HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!
Its a great holiday for me because I'm off work (ALWAYS a +!!!!) and I know whats just around the corner. If I can get through the holidays sane this year with all the shipping nightmares to come then all I have to look toward is surgery. Its been a long road and honestly I am thankful for the previous months and very EXCITED about what about to happen.
But, I can also say that for some reason I am heading into the holiday with a TINNY sense of morning. I mean this is my LAST BIG Thanksgiving. I'll still be counting calories and my Weigh****chers points of course and I plan to document EVERY LITTLE THING!!!! But I will NEVER be able to sit down at a holiday meal like this again and not think about what I'm putting in my mouth............ I feel like its the last super. I know thats a strange way to look at it. Its an interesting feeling that I didnt think I would have. 
We have a lot to be grateful for. One of the things I am working on is becoming more mindful in my eating and more mindful in general. A meditation practice I have been using this week is grateful breathing. I encourage people to try it before they begin eating. Simply, take 5 minutes and find a place to sit and relax. Close your eyes and begin focusing on your breathing. Take big breaths in and notice how it relaxes you and gives you life. Pay attention to how your body feels. Recognize that your breath is a gift. Then as you begin exhaling, say the words Thank You. Express your gratitude for your very life and breath. We all have so much to be grateful for. I am so thankful for this surgery and the new life it has given me. May we have a day filled with gratitude.
Stephan
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I had mentioned this idea in an earlier post. Here is the article that generated it, from WLS surgeon Dr. Terry Simpson's newsletter as posted recently on our local WLS Grads Yahoo newsgroup:
* * * * * *
Photograph your food
by Dr Terry Simpson, Bariatric Surgeon
In the last newsletter to our patients we brought the new idea for
journaling your food -- taking photographs of everything you eat.
Everything.
In classic food journals you write down everything you eat. This has
always been great method for people to think before they eat, and
take personal accountability. Some even go further and keep track of
the calories, or the fat, or the carbohydrates that they consume with
each bite.
In the newsletter to our patients, we changed this from simply
writing everything down, to taking a photograph of everything they
eat. It still causes one to pause when they eat, and it provides a
good record of everything that is put into your mouth. It also has
the advantage that you can see how much you eat. Most telephones have
cameras on them -- making it easy to carry around. If you don't have
a camera phone there are many inexpensive digital cameras available
that are compact and easy to carry.
If, for example, you go out to eat, you can photograph the plate when
it comes, and the plate before it is sent back. You can see what you
ate, and what you did not. It also gives you some perspective about
the amount of food that you eat.
Walk by a candy dish and take a piece -- take a photograph.
At the end of the day you can transfer the photographs from your
phone to your computer. There are a lot of great places you can put
these photographs-
you have a Macintosh computer, your iphoto provides a great place to
see and store your photographs.
You can then put comments about the foods. For LAP-BAND patients, you
can see if a particular food has given you some trouble. Feeling
queezy a few days after a restaurant -- you can see what you ate
where.
One of the great difficulties of calorie counting is portion size.
Portion size is underestimated commonly.
The beauty of the camera and modern technology -- it is cheap, it is
available, and it allows you to record what you eat. Over time, you
can see trends, you can see places where you can make substitutions,
and - if you put something next to your food-- you will have an idea
about the portion size you are eating.
Preceeding from Dr Terry Simpson's Bariatric Newsletter.
November 2008.
Frank talk about the DS / "All I ever wanted to be was thin, like that Rolling Stones dude ... "
HW/461 LW/251 GW/189 CW/274 (yep, a DS semi-failure - it happens :-( )
