Question:
Anyone experience fear of loosing control when advancing from one stage of . . .

your diet plan to the next? I met with my surgeon's nutritionist on Mondday and she wants me to move to stage 4 of my eating plan. Up 'til now, I've been on diced protein (eggs, cheese, chicken, milk, yogurt, etc) and have tolerated food very well. This stage has felt very safe to me and moving to stage 4 feels very scary and unsafe. This is where I add cooked vegies, fruit, and starch to my eating plan and I'm so afraid of losing control of my eating by adding these things. I know there is nothing unhealthy about vegies, and fruit, but I'm very afraid of the starches, except for saltines and melba toast, which is what I'll stick to for now. I'm also afraid that my weight loss will stop when I add these foods and/or that I will regain the weight I've lost. Has anyone else felt this way? I'm just so afraid of failing at this. I told my nutritionist about feeling afraid to move on and she said think about it and get used to the idea over the course of the week and then move on - not to rush myself. I would sure appreciate some feedback from any of you that have experienced these same feelings.    — rebalspirit (posted on April 16, 2003)

April 16, 2003
I wouldn't want to add white things, either. If you dont' want to add them, stick with grainy kinds of carbs. Make the Melba rye, and the crackers rye krisp or something that fits the type, but is not a carb trigger. It will serve you well to avoid white things for the rest of your wt loss & maintenance. Milk, sugar, white bread, white flours (saltines, white rice), stuff like that. Those are the carb triggers for most of us. It isn't that I NEVER have them, it's that I don't keep them around here. OK, I NEVER have milk, true. You are wise to know the enemy for you, and stay the heck away.
   — vitalady

April 16, 2003
I would also stay away from the starches. At your stage I didn't have room for them anyway. My doc says protein first, then veggies, then fruit and if you still have room, starches. I never had enough room to have the starches.
   — Yolanda J.

April 16, 2003
Yes. I felt fear at every stage when I had to make a change, and that fear was Weight Regain. So, at about 2.5 months out -- when I was past all the rigid "stages," but still had very limited pouch capacity -- I started tracking my food on fitday.com. My thinking was that if I got used to it early, I'd have that habit ingrained by the time I reached the infamous "Wow, I can eat lots more!" phase at six months out or so. I also tracked my weight and exercise on fitday.com ('cause it makes cool graphs, and I'm easily amused, plus it's free!). I tracked all of this stuff all the way to goal, so when I hit plateaus, or saw trends in how I felt or weighed, I'd know if there might be a reason, or if there was really *no* particular reason (so I saved myself some serious head trips, I think). I've been at goal for almost two months now, and I am still tracking, because I don't yet believe I'm at goal (please, if it's a dream, don't anybody wake me!). I guess I'll quit at some point, but it takes very little time to do. Anyway, I highly recommend doing it -- I've noticed that even when I track bad days (such as the incredible day I managed to graze 2700 calories into myself -- having never topped 1700 calories ever before!), I do recover from small and big food "mistakes" now, just like a normal person. (Even though I feel I'm still just "passing for normal"). Just don't lose your head and under-eat out of fear -- learning to eat, and how to control it, is the name of the game -- by whatever method(s) you find that work for you. Good luck!
   — Suzy C.

April 16, 2003
Original poster here: I want to thank each of you for your support and suggestions. I'm actually doing the fitday.com thing already, so Suzy C, your advice helped me feel like at least I'm on track. Michelle, I liked your suggestion of only doing whole grain crackers, etc. I must also add, that I just had a realization, that may sound rather elemental, but up until now, I've only seen the success of others in the before & after pics or the one person I know who had RNY, I would see her infrequently. So, it just dawned on me, that my journey is going to be lived out day by day, and I will not see big drastic changes in myself, as I see in others, until I am several months out. And maybe even then, my journey will feel somewhat surreal to me. This realization and your comments have helped me tremendously. Thank you for taking the time to answer my fears. Robin
   — rebalspirit