Simplify... geez!

Alrighty ladies, so I had my appt today with my surgeon. Soooo glad I went, he made me feel so lucky, blessed, and awesome by the time I walked out the door.

First off, the best thing he told me today- Your body has something called metabolic memory (I think). So say you weigh 250 and you struggle and work and get down to 150. Staying at 150 WILL initially be a struggle. He says that when your body is at 250 lbs your body perceives that to be "normal". So after you lose weight and try to maintain, your body goes into action to "get you back to normal" ie, get you to put the weight back on. He says it does this until it has time to adjust to a new "normal weight". This is the reason why diets don't work. You suceed for the first few weeks or months and thennnnnn your metabolic memory kicks in wanting to take you back to "normal" and it can do this by increasing hunger pains, increasing cravings, and feel less satisfied on a small amount of food. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? It's like a diet secret we should've all known about our bodies. So this is why the initial maintenance of WL is so important. It's the time for your body to refocus on what's right and get used to weighing less, eating less, and being more active. That's so awesome to understand how our bodies work!

So in general my surg said I was doing awesome. I was bummed I hadn't lost more but it's been 30 days since I was in last and I'd love 7 lbs on his scale. He said that's fabulous for a month. They expect 1-2 lbs lost per week, and I was right on track! I GUESS I COMPARE MYSELF TO OTHERS TOO MUCH AND I PUT MYSELF DOWN. Today I realized I need to just focus on myself. We went over how long I stay full and how much I eat. I told him I measure, way, analyze, and freak out over all kinds of stuff to make sure I'm doing the best I can. He said me being full 5-6 hrs was perfect and that if I eat 1 1/2 cups of food, I'm fine. The major thing is that it's the right foods. So if I'm eating good foods, 1 1/2 cups is not going to kill me, make me gain, or stretch my pouch. And if I do have bad stuff then I need to severly limit it. But he prefers I do NO slider foods b/c they are empty calories. However, he said chips, pastas, and casseroles are not slider foods. He said if you have to chew it, it's not a slider food. It just may not last as long in your pouch, but still isn't a slider food. My thing is I think chips, pasta, and casseroles are fine in moderation if they are wheat baked chips, wheat pasta light on sauce, and casseroles with veggies wheat pasta and/or brown rice. I think it's about eating quality foods, and carbs in moderation. Wheat pasta and brown rice IS GOOD FOR YOU! No one can do a no card diet forever, or you're on atkins, which has been proven to be bad for you long term.

So he says I'm too worrisome, too analytical, and too hard on myself. I'm going to cut back to weighing 2x a week, wednesday on weigh in day, and saturday just to check in and make sure things areheading in the right direction. If I continue to have a steady downward spiral, then I might feel comfortable cutting it down to 1x a week.

So when I go back in a month he expects me to be around 245 but i set a goal for myself to be around 240. So I will only hold myself to that if I exercise like I should. I'm hoping I"ll be motivated enough to add that soon so that I can succeed b/c my back is slowly returning to normal.

xoxo,

Liz

P.s. He did a small fill since my fullness and hunger levels have been good. I eat 2 cups of food at the most. So he gave me 0.50cc's added to my band. Brings me to a total of 7.5cc's and I THINK I'M AT OR VERY NEAR MY SWEET SPOT! we'll see how regular food feels in a few days. Just got full on 3/4 of a cup of yogrt.