I’m trying to learn how to live in the real world…and mostly being successful!
One of my big fears with this surgery is it not working long term. It’s still a possibility as I’m far from “long term,” being less than 6 months into the post-op process. But I felt like this was my last ditch effort and I had to make it work…plus I had to pay for surgery out of pocket…and if I’m going to pay this crazy amount, it better be successful!
Due to this, and just my nature with some things, I’ve stayed far away from “the bad stuff.” For the first 3 or so months I never touched any bad food, anything off plan. Then we had a weekend away celebrating my wife’s birthday. I had a few small indulgences. Now I look back and sort of chuckle at the situation, but that weekend I felt like I had totally wrecked everything! I had a few bites of chips and queso. I had a couple of little sweet things. But I also felt like I had wrecked everything.
After some perspective, and being talked down by one of my FB groups, I realized I hadn’t ruined it all. I hadn’t even really done anything bad.
Did I go “off plan?” Yes I did…so in that sense I had a little bit of a failure. Was it going to wreck my healthy eating. Of course not!
Since then, I have indulged a bit more. I do have to be careful. A lot of folks talk about “slider foods.” Foods that will get you back into crappy eating habits. But now I have the occasional couple of chips, or even a small piece of cake on my recent birthday.
But…these were all calculated moves. I still monitor everything I eat. And while not the best foods, these things I’ve eaten have fit into my daily goals for carbs. And the bigger thing is I didn’t eat half a bag of Doritos. I had 3 or 4 and that was it.
I love the little Hershey’s miniatures pictured here. I work in an office with several people and there is a candy dish literally right outside my door that has had assorted little candies in it for weeks. No one seems to like the dark chocolate, but I do. However for a few weeks I didn’t touch them. Recently I looked at my daily numbers and realized that ONE of these would easily fit into my daily intake. So I had ONE with my lunch. It was DELIGHTFUL! A real treat.
And you know what? I just had the one. I didn’t have like seven of these (and a coke, and a burger, and fries and…) I had one single one of these after eating a very high protein, low carb lunch. And I was fine with just the one. I went back to drinking my water and later on had part of an apple as an afternoon snack (not high protein but good vitamins and fiber which I also need.)
I snagged up 3 of these dark chocolates and threw them in my drawer about a week ago. I ate that first one. These two have been in my drawer since.
Once or twice I have seen them and thought “Why not…just have one.” But then I remind myself that is an old way of thinking…I’m not REALLY wanting one…I am just thinking of them because I see them. Then I usually just get a drink of water or a piece of gum and move on.
Even though pizza and pasta are two of my favorite things, I have had zero pasta and only one or two bites of pizza since my surgery. Some day I will be able to have these things in moderation, but I haven’t keeled over from not having them. But I’ve had chips, cake, a cookie. And I’m okay. I’m still losing regularly (down a couple of pounds this week in fact…171 pounds down as of this writing.)
I wont always be successful…but I will try to be. And I think if I can be successful in how I eat more often than not, then I have won the battle!
Maybe I will have one of those dark chocolates with my lunch today…maybe not. We’ll see.