Question about pancakes

[She Smiles 2]

Tomorrow morning I am going out for Breakfast with 3 girlfriends

[losingjusme 12]

i dunno ... i havent tried to eat pancakes yet (just had 2nd fill yesterday).

they are rather high in calories though. i would stick with eggs and maybe some bacon or sausage - at least you would get some Protein with that.

good luck!

[GayleTX 1]

We eat at I-HOP a lot since I was banded....I can eat eggs, bacon, sausage easily; I usually order a cheese omelette but I can't hold much of it so end up taking it home. I never touch the pancakes, breads, or potatoes because of the carbs. I would be scared to try a pancake, especially in public! Just cut it up a little, stir it around in Syrup and nobody will even notice.

[cammy 0]

The pancake parlour is pure evil!! (but i love it!) They have things on that menu so band friendly you will feel like you haven't even got a band as you clean the plate

I usually get the strawberries & cream pancakes (make it the 1 pancake not 2 and get the cream & ice cream instead of just one or the other - that way if you are tight there is plenty of lube for you & if you leave half your meal it looks liek you've eaten more since you only have one pancake not 2 ~ all meals have 2 pancakes by default but there is a menu option to change to just 1).

The chocolate pancake is like mudcake so if you can do mudcake you can eat it, otherwise just stay away from it - the cherries are canned and the skin & pips can be a bit painful if your tight.

"IT" the banana walnut one goes down soooo easy, again get the one pancake instead of 2 and add the extra ice cream.

For savoury the potato pancake goes down easy but is very very greasy, it comes with a nice side salad that always goes down well i usually eat all the salad and only 1/4 of the pancake - what they call 'fries' DO NOT ORDER - their fries are disgusting dried diced up bits of old potato that wil lhave you begging the porcalin to free you from your agony! Banded friends don't always beleiv e me and they have all lived to regret it pb'ing in the car the whole way home.

Steer clear of the breakfast menu because the portions are rediclous huge, my 6'4" athletic boyfriend can't eat an entire portion there off that breaky menu so that's really saying something! He usually eats 2 items off the regular menu... savoury crepes (they are yum and all that I have tried have been band friendly especially the bolognase ones) and then a desert pancake.

Just drink Water is my tip - all their drinks are loaded with cream and you'll feel crappy all day afterwards and so not worth the weight gain.

I eat pancake parlour in melbourne about once a month (they are all good, eastland doncaster jam factory swarnston st etc.); everybody I know in melbourne loves it. The pancake parlour in surfers paradise is a lot different and i found it disgusting.... i dont know how the same company can own both yet have such different menus and food.

The menu doesn't have pictures in the resteraunt but the website does so to get an idea of how much a serving there is (so you know wha tnot to order) have a look here: http://www.pancakeparlour.com/Menu/menu.html

Have fun!!

[GayleTX 1]

SheSmiles.....please note that Cam's eating practices are those of a bandster who is already at goal and has been for quite some time....you are not....you are a newbie who needs to be pampering your pouch, not stirring up cravings by eating carbs, and definitely not drinking with or immediately after your meal!! You just do what you know to do and don't worry about what your friends may think....you are there for companionship, not an eating festival . Life has now changed for you....you are eating to be healthy, not eating for recreation!!

Be strong and do what you know to do.......and have fun!!!

(BTW....I find it safer to not drink very cold drinks before eating....it tightens the band and makes it harder for food to go where it should when it should. You might try sipping a cup of hot coffee or tea before your meal but let it have time to travel on thru before you begin your meal).

[She Smiles 2]

Gayle, thanks also for your advice and concern

I assure you I have no intention of eating this kind of food as a regular thing (it would probably make me feel ill!!). This is a one off Christmas celebration, and I tried my darndest to try to get them to go somewhere else with better options for me, with no sucess :cry !! But I figured can't live under a rock forever, I've missed so many social events that have been wholly centred around food (BBQs. Xmas lunches, morning teas etc etc) in the past 2 months, I think I am running out of reasons and excuses about why I can't go lol!

I really feel that I am doing all that I can to treat my band with the utmost care, and that is exactly why I thought it might be worth asking if anyone else on this fantastic forum could eat pancakes :huggie: I agree whole heartedly with the no drinking with meals - I have never drank with a meal since my op, my Dr says its a no-no, and thats what goes! However, Australian Dr's seem to have a different attitude to US Dr's as far as carbs go. My Dr actually encourages us to consume a small amount of complex carbs each day, especially if we have gone from doing NO exercise to some (which I have!).

But that said, I think I still might ask for the eggs (that come with a pancake, of course lol), I can always take my friend up on her offer to gobble up the left overs! :hungry:

[cammy 0]

Gayle - I can assure you I don't have an eating festival but food is a positive social experience and shouldnt' be looked upon negatively (can't can't can't only leads to want want want).... we can enjoy food and lose weight/be thin like normal people... food isn't the enemy. I probably eat less calories than most given my weight - please don't think i'm a glutton or encouraging gorging.... I was actually talking about downsizing portions and hiding the fact that you haven't eaten very much. Most people after only 1 fill can eat a lot more than somebody at goal. My advice was totally from aussie thinking, sorry, we aren't all about protien and no-carbs on this side of the world with the band - it's about anything you want to eat in small portions right? Thats what most aussie docs seem to tout and weight loss seems highly successful with this method. Also note Australian portions are nothing like American portions (i lived in the USA for high school... a serving of pancakes here is a much diff erent experience! I remember the stack of face-sized pancakes they used to serve up in ohio - I don't know how anybody ever got through a plate!)...

I don't drink after eating either but generally people get a drink during the half hour or so it takes for the meal to come out.... that's why I was saying just have Water (cause they hide tonnes of organic cream in everything else on the menu). Most docs are reasonable in thier thinking and realise Water goes straight through the band so there is no need to hold off drinking half an hour before eating - just after eating. I don't drink for at least an hour (and the 1st year I was banded 2hrs).

Have fun at your Breakky - we started out about the same weight at banding with the same goal - i'm sure you'll do just great

[She Smiles 2]

Thanks Cam. I hope I have as much sucess with my band as you!

[Jachut 487]

Oh god, drooool, I havent had an IT in about 20 years. Mmmmmmm.

I can eat pancakes, VERY slowly and just one. I have it with just a bit of maple Syrup when I make them for the kids, skip the butter.

I'd actually say that bacon is more fattening than a plain pancake, but then I'm the lone carb crusader on this board, lol. I will never ever ever give up carbs and I'm nearly at goal so if you like pancakes, one in a while wont hurt you.

However - if you're very newly banded and never eaten them banded before, you're braver than I am to try them for the first time in public. I would actually cook myself one prior and test it out. I've always handled all bread and the like fine, but it can block me up and cause a bit of discomfort if I hoe in too fast.

And I actually agree TOTALLY with Cam. Its not all about deprivation and saying no to everything, its about learning to handle and live with food and conquer your emotional reactions to it. Its like worrying about wasting what you cant eat in a restaurant - the healthy, functional thing is to simply not care about what you dont eat, waste is waste, whether you shove it in when you're not hungry, take it home and eat it when you can fit it in, go through elaborate processes to be able to order and pay for smaller portions etc. The aim is to just not care, not come up with a way to make that food worth the money you paid for it.

And in the same vein, its not all about sticking to a program for the rest of your life, its about being able to go out to eat, ordering what you genuinely fancy and being able to eat it till you're satisfied and then stop, not pig out and not eat for the rest of the day or do 20 hours of exercise to make up for it, or really wanting the pancake, but having the eggs and going home and eating cake when you should have just had the pancake in the first place.

All of us like different levels of discipline and like to diet in different ways but for me, I just think the thing is not to "diet" at all. I havent found the band to be about dieting, I've found it to be a tool that's helped me achieve those attitudes I've just mentioned.

[juliegeraci 7]

I can't eat pancakes. Hopefully you can.

[She Smiles 2]

Well the pancake eating went fine!!! I ordered one buckwheat pancake (which I only ate 2/3 of) which had a small slice of bacon and a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce on it (evil, I know, but it was a treat!). I ate really slowly and teensy tiny bites, just in case. All my friends ordered the same meal, but with 2 pancakes and 2 eggs and they ate the whole thing. It felt so good not being my usual piggy self (like I was preband) and had food left on my plate and felt FULL :clap2:

Then I came home and went for a big bicycle ride a couple of hours after