CheeringCJ

How are you doing this week, @Nana Trish? Every day getting stronger???

Hope you’re doing well, @Toni476 and healing quickly! Post an update when you can

Interestingly enough, the things that look the most enticing to me are: the berries (yum!!!!) the eggs the guacamole the tomatoes/peppers and though I can’t see it, I love shrimp!!! which in and of itself says a lot for the changes from the old me!

You are killing it, @Cindy Lou Who!!! Sounds like you have a good plan...the old you would have loved to have found crap to help add calories if necessary (as if we ever had to) but the new you has learned a lot! @Jen581791 has some good advice which is perfect since she’s been where you are before. Enjoy those PB balls!!!

Soooo cool!

What a great spread, @Cheesehead....love the guacamole stadium!!!!!

Exactly! That is how i was feeling too. I am 3# up at 157 (up and down since the holidays but lately staying more up than down) but I want to get back below 155 (aiming for 150 eventually) but I have gotten complacent and w/o thinking about it have started eating some smaller less uncomfortable foods bc I hate that full uncomfortable feeling....and this article made me think...”DUH! That is what you had the surgery for, Dummy...use it to your advantage!” Nice to have an eye opener every so often! What you said is EXACTLY how. I feel and I need to reset that thinking. The article made it make sense to me so I get the WHY of it all. Back to protein for snacking for me. I always eat protein first at meals and am fine but snacking I am less stringent lately on it being only protein. I don’t know why these darned oyster crackers keep calling me but I didn’t buy any for my son yesterday bc i still can’t be trusted around them. I got him other much worse things I won’t touch (think hostess or tastycake crap) bc he is very underweight and can eat them and I am not the least bit ever going to be attracted to them but “little tiny, harmless oyster crackers can’t hurt me”!!! Ugh, my brain! Oh well, it’s only been happening this past week so now that I read that article you can bet it won’t be happening now! Whew!

Nice to see you @Michael_A!!!!! How are you doing, surgery buddy?

I never really understood when ppl here talked about slider foods. I knew what kinds of foods they were but i didn’t quite get it. So i was just reading a great article w/ a lot of insight . It really struck home bc i have been snacking on my son’s oysters crackers lately (really just little circle saltines) they aren’t a ton of calories and not a ton of flavor but they dont bother me so i can eat them more than i should. Then I read this...gulp! It is like a light went on and i thought ”yikes *I* am eating slider foods w/ these stupid tiny crackers!!!” Plus lately i have been wondering if i still need to be eating so much protein like i did post op. I was told post op that. I needed it to heal and wondered if I still needed sooo much. I read that a lot of protein is hard on your body (not in relation to WLS just in general). But this explained it enough to make me say “oh, I GET it!”. Maybe it will be helpful to someone here to also didn’t get it before..... Understanding Slider Foods The most commonly consumed slider foods include pretzels, crackers (saltines, graham, Ritz, etc.) filled cracker snacks such as Ritz Bits, popcorn, cheese snacks (Cheetos) or cheese crackers, tortilla chips with salsa, potato chips, sugar-free cookies, cakes, and candy. You will notice these slider foods are often salty and cause dry mouth so they must be ingested with liquid to be palatable. This is how they become slider foods. They are also, most often, void of nutritional value. For weight loss surgery patients the process of digestion is different than those who have not undergone gastric surgery. When slider foods are consumed they go into the stomach pouch and exit directly into the jejunum where the simple carbohydrate slurry is quickly absorbed and stored by the body. There is little thermic effect in the digestion of simple carbohydrates like there is in the digestion of protein so little metabolic energy is expended. In most cases patients in the phase of weight loss who eat slider foods will experience a weight loss plateau and possibly the setback of weight gain. And sadly, they will begin to believe their surgical stomach pouch is not functioning properly because they never feel fullness or restriction like they experience when eating protein. The very nature of the surgical gastric pouch is to cause feelings of tightness or restriction when one has eaten enough food. However, when soft simple carbohydrates are eaten this tightness or restriction does not result and one can continue to eat, unmeasured, copious amounts of non-nutritional food without ever feeling uncomfortable. Many patients turn to slider foods for this very reason. They do not like the discomfort that results when the pouch is full from eating a measured portion of lean animal or dairy protein without liquids. Yet it is this very restriction that is the desired result of the surgery. The discomfort is intended to signal the cessation of eating. Remembering the "Protein First" rule is crucial to weight management with bariatric surgery. Gastric bypass, gastric banding (lap-band) and gastric sleeve patients are instructed to follow a high protein diet to facilitate healing and promote weight loss. Bariatric centers advise what is commonly known among weight loss surgery patients as the "Four Rules" the most important of which is "Protein First." That means of all nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat and alcohol) the patient is required to eat protein first. Protein is not always the most comfortable food choice for weight loss surgery patients who feel restriction after eating a very small amount of food. However, for the surgical tool to work correctly a diet rich in protein and low in simple carbohydrate slider foods must be observed. The high protein diet must be followed even after healthy body weight has been achieved in order to maintain a healthy weight and avoid weight regain.

I asked bc the thought of it made me laugh. We know a guy wore burgundy for literally years....we’d see him at church every Sunday and he would have a burgundy dress shirt on in the spring and fall and a burgundy sweater on in the winter. Every week! and the thing was he had a great job that paid him a lot so it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford anything else. My husband and i used to wonder if he had only those few shirts in his closet....or what we mostly imagined — him opening his big walk in closet and having rows and rows of burgundy hanging there! When i first saw your name here, I immediately thought of him...haha! Then I read your posts and could gather what you meant by it!

Love the name choices, where were you when I was naming my five kids??? They ended up with names like Jillian, Jordan, Lily, Logan. and Mason....not a Burgundy in the bunch! Darn! (Btw, what made you pick your name? Are you a big fan of wearing burgundy? Or a wine kind of a guy?)

Nice, enjoy the private room. Praying for a quick and easy recovery!

You look fabulous! Awesome! Love the slippers hope youre up and about real soon! Thank Papa Trish for the updates! Love the love of your family too, how supportive and sweet!

Love it!!! I remember when you posted that first one and I was sooo impressed you were in a size 8 skirt, so it to see it so big is incredible. I love the look on your face, you crack me up, Cindy! You were talking recently about others thinking you’re too small, but I think you look fabulous...not scrawny. The thing that is such a shock to your family and friends, is you look like a naturally thin person who was born that way and it has to be such a change from how they were used to viewing you. And they may be afraid you won’t be able to stop and that you’ll end up wasting away to nothing quite literally. However, I doubt there are ppl who die of getting too thin after VSG and you can start upping your caloric intake (think Jenn’s peanut butter protein balls! Yum!) but I personally think you look AMAZING!!!! You are the true POSTER CHILD for weight loss surgery!

Yeah!!!!! Nana will be Dancing with your Harper this summer!!!!