FluffyChix

So how many ounces of protein by weight are each of you having? Those of you eating 3 meals a day only. How do you get your protein for the day in?

Hey, do fiber crisp crackers with almond butter count as junk? Or essential necessaries?

Day 2 after fiber cracker + almond butter BTS. Happy thrones... (I should go edit, I'm down to 146.6lbs and I think you know what I mean! haha)

I take 6 of these per day (1500mg). So far so good. https://www.vitacost.com/solaray-calcium-citrate-1000-mg-240-vegcaps?q=solvay+calcium&ta=solvay+calcium

I'll try to do afters today or tomorrow and will jump in on the Feb thread with them. I LOVED this challenge. It was too fun and so motivating! Loved seeing everyone's progress and learning more about each of you. Yay team January, you crushed it!!!! Woooot!!! TY again @GreenTealael for making this possible. And wow. Loved your piccys!! I ended the month at 147.2lb thanks to the fibre cracker and psyllium and company. haha. Still up from my lowest weight but working it baby. Working back down to it. Hugs all around!

Want to double like! LOL, we need a huggy and a laughing! I feel and understand!

Thanks hon! ((hugs)) I used to be very regular (daily). Now if I don't go every other day I panic. Without details, Christmas morning was excruciating and almost led to the ER. OMG. Merry Christmas. You know?! How regular are you?

It's kinda like your name. "You Gotta Just Do It" and it helps to de-prioritize it. I can say this now, cuz I'm on the other side. I did not de-prioritize and that 2 weeks was pretty icky. But if you look at it like meh...nbd. I'll drink a shake and I'm done. Next! Let's go do something else. It would have been way easier in my honest opinion. You know?

Ahhh. I could only have a mug or two of broth...not a steady all day drink of it. I could have 2-4 protein shakes per day with 60-100g of protein. No carbs to speak of that were not part of the low carb drink.

The same as you. Stalls happen girl!

Why are you putting so much effort into drinking broth?

See? I totally get this and most of us have been where you are right now. I wanted to post this for you and others but didn't want to jack the other thread! Protein is like water. It's easy to get overwhelmed. But if you break it out so you can see what you need to do where...then suddenly it gives your power back to you?!! So you know, hey, if I basically eat 2oz of protein per meal and then have 3 snacks with 1oz of protein each, I'm on top of protein. To me at your point, 2oz of protein per meal felt totally do-able! Some of you guys will eat those 2 oz and that will be it for you. LIghts out. No more! But for me, I was able to have 2oz protein + 2oz veg (1oz of cooked veg + 1oz of avocado/grape tomato blend which is kinda sliderish for me). To this day right now, that is my protein plan for most meals. And sometimes I get to craving veg so much, that doing the 4oz of protein drink in my coffee, frees me up so that either: 1. I don't have to have 3 snacks (which is better for me--more time between meals=better weight loss) or 2. I could have a veggie snack rather than a protein snack and could have up to 1cup of some kind of raw veggie and up to 1/2c of cooked veg to get my serving in! That way I don't feel like I'm captive to my protein each day. ***** Planning before you start the day helps get an action plan together. If you do it enough it becomes routine and you will see you are repeating a lot of meals. Then planning and logging gets even easier! I still make food choices on the fly, but it's much less chance of that happening when I plan.

Welcome and just curious, what are you doing for meals right now? How much do you eat. Post a day or two of food and let us look.

Hi there. Yes, it's way easier to eat your 3 meals per day + 1 protein drink. I was making this for those whose surgical rule is only protein from food rather than a supplement. Or for those who don't know how to plan. And for those who have become intolerant of using protein supplements. Glad you've got things worked out. Even though it's boring, we honestly don't "need" any carbs. Our body can make all it needs for our brain and portions of our kidney to function...but yeah, I know, sometimes you just want a veg. For me, that's why I DO continue to use protein supplements in my coffee (about 2-4oz per day is enough to free up some real estate on my plate for veg. I currently try to stick to: 2oz dense protein + 1-2oz veg + up to 1/2-1tsp of fat per meal. I aim to get 600-800cals per day and between 60-70g protein in and around 35g-ish grams of fat each day. I'm almost to 1 year post op.

Joe is HIS name or the plant's name?

I read a lot on here about people having so much restriction that it's still difficult to satisfy your protein requirements each day. Quite a few are lactose intolerant so it's not as simple as eating a protein bar or drinking a protein shake. Others are so sick of protein shakes that they're ready to do dire things! And still others have a lack of appetite (thank you surgery for doing your job--embrace it). But bottom line we ALL have personal responsibility to hack our own bad selves and figure out how to do what our surgeon and RD want us to do! I thought it might help to see just what it would take in a world where you are limited to 1/2c-1c of food per meal by volume (about 2-4oz by weight) in a day. Whenever I meal plan, I start with the basics of things I'm either hungry for, or know are lean/dense protein. I don't try to get tricky. I keep those kinds of cheesy gooey meals for treats and feast days...not every day. So here's how I figure out how to plan my protein to get between 60-70g per day--if I'm trying NOT to use any kind of protein drink/protein cracker or sweet/protein supplement, etc. RULE #1 Log your protein. Begin with only 3 meals: B/L/D and see where you fall. As you can see, in 3 meals I'm getting 51g of protein from lean protein sources alone! Wow! Cool! 51g will do in a pinch, but it's still too low for everyday figures. Looks like we're gonna need some snacks! Ok, let's do it! Breakfast: Microwave Egg Puff (no extra fat needed cuz it's cooked in a glass bowl in the microwave) Lunch: Turkey and Cheese Rollup (no extra fat needed cuz it's in the turkey and cheese) Dinner: Grilled Chicken (add up to 1 tsp of olive oil to cook the chicken with spices) RULE #2 Add 2 Snacks to Your Day and Assess How Much Protein You Still Need. It makes the most sense to add a Midmorning Snack and an Afternoon Snack, but suppose you aren't hungry in the afternoon after your lunch? Well, I like going to bed on a satisfied tummy, so I'm inclined to add a Midmorning and a Bedtime Snack first just to see where we are with Protein Requirements! Here's the protein plan for the day with 2 snacks added into the mix. If you do nothing more than this, most of us will get by with protein until we're able to eat 3oz of protein at a meal. But, it's still kinda low so let's add 1 more Snack! RULE #3 If Protein Is Still on the Low End, Add 1 More Snack!!! If I need to add a snack #3 to the mix, I want it to be easy, low/no cook, maybe more sliderish in nature and be a little more less like a protein chore. So let's make it lactose free fun!?! And voila, for very little effort I'm smack where I need to be to get my daily protein in while only eating about 2oz of protein per meal by WEIGHT and around 1 ounce of protein by WEIGHT per snack. That's about 1/2c of protein by VOLUME per meal and about 1/4c of protein by VOLUME per snack. That assumes you will eat about every 3 hours. Now it's time to add your veggies! RULE #4 You've satisfied your protein, now let's go add those veggies to flesh out our meal! Most of you will be able to eat between 1-2oz of veggies by WEIGHT per meal. So let's start there! That's between 1/8-1/2cup of veggies by VOLUME depending on the density of the veggie and how firmly you chop or pack them into your measuring cup. Here's your immediate "requirements" for protein and veg/fruit: RULE #5. Now let's make it taste good!!! Let's add our fats in although we already have some fats in the form of avocado, and nuts/nut butters, plus the fat in our proteins. So here's the full day! And it's filled with nutrient dense filling foods that taste satisfying and don't add a bunch of extra calories into the mixture! Hope that helps you. The key is to break your day down and systematically look at what you need each meal to get you to the finish line. That way you don't end up at the end of the day and you have only gotten 20g of protein into your piehole! This type of planning takes me about 5 minutes every day to sit down either then night before or the next morning and fill it out. I might deviate from plan, sure, but at least you know where you are in the ballpark in case you need to make adjustments in order to meet your protein needs and keep calories in line with your other macro goals!! (By the way, if you AREN'T lactose intolerant, you save a lot of carbs by using regular Greek yogurt and if you are lactose intolerant, sub out the string cheese for a hard boiled egg or an ounce of lunch meat! How do you plan your day so you get protein in?

Oh gosh a subject near and dear to my rear! Hugs to you sweetie. It's no fun. Like Rosemary's Baby kind of no fun!!! Sorry to hear you are also suffering from "occasional irregularity" *snort*!!! So for me (we're all diff), I don't know much diff in when I take something (morning or bedtime) other than MOM, I pretty much time it for 12 hours from ingestion. And Dulcolax may be like that for you? You will just have to wait and see. My daily protocol now (and it's still spotty at best -- like every 2-3 days--but at least they aren't painful deliveries) is: 17g Miralax in coffee 3 Colace (docusate sodium) 11g Whole Psyllium Husks (NOW brand), dose split in half in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I dissolve it in Celestial Seasonings Cinnamon Apple Spice Tea with a squirt of liquid vanilla stevia. Stir and drink. Then follow with a bottle of water. 1/2c of Greek yogurt with live cultures I also try to get in as many greens as my tum has time to process. 100+ oz of liquid each day Then about every 10 days to 2 weeks, I end up needing either MOM or a glycerin suppository. The goal would be to stop the use of MOM/supps and be able to ween off of Miralax. But dunno if that's ever gonna be possible. Hope it gets better for you and that some of this protocol works for you!

I second the idea of whey protein isolate (lactose free) over vegan proteins! I'm not a big fan of soy in any form cuz of the implications of it and flax with hormone positive bc!

This isn't an ideal situation cuz the protein is too low for the calories. But it is a smoothie that is fairly healthy if higher carb. It's a peanut butter banana and blueberry green smoothie and it tastes so much like a milk shake! You can add ice to it, decrease the soy milk to around a 1/2 cup (or whatevs). Lactaid, Mootopia, and Fairlife all have lactose free milk. Also trying whey protein isolate rather than say Premier Protein which is a blend of concentrate and isolate, might be friendlier. I use Isopure bananas and cream for my smoothies. LURVE!!! Think you can get it at GNC! I use Vitacost Peanut Butter powder but you can use PB2. If you don't like banana flavor and want to cut carbs you can sub avocado for the banana and you can freeze the avo to make it more milkshakey.

January 30th Goal Update: CW: 148.4lbs Incrementally going down--but still 4lbs up from my lowest weight this month. Grrrrrr! Drat you, Lex Luther!! Protein Water Vitamins Logging Faithfully Check plus on all of the above here Staying within Calorie Goals (mostly) Exercising as planned (needs improvement) Keeping up with the challenge reporting reqs, needs BIG improvement! LOL. Sorry but I'm not a selfy/photojournal kinda girl. Mainly cuz it's labor intensive to send the files from my phone to desktop--then I feel compelled to correct the lighting and increase sharpness in PSD, then upload. Gah. Ain't nobody got time for those shenanigans. LOL. I want to participate next month as much as possible. TY so much to @GreenTealael for hostessing this challenge and for keeping us uplifted and engaged! This challenge really helped me refocus!!!! MUAH!

@AEdoesRnY I'm sorry to hear of your separation, but saying prayers that this change brings you peace, joy, and happiness. ((hugs)) @GreenTealael So I think you should cut yourself some slack, cuz what I see is that you're doing what we ALL do when we don't feel motivated to be Betty Crocker. We figure out quick solutions for meals. In the old days, that involved a comforty aspect and may have been fueled by drive-thru and rich take-out or even healthy take-out with big portions. That was our quick solution to unmotivated. Now your solution is that you've found easy and simple meals that still comfort you, taste great, provide really solid nutrition--and bam! You're done! So what that it's healthy. Right? So what that it looks different from other peoples' definition of a quick takeout comfort meal? I think you've evolved and found a great solution to the food doldrums. You know?

Ok, well I'm gonna try your protocol! Hell you're already winning me over to dark side: match yogurt bowls and I've been considering adding kale salads...and thinking of beans. *snort*

I don't think people who have no food/weight issues can possibly understand what our heads are like as a result of battling obesity. Nor do most understand that even with surgery, there is no "cure"--we will always be at risk for our metabolic disease to escape remission and become active again. Weight regain is real. We have to be vigilant about it. Maybe even rigid? My sis asked if I was gonna forever be obsessed with weighing and measuring every morsel I put in my mouth and writing it down or if I will eventually be able to relax a little. She doesn't understand my drive to get to 140lbs either. She keeps saying that I look fabulous and don't need to lose more. *sigh* I think (and yes, I too had food rules pre-surg, my whole life really) it's OK, to be us. And if we look rigid to people who don't understand, that is their problem, or we can choose to educate them--which is a PIA for the most part.

Hmmm, maybe I will try that? I have some GG brancrisps and almond butter here. I'm ok with 1tbsp of AB, but I ate 2tbsp yesterday and I just don't handle that much at one time very well. If the earth doesn't move today (day 2), I'm gonna hit it with some smooth move tea for the win! And try the snack tonight. Hey so how often do you use the tea? Do you think/feel you are becoming dependent on it?

Ok, well then try this one! Do you have liquid stevia there? Or some kind of sf sweetener? Cuz if so, squeeze a wedge of lemon into the matcha and sweeten as desired. Stir. Heaven! And you actually build a preference for that grassy taste. At first I was like alll,,,,,"""whhhhhuuuhhh?" and now I'm all...WOW...matcha...mmmmmm! Yeah, I was reading that too...that maybe it's just my new normal, or maybe the ECGC was making bgs go low. And that the hunger was part of the lows. Dunno. But first step is taking out the added supplements to see where I land. I did inadvertently do a 20hour fast from yesterday at 2pm to today around 10:30ish. I'll test my bgs before eating. I was famished and just shoved down some almond butter, pork rinds and a biltong (beef jerky stick) after having had lunch (sardines and salad) 2 hours earlier. And then I started feeling bad as I usually do after nut butter...so laid down, napped, and wasn't hungry last night. So I just had black coffee from 2pm on. I still met my protein goal yesterday. Last night my bg was 68.