As the title says, I've had a bad week. For the entire week I feel like I've slipped into old habits. I've eaten 1500-2000 calories per day every day this week, and it seems like I have been pushing my sleeve to eat more, and I feels like I can't stop. I am vowing to get back on track tomorrow (Monday) and start a new week, however, I hadn't wanted to screw up this whole week to begin with either, so I feel like I am losing my willpower and I am afraid I won't be able to get back on track. I have been pretty successful, losing 50 lbs in 3 months, with only a "bad" day here and there, but I gained 3 1/2 lbs back just this week by screwing up. I've still got such a long way to go in this journey, and it seems like I'll never get there if I'm getting off track already. I'm feeling like a failure. I need help.

Oh! Good luck! Keep us updated and I'll keep you in my thoughts!

Don't be so hard on yourself, just shake it off and move forward. You deserve to be happy and nothing tastes as good as thin feels!!

What nyxa said x 10000000!!!!

And I like the shirataki noodles from Japan too !!!

Yep, what nyxa said ... And again I take something from this as well

I'm waiting for my doctor to say I can have Pasta then it's on!! Sorta, I'll be tryin the 'hungry girl' dish for sure. I love Japanese noodles. Keep it em comin nyxa

CoolBreeze

Yep, what nyxa said ... And again I take something from this as well

I'm waiting for my doctor to say I can have Pasta then it's on!! Sorta, I'll be tryin the 'hungry girl' dish for sure. I love Japanese noodles. Keep it em comin nyxa

CoolBreeze

the shirataki noodles are packed in Water, so they're already swollen to the size that they're going to be.. so no swelling in your belly! you could probably eat them whenever you can eat regular food, if you keep it simple & eat things that are easier to digest.. like spaghetti or something with veggies in it & a little meat, like the japchae/jupchae dish i posted.. or the alfredo.. you could even add some extra Protein by adding some grilled chicken or shrimp probably get more protein if you added yogurt or silken tofu instead of sour cream, too... but that might affect the taste.. and i haven't tried it myself, yet.. just throwing out ideas.

zumba! turbo jam! p90x! insanity!...... work out.

pick up a new hobby..

get out of the house..

.

find new friends.. the kind that are interested in being healthy and fit or that are at least working on it..

get a workout/accountability buddy..

get away from whatever's causing you to slip up..

get rid of all your "bad" food.. go donate it to some charity or give it to someone homeless you see on the street.

i've seen where people take public transit to and from work' date=' so they can't stop by places and get things to eat..

carry less money, only enough for gas or whatever is estimated that you need for the day.. don't bring your ATM card or any credit cards, so you won't have enough money to buy something extra for yourself to snack on..

try seeking therapy of some sort, so they can help you manage whatever issue(s) is causing you to binge eat.. there's a reason for it, if you deal with the reason, you won't need to binge.

go for a hike, go somewhere away from people & pray or meditate or sit there and enjoy the beauty of nature & take a break from your life & stress & chill for an hour or two..

rewatch the surgery on youtube, so you can see what was done to you and how drastic that is & freak yourself out, so you get back on track... that one is a little negative, but i mean you just have to do whatever you gotta do to be successful...even if it means freaking yourself out to do it or even if it means packing up your stuff and driving 1/2 way across the country and not telling anybody goodbye.. put yourself & your health first, front & center!

i dunno what your problems are.. but.. just throwing ideas out there. lol you gotta get your mind off of food somehow..

if you just want to chew on something, try chewing on some gum.. smack it like there's no tomorrow. lol stick half a pack of gum in your mouth if that's what it takes. lol

if you actually want to eat stuff, you could look into making yourself some tokoroten.. it's a cold noodle dish, where it's basically zero calories. the noodles are jelly-like & are made from agar agar (a type of seaweed)... the only thing that has calories is the broth you put them in and the vegetables you put in there with them.. but it's something to fill you up that isn't too bad for you & is virtually zero calories...

"The glassy tokoroten noodles are served in different ways depending on the region. In most of the country, including the regions surrounding Tokyo, Nagoya and Hiroshima, tokoroten is a savory dish served with nihaizu (a 1:1 mix of rice vinegar and soy sauce) or sanpaizu (rice vinegar, soy sauce and dashi stock). The noodles and sauce are chilled, and served with a little karashi (Japanese mustard), toasted sesame seeds or nori seaweed on top.

Savory tokoroten has almost no calories and is about 98 percent Water, with plenty of water-soluble Fiber in the agar, and the vinegar sauce helps to awaken your appetite for more nutritious food"

source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fg20120824mi.html

soy sauce has Protein in it, because it's made from soy.. dashi is made from kelp and fish, so it has protein and minerals from the kelp. sesame seeds have fiber & protein and if you put the nori on there, you'd get iodine, Iron, and other minerals from that sea weed...

hope i helped.. i do hope you get better & will overcome whatever is going on with you that's causing you to eat. <3[/quote']

I wanna be like ^^^^^^^^ her when I grow up!!!

Great ideas!!!!!!

From what I have seen in my "May 2012 Sleevers" Facebook group, month 4 has a lot of us getting into the "experiment and eat too much" zone. We're pretty much healed up, and the things you absolutely couldn't eat post-surgery are now able-to-eat foods. One woman's saying to herself has been "Just because I can, doesn't mean I should."

My biggest problem is carbs. Eating sugar begets the "need" to eat more sugar, and I go into a downward spiral. I definitely recommend getting back on the clean Protein like someone else recommended, because many of us are sensitive to carbs in our system (lots of people who tend to overeat and need surgery are), and they just stoke the hunger fires.

The good thing is, because of your small stomach, you generally aren't able to do a lot of damage to your weight too quickly. 1500-2000 calories is a dessert at many restaurant chains, and if you're getting exercise, that's not necessarily a lot of calories. A very general rule of thumb has been 10 calories per goal weight to maintain. It's also a lot easier for me to get the sugar-hunger out of my system when I can't binge like I used to. On monday I had a cupcake and a brownie, and I felt horrible like it was the end of the world, but I easily got back on track. The carbs also do a number on my mood, which may be why you're feeling so down about things now.

Just do better now, and don't stress about stretching your sleeve. They cut the stretchier part away. We keep having more room because of healing, and I believe some of the swelling can last for up to 6 months. We've learned the right eating and exercise habits and we've done so well so far! Remember that the sleeve's a tool to help you do the right things to lose weight, it doesn't make things happen.

Life happens. . . for me it's really tough too. . .I'm out now 3 years and am now struggling with depression, booze problems, carb problems and candy. . . I do know it's a problem and i do know that for some odd reason this surgery can make you do weird stuff like that, but nevertheless, i try to remain at my constant weight. I had gained about 8 lbs while on vacation, but didn't take my diuretics, so the majority of it was water weight. . . i really try hard not to go crazy on carbs and candy. . . the booze is a once a week thing and then only 1 drink (in my category, doctors category it equals 6 in one) . . . but at least i'm trying not to go overboard. Lots of people are going to say "UUUMMMMM that is not good" but like one person said, it is choices and it's me who make those choices. I spent a lot of money on this surgery (was self pay) and never want to see 360lbs again, and again that is a choice i have to make. Good luck and I love the idea of those shirtake noodles! How brillant is that! Thanks for sharing

Please see a counsler, sometimes its beyond our own control. I have a lapband and I am currently looking into Sleeve. I wish I had seen a counsler for food addiction before I gave up on my band and ate whatever made me feel better in the moment. It will help you in the long run!

I think BrokeMyHalo is spot on.

I hope I don't come across as a know it all or judgemental ... I'm not trying to be.

But we can give you all the recipes and ideas in the world and it is not going to help resolve a poor relationship with food. You know what you need to do.

We know the foods we shouldn't be eating, but we did it anyway. We have choices between a carrot stick and a candy bar, but the candy bar makes us *feel* better. Why is that? I think each of us has to answer that in our own way.

The sleeve is a tool to help us eat less, not make food choices. Bottom line is, it's up to you to make this work and if you *truly* want it to, you may need to delve deeper into your relationship with food, whether that be professional or self-help.

Good luck and keep us updated on your journey.

well.. i know everybody on this board is all about the Protein & are totally against carbs... but here's a truth that is glaring us all in the face...

billions of asians and africans eat a high carbohydrate, low fat diet with very little meat (mainly used as a flavoring)... and billions of them are thin and fit.. high carb/low fat will make you lose weight, too.. so carbs aren't "bad"... i saw my highschool science teacher lose over 100 lb in 4 months eating high carb/low fat..

both high carb/low fat & high protein/low carb work...

what doesn't work is combining carbs & fat... you can either have the carbs (fruit, vegetables, potatoes, grains, Pasta, etc) or you can have the fat (steak, hamburger, bacon, etc)... pick one & roll with it... can't have the carbs + the fat (mac & cheese, hamburger helper, cake, pie, Cookies, ice cream, candy, french fries, chips, etc).

As the title says, I've had a bad week. For the entire week I feel like I've slipped into old habits. I've eaten 1500-2000 calories per day every day this week, and it seems like I have been pushing my sleeve to eat more, and I feels like I can't stop. I am vowing to get back on track tomorrow (Monday) and start a new week, however, I hadn't wanted to screw up this whole week to begin with either, so I feel like I am losing my willpower and I am afraid I won't be able to get back on track. I have been pretty successful, losing 50 lbs in 3 months, with only a "bad" day here and there, but I gained 3 1/2 lbs back just this week by screwing up. I've still got such a long way to go in this journey, and it seems like I'll never get there if I'm getting off track already. I'm feeling like a failure. I need help.

Why don't you go back to full liquids for a week. Maybe that will jump start you. I've been grazing all week. Not so bad but not sticking to my 800 caleries. I've been going to 900 and a little over. I think Monday I will go on full liquid for a week. Why don't you join me????

Maria

I also have been struggling. I am 5 months out. I mostly stick to low carbs and high Protein. I try to stay at about 700_800 calories but I have been hungrey lately. How many calories is everyone eating. I am having a hard time counting protein carbs, fat and sugar. My sugar is usually very low and so is my fat. Carbs are getting harder to keep low. Where is everyone coming up with the great recipes and how do you know about the websites

Sent from my SPH-D700 using VST

Where is everyone coming up with the great recipes and how do you know about the websites

Sent from my SPH-D700 using VST

i don't know about everyone else, but i learn about recipes from all kinda stuff... watching shows like hungry girl, or cooking shows that are on discovery health, reading tons of recipes online, talking with friends (i have a facebook group that is a recipe exchange), and just using google.. i also used to live in korea & learned how to cook a lot of korean foods.. which a lot of them are low carb, naturally (if you leave out the rice.. i actually lost 30lb my first month there!) or they can be easily modified to be low carb.. or i will look up recipes for ingredients i have on hand on google.. or look up something like "easy spicy chicken curry recipe".. or i will see something that looks good on tv or somewhere else online & modify it to suite my own needs, so that i can have it.. like the brazillian chicken recipe i posted last night.. i found it on all recipes, because i looked up recipes that use coconut milk.. i bought a bunch of cans of coconut milk, because i love coconut anything & they were on sale for 29 cents a can.. i also bought a bunch of avocados because they were 29 cents a piece... lol

so anyway.. coconut milk (in a can) only has 6 carbs, but has 50g of fat & is 400 calories per 1 cup.. so i lessened the coconut milk by only using a couple ounces of it (i measured) & mixing it with some so delicious unsweetened almond milk (so delicious is the brand). it gave the flavor of the coconut that i wanted, but without all the fat & fewer carbs & calories & gave me more Protein, from using the almond milk. i also added some red bell pepper, because it needed to be used & did a few little tweaks to make it my own.

one easy thing you could do, that won't take up a lot of your time, is look up some low carb crock pot/slow cooker recipes. it's pretty hard to fail at those. lol throw everything into the slow cooker before you go to work, come home to a prepared meal.. easy peasy! you can refrigerate the leftovers, or freeze them, so you don't have to eat the same thing over & over again, but will have a nice variety of home made "microwave" meals eventually.

low carb/low fat slow cooker recipes:

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbooks.asp?cookbook=356647

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/807987/lowcarb-slow-cooker-recipes

http://www.yummly.com/recipes/low-fat-low-carb-crock-pot

in regards to korean food that's low carb.. one easy one is doenjang chigae (dwen jong jig-ay).. http://www.maangchi....doenjang-chigae << nix the potato, add more seafood. problem solved. lol so then it becomes a soybean paste broth.. protein.. with tofu.. protein.. and seafood.. protein.. the only carbs would be the onion, pepper & zucchini, but they're low carb anyway & add a nice flavor to the Soup.. if you can't have shellfish or seafood, add shredded chicken, beef, ground turkey/chicken or a couple different kinds of fish that you can have. just cut it up into bite sized chunks. maangchi has a big list of online grocers as well as korean grocery stores in various countries and states. so you'll likely be able to find somewhere to buy the bean paste if you wanted to try it.

hope that helped.