What's on your TUESDAY menu, RNY'ers

I agree regarding the mindset, great tips regarding the dip made with yogurt as i am a dip fan. I did not buy any nuts this trip to costco...so that is a plus as I would eat handfuls of them..and they add up quickly!

Hi Mike:

Thank you for your kind words of support.

I think your idea to exercise when you have head hunger or feel like grazing is one I will adopt. It should also be feasible at work...I can just get up and walk around instead of eating something.

I love how you put Abby's collar on your Christmas tree . . . very touching.

---Joyce

Thanks for starting us off, Joyce. I am sorry to hear you are struggling. As someone who is struggling in maintenance, I can only tell you that the first 12-18 months are a key time to take advantage of your tool. I recommend you plan your menu the day before, log it into whatever you use to track it, and follow it to a t. I know a lot of people have really benefited from therapy. I am sure it would benefit me - even five years out, I find that it's all too easy to turn to food in times of happiness, sadness, loneliness, stress, anger...you name it, food seems like a good option. It's a daily struggle to make good choices but if I plan and log my food, and PREP it, I am much more likely to eat high protein, low carb and eat on plan. Stock your fridge with protein that you enjoy - you might be like our friend Grim whose daily meals were often: 3 oz ham, 3 oz ham, 4 oz steak. Or maybe you will be like me who likes to mix it up and have ground turkey with mexican cheese for breakfast, tuna for lunch, shrimp in pesto for dinner. Figure out what works for you :)

I hope your stricture is fixed too!

Time since surgery: 5 years in 12 days!

B: Working on my coffee with half and half and sugar-free hazelnut syrup. I think I may have to ditch the everyday mini avocado (3 oz, 142 calories) and make it an occasional treat. I am sad, but it's just not fitting in my macros. So today I am upping my deli meat. 4 oz of deli chicken and 2 oz of goat cheese.

L: I'm making my Whole Foods copycat tuna. A can of light tuna in water, mixed with a jar of stuff from Aldi (artichokes, roasted red pepper, green olives, packed in olive oil) plus diced red onion and crumbled feta. I love it. The WF version has some fresh parsley in it but I'm not that classy. This is very delicious and very filling. I will make a big batch and eat it for a few days. I swear, will my weird sugar free Torani syrups kill me, or will the mercury from the tuna? We shall see!

S: 2 mini cucumbers and 3 mini sweet peppers dipped into fat-free greek yogurt with dry ranch seasoning added

D: 5 mini chicken meatballs and I am logging cottage cheese since after the gym I will likely want something more.

E: Total Body Toning class tonight!

QOTD: We have a cute artificial tree and I LOVE it. In the evening, I get home from the gym and shower and then we relax in the family room and I make dinner in the kitchen and I love seeing the lights lit on the tree and all of the sentimental ornaments that my mom passed down to me, plus ones we buy and add each year. I put the tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving this year! Early for me, but I figured that only gives me five weeks of tree (we take it down on Christmas when some non-Christmas celebrating family visits, out of respect).

Here is my lovely tree! (I'm biased ha ha). Also, check out who is hanging in front of the fire!

Your tree is beautiful, I love tree therapy in the evenings as well!

OMG - that tuna salad sounds amazing! I wish we had an Aldi nearby but I think I could make my own version. YUM - you have the best ideas!!

Awww thanks! You can totally make your own version - the Aldi jar is just convenient because it has artichokes, roasted red peppers and green olives all in one jar - you could easily buy 3 separate jars.

So I just made a huge batch and used the whole container of feta, 2 6-oz cans of tuna, half a red onion, and the small jar of Aldi artichoke/pepper/olives. It was a bit dry so I ended up putting in 3 tbsp of olive oil (but no mayo). I logged it in MFP as a recipe, and said 4 servings though I will be surprised if I can eat the whole container in 4 servings - I think it may end up being 5 or 6. But IF it was 4 servings (4 oz of tuna and all the extras in each serving) then the stats come to:

283 calories

7.3 carbs

18 fat

26.5 protein

And it's dense, filling and delicious! Oh, I also added some salt and pepper.

Awesome! Actually - I think I may have all of those things in my fridge already! I agree, sounds more like servings with all the ingredients. It would be awesome with chicken too!! Yum yum yum!! Can't wait to try this -thanks Em!!

Hi!

You have given me a lot of great suggestions. One of my biggest weaknesses is food prep. I stock my refrigerator and cupboards with all the right stuff. In the morning, I have gotten better at logging in my meals for the day, especially with motivation produced by this thread in the forum. And then . . . kaput! It all falls through.

Suddenly, it's time to rush to get ready for work. That's even though I've been up since 2:30 AM due to insomnia. Talk about poor time management!

I like your idea to plan the menu and prepare the food the night before. For me, it would work better to plan the day's menu and do the food prep and packaging immediately when I awaken early due to insomnia. Then there will be no excuses to go buy my lunch at work where the food choices are very limited.

With respect to your suggestion about therapy, I have been in therapy since around age 25 when I developed severe depression. Therapy has been going on uninterrupted since then. In fact, I have been working with the same Psychiatrist for over 30 years! (I'm 63 years old and my Psychistrist is about 1 year younger than me.) We have focused on my weight gains and weight losses for quite some time.

It also is helpful that my Psychiatrist was quite obese at one point before I started working with him. He lost all his excess weight through diet and exercise. He has maintained his loss well although he has had times where he may have regained up to 15 lbs, but he would immediately lose it again. I feel he really understands my situation with my weight and he has helped.me understand it so much more.

What a beautiful, tall Christmas tree! It's decorated so beautifully. My cat, Jesse, also used to love to sleep by the fireplace. (See picture below.) Her fur would get so hot, I was afraid it was going to burn!

---Joyce

Good morning, all. I am traveling to Los Angeles for a conference today and very happy to get out of the cold and into the sun! I also have a doctor's appointment for my knee's this morning. That will be my last doctor's appointment for 2018. I will always remember 2018 as the year of the doctor appointment. I had my first consult with the Baritrician on 1/3/18 and they just went on from there. I was up to 34 as of my surgery in late August and haven't been counting since.

This is kind of off topic but has anybody had blue light treatment for sun damage? I have heard that it makes you appear sunburned for awhile. Wondering how bad that is.

QOTD: We decorate on kind of a staggered schedule. Our lights are already up, but we are going to wait until our daughter is home from college to put up our tree. That will be next week.

Breakfast: Turkey meatballs and cottage cheese

Lunch: meatballs

Snack: Nuts

Dinner: on plane, will select protein option

Have a great day all

Enjoy the good weather! I hope that a lot of your medical issues are resolved as you continue to lose weight - I know a lot of people get to reduce their medications and doctors visits after WLS! It must feel great to know this is the last appointment of the year :)