Appointment day!

Today I had an appopintment with Marissa. We talked about several things. Carbs, cave men, protein(again), exercise,  and how all of these interact.

Firts off   CARBS! Carbs are ok! They provide us energy however not as much energy as other foods. there are two types of sugars associated with carbs. Simple and complex sugars. You get the more of the simple sugars from things like processed breads and sweet things like cakes and cookies (mainly because simple sugar is one of the ingredients but, i digress) Complex sugars while present in most grain products are more prevelent in things like whole grains and less processed foods.

This is where the cave men come in. Back thousands of years ago when our ancestors were hunter gatherers/ nomads they would go through periods of feast and periods of famine. So their bodies adapted to this by storing away extra fat and energy to get them through the lean times. Our brains are actually still structured to still have our bodies do this. So when we are stressed and we are craving carbs our bodies read this as a famin or crisis type of feeling and our brains signal that we need this starch foodto allow us to save the energy.

The second reason we crave carbs when we are stressed/upset is because they trigger a chemical response in the brain that tells us we are comforted, loved, etc.

Next we talked about Protein! Protein is the best for the body because it burns slowly giving us energy the whole time. In fact post surgery you eat almost nothing but protein because 1. it dosn't expand in your stomach and 2. because of this slow continuous burn. It last much longer and gives us more energy. however they take and hour or two to start delivering us this wonderful energy.

Carbs and protein interact by providing us with that consistent stream of energy that we need to function. Simple carbs(sugars) break down first giving us about and hour of energy. Then the more complex carbs start to break down and give us 2-3 hours of energy. Then the protein begins to break down around hour 2 giving us several more hours of energy. Fat starts breaking down after the protein and gives us very little energy for a few hours. also you should balance your protein and carbs in a meal by having a roughly fist sized portion of each and then seeing how you feel before eating more.

Exercise. How that word can easily turn into a dirty evil word. However we talked about how it relates to food and why I have expririenced an increaed appetite when on an exercise regimine. It's because I wans't approaching it in the correct way. I was waiting until after I worked out to eat a meal when i should have been going about an hour or two after eating and having a small snack before hand to prevent my bodyfrom panicing it wasn't getting the nutrients it needed. I should also have been having some sot of protein afterward. to keep the same panic away.

Now that your bored out of your mind I'll wrap it up with that.

My next appointment is July 25th with Dr. B.

<3 Amanda

Heartbreaking what some people will do.

Desperate to qualify for weight loss surgery, some pile on the pounds

This story for me is heart breaking. As someone who is on a weight loss journey this story makes me both upset and angry. Upset because people are going to look at this and say horrible things about the women featured whe nthey have no idea what htey are going through. Seriously. If you have lived your entire life as a "thin" or "fit" person or even just a few pounds overweight (this does not include those who used to be obese and have lost everything their own way) you have no idea the kind of stigma ridicule we larger peopel face every day. You also have no idea what we go through physically each day. For example some days it is difficult for me to even function normally because carrying around my extra weight exhausts me. I've been there I've gone to that place of I will do anything for this. Please do things healthily. Don't put your health and well being at risk to do this. Each person has their reasons please make sure your reasons make sense to you and you can articulate them to everyone around you in a way that they will make sense to them. Be prepared to have every opinion under the sun thrown at you as well make sure that surgery is what's best for you and its really what you want before you go to drastic measures to get it. please be careful you only have one life and it is more prescious than you know.

<3 Amanda

Yay! a new blog!

So, I'm going to atempt to keep a journal of my entire journey here. I'm about half way through my pre-op appointments. Durring these appointments I have been learning about nutrition and my eating habits and how they will be affected after surgery. My next appointment is July 2nd. I'll be meeting with Marissa that day. then my next scheduled appointment is on July 25th. at that one i will be meeting with Dr. B. If your asking who are these people the My Team tab will let ou know a bit about every one. I'm also going to make an appointments tab so you can keep track of where I'm at on my journey.I also plan to post after each appointment and whenever i have something I decide is worth writing on here. I also have a notebook journal that I have been keeping. So hopefully that gives you an idea of what I'm going to be talking about.

<3 Amanda