Leaderboard

I am going to ask you a question that I also ask myself when I have periods of consuming things I know I should not have. How did it get in your house? It's one thing to be in a place where temptation strikes. Maybe you go to a wedding and you are handed a glass of champagne. Maybe you go to your friend's birthday party and you take a piece of cake because everyone else has one. Okay, fine. This is not likely to be an ongoing issue unless your social calendar is booked constantly (in which case you need a plan). (But also, not fine because you are at 8 weeks out and your stomach is like a delicate baby that you are feeding trash. More like fine a year from now.) But if you are on day 6 of drinking wine while watching TV at night, all snug on your sofa... why is there wine in your house? Did you buy it? Did someone else bring it in? Is it left over from something? The easiest way not to drink alcohol casually is to have no alcohol in the house. The easiest way not to eat chips, or chocolate, or ice cream is... to not have it around. Get rid of it. I know a lot of us have issues with "wasting" food or drink. What I've come to realize only slowly is that there is no difference between me eating junk I don't need that is not good for me and putting it down the garbage disposal. Except in the second scenario, I don't gain weight. After Easter, I bought a big bag of jelly beans on clearance. They weren't very good. Even so, I kept eating them. I put them in the cupboard and kept getting a handful every time I walked past. And then I would eat a few and say these are really not very good. And then I would KEEP EATING THEM! Finally, after I did this several times, I stopped and asked myself what I was doing. Why was I eating these? Why did I buy them? And my only answer was because I was bored, and a little stressed, and they were there. Also, I like jelly beans. Only I didn't like them. So, I threw them away. An almost full bag, in the garbage. I know! The waste! But I didn't need them, I didn't like them, and they were making me crave all sorts of other sweets. I just kept thinking about the fact they were there. It made me want them. When they were gone, I could no longer eat them, and I didn't care enough to go buy more. For the first year, I did most of my grocery shopping through curbside pick up. I planned what to buy based on a menu plan, and that's all I got. No impulse buys. No clearance bins. No getting a dozen bags of something bad for me because it was on sale. I gave away all my alcohol or poured it down the drain. I threw away the junk food and organized my pantry so I could find things at a glance. I made a list of healthy things that were easy to eat or take along because I know I will always eat what's easy and not what's difficult. I meal prep for the week so that I don't have to cook and prep every single day and I have no excuse to eat out. I'll also be honest that the hardest times for me were before surgery when I was trying to follow a nutrition plan but had a lot of hunger and cravings, and from around 9 months out when weight loss had slowed and my appetite was becoming more noticeable and my weight loss naturally slowed. The fact that you're feeling like this at 8 weeks is concerning because this is the time when your ability to stay motivated should be highest (constant reinforcement when you step on the scale and lose weight almost every day), and your ability to eat is the least. Don't let this drag on without addressing it. Talk to your team. Because it's only going to get harder. Maybe you're bored. Or scared of change. Or you don't believe the surgery will work and you're turning it into a self fulfilling prophecy because that's easier emotionally than trying and failing. Or you just can't help yourself when the food or alcohol is in the house because you're addicted. Whatever it is, the best day to fix it is today. And ask your family and friends for help. Be accountable to others and to yourself. Because you can fix this, but if you don't, you won't reach your goal.

Recent meals: Tofu Katsu, keto french toast and an iced london fog with a cookie.

Me either. Why go through all that's needed to get the surgery then stop doing what's needed to achieve the goal? Determine your goal and get some counseling to change your mindset. Addictive personalities tend to substitute the food for something else. Alcohol, etc. I had to chuckle at how many times @The Greater Fool called the surgery, the MAGIC SURGERY. lol. It was kind of magic for me TBH. It fixed whatever was causing all of my weight loss efforts to fail. I exercised and dieted for years with limited results. So, it was extremely satisfying when it all finally actually worked, and I got healthy. I don't kill myself with dieting anymore or with extreme exercise pre-op. I walk 2 miles a day and try to stay moving and do some weights. I eat normally now (2 years out) but stay within the guidelines of the plan and treat myself on occasion with a drink or a piece of chocolate. I do know some people who believe the shot (GLP-1) are magic too. LOL They eat whatever they want without moving and then wonder why it's not working. People can out eat the drugs one DR told me while discussing my RNY. I have never used them but know it has helped others in addition to their WLS. Bottom line, neither WLS nor the drugs will work all on their own. But it sure helps to get you there. Do what you need to do now to become healthy again. Which in the end is really the most important thing. The honeymoon doesn't last foreva..... GL @Claire D I wish you the best!!!

Hi - if you aren't able to get back on track alone, I'd seek out the help of a therapist. This is your big chance of losing a ton of weight, so you don't want to blow it. It'll never be this easy again! (not saying it's easy, but way easier than it has been or will be once you're past the so-called "honeymoon stage"). You need to take full advantage of that, so do whatever you need to do to get back on track!

Just wanted to pop by and wish you all the best of luck ❤️

In honor of spring, I made Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce tonight: These take a lot of work to make, but they are quite tasty. I at ~1 3/4 rolls. For contrast, my wife had four.

The meal replacement shakes I liked the best were Bariatric Fusion brand in the cappuccino flavor for breakfast and the chicken soup flavor (made with warm water) for lunch and dinner. A caveat is that I hated both of these when I tasted them the first time. I almost got rid of them. Especially the chicken soup. But after about 3 days on the liquid diet, the soup was the best thing I ever tasted. I was so tired of artifical sweetness. I also can't say enough nice things about Syntrax Nectar Naturals orange flavor protein shake (but this is not a meal replacement shake, just a protein supplement). I quickly tired of the meal replacement shakes within the first month post-op, but I drank an orange protein shake every morning for about 6 months. I had very little appetite in the mornings but specifically the lightness of the orange texture/flavor made me feel like I was having a glass of juice. It's similar to drinking Tang, if you ever had that back in the day. Or maybe like Sunny-D. Not quite orange juice, but kind of a treat. I tried the other flavors and they weren't as good in my opinion, but I would probably still drink the orange one if I needed a supplement.

You can, I will have to just have to formulate it into a recipe! 😆

Yummy! I love those 😁

Does your surgeon's office have a patient navigator or insurance coordinator? They are pretty experienced in dealing with insurance companies, so that's probably your best bet.