Lucky Me

Well I am almost a month out. I have lost 29lbs, lost several inches, and feel great. My problem you ask?! I have been able to eat whatever I have tried. I am supposed to be on soft foods and add fish next Tues. Well I had fish today and then for lunch I had a piece of pizza. I also have had some doritios and I didnt feel sick. I was full but not sick. I am so afraid of the path I am on all of a sudden. I swore if I did this I would do it right. I want so bad to be normal size and healthy. I keep saying I can just do better form now on but we know how that goes. It is the thinking that got me to 350. I dont know what to do. I dont want to out eat this surgery. Any words of advice out there. Thanks guys. LaDonna -29

Make sure you have quick high protein snacks ready and available at all times. When you want to reach for the doritos - get a cheese stick instead. If you fill up on the high protein snacks, then you will not be able to fit the high carb stuff in. If there is a reason why you need to have stuff like doritos in the house (I do - I have a seven year old) then buy the stuff in individual serving packages, so you don't have any open bags of the stuff sitting around calling. I now do all my daughter's snacks in pre-packaged portion size snack bags - costs a little more in the $ area, but helps me keep on track, which is worth millions!! mgm

Yes, I have some advice for you LaDonna. Step away from the Doritos and the pizza for now! Don't get wrapped up into thoughts of failure. Eat your protein first and foremost and don't drink for at least 1/2 hour before you eat and 1 hour after. Walk between 1 & 2 miles a day. After eating your protein, if you still have room, eat green veges like brocoli or string beans. This is a critical time post op. You will lose weight but you want to maximize this first year of yours. Follow your food and exercise plan TO THE LETTER. You went to great extremes to have this surgery and having the surgery should not be taken lightly. It is now time to change your habits and your life. You can sabotage your long term weight loss and some people do. It's up to you honey. This surgery was not supposed to do it for you, it's supposed to HELP YOU DO IT. I don't mean to sound hard and in part, I'm saying these things for myself as I prepare for surgery. Good luck LaDonna. I want to see you beat the averages by reaching and maintaining your goal weight. Caboose T-4

THANKS ROB JUST WHAT I NEEDED TO HEAR. TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY. LADONNA -29

Rob, Thanks for putting it into perspective so well! Hugs, Mo doin' a happier happy Mo dance today

Great speech. As your I reserve the right to play back my recording of this for you, should you deviate from the plan! I'm sure that won't be needed! Joy -22 lbs / 26 days

LaDonna, My surgeon has an awesome program with two dieticians, on call nurses, an exercize physiologist and two psychologists. Here's what I've learned from them: No matter what, eat protein first. You've got to get in 60 to 90 grams of protein a day. For someone who is newly post-op, this is tough. If you have room after cramming in the protein, then you can have what you're craving. If you want pizza, eat the top, not the crust. So this is how they propose taking care of that craving. Work for it. If you really want Cheetos, get in the car and drive to the store. Buy a snack size bag of Cheetos. Put the Cheetos in the trunk for the ride home. Once you get home, set a place for yourself at the table, light a candle, turn on some soft music and enjoy the hell out of those Cheetos. Make it an event. Of course this works for Doritos, but Cheetos are my own personal demon. Someone who has had wls and lost 118 pounds very wisely pointed out to me that most of us who are morbidly obese got that way by living a life of instant gratification. We postpone nothing when it comes to food. That ties in with what one of my surgeon's psychologists told me. As morbidly obese people, we don't parent ourselves very well. We'd never let our kids eat the kinds of things we did, when we did and in the quantity that we did. If your child had this surgery, I'm sure that you would do everything you could to help them succeed. We need to do the same parenting for ourselves. I don't know if my rambling helped at all, but hang in there. You really can do this. Hugs, Connie

Connie, Fantastic advice for ALL of us. Thanks!

Do everything you can to remove these foods from your environment. If that means other family members have to go elsewhere to get them, well, too bad for them. I'm sure they don't want to see you go through this hard surgery for nothing. Limit it to a month if you don't feel comfortable doing it forever, just till you get stronger and can see more weight loss. If I had either pizza or Doritos nearby, I'd be in trouble, so they're not here for a while, or maybe ever. At the moment, you are really at risk for damaging your pouch. Food cues are deadly for you, so you have to just get yourself away from temptation and rework your behavioral conditioning. There are some good books on this if you don't want to work with anyone on it or can't afford to. I don't have it right here, but there's one you can get on Amazon.com called "There is a Magic Pill." It's got exercises and everything. My surgeon insists that we eat 3 small meals a day AT A TABLE and don't do anything else where we eat. We are literally forbidden to eat on the couch, in front of TV, or at the computer. If we won't agree to that, he won't admit us to the program. I thought it was mean but it works. You also have to work on finding some other things that reward or distract you. These are specific decisions you can make and do. The more "good" things you do, the more your life will fill up and the less attraction the Doritos will have. And, if Doritos always DO have an attraction, you will have to have the same relationship to them that an alcoholic has to beer, i.e., NO relationship. Take up a new hobby or plan to do one. If you haven't done so already purge, your kitchen or have someone else do so, record your TV programs and fast forward through the commercials. Just putting all that in place will give you plenty to do!!! Get that workbook and read it whenever you are feeling weak and tempted. I respond terribly to food cues also. I wish us both luck, but I also wish us the work that it will take to create the luck. Gano

Dear LaDonna: Boy, am I sure glad that you wrote what you wrote, because I have been isolating myself from all of you and from my family and friends for the very same thing: I am so ashamed of myself for falling off the wagon ALREADY, also with chips (Bearitos corn chips)! I am terrified, really and truly terrified, that I've already damaged my pouch and that I am on my way to screwing everything up for myself, yet again! I have to get back to attending post-op support group meetings and hope to God that it will help. I find myself eating 70-100 grams of protein on one day, and then barely being able to get in 50 the next. How much damage does it take to stretch your pouch? Can it be "unstretched" again if I go back to following my doc's orders to the letter? Please, please, let me know! Rita -33