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What We Don't Want To Hear

  • Popular Post

Someone shared this article from bariatriceating.com that I wanted to share here:

Don’t eat bread! That latte has 35g sugar! No macaroni salad. NO tortillas. No rice.

It won’t last without change

There is no delicate way to say this. We have always set ourselves apart from other bariatric groups in that we don’t look the other way while post ops continue to eat the bad carbs. We try and bring them back to the bariatric reality. We coax you to knock off the Pasta, rice, tortillas or bread and often people get mad or try and justify it. For years we’ve watched people blow through this surgery and they all have the same story. Everyone thinks they are ‘Different’, that they can handle the bad carbs and the sugar (they don’t get sick!) and ‘because they have lost 100 pounds in 7 months they must be doing something right’.

The first hundred pounds is the surgery

Hate to keep making the same point, but your surgery did it, not you. Remember that you are not driving the car for the first year. Eating the same foods that grew you to 300 pounds, but in smaller amounts is not a good long term plan as eventually you will be able to eat larger portions. Ask yourself why eating the same bad carbs would be a good plan. No doctor has advised you to eat the same way post op as you did pre op. Post ops pick this up somewhere, latch on to it and defend it, often to the bitter end of a total regain.

No one fights for broccoli carbs!

It’s not that the bagel will kill you, it’s that these carbs make you hungry. They rapidly turn to glucose and burn… poof, gone, #Lookingformore. They don’t give you any nutrients. They don’t create a feeling of satiety or lasting fullness. The empty carbs work against what you are trying to achieve. If you were arguing for eating salad or green bean carbs, more power to you… but people are trying to hang on to foods without value. If this big argument was for VEGETABLES… well it wouldn’t be a debate as vegetables didn’t make us fat, it was those ‘other’ carbs. Did you ever meet an obese vegetarian and wonder ‘HUH?’… how’d they get obese if they are vegetarian? Same deal… its not the vegetables, its the other stuff… the carbs… the potatoes, bread, macaroni, rice, tortillas and sugar!

Square peg… round hole

Stop looking for slightly better substitutes for bad choices and find new healthier foods to love instead. We keep trying to force that square peg into that round hole. Stop EATING crackers and chips… don’t find ones that you can justify because they have fewer carbs. Enough with the terrible fishy shirataki tofu noodles. Learn to live without bread and pasta so it will not call your name. We aren’t changing the behavior or trend if we continue eating them, just slightly shifting it. Before long you’ve got your hand back in the Doritos bag & fork in the Mac and cheese.

Look It’s Protein Cheesecake!

Don’t add protein to muffins and convince yourself they’re good for you. Stop with the Starbucks Creme Brûlée Lattes because ‘they’re your one indulgence'; they have 500 calories and thin people don’t even drink them. Stay the heck out of Wendy’s. I read an article the other day touting all the ‘good choices’ in fast food restaurants. How about stay out of them. That’s the best choice of all! Why go to the place where you know there is danger. Before you know it, oops… there are fries in your bag!

You know people gain back weight, right?

In our first month of new Facebook Support group I have cried for new members who have gained back all their weight. I am not immune either after fourteen years, three bariatric books and knowing better. When life hit the fan, I comforted my bruises in the way I knew best and it has taken me ten months to lose fifty pounds of it. People are having revisions, a lovely sounding word for a second serious body damaging operation. What will change? Unless there is major change along with that new surgery, won’t it have the same result?

Step away from the bagel!

Own that there was and maybe still is something wrong with your food picker! Use surgery as an opportunity to change, not cheat. I used be bothered by the ‘word on the street’ that we were the carb or food police, but am now proud of it. If you want to promote the virtues of Everything in Moderation while eating half a Subway, there are plenty of groups that will help you do it. If you want to eat right and learn new behaviors to make the feeling of slipping on those skinny jeans last… we have a support group that’s a healthier fit.

Bariatric Surgery IS the easy way out

It’s a personal food cop that is always with us, that helps us push away from the table. We make it hard when we don’t live by the bariatric rules we’ve been given. There is nothing harder then gaining weight back after surgery. There is nothing better than losing it a second time. Control is empowering.

If you need to pick up and start losing again… If you need to work off a regain… it’s not too late and your pouch works just fine if you choose the right foods. Clean those lethal carbs from your life and go back to Bariatric Eating – protein first and lots of fresh salad and vegetables. We’ve got the support for you to make that change!

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I am one of those who say I will never "diet." Why? Because I connect diet with deprivation, foods I don't like, and failure. I have never had long term success on a diet. My thin friends don't usually diet so neither am I!

That being said, I have definitely changed my lifestyle and I am happy doing it! Bottom line: I each less quantity and better quality food now than I usually did on any "diet." I am sure there are folks who don't mind that word-- but for me it is like any of the other 4 letter words that I don't use :)

Absolutely, my feelings as well. I have made a complete lifestyle change. I plan out meals and if I choose to eat something that is highter than my fat/carb goals I make sure I drink all my Water and get my Protein in for the day. I know that I will need to workout a little harder. But for me deprevision is a sure way to binge and closet eating. I will not go back to that. On memorial day I took one bite of apple pie off my husband's plate, because I wanted a taste. I was good after that. My program allows toast and when I choose to have it I usually have just a half slice with my tuna fish or eggs. It satisfies the desire and fits within my goals.

Surgery is a tool that I respect and am grateful for, but I don't consider it a sentence to not enjoying a variety of foods in proper portion and within my goals.

I love it!!! It's the truth in the raw and not sugar coated for those who just can't handle the truth!!!

In the legendary line of one favorite actors, Jack Nicholson..."You Can't Handle The Truth"!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

By the way, what is the name of the support group on facebook?!

  • Author

For me personally...once I took my ego out of the picture and reread the article, I agree with it in its entirety. The first time I read it, i was a little perturbed by the 100 lbs being solely attributed to WLS. I lost 60 pounds prior to surgery by following the bariatric diet. Then I reread the article and inferred that the author isn't talking about what we lost prior to surgery. He or she is talking about what we do AFTER surgery.

Personally, I know that I am no different from anyone else. I know that if I go off my plan, eat whatever I want, exercise when/if I want to...I will gain all the weight back and then some. And I've worked too hard to let that happen. This article helped me FOCUS and stop making excuses.

I love it!!! It's the truth in the raw and not sugar coated for those who just can't handle the truth!!!

In the legendary line of one favorite actors, Jack Nicholson..."You Can't Handle The Truth"!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

By the way, what is the name of the support group on facebook?!

I'm on the same page as you. I agree with the article. I have also read posts where people are trying to find the healthiest fast foods and my first thought was "that's insane".

I don't want to find the best substitute for cheesecake because then it won't be long before I'm having cheesecake.

As far as the first 100 pounds being the surgery... I first heard that from a nutritionist and then from a doctor. I plan to use that time to change my eating habits.

Look.... Let's all be honest with each other, nothing pisses off a heavy person more than telling us we can't eat. Or that what we are eating is bad. We have failed time and time and time again because we won't face the hard truth. And the truth is the way we eat sucks!!

I don't mind the hard truth. I would rather someone tell me like it is then to try and make me feel better when I screw up. I'm not saying I won't ever mess up. But I am saying that this article speaks the truth and I am going to do my utmost to conform to that way of thinking.

Thanks for the article! I thought it was great!

NobsVs,

I agree with you 100%, except I fight a lot of head hunger

I DO agree with the main message if even I DON'T agree with every assertion made.

the larger point, which matches my personal experience (I am 3.5 years post band to sleeve revision and maintaining) is that you WILL regain if you don't make fundamental shifts in the way you eat. For some people, it will also contribute to not losing their desired amount of excess weight.

There are people who advocate anything you like, any time and rely on the restriction to keep your portions small. That works the first 6 months, heck maybe even the first 2 years for some people. Across the board, when people hit the 3-4-5 years out ... things really change. If you have any doubts about that, read some posts in the veterans forum...

So, I do sometimes have a sandwich with bread... but rarely. My daily life is a moderate carb diet with most of those carbs coming from vegetables (and lets be honest, a glass of wine here and there). My daily plate is very reflective of a bariatric diet even now 3.5 years post op. When I get cocky and veer from that, i gain weight in a heartbeat.

This probably sounds like splitting hairs, but in my mind doing something like substituting a vegetable for Pasta noodles is an outstanding "lifestyle change" example. Adding Protein powder to cheesecake might not be an ideal example because what you risk is having something that has all the bad (sugars, fats, possible overeating triggers etc) and is simply made less tasty by adding the Protein Powder. When I have a dessert, I want it to be delish... and I have a very small portion. If it is isn't off the hook wonderful, I don't eat it. If I do eat it, i enjoy it.

So, I DO deprive myself in the sense that i don't consume every random item my brains says "that looks good" - I stay away from snack aisle in grocery. If an old favorite "calls me" I ask myself if i really want it... most of the time it is no.

However, I also think that consuming food is one of life's pleasures and I am not going to view it as a forced misery march for the rest of my life. Luckily, I LOVE seafood, fish, chicken, beef and vegetables! I also love many carby foods like bread, potatos etc but that family of food is an overeating trigger for me so I consider them "treats" rather than daily staples.

pizza is another great example - it can be made healthy but at the stage I am at, I can eat more quantity then is ideal for me... so I always regret it when I start down the pizza path... I don't abstain completely, but it is an example of a food i probably SHOULD abstain from since it tends to cause me to overeat. That might not be true for everyone, but I suspect it is true for many.

I also suspect that those of us with a more advanced "disease of obesity" when we started this whole bariatric deal might be more prone to sensitivity to trigger foods. I do not know if that is true, but my own body changed alot the last 15 years or so I spend morbidly obese.

2cents here.

I am very conscious of "tone" when writing and speaking.

I sometimes struggle with what I really want to say, with what is actually going to be productive. And there are times when I lose my patience and don't give a sh** how it sounds.

With that said, there is likely some good information in the article, but the tone is abrupt and for those that don't like "the cold hard truth" or more likely, the way a message is delivered, then you just stop reading or discount everything the author writes.

Edited by no onions

"Did you ever meet an obese vegetarian and wonder ‘HUH?’… how’d they get obese if they are vegetarian? Same deal… its not the vegetables, its the other stuff… the carbs… the potatoes, bread, macaroni, rice, tortillas and sugar!" Quote from ProjectMe.

I don't know who originally wrote this but vegetarians eat carbs and potatoes and bread and Pasta and sugar. What they don't eat is meat.

Listen to your dietitian. They know what they are talking about

This original post is one, no, IS my all time favorite. I will be reading it again, along with everyone's replies. We are all different , but this article speaks right to me. Thank you for posting!!!

  • 2 months later...

Cowgirl,

I made a cauliflower crust pizza the other day. Sensationally delectable. 230 cal in one have 10 inch pie

I really need to get creative like that.

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