Naughty Glitter Goddess

Top weight loss tip: have a DETAILED backup plan

I tend to be an organized planner but I'm either all or nothing. That means most the time my plan is followed to the letter but when my plan falls apart it falls all the way apart. In my past weight loss endeavors this led me to get my diet completely off track if things didn't go according to plan.

My saving grace is a backup plan, a list on my Google Drive that I can access from my computer or phone any time. It has healthy Snacks I could pick up from a gas station or grocery store. Drive-through options, restaurants for going out or picking up takeout. I include menu option because I can't be trusted to make good decisions in the moment. I rely on this more often than I thought I would.

This is probably going to be it for me today unless I have a Protein Drink later. Got some stomach flu situation happening...

coffee, fairlife milk and GENEPRO with sugar free toriani: brown sugar cinnamon flavor

Stir fry with chicken, veggies, garlic, ginger, peanut sauce

I'm doing about 50/50 on my January goals. My food choices have been either great or crappy. I did OK with weight loss this month and now have hit a short plateau. I think I'm not getting enough calories in now that I'm working out harder. This was a problem a couple of months ago and increasing my calories helped. That's when I started letting some not great foods back into my diet and I gave myself the excuse that I needed the extra calories and I was still losing weight. Problem is that they mess with my head. So the last few days I've focused on cleaning up my diet instead of worrying about IF. I discovered that I can eat scrambled eggs again if I have it in the evening. I still get all foamed up even if I eat them slowly in the mornings. Wtf?

Anyway, I think I'm on a good track now that I eat either some greek yogurt with toasted nuts or part of a scrambled egg with salsa on it as an evening snack. No other choices - if I'm not interested in eating one of those things then I don't really need anything. We shall see! Hoping for some more progress on the scale but putting together before/after pics helped me not feel so blah about my progress

#Transformation Tuesday

Hi! Bear with me while I catch up over the last couple of days...

My biggest NSV so far is something I just realized the other day and it's eating in public again.

I didn't realize how much I was avoiding socializing because I was uncomfortable in restaurants. Meeting someone was always stressful. Besides the self esteem issues, there were always so many barriers. Will this chair hold my weight? Will I fit in this booth? Are people watching me eat? I'd always catch someone looking at me with a disgusted look so I focused on never making eye contact with anyone. Not great for quality of life.

Sometime within the last month, I started eating in restaurants again on my own. I choose a new place to try, scope out the menu ahead of time for something healthy and then thoroughly enjoy a small fraction of it while staring at my phone like a normal person! Yay!

I have used that tea plenty in the past but only twice since surgery. I wouldn't do it more than once every 24h. After the tea, if things aren't moving along, I take a stool softener. If things still aren't moving along and are very uncomfortable, I do MOM.

The senna in the tea can be every bit as potent as the medication. I don't think doubling up will make it work faster but it will increase the cramping. Hope everything comes out OK! *wink*

How I Eat Now? CHEAP!

I magically turn every meal into four. I skip the noodles and rice! I drink Protein every morning and I stay out of the kid snacks!

#StopDropChug

I put a dot on my bottle every time I fill it. Whoever fills it up gets to put the dot so obvs, my kids argue over whose turn it is to fill it so they can put the dot. Then they "encourage" me to hurry up and drink faster. 🙄 Goal is 5/day!

I see some nice recipes in here, yay!!! Here's mine:

Cheesy chicken Fritters
makes about 15

Mix all this stuff together:
3 large chicken breasts or 6 boneless skinless thighs, diced into tiny pieces
2 eggs
1/3 c mayo
1/3 c almond flour
4oz shredded mozzarella
2T chopped fresh dill
Salt & pepper
Let marinate overnight

Heat oil in a pan and pan fry for 4 min per side til chicken is completely cooked. Blot with paper towel and serve with aoli.

Aoli: mayo, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, fresh dill

Side salad: greens with olive oil, lemon juice parmesan

15 hours ago, Lovemickeymouse said:

I'm jumping in late so I need to play catch-up. 13 months post-op. Highest weight 276. BW Jan 2 is 220. January goal lose 10 pounds. I really want to lose 50 pounds by Feb 2019 (my 50th birthday). I plan on rewarding myself with an awesome trip. That is my motivation. Week 1 I got down to 217.2. Fitness plan is to go to the gym every morning. So far so good.

Here is my beginning pic and fridge pic.

Love the goals and that is an adorable dress

19 hours ago, mousecat88 said:

Going go try my first real goal tomorrow for Breakfast and make a low carb Breakfast taco! REAL FOOD! Psyched!

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using BariatricPal mobile app

Ooo, lets see pics of that thing. I love tacos

food prep is the #1 thing keeping me on track. If I literally do nothing else, this one thing keeps my eating on track. Whole family gets in the game. Kids food prep their after school Snacks because they want to be up in my business when my husband and I are cooking and rocking out to music on sundays. ❤️ Also, then I don't have to dig my hand into their boxes of crackers and be tempted.

Get yourself a good home team and you'll be set!

(Also, I'm 9 lbs away from losing my first 100lbs!!! Might hit it this month *squeal*)

3 hours ago, Healthy_life said:

#9 How I'm Keeping on plan:

Some fear of weight gain keeps me on plan. I gain quickly and it's slow to come off. I log, exercise, keep motivational things on my fridge, set goals, and this challenge is helping. Thanks @GreenTealael

Don't judge. Three months until Vegas. I'm going to see my sister in law on this vacation. At the beginning of my weight loss, she said to me " you know your just going to gain your weight back." 🙄 Anger is a great motivator to stay on plan. I hope to be in the low 130's for Mt Charleston.

Ooo, I can relate to anger as a motivator. Crush her!

TACO BOWL
2oz mixture of: lean ground beef, sprinkle of pinto Beans, onion, bell pepper, olives, cumin, coriander, new Mexico chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder

Topped with 1oz lowfat cheddar, lettuce/cabbage/cilantro, sour cream, salsa, lime juice and waaay too much avocado cause thats how I roll.

Ate about 3/4 forgot after pic.

I don't have as much time under my belt as the others but in my personal experience, what you are eating seems to be much more important than the calorie content of such foods. 800 calories of carbs a day is gonna be crap (not to mention it's not very much food) But 800 calories of lean Protein is a world of difference.

As for me, I'm not just trying to be skinny, I'm trying to be fit and healthy. Dietary recommendations and research change so much over time as we learn more about how our bodies work. I have no doubt that calorie restricting yourself long term is more likely to keep you thin than not counting calories. But I'm not convinced that it correlates directly with how healthy and fit one might be.

I want to strong, have ripped abs and arms and be able to try new sports without fear. That will require a strong, muscular body which is just not gonna happen on 800 cal/day. This is what they mean when they say everyone's journey is individual. People have to find a support team that understands their goals and gives advice specific to reaching it. He should not be running a support group if he doesn't get that.

I know you already know all these things but I would have had to hold myself back from lecturing that dude! In these situations, I tend to drink lots Water in order to keep my big mouth shut. At least I'm hydrated and irritated!

<end rant>

Excited and nervous at the same time is very normal! I found the pre-op diet to be pretty difficult as well especially since I was still cooking for the kids. All I thought about was food, too. Of course, obsessing over food was not a new problem for me 😕 Good for you for sticking with it!

Your life is still going to revolve around food after surgery, it will just be in a different way. It took me a while to break my compulsive eating habits and it takes a lot of time and help to retrain your brain. Now, my life revolves around food in a healthier way: making sure I'm getting enough Protein, trying new recipes, checking my macros and looking at the food porn over on the "Food Before and After Photos" thread on this site!

I'm glad you're here. Being part of this community whether you're lurking or posting really helps.

I was nervous about going under anesthesia but very ready to get the surgery. Absolutely no regrets! Best thing I ever did for myself. I feel like a new person 89 lbs down, 86 lbs to go. And I'm less stressed than I've ever been about being successful and staying that way.

I second the pinterest idea! I really craved salty food by the time I progressed to full liquids. I was tired of sweet Protein Drinks. I relied pretty heavily on blended Soups for this stage but watch out - some things are really gross blended up. A particularly nasty minestrone comes to mind.

The absolute best soups to blend are Vietnamese pho (minus the noodles - I also removed the meat initially); japanese ramen (remove the noodles) and miso Soup. I think they work so well because they are clear broth soups with a touch of meat, tofu and veggies. I found heavier broth soups containing Beans, etc. to be less appetizing when blended. Whatever you do, don't blend any soups with the Pasta in it unless you're into meat pudding 😖 In a pinch, you could make any of these on your own but I really loved getting my favorite soups as takeout, blending them and then freezing in a silicone mini muffin pan. I popped them out in labeled baggies and just popped them into the microwave one at a time as needed. Then, I could eat 3 or 4 different soups a day without wasting any.

If you can tolerate adding some unflavored Protein Powder to it as well it's even more nutritious.

There are also tons of easy full liquids that are sweet like sugar free yogurt, pudding, Jello, etc.

I would also recommend checking out the "Food Before and After Photos" thread if you haven't already. I has a ton of meal ideas and gives you a great visual on what people are eating and how much on their successful journeys. It has helped me a lot!

Really appreciate the recommendation! I'm on it!

It must vary because I did not have any bags or tubes anywhere unless you count the IV. The pre-op waiting period is prime time for all your fears and paranoia to come to the surface. I was a nervous wreck and the folks here were so kind, understanding and encouraging. I'm a planner, so I spent a ton of time combing through the boards trying to learn everything I could ahead of time. The great news is that this surgery is life changing in a really positive way. I hope you do really well and heal quickly. Keep us posted on your surgery date. Good luck!

Congrats on your surgery! I'm sorry you're feeling crappy - those first few days can be really rough. You're doing the right thing by reaching out to your team for help with the nausea. I've always been really sensitive to anesthesia and I am so nauseous for days afterwards while it all works its way out of my system. You already know that you need to focus on liquids so if your new nausea meds aren't helping, you just get right back on that phone. Your team is there to help you and they want you to be successful, too.

While there's nothing we can do from here to help you nausea we can totally empathize with how much it sucks! I hope you heal quickly and feel better very, very soon.

I would be shocked if a weight gain of 2lb caused and issue with proceeding with surgery. I mean, I have some winter boots that weigh much more than that! I'm not sure about your surgeon's policies by at my office, generally, the insurance company would only decline to cover if you had a large weight loss with lifestyle changes and they determined it was no longer medically necessary. However, the policy for my surgeon, was that you needed to have a small weight loss, and no large gains in the 6 mo leading up to surgery to ensure you were willing to participate in making the changes to help surgery be successful. 2lbs would not have been a factor for either of those situations.

Not sure about the cutoff weights, but one man in my group lost 70 lbs prior to surgery and his insurance still covered it.

Another woman gained 20 lbs during the pre-op program but then lost 5 in the month before surgery - she still got to move forward as well.

You can do this! And I don't think you need to take any extreme actions over the 2 lbs. Just work your plan consistently and you'll do well. Good practice for post op, too!

We're all rooting for you!

Congrats on your surgery! This is pretty much exactly how I felt when I first started on foods and I didn't get off of purees until 4 weeks after surgery. It just felt like the food went down my esophagus then stopped instead of going down into my stomach pouch. Sometimes I couldn't even sit - I had to stand. When it was bad, I even had to take off my bra. Forget even thinking about lying down. I think that tightness is from the swelling which takes a long while to calm down and heal. I figured out pretty quickly what did not agree with me and then I just avoided those things. I had a tricky couple of weeks where so many foods had made me ill that I didn't want anything to do with them, but the foods that agreed with me I was so tired of they made me nauseous. Like mouth-watering, gagging nausea. But, thanks to the folks here, I just kept going. Skip the turkey chili - just leave it behind for now and try it again in a week. Move to the next food you want to try and you will find something that will work. Try tiny bites with a baby spoon spaced out by 5 min (set a timer!) Takes forever but you'll likely feel so much better. Don't worry too much - you are going to be feeling so much better in no time! You can do it!

37 minutes ago, sandygs said:

Sleevers I feel ashamed of myself. I am 4 months out and I can eat a whole grilled cheese! I mentioned to the nutritionist that I had ate a grilled cheese, she was like, "You can't eat the whole thing can you?" Oh Yes I can, does this mean I have stretched my pouch? I'm so scared now.

That sounds like a slider food situation to me. I can easily eat cheese especially if it's melted and the only bread product that doesn't give me trouble is toast. I'm 5 mo out from my bypass and was pretty naughty over the holidays. I was surprised at how much food I could eat at once. But only junk food. Once I got myself back on track and started managing my mealtimes and Snacks better, the restriction is definitely still there.

Don't beat yourself up over your food choices - we have all been there! Get that Protein in - it's definitely helping me. Good luck on your journey!