Four Things You Should Never Say to a Person Who Had Weight Loss Surgery



This is inspired by a piece done recently on The Today Show: 6 Things You Never Say to Someone Who Has Lost Weight. Those things apply but I feel like there's things people say to us after our surgeries that are just wrong (and some are potentially harmful) so here goes.

"Yeah, I'm losing weight the hard way."

Ok so I should start off telling you that here at Bariatric Foodie we call folks who haven't had weight loss surgery "non-ops." And I got some push-back on that. Listen. It's not a derogatory term. It's simply a term to distinguish someone who has had WLS from someone who has not. Having said that...

You. Non-op. Come closer so we can speak.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and your stomach was a fraction of the size it was before. Imagine taking your first bite of food in the morning and that bite of food makes you violently ill - and you don't quite know why. Imagine everything you eat makes you violently ill. Imagine going out to eat with friends and being done your whole meal before your friends have taken three bites of an appetizer. Imagine having the whole world see you shrink into a person you don't know and have never been before, all while you are supposed to be joyful (instead of freaking out, which is what you really are). Imagine having to remember to take vitamins every day. Imagine having doing the same workout you are doing "the hard way" except your body has only a fraction of the calories to sustain it. Imaging going through all that and having someone imply that you are doing things the "easy" way.

No matter what way you do it, losing weight is hard. So don't say that anymore.

"My sister's cousin's boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's sister had weight loss surgery and they gained all their weight back."

Firstly, no they didn't. That person is an urban legend. While folks who have weight loss surgery can regain, you probably don't know that person.

Beyond that, if you believe in the power of positive thinking, this statement can be really destructive. It spawns fear, self-doubt, self-consciousness. Weight loss surgery patients live in a constant tension between adhering to many guidelines and trying to live a normal life. Many of us are already so petrified of regain that, for all intents and purposes, we've actually worked in earnest to develop eating disorders.

A better thing to say is "I wish you all the best" and leave it at that.

"You've lost too much! You need to stop."

On this one, I have a bit of sympathy. Chances are your friend or family member was overweight or obese for a while before having surgery. And there's a good chance you only ever knew them that way. They are going through big changes. They are shrinking fast.

Rest assured your loved one is being monitored by an expert medical team. They have a bariatric surgeon, a registered dietician and other staff who monitor their weight very closely for the first two years after surgery. Very often their weight and health is monitored pretty closely even after that.

Each person has a different way to determine their goal weight. Unfortunately, it's not up to you to decide what that weight is. Telling someone they've lost too much is just as bad as telling them they have gained too much weight. It promotes low self-esteem and self-consciousness.

A simple "Wow, you've lost a lot of weight!" is both honest and much more respectful.

And lastly my personal favorite...

"You've changed since you had surgery."

My initial response the first time someone said this to me was "Well...yeah. Isn't that the point?"

My grandmother had a wonderful saying. "If nothing changes, nothing changes." Obesity is not just a disease of eating. Our environments, emotions and stressors can all contribute to our obesity. The only way to sustainably address obesity is to work at all of its causes in our lives.

That said, if your loved one suddenly is less tolerant of demands on their time, or they take longer to get ready to go out the door because they want to look nice, or they like to go clothes shopping, YES they have changed. No, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

On the same token some of us go through a serious "butthole phase" where we are a bit self-centered and hard to deal with (present company included). In those cases, address the behavior in particular. For example, if you find your loved one talks nonstop about their post-op life, you might say: "Hey, I know you've got lots going on, what else is happening in your life?" We go through stages after surgery and we are human. If we are being inconsiderate it may be a stage and we may not be aware we are doing it. But implying that it's bad we are changing isn't helpful or constructive.

If we're doing something that bugs you, talk to us respectfully about the thing we are doing instead of generalizing. Bonus: you actually have a chance of working it out when you do it this way!

What happens if I don't take my vitamins?

This week's #BFHolidayChallenge is to take all your vitamins every day. I often get asked, "What happens if I don't take my vitamins?" Here is my story about why vitamin compliance is a critical habit for weight loss surgery patients to learn.

It was late. Way late. So late, in fact, that I almost wondered why I was bothering with dinner at all. The day had been an absolute disaster and I’d have loved to sink into bed and pray for a better tomorrow, but unfortunately my two young children were hungry – and none too amused that it was 9 p.m. and they had not yet been fed dinner!

I decided to throw together something quick. Chili. The kids love chili, especially spicy chili. I figured this was perfect because it doesn’t take long to make, it produces lots of leftovers, and those leftovers taste better with each passing day.

So as soon as I got home from my class, I set to chopping onions and green peppers, browning ground turkey and draining cans of beans. It only took me about 30 minutes to make the chili and when it was done I called my children down to help set the table. I was determined we’d sit down to eat together.

My oldest daughter was the first downstairs so I set her to work. I pointed to the cabinet to ask her to hand me a…a…

What is that thing called? The thing. That you put soup in. And chili in. The thing???

Forgetting the word for "bowl" scared me and made me get my short-term memory loss checked out!

Yes, people. Standing there in my kitchen, rushed and stressed, I forgot the word for bowl.

Scared Straight

Now if any of you have had a family member with dementia, you can understand why I was freaked out by this incident. But as I thought about it later that night, I realized that my memory had been fairly shoddy lately. I’d walk into a room and not remember why I was there. I’d put my keys down and just a minute later couldn’t find them. And heaven help me if I didn’t immediately put an event on a calendar. I missed quite a few because I failed to jot it down, then forgot it completely.

There are myriad medical conditions that can cause memory loss. When I went to the doctor to inquire about mine, the doctor ordered labs and when they came back I got a stern talking to. My doctor asked one simple question that “outed” me, “Have you been taking your b12 supplement regularly?”

I had not. At that time I took it by injection. I was instructed to do so monthly. One fact I’ve since learned is that the less often I am required to do something, the more likely I am to forget to do it. So I forgot my monthly injection – for many, many, many months.

(NOTE: This was a problem for me because, as a RNY patient, I no longer have the ability to properly absorb B12 in the body's natural way - because that portion of my stomach is missing. So instead we need to take sublingual B12 which allows the B12 to be instantly absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin under your tongue.)

While my doctor was hesitant to deem that the only source of my short-term memory problems (after all I was also a working single mother and that carries a certain amount of stress which can also exacerbate short-term memory problems), the fact that mine was low at the time led us both to believe it was contributing to my problems. Again, my past freaked me out.

B12 is no joke!

My grandfather, before he died, suffered from dementia. At first he was thought to have developed Alzheimer’s Disease – a disorder that can only be 100% confirmed after death. As it turns out, he did not have Alzheimer’s Disease, but a very severe b12 deficiency. So hearing that I was low kind of scared me straight.

So what did I do? Well, several things. First, I asked if I could switch to a more regular regimen of taking b12. My doctor told me that I could switch to a daily sublingual tablet (one that melts under the tongue) instead of doing the monthly shot. (IMPORTANT: When figuring out what’s best for you, ALWAYS talk to your own doctor. My method and your method may not be the same!)

I also took advantage of an app called “My Med Schedule” to remind me to take ALL my vitamins, not just b12. It was easy to set up and I get daily reminders for all my vitamin doses. I still am not perfect about vitamins all the time but at least the reminder is there and persistent.

Lastly, I had to accept the fact that my short term memory problems might not go away, so I had to work with them and not against them. So I put my bottle of b12 tablets next to my toothbrush. I brush my teeth every day. When I brush my teeth, I see the bottle and I take my b12. I am the same way now with most things I want to remember. Put something I don’t want to forget next to something I can’t forget. I put my work ID next to my house keys, and my car keys are attached to my house keys, etc.

The Bottom Line

I share this with you all to encourage you to do whatever YOU need to do to stick to your vitamin regimen. In my case it vitamin B12 was low, but you can have many different kinds of deficiencies and they can cause many different kinds of problems. Here are a few things to think about:

·       Vitamin deficiencies can take a while to show up in lab work. I get a lot of folks who are a year or so post-op who tout their good lab numbers despite not being vitamin compliant. Remember your body usually has a store of vitamins it can draw on when deficient. Unfortunately that means that in some cases when your lab work comes back with a deficiency the stuff has actually hit the fan.

·       Some deficiencies can cause permanent damage. B12 deficiency is one of them. If you have severe memory loss, nerve damage, etc. as a result of this deficiency it can be irreparable and sometimes the best your medical team can do is help you manage.

·       WLS patients have DIED because of vitamin deficiencies. I don’t say that to upset you but to let you know this IS important. Failing to take your vitamins doesn’t have the same immediate negative effects as, say, eating sugar and dumping but it can be so much more harmful!

So I hope sharing my story has inspired you all, not only to take this week’s #BFHolidayChallenge, but to figure out a good, convenient and, most of all, sustainable system for taking your vitamins. Because you have to do it – for the rest of your life.

If you're unsure what vitamins you should take, here are the American Society of Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery guidelines for:

• RNY
• Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy
• Lap-Band
• Duodenal Switch

If you've not had a conversation with your surgical practice about vitamins, make sure you talk about it the next time you are seen!

And if you have any questions about my story, leave them in the comments below. I’m happy to answer.

Nik's Peanut Stew

Don't ask me why, but I'm always hesitant to share recipes that use specialty ingredients. I guess I want you guys all to have fair access to the food I make, but I think my egalitarian attitude has prevented far too many recipes from going on this blog.

Well, the buck stops here!

I was poking around on Pinterest and found this recipe for West African peanut stew. I was searching on behalf of La Petite Diva (my youngest daughter) because she has been vegetarian for about a year now and so I figure she's committed enough for me to start thinking outside the box (she's my culinarily adventurous child).

So when I went to make it I thought I had all the ingredients but I didn't. And then in thinking about modifications, the inevitable happened. I started thinking "I wonder if this would be good if I added..." Yeah...I started playing with my food!

The result is REALLY yummy. The kid liked it. I liked it. Even though it's got peanut butter, that's not the dominant flavor here. It is noteworthy that this dish can be easily made with chicken (and if you've ever had Thai-style chicken skewers you can relate to the flavor of peanuts and chicken together) to bump up the protein. Just use my meat marinating technique to ensure tender chicken, grill it up and then add it into the recipe where I indicate below!

Nik's Peanut Stew
(Makes about 1 post-op + 3-5 "non-op" servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 1 onion diced (I used a regular yellow onion)
• 3 tomatoes diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can of diced carrots, drained
• 1 tsp. of ground ginger
• 1 tsp. garam masala
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. tumeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 2 c. water.
• 1 c. creamy peanut butter (you can use chunky if you like the texture)
• 4 oz. tomato paste
• 1/4 c. hot sauce (I agree with the source recipe...Sriracha is best!)
• 2 cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
• 1 bag (about 3 c.) baby spinach

Directions:

Set a soup pot over medium heat and allow it to get hot. Add olive oil, onions tomatoes and garlic. Sautee 2-3 minutes.

Add peas and carrots along, spices and water, stir, and drop your heat down to low. Cover the pot and allow the mixture to come to a boil.

In a mixing bowl, combine peanut butter with tomato paste (I do this with a whisk but a regular mixing spoon works too) until thoroughly combined. Ladle some of the veggie mixture into the bowl and use it to thin out the mixture before adding it all back into the pot.

Stir well then add the hot sauce. (My advice is to add it 2 tablespoons at a time until you reach a flavor you like. I like spicy food so I just went for it!)

Finally add the garbanzo beans and baby spinach and stir. (NOTE: If you are using cooked chicken meat, add it at this point!) Cover the pot and allow it to simmer on medium-low for 25-30 minutes (just to let the flavors love on one another).

I served La Petite Diva hers over brown rice and mine over cauliflower rice. I like this! It's tart, creamy and savory all at the same time. I love "eating outside the box!"

Here are some outtake pictures:

Nik's Roasted Red Pepper Puree Soup

Show here with two Parmesan crisps. To make, simply bake small heaps of Parmesan cheese in a 350 degree oven until they harden, about 12 minutes.

I like this soup. A LOT.

What I like best about it is its versatility. For newer post-ops this soup is quick, comforting and gives you something that is not sweet. For longer-term folks this is a great base to a bajillion other things!

Let’s get right to the recipe. This is a “semi-homemade” sort of deal. The recipe resulted from an overage of roasted red pepper bruschetta topping I made for a baby shower. So I decided to make it into a soup.

I’ll let you know both the semi-homemade and the for-real homemade versions of this. Here we go!

Nik's Roasted Red Pepper Puree Soup

• 1 medium yellow onion quartered
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• Any other random veggies you have hanging out (the above had zucchini, yellow squash, spinach and a bit of eggplant I had hanging out in the fridge)
• Non-stick cooking spray
• 2 (12 oz.) jars of roasted red peppers, preferably in oil (you can get any kind you like – in my store I saw it with garlic and one that was spicy. I chose the spicy one) Here's what they look like BUT don't buy online, get it from the grocery store!
• 1 small can of sliced black olives
• 1/2 c. water
• ½ c. fat-free half and half or milk
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the quartered onion, garlic cloves and any veggies you use (except spinach or other greens). Spray them generously with non-stick cooking spray and roast for about 20 minutes or until onions begin to caramelize (brown). Roast the vegetables before proceeding to the next step.

In a colander, drain jarred red peppers of the excess oil but do not rinse (if you buy peppers packed in water, you'll probably want to use a little oil - a teaspoon or so - in the next step).

Spray a small pot with non-stick cooking spray and allow it get hot. Place red peppers in the pot, along with any leafy greens (like spinach), olives, your roasted veggies and spices. If the mixture lacks moisture (there should be a little bit of liquid in there) add some water. After stirring, add your milk or half and half.

Bring the mixture to a boil and then drop the heat to low and simmer about 20 minutes. Add half and half. Then, using an immersion blender OR working in batches with a regular blender, puree the soup. Allow it to simmer an additional 10 minutes.

TO MAKE COMPLETELY HOMEMADE: When you roast the rest of your veggies, roast about 5 or 6 red peppers as well. When the peppers are done roasting you’ll need to let them cool so you can remove their skins. Because you are pureeing the soup you don’t need to slice them unless you want to. Instead of using non-stick in the pot with your veggies after roasting, heat 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil then add the veggies in to cook along with any water you use. That’s it!

So you can eat this soup straight up but it’s a bit rich. I didn’t take pics of all the ways I used mine (I had a big batch) but here are some things I did:

• For my vegetarian daughter I tossed some spinach/cheese ravioli and that became her dinner one night
• I added some jumbo shrimp and ate some over zoodles (noodles made with zucchini using a vegetable spiralizer)

One day for a quick lunch I combined some leftover cheesy mashed cauliflower with the soup and a few left over mini-crab cakes (from an event I attended) and made a super yummy lunch (picture below)

In my humble opinion this soup would also go very well with frying cheese. Never heard of it? It’s a cheese that’s sold in some supermarkets (Trader Joe’s sells it as do a lot of ethnic supermarkets). It’s a mild, buttery cheese that comes in big blocks. When you throw it in a pan, it crisps on the outside and gets soft on the inside just like…a grilled cheese sandwich! I think a hunk of frying cheese would go great with this as a dipper.

Any way you decide to have it, though, it’s gonna be GOOD!

#PWMF Recipe Contest Snack Winner: Kimberly's Espresso Protein Balls



We’ve come to the final recipe winner, so I suppose I should say something about when the free contest recipe e-book will come out, eh?

Setting an exact date is tricky, because as soon as I do the universe begins to work against it. That said, I will try my very best to have the e-book done by Sunday, November 9. IMPORTANT: Once the 2014 e-book goes up, I’m taking the 2013 e-book down for a while (don’t call me a meanie, my shopping cart software only lets me have so many files without charging me up the wazoo!), so use this link to download your FREE copy before it goes POOF!

Ok! Now that we’re done housekeeping, let’s talk snacks. I like snacks. Do you like snacks? Or maybe you’re a bit afraid of snacks. Understandable. There is a very fuzzy line between a snack and grazing and most of us just don’t want to take the chance. But a good snack can help you get needed calories and nutrients and keep your blood sugar stable, especially in longer stretches between meals (like the dreaded “lunch to dinner” stretch).

That’s why I included a snack category in this year’s contest. And here’s your winning entry!

Kimberly’s Chocolate Espresso Balls
(inspired by the Protein Power Ball recipe on the Bariatric Foodie site)

Ingredients:

• 1 c crushed Cracklin Oat Bran cereal (or high-fiber cereal of your choice)*
• 1/3 c. Chocolate PB2 (Nik Note: In the absence of peanut flour ¼ c. natural peanut butter + 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder would do but note that raises the calorie count significantly – and no I’m still not telling you the calories, sorry!)
• 3 scoops of Click protein mix (any flavor; I usually do 2 scoops Decaf Mocha and 1 scoop Vanilla)
• 2 packets no-calorie sweetener
• 1/2 c. skim milk
• Optional: 2 tbsp. sugar free chocolate chips

Directions:

Put cereal, PB2 and Click into a mixing bowl and stir well.

Add Splenda. Stir well.

Add milk 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing after each. Stop adding milk when consistency is a moist dough, not sticky.

Stir in chocolate chips, if using.

Check the consistency of the mixture, by rolling a small amount into a ball. It should easily form a ball, but be dry enough it doesn't stick to your hands. If the mixture is too sticky, put it in the refridgeerator for 30 minutes. The cereal will soak up the excess moisture and make it easier to roll
Roll dough into balls, using rounded tablespoon-full will give you about 24 balls.

Place balls into airtight container and store in fridge. Note: the longer they are stored, the softer the cereal will become. They are best within the first 2-3 days)

Judge Maryann said she liked the recipe because it produced a snack that was snack-sized that is tasty and adds protein to her day! Here's Maryann's picture of the Espresso Protein Balls.

#PWMF Recipe Contest Dessert Winner: Sue's Pumpkin Cheesecake



 

Y’all thought I forgot about the rest of the “Play With My Food” recipe contest winners, didn’t you?

NOPE! We’ve got two more Foodies to feature.

First up, Sue! She submitted a yummy WLS-friendly dessert recipe that judge Denise thought was out of sight!

Sue’s Pumpkin Cheesecake

 Here is Sue's entry photo:

Ingredients:

• 1 -8oz pkg Greek Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 scoop vanilla or unflavored protein powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4c. + 2Tbs Truvia baking blend
• 1 small can packed pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a bowl beat cream cheese until smooth and add in protein powder, vanilla and 1/2 of the Truvia. 

Mix well.  Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each one. 

Add pumpkin, remaining Truvia and spice.  Mix well.

Pour into a sprayed glass pie plate.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 

Nik Notes:

 I have extensive cheesecake experience so you KNOW I have to put in my three cents!

• Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know of my quest for a cheesecake free of cracks! For some of you, cracks are no problem so long as it's yummy! And sometimes (especially if you're having guests) presentation is more important. If you’d like to lessen the likelihood of cracks, it’s a simple thing to do. Just put an oven-safe pot of HOT water into the oven when you put your cheesecake mixture in there. The cheesecake doesn’t need to sit IN the water, you can put the water on the same or another rack. The steam helps it cook gently.
• I also have always cooked cheesecakes at 325 for 35 minutes, turned the oven off, and left it open a crack to finish cooking as the oven cools down. Why? Because Alton Brown told me to!
• Lastly, if you have a springform pan those make cheesecake extraction a snap! Just make sure to line the bottom with parchment paper so you can easily get it off the pan.

Here’s what Denise said about Sue’s cheesecake!

"The texture was moist and smooth. Flavor was good. Kid liked it. Passed all tests. Lol. Not as dense as classic cheesecake, but I didn't expect it to be. Easy, protein enhanced, and yummy."

The very first picture in this post is a slice of the cheesecake Denise made according to Sue's recipe. Here's a picture of the entire cheesecake:

#PWMF Recipe Contest Dinner Winner: Erin's Creamy Chicken Fajita Soup

 

 

(Heh...Dinner Winner...ok...moving along...)

 

Dinner! I don’t know about you but it’s always been a challenging meal for me.

I think it’s the finality of it all. Like dinner. It means you’re, like, done. With food. For the rest of the day. (In my head.)

My issues aside, a good, WLS-friendly dinner the entire family can eat is worth its weight in gold. It means you don’t have to play short-order cook to your family and you can all sit down and eat the same thing at the same time (theoretically). That’s important.

Hillery, our dinner judge, is a working girl. She manages to pack a lot into her day and now she’s having a baby! So she was looking for a good dinner that doesn’t take long to make, that both she and her hubby can enjoy.

Here’s her pick.

Erin’s Creamy ​Chicken Fajita Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 C. boneless, skinless chicken breasts , shredded
• 1 whole onion, diced
• 1 (28 Oz. Size) Can Stewed Tomatoes
• 2 (14.5 Oz. Size) Cans Great Northern Beans
• 2 (14.5 Oz. Size) Cans of Sweet Corn
• 2 (14.5 Oz. Size) Diced Carrots
• 8 C. Low-Sodium, Fat-Free Chicken Broth
• 8 Oz. Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1 Package of Fajita Seasoning
• Garlic Powder. Salt, Pepper to taste

Add chicken breasts to slow cooker. Add enough water to cover meat and cook on low for 6 hours. Take cooked chicken out, once cool enough shred meat. Set chicken aside.

Remaining liquid can be added with chicken broth.

Drain and rinse beans, carrots and sweet corn, set aside.

In stockpot, add diced onions and saute on low for 1-2 minutes. Add chicken broth, remaining liquid and greek yogurt. Bring to a boil and stirring constantly until smooth.

Add to stock pot, whole can of stewed tomatoes, package of fajita seasoning, beans, carrots, sweet corn and chicken.

Reduce heat, add garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Note: If you have picky eaters at home, I puree my beans and tomatoes prior to adding.

Additional add ins depending on tastes:

• Hot Sauce
• Diced Jalapenos
• Diced Green Chilis
• Use 1 can of Black Beans, 1 can Great Northern Beans
• Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese for topping

Unfortunately, Hillery had a family emergency (NOT the baby!) that has prevented her from snapping a pic of Erin's dish, but she assures you all that she loved it and will snap a pic and send it in very soon. I'll update when I get it.

 

Congrats, Erin! Keep playing with your food!

 

#PWMF2014 Recipe Contest Lunch Winner: Margaret's Avocado Egg Salad

(Dear Margaret: This is by far one of the BEST food pictures I've ever been sent!)

The lunch judge – Pam T. – is not easy to please.

We’ve been friends forever and two more days. You all know her without knowing her, especially if you’ve ever bought a Bariatric Foodiebook – she designed all the covers!

And as hard as she works on her design stuff and as meticulous as she is with it, she is a self-professed “lazy cook.” I can’t get her to try any of my recipes that involve more than a few ingredients or a few steps. When she does try my recipes, she always plays with it to reduce the amount of ingredients and steps! 

So I was especially curious to see which lunch recipe she chose as the winner. Pam would like you to know it was not an easy decision. Each judge had to prepare the recipe(s) they were considering for the win. I believe Pam tried three.

But in the end, here is the winner!

Margaret’s Avocado Egg Salad

• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 1 large avocado
• 1 tbsp dill pickle relish
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp onion powder or 2 tbsp minced onion
• Paprika (optional)

Directions:

Slice hard boiled eggs and remove the yolk.

Mix the yolk with relish, mayo, salt, pepper and onion (just as if you were making deviled eggs).

Chop the egg white, cut the avocado into bite size piece and add to the eggs.

Pour the mayonnaise mixture over top, gently mix to coat everything.

Spoon on a lettuce leaf and sprinkle with paprika. Serve.

Here's what Pam had to say about what makes this a winning recipe:

"It's egg salad, with a twist! I love that this is as easy to make as normal egg salad, but the addition of avocado takes this egg salad to the next level. I also loved that this is a low-carb option by using lettuce leaves as the vehicle for the salad rather than bread."

So there you have it. Simple. Nutritious. Good! Here's Pam's photo of Margaret's recipe:



 

#PWMF2014 Recipe Contest Breakfast Winner: Vicky's Strapatsada

I’m still working on the free recipe e-book for this year’s “Play With My Food” recipe contest, but I thought in the meantime I’d showcase the winning recipes. So check back this week as I post each of the five winning recipes in the following categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert.

First up, breakfast!

The winner of the breakfast category also has the honor of having submitted a recipe I had never, ever, EVER heard of in my life. But it’s kinda fun to say. Stapatsada!

This is a yummy breakfast recipe from Greece, where Vicky lives. (How awesome is it that we have Foodies, everywhere?)

Vicky’s Strapatsada

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoonful of olive oil
• 1/2 tomato finely chopped
• 1/2 green pepper finely chopped
• 50 gr feta cheese (1/4 c. for us non-metric using Americans!)
• Pepper, to taste

In a non-stick frying pan heat the olive oil with the green pepper until soft (2-3 minutes). (Nik-note: I’d set a pan over medium heat, allow it to get hot [2-ish minutes] then add olive oil.)

Add the tomato and let simmer for about 5 minutes.

Beat the egg and add to pan along with the feta cheese crumbled.

Cook for another 3 minutes. Add pepper to taste (no need to add salt as feta is quite salty), turn off heat and let stand for another 5 minutes. It will continue to cook.

Serve hot.

Here’s what the Breakfast Foodie-Judge had to say about why this was a winning recipe:

This recipe was super flavorful, the simmered tomatoes gave this dish a fantastic rustic flavor...and while I would have probably added a tiny bit of salt (not recommended in the recipe) they flavors were fabulous together. I also chose this recipe because 90% of the time when I choose to prepare an actual breakfast and not a breakfast drink, I am the only person who will eat said breakfast.

This recipe had all the flavors I love, and was a perfect portion for me. I started out with half of the finished portion (as the recipe said it was filling) but I found that the full portion with a couple slices of tomato was just the right size for me. No leftovers!

Before the judges could make a final decision on a winning recipe, they had to prepare the dish they were considering. Here’s Shannon’s Strapatsada.



Congratulations to Vicky, who will win a $50 Amazon gift card for her winning entry.

Nik's Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

So I had all this stuff I had to use up. Isn’t that how the best dishes are made?

The challenge: to use up ¾ of an eggplant I had along with an entire roasted spaghetti squash. To be fair, I didn’t really have a great plan for either when I bought them. They both just looked so gorgeous, sitting there in the farmers market just waiting for me to buy them. I’m a sucker for a plump piece of produce, ya know?

Anyway, since neither eggplant nor spaghetti squash are on the elder daughters “approved veggies” list, I knew this dish would be completely vegetarian so that the younger daughter could eat it.

Thinking about it, the kid is pretty easy to please. Bless her, she loves anything I cook for her. But I kept having Eggplant Parmesan on the brain. I wondered if the concept could translate into a casserole.

I call this “casserolizing” – the art of taking something that has never been a casserole…and making a casserole out of it. Here’s how this one goes down.

Nik’s Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant, cubed (you can remove the skin if you don’t like it.)
• 1 small onion, cut into slivers
• 1 green pepper, cut any way you like it (I diced mine)
• The yield of one spaghetti squash (if you’re not sure how to cook it, click here)
• ½ c. diced tomatoes (I used fresh you can also used diced)
• Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, to taste
• 1 jar of light Alfredo sauce (which is what I used)
• 1 c. Italian-blend shredded cheese

ALTERNATIVE: I like the “Parm” part of Eggplant Parm best so that’s why I went with Alfredo sauce. If you are a purist, use a tomato-based sauce and top with cheese.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spray your eggplant, onions and green pepper down with non-stick, season them however you like (I use salt, pepper and Italian seasoning) and put it onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Roast it about 25 minutes or so.

In a bowl, toss the roasted veggies with the spaghetti squash and tomatoes. Again, add seasoning if you like it as this is the best way to get flavor in there.

Add whatever sauce you are using and toss that until thoroughly mixed in.

Transfer to an small casserole dish (I used an 8x8) and top with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and as brown as you like it.

This dish was a hit with the younger kid! I liked it too. The ONLY critique I have is that spaghetti squash is slightly sweet and it’s hard to play off of that. I usually allow myself to be a bit heavy handed with the salt for that reason. It didn’t make the dish bad, I just wish I had seasoned it better, which is why there are a few steps in the directions above so you can avoid that!

On Facebook I asked Foodies to vote for their favorite pic of the dish and the one at the top of the post is the one that is winning! Here are the others.

...I think I'm going to decide that, in general, close-up shots of casseroles generally are NOT a good thing! :)

 

#YWM2014 Lunch With the Experts Recap: Binge Eating

First, thank you for your patience in waiting for me to post this! And my apologies for the delay.

As it usually happens with me there was a bit of a challenge in writing this recap in that I lost my notes! I'm going from memory here but thankfully I have a good memory so let's get to it!

For background, this is a recap of a special "Lunch With the Experts" session that was offered as a part of the Obesity Action Coalition's "Your Weight Matters" Convention which was held in Orlando, FL September 25 - 28, 2014.

About the Expert

Michelle May, MD is the author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle (Am I Hungry? Publishing, 2011). In this book, she lays out what she calls The Mindful Eating Cycle, which is a framework that shows how any person - no matter what size they are - approaches eating. She uses this framework to help people understand not only what they eat, but why they eat, especially when they are not physically hungry.

Some Binge Eating Resources

The notes I lost had a lot of binge eating resources but I went through and Googled quite a few for you guys. Here are some:

• BingeEatingDisorder.com - This site is mainly for health professionals but gives some good statistics about the prevalance of binge eating in the United States.
• Did you know Binge Eating Disorder is now contained in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual V (which is a manual that helps define psychological disorders so that they can be effectively treated? Click that link to read more, although I'm going to outline the definition a bit below.
• There is also a Binge Eating Disorder Association dedicated to providing accurate information about binge eating and advocating against binge eating and obesity bias. 

So what is Binge Eating?

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V (DSM-V), a person with Binge Eating Disorder may:

• have recurring episodes of eating significantly more food in a short period of time than most people would eat under similar circumstances
• feel a lack of control over how much they eat
• eat quickly and even when not hungry
• have feelings of embarassment, shame or guilt about what/how much they eat, such that they eat alone to hide the behavior

Binge Eating disorder affects nearly 3 million adults in the U.S. and it affects twice as many women as men. (BingeEatingDisorder.com)

That means that if you are a binge eater, you are not alone. Far from it!

What to do if you think you are a Binge Eater

The thing Dr. May stressed again and again is that this is a disorder. Many people, because they feel guilt and shame about binge eating, try to handle the problem themselves. That rarely works. She strongly suggested going to see a licensed therapist and especially one who specializes in binge eating disorder.

Dr. May also stressed (as did several practitioners at the convention) that it's not so much about what you eat, but why you eat that's at the root of most people's problems with both binge eating disorder and obesity. That's not to say we shouldn't focus on eating healthfully but one point she made struck me as particularly important (so much so that I'm going to bold and underline it).

Even if you have limited yourself to bingeing on healthier options, let's be clear: you are still taking in more food than your body  needs or is asking for.

That's important to note. Many of us think we are doing less harm by choosing "healthier" binge options. In reality, while the substitution is probably more nutritious than a less healthy food we can choose, it is not necessarily healthier from a mental health perspective.

So again, if you think you may be a binge eater:

• Consider the DSM V guidelines and be honest with yourself. Do they apply to you?
• Seek professional help from a licensed therapist who has experience treating people with binge eating disorder. If you don't know of one you can ask your primary care physician OR your bariatric practice.
• Take heart. As stated above, if you binge eat you are not alone. There are many people coping with this problem and there are communities to which you can turn for support. But you have to take that first step!

Follow Dr. May for more resources

I highly recommend following Dr. May online for more information and resources. Here's how you can do that.

• If you'd like to check out Dr. May in general, her website is: www.AmIHungry.com.
• Her Twitter handle is @EatWhatYouLove
• Look for her on Facebook at the "Am I Hungry?" page
• Check out her book, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle. I bought the book (along with a companion book specifically on binge eating and the companion workbook). As I go through it I'll share any insights I learn!

And for those of you still reading, I took many pictures during Dr. May's general education presentation at the conference, which I've housed (along with all the other photos of the fun I had while at the convention) in this Flickr Album. Enjoy!

Ten-Minute Meal: Nik & Steak & Cheese Zoodles

This "as it happened" lunch is brought to you by...Nik! :) Seriously though...submitting a recipe for the contest is as easy as snapping a pic of one of your meals!

 



Hey friends! Are you getting together your entries for the 2^ndannual Bariatric Foodie “Play With MY Food” recipe contest? (If not you should be. For simply sharing the recipe and a pic of one of your meals you could win a $50 Amazon gift card!)

If you need some inspiration, here’s a really quick and easy dish I made myself THIS very morning for lunch that is the perfect kind of recipe (and an example of what I mean by a decent food picture – this was taken with my phone).

Nik’s Steak & Cheese Zoodles

Ingredients:

• 3-ish oz. leftover cooked steak or roast beef (NOTE: You don’t HAVE to use beef. If you’ve got leftover chicken make it chicken and cheese…seafood, make it seafood and cheese. You get where I’m going with this right?)
• 1 oz. onion slivers
• Zoodles (zucchini noodles I made using my spiral vegetable cutter)
• Whatever random quick-cooking veggies you wanna throw in there (I had spinach so I used that)
• Salt, pepper, garlic (or garlic powder)
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Spray a skillet with non-stick set it over medium heat and let it get hot. Throw the steak and onions on there and get them cooking.

Meanwhile you can be cutting your zoodles. (It’s a quick, easy and, dare I say, fun process!)

Add zoodles to the pan and toss it around with the steak and onions. Let those go about a minute before adding the other veggies you intend to use. Add spices.

Once everything is tender (it only takes 3-ish minutes) throw in the Laughing Cow Light wedge (NOTE: you may want to dice it up. They don’t exactly “melt” easily). Toss throughout (I use tongs) allowing the temperature of the food to soften the cheese.

When ready to eat, top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy! These tasted like a steak & cheese sub - without the bread! And it literally took me 10 minutes to make.

So if you were hesitating to enter the contest because you thought you needed a "fancy" dish - don't! In fact most of the judges WANT simple and good recipes. So get yours together and submit by September 30 for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card! Plus you'll be helping to fill the contest e-book that will be available to everyone for FREE download.

Keep playing with your food!