Christmas is a Time for Treating

Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, etc. etc...we all know the season and the stores remind us of the reason at every opportunity. It's to overeat and indulge, right?

Well, that's what one aspect of the holiday has become. My indulgence today is to not do my weigh-in, meaning I'll do my next one on Monday. I don't need to be reminded that I'm stuck in a plateau...Merry Christmas to me!

People with the Roux-en-Y surgery...and I suspect Lap-Banding...can't really "indulge" in the way that other people do. Loosening the belt just doesn't allow us to stuff in another helping of ham or stuffing.

The bad part is that we may want to still eat the way we used to; it's a head hunger and habit. It's also bad because eating is a social bonding experience. Families equate eating with social bonding. So while the bari post-op has finished his or her small portion (actually closer to a "real portion") of food on the mini-plate, everyone else is going back for seconds or thirds.

This is a tough time for post-ops. This is my first Xmas without being able to indulge...I'm rapidly approaching one year since starting my dieting program. And in some ways it kind of sucks; I'm the type of person that just isn't happy with having a thumbnail portion of each item available, so I have my meals that I tend to stick with.

On the plus side, the reduced stomach size helps warn you when you've eaten too much. I get this half-uncomfortable blah feeling that signals that it's time to stop ingesting. Now, this can be "beaten" by just eating slowly over time, or overeating by taking many small snacks that add up the calories.

In the end losing weight comes down to calories. Eat less, lose weight. The holiday treat time is to find the one or two things you really really enjoy and have a portion of it. As long as it doesn't have sugar as a primary ingredient (a coworker makes the best fudge, and I couldn't have it this year because I would get sick as a dog if I did...I also learned that the chai at Sam's Club has sugar as a first ingredient, and it did indeed make me sick, even though most other chai teas don't).

Hopefully other post-ops are doing well with their diet efforts over the holiday season. Everyone else is probably indulging as usual and then will swear off foods until New Year's rolls around, then will make their annual promises to lose X amount of pounds. And the cycle continues...have fun!

Easter Dinner

I said yesterday that my father-in-law had made Jell-O "deviled eggs" for me. Here are pictures of them at dinner. Some explanations...the deviled filling on some of them slid off when the picture was taken, and the white part is ice. Yes, ice. It was in the fridge for the day and something goofy happened with the airflow in the fridge and all the other items in there for Easter dinner that somehow ice formed on the "eggs" and just my Jell-O eggs. Nothing else had this happen to them. It didn't hurt them, I just broke off the thin ice armor before eating them.

My first holiday dinner since the operation: deviled Jell-O eggs, vegetable broth, milk, and water. I enjoyed eating with the family, and I did appreciate everyone's efforts to include me despite not eating what they had worked so hard on (referring to the meal they had...I ate most of the eggs and the broth and of course my milk. What they were eating my wife and father-in-law had spent most of the day working on and looked and smelled fantastic, but of course I couldn't have any. The ice on the eggs make them look unusual but I assure you they were just fine.)