Dec 23, 2010 Donna Owen
After Bariatric Surgery: How to Celebrate the Holidays
Christmas was always a special time of year for my family. It was a time to celebrate, share gifts and cheer but most of all to eat! The table was always lined with rich and festive goodies. Golden turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce with orange zest, Grandma’s famous Waldorf Salad heavy laden with luscious grapes, crisp apples, succulent bananas, hearty walnuts, and of course homemade whipped cream sweetened with lots of sugar! Large brown rolls glazed with butter, sugar cookies with a hard glossy glaze, pumpkin pie, mince meat pie, and warm apple pie ala mode. It is no wonder that I bloomed from a skinny kid into a full-bodied woman. I enjoyed cooking these high fat, high sugar content foods as much as I loved to eat them.
Being 5’7” tall, my highest weight was 250 pounds, making my BMI (Body Mass Index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight) a whopping 39.2, classifying me as morbidly obese. I made the decision, with the help of my physician, to undergo weight loss surgery a.k.a Roux-en-y gastric bypass. While this was a hard decision to make, after careful consideration and a lot of research and prayers, I committed myself to change my life for good.
After undergoing the most important surgery of my life, I now have a different relationship with food. Being a lover of the kitchen and a creator of culinary art (any time the oven isn’t smoking); I have experimented with all of my favorite “indulgent” recipes to fit the constraints of my new eating regimen. I have eradicated sugar from my diet as well as sodas, excessive sodium, and high-fat foods and replaced them with fresh fruit (in small doses), vegetables, and lean protein (70-90 grams per day) including eggs, legumes, and nuts. I have turned a blind eye to processed flour and opt for a more healthy self-ground almond flour to make breads, pancakes, or waffles. To taste the sweeter side of life, Splenda? does wonders for homemade yogurt, coffee, and desserts like peach cobbler and pumpkin pie! Splenda? can usually be used in place of sugar when listed in a recipe unless the sugar is used for browning purposes. I still love to cherish the taste of food and to let flavors mingle in my mouth, but now I eat more consciously, knowing that I can only eat about 1-1 ? cups of food at one time. I have learned to enjoy every morsel by slowing down and completely chewing my food.
Although my portions and the basic composition of my food have changed, I still cherish the holidays, even more so now. I am not gripped by food as it no longer has a hold on me or who I am. I control me and my feelings not the food that I consume. Holiday are for spending time with cherished love ones, a time for giving thanks for the wonderful blessings in our lives, and for giving and receiving the best gift one can ever receive-love.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.
No comments:
Post a Comment