Day 7 - Calling All Vets - Questions for you all

Hi everyone. I decided to ask people on the RNY menu thread last Monday if they had a question for an OH Vet (Veteran) here what would they ask? I got great feedback and have 16 great questions that some of our regular posters wanted to ask the Vets here.

Here on OH if you are 5 yrs post op you are considered a "Vet." So everyone who is 5 yrs post op or more are welcome to chime in (RNYers, VSGers, DSers etc). I will ask two questions per day per post, today is Day 7. I hope that all the Vets out there will help us by giving us your experience, insight, knowledge & expertise to all of the pre ops, newbies, anyone post op who is struggling, anyone who is a lurker but does not post and for any Vet out there who may have had regain and is fuzzy about the "rules" and needs help.

Thanks in advance to all the awesome Vets!

When you reply to make it easy please just say "Response to Q1" or "Response to Q2" hope that works! Can you also include in your response how many years post you are, thanks

Question #1 (Q1):

When stress & emotions get the better of you & you rationalize off plan eating how do you prevent/stop that from happening and/or reign it in?

Question #2 (Q2):

How did you make the switch from eating just one thing early post op such as deli meat, cheese or yogurt to eating a full balanced meal?

Lets talk!

Good morning!! Sorry I missed Day 6 - I will go back, an catch up! But, I will do TODAY's FIRST, before the rest of my Short Peeps invade my space :)

Q1: Sometimes, regretfully I almost DON'T reign it in. BUT...I DO take full OWNERSHIP...I don't blame kids/mood/the weather/stretched pouch/the government/PTST/etc/ for anything that did, or did not go into my mouth. I find that is VERY important, for ME...I also do, as Dr Connie Stapleton teaches "the next right thing", when I come out of my food coma...If nothing else, I do something RIGHT, before BEDTIME, so I am BACK ON TRACK, when I get up the next morning, instead of "starting over tomorrow"..IT REALLY WORKS!!!

Q2: That's a tough one, for me the monotonous, rut eater. Probably by adding green veggies, like spinach. I eat spinach pretty much every day. I use it raw, in roll ups/salads, and cooked, as a side dish. I couldn't tolerate lettuce, for years and years, so I subbed spinach

Hi Daisy,

Great questions, as they have been every day!

Time since surgery: 5 years, 3 months and need to lose 25 lbs of regain

Q1: when stress and emotions get the best of me and I rationalize off plan eating, I make sure not to let the entire day spiral. Like, that doesn't give me carte blanche to eat crap all damn day. I can brush myself off and make sure that whatever meals/snacks are leftover, are high protein and low carb. I haven't figured out how to stop that from happening - I mean, in my mind I KNOW that food is not a comfort, but sometimes old habits die hard. This is likely related to yesterday's question about "the head stuff" and you will see that many successful people go to therapy :)

Q2: transitioning from eating one thing to eating a meal. Hmm, this is interesting. So immediately post-op (like the first few months) I would eat one thing. Based on my pouch size and my meal plan, that was fine. Now, at over 5 years post op, I actually normally eat 2 things. Breakfast will be 4 oz of deli chicken and 1 oz of cheese. Lunch might be tuna mixed with a ton of stuff, or hard boiled eggs mashed up with cottage cheese, or leftover chicken sausage from dinner the night before. And dinner is often one or two things - last night it was honey garlic chicken thighs in a cast iron pot with potatoes (no potatoes for me) but I also made a side of broccoli and had 3 small florets with my chicken. I think that now that I regained 25 lbs eating like a "normal" person, I have realized I am NOT a normal person when it comes to food, and never will be. So I cannot eat three things (one of them being a big starch) like my BF and the kids do. They have cornbread, rolls, potatoes, pasta...I do not. But I make sure that the one or two things I eat are very flavorful and mostly I don't miss the other stuff. Also, since potatoes do not call to me whatsoever, I make those a lot since there is no temptation :)

Question 2:

I think the concept of a "balanced meal" is not necessarily appropriate for WLS folks. We are fundamentally very different from people who have never been MO or SMO. The phrase makes me think of "moderation" in eating, which is typically something a lot of us have failed at during our lives.

I know quite a few folks *****ally eat just one thing, even in maintenance several years out. Chicken breast, and a few bites of broccoli or green beans for dinner. Carton of yogurt for breakfast. Deli meat/cheese wrap for lunch. For many folks, carbs are a slippery slope, even in maintenance; I find I do much better, whether losing or maintaining, when I keep my carbs as low as possible. It may not be "balanced" as a non-obese person's meal may be, but that's what it takes me to reach and maintain a normal-ish weight.

Question #1 (Q1):

When stress & emotions get the better of you & you rationalize off plan eating how do you prevent/stop that from happening and/or reign it in?

I try to be aware of my need for control foods. There were days that i did not care if i gain weight or lose. Dealing with high stress, and could not control anxiety left me with 2 choices - food or alcohol. And some days, getting the 2 beers was all I needed to be able to relax and breathe and take actions. Or I could reach for comfort foods, and hope that I can survive them... (food intolerance or dumping, or bloating - gas and pain). Over the last 10 years I realized that I can't use the alcohol. I like my liver too much., plus I really hated getting drunk. But it helped me in the past, when the stress got so bad that triggered a severe IBS flare. If not alcohol then what? meds or food. So far I haven't find a doc who is willing to write me a script on anxiety meds like Xanax, that I could take only in critical for me situations. But i got some meds that help with the IBS cramping. That leaves food. Some people use exercise, but since my adrenals don't work right, i don't get the endorphins normal people get. I get hot, sweaty, tired, in pain, and my BS starts crashing when I exercise. I used to love hiking, fast walking, yoga, etc etc. My adrenals worked OK then.

So - that leaves the food. And I used it a few times. And it helped and it made me laugh at myself. I have an unwritten contract with myself that allows me to pick food that would not cause severe pain, discomfort, something that I can give myself permission to eat -drink as much as I wanted. The list is not long and it has some items i tolerate rather well: peanuts, almonds, PB (only no sugar added organic), meats- cold cuts, jerky (low sugar, no soy), berries (no more than 16 oz - and I have to eat them one by one...Takes a while o eat up to 2 cups of blueberries). And almost any home cooked veggies (my body does not tolerate raw veggies too often), HB eggs (up to 3), tuna, roasted chicken, and dark chocolate - at least 70%, preferably 85%. Lets not forget pork rinds, pickles, cucumbers, avocado. When I want to pacify my stress with food - there is so many options that I always find something my body will be OK with. Because food is no longer "forbidden" i find that 2-3 bites is more than enough if I am not very hungry. i learned to chew my food. I think the chewing is more important than what I chew. If I am hot - I can make an instant "soft ice cream" . i blend 1 cup of chopped frozen fruits with 3/4 cups of Coconut milk drink, with a few drops of stevia. I use my faithful magic bullet, the small cap. My favorites are blueberries. I often ad some good tasting protein powder if I need to make it more nutrition friendly. Playing with how much frozen berries to liquid ratio gives me the proper consistency of the soft ice cream.

Or I cook a large meal. Something that takes time and can take my mind off the stress.

Question #2 (Q2):

How did you make the switch from eating just one thing early post op such as deli meat, cheese or yogurt to eating a full balanced meal?

What are balanced meals? Is pizza a balanced meal? The supreme may have all food groups... and a meal like that would be way low on my "acceptable " meals. I may have a bite, if i really want it, but I really have to want it.

i still have snacks or even meals that are just simple one thing. Sausage with mustard, roasted chicken, shrimp w ****tail sauce, pickles, jerky, nut bar, etc.

I use to have very monotone routine eating. When I got bored with trying new recipes I would have cheese, or yogurt, protein shake, or something really simple. Unfortunately dairy became my to go food day after day for years. Cheese, yogurt, whey proteins (that I even used in baking high protein cookies and muffins, bread etc) Unfortunately too much diary day after day after day eventually triggered allergies to dairy proteins. And soy allergies. I had to start a whole new chapter of my life. Understand what happened, why, and try to correct it and try to prevent developing more allergies and intolerance to food.

The more i research that the more i realized that I need to make sure my food choices need to change from meal to meal, from day to day. I try to add more easy to digest vegetables, new spices to my protein choices. Because of my IBS (that I probably had even before RNY) i needed to avoid or limit high FODMAP foods. This was one more obstacle I had to deal with. Initially the task seamed impossible, but discovering there are people who had even more restriction than I do, allowed me to stop feeling sorry for myself all the time.

Now - I make sure I don't follow a monotone diet. If i have chicken with veggies for lunch, I get other protein for dinner, combined with other veggies and spices. I even venture as far as adding a little bit of white rice to my some of my dishes, to slow down the weight loss. (I lost most of my regain and I need to transition to maintenance.) Surprisingly, 1 flat tbs of rice to my shrimp curry stew absorbed some of the sauce and made the meal more filling.

I follow rotation diet, trying to add color to my dishes. Changing what I eat, but being mindful to eat proteins.

My guy is a normie with rather healthy attitude towards food. By watching him I realized that he intuitively rotates what he eats day after day. He likes spaghetti, but don't expect him to eat that more than 2 times in a week (Leftovers). When I cook dinner for us, and i ask him what he wants, he would mention an item ( a protein choice i.e chicken) he had for lunch and another meal based on that he wouldn't want.

BTW: by following rotation diet, I realized that i can tolerate up to 3 eggs at the time, at least a day apart. (HB eggs, omelet, scrambled, etc). And no more than 6-7 eggs per week. Eggs added to baked dishes do not affect me.

Once again, thank you all for your meaningful and thoughtful replies! There is a lot here to learn from!!

Question #1 (Q1):

When stress & emotions get the better of you & you rationalize off plan eating how do you prevent/stop that from happening and/or reign it in?

This is a lifelong learning for me! Yes, I am a fan of good therapy when it's needed - we come to surgery with disordered eating patterns and those don't just go away. I have not always "handled" my rationalization very well but I'm at my best when I plan ahead and stick to that plan! For example in the days of logging food with paper/pencil, I did better when I planned my meals and snacks rather than write them down afterwards! I also find that hobbies that take my mind off food are helpful - maybe a walk or a workout, or maybe my amateur attempts at knitting! Looking bac****pt a detailed journal the first year after surgery and I find that very centering these days as I strive to lose a bit of regain and re-center my eating habits.

Question #2 (Q2):

How did you make the switch from eating just one thing early post op such as deli meat, cheese or yogurt to eating a full balanced meal?

I let it evolve naturally as I healed and was cleared for various types of foods. My son got married 7 weeks after my surgery so I was faced with meals around the wedding events and at that time was able to match up protein and cooked veggies in small amounts (I literally carried a half cup measuring cup in my purse for a while to help visualize it all). That was probably the first regular meal challenge I faced (and the wedding was a bit of a destination wedding, so we travelled, ate out, and had family all around. I tried to be unobtrusive to others and avoided sugar and salad VERY successfully! (Obviously, I had my shakes in hand as well for breakfast and snacks).

9.5 years post op.

Question #1 (Q1):

When stress & emotions get the better of you & you rationalize off plan eating how do you prevent/stop that from happening and/or reign it in?

I am weird but I swear I am not really a stress eater. I am a "fun" eater! I eat to celebrate, not when I am feeling badly. That's hard for me because I have such a stressful life right now that I want to be able to celebrate those rare fun moments. But when the pants are too tight, it brings me back to reality and I remember that it is (generally) more fun to feel good about myself than to eat the cookie.

Question #2 (Q2):

How did you make the switch from eating just one thing early post op such as deli meat, cheese or yogurt to eating a full balanced meal?

Eek, I really didn't ever do that. I still try to eat 5/6 small meals a day, but now I allow one of them to be something like a vegetable and hummus...or now I might roll the deli meat in a low carb tortilla, but really never did revert back to 3 balanced meals a day.