FluffyChix

LOL. Welcome to my world. No it isn't new. Yes, I've come to love a lot of them. My faves are Italian, Sesame Ginger, and Asian.

Congrats! You just won the internet! Let's all go home now. ((hugs))

Come read on this thread here about doing the head work. I just saw this article from Kristin Lloyd Moussa with 5 actions you can take to work through head hunger!

Average grams of protein per ounce of weight of a complete and dense protein ranges between 5-7g. That IS high protein. Sorry that doesn't fit with your definition. I'm thinking you should take it up with God. Cuz somehow, the rest of us figure out how to make this all work. I get that it feels overwhelming to you right now. But you are going to exhaust yourself and everyone around you if you don't look positively at this blessing you have for a new life. Take a breath. Sit back. Chill. Break your day down into utilizable chunks and meals. Geterdone. If we can do it. You can do it. No stress.

Pretty thought provoking stuff. Thanks for sharing. He does ask the difficult questions doesn't he? And has pretty startling insights. No wonder why he isn't very popular with his peers... Standard of Care is very slow to change...

Embrace this stage. It's there for a purpose. It's there to help you break the old ties to eating for any other reason other than fueling your body. Relax into it. Cuz all too soon, you will have the opposite problem. You are going through a very normal reaction. Embrace! Reframe. Be positive. Do not grieve. BE AMBIVALENT! So how do you get your protein in? Treat it like a prescription. You have 1 job. And that job is that you need 60-80g of protein per day. For now at 3 weeks. Here's what you do. You split it into meals. Your job is to have 6 mini meals divided roughly 2-3 hours apart. Meal 1 - 5oz protein shake (15g protein) Meal 2 - 1 egg + 14g turkey sausage crumbles (by weight) + 1/2oz part skim mozzarella or a light cheese wedge (11g prot) Meal 3 - 5oz protein shake (15g protein) Meal 4 - 1/4 c ricotta bake (15g protein) Meal 5 - 2oz foil wrapped swai + 1/2oz well cooked broccol + 1/2oz grape tomatoes (15g protein) Meal 6 - 1/4c Greek yogurt thinned with protein drink + canned peaches (no sugar added) (9g protein) Here's the meal plan sample. This was a typical day for me at your stage. So something like this. Click to enlarge image: And don't worry if you can't eat it all! Don't worry if you can meet your protein goals here or there. The average over time will be fine! Try to get your 60g minimum in as a dude and for now, you'll be fine. Too soon, you will be able to get it all in and will try not to get too much protein. LOL. Your food desire WILL return. Learn new things...

Thanks for posting this! It's a legitimate topic I think we all need to be aware of--anyone contemplating or practicing IF or even EF. One of the most important determinants of whether or not your fasting schedule has "gone to the dark side" would be to always answer the question of motivation. "Why are you practicing your fast this week?" And of course, "What do you hope to get out of your fast." I honestly don't think that you can ever fast your way into an eating disorder. Eating disorders are mental illnesses as defined by the DSMV. But with anything, if you don't have a firm motivation, it's easy to overdo something through sheer ignorance. But ignorance still doesn't make an eating disorder. Like in China, I'm pretty sure they just call it "food". Same thing in Mexico and Italy. So for my way of eating, I'm not following a fasting or low carb lifestyle. I just have A specific lifestyle that I follow for improved health. And the day it no longer serves to support or increase my health as proven scientifically with metrics such as labwork, CT scans, MRIs, DXA scans, tape measurements, impedence scales that measure body fat % relative to weight, etc, is the day it's time to change things up. Just like WLS, It's important not to be a slave to your lifestyle. It's an additional tool that can help you realize your health goals. But with any tool, you may sometimes need to adjust HOW you apply the tool, or in some cases, switch tools entirely. Right? Flexibility. Don't lose sight of being flexible and always learning more about the science!

Good times!

See I think this is where I got that he was at 3-4weeks and on softs: "Hi, i was sleeved 2.5 weeks ago, started mushies in my third week, " And my dang musician's math automatically rounded up to 4 weeks. LOL.

Dang! I gotta learn to read! See, I read it that the OP was 4 weeks out and just on soft foods. So I offered all my advice based on that construct. Good times! Proves shmos on the internet should not give specific advice to anyone--you just gotta work your program!

That is a valid question. The fear of the unknown is real and huge! ((hugs)) It may feel never ending right now. But take courage. Seize hold of hope. Get excited!!! Cuz the journey you are on is transforming!!! And life changing/affirming. In one year you will look back at yourself and not recognize your old sick self. You will disbelieve you ever let yourself get "there" and became "that guy". You will fill a meeeeeeellllllion percent better!!! And eating WILL become "normal" again--a new normal. And that's pretty OK. The trick is to EAT SLOWLY. Put that fork down between bites. Really feel your body and listen to it. In the early days, the nerves were cut and aren't fully talking to your brain. So that's why it's VERY important to follow the volume and food stage progression given to you by your doctor!!! So important!! Cuz you eat it and you're done, whether you are full or not. No seconds. And of course, if you feel full or restriction or over-discomfort. You stop--even if you have stuff left! It gets better. At 15 months, it's not what I CAN eat, it's keeping myself eating honestly, cleanly, and not OVER eating or over eating with the wrong types of foods.

Look. Eating right now IS supposed to be sufficiently hard in order to deter you from over-eating and to provide a negative feedback. Purposely going for "easy" soft to digest food is synonymous with "eating around your tool." You are looking for ways to make it easy on yourself to get food in so that you don't feel that negative response. But the reality is...the SOONER you can advance to solid dense lean protein, the better! Honestly. It's the stuff that will get you and keep you satiated longer and will keep the food in your tool longer which means you also absorb the nutrients better!!! (Edited to add: And of course you MUST follow your prescribed food progression plan from your doctor!!! Do not try to advance more than appropriate for your stage and level of healing!!!) So keep working at soft foods: soft boiled eggs, soft scrambled eggs, canned tuna, canned salmon, canned chicken, poached white fish, poached salmon, liverwurst, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt (but not too much), EggFace ricotta bake, green bean casserole with lots of canned chicken in it. Try chilis, soups, stews with slowly cooked meats and only tiny bits of veg... Drop the lentils and beans for now...

First and foremost it is all about the volume. At about 4 weeks here is your VOLUME rec. Liquids = 4oz at one meal (4 oz of anything liquid) Soft Foods = 1/8-1/4c (that means 1-2oz by WEIGHT) maximum per meal. That means at THIS time? It's ALL about the protein. Until the time when you get ALL your protein in from food. Protein first. Then if room, a bite or two of well cooked, soft veggie at 4 weeks. The ONLY time you might add a little frozen or canned fruit (ie fruit without peel and low or no added sugar) would be with a tiny bit of yogurt. But emphasis is on a bite or two--not a whole bowl. For one it's WAY too much sugar/fructose at 1 meal and for two, you MUST get your protein in. At 4 weeks, you MUST get your protein in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Non-negotiable.

^^^^What these 2 gurus said. Please heed their advice so that all will go well with your life. Just because you CAN do something--does not mean it's prudent.

Honey. You've just simply got to stop it. Break the cycle. Make the decision. Get an appointment to see your doc, your RD and also get a referal to a counselor. Rice and bread WILL make your tummy expand. So what you are feeling is real and it's not too late to get a leak from a hyper bloated tummy. Please go back to your basics for your stage. It will be 3-4 days of hell. But after that? I promise it will be infinitely easier. But you need your team to help pull you out of this spiral. Please do it for yourself. Clean your house out of all junk!!!

Honestly? I'd keep working the plan you have. Don't add or subtract anything until you are where you want to be. Time for experimentation and regain comes later. ((hugs)) Congrats. You're doing great!!!!!

Well, I think she will explain this weekend. But this one is pretty simple. No animal protein. A super greens green smoothie 2x a day and unlimited green veggies. So it doesn't sound complicated. I am getting the kind of super greens from the grocery store. I can find the amazing greens super green mix. 2g protein per drink. It's supposed to be low protein <20g per day from plant based sources. And you are supposed to limit BCAAs (which you get a lot of from protein isolate - whey). So this is a good source. And you also get protein from the things like broccoli, spinach, kale, etc. The idea is that by limiting protein, then you force your body to consume the extra and broken proteins in your body. So that once the fast is over and you're eating the healthy building blocks of protein again, you build new, healthy protein. Supposedly that helps you with all kinds of things, including excess skin and then building new muscle!!! By doing this, so far, my weight has remained stable. Today I'm at 138.2lbs but my body fat percent continues to drop. This morning it was at 25.6% (down from 30% at the same weight). So something is definitely changing?

Some inspiration for us, for those times when we have to dig deep and not give in (I'm having one now as a matter of fact):

Welcome!!! I to you both!!! I'm starting the 5 day EF with Resetters on Monday girl! I'm doing the Super Greens + as much green veg as you want version. (Basically a FMD.) But the other option they are doing is a WF. We can post together. I'm getting the Super Greens and veggies this weekend! Wooohoo!

Crap girl! Congrats!! That's bloody fantastic!!!! What a great trip and success!!!

Well a girl's gotta know! Did y'all meet up? Pics or it didn't happen!!!

This is such a marvelous post and success strategy!!!! Gosh I you! Hey would you come post this over on the Doing the Headwork thread. It's such actionable advice!!!! TY in advance hon!

Gosh fighting hunger is miserable. ((hugs)) And you're right on track. About this time, many of us found that our hunger and capacity really "matured" even more than it did for some of us early on--around the 3 month or so mark. Dr. Weiner talks about this phenomenon, and it's an expected outcome--even a desired one. That's why the first few months of the honeymoon are so important. If you spend those months in the belief that you don't have to begin liking new lean healthy foods and can continue your attachment to high cal/high carb/high fat comforty type of foods--just eat less of them...it's a terrible terrible awakening. And hunger will still your joy and regain does happen! Others who have check-stops in place--do wonderfully well in the old diets in moderation. Just see @sillykitty's phenomenal success!! But these people absolutely adopt different methods to controlling their energy input and exercise/activity level with great success. As @GreenTealael mentioned, it's hard to gain weight eating a ton-o-the-leafy-greens and add to that raw veg like cucumber, radish, baby carrots, celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash. Any raw veggie sans calorie dense fattening dressing work great to fill up the real estate in your hungry tummy. The chewing alone helps your gut brain access reconnect. Also adding lean protein to it such as tuna, sardines, wild salmon, grilled chicken will fill you without filling you out. Honestly, the biggest tool as Tea mentioned is IF for me. I do 16:8 or 18:6 daily. I still readily and easily hit my protein goal for the day from all sources (lean meat/seafood proteins + veggies + VERY limited nuts/dairy + egg whites/eggs) on 2 meals + a small snack. I'm still trying to lose my last pounds so I'm still keeping cals around the 600-850 mark and getting plenty of food but the IF really helps defuse and teach me about the relationship with food and how it affects my hunger. There are liquids that also help with hunger: 1. Green tea and matcha (hot or cold, either extreme works really well for diffusing hunger) 2. 100+ ounces of sugarless liquid. 3. Hot or iced decaff coffee (swiss water method) Things to drop to help curb hunger: 1. Any snacky foods (crackers, chips, salty/crunchy dippy stuff) 2. Any pasta, rice, potatoes, grains, winter squashes, tubers, high value calorie and carb dense foods 3. Any composit calorie dense foods (cheesy casseroles, gooey ethnic cuisines, pizza, lasagna, pot pies, stews) 4. Any wet proteins (things with meat lube like Salsbury steak, Swiss steak, smothered chicken/steak, stroganoff) 5. Any cheesy gooey veggie casseroles that are calorie dense (cauli mac and cheese, cheesy broccoli souffle, creamed spinach, etc) 6. Nuts and nut butters (so easy to over eat and eat preferentially for convenience. 7. Any bars, shakes, otherwise known as diet candy 8. Drop ALL forms of sugar and artificial sweeteners. Go back to basics of your forever post surgery diet: 1. Protein first (2-4oz per meal) 2. No eating/drinking 30/30 at least or 15:60 3. 1 cup food max per meal 4. Meal comp is: lean protein + al dente veggies + 1tsp healthy fats or 1oz avocado or 1/3oz nuts or 1/2oz cheese If there is room left, fill it up with salad. DO this for 2 weeks. See if it starts weight loss again and eases hunger/cravings. Once you are stable, then you can add foods 1 at a time every few days to see which ones trigger your hunger. You WILL be able to tell. Good luck!

Awesome inspired and helpful post!!! Hats off to all posters here for their great responses!!!