Cream of Turkey Soup

From Low Carb Recipes this is a quick and healthy way to use some of your left over Thanksgiving Turkey. Use for Days 1 & 2 of the 5 Day Pouch Test.

Ingredients:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
10 ounces cooked turkey, finely shredded (discard skin)
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh tarragon
1/2 cup heavy cream
Croutons (optional)

Directions:
Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottom pan, then add the onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add the turkey to the pan with 1 1/2 cups of the stock.

Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool, then transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Add the remainder of the stock and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the tarragon, then pour the soup into a tureen or individual bowls and add a swirl of cream.

Garnish with croutons if desired.

Serves 4. Per serving: 420 calories, 24 grams protein, 33 grams fat (20 saturated) and 6 grams carbohydrate.

Spicy Cranberry Sauce in Pinot Noir

Did you receive our LivingAfterWLS Recipe of the Week on Sunday? (If not, subscribe by entering your email address in the Free WLS Newsletters box on the left.) It was all about cranberries. Well, Elise over at Simply Recipes presents a great cranberry sauce using a Pinot Noir as the simmering base. Her food blog is one of my favorites, though not weight loss surgery oriented. She is all about good food with family and friends and you will often find her father and children included in the meal preparation. And, her photography is gorgeous, as you can see in this picture.

Recipe: Spicy Cranberry Sauce in Pinot Noir

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (about 8 ounces)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 cups Pinot Noir or other dry red wine
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
Large pinch of Chinese five-spice powder

1 Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add cranberries and fresh ginger; stir until cranberries begin to burst, 3-5 minutes.

2 Add wine and sugar; boil until mixture is reduced to 2 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes.

3 Add crystallized ginger, curry powder and five-spice powder.

Serve sauce cold or warm. Makes 2 1/2 cups.

Cranberries are a nutritional powerhouse - no longer jellied in sugar and shoved to the back of the dark pantry. Cranberries in all their glory are believed to be a potent cancer fighter, effective in slowing aging, contribute to dental health, reduce the risk of some heart disease and helpful in the prevention of peptic ulcers.

For more cranberry recipes visit Simply Recipes Cranberries.

Word of Thanks

Dear LivingAfterWLS Friends:

Just a word of thanks for all your support, prayers and kindness over the last few weeks. As many of you know my father has been critically ill and on Monday underwent open heart surgery to replace an artificial aortic heart valve which has given him life since 1969. Yes, 1969. Remarkable. He now has a new artificial valve and is responding well. Your thoughts and prayers are deeply appreciated.

To read more: Kaye's Prayer Request to the Neighborhood

My best to each of you in this season of giving thanks,
Kaye Bailey

Hunger is NOT an Emergency

Just this week I had a breakthrough moment when I read that naturally slender people do not treat hunger as an emergency. “Most of us who struggle with extra pounds tend to view hunger as a condition that needs to be cured – and fast,” writes Judith S. Beck, PhD, author of the Beck Diet Solution. “If you fear hunger, you might routinely overeat and avoid it,” she says adding, “Thin people tolerate hunger because they know hunger pangs always come and go, buying them some time.”

Hunger defined: the painful sensation caused by a lack of food that initiates food-seeking behavior.

Learn More: Understanding Hunger, Appetite and Satiety

Hunger is not an emergency. Interesting, don’t you think? Since publishing the 5 Day Pouch Test I’ve received tremendous feedback. Some people are amazed to not feel hungry, even on those difficult first two days. Others report “climbing the walls” hunger. I believe each of us responds differently to the 5DPT and there are certainly extremes between lack of hunger and ravenous hunger.

Here are some tricks for learning to treat hunger the way slender people do – a condition that comes and goes.

- Drink water or flavored water to curb hunger pangs.
- Ignore the hunger and acknowledge that you will survive.
- Establish a predictable and consistent eating schedule so your body becomes accustomed to when you will eat.
- Eat protein first thing in the morning and again at lunch and dinner.
- Minimize visual cues that trigger hunger pangs (avoid/ignore media advertising, place snack foods in closed cupboards, avoid the office break room, etc.)
- Take a brisk walk before giving in to hunger (this will rev your metabolism).

Finally, just as hunger is not an emergency, it is also not a failure. If you feel hunger during the 5 Day Pouch Test then take one of the steps above to ignore it. And if you are still hungry then eat something from the approved list of foods for the day. Associating hunger with feelings of failure often leads to destructive eating and inappropriate food choices. The 5DPT is a powerful tool and a great step toward building a better relationship with food and your weight loss surgery.

Learn more about the 5 Day Pouch Test and get back your surgical weight loss tool.

Feed the Carb Monster Soup

New on the 5 Day Pouch Test - Feed the Carb Monster soup recipes. Learn why these recipes work to help break carb cravings and facilitate weight loss.

Black Bean Soup
Beans and Barley Soup
Lentil and Barley Soup

Soups for the 5 Day Pouch Test: Days 1 & 2

Thanksgiving Desserts for Surgical Weight Loss

Have you started planning your Thanksgiving menu? In just two short weeks we'll be carving the great American turkey and giving thanks for life's bounty.

Desserts always present a special challenge as we try to follow our weight loss surgery dietary guidelines, but also desire to participate in family rituals and traditions of Thanksgiving. Today I opened my treasured Neighborhood Cookbook and found this great recipe for pumpkin pie that works just fine for all those who will be seated at my table. I hope it will find a spot on your holiday menu. The Neighborhood Cookbook is a collection of recipes from our Neighborhood - Real cooks living real lives and doing their best with weight loss surgery.

Kabuki's Sugarless Pumpkin Pie
Page 155 - Neighborhood Cookbook

This is a fine substitute for traditional pumpkin pie. If you truly want to go low carb omit the crust and serve as pudding.

Ingredients:
1 pre-baked pie shell
2 small boxes sugar free vanilla instant pudding
2 cups milk
2 cups plain canned pumpkin
1 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Blend all ingredients using a wire whisk until smooth. Pour into baked pie shell and chill until serving. May serve with a dollop of lite whipped topping or freshly whipped heavy cream.

Serves 8. Per serving: 178 calories, 4 grams protein,8 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 23 grams carbohydrate and 2 grams dietary fiber.


If you have the Neighborhood Cookbook consider these Sensible Dessert recipes this holiday season:

Chocolate-Almond Macaroons (page 150)
Gingerbread Cake (page 152)
Macadamia White Chocolate Dessert (page 158)
Pumpkin Mousse (page 161)

To order you cookbook Click Here. It's on sale now for $18.00 and comes with your choice of a free gift!

When Surgery Does Not Work

Published in the October 2, 2007 You Have Arrived Newsletter

Thoughts From Kaye
When the surgery doesn't work

When someone is frustrated with their surgical weight loss, perhaps by a plateau, complications or even weight gain, I often hear the words of despair, "I guess I'm just one of those who the surgery is not going to work for." Early in my weight loss surgery work I thought this was a false statement, perhaps even a cop-out. But lately I have come to understand that it is, collectively, a true statement: Weight loss surgery does not work for the patient, any patient. What? How can so many patients thrive with weight loss surgery and so many others struggle? Consider this:

The surgery does not work for the patient; the patient works for the surgery.

The surgery does not make our food choices.
The surgery does not drink our water.
The surgery does not do our exercise.
The surgery does not chose to follow or break the rules.

The patient makes the choices; the patient works for the surgery.

In our pre-op counseling we nod our heads and agree to the weight loss surgery incantation, "surgery is only a tool." I don't know about you, but I secretly hoped that surgery was going to be, after all, the easy way out. Turns out, it was just a tool.

A tool is a device used to accomplish a task. Consider a carpenter at his workbench with his tools. Before him is a saw, a hammer, wood, a measuring stick and nails. All tools of his trade. The carpenter could stand before his tools and yearn for the tools to craft a magnificent treasure box. But the tools will not work on yearning alone. The carpenter must select the correct tool for the task and then work for that tool using it to the best of his capability to craft the magnificent treasure box. The carpenter works for the tools, the tools do not work for the carpenter.

And so it goes with our weight loss surgery tool. Yearning and desire will not cause the tool to craft the treasure of a new healthy body. The tool will not work on hope alone. As owners of this powerful weight loss surgery tool we become stewards to work for it, to pursue our greatest potential through knowledge, practice and personal responsibility. We must use the tool as a device to accomplish a task. When we start taking responsibility for working the tool our chances for success increase tenfold.

It is true, the surgery does not work for me. I work for the surgery.

Riding the Train of Thought to Pleasantville

Previously Published Friday, July 13, You Have Arrived Postcard Club

Do you ever catch yourself panic thinking? Like today - Friday the 13th? Something like, "It's friday the 13th and what if I get in a car accident on the way to work and what if I'm unconscious and what if they can't find my wallet and what if they don't know my blood type and what if... what if... what if?" Oh yes, I've been a victim of my own out-of-control imagination and I bet you have as well. What confuses me is unless I'm playing "What if I win the lottery?" my "what if" thinking is almost always catastrophic, seldom favorable.

So today I'm turning a new leaf. I'm walking in the path of the black cat and I'm opening my umbrella indoors. Ok, maybe not indoors but perhaps under the awning! My what if thinking today will be positive with nary a trace of catastrophe. Here I go:

- What if I make it to work safely five minutes early?
- What if my boss notices I'm at work early?
- What if I follow my food plan and feel good about myself for doing so?
- What if my boss says I can leave early because of my timely arrival?
- What if I use that time for an extra push at my workout and feel good about myself?
- What if I go clothes shopping and everything fits the first try?
- What if I say "Thank you" when someone offers me a compliment instead of declining the compliment.

You get the idea! So I'm offering this Friday the 13th challenge to you. Turn those "What if" statements around and put that train of thought on the rails to Pleasantville! Don't get off the train at Catastrophe Station - Keep on riding till the sun sets on the best "What if Friday the 13th" ride you've ever had the good luck to enjoy!

Cheers!
Kaye