gamergirl

Feel free to join now and set your goal accordingly. I don't think any one will mind when you join in, we just want folks to join! It's fun to encourage each other and see people achieving things.

MTD: 26.85

stupid app double and triple posting

Enough with the talk you go. Get on it...erm...so to speak. My husband's out of town and I need to be entertained so let's see it.

Woo hoo! Congrats.

Ooh that sounds yummy! Where do you buy the rose oil?

Ooh that sounds yummy! Where do you buy the rose oil?

I am 5'6 and started at 230 lbs so I was in 18-20. I'm wearing a 14 now and I'm down to 186 lbs, if that helps you any.

I have a question about the coconut oil. Does it not make your skin stay a bit greasy? Does it come off on clothes, etc?

The loosing losing thing you will lose(see?! I got it right) . Last time we posted about it, we were gently reminded that we should t make fun of those less educated than us. Because the nauseous/nauseated thing bugs me too but I'm learning to cope Naked video on the other hand! No one, not even butter is complaining about those!

That's pretty amazing

I posted the entire article on a thread in the general. Discussion threads too. Search why your brain craves junk food and it should show up.

Well I mean, the thread IS about enabling. So I was enabling!

I think there's a lot we can share on food, nutrition, addiction, encouragement, not enabling, denial and all the topics that are common to WLS so I TOTALLY agree with you. There's a lot to learn on all sides. That part, I am looking forward to.

Speaking of food porn....I've been craving pizza for days. Finally made it on flatout bread with pepperoni, cheese, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. OMG. Happy tummy, happy girl. http://sleevers.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/2013-11-16-13-17-51.jpg

Can I ask....why do you guys even care what's happening in those forums? I don't think I'd like it if someone came to our forum and told us how VSG was all wrong. It just seems a bit rude to me to go there and tell them that their choice is not right. Is that really our job, even if we think we may be helping someone comparing surgeries? I expect, when I speak to someone who has a lapband that they will tell me how it's working for them (if it is), and when I talk to someone with a sleeve, the person will say the sleeve is the best. Posting in their forum to criticize their choice doesn't seem very nice. CGJ, I thought you did a good job of presenting a fair view on both sides, and your 10 years of LB certainly qualifies you to post your experience on it, but other than that, to be honest it bothers me that we have threads here criticizing them. There's one utterly irrational person on that side who is completely unpopular. But even with her, it bothers me that we're starting threads complaining about individual members which is very much against forum rules, isn't it? Sorry I know I'm ranting there are so few new threads all together since the changeover, that I hate to see some of them be on contentious topics. Really unless we've been banded, we have no business telling them what we think about it. We ourselves complain when pre-ops tell us what to do. How's this any different, right? Let's get back to food porn instead! or Enabling.

wow! noticeable difference! Congrats.

I travel for work a lot, so while I can't help you with Disney, I can tell you what I carry with me and what I end up eating while on the road. To carry from home: Protein bars Blender Bottle (like so: http://www.amazon.com/Single-Sundesa-Blender-Bottle-Colors/dp/B000MMVQZ4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384622895&sr=8-3&keywords=blender+bottle) protein powders in snack size baggies Dried edamame, 1/4 c each in snack size baggies Beef and Bacon jerkies ProtiDiet hot Soup packets Single 100 calorie packets of almonds or other nuts Crystal light single serve packs since Water may be difficult to drink at this stage To buy: "Insides of" as in insides of sandwiches, no bread. Insides of fish taco, no tortilla. meat only of snack wraps from mcdonalds for example or their egg mcmuffin with no muffin. Get used to "insides of" greek yogurt with no sugar Hummus and pita chips at airports Cottage cheese from salad bars Wendy's: chili very high protein and very low calorie plus easy to eat Chick fil-a kids chicken nuggets 4 pack no fries Taco bell: pintos and cheese Starbucks soy latte with Protein powder blended in (they'll make it for you) Airplane: fruit and cheese tray Gas stations: Muscle milk, beef Jerky, nuts, yogurt, cheeses in single serve (string cheese), boiled eggs. Honestly I've yet to go somewhere where I couldn't find something nutritious to eat. It's a lot easier once you know what to look for. Enjoy the trip and I hope that helped some.

Once I realized I was 2 inches taller than you (I'm 5'6) and that you are now 150, I'm wondering if I've set mine too low. btw, I've said this before I know, but I think you look AMAZING and if your body is happy, who knows? Maybe you go lower just to prove to yourself that you can, and then come back to this weight

I got a lot of out of this article so wanted to share. What Happens to Your Brain When You Eat Junk food (And Why We Crave It) Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that it contains. In the case of junk food, food manufacturers are looking for a perfect combination of salt, sugar, and fat that excites your brain and gets you coming back for more. Here's how they do it... How Science Creates Cravings There are a range of factors that scientists and food manufacturers use to make food more addictive. Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast refers to a combination of different sensations in the same food. In the words of Witherly, foods with dynamic contrast have: ... an edible shell that goes crunch followed by something soft or creamy and full of taste-active compounds. This rule applies to a variety of our favorite food structures -- the caramelized top of a creme brulee, a slice of pizza, or an Oreo cookie -- the brain finds crunching through something like this very novel and thrilling. Salivary response. Salivation is part of the experience of eating food, and the more that a food causes you to salivate, the more it will swim throughout your mouth and cover your taste buds. For example, emulsified foods like butter, chocolate, salad dressing, ice cream, and mayonnaise promote a salivary response that helps to lather your taste buds with goodness. This is one reason why many people enjoy foods that have sauces or glazes on them. The result is that foods that promote salivation do a happy little tap dance on your brain and taste better than ones that don't. Rapid food meltdown and vanishing caloric density. Foods that rapidly vanish or "melt in your mouth" signal to your brain that you're not eating as much as you actually are. In other words, these foods literally tell your brain that you're not full, even though you're eating a lot of calories. The result: You tend to overeat. In his best-selling book chips to taste. He zeroed right in on the Cheetos. "This," Witherly said, "is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure." He ticked off a dozen attributes of the Cheetos that make the brain say more. But the one he focused on most was the puff's uncanny ability to melt in the mouth. "It's called vanishing caloric density," Witherly said. "If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there's no calories in it ... you can just keep eating it forever." Sensory specific response. Your brain likes variety. When it comes to food, if you experience the same taste over and over again, then you start to get less pleasure from it. In other words, the sensitivity of that specific sensor will decrease over time. This can happen in just minutes. Junk foods, however, are designed to avoid this sensory specific response. They provide enough taste to be interesting (your brain doesn't get tired of eating them), but it's not so stimulating that your sensory response is dulled. This is why you can swallow an entire bag of potato chips and still be ready to eat another. To your brain, the crunch and sensation of eating Doritos is novel and interesting every time. Calorie density. Junk foods are designed to convince your brain that it is getting nutrition, but to not fill you up. Receptors in your mouth and stomach tell your brain about the mixture of proteins, fats, carbohydrates in a particular food, and how filling that food is for your body. Junk food provides just enough calories that your brain says, "Yes, this will give you some energy," but not so many calories that you think, "That's enough, I'm full." The result is that you crave the food to begin with, but it takes quite some time to feel full from it. Memories of past eating experiences. This is where the psychobiology of junk food really works against you. When you eat something tasty (say, a bag of potato chips), your brain registers that feeling. The next time you see that food, smell that food, or even read about that food, your brain starts to trigger the memories and responses that came when you ate it. These memories can actually cause physical responses like salivation and create the "mouth-watering" craving that you get when thinking about your favorite foods. All of this brings us to the most important question of all. Food companies are spending millions of dollars to design foods with addictive sensations. What can you and I do about it? Is there any way to counteract the money, the science, and the advertising behind the junk food industry? How to Kick the Junk Food Habit and Eat Healthy The good news is that the research shows that the less junk food you eat, the less you crave it. My own experiences have mirrored this. As I've slowly begun to eat healthier, I've noticed myself wanting pizza and candy and ice cream less and less. Some people refer to this transition period as "gene reprogramming." Whatever you want to call it, the lesson is the same: If you can find ways to gradually eat healthier, you'll start to experience the cravings of junk food less and less. I've never claimed to have all the answers (or any, really), but here are three strategies that might help. 1. Use the "outer ring" strategy and the "5 ingredient rule" to buy healthier food. The best course of action is to avoid buying processed and packaged foods. If you don't own it, you can't eat it. Furthermore, if you don't think about it, you can't be lured by it. We've talked about the power of junk food to pull you in and how memories of tasty food in the past can cause you to crave more of it in the future. Obviously, you can't prevent yourself from ever thinking about junk food, but there are ways to reduce your cravings. First, you can use my meat, eggs, etc.). Not everything on the outer ring is healthy, but you will avoid a lot of unhealthy foods. You can also follow the "5 ingredient rule" when buying foods at the store. If something has more than 5 ingredients in it, don't buy it. Odds are, it has been designed to fool you into eating more of it. Avoid those products and stick with the more natural options. 2. Eat a variety of foods. As we covered earlier, the brain craves novelty. While you may not be able to replicate the crunchy/creamy contrast of an Oreo, you can vary your diet enough to keep things interesting. For example, you could dip a carrot (crunchy) in some hummus (creamy) and get a novel sensation. Similarly, finding ways to add new spices and flavors to your dishes can make eating healthy foods a more desirable experience. Moral of the story: Eating healthy doesn't have to be bland. Mix up your foods to get different sensations and you may find it easier than eating the same foods over and over again. (At some point, however, you may have to fall in love with boredom.) 3. Find a better way to deal with your stress. There's a reason why many people eat as a way to cope with stress. Stress causes certain regions of the brain to release chemicals (specifically, opiates and neuropeptide Y). These chemicals can trigger mechanisms that are similar to the cravings you get from fat and sugar. In other words, when you get stressed, your brain feels the addictive call of fat and sugar and you're pulled back to junk food. We all have stressful situations that arise in our lives. Learning to deal with stress in a different way can help you overcome the addictive pull of junk food. This could includesimple breathing techniques or a short guided meditation. Or something more physical likeexercise or making art. With that said, if you're looking for a better written and more detailed analysis of the science of junk food, I recommend reading the #1 New York Times best-seller Salt Sugar Fat. Where to Go From Here One of my goals with this article is to reveal just how complex poor eating habits can be. Junk food is designed to keep you coming back for more. Telling people that they "need more willpower" or should "just stop eating crap" is short-sighted at best. Understanding the science behind junk food is an important first step, but I don't want you to stop there. I wrote a free 46-page guide called Transform Your Habits, which explains strategies for winning the battle against junk food and improving your eating habits. You can download it here. James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares ideas about using behavior science to improve your performance and master your habits. For useful ideas on how to live a healthy life, both mentally and physically, join his free newsletter.

Why is nobody telling me that? No one ever told me that! I'm offended! I think people around me know that I've struggled with my weight constantly and am always working on some way to reduce it, so I've received nothing but support. Just once though, I wanted someone to say to me, "You're having surgery? why? you don't need it!" alas no one did. My point is, the other side of the coin is no better.

I'm 3 months out and I try to keep calories under 700. I stay mostly under, but there are certainly days when I've gone over a bit without allowing it to worry me too much. I've set my Protein/Fat/Carb ratio to be 40/40/20 i did this for two reasons. 1. Insulin resistance and finding that lower carbs make me less hungry. 2. It's the recommended proportion for those with metabolic syndrome as well as underactive thyroid, both of which I had/have. Metabolic Syndrome is likely if you were obese, were insulin resistant, had high triglycerides, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar (and let's face it, almost all of us on this forum likely answered yes to at least 2 of these ), then that seems to be the recommendation.

This article is particularly relevant to our discussion here. Rev I know you're not eating junk food, but it's interesting to see the types of things that we might not consider junk per se, but that can start a craving nonetheless, such as butter, mayo, salad dressing etc. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/why-we-crave-junk-food_b_4261415.html

You're doing great! During the early days, just stay hydrated and get whatever protein feels comfortable. Rest up and sleep as much as you can, and when you're not sleeping, walk around slowly. and don't worry!

I think this article is relevant to all of us who struggle with weight, irrespective of type of surgery or diets etc. so thought I'd share. What Happens to Your Brain When You Eat Junk food (And Why We Crave It)Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that it contains. In the case of junk food, food manufacturers are looking for a perfect combination of salt, sugar, and fat that excites your brain and gets you coming back for more. Here's how they do it... How Science Creates Cravings There are a range of factors that scientists and food manufacturers use to make food more addictive. Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast refers to a combination of different sensations in the same food. In the words of Witherly, foods with dynamic contrast have: ... an edible shell that goes crunch followed by something soft or creamy and full of taste-active compounds. This rule applies to a variety of our favorite food structures -- the caramelized top of a creme brulee, a slice of pizza, or an Oreo cookie -- the brain finds crunching through something like this very novel and thrilling. Salivary response. Salivation is part of the experience of eating food, and the more that a food causes you to salivate, the more it will swim throughout your mouth and cover your taste buds. For example, emulsified foods like butter, chocolate, salad dressing, ice cream, and mayonnaise promote a salivary response that helps to lather your taste buds with goodness. This is one reason why many people enjoy foods that have sauces or glazes on them. The result is that foods that promote salivation do a happy little tap dance on your brain and taste better than ones that don't. Rapid food meltdown and vanishing caloric density. Foods that rapidly vanish or "melt in your mouth" signal to your brain that you're not eating as much as you actually are. In other words, these foods literally tell your brain that you're not full, even though you're eating a lot of calories. The result: You tend to overeat. In his best-selling book chips to taste. He zeroed right in on the Cheetos. "This," Witherly said, "is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure." He ticked off a dozen attributes of the Cheetos that make the brain say more. But the one he focused on most was the puff's uncanny ability to melt in the mouth. "It's called vanishing caloric density," Witherly said. "If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there's no calories in it ... you can just keep eating it forever." Sensory specific response. Your brain likes variety. When it comes to food, if you experience the same taste over and over again, then you start to get less pleasure from it. In other words, the sensitivity of that specific sensor will decrease over time. This can happen in just minutes. Junk foods, however, are designed to avoid this sensory specific response. They provide enough taste to be interesting (your brain doesn't get tired of eating them), but it's not so stimulating that your sensory response is dulled. This is why you can swallow an entire bag of potato chips and still be ready to eat another. To your brain, the crunch and sensation of eating Doritos is novel and interesting every time. Calorie density. Junk foods are designed to convince your brain that it is getting nutrition, but to not fill you up. Receptors in your mouth and stomach tell your brain about the mixture of proteins, fats, carbohydrates in a particular food, and how filling that food is for your body. Junk food provides just enough calories that your brain says, "Yes, this will give you some energy," but not so many calories that you think, "That's enough, I'm full." The result is that you crave the food to begin with, but it takes quite some time to feel full from it. Memories of past eating experiences. This is where the psychobiology of junk food really works against you. When you eat something tasty (say, a bag of potato chips), your brain registers that feeling. The next time you see that food, smell that food, or even read about that food, your brain starts to trigger the memories and responses that came when you ate it. These memories can actually cause physical responses like salivation and create the "mouth-watering" craving that you get when thinking about your favorite foods. All of this brings us to the most important question of all. Food companies are spending millions of dollars to design foods with addictive sensations. What can you and I do about it? Is there any way to counteract the money, the science, and the advertising behind the junk food industry? How to Kick the Junk Food Habit and Eat Healthy The good news is that the research shows that the less junk food you eat, the less you crave it. My own experiences have mirrored this. As I've slowly begun to eat healthier, I've noticed myself wanting pizza and candy and ice cream less and less. Some people refer to this transition period as "gene reprogramming." Whatever you want to call it, the lesson is the same: If you can find ways to gradually eat healthier, you'll start to experience the cravings of junk food less and less. I've never claimed to have all the answers (or any, really), but here are three strategies that might help. 1. Use the "outer ring" strategy and the "5 ingredient rule" to buy healthier food. The best course of action is to avoid buying processed and packaged foods. If you don't own it, you can't eat it. Furthermore, if you don't think about it, you can't be lured by it. We've talked about the power of junk food to pull you in and how memories of tasty food in the past can cause you to crave more of it in the future. Obviously, you can't prevent yourself from ever thinking about junk food, but there are ways to reduce your cravings. First, you can use my meat, eggs, etc.). Not everything on the outer ring is healthy, but you will avoid a lot of unhealthy foods. You can also follow the "5 ingredient rule" when buying foods at the store. If something has more than 5 ingredients in it, don't buy it. Odds are, it has been designed to fool you into eating more of it. Avoid those products and stick with the more natural options. 2. Eat a variety of foods. As we covered earlier, the brain craves novelty. While you may not be able to replicate the crunchy/creamy contrast of an Oreo, you can vary your diet enough to keep things interesting. For example, you could dip a carrot (crunchy) in some hummus (creamy) and get a novel sensation. Similarly, finding ways to add new spices and flavors to your dishes can make eating healthy foods a more desirable experience. Moral of the story: Eating healthy doesn't have to be bland. Mix up your foods to get different sensations and you may find it easier than eating the same foods over and over again. (At some point, however, you may have to fall in love with boredom.) 3. Find a better way to deal with your stress. There's a reason why many people eat as a way to cope with stress. Stress causes certain regions of the brain to release chemicals (specifically, opiates and neuropeptide Y). These chemicals can trigger mechanisms that are similar to the cravings you get from fat and sugar. In other words, when you get stressed, your brain feels the addictive call of fat and sugar and you're pulled back to junk food. We all have stressful situations that arise in our lives. Learning to deal with stress in a different way can help you overcome the addictive pull of junk food. This could includesimple breathing techniques or a short guided meditation. Or something more physical likeexercise or making art. With that said, if you're looking for a better written and more detailed analysis of the science of junk food, I recommend reading the #1 New York Times best-seller Salt Sugar Fat. Where to Go From Here One of my goals with this article is to reveal just how complex poor eating habits can be. Junk food is designed to keep you coming back for more. Telling people that they "need more willpower" or should "just stop eating crap" is short-sighted at best. Understanding the science behind junk food is an important first step, but I don't want you to stop there. I wrote a free 46-page guide called Transform Your Habits, which explains strategies for winning the battle against junk food and improving your eating habits. You can download it here. James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares ideas about using behavior science to improve your performance and master your habits. For useful ideas on how to live a healthy life, both mentally and physically, join his free newsletter.