What does "Normal" look like to you?

It's funny how, at whatever stage we may be in on the wls journey, our definition of "normal" seems to change. The further out you get, you realize that you can begin adding food back to your diet. In the beginning, you're told NO fruit, NO carbs, NO sugar, NO calories... you lose all the weight, and now there are many on the board who are at goal or very close. This means that soon you will be "normal".

But what does your "normal" look, act and sound like now? Is it different than the day you had surgery? does it mean forever eating low carb, not eating bread, not eating pasta? No sweets? I would love to hear everyone's feedback on where you are on your journey first of all, (preop, 1 month, 6 mos, 2 yrs) and at this particular phase, what it means to you. How do you view normal?

 

I remember preop, I thought normal meant NEVER EVER having a sweet touch my lips again. I spent 3 weeks saying goodbye to food... FOREVER I thought. Now, after being at maintenance for one year, my highlight of each week is to walk through Kroger's bakery and take samples out of the sample trays. I have a 3 bite rule. So I take one sample of cookie, one sample of a danish and one sample of cake. IF, that is, someone hasn't already eaten them all. This is my dessert treat for the week. Sometimes, if it tastes terrible and not pouchworthy, I spit it out in the trash can. I make sure it is worth EVERY bite.

Normal to me means IF I want it, I can have it in very small portions and then I am satisfied. Normal to me has nothing to do with how I ate preop. It has to do with the adjustments that I have made and am now used to after successfully making my goals and learning/putting into place all that the doc's office taught me. Normal means low carb, high protein, watching my daily calories. Normal means if I see the scale creep up a few lbs, I get strict with myself and do what it takes to maintain my goal weight. Normal means if I occasionally feel like pasta, I let myself have a little pasta. 

So what does your normal look like?

I am still pre-op.  I hope normal is being able to eventually (2 years maybe?) to be able to taste about anything I want. 

I have never eaten what a normal portion should be (you know 4 oz of meat and 1/2 cup servings).  Hopefully once I have met goal I can do that.

Of course I know the fear of going to regular food can be hard after WLS so I might be depending on shakes for a long, long time.

Having passed the 2 1/2 year mark, normal to me is eating pretty much whatever I want. However...my wants have changed a lot!!

Before surgery I too thought I was saying goodbye forever to dessert, pasta, ice cream, and bread. I spent time saying goodbye to all of my favorites and enjoying them for what I thought was the last time.

Now, like Melinda, if I want pasta or bread or potato, I have it. I just have a couple of bites though not a huge plateful or half a loaf like I would have in the past. When Bill and I go out, or I fix it at home, if he gets a baked potato, baked sweet potato, french fries, etc., I will have maybe a tablespoon or a couple of fries. This completely satisfies my desire for the food.

I occasionally eat pizza - one slice of a medium thin crust as opposed to half of a large hand tossed or pan pizza. Most of the time if we are craving pizza I will fix tortilla pizzas at home. Bill even prefers these over his old favorite from Papa John's.

I thought I would never be able to enjoy sushi again because of the rice. I have had sushi and I am able to enjoy it just as much as I did pre-op, just not in the same quantity. Now, I am very happy with a piece or two of a sushi roll and maybe a couple of pieces of sashimi (just the fish). I don't have it often because of the rice so I really enjoy it when I do treat myself. The guy who owns what used to be mine and my daughter's favorite sushi place will even make my favorite roll without rice - though he does give me his "tsk-tsk" head shake while he does it. LOL

I even have the occasional bite (or 3) of regular, full sugar dessert. Ask Mel, when Bill orders a dessert in a restaurant he always offers me the first bite. He knows that I am going to take what used to be 1 bite for me and turn it into 3 or 4 teeny bites so I can savor every bit of it. This is enough to satisfy me but not enough to make me worry about dumping.

Over all I'd say I eat very normal. I do eat protein first but then I have a very balanced mix of small portions of a healthy variety of other foods with the occasional dessert or snack food.

Sometimes I still make poor food choices and I pay for those choices either on the scales or with a dumping episode or other bodily discomfort. I am far from perfect and I know this is something I will have to deal with for the rest of my life. But, I make far more good choices than bad and that is a big improvement.

I agree with you Susan, that my wants have changed a lot.  Instead of grabbing candy bars and eating the entire thing, I reach for my protein bars and eat only a few bites.  One bar could last me all week.  I carry protein bars in my purse in case I need something to help prevent blood sugar.  Saturday at Goodwill in the long line I grabbed my protein bar and ate 1/2 of it because I had been there so long and had only a shake before my Goodwill trip.  Most of the time though I would eat 1/4.

 

I love low carb pizzas, made with low carb tortillas or low carb pita bread.  In the past 6 months,  have had real pizza 3 times.  It tasted great but I was cautious and my restriction prevented eating more than one piece of thin crust pizza.  I also love Joseph's pita bread as its low carb and I do not miss real bread for sandwiches. 

 

I have ravioli in the freezer.  When I get hungry for Italian, I have 3 of these with 1/2 low carb pizza.  I also love to make lasagna out of stir fry vegetables instead of noodles and this is my "normal" and wonderful lasagna.  I don't feel deprived.  

 

I dont miss Starbucks mocha frappucinos because of my favorite protein powder drink, Syntha 6 Mochachino.  I love to make it at work and put it in a starbucks cup so everyone else who sees me thinks I am normal cause I have Starbucks.  I love my Hood Calorie Countdown Milk, Kay's pretzels, Kay's protein cereal, all kinds of stuff that I use as lower carb versions.  So you're right... I don't desire those bad things anymore.  I also have a sugar free plain M&M alternative if/when I want some.  I have maintained my weight for over a year and I love my life.