This is what happens when I get it together!!

Two posts in a the space of a few hours: who'da thunk it? But here it is. I've been doing some soul searching and these are my thoughts. 

When you have a band there are some hard and fast rules to abide by. We all know this. 

If you find yourself plateauing or stalling (this is too hard... I can't do this!!) or just plain lost and confused - as is the case with me on all accounts - then it stands to reason you have to take a good hard look at yourself and try and figure out what is going wrong. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe you've stalled because that's what your body wants to do right now.. and it's going to take a super-human effort to get going again. It has to be either one of two things. Mental or physical. Sure you can shake up your exercise routine and that's one way of getting things on the move again, but it doesn't help the root of the problem. Well, not for me anyway. For me I needed to re-evaluate where I was going wrong. In both myself and how I am working with the band. 

STOP!!!

Okay, I think I just got it. Working with the band is four small words that say it all. I have been fighting this band of mine.. NOT letting it do it's job.

Over time I have become complacent. I push the boundaries more and more. I know I do. Today this stops. I'm going to list the Ten Commandments that Dr Couch gave me when I was first banded. This is a great list of do's and don'ts and there might be something in here for everyone. I will put the commandment down then add where or how I think I have been going wrong and then how I plan to fix it. 

1.   EAT SLOWLY! I am terrible at this. Truly. Out of all the band commandments this is the one I struggle with the most. I still ho down my food like it's the last meal I will ever have. I must concentrate on sitting (not leaning against the kitchen bench) as I eat. And ....take....my....time! 

2.   Take small mouthfuls of food at a time and chew well - I am pretty good at the chewing now. This has taken quite the while to get through my thick skull but I do okay at it. The small mouthfuls is what gets me. I still have the habit of taking too big a mouthful, which then leads to having to 'filter' my swallowing with small gulps. Bad idea on so many levels. 

3.   Avoid foods that are difficult to swallow. (e.g. steak, chops, sausages, chicken breast and bread.) - Hmm. I can still eat toast and I eat muffins. These are the semi-split bread type of ones that you toast and add a topping to. I had one just this morning. And no way should I be able to eat sausages if I am correctly filled. I think this is a definite restriction problem - which I need to follow up on by getting a bit more in. 

4.   Drink before meals rather than during or after. (Don't drink for 30 minutes after eating.) - I do okay at this one. I never really drank with my meals anyway before I was banded so this is no biggie for me. What I do need to do is wait an extra five minutes. I find I will have my coffee maybe 25 minutes after and not 30. So as of today, I'm pushing for five minutes on the other side. 35 will do just fine. 

5. Eat if hungry (don't allow yourself to become too hungry) but don't eat if not hungry. - Again, I am terrible at this. I get busy and/or my stupid mentality of less food is better kicks in. Sometimes I get so hungry my stomach is trying to crawl out my throat. Bad bad bad!!!! I am trying as of today (starting again!) to do the 5/6 meal thing. A little food spread out over a long time is better than a lot at one sitting even if it is only 3 meals a day.

6.  Eat a healthy diet, avoiding high calorie foods and especially high calorie liquids - Not too bad at this one. I think my food intake is ok - though I do need to up my protein. I occasionally have a coke - but it will be mixed with  Southern Comfort - and again, I only drink rarely so this one kind of nullifies itself. I do though sometimes have a small iced coffee. Maybe once a week. This is  my treat and I don't think I will alter it. But!!! I will only allow it once a week - okay, maybe twice depending on mood!  

7.   Take a multivitamin supplement once or twice daily - Check! I do this and also take my biotin hair, nail and skin tablet. Once a day for the multivitamin, twice for the biotin. 

8.    Drink adequate amount of fluid to avoid dehydration - Again I drink a lot of water. It's just past lunch time and I have already had a litre. By this evening I will have had my 2 litres which equates to about 8 glasses. I also have extra fluid via coffee - probably three cups a day, which is also good for calcium as I have it with hilo milk - or half and half is another term I believe. 

9. Take Benefiber, Fybogel or Metamucil daily to avoid constipation - I am pretty sure I don't get enough fibre in my diet. Under the heading of TMI - I probably only 'go' once every two days. And I hear food can sit for days and weeks in the large intestine which cannot be healthy. We need to get this fibre in to get the poop out.. so to speak. 

10.  Contact Dr Couch A.S.A.P if any of the following occurs: Food becomes stuck, Abdominal pain (moderate or sever), Persistent vomiting, Ongoing reflux or regurgitation - So far so good. I have had stuck food, and regurgitation at one stage or another - but then I don't think any long term bandster has so far escaped this. But knock on wood - it's never been a sign of being too tight etc.. but more a product of my own pigginess (is that a word? lol) 

So there you have it. Dr Couch's 10 Commandments. As of today I am also starting a food journal. I read a while back on one of Amy W's posts asking the question : How is the band different to a diet? I think it comes down to this. With the band: we will never 'diet' again per se. We stop counting calories. We eat what we want and let's face it.. for those who love eating meat, we are being TOLD to get more in to cover our protein needs. Win win there I think . Our band has a STOP function: no diet ever had that before. We just have to learn where ours is... it's there.. concentrate on finding it. For me, I feel it in my chest and sometimes at that little hollow at the base of the neck at the bottom of the throat. I don't want to PB but I feel if I have another bite I will be overfull. This seems to be my cut off point. 

I drank my a coffee at 8.30am... then for the next few hours plowed through my litre of water. My stomach was grumbling by 11am so I made a half a toasted muffin, put about a tablespoon of peanut butter on it and only made it 2/3'ds of the way through. Learning to toss that excess food when you are full is hard. But I did it. In the bin it went and I was sated. Its been almost an hour and half and I'm still not hungry. It's not long I know but since I'm due another small snack in about an hours time, I can wait. This eating every couple of hours truly might have something going for it. I will let you know how it goes for me. 

Chow for now

Cara xxxx