Tuesday Thoughts

I've been all over the boards for the last few days and have seen a couple of trends that make me happy, as well as a couple that make me sad.

Happy is seeing people recommit to their goals. Folks are doing liquid diets to break stalls. They are adding in exercise and more of it and I'm seeing so many people post their before and after pictures. It's inspiring and thrilling to see folks getting to their personal goals.

What doesn't make me happy, though, is seeing how judgmental we can all be. Someone posts a picture of a meal and others have to jump on the person. I've seen comments ranging from "You can't eat that!" to "That's not allowed!"  Really, folks? A sleever can eat anything they want to eat. I have always allowed myself to eat whatever I want on holidays. I actually ate a tiny slice of pecan pie on Easter! Oh, the horror!

Truthfully, I don't eat too much junk on a regular basis, but I didn't have this surgery to deprive myself forever.  I had this surgery to LIVE. Unless I see someone saying they eat bread every day and drink nothing but soda, I'm not going to comment on someone else's diet unless they specifically ask "What could be causing me to stall?"

Most of us have enough issues without someone tearing us apart because we eat red meat, or because we don't eat red meat.

I'd love to see the WLS community learn to be much more supportive of one another. Boy, would that be something to write home about! :)

Holidays, Weight Loss, and Eating

As I've said before, I refuse to think of food as good or bad. It's either protein or it's not protein. That said, the whole goal of being sleeved, for me, is to eat like a normal weight person would eat. I'm not going to beat myself up because I had 1 cookie or a piece of pie.

However, I do try to make sure I have my protein goal for the day met before I have sweets or other sliders. I also make myself accountable for everything I eat by using My Fitness Pal to log everything I eat. It amazes me how hard it is for me to eat sweets/carbs when I know I have to log it for the world to see!  My food diary is public for just this reason!

Don't beat yourself up for one day of bad eating, just dust yourself off and get back on plan. And, try allowing yourself a treat here and there, just like normal weight people do. You aren't on a diet, this is a life change. You're not going to go back to your old ways of eating, ever. The sleeve will always restrict the volume of food we can eat.

Our goal during the losing stage is to learn how to eat to live. IMO, if we tell ourselves that we can't have a certain food until we reach goal, it sets us up for that food to remain a problem when we reach goal.

Even though I still have a lot of weight to lose, I gave myself permission to have anything I want on Thanksgiving and will do the same today, on Christmas. I also keep my water and protein goals in mind on those days. But, if some food I love is on the menu, I'm going to have a few bites. I adore pecan pie, so I'll have a small piece of it at some point today, without guilt.  The difference now is that I will only have a piece of the pecan pie. I won't also have a piece of pumpkin pie and apple pie, both of which are just okay to me. I will savor every bite and really enjoy the taste of the pecans.

Again, I'm wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays! Enjoy life, that's why we're here!!! :)