Living a healthier lifestyle as a weight loss surgery post-op you probably have found you have suddenly acquired a few extra items in your recycle bin each month. I know I usually have a few plastic protein tubs and especially in the first year or so I had some used clothing that were not quite suitable for donation (ex. jeans with some thigh wear.)Here’s a couple of recycled crafts that make use of those items and help protect the environment and landfills at the same time.You need: Protein Tubs (Fit Frappe Spiced Chai Protein Drink are my favorite tubs), Duct Tape (or contact paper or stickers), scissorsUses: Storage for protein bars (how I use mine), pet treats, crayons, road trip toys, bird seed, Christmas …
obesity
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Convention Attendance Tips
I’ve been to a lot of weight loss, health, fitness, nutrition conferences and conventions in my almost 10 years post weight loss surgery. I thought I would share my experiences and some tips to help you plan for and get the most out of the next one you attend. Convention Attendance Tips* Introduce yourself to as many people as you can. I just go up to a table or group and say “Hi, I’m Michelle.” Trust me it will go well! Make a goal of meeting at least 10 new people. Find me. I want to meet everyone. This is the BEST PART of a convention for me… putting faces to names, meeting people who “get it” and are on the same road. The personal connections you make …
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Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch
A day in my pouch is a series of blog posts to show what a typical daily menu looks like in my post weight loss surgery world. Yesterday’s healthy and delicious menu…Breakfast: I made a batch of Ricotta Pancakes. It makes 8. Always plenty leftover making tomorrow’s breakfast super easy. They were supposed to be Lemon Poppy Seed but I was all out of poppy seeds so if you have some add some.Shelly’s Lemon Ricotta Pancakes1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese1 Egg, beaten1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Lemon Pudding Mix, dry 1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Vanilla Torani Syrup 3 Tablespoons Multigrain Pancake MixMix all ingredients together. I use whole milk ricotta, if you use part skim, drain first. Spray pan with nonstick spray. Spoon a dollop of mixture in pan and …
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Liquid Phase for Post Weight Loss Surgery
Disclaimer: Remember post-op nutritional plans vary. My sister had the same surgery with a different doctor and we had very different plans. Dr’s often adjust based on anecdotal evidence, experience, individual patients health needs or history. Here are the current ASMBS Allied Health Nutritional Guidelines for the Surgical Weight Loss Patient. ALWAYS check with your medical posse first. There is a difference between clear liquids and full liquids. This post lists both. A clear liquid diet is often used as the first step in post-op nutrition, they supply fluid, electrolytes, and a limited amount of energy and encourage the restoration of gut activity after surgery (some Dr’s skip this and move straight to full liquids.) Full liquid diets include milk, milk products, milk alternatives …
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Chocolate Mint Protein Balls and Shakes
I am excited to work with Celebrate Vitamins and share the recipes below using one of their excellent products. One of my very favorites. Celebrate Vitamins makes a protein powder that tastes exactly like Andes Mint Chocolates. You know those little foil wrapped, rectangular chocolates with a mint-green layer sandwiched between two brown chocolate layers, they came in a little cardboard tray. I loved those suckers as a kid. Celebrate’s Chocolate Mint Protein 20 tastes like the liquefied version of those. You can mix it with water or milk and shake it up in a shaker bottle and it’s great but I love to blend it with almond or soy milk and ice in the blender into a frosty chocolate mint frappe. It is ahhh-mazing.It’s …
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Are You Emotionally Afraid of Losing Weight?
Does the fear of hunger seem ridiculous to you? I mean, really, who is afraid of hunger? In developed countries you can get take-out at all hours of the night, convenience stores are open 24 hours a day, and many restaurants stay open until 2:00 a.m. But even with all of that, there is often a very real issue with emotional hunger when you lose weight. Oftentimes it is not physical hunger that we are afraid of, but emotional hunger. As a 300-pound woman, the feeling of physical hunger was unfamiliar. I literally grazed on food from the minute I woke up in the morning to right before I turned in for the night. I never, ever got truly physically hungry during those 10 years of morbid obesity…
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Vintage Weight Loss Advice: Sugar Helps You Lose Weight
I usually get John a little bit of candy for Valentine’s Day. He likes chocolate of all kinds and we don’t often have sweets in the house. But, in anticipation of this upcoming Valentine’s Day, John has told me that he wants no candy. None, not even a small piece of dark chocolate. So, being the agreeable wife that I sometimes am, I am getting him some nuts, some dried fruit, and a vintage copy of the 1968 Christmas issue of Better Homes and Garden magazine. Among the many funny ads for disgusting looking cupcakes made from dream whip and Jello molds of all kinds, I saw this fascinating ad. The ad recommends eating a little sugar to help control your appetite and lose weight …
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Losing Weight With an Eye Toward Maintenance
I have maintained my 150 pound weight loss for almost 18 years. In fact, next month it will be 18 years. How? By doing one very simple thing. When I first started losing weight, I determined that whatever I did to lose weight needed to be the same thing I did to maintain my weight. I had tried so many plans that were not conducive to weight maintenance that I knew I had to lose weight in a way that made moving from weight loss to weight maintenance seamless and easy. In other words: I wanted to lose 150 pounds by doing what I would eventually need to do to keep that 150 pounds off forever. (Hence the title of my book which came out a few years ago.) That’s …
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Why Is Losing Weight So Hard?
Losing weight is a frequent topic of conversation for me, as you can well imagine. In my real life, people who know my story invariably fall into one of two camps: They want to talk about their weight issues, why they eat more than they mean too, and ask for advice. I give advice (when I know the answer) when I can or just listen if that’s what they want. My other friends say nothing about weight — mine or theirs. When my first category of friends and acquaintances talks about weight loss troubles, there are a lot of common questions: Some of them are: Why does my weight never seem to go down? Do I have to exercise? How do I handle family that pushes…
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Easy Peasy Grocery List
My oldest daughter and I were talking the other night about meal planning, food prep, and eating out. You see, she recently got married and is doing a great job at feeding her family great meals. She told me, “I’m so glad that you taught me how to plan meals and make a grocery store list.” It turns out that quite a few of her also recently married friends are struggling with it. This post is just a quick glance into my easy peasy way to make a meal plan and then write a grocery list based on that plan. Sure you can get more complicated and that’s perfectly fine, but if you are looking for something simple, maybe this will help. I&#…
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Do You Need Willpower to Lose Weight?
Willpower has been one of the buzz words in the weight loss and dieting industry for years now. You might have used this term yourself from time to time. I know I often did. I’d often say, “I just don’t have the willpower to stick with a diet for very long” or sometimes I’d say, “My willpower isn’t strong enough to resist chocolate cake.” I would blame my lack of willpower on my 513 diet failures, on my lack of commitment to exercise, on my lack of resistance to fast food, or any other unhealthy lifestyle behavior I chose to attribute my lack of willpower to. Friends of mine who lost weight seemed to have almost magical willpower. They did seem…
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Stress Eating: How to Manage and Stop It
Sometimes I look at Facebook or Instagram (I hope you will join me at both!) and think that everyone’s life just seems to be sailing along without any problems. Then I remember that people put things on Facebook that they want others to see and often times leave off the negative things. I do that too. I think a lot of us do. Our Facebook/Instagram persona and real life can be quite different. Real life is sometimes smooth, sometimes rough, and a lot of times it is a bit of both. That’s true for me lately. We’ve had some really busy times with school getting closer to finishing up, kids going on trips, musical performances, and financial challenges (think replacing a very…