Tag: <span>Snacks</span>

Like many overweight people I used to crave high-fat and high-sugar foods before my surgery. But those cravings have now gone!

When I think back to the amount of bad food I used to eat, I’m shocked. My actual meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner – were generally quite healthy, but all the snacks I used to eat in between were full of fat or sugar, and sometimes both.

I was sometimes consuming more calories in snacks during a day than in my combined meals!

However I’ve noticed that since my gastric bypass surgery many of my cravings have now disappeared. I don’t crave chocolate anymore, or jellies or mints. I don’t crave crisps. And I don’t crave chips or fried foods.

The only thing that still appeals to me are savory foods, such as bread or cheese – but I have them now in moderation as part of my normal meals, and so I have no desire to snack on them.

I suppose it helps that I’m not really getting hungry between meals. I’m really lucky that way, because I hear of other bariatric patients that experience a lot more hunger than me, and are a lot more tempted to snack.

The only problem area for me is when I’m doing a food shop. It doesn’t help that the supermarkets are absolutely jam-packed with sweets and rich foods, as it’s on the run up to Christmas. I sometimes look at something on a shelf, and some memory fires in the back of my mind saying that I want it. But when I think about it a bit more, I realise that I don’t actually want it, and that whatever desire that popped in my head doesn’t exist any more.

It happened to me the other day. I was messaged by a friend who had just bought himself some Stollen from the supermarket. Now this time last year I would have been all over that as I used to love marzipan. And initially when I got the message I thought “I should get some of that”. But when I stopped to think about it, I realised that I don’t actually want any. The thought of marzipan just doesn’t appeal any more, and I was fine with that.

I do wonder, however, if this is just a temporary thing. I don’t know whether I’m just in a post-surgery ‘honeymoon’ period, or whether these cravings are gone for good!

Diet Surgery

The first week is usually a good one.

You dive into the Slimming World healthy eating plan – or “Food Optimising” as they call it – and you follow all the rules, and at your first weigh-in, you get some good results.

My first weigh-in saw me lose 7 pounds, and so I got my half-stone award staight away.

Obviously not everyone can lose half a stone in a week, but when you start at such a big weight as me, its easy to lose quite quickly at the start.

The most radical change for me has been cutting out all the between-meals treats that I was eating. Gone are the bags of sweets, bars of chocolate, and family-sized bags of crisps. And instead, I’m now snacking on raw carrots and grapes.

I’ve also noticed that I’m now properly hungry at meal times. Before, I was eating so much between meals that I wasn’t actually hungry when it came to lunch or dinner – but I was still eating my meals as well!

Now I’m actually hungry at meal times, and as such I find that I’m enjoying those meals all the more.

I’m also enjoying helping my wife out with the batch cooking. So much so that the freezer is now groaning with multiple portions of chilli con carne and chicken curry – all free meals, of course!

My Story Slimming World