Avoid the "Take-Home-Box" Overload
After you've had the RNY surgery, there is one thing you
immediately begin to notice.. and that's what I call the
"Take-Home Box Overload". This is what happens inside your
refrigerator as a result of you brining home all of those
take-home boxes from restaurants because you cannot finish the
meal. Even prior to surgery, you couldn't often finish the meal
when some restaurants serve such large portions. So packing up
the leftovers after an eat-out meal seems natural to you, so you
do it often.
PROBLEM ONE: The Take-Home Boxes can actually establish huge
neighborhoods inside your fridge!
PROBLEM TWO: You feel you MUST NOT throw all of that food out
because you have been taught from the early days of your crib
that you SHALL NOT WASTE FOOD because of all the starving
children elsewhere who certainly would appreciate the food you
are wasting, right? Frankly, when you heard that guilt-phrase
that was supposed to motivate you to gobble up, didn't you feel
even MORE compelled NOT to finish eating and MAIL your uneaten
portion to those starving children? I never really understood
that philosophy of telling me I better eat because some poor
children don't have enough to eat.... A puzzlement.
PROBLEM THREE: Because of the guilt, you decide that you'll just
"snack" on the food in the take-home boxes. So you snack, snack
again, snack some more, and HOORAY... you've eaten everything in
the box and you didn't waste the food! OH, but you've done
yourself a BAD turn!
Bad turn? How?
Let's consider that the food in that take-home box could contain
1500 to 2000 calories. So what? Well, when you eat those
leftovers, you are consuming those ADDITIONAL 1500 to 2000
calories that you DON'T need in your eating routine...
especially if you eat them as SNACKS and not meals. It is a
DANGEROUS thing to leave those take-home boxes in the fridge
when they scream at you to be consumed. Don't listen to them!
Here's what you need to do instead:
If you truly plan on eating the leftovers as "another meal
portion", then you should wrap them according and place them in
your FREEZER for eating LATER. You know that adage, "out of
sight, out of mind?"... well, this is that basic concept. By
doing this regularly, you'll be able to rotate your frozen meal
portions for a better variety rather than eating the leftovers
time after time. How appealing is it to eat six servings of
chili in a row? It's not... so freeze the portions and eat them
later.
The FREEZER is your solution to curb the "snacking" out of those
take-home boxes. So use it as your new best friend, you new best
meal-planner buddy, and your calorie-saver!
Getting use to the idea of tossing out food is a hard one, but
it's something you have to get used to as well. The dog or cat
will always be there to volunteer to eat what you can't', and
the animals will show you a deeper devotion that ever
imaginable! And your household loved ones often appreciate you
giving them an open invitation to anything they find in the
take-home boxes.
Get a grip on this early so you won't sabotage yourself with
those additional calories that will creep up on you if you fall
pray to snacking or through guilt-eating. As an RNY patient, you
are only to consume a minimal amount of calories anyway.. so
don't fall into the trap of eating more than you need. This
could be a factor as to why you seem to not be losing enough
weight or why you are gaining some back after awhile.
Bottom Line: Take-Home Boxes can be Dangerous... Tame them
before they do you harm!