We have all been reading the headlines and we all know now that sugar needs to be removed from our diets but that’s not to say that it’s easy to do.  Sugar is everywhere.  It has hundreds of different names and it’s hidden in so much of the food that we eat.  We need to understand why are brains are craving sugar.  If you are not experiencing wicked sugar cravings and you spend less time pining over it, then eating low sugar suddenly becomes a whole lot easier.  Removing sugar from our daily intake is hard and I am going to share some different ideas as to how you can do it and move forward.

Breakfast should include Protein.

In our supermarket, the cereal aisle is the one that stands out the most.  It’s a super simple way to eat breakfast BUT those same cereals are LOADED with refined sugars and they will set you up for a roller coaster ride with your blood sugars.  This will lead you to eat more sugar and then crave more sugar.  Get off the roller coaster and have a high protein breakfast in the form of a smoothie with Bariatric Protein Powder or two eggs and a half avocado.  You can boil the eggs and then add a bit of butter to them or scramble them with some mozzarella cheese and veggies.  

Don’t forget your healthy fats.

Healthy fats are going to stabilize blood glucose levels and this means less sugar crashes and less hunger.  Cut open an avocado or sprinkle some chia seeds in your smoothie.  Add a dash of coconut oil to your scrambled eggs or a pat of grass-fed butter to your fried eggs.  Eat healthy fat to feel more satisfied for a longer period of time.  

Cinnamon balances blood sugar.

Why not add a bit of cinnamon to your smoothie or coffee ?  Cinnamon is able to increase your cells sensitivity to insulin. Replace the sugar with sprinkle of cinnamon.

Be prepared for snacks.

Don’t let hunger derail your efforts to reduce your sugar consumption.  Makes sure to have snacks ready to go.  Nuts and seeds are easy to pack with some string cheese and some cut up veggies.  Always have something on hand so that you are prepared.  

Get sufficient sleep.

If you are tired, you are going to have sugar cravings.  One bad night of sleep can increase gherlin which is your hunger hormone.  Make sleep a priority.

Read labels.

Sugar is hidden everywhere.  It is in your bread and pasta sauce and “healthy cereal”.  Become a professional label reader.  Make sure that the food you purchase does not have any sugar hidden in it.  

It’s not easy try to go sugar free when sugar is in so much of the food we eat today.  Take control of your nutrition and try to shop on the outside of the supermarket.  That is where you will find the fresh food items like vegetables, fruits, meats, poultry and eggs.  

Reach out if you have questions and congratulations for putting yourself first.

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 high quality specialized plant protein for bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Protein Powders

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.

Stay motivated with Bariatric Wristbands – post your results online !

You are feeling hungry and you shuffle around your house searching for food.

You hit the kitchen, opening the fridge and the cupboards looking for something, anything that you can eat that’s on your “healthy post surgery eating plan”.  Ten minutes go by and you are still just standing there … looking because there is really nothing in the fridge or in the cupboards that is considered “good to eat”.

Please don’t panic because a lot of us have this exact same issue.  I want to applaud you because this just means that you care and that you are making perfect choices.  Instead of just eating “whatever”, you are looking for healthier options and sometimes that means going to the grocery store or opening up the freezer to defrost something.  Convenience foods like chips, crackers, chocolate, pop-tarts, ice-cream – are not a part of your new healthy eating plan and so that “grab and go” convenience is also not there any more. We need to plan more if we want to succeed and reach our weight loss and nutrition goals.  We may need to cook more or do more food prep to get ourselves through the week.  

Congratulations for making the right choices and for putting yourself first and not giving in to all that convenience.  This shows that you are taking care of 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 high quality specialized plant protein for bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Protein Powders

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.

Stay motivated with Bariatric Wristbands – post your results online !

I often recommend using low fat cooking spray in a lot of my recipes.  They are lower in calories than coating your pan in regular oils and we can always spritz our pans with a spray like “Pam” but why not make our own ?  I have been using cooking spray my entire adult life and a few years ago I learned how to make my own !  While on our quest to be healthy, why not revamp all of our habits ?  “Pam” is great but wouldn’t you like to spray your pan with  something that doesn’t contain a long list of commercially prepared ingredients ?    Take a look at that can next to your stove and read what the ingredients are.  You may be more motivated to spray your pans with something where you can actually pronounce the ingredients.  The homemade version contains no crazy additives or chemicals.

It’s so easy to make your own and you can add lots of different ingredients to get lots of different flavored sprays.  For a simple, easy spray you can add just olive oil and water.  You can add any oil that you like to cook with.  If you want your spray to have a specific flavor, you can add garlic or ginger or for a Chinese flavor, add some 5 spice.  There are so many different options that you can make.  

In order to make your own cooking spray, grab a spray bottle and add to it one part of oil to five parts of water.  You can choose the size of the bottle you make because now you know the specific quantities to add to your spray bottle. You can get an inexpensive spray bottle at the Dollar Store or you can upgrade your bottle to a pretty, glass one.  Don’t make too large a quantity as you will only be using it for two weeks prior to making up a new batch.  

How easy is that ?  a healthy cooking spray that you can make in about a minute of time.  Just remember that you will need to give it a good shake before you use it each time. It doesn’t contain chemical binders so the oil and water will not stay mixed together.   Have fun getting original with different flavors and store it in a dark cool location.

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 high quality specialized plant protein for bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Protein Powders

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.

Stay motivated with Bariatric Wristbands – post your results online !

I don’t want to sound mean but when we choose to improve our nutritional regimens we can sure get some messed up notions about food and nutrition.  I understand that and all the stuff we need to say to ourselves just to get by …  I don’t get too caught up in that stuff when I hear it but I want to share some of it with you because it’s going to bite us in the behind and we need to make it stop.

Let’s start a conversation about this.  You may disagree with me but that’s not a problem.  Let’s just get it out there and talk about it.  Let’s be sure not to undermine ourselves by the stories we tell ourselves and let’s be sure to put our goals first.  There are plenty of foods that nutritionally are superior than we are eating on a daily basis so why are we not eating them ?  It’s because we don’t really like them !

We are supposed to suddenly start to like “healthy stuff” that we hated prior to surgery ….  we actually believe that suddenly our tastes are going to change and like magic we are going to start to love spinach post bariatric surgery and the taste of french fries is not going to appeal to us.  How the heck is that supposed to happen ? 

You cannot just assume that when you start to make progress and move towards a healthier lifestyle that a magic switch will flip and you will suddenly love an array of foods that you could not stomach before.  If that happens to you, wow, tell us how you did it but for the most of us it’s not that easy.  We tend to gravitate towards specific foods but let’s make the effort to reach outside of our comfort zone for our health and nutrition.  Let’s try to take “said food” and add it with something we like to see if we like them better together.  Let’s just try two bites to see if we can accustom to the flavors.  You may not love that food but keep an open mind to see if we can appreciate the taste and texture if it’s prepared differently. 

Let’s say that you cannot eat that non flavored, greek yogurt which is on your post op diet guidelines.  Why not add it to the blender with some almond milk and some protein powder with a handful of berries and some stevia for sweetness.  This is a perfect example of how you can pair a food which you don’t fancy with something that you do like – Win. Win. 

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 high quality specialized plant protein for bariatric patients Bariatric Expert Protein Powders

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.

Stay motivated with Bariatric Wristbands – post your results online !