Improving my quality of life was a key

Improving my quality of life was a key motivator when I chose to have weight loss surgery.  I didn’t want my children to grow up with the stigma of an obese mom, and I wanted to improve my self-esteem amongst other things.  Self-esteem and weight bias go hand in hand.  As someone who has struggled with obesity since childhood, weight bias is something I painfully understand.  Frankly the scars are a part of me that will be with me for life.  The fear of what others think about obesity is one of the reason why I stayed in the closet about my surgery for so long.

This week my 12 year old daughter told me about a you-tube video that she wanted me to watch.  She didn’t tell me what it was about – just that it was this amazing act from the TV showBritain’s Got Talent.  I watched, the emotions flooded through every fiber of my body, as I watched the judges, and the audience react to an obese teenage boy.  This teen had amazing courage, supporting by a friend, his duo partner, who herself displayed tremendous courage.

 Take a few minutes and watch this video.  How does it make you feel?  Is weight bias that last politically correct form of discrimination?

motivator when I chose to have weight loss surgery.  I didn’t want my children to grow up with the stigma of an obese mom, and I wanted to improve my self-esteem amongst other things.  Self-esteem and weight bias go hand in hand.  As someone who has struggled with obesity since childhood, weight bias is something I painfully understand.  Frankly the scars are a part of me that will be with me for life.  The fear of what others think about obesity is one of the reason why I stayed in the closet about my surgery for so long.

This week my 12 year old daughter told me about a you-tube video that she wanted me to watch.  She didn’t tell me what it was about – just that it was this amazing act from the TV showBritain’s Got Talent.  I watched, the emotions flooded through every fiber of my body, as I watched the judges, and the audience react to an obese teenage boy.  This teen had amazing courage, supporting by a friend, his duo partner, who herself displayed tremendous courage.

Take a few minutes and watch this video.  How does it make you feel?  Is weight bias that last politically correct form of discrimination?

Right now I’m struggling with making myself a priority.  I can hear all the excuses rattling in my brain – I recently started a new job and my schedule is less predictable; I’m traveling; the kids need…  my dogs expect…  my husband needs…

I’m having a hard time making time for myself.  This morning, I’m balancing whether to write this blog or hop on the elliptical, in between checking emails, and making breakfast for the kids.  I’ve always been great at managing my time, and my priorities, but right now I’m having a harder time than usual and that is something I need to own!  When Sandi and I wrote “Is Lap Band Surgery for Me?” we spent a lot of time talking about how important it is to make ourselves a priority in our own lives.  We even included making ourselves a priority one of the 10 Lessons of Successful Lap Band Patients.  Right now I need to take a line from my own book, literally and figuratively!

“We make ourselves a priority.  We take care of our health, eat right, exercise, take our vitamins, and live life to the fullest!”

For me, for today, making myself a priority requires that I remind myself that if I’m not taking the time to take great care of myself, I’m short-changing everyone else, and everything else in my life.

I’ve always believed that acknowledging a problem is the first step in solving a problem.  So today, I’m acknowledging that recently I have not been making myself and my journey enough of a priority; that is something I need to own, and I need to fix.  I guess that’s the first step in making myself a priority again.  So today, I will write this blog, and find time to exercise and plan my meals.  I will also reach out for support.  That’s what I need to do to be a priority in my own life.  Thanks for reading; thanks for listening.

Sandi and I recently started a recipe directory on bandedliving.com.  We are forever grateful to everyone in the banded living community who has taken the time to share their recipes.  These recipes are important tools in their amazing weight loss journeys.  Let’s face it.  We love to eat, and we love to eat healthy, satisfying, meals that also keep our weight loss journey on track.

My husband does most of the cooking in our family.  I usually cook on holidays, but I also have a repertoire of quick and easy lap band friendly meals that I can put together with a few ingredients.

For the first five years of my lap band journey, pasta was off the menu.  That is, until I discover Tofu Shirataki noodles from Hungry Girl.  Here is one my favorite, decadent, easy to prepare shirataki noodle recipes:

Decadent Pasta in Meat Sauce with Broccoli (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 2 pkg shirataki fettuccini
• 4 oz extra lean (95%) ground beef
• 1 c Kirkland Marinara Sauce
• 1cup steamed broccoli florets
• 1 T freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
• Garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste 

Directions

• Empty bag of shirataki noodles into a strainer and rinse for at least 30 seconds
• Transfer noodles to ceramic bowl, cover loosely  and microwave for 3 minutes
• Rinse and strain noodles again; set aside
• Add broccoli florets to ceramic bowl, cover loosely and microwave for 2 minutes
• Brown ground beef in frying pan; add garlic, salt and pepper to taste
• Pat beef to remove any excess fat
• Pat dry noodles with paper towels; get out as much of the water as you can
• Return noodles to bowl and add ricotta cheese, gently stir to coat noodles thoroughly
• Transfer noodles to frying pan with ground beef
• Add tomato sauce and stir
• Remove broccoli from microwave and strain
• Add broccoli to pan and stir again
• Add pepper flakes to taste
• Transfer to serving bowls
• Sprinkle on freshly grated parmesan cheese

  Mangia!

Each serving has approximately 220 calories and 20 grams of protein.

If you have a recipe or meal compilation that you’d like us to consider for inclusion on bandedliving.com, please contact us at Banded Living Inquiries.

As a lap band patient, it may be strange that I am blogging about eating more.  That’s right I am making a plan to eat more…OK, now that I have your attention, here’s where I’m coming from.

As a mom, I’ve been working on my son’s eating habits.  I realized that telling him what he shouldn’t have doesn’t work.  Instead I’ve been encouraging him to have more; more protein, more fruits, more vegetables.  I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy those changes are.  Instead of his daily chocolate cheerios with milk, he’s having nitrate-free sausages, and his organic chocolate milk and when I can get him to eat it – melon or baby carrots.  We’ve also tweaked his snack at school – chicken tenderloin has replaced the goldfish.  I was thrilled to hear that he seems to be happier and more attentive at school.  Making changes this way

Like most WLS patients, I’ve spent much of my life dieting.  I’ve come to equate dieting with things I CAN’T do, with deprivation.  Even though I had my lap band surgery 6 years ago, as I say all the time, I have this tool and I need to work it.  I find that I’ve gotten used to the idea that I it’s highly unlikely that I will be obese again.  I do however struggle these days with fifteen pounds.  I’m told that makes me normal; but it’s so frustrating!  Looking for new ideas, I’ve been reading a lot lately about health and nutrition.  I’m particularly interested in how what I eat impacts my hormonal balance and satiety – I’ve been treated for hypothyroidism for more than 15 years and have always had metabolic issues.   I’ve decided it’s time to tweak my diet.  I started to think about all the things I should eliminate, and was getting stressed.  Instead I decided to try the approach I’m taking with my son.  What should I have more of?  Interesting thought!  It’s a big change in mindset for me, but one that feels good. 

For the past few weeks, I’ve been adding MORE organic foods into my diet.  Organic fruits, vegetables, organic greek yogurt, and organic dairy, organic free range chicken and grass fed beef.  The reality is I’m consuming a lot less chemicals, hormones and additives, but I’m doing it by substitution, but having more clean food.  It’s also a change from my all or nothing mindset.

This approach is a welcome change for me.  Having more feels a lot better, than a lifetime of thinking about having less.  I think I’ll be talking more about what I need to be doing more of?

This morning I was thinking that it might be a good idea to start a WLS book club.  Right now I’m reading Jillian Michael’s book – “Master Your Metabolism.”  I’ve never been a book club kind of girl, but I do read A LOT for inspiration and ideas to help me on my journey.  At any given point in time you’ll see a stack of books and magazines piled on or near my elliptical.

Since I started my WLS journey, I read for inspiration and ideas while doing my cardio.  I’d worn out every book I could find weight loss surgery while I was trying to make my decision about whether or not to have surgery and which surgery was the right surgery for me.  I found a great source of motivation in the pages of all of these books and magazines. That’s one of the reasons Sandi and I wrote “Is Lap Band Surgery for Me?”

Six years out, I still need to read for inspiration and ideas.  I was never of fan of the Biggest Loser, so I was pretty skeptical about reading a book by Jillian Michaels, but I couldn’t resist based on the title of her book “Master Your Metabolism.”  I’ve always considered myself metabolically challenged so the title was very appealing to me.  I read the reviews on amazon and decided to go for it and loaded the book on my kindle.  I have to say this book proved to be a pleasant surprise for me.  There is a lot of discussion about using food to better balance your hormones.  I’ve always been interested in how hormones impact appetite, and I believe there are some keys here that can really help me on my journey.  The book can get pretty technical which works for me since I’m someone who needs to know why to do things; not just what to do.  I have to say I was more than pleasant surprised by what I read.  This book seemed to synthesize a lot of research I’d been doing.  Her suggestions resonated with me.  I found myself wanting to stay on my elliptical longer, so that I had more time to read (not a bad thing!!) There is a lot to this book.  I’ve boiled down my key takeaways:

• What we eat can have a significant impact on appetite, satiety and of course our overall health
• The chemicals and hormones we consume can cause a variety of health problems, make us sluggish and confuse our natural satiety signals – avoid processed foods, trans fats, nitrates, artificial sweeteners and HFCS; eat organic produce, eggs, and dairy when possible; grass-fed beef; free range chicken, and wild caught fish
• Eat 3 balanced meals and one snack / day
• Don’t eat carbs in the evening  (this one is something I really need to try)

I’m traveling a lot these days for work.  Reading this book gave me the motivation I needed to cut back on ordering room service; I called the manager at the hotel I’m regularly staying at and asked for a fridge and microwave.  I’ve also stocked up on organic fruit, dairy, and produce, and cut back on the artificial sweetener.  These are all good choices to help me on my journey. 

I also mentioned that I read magazines for inspiration.  For those who eat out frequently, there is a great article in the March 2012 “Health” magazine titled “Dine Out Like a Health Pro.”  It provides healthy menu by some of the household names in nutrition and fitness for some of the well-known restaurant chains like CPK, Cheesecake Factory, Applebee’s, Macaroni Grill, PF Chang’s and even IHOP.  Now I’m not sure Jillian Michaels will approve of the choices, but I do think there are some practical suggestions here for me…

What are you reading?

Prize: One lucky, randomly selected, winner will receive
a Wellesse "Basket of Health from Wellesse
We are happy to announce the winners of our Banded Living/Wellesse GiveAway Contest:

 I hope all of you enjoy your products and we’d sure love to have your reviews of the products at www.bandedliving.com

We’re running a give-away contest to introduce you all to Wellesse liquid vitamins, minerals and supplements.

Most of us have been told by our surgeons that after weight loss surgery it is essential to take certain vitamin and mineral supplements, either because we have had a procedure that inhibits absorption of them, or we just don’t get enough of them in the food we eat.

Many of us have trouble taking pills, especially giant size pills like multi vitamins and calcium.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to get everything in a good tasting liquid form that is easily absorbed by our bodies regardless of the type of weight loss surgery we have had?

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1. Glucosamine,
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3. Vitamin D,
4. Digestive Health,
5. Aloe,
6. B Complex,
7. B12 (this is a 2 oz. bottle),
8. Iron, &
9. Multivitamin,

• Stainless steel Wellesse water bottle,
• $25 gift card,
• Insulated lunch bag,
• Pen,
• The book “The Vitamin D Solution” by Dr. Holick

In addition to this fabulous gift we will also give away:

Three(3) additional gifts of Sample Packs (2 ounce samples that you can fly with) which contain:

• Calcium,
• Iron,
• Multivitamin
• B-12

On the road again…. The familiar tune is playing in my head.  I’m a seasoned traveler, one who traveled a lot after surgery.  I’ve blogged many times about traveling with my lap band, but it’s been a while.  I’m going to be traveling a lot for business again, and that means I need to dust off my own strategies, and have a plan.  I’m going back to reading my old blogs to get ideas, and build my confidence.  I’ve done this before, many times.  Heck, I commuted cross-country for over a year; I traveled to Europe from CA five weeks after surgery; I know how to do this, yet I’m still nervous.  Time to take my own advice…

I know that for me success starts with having a plan so that I don’t get caught without what I need to work my tool.  For me there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, so I’m going back to reading old blogs about traveling to refresh my memory, and get in the right mindset.  Here’s the list of articles and blogs I referred to:

•  Lap Band Tips – Airline Travel With My Lap Band (planning for a long-flight and what to take)
• I Always Have a Plan to Maintain My Weight Loss, Especially When I Travel, 9/27/2009 (protein drinks on airplanes and being assertive instead of being embarrassed)
• Lapbanded on Vacation – Having Fun at an All Inclusive Without Gaining Weight (it’s all about choices and having a plan; tips from an all-inclusive vacation; this will be a really helpful reminder for this trip; going to print out this blog and take it with me!)
• Traveling With My Lap Band – Some Tips For Continued Success (Sandi’s tips for traveling filled with some great ideas; I’m going to print this one too!)

my hotel room staple - ice, water, water bottle, protein powder, fresh fruit, baby carrot

I called the hotel I’m staying it to make sure they have a gym (I didn’t have a choice about where to stay).  The good news is they have a gym and it’s 24 hour access – I don’t need to ask them to open it early for me.  Time to take out those travel size containers, and Ziploc bags.  There are a few new tips I’m adding to my list for air travel:

• Bring an empty water bottle – preferably one with a large mouth for mixing protein drinks; saves a lot of money on bottled water throughout the trip.  I now fill it at a water fountain right after I get through security,
• Take protein powder and any other powders out of luggage and put them in a bin at the security checkpoint – or TSA may need to go through your luggage.

So armed with Ziploc bags, protein powder, my water bottle, workout clothes, baby carrots, workout music and most importantly a plan, here I go, on the road again.

Here we go again.  We’re deep into the eating season.  Navigating the holidays is actually getting harder for me, now that I’m in my sixth year since lap band surgery.  It’s easier to slack off this far out since WLS so this year I’ve decided that I need to do just the opposite.

I wound up hosting Thanksgiving, which was a gift for me.  Turkey is always a good protein option, but since I was hosting, I was also able to prepare the weight loss friendly sides I like: baked acorn squash (splenda instead of brown sugar on mine), butternut squash (from a WW recipe I found), broccoli with just a little bit of olive oil and tons of garlic.  Feeling in control, it was relatively easy to just taste a spoonful of the other sides that I really wanted to sample:  stuffing, my homemade cranberry sauce which is a family tradition (I think I would be tarred and feathered if I didn’t make it).  I also started online journaling for the first time.  I always journaled with pen and paper, but I tried myfitnesspal.com and I’m hooked. It has an app that’s easy to use on my blackberry after I had all my staple foods in my diary.  So leftover turkey, my husband’s homemade turkey soup and journaling both food and exercise got me through the beginning of the holiday season. (My fitnesspal tracks both calories in and calories out – exercise which motivated me to also step up my cardio too!)

So now I’m on a roll.  I haven’t worked with a trainer in years, so I got my rear in gear, found a good trainer and a good deal, and started training again.  It feels good, yes I’m sore but it’s a good sore.  I want my arms back, and I’m sore in the right places….

Onto a plan for holiday cooking.  I have a lot of control over what I am eating through Chanukah and Christmas Eve (we celebrate both), before we head off to Nana and Pappa’s house on Christmas Day.  That gives me plenty of time to be get into a good holiday groove.  So I’m looking to some of my favorite sources for recipes.

With Chef Dave at the 2011 NorthWest Weight Loss Conference

My first stop is Chef Dave.  I’ve been fortunate to meet Chef Dave twice during my WLS journey.  He’s is a long-term successful WLS patient and a classically trained Chef.  His books are filled with great, tasty easy to prepare recipes that everyone in my family can love.  We will soon be featuring his recipes on BandedLiving and WeightLossSurgeryLiving.  I am planning on using his advice to how to perfectly prepare beef or pork tenderloin from his December newsletter.

Next stop is Hungry Girl.  I thank hungry girl for putting pasta back in my life with recipes for tofu shirataki noodles.  Low calorie pasta dishes are a go-to meal for me now when I’m trying to put together a satisfying low-cal meal.  The only problem is that my 12 year old daughter has now decided that she likes everything I make for MYSELF when I prepare them.  I recently posted HG Salutes: the World’s Best Pasta Swap on our LapbandedLiving facebook page .  I’m also going to paying close attention to the HG’s Holiday Survival Guide.

It I don’t find everything I’m looking for, I’d be off to CookingLight and Weight Watcher’s for more ideas.

So there’s my plan:

• Get through Thanksgiving without falling off the wagon (check)
• Find a trainer (check)
• Journal through January 8, at least
• Try some new WLS friendly recipes
• Manage stress by doing as much holiday shopping as I can online (thank you amazon)
• Cook at home as much as possible, and make it fun!
• Plan to go shopping for clothes the week after December 26 Enjoy!

What’s your plan to get through the rest of the holidays?

I’m in my sixth year since my lap band surgery.  It’s late October; here in New England the Spookfests and haunted hayrides abound, the leaves are turning a full array of beautiful hues, the days are getting shorter, there is a new chill in the air and that means the holiday eating season is upon us.  In years past, I’ve blogged about Halloween challenges including the emotional turmoil of being an obese child in a Halloween costume.  This year as Halloween approaches, I realize that it is less of a big deal for me.  The key for me is planning.  For the first time that I can remember, we didn’t wait until the last minute to get the kid’s costumes.  The only thing that I’ve put off to the last minute is buying Halloween candy.

Planning is my theme for kicking off the holiday season this year.  There is a reason Sandi and I focused on planning as one of the Lessons of Successful Lap Band patients.  Planning keeps me on track and gives me a sense of comfort, calm and control.  Planning helps keep my hand out of the candy bowl!

This week I scoured the internet for tips to stay on track during Halloween.  I found a few articles with great tips and treat ideas.  Here are a few that really rang true to me:

• 10 Tricks to Avoid the Halloween Treats from Sparkpeople
• 10 Tips to Avoid Halloween Candy Temptations from WebMD
• Halloween Eats: No Tricks, Just Treats from eDiets
• The Diet Detective: 10 Halloween Tricks and Treats

Some of my favorite tips from these articles can work well for me throughout the holiday season:

• Wait until the last minute to buy treats
• Donate, or giveaway the treats after the holiday (AKA, get as much as possible out of the house)
• Don’t go trick-or-treating hungry (or to a party, or…)
• Chew gum (not appropriate for some WLS patients)
• Substitute health(ier) and low(er) calorie choices (good for me and helps teach my kids about choices)
• Celebrate with activities that are not just about eating – carve a pumpkin, decorate, sing, get physical!
• Decide what to splurge on and make it conscious
• One day, or one meal, or one treat doesn’t have to start a bad cycle. 

Just taking the time to write the blog is part of my planning, and part of being accountable.  What’s your plan to get through the holiday season?  Please share your tips and treats.

My daughter and I were flipping channels and ended up watching a girl’s movie (AKA chick flick) on the Lifetime Movie Network.  It turns out that this movie was the story of three friends struggling with their weight, their self-esteem and a whole host of issues familiar to those of us who’ve struggled with obesity. I was surprised when my daughter put down her book to watch with me. As the story unfolds, the women made a pact to support each other on a journey to weight loss.  One of the women was gaining struggling as the other two were losing weight.  She started researching weigh loss surgery,  considered gastric bypass surgery, then decided on lap band surgery – much to my surprise.  To keep this in context the story about her lap band surgery was just a tiny part of this movie, but it did get my daughter and I talking about my surgery.

My daughter is now 12, but she was only 6 when I had surgery.  I asked her if she remembered me before surgery.  She said that she remembered me being bigger, that she remembered seeing me exercising one day and had that image of me “bigger”. Leave it to my daughter, to use the least offensive term she could find – “bigger”.  I asked if she remembered that she took my before picture, the morning of August 16, 2006, the morning of my weight loss surgery.  She said she knows she took that picture because I always remind her, but doesn’t really remember taking it.  She didn’t understand about the surgery at the time.  She thinks it’s kind of cool that the picture she took is all over the bandedliving.com, and in my book, and on my blog, and that if you google me and lap band surgery, that picture that she took will probably come up.

I didn’t explain my surgery to my children back in 2006.  They were too young and I didn’t want to scare them; I also didn’t want them talking about my surgery, my well-guarded secret at the time, to their friends. But, since Sandi and I decided to go public with our stories, write a book, and build the bandedliving.com community, my public lap band journey is part of who we are. 

I talk a lot about my lap band support team, who to tell, and who not to tell.  I’m reminded that my support team continues to change and evolve over time.  I’m learning, once again, that support comes in many forms – friends, family, my on-line family and bandedliving.com, and even a TV movie!