What's on the menu today, RNYers?

LOVE bone broth.  And don't forget, it has around 6 grams of protein per cup, nothing to sneeze at!

Good to have you posting here, Lisa! I've seen bone broth mentioned on a couple of Paleo websites I frequent, it looks yummy as well as good for you. I may have to get out the stock pot!

Hi Lisa, welcome to the Menu Post!

I'm unfamiliar with "bone broth," can you tell us more? How is it different than regular old broth?

Bone broth

Just bones simmered in water with whatever seasonings you want to add or not add. Garlic is a must for me with beef and chicken bones. You can add vegetables too like celery, carrots, potatoes.

Add a little apple cider vinegar to leach more calcium and minerals out of the bones.

They recommend simmer, low heat, for 24 hours. 

Then cool.

Strain the broth from the bones and other stuff you added.

I store mine in a pitcher in the fridge.

After it sets in the fridge- you can scrape all the fat off the top.

Your broth should resemble jello when chilled.

Warm and serve. Salt and pepper to taste.

A good treat for the WHOLE family!

Mmm... Looks good. Your chicken salad sounds yummy! I've not tried that yet. Tuna but not chicken. The bone broth sounds delish too. 

Morning, all! I had a personal training session this morning and got some new exercises to work into my routine. I finally feel like I'm doing something at the gym, before my routine was so light that I felt like "That's it?" by the time I'd finished. I talked a bit with my trainer about it, and she said that she likes to start people off slowly and then work them up because it's too easy to injure yourself if you push too hard after having been sedentary for a long time. Well, that's perfectly reasonable, but I couldn't help but feel like the world's largest marshmallow among the swole bros in the weight room! So I'm feeling a little more positive about working out today. She also gave me some calf and leg exercises, which is a good thing. I've been wanting to work my calves more just to pump the muscles a bit more than walking on the treadmill would, to help with my venous insufficiency. I can see a huge improvement in my calves already, but they still look disproportionately heavy.

Emily, I'm curious about the calorie thing as well. Where is the information that you mentioned about our calories now determining calories later? I do know that long term damage to our metabolisms due to too much yo-yo dieting and ruining our set point by maintaining too high a weight will influence the calories that we need, but I hadn't heard about low calories during the honeymoon period of RnY being a factor for later. I'd be curious to know more as well. In addition, for what it's worth I was thinking about upping my calories as well, essentially eating back some of what I've been earning by working out. Nothing drastic, just maybe going up to 1000 per day as my limit instead of the 800 max I've been sticking to. While I know that you shouldn't eat back calories in general, it still looks scary to eat no more than 800 calories and then exercise 200 to 300 of them away per day. I don't want to do any further damage to my metabolism than I already have, and I'm concerned that maintaining such a low intake for much longer will have that effect. So please keep me posted on what you find out, if there's something you learn outside this thread.

Also, I got the dizzy thing yesterday as well, how odd is that? It only happened once, while I was doing some strength training, but it was enough to make me concerned and think about the calories thing. I skipped cardio at the gym and did it last night after I'd gotten a few meals in, and didn't have any problems at that point. It makes me think that a snack before the gym might not be a bad idea, though, like Anny was asking about a couple of days ago. I had been going in the morning before eating breakfast or anything else, but I may switch that up a bit.

In the spirit of trying to get something in before working out, I tried a new shake this morning, and it was awful and actually made me nauseated. Ugh. I've been craving a hot chai, and found a brand of protein shake in chai flavor, but the calories/carbs to protein ratio was awful. So I used half of it (more for flavoring than anything else), added a scoop of my fave vanilla protein powder and water and made a shake that way. Icky icky poo poo! Gonna throw the rest of it away and look for other chai options. I may just make my own at home, that way I can control the sugar content. I also need something to take Miralax with; after dropping the senna laxative I had been taking and switching over to the Miralax I realized that other than the occasional protein shake I don't drink anything bu****er anymore. I'd rather avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible, so Crystal Lite and that sort of thing are out. The hunt is on!

Today's plan, then: Supplements - morning is done, calcium and the rest is on track for the rest of the day. Water - 60 ounces down so far, on track for a nice amount today (working really hard to keep the fluids up since I'm not going to be relying on the laxatives any more.) Exercise - Strength training done at the gym, will do treadmill this afternoon. Never made it to a hour yesterday, but will work at it again today. I'm trying to work up to an hour at 3+ MPH, that would give me the equivalent of a 5K. My trainer said that if I find a 5K I'd like to enter to walk, she'll walk it with me, which I thought was awesome of her. And as far as food goes:

Ugh, sometimes new protein shakes can be a gamble. You seem to often have a protein shake in the am, can you not put the Miralax in that? Is it better to take it at night?

Sounds like you're settling in with your trainer and getting more and more from it, which is awesome! And it sounds like she's a good match - that's so great that she would do a 5K with you, really sweet. My old housemate (who owned the house) used to tell me that she would give me a month of no rent if I did a 5K with her, but even that wasn't enough incentive for me - but these days I could almost see myself taking her up on that.

Also, "swole bros" made me seriously LAUGH OUT LOUD at my desk!

I think the worst part about the new protein shake was that I took in those calories for something I didn't even LIKE! That made me mad!  So the nausea was like insult to injury... my calories are precious now, I don't have any to waste on stuff that tastes (or makes me feel) crappy!

Would the Miralax be ok in a shake, do you think? I do tend to have them in the AM, it's just nice and easy instead of fixing something. Not sure if it makes a difference if I take it AM or PM.

I'm liking the trainer more these days. I think we just had a misunderstanding early on, so I'm glad I gave her a chance to win me over. We talked for a bit today, and come to find out that she's never trained someone who's had WLS before, so she's kind of learning as much as I am I think. She weighed me today after weighing me a week ago and was shocked at the change (I didn't look, their scale doesn't count AFAIC plus I only weigh on Sundays now) so we had to have the "WLS people do it differently" conversation again. I think she's getting more comfortable with the idea, though.

"Swole bros" is an awesome expression! It's so descriptive; don't you immediately get the appropriate mental image? 

I WISH my gym had swole bros!  It has a lot of average people, doing their workouts.  And it's close to Dupont Circle so there are a lot more men listening to Madonna than anything else.  I mean, don't get me wrong...I am glad I can roll in and look like hell, but a little eye candy would not hurt!

This post made my day LOL