Pre-band fears part 3: Being called a cheat!

I suppose it was the 'outing' of Fern Britton that did it - she was 'found out' with the gastric band and called a cheat in the British media. I suppose that in the early days of the band I didn't know enough about how it would work so I think a part of me believed that there was an element of cheating involved. Of course now I know different. I know from experience that if I want to, I can eat pretty much anything. I can eat all of the unhealthy foods that I used to be able to eat. I can eat chocolate in volume and binge on the stuff almost as easily as I used to. I know that other famous celebrities gave had their band removed because they gained weight eating loads of chocolate! I know from months of hard work that band success means careful calorie counting, rigorous maintenance of a food diary, tonnes of exercise and constantly making good, nutritional food choices. It means sticking to a whole heap of rules, like chewing everything to death, eating slowly, not getting distracted while eating, using small utensils, eating off a side plate, practising environmental control and balancing proteins, carbs and veggies. It also requires sticking to the hardest rule of all, which is not to drink for at least one hour after eating!!

Because I was uncertain about how the band was going to work, I was careful early on not to tell anyone except my husband, that I had a band. Over time, and as I've learned more about what is involved in making the band work for me, I've become more relaxed about telling people. I guess I feel more confident that I am not a cheat! I feel I can explain to people properly how the band works and I can justify my reasons for having one. Some would say why do I need to justify anything to anybody - but that's just the way I am!

About six weeks after getting banded I told my immediate family. Since then, I've told several close colleagues and friends. Even just today, I told my office mate (as he was stuffing his face with a muffin!). Whereas many months ago I couldn't really see myself telling anybody, now I firmly believe that I will probably eventually tell everybody! I think that basically I'm just a coward, and am scared of telling people in case it doesn't work. That's why I expect I will eventually 'out' to everyone only once I reach my target!! I said I was a coward!

So, as far as people calling me a cheat is concerned - I no longer have that fear. At the end of the day, it's my body, my money and my health. As is plainly clear for anyone who knows me to see, the band has done wonders for me and it clearly does work. If having something that only does 30% of the work is being a cheat - then I confess to being one. But I jest. I am not a cheat, I don't feel a cheat, and anyone who thinks I am one is plain and simple WRONG! There.

Recipe: Olive tofu and pasta

Here's a favourite vegetarian 'recipe' of mine:

Olive tofu (available from The Eighth Day in Manchester and other specialist vegetarian shops), with spinach, mushroom-stuffed pasta and mixed shitake and chestnut mushrooms. I lightly boil the pasta and the rest is steamed in the microwave with plenty of black pepper and a splash of light soy. The edginess of the olives tastes wonderful against the subtle tastes of mushrooms and spinach. Mmmmm! The whole meal is about 350 calories and takes only 15 minutes to prepare. The meal is well balanced - you should end up with a side plate with 25% carbs (the pasta), 25% protein (tofu), and 50% veggies.

Finding a twin and turning a corner

At last - I have found another bandit who is exactly the same as me!!!!! A lady posted on the UKGastricBand forum all about her typical eating and drinking during the day, and some stuff about her philosophy on the band and restriction - her experiences of PB'ing, regurgitating, iron fist and all that - and she's SOooooo similar to me - it's scary!!

Like me, she has hardly ever done all the nasty stuff like vomiting and regurgitating food. She doesn't get any pain. She can eat anything but in smaller portions and with a great deal of chewing. She also drinks a lot so she's fully hydrated. She has moderate restriction but finds it harder to eat in the morning until after she's had some drinks. Like me, she can eat chocolate and biscuits for England. The foods that she eats during the day are very similar to me - Oatso Simple for breakfast, or a small banana and Muller Light yoghurt. She has crispbreads and protein and salad for lunch and very similar evening meals too! She also loves Alpen Light cereal bars and doesn't hesitate to take a healthy snack if it's needed.

It brought tears to my eyes as I was reading her post because I am sure I've never encountered another bandit who shares so much in common with me. For months I've read stories and had face-to-face discussions with bandits who get loads of pain / iron fist, vomit / regurgitate and can only eat three peas before feeling full (!) and I've never had any of that - so I've always felt as though I just must be a bit weird!!!

But probably the best thing about her post was what she said about her philosphy on restriction and getting fills. She said: "On a bad day I eat chocolate/biscuits/cakes/sweets/lattes but no matter how tight my band I'd still manage them so why have it that tight and suffer even when I'm being good?". Wow - she is so right. For ages now, as you know if you're a regular reader, I've to'ed and fro'ed about whether I needed another fill. But the truth is this: On a good day when I make good, healthy food choices, my restriction is perfect. I can eat anything I like but in small portions and with a lot of chewing. On a bad day, when I make poor food choices and scoff chocolate, cakes, biscuits and such, the band has no effect. It doesn't stop me eating that stuff - I knew it wouldn't and I know it never will - no matter how tight my band is. So what would be the point in making myself suffer with over-tight restriction when I'm being good, to gain no advantage whatsoever when I'm not being good?!

Mentally at least, I feel as though I may have turned an important corner.

Quorny but true

Today I decided to go out and buy some Quorn-based products. I've been getting a little fed up with eating the same things over and over and I've also been feeling for a while that I don't quite get enough protein - that may partly explain why I still keep getting hungry. I browsed around the shelves in Tesco and found a surprising array of different Quorn-based foods. Some of them are coated in breadcrumbs, stuffed with cheese and all sorts - and are pretty high in calories. But there are also some other varieties that are much better. I was really surprised at just how low in fat Quorn products actually are. They are also loaded with protein - the peppered steaks are only 107 calories, have about 4g of fat and about 12g of protein! So, I returned home with a box of two peppered steaks, some fajita-like Quorn strips and some Quorn bites on skewers. The latter will be great for snacking on!!

Anyway, I had one of the peppered steasks for dinner this evening - along with a little boiled potato and some frozen mixed veg. Despite the fact that I got distracted while cooking and the steak was rather over-done (!), it still tasted really lovely. But what has cheered me up no end, and amazed, me, is just how filling the Quorn is. I had my dinner ages ago now and I'm still stuffed. I'll be experimenting with all sorts of Quorn products over the next few weeks and I'll let you know whether it turns out to be the Holy Grail that I'm thinking it is at the moment!

Why carbs are good

Dr Ashton, Director of Healthier Weight, has written on the HW web site about the dangers of ketosis (click on the title link). This is essentially when the body obtains its energy, not from glucose stores, but by burning stored fat. Now you might think this is a good thing, and indeed fat-burning is not a bad thing in itself. However, when taken to extremes and for long periods of time, it can result in changes in blood chemistry that can be dangerous. A recent case was reported where a lady died as a result of ketosis brought on by following an 'extreme' diet.

Some ketosis is inevitable when we reduce our total calorie intake and carbohydrates. However, fat burning can be taken to serious levels on very low carbohydrate and / or low calorie diets. My observation from looking at some American web sites and reading weight loss books that come out of the US is that they appear to be much more keen on carb-free diets than us in the UK. Nevertheless, there are an increasing range of carb-free diets available and they are DANGEROUS!! How come people don't realise that our bodies need a balanced diet, with elements of proteins, carbs, fats (yes, they're not called 'essential' fats for nothing!), vitamins, minerals and fibre. If any one of these is missing the body will suffer.

Of course, some carbs are better than others. Simple carbs (sugars like chocolate, sweets) are the bad ones. The middling ones are potatoes, white bread, rice and pasta. These are complex carbs that are refined. The best carbs are complex and unrefined, like wholemeal bread, pasta and rice. These should form a component of every meal and make up about one quarter.

So there you have it. Carbs are very bad if you don't have them, they can be bad if you have the wrong ones, but if you have the right ones they're very good for you!

Mmmm luverrly!

I've had a good day food-wise. I'm sticking to my plan of eating when I feel hungry - regardless of what time it is, whether it's official 'meal' time or not. I started out the day with a glass of orange, an actimel drink and a cup of tea. On the way to work (about 9am) I ate a small banana, slowly. This is one of the few foods that I feel going down my oesophagus - every step of the way. I also find bananas really filling. Once at work, I ate some cereal - high fruit Alpen muesli with a little All Bran thrown in. This was about 10am. By noon I was peckish again so went on the prowl for some lunch. I went to my favourite sandwich shop where they make up sandwiches while you wait. I obviously haven't been there for a while because I found out it's under new management. I didn't discover until after she'd put the salad in the bun that the new management don't do cottage cheese anymore! Everything else on offer was either carnivorous or high fat - so I just went for the salad roll. On the way back to my office I popped into the local vegetarian cafe /shop (The Eighth Day in Manchester) and bought some carrot pate to put in my sandwich!! I followed lunch up with some strawberries at about 2pm.

I arrived home about 5pm and soon after had a Weight Watcher's yoghurt. Dinner, at about 8pm, was a Weight Watcher's microwave pasta meal with a piece of salmon I added to it (otherwise it had no protein - tut tut Weight Watcher's!!). That was great, but by 10pm I was feeling peckish again! I decided that I needed a protein boost (there wasn't much in my lunch) so I had some scrambled egg with Rosemary Conley's cheese melted in, on top of a small slice of wholemeal bread. I have to say, this was absolutely delicious and really filled me up. I think it just goes to show that what they say about protein-rich foods filling you up is absolutely true.

My total calorie count for the day is about 1260 which is fine, especially since I have burned off more than 650 calories walking!! When I read back over this report though, it seems on the surface as though I've been eating all day! I'm certainly not sticking to the 'rule' of having three meals a day and no snacking. However, I've tried this and it just doesn't work for me. This regime, however, really does seem to work. Eat when you're hungry - simple. It means that although some days I might eat on several occasions, on other days I might go long periods without eating. Yesterday, for example, I ate my lunch at 1pm and my dinner at 8.30pm - and that was fine - I simply wasn't hungry in between.

So, I'm back to being optimistic about my level of restriction!!! I dunno, talk about roller coaster!!!

Un-learning the past

I've been thinking today about all of the eating habits that I have developed over a lifetime, and how I need to start to 'un-learn' some of them. For instance, we all learn from a young age that it is 'normal' to have breakfast first thing in the morning, that lunch is taken at around midday and that evening meal is at x o' clock. (I put 'x' o' clock because people get into their own habits about evening meal time. Because of my work patterns we have eaten evening meal at around 8pm for years - but I know this is considered quite late by most people.). I suppose I have also got into the habit of believing that a meal is of a certain size, and includes some starch, protein and veggies.

Since my last fill, however, I am trying to undo some of these basic beliefs, habits and traditions. Take last night, for example. I'd had my evening meal and was sitting up late-ish watching a film. I got hungry and thought about what I could eat. In the past I would have made up a huge cheese sandwich or a toastie or eaten some chocolate (if there was any left!). Last night, however, I looked at my food diary for the day to see if there were any food groups under-represented and saw that I hadn't really had much protein during the day. So my late-night snack? I ended up with a scrambled egg and melted cheese!! It wasn't just delicious, but also very filling.

[As an aside - I have recently discovered Rosemary Conley's mature low fat cheddar cheese - it's only 189 calories per 100g - which is only a little bit more than Philadelphia Light!!! - and it's luvverly!!].

Then as another example, I have been trying really hard to eat when I am hungry and not just eat when it is 'the right time'. This means that on the one hand I have found myself snacking on yoghurt mid-morning, but I've also sometimes had lunch at 3pm and several days have split my evening meal into two and had half at about 6pm and the other half at 9pm! Odd those this may all sound, it really does seem to be working. The result is, of course, that I am never hungry - because as soon as I am, I eat! Of course I have to stick to eating healthy foods but I don't really find this a problem most of the time.

How to make beans on toast!

The bed and breakfast we stayed at in Llandudno was very nice and comfortable, but a bit old fashioned when it comes to food. Breakfast options wre very limited. Unlike a lot of more modern establishments that provide a selection of healthy cereals, fruits, yoghurts and so on, this one only offered full English breakfast - with all the fat, butter - and meat, of course, thrown in (I'm a vegetarian). So, I asked for the only thing I thought they could rustle up - beans on toast. You'd have thought beans on toast would be simple, wouldn't you? But they broke just about every rule for preparing this dish and the result was a breakfast that was largely inedible in the form it was presented. First, they used the cheapest, blandest, most wafer-thin, doughy white bread possible. Then they only toasted the bread very, very slightly (you could have charged them under the Trades Descriptions Act for calling it 'toast'!). Then they committed the ultimate sin for beans on toast lovers everywhere - they put the beans on the toast while the toast was still very hot. This had the effect of turning the slightly toasted, cheap white bread into a soggy mush. Exactly the kind of soggy mush that gastric bands do not like...... Oh, and they also used cheap beans. They were OK, but not as rich and tasty as Mr H's.

So, to make the perfect beans on toast for bandits, follow these instructions (or click on the link above for another view on this delicacy):

1. Use a thick slice of wholemeal bread.

2. Toast it so that each side of the bread is properly brown - not burnt, but undeniably toasted!

3. Wait till it cools a litte before pouring on......

4. Heinz beans.

Simple. Packed full of fibre and protein and a great kick start to the day. Ideal if accompanied by a glass of fresh orange juice and a low fat yoghurt!!

Ten things about weight loss: Part 4

Here's the next installment of the lessons to be learned from the programme about weight loss.

5. Protein staves off hnger pangs

At any one time in the UK, some 10 million people are on a diet! However, what people don't recognise is that some foods are much better than others at staving off hunger and making us feel full for longer. When the stomach is empty, it sends a hormone to the brain and tells the brain that the stomach needs more food. The brain then tells the rest of the body to provide more food. Now, it has been known for some time that proteins keep us feeling fuller for longer. However, until recently, no-one really understood wy this is. In fact, just adding 10% more protein in breakfast cereal can make you feel full for longer.

In the programme, they conducted an experiment with three men who were busy painting the Forth bridge!! Each man was given a comparable breakfast to eat with an identical number of calories. However, man A had a carbohydrate-rich breakfast (he was given more muesli); man B had a fat-rich breakfast (he was given a double cream smoothie and bacon); and man C had a protein-rich breakfast (he had added baked beans and lean ham). Each man was given a pocket computer and asked to rate how hungry they felt - every hour, on the hour - until their next meal. After 4 hours of work they returned their computers and the data was analysed. The results showed that despite only having 10% extra protein, C felt fuller for much longer. This man was also more likely to eat less at lunch time than A or B.

So, why does protein have this effect? Protein releases a hormone called "PYY" that suppresses hunger pangs in the brain. Of all food types, protein triggers more of this hormone than any other food type. So, although it is true to some extent that calories are calories - regardless of where they come from - protein switches off hunger much more effectively than any other type of food.

I posted ages ago about the apparent emphasiss on proteins on some of the American web sites about gastric band surgery. I was curious as to why this was, since they also seem to frown upon carbohydrates in the diet to a degree that is not evident in the UK. I asked around to see if anyone knew why this was and learned that the emphasis on protein was probably aimed at ensuring bandits got enough protein to support the healthy growth of bones, nails, teeth and hair. I had also heard that proteins keep you feeling full for longer but nobody seemed to be shouting this out very loudly. So, I am very interested in this particular lesson because I don't think I do eat enough protein in many of my meals. My provider says our plates should be filled with one quarter protein, one quarter carbs and half veg. However, I bought an American post-gastric banding recipe book where all of the meals in it are primarily protein-based with some veg and fat, and have very little carbohydrate.

I have to work at reducing my carbohydrate intake because many years ago I was a runner, and regularly did carbo-loading before races. My brain is conditioned to think that carbohydrate = energy. In reality, calories are calories - and calories are energy. So energy gained from proteins is just as good as energy obtained from carbs. I need to re-learn this!!