Cindi_Augustine

There's a few obvious strategies, of course, like not having the problem foods in the house if possible. But that's not always something we can control. It really is about the proven neurological effect sugar, salt, and fat has on our brains. Once I understood that, through books and documentaries, I had better coping strategies, because, let's be honest, willpower never works alone.
Some people go cold turkey off those things, others wean themselves off, and some learn how to portion them in a way that doesn't trigger cravings.
Add that to counselling, and you have the psychological tools to go with the physical one of WLS.
Keep posting here, and keep moving forward. You can do it.

People who are food addicts, don't know what contentment is when it comes to eating. That is why they need to eat measured portions only.
People who are fresh from surgery without reconnected nerves (the nerves are severed in surgery) will not know contentment.
Long term, capacity and contentment will change.
Measured portions only for long term success. Guessing or going on feeling is a recipe for failure.

Your sign should be that you had your measured/weighed portion. You can't really depend on your body to tell you. Once your body signals you, you aren't full you have over ate.
There are a lot of threads about this if you use search, but...
It varies by person. Some people get a running nose, some hiccups, burping.
Early on the nerves are not reconnected (your Dr should talk to you about this but a lot of them aren't that good and don't), so you can't depend on feelings from your stomach. Also like I said before, by the time you get the signal to your brain you have over eaten.
You do not want to depend on feeling full long term.
It is a recipe for overeating and regain. You need to learn to eat proper measured/weighed portions and being satisfied with those, so long term when you can eat more, you don't.
Example I can eat 6 ounces of steak before I get stuffed, but a proper portion is 3-4 ounces (not just for sleevers but for everyone, people are not eating proper portions). 3-4 ounces will satisfy me for hours, and provides enough Protein. If I just relied on my feeling of fullness I could over eat a proper portion at every meal.
Creating good habits in the very beginning makes it easier to follow them later on. Right after surgery your tool is working the hardest to support your good choices. As time goes on and you heal and have more capacity and less fear of food, you will have less support from your tool, and will have to depend on the good habits that you have built over time.

Soup is just going to be a slider. Adding meat to it is going to moisten the meat to the point it won't sit in your stomach that long.
At 2 months you still have a lot of restriction so it won't be an issue. Long term you will be able to eat endless amounts of soup and most Soups are high in calories and carbs depending on the soup base.
Soup is a waste of time and calories imo. You'll be hungry again in an hour.

I would steer clear of pastas if at all possible. Pastas are one of those "slider foods" where you can eat more of than you realize, and there's little benefit nutritionally. Especially now, while you can only eat such small amounts, I would stick to those foods that "feed you" nutritionally, like lean Proteins and veggies. You can make some great Soups with those two ingredients

Soup will do fine but I would avoid the Pasta and rice. After my RNY gastric bypass surgery I found that softer foods (such as chili and soups) went down much easier than harder foods (such as steaks). So I made my own meals from scratch and fortified them with extra Protein. I have included some of the recipes at the end of the following article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I found the book The End Of Overeating really useful. Dr. K. points out that it's not 100% willpower, and those who try to depend on willpower alone likely fail at getting control of their eating. Sugar salt, and fats affect us neurologically, and are as addictive as tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. I write a bit about it on my blog but this is the link to Amazon. I did search and find it at my library, as an ebook, as well.
We can't do it alone and asking for help is the intelligent thing to do!
Hang in there!!

Yup, they're soooo shameless. I've been doing whole chickens in the crock-pot (slow-cooker) lately and find they are actually every bit as good and far healthier. I leave the skin on and give the whole thing a Mrs Dash Herb and Garlic massage and lay it on top of veggies, with some no-salt chicken broth. I try not to eat the skin but cooking with the skin helps keep them as moist as the ones at the store and mine aren't pumped full of fats and salt.
I'm a terrible (lazy) cook so if I can do this anyone can. LOL

Yes, 5 pounds was negligible at 200+ pounds. It was annoying when the thin folks would wail about the 5 pounds they gained on vacation. Now I get it. At lower weights, 5 pounds can be the a whole pant size difference depending on where it goes.

This is partly why I started a blog. We need more people educating people on the true science of wls. So many people dying of obesity when there is help!! It's sad!
People have no idea how challenging post-op life can be, but how amazingly wonderful it is, too.

I don't eat the starters at all. If these are people that you have worked with for a while, they are going to notice when you don't eat more than a few bites and then you're done.
Obviously, it's a personal choice whether or not you tell the, but I just came clean with everyone. That allowed me to answer the questions and control the dialogue about it a bit instead of giving it over to office fodder.

I'm a little over 6 years out and have been maintaining within 5 pounds of my lowest weight since I reached it at 18 months.
I weighed once about every 3-4 weeks in the beginning. After reaching goal I would step on the scale weekly but that got boring.....just the same old numbers. For the last two years I might step on the scale once/month or if I perceive my pants are getting snug or even loose. After all this time I can how much I weigh within a couple pounds just by how my clothes fit.
Guess I never worried too much about what the scale said. I measured my progress with NSVS and account for maintenance by how I feel and what I see in the mirror.

Every dang day. Always have (since pre-op), always will. It doesn't make me manic, it just helps me to understand my natural, hormonal ebb and flow.

So..Therapist showed me what she had already sent them and it seemed pretty clear. I feel like the surgeons therapist is misunderstanding ONE line from the letter..Thankfully the super wonderful coordinator gets it and it's clear to her so she's gonna go straight to the surgeon with it next Wednesday and point it out to him that it all makes complete sense. She is so awesome and has been so helpful I wish I could give her a trophy lol. So here's to hoping surgeon will see it clearly Wednesday and I hear good news!!

First and foremost, I strongly believe in the idea that we are what we think we are, so the negative self talk has GOT to go. You are a successful WLS patient who has fallen off the wagon a bit.
A failure is someone who quits, refusing to try again. You regained only 20 pounds and you are back. You could have waited until you had regained 40, 60, 100, or 100+ or you could have thrown in the towel all together.
YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE.
Go back to your surgeon and see what he/she recommends. Go back to your pre-op diet for a week or two. Go back to liquids for a week or two. Start weighing/measuring/tracking your food and move your ass a little more than normal. You can totally do this.
You are not a failure until you stop trying. You don't sound like a failure to me at all.

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When I was at my heaviest, people seemed to feel sorry for me. I was able to get around just not often, ate healthy food...just too much. But when the booth was too small, seatbelt didn't fit, butt was too big for airplane seat and the heat hit me hard... people had this look on their face.
I still have a ways to go, only 11wks out...but this weekend I did a craft show. Usually I talk to people who reach out to me, but this time people talked to me first, more crafters were friendly...and a crafter, this one older gentleman, he was just so sweet to me. It was a bad day for selling and he tried hard to make me feel better. I got a huge hug. It's like I am no longer invisible. I'm becoming myself again and other people are seeing it. I don't think it is my weight they are seeing. It's not a huge change yet...but my personality is coming back. I am feeling more like myself and people are noticing it. So, I am being treated differently by others, but I am also treating myself differently. HW 349, SW 326, CW 279.
Sent from my XT1650 using the BariatricPal App

Anne, you list yourself as having surgery last December. If that's correct you are still in the early stages when things are challenging. You haven't stated what challenges you are having, so we can't give you the benefit of our experiences.
As for bariatric surgery being a moneygrab, well, mine was covered by the government so that's not true in my case.
As for being sold something i don't need...I've had a neurologist, a cardiologist and a rheumatologist all tell me I did the best thing I could have done for my health, and that I have very likely increased my lifespan...
Sooooo...
REGRETS???? You've got to be kidding! 4 years later I'm even happier I had this opportunity at a better life than ever before!

This is so true. More often than not we are invisible to people because most people are up in their heads. But, because of our own self-dialogue we think everyone is looking and thinking about us. LOL
That being said, when I was obese I do feel I was treated differently. I think the biggest difference I notice is at work. As an optician I am dealing with customers everyday. In the past I often felt disrespected by customers and co-workers. As though my expertise was in doubt because of my weight. Customers would defer to my thinner colleagues, and only listen to them, even though we said the same things.
It feels very different now. And so often my customers comment on how stylish I am saying I MUST know what I'm talking about when I help them choose eyeglasses. I have always tried to dress well, but we know how that goes when you're plus-sized.
Yes, appearance matters, even if we wish it didn't. First impressions are strong and usually based on physical attributes. We've all based an opinion on a stranger because of these superficial things, like hairlines, and the thickness of someone's lips, or a scar...things that mean nothing.
As a life coach I'm very aware of this. I'm even writing a book on how to create the appearance you want in order to be treated how you want to be treated. It sounds shallow but my own experience has been proof to me.

Yup, they're soooo shameless. I've been doing whole chickens in the crock-pot (slow-cooker) lately and find they are actually every bit as good and far healthier. I leave the skin on and give the whole thing a Mrs Dash Herb and Garlic massage and lay it on top of veggies, with some no-salt chicken broth. I try not to eat the skin but cooking with the skin helps keep them as moist as the ones at the store and mine aren't pumped full of fats and salt.
I'm a terrible (lazy) cook so if I can do this anyone can. LOL

I lost a few more lbs after this but this was the dream photo I'd been dying to have.

I am 3 months out and down 43lbs i weigh myself once a week, every Sunday it works well for me keeps me less frustrated [emoji849] and i work extra hard during the week so i have no room for disappointment...at first i would weigh myself every morning and my weight was yo-yo'n [emoji52][emoji4]

I am 10 years post banded and I try to weigh myself every Friday am. If I miss, I often wait until the following Friday.
Like many, my body has a new set point it likes... I can fight it and get down 5-7 lbs with much effort, but it does seem to like to revert back rather quickly .... I am just happy with my 100 lb loss maintained. Not perfect, but NOTHING. Is!
Size 12. Sometimes 10. Seems to be for me and I'm good with that. 272 was not
A good life for me.

I am 10 months post-op and I weigh myself 2x a week and will probably continue to do so. More than that will make me too critical over the numbers on the scale. In my 10 months I have not gained any weight, thank you Jesus. I work out at the gym regularly and at the weight room at work. I've cheated only once and didn't even enjoy the food, which really surprised me. I worked and fought really hard to get approved for my wls so i really wasnt ever thinking about cheating. Anyway I slipped one day but went right back to fighting the next.

Yeah, those damn sexy chickens, clucking and beckoning. Shame on them!

Good for you for staying strong. I avoid these cravings by always going in with a shopping list. Is it on my list? I can buy it. Otherwise, it stays out of my cart, no excuses. This helps me shop with blinders on. I am super focused on getting lettuce or milk and don't even glance at the ice cream section since it isn't on the list.

Then again, I am the textbook definition of a Type-A personality. Your mileage may vary!