Happy Valentine's Day! - 2016

[Alex Brecher 10,516]

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Hey BariatricPal Members! Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a day to Celebrate love. This day may involve a romantic dinner with a special someone, or it could involve some time with friends or a little quality time with yourself. However your Valentine’s Day shapes up, you have the power to make it a healthy and happy one. Maybe this newsletter will help inspire you and give you a few ideas. Here’s what’s in store in this newsletter. A Romantic Dinner: WLS-Approved Relationships and Weight Loss Surgery: Complicated at Best Love Yourself on This Day And if you find yourself needing a little company or a lot of love on Valentine’s Day, just logon to BariatricPal. There’s nowhere better to get an extra boost of motivation and ideas than our friendly community. Enjoy the day! Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder, BariatricPal A Romantic Dinner: WLS-Approved Take a standard Valentine’s Day dinner. For example, you could start with lobster bisque with breadsticks, move on to a filet mignon with mashed potatoes and buttered asparagus, and finish with molten chocolate cake. Wash that down with some wine, and you could be looking at a couple thousand calories. That’s not going to put you in much of a romantic mood for later! A Better Idea What’s better? You can easily trim down each course. Just focus on lean Proteins, vegetables, and portion sizes – just like you already know how! To keep it special, place extra emphasis on high quality ingredients and a beautiful presentation. Here’s a menu that’s low-calorie, high-Protein, and love-inspiring – being so much lower in calories, saturated fat, and carbs than some alternatives, it’ll keep you from feeling guilty about yourself, or too sluggish to enjoy the rest of the night with your sweetheart. Starters: A triple aphrodisiac salad with arugula, pomegranate seeds, and pine nuts. Add some herbed olive oil with basil and garlic, and your salad has five ingredients known to support love. Main Course: Lighten up a carb and calorie-laden Pasta dish by using a spiralizer to make zucchini and carrot noodles. Toss with lobster and some truffle oil for a nice balance of Protein, veggies, and healthy fat. Serve it with a lightened-up version of potato croquettes made with pureed sweet potato and cauliflower, and baked. Dessert: End on a sweet note but not an overpowering one. For around 100 calories a serving, you can top mini crust-less cheesecakes made with fat-free cream cheese with strawberry slices and a drizzle of sugar-free chocolate Syrup.< /li> Décor: a Calorie-Free Treat Today is as a good a day as any to practice some good habits that will help you succeed with WLS. In addition to eating slowly (remember, shouldn’t you be focusing on your company more than your plate?), you can pay a little more attention to your eating environment and a little less attention to your food. To make the setting a little more romantic, try eating off of nicer dishes, using some festive holiday napkins, or eating by candlelight. It really makes the meal more special without adding more calories! Relationships and Weight Loss Surgery: Complicated at Best So much changes when you get weight loss surgery. Your diet clearly changes, but that may be only a small part of many more changes in your life. Along with diet, your daily schedule may change. You may add workouts and become more active. Your entire attitude towards yourself and life may change – and those are the factors that can have the biggest effects on your relationships. Sometimes the changes are positive. Those near you may see how happy and healthy you are, and love you all the more for it. You may find it easier to keep up with other people, and easier to be genuine with them because you are more comfortable with yourself. Other times, relationships can become strained because of WLS. Reassure them that you’re not planning to leave them. Let them know that you don’t think any less of them or think you’re “better” than they are. Invite them to join you on your journey and let them know you’ll support theirs. Do not let anyone devalue you or undermine your efforts. Often, the people who are initially negative will come around. Be patient and accepting of them. Sometimes, you will occasionally lose a friend because of your new healthy commitments. That’s a hard thing to accept, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Try to think of what you’ve gained, such as new friendships, extra self-respect, and new opportunities. Love Yourself on This Day It goes without saying that Valentine’s Day was intended to celebrate your relationship with your significant other. We’re all for it, but we don’t think Valentine’s Day should stop there! Whether or not you have a significant other in your life, you can use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with yourself. Respect and Love Yourself Relationships with others can be rocky, but your relationship with yourself may be even tougher. It can take just as much effort to be satisfied and comfortable with yourself as it takes to establish a solid relationship with someone else. You need to work every day at finding what you love about yourself, feeling the joy in being yourself, and showing yourself that you’re worthwhile. When you’re a weight loss surgery pre-op or post-op patient, there’s the potential for a lot of negative self-talk. You may see physical imperfections, or get mad at yourself for slipping up on your diet. But there is just as much room for positivity. There’s the pride when you make a healthy choice, the joy of participating in new activities, and the excitement of new adventures. You just need to look for the positive signs in yourself, just like you look for the positive things in your loved ones. Treat Yourself – You Deserve It What better way to show yourself a little love than with a treat? No, it doesn’t need to be a box of chocolates. There are plenty of other ways you can treat yourself. What about a new workout top, a few sessions with a personal trainer, or a day at the spa? No worries if a food treat is really the only “treat” that excites you. Invite a friend over to go for a walk and then cook a healthy meal with you, or buy yourself a new spice or foreign ingredient to cook with. You can even invest in some perfectly portioned bariatric dinnerware to help you eat right and remind yourself how far you’ve come at every meal. Valentine’s Day is a day set aside to celebrate love, and there’s no reason to be chintzy! With so many healthy ways to show love to yourself and the close people in your life, there’s no limit to how far you can take your Valentine’s Day festivities, while losing weight at the same time. Happy Valentine’s Day!

[Cervidae 2,389]

Happy Valentine's Day @@Alex Brecher and the rest of you here on BP.

[♥dreamable 189]

Happy Valentines Day!