The Further Adventures of Deluzy: The staff of life

Health and Wellness

The Google 15
An excellent weight-tracking tool that keeps track of your moving weight average over time so that no single weigh-in is a cause for ecstacy or despair.
Understanding Your Tests
A good preliminary resource for understanding your lab work (though of course it's no substitution for discussing results with your doctor)
FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal
An essential tool for me during my first 6 post-op months -- and a good reality check for anyone keeping track of daily food intake (e.g., calories, fats, carbohydrates, etc.) and activity levels
Gmaps Pedometer
A wonderful tool that allows one to map exercise routes and calculate miles covered and calories burned

Products

Low Carb Corner
As near as I can tell, this site sells nothing but two kinds of breakfast cereal -- but as one who's avoided cereal since my DS surgery because it contains virtually no protein and far too many carbs, Protein Crunch is a wonderful option (i.e., 27 grams protein, 2 net grams carbs). It's horrifyingly expensive but for WLS cereal lovers, it's worth the occasional splurge.
Perfectly Sweet
Expensive but excellent source for sugar-free and no-sugar-added bakery and candy items.
Pure Protein RTD shakes
At an average of 35 grams of protein, 3 grams of carbs, and 160 calories, these ready-to-drink shakes work for me because I can chill them, grab them, pack them, and go. Available from a variety of online sources or at GNC stores.
Spanx
A line of comfortable foundation garments (and even easy-to-pack clothing) that comes in handy post-op to corrale that wayward, formerly obese flesh and make you feel comfortable. Available online, at Lane Bryant in larger sizes, at Nordstrom in smaller sizes, and sometimes at outlets for less.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The staff of life

Q: What food should I most avoid because it's empty carbs, has no protein, retards weight loss, and produces seriously bad gas?
A: Bread.
Q: What food have I been eating a lot of recently?
A: Bread.

I'm not stupid. I just play stupid in real life from time to time.

It's not the sweets that get me, or at least, not the chocolate and candy. It's the bread. All breads. White, wheat, whole grain (granted, my body processes the second two more productively and with less drama). Croissants, bagels. Wonder Bread. It just has to be bread.

In the first year after surgery, I was very careful about eating bread and aimed to keep my daily carb gram count below 100 (70 when I was feeling particularly vigilant -- though there are plenty of DSers out there who minimized that count more strictly than I).

But when I passed my two-year anniversary this past December 12, I noticed that I became much more lax with carbs, particularly at night (which, historically, has always been the riskiest time for me in terms of food consumption).

The carbs that my body can deal well, the ones that don't really seem to add weight or produce gas, at least not in the amounts that I eat them? Potatoes (thankyoujesus) and popcorn (ditto).

The carbs that retard my weight-loss and produce stinky gas? You got it -- breads!

The carbs that put weight on my frame and also produce stinky gas? Chocolate, candy.

(Of course, the white-flour-based carbs that a lot of breads contain convert almost instantly to sugars once they get processed, so it's no wonder I respond to them as if they were chocolate.)

I'm truly grateful that potatoes and popcorn still work for me, as I depend upon them -- in moderation -- for my carb fix. Which is all the more reason to deep-six the other forms of carbs that don't work so well for me, or at least to restrict them more carefully than I have been doing.

They are no doubt the reason why I found myself four pounds above goal yesterday when I stepped on the scale.

First four, then forty.

No thanks. Even the very best bread is not worth that.

I think it's time for a protein shake.

Posted at 10:04 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink