Whatcha Eating Today VSGers? Saturday, May 19, 2018

Good morning! Did you watch the royal wedding this morning? I did after being reminded of it in another post on OH. I don't usually watch stuff like this, but I feel that with Meghan Markle being from the US and with an African American heritage it was a ground-breaking event. Plus it was so beautiful: Like a fairy tale (really)! Picture snapped on my iPad below.

QOTD: There are a lot of posts this morning about head hunger. Do you get head hunger and if so how do you deal with it (avoidance or dealing with an active craving)? I've had head hunger from the beginning and still sometimes struggle with figuring out if it is real or not. To avoid it I eat 5-6 frequent very small meals each day and if I am going to be out, I bring a healthy snack to avoid going past my usual eating time. To combat it, I try drinking water, chew gum, or eat something filling for me like cottage cheese (then track that with my calories).

2 Years, 1.5 months post-op

Always lots of coffee...

B: Eggs scrambled with cottage cheese and Canadian bacon

L: Tuna salad with pickles and cottage cheese

D: Chicken meatballs

S: nut thins and hummus

Good morning all! It's a beautiful rainy day here. Perfect for napping the day away, which is what I plan to do off and on. It's my last weekend of lazy time off since Monday starts the orientation of my new position. No idea what my actual work days are yet, but I do know it's night shift. That will be a huge adjustment flipping from a day person to a night person. Worried over how to log my meals, but decided it would be easier just to log it normally. Except my breakfast would be at like 5pm, and dinner probably between 6am-8am then bed. My entries to the meal threads will always be everything I already ate before heading to bed! I don't plan to be one of those people that are forced to be both day people and night shift workers. Not having a spouse, or children really helps since I understand people that do have more struggles. I'm worried about how tired I'll be at first, but my doctor said I could use half of my prescribed sleeping pill and simply take it during the day a couple days before I start work to ease into flipping my schedule.

Also, I feel much better than I did yesterday. I have my appointment with my therapist Monday afternoon, but she talked to me a long time on the phone yesterday for a mini-session. It put me at ease! A friend also reminded me (sorry if this offends someone people not religious) that the devil always tries to get in the way of our good fortune, we just have to remember that God will always be there for us helping us fight him off!

Edit: I forgot to answer the QOTD:

I get head hunger when I'm bored. I can ignore it though. It's more just an urge to eat than head hunger I guess. However, I do get specific cravings. My biggest one is Flaming Hot Cheetos. They were my favorite junk food. I can knock the craving out with something hot and crunchy normally. One thing I have done is get crinkle cut carrots, so they are similar to chips, or use cucumbers and keep a small single serve tube of Wild Garden Jalapeno hummus on hand. Most the time though if that craving hits, just the 30g serving of hummus on a spoon is perfect and it's 45 calories vs the 160cal in the chips!

No heavy working out today, have done HIIT a couple times this week already, so will probably just enjoy the day, maybe go walk around some shopping centers with the grandma. If not that, you can find me in my bed cat napping away!

Good morning,

Ill watch the wedding later since I had other plans this morning but it's raining out and the event was outside

Qotd I get head hunger especially at night and usually cave for what I want but am working on it.

B ham and cheese omelette and string cheese

L tuna, cottage cheese and honeycrisp apple

D either chicken and broccoli slaw or ham and carrots

Have a good day

Good morning everyone! I did no****ch the wedding but I was just looking over some video clips. I really like Meghan Markle and I hope she's happy. Her veil was stunning!

QOTD: YES! I used to be a volume eater. I wouldn't eat all day and then I would get takeout at night and eat until I was stuffed. Sometimes I miss being able to eat a lot at once so I'll eat my measured portion of dinner and be satiated but my head hunger isn't satisfied. Usually when that happens I will brush my teeth and then do something to distract myself (like get on OH :) It's harder some days than others, and unfortunately I have over eaten a few times with the sleeve making myself very very uncomfortable. It's a work in progress for sure. I'm focusing on creating a new habit loop around that feeling.

B - coffee & Protein

L - Yogurt with almonds

D - ? We are attending a wedding so I will have whatever meet is served

Morning! I got a power yoga class this morning and my abs are burning! It's raining like crazy, so if I run it will need to be at the gym and I'm not sure if I'm feeling that today.

QOTD: Oh yeah, all the head hunger! The things that help are:

1) Fat fasting in the mornings. I only have coffee with heavy cream until 10-11am. I don't try to make it about long fasts or to any specific time but the head hunger doesn't kick in until I eat for the first time.

2) Lots of gum chewing.

3) Building things into my day that I like to eat and knowing that if I give in to head hunger I have to give up my planned meals/snacks. A planned/tracked Yogurt and/or Protein bar are two things that always entice me to hold off on any empty calories. The fact is, I will never be one of those people who eats because 'food is fuel'. I enjoy eating and I only got a reprieve from that for about 4-5 months post-op.

4) Finding drinks that I really enjoy: decaf coffee, Bai Bubbles, water enhancers, Diet Coke. I try for a minimum of 48oz of water (with flavoring) per day and then I get an additional 48oz+ from other things.

5) Stemming boredom, because it's a trigger for me to eat.

6) Avoiding carbs 95% of the time. Truly occasional dabbles into carbs only (none while in WL phase). If I let myself eat carbs the head hunger is 10x worse.

7) Allowing myself to acknowledge that I'm more hungry than I should be and either consciously decide to eat more (and track it) or literally tell my body to STFU and deal because hunger isn't an emergency. I normally have to talk myself off a ledge and remind myself that I will be starving one day and normally the next I couldn't care less about food. But, no matter what I decide I do it must be conscious rather than mindlessly eating or giving myself a 'free day'. I must always stay accountable. ALWAYS. Disclaimer: I'm in maintenance and these are tactics I use in maintenance. During WL I just went balls to the wall and lost the damn weight.

Sorry, that was long.

16 months post-op/Maintenance/129.8lbs

M1: Coffee, PP, Miralax, HC

M2: Egg, Sausage, Cheese

M3: Sockeye Salmon

M4: Chicken Thigh w/ Veggies

M5: Yogurt w/ PB

E: Yoga!

#5 and #6 for sure! Simple carbs and slider foods are the devil- like climbing up a ladder for "just a little bite", concluding with the slippery slide down with the whole bag, carton, container, being stuffed into my mouth. Not taking that first bite saves a lot of grief.

Good morning! I have the whole event recorded, so I will skim through it tonight and watch some highlights. It is ground breaking, I think the Royal Family is trying to be more modern and move with the times. I think Prince Harry looks the most like Diana, I see her smile and mischievousness in him.

It's a beautiful day for yard work and going to the dump, then I have a concert to attend tonight.

QOTD-Head hunger usually happens when I am bored and mostly at night after 8pm. I try to keep busy when it happens and stay far away from the kitchen. I have also moved my evening meal later into the evening, usually between 7:30-8:00pm. Now that it's light out until 9:30, it's easier to be outside and eat later. It doesn't always work, but I never give up.

B-Bullet coffee

L-2% Greek yogurt w/SF pudding mix and almonds

S-Chai tea, string cheese

D-Chicken Cesar Salad

E-Yard work and take Emmy for a walk

My foods are pretty much standard fare. 6 servings of veggies- new addition -strawberries out of the garden.

Protein-58

Carbs-33

Calories-600

Liquids-good

It's not my intention to go this low on calories. Am out of school for the summer and find myself skipping breakfast and not taking time. Consequently, I'm trying to squeeze everything into 2 meals- the last one sometimes late in the evening. This causes problems with both quantities and the time it takes to eat those quantities. Hmmmmm....something to seriously work on.

QOTD: Head hunger. Read somewhere (maybe here a long time ago?) that when you think you're hungry and don't know if it's head hunger or real, ask your self- "Would anything (as in VGS friendly food) satisfy my hunger?" If your answer is yes, then it's real hunger, and go on ahead and have that veggie- or protein- or fruit-). If your answere is, "No, what I really want-desire is...." then that is head hunger- not valid, and probably what you indulge in isn't going to satisfy for very long before you find yourself getting into it again.