About

Welcome to Bari Healthy Life (BHL)!

BHL is a lifestyle blog devoted to healthy, post-bariatric surgery, light and lean (low carb, low fat, nutrient dense) recipes and meal plans and LIVING! Yes, living. It isn’t about dieting. It’s about living our best, healthy life: body, mind, and spirit, as we journey along with the brand spankin’ new opportunity to define our lives, post-WLS surgery.

Deprivation Optional!

BHL is about creating healthy meals that nourish and help build health while satisfying the need we still have for great tasting, bombastically delicious food! No need for deprivation in the Fluffy’s bari (bariatric) healthy neighborhood!

It’s about falling in love with nourishing our body through movement, and about nourishing our spirits through community, and connection with each other and our Creator.

We Have a Cunning Plan!

Our mission…No! Our PASSION, is to help you embrace this new way of interacting with food following bariatric surgery; helping you create healthy, new, balanced relationships, and to promote positive lifestyle changes that will keep us all at goal weight, living the good life!

News flash! Special diets do not have to be boring! (Oh, I’m talkin’ bout you My Forever Bariatric Diet and you Mr. Low Cal, Low Carb/Low Fat Diet…) ~ Fluffy Chix

Bari Healthy Life’s nutrient-dense, low-low (Lo Lo), recipes are packed with flavor and taste as good as the high C.R.A.P. (carbonated beverages, refined sugars, artificial sweeteners and colorings, and processed foods—aka processed “food-like” products) counterparts we formally broke up with when Fluffy committed to the bari life through WLS.

New Kids on the Bari Block, But Not to the Blogosphere!

Bari Healthy Life is brand new to the bariatric world of blogging, but not to the world of special diets. We formerly kept the very popular LCHF (Low Carb Healthy Fat)/Keto food blog, fluffychixcook.com , where we deeply connected with our readers; serving up healthy low carb keto recipes for living and for weight loss. With deep regret, we quit blogging at Fluffy Chix after Fluffy’s battle with a late stage, hormone positive breast cancer and the lovely parting gifts it left.

Today, the Fluffy Chix Cook site and recipes still stand, but we switched our focus from LCHF/Keto to healthy bariatric living. Fluffy chose to have Roux-en-Y (RNY) gastric bypass surgery as part of her cancer recovery. The post-op diet for bariatric patients, in active weight loss mode (WLM), shares many similarities with an LCHF/Keto lifestyle, but it’s also very different. A post-op forever bariatric diet includes a focus on lower fat, lean and dense proteins, smaller portions, and an emphasis on extremely nutrient dense foods that do not carry the caloric load of foods and recipes found in a traditional LCHF/Keto diet. We felt it would make more sense to create a new space to mirror the new lease on life Fluffy received as a result of her hard work and bariatric surgery.

For about 5 years, following the diagnosis and treatment of estrogen, progesterone positive, HER2 negative, Stage 3C breast cancer, Fluffy struggled with weight regain. She regained from a 218 pound low, up to 287 pounds at her most recent heaviest, and feared she would soon surpass her all time high of 325 pounds.

Weight Regain is Very Common!

Weight regain is real, people! About 50% of people who lose more than 10% body weight will regain it and more within a 5 year period (1) and Fluffy was no exception. The regain was multi-factorial, not least of which is a cancer drug that she takes to prevent recurrence. And this drug disrupts her estrogen/progesterone synthesis and hormone balance, which puts her into deep menopause. (I think we all know what a struggle it is to lose weight after menopause, right?)

But, weight gain after a hormone-mediated cancer diagnosis is often catastrophic. And Fluffy was gaining at an alarming rate. Pure and simple, she didn’t want to render the drug ineffective and suffer a recurrence.

The weight put a strain on every portion of her body and her health suffered. Degenerative disc disease, along with lymphedema and neuropathy (leftovers from treatment), left her incapacitated and in constant pain. She had high blood pressure, despite taking three drugs to control it, and her hyperinsulinemia rampaged, as did GERD. And she became house bound and lived in a recliner chair, barely able to care for herself. She felt isolated and battled depression.

For two years, Fluffy’s oncologist tried to persuade her about the need for the transformative bariatric surgical intervention that would save her life. As an addition to the efforts she took to control her diet, and the walking that she now does, Fluffy’s luck changed. All thanks to a caring oncologist who refused to give up on her!

And after two years of coaxing, Fluffy finally understood she needed an additional tool in her toolkit in order to defeat the disease of morbid obesity. And yes, she’s stubborn and maybe not the sharpest crayon in the box, but it truly took two full years to convince her of the need.

So, Fluffy finally began her new weight loss program in May of 2017 and was accepted into a leading bariatric program in Houston, Texas, in June of that year. Upon completion of her bariatric surgery requirements, which included six months of nutritional counseling from her bariatric surgeon, and an RD (Registered Dietician specializing in bariatrics), Fluffy received RNY gastric bypass surgery in February 2018.

Fluffy Turns Three in May 2020!

For three years we’ve traveled along the path toward bariatric surgery success and in combination with the knowledge gained from the Fluffy Chix LCHF/Keto days, we believe we’ve learned a thing or two about living well post-bariatric surgery. We want to provide great bariatric support: exciting recipes and meal plans, along with all the lifestyle and spiritual tips and tricks that keep Fluffy, not-so-fluffy after her 155+ lb weight loss! In fact, today, Fluffy weighs 130 pounds and is happily enjoying bariatric maintenance and loving life once more! She is no longer house-bound, nor does she suffer isolation. Fluffy’s depression resolved as she lost weight, learned new habits and life skills, restored mental clarity by following a healthy diet and exercise plan, and grew spiritually.

It’s Not Magic Bean Surgery!

To sustain long-term weight loss success, bariatric surgery involves a total mind, body, and spiritual transformation. It’s a process of continual evolution and learning. But, isn’t that truly what life is all about in the first place? We continue to move forward and evolve and share as human beings, growing and evolving.

Fluffy continues to celebrate her rebirth and you can too! We’re blessed to share this vital education and information with you. Hopefully you will benefit from these gifts and our experience!?! We want to let you know, you aren’t alone. You do not have to walk this path by yourself.

Cheers to Our Bari Healthy Life!

Looking forward to the future together! We hope to experience the same warm welcome from our bariatric community we received from the LCHF/Keto community and are excited to give back in return, as our collective futures reveal themselves!

Sharing is Caring & We Want To Hear From You!

Please be sure to LIKE & FOLLOW our posts and share with all your bari friends! Let’s connect! Message us at m.me/fluffysbarihealthylife or connect with us in our Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/imbacnow .

And from our Fluffy to you, here’s to a Bari Healthy Life, dear friend!

Love and kisses from Fluffy! 

XOXOXOXO! Muah!

LIKE, FOLLOW, AND SHARE BHL ON INSTAGRAM (see below)!

(If you make one of our recipes (hopefully more than one), make sure you share it with these hashtags: #barihealthylife #fluffysbarihealthylife #imbacnow2020 )