I love food, I love to eat, and I love to write.  My love of food has transitioned into a way of being since I had my Lap Band surgery in 2004.  That love has resulted in our newly published cookbook, Eat Your Way to Success And Learn How To Control Hunger - A Weight Loss Surgery Friendly Cookbook. 

Do you want your own copy?  Here’s the link to purchase :  EAT YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS.......

• Do you find yourself bored with eating the same thing over and over again? 
• Would you like to learn how to eat delicious food and steer away from protein bars and shakes and continue to lose weight or maintain?
• Would you like to be able to prepare one meal for your entire household, and not have all of your food be “different” from those who haven’t had surgery?
• Would you just like some new, fresh, ideas to stimulate your own imagination to create more interesting and delicious foods in your kitchen?
• Are you just learning how to cook and need some simple step by step recipes that meet your needs?

You will find all of this in our book, and as I skim the pages I am so excited to be able to share this with all of you.

How did this happen?  At first, for about 2 years, I kept myself eating the same foods over and over and over for breakfast, lunch and often dinner.  The weight was falling off, I was feeling great and I was afraid to step outside the box that was working so well.  I was eating very simple foods like yogurt with berries, or eggs/egg beaters and cheese or cottage cheese, or tuna and crackers, and lots of chicken and turkey for dinners since ground meat or poultry didn’t work.

I ate this over and over and over until I realized that this was my life.  I still loved food but was a little bit afraid of it loving me back too much.  I soon concluded that I needed to expand my food sources, try new recipes, create weight loss surgery friendly recipes from old tried and true high calorie/high carb/high fat recipes, and then it all began.  My love of cooking returned with a vengeance.  I was experimenting, first with dinners and then with breakfasts and lunches, and soon I was creating new recipes, putting together ingredients that I never thought to put together before.  I had some tasty ideas and tried them on my husband first and then would share with my daughter and grandkids.  I was mashing cauliflower long before it became a favorite of all social media.  I was eating lots of shrimp because I liked the calorie to protein ratio and I love shrimp.  Crab legs were my go to restaurant food, followed by shrimp, and then chicken if I had to.

I self-discovered before I was 2 years post op that if a protein source had at least 1 gram of protein for every 10 calories I could put together a healthy meal easily.  Since most chicken, fish, turkey, beef and pork that I ate had nutritional stats better than 10:1, it allowed me to play with the other ingredients and make new and delicious meals.

My library of recipes was growing exponentially and I began sharing them on my website www.bandedliving.com while adding a new one weekly to my newsletter.  I am still doing this and probably have a year’s backlog of new recipes to share.

Then, in 2012 I went into partnership with another amazingly successful Lap Band Patient, Wendy Campbell, and together we created WLS Success Matters, LLC.  We began a business of providing education, coaching and support to the weight loss surgery community, regardless of the type of surgery the person had.  Wendy too had discovered, on her own, the “secret” of the 10:1 ratio and created and planned her food around that base.  She too loved food and ate only delicious food.

Together we coached, educated and supported hundreds of weight loss surgery patients.  I would say 90% of them asked us time and again what we ate.  We told them, we both shared pictures and recipes, and our protein to calorie ratio example.  We both were eating protein and low carb produce to lose and maintain our weight loss and to fuel our new lives.  Still people continued to ask, and so in 2016 we began the labor of writing our first book together.  It was truly a labor of love and the details flowed with ease.

What recipes to include?  How to arrange it?  What to share with the community?  It all fell into place and the result is our newly published cookbook, Eat Your Way to Success And Learn How To Control Hunger - A Weight Loss Surgery Friendly Cookbook.  It was an exciting process, as the months went by our book came together and finally, on February 9, 2017 it was born, and we began offering it to the community.

Get your own copy!  Again - here’s the link to purchase :  EAT YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS.......

I hope you enjoy our cookbook as much as we enjoyed creating the recipes and writing the book for you.