Tiffykins

I'll be keeping you in my thoughts ! ! ! Be safe in your travels, and we've all scootched over for y'all on the loser's bench. . .

My husband is trying to convince me to allow him to purchase the WVU recliner for his "future" man room. I've forbidden it for 3 years now because that thing would go with us on every new assignment over the next 10-15 years. Once he retires, he can have his "man room" and his WVU recliner. We went to the backyard brawl last Thanksgiving when we were there visiting his folks.

Here's more: Slow-Cooked Oriental chicken Recipe - Allrecipes.com Extra virgin olive oil for all browning on the stovetop. I never use veggie oil. I use the EVOO with Canola oil also. Grill these on the Foreman grill 7-10 minutes Marinade for Chicken Recipe - Allrecipes.com EVOO for all marinades as well Turkey pepperoni and reduced fat cheese cut the fat way down on this one. Pepperoni Dip I Recipe - Allrecipes.com I've actually spread this over chicken and popped it in the oven until it's kind of melty. YUM you could also eat it on veggies if you are cleared for veggies. April's Roasted Red Pepper Cheese Ball Recipe - Allrecipes.com Reduced fat everything again Chicken (boneless/skinless) 2 breast halves 1 gallon storage ziploc baggie 1/3 bottle of Zesty Italian dressing. Place everything in baggie, allow to marinade overnight in fridge or minimum of 4 hours. Grill on Foreman grill. I cut the breasts into tender size strips for even cooking. 2 chicken breasts halves (pounded to 1/4 inch thickness) 1 8oz package of reduced fat cream cheese softened (I prefer the garden veggie flavor, but plain works also) 3Tbsp of pimentos drained and chopped finely 2Tbsp roasted red peppers drained and chopped finely 1 10oz frozen Spinach (thawed and drained of all fluid) you're only going to use half in the recipe. cook the other half and serve as a side dish :thumbup: Mix all ingredients (except chicken) together in mixing bowl. Lay chicken breast on parchment paper Spoon mixture on half of the chicken breast starting at the widest end. Roll chicken and secure ends with toothpick Bake in Preheated oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes on the parchment paper because the cheese mixture gets a little messy and oozy. Remove from oven, melt a small amount of margarine (I use brummel brown, or Best Life or Smart Balance) in the microwave, pour small amount over each breast, sprinkle with reduced fat parmesan or asiago shredded cheese. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes until chicken juices run clear. Chicken In Sour Cream Recipe - Allrecipes.com I crock pot this one and sub greek yogurt for the sour cream. Cook on high for 3-4hours, low for 6-8 hours. I skip the gravy and carrots on this one. Use ground chicken, and add lots of garlic, onion, and cayenne pepper. I add 1/2-3/4 of greek yogurt to the mixture after I add everything in to replace the smoothness of the gravy. Beefy Potato Volcano Recipe - Allrecipes.com Always, non-fat plain flavor greek yogurt, oh and we eat this with noodles, and not potatoes. Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff II Recipe - Allrecipes.com Asian Beef Skewers Recipe - Allrecipes.com Broccoli Hamburger Casserole Recipe - Allrecipes.com Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak Recipe - Allrecipes.com Pork rinds for the binders Also, always read the reviews so you can tweak things to your liking. Broccoli Chicken Divan Recipe - Allrecipes.com This sounded so disgusting, but it was a huge hit for the mister and my son. I loved it as well, and tweaked it like crazy. I also only used 1 thing of corn bread. Barbeque Beef Casserole Recipe - Allrecipes.com Teriyaki and pineapple Chicken Recipe - Allrecipes.com Spaghetti Squash Dip Recipe - Allrecipes.com Beef Tips and Noodles Recipe - Allrecipes.com Sweet and Spicy Chicken Satay Recipe - Allrecipes.com I make several variations of Salisbury steak, and my recipe that I tweaked is on the recipe forum here. Okay so those are the ones that I think will be good for y'all to get started. I have more and will keep digging through my other favorites sites to find more recipes.

Barbque beef (sub splenda, truvia, or use a low sugar barbque sauce in place of the ketchup, sugar, leave everything else the same) you'll cut carbs and sugar if you do this Barbecued Beef Recipe - Allrecipes.com For anything that calls for bread crumbs, substitute pork rinds. I didn't have fat guidelines and fat is essential in our diets. I didn't eat huge amounts of fats because the portion I ate were so small. These are fabulous, and freeze well: Meatball Nirvana Recipe - Allrecipes.com Get all reduced fat stuff for this one, I use Miracle whip instead of mayo for all my stuff just because we don't eat Mayo in this house. Crab Stuffed Flounder Recipe - Allrecipes.com That one above is by far my favorite fish dish I make I follow the directions except I make the paste, then throw frozen chicken breast (always boneless/skinless) into the crock pot, make a simple broth just enough to cover the breasts, and then mix in the paste. Cook on low for 5 hours or on high for 2-3 until chicken shreds easily. Chicken Curry I Recipe - Allrecipes.com Little high on the carbs, but you can cut the honey to half and add some splenda. Caramelized Baked Chicken Recipe - Allrecipes.com I cut the corn completely. Quinoa and Black Beans Recipe - Allrecipes.com Use all fat free, or reduced fat cheese to cut the fat Chicken Cordon Bleu I Recipe - Allrecipes.com Seriously, delicious meatballs, freezes well also. Cocktail Meatballs Recipe - Allrecipes.com Cut the crescent rolls and it's pretty much a quiche Egg and Sausage Casserole Recipe - Allrecipes.com Oh sinfully yummy Outrageous Warm Chicken Nacho Dip Recipe - Allrecipes.com Beef Spinach Hot Dish Recipe - Allrecipes.com Frozen Spinach is always in my freezer as well. Tex Mex Black Bean Dip Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Greek yogurt in place of anything that calls for sour cream to cut carbs and fat. All the cream of Soups are offered in 98% reduced fat/sodium, I use these often. I've posted several recipes in the recipe forum here as well. All you have to do is get creative, and really break down a recipe. If it calls for ground beef, substitute ground turkey or chicken. I prefer ground chicken, and some deli counters in supermarkets will ground boneless/skinless chicken breasts or thighs for free if you ask. I do eat a lot of beef if we do not have venison. We only get venison occasionally because my husband hasn't gone hunting in years. But, we do get it (typically from his family), I live on venison because it is so lean. You can buy bison/buffalo. To me, it's a bit sweeter than beef, but it is the leanest of all red meats. It's expensive, but it's worth it. I do eat Pasta, rice, potatoes at this point, but for any of these recipes, just make the meat portion, and decrease the broths by 1/4 to 1/3 of what the recipe calls for due to not having the starches or grains. Staples that I have on hand at all times. Marinades Lawry's Steak and Chop marinade Lawry's Carribean jerk marinade Bottles and bottles of zesty italian dressings Lime juice Lemon Juice Dijon Mustard Soy sauce Worchestershire sauce Roasted red peppers (in oil) Sun dried tomatoes (in oil and the dry variety) Minced garlic (the prepared kind in the jars, I buy mine at Wal-Mart, and it's a huge plastic bottle) Onion powder Chili Powder Cayenne Powder Yellow and Red curry Garlic powder White/Black pepper Celery salt Sage Italian seasoning (thyme, basil, oregano all in one) Seasoned Salt Packet Seasoning Fajita seasoning Burrito seasoning Taco Seasoning Pot roast packet (if you don't want to add your own seasonings) Dry onion Soup mix (the mushroom onion and beefy onion are fabulous) Cream of Mushroom, Celery, Onion, Broccoli, Asparagus, Chicken and Celery(are all the ones you'll find in my pantry all the time) French Onion condensed soup Beef consomme (right by the french onion soup) Broccoli cheddar condensed soup Shredded cheese, I use the Sargento reduced fat varieties or Helluva good brand which is low fat I do use canned crab meat to make crab cakes Frozen salmon, flounder, tilapia filet steaks Frozen veggies: Broccoli florets Green Beans Peas Black eyed peas Dry beans: Pinto Black eyed peas Dreamfield pasta (low glycemic index, low carb) Quinoa can be substituted for rice Barbque sauce and teriyaki sauce (the thick stuff not the marinade) Meats: Small chuck roasts Boneless skinless chicken breast Ground beef, turkey and chicken Boneless round bottom steaks Beef ribs beef tenderloin Chicken wing drummettes (I buy the frozen ones) Oh yeah, and I buy the chicken, beef, veggie bouillion cubes to make my own broth. Okay, now that y'all know my grocery list, I'll make another post for recipes. Edit to add: Lemon Pepper, Garlic Pepper, Paprika, Cumin, Cajun and Creole seasoning. Old Bay for seafood, Tony Cachere's for creole and cajun. Also, I have a "meat injector" that I use to marinade all my meats. It's fabulous and guarantees moist, soft meats especially on the George Foreman.

I had the band, and just to let you know it's like night and day vs. the sleeve. Yes, immediately after surgery pretty much sucks, but hey, we're protecting our staple line so we have to suck it up and deal with it. I assure you I absolutely do not miss any particular foods because I'm able to eat anything I want. I have an active social life which the band pretty much destroyed. I take Prilosec 20mg once daily, and have zero reflux issues. I didn't have it before the sleeve, got a twinge of it about 6 weeks post-op, and been on Prilosec since. Technically, I could wean off of it, but my thought process is "don't fix something that isn't broken." With the sleeve, you can be skinny and amazingly happy ! ! ! I promise, I'm living proof of it. For me, being fat brought more misery than I ever realized. I know now what it's like to walk 5-8 miles and not think twice about it. I can now roll around on the floor with my dogs, husband and kid, and not worry about having to "waddle" my way back up. I can fit into normal clothing, and not have to buy bra extenders, anklet extenders, bracelets that are 9" long, and not to mention the co-morbidities that would have at some point taken over my life. I know many obese people in my family that take 4-10 meds per day just so their bodies will function somewhat properly because of their obesity related diseases or conditions that have no cure other than losing weight. So, I had to weight the options: 1) Lose my part of my stomach BUT lose weight and regain back a part of my life 2) Stay fat, pop pills, and pray I get to see my child marry, have children of his own, and maybe enjoy grandchildren without obesity holding me back. I also read someone compare VSG to divorcing an abusive partner. It's so true ! ! ! I feel like I kicked a horrid partner out of my life and all it did was allow me to overeat, eat craptastic food, and control my life. I have the control now, and I'm loving life.

In my opinion, you are recovering from a major surgery. I'm all about walking, but let's be really honest, our bodies need rest just as much as it needs movement to recover fully. Walk every hour, carry a Water bottle with you, and then rest. I walked up and down my hallway, and dusted my house when I wanted to get up and move around a bit. Walking is so boring, and having a dust towel, and some Pledge in hand helped.

Not silly at all ! ! ! I sipped room temperature pickle juice ha ha ha

I love my George Foreman 360 grill and crock pot. If you'd like, I can toss some of my tried and true recipes with the tweaks that I've made to increase the Protein, cut the fat, and carbs. I just don't want to inundate you with stuff that you may not be interested in eating. Also, if you'd like me to share let me know if anything is an absolute "no go". Certain flavors, or any specific type of food. For example, if you don't like Asian food, or if you don't like mushrooms etc etc. I can definitely help you out. For me, the George Foreman grill makes chicken perfectly moist, and I am able to eat it more comfortable than I am baked, pan seared, or from an outdoor grill.

After all of my complications, additional hospitalization, and extended recovery (3+ months), I would do it all over again to be living the life I have. I've never once regretted my surgery, I've never thought that my quality of life was "poor". Now with the band, life sucked, and I will be honest about that without hesitation. With the sleeve, life is pretty amazing. I live very effortlessly, and with great ease. Once you are regular food, and more active, the post-op diet, and liquid diet are a distant memory. You can read back to some of my old posts from last July and August and believe me my recovery typically scares the heebies out of people, but I survived, and living a very fulfilling, normal life. Some days I completely forget that I even had surgery.

My program pulls labs at 3,6,9, and 12 months for the first year, and then every 6 months for the next 2-3 years. After the 4th year, it's annually. My labs are a full metabolic profile it's either a Chem 12 or 20 (I can't remember, and I don't want to dig through my records right now) This includes cholesterol, glucose, liver, kidney, pancreas and other enzymes. CBC with a diff T3, T4, TSH (thyroid panel) Vitamin B, B12, A, D and D3 Calcium (I also have a bone scan every 2 years but it's not related to my sleeve) Folic Acid Copper, Selenium and Zinc ( I asked that these be pulled) My surgeon likes to either scope or do an upper gi around a year out. I was scoped at 8 months when I had my gallbladder removed, and declined the upper gi because the radiology guy on base was being a douchebag and expected me to suck down 64oz of Fluid in less than 30 minutes, and I laughed at him. I told my surgeon that I'd do it off-base through my PCP, but I wasn't going to tolerate a little punk try to scold me for not being able to drink that horrible stuff that fast.

I'm so very sorry. I'll keep you in my thoughts. As a side, my husband is from WV, down near Charleston. We love the Huntington area ! ! ! I'll pray they do perform the sleeve.

Fabulous post ! ! ! Hey, and just to let you know I share your passion for cooking, and seeking that wonderful recipe. You know what I did to suffice that "need" or "desire"? I found fabulous recipes, and tweaked them to be more Protein based, less fat, and less carby. It's been amazing to see my family sing my praises about my food again without being upset that it's ground turkey LOL. I literally have 11 recipe apps on my IPhone. Yes, I'm obsessed, but it keeps my mind occupied, and it feels amazing to convert that recipe over to a more nutritious meal.

You could probably get a referral out. I know that Lackland performs the sleeve in San Antonio. I have an army friend that came down here to our base to get the sleeve. It worked for her because she could not have RNY or the band due to a connective tissue issue. No harm in trying.

If you can find another MTF within 100 miles of you that the surgeons have more experience, check and see if you can get a referral there if you aren't comfortable with the experience of the surgeons.

AWESOME :001_tt2: 25lbs already is fabulous ! ! !

I love this post, and don't know how I missed it. I remember hearing Kathy Griffin explaining the Dorothy thing on one of her stand up routines. Ohhh how I love her. Best wishes with your surgery Will, I'm sure you'll do fabulous regardless of the surgeon choice.

That's so awesome, and I'm so glad you've been approved. You're going to do awesome. . .

Being low in potassium and sodium can cause leg cramping. I ended up drinking regular gatorade or Powerade once a week or so for the extra electrolytes. I did drink the splenda-sweetened Gatorade G2 as well. I was trying to get my weight loss to slow way down so the regular gatorade didn't hurt.

Anything that can be blended was allowed on my mushy/puree/soft solid stage. I stuck with refried Beans with greek yogurt, cheeses, greek yogurt, chili, deli meat with cream cheese rolled up, mashed potatoes, soft cooked veggies, applesauce was allowed on my list, and chicken, tuna and egg salads were all my staples.

So, when my husband retires, we've been told we'd receive the Tricare for Life program and it's completely different and regulated differently than the current coverage he obviously has. I haven't been down the road of seeing approval for veterans with civilians, but am interested in the process. If you care to share, please let us know how all of it goes. I'll be interested to see if they approve the sleeve on the outside because with the few Tricare prime friends I have that had pre-approval, jumped through all the hoops, supervised diet, lab work, nutritional consult, psych eval, pre-surgery consults, all with civilians, then once the authorization was submitted, it was all denied because it's not an approved procedure for Tricare at this time. Best wishes, and keep us posted on your progress.

I researched gastrectomies for other medical conditions such as stomach cancer, and ulcerative conditions. It's amazing that gastrectomies have been performed for decades upon decades, and when you analyze the data on those patients, there is little to zero long term complications. There are even people that live normal, fully functioning lives without a stomach. I might have done this for weight loss, but there are long term studies, information, and data out on gastrectomies. I take a sublingual b12 instead of doing the injections, and my labs are pulled every 6 months for a minimum of the first 3 years. In almost 14 months, I've never been close to deficient and I dropped over 140lbs in less than 10 months with the sleeve. It only took 8 months for the band to destroy my stomach tissue. Was it in part because my band surgeon was a douchebag? Yes, but before it could be taken out and revised to the sleeve the damage was done, and couldn't be reversed. I am partial to the sleeve, but do not believe it's the end all be all to WLS. Every one of the WLS can be cheated. Hell, I know 2 people with DS that haven't made goal, and are miserably sick because of the Vitamin regimen, and huge amounts of fat that they have to eat everyday to keep their hair and finger and toenails from falling out and ripping and/or tearing nails. I know some people have success with the band. But, if I can provide statistically information along with my personal experience that will give them another option to explore then I believe it's only fair. Like I said, the stats for the band are out, there is stats out for the VSG. Grant it those stats aren't 10 years plus, but by the law of large numbers, the sleeve is coming out with less complications, and reoperation rates.