Good morning. Any grazers out there?

Hello, my name is Gail and I am a grazer. Like the rest of you, I try to keep healthy things around. If and when something becomes a problem, I throw the offending food away and do not bring it into the house again.

I really can be a grazer.  I tend to graze more at night and consume SF popsicles as my grazing food. 

Hi, Gina! Gina here :)

Pre-WLS I was a nighttime grazer. Dinner, more dinner, dessert, salty snack, sweet snack, salty snack, sweet snack... Now I'm definitely a planner. Small meals at about 9, 12, 3, and 6 with water, green tea, vitamins, and exercise in between. I'm even learning to crochet to keep my mind and hands off of the sweets and salties at night. So...

I'm Gina and I'm a recovering grazer!

Me me me. I would RATHER graze on carbs but just don't keep them in the house. It is pure TORTURE when I go t stay with DGC or they come here but I try then to graze ONLY on things on my plan.

First of Feb they came for a sleepover and after 3 years of mostly successfully resisting their food,i caved,and caved big time. 10 days later I was finally able to chuck all junk food carbs except choc chips. Just yesterday,i went all day without any choc chips cause I was so sick with reflux out of control,i could not eat anything but soft scrambled eggs and those every hour.

But yeah,grazer here and funny thing, wonder why it is that carbs sooth reflux? Is it my imagination? or is it because I equate carby food with comfort food/ I was wanting soup and even soup was giving the reflux a fit. Tried egg white protein powder with homemade almond milk and Lord have mercy,you would have thought I set of firecrackers in my belly!!! That item is actually what started the whole terrible reflux thing yesterday.

Long story short,I weaned myself off Nexium in January and am treating thew reflux naturally with herbs,etc. doing very well actually,but like all other issues of this type,gotta stay on program or it flares really bad.

I guess I am not a grazer but that is because I would rather drink then eat.  Every time I put a bite in my mouth the timer goes off for 30 minutes and there are times I can't wait that long to drink so I don't eat, if that makes sense.  I don't let myself eat anything until I have drank 2 bottles of 16 oz of water, then I eat either my meal or snack and set the timer for another 30 minutes.  It really keeps me from mindless eating knowing that if I eat something I can't drink for 30 minutes and knowing I can't eat anything until I drink those 2 bottles of water.  Maybe because I am always drinking but I don't really get hungry.  I think drinking has replaced grazing for me.

Also, since I have been dealing with my teeth being removed there isn't a whole lot I can eat so I am limited by my choices.  Fortunately I don't really want chips and stuff but I would love to be able to eat carrots or apples or even a protein bar but that isn't happening for now.  I pretty much have my food planned for the day and it is a full time job just getting all that in between getting in all my fluids.  I really don't let myself eat anything impulsively but if there is something around at work that I want I plan it into my day and have it when I have gotten in my fluids.  I also can't eat at my desk so that eliminates the ability to graze at work.  I can only eat on my breaks so I don't worry about it.

I do tend to eat more at night but I have it planned that way.  I have at least 2 or 3 of my snacks after dinner and sometimes it's an effort to get in all my food and fluids before I go to bed.  I try to stop drinking after dinner so that makes it easier to get in my snacks.  It sounds like a complicated plan but it works for me.  I've gotten into a routine of drinking, eating, waiting and drinking again.

I am a grazer down to the core. As long as I am out of the house, I do ok. But when I am at home, it's another story. Sometimes I do turn to the "not so good" stuff. I know I would be better off without the stuff in the house but.....poor man is a sugar addict one day and a salt addict the next. Fortunately I am not interested in most of what he likes but sometimes I buy stuff I do like. Old habits due hard. 

I used to be a grazer. For a while,  immediately pre-op, I wasn't. I could barely get everything in. Even at goal, it was hard. But then I started training for an Ironman and suddenly I was eating all day every day and maintaining my weight with no effort at all.

So technically I was grazing, but it didn't feel like grazing because I had to do it for my health. And at times I got SO TIRED of eating.

Now that I need to keep my calories between 1400-1600 most days, the grazing became a problem just as it was pre-op. Now my appetite was much lower than it was pre-op and my grazing is much less. I just can't eat that much. Plus, during the day, I don't graze. It's mostly at night. 

So I would just plan for it. I'd save calories for the evening. And that kind of worked.

But what really worked was going on Topamax for my head. OMG it makes such a difference to not have that restless brain whispering in my ear. I still find myself wanting to graze a bit in the evening but that's more habit and I've broken the habit but not giving into it for teh most part.

I'm really interested to seeing what happens when I go off the Topamax.... will the grazing come back? The exercising will so maybe I'll be back in the "have to eat constantly or I can't keep my weight on" mode. Probably not right away though.

I'm guilty, I'm a grazer !

Mandy