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.
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease or line a mini muffin tray or use a mini silicone muffin tray.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, sugar, and lemon juice. Gently stir in the dry ingredients until incorporated. Fold in the blueberries.
Transfer the batter to the muffin tray. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!
Notes
Leftovers: Store in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature, or freeze if longer.
Serving Size: Serving equals approximately one mini muffin.
More Flavor: Add lemon zest and vanilla extract.
Additional Toppings: Add walnuts, pecans, or sliced almonds.
Almond Flour: This recipe was tested using Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour. Please note that if using another brand of almond flour, results may vary.
Nutrition:
Fat................13g
Carbs..........12g
Fiber............03g
Sugar...........06g
Protein.......08g
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 should you attend? It’s for Bariatric Patients – That’s Why.
You’ve probably seen my posts online over the past week regarding the “ObesityHelp National Conference 2022” from September 30th to October 1st.
This is a place for bariatric patients (pre and post-op) to attend to gain knowledge and spend time with their peers.
This is an event that is created FOR weight loss surgery patients BY weight loss surgery patients. The event was postponed for 2020 and also for 2021 (for obvious reasons). I was a speaker at this event in 2019 and it was fabulous.
I will be attending this year but not as a speaker. This year I will be putting my RHN skills front and center. I will be giving one-on-one nutritional plans to attendees. I will prepare their nutritional plans before the event and I will meet my clients at the event to present them with their plans.
The event will be held in Costa Mesa, California this year. It’s a lovely backdrop for an important event. They’ve secured a perfect location, with awesome weather, for a two-day event. The hotel is nice and the rate is also nice. You can go alone, bring a companion, or even 3 companions. The hotel rate is for 1 to 4 guests!!
This is an exciting bariatric event!
This event can help get you back on track. It can help strengthen your resolve for long-term maintenance. It can teach you how to best use your important tool. There are excellent speakers, fashion shows, clothing swaps, gala dinners, costume parties, exhibitors, plastic surgery consultations, nutritionist consultations, and MORE.
If you want to learn more about the event, visit the links below. I’d love to meet you in Costa Mesa, California Sept. 30th – Oct. 1st.
P.S. I hear that there are wine tasting and whale watching tours also!!
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.
Maneuvering your way around the grocery store can feel like a gigantic maze designed to make you feel confused. We have labels on foods items shouting out how healthy they are for us on the front packages but when you turn them over, and look at the nutritional label, what are you looking for? Sure, the labels are so valuable to help make healthy choices but they seem so confusing at the same time.
How hard can it be to decipher food labels? Does the food industry make it more difficult for us to understand the labels? I feel that the best way to comprehend food labels is to break them down into sections, one at a time. Start with serving side and then move to calories, protein, fat, sodium and carbohydrates. Work through them one by one and the more you do this, the more you will be able to understand them.
We look at our food labels for different reasons. Whatever your reasons may be, it is wise to know how to use the information that is given on the labels to make fast, informed food choices that contribute to an overall healthy lifestyle. In general, look for foods that are low in sodium and trans-fat. When it comes to the % daily value, this can help you to quickly gage whether the food is high or low in a particular nutrient.
If the daily value is 5% or less, it is low in that nutrient and if it has a value of 20% or above, the food is considered high in that nutrient. The percentage daily value or %DV will also help you to know and understand how nutritious a food actually is. It is based on eating 2,000 calories a day. The %DV is based on how much of a specific nutrient you should have every day.
Serving Sizeis located right on top of the Nutrition Facts: We use serving size to understand portion size. This doesn’t mean that you need to eat the entire serving. It means that the typical user of this product eats “X” portion size.
Calorieswill be the next section to follow. This tells us for the typical portion of food, you will gain “X” amount of calories when you eat that portion. From this point you can compare different products of the same food-type to see which ones are higher and lower in calories. I am not a calorie fanatic and I don’t personally believe in the “calories in and calories out” theory but I do think it is an important starting point when reading food labels.
Total Fatwill be found under the calories listed.
The fat section will be broken down into three parts. First up is the total fat, followed by saturated fat and followed by trans-fat. Trans fats are the fats that we are trying to completely avoid. The best number to see on your food label next to the trans-fat section is 0.
Total Carbohydrate
Is up next and there is a lot of controversy right now when it comes to discussing carbohydrates. This isn’t a lesson in food nutrition but a lesson in reading labels so I am going to keep this to the point. Choosing better types of carbohydrates is important for your health. The food label can help you to understand how many grams of carbohydrates are in any specific product but it is not going to tell you the quality of carbohydrates in the product.
Dietary Fiber
Is next up under the carbohydrate section. Fiber is your friend and if you choose foods that are higher in dietary fiber, you will feel fuller for longer.
Sugars
Come next on the food label. We are all trying to watch our sugars so the lower this number is, the better off we are. Be aware of sugars and other sweeteners that do not necessarily call themselves sugar but there are a lot of names for sugar, such as corn syrup, maple syrup, rice syrup, honey, molasses, barley malt or many things that end in the letters “ol”, such as maltitol, sorbitol or “ose” endings like fructose or dextrose.
Protein
Is highlighted next. Proteins are one of our macronutrients – the other two are fat and carbohydrates. You want to find foods that provide you with protein such as meat and dairy products. A percentage daily value for protein is not required on the label.
In general, when it comes to the percent daily value, this can help you to quickly gage whether the food is high or low in a particular nutrient. If the daily value is 5% or less, it is low in that nutrient and if it has a value of 20% or above, the food is considered high in that nutrient.
During your next few trips to the grocery store, give yourself some additional time to look carefully at the products and at their food labels. It gets easier as you read more labels and once you have found your healthy “go to items”, grocery shopping becomes easier and quicker.
You are worth it and your health is also worth it !
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.
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.
About the Author: 
