Getting Back to "Normal"

This week some things have seemed to be getting back to “normal”. It has been like the email they send out where all the letters are jumbled up but the 1st and last letter. You can breeze through and read the message. We get so used to reading by memory that we don’t look at the individual parts to see the complete picture. Life gets in the way of experiencing it sometimes. I have had the last 12 days off work. It has been a very relaxing productive vacation. Those seem like contradictions, but really they aren’t. I had things I wanted to get done, but if they didn’t, they didn’t. Well, I got them all done without feeling rushed. I got my Christmas shopping and wrapping finished. From here on out it is a busy time at work, so it is important to get this done early. This way I don’t get stressed and eat just to eat. I also can look at the jumbled up word and know what it is without looking at each individual letter. I can relax in my post-op state of thinking and not fall back on my pre-op habits. As I said, life gets in the way sometimes.

Back to the “normal”. In the last 3-4 days I have begun to feel hunger urges. My body has always told me I was getting full and I have been able to stop at satisfied. My difficulty was in eating often enough because I rarely got hungry to tell me to eat. Well, this last week I began to feel the urge or rumble of hunger. Now the difficulty is trying to figure out what to eat. Now is the time I have to lay the foundation for healthy eating (food as well as patterns). I have been trying to do that since day one of post-op. It is more difficult now because I find I want to eat certain things sometimes. I have been successful staying away from the unhealthy, non-essential foods (carbs, sugar, etc.). I have kept my portion sizes appropriate. I have kept my snacking so limited it almost doesn’t exist. So now that I am getting the hunger urges I have to pay close attention to my patterns. I have always been an emotional eater. I ate when I was bored, happy, angry, sad, excited, stressed, etc. See the pattern? Whenever I wanted to and whatever I wanted to! Now I have to plan for those times when the hunger urge is evident. I have to recognize if it is really hunger or if it is emotional. I have in the past (B.S.) eaten a snack (chips, crackers, candy, pastries, etc.) in order to “hold me over until supper time.”. Now I will have to make sure I really need to eat and determine what I will eat. I know I tend to “need” something around 4-5p at work to “hold me over” until 7-8p when I eat. I will have to make sure I take cottage cheese or peppers or something along that line.

The last 2-3 weeks I’ve talked to several people about the want or need to eat. There is a difference! I also talked about the thought process of “can’t” and “don’t need”. I had a friend say she tells herself she can’t have that. I told her to tell herself she doesn’t need it. Saying you can’t have it leaves the sour taste of being denied in your mouth. By saying you don’t need it your perspective is on the healthy side of taking care of yourself. I have found this works really well. Today was our church’s Thanksgiving dinner. There were so many wonderfully delicious looking desserts; chocolate peanut butter balls, chocolate chip cookies, cakes, breads of all kinds, candy/nut trail mix, etc. I thought so many things would be so good just to taste. My determination for success won out. I kept the focus on “I don’t need it” and was able to pass it all by. I took an orange cheese cake with mandarin oranges on top. It is a recipe I found in my bariatric cookbook. I wanted to make sure I had something I was able to eat and that would take the temptation away for the other things. It worked. I also took a bean salad from that cookbook to give me a known safe option of salads (berry/marshmallow/whipped topping salad, heavy fat-laden saucy salads, etc.). Of course the protein was found in the beans as well as my turkey. I could in good conscious eat mashed potatoes and turkey gravy. Another hazard of a community dinner is not knowing how the food was prepared and what “additives” are in the dish. So I tried to stick to the basics and be safe. I stuck to my pouch rules and found the dinner was very satisfying in taste and fulfillment. It can be done. I can live a normal healthy eating life after bariatric bypass surgery. People perceive it so hard to not be able to eat certain things and eat such small portions.

I have talked to several people lately that don’t understand how and can’t fathom eating such small amounts. They ask, “Will you ever be able to eat that again?” They were referring to the sugar desserts and the high fat foods. I tell them, I think I am high tolerant towards sugar, but I don’t need it and I don’t really miss it, so why tempt it by trying it? Also when I tell them I have a Happy Meal from McDonalds and can’t eat it all, they can’t imagine that. I tell them I could have eaten it all and been miserable, like I used to do B.S., but being satisfied is so much healthier and satisfying to my overall feelings that I am able to stop when my body tells me. It just takes some listening to do it. “Slow and steady wins the race.” I know my race is at 70 pounds lost now!

With this week being Thanksgiving and all the traditions that go along with it I am glad I have to work 12 hours on Thanksgiving. Last year I played it smart. I took what I normally would eat at Thanksgiving and then split it in half. I ate half at dinner and took the other half to work for supper. This year there would have been things I would have eaten last year that I am not able to eat this year (like chocolate peanut butter balls). I did excellent at the church dinner today so I think I would have the same ability on Thanksgiving. God does provide the will if you rely on him for it.

I pray you center your Thanksgiving on those you are with, recalling the many blessings you have been granted in the lat year and thanking God for them. My hope is this Thanksgiving will be a start to a year of many blessings and you will count a new lifestyle as one of them. I know I will! “Thank you God for giving me the means to have the surgery and the dedication to use the tools I gained from that surgery to take care of myself in a healthy manner.”

God bless,

DeAnn :0)


"The difference between 'not enough' and 'more than enough' is your attitude,"
~Bishop T.D. Jakes~
We can get so wrapped up in trying to get what we don't have that we don't take time to appreciate what we do have.
~Valerie Burton~