Continuing the Journey
Forgive the bad writing, but I am not typing this in word first. It's been a while since I posted but I wanted to take the time to revisit the reason I first came to this forum:
When I started doing research to have bypass, I stumbled upon the obesityforum and ended up trying to fit in on the general board. As many of you know, there is no way to connect to such a large audience, so after one of the members told me about the over fifty, here I came.
I wanted to learn about bypass because of my son who was in his twenties and recovering from congestive heart failure related to his super morbid obesity. In my journey to find him help, I found out that I wasn't too old to have surgery, something I had thought for years. I struggled, had surgery, and struggled some more, and here I am...doing great. I started my weightloss journey over 500 pounds but didn't get wls until I had lost down to 340 pounds. Now I weight between 135 and 140. My weightloss goals have always been to lose enough weight for my to be manageable You know, move around, sit in booths, use public restrooms, etc. I had never once thought of this as a tool but as a way of life. If I thought of it as a tool, then I would have had to think of it as something I could choose to use or reject...as a way of life, it is who I am: my friends know that I don't eat sugar, that I eat out of a small plate, that I don't eat chips...they call me a health freak.
When I first started here, I learned from everyone, even those women who were not always kind to us new comers. I learned that some of us can eat sugar and others cannot; I learned that some of us lose weight quickly and others stall. I learned the stages of postoperative period: buyers remorse, honey moon period, euphoric high, and finally keeping the pace.
Well, I'm at keeping the pace. Fortunately for me, I have not been able to tolerate sugar or high fatty foods. But, I can eat glider foods pretty easily, so I just don't buy any of those foods that glide past my stoma.
So, as 2013 takes off, I wanted to touch base on all those things that I really, really have found to be beneficial to me in maintaining my weight.
1. Keep a plastic container filled with carrot and celery sticks.
2. Keep another container filled with cauliflower and brocoli
3. Replace chips and other glidder foods with fresh fruit such as
apples, bananas, oranges, etc.
4. Move, move, move. If you don't move, you are not going to lose
or maintain. Sign up for yoga, dance, or other community
sponsored exercise. Walk a little every day and after a week
add a little more. Resist the temptation to just sit.
5. Cook from scratch to avoid hidden calories.
6. Do not use pastas or rice in your food groups.
7. Eat out of a saucer and avoid refills.
8. Eat meat first then green vegetables.
9. Drink water.
10. Do not try and trick your tastebuds by trying to replace those
really bad for you comfort foods with lower calorie replacement
varieties. You are not learning to avoid those foods that are
bad for you; instead, you are still pining for those foods.
Change your way of life and that means give up gravy, fried
chicken, etc.
11. Remember why you had WLS and keep that in the forefront of
your thoughts. I used to think if I ever get this weight off of
me, I will never....
What are some strategies that you have found that has helped you lose weight and keep it off? Also, what is your weakness: my weakness is potatoes...I never, ever buy them because if I do, I will cream them and eat them until I throw up, seriously.
Hi Jeannie:
Thanks for the reminder. I needed this. I need to get back on track. I'm glad you're here. Don't ever go away. We need you.
My knee replacement seems to be working better than the first one, so maybe I'll get up and exercise now. It sure feels like it's holding up after I stood in the kitchen for a half hour making chili and wasn't in pain (other than the right knee).
Good to hear from you again.