9Jun
Another week flies by. We are almost in full-blown summer and the grills have been fired up. We are starting to have people in our backyards even if we may be social distancing. Something got me thinking about the ways we sabotage ourselves and that “thing” was hamburgers! 
 
You know how it goes … the hamburgers are on the grill. They are smelling perfect. Oh, the delicious smells of Summer. The grill chef (your husband) asks if you want cheese on your burger. “Why of course I want cheese”, you say! “Would you like a slice of bacon on your burger”, he responds. “Yes, Yes, Yes, Please”, is your answer. Ketchup? “yes please”!
 
Notice how he never asked me if I want the bun because he knows that I won’t eat it. “Heat a bun for me”, I say. That’s exactly how I have started to sabotage myself. 
 
I mean, how bad can the bun be? IT’S NOT, if you just eat the small bun one time and then move on. For me, just that small bun can put me on a downward spiral. Accepting the bun means that I am also going to grab a handful of chips to place beside my PERFECT burger. I am also going to take a spoonful of potato salad because if I am going to do carbs, I am going to do them RIGHT. 
 
If you eat just the tiny bun and that’s it, then ignore my little rant but if you are like me, and you allow the tiny bun to seriously side-rail you then you need to do what I am going to do,,, just cut it out and get real and stop asking for a tiny, heated bun and make yourself a chaffle bun, or buy yourself a bag of low carb buns to keep in the freezer or eat the darn burger without the bun OR use a bunch of lettuce to make the bun. 
 
Just cut it out if you are making the same errors that I’ve started making … nobody needed bariatric surgery because they ate one hamburger bun. Nobody needed bariatric surgery because they love to eat only protein with veggies. Look, one of the reasons why we gain tons of weight is because we don’t know how to do refined and processed carbs correctly and we just overdo it. 
 
How bad is the rice? BAD if you do the rice with the sweet Chinese chicken balls.
How bad is the bread? BAD if it sits on your plate beside the big plate of pasta covered in Alfredo sauce.
How bad can the hamburger bun be? BAD if it’s sitting on the plate with the chips or fries and potato salad.
 
Now, if you do a meal like this “once” and move back to protein and veg, then forget about this blog post BUT if it puts you on a downward spiral then let’s have a good look at what’s happening and just cut it out.
 
I’ve fallen into a bit of a “salad dressing trap” a few times over the last few weeks. I make a gorgeous salad. My plate looks amazing and you know what would go perfectly with that salad? Ranch dressing! Of course, we all have a gorgeous bottle of ranch dressing in our fridge, right? 
 
Who eats one tablespoon of ranch dressing? I don’t see any hands up. You know why? It’s because we eat a lot more than a tablespoon of ranch at a time. We eat more like 4 tablespoons of ranch minimum. All my hard work of trying to eat correctly has just been sabotaged by ranch dressing. Don’t believe me? Turn over the bottle of ranch and see what is in it. It is full of sugar and it is also full of canola oil. That’s the bad stuff that does really bad stuff inside your body.
 
There are tons of examples that I can give of what I do in my journey to wellness that sabotages me. I want you to try to identify yours and then take some steps to make things better. 
 
This week I am going to do a few things to help myself along the way. First up… ever hear of a chaffle? You probably have and it takes about two minutes to make two of them and they are the perfect replacement for the hamburger bun. Instead of having that burger with cheese and bacon and ketchup, I can do the following: skip the processed cheese on the burger because it is not real cheese and it’s loaded with junk. I can make a chaffle which is a small amount of mozzarella cheese and an egg. This chaffle-bun holds up perfectly against my juicy hamburger and I can add some sugar-free ketchup on top. I have just taken my burger to a new level. 
 
What about that ranch dressing? Well, I got in my kitchen last weekend and created a ranch dressing that tastes superb and is high in protein and healthy for me. I took my food processor and I added a couple of spoonfuls of cottage cheese. My Greek yogurt had gone bad so I needed to throw it out but the Greek yogurt would have been perfect also. To that base I added my favorite seasonings, a touch of stevia, a big squeeze of lime and I blended it up – it turned out AMAZING. I will do some more experimenting with some different salad dressings this week and I will share them with you. You can put them in a small container in the fridge and they stay good for about 5 days. I will add some avocado, cilantro, etc, and share them with you. 
 
So, I guess in closing today I want to say that I don’t want to vilify hamburger buns. I don’t want to vilify ranch dressing. I do want to look closely at my personal habits and see if I can find a way to healthify them. Remember, it’s not just the darn hamburger bun for me. It’s a spiral that happens and the bun turns into French fries and ice-cream and gimme gimme gimme all the carbs. Before I know it, I am watching Netflix and chowing down on gummy bears and not the healthy ones I make in my kitchen.
 
Why don’t you take a look at your habits and if you have something that is derailing you, and you don’t have a good replacement for it, reach out to me, and together we can find something that may work to replace “said” item for you.
 
Healthy Hugs Minus the Bun!

About the Author: Sheri Burke is 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.

For bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Amazon Line

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3Jun

Dark Chocolate Almond Mousse - Bariatric Recipe

a great bariatric breakfast or snack
Print Recipe
Total Time 3 minutes
Servings: 1
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1/3 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
  • 1 2/3 tbsps Chia Seeds
  • 1 2/3 tbsps cocoa powder
  • 2 1/3 tbsps Almond Butter
  • 1 3/4 tbsps Monk Fruit Sweetener
  • 1/4 tbsps vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tbsps Sea Salt

Method
 

  1. Add all the ingredients to a high-speed blender and blend for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened, smooth and creamy.
  2. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours. Enjoy!

Notes

Leftovers: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to five days. Stir well before serving.
Serving Size: One serving is roughly 1/2 cup.
coconut.
Additional Toppings: Extra cocoa powder, chopped nuts, fresh berries and/or shredded
No Almond Butter: Use another nut or seed butter instead.
 
NUTRITION
Amount per Serving
 
Calories.....206
Fat................16g
Carbs..........23g
Fiber............10g
Sugar...........1g
Protein........8g
2Jun
Did you see how I did that? How I titled this blog “The Easy Way Out”. What I forgot to post was the “?” at the end of that statement. It should have read “The Easy Way Out?”.
 
I might have a bit of a RANT today 🙂
 
I hear this often because I’ve been working with bariatric clients for 13 years now. I also see this statement on social media because for some reason my clients believe that others may think that they have decided to take “the easy way out”. So let’s just talk about this statement for a bit and why people think this.
 
Bill – “Did you see Bob? He lost sooooo much weight! He must have lost like over 100 pounds”.
 
Karen – “Ya, but he had the bariatric surgery so it doesn’t count. He took the easy way out”.
 
Hey Karen, you’ve got this all wrong.  
What Karen didn’t see (sorry to use the name Karen for all my Karen’s on my emailing list), is that Bob had to make the decision to take his health into his own hands. 
 
Bob was sick. He was taking 5 different medications for 5 different ailments. He had a continuous sore back. His feet were achy every day. He was depressed and suffered from high blood pressure, high blood sugars, high triglycerides, and COPD. 
 
Bob heard of a friend who went to Mexico and he lost weight and regained his health back. Bob was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He found out from his friend that there was a great place to go in Mexico and it cost a lot less and the results were nothing less than amazing.
 
Bob began his research. He spent months talking to different bariatric centers in Mexico. He spent months on forums researching. He gathered a ton of information.
 
He spoke with his bank and took out a small personal loan to pay for his surgery and the flights for himself and his wife. 
 
Bob was nervous but he was even more nervous about the condition of his health and he wanted to be around to see his kids graduate. His doctor had been telling him for years that he needed to lose weight. 
 
In the past, Bob tried EVERY DIET known to man-kind. He managed to lose 100 pounds on his own 5 years ago but the weight came right back on when he stopped going to the gym for two hours a day. Bob followed his wife’s weight watchers plan. He tried to stay away from fast food. He tried to eat the low carb way. He still kept gaining weight.
 
Bob was embarrassed about having to shop at “Big and Tall” stores. Shopping for clothes had become a chore.
 
Bob felt embarrassed at restaurants because the booths would squeeze his stomach and made him feel self-conscious. 
 
Bob felt that his employer looked at him differently and he feared for his job at times.
 
Bob was fed up with all the pill bottles and medications that he needed to take each day.
 
Bob made the decision that it was “his time” and that he was taking his health into his own hands and traveling to Mexico for his surgery. Bob booked his surgery, booked his flights, paid his deposit, and spoke with his bariatric nutritionist to get ready for his pre-op diet.
 
Bob followed the pre-op diet to a T. He lost the first 10 pounds and was already feeling better.
 
Bob boarded his flight and made his way to Mexico. He had his surgery and went through his recovery for 48 hours at the hospital. He had some painful gas pains post-op and his hand swelled up from the IV and all the medications but he passed his post-op testing with flying colors and made his way back across the border, boarded his flight, and made his way home.
 
He was excited about his new life and the possibilities of weight loss and getting off his meds.
 
Bob learned pretty quickly that he could no longer binge eat. He learned that if he ate too much or too quickly, he would experience pain and vomiting. He figured out that his new tummy didn’t like his old way of eating or any of his old bad habits.
 
Bob had to learn a whole new way to eat. He had to take his surgery seriously and the hard work of making lifestyle changes to maintain his weight loss. 
 
Bob started exercising again. He didn’t go all crazy and spend hours at the gym. He got into a more realistic way of exercising 4 times a week for 40 minutes at a time.
 
Eventually, it all paid off. He did his pre-op diet. He made the trip to Mexico. He paid for his surgery. He learned how to eat correctly. He started exercising again. He regained his health and got off his meds.
 
Sorry, Karen… which part of this was EASY? How did Bob take the “easy way out”? 
 
This is just such an unfair thing to say and an unfair way to think about bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery is a huge commitment and it is not “just have the surgery” and “be done”. 
 
Surgery is only the beginning because what comes AFTER the surgery is really hard work. Oh, and the surgery is also not so “easy”. Heck, it’s a surgery! It is the removal of 80% of your stomach. Hello. How is that considered “easy”?
 
Gas pains … have you ever had serious gas pains. It’s not fun. It’s also not fun having pre-op labs and post-op labs. It’s also not fun having a drain removed. Who thinks flying is fun? I hate flying. I do it because “I have to”…not because “it’s fun”.
 
I guess that bariatric patients will always have to deal with the “Karen’s” of the world. We will have to be criticized by our friends and family members behind our backs or even to our faces. What I want you to realize is that you did NOT take the easy way out. You took one road to wellness and this just happened to be the bariatric surgery road. Who cares how you got your health back. Always celebrate the fact that you decided to get healthy. It doesn’t matter which road you took to get to “healthy”. 
 
If you want to argue with others about bariatric surgery – go for it. I don’t argue about it anymore. 
 
I remember when I was in school studying nutrition. There was a class where we discussed bariatric surgery. My classmates were so against it. They had NO idea. They were not living in a body that was overweight. Some of them believed that a good “diet” would get my clients to lose weight and keep it off. Oh, how naive they sounded. Did they believe that my clients hadn’t tried a “diet” before? Did they think that a healthy diet was a new concept? Or that exercise was a new concept. I argued but soon realized that there was no convincing my healthy classmates of any pre-conceived notions they held in their heads.
 
Maybe it’s a bit like politics. 
 
I don’t try to change anybody’s mind anymore. I also don’t care what others think. I care that my clients get healthy and get back to living their life and feeling good about themselves. 
 
So guess what, if you’ve had bariatric surgery CONGRATULATIONS. I salute you for taking the important steps for getting healthy and also for all the work you have done and all the changes you have made to your existing lifestyle.
 
I know how hard you have worked!! (Who cares what Karen thinks lol)
 
Healthy Hugs xo
Sheri

About the Author: Sheri Burke is 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.

For bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Amazon Line

Time for a “bariatric expert” multivitamin?  Here is a perfect way for bariatric patients to get it now on Amazon:  Bariatric Expert MultiVitamins.

Eat Like a Bariatric Expert with our Nutrition Plans.

Feel free to share your victories and struggles in our Facebook Group. I would love to connect with you.

 

 

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Gastric Sleeve Plush Toy Keychain $11.99usd

Plush Toy Gastric Sleeve Recovery Fun Pillow $13.99usd

 

26May
What about Exercise? 
My Journey to Enjoying Exercise – Bariatric Edition
 
I cannot stand “braggy exercise social media posts”. Yes, we all know that you exercised today Karen. Can you shut up about it please? You know who I am talking about right? It’s sooooo annoying. This is not a braggy blog. This is a blog that explains “why” I am talking about exercise and I hope it is encouraging. I know that deep down you are an athlete. In my dreams, I run marathons. But, it’s only in my dreams. I have never run a 5K …. 
 
So, what about exercise? A lot of our bariatric journey focuses on food. How much should we eat? When should we eat? What kinds of foods should we eat? What kind of foods shouldn’t we eat? What kinds of supplements should we take now that our diets have changed? 
 
We spend a lot of time talking about food – I get that. Now that we have learned so darn much about food, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to talk a bit about exercise?
 
So who am I to talk about exercise? I mean, I am not your Zumba instructor and we don’t meet in the gym for weekly workouts but, I am a certified personal trainer and I have been teaching yoga, aerobics, water aerobics, weight training, and spin classes since I was 18 years old. Teaching exercise classes was my second job ever (my first job was working at Wendy’s lol – true story).
 
I was hired by a huge local gym (way back in the day when I was 18 – loooooong time ago) and I was responsible for making appointments for customers, keeping the gym area clean, and showing customers how to use the gym equipment without hurting themselves or hurting our equipment. This is how I got started in the “gym business”.
 
From that job I took an interest in teaching and so I got my certification through the YMCA and through that same organization, I learned how to teach aerobics, low impact aerobics, and water aerobics. Fast forward a year and I was teaching all of these classes in my hometown, Ottawa Ontario. 
 
This job is also the reason why I started traveling around the world. I applied and was hired by a Swiss-German company called Club Intersport. They placed instructors and expensive equipment in hotels in Europe and the Caribbean. We were a match so off I went to the Dominican Republic, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, and Cyprus and finally I ended up in Mexico.  
 
It was a whirlwind of FUN!! This company also taught me how to teach archery, lead mountain biking groups and I got my Rescue Diver Certification through PADI. This was a period in my life that is hard to describe. I never “planned” on traveling so much. It just “happened”. I was open to the concept and the opportunities were there. 
 
I finally settled down in Mexico when I was 30 years old. I was working full time in a very nice health club and I was focused on my personal training program. I had Valentina when I was 31 (she is now 19 years old), and I went back to teaching a few low impact aerobic classes when she was 5 months old in 2001. 
 
When I was pregnant with Sebastian, I was 32 years old and I took a bit of time off from the gym and focused on my Valentina and my pregnancy. After Sebastian was born (he is now 17), I was 33 years old and I decided that I wanted to learn how to teach Spinning. I flew to Miami and got certified with a Spinning company called “Mad Dogg”. 
 
For the next 10 years I taught classes off and on. 
 
Wow, that was a huge part of my life. I taught exercise classes for over 20 years. 
 
I went back to school to study in Canada to become a nutritionist. It was the next important step in my goal of helping people to get healthy and stay healthy. It was also an important part of my career because I was a patient coordinator and I wanted to help my clients improve their diets and improve their results post-surgery. I felt that it was a natural move to make and it blended so well into my already established career path.
 
Fast forward to today and this blog that I am writing…. exercise. I know what I am talking about when it comes to exercise. I no longer have the desire to teach classes. Been there, done that. What I do now is encouraging people to get active. I want to see my clients develop a system that works for them. I want them to see how consistent exercise can help them reach their goals.
 
Exercise …. Ho Hum. I used to exercise because I wanted to look good. I used to exercise to try to maintain my weight. I used to exercise because I wanted to wear specific clothing. Today my reasons for exercise are very different.
 
Exercise was my job for so many years. Did I truly enjoy it back then? Well, I had a pretty terrific job but it was still a job. It didn’t matter if I “wanted” to exercise because I “got paid” to do it. It wasn’t until I stopped teaching classes that I had to take a step back and see what I truly enjoyed – not just for the sake of teaching it. Now I had to “want to exercise for me”. It is very different than HAVING to teach back to back classes. When you take away the “have to”, you start to ask yourself, “do you WANT to”?? 
 
I feel that if I want to remain healthy, I must continue down the exercise path. I know what inactivity feels like also. My back hurts, my neck hurts, my knees hurt, my hips hurt … I am sad and down and depressed … I don’t like feeling like that.
 
I have taught myself to NOT step on the scale before I exercise. Exercise is no longer about weight loss for me. Exercise is a chance for me to get STRONGER. It is my daily chance to keep diabetes at bay. It is my daily way to keep my triglycerides “in check”. It makes it possible to have a lower blood pressure than most of my family and friends. 
 
Exercise is my secret weapon. Yes, it is so powerful. It is my daily dose of endorphins. It keeps depression away – BE GONE DEPRESSION. No matter how crappy I feel going into a workout, I am going come out of that workout feeling a gazillion times better. Exercise is my HAPPY PILL.
 
Now, I am not going to beat you over the head with exercise. You need to know the right time for you. I always say that consistency trumps intensity. You Do You Boo. Find something that makes you happy today. Tomorrow that may change. That’s fine. Go with it. 
 
Today you may want to ride a bike. Tomorrow you may want to go on a walk. Friday might be your day for playing softball and Sunday might be your day to garden. 
 
I used to look at exercise as a chore. Today I see it as my way to get my darn head screwed on right. I promise you, if you just get up and do it, you will feel so much better. 
 
Earlier I mentioned how I never weigh before I exercise. Wanna know why? I separate weight loss and exercise today. If I step on the scale and I am heavier than the day before or two days before that, what happens in my head? I am going to angry at myself. I am not going to enjoy my workout because I “messed up” and I am now fat and bad. 
 
See how I did that? I compared my weight with who I am. I allowed my weight to dictate how I feel about myself. It is a fast spiral downwards. Sometimes if my weight is not on target, I even skip my workout because “obviously working out doesn’t work if I am heavier today than I was yesterday”. Who out there has had this same conversation in their head?
 
This is how I approach exercise today …. 
I am bigger than a smaller size of jeans.  Yes, that’s right. I am not going to allow some number on the scale to dictate whether I work out today or not. My legs are powerful and I am going to use them to release some endorphins. 
 
Exercise is a magic piece to this bariatric puzzle and I also feel it is something that we all should try to incorporate into our lives. 
 
If you are not already exercising, I challenge you here and now. I challenge you to put together a plan to start. It can be a small plan. It can be a walking plan or a stretching plan. It doesn’t need to hurt. I just want you to incorporate something into your already busy lifestyle that is JUST FOR YOU. It is your time to be “greedy”. 
 
Mamacita, if you don’t take some time for YOU, how are you going to keep giving and giving and giving and giving. 
 
I used to feel guilty about taking time out of my day to exercise. I am now fiercely protective of MY TIME when I get sweaty and do something to keep me healthy and happy. I want to share this with you. If I could package endorphins and legally sell them I would and I would be RICH. Come and join me for a tablet of legal endorphins. Let’s exercise – you and me. Let’s stay healthy and happy for a long time.
 
The exercise journey never ends. It evolves with time and it becomes an integral part of who you are.
 
Love yourself enough to beat yourself up just a tiny bit xoxo
 
If you need help coming up with an exercise plan, reach out to me, and let’s put one together just for you.

About the Author: Sheri Burke is 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.

For bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Amazon Line

Time for a “bariatric expert” multivitamin?  Here is a perfect way for bariatric patients to get it now on Amazon:  Bariatric Expert MultiVitamins.

Eat Like a Bariatric Expert with our Nutrition Plans.

Feel free to share your victories and struggles in our Facebook Group. I would love to connect with you.

 

 

BUY HERE
BUY HERE
BUY HERE
BUY HERE

 

 

 

 

 

Gastric Sleeve Plush Toy Keychain $11.99usd

Plush Toy Gastric Sleeve Recovery Fun Pillow $13.99usd

 

12May

Let’s do this!!

I was going to blog today about apple cider vinegar and it’s amazing benefits but then I got to thinking … Who ate too much last weekend? Who ate too much last month? Who ate too much this entire time we’ve been staying at home and social distancing ourselves from the world?

It seems like we are starting to open up slowly again. We are crawling out of our houses and starting to think about getting back to some sort of normalcy again. It will take time. Some of us are recovering more quickly than others. Some of us will stay in our homes longer because we are not ready to go out yet. Let’s be kind to each other. It’s hard enough without bashing each other online and trying to force our thoughts and feelings upon each other.

BUT GUYS – we all have something in common. WE ALL 8 2 MUCH!! I am pretty sure that the majority of us used this time to feel very stressed, pressured, concerned, worried and we ate all the carbs and candy, sugar and pies, chips, and pretzels. We overdid it and now we need to take a good hard look at what we have done and make some changes to our diets. 

I have seen your FB feed. You’ve seen mine. Who bakes cookies and cakes every week? I have seen more beautiful loaves of freshly baked bread on Instagram. I have also tried to buy flour and the supermarkets have been completely out of these types of ingredients. Why? Because we are all baking ourselves into a frenzy of cookies and pies and gorgeous buns. 

Now tell me how you baked cookies three times last week and never ate even one of them. LOL

(I don’t believe you)

So what are we going to do? Just give up and bake ourselves into oblivion? Of course not. I know that you are going to get back on the proverbial horse and join me in this next challenge.

I posted a nutritional plan a few weeks ago and some of you followed it and got some pretty awesome results. Let’s add this nutritional plan to that last one and build onto it. A few weeks ago I challenged you to a 6-day plan where we did some intermittent fasting and where we ate real, whole, live, natural, good quality food.

This week we are going to continue with the intermittent fasting. If you are not comfortable with intermittent fasting, that’s fine. What I am trying to create is a window of “eating” and a window of “not eating” each day. What I am trying to avoid is the constant grazing all day long and late into the evening. This is a habit that I find a lot of us have and when we sit back and see how much we consume this way, it can be a SHOCKER. 

If you are a breakfast person, great, eat breakfast. When breakfast is over, clean the kitchen and don’t eat again until lunch, please. Once lunch is finished, then clean up the area and no snacking your way to dinner. Now it’s time for dinner and we will eat dinner and then no snacking after dinner. This is the same basic principles for intermittent fasting. When we eat, we eat and when we don’t eat, we don’t eat. See what I mean? 

I am not forcing you into fasting mode. What I want you to do is to stop with the constant snacking here and snacking there.

Now, why do we snack all the time? I’ll tell you why … it’s because we are not using the bariatric tool as it was meant to be used. The sleeve or pouch needs to be filled up so that you feel satisfied. If you never fill your pouch, you will always feel hungry and you will want to snack or graze all the time.

I’ve seen my clients go for lunch and order the regular sized taco salad. Of course, the regular-sized taco salad sounds like it is meant for one person but when it comes it’s the size of a football. It’s a HUGE portion of food. It is for 8 servings. I see this all the time and wonder how restaurants make any money when they serve this GIANT sized plates.

Anyways, the taco salad comes and you eat some of the salad but you get full pretty quickly so you get a “to-go box” and head home. The box sits on your kitchen counter and between lunch and dinner you finish off that salad. You keep going back to it and grabbing a bite here and a bite there. Just one more bite. 

Then it’s time for dinner and you are not that hungry (because you have eaten a salad plate that was enough for 8 people) and then you proceed to get something for dinner. You don’t finish but a few bites of dinner but you manage to polish it off between dinner and 9 pm.

Can you see what has happened? You have bypassed your tool or your restriction and you just keep on feeding and feeding and feeding. 

Wouldn’t it be better to eat until you are truly full? It would be excellent if when that plate came, you chose one bit of solid protein and one bite of veg and ate until you were ready to stop. The fork goes down and then it doesn’t come up again until you are ready to eat again.

My clients are so afraid of stretching out their tool that they never eat enough to feel satisfied BUT they graze throughout the day and night so they are not going to make any progress this way. Plus that grazing … well, it’s an easy habit to get into and a HARD habit to break. 


So here is our plan on the 8 2 Much Challenge

We will …. 


Make a list of what we need, head to the grocery store, and get started with an easy and super effective plan. Let’s break that sugar addiction and get off the carb-crazy merry-go-round!!

Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
Weigh yourself on day one in the morning/ Weigh again at the end of the challenge
Add a bit of apple cider vinegar to the first glass of water of the day
One cup of tea or coffee is allowed
1/2 an hour of exercise per day please (walk, jog, bike, swim, do whatever you like)
Get 8 hours of sleep per night
Stress BE GONE – try to not allow yourself to do the COVID-spiral outta control …


What are we going to eat?? We will eat 3 meals a day for 6 days. No snacking, please.


Breakfast Choices

1 to 2 scrambled eggs with sautéed veggies 
1/2 a cup of greek yogurt with frozen strawberries (blended in the food processor)
1/2 a cup of cottage cheese with frozen berries (blended in the food processor) 
1 boiled egg, hummus, and v eggie sticks


Lunch Choices

Lettuce wrap – tuna and a bit of mayo wrapped up in a large lettuce leaf
Chicken cesar salad
Chicken veggie soup
Beef burger with a lettuce bun


Dinner Choices

 small steak with green beans and a side salad
 4 ounces of grilled salmon, broccoli and a side salad
 4 ounces of baked chicken, cauliflower and a side salad
 saute shrimp with veggies of choice

How easy was that? You can pick and choose between the four different options and create your daily menus. You can eat the same thing two days in a row or even three days in a row. You can mix and match however you like.

If you want to make changes to my meals, go for it. If you want to grill the chicken instead of baking it, great. If you want to put the shrimp on the barbie – awesome! Feel free to make those healthy swaps in and out without any fear.

What do all of the days and meals have in common? They are all low in refined and processed carbohydrates. They are all low in sugar. They are all high in fiber and protein. They have a moderate amount of healthy fat.

Let’s get make a list of what we need, head to the grocery store, and get started with the easy and super effective plan. Let’s break that sugar addiction and get off the carb-crazy merry-go-round!!


Here’s to a healthier YOU!

Sheri

About the Author: Sheri Burke is 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.

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12May
ACV = Apple Cider Vinegar…. I LOVE THIS STUFF. For those of you who cannot stomach the idea, there is a Bariatric Expert ACV Supplement for that!
 
 
I add it to my water in the morning. I use it as a salad dressing. I use it for cooking. I use it as a topical remedy for my eczema on my hands. I use it for scrapes. I use it to wipe down my windows. When my 10-year-old chihuahua gets a “hot or itchy spot”, she gets the ACV topically also. I’ve been using ACV for a long time now … way before it got mainstream “popular”. I guess you can call me a “vinegar pusher”. I want to share this with my family, friends, and clients because I love the stuff. Now, I don’t think it’s going to cure cancer or heart disease but it’s my healthy hack for a few issues instead of taking OTC medications. I’ve personally seen how it can help my clients with a few of their issues also. 
 
Here’s my disclaimer: Before you stop taking any of your medications, talk to your doctor. It is out of my scope of practice to tell you to start or stop any medications. Research, research, and then research some more, please. 
 
What’s all the buzz about anyway? Why are we hearing so much about this seemingly simple remedy?
 
First up, what exactly is Apple Cider Vinegar? Well, it’s made out of fermented apples and water. Just like “regular vinegar”, apple cider vinegar has 5% acidity. When shopping for kinds of vinegar, you will see that there are quite a few different ones in your local grocery store. There is the distilled kind that looks like a clear color in the bottle and then there is a raw or unfiltered kind that looks a bit cloudy. There may even be things floating around in it. It sounds gross, but it’s good. This is called “the mother”. It’s formed by natural enzymes while fermenting. Don’t be scared of it because it is safe to consume. We WANT to consume these funky looking white floating bits in our vinegar. The more the merrier!
 
Vinegar has a very long shelf life – it’s almost indefinite according to the “Vinegar Institute”. Your vinegar may look different with age but you can still feel free to consume it.
 
So what about nutritionally? What about calories? 
Don’t worry about gaining weight from vinegar because apple cider vinegar has no calories per tablespoon. ACV also has no carbs, fat, fiber, or protein. It’s considered a free food. You can add flavor to foods and at the same time not add any calories. Go ACV!
 
Why oh Why has ACV been converted into a superfood? Why is it in the news all the time and why should we be drinking it or adding it to our food? Let’s chat about what the health benefits are of apple cider vinegar. What’s all the hype about anyway? 
 
We hear that sipping on ACV and water can cure EVERYTHING … We see articles about how it can help with weight gain, skin issues, digestive issues, and a whole lot more. You won’t find a ton of studies that are going to support these claims. Let’s be super realistic about the ACV craze today. This also doesn’t mean that you should walk away from the ACV claims. Who stands to earn a pile of cash from pushing ACV? … besides the ACV company? Ya, and they don’t have deep pockets like the pharmaceutical companies so there are not going to be huge studies done around ACV. You will have to study it yourself. You will have to see if it helps you and then make an educated decision based on that. 
 
One thing is for sure, ACV is not going to make you gain any weight because as we discussed earlier, it has zero calories. But, is ACV going to burn the fat off your body? Taking a bit of ACV is not going to make any changes to your weight because to lose weight you need to have an overall good and healthy diet. But, that is boring old advice right? It’s more flashy to say – do a shot of ACV and see the pounds melt away. ACV together WITH a good solid, healthy diet can help you to get the scale to move in the right direction. It’s not the ACV alone that is going to lose the weight. 
 
Some good news is that some studies have been done with type 2 diabetics. They have shown that a bit of ACV taken together with a meal can reduce spikes in blood sugars and it can improve insulin response. 
 
There have also been studies that show a reduction in LDL (that’s the bad cholesterol), total cholesterol, AND triglyceride levels due to the antioxidant benefits of the apple cider vinegar.
 
What about acid reflux? Could apple cider vinegar help with this? Doesn’t it seem counterintuitive? How could something that has 5% acidity DECREASE acid production? This is one of the reasons why I use ACV. I use it to prevent heartbeat and to improve my digestion. If I add more acid to my HCI that is already present, I am better able to digest my foods and this causes LESS acid reflux. Most cases of acid reflux come from LOW HCI in the stomach and not from an overproduction of HCI. Research, Research, and then Research some more, please. 
 
So, if taking a bit of diluted ACV can help to improve digestion, wouldn’t that mean that it could help a whole lot of people with other digestive issues? There are so many people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and a whole slew of other issues. Since ACV is a probiotic food, it helps to raise the good bacteria in the gut. Higher levels of healthy bacteria mean better digestion, absorption, and assimilation of the foods that we eat. Hmmmmm …. There are not sufficient studies to prove any of this but there are small studies using mice in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. What’s stopping us from giving it a try? 
 
I have eczema on my hands which is directly related to my diet and stress levels. I don’t have it all the time but when I eat too much sugar (for example), my eczema gets a whole lot worse. When I am up to my eyeballs in stress (think global pandemics), my eczema appears seemingly out of nowhere. When that happens, I reach for the ACV. It helps my “scratch/itch” cycles. I have tried many creams and potions and none of them work any better than my cheap bottle of ACV. At one point I had drawers of OTC and prescription creams. They worked a bit and then my eczema would come back with a vengeance Once again, disclaimer here: talk to your doctor before throwing away your eczema cream and switching over to ACV. 
 
I think that there are natural remedies that can work better than the ones prescribed to us. Doesn’t chicken soup help a cold? I mean, it doesn’t cure a cold, only time can do that together with your immune system but isn’t there something in a hot bowl of homemade chicken soup that makes us feel better? 
 
Think about all the remedies that your Grandmother or Grandfather talked about. When I lived in Mexico, every Mexican Mother touted the benefits of chamomile tea. We used cool chamomile teabags for A LOT of symptoms. Chamomile tea was in every kitchen. Even my pediatrician sent me home with a prescription for chamomile tea on occasions. 
 
Come to think of it, I use apple cider vinegar, homemade chicken soup, and chamomile tea a lot. I am pretty sure that my kids are going to pass this down to their kids and the cycle of natural remedies continues. This makes me smile. In closing, I am going to get a shot of ACV and start my day.
 
Here’s to you and your health, 
Hugs,
Sheri