1/2/2016 Lunch

Vegetarian wrap, whole wheat. 

Photos

New Year's Eve dinner was vegetable polenta and today I went out for lunch and had a vegetable pita. I was so full I ate less than half. 

Food

I am continuing on my quest to lose weight. We all need to find out what works for us and forget about the cookie cutter approach, pardon the pun. One diet cannot possibly work for everyone. As a WLS patient I have been following the protein first 3 small meals for years and it's not working for me. I started the plant based eating about 2 weeks ago. In   Iess than a week I dropped 4.5 pounds. I don't expect the loss to continue at this rate. I am making all my meals. For breakfast I make oatmeal or Ezekial French toast with flaxseed. For lunch yesterday I had an Amy's vegetarian meal. I have a salad I make every morning for a snack and I make my own smoothies. Then I have fruit or carrots and hummus for a snack. I also like vegetable root chips. I still get hungry between meals but I manage. For dinner, I have had chili; green beans and homemade butternut squash; spinach  kale and feta casserole; and golden potatoes with broccoli, cauliflower and green beans, That recipe I just threw together. Tonight I will probably have lentil soup since I have not had time to soak and cook my beans. And I will have mashed sweet potato and vegetables. This morning I will make oatmeal with blueberries, almond slivers and flaxseed. For lunch I will  have another Amy's black eyed peas and rice and veggie meal. I'll bring my homemade smoothie and some  hummus for snacks. This is a lot of work but I enjoy cooking. 

Food

I continue with this new way of eating. I am so sick of being surrounded by fattening food at work. It is so hard this time of year. Candy, bagels, boxes of chocolate, homemade fudge, pizza, cupcakes, potlucks, ugh. I just want it all to go away. Good thing I have a lot of willpower. Yesterday I made another type of smoothie in the morning and brought my lunch and snacks. Yesterday's menu was the following: I had Quaker Oats for breakfast. I add flaxseed, raw almonds, a homemade raspberry purée, sugar free maple syrup and almond milk. I made a smoothie for a snack,  unsweetened cocoa, 2 bananas, 1 tsp vanilla, a little peanut butter powder, water, hem seeds and almond milk. That was my AM snack and it was tasty. For lunch I had part of an Amy's vegetarians meal. It had beans, veggies and brown rice. I was actually full. For dinner I had a spinach and kale flip. Today I will have the same breakfast, leftovers from dinner with my homemade winter squash and a salad. I have an apple and hummus and baby carrots for a snack.

Here is my first green smoothie. I used raw spinach, banana, mango, pineapple, water and ice.

Failure

This was originally written in December 2015. I promised myself I would keep my weight off. At the beginning, I was the poster child for WLS, when I was starving myself and unable to eat. I was written up in Obesity Help magazine and lost half my body weight in less than a year. Then my hunger returned and  I was not feeling full.  I still stick to my small protein-based meals and snacks. I joined an online group for regain, but it did not work for me.

 I look at this weight gain like any other diet, I was unable to sustain my weight loss. Recently while at the library, I noticed the book Proteinaholic under the new releases. This book is written by a well-known weight-loss surgeon, Dr. Garth Davis. Since I follow him online, I knew he was writing a book. In a nutshell, Dr. Garth became overweight and developed a few chronic illnesses. He did  some research on cultures with lower obesity levels and examined their diets. His conclusion was protein-based diets can contribute to these chronic problems. He is now a vegan. As a WLS patient, I found this interesting.  I began to experiment this week. I looked at what Dr. Garth eats, and looked at a sample menu in the back of the book. I have lost 4.5 pounds, which is miraculous for me. There are many anti-carb WLS patients who would disagree with this way of eating. Yes, it is a diet.  I don't kid myself. But at least I don't have to obsess about weighing my portions and counting protein and carb grams. Let me know if you have gained weight after surgery.

 My Uncomfort zone and other thoughts...

     I really hate when people use the term comfortable or comfort zone. This terminology has bothered me for years. I describe my bed or a couch as comfortable, not a state of being. Are you comfortable with this, etc... I guess you could say it is a pet peeve of mine. I'm not sure when the English language changed, but I am not digging it. lol
     Although I do hate the comfort zone phrase, I can't help but think this applies to my life lately. I  am an introvert, and also dislike crowds, so what I have done recently was difficult for me..So, about 3 weeks ago, I completed my first 5K event, along with about 5,000 other people. It was very crowded, and I knew nobody, but it was important to me to complete this, on a few different levels. 
      Next on my uncomfortable list, I signed up for a writer's conference. I attended a few weeks ago, once again going alone. Walking into a room of strangers is hard for me, but I did it. Since the conference, I have been pitching local editors my story ideas. I will keep going until someone says yes.
     You probably don't know that I have been wanting to write a book since I was young. It has been a dream of mine. When I was in graduate school, my professor asked the question, what is 1 goal you have before you die? Most people spoke of getting married or having children. I was 23 at the time and stated  I wanted to write a book. I want to take it a step further and be published. Now it is time to start working toward that dream. I have an idea and need to put pen to paper. That's right, I still like handwriting in my notebook.