FluffyChix

@Berry78 I can't even imagine what it must feel like to have to herd all those cats while also dealing with you very specific diet. You know? My admiration increases even more! How do you do it? There's just the two of us here and Mr. F. is a picky eater. He's been known to deduct "delishiousness points" because a meal had "too much green" (i.e. spinach or greens). LOL. And he won't eat anything other than fish from the whole seafood family. *sigh* But thankfully right now, he knows to tread very carefully about throwing a food tantrum. LOL. For the most part, he happily eats what is put in front of him without many complaints. I do get the odd 7 out of 10 on some meals which torks me off no end. LOL. *snort*

Welcome! Congrats on 29lbs. That's fantastic! This is a great group of peeps! Please jump right in and start posting like a ho!

I'm so sorry you were denied and so glad you and the docs are going to fight it! You deserve it and the extra skin is a health risk!! ((hugs))

Here's the first Weekly Menu Thread

Hiya! I originally asked this question in the RNY post-op forum, but then started thinking about it. Does it really matter if we're RNY, VSG, DS, et al? I mean, we all have to follow a plan specific to each of our needs. Right? So I want to ask, is the question here. Will you go take this poll? I'm thinking we could start the daily menu thread in the Post-Op Food/Nutrition board. That way it won't clog up any of the other support boards? Do y'all like this idea and would you participate? Would it help you stay focused and on track to plan and share your day with us? Here's the link to the poll! TIA and MUAH!

Here's the first Weekly Menu Thread: Hope to see everyone there!!!

Pre-RNY (Daily goals: 1500cals; 74g protein; 60-100g carbs; 25+g fiber 11.08.17-Why do I eat? Today I am only eating in response to a meal time. Even if I'm not hungry, I'm supposed to eat at this point in time so that I get used to eating on a schedule to meet my nutritional needs. I'm very regimented right now. If it's 3pm, it's time for my snack! LOL. I also am having to take in a ridiculous (for me) amount of calories pre-surgery per my doctor. She wants me on 1500cals. I feel an incredible amount of guilt eating like this right now--when I'm not hungry. But the RD said that if I feel this way now with an unaltered anatomy, it will be 10x worse after surgery and she said once surgery happens, that eating on a schedule will be the only way to get in my protein each day and my water/fluid each day. Ideally, the answer to "Why do I eat?" will be only, because I am hungry. It used to be so different. I would eat from boredom, sadness, tiredness, anger, frustration, just because food was present or I saw a commercial on TV. It was crazy behavior and I had the ass to match it at 325lbs! B: Blueberry cottage cheese yogurt and Fiber One MS: Hummus and carrots L: Chocolate peanut butter banana and fiber protein smoothie AS: Psylli iced tea; apple and peanut butter D: Grilled chicken; avo and tomatoes, broccoli and KG butter BS: SF Lily's dark choco chips and roasted almonds; strawberries Daily Totals: 1284 cals; 80g protein; 67g fat; 94g carbs; 34g fiber; 60g net carbs

Ok. I was thinking we should do it in the Food/Nutrition area? Is that good for yall? That way all types of surgeries could participate. If it gets too big, we can always switch to daily or something. Yes?

@Sosewsue61 This whole post resonates with me! Thank you for writing out such a well-thought post! I the part about Atkins. You are SO right! He wanted us to use the Atkins Diet as a means to control appetite in order to see "how little" we need to only extinguish hunger, rather than become a free for all protein/fat feast. People are such interesting animals, aren't we? We just kinda automatically trend towards all-or-nothing principles! That dangerous black and white thinking. Because even though he said, "Moderate protein and eat only until the hunger is resolved, but not until full," we still took it to mean, "Wango Tango! It's a Free For All, Baby!" I know when I was developing recipes, it was very easy to "over taste" and not count the licks, bites, and tastes. And then would sit down to a meal and eat every last. damn. bite. I was a founding member of the clean-plate-club! LOL. Regardless of mindful satiety status! Haha! Full? Yessindeeedyyyy! I WANTED that full tummy feeling. It felt comforting. Familiar. Like nothing could harm me. Like there wouldn't be deprivation ahead or ever. LIke I was safe. Love the whole work in progress. Gosh so much headwork. I work on it all the time! Do you?

@Sosewsue61IKR?! The whole bakery thing! That's what made me start this post. Carnie's bakery made me think about my own life and food journey. I know I'm a foodie. I know I can be food obsessed. I used to keep a low carb food blog (Fluffy Chix Cook), but it's not active any longer. I had to quit for health reasons and my lymphedema was off the charts and flaring so badly that working was exhausting. I concentrated on low carb, healthy, but VERY rich homecooking-Southern and Tex Mex. Even though it was healthy, I still stayed fat/morbidly obese! Clearly it was still not a good thing to do, cuz I was still dealing with food WAY too much and still eating too much to lose weight. So now I'm trying to understand whether I should just break the food interaction entirely or in part? Is there a food life after surgery? Or would it only lead me down Carnie and her bakery's path? Should I track my journey and re-open the blog? Or would that be so stupid? Cuz the one thing I canNOT let happen is to not make my goal (hopefully within the first 6months to a year). I figure 10lbs/month is fairly realistic goal for me--at least initially. I think I will be about 220lbs at surgery (after the liquid diet), so think I should be somewhere close to 160lbs (which is my oncologist's goal for me). My first goal though is to be the same weight I was in high school, which was 150lbs. I just know that I can't fool myself into believing that the surgery will be a cure-all. (I think maybe Carnie bought into that myth.) The surgery will help me lose the weight. It's the retraining of my brain and behaviors that will help me maintain the loss. And I don't know if my food obsession will allow me to have partial. I sense it's an all or nothing journey...well not really black and white thinking...but more like 90/10 (maybe 80/20, but I think the 80/20 may be a slippery slope for me).

OMG! The day is here already!!! I'm so thrilled for you. You've been so patient and good about being a liquid diet trooper!!! Can't wait till you're on the other side and hurry back here to play with us!!! Come here and read and chat a lot today and tonight if you can't sleep. BTW, it's not too late to call your doc for something to help you sleep if you need it!!! ((hugs)) Saying prayers for you girlie!!

Sure...its the overeating her sleeve which I'm concerned about. LOL. I just am trying to figure out for my personal situation, the degree that I will have to go to keep me from overeating my pouch. But I also suspect rich foods, food obsession, and alcohol played a contributing roll in Carnie's regain. I know weight gain with kids is a real issue and that it is doubly hard to lose it afterward...but I somehow think the first part of this is more in play? @BDMEPretty much, our food requirements/limits are the same. Slightly smaller for pouch v. sleeve but it's essentially a similar journey. My vitamin requirements are set in stone and different from a VSG, though!

@dreamingsmallLove your food and the way you work around your family and yourself! So practical and it sounds like you've found the right balance for you!! Ha! This weekend I just made our dad's meatballs and sauce that are famous in our family. We make them every year and share with "the sistahs" and it was my turn this year. Funny you should mention baking them, but for the first time evs, I took a shortcut and instead of pan frying in olive oil, I baked 'em! They came out great, but have less fat and took a LOT less time! Love the idea of pre-cooking the balls, freezing them, then serving them with a tad of sauce, some spinach or zoodles! Meal done (for us)!! I was surprised that I didn't want to cheat with them while I was cooking. This is the first big carb monkey recipe I've cooked for the holidays. Before this, it's been very austere, sparse, but very flavorful cooking on this diet! @Kat410Good Gawd Marge! I wanna come to one of your parties!!! They sound fabulous!!! Maybe that's the answer? Maybe it's respect the no hunger thing in the beginning, to get things on track? Then once a lot of the weight has come off, I can re-introduce the idea of more food interaction? I really feel energized by the interaction as you do: planning, cooking for others, serving others, making them feel loved and honored. I agree it's the whole family nurturing experience of food is love. Is that wrong to feel that way? Do I doom myself to failure long term if I fail to sever this relationship? @Meryline I love your approach. I'm doing this now with meats. I still prepare fresh veggies (pre-op so much more room for them) at each meal, and breakfast is new each day too. But it's dramatically cut down on the amount of time spent in preparation of the meal. You're my RDs wet dream, girl! LOL. In every session she's all about "think how to maximize the protein in that meal!" LOL!!! Well at 100lbs lost, you're doing something VERY right my friend!!! @BDME Congrats on the 40lbs girlie!!! Love your food subs!! And I agree, even simple food must have flavor!! Love the low carb alternatives to the high carb "crush" food. I used to be a huge pasta girl. I swear, I could eat a lb of pasta and used to think that was a serving. LOL. No wonder I was 325lbs on a 5'4" small frame, right? I do think having small treats now and then are good. I'm hoping though, that I can defer those treats for the first 6 months! With my metabolism and challenges of drugs, I feel almost frantic to capitalize on that short window of opportunity the malabsorption from my RNY will offer. You know? Wow! Very cool conversations everyone!!! So thinking new thoughts...like maybe it IS ok to still be a foodie. I'm just so afraid to Carnie Wilson the crap out of this opportunity. Cuz this is my golden shot...you know?

Congrats!!!

Damn! How did I miss this thread? You look AMAZING girlie!!! Such a dramatic difference! You're swimming in that shirt! Congrats and so impressed--7 months and 100lbs. Way to rock it! LOVE your hair. Is it a new color? Did you cut it? Love the short cut and where it frames your face! You are such an inspiration hon. TY for all you do!

@RNY-Fall-2017No real world experience, but I read EXHAUSTIVELY on the boards, lol! And many talk about how adding things to water helps change the "density" of it and make it easier to get volume in. Now, I'm not much on sweet waterdrops...but, I do like weak flavored teas. So why not experiment with adding plain water to things like Celestial Seasoning Apple Spice Tea (brewed) just to add a little flavor? Or slice a strawberry, or cucumber and mint, or a squeeze of some citrus into your water? See if that helps. Also, I do know that once you wake up your thirst, you will have more thirst! @Aries331Oh! I'm so glad to hear about your class! I know my RD and surgeon's visits have been invaluable to me. So. Many. Questions. LOL! They gave me a binder and it's crammed full of notes. You are right though, it does help take the fear of the unknown out of things!! Woke up this morning and I'm back down (230.8lbs this morning) to my published weight. My WL graph looks like a series of spikes with a downward trending line to it. I will drop down to a new first ever weight, then ALWAYS bounce up the next day and have to walk back down to the original weight. *sigh* This morning I'm 230.8lbs again. Which is surprising, cuz I ate like a racehorse yesterday. So hungry! And ate almost 1800calories and over 100g of protein which I rarely do--if ever! I'm so close to breaking into a new decade and it's only taken about 70days! bahahahahahaha! Depressing, right? I'm right at 24.6lbs weight loss since the first surgeon's visit. My goal was to lose 10% of my weight before surgery. I have about 1lb more to hit that goal. Yay, me! Right? I don't usually make goals. So it really feels good. And I haven't even gotten to the liquid diet part yet. But I'ma still celebrate when I hit that thing! Woke up this morning and read the Waiting thread. I'm feeling a great deal of impatience over not hearing back from the surgeon's office or insurance. I still don't want to call them cuz I don't want to get the PIA label from them. I know they would talk about me. But tomorrow can't come soon enough and I don't really know what I will do if I go in and they say they don't have any information for me or any plan to schedule me for surgery. I just have to remind myself that God's timing is perfect and submit my will to His timetable. I know I'll be able to handle it as long as I remember to do that. When I try to out-control a situation, things always go south. Ok, well end of my pity party. Thanks for listening y'all! ((hugs)) On a bright note, it now feels like fall here! We got a cold front in overnight and it's nippy out! Yay!!!! More PT today at 1pm. The last for the week. TG!! So. Sore. All the soreness! How is everyone today? How did our new surgery buds do with surgery? How are the more seasoned surgery buds doing? Spill it ladies!!!

Yay! Girlfriend! You're rockin' it!! Glad things went well and that you have your family with you!

Wow! I overslept this morning and am reading your responses. It's really giving me a lot to digest! Get it? Digest? I want to respond to many of you. Lemme slurp down a cuppa and I will bbiaf!! ((hugs)) To each of you major inspirations!

@Wanda A Congrats!! Very exciting! @RNY-Fall-2017You know, you might also have more fatigue from dehydration if you aren't getting all your liquids in yet? Just a thought that came to me, hon!

sonofabiscuiteater. how'd this happen?

fork!

@jess9395Holy crap Batman! That's outstanding and you look phenomenal! I wanna be you when I grow up!! Am I gushing? Cuz I feel like I'm gushing! New goal, be small enough and have tight enough skin to where an ankle bracelet like Jess.

Honestly this is where I really aspire to be 90-95% of the time. But I just reread my last post and I realize I have a long way to go, cuz I just felt a huge jolt of energy to talk about food. Like maybe I almost/did get a "fix" from this discussion! Wow. Very interesting this! Love your idea about going out for Tgiving. And as for Christmas, I don't know if Mr. Fluffy will get his usual Christmas roast beast and trimmings. I may have just had surgery (hopefully), so we will have to wing it. We may have to go out for that so that he can eat! I'll just have some warm tea or something!

@Apple203 Cracking up over weaning off of "mommy services!" Hilarious! We sound so much alike! We're trying to find the "path to righteousness." LOL. If that's even possible. The jury's still out. There's just the two of us here, so no carb monkeys to please. My doc also has a slow rollout to real foods. I think I may be about the same time out as you (about 7 weeks-ish to veg)? I know there are many paths to the same place and for me, the fastest way to get me to do something is to tell me I can't do it. So I want to be sure to stop short of saying, I will never cook another complex meal--but I think I'm gonna try to focus 90% of my diet being KISS, protein forward meals followed by veg and fruit. (Buy dayum, I have to have my veggies with the protein because I really love them. But luckily, they are mostly the low carb, high fiber veggies that I love best.) @Sosewsue61 Congrats on being right on the cusp of onederland!!! Yippee!!! Your Christmas dinner sounds like ours! I make a standing rib, roasted brussels with bacon and onion, some kind of salad. I usually don't do dessert cuz neither of us need it, but I may splurge for him and make my low carb sugar free tiramisu. Not exactly KISS, but it's very low carb and freezes great for him for later! Merry Christmas Mr. Fluffy! ha! @jenn1 How funny! I just saw Inside Karen's Kitchen blog just the other day! She sounds fabulous and loved her recipes! We love white chicken chili! Your pumpkin apple roast sounds very intriguing! I splurged in honor of Tgiving and got an acorn squash, so maybe I might do a little of that with a couple of cubes of Granny Smith apples! We don't eat a lot of the higher carb veggies, but if that's the worst of it, Mr. F's diabetes should be ok. Love the sound of your dessert! @Julie norton Ha! I mute food commercials too and even make myself look away!! Too funny! We're def. one trick ponies on normal non-holidays! How do you eat soups post surgery? Do you eat the liquid part first, then eat the solids? Love this conversation!!!

@Sosewsue61Gosh I hear ya on push back from the fam when you jack with the family faves! LOL! I do use a tad of Sugar Twin (both brown and white) to get a symbiotic effect with other sweeteners like Swerve. It will boost the sweetness while keeping total overall volume of the sweeteners down! See, I think these are all encouraging answers and I have to confess, I was hoping to hear things like this. I'm such a crazy foodie. I formerly spent WAY too much time/energy interacting with food. The result? Never ever ever did I come close to reaching goal. I believe that although my recipes that I developed were dead delish and low carb, I still ate too much and so took in more calories than I burned. This time around (don't know what will happen post surgery), but pre-surg, I've tried to keep my meals dead simple (but tasty). For the most part, each night is just a grilled or pan sauteed meat, veg, and small salad for Mr. Fluffy and me. Super simple stuff, where we grill a bunch of chickie boobs or fish and then eat it at multiple meals--maybe with a low cal/low carb/low sugar sauce...but still super simple. I try to keep my time in the kitchen soooo low. Not just to keep the food interaction to a minimum, but because of pain and energy. I don't have much energy and pain is very high. But I have a theory that maybe the most successful WLSers (do we have a good name for us?) are maybe the ones who get down to brass tacks the hardest and just power through to lose the weight as quickly as humanly possible. This subset of peeps keep things dead simple. No shenanigans. No fancy recipes. Mostly protein, maybe a tomato or a bite of sauce to make it go down easier, and a bite or two of veg, maybe a few berries or low glycemic fruit or maybe a bite of quinoa or brown rice sometimes. I think I'm witnessing that these super-successes (as I'll call them), are more focused on the losing than they are on the taste of the food. It's more eat to fuel, rather than eating to feel good and be a foodie. I'm just trying to see if we can confirm that theory or not? What I don't want to be at the end of the road is one of the peeps who did not lose all their weight and get to goal (or below it) as a result of the surgery. I think my best bet is to power it out in the first 6 months (since I have relatively little to lose--this might not be the same thing if I needed to lose 100+lbs at this stage) to try to get to goal--if I even have the power to effect this post surgery. To do this, I know I really have to continue to change my relationship with food. I've really limited the amount of pleasure I get from interacting with food so that I can wean myself from that--at least for now. I'm gonna try to KISS, and make 10-15 minute meals (especially post WLS) to stay out of the kitchen. I pray every night that I will be one of the blessed who have relief from "food hunger" post surgery--the ones who eat because they must, rather than because they are starving or craving. What are y'alls thoughts? Do y'all employ these types of strategies to limit food pleasure/reward?