Week 9: Arriving at a New Almost-Normal

I seem to be naturally segueing into a bariatric diet, meaning a new way of eating that I'll continue for the rest of my life. The frequency of stomach discomfort is way down, at most once or twice per week. I'm finding more things that I can eat. And I'm gradually figuring out how to prepare food for our home -- some for me alone, some for my partner alone, and some for both of us. 

New stuff I'm eating (or not eating)

- I had sushi and sashimi this week. Sushi is one of my favourite foods -- actually it might be my very favourite food at this point -- and it was wonderful to eat it again. Portion size will be a challenge, but on the other hand, I can eat it regularly.

- I also had soup from our local Chinese restaurant, a "house special" wonton soup that they make with bits of roast pork, shrimp, chicken and vegetables. I separate the broth, which keeps the vegetables crunchy and hugely reduces the salt content, as I eat a very minimal amount of broth. 

- After the liquid and pureed phases, I was really missing eating something with crunch. In the past I would get that from raw vegetables -- and yes, the occasional chips -- but both those categories are off-limits right now. This week I started eating the whole-grain (brown) rice cakes that we always have on hand, with a small amount of peanut butter spread on. Healthy crunch!

- I've given up my decades-long habit of having strong black tea in the afternoon. I'm trying to limit my caffeine intake, so I've switched to herbal tea. Previously I've only occasionally gone for herbal tea, but now it's daily. I'm not sure if I can keep this up long-term. I've never liked decaf black tea, but if I could find a good brand, I'd try that. 

- I'm going to try different later-stage foods a little at a time, randomly, as I feel like it. I think as long as I eat slowly, it will be OK.

Things I've learned

Calculating the grams of protein I eat every day has led to some interesting insights. I've always paid attention to nutrition, but as most dieters know, it's also easy to fool yourself.

- We've always eaten a lot of seafood, and I've known that it is very high in protein and sometimes rich in healthy and important fats. Looking at the actual numbers has really reinforced this. Seafood is pure protein, a big bang for your protein buck. We eat tuna and salmon, both fresh and canned, trout, halibut, Pacific cod, scallops, shrimp, and probably a few others. 

 (I often joke that my tuna consumption is turning me into a thermometer. That's the big but of seafood... and why I switched to Skipjack (or "light") tuna, from Albacore (or "white") tuna. Skipjack is also less dangerous to marine mammals that die in driftnets.)

-  I've always thought that hummus is a healthy food and imagined it was rich in protein. Nope! As a spread or dip, it is certainly healthier than mayonnaise or sour cream, but it's not high in protein. Hummus, at least the commercial variety, really doesn't qualify as a protein source at all. 

- Much to my surprise, tofu is not very high in protein either -- nothing like chicken, fish, or meat. You would have to eat a lot of tofu to meet daily protein requirements. I realize that different people have different protein needs, but this partly explains why, when I was a vegetarian, I was so unhealthy.

Cooking for two, or 1.5

My partner and I have never eaten the exact same food, but normally any dinner I would cook would be for both of us. Now this has become a challenge. 

So far, as you may have read, I've been doing advance cooking for him, which we save for the nights he is working. At first these meals were 100% for him. Now I'm including some meals that I can also eat, or eat in a modified way, such as giving myself more meat and less rice. 

I'm also still cooking ahead for myself, and putting portions in muffin tins. This has turned out to be so useful for me, both for portion size and variety, that I want to continue it. 

One positive piece of this is that I'm eating food that my partner doesn't like, foods I had stopped eating at home, because I didn't want to bother making them just for myself. A large sweet potato -- baked until it's completely soft, almost syrupy -- lasts me almost a week. That's just one example of several.

All this has led to a great deal of food prep, and it sometimes feels burdensome, especially when I'm working long hours. This week my partner did a lot of prep for me -- cleaning, chopping, mincing, and leaving everything in tiny pyrex bowls in the fridge. That made a huge difference, but I don't want to make a habit of it. (Well, I'd love to make a habit of it, but I won't.)

This is something I'm going to have to feel my way through and make changes as I go along. In the past, anything I couldn't completely plan out in advance was very challenging for me. I'd feel anxious about having too many unknowns. But these days I'm much better about living with unknowns, and adjusting as needed.

Every day I see evidence of how weight-loss surgery is really a tool for people who already understand nutrition, who have had experience dieting and monitoring their food intake, who are mentally stable enough to deal with a lot of change, and who have support. Without those factors, it would be much more difficult to succeed.