dietary restrictions?

Recently a friend told me that she admired me for being able to stick to all these dietary restrictions.  Her comment surprised me because I don't feel like I have a lot of dietary restrictions.

I think she was referring to the fact that I don't eat meat as well as the fact that I avoid large amounts of sugar because I dump, and then I recently told her about how I was cutting back on my dairy products, especially those purchased in the grocery store (I am starting to get raw milk from a local farm now).  I guess that would seem like a lot of dietary restrictions to me.

It doesn't feel like it, though.  I haven't eaten meat in about 25 years or so.  Maybe a little more.  It's just normal to me.  And I can eat small amounts of sugar so I don't feel deprived by that.  Not eating cheese did seem like a restriction to me  but I'm pretty used to that now, too, I think.

I think part of why I don't feel like I have dietary restrictions is because those are all things I chose.  I mean, I didn't exactly choose to dump on sugar but I chose to have RNY knowing that could happen.  I actually hoped it would happen.

And I remember years ago I worked with a woman that didn't eat sugar.  Well, maybe the tiny amounts in something like ketchup, but she had not had a single cookie in something like 16 years.  I couldn't imagine how she did it.  It never occurred to me that it was sort of like my decision not to eat meat and was not a big deal for her any longer.

How we think about things has such an impact on how we feel about them.  Do you feel like you have dietary restrictions?

I don't feel like I have restrictions.  Really, I can eat anything.  I realized at some point recently I couldn't say anymore that I can't eat that, rather, I don't eat that.  I haven't had a plate full of fried fish or chicken, or pasta so maybe that would make me sick but I haven't wanted it.  Now I choose to eat or not eat something, but not that I am restricted from it.  It is definately a different mind set.

That's what I usually say, I don't eat meat, I don't eat much sugar, etc.  I thought it would really hard for me to give up sugary stuff but I decided early out that I was going to look at it as something I don't eat, not that I can't eat, just like I look at not eating meating.  That really took away the feeling of deprivation I used to have when I tried to diet.

I have an addiction to sugar which causes me to obsess about sweets and to want more and more and more when I eat them.  When I abstain from that substance I don't obsess about it.   (I'm hoping with my RNY that I will be one of the ppl who dumps, so that it is an added incentive not to eat them.)  So my long answer to your short question is no, I do not feel like I have dietary restrictions.  I eat in a certain way because I like the way it makes me feel.  I feel freedom from the insanity/compulsion of constantly worrying about what/how much I will eat next. 

Someone else asked me something similar earlier today and I realized I don't think about it so much. I know what I can and can't have, and I don't make a big production out of it. I think I did early on (insert red cheeks here). But now it's really not a second thought. 

I prefer to think of it as foods I don't eat because of how they make me feel or what they do to me. About two years ago I developed food allergies (almonds, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, cherries are the big ones). I don't eat them because I'll get an itchy throat, mouth and ears. Although it's tolerable the foods are just not worth it. Same for simple carbs. I don't eat them (more than a bite or two) because of how I feel afterward (bloated, gassy, uncomfortable). It makes it so much easier when I think of food in this way.

do you know why you developed those allergies at that point?  Isn't it unusual to develop allergies like that as an adult?  Or am I mistaken about that?

I don't know why I developed the allergies. The allergist said that people can get allergies at any point in their lives. It's a bummer because I really love almonds and cherries. I cannot eat them raw but I can if they are cooked as the proteins in them change due to the heat.

My only restricted food is milk.  I can eat cheese and yogurt but not milk.  There are other things I choose not to eat but I could in small amounts (pasta, potatoes, rice, sugar) due to the lack of nutritional value.  But many non-ops eat that way too so it's not really a surgery thing it's a lifestyle thing.

I know a woman that breaks out in hives from eating almonds and walnuts.  This started in the last few years and she is around 40.  Before her tongue would be irritated but she ignored it since she liked the nuts.  Now she can not ignore it any more.  So maybe she was always allergic but it just got worse.