My post-op mantra: You can't continue the same behavior and expect a different result.
I had no control over those four. So out the door they went.
These might not be your triggers... ice cream, candy, chips, fried foods, fast food, snacking, emotional eating... everyone has/had their thing. Mine was the white carb. It's amazing I'm closing in on 3 years without those four monkey's on my back and I rarely miss them. I did have a pretty crazy, semi-erotic toasted bagel dream the other day but we won't talk about that.
Here's a Chinese food fix without the use of noodles or rice. It's so full of good stuff you'll never even know they are gone. Bean sprouts give the dish the bulky noodle feel and BONUS... bean sprouts = protein, oodles of vitamins, low calorie, low carb.
Shelly's Ginger Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
7-8 Chicken Breast Tenders, cut into 1" pieces
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 Sweet Maui Onion, sliced thin
4 Green Onion, cut into 1" sections
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 can (4 oz.) Shiitake Mushrooms, drained
1 cup Bean Sprouts
1/2 cup Sugar Snap Peas
1/2 teaspoon Ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon Garlic, minced
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
handful or so of Roasted Salted Cashews
Oil for sauteing
Marinate chicken in a Tablespoon of soy sauce for at least 1 hour. Saute chicken till golden. Set aside. Saute onions till golden. Add mushrooms, celery, bean sprouts, peas, ginger and garlic and mix to combine. Steam saute for 8 minutes or so or till desired tenderness of veggies is achieved. Add chicken back. Mix cornstarch, water and soy sauce together to form a slurry. Make a well in the middle of the pan and pour starch mixture in. Cook till bubbles and stir to combine. Add vinegar and toss in cashews.
In my humble opinion keeping a healthy fear post-op is important to success. Here's why...
F is for Fear of Failure - I personally think a healthy fear of failure is a good thing. It keeps my head in the game. I'll never say -158 pounds gone forever. I know those little fat cells (well not those I got wacked off with plastics) but those remaining are just hanging around waiting in the wings for me to screw up, get lazy, lose focus, reach for the bread basket, take a second helping.
RNY was my last chance. There is something desperate and life changing about having your stomach severed and your intestines re-routed. Add to my story that I did it in a foreign country, alone and am still paying $ monthly for it. Failure is not an option. I'm sure other post-ops reading this feel the same way.
As you begin to feel and see the dramatic changes you never want to go back. That encourages me each day. On days it doesn't I look at my list of the worst things about obesity, my before pic (I put a Before & After pic on my fridge), a pair of my pre-op pants (a tight 26/28), find strength in others or I blog about it here.
For those in the beginning stages of this incredible journey I remember those stalls when the scale wouldn't move and I would freak out. We have all been on so many "diets" in the past and failed we can't imagine when something will finally work for us and when the scale slows those old fears creep in... am I going to fail? The answer is: maybe. This will work for you... for a time. The question really should be will you work for it?
Change your mind. Remember they operated on our guts not our head. The head thing... our responsibility. Don't think of this as something you have to get through till you reach goal. There is NO FINISH LINE. Hell I know I can suffer through something for a period of time I shot orange grease out of my ass for weeks on Xenical, ate pounds of grapefruits and gallons cabbage soup, stopped eating all together, took countless other diet pills. I can get through anything. Change that thinking because this isn't a diet. This is YOUR LIFE.
Change your life. Make changes that you can live with not just get through. Find protein rich healthy foods that you truly enjoy, incorporate exercise/activity that's fun and something you look forward to doing, find stress reducers that don't involve a bag of Pepperidge Farm Salsalito cookies and... keep a healthy fear!
Remember this war against Obesity is exactly that... a war. I fight the battles everyday and will for the rest of my life. The good thing is the only way you can really lose if you stop fighting.
