My New Kitchen Scale and Why I Wanted One

I decided to add a kitchen scale to my arsenal of healthy eating and cooking tools. 

The last time I saw a kitchen scale, they were little plastic things with a needle, something like this.

 

When I looked for one online, I discovered that, like everything else, kitchen scales are now sleek-looking and digital. I bought one that looks like this.

Dietitians like to use everyday objects as visual reference points -- three ounces of meat is about the size of the palm of your hand, a medium-sized apple is the size of a tennis ball, and so on. You can find many good guides on the internet, such as this one.

But I am so not a visual person, and I actually find these guidelines difficult to use. I've been trying to keep my guestimates low, but I've been growing curious. How many ounces (or grams) is that chicken thigh, really? 

I also wanted to standardize some of my cooking. For example, my partner I love the energy bites that are featured all over the internet. My standard are these by the Minimalist Baker: dates, peanut butter, dark chocolate, oats, and flax or chia seeds. They're delicious, super nutritious, and give you an amazing energy boost. (They're also vegan and gluten-free if that is important to you.)

I normally just throw ingredients in the food processor without any measuring. But now I want to know how many calories are in one ball, so I can eat one without guilt. So this morning I measured each ingredient on the scale. I looked up the calories for each amount, added them up, and divided by the number of balls. I was so happy and amazed to learn mine had only 80 calories per ball! It's very helpful to know that.

For some people, the scale might help keep you honest, so you're not fooling yourself, eating more than you think. I'm more prone to estimating high -- not allowing myself to eat more. I don't think the kitchen scale is a necessity -- you could definitely succeed on a bariatric diet without one -- but it can be a useful tool.

The Single Most Important Part of Healthy Eating: Preparation

Last weekend was a food-prep weekend for me. I try to do this when I have three days off, so I can spend most of a day (or two half-days) cooking without spending the entire weekend in the kitchen.

The first day I prepped food just for myself. I made:

• tuna salad
• salmon salad
• both from canned fish, stored in portions in muffin tins
• brussels sprouts
• part of my return to eating vegetables I love that my partner doesn't eat
• sweet potatoes
• ditto!
• chicken broth, using healthy bones from truLocal and my Instant Pot
  

The second day I cooked these dinners, to freeze. Each is a double batch, which should be enough for three or four meals, for two people, times two.

• spaghetti and meat sauce
• made with ground bison in one pot, using the Instant Pot on pressure cook -- super easy and delicious
• turkey meatballs
• also pressure cooked
• chicken burrito bowl, made with brown rice
• Instant Pot on slow-cook
• pork tenderloin with honey-garlic sauce
• my first time making this! very easy

I was so pleased with myself!

I have more truLocal meat waiting for another round of cooking. Right now my entire arsenal of Pyrex containers are in use, along with an assortment of repurposed glass jars. Plus four dinners in one morning was my limit. I'll do another round three or four weeks from now. (I also have really nice frozen seafood from truLocal, specifically for quick dinners on days I'm not working.)

All this food-prep reminded me of something I wrote several years ago on another blog. I'm re-posting it here in slightly edited form. 

* * * *

Healthy eating has one cornerstone, one key concept from which everything flows: advanced planning.

You can't eat healthfully without planning in advance. The more you can plan ahead, the more you can control what you eat. The more last-minute and spontaneous your eating, the less healthy it will be.

This applies to whatever manner of healthy eating you're trying to achieve, whether it's cutting down on sodium, fat, white sugar, or processed food, eating less meat, eating more vegetables, or anything else. It all comes down to planning. There are probably exceptions to this, but it's as close to an infallible rule as you'll find.

Here's one small example from my own life. Healthy breakfasts are [were -- at the time I wrote this] an ongoing challenge for me. One healthy breakfast that I like is scrambled eggs with veggies. If I'm going to eat that once or twice a week, I have to remember to put the vegetables I want on the shopping list and -- this is the key -- prep them and put them in containers in the fridge in advance. Without that, it doesn't happen. 

In the morning -- after I exercise, take the dogs out, have my coffee and check my email --  I'm hungry, but I'm also anxious to start my day. If I have to chop onions, wash and slice mushrooms, and wash and slice bell peppers, this healthy breakfast is not gonna happen. But at another time, if I run an onion through the food processor, slice a load of mushrooms, and dice a whole bell pepper, then put them in separate containers in the refrigerator... in the morning, everything is there when I need it. The actual cooking takes only a few minutes.

Not only does this encourage me to eat the better breakfast, it's also much more efficient, since the onion, shrooms and pepper will stay fresh for around two weeks. In fact, it was while I was throwing some already-chopped onions into the skillet, so pleased with myself for having organized this yummy breakfast, that I thought of writing this post.

[You can create an exception to the Advanced Planning Rule if you can afford to buy salads already prepared, lettuce already washed, or vegetables already washed and cut up. This can be very helpful, but still requires some advance planning, as these won't stay fresh as long as whole vegetables.]

To people who are natural planners, the idea that healthy eating requires advanced planning may seem incredibly obvious. But to people who are not naturally inclined to plan ahead or who are resistant to planning, or both, it can be a major obstacle.

If you're accustomed to a lifestyle where you shop weekly with a list, make dinner at home most nights, bring your lunch to work, then planning ahead is so ingrained in your life, you may barely think about it, even though it's something you do all the time.

If your schedule is erratic, or you're constantly pressed for time, if you generally don't think about food until you're hungry, if you have the means to dine out frequently, or any combination of these, planning ahead may seem impossible or undesirable. But you may not realize how much that spontaneity is preventing you from having healthier eating habits.

For many of us, the movement from no or minimal planning to a greater degree of planning occurred with age. In general, young adults plan less, eat more convenience food, are less concerned with nutrition or economizing. But learning how to plan ahead doesn't necessarily come naturally with age. I know lots of people my own age who find it very difficult. I'll bet many planners, like me, have partners whose response to "What do you want to do for dinner tonight?" is "I don't know, I can't think that far ahead."

So I've learned not to ask, just to plan. I take responsibility for planning dinners for the week, because I don't like what happens when I don't. I like efficiency. Even though I'm not the one doing the shopping, I hate needing multiple trips to the same store that could have been avoided with better planning, or getting takeout not because we want to, but because there's nothing in the house to eat.

Flexibility is important. Sometimes when you have a bad or crazy day, the best thing you can do for yourself is to say, "Let's make this chicken tomorrow night, let's get Chinese food tonight." But on a regular basis, if you "can't think that far ahead" to dinner, chances are good that you'll spend more money, eat more, and eat less healthfully than you would have if you had planned. 

If this is an issue for you, like any new habits, you might try starting small: make one change, live with it a while, let it take root as a habit, before adding in another change. If bringing your lunch to work is a stumbling block that you'd like to get past, maybe aim for bringing lunch one day a week. See how that works, then add a second day. Make one dinner in advance, and see if you like the trade-off. 

Eating and Enjoying Real Food; Sustainable Self-Discipline

One of the things that concerned me most about weight-loss surgery was the idea of losing the enjoyment of eating and food. I heard and read that this would not happen, but there's a difference between knowing something in your mind and seeing it in practice in your life. 

Now I am eating. And enjoying. And this is a great relief! For the last 10 days, my partner and I have eaten the same food for dinner almost every night. If we didn't, it was because we got takeout and ordered different things.

"Eat protein first"... not really

Some of this concern was about cooking. All the info on bariatric diets advise you to eat protein first, then vegetables, then if you are able to eat more, a small portion of whole grain or complex carbohydrates. I cook mainly one-pot dishes. Whether soup, stew, stir-fry, sheet-pan, or casserole, the protein, vegetables, and grains are all cooked together. The one exception to this is grilling in the summer. Other than that, I'm combining simple ingredients in various ways. How was that going to work with "eat your protein first"? 

WRD explained that this "rule" really means to make protein the focus of your meal. You want to make sure you are meeting your protein requirements, and if you fill up on carbs, you won't be able to do that. Then why don't they say so?

For a one-pot cook, this means adjusting the ratio -- bumping up the protein, reducing the carbs. That's easily done. I might change the ratio when I'm cooking, or I might do it only when I serve myself. Either way, it's not difficult.

Sustainable self-discipline

Despite the tiny stomach, the bariatric diet still requires discipline and self-control. Although I can't eat a lot at once, I could eat small amounts that would add up to too much. If we're binge-watching something on Netflix, I could easily have a small snack every half-hour, and/or I could snack on the wrong food, filling up on empty calories. It's possible to do.

The difference is that the tiny stomach makes the discipline sustainable, because I'm not hungry all the time, or if I am hungry, a small amount of food is all I need.

When I was doing the pre-op fast, someone mentioned that I was proving that I could modify my eating behaviour. But behaviour modification was never my issue; my long history of dieting demonstrates that! I was overweight because I had consciously given up on dieting, and I was always hungry. Now, because of the surgery, I can eat a very calorie-restricted diet, without being hungry. Sustainable self-discipline.

85% thinking

Using an app to track diet and exercise can really run counter to 85% thinking. Calories eaten, calories burned, calories left to eat for the day... it has the potential to cultivate some very unhealthy thinking. But tracking my intake is really important right now. So I have to do it, and stick to it, but at the same time I have to give myself leeway and not give in to all-or-nothing thinking. It's a challenge!

More Phase 3 Food Prep

I've spent most of the morning preparing food for eating in Phase 3. 

I cooked and prepped these.
- tofu with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce
- chicken breast with Laughing Cow Lite cheese
- white beans with reduced-fat ricotta cheese
- canned salmon with greek yogurt, dijon mustard, and red-wine vinegar
- sweet potato, baked
- white potato, boiled, then pureed with a bit of butter and salt
- and last week, I made lentil soup made with a ham hock

I pureed each one, and transferred portions to either the muffin tin or tiny Pyrex bowls. 

I decided not to add protein powder, in case the cooking and storing breaks down the protein. I'll mix in a teaspoon or two of protein powder as I eat each portion. 

I also have applesauce, canned fruit (which can be pureed or mashed), and baby-food fruit.

We also bought some sugar-free pudding. I normally don't eat such artificial food, but it seemed like a good snack idea. It has almost no flavour, but it's sweet and the texture is nice. I don't think I'll make a habit of this.

I really understand why in Canada, anyone who qualifies for bariatric surgery must first transition to a healthy diet and demonstrate that you can maintain it. I've always said that the first requirement of healthy eating is preparation. If you're not accustomed to planning meals, shopping for what's needed, and cooking in advance, it's not going to work. If you want to eat healthy snacks, they have to be in your fridge or cupboard! 

I've been on board with this for most of my adult life. But for so many people, this means crossing many hurdles and adopting many new habits. If you started that for the first time after your surgery, your chances of success would not be good.

I Can't Stand This Anymore: Moving On to Phase 3

I'm moving on to pureed foods, two days early.

According to the hospital, I'm due to advance to pureed food on Wednesday of this week. From everything I see online, these are approximate guidelines. I cannot stand the liquid diet one more day! It's not the liquid that's getting to me, it's the total lack of variety. I need to taste something other than protein shakes, V8, and plain yogurt. 

The pureed food phase is a bit complicated. In looking for more information, I've discovered an overwhelming number of bariatric recipe sites. Most are like all recipe sites -- loaded with ads, floating video ads, stealth marketing, and the same recipes over and over again.

There are also myriad people advertising their services to be your "bariatric coach". I'm hoping I already have that in the WRD (I've added Wonderful in front of Registered Dietitian), but if I need more support I'm not adverse to finding it online.

Regarding the pureed food phase, there's a lot of conflicting information on what you can and cannot eat. These recipes look yummy, but they contain small amounts of some high-fat ingredients like tahini and blue cheese. I thought those were off-limits.

Do not worry: I'll stick to foods that the hospital says are safe until I can speak with WRD for more clarification. So far this means:

* Pureed tuna, chicken, ground turkey, eggs, tofu, and whole grain hot cereal are all OK. That's plenty to get me started! 

* Serving sizes are 4-6 tablespoons -- and this is supposed to take 20-30 minutes to eat! This will be my single greatest challenge. I eat too fast, and I will have to teach myself how to slow down. Waaay down.

* Food is put in the food processor rather than the blender.

* I'll use a muffin tin to separate and store portions.

* There are some restrictions. At this phase, your stomach is not ready for red meat or for any bread products. And you're not supposed to waste calories on high-sugar food. 

* You're supposed to drink a lot of water between meals, but not with meals. I'm finding the water guidelines challenging.

Here goes! I'll report back soon.