@FluffyChix & @Orchids&Dragons

I was going to try to dive into the IF fasting thread and made it as far as detailing out your (Fluffy's) Down Days, up days and I think um..medium days.

While I don't mind doing research, I was wondering if along the journey with IF which spans many many pages, did you change over to something other than what you started your IF journey with?

I see ppl post 16:8 - is that 16 hrs of not eating followed by 8? I did try to follow some of that & am HIGHLY HIGHLY interested in research and cold hard facts about extending telomeres (sp?)..I think they are called (re: aging). So specifically looking for something targeted to getting physical age when measured by a physician to improve over my true bio age...does that make sense.

ABOVE ALL OF THIS THOUGH, I know I have a very metabolically resistant body. Part is going into early menopause in 40's...a crap diet for over 15 years...inflammation issues with messed up knee. IBS issues since a kid (keto helped me out with this a lot). Starting to have ovarian pain so am worried about cysts...you know the deal. Was diagnosed with malignant melanoma last year, early stage, but I know melanoma is a tricky...very very tricky and insidious cancer sneak. I feel like my body is screaming out for help and I want to do what I can, even at this age...to finally...care for it. See if I can reign in or stop progression of some things

Of course, one of the top pty's is continuing to lose as much weight as possible during this our honeymoon period as I call it

Serious @FluffyChix I would even consider paying you for a session just to help me get a quicker grasp on things. Weight Watchers started that recently with 'coaches' you could hire and schedule time with. Think about it perhaps?

7 hours ago, KarenLR75 said:

@FluffyChix & @Orchids&Dragons

I was going to try to dive into the IF fasting thread and made it as far as detailing out your (Fluffy's) Down Days, up days and I think um..medium days.

While I don't mind doing research, I was wondering if along the journey with IF which spans many many pages, did you change over to something other than what you started your IF journey with?

I see ppl post 16:8 - is that 16 hrs of not eating followed by 8? I did try to follow some of that & am HIGHLY HIGHLY interested in research and cold hard facts about extending telomeres (sp?)..I think they are called (re: aging). So specifically looking for something targeted to getting physical age when measured by a physician to improve over my true bio age...does that make sense.

ABOVE ALL OF THIS THOUGH, I know I have a very metabolically resistant body. Part is going into early menopause in 40's...a crap diet for over 15 years...inflammation issues with messed up knee. IBS issues since a kid (keto helped me out with this a lot). Starting to have ovarian pain so am worried about cysts...you know the deal. Was diagnosed with malignant melanoma last year, early stage, but I know melanoma is a tricky...very very tricky and insidious cancer sneak. I feel like my body is screaming out for help and I want to do what I can, even at this age...to finally...care for it. See if I can reign in or stop progression of some things

Of course, one of the top pty's is continuing to lose as much weight as possible during this our honeymoon period as I call it

Serious @FluffyChix I would even consider paying you for a session just to help me get a quicker grasp on things. Weight Watchers started that recently with 'coaches' you could hire and schedule time with. Think about it perhaps?

Congrats on making the decision to fast. I will come back to this in a minute.

I'm actually considering going back to school online to get a certification as a Health Coach. I'm looking at programs right now and really like Mark Scisson's Primal Health Coach program as a jumpstart. But I'm not at a level where I could charge for my services at this time. Thank you for your offer and belief in my knowledge.

Ok, now I'm about to tell you things you don't want to hear right now. But for every thing there is a season. And this is not your IF season yet. But it could be your preparatory season for IF. You are too young in your surgery. I would wait until I was at least 7-9 months before beginning any sort of IF. Let your tool ACTUALLY do the work it was meant to do.

And more importantly, before you can IF, you need to be able to EASILY get all or almost all of your daily protein in with very little problems. For most of us, that means we can eat at least 2-3oz of protein at a meal. And you must be EASILY able to get 100+ oz of fluid in you. Most of us IFers use 1 protein drink per day as a supplement, not because we need it, but because it frees us up to eat meals that have more veggies in them, or to eat in a shorter window. But we could theoretically get everything in and satisfy our protein needs with only food. You MUST be able to do that. Without feeling overly full or stuffed.

You can help your tool and help prepare for IF by adjusting and dialing in your diet. Get as "clean" and "kiss" as humanly possible. You've heard me preach about it...here's what that means:

1. FOLLOW your doc's and RD's plan for you and the stage you're eating at. You MUST be able to easily get the required protein in per day that they prescribe for you. And the amount of fluids you're told to consume.

2. Follow the rules of WLS. No eating drinking 15/30 or 30/30 depending your doc's plan.

3. Get ALL of your daily vitamins in without skipping a single dose.

4. Get to walking. And maybe even get to doing core strengthening exercises.

5. Protein first at every meal/snack >> al dente veggies >> a tiny bit of healthy fats (and that's it)

6. Cut out ALL C.R.A.P. (google it)--that means no sugar, grains, starchy root veg, starches, refined products, fake stuff, "treats" such as protein bars or water drops. Severely limit the use of sugar substitutes.

7. Start drinking green tea now (I use decaff) and look into Earl Grey Tea.

8. Try to keep your carbs to <30g net per day (subtract fiber grams of carbs from the total carb count to get net carbs.

9. No "snacking". Eat 3 meals + 1-3 small mini meals per day in order to limit meal portions to the volume recommended by your doctor and to reach your protein totals each day. A mini meal is an organized, orderly, planned event. Snacking is not. Snacking is hedonistic and reckless and it's possible to do a lot of damage with a single snack event.

10. Aim to get 2-3oz of protein per meal (lean dense protein, no casseroles, no deeply satisfying gooey cheesy high reward meals. Keep is simple: grilled chicken, sauteed chicken, poached or sauteed fish, etc. No meat lube or stuff that adds to the pleasure of the food experience.

****

When you follow these rules, you are stripped down to bare bones. And you are able to really look at your relationship with food and how it controls you or you control it. You realize that you can go hours without eating and that skipping a meal is not an emergency. Around the 7-9 month mark, your hunger reawakens for many and you also hit a doldrum where you start to get bored and lose focus and life seems worth living and you may start to want to break rules and play. That is the time to knuckle down, double down, and begin to exercise your IF muscle.

Until then, I DO encourage you to start at the front of the IF thread and start reading. use these next months to go down the rabbit hole. You must learn and understand it, to practice it safely.

*****

So sorry to hear about your melanoma dx. Regardless of stage it's a scary dx. ((hugs)) You are correct to be concerned about the quality of your diet. The best thing you can do for yourself is to get and keep your blood sugars low and keep from spiking insulin. You do that by controlling your carbs (and fats believe it or not), and by only eating to adequate protein for your body and surgery type--but that must come from your doc!

Fluffy is definitely your best source for this, although there are quite a few others on that thread who have had great success and I'm sure they would all be willing to lend a hand. I have only done IF experimentally a few times. Best of luck on your journey.

4 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

Fluffy is definitely your best source for this, although there are quite a few others on that thread who have had great success and I'm sure they would all be willing to lend a hand.

Oh thank you SO much for saying this!!! I meant to bring up this point in my preaching above!!! That there are SOOOO many in the IF thread who have walked the walk for months now!!! Any one of us will be happy to help.

And that the best thing is to jump into the thread, and start posting and asking questions!!! We'll all be thrilled to help!

Not singling anyone out, but especially peeps like @GreenTealael, @sillykitty, @matt, @sheribear68, @AZHiker (don't know why these aren't highlighting) and so many others!!

Thanks for responding, Fluffy, especially with such a well-thought out post. I understand now that I may be 'too early' in the process. I'm such a slow loser and am hitting multiple stalls...that I was looking for anything I could do that would help.

I have started tracking my food/water/liquids intake in the myfitness tool now that I was given macros by my dr's office but their plan has me consuming more carbs than I am comfortable with as I'm a big keto devotee and I lose better when I keep carbs low as a general rule. I did 'Atkin's' way back in the day and lost 80 lbs and kept it off for a decade. I restarted a keto WOL 15 months before having surgery as this way of eating helps my body feel better.

Now I'm wondering should I follow dr's plan & not attempt to modify to be lower carb...unsure if only being 2 mos post op if my body would prefer that...but having had this body for a number of yrs (lol), I have such a difficult time losing weight...period. Usually it comes off much faster when I keep carbs below 20 ideally...or 30 for a stretch.

Below is your list and I just wanted to put my responses in but I get what you are saying about it being too early for me to do IF. I'm hoping some of the things on your list that I'm already doing will have me better prepared should I go down the IF route later in this process:

1. FOLLOW your doc's and RD's plan for you and the stage you're eating at. You MUST be able to easily get the required protein in per day that they prescribe for you. And the amount of fluids you're told to consume.

2. Follow the rules of WLS. No eating drinking 15/30 or 30/30 depending your doc's plan.

3. Get ALL of your daily Vitamins in without skipping a single dose. I've been fortunate that I haven't had an issue with this even directly after surgery

4. Get to walking. And maybe even get to doing core strengthening exercises. Started hiking with youngest daughter several weeks ago. We've been consistent to this day. We currently do 2 x's a week and are looking to increase this but waiting for temperatures to cool down so we can do so..I also swim in my pool a couple times a week.

5. Protein first at every meal/snack >> al dente veggies >> a tiny bit of healthy fats (and that's it). Protein always first, especially since I'm only 2 mos post-op. If protein goes down ok, then I eat whatever veggie if i have one.

6. Cut out ALL C.R.A.P. (google it)--that means no sugar, grains, starchy root veg, starches, refined products, fake stuff, "treats" such as Protein Bars or Water drops. Severely limit the use of sugar substitutes. Did this 17 mos ago when I embraced keto WOL although I never believed in enormous intake of fat so my version had fats limited to ones that are healthier. I tended during this time to stay away from protein bars but if in a desperate pinch as I had a bad habit of not eating regularly (working so much I'd forget to eat, etc.) I might have one. I was a big user of artificial sweeteners during this period although I kept an eye on the research about them possibly causing hunger and many other things about them. Currently my limitation is 2 to 3 packets of splenda (or another fake sugar) a day in my post-op world.

7. Start drinking green tea now (I use decaff) and look into Earl Grey Tea. Ironically I just got a tea brew bottle and a pack of..I think it is green tea in a subscription box that I get.

8. Try to keep your carbs to <30g net per day (subtract Fiber grams of carbs from the total carb count to get net carbs. Yes, I'm a big believer in this! Trying to figure out how to fight myfitness pal as it does not have food listed in its DB, from what little I've seen, with net carb count. I may have to hand add all my stuff

9. No "snacking". Eat 3 meals + 1-3 small mini meals per day in order to limit meal portions to the volume recommended by your doctor and to reach your protein totals each day. A mini meal is an organized, orderly, planned event. Snacking is not. Snacking is hedonistic and reckless and it's possible to do a lot of damage with a single snack event. Since I'm 2 months post-op..this is usually covered although I am not yet this structured as I'm still having occasional issues at mealtime. My mini-meals are not yet planned, thought out events. Well, it's more like I know I will have a carbmaster yogurt in between my breakfast premier protein shake and my next 'meal' which is always an intake of real protein (i.e. meat that I can tolerate and is not a fatty meat). I also will parse out 7 almonds, etc. I think where I'm at is more like 'practicing for where I need to be'? I DID find myself recently..and it is always late at night as often don't eat my 1st meal of the day until almost 11 AM...going to get sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles but I was NOT hungry. It is old habits trying to creep back in. Was really upset that I started to 'go there'..this is a very slippery slope for me!

10. Aim to get 2-3oz of protein per meal (lean dense protein, no casseroles, no deeply satisfying gooey cheesy high reward meals. Keep is simple: grilled chicken, sauteed chicken, poached or sauteed fish, etc. No meat lube or stuff that adds to the pleasure of the food experience. My protein meals are much like what you said. Haven't had a casserole yet...wait, I did. It was shredded chicken I made in crockpot with chicken broth,fat free cream cheese and salsa..but no cheese involved. It is one of the few ways I can get 'moist' chicken. The macros do fit into my keto version including keeping the fat down more than most keto plans.

22 minutes ago, KarenLR75 said:

Thanks for responding, Fluffy, especially with such a well-thought out post. I understand now that I may be 'too early' in the process. I'm such a slow loser and am hitting multiple stalls...that I was looking for anything I could do that would help.

I have started tracking my food/water/liquids intake in the myfitness tool now that I was given macros by my dr's office but their plan has me consuming more carbs than I am comfortable with as I'm a big keto devotee and I lose better when I keep carbs low as a general rule. I did 'Atkin's' way back in the day and lost 80 lbs and kept it off for a decade. I restarted a keto WOL 15 months before having surgery as this way of eating helps my body feel better.

Now I'm wondering should I follow dr's plan & not attempt to modify to be lower carb...unsure if only being 2 mos post op if my body would prefer that...but having had this body for a number of yrs (lol), I have such a difficult time losing weight...period. Usually it comes off much faster when I keep carbs below 20 ideally...or 30 for a stretch.

Below is your list and I just wanted to put my responses in but I get what you are saying about it being too early for me to do IF. I'm hoping some of the things on your list that I'm already doing will have me better prepared should I go down the IF route later in this process:

1. FOLLOW your doc's and RD's plan for you and the stage you're eating at. You MUST be able to easily get the required Protein in per day that they prescribe for you. And the amount of fluids you're told to consume.

2. Follow the rules of WLS. No eating drinking 15/30 or 30/30 depending your doc's plan.

3. Get ALL of your daily Vitamins in without skipping a single dose. I've been fortunate that I haven't had an issue with this even directly after surgery

4. Get to walking. And maybe even get to doing core strengthening exercises. Started hiking with youngest daughter several weeks ago. We've been consistent to this day. We currently do 2 x's a week and are looking to increase this but waiting for temperatures to cool down so we can do so..I also swim in my pool a couple times a week.

5. Protein first at every meal/snack >> al dente veggies >> a tiny bit of healthy fats (and that's it). Protein always first, especially since I'm only 2 mos post-op. If protein goes down ok, then I eat whatever veggie if i have one.

6. Cut out ALL C.R.A.P. (google it)--that means no sugar, grains, starchy root veg, starches, refined products, fake stuff, "treats" such as Protein Bars or Water drops. Severely limit the use of sugar substitutes. Did this 17 mos ago when I embraced keto WOL although I never believed in enormous intake of fat so my version had fats limited to ones that are healthier. I tended during this time to stay away from Protein Bars but if in a desperate pinch as I had a bad habit of not eating regularly (working so much I'd forget to eat, etc.) I might have one. I was a big user of artificial sweeteners during this period although I kept an eye on the research about them possibly causing hunger and many other things about them. Currently my limitation is 2 to 3 packets of splenda (or another fake sugar) a day in my post-op world.

7. Start drinking green tea now (I use decaff) and look into Earl Grey Tea. Ironically I just got a tea brew bottle and a pack of..I think it is green tea in a subscription box that I get.

8. Try to keep your carbs to <30g net per day (subtract Fiber grams of carbs from the total carb count to get net carbs. Yes, I'm a big believer in this! Trying to figure out how to fight myfitness pal as it does not have food listed in its DB, from what little I've seen, with net carb count. I may have to hand add all my stuff

9. No "snacking". Eat 3 meals + 1-3 small mini meals per day in order to limit meal portions to the volume recommended by your doctor and to reach your protein totals each day. A mini meal is an organized, orderly, planned event. Snacking is not. Snacking is hedonistic and reckless and it's possible to do a lot of damage with a single snack event. Since I'm 2 months post-op..this is usually covered although I am not yet this structured as I'm still having occasional issues at mealtime. My mini-meals are not yet planned, thought out events. Well, it's more like I know I will have a carbmaster yogurt in between my Breakfast Premier Protein shake and my next 'meal' which is always an intake of real protein (i.e. meat that I can tolerate and is not a fatty meat). I also will parse out 7 almonds, etc. I think where I'm at is more like 'practicing for where I need to be'? I DID find myself recently..and it is always late at night as often don't eat my 1st meal of the day until almost 11 AM...going to get sugar free Jello, sugar free popsicles but I was NOT hungry. It is old habits trying to creep back in. Was really upset that I started to 'go there'..this is a very slippery slope for me!

10. Aim to get 2-3oz of protein per meal (lean dense protein, no casseroles, no deeply satisfying gooey cheesy high reward meals. Keep is simple: grilled chicken, sauteed chicken, poached or sauteed fish, etc. No meat lube or stuff that adds to the pleasure of the food experience. My protein meals are much like what you said. Haven't had a casserole yet...wait, I did. It was shredded chicken I made in crockpot with chicken broth, fat free cream cheese and salsa..but no cheese involved. It is one of the few ways I can get 'moist' chicken. The macros do fit into my keto version including keeping the fat down more than most keto plans.

Ok, great response. So you should try to follow your doc. But you need to make notes for yourself. How does a "meal x" make you feel. Do you get hungry quicker? Do you feel tempted to eat off plan afterward. Does it interfere with your weight loss goals?

How quickly are you losing per week? In general post meno women will lose much slower than others.

How many calories are you eating per day and what macros are they suggesting?

You need to switch over to My Fitness Pal (free). You will just eat your carbs then mentally subtract out your fiber. It allows you to track up to 5 macros. I will post a day of food below for you to see. I just mentally know if I eat around 40 total carbs with most of the carbs coming from veggies/dairy/eggs/nuts-seeds/a bit of fruit, then I will be between 15-30g of net carbs roughly each day. I don't stress about anything in my diet (except getting in enough calories with higher fat foods--cuz I don't do well with them).

Ditch the powdered sweeteners and replace with liquid stevia drops. I use some flavored and the original. I like Vitacost, SweetLeaf, and Better Stevia brands and our HEB brand is also pretty decent. But I keep the use of these pretty low cuz of the cephalic insulin response.

You MUST do something EVERY DAY to move!!! This isn't negotiable in my estimation--especially if you are in a hormonal deficit/challenge and have PCOS. It's hotter than hell here. I walk in my house. Seriously. I walk laps around the interior of my house. I walk/run for 1+ hours a day everyday. (if at all possible). I do miss some days, but it's a big deal if I do.

I only lost on average 1-2lbs per week. In the early days I lost 3lbs per week but that didn't last long. There WILL be stalls. The are inevitable.

I had to be between 650-850 (towards the lower end of that range) to lose those amounts each week. I had very few treats or cheats during the super active losing phase. And I didn't believe in everything in moderation when I never had moderation before.

So you will have to decide how many carbs and how many cals you're gonna follow from your doc and how it actually nets results for you.

13 hours ago, KarenLR75 said:

@FluffyChix & @Orchids&Dragons

I was going to try to dive into the IF fasting thread and made it as far as detailing out your (Fluffy's) Down Days, up days and I think um..medium days.

While I don't mind doing research, I was wondering if along the journey with IF which spans many many pages, did you change over to something other than what you started your IF journey with?

I see ppl post 16:8 - is that 16 hrs of not eating followed by 8? I did try to follow some of that & am HIGHLY HIGHLY interested in research and cold hard facts about extending telomeres (sp?)..I think they are called (re: aging). So specifically looking for something targeted to getting physical age when measured by a physician to improve over my true bio age...does that make sense.

ABOVE ALL OF THIS THOUGH, I know I have a very metabolically resistant body. Part is going into early menopause in 40's...a crap diet for over 15 years...inflammation issues with messed up knee. IBS issues since a kid (keto helped me out with this a lot). Starting to have ovarian pain so am worried about cysts...you know the deal. Was diagnosed with malignant melanoma last year, early stage, but I know melanoma is a tricky...very very tricky and insidious cancer sneak. I feel like my body is screaming out for help and I want to do what I can, even at this age...to finally...care for it. See if I can reign in or stop progression of some things

Of course, one of the top pty's is continuing to lose as much weight as possible during this our honeymoon period as I call it

Serious @FluffyChix I would even consider paying you for a session just to help me get a quicker grasp on things. Weight Watchers started that recently with 'coaches' you could hire and schedule time with. Think about it perhaps?

I try to IF between 6 pm and 8 am. IF was the key to the success I've had, I got "stuck" at 230... IF got me through that and down to my current of around 180. It's great because it's free, and it works.

@FluffyChix - here are the macros from my dr's office (he has on staff nutritionist). I'm unsure how I feel about the 30% from carbs. I seem to lose better at the 700 or less range but I think they are pushing a bit for me to go higher instead which baffles me. I am tracking in MyFitness Pal (just started this week - previously I was logging in a spreadsheet):

Track your intake in MyFitness Pal and aim for about 800 calories with 40% of total calories from protein, 30% from fat, and 30% from carbohydrates this should help increase your rate of weight loss

Here is what I put in fitnesspal as my goals (they don't line up with dr office info, I would have to lower fat and the fat I have in my diet are the healthier fats...and I don't hit the goal often. I'd have to increase carbs to THIRTY PERCENT! ACK. I'm ok with taking fat amount down as there is no way I currently get even that much 'good fat' in my diet. I agree with my doctor on % of protein - 40%.

Where the heck do you set a goal/limit for sugar grams? While I don't consume processed or regular sugar..there are sugar grams in some items although I try to keep them limited as popsicle. WHY WHY WHY do the outshine 'no sugar added' popsicles have to taste so good!!?? I've never been a popsicle eater until after surgery....they have SIX GRAMS OF CARBS EACH. I about passed out...my prior weeks have been so limited in calories that having 1 or 2 didn't impact me but I think they might be now....

I'm going to start making my own frozen popsicles..probably from the 1 million bottles of the Clear Premier Protein drink - tropical punch...or crystal light popsicles...I DO truly love the outshine popsicles (no sugar added) and I can deal with the sugar grams from them but not the SIX grams of carbs EACH.

Edited September 26, 20196 yr by KarenLR75
popsicle idea

Both yesterday and today have been surprisingly ROUGH at getting food in 'real food', not protein shakes. After the huge and extremely painful episode of vomiting yesterday, I finally ended up grazing on a protein pack with sunflower seeds, jerky, and peanuts over the course of 3 hrs to get my calories and protein 'upped'. I tried protein shake in PM and my pouch was having NONE of it. Protein shake in AM went down fine. Fiber is not subtracted from carb amounts below but I know I stayed under my goal:

TODAY has been a hot mess...and I had been coming out of that 'post op phase' and eating regular food all last week...I have no idea why the difficulty out of the blue yesterday and today.

WHY in the world is it showing a calorie goal of OVER 1000 calories for TODAY?? I have 750 as my daily target goal! All of the other numbers for today are 'skewed' as well...I don't get it..I haven't even hit 400 calories today...I'm definitely not going to nor do I want to hit 1000 cals. i guess I don't understand how myfitness pal works?

Edited September 26, 20196 yr by KarenLR75

Ok, so I think I told you yesterday after the vomiting thing to go back a phase or 2 for a couple of days? Why on earth would you eat a P3 with nuts in it? In the early days, nuts were one of THE hardest things for me to handle? LOL.

Going back a phase means, you go back to yogurt and protein drinks and maybe cottage cheese until your tummy is able to heal a little again. It's usually a couple of days. No wonder you didn't feel like eating.

He has you on a Zone macro plan: 30 30 40 only he's flipping the protein and carbs so that protein is 40%. For your size, 74-75g is about the target protein amount especially in the early days. It's called the moderation approach, but the intention is to use those carbs for good. Only healthy carbs.

You will have to experiment and see if that allows you to lose. It should as long as you stay at or below the 800cal deck. It should also confer metabolic reset for you. Dr. Michael Mosely wrote a book about the research from a UK scientist/dr. who reversed patients' diabetes on a 800cal diet that had a bunch of plant based carbs in it--and more Mediterranean style eating. It was called the 8 Week Diet Cure (I think--on Amazon--good book.)

You can't customize macros beyond P/F/C in the free MFP version. So you just have to choose to track sugar as one of your 5 macros and keep an eye out for it yourself.

Hope you are feeling better today. Take it easy on your food choices.

1 hour ago, FluffyChix said:

Ok, so I think I told you yesterday after the vomiting thing to go back a phase or 2 for a couple of days? Why on earth would you eat a P3 with nuts in it? In the early days, nuts were one of THE hardest things for me to handle? LOL.

Going back a phase means, you go back to yogurt and Protein Drinks and maybe cottage cheese until your tummy is able to heal a little again. It's usually a couple of days. No wonder you didn't feel like eating.

I completely blanked on this....I literally am having a hard time remembering things lately..to the point it is a bit embarrassing.

Ironically, when they told me to start on real foods, P3's were mentioned and while I had a huge adverse reaction to scrambled eggs in the soft food phase, one of the easiest things for me to eat and keep down out of the P3 packs were actually the nuts! It is SO weird how different everyone's experience with certain foods can be. I literally sometimes gag when I'm eating lunch meat type items..and even cheese..I start to get nauseated after eating about 3 or 4 cubes..but the nuts..no nausea, no vomiting, no pain. Often I leave a few chunks of both meat and cheese uneaten in my P3 packs.

I did keep to soft food phase today though. Nothing sounds good but my stomach is letting me know..my pouch...that it would like something more than 1/2 a protein shake. I'm out of cottage cheese but am grabbing a carbmaster yogurt.

Thanks for your continued input. Truly didn't mean to disregard your wise advice. I think my brain is clogged sometimes

I'll give my dr's plan a try - the carbs are definitely all what I call 'low glycemic impact ones' and I have at times during my intense 15 months of keto (I say intense as I was continually keeping carbs under 20 grams), sometimes when I'd stall, eaten/added some healthy carbs for a day...and then the scale would move again.

On 09/25/2019 at 07:24, FluffyChix said:

Congrats on making the decision to fast. I will come back to this in a minute.

I'm actually considering going back to school online to get a certification as a Health Coach. I'm looking at programs right now and really like Mark Scisson's Primal Health Coach program as a jumpstart. But I'm not at a level where I could charge for my services at this time. Thank you for your offer and belief in my knowledge.

Ok, now I'm about to tell you things you don't want to hear right now. But for every thing there is a season. And this is not your IF season yet. But it could be your preparatory season for IF. You are too young in your surgery. I would wait until I was at least 7-9 months before beginning any sort of IF. Let your tool ACTUALLY do the work it was meant to do.

And more importantly, before you can IF, you need to be able to EASILY get all or almost all of your daily Protein in with very little problems. For most of us, that means we can eat at least 2-3oz of protein at a meal. And you must be EASILY able to get 100+ oz of Fluid in you. Most of us IFers use 1 Protein Drink per day as a supplement, not because we need it, but because it frees us up to eat meals that have more veggies in them, or to eat in a shorter window. But we could theoretically get everything in and satisfy our protein needs with only food. You MUST be able to do that. Without feeling overly full or stuffed.

You can help your tool and help prepare for IF by adjusting and dialing in your diet. Get as "clean" and "kiss" as humanly possible. You've heard me preach about it...here's what that means:

1. FOLLOW your doc's and RD's plan for you and the stage you're eating at. You MUST be able to easily get the required protein in per day that they prescribe for you. And the amount of fluids you're told to consume.

2. Follow the rules of WLS. No eating drinking 15/30 or 30/30 depending your doc's plan.

3. Get ALL of your daily Vitamins in without skipping a single dose.

4. Get to walking. And maybe even get to doing core strengthening exercises.

5. Protein first at every meal/snack >> al dente veggies >> a tiny bit of healthy fats (and that's it)

6. Cut out ALL C.R.A.P. (google it)--that means no sugar, grains, starchy root veg, starches, refined products, fake stuff, "treats" such as Protein Bars or Water drops. Severely limit the use of sugar substitutes.

7. Start drinking green tea now (I use decaff) and look into Earl Grey Tea.

8. Try to keep your carbs to <30g net per day (subtract Fiber grams of carbs from the total carb count to get net carbs.

9. No "snacking". Eat 3 meals + 1-3 small mini meals per day in order to limit meal portions to the volume recommended by your doctor and to reach your protein totals each day. A mini meal is an organized, orderly, planned event. Snacking is not. Snacking is hedonistic and reckless and it's possible to do a lot of damage with a single snack event.

10. Aim to get 2-3oz of protein per meal (lean dense protein, no casseroles, no deeply satisfying gooey cheesy high reward meals. Keep is simple: grilled chicken, sauteed chicken, poached or sauteed fish, etc. No meat lube or stuff that adds to the pleasure of the food experience.

****

When you follow these rules, you are stripped down to bare bones. And you are able to really look at your relationship with food and how it controls you or you control it. You realize that you can go hours without eating and that skipping a meal is not an emergency. Around the 7-9 month mark, your hunger reawakens for many and you also hit a doldrum where you start to get bored and lose focus and life seems worth living and you may start to want to break rules and play. That is the time to knuckle down, double down, and begin to exercise your IF muscle.

Until then, I DO encourage you to start at the front of the IF thread and start reading. use these next months to go down the rabbit hole. You must learn and understand it, to practice it safely.

*****

So sorry to hear about your melanoma dx. Regardless of stage it's a scary dx. ((hugs)) You are correct to be concerned about the quality of your diet. The best thing you can do for yourself is to get and keep your blood sugars low and keep from spiking insulin. You do that by controlling your carbs (and fats believe it or not), and by only eating to adequate protein for your body and surgery type--but that must come from your doc!

I cannot heart this post more than once! Lolololololol

Seriously Fluffy.... that was MAGNIFICENT ❤️

On 9/25/2019 at 11:38 AM, FluffyChix said:

But you need to make notes for yourself. How does a "meal x" make you feel. Do you get hungry quicker? Do you feel tempted to eat off plan afterward. Does it interfere with your weight loss goals?

THIS!! ?

I forgot completely about what you said here! This ties into my increase in hunger when I have a meal that incorporates one of the low glycemic 'carbs' my dr. has wanted me to eat.

I read somewhere...that you should try to eat your fruit with your protein..to counter the impact on blood sugar?

I seem to get much hungrier "sooner' and have less satiety when I eat a few ounces of sweet potato than I do with oatmeal...unsure if that makes any sense or not...when I eat strawberries I do not get as hungry as quickly as when I eat a few grapes. I recall strawberries are one of the lower carb fruits...

I DID feel tempted to eat more with some of these additions.

To make it harder I've been having a rough time this past month with nausea and food like deli meat suddenly just...being almost repulsive but my pouch LOVES carbs (again, not talking white bread, processed sugar...I mean oatmeal, sweet potato, brown rice/quinoa) - things my dr has on my 'approved carb list'..lol). If I eat oatmeal it is as if I took a phenergan for nausea. I was kind of hoping my pouch would NOT like these things as much.

On one day when it was really bad at the start of this rough period, I had only gotten in 200 calories for the day and it was 10 PM. I had not yet bought the 'better carb' stuff on my dr's list...I ended up pulling the small 'instant mashed potato' box out of the corner & made 1/2 c. serving...and was able to eat 80%! I had taken phenergan twice that day to try and get the nausea to settle down. Unfortunately/fortunately...those potatoes were like Moses parting the red sea. I told my husband that night...I can't go down this road with things like the instant potatoes/white potatoes...they are too much of a trigger food for me. The next day I got myself to the store and stocked up a modest amount of the 'good carb stuff'.

So many things to think about