Finding Balance Part 3 : Food

Living with food issues has to be similiar to living the path of addiction. At some level each of WLS patients have food issues. For me I cope or used to cope with food. When I'm down I ate. When I was up I ate. When I was bored I ate. Food didn't hurt me then, but it did hurt me. Now post WLS I still struggle with food but in a new way. Balance in my life has to have balance around food. This will be a game for the rest of my life and I will battle it each day.

So where does this balance come in? I wrote on my list of finding balance that food for me means that I need to have great choices around me so I can make good choices in the long run. I need to continue to track my food, watch my liquid intake, and make sure that I'm committed for the long haul of the WLS journey. I'm not always perfect, but if I can balance my love and need for food then it seems my day goes much easier, less anxiety driven, and it is easier to stay on track.

So how do I stay balance right now?

1. I track my food with my loseit.com app and I track my water with my waterlogged app
2. I meal plan and attempt to make healthy choices when I'm out - I meal plan usually two days at a time with prepared meals that include breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snacks
3. I visualy track my water with liquids that I can "feel" aka I can see so I drink alot of propel zero, sobe zero, fruit 2.0, and water with mio in bottles. I need to see what I'm drinking to feel like I accomplished it. This in combo with my waterlogged app allows me 64 oz of water minimum a day
4. I research and search out new recipes to make WLS friendly to not get bored with food
5. I don't bring junk into the house (when if all possible) because I will eat it
6. If I do want something not on my diet (because lets face it we all do) I'm learning to have a bite - except with ice cream I've dumped too much on that no ice cream for me.
7. I make adaptations to meals so I can cook for my husband and myself - this means quinoa instead of spaghetti or couscous instead of rice, but they are easy add ons to allow me to feel "normal" and eat better
8. I've learned to read labels at the store, make a list of products I can eat, and buy those!
9. I founda great recipe calculator on spark people to put in recipes that I make to find out exact nutrients for me
10. I don't rely on protein shakes - my doctor wants me to eat my protein, so I try really hard to get it all in every day

I'm not perfect. If you have been following my blog you know I've had ups and downs. One of those downs came friday when I had had a very stressful day at work, life, and all that jazz. I reached for a cheese croisant and ate it. Sure I felt good when I did it - my brain was like SCORE, but I knew that I didn't and shouldn't of had to do that. Eating wasn't going to fix what I was feeling, but my brain still thought it would. Fixing the brain and balancing the brain is not as easy. I still mess up, but instead of feeling like a loser, I chose and am learning to give myself grace. I can recognize what I did and move on from there rather than suffer through the "i've ruined my life" moment.

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Recipe Make Overs

Since as a WLS patient I always have leftovers I thought I would share a few leftover recipes that I made this weekend. There was pork chops and steak left over from a bbq on friday night that I brought home and I created two yummy things ( still some in the fridge for this week too)

Glazed Steak
I took about 4 oz of steak that had been pre-cooked. Cubed it.
In a sauce pan I put in minced onion and garlic powder and put in about 2 tsp of terryiaki marinate and a little dash of worcestshire sauce.
I got the sauce warm, put in the steak and glazed it. At the end I put a little sliver of margerine in it (like at the hibatchi) and stirred it together
Served with peas
SOOOOO Yummy

Hawaiin Pork
2 pork chops cubed and put into the crock pot
BBQ sauce, minced onion, minced garlic, worcestshire sauce (dash), dash of terryiaki soy marinate, and half can of pinneapple with juice
Low for a 1 and half.
Served over couscous
Delicious!