summerset

Instead of throwing six burgers, a grande milkshake and two large fries down your neck you're done after maybe two burgers now. If you want to binge on pizza instead of stuffing yourself with two, surgery cares for you by only being able to eat one half of a pizza, slashing the calorie count of your binge to 1/4 of what it'd usually be. Surgery works. It protects you from going overboard with portion size when you feel like gorging yourself on binge food. If that would be possible almost nobody would be overweight.

So basically what happened is that you've adopted a plan in the beginning you couldn't follow through with because it was too strict and/or didn't suit your needs. Happens to a lot of patients. Being gung-ho about everything in the beginning (just as with every other promising diet) and once the rewards stop rolling in big (slowing weight loss), one starts to notice what a miserable drag life has become while still not being at "goal" (which is of course a trim and fit body without loose skin and a BMI of 21, nothing else is good enough). Tracking calories and water intake and carbs and grams of protein just sucks. Resisting foods you deem "bad foods" gets harder and harder. Going to the gym several times a week feels like a millstone around the neck while weight stays the same when you want to lose more. Sounds pretty familiar and you're not the only one with that problem. There is no "solid regimen to follow". Every time you catch yourself wanting to "follow a solid regiment" someone made up for you remind yourself where that got you the last time: nowhere No one has the perfect solution or eating plan or exercise plan (even though they may claim they have). That's both good and bad news at the same time. The good news: you can tailor a plan that suits your needs. The bad news: there is no one to blame but you if you fail with your experiments.

Can't emphasize this enough.

There's also a lot of talk about how carbohydrate rich foods can make them gain as well because malabsorption of fat does occur but not of carbohydrates. I don't know how valid that statement is though. While sometimes you can also see some "bragging" about how much DS patients can eat and still be thin (though what's defined as "thin" kind of seems to lie in the eye of the beholder anyway) there is also talk about that intake still needs to be watched. So with the DS it seems to be like with any other WLS: it affects different people differently.

Made Schnitzelsandwiches again. Vegan "Schnitzel", Harry's vegan protein Toasties, red onion, pickled cucumbers,curry ketchup and a vegan oat based spread. It's missing salad leaves. Burgers and sandwiches always look kind of stripped down without salad leaves.

You are already starving your body.

And here we are again: changes we like to talk about.

Protein mug cake with a few chocolate chunks and hazelnuts.

There are no fixed numbers. I know patients want to know exactly and with 110% certainty what and how much to eat and what and how much exercise to do etc. - but fact is: it's highly individual. I ingested way more calories from the beginning on as it seems. As long as your weight goes into the desired direction and you're feeling fine, things are ok.

The meal I posted a picture of yesterday was only mediocre. Not sure what went wrong this time. Might throw the leftovers out in the end as it doesn't look very appealing. I hate wasting food but I also hate eating foods I don't really like.

@Tracyringo Seriously! There are many more recipes out there.

I never tried monk fruit - does it has a certain taste?

Tofu and soy chunks with pineapple, two sorts of green beans, brown mushrooms and red onions over sticky rice.

Make a protein cupcake. Hah!

IMO you have a very important key in your hand with that "immediate feedback". Use it. Don't refer to yourself simply as "an addict" or as to "having an addiction". This can actually be quite destructive and not necessarily empowering. The book "Brain over Binge" might be helpful. It's not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's a gem. Also "Never Binge Again" (IIRC this one is a free e-book for Kindle) is an interesting read for sure. It does. But you have to put it to work properly.

It's stressful. So is work. Not feeling good these days.

Food for today's late shift: Rolled up whole wheat tortilla after it was baked with leftover tomato sauce and vegan cheese. Not a culinary gem but the stuff had to go. Protein toasties with seitan burgers. Some bananas that have to go. Some cherry tomatoes. Not enough vegetables to be healthy today for my taste. I'm still cleaning out my pantries to use up the stuff already opened. I will take quite a bit of food with me to the new town, lol.

I know. I eat these things regularly (with the exception of chips) so I don't think of them as treats. I often eat a self-made protein mug cake and I also make the fruit crumble protein cake on days I don't have to work regularly. That cake almost feels like a treat though because it takes more work and more time cleaning up than the mug cake. The interesting thing is that the above mentioned cake needs the same ingredients as protein oats - yet the cake feels way more decadent.

Just realized that I don't think of most of the foods people label as "treat" on here I don't think as "treats". Many of them seem to be part of my daily diet. For me a "culinary treat" is a fancy/expensive food I'm too cheap to buy regularly, e. g. the sushi from the sushi bar around the corner or that extra expensive raw vegan chocolate or macadamia nuts. "Treats" can also be something I have to put more work into when making the food. I remember posting pictures of chocolate covered vegan protein balls. A rare treat because I usually don't want to put in the work.

Judged by whom? Other patients or "outsiders"? Both? Anyway, no idea. I freely admit that it wasn't hard work, even if that doesn't earn me a badge of honor in the WLS world. There was work involved, yes, but I wouldn't say it was "hard work". Losing weight before WLS was hard work. However, since WLS affects patients in different kind of ways it's impossible to say who "has to work hard" and who doesn't have to. In the end I guess it's as hard as you feel it is, just like with so many other things in life. Some might think of something as "a burden" or "hardship" and "a daily struggle" and "grinding teeth" while others might say "Oh, well...it's not that hard".

The amount some people are eating is incredibly small IMO. Couldn't exist on this in the long run.

Usually there is only talk about the opposite. The "hard work".

Yeah well, there are some issues I doubt will ever get better and I know many people struggling with it, regardless of their weight or if they ever were overweight. feeling of fat: I often have that "feeling of being fat". I guess the loose skin contributes to this. I know it can't be real. I wear mostly a medium size (depending on the brand I wear either small, medium or large) and that's not "fat". I also can see some bones and muscle definition when looking in the mirror. That's also not "fat". Usually the look in the mirror helps this feeling but sometimes it needs wearing really loose clothes (thanks for being able to wear scrubs at work) or the direct comparison to other people, e. g. in the reflection of a glass door. I guess that comes with living in a weight and thinness - and lately also fitness - obsessed culture. addiction transfer: not sure, I prefer to call it "obsession transfer". I tend to really get into the biohacking and clean eating stuff when feeling stressed, especially when some things are out of my control (like now). Shopping I'm not so sure. One might say I spend too much money on unnecessary things and I wouldn't object but I don't view it as a problem as long as I don't get into financial trouble and I like to treat myself to some nice stuff. However, I'm not sure if that really has something to do with food issues. It could very well be that the issue is that money was always really tight when I grew up and went to university and when I finally got a "real" job I suddenly had money to spend. relationships: together with the same guy since September 1994. We went through a lot of things together. We only see each other on weekends and during vacation time because of work and living in different cities and I guess that helps when people have a different lifestyle.

What do you mean "deluding yourself"? You're a normal weight. If you can maintain this and feel alright, i. e. no deficiencies in nutrients you're doing things right. Not only mentally, but also physically. A calorie deficit becomes more and more straining on both the body and the mind the leaner you get and the longer the time spent in a calorie deficit is. I don't know how high your body fat percentage is but if you really want to lose more weight (i. e. body fat, not weight) you might want to stop looking at the classic bariatric stuff and start looking into things like "refeeds" and "calorie cycling".

Mock grilled chicken pieces, green beans, red onions, kind oyster mushrooms in a wrap.