So this morning I made a Protein shake since I've been low on protein intake lately. I was looking in my frig (think "grazing mode") and I saw this head of Romaine lettuce I got yesterday. I was thinking Mmmmmm, I have a great head of lettuce, cheese, broccoli, and other yummies, I could make a salad instead!

I started laughing at myself. You know, before surgery that stuff would have sat in the frig until it went bad and then I would have pitched it in favor of fast food, or some other gross, greasy, nasty, no-nutrition kind of food.

It just got me to thinking about the changes in my thinking since WLS. I have made a complete 180 in my thinking. I used to eat salad right before the PASTA! Now I look forward to the salad and generally skip the Pasta.

I go to several different grocery stores according to produce. One has great Romaine lettuce (big outside leaves, not all the hard white crunchy parts I wanted when I was banded or bad things would happen), another has great Chyote selections, another has the best tomatoes for Pico de Gullo. I actually go to four different grocery stores for PRODUCE! That is not ME! This person buying up produce is a person I do not know. I walk into a fast food place and it stinks. I used to live there! I look in my frig and knowing I can only eat a small quantity I can't decide which veggies I want the most. Who is this person?

I'm not really sure what happened. I used to turn my nose up to most of what I eat today. I didn't even know what pinto Beans or lentils were until after surgery, not kidding. For the first time in my life I crave the good stuff but I'm not 100% sure how that happened.

I do believe habits are learned and we learn to like garbage food, we can learn to like the good stuff. That is part of it. But it's more, I don't just like the good stuff today, I crave it. I prefer it over the bad stuff. Bad stuff meaning trans fats, etc.

I used to look at shopping carts of skinny people in the grocery store and see all this produce and stuff that did not look good. I wondered if it was really worth it, life is too short to eat like a rabbit. Today I *am* that person. I eat like a rabbit in quantity too! Do you realize that my Shih Tzu eats more than I do? Or, she can eat more than I can. In the beginning that bothered me. I wanted my quantity back. Today I don't give a rip. I eat when I'm hungry and I don't usually push it. Oh, I still have my moments when I am eating something I really like and I want more just because it tastes good but for the most part I'm over it. I think if I had my stomach back I'd be back to old behaviors in quantity again but I'm totally cool with not being able to eat like a heifer anymore.

This morning's grazing behaviors just got me to wondering how this happened. How was this produce-buying, anti-fast food person created? I have no will power, I have no self discipline, where did it come from?

Thoughts? Anyone?

I will second that!!

There really is life after fast food! I swear! ;o)

I think they are doing a better job than they used to but you should check out some of the food labels for the "healthy" choices.

McDonalds salads are loaded with calories, fat, and sodium.

McDonalds Yogurt is loaded with suger (but it's good! <g>)

There is a sub place, I'm drawing a blank! It starts with a C. They have tuna salad, one serving is 1000 calories.

It's hard, restaurants are in the business to sell things that taste good and fat and/or sugar is what makes things taste good. One would think tuna or yogurt would be good choices but they really aren't.

It's hard, if you are in a rush and stop at a fast food joint it is VERY hard to make good choices.

Capriotti's?? I can imagine how everything they have is high calorie ... but man-o-man is it good.

I told Bob today -- just think, we'll be able to get a 6" sub at Subway and split it and still have some left over ... I figure our grocery bill and expense for eating out when we do will drastically decrease. (That's is once I quit buying anything I can think of to try and get my Protein in! -- HA!)

Your grocery bill will be cut dramatically.

Although, even sleeved I still don't like to cook.

Your grocery bill will be cut dramatically.

Although, even sleeved I still don't like to cook.

We prefer to grill out as much as possible, especially this time of year when it is so hot here in Las Vegas. I think we'll proably grill up a lot of things, and then seal-a-meal them to use during the week ... it's nice after working a full day to come home and only have to reheat dinner, instead of starting from scratch.

yeah, when Bill is over I eat way better. when I get home from work, I am happy with a protein shake.

Funnily enough I've had the same experience as Mac but with a band and presumably without the ghrelin cut.

I used to eat healthy anyway, I've always eaten plenty of fresh fruit and veg and I'm a very good cook, bit of a gourmet in fact. I'm feeding a family and I would never ever have let my kids eat the way I did. So the family diet was very healthy and actually has not had to change one single bit since I was banded. What we ate as a family was entirely appropriate - lean Protein, lots of vegetables, fruit and wholegrain carbs, low fat dairy.

I just used to eat way too much junk food on top of it - white carbs for me mainly. I liked my share of McDonalds, and the fish and chips etc (have never cared for pizza, KFC or pretend healthy food like Subway) but Cookies, cakes, rich coffees, muffins, donuts, I loaded up on that stuff during the day when the kids were at school.

Now I just plain dont like them. They disgust me. The stench in McDonalds makes me sick. Seeing people eat it is revolting. Seeing anybody unbanded eating is a bit revolting actually - they literally STUFF themselves - even my girlfriends at girls night. I just think whoa, slow down!!

My tastes definitely changed. I'm sure there's hormones behind it but I think its just that eventually habit does take over. It doesnt happen in six weeks but after four years with a band, I dont think I'd revert quickly to old ways thoug I'm sure I probably would slide a bit over time.

My band also made healthy choices a no brainer. I quickly lost my desire for all the sticky/gooey/globby stuff like bread, fries, Pasta because it was just too hard to eat without pain.

Then the rest of the unhealthy stuff... You know, when you have to chew chew chew, that unhealthy stuff is usually disgusting and tasteless after the first bite. The more natural foods taste good when you actually have to taste and chew them. Maybe that's why it was so much easier to make healthy choices with the band than without. Plus, I wasn't starving all the time. The band really helped control my hunger, and that made all the difference in the world in what I wanted and chose to eat.