Thursday, January 14, 2010

Working It

I have no earthly idea how many calories I ate, or grams of protein I took in yesterday. Having said that, it was STILL a GOOD band day. As previously mentioned, I went to lunch with my husband yesterday. I managed to eat 3/4 of a ham & cheese omelette (my FAVORITE)... I had to chew, chew, chew to get that much of it down, which I did intentionally. I also had one and a half small pancakes (w/ butter, no syrup because I don't actually like it). That lasted me all day! I had two homemade chocolate chip cookies and a few bites of roasted chicken for dinner. A few Swedish fish to round out the whole day. Calorie wise, I'd guess 1300-1400, and I always try to estimate high just to be on the safe side. Why do I share these mundane details? Because it got me to thinking about how I personally work my band. It seems everyone has a different way to work it, which is terrific. Here's how I use mine...

I use my band to assist me in making 200 calories feel like a big meal. I don't rely on my band everyday for every meal, though. I hold myself accountable to get enough protein, and watch my portions, etc... and expect the band to help me if I lose my mind and try to pig out. Yes, I can still eat around my band, but the restriction is enough reinforcement to really limit what I could potentially eat. When I'm choosing foods, I don't usually label anything "good" or "bad". To me, a really yummy treat is "good" even if it has fat, sugar, or salt. "Bad" to me is heavily processed or refined foods. Some days I count calories, other days I rely on the band. I count calories because I like to be aware of what I'm putting in my body. When I'm following protein grams, I might as well know calories in order to make truly informed decisions. If I eat something decadent, it is a ALWAYS a planned and conscious decision. The band helps me to be satisfied with a reasonable portion, and I don't think I could be so successful in losing weight (I'm at 108 lbs lostso far!) if I couldn't eat real food and the foods I love. One of the nurses in my surgeons office stopped eating pizza after her band, and in my little mind, that makes no sense. It obviously works for her, and that's ok. But, my weight problems didn't happen because of rich and wonderful foods (pizza!), they happened because of ME, and MY inability to properly assess appropriate portion sizes or because I simply didn't care for emotional reasons. I eat real foods, because I need to make peace with them and learn to live with them in the real world. And, as Taco Bell has proven, in reality, you can lose weight eating almost anything at all.

Spontaneous:
I had a good one, and now I can't think of it. I'm too focused on some big projects at work, and planning my big ski weekend. It's an organizational feat for me to get everyone and everything set up so we can go away. Wha, wha, wha.

Food:
Planned for today- whole wheat waffle (4 grams protein, 100 calories), turkey sausage (13 gr, 100 cals), strawberry greek yogurt (10 g,100 c), cottage cheese (12, 100), chicken & rice soup (12, 200), popcorn & cheese salt (3, 100). That's a total of 54 grams of protein, and 700 calories during my work day. Those amounts are just right to keep me not hungry, and set up well to eat with the family (just in smaller portions)whatever it is we're having for dinner. There's my break down for any bandbabies who are interested. Ta da. Have a fabulous Thursday everyone.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks again! Your posts are so helpful to me. I love reading about your thought process and perspective on eating with the band :!

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  2. This is so great - you have a fantastic attitude and it's going to take you far!!

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