Pre-appointment update

Hi All,

In my other posts I had stressed about how my pre appointment is coming up and I was struggling with edema and weight gain.  I had stopped using salt on my food and was really watching the salt content.  I eat alot of salads but I am finding that since I have stopped putting salt on everything i can now taste how salty certain foods taste.  Like salad dressing. 

I have been walking the track at the school next door.  and I am finding that I have finally started dropping the water weight/regular weight gain and am pretty much where I was before!   My problem now is I am very bored with my food selections!  Anybody have any idea of  low carb low sodium diet?  I appreciate any suggestions

Good for you! As for suggestions, I struggle with this like you, trying to find new yummy yet good for you foods. The only thing I can recommend is to read every food label for content. My latest craze is ground chicken and ground turkey. I just made some wonderful Greek turkey burgers that were out of this world. Good luck with everything coming up - you're in the home stretch now!

I find part of the process for me of taking the glamor, excitement and emotional charge out of food in my recovery was becoming bored actually if that makes sense. It helpedme shift to eating to live vs living to eat. It helped me learn to use food and cleaner eating to take care of myself. Now I am not saying we shold not enjoy food or it has to be boring forever..I am just commenting on my prcess, making food less important, finding other ways to cope so I focus less on food etc.

With that said if you find a recipe you like change up the ingredients, make the veggies different, or the lean protein for instance if you find you like a certain stir fry use chicken in it or turkey or lean beef...use different frozen veggies, keep same basic sauce/spices (like nosalt varieties of mrs dash a good investment!)

Like a fish recioe add salmon one night then use tuna next or shrimp vs scallops......steam, grill, broil, poach, bake things for differnt flair.....low sodium chicken broth is a ood flavor enhancer perhaps to use?
Salad is very versitle, keep basic staples and make the salad dressing and protein on top different can make a million permutations! Try some strawberries in te salad with walnuts and a lite vinegrette....tuna salad or chicekn salad or shrimp or egg salad in lettuce leaves,
buy low sodium ketchup and make your own sloppy joes with some fresh veggies mix grated zucchini or summer squash mushrooms, clery onions sauteeed in pam/low sodium broth (veggie/beef or chicken) and then sauteee the lean beef/chicken or turkey, top with ketchup and flavor with chille powder etc spices to taste make a batch and freeze indv servings.......

You are totally right about  food.  I have tried to get myself not to think of food as entertainment.  When and if I go to a resturaunt I think of as I dont have to do dishes that night or cook rather than what food I am eating. 

I post not to be 'RIGHT' just to share my experience sometimes it rings true for others.....I find the more I try NOT to think about somtehing the more I think about it..the opposite happens!

Ye for me going out is NOW more about the company than the food....
Sometimes we consume our lives with food, thinking about what we can and can not have, when we can eat or should eat, how much, how often, how it should be cooked, when to buy it, how much, what we should weigh, what size clothes to be etc that we occupy so much time and do not even realize that we have no time left to feel and be in the moment.....It is this setting of both very RIGID, UNREALISTIC WEIGHT LOSS GOALS/THOUGHTS for ourselves that are BOTH many times UNATTAINABLE and CHRONICALLY DISAPPOINTING and leads to DEVASTATION & the slippery slope of self-sabotage...more unhappiness.

My belief is for too long many of us have used the scale with false beliefs it helps us be accountable when in fact we do that not a piece of metal. The scale can not measure our worth, it can not measure what is going on inside of us (emotionally), it can lead to being consumed by numbers and add to not living, not being present and in the moment. It can keep us in a victim mode, shamed with judgment. If this is you skip the scale a while and find other meaningful goals and measurements. In reality if we just are present and NOTICE we do not need a scale to tell us anything!


If I am present I KNOW what I have been doing in my life eating, exercise and such, the scale is so inaccurate and shifts for many reasons we all know this. We can afterall only do what we can do, and getting on that hunkajunk won't change anything reality is reality with or w/o the reading! Sothe choice for me is use it wisely monthly or weekly at most, and find other ways to be consistent accountable and responsible for my internal world, which affects my external being more than any hunkametal. This is my 2 cents. For too long I believed I couldn't be in control w/o the scale, how wrong that false belief was I have carried for me. This is my truth, although it is my opinion and can differ from others I respect that and just offer it up to consider!

Manytimes, NO MATTER WHAT WE DO to try and influence our wt and loss our body is the ULTIMATE MASTER in control of what happens. If we can grasp that along the way I believe it will allow some comfort and less stress. With that said I KNOW it is easier said than done. Old negative tapes of diets past ring close, "OH I will fail this too", "I will be the only one WLS doesn't work for" etc. I encourage people to reflect on WHY you had WLS ALL the reasons, sure wt loss is one or a bonus but are there other things you wanted?

Health, happiness etc. Reframing this as NOT A RACE but a journey, a process, an adventure filled with twists and turns it may help ease the worry or fear or frustration....I propose it is MUCH, MUCH more important to focus on the LIFESTYLE you are forming because that is what will allow you to MAINTAIN the loss you achieve for a long time. Focus on the healthy choices, portion sizes, energy, exercise, etc that you're working on! These tools are the goals/successes, the wt loss is a BONUS and NEVER the goal (IMHO)...

I read a great article that reinforced this recently for me called "Weight loss surgery to lose weight permanently is USELESS!" by Dr. Teri Holtzclaw PhD (and 8yr or more post RNYer) basically no one questions the wt loss and helath benefits of bariatric surgery at 1, 2 to 10 years even....that pre surgery we think this is our last resort....it focused on the efforts of the bariatric community for those wt regainers..bringing them back to a place w/o self esteem to old failed diet attempts AGAIN which can strip them of any shred of self esteem they had left in an effort to perhaps discover more diets, pills, potions or surgical procedures to be a coverup to the regain and silence us..this push to old ideas with failed solutions vs development of new ideas will not help the regain go away or silence us ....Looking at new ways as we do the initial bariatric procedure and first few years is important..I think much in lies emotionally with the proper use of psychology but this is only one piece..... Be well off my soapbox, that article was in theJuly 2008 issue of beyond change a great publication for bariatric folks!
www.beyondchange-obesity.com