Archive | July, 2008

A Lesson in Distraction (and a Recipe!)

4 Jul
 

I learned soon after surgery that I needed things to replace food. I’d used food when I was bored, needed comfort, wanted to celebrate…etc etc. Every emotion seemed to be a trigger to eat. Once I decided that I wanted more out of life, I realized that I needed activities to replace all of that emotional eating. Origami was something that I found could use as a distraction when I had those feelings to eat out of boredom or anxiety. It was complicated enough that it kept my brain occupied, but left me with a sense of well being when I finally figured out a particularly difficult pattern. The panther above was one that I tried multiple times before figuring out the way it all came together. Seeing the final product gave me a sense of satisfaction that no piece of fatty, sugary cake ever did.
That’s not to say I gave up loving to cook. Once again, “necessity is the mother of invention” and I needed to invent. When I really was hungry, I still wanted things from my old life from time to time. But much like origami distracted me from eating when I didn’t really need food, playing kitchen scientist brought me creations that distracted me from going for their less healthy counterparts. Case and point: Pancakes. I love pancakes. But when you think about what’s in the average pancake (flour, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, baking soda, butter…) there isn’t really much in the way of good nutrition. Add to that the fact that RNY patients are required to eat AT LEAST 50 grams of protein a day, and I couldn’t really afford to waste the little bit of food I could eat at each meal on something carbohydrate laden. It was when a fellow patient mentioned that she had made pancakes using cottage cheese that I got thinking. Thus, the ricotta-cake was born!

Light, fluffy, and a completely suitable meal for anyone. If I had never explored, I never would have known that a pancake with only 2 tbsp. flour could taste so wonderful.

Ricotta-Cakes
1/2 cup light ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour or almond flour (multi-grain pancake mix works too)
teaspoon or two of oatmeal if you want some more texture
1 tsp. vanilla
Flavorings/toppings of your choice: fresh fruit, cinnamon, other extracts, sugar-free flavored syrups, peanut butter, cocoa powder…etc.

Cook them as you’d cook regular pancakes. They’re a little more difficult to flip, so keep them small and you’ll have an easier time. The above recipe makes a serving of 3-4 small pancakes, but it is certainly filling and full of protein. I personally like a little bit of peanut butter and banana with mine.

The ricotta pancakes were one of my first experiments after surgery. Cooking it and variations on it made me realize that I didn’t have to give anything in my life up, I simply had to reinvent things and improve the nutrition. A lesson and a distraction all in one.

Mangia bene!

The Inevitable "Welcome" Post

2 Jul

Hello and welcome! I have finally decided that having all of my blogs in different places is far too confusing, so I decided to consolidate. While I love sports, cooking, and origami, there’s so much more I’d like to share with you, so stick around and enjoy.

So first, a little about me. My name is Neen and I live in Virginia with my boyfriend and our Sheltie, Dioji. I recently moved here from Boston after deciding that 1.) I couldn’t stand the gray and 2.) there were several occasions during the winter when I was tempted to call into work “cold.”
I work at a wonderful research library in Washington, DC where I get to read a lot of great (and some very crazy) scholarly essays. I have the pleasure of wonderful colleagues, and tea time every day at 3:00pm.
Outside of work I enjoy swimming, singing, writing, folding origami, arguing about sports with anyone who will listen, and turning my kitchen into a science lab. While I’ve always loved most of those things, recent years have brought me a greater appreciation for many things in life. The reason why is one that, until recently, I have rarely been up front about. Four years ago as of this past April, I had RNY gastric bypass surgery. I was 280lbs, unhappy, and clueless as to how to change my lifestyle. I’d tried every diet from slim fast to south beach to weight watchers. My problem was that as soon as I slipped, I’d believe it was all over and give up. It was a constant cycle of gaining and losing weight that I was desperate to break. I often wondered where the former competitive swimmer had gone. I’d never been very fast, but I could hold my own in an endurance race. There I was though, near the end of my freshman year, a complete mess. For one reason or another, I’d gotten completely out of control and wondered if there was anywhere to turn. There was.
April 28, 2004 Dr. Robert Quinlin performed RNY gastric bypass surgery on me. Following that, my life changed completely. I realized that I had to completely re-learn how to eat. That meant starting from scratch. For one week, I could only have clear liquids, then it was a week of full liquids, followed by a month of pureed foods, and then finally a stabilization phase which introduced solid foods very slowly. I had to focus on getting in as much protein as I could when I could only have about 4oz. of solid food before I felt full. But it worked. During that first year I often wondered if this would really be the thing that made me lose the weight for good. The reduced stomach capacity and bypassed intestine was just a tool. I had to make the decision to live the lifestyle permanently.
What really convinced me to stick with it in the long run were all the things I could do that I wouldn’t have been able to do at 280lbs. I climbed the tower of Pisa, I traveled all over England via train and my legs, I bought a dress from Banana Republic, I ran around Amsterdam with my boyfriend, I moved into three different apartments (without movers to do the lifting!), I danced at a foam party in Mexico, and so SO much more.
In four years, I’ve had my ups and downs, but what I really want to show you is what I’ve learned. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” so they say. The habits that I’ve cultivated since surgery have allowed me to stick to my new lifestyle in a truly healthy way. Hopefully, this blog will help me share those lessons, and I hope that my “inventions” will inspire your own.
 

 

 

 

 

 

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