I want to live a “normal” life.  I want to be a “normal” size.  I want to continue to increase my strength and endurance and flexibility each year, instead of losing strength, endurance and flexibility each time the calendar moves forward a year.  I managed to attain all of that.  I reached weight loss goals after my LAP BAND surgery, I have reached fitness goals I never in my wildest dreams thought possible for me, so what’s this rant all about?

In the Weekly Weigh-In groups I facilitate on Facebook we run weekly challenges.  One that I choose to put into effect was taking pics of everything you eat and writing in the calories and protein for the picture.  This is usually a wonderful exercise to help all of us see exactly what we are eating, when we are eating it, and what the stats are for our choices.

Looking at a few days or a week’s worth of pictures and stats can really help me assess my choices and see if I want to make any changes in what, when, or how I eat.

Here are my personal revelations from the last week:

• At dinner I often put too much food on my plate which leads me to have to choose to leave food on my plate, and I still suffer from clean plate syndrome;
• Eating yogurt or cottage cheese mid day does NOT provide me physical satisfaction.  Either the carbs in the yogurt or cottage cheese or the fact that I don’t have to slowly chew defeat any protein benefits to me;
• Waiting until I am ravenously hungry creates stuck episodes and PB’s;
• Eating at night in front of the TV is NOT my friend;
• I get my protein in throughout the day;
• When I am busy emotional hunger is more easily dealt with

Those are just a few of my personal discoveries.  I may have discovered them before, but it is great to put myself back into the space of checking in with myself so that I remain mindful and aware of all of my choices.  My worst enemy is mindless eating, even after 10 years on this journey.

Here are my “solutions” to the revelations above:

• Put only on my plate enough food to satisfy ME, not the same amount as I put on my non WLS husband’s plate;
• Using my food scale, measuring cups and measuring spoons ALL of the time is necessary to REALLY monitor what not only goes on my plate, but what goes in my mouth.  It’s NOT as time consuming or annoying as I made it out to be in my head;
• Keep the yogurt and the cottage cheese for quick protein sources, rather than meals since I am “head hungry” an hour after I eat them no matter how protein packed they are;
• Find other sources of mid day foods like cheese sticks, jerky, roasted vegetables, lunch meats, etc so that I have to CHEW my food which seems to benefit my psyche;
• Eat every 3-4 hours to avoid getting overly hungry and eating too fast, and ruining a perfectly good meal. 
• Close the kitchen after dinner for anything but liquid;
• Keep busy;
• Acknowledge and congratulate myself for my good choices.  I deserve a pat on my back to keep me moving forward, even if it’s from myself.  After all, I alone am responsible for my successes and my failures.

All of these tricks and tips I have learned over the past 10 years and implemented into my lifestyle are critical for my continued success.  What I truly hoped to be a quick and easy remove the old band, and replace with the new band surgery has turned out a little differently.  My band was removed, and due to inflammation could not be replaced at the same time.  I am scheduling a colonoscopy at the request of my bariatric surgeon to see if we can discover the cause for the inflammation.  That is where I am now.  I have no weight loss surgery tool.  What I do have is 10 years of Lap Band Lifestyle, which translate to changes in my food choices, my portion sizes, my exercises, and my water consumption.  I am hanging on to all of these changes by my fingernails with the hope that they will see me through this period of time with no weight gain.

My hope is to have some answers in the next 30 - 60 days as to what my next steps can be.  In the meantime, I will read ALL of my articles over again and reach out for all of the support I need.

When’s the last time you checked it carefully - What’s on your plate?