The Bariatric Foodie Survival Guide to BD's Mongolian Grill



For my long-time readers (God bless you) this is the new name for what was formerly “Pouch Party Peeks.”

So…BD’s Mongolian Grill. If you are fortunate to live in a state where this restaurant exists, you are a very, very lucky person.

This place was made for post-op family reunification.

How so? Wait…let me not get ahead of myself.

So what the heck is this place? It’s a raw buffet. Yep, you read right. It’s a raw buffet.

Now before you go “Ewwwwww!” (and I know you’re doing it, I heard you) you don’t eat the food raw. It is just in the buffet raw. Here’s the concept. It’s simple, yet genius.

You take a bowl. You fill it with whatever you want. And the choices are plentiful. There’s all types of seafood, chicken, beef, tofu, whatever you want. There’s veggies beyond any stretch of the imagination. Then you add your sauce. They give suggestions based on what you might like but have everything from Hoisin to black bean sauce and everything in between (seriously…there were like 30 sauces there. I nearly passed out).

Then you take it up to the grill and ask the grill guy (Grill master? Seems appropriate here) to grill it up for you. They grill it to perfection, give it back to you and all God's children are happy. Easy, right?

My wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL friend Pam (there…I fulfilled the three “wonderful’s” contractual obligation…) took me there for the first time when I visited her in Michigan a few weeks ago. I found the staff very friendly and willing to explain the whole concept to me. The grill masters were even funnier. One tried his best to do a food trick for us, but ended up sacrificing one of Pam’s shrimp to the food gods (she was NOT amused).

So I said above this place is great for post-op family reunification. What’d I mean by that? Well, most of you have experienced, at some point in your journey, that sitting together, as a family, eating a cohesive and unified meal can be difficult. You’re either eating something completely different or a heavily modified version of what you served the rest of them. And you feel like you’re finished before them and their plates are so much bigger and filled up than yours.

The one striking thing to me about BD’s is this is a place where both non-ops and post-ops can get DOWN. There are two separate prices: one for just one trip through the buffet and another for people who plan to return. But get this: if you do the one bowl option you’re allowed to wrap your leftovers. (The person who invented this must have known a post-op. I’m sure of it.)

Pam also taught me a good strategy. I wish I’d taken a picture of it but I was too entranced by scallops and peanut sauce. You take your little bowl up to the buffet and load it UP. She has this technique whereby she stands up her sugar snap peas against the side of her bowl, along with any other vegetables that will stand upright, and fill in the proteins in the middle to get more in her bowl.

Now newbies are probably going, “but that’s too much!” Ah…but keep in mind you can take home what you don’t eat because you, my little grasshopper, have chosen the one bowl option.

I, on the other hand, did the typical post-op thing and went lean and ate my entire bowl there at the restaurant. Then I proceeded to watch, with jealousy as Pam had yummy leftovers for the next two days. Not fun. Go with her plan, not mine.

The other good thing about BD’s is if you like Asian food but don’t want the rice, they are fine with not giving you rice. My beloved P.F. Changs…much as I adore them…it takes an act of God to get them to not give me rice. I don’t eat it. But I don’t want it on the table either, reminding me of starving children in Africa.

Anyhoo…you might ask what I got. That would be a good question. I got a medley of chicken, andouille sausage (sp?), shrimp, scallops and too many veggies to remember them all. For my sauce I combined red chili sauce (very spicy) with peanut sauce (because you all KNOW me).

The verdict? Delicioso! The stuff came grilled just the way I like it, with the smoky aroma and that slight char on it that I love.

To be honest, that was one of the best damn meals I ever had.

So check out their locations and, if there’s one near you, head on over. And tell them Nik sent you! (Actually don’t. They probably have no clue who I am)

The Bariatric Foodie Survival Guide to Olive Garden



Olive Garden. When you’re here, your family, right?

Well…if your family consists of robust eaters and is headed by a mother who CONSTANTLY thinks you’re too thin (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) and therefore insists on plying you with pasta, butter, olive oil and breadsticks…yes…that is very, very true.

For the rest of us, we kinda feel like that odd duck in the family who never quite fits in and thus fakes a cold to get out of family gatherings.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! You too can be part of the family at Olive Garden even after weight loss surgery and I’m going to show you how. For a downloadable version of this restaurant guide click here. For Olive Garden’s complete nutrition information, click here.

The Basics

In the interest of full disclosure I should say I’m not the biggest Olive Garden fan. Sure, I love Italian food as much as the next person, but I am starting to get annoyed with restaurants that continue to insist on ostracizing their healthy choices. I don’t understand why there has to be a special “menu insert” or a special section of the menu with healthier options. Yes, I know for some of us this makes them easier to find, but it also outs us as “away from the norm…” and I don’t like that. If healthy choices were integrated into a menu that has nutrition information for ALL its choices (and maybe some symbol that indicates it is low-fat, carb, etc.) I think I’d feel better about the whole thing.

My other beef with Olive Garden, newly developed from researching this piece, is that they give every piece of nutritional information on a food EXCEPT the protein count. Argh! In my notes below, I attempt to guestimate the protein count on my suggestions, but please be aware that those proposed numbers are NOT from the Olive Garden website. K?

What to Avoid
This is a good place to start because there are a few pitfalls just in how Olive Garden handles serving you food. In the world of non-ops, these same things are probably good, can save them calories and money. For us? Not so much.

So let’s talk about unlimited salad and breadsticks.

I heart breadsticks with the passion of a thousand infernos. BELIEVE ME when I say it pains me to say this but…if I were you, I’d skip them. If you’re going with a date who is also health conscious you can simply ask not to have breadsticks. If you are with a big group, make sure you push that bread basket as far away from your physical person as possible. They fill you up with carbs and fat and don’t leave much room for protein. Plus, if you’re like me, they make your tummy hurt.

The salad is a trickier thing. Cuz it’s salad, right? I won’t say avoid the salad. It provides some good veggies, some crunch and it’s just plain yummy. BUT if you know you have a small pouch capacity and your enjoyment of salad would impede getting your necessary protein, I’d say you might want to either minimize your salad intake OR wait until your food comes to get any salad so you can get your protein in before munching down.

DO NOT…and I do mean DO NOT attempt to do an “all you can eat salad” situation. There is no such thing as all you can eat for most post-ops. It shouldn’t be a school of thought to which you subscribe. Not now. Not ever. Period.

Good Menu Choices

So let’s get into the “meat” of what’s available, shall we? I’m organizing my suggestions somewhat around eating phase.

If you are in the full liquids phase…

Olive Garden has several soup choices that would work. Their minestrone is both tasty and very reasonable at 100 calories. My sense from reading the ingredients is that it is not terribly protein heavy but at this stage of eating, there is little on the menu that will give you the protein that you’d ordinarily look for in a serving of food. One warning. Since the minestrone has veggies and since you are new out, it will likely fill you up…for only 100 calories. At this stage in the game, that’s not necessarily a good thing so I personally would go for something that is a bit more splurg-y, like…

The chicken and gnocchi soup. It is 250 calories. While the protein content on soup is hard to measure, I will say that at this point, you should probably pick out the gnocchi which would lower the caloric content a little.

For you chicken eaters….

There are actually a few really good choices on the “Garden Fare” menu (grrrr….).

The Venetian Apricot Chicken sounds good. I’ve never tasted it so I had to do some consult with my good friend who is a self-proclaimed Olive Garden officianado. She claims to have tried EVERYTHING on the menu. She endorses this dish. I don’t know from their stats how much sugar is in the dish though. I know there is fruit but sometimes chefs add sugar to bump up the fruit factor. Ask your server to find out for you. Otherwise, this dish is served in lunch (280 calories) or dinner (380 calories) portions. From the serving size I’d guess the total dish probably has somewhere around 25-30g of protein in the lunch portion, 30-40g in the dinner portion.

The Grilled Chicken Spiedini also seems a good choice. It’s skewered chicken marinated in Italian herbs and olive oil (I assume extra virgin) with grilled vegetables. The dish is 420 calories and, I’d guess about 30g of protein total. This also seems to be the dish with the lowest amount of sodium at 990 mg. Notice that both of these dishes come WITHOUT pasta. That’s important. Many of us just can’t handle pasta. It’s heavy and doesn’t really benefit us that much.

For the seafood lover in you…

The Seafood Brodetto is what I get on the rare occasion that I let myself be talked into going to Olive Garden. I actually like it a lot. It has 480 calories for the entire serving and is made of scallops, shrimp and tilapia in a spinach and mushroom white wine sauce with marinara-saffron broth. That all is from the website. I have no conception of marinara saffron broth nor do I care. All I know is it is good and every time I’ve gotten it, all the proteins are fairly tender. I’ve never had an “episode” with this dish. And that’s saying something as my pouch is as big a diva as my daughters are.

There is also a very nice looking herb grilled salmon that clocks in at 510 calories, 760mg sodium and, I’d guess, about 30g protein from the portion they show on the website.

My mom loves the mussels at Olive Garden. They are 180 calories. I am not sure on the protein on them, but thought they were worth noting.

Beef and pork people…

I poured over the menu looking for a lower calorie choice. Sigh…The lowest calorie thing I found was the Beef Toscano. For the dish it is 590 calories, but has 20g of fat and, get this, 1,460mg of sodium! (Keep in mind most of these dishes have a good bit of sodium. Drink a lot of water on the day you go to Olive Garden and stay the hell away from the scale the next day, k?) I don’t recommend anything with pork in it from Olive Garden. All the dishes pack a full days worth of calories and fat. Granted, you’ll only be able to eat a bit of it, but here’s the deal. To me, while restaurant food does provide more than one meal, if restaurant food is supposed to be a treat in moderation, I have a hard time seeing how eating it for the next six days accomplishes that. Your mileage may vary.

If you absolutely MUST have some pasta…

I will point out that the kid’s menu has a nifty little grilled chicken pasta with broccoli. It’s 310 calories and seems a reasonable portion. If you have a card from your surgeon’s office explaining your eating requirements, you might have to present it to order this dish for yourself.

Dessert…

Don’t do it. That is all.

Wait…no it’s not. Two reasons (besides the obligatory RNY warning about dumping syndrome). First, many post-ops can attest to the fact that dessert works differently after surgery. Dessert is not the end of a meal. It is a meal in and of itself. That being the case, I’d much rather you come home and make a nice low-cal dessert or even a yummy protein dessert than indulge in any of their offerings.

Beverages

They have the coffee, tea, diet soda, water combo. Yawn. They do have specialty espressos that come unflavored. That could be good, especially if your plan has a daily caffeine allowance. As always, I remind my RNY readers that your window for drinking is relatively short. Basically when you first sit down until your food comes, drink all you want. After you start eating, stop drinking!

So there you have it…the low-down on Olive Garden. I must admit there are a few more choices than I thought there were so maybe I’ll stop being so Olive Garden resistant. Maybe.

As a reminder, you can take this restaurant guide with you on the go, by clicking here. And check out these other Pouch Party Peeks:

• P.F. Chang's
• Trader Joe's
• Denny's
• Whole Foods
• Aldi

The Bariatric Foodie Survival Guide to P.F. Chang's

Disclaimer: Like all the Pouch Party™ Peeks, these opinions are my own. I am not compensated, by P.F. Chang’s or anyone else for the GLOWING (or glowering rather) review I am about to give. Also, you can download this guide as a PDF (to maybe take to the restaurant with you?) by clicking here.

If this trendy chain restaurant hasn’t reached your area yet, I would seriously consider phoning them and asking them why???

It’s one of my favorite post-op restaurant choices. Why? Well, first off, it’s called a “Chinese Bistro.” Now to the naked eye that doesn’t look significant at all, but a Chinese Bistro. A bistro is a French concept for a “small restaurant that traditionally serves bread and wine.” So for P.F. Changs, with their famous lettuce wraps, sleek plateware, dim environment (that makes you feel like you’re out to a romantic dinner even if you show up at noon) to call itself a bistro??? That, in and of itself, makes it awesome.

But the food…oh the food…that just takes it to another level. In this edition of “Pouch Party™ Peeks” we’re going to take a look at the food and see what’s worth checking out, what to leave alone and the many, many reasons you should check out P.F. Chang’s (if you haven’t already!).

The first thing I like about P.F. Chang’s is the servers. I’ve been there more times post-op than I can count (when I go out to eat, which is rarely, it is usually to P.F. Chang’s) and my servers have:

1. Always been polite and served me well although my meal rarely amounts to more than $10.
2. Never sweated me when I asked them NOT to serve me rice at all (and actually made sure it happened).
3. Never looked crossways when I sent a plate to be packed looking virtually untouched (although they did ask, just once, if everything was ok. When I assured them it was and that I had just gotten full, that’s where the inquiry ended).
4. Never pressured me to take water I did not want with my meal!

So that is always encouraging for us post-ops. Now, I don’t want you to think I’m just bragging on my local P.F. Chang’s. In addition to the four I have within 30 minutes driving distance, I’ve also visited them in New Jersey, New York, Chicago and Arizona. All with the same level of service.

Now let’s get to the menu. And by the way, you can find their full nutritional information by visiting their website.

Beverages

I highlight this first because when we first sit down to a table is our only opportunity to experience beverages. The turn around time on the food isn’t terribly long, so you sort of have to do the beverage thing, if you’re going to do the beverage thing, as soon as you get there.

This is where I think this restaurant shines. First off, they have more than just the normal “soda, wine, beer” triumvirate.

In fact, they have a selection of wonderful flavored decaf teas that come in a little, ancient looking ceramic pot with the cutest little 3 oz. teacups. Perfect for folks who need to sip slowly. I HIGHLY recommend the Sweet Ginger Peach Decaf. The smell is divine. The taste is much better. My server knows now to bring me lots of Splenda and that if he lets me savor the taste of the tea for a few extra moments before taking my order, he will be handsomely rewarded. You have to establish that kind of relationship with your server, you know…

Moving along, they also have very nice decaffeinated iced teas as well. So the point here is that you have choices that aren’t water or diet soda (both of which I find less than stellar choices frankly. Your mileage may vary.)

Starters/Small Plates



More and more restaurants are integrating heartier choices into their appetizer menu and calling them “small plates” menus. I think this is admirable so long as there are both healthy and indulgent choices. Personally, when I go to P.F. Chang’s I do one of two things food-wise. I either order a few things from the small plate menu (and share them usually) or I skip it and just order my entrée (without rice).

Here’s three solid choices on the small plate menu:

Lettuce Wraps

You CANNOT go to this restaurant and not try the lettuce wraps. I don’t care if you go for the chicken or the vegetarian, this savory appetizer is a MUST try! It comes with four Iceberg lettuce leaves and a delicious concoction of either chicken or tofu mixed with water chestnuts and some sauce I cannot figure out for the life of me or else I’d make it at home!

The amount needed to fill each lettuce cup (which, incidentally, is the amount I’d say it takes to make a person 4 months out or less completely full) is about 140 calories, 8g of protein. It’s a bit high on the sodium (650 mg) for the amount of food you are eating (especially if you put their special sauce on there…I’ll get to that in a minute) but so long as you aren’t eating there every day, I don’t see why you can’t indulge every now and again.

Seared Ahi Tuna

This is a slightly pan-seared sushi-grade tuna (which is code for: you can actually chew it successfully) and it is GOOD. It’s about 160 calories, 10g protein and comes with a sauce that adds about 50 calories to the deal if you want to try it.

Newbie Best Bet: The Wonton Soup

This soup has the most protein and the least sodium, just skip the wonton noodles. It only comes in bowl form, which I don’t like but if enough of us request a cup, who knows? It might happen! It’s 92 calories, 7g of protein for each 7 oz serving, but the bowl is 32 oz. So for now, here’s my advice. Get the soup, ask for a cup sized bowl. Ladle yourself out what you can eat and go to town!

BONUS: Sensible Splurge: Spring Rolls

With 156 calories, 17g of carbs and 2g of fiber, if you want a splurge, I’d highly recommend this one. Beware if you’re newer out. Spring rolls are filled with steamed veggies that might not be kind to your system.

Entrees

Like I said above, I have a tendency to either order a few of the starters or just my entrée and, again, I request it without rice. The nice thing about “Chang’s” is that they don’t give you mega-portions. Well…that comes with a caveat. To post-ops, especially newbies, most anything seems like a mega-portion. But in the “real world” the portions at this restaurant are quite healthy.

Here’s a three solid choices (and one splurge) from the entrees:

Cantonese Shrimp

I’ve only gotten this once and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. This dish is a shrimp dish that is served in a light garlic sauce. Their plate is 2 servings, each of which have 200 calories and 21g of protein!

Moo Goo Gai Pan

Chicken, shrimp, mushrooms and veggies. How can you go wrong? The only thing I find wrong with their chicken selections is that most of them have sneaky sugar sources in the sauces, but this is a fairly safe choice. A plate is 3 servings, each of which are 247 calories, 18g protein. I personally go for the Dali Chicken, myself, which is relatively low-cal but also THE spiciest dish on the menu. So…most of you…don’t get that…

Vegetarian Choices

This is where the menu gets a little dicey. The steamed Buddha’s feast, a concoction of veggies in a savory sauce, is lowest in calories (220 to be precise, with 14g of protein). but has an ASTRONOMICAL amount of sodium in it. There isn’t enough water in the world to soak up that much sodium. The coconut curry veggies are the highest in protein (22g) but also the highest in calories per serving (520). My advice for vegetarians: go for the lettuce wraps on the small plate menu. In this scenario, it’s hard to win.

BONUS: Sensible Splurge

I would actually label those Coconut Curry Vegetables as a sensible splurge. They are quite delicious: smooth, creamy curry sauce over veggies. It’s so decadent you won’t miss the rice at all.

Accoutrements



This, of course, is a fancy word for “add-ons.” Since they can call themselves a bistro, I can call their add-ons “accoutrements.” That’s just how it goes!

• Rice: I usually skip it but it’s noteworthy that they offer whole grain, brown rice and that you don’t have to special request it. They ask you which kind you want when you order.
• Sauce: If you tell the server it’s your first time there, they will show you the deal with the sauces. If not, it’s sort of like the seven seashells set up in the movie “Demolition Man.” You feel like you’re the only one that doesn’t get it. Main point here: moderation! Lots of sodium in that stuff but a little can enhance most any dish there.
• Dessert: Further-outs have pointed out to me in the past that I usually neglect to go over dessert options. This is true. I don’t routinely order dessert out but it is noteworthy that Chang’s has the most adorable little mini-dessert portions, served in shot glasses. They are a few selections from their larger dessert menu, just reduced in size! They range from 130-220 calories per dessert, so if you have one it’s not the end of the world. But I’m not going into any more detail about it.

So there you have it…your guide to exploring P.F. Chang’s. Next time you go to dinner, try it out! And tell them Nik sent you! (And watch they look at you quizzically as they think “who the hell is Nik???”)

Again, you can download this handy-dandy resource as a PDF by clicking here!

The BF Survival Guide to Making it through a Meltdown

~by Nik

(This survival guide can be downloaded as a pdf file by clicking here.)

Jen and I are no “Dr. Phil’s” (thank goodness!). We’re not Bob & Jillian. Hell, we’re not even Clinton & Stacey. BUT, we’ve been in this thing for a few years and have, collectively, had MORE than our fair share of melt-downs.

Whether you call it “falling off the wagon,” bingeing or, our reigning favorite, “carbapalooza,” meltdowns have the opportunity to be one of two things in your weight loss journey—a great learning experience or a total disaster.

We prefer the former, which is why we are sharing this survival guide to get you through the moments and hours after you have a meltdown.

First, what do we define as a meltdown? Well, from our experience it is when we begin, for whatever reason, to eat things we damn well know we should not eat in quantities we damn well know we should not eat them. Newbies, this is not meant to scare you but there will be a time when you can eat way too much of the wrong things. And we hear people talk a lot about what to do in the aftermath of a meltdown. But how do you survive right then and right there when it’s happening? Here’s our advice:

Step One: Speak Up!

Ok, so you’ve lost control. You know this because if you hadn’t lost control…those last two fun-sized Snickers would have been a lot more…fun. What do you do? Out loud in a clear and demanding voice say, “Stop! Now!” This may sound silly but it accomplishes a couple of things. First, there’s a lot of stuff going on in your brain in this moment. There’s whatever is going on with you that you’re trying to soothe with food. Maybe there’s some guilt, maybe some shame. Definitely very negative feelings. Your brain doesn’t really have the ability to be commanding right now. But if you can just think those two words and say them out loud, it will shock your system into taking pause.

And that’s what you need—a pause. A moment to just stop. Once you’ve done that IMMEDIATELY move to step two.

Step Two: Get the HELL outta dodge!

Get out of the kitchen. Hell, get out of the house if you need to. I find in these moments taking a walk can be a life saver. If you have a friend who knows of your journey and your issues, call them and see if they mind an impromptu visit. Do let them know you’re having a meltdown (if you trust them enough to do so), so that they don’t offer you anything else to eat (as people often do when you are a guest in their home).

Whatever you do, make sure you’re gone for about an hour. Why? Well, from our experience it takes a little while for all the biochemical e-mails to arrive in the proper inboxes, so to speak. But when they do, your body begins to feel the effects of what you did. In general, eating crap food does not make the body feel good. So you’re probably going to feel a little gross. Maybe even repulsed by food. You might even find that you really don’t have an appetite at all. This always begs the question, “why did I eat so much then?” Well, when you’re in the moment you have this amazing ability to override physical cues. Getting away from food, letting your body adjust and feel the effects is important in getting you to stop.

Step Three: Once you’re home…get thee to a food journal, stat!

It doesn’t matter if you keep a hard copy journal or an online one. If you don’t keep a journal, now might be a good time to start. The point here is that you need to take responsibility for what you did fairly soon after you did it. Seeing it on paper or on a screen makes it all very real. This is NOT for the purposes of beating yourself up. Yes, you feel like crap. You feel like you’ve failed. But here’s the thing: if our brains were the best decision makers in this situation, we wouldn’t be here. Hard, objective data helps.

Most times we don’t know how much we ate when we go off the rails. For the purposes of this exercise, assume you ate a portion of everything you list (I’ll tell you why in a minute). If it seemed to you that you ate more than a portion, round up to two portions. Don’t dwell as you add things and don’t lie—you’d only be cheating yourself.

Step Four: Deal with the rest of your day

The food journal thing has a practical application too. You still have the rest of the day to get through and I can tell you this: if you went on a carb binge, you will probably get hungry again before the day is through. That’s why early day meltdowns are brutal.

But now you have some information on your side. If you count calories, you have an idea of how much you’ve taken in so far (and since you’ve rounded up to the nearest number of portions, your estimate is probably quite liberal, meaning when you plan your food, based on those numbers, you’ll probably end up in a halfway decent spot at the end of the day). And you know how much of the day you have to get through.

There is one other tool in your toolbox: exercise! You can offset some of those calories by being active. So make a plan. What can you eat the rest of the day? I remember one meltdown had me so high in calories that I was relegated to water based protein shakes and veggies for the rest of the day. Not a great look for your girl, Nik. And what activity can you fit in to offset some of those calories?

I have this game I like to play. I like to pick the worst, most egregious food choice I made that day, look at the calories and THAT is how much I aim to burn in my workout. That works well if your choice was 400 calories or less. Any more than that and I would advise, going to the next worst choice.

Also, while planning, make sure you are factoring in water intake. If you ate high sodium foods and refined carbs your body will need water. And drinking lots of water occupies your pouch so that you don’t eat as much the rest of the day.

Step Five: Be careful how you relate to the scale the next few days

For some of us, stepping on the scale after a meltdown is a precarious thing. For some, weighing is a necessary thing (much like doing the food journal) to accepting responsibility for the meltdown. To others, it can be a toxic thing, fueling negative emotions that will drive you straight into your next meltdown.

And here’s the really tricky part: you may not get negative reinforcement. I can’t tell you how many people have told me they actually LOSE weight after a meltdown. Well, you shocked your body with more calories and that may have affected your metabolism a bit. This does NOT mean you should meltdown every week to avoid stalling. It means that thankfully your behavior did not impede your weight loss THIS TIME.

So if you feel you can handle weighing and can accept whatever consequence comes your way, go for it. If not, stay off the scale for a few days and focus on getting back on track, not just physically but mentally. If you keep a journal, make some time to write in it. If you have support group coming up, attend. Whatever way you best express your emotions, do that so that you can figure out what hunger you were really trying to feed.

WHAT NOT TO DO:

We may get some flack for this but we feel we have to speak up about one thing. The “Five Day Pouch Test” (Google it if you don’t know what it is. We won’t waste energy linking to it…ever). We’ve heard from a lot of people that they do this crash diet after they meltdown to “refocus” and “get back on track.”

Here’s the deal: crash diets didn’t work before. They don’t work now. Why? A few reasons from our perspective.

First, with the “test” (and it isn’t a test), you are dealing with what you’re putting in your mouth. Your meltdown wasn’t about what you put in your mouth so much as what was going on in your head. Many people skip that part. It’s one thing if you want to adhere to a stricter eating plan while doing the mental work, but the “test,” like your pouch, should not be expected to do all the work.

Second, you are only a new-post op once (and newbies have NO business doing the “test”). Your pouch matures. It’s supposed to. That’s why “protein first” is THE most valuable rule you can follow for the rest of your life. I can only eat about 3-4 oz. of chicken breast before feeling stuffed. I still haven’t figured out how many tortilla chips I can eat because I have not yet reached my upper limits (mainly because halfway through I began to follow the steps outlined above).

You can’t trick your pouch into becoming a new pouch again. You have the pouch that you have and if you want to be successful for LIFE you have to keep coming back to the healthy behaviors and habits that make you successful—lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, good fat, plenty of water and vitamins! That really is the only way.

And yes…you may lose a few pounds as a result of the “test.” I am no doctor but I theorize it’s probably water weight. Think of it. Most do the “test” after having a meltdown of some degree. Well, you likely have eaten more sodium than you should and are retaining a bit of water. Then you drop your calories down way low and the first thing your body will ditch is excess water.

Sorry to sound preachy, but we aren’t a fan of the “test” and we don’t, nor will we ever, publish recipes that intentionally fit into the test parameters. This is a lifestyle change, folks, not a diet. Like our friends at Weight Watchers say, “Diets don’t work. So stop dieting, and start living!”

Remember, you can take this guide with you by clicking here to download it as a pdf. And if you have any questions, please hit us up on e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. We're always here to help!

If you liked this Survival Guide, check out guides to:

• Surviving a trip to a buffet restaurant
• Getting through a summer barbecue
• Surviving a trip to a sushi restaurant
• Surviving Halloween post-op
• Surviving Thanksgiving dinner post-op
• Surviving Holiday parties post-op
• Guide to surviving the first (and second...and third) date post-op

The BF Survival Guide to First (and second...and third...) Date Eating

~by Nikki

I'm single. (Super hawt post-op men...holla!) Dating can be a challenge to any woman, but particularly to the post-op woman. I mean, on the one hand, our surgeries very much make us look like space aliens in the way we eat and relate to food. On the other hand, we don't want to run down our medical histories to people we barely know.

So what do you do?

Well if you are a faithful BF reader, you should know the answer to this. You form a strategy!

First and foremost, let's talk date dynamics. Whether you're a guy or a gal, there are some common dynamics going on:

1. The person with whom you are going on a date is really attracted to and interested in you
2. That person wants you to have a good time
3. That person doesn't know you very well

These seem obvious, but when you put it all into perspective, here's some implications for us that may not seem obvious:

1. Because that person is attracted to you and interested in you, they don't necessarily notice how much you do or don't eat unless you draw specific attention to it.
2. Because that person wants you to have a good time, they are probably open to date options that don't involve food.
3. Because that person doesn't know you well, doing the "big reveal" too early can kill your chances at something meaningful. Ever heard of the term, TMI?

Of course, it's up to you when to tell anyone about your surgery. But trust us, first date dynamics make it risky to do so before you know the person very well.

Edit: As one of our savvy readers pointed out, some of you have NO problems sharing about your surgery on a first date. If that's the case...awesome! It's a personal choice and if you do choose to share that can be a great ice breaker...and you don' t have to be 007 on your first few dates! This guide is geared more for the folks who don't feel comfortable doing that...an equally valid choice, but often a difficult one to pull off. :)

So...let's talk strategy then.

Strategy #1 - the "Un-food" date

From experience, I can say that you have to be strategic about when you use this one. Because, for women especially, there is only a certain number of times you can get away with this. The guy is going to want to go out to eat eventually. Guys, if you keep dodging dinner, you run the risk of the woman thinking you are cheap.

Still...the un-food date can be a great thing. The key is to make it creative. Don't simply do the "let's go for a walk in the park." No way! Suggest renting some segways and exploring your city. Or going to an amusement or theme park. Or a day cruise. Or something that is so awesomely awesome that your date is not even thinking about the fact that you haven't yet shared a meal!

It doesn't have to be expensive, either. Get creative. There are a million and two things you can do. I once did roller skating as a first date. That was soooo fun. Neither of us had much rhythm and we fell on our butts a million times but we laughed so hard. Another time we went bowling.

What you want to stay away from is the movies as a first date. #1 - how are you supposed to get to know each other on a movie date? #2 - movies usually come with popcorn AND the expectation of dinner afterward (or before). Double whammy!

Strategy #2 - "Chew the Right Thing"

Ok, so you've arrived at the point where you must go to a restaurant (or sit down at a food table) with this person. This is where the real strategy begins.

For your first sit down together, insist on picking the restaurant. Don't be a diva about it (and, yes, men can be divas at times too). Say something like, "hey, I know of a great place I'd love for you to try..." That seems thoughtful instead of bossy. (Can you all tell I'm a writer? Semantics are my thing!)

Now, which restaurant to pick. Here are a few obvious no's:

• Cheesecake Factory - the best dish I found there is called the "Weight Management Chicken." For real, CF, for real????
• Olive Garden - when you're there, you're family...if your family is into mega-caloric meals that are so big that you can't even begin to fake it like you've eaten something substantial

If you're into chain restaurants, here are a few that have worked well for me:

• Red Lobster - just stay away from those damned evil cheesy Cheddar Bay biscuits! Otherwise, it's easy to order steamed shrimp and nibble on them. I am three years out, so I usually order tilapia with some steamed veggies.
• P.F. Chang's - They have reasonable portion sizes and great appetizers. It is a growing trend for people to order appetizers as dinner, so you can get away with having filling for their lettuce wraps for dinner and it won't raise too many red flags.

For chain restaurants, it's easier to go in with a plan. Most publish their menus online with nutritional information. Even if they don't post stats, you can use your online food journal to determine what's the best choice. Look online and decide what you want to eat before walking into the restaurant.

You might also check out a small, local restaurant. Sure, you can't anticipate the nutritional stats, BUT, small restaurant owners can be very accommodating to special requests.

Strategy #3 - "Smoke and Mirrors"

Once you've picked the perfect place with food you can order, you have to be a bit savvy about how you present yourself.

DON'T go in acting like your date automatically notices your eating behavior. People tend to notice what we draw attention to. If you draw attention to the fact that you eat like a bird, and make that a note of importance, yes you'll get questions about it.

On the other hand, if you go in like everything is ok...nothing to see here...most likely your date is more into you than what is or isn't on your plate. If not, tact prevents him or her from actually saying anything and once you get to the point where you can tell them, it all starts to make sense. But that's their worry, not yours.

Still...perception can play a BIG role in dating. As I said before, guys who order frugally can seem cheap. Women who do so can seem self-conscious and if you order something that's too large and you can only eat part of it, you can seem ungrateful.

The best strategy I've found is to either:

• Order something you know you can eat a good bit of - for new-newbies...this is...nothing. Or maybe not. I know once I was cleared for salad those always served me well. I can eat a lot of salad without feeling overfull. I usually ordered a chop salad of some sort so you can't tell how much of the protein I've eaten. It's very likely your date won't notice such things, but just in case...
• Order the most nutritional slider foods the place has to offer - this, in my experience, tends to be vegetable soup of some kind. Ideally, you'd want to make up for the loss of protein in other parts of your day.
• Ask your server to box half your food right off the bat - this is a pretty common thing to do. Your date won't think much of it.
• If the place has a small plate menu, order the most nutritional thing on it

Here are some definite "don'ts"

• Don't order from the kid's menu - nothing says romance like a nice chicken nugget dinner!
• Don't order from the senior menu - especially if you are a middle aged woman. He'll wonder if you're lying about your age. It seems silly but I've actually heard this feedback from men several times.
• Don't make a big deal about the water thing - let the server bring you the damn water! And then don't drink it. I drink right up until I eat so usually I get myself a hot herbal tea  (or unsweetened iced tea) and sip it until my meal comes.
• Don't do the "I can't's" - You know what those are. Newbies are famous for them. "I can't eat that." "I can't eat that either." You'll seem picky. No, you can't eat that. But your date doesn't need to know all that at this point!

Then once you've got your food, eat slowly and take small bites. Remember, this is a date. TALK! Ask questions. Folks like being asked interesting questions about themselves. It helps you get to know them better and it makes them feel like you are really interested in who they are as a person.

Be sure to throw a few references about the food in ("this is really good, do you want a bite?" "hey, that looks fantastic. You enjoying it?"). Not obsessively, but so long as we're faking normalcy, it's a nice added touch.

So there's one last hurdle I'd like to discuss...

DESSERT

This couple is headed for a whole different kind of dessert...just sayin'...

Yeah...dessert. Newbies...if you don't know if you dump...now ain't the time to find out. Stay the HELL away from the dessert menu! Even if they have sugar-free desserts, don't do it! Chances are you won't have room, but just in case...don't do it!

Here's a good strategy I use. Usually the server asks after you seem done with your food if you'd like dessert. Stop eating and linger over your plate about 20 minutes or so. Engage in deep conversation. Then have your plates taken away. Then, if your date wants dessert, you say, "no thanks, but I'd love a cup of decaf coffee."

Coffee sorta reads like dessert. By the time dessert comes, you've waitied your requisite 30 minutes between eating and drinking and now have yet another thing that it takes time to consume. They eat their dessert, you sip your coffee. A little more talking...hey this is going REALLY well isn't it?

So that's the basic rundown on how to survive a first (or second...or third) date after weight loss surgery. We won't advise you on what to do after your date (especially when s/he walks you to the door...that's your business) but using some or all of these tips will help ensure there is a next date!

BF Survival Guide: Holiday Parties

~~by Nikki

Happy Holidays!

If you’re anything like me, you have a whole troth of parties to attend this holiday season. Everybody seems to have one: your job, your friends, your family, your neighbors, even your support group!

You all know I’m all for moderation, but once you get to the seventh party…moderation has sort of abandoned you four parties ago! So what do you do? How do you survive without totally back tracking???

We’ll address these questions and more in this BF Survival Guide!

First and foremost...Get Organized!

Sit down with a calendar and mark all the holiday parties to which you’ve been invited. If you don’t have all your invites, also make a list of all parties to which you anticipate being invited. You might also develop a rating system of some sort based on how much you really want to go to that party. Because, in reality, it’s ok to say no. It’s ok to say that you’re really busy and you’re so sorry you can’t make it and that you hope they have a great holiday just the same. It’s ok.

But aside from that, some prioritization is necessary. You might rate parties based on the host’s willingness or habit of having healthy offerings. You might place special emphasis on potlucks, to which YOU can bring a weight loss surgery friendly treat.

Once you are all organized, you have some decisions to make

Decide in advance which parties you’ll attend and which ones you’ll skip. You have your own unique prioritization methods, so I’m not going to micromanage your process. It might be that you can’t skip the office party but you can skip the neighborhood shindig.

For the ones you decline, be polite but firm in refusing. But do hold steady to your refusal. This step may seem oversimplified, but I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten tripped up by conflicting invitations.

And many times there is more behind an invitation than the invitation. If you sit down, look at it all, think it out, you know what forces are working in your holiday invites and how you’d like to respond to them. That way you aren’t caught in any office-political, familial, clique tugs of war that wreak havoc on your emotional well-being.

For the parties where the hosts tend to have healthy offerings…

Those are the easy parties. Choose the best of what’s there to offer, use a small plate (and I am not above bringing one of my own), mingle a LOT (if no one person is with you too long, they can’t contemplate what you are and are not eating and how much), laugh, sing Christmas carols.

A word of caution, however. Especially for newer folks. Holiday parties tend to involve alcohol. You should always refer to your surgeon’s advice about alcohol.

My program allows it in moderation. However, with my rearranged guts, one glass of wine would have me dancing on a table with a lampshade over my head. That’s not a good look.

If you do choose to do alcohol…TINY SIPS…seriously. Trust me on this one. My very first post-op drink (some wine about a year post-op), I shared with someone. That worked well.

For the parties where the hosts do NOT tend to have healthy offerings…

See here’s the deal. I have this belief. It reads sort of like a scientific hypothesis. In order to avoid a complete meltdown, every bad food choice has to be accompanied by an equally or more yummy good food choice. If this is the case, you’ll go for the healthy yummies and won’t feel the least bit resentful about what anybody else is eating.

To that effect, be empowered to bring something to the party. Here are some do’s and don’ts in that regard:

• DO let the host know you’re bringing a dish. If you haven’t told them about the surgery, you might say “oh I have this fabulous holiday dish I just love to share. Do you mind if I bring it?” That usually works for me. See the end of this post for some good suggestions on what to bring.
• DO prepare something you don’t mind going back home with. It might be the best thing ever to you, but it may not be a non-op’s cup of tea.
• DON’T tell anyone it is particularly healthy. Just put it on the damn table and walk away! Everyone feels like there should be a “healthy food” disclaimer. You’re giving them something that is GOOD for their bodies. In reality, they should be warning people about the simple carb, sugar and fat-fest THEY are laying out.
• DON’T let your dish be the only dish you try. Remember…moderation is key. Chances are there are some foods you can try besides the one you brought. It kind of looks snooty if you don’t at least put something else on your plate! Just sayin.

In addition, here is a no-fail one liner that gets me through parties where people don’t know about my surgery.

Host: You don’t seem to be eating much…(or some variation)


Me: What…you didn’t see that huge helping of X I had on my plate a minute ago? You are really a great cook! Can I get that recipe…?

(The above is nice because you don’t technically have to be lying. You could have had what seems, to you, to be a huge helping of said food on your plate. It doesn’t mean you ate it. And by complimenting them and asking for the recipe, you get the conversation away from you quickly!)

The White Elephant in the Room…dessert!

Yes, yes…we get it. Dessert is the crown jewel of a Christmas party. In years past it was a goose or a duck. Now it’s some sweet confection that’s been decorated to look like who knows what. And you want some, don’t you?

We’re not going to tell you not to eat it. You are a grown person and can do whatever you choose. Some points to consider though:

• If you don’t know if you dump, this is NOT the time to find out. Trust us on that one.
• This surgery and lifestyle is about making healthy choices. Having a small portion of something you really want is not an unhealthy choice. So many times we set ourselves up with a “pass/fail” mentality. Eating the cookie, knowing that you told yourself you’re only going to have one and really only having one, is not a fail. It’s a win. You set a limit for yourself. YOU took control. So if you want to have the cookie, and you don’t think it’ll make you sick, have the cookie. It won’t kill you. If it makes you feel better, go an extra 10 minutes on the treadmill the next day.
• However, if you have dessert, you might want to go lighter on some of your other indulgent choices. This process is about trade-offs. Perhaps, for your plan, it comes down to either the drool worthy spinach dip or a bite of the yule log.
• If you choose NOT to have any of the offered desserts, I usually defer to my hypothesis above and bring a WLS friendly dessert. Again, I don’t share that it’s healthy. I sit it down, take my portion and walk away…

Now...to make absolutely sure you have SOMETHING you can eat, here are some suggestions:

• Roll them a little smaller and Nik's Magic Meatballs are a crowd pleaser.
• Jen's Tilapia Stuffed Mushrooms make great finger food, with or without the fish!
• Nik's Cheesecake Cheeseball makes a nice addition to any holiday table.
• And who doesn't love DIP??? Jen's Crab Dip is so good...nobody will guess it's healthy!

Holiday parties are like a dietary battlefield! We hope we've armed you well enough to get through them unscathed. If you want to report in on how YOU get through all the festivities, hit us up! We'd love to post your tip!

BF Survival Guide: Thanksgiving Dinner (after weight loss surgery)

~by Nikki

Well Turkey Day is just a week away and we know that some of you are freaking out a little bit, especially if you are a new post-op.

Thanksgiving is a holiday for counting our blessings, enjoying our family...and sharing an outrageously large and over-caloric meal. It's the American way and no amount of self-help talk can get us around that.

But you know what we say here at BF...always, always, always have a strategy.

To that effect, we've compiled this collection of tips to get you up to, and through, the day without going crazy, falling completely off the wagon or depriving yourself of the wonderful foods Thanksgiving has to offer.

Turkey Day Tip #1:  "He (or She) who makes the meal, determines the meal content"

...but that does NOT mean you have to go around advertising your first annual healthy Thanksgiving dinner. We know you are excited about all the wonderful and healthy recipes and cooking methods you've learned (and we hope you learned a good deal of them here), but the fastest way to turn a non-op off is to advertise that something is healthy. For whatever reason it translates in their minds as bland and flavorless.

What to do instead? Make your wonderful, healthy dishes with yummy ingredients. Don't stray too far away from the Thanksgiving paradigm though. Just make the dishes you always made but make a few smart substitutions: use low-sodium fat-free chicken broth for your stuffing and in your gravy, use 100% whole wheat bread for your stuffing, make your own no-sugar added cranberry sauce (Jen is going to post her fabulous recipe later this week), do a no-sugar added pumpkin or apple pie.

But here is the key: put it on the table (or buffet...or counter...or whatever you use to serve) and then walk away! Say nothing. Let people enjoy the food. We always feel we need to "warn" people that something is healthy, but why? Unless there is a real reason to let someone know (say, they are allergic to sugar substitutes), what they don't know won't hurt them.

Turkey Day Tip #2: At the family dinner, learn the "Rules of Three's"

 What are the rules of three's? There are two from our perspective (thought we were gonna say there were three rules, didn't ya???): The "three bite rule" and the "three minute" rule.

The "three bite rule" - This is geared toward moderation. When facing a room full of food you think you can't have, one of three things is bound to happen. Either you will a) get really moody because you feel resentful b) your obvious longing for the food will make everyone else uncomfortable eating it or c) you'll set yourself up to think you are "cheating" which usually results in over-indulgence. Instead, re-write that story! You can have whatever you want from the dinner table. Eat a bit of protein first and then with the more carby stuff, allow yourself approximately three bites of it. Want some pumpkin pie? Three bites. Want that homemade mac 'n cheese? Three bites!

Newbies: if you don't know what you dump on yet (or even if you dump) go straight to the next rule.

Or better yet, make sure there are desserts you can eat! Like my drool-worthy cheesecake, Jen's fabulous chocolate trifle, or if you really want to get daring you can attempt my protein pumpkin roll cake! Or click here for lots more dessert ideas!

The "three minute rule" - This rule can be a pain in the butt. But it's saved me from getting sick so many times I can't even tell you. If there is something served where you don't know if you will dump, take a bite. Chew it, swallow it. Then wait three minutes. That's long enough to let your pouch (or sleeve, or stomach or whatever you call your anatomy) have its reaction. If nothing happens, proceed with caution. Eat slowly and chew well. If you feel even the slightest bit icky, pass on the rest of the dish. It's not worth taking the risk!

Turkey Day Tip #3: It's not called Thanks-GIVING for nothing

I don't know about you but leftovers bug the hell outta me. I don't like them because I never eat them all. And unlike many of you, my day job involves being in the realities of hungry children (and adults) in Africa. So mentally? I can't deal with throwing away a lot of food. To this effect I have a tip and I have some good news.

First the tip. If you are hosting the dinner, give away as much food as you can! Make it easy for people to take food home. I always buy those styrofoam "take out" containers from my local restaurant supply store. They look like this:

Pssst...clicking the link will take you to where you can order some for yourself!

They are a godsend. People see those and they think, "yeah...I can take something home..." And then you don't have to worry about it. If you are attending a family potluck, bring your dishes in aluminum pans from the grocery store...and quietly leave them there! Yes, that kinda sucks on your hosts but hey...you've given them a yummy treat to enjoy and really? Thanksgiving is a battlefield for us and it's every stomach for themselves!

Now for the good news! Next week Bariatric Foodie will have its first ever dessert week. (That's not the good news relevant to this post but it is good news!) But the week after Thanksgiving will be leftovers week! So if you do get stuck with leftovers, we're going to show you how to remix them into totally yummy dishes that can be eaten now OR frozen for later use.

Turkey Day Tip #4: Put down the fork and talk to somebody!

This is the standard issue advice, we know, but it really does ring true. It's not all about food. You will be with family and friends, many of whom will want to compliment you on how great you look! In preparation for the day do the following (and I am serious here folks). Look in the mirror and practice saying "thank you" in a sincere way. Do it over and over and over. Why? Because most of us only half believe the compliments we get are true. In our minds we haven't lost enough, are losing too slow or just generally aren't doing that great. But it's sort of rude to disclaimer someone's compliment. So practice saying thank you so that it feels natural when you say it many, many times on Thanksgiving.

And if you've kept your surgery private, also practice your "alibi." What should that be? We can't say. We do find, however, that a version of the truth that leaves out that crucial detail works. For example: Aunt Martha says, "you look GREAT! How'd you lose all that weight?" You say, "I've made a lot of changes to how I eat and I'm more active. I'm so flattered you noticed!" See? Simple.

Turkey Day Tip #5: DON'T starve yourself to get to the big event

That never ends well. Your pouch will be pissy and you'll likely not get to really enjoy your food. Instead, relax! Eat a little, talk a little, laugh a LOT! That's an order!

These are just a few of the great tips we have to share about Thanksgiving but we feel like they are the most crucial. If you want to get more tips leading up to the big day, make sure you become our fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. We'll be posting many more tips along with great recipes!

And look for an uber-yummy dessert protein shake recipe later on today!

BF Survival Guide: How to Handle Halloween After Weight Loss Surgery

If there’s one thing America does well, it’s totally obliterating the meaning of a holiday with food. We start the year with Valentine’s Day…which is supposed to be about love. How do we celebrate? With chocolate.

Then there’s Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And how do we Americans observe it? With candy eggs and jelly beans.

Memorial Day and the 4th of July are all about the barbecue as is Labor Day usually. So here we are…at the cusp of yet another round of food holidays…starting with Halloween.

So how do you cope? Welllll…there are several schools of thought out there. One is that you should take the focus OFF of the food. That’d be really easy…if everyone’s focus wasn’t ON the food.

In our humble opinion, we post-op weight loss surgery folk need a more practical approach to Halloween. And that’s where we come in. Here’s our official guide to surviving Halloween.

Tip #1 – Buy candy you don’t particularly like to give out to trick-or-treaters

I am a chocolate girl. If I was faced with a bowl of chocolate candy (and I didn’t dump which, thank GOD, I do!), I might be tempted to eat…and eat and eat. But I am not so much for taffy. I can’t stand the stuff. So if I were inclined to eat Halloween candy, what do you think I’d buy? I’d be a Laffy Taffy buying fool y’all!

Most kids like most candy. If they don’t they’ll give it to their moms and dads and if THEY don’t like it they’ll take it to work. In all these exchanges someone somewhere will likely eat the damn candy. But that’s not really your problem. If there is a particular kind of candy you don’t care for, buy THAT candy to give away at Halloween.

Tip #2 – Paaaartay!

This one seems overly obvious coming from us. But consider having a Halloween party for your kids (or for your friends) instead of trick-or-treating. You can make cute goodie bags for guests and to serve, you can make lots of yummy—and healthy—treats. Jen’s seafood salad and cuban sandwich spread, along with my curried chicken salad all make awesome finger sandwiches, or just put a bowlful in the middle of a platter with some whole grain crackers.

For finger-fare, Jen's crab dip or 3 cheese tomato spread make great party fare with veggie crudités. My cheese ball is pretty awesome if I do say so myself (scroll down in that link to get to it). Put out some hummus and pita triangles, some salsa and whole wheat tortilla chips.

Not to mention my Magic Meatballs are always a crowd-pleaser. Make them a bit smaller and simmer them in the crockpot in some marinara. Set out hot dog or hoagie rolls, Arnold makes the new sandwich thin "Stuffers" for just this reason, and you have scrumptious make-your-own meatball subs!

Want a sweet ending? You could whip up some Pumpkin Protein Cheesecake or Chocolate Peanut butter pie, and all your goblins will be happy. And look to the end of this post for Jen’s Witch's Brew, the perfect warm Halloween party punch!

Tip #3 – Share and share alike…

If your kids are like mine, they come home with a TON of candy. I take the “Mommy Dearest” approach. Remember in the movie how Christina got all those birthday presents but she was only allowed to keep one and had to give the rest away? Yeah, that approach. I pick a large enough container, let the kids rifle through their candy and fill it with what they really, really want. The rest goes into the office with me and it goes pretty darn fast. This keeps the candy out of my face and it teaches the divas to moderate (I hope).

Tip #4 – Eat some chocolate

Yes, I did say that thankyouverymuch. But not the chocolate that comes from your kids’ candy buckets. Instead, indulge in a really good bar of dark chocolate (we each have our threshold. I like up to 70% cocoa). How to know if it's GOOD chocolate? If the bar costs less than $2.50, you might want to reconsider ;)

Usually dark chocolate has good stats and lower sugar than its milk chocolate counterpart. Get fancy with it! Buy a bar infused with hazelnut or espresso or mint. The bars I like have decent stats. I allow myself four squares at a time and they are HEAVEN. Plus dark chocolate has flavanoids, which are good for you AND cause the same chemical reaction in the brain as falling in love. So why deprive yourself?

Tip #5 – Consider a costume

Huh? Yes, consider a costume. Last year I was determined to be Beyonce from the “Single Ladies” video.

I spent weeks looking for the elements I needed. I scored a black leotard at Wal-Mart (and the juniors size is what I had to get to get a proper fit!) and a fierce belt, heels, make-up and, of course, a diva wig! Sadly…I got the flu last Halloween so that costume still remains in my drawer, unworn. BUT I spent so much time gathering my costume stuff and planning it that I didn’t think about the candy that much. And this year I am going to be Cleopatra. (Our Facebook fans have seen me in my costume. If you haven’t, become our fan and check it out!) I intend to flaunt it as I take the divas trick-or-treating. Honestly, having something to do or focus on makes it a whole lot easier to not indulge.

We hope you enjoy your Halloween. For the record, it’s one instance where we, personally, are glad for the American propensity to apply food to a holiday. I mean, really? Celebrating the Druids dressing up like spirits that they were afraid would haunt them on the night before All Saint’s Day? Booooooring!

And as promised, here's Jen's punch recipe!

Jen's Witch's Brew:

Ingredients:

8 cups Sugar Free (or No Sugar Added) Cranberry-Raspberry Juice

5 cups Sugar Free (or No Sugar Added) White Grape Juice 

16 Whole Cloves

2 small unpeeled oranges, sliced

2 unpeeled lemons, sliced

Cinnamon Sticks

Directions:

Place juices, cloves, orange slices, and lemon slices in a Dutch Oven. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. 

Strain juice mixture through sieve  into 4 or 5 quart Slow Cooker; discard cloves and fruit slices. 

Set slow cooker on "low" or "warm" setting to keep the punch warm. Serve in cups garnished with a cinnamon stick. Makes about 24 four ounce servings.