skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. Form the cauliflower mixture into patties about 3 inches across. Cook until golden brown & set, about 3 minutes per side. Keep each batch warm in the oven while you cook the rest.

Thought we should have a place to share some low-cal recipes that are helpful for fasting days.

Well I'm glad you don't post stones either...hahaha. I know it's a little thing but it makes me so happy not to have to convert your numbers! Yes, losing a bit gives me such a lift! Esp. now that the Orlando weight-gain-while-on-vacation is gone. Woo hoo. Onward and downward. Oh and yes please share pencil sketches of your "man" hahaha! Hugs to you Coops!

THAT IS FANTASTIC! I'm so happy for you!!!

Well, in all honesty, I hope that NO ONE ever told you "this will solve all your problems" because that just isn't the truth. Everyone says (and repeats) this is just a tool. And yep, here I am getting close to 3 years later and guess what? I still have to weigh and measure my food, I still have to be ON my game, or some weight can slip back on. So on one hand sure it can be frustrating sometimes to have to remain diligent. I did NOT get skinny from this surgery and did not pick to be in maintenance when my body decided to quit losing. But I have made peace with being where I am. (I am battling a bit of a regain +15lbs which I AM refusing to accept and will continue to battle until it's gone) but I have made peace with the fact that I will not have a "normal" BMI. I'm okay with that. On the other hand, this is ONE piece of the big puzzle. Why did I eat, when did I eat, and what did I eat pre-surgery? And because of having surgery and dealing with some of the issues around my own eating puzzle, I'm forever grateful for having this surgery. Would I have ever been able to lose -85lbs and KEEP IT OFF for 2 years? Nope. Not this girl. I would have already gained it all back by now. So the answer to the question is the rose colored glasses are MY CHOICE and how I want my journey to be. I've learned that there is NO finish line, there is no DONE and now I just get to eat whatever I want and not gain weight. So I've accepted that this is MY battle MY cross to bear and I refuse to accept defeat. Attitude counts...it's really all up to you and it always has been. The surgery is the tool to help you, not do it for you.

Wow, amazing transformation! You are beautiful...congrats on the new you!

I'm sorry for your struggles, and I'm sorry you are facing a revision. However, it seems that you have a wonderful dr. and hopefully he can guide you through this process. I agree with whoever said that there are liquid/mushies that are not considered low-calorie and you might have to consider that in order to keep your weight from slipping lower. I'm glad you shared your struggles here, because not every surgery is going to be perfect, easy, and without a struggle. My heart breaks for those who have complications and it's a big fear going into this type of surgery because it is elective. We all question ourselves and wonder if the benefits outweigh the risks. It sounds as if you have found some peace and acceptance, but there is probably more to come after the hernia repair. Hopefully, once you are healed from that, and your weight stabilizes in an area you can be comfortable with, things will look much brighter. Hugs to you!

Wow, congrats on your loss! You look amazing!

Yes, FYE, I thought the same thing as Swizzly that used to be your profile pic...really neat art! Thanks LV...I'm not sure I knew that when I started the day I was going to be building stilts. Haha. Your collages are really cool too. I have a bachelor's degree in art with an emphasis in graphic design, but never took the fine art path (though I'm jealous of those who make a living doing fine art!) I've been a graphic artist on and off for the last 19 years, which I love but now that I took time off to raise my kids, the technology is changing so fast getting a job now seems bleak. I went back to school in Jan. and took 3 classes and then stopped for the summer. I will resume classes this fall and hopefully come out with a "certificate" of web design. YAY Coops! Soooooo happy that 164 is NOT the number on your scale. Do you actually weigh in lbs vs kgs? Or do you weigh in kgs and convert for us? Either way my brain is so happy that you post in pounds...lame I know but I'm often too lazy to look up kgs conversions...lol. So I love that you do that AND SO HAPPY that you saw 163. Cheri, don't give up yet. I know how hard it can be when things don't go as planned, but you will find a day to fast and when you do, just take advantage of it! Apparently my first day of fasting netted me a -2lb loss. So now the fun begins. Eating in moderation today and hopefully NOT see the scale bounce back up as a response to my body feeding. We shall see...

Okay, FASTING DAY ONE is done!!! Whew! What a day too! My older daughter (12) ran around buying supplies to make stilts for my younger daughter's birthday (she turns 11 on Sat.) and she wanted stilts. The ones she wanted were like $70 plus shipping (they were aluminum) but someone suggested I just buy the wood and make them myself. Well, 4 hours in a hot garage with my daughter helping me...OMG, I did get a Headache and figured it was fasting related, but could have been the heat also. I drank tons of Water today. Probably 100oz just to keep myself hydrated in the heat. We finished them but still need to paint them tomorrow (in the heat again!) But I logged everything including the two tiny hot tamale candies that I ate, lol. Total for the day was 506 cals. So glad I can eat tomorrow, but do have to say that I like not having to constantly worry about food, etc. Reminds me of being a newbie sleever when food didn't consume my every thought. I can see why some of you say you actually look forward to a fasting day.

That is one of my fears of doing this that I won't be as "in control" on my feed days. But there is no time like the present to start so I'm going to try my very first fast day today. It's just past 9am and I've had coffee with fat free creamer, egg beaters with a bit of turkey sausage and cheese for 145 cals total. Good start...hoping for something small mid-day and a good dinner. I will keep you all posted...

It is possible to gain weight after being sleeved. Just hop over to the Vet's Forum to find a few of us. I don't think anyone has gained more than 25lbs (I could be wrong about that) but it is possible and those of us who are 2 and 3+ years out can easily experience this. Not to rain on the OP's (or anyone else's) parade, but just saying it's a legitimate fear and I think you should USE that fear to your advantage. Stay the course and keep working hard...you look fantastic!

I love that you had a conversation with that 12 year old little girl inside you. I often think about going back to talk to "myself" but never have...maybe I should try it.

You CAN do a RNY after a sleeve, but honestly I don't think you could sleeve after RNY! I can't visualize how they would be able to do a sleeve on the little pouch that is created during an RNY, but I'm no expert. Plus they connect the lower intestine up to that little "pouch" so I would imagine there isn't much room to cut off part of the pouch while still keeping that intestine attached.

Sounds flexible enough!

Ok just found this under the links by FYE...under the FAQ stuff Q: Do the 500/600 cals have to be spread across the day or in 1 meal? A: It’s up to you. Dr Mosley split his between breakfast and dinner, lots of people prefer to save their calories for a good sized evening meal. No one yet knows whether there is any health advantage to saving up the calories for one meal.

Are you guys talking about the fasting window ON THE DAY OF fasting? Like I understand the before/after because you are mostly sleeping right? I'm *almost* always done eating by dinner which is usually around 6pm. So I eat dinner at 6pm on a non-fast day, sleep and get up and drink coffee around 6am on a FAST day. Then eat breakfast for let's say around 200 calories. Then do you NOT eat for 8 hours and then have dinner at 4 or 5pm and say you eat 300 calories at dinner. Your day is done right? Please tell me if I'm understanding this correctly. Or should you eat something low calorie in between breakfast and dinner? Sorry it's all new to me and I feel like a newbie all over again.

I'm Sheila, and gosh where do I start? I was always a pretty big girl...I remember being about 8 years old and wearing a ladies size 8 pants. Never was a 0 or a 6, lol. I graduated HS weighing around 175 and felt like a big ole fattie. Sigh. I wish I could go back in time and tell that 18 year old girl that she looked pretty damn good. Instead of the college "freshman 15" I think I gained about 25. And each year I would gain more and never even owned a scale. Just would go and buy bigger clothes. Finally I was up around 265 at age 26 and fed up and tried Medifast (my first ever real DIET) and lost about 80lbs (medically supervised and had to see a dr. once a week for the Meal Replacements back in the stone age before the internet was popular and you couldn't buy Medifast online.) Then got pregnant with my first daughter and regained all the weight, ending up about 262. Lost -10lbs after birth and regained that in the 10 months after she was born bringing me back to 262, and quickly became pregnant with my second daughter and because I was so large, somehow I only managed to gain 18lbs with that pregnancy and delivered at 280 at age 30. But sadly even 280 was not my highest weight. And after having my girls I began the yo-yo dieting and tried just about every diet in the book and I would lose weight and gain what I had lost back PLUS MORE! Every single time. At one point I dieted down to a range between 220-225 and loved it. But of course that was not the end of the story because all that weight came back plus more. Again. So I had finally had enough in 2010 and started researching bariatrics. I had always known and thought of RNY but was scared about it and so I had done some research on the band and decided that was the route I would go. Called my insurance and found it it would cost me about 5K out of pocket for surgery and they said they covered the band, the bypass and the sleeve. Never before had I heard of the sleeve. Went to the seminar and NO ONE on the panel had the sleeve and the dr. sort of 'glossed' over it. I still wanted the band. Then hubby started being interested in surgery and said "what about that sleeve thing" and after doing more research I knew it was right for US, something we could both do and not have to have a second surgery (if the band failed) or live with constant vomiting. And so had my sleeve surgery in Oct. 2010. I was my surgeon's 15th sleeve. Lots and lots of trust in my surgeon (Dr. Snyder in Denver Colorado) because he had done thousands of bands and RNY's but not many sleeves because they were relatively new. I was always a slow loser but initially lost about 100lbs. I was at my low weight for a few days (almost back to HS weight!!) and then I bounced up +5lbs and stayed there for a while. Then somewhere between 1 year post-op and 2 years post-op I gained an additional 9lbs in about 9 months. And I have been at this higher weight now for a while. Earlier this year I had lost about -9lbs but then I quit tracking my food and went on vacation and somehow that 9lbs found me again. Grrrr. So right now I'm the same weight that I was in Jan. And frustrated. I average anywhere from 1000-1500 cals daily. In order for me to LOSE weight I need to usually do less than 800 cals. Which just doesn't seem possible every day. But 500 cals, 2 days a week? Okay, now I'm listening. Because believe me I have TRIED to consistently keep my cals >800 for days on end and it's just exhausting and next to impossible to do. Not to mention I work out. 4-5 days a week. 3 days are HARD, I drip sweat and the other 2-3 days are lighter. So living on >800 ALL THE TIME just isn't doing it for me. Thanks ladies for letting me into the club. Sorry this is so long!

Yes please post one. The "cartoon" probably doesn't do you justice!!!

You have a wonderful way of telling your story, can't wait for the rest! Congrats on your loss thus far!

Cheri, I just want to say how much of an inspiration you have been to me personally. I know what you mean about never being DONE as I near closer to my my 3 year post-op as well. Maintenance is by far the hardest part of this journey because it's for LIFE! Hugs to you and thank you for sharing yourself here and I love your new photos. Your baby daughter is darling and worth the pregnancy weight! I know the extra lbs are bothering to you no end but you look fantastic. We are hardest on oursleves. Chin up and hang in there!

So, just popping in here to keep up with all my fellow vets (struggling or not!) and wanted to say how much you all inspire me and keep me going! We returned from vacation a week ago and there is NOTHING like a vacation to shake up your eating habits (for the worse!) even though we had planned ahead (brought bars with us and my sleeved hubby and I split every single meal...no microwave in our hotel to heat up leftovers!) So I know we saved money and more important calories. We went to Florida and had 4 day passes to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, but had a 9 day vacation, so there was at least 2 non-travel days away from the busy hot crowds at the theme parks. The food choices are truly terrible but we made the best of it. To get back on track we attended a Back to Basics class offered by our surgeon (free...yay!) It was great because we needed a review of the Rules of the Tool. I chatted at length with the instructor (my fav. NUT from my surgeon's office) about the 5:2 plan. She had not heard of it, but upon my insistence that several sleevers who are 2+ years out are swearing by it, she said she would be fine with me trying it. I'm to check in with her in a month and we'll revisit where things are at. My husband thinks I'm a little cray cray to try it, LOL, but he probably doesn't need to do it at this point in time. So I am going to jump in and give it a whirl. I have nothing to lose but excess weight and honestly from what I can tell about the plan and the reports of you vets who are doing it, it seems quite do-able with the sleeve. With a reg. stomach I think it would be infinitely harder to do 500 cals a day 2x a week!! If you want more details about the class itself and the Rules of the Tool, you can visit my blog where I wrote about it, in more detail. http://thisonebody.blogspot.com/ I'm not sure which day to start my fast, but it won't be today...date night! I will keep you all posted!

Great pics, love your swirly updo hairstyle!

Never vomited once, and well past the 2.5 year mark. Not even right after surgery (I had the anti-nausea patch behind my ear for a few days post-op) and never from eating too much food. I have never "slimed" either, not sure exactly what that is. Also (knocking on wood) haven't had a stomach flu or bug or anything that would have made me sick so I can honestly say I have never once had something come back up since being sleeved. I'm sorry you are living with daily vomiting like it's normal. To be perfectly honest...when I learned that some people with a band live like that it pushed me to the sleeve. I don't do well with things come back up and can't even imagine how horrible it must be to have band-induced vomiting. I hope your sleeve experience is MUCH better!!

I know I already told you this Coops, but you look amazing in the dress. So glad you had such a good time, and love that you had a nice day "after" your pub romp lazing in the garden in your swimsuit!