This simply works as a guide and helps you to connect with doctors of your choice. Please confirm the doctor’s availability before leaving your premises.
Emergency bariatric care may be needed if you experience severe abdominal pain, complications from weight loss surgery, or symptoms of nutritional deficiencies.
Do you ever notice that when things are going well with our nutritional plan, they are going really well AND when things are not going so well, they go from bad to worse?
That’s our mindset getting in the way.
So, I’m cruising along and enjoying my day and then BAM, a piece of whole-wheat toast makes its way into my breakfast. The next thing I know, I am face down in a bowl of cereal, followed by a big serving of rice for dinner.
What did I do right there? Why OH Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we allow a small piece of toast to DERAIL us for an entire day? This is the “all or nothing mentality”.
I failed at saying “no thanks” to the whole wheat toast, so now I am a total loser and I might as well say yes to the fettuccini alfredo?
This is a big fall into the “all or nothing” mindset. Don’t do this! Let’s just cut this out right now, please.
Let’s be kinder and gentler with this sort of “bully attitude”. It’s not serving us at all. The other issue? It is enabling us to go from “oops, toast happens”, to have a one-month “eat all the carbs”, and gain 7 lbs event.
I see this happen time and time again. I also fall into this trap. Can we please look at living a low-carb lifestyle exactly like that? It’s living a low-carb lifestyle. It’s not NEVER eating a piece of fruit, or NEVER having beans with your dinner. It is allowing yourself to choose a few complex carbohydrates and combining them with a protein, maybe some healthy fat, to prevent a huge rise in blood glucose/ insulin levels.
I don’t think it is wise (especially when we have blood sugar issues), to have a meal that contains your chicken, rice, AND tortilla, AND beans, AND some mashed potatoes. That’s just over-kill with the carbs. What if we chose to say “no thanks to the rice, mashed potatoes, and tortilla and said “yes” to the beans? What if we had a spoonful of rice and skipped the other carb-loaded foods? What if we choose summer squash over mashed potatoes? We have options folks. We don’t need to eat ALL of it.
When we restrict, restrict, restrict, restrict, when we fall, we hit the ground hard. Let’s bring the ground a bit closer.
“I am never, ever, ever going to eat mashed potatoes again in my entire life”. Pretty dramatic huh? If they are my favorite food, that’s gonna hurt. You know what’s going to happen right?
Can we not be a little bit less dramatic? What about, “I’m not going to eat mashed potatoes 4 times a week. I am going to replace them two times and when I eat them, I will eat a bit less and I will combine them with some protein and veggies”.
Doesn’t that make a whole lot more sense? Folks, a low-carb lifestyle is a new buzzword.
It works. It makes sense. It enables us to be a tad less restrictive. When people started demonizing carrots, peas, and yogurt, due to the carbohydrate count, I started to worry. Where is this taking us? Is this truly sustainable? What’s happening with this “all or nothing mentality”. Let’s get a collective grip. Sure, let’s restrict but not so dramatically that we set ourselves up for failure.
What about if I restrict my carbohydrate load at breakfast, choosing eggs and veg or some avocado. What if I have a big chicken salad at lunch, no croutons, please. What if I have some fish, veggies, and a ¼ cup of rice at dinner. Is that so terrible? Have a done an awful thing?
Did the ¼ cup of rice turn me into some horrible person who fell off the wagon? Can we please try to cut out this behavior and stop being so darn hard on ourselves? Because I had a ¼ cup of rice, I might as well finish up with a bag of chips and a donut. “Who cares, I already messed up by eating a ¼ cup of rice”.
Mindset – let’s be a bit more kind with our internal dialogue. Do your best. Strive for a healthy mindset when it comes to your nutritional goals. Don’t be “all or nothing”. It’s not a good long-term plan. I need you in the game LONG TERM.
Healthy Hugs.
I worry about you sometimes xo
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
I’ve seen a lot of posts on our FB group recently about “getting back on track”, “fasting”, “seeing the scale move in the wrong direction”.
Hey! Do you need a small push or something to rev-up weight loss again? Well, here it is. If you follow this, you will see excellent results.
Am I telling you or encouraging you to do a Fat Fast? No. I am just telling you what it is and sharing my ideas about how it works for me and why it may work for you. I am logging my food experiences for you. It may make perfect sense to you and you may think that it is something that you have zero interest to try.
Yeah for biochemical individuality!! I do me and you do you.
Isn’t it funny how when you decide to eat in a certain way for just a few days, people go insane and tell you how “unhealthy” it is and how you are risking your health. But, it is fine to eat the Standard American Diet (SAD) which tells us to fill up on corn, grain, rice, and beans.
Sure, it’s fine to eat like crap on the weekend and consume Doritos and Oreo cookies and French fries but the second I discuss eating salmon, eggs and spinach for a few days, people are in an uproar. Funny.
Have you heard about it yet? The Fat Fast! This is like a compromise from typical fasting. It is as close as you can get to fasting, without doing a true fast. It is a technique to achieve a quick loss on the scale. It will get you into ketosis quickly. It helps with hunger and cravings.
The fat fast can be used in two situations:
Breaking past a 2-week stall or plateau
Inducing into ketosis, or fasting more comfortably or more quickly
It is very simple. You know how when people fast, they drink just water, black coffee, bone broth, and herbal tea? Well, during a fat fast, they eat only food which is high in healthy fat and protein. It originates from doctors who want their patients to fast but they fail. The fat fast is a compromise over a true fast or a step to help people get off the carbs and get ready for a true fast.
If you are having trouble with a traditional fast or with intermittent fasting, this is something you can try.
There are a lot of people who are interested in intermittent fasting or in following a lower-carb diet or a ketogenic lifestyle. When they make an honest attempt to try, they quickly get derailed because they are seriously craving the foods which they are trying to eliminate from their diet … CARBS!!
They try to go longer periods between meals but they are unable to get past the first few hours because their tummies are rumbling and they are feeling desperate to eat. There are situations where people are having serious health issues and all they want to do is a traditional fast for a specific amount of time to allow their bodies to heal. How can they move past this sugar/ glucose/ carb roller-coaster and feel better in order to introduce a short or a longer fast?
Fasting is a powerful tool. It enables us to decrease insulin levels and then at the same time regain a good insulin signaling …. and it happens very quickly.
Enter the Fat Fast.
You can compare a Fat Fat to an extreme version of a ketogenic diet. You are trying to keep the carbs as low as possible while ramping up your fat intake and keeping protein at a minimum. Compare your fat fast to a regular fast whereby there is a start and a finish. It is a tool that you can use. It is a temporary state or a strategy.
A Fat Fast is meant to be for the short term only. It can be introduced for 3 to 5 days. You want to be sure to consume “healthy fats” during this period of time. Remember, this is a strategy to be followed to get you to a “better place” where you are not craving so many carbs or in preparation for a true fast.
This is a tool to enable people to get back on track after consuming too many processed and refined carbohydrates or to get ready for regular intermittent fasting. This can help to enter fat-burning mode while experiencing less uncomfortable side effects i.e., belly rumbling and migraines/ headaches.
It is just another tool in our tool-box on our journey to health and wellness.
The original Fat Fast was introduced by Dr. Adkins in his first book in 1972. People were encouraged to eat four to five little meals that were high in fat throughout the day. In the newer, more modified Fat Fast, people are not limiting their calories but they are eating only the recommended foods and they are seeing great results.
They are losing a bit of weight, feeling better and having an easier time to get rid of the carbs in their diet. We have to remember that eating carbs, will raise your insulin levels. Eating only fat keeps insulin levels very low. Low insulin levels mean that we feel less hungry throughout the day.
So how do we get the Fat Fast right?
First of all, you want to eat until satisfied. Fill your bariatric pouch until satiety. Your appetite will decrease quickly and you will be able to eat less food without feeling hungry. Remember, we want to control our hunger and not be eating all day long so that should be one of our goals. This is a strategy to help you get there. Don’t eat when you are not hungry. Listen to your body.
Doing a short fat fast is not something dangerous. It is a SHORT fat fast. It has a beginning and an end. You will get everything you need for those few days from the fat fast because the foods that you eat are going to be quite nutrient-dense. You don’t have to worry about lacking protein because the fat fast contains foods which are naturally high in fat AND protein.
The list of foods on my personal list is very short. This makes my life easier.
I don’t do substitutions. I don’t switch salmon for chicken or lettuce for corn.
If you do not like the foods on the list, then my Fat Fast will not be for you OR you can create your own version. These are the foods which I personally use.
If this was called the “onion soup fast”, I would not do it because I hate onions.
If you don’t like salmon, then swap it for chicken. Don’t email me and ask permission. I wouldn’t eat something I don’t like. I would find a substitution.
Here are some samples of meals and snacks:
Scrambled, baked or fried eggs
Deviled eggs or egg salad and avocado
Salmon with Spinach
Green salad with olives and cucumbers
Black coffee, tea, water, bone broth
Zoodles (Zucchini noodles) with a sauce
Celery topped with cream cheese
Zucchini topped with tomato sauce and cheese baked
Tuna with mayonnaise on lettuce leaves
Cauliflower rice with a cream cheese sauce
I suggest making a one-day food plan and to follow it for 3 days. Easy peasy … your own personalized 3 day fat fast. Or you can give mine a try and let me know how it goes.
This is how I eat for 3 to 5 days when I Fat Fast:
I will have eggs and mushrooms for breakfast
I will have tuna with mayo on lettuce leaves for lunch
I will have salmon and cauliflower rice for dinner
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions. And, if you join me on a fat fast, let me know how it went for you and what your results were like.
When I feel my eating is out of control, it generally means that my life is unbalanced in another area. I try “health hacks” as a means of grabbing a hold of other parts of my life. It is a way for me to scan other areas and correct them. I don’t like staying stuck.
Give my fat fast a try, and share your results with us.
Healthy Hugs,
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
Why did you have bariatric surgery? Just to lose weight? What is your “why”?
Where are you on your bariatric journey? Are you actively losing weight? Stalled out? Where do you want to be? Not where you want to be? Talk to me.
I want you to read this, email me back, and tell me in your words, where you are today. I know that many of you read my blogs and I want to hear from you. Again, talk to me.
Do you need an appointment? Do you want to touch base? Do you want to send me your food logs? Do you need some encouragement?
What does this have to do with Cancun? I decided to set this bariatric trip up because I wanted to motivate you. I wanted to give you a 6-month leeway to make some decisions and set some intentions and bring those to Cancun.
5 months and counting now…… A lot can happen in 5 months. You can reach your goal. You can lose your regain. You can gain 5 pounds of pure muscle. You can become radiantly healthy. What are you going to do over the next 5 months?
If you are stuck, and you have the bucks (that rhymes lol), go online and get your plane tickets to Cancun.
You will need a passport, so if you don’t have one, apply for one now. I have a theory. If you get a passport, you will start to travel more. If you would like to travel more, get a passport. One less travel roadblock.
Our bariatric event is happening over one day, November 5th.
Come a few days early, and work on that tan. Stay a few days later, and work on that vacation. I have set up this event at a fantabulous hotel (not all-inclusive, because why would a bariatric patient need an all-inclusive hotel).
The El Presidente Hotel is on the very best beach in all of Cancun. The sand is white, the water is calm and turquoise blue. It’s close to the airport.
I have a GREAT rate for us. It is $155us for one or two people in a double room. With taxes and breakfast included, it comes to $200us per night, per room. (that’s $100us per night, per person, double occupancy, with taxes and breakfast included). YAY.
I wish it was free, but what in life is free today. We have time to save up for it – 5 months and counting. Invest in yourself by sending me your WHY …. Book those tickets, book those rooms, and let’s sail on a catamaran while celebrating US.
Bring your Mom, BFF, sister, brother, husband, or wife. Come alone. Find someone in our group that wants to share a room with you. So many different ways to plan this. Do you need a roomie? I can find you one!
I cannot wait to see you there. I cannot wait to hear from you in my inbox, through messenger, or via text message. Tell me your WHY!! What are you going to accomplish before your plane touches down in Cancun? This is so much fun.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
I chat a lot with my bariatric clients. I spend my mornings/ afternoons, on the phone with them, and when I am not on the phone, I am texting and writing emails to them. My life is very entwined with pre-op and post-op bariatric clients.
I’ve learned that bariatric surgery is not just about that number staring back at you on your scale. It’s about so much more.
Let me start a list. Please add to my list.
Improved sleep
Less inflammation
Reduced medications
More energy
Better mental health
Fewer aches and pains
Reduced hunger
Clearer mind
Healthier outlook on life
Reversing diseases like diabetes
Lowered cancer rates
Improved fertility
Now, whether you are starting your journey, closing in on your goal, at goal, at maintenance – the list above applies to YOU.
Please don’t be in a race against the scale. Understand that this journey doesn’t suddenly end. It continues for the rest of your days. You don’t magically “stop” one day because it’s over.
Write out the list above. Place this list on your fridge, and bathroom mirror. Have one in your car. Remind yourself that you have come this far and that you are not going back. Remind yourself that your “self-worth” is not some number on the scale.
Sure, it’s overwhelming and exciting to see the numbers on the scale go down, down, down…. But what happens when it slows down dramatically? What happens when stalls occur? Take out your list, and add to it. Remind yourself about all these NSVs that are occurring every day.
Celebrate all the wins along the way. Share these wins with your bariatric support group. Did you resize your wedding ring? Get a new driver’s license photo? Buy a smaller pair of pants? Say “no” to the drive-thru.
Celebrate ALL of it. I see you.
Healthy Hugs.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
What’s your weight loss goal? Did you achieve it? Where are you on your journey?
Let’s talk goals today. I think it’s important to have goals along the way when starting out on your bariatric journey. I think that having clear cut goals, is an important tool.
Write down those goals and put them in a spot where you see them often. Maybe you can put a list on your fridge door, mirror in your bathroom, screen-saver on your phone. Celebrate every goal you reach with a small gift, a massage, an appointment with your nutritionist, a day at your local spa, a new book, a new hair product etc.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Let’s plan on not only putting goals down on paper, let’s plan to revisit those goals frequently and update them as we move through this process called bariatric surgery/ life.
You may have originally started out at 230 pounds with the goal of reaching 180 pounds. When you get to 180, you may revisit your original goal and change it to 160 pounds.
You may have originally had the goal of going to the gym 4 days a week. What happens when you’ve accomplished that goal and you have been working out for 6 months. You may decide on a new goal. You may want to run a 5K or swim in the local club. I think we need to keep updating our goals.
What happens when we are at our goal weight? Does the journey end there? I think that when we reach our weight goal, we need to start over again with some new goals.
How is your diet? Are you eating sufficient protein/ fibre/ healthy fats? Maybe you would like to spend more time in the kitchen creating new meals?
What about sleep hygiene? Is there something you could do to improve your sleep patterns?
Stress? Do you have a plan in place for stress control? Breathing exercises etc.
How much fluid do you drink each day?
I believe that the journey to a healthy lifestyle never ends. We need to be working hard on improving our over-all health in all different areas.
Do we volunteer some time each week to helping others along the way? We, as bariatric surgery patients, can always “pay it forward” by answering others with bariatric questions, or by volunteering some time to our bariatric groups by posting our experiences. This protects us from going back.
Goals are important. Revisiting goals can keep us moving forward.
No slowing down. You’ve got this.
Healthy Hugs.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
Let me explain my reasoning. I am so excited to bring this event to all of you.
Cancun is such a great location. It’s is easy to get to. There are flights from every major US and Canadian city. The weather is superb and I have chosen a super nice hotel with what I consider to be the BEST beach in all of Cancun.
I have a super good rate for all of our group. It costs 155us for one room either single or double occupancy. With taxes and breakfast for two, it comes out to 200us per night for two people. YAY
I have secured that rate for our group from Nov. 2nd to Nov. 8th.
The event is on Nov. 5th but you can come earlier or stay later. You do you Boo. Bring your husband, wife, best friend, and Mother. Come alone. Come with another group member. You choose.
We make such good friends online in our groups on Facebook. They become important to us. Well, I want to transfer that into real life. Sure, online is great and we have a super support group with the kindest bunch of people. Why not transfer that into real friendships?
I believe that accountability is so important to stay in the “zone”. We need to lean on each other if we are struggling. We have a shoulder when times get tough. We can reach out if we have a re-gain or we can celebrate when we reach maintenance. We can encourage each other when we have bariatric “wins”. We can take care of each other because we understand this bariatric journey.
I want our group to be the closest-knit group of bariatric winners.
We have until November to solidify some of those goals we have been reaching for. That’s 6 whole months to push hard and reach some new goals.
If you’ve had a little re-gain, well it’s time to set some goals and reserve your room. It could be the motivation you need to get on the losers’ bench again.
Do you have some fitness goals? Time to tackle those now. You’ve got 6 whole months!
Are you in maintenance mode? Excellent – stay there and we’ll see you celebrate in 6 months!
Make a plan and meet us all in Cancun. I’ve put a great day together for all of us.
November 5th starts with gentle yoga on the beach at 7 am.
We have plenty of time to visit the breakfast buffet post-yoga because our catamaran leaves our beach at noon. We are sailing into the Caribbean, over to “Isla Mujeres” where we will have some snorkeling time, lunch, drinks, and time to swim and enjoy the most amazing crystal clear water.
We will get back to our hotel at 4 pm. There is plenty of time to take a swim in the pool, have a drink, and get ready for our Gala dinner.
Dr. Verboonen is joining us for the entire day. We will also have a presentation with a video of ALL OF YOU!! I will be reaching out for before/ after pics for our video compilation.
I’m so excited to spend a day with you. It is time to hug, laugh, and celebrate your victories.
Get online at this link, make your reservations, reserve your spot, and email or text me and tell me that you are coming. Get ready to make some great, life-long friendships.
About the Author: Sheri Burkeis a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Bariatric Surgery Coordinator at International Patient Facilitators in Tijuana and Cancun, Mexico. She has worked with bariatric surgery clients for over 10 years and especially enjoys providing nutritional guidance to pre and post bariatric clients.In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teens and cooking up a nutritional storm in the kitchen.
About the Author: 
