I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like I got an education on the inner workings of hunger AFTER I had weight-loss surgery. What hunger is, how I experience it and how I do (and should) respond to it are all subjects that have consumed a lot of my thought in the last five years.
That’s probably good because, after all, if I wasn’t so obsessed with food Bariatric Foodie would not be, but still…it can drive you a bit batty. Like raise your hand if you’d give your left arm to have one day…just one STINKING day…where you didn’t have to think about food at all?
I know some days I would. I’d love to either just be able to eat intuitively and trust that what I’m eating is not going to make me gain five pounds OR be able to listen to my body when it doesn’t want to eat and trust that that won’t make me stall either.
But alas, we live in the real world.
So, here’s what I have to offer. A few learnings about hunger/food intake from a 5-year post-op:
Thinking about food and eating food are not the same thing.
This might seem like a no-brainer but somehow when I think about food a lot I perceive myself as eating too much. I can think about food all I want. I can watch all the Food Network I want and walk past all the restaurants I want and stare inside the window (not that…uh…I’ve ever done that…). The calories don’t start adding up until I put food in my MOUTH. (And thank goodness for that. If watching Food Network had a caloric value, your girl Nik would be about four Sumo wrestlers right now!)
Skipping a meal will not kill you.
Beware the “I MUST EAT” fallacy. Yes, prolonged periods of not taking in nutrition are harmful. And yes you may see a slight down-tick in your metabolism from skipping meals. But skipping a meal is not going to kill you. In fact, if you truly are not hungry, listening to your body might actually be a better habit to learn. Granted, eventually you do have to eat or take in calories (sorry, newbies!) but it’s not quite the emergency to skip a meal as I see people make it. You’ll live. And go on to do better things.
Moderation is good…but tricky
Here’s where getting to know yourself is a good thing. I corresponded with a pre-op the other day (this person will likely know I’m talking about them after reading this) who is on a liquid diet. They were having an event for their child and there was going to be pizza. They wondered about nuking a few pepperoni to take the edge off of cravings.
Conversely, maybe you’re a few years out and you have an intense craving for potato chips. So you figure you’ll just get three and that’s it.
Well that’s great…if that’s how it goes down.
But you know yourself. Are you really ONLY going to eat three chips? And the pre-op I mentioned…I cautioned that person to think about if they’d ONLY eat a few pepperoni. (Turns out they did…so yay!)
“All things in moderation” is what we say. But moderation is tricky. And it’s not always clear where moderation stops and overindulgence begins. So my personal rule is that if I am craving a food with which, in the past, I have exhibited poor self-control…I keep on craving it (see the first point about thinking about vs. eating food).
Bottom line: only you know you. But here’s a good hint about whether you should stay away from something. If you find yourself thinking, “How bad would it be if I ate _____.” Yeah. Run, Forrest! That’s justification. And you don’t want that.
Vets: Quit getting on newbies about food phobias
I am the Queen of this. Yes, in a perfect world we’d all be empowered to be able to sit in a room with our trigger foods and scarcely notice. And yes food is just food and not some evil devil out to get us. BUT after being where I’ve been and seeing what I’ve seen I would contend that food phobias (if you can manage to hold onto them) can be a good and healthy thing.
So newbies (or vets), if you’re afraid of starchy carbs, I’m resolving to no longer nag you about that. I do have a caveat, however. Know your nutrients. Don’t lump all carbs together. They’re not all the same. And don’t lump all protein together, not every source is worthy of your crucial stomach space.
And lastly…
It’s not just how much you eat but WHAT you eat that matters
I’ve always been able to eat bigger portions than my other WLS counterparts. And I’m not going to lie and say I’ve always used that ability for good and not evil. But for the most part I fill my pouch with good stuff that doesn’t incur a lot of calories. I am the Queen of huge green salads TOSSED (for better coverage) with super low-cal dressing (and seasoned with things like cayenne pepper for flavor!). I am Queen of the carrot stick, the cucumber slice and, of course, the pickle.
I point this out because I see a lot of “Ack! I can eat! I’m DOOMED!” (Insert saucer-eyes) No you’re not. It just means it comes down to your choices. Your pouch isn’t going to do all the work for you. Although rest assured it’s still doing some of the work. I challenge any of you big pouch people to TRY to eat what your closest male relative eats (barring a male relative who is either a finicky eater or anorexic). You won’t be able to do it. I guarantee it.
So if you can eat more, don’t take that as an invitation to eat more calories.
Oh! Bonus point…
Eating more FOOD and eating CALORIES are two different things
So it is possible to get your calories in with a small amount of food. And it’s possible to eat a lot of food with virtually no calories. I find myself explaining this concept to people a lot.
I know a vet who taught me ALL about getting a lot of food out of very few calories. God bless her! Because before I met her I was constantly ready to gnaw my own arm off. At the height of her tutelage, I was getting no less than 150g of protein and about 7 meals for 1,200 calories. I kid you not. I don’t necessarily advocate this way of living. I crapped out eventually. It’s cumbersome to count the calories and be so meticulous and it’s expensive buying the Frankenfood this method of eating sometimes requires.
But I just wanted to point this out because some people think because they are not eating volume (and not counting calories) they are not eating a lot of calories. Others think because they ARE eating volume (and STILL not counting calories) that they ARE eating a lot of calories. Both are assumptions that are equally likely to be untrue. Log your food every once in a while, Foodies, it’s illuminating!
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