What's on your Tuesday Menu?

Good morning. Ahhhh, bacon grease. I now keep a strained sealed jar of it in the fridge. Sometimes I just need the flavor of bacon to make the meal taste just a right. One of our campground hosts just told me I should use it to pop popcorn. Now, currently I don't eat popcorn, but if I start, I will be trying this.

Good successful day yesterday and stayed totally on track with my foods. I added a glass of wine at the end of the day though. The Smokey Mountain National Park was gorgeous. Pigeon Forge was NOT what I expected. At all.

Today we move on to Algood, TN and are parking in our friends driveway. It should be a great evening and give brown dog and black dog plenty of room to really run and stretch their legs.

QOTD: I think my surgeon is an excellent surgeon. But she is too controlling to have any type of NUT or support people on board. I spoke with my PCP, who knows her personally, and we agreed that starting with this year's labs, he is taking over total care for me.

Foods today

B: egg scrambled with a bit of shaved beef and a tbsp of Boursin

L and D with friends, so I will do my best.

Peace Everybody.

I saw Pigeon Forge once, and had never heard of it before. I'm curious how it differed from your expectations.

I'm pretty sure I expected quaint and charming with lots of art and craft type stores. What I got was a combo of the Las Vegas Strip and the state fair!

The one image burned in my mind is Smoky Mountain Knife works. It's a knife store bigger than a Super Walmart.

I often "clean" my bacon grease.

I accumulate mine, sometimes "clean it" right away sometimes use as is.

Cleaning bacon grease: strain slightly cooled bacon grease and pour is in a glass container (I often use 12 or 16 oz measuring cup). add boiling water (I add at least 2 x of the amount of the grease. Stir together. The sodium and some of the water dissolvable stuff gets trapped in water, leaving the grease nice and "clean" on top of the water. Place in fridge for 24 hrs, then take it out, remove the solidified clean fat from the top. Sometimes there would be a residue on bacon fat that touches the water - the rest of the crap - it can be easily removed with a paper towel. When I have 10-16 oz of the clean fat in a jar - I may heat it up - to remove any water trapped in the grease. I can use liquid (cool) bacon fat to make homemade mayo or dressings.

This is fascinating. Walmart sells some kind of clarified bacon grease. I wonder if it would be similar. Outside of the removal of salt and debris, what does this process change from a nutritional standpoint?

Did you see any bears in the park? There are so many! I remember Dollywood being a big deal through there. Love Dolly...would never go. Gatlinburg is maybe a bit less...touristy.

Sadly, no bears. And yes, Gatlinburg is more geared towards historical and charm. I wouldn't go to Dollywood unless I had my grands with me then I'm always up for an experience.

Good morning ~ I don't envy that oh **** anxiety in the least, but I'm glad you were able to pull it off successfully! And - OMG, 6 years living with Grim already? WOW! Great couple you two! Enjoy your day. I had a great day yesterday. The pre op/LSD is going fine. I remember barely getting down the shakes before - like gagging and hating them, but I had Fairlife shakes yesterday. The vanilla tastes like really good melted ice cream and the strawberry tastes like Nesquik - no joke. No funky thickness or aftertaste - they taste really clean and are sweetened with monk fruit and stevia. Now, I also have tons of PP on hand. I don't want to waste them. I hope I can get then down after the delightful Fairlife.

Today i am WFH because I finally have my appt w/my new PCP and I need to get another blood test. The one from my hospital pre-admin last week came back weird. They said whatever measures my blood clotting ability was reading that I may not clot as well for surgery. They said the lab may be wrong and they have had this issue before so I need to go to a different lab. She said if the result were the same, it was low enough that my surgeon will still do the surgery. My first thought was that they stopped my HRT due to potential clotting...so can I go back on?! I wish... But they really think it's the lab since everything else is fine.

QOTD - Yes, they have been there, but I fell off after year 3. My PCP was amazing and RNY surgeon's ego was off putting and he is no longer there. My latest journey started when I requested an invite to the zoom support meetings and they happened to have one of the current surgeons on who asked me to please come in and see her. She said though my pouch was wider than she would have made it, that I was too healthy and she would not approve me. She wanted me to see the NUT still and discouraged, I almost cancelled. So glad I went because the NUT told me to get a second opinion from the lead surgeon - I did and here I am!

Accountability - great

b- coffee/fairlie protein shake

l - PP protein shake

d- chicken and salad

s- L&F yogurt, string cheese, SF jello, SF popsicle

Have a great day!

I've been looking for the fair life protein bottles. Where did you get them?
So happy to hear the liver shrinking diet is going well for you.