Getting on track as led me to a new phase of my Post WLS life. It has me examining my routine, my habits, and my thought process on eating, losing, and keeping off the weight. I am by no means in the maintaining phase of my weight loss, so for me I’m still losing though it is slower the loss continues, but being almost a year out has finally let me open up my wings and consider new foods, new meal plans, and how I’m going to live long term as a Gastric Bypass Patient. Don’t get me wrong this thought process maybe should have happened in the earlier stages of this, but I know that everyone reaches this point on their own. In the big picture thoughts of this has happened, but when you get into rubber meets the road kind of language, I just hadn’t thought of it. Which has led me to the last couple of days and thinking about things; knowledge is power so I needed to get some.
In regards to diet each doctor and nutritionist is so widely different that you really need to follow YOUR doc’s guidelines and look at the ASMBS – that would be the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. My doc is a member and they have general guidelines that govern WLS procedures but again doctors have different methods with patients. I ran across a trusted blogger and I asked the question “how many calories am I supposed to be consuming?” Again the answer differs – my doc and nutritionist want me to focus on high protein, low fat, low carb meals and not concentrate on calories, but remember I am reprogramming the human brain which isn’t as easy as reboot on your computer so of course out of habit my brain goes…I NEED A NUMBER! So I go searching for it and find that the ASMBS state that post WLS with at least a year out can consume 1000 to 1400 calories a day, 60 to 100 grams of protein, and have 27-47 grams of fat. Ok…so makes me feel better about the caloric number, but then that makes me conscious as I food track and realize yesterday I ate 1584 calories and I feel like crying because I feel like I failed, but alas I read on to my trusted blogger buddy and she is almost at her goal weight and over 2 years out post bypass and she eats between 1500 and 2000 a day (depending on women’s stuffs) and she is happy, content, and almost at a stable goal weight. Ok so I think this is good…I don’t feel so bad for my 1584 calorie day, but then get frustrated because I know I’ve had higher caloric days and go spinning….so this is what I’ve come to decide – I HATE NUMBERS! (if my mom is reading this there should be no surprise to you that numbers are not my friend as I detest math…but I digress)
I need to have a positive relation to numbers. I’ve struggled with this with clothing sizes, picking up items to try on, scale weights, so why would it be different that I don’t like my caloric intake. Here is my thought – I need to look at my food tracker as a guide, just a written record. It isn’t an end all be all fail or pass. It isn’t a class…it is just a record. So I’m guiding my food tracking and seeing where I end up. I need to concentrate on the protein grams and watch the carbs I eat, but I’m not going to live a life scared to consume food or hide food. I’m going to embrace food in healthy way. I’m going to make choices that are good for my body an make me feel good, but I’m going to attempt to not make myself feel like a failure when I eat a slice of bread with jelly and I’m not going to base my sole success in lbs which is easier said than done, but I’m going to try and that is all I can do.
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