Vacation & my eating habits

We went on a vacation from Feb 12th through 23rd. My husband, daughter, future son-in-law and I got in our new van and drove down to Los Angeles, Yuma (Arizona) and Huntington Beach (Orange County, CA) to visit family and sight see.

During this vacation we ate at restaurants at least once, if not twice every day! This is after I had not eaten in more than two restaurants in the eight months since my GBS surgery (June 3, 2004).

I learned that I really need to do better on my dealing with eating out. I thought I did somewhat OK with meal decisions, but I do admit I probably ate too many starches during the trip. I got very uncomfortable because hubby, daughter and her fiancée all finished eating their meals way before I finished eating. I felt very self conscious because I felt that I was making them waste their time watching me finish eating so slowly. I almost felt like I was eating too much because it was taking so much more time. But that was not the case. I was just eating the same amounts, just slower, because I had to chew so much more thoroughly.

I came up with a list of “Success Strategies” that should help me in the future when dining out (suggestion for other gastric bypass surgery people):
1. Remember to eat slower, chewing each bite thoroughly. Don’t rush yourself even if you are the last one eating at the table!
2. Order foods with more protein (meat, cheese, nuts, etc) and less bread or potato. More veggies are OK, but make sure to get your protein.
3. If you order “normal” portions, plan to not eat everything on your plate.
4. I don’t have lots of self control when faced with some foods. When I ordered a plate that offered potato or French fries, I should have told them just not to give me ANY. If I had done that one night, I wouldn’t have overloaded my tummy. (That night, I threw up because I had too much food inside.)
5. If you order a chef salad or one dish salad meal, ask the waiter to give it to you when they bring everyone else’s salads. That way you won’t be tempted to eat the bread while waiting for the waiter to bring your meal with the other entrees. This is especially important, because then you can be eating on your salad sooner, and you can finish eating sooner. One restaurant we ate at, I did not ask for my Cobb salad with everyone else’s salads, and I ended up eating the bread on the table, and I filled my tummy up before I got to my normal meal.
6. If you get a plate that looks like more than you can eat, it really is a good idea to ask for a take out container BEFORE you start eating. That way you can decide how much you plan to eat before you start. Put the rest away for the next day’s lunch.
7. Best of all, it is a good idea to order from the senior, child’s or a la carte menu to just order a smaller meal. My surgeon gave me a card that I can show to restaurants to certify that I had gastric bypass surgery asking them to let me order smaller portions.
8. One last suggestion – I’ve heard other WLS patients telling me that they never order for themselves. They let their families order, and ask for an empty plate, and they just eat small portions from their family’s plates.
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OK, now, more about the vacation (besides the restaurant eating). Every day, I made sure to do some exercising. We stayed at 3 different hotels during the trip, one in L.A., one in Yuma, and one in Fountain Valley. They all had exercise rooms, in which I made sure to do at least 30 to 40 minutes each day of exercise. (Yuma had the greatest stationery bike! Better than I have at home.) After my morning exercise, I went back to the hotel room, ate/drank my protein shake and did my morning shower.

We did lots of walking during the trip. When at my Mother-in-law’s in Yuma, I walked with some of our group about 5 blocks to a Chinese restaurant. The rest of the group found they needed to drive over (They had medical problems). Boy, all that walking really felt GOOD! I even found one day that I got to work out at the Curves in Yuma! We also walked around shopping areas, plus walked around inside a couple of Arizona State Parks.

I thought I did pretty good in exercise and eating control, but when I got home, my bathroom scale showed that I had GAINED a whole 6 ½ pounds! (up to 191.5 pounds, I was 185.0 before vacation.) Funny thing was, my body fat percentage showed that it had gone DOWN slightly. In retrospect, I think I just didn’t drink enough water during the trip. After a week back at work, back to my good routine, I got back on the scale and saw I had lost those pounds plus a little more (back down to 184.5 pounds). So, I really think it was the amount of water.

So, I’m now back on track. I’m really determined to loose that additional 40 to 50 pounds soon. It would be great if I could loose them by June 3rd – that is the first anniversary of my surgery. That would really be something. (That would make it around 110 pounds in a year! total of 173 in about 2 years.)

So that’s all for this blog entry. Hope my words help someone else out there.

Peace & Love, Sandi H.