Have You Tried...

...Panera Bread's "hidden menu" options?  I heard about this just the other day, and went to Panera this afternoon to give it a try.  Their hidden menu is available nationwide, at every Panera Bread location, and all you have to do is say "I'd like to order from the hidden menu" when you place your order. 
The options they offer in the hidden menu seem to be very friendly to sleevers, and probably would be great for any bariatric surgery patient who is back on a normal-food diet.  High protein/low carb is the common trend across each item.

Today, I tried the Power Chicken Hummus Bowl.   In a bowl large enough to be called a "vat" came a beautiful meal!  Baby spinach, sliced chicken breast, diced tomato, slices of cucumber, red onion, and a zingy hummus made with jalapeno and cilantro (I've never seen green hummus before, but it was delicious), finished with half a lemon that you can squeeze over the bowl, and two little packets of extra-virgin olive oil.  I didn't use the EVOO but I didn't really need it; the meal was absolutely perfect from beginning to end.

Since I'm still pre-op, I was able to eat almost all of the dish and only needed a little help from my daughter to polish it off. I would guess that after sleeving, I would have PLENTY to take home and eat the following day.  I highly recommend checking out the hidden menu at Panera; they also have two breakfast options, and three other lunch/dinner selections.  I'll definitely be taking advantage of this restaurant-dining option, pre- and post-sleeve!

Here's a link where you can check out the hidden menu for yourself.  Let me know if you try it out; and what you think! 

Saturdaze, and the Living is Easy.

I love love love the weekends.  It's my unwind/de-stress/de-tox from the week time.  I sleep late--one of the joys of having two teenagers is that they love sleep almost as much as I do; gone are the days of 7:00 a.m. "Mommmmmm, I'm hungryyyyyy" calls from the living room. 

The weather here has finally realized it's spring, and today the sky is a brilliant Wedgwood blue.  It's the kind of day that makes you happy to be alive. At least until you realize there's a mound of laundry big enough to be best friends with Marjory the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock.  Sigh.  Looks like the only other colors I'll be staring at today will be the ones in the laundry basket, while I separate them from the whites.  Wheee!

I don't know how often you've wandered through the blog-o-verse, looking for WLS blogs, or blogs about healthy eating, but so far I've found two that I am head-over-bellyflab in love with.  I thought I'd pass them along, in case you might find them interesting, too. 

One, called The Waning Woman, is a journal of one sassy Texan lady's progress with her gastric vertical sleeve surgery (the same operation I'm gearing up for).  I absolutely LOVE her writing style; she tells it like it is with sass and humor and good grace, whether the scale does what she wants every day or not.  Reading her blog is what inspired me to start this one.  (And I mean that once I read her first entry, I could NOT stop reading until I finished every entry--from 2010 till 2013.  It's THAT good.)  Go check her out!

The other of my favorites so far is The World According to Eggface.  Shelly has the classic gastric bypass; the one most people probably think of first when they hear "weight loss surgery".  Her experience with living post-op has led her to create her blog, with tons and TONS of healthyyummyeasy recipes suitable for weight loss surgery patients.  I want to hurry up and get to post-op solid food eating LIKE RIGHT NOW, so I can start trying her recipes on my sleeve! (Patience was never my strong suit, but come on, you go look at her food photos and try telling me your mouth doesn't start waterin'.)

I'm so grateful for these resources, along with the Vertical Sleeve Talk forums--they have already helped me to envision a life after surgery.  Despite my periodic fears and neurotic worries about the entire thing, I find a lot of comfort in the knowledge that every step of the way, I have no reason to feel like I'm struggling on my own.  Someone--in fact, LOTS of someones--has been down a similar path, and they are incredibly willing to offer the wealth of their experiences with new people.  It's pretty damn inspiring.  Oh, and if you're not a sleever, but you're maybe a gastric bypass or lapband patient, there's forums for you too!  Start at MyBariatricPal and you can find your specific procedure's forums from there.

That's really the reason for this blog.  I'm hoping to not only put my thoughts and emotions "out there" to help me work through 'em; I would LOVE for my ramblings to offer support and solutions for anyone else who is also working their way to better health through WLS. 

So, in the interest of casting information as widely as possible, imma share a video that I saw yesterday on the Waning Woman's blog.  It's about an hour long--I know, but I promise, it's WORTH IT--and it will turn a blazing spotlight on the way our bodies really work when it comes to weight gain and weight loss.  Please watch it, and share it along to your friends, too!

Watch 10 Things You Need To Know About Losing Weight on PBS. See more from KPBS Presents.