Sunday, February 28, 2010
Dreams of Blueberry Pancakes on a Sunday morning... ahhhhhh.
I grew up in Vermont - world center for maple syrup production. Just to give you an inkling of how proud Vermonters are of their maple syrup and how much they love it, in March and April when the syrup is made, folks have Sugar on Snow parties. The main dish is maple syrup boiled to a thick syrup and poured over a big bowl of fluffy pure snow; the coldness instantly turns the molten fluid into a maple taffy. Traditional accompaniments are warm raised doughnuts and dill pickles to cut the sweetness. Those are folks who are serious about maple syrup!
When I was heading for my gastric bypass surgery, I had a moment of reality that Maple Syrup would be something I would never be able to eat again. Not that I ate it every day, or that I couldnt live without it, but the fact that I could not have it bothered me. Anyone headed into surgery understands that we all have our own personal list of items that we grieve over before we even have it taken away. We forget what we gain and are only saddened by the loss. Last Suppers have our attention and normally add a good ten pounds to our pre-op total. The Last Supper I forgot to have was the Pancakes and Maple Syrup meal. Of course as time passed it made me laugh, as I have gained so much by having my bariatric surgery that NOTHING really bothers me.
Yesterday at Whole Foods, there was an end cap with three or four varieties of maple syrup and Ty asked me if I would make him pancakes as he placed a bottle of the most flavorful medium amber into our cart. Now Ty may be from Georgia and before he met me put corn syrup or Log Cabin fako syrup on his pancakes - but once he had the real deal there was no turning back. I have not made pancakes for him in years.
This morning Ty even asked for blueberry pancakes so I got out my Cooks Illustrated cookbook and got busy. In about half an hour I had turned out a stack of 8 beautiful blueberry pancakes worthy of the cover of a magazine. Ty buttered his stack and poured on the maple syrup and retreated to a morning of Fox and Friends.
I added a scoop of ricotta to the little bit of batter left in the bowl and made myself one saucer sized ricotta and blueberry pancake. No syrup for mine.
When Ty saw that I wasnt eating the same breakfast that he was immensely enjoying, he paused. You cant have blueberry pancakes?
I answered, 'I can have them if I want, but I dont eat them. I made myself a blueberry ricotta pancake.'
He apoligized for having me make something I couldn't have. I repeated 'I can have them if I want to have them but I choose NOT to eat them. It is okay, what I have is absolutely delicious.'
In my opinion, this is the key to post op life and making your changes permanent ones. Its NOT what you are missing, its what you choose to have instead. Its not that we can't have a particular food, as we have free will and we can have anything we want. I like to think it is my choice as to what I put on my plate.
Try seeing it my way - I think you will find that it is empowering!
posted by Susan Maria of BariatricEating.com @ 1:56 PM
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