Lapband-ed in New York City – Menus with Calorie Counts, Oh My!

I was born and raised in New York City.  

Decades before I ever heard of lap band surgery I had pretty much seen all the top diet doctors in NYC in search of the magic bullet to my weight problem.

“The city” as I call it will always be like home to me.  Earlier this week I met some colleagues at the Capital Grille in midtown Manhattan near the Theater district and Rockefeller Center.  It was a hot summer night and the city was alive and filled with tourists; I was looking forward to having dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in over a year.  

I’ve been reading a lot about the 21^st century response to the obesity epidemic requiring restaurants to post calories.  I’ve thought about it from an academic perspective.  There are arguments on both sides – is it a good thing or a bad thing to require restaurants to post calories?  Like so many things in life, I didn’t anticipate how I would feel until I was confronted with the situation.  As I was handed a menu at a business dinner with calorie counts this week, here’s what ran through my mind:

• My first reaction was surprise.  I didn’t realize New York had adopted this law – had I been living under a rock?
• My next reaction was all about me.  I started thinking that I don’t really need calorie counts on the menu.  I’ve pretty much mastered eating on the road and “knowing” as my doctor calls it.  I always have a plan or at least a plan “B” to use my tool (for more on how I use my tool).  After years of journaling I’m good at approximating and special ordering in restaurants.  So my plan “B” in a nice restaurant is to order broiled or grilled fish or seafood, sauce on the side, with a side salad, dressing on the side or shrimp cocktail; or as Sandi does so often to check the restaurants website ahead of time.
• Next I found myself watching how my colleagues reacted to the menu. Was their ordering influenced by having to stare at calorie counts when choosing what to eat?  I don’t really know if their decisions were influenced by the calorie counts, but we all ordered some of the lowest calorie items.  Interesting.  Is that because calorie counts quickly became the topic of discussion thanks to me, or was it because seeing the information actually influenced my colleagues behavior?  I don’t know but it was interesting and my dinner partner joking told our waitress that we would have 2 orders of the au gratin potatoes (listed at 1500+ calories each), before telling her that we really wanted the asparagus with the hollandaise on the side.  As my husband points out, my colleagues eat on the road all the time, so this dinner is a meal, not a special occasion.  That may also have influenced their choices.
• Finally I checked in with myself.  Did I change how I ordered?  The answer was yes!  How did seeing the calorie counts on the menu make me feel?  After being surprised to see the calorie counts on the menu, I was even more surprised to see that I really had a lot more good choices without special ordering than I realized.  That was enlightening for me.  The seafood entrees AS PREPARED ranged from 440 calories to 625 calories and I knew I would eat about half the portion.  The halibut special I ordered, after checking with the chef was about 400 calories and it was delicious.  That was a freeing experience for me.  I had more options than I realized.  Woohoo, seeing calories on the menu actually gave me more choices.
  

  Click on the Capital Grille Menu if you want to be able to read it. Very enlightening!

Even with my lap band, I know that I still need to pay attention to calories in vs. calories out.  I also know it’s not that simple; there are just some foods that I don’t do well with, so I still need to pay attention to what works for me.  Four years since lap band surgery, on most days I pay attention to knowing roughly how many calories I eat, how much protein I am getting and how much I exercise.  That magic weight loss bullet I shopped for endlessly still hasn’t arrived; but I’m thrilled to have my lap band – it makes following a “sensible” eating plan SOOO much easier for me.  For me sensible is about 1500 – 1750 calories a day, including 80 or more grams of protein plus exercise to maintain my weight.   

Now I can’t help but wondering… when I first saw calorie counts on a menu at a Cheesecake Factory in California more than a year ago I was scared half to death; there was almost nothing on the menu for under 1000 calories – I found myself trying to subtract for the sauces I ordered on the side.  Has posting calories impacted the choices that restaurants offer?  I just checked the Cheesecake Factory website and I noticed some lower calorie options that I didn’t see a year ago.  I can also tell you that next time someone offers to take me to the Capital Grille I’m going!  I like seeing calorie counts on the menu; sometimes it gives me MORE tasty choices and it can help me continue to be a lap band success!