Do you "diet"?

I have to agree with you. I am not dieting. I am working hard on ways to keep working my tool. I do not deny myself, but then I really don't have that many desires for what is known as the bad stuff. I think this is the same issue as when people would ask me if I would ever be able to eat normally again. I have always responded to them that I wasn't eating normally to begin with so I am learning to eat normally now. We have really brainwashed Americans into believing that super sizing this and that is the answer to all. Learning to enjoy a taste of something is what we need to learn. Do I taste something if I know it is laden with sugar- NO WAY. I don't want to dump. That is no fun. Will I taste something that is in a so so category- yes! My son had a Snickers bar about 2 weeks ago. (He has changed his eating habits as a result of my changes.) He brought me a taste. I ate about a 1/2 inch of a piece. Snickers had always been one of my favorite candy bars. The taste was enough. I don't crave them and have my mouth water when I see them now. That is the difference. No I don't diet. I eat to live a healthier happier life!!

Isn't it amazing how a bite of something now is enough. I almost never by something for myself anymore. Why bother I would just throw most of it away anyways lol but when Dale or Joshua get something I have a bite. I know its not mine to inhale (like I could NOT) and it has helped me train my brain to see that a bite is enough. By the way I LOVE Snickers. Haven't had one for years though lol Got me thinking about candy bars and remembering that my favorite one is called Rocky Road. MMMMMMMMM Marsh mellow, nuts and chocolate. It was to sweet back in the day and would probably kill me today but still brings back happy memories lol. *huggles* Felicia =0)

Grrr....it happened again! I typed for the last 20 min, hit one wrong button, and BAM it was gone! So this will be a recreation post....GRR! LOL Anywho Felicia, I think you will get a variety of answers to this question. By now, we have pretty much found what works for each of us. I dont consider this a "diet", and try hard to stay out of that mentality. It truly has finally become a lifestyle change for me. Its just that my wants and needs have changed considerably. Some things I have to avoid completely. PRETZELS! I have eaten myself silly two times over pretzels. I just cannot have them, I have no control over them. I have not had refined sugar AT ALL. I dont want to know if I can tolerate a little bit. For me, SF works fine. With the wide variety of SF foods now, that are better than ever, I dont feel deprived. I need a chocolate fix, a piece of SF chocolate is good. I have several bags in my fridge. I eat a piece about once or twice a month. SF angel food cake is to die for. Put a little berries on top with SF whip cream.....instant satisfaction. I made SF cheesecake last Thankgiving. My family loved it, I had a tiny peice. I was good. My tatses have changed. Even crystal light is to sweet. I take those little individual packs that are supposed to go in 16 ounces of water, and put 1/2 pack in 24 ounces of water. I get a little flavor without it being to sweet. I dont beat myself up over choices. The one time I had a hotdog, I savored every bite. It was good....WAY good. But I havent wanted another. I loved every bite (even if it was only 5) of the soft pretzel I had at the amusemenat park this summer. At resturants I puruse the menu and make the best choice I can. The one thing that has gotten to me, is when something tastes yummy and I cant eat the amount I want. It has been a trial more than once. I have mourned it for a short time, but when all is said and done, it was no big deal. Leftovers make a great lunch! When i find myself getting restless with what I am eating, I try new recipes. I really think the trick is to keep a variety in your diet. I love to cook....so many recipes...so little time! LOL I eat whole foods now. Fast food just sound horrid now. I have found strawberries are the sweetest thing on this earth! When all is said and done, its not about dieting anymore, its about adapting to a lifestyle change. However you can adapt, and still feel satisfied, thats the lifestyle you need to continue. I eat healthier, I cook healthier, my family is not "suffering", and I dont feel guilty when I have an occassional splurge. Just that my "splurges" are way different now! LOL Lauri

Girl you gotta learn to work the CTRL A , CTRL C keys. I hear you though. That has happened to me more then once. I finally got smart and started copying things about mid way through typing to my clip board so that if I lost it on my browser I still had it on my clip board *grin*. LOL You can come cook at my house anytime. I hate to cook. I love to read and re work recipes but I don't like to really cook them up. I don't like the mess, don't like the shopping yada yada. So when ever you are in cooking mode come on over lmaoo. We eat a LOT of the same things over and over again. Dale and Joshua are "easy" and we are boring eaters at heart. I do love good food though. Its even better when its cooked someplace else LMAOO I have a ton of recipe books and usually in the winter I will get the cooking bug. Mostly cuz it doesn't heat the house up. I so agree about the family eating better to. By the very nature of how things are now both Hubby and Son are eating better. Sad to see how much "I" was effecting them in the past but great to see how much "I" am effecting them now for the better. *huggles* Felicia =0)

I definately do NOT diet. I just concentrate on making the healthiest choice for my body. I do follow portion sizes and also try to listen to my body to distinguish from head hunger and real hunger. I have made considerable changes in the way both my husband and I eat on an everday baisis however. It's also the good carb / low carb type thing. I concentrate on using fresh produce as the focus of each meal, with lean meat as protein and good, whole grain carbs, occasionally as more of a "condiment". Last night I pulled one potato out of the produce drawer and began chopping it up (to toss in with a chicken I was stewing as a thickener)..the boy got excited..."POTATOES!" he cried... I looked, held up the tiny potato and said..."no...POTATO..thats it." Guess you had to be there, but we both thought it was funny, he's getting used to having side dishes of cucumbers or squash..and the occasional bulgar wheat salad.

HAHAHA Been there with the potato. I bought a small bag of red potatoes the other day and made up eggs, and potatoes for breakfast and I thought my family was going to pass out from shock and excitement. I love potatoes. We love potatoes. But they are WAY to easy to eat lol so they are a very limited treat in our house. *huggles* Felicia =0)

Good question Felicia, Since WLS my taste buds have changed drastically and some of the old foods don't even smell good anymore. Different textures bother me now. Possibly because I chew rather than inhale food? My pouch doesn't hold much so I have to concentrate on protein first. There is no room for much else, which never bothered me before. Heck, I ate long after I was full. I am kind of the food police I will admit. I know the big time trigger foods, such as chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and refuse to have that temptation in the house. We have healthy foods in the house but hubby can pig out on junk food downstairs in his office. I have noticed that he goes for the SF and FF foods more often these days too. It doesn't bother me to see others eat whatever, I just choose not to keep any triggers in the house. My choices are healthy and I don't feel as if I am dieting - just eating healthy choices now. It does help that our children are all adults. I'm not a total witch though. When the grands spend the week-end I always have their favorite bag of Oreos on hand. Interesting topic - Thank you. Annette

My taste buds have changed a lot to since surgery. I have a tough time with sweet things. Some days I can have it but some days not so good. I also have trouble with Sugar Alcohols so have found that low does of "real" sugar works better for me then SF ( if its loaded with sugar alcohols). Its strange to prefer the bland taste of water over the once beloved sweet drinks. To be able to cut a chocolate single bite serve in half and it be enough lol. I tell my husband its a bit like being pregnant again. Some smells and taste just make me ill. *shrug* I also do not keep a lot of "not so good for you" stuff in the house. But there are things here and there. I do find that if its just not out on the counter its usually enough to keep me from remembering it is even there. I do not keep anything just sitting out. As out kitchen is the walk through for the entire house and its just to easy to have mindless munching. I also buy a lot of single serve things ( for the whole family). They cost more but makes it a lot easier for everyone to not do mindess eating when its all ready portioned out for us. Joshua eats what ever we eat with a few added in things that we don't eat. But I am super lucky with him. His favorite foods are fat free yogurt, tomatoes and cucumbers LOL. He used to get a "candy treat" when he would be good when we were out in the store but I got tired of throwing it away when he would just take a bite ( have enough ) and leave it sitting. Gotta love good eating habits instilled early *whew*. *huggles* Felicia =0)

I certainly try not to "diet". I eat pretty much whatever I want. I am "allowed" anything that is under 10 g of sugar. This includes 1 whole turtle (chocolate candy). I had 1/2 of one last Christmas. It was good, but not that big of a deal. Before, I would have eaten 3-4 at least. A funny thing happened a while ago. My husband wanted to stop for ice cream. We stopped at a little place, me thinking that they would have some kind of sandwich meat or something else "healthy" that I could have. They didn't really have anything I wanted, so I chose to have a "kid's cup" of frozen yogurt. This serving was maybe 1/4 of a cup and I ate about 3/4s of the serving. Todd had this ice cream called "Heaps of Love" that was vanilla ice cream with fudge, cookie dough, oreos, peanut butter........all kinds of stuff in it. The next day, I looked up the nutritional info and his ice cream has LESS sugar per 1/4 cup serving that the frozen yogurt!!! The yogurt had over twice the sugar!!!!!!! I think I learned a lesson that day.....have what you really want and keep the portion small. If I would have had the ice cream, I would have had 3-4 bites and been done (way done) and would have consumed less sugar! I did Atkins for almost 2 years 5-6 years ago and got away from the "boxed" carbs and sugar. That has been my lifestyle ever since, so I have avoided processed carbs for a long time. For me, it has been hard to add the "good carbs" back in, as that diet made me think that ALL carbs are bad carbs. I have a heck of a time eating half a sandwich on whole grain bread without feeling guilty. I agree that it is portion control and exercise that will "git-r-done". My problem is that I do not often feel real hunger. I eat because I am supposed to eat at certain times. I worry that I do not have a small enough pouch, or stoma because I seem to have trouble STOPPING. I do not get much of a full feeling, and feel like I eat way more than most people I read about. This may just be a mental thing for me, because I still eat quite a bit less than I did "before", or maybe I just shouldn't compare myself to others. (But how else do you check your progress???) I guess I have rambled enough, but the answer is no.....I don't really "diet". Dawn

*Waves hand* Me me me Atkins baby here also. Managed to gain and lose and gain and lose up to 90lbs at a time over 3 years on it LMAOO. I do agree with its basis though and do still tend to follow his "golden rules". I don't so much think that I am dieting with it though as its the lifestyle I have chosen for myself that makes me feel the best with that type of food when eaten. I still rarely by pasta, white bread, white rice etc lol. But when I get take out I do splurge a bit. Joshua has never even had a slice of white bread, at least here at home lol. But I also found that I didn't miss it. I like the whole grain breads and pastas. They have flavor. BUT I do love a hunk of GOOD crusty bread *Grin*. Even though it doesn't really like me anymore lmaooo I have the same problem that you do with hunger. 11 months out ( ok in 2 days) and I still am never hungry. I plan my breakfast, lunch , dinner and snacks out and approximately when to eat them as if I didn't I would just not eat at all. On the flip side I do get the stop feeling. My head says "EAT THE WHOLE THING" and my tummy says half is enough, if you eat the whole thing I will kick your ass for the rest of the day lol. I don't see anything wrong with comparing ourselves to each other. Its when we use that as a gauge of success that it become a problem. When its a tool to keep you moving and motivated its different. I have several people that I "compare" myself to. In good ways and some not so good ways lol but its all in how we keep it in perspective. *huggles* Felicia =0)