So one of the things I'm still working on figuring out nearly 8 weeks
after banding is what foods are worth it for me to eat. This is a new
equation in my life. Before banding, I just ate. Half the time I didn't
think about what I was putting in my mouth (if I did, I would have lived
in a state of perpetual self-disgust) and the other half, I just didn't
care. I was already fat and unhealthy, so why stress about the food
that was making me that way? Clearly, I was eating too many calories,
but now I'm realizing that the amount of calories I was eating may have
mattered less than whether those calories were worth eating.
What
I mean by that is that as I make better, more sensible food choices, it
is becoming clearer to me that "real food" is much more satisfying than
the alternatives. "Real food" is a hot topic these days. You can find
whole books about it in your local bookstore, whole pages of books on
the topic, if you cruise through Amazon. For my purposes, though, when I
talk about real food, I'm referring to anything that isn't processed or
prepackaged. Things like eggs (pasture raised, please), meat (ditto),
milk (three for three), vegetables (organic, please), fruits (yuppers),
and grains (certainly in the "o" column). To many, my obsession with
organics and pasture-raised animals may make me a snob or a hippie, but
I'm okay with that. Even before banding, I preferred to choose those
foods when possible, but now I'm realizing that the alternatives aren't
worth it.
I try to keep my calories at somewhere around
1000/day. I say around, because there are days I eat 850 and days I eat
1400. Mostly, I average between 1000 and 1100. Before banding, I could
get 1000 calories having coffee, a piece of toast, and a single fast
food sandwich, and then everything else I ate that day would be those
excess calories that made me fat. Theoretically, even with the band, I
could still make those food choices, but now they're just not worth it
to me. Today, I would say that most of that food isn't real food, and therefore, I'd rather not eat it.
This
morning, I had toast and coffee for breakfast. Not the bandster's first
choice, perhaps, but I find I can't eat anything too rich or too heavy
in the morning without severe nausea and potential for vomiting (I've
always been that way, even before banding). The difference here is that
the coffee was made with real raw sugar (half a teaspoon) and organic,
pasture raised half-and-half. One tablespoon of that. For a total of 37
calories. The toast was a thin slice of home-baked bread (made last
night from organic flour and natural ingredients) with a teaspoon of
pasture raised butter. Low in protein, but I'll have meat for lunch and
dinner, so I'll have no trouble meeting my protein goal for the day. So
far for the day, I've had 137 calories, less than 15% of my allowance for the day, and every single one of those calories was totally worth it.
They all tasted good, none of them cost the environment more than
necessary, and all of them allowed me to live with my band while feeling
content and satisfied. If I'd tweaked that just a little, gotten a
small nonfat latte and a bagel with non-fat cream cheese from Starbucks, for example, I'd have eaten
500 calories of food that wasn't really worth it to me. Even if the
band had stopped me at half the bagel, that would still have been 250
calories (113 more than I actually ate). It would have contained less
fat, but also less satisfaction and it wouldn't have tasted as good. To me, the unprocessed "real food" I ate at home was a better, healthier choice and worked with my band.
True, a lot of bandsters would tell me I should have had Greek yogurt instead. Or maybe a scrambled egg. There are days when I do that, but here's my confession: I love bread.
Love it. It is my favorite of all foods. I adore it more than ice cream
(meh) or potato chips (one of my trigger foods and a life-long
addiction for me). Give me a choice between a handful of chocolate and a
piece of fresh baked bread (home-made or from a real bakery) and I will
go for the bread 9-1/2 times out of 10. My brother and sister-in-law
are gluten intolerant, and have cut all products containing wheat out of
their diets. I'd rather cut off my own arm. Seriously, I can't live
without bread. Which could be a problem for a bandster, both because of
the low protein/high carb nature of bread, and because the texture of
bread can have trouble passing through the band. But here's the thing.
"Real" bread (the kind from the bakery or from my very own oven) passes
through the band pretty well. It has fiber and texture and it tastes so
good, that it's worth it to me to take small bites, chew slowly, and get
it through the band. Pre-sliced generic white sandwich bread? Not real
food and definitely not worth it. Also lower in fiber, higher in sugar,
stickier in texture, full of chemicals, AND higher in calories. Clearly
the unhealthy choice. As a bandster, I have had to reshape my
priorities. Homemade bread is a priority; processed, pre-sliced bread is not.
It's all about priorities.
And
balance. For breakfast today, I had a carb-heavy, protein-light meal.
For lunch, I will have a couple of slices of roast chicken (heritage
breed, pasture raised) and some veggies. Or maybe a small serving a chili with pastured ground beef.
The meat cost a lot more than the supermarket alternatives, but it was
locally and sustainable raised and frankly, it tastes so much better
that I don't feel deprived from eating only 2-3oz of it as a time. It's
so full of flavor that 2oz feels more like a meal than 6oz or the
alternative. For dinner, there's either the chicken or some leftovers
from an organic rabbit I stewed over the weekend in red wine and prunes. And more veggies. So worth every single calorie and so, soooooooooo satisfying.
One
of the reasons I got the band and not another procedure like bypass was
because I wanted to be able to eat and enjoy real food, I just wanted
to eat less of it. I didn't want to give up my bread (obviously) or my
chocolate or my steak. I wanted a smaller slice, nibble, or cut. I'm doing that with the help of the band, and because I'm choosing real food, I'm doing it with happy tastebuds and a smile on my face. :)
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I
hope no one interprets this as a lecture, or me claiming to be better
than anyone else. My priorities are my own. I happen to live in an area
where organic, pasture raised foods are easily accessible. They're sold
at my local groceries and at the weekend farmer's market in my town,
less than 5 miles from my house. I also only have myself to feed and
worry about. I'm not trying to budget to feed myself, a husband and
three kids, let alone saving for college, paying for daycare, or
providing clothes to cover bodies that seem to double in size every few
months. My animals and myself are the only things I have to spend my
money on, so it's easy for me to justify funding my environmental and
health agenda. Everyone has to do the best they can with what they have,
and no one--least of all me--should fault them for it. Make your own
priorities, and then live by them. I hope it brings you the same
satisfaction it brings me. :)
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