Holidays with Lap-band Surgery...Who has been naughty and nice?The holiday season is here and that means a lot of temptation. The great thing about weight loss surgery is seeing patients, as I have this last week, after the Thanksgiving season, and they have lost or maintained weight. For many, this is the first time in years. But they are often surprised... ...They are surprised because they feel as if "they cheated," they had something they should not have, and it was a holiday. But they didn't. What they did do was that the vast majority of the time they did the thing that they normally do: Watch portions never eating more than a given amount
Avoid snacks, but if unable to avoid them, plan for them
Making sure to take a good walk after a meal instead of sitting down
Eating healthy
Simple things. By changing lifestyle for the vast majority of the time, eating healthy foods -- when holidays come they do not mean you are "falling off the wagon," but they do show that incorporating the lifestyle of the surgery into the holiday allows them to enjoy the holiday -- feel as if they are cheating, and still either lose or maintain weight. The holiday is one or two days, not thirty -- and by having a new lifestyle with the operation, it allows you to enjoy the holiday, not feel guilty, and know that one or two days does not destroy the work you have done for the rest of the month. Did you know that there is a medical condition associated with holidays? It is called Holiday Heart. This is when people take in too much salt, eat too much food, drink too much alcohol and the heart goes into congestive heart failure. Moderation, in holidays as well as the rest of the year, is the key to making a holiday season a happy one, and not one for your kids to say "Gee that is when mom (or dad) had the first heart attack." Holiday eating with Lap-band surgery...TIPS Here are a few tips to remember when being invited to a holiday party: Eat the good stuff first -- the protein and the vegetables. Do not graze on the cookies, the candy, or the nuts. Instead focus on the healthy food. When you are satiated with the healthier foods it is a lot easier to say no to the junk food
Give yourself a calorie budget. If you are going to a holiday party, most of the time you know what the calories are involved in the foods presented: Did you know one small handful of almonds is 164 calories of which 74% is fat? Or that two carmel chews are 174 calories in two of them -- 44% sugar and 52% fat? Or one ounce of the traditional chex mix is 130 calories and 67% is high glycemic index carbohydrates. Contrast that with 1/2 a breast of roasted chicken (about 3 ounces by weight, not volume) and that is 142 calories and 79% protein. Or one small carrot which is just 21 calories.
Know the high fat items. Often people eat the high fat items without realizing it. The offenders are typically dressings. While that small carrot stick has just a few calories the ranch dressing you put on it is almost all fat. When most folks are eating the carrots and celery, they are loading them with ranch dressing -- one tablespoon is 80 calories and 94% fat. Most people take about three carrot slices and one tablespoon of dressing.
Watch the liquid calories. One cup of egg nog is 343 calories (to work off that beverage you would have to lift weights in a gym for four hours). The Starbucks eggnog latte 470 calories.
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