The Perfect Band Food

Actually, the perfect food, period.

I'm talking about bay scallops, those sweet, tiny little gems that are in season from November to March. Four ounces of bay scallops have 70 calories, half a gram of fat and 23 grams of protein. By comparison, three ounces of beef tenderloin adds up to 179 calories, 8.8 g fat and 23.6 grams of protein.

I just finished some delicious Nantucket Bay scallops for dinner. Yummmm.

However. The effects of latkes and assorted desserts from the Hubs's family's Hanukkah party has registered on my scale. Blech.

The race continues toward Christmas and New Year's...

I Am Officially Powerless

... Over Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Cannot have them in the house.

Still a Learning Process

I got cocky. I've been able to eat a lot of things, in very limited quantities, and I pushed things too far last night with some pork tenderloin. Oh, how I paid for that. It was the first time in a long time I spent an evening sitting next to the toilet, flipping through catalogs.

What a bummer, because pork tenderloin is lean and packed with protein. (Also, I spent all day preparing it, along with roasted potatoes, fennel, carrots and parsnips.)

On the positive side, we had my in-laws over for dinner, but I didn't get sick until after they had left and we'd put the kids to bed. Thank goodness for small blessings.

The scale isn't exactly rocketing down, even though I'm focusing on solid protein and I've noticed a real reduction in the amount I can eat. I'm still 4-5 pounds away from being under 200, which I've been for about three months now. Sigh.

Patience, Padawan.

Hunger? What's That?

Life is busy and I'm in the thick of the holiday whirlwind, but my band totally has my back right now. I am rarely hungry, and I've been eating mostly when my stomach starts to growl or I feel light-headed.

You might think I've lost a lot of weight, but let's not lose our heads here. I'm on the s-l-o-w boat to China plan.

But 204.4 this morning isn't bad. As long as it keeps going in the right direction.

In the meantime, I'm waiting until the last possible moment to bake Christmas cookies, and trying to dodge the cakes/pies/candies that try to sneak into my house this time of year.

S C O R E ! ! ! (Sort of.)

The good news is, I made it through Thanksgiving with a weight loss, according to my doctor's chart. (I've now lost 6.5 pounds since Saturday night's weigh-in, which obviously was almost all fluid.)

The bad news is, these pounds have been lost before, so no new territory yet. But I do feel like I'm getting on a roll, and that's a good feeling.

I saw a how-to-lose-weight thing on a friend's Facebook page. It's written by a guy blogger, so there's some bad words and whatnot, but I think it has some good reminders for us banded folk. Take a look.

Performance Anxiety

I have a regular checking-in appointment tomorrow with my surgeon. The three pounds I gained over Thanksgiving are gone (and thanks for your comforting words during my freak-out).

But I'm at the same weight I was at the last appointment. Ugh, what was I thinking, making a weigh-in appointment less than a week after Thanksgiving? What was I thinking???

I won't be asking for a fill or an unfill at this appointment. I think I'm at a good place with restriction, and my food intake isn't bad if we're not talking about the day before, day of and day after Thanksgiving. So I'm going to stay the course.

I also think I probably won't be running the NYC Half marathon. The Team in Training director told me the event is oversold and there's a strict three-hour time limit on the course, which means once they hit three hours everyone has to get off the course (quit) no matter how close to the finish line you are. That's a 13-14 minute mile, which is incredibly slow but I'm pretty sure I'm not even that fast. So I'm looking at the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll in June, but only doing the half. I don't have a full marathon in me right now.

Hoooo Boy

I'm up 3+ pounds. Yeowch!

The Dish on Per Se

You know how you're going along living your life, doing your thing, and then something triggers a realization and all of a sudden you think, "My God. I am a grownup." (Or is that just me?)

I had one of those moments last week at dinner at Per Se. I was dressed up, sitting in front of a wall of windows overlooking Columbus Circle, being served wine after wine, butter after butter and six different kinds of salt.

Backstory: Hubs' business partner is a foodie and all-around lover of deliciousness. The partners recently renewed their undying love for each other with an updated partnership agreement, so he took us and another partner and his wife to Per Se to celebrate.

The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center, a gorgeous new(ish) building that houses ridiculously expensive apartments, a Mandarin Oriental hotel, a shopping mall and Time Warner headquarters. It's already decorated for Christmas.



The food was amazing, the chef's tasting menu included a bit of everything from oysters to beef. But the thing I loved most about the dinner was the perfect tone of the service. Every single person there was warm and welcoming and full of information if we asked but didn't go on and on and on about how the hog who discovered this particular truffle comes from a long line of award-winning swine in the whatever region of Italy where truffles are found. Our waiter was sweet and accommodating, and my water glass was never empty.

Per Se's chef, Thomas Keller, made his name when he opened the French Laundry restaurant in California wine country.

My favorite touch in the decor was something I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of: the frosted glass shades on the light fixtures all have three symbols etched in them, one on top of the other. When I asked about them, the waiter explained they are the international symbols for laundry, a clever reference to the chef's California restaurant.

I can't remember half of what I ate, but band-wise it went beautifully. I had a bite or two of each course (each serving was the perfect size meal for bandsters; unfortunately, there were nine of them).

Here's the fish:

There really were six kinds of salt served at one point, and the waiter told us about each one but by that time I'd had a few glasses of wine and all I remember is that one of them was from Pakistan. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back they were gone and another course was on the table. So I totally missed out on the Pakistani salt.

It was a great night, with fun company and good conversation and awesome wine and fantastic food that I wouldn't even begin to know how to cook. They even sent us home with cookies.

I felt good about being there. A year ago, I would have dodged the invitation or gone and felt so self-conscious that I couldn't really enjoy it. I'm not thin by any stretch, but I felt good and comfortable and able to relax and enjoy myself. For that, I'm incredibly thankful.

I'm also grateful for all your support and kindness and friendship. You guys rock. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
(My husband cannot have his picture taken without making a crazy face. In that regard, he's still four years old.)

Per Se or Bust

I think my band reads my blog.

Ever since my Frustrated post, things have been pretty good. No more PB's, no more trouble eating my morning Zone bar (s l o w l y). In fact, yesterday I had no interest in food at all. Believe me, that's worthy of a mention.

The scale is moving in my favor; this morning I had my lowest weight since October 15, which was a boost to my spirits. Thanks so much for all your comments on my last post, I appreciate your thoughts. I'll keep monitoring things between now and my next appointment in two weeks. Then I'll see if I need an unfill or if I should keep trucking with what I have.

Tonight we're going to an uber-fancy dinner in New York with the Hubs' business partners. One of the partners is a total foodie, and I would follow that man to the ends of the earth, at least as far as food and wine are concerned. I've never not loved somewhere he's picked, so I'm excited for tonight. Particularly since it seems like I should be able to eat dinner without too much trouble.

I'm planning to wear the purple aubergine dress from Chicago, but my arms are still in a bad way so I'm heading out now to see if I can find a wrap or something to hide them. Wish me luck.

Frustrated.

My band and I aren't getting along. I can't figure out if it's too tight or not tight enough or if I'm just expecting too much, but I'm frustrated.

At my last doctor visit, I told my surgeon I was frustrated. My weight loss has been stalled for at least a couple of months now, and I'm tired of trying to figure out how much fill gets me into the 'green zone.' The variance in how much restriction a particular fill level gives me on one day vs. another just serves to complicate matters further. Dr. M said, "You're right on schedule, for both the stall and the frustration." Which made me feel better; it was good to hear that a lot of his patients hit a rough patch at this point and I'm not alone in this.

I know some of you can't eat solids until the afternoon, but I've always found that difficult to get used to. I need something solid in the morning, and for most of the 10 months since my surgery that's been a Zone bar. It's fast, easy, tastes good, and has lots of protein. I start my day with a cup of hot tea, and then have my bar an hour or so later. I'm having trouble with my mid-morning Zone bar, and that bothers me.

I made chicken salad with Greek yogurt and grapes yesterday, and even though I put it through the food processor and added lots of yogurt so it would be really moist, I can only have a couple of bites. Problem: I'm still hungry. It's not a mental, I still want to eat thing. I'm actually still hungry.

I've been having lots of black bean soup, which is high in protein and fiber (and giving me all kinds of gas, isn't that lovely). Last night I had a little chicken salad, a steamed artichoke (more fiber! and gas!) and a few breadsticks (the Italian style kind, really long and thin and crunchy).

This morning I had my tea and a Starbucks orange mango smoothie (260 cal., 2g fat, 15g protein, 5g fiber). I was able to drink it, but s-l-o-w-l-y.

I haven't had a meaningful weight loss since early September, and that was really because I was dehydrated and then I got an unfill and gained a few pounds back. I weighed 206 this morning. I also weighed 206 on September 9th. It's been bouncing around a couple of pounds since then, which is all the more frustrating because I've been eating decently, not relying on sliders.

Grrrr.