Emergency Preparedness For WLS Patients

It looks like many of us in North America are about to face some pretty intense winter weather. In fact, there are numerous winter storm and blizzard warnings posted from the Pacific Northwest clear across the nation to New England. Now is a good time to make sure we are WLS-ready in the event we find ourselves without transportation, heat, and/or power. I'm checking my emergency rations this

8 Quick Tricks To End Emotional Eating For Good

1. Rate how ravenous you areGetting into the habit of recognizing the difference between physical and emotional hunger can alert you to when you’re eating for the wrong reasons and help you resist those urges. “Just being aware that your craving has nothing to do with your appetite will help keep you from bingeing,” says Linda W. Craighead, Ph.D., the author of The Appetite Awareness Workbooks.
   
   Do it She recommends making a mental note of how hungry you are on a scale of one to seven every time you eat, with one being stuffed and seven being starving. “Try to decide whether you’re really hungry, you’re craving a specific type of food, or you just
   
   want to eat,” she says. “After a few weeks, this type of thinking will happen naturally any time you go to take a bite. When you’re on the verge of eating for emotional reasons, a warning bell will go off in your head, helping you hit the brakes.”
   
   
   
   


2. Tweak your treats“The trick to learning to step out of your comfort [food] zone is to gradually replace the high-calories dishes you fall back on with healthier versions,” says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., the author of the book Mindless Eating.
   
   Do it Instead if handling a defeat with cheesecake, have a bowl of berries topped with lowfat ricotta and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Keep doing that and soon you’ll associate the not-so-bad food with feelings of happiness. Another trick is to keep your levels of feel-good brain chemicals up. Be sure every meal contains a mix of high-quality carbs (like beans, whole grains, and fruit) as well as healthy fats (such as nuts, eggs, olive oil, and fish). This will help stabilize your mood and dampen those cravings.
   
   
   
   


3. Use the buddy systemOne of the reasons people emotionally eat is because they don’t feel supported. “Sometimes your friends are busy. Food, on the other hand, is always available, and you can always count on it tasting good,” says Ann Kearney-Cooke, Ph.D., the director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute.
   
   Do it “Focus on improving your relationships and you won’t need food to lift your spirits,” she says. Try boosting the number of live interactions you have. “With the Internet, texting, and e-mail, you can spend a whole day without actually talking to anyone. Go to lunch once a week with your mom or call a friend instead of sending her an e-mail.”
   
   
   
   


4. Give yourself timeHow’s this for a solution: You can eat every single thing you want. The only catch is that you have to let at least 30 minutes pass before you can have it. “When you wait to eat, you put a buffer between you and the food,” says Spangle. “In that time, the temptation often goes away, saving you from a spontaneous binge you’ll regret later.”
   
   Do it If you don’t think you can force yourself to hit the pause button on your own, make it harder to get to the comfort food. Avoid stocking candy at your desk and don’t keep loose change of dollar bills in your purse that can be sued for the vending machine. At home, keep chocolate in the freezer so it has to thaw before you can eat it, or store junk food down in the basement. These strategies won’t work every time, but having a few barriers in place will help cut down on how often you overindulge.
   
   
   
   


5. Reprogram yourselfYou’re used to eating when you’re upset, but you can rewrite your brain to feel comforted by other behaviors,” says Susan Albers, the author of 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food.
   
   Do it Avoid waiting until you’re in the middle of a food craving to try out a new tactic; that would be like learning how to swim in the middle of rough waters,” says Albers. She suggests making a list of all the healthy things that pick you up after a tough day, like walking your dogs, taking a bath, doing yoga, or watching your favorite chick flick. Get in the habit of doing these things on good days so that when anxiety strikes, you automatically turn to them instead of the cookie dough that’s in your freezer.
   
   
   
   


6. Consider the consequencesChances are, when you eat too much or polish off something you think you shouldn’t have, you try to immediately put the binge out of your mind and forget about it. Turns out, this isn’t the best strategy. “You have to give yourself a good reason not to emotionally eat or you’ll keep doing it,” says Craighead.
   
   Do it She recommends practicing negative reinforcement. “So when you have just downed a huge muffin because you’re stressed about the workday ahead of you, take a few minutes and focus on how uncomfortable you feel and how you wish you had chosen something else of hadn’t finished off the whole thing,” she says. “Really dwell on how your body is reacting. Do this a few times and soon, when you’re walking to work, pass by a coffee shop, and start craving a muffin, you’ll remember the aftermath and won’t want it as badly.”
   
   
   
   


7. Keep things in perspectiveIn the moment you’re considering scarfing that supersize candy bar, think about whether it’s worth felling bad about later on. “You want to eat the food, but you also want to feel good about yourself,” says Craighead. “You can’t have it all, and most splurges end up not tasting as good as you want them to.”
   
   Do it You may need a visual reminder of why you’re holding back. “Have a jar with a picture on the outside of something you want, like a sexy pair of designer jeans,” says Albers. “When you’re craving a treat, decide whether you want to put the $4 for a Frappuccino in the jar instead. It’s incredibly motivating to know you’re working toward a more lasting reward.”
   
   
   
   


8. Don’t be so hard on yourselfIf you do devour a second slice of cake, beating yourself up over it is a surefire way to keep bingeing. “Thinking you’re weak makes you feel worse, which can send you searching for more food,” says Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., the author of The Complete Beck Diet for Life.
   
   Do it Keep it in perspective: A single slipup won’t cause you to put on 10 pounds. And don’t let one lapse be an excuse to eat poorly all day. “If you went through a red light and got a ticket, you wouldn’t go through red lights for the rest of the day,” says Beck. “The more you prove you can quick get back on track, the easier it gets.”
   
   

It's been 14 years! Our special tradition.

Just thought I would share something personal today.  Fourteen years ago, on November 22, 1996, my hubby and I got married and began our journey together.  Along the way we have had four beautiful children we adore.

We believe in eternal families and since our family began the day we got married, we like to celebrate our special day with our kids.  Every year they get excited for our anniversary, it's like a birthday for them since we always do something special together.

A tradition for the past few years has been going out to a fun restaurant where they cook dinner in front of us.  Flying utensils and shrimp tails always get the kids giggling.  My favorite part is when flames shoot out of a volcano of onion rings.  I love to watch as they are motionless in their chairs, wide eyed with their mouths hung open.  Afterwards, we always end the evening with ice cream at Baskin Robbins or Cold Stone.

Unfortunately this year, we all have the sniffles.  We are doing something different while keeping with the spirit of doing something fun and special.  For lunch, we all ordered our favorite dishes and doing take out from the best Thai place in existence.  Following we are going to cuddle up and watch the movie, A Christmas Carol, that came out last year. (We haven't seen it yet)

The children are going to be surprised when we make homemade Oreo cookies. We saw this recipe awhile back and I wanted to wait for a special day to make them because will power only goes so far when you see these.  For dinner we are having various appetizers, per the kid's request.

This has become a fun tradition for our family that will carry on for years.  I'm interested in seeing how this tradition will play out as they grow older.  Until then, I look forward each year to share it with them.

(This isn't a good photo, I took it with my iPhone from the original.  We need to scan the original and make it digital. It's on my "to do" list.)  

Outsmart Stress Eating with this Dish Switch!

With all that's on your figurative plate, it's easy to scarf down everything on your literal one without a thought.

To slow down, swap circular dishes of square ones.

According to feng shui practitioners, circles stimulate mental chatter that prevents you from focusing on your food.

But squares inspire ken gua, or self-awareness. Cultivating this quality allows you to tune in to your body's satiety signals, so you stop eating when you're full.

Lose Weight Without Trying!

It doesn't require hours of toiling away at the gym to get the benefits of exercise. In fact, all it takes is clipping on a pedometer:

Studies at California's Lindora Medical Clinic found that those who used a pedometer lost 60% more weight than nonwearers.

These gadgets provide immediate feedback and incentive to take more calorie-burning steps each day, says integrative medicine specialist Hyla Cass, M.D.

Don’t let your feelings make you fat

     You may think your struggle with the scale is due to an insatiable appetite, but it’s more likely your head that’s to blame for your battle against the bulge.

WE'VE ALL HEARD THE PHRASE “emotional eating.” It brings to mind the heartbroken woman working her way through an entire box of chocolates after being dumped, the homesick college student finishing off a large pizza, or the recently laid-off friend making her way to the bottom of a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips while trying to pay her bills. But most emotional eating takes place on a far more subtle scale—which may be the reason you can’t drop those last 5, 10, or 25 pounds.



     “About 75 percent of the people who come to see me for weight-loss advice eat to deal with their feelings.” says Jane Jakubczak, R.D., the coordinator of nutrition services at the University of Maryland. “But because it’s such an unconscious act, they often don’t even realize they’re doing it.” For many of us, that mindless munching can sabotage even the best-laid healthy-eating plans. “In my experience, emotional eating is the top reason diets fail,” says Linda Spangle, R.R., the author of 100 Days of Weight Loss. “You get into a pattern where every time you fell anything—sadness loneliness, anxiety, boredom, even happiness—you turn to food.”

     While it isn’t realistic to think you can banish every single emotional eating episode (sometimes a chocolate cupcake really can help turn a bad day around), it is possible to cut back on the behavior and ultimately avoid piling on pounds. But before you can do that, you need to understand why your emotions are making you indulge in the first place.

Searching for comfort in all the wrong places

Most binges are connected with negative feelings—you’re upset, anxious, or angry, so you divert your attention from whatever is causing you angst (your nagging mother-in-law, perhaps) by eating. “Food can act like a drug,” says Geneen Roth, the author of Women, Food, and God. “It can take the edge off whatever is going on, similar to the way a drink does for alcoholics. People think to themselves, ‘I may be feeling upset, but at least I get to taste something good.’”

     Unfortunately, this tactic is a temporary fix at best. “After you’re done eating, you still have to deal with the original problem,” says Spangle. “It’s like when a baby is crying because he needs a nap. If you feed him, he may stop screaming. But once you’re done giving him his bottle, it won’t take long before he realizes he’s still tired and starts wailing again.” On top of that, bingeing can actually make you feel worse in the long run. “Afterwards, you beat yourself up because you feel mad and guilty about what you just did,” says Spangle. “And then you eat more to deal with that distress; it’s a vicious cycle.”

What you’re really craving

If we all soothed ourselves with crudités and fresh fruit, it wouldn’t be so bad. But we’re grabbing candy, cookies, macaroni and cheese, and French fries—and the reason comes down to biology, It turns out your body is hard-wired to make you pass right by the salad bar and head straight for the bakery aisle instead, “When we eat carbohydrates high is sugar of fat [like a brownie or cinnamon roll], our body releases the brain chemical dopamine,” says Karen R. Koenig, the author of The Food Feelings Workbook. “It stimulates the brain’s pleasure center, so you’ll want to keep eating to repeat the experience again and again.” And if you aren’t after carbs, you’re probably craving sugar and fat—overconsumption of which ups other brain chemicals linked to pleasure and euphoria, according to a recent study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But while science shows why you crave certain types of food, the specific dishes you gravitate toward are often ones you associate with pleasurable memories. “Something fabulous was going on when you used to eat that food, and you want to replicate those happy times,” says Roth. If you feasted on lasagna during fun meals as a child, for example, that’s what you’re apt to pile on your plate as an adult when you’re looking to feel better. If your mom soothed you when you were upset with a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s may very well be what you reach for when your job gets too stressful.

     But you don’t need to let biology and what happened to you as a child stand between you and a flat tummy. You can put a stop to your emotional eating patterns. The key is breaking up the automatic connection between food and mood, learning to identify when you’re eating due to reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with your stomach, and retraining yourself to get pleasure from other things, like exercise and friendship. The following eight proven strategies will address these issues—and help you get slim for good.

Pumpkin & Squash...OH MY!

This summer we grew a boatload of squash.  Seriously.  The amount we grew could have easily filled a small boat like this:

You think I'm kidding? I should have taken a photo.

Nevertheless, we have A LOT of squash to eat.  Luckily, we love it so it will be a great to eat from our harvest over the winter.

I've often wondered if you could truly substitute squash for pumpkin.  I've always assumed you could, but never got around to confirming my thoughts.  Recently, my mom beat me to it.  She substituted in a recipe and brought some over for us to try. It was very similar, but she also messed with sugar substitutions, so that might be why I'm a little reluctant in saying it was an easy swap--there was more than one variable.

I saw a recipe on Twitter today that I want to try HERE.  I have all the ingredients minus the pumpkin and I'm craving something sweet.  If I have enough time, I think I'm going to do a little subbing of my own.