A birthday party with no food?

Any thoughts on how to have a birthday with family that doesn't center around food? My b-day is in a couple of weeks and my family wants to know what they should do. No cake. A restaurant still makes me nervous only 6 weeks out. Thoughts/ideas appreciated. Thanks! Sadie

How about a bowling party or mini golf. Or maybe a trip to the zoo. Fun for everyone. Just pack yourself some healthy food and water. Good luck and Happy Birthday, early. Wanda

Personally - I think it is so much easier to be around food now than it ever was when I was "dieting". I know that I cannot eat so many things or I will get sick - so being around food that I can't eat doesn't bother me. I find myself cooking and entertaining even more now than I did before. I try to make sure that I am serving more healthy foods than ever before, too (like substituting ground turkey breast for ground beef in tacos and using whole wheat high protein tortillas or serving no sugar added, low fat fruit filled desserts). I made homemade cupcakes for my daughter the other night with my "famous" butter cream icing and didn't even lick my fingers because I knew that I would get sick if I did. So I say, spend the time altering your recipes to make them more WLS friendly rather than running from food. We all need to face our problems with food and conquer them (fortunately we have our little "tools" - our pouches and pouch rules - to help us). Maybe set up a volleyball or badmitten net to keep everyone occupied and away from food as much as possible or have a pool party, but don't skimp on the food - just make it healthier. Good Luck! ~Robin

My birthday is coming up too (this friday!! lol) and my family has been asking the same thing because its the big 3-0 and they want to do something nice. I don't want anything food related either. I do like the idea of a bowling party though, its been too chilly out latetly to try to plan something outside....and the other big thing is what to get me for my b-day since clothes are out!! lol

Every holiday and birthday it seems is centered around meals and food, could you just not have the party at a meal time? Like between lunch and dinner? Or in the evening after dinner? For mothers day today of course it's centered around the evening meal for the rest of my family, I'll just eat a little of the pork they are serving and let everyone else have at the rest of the food, I'm going to just try to focus on enjoying the people and the conversation instead.

As for what to get you?? That's easy.... in only a few more months you will need HUNDREDS of dollars in clothing... so get them to give GIFT CARDS to department stores (Dillard's, Macy's, Sears, etc) so you can shop till you drop!! Be sure to tell them NOT to get them at Lane Bryant, etc... since you won't be going for the sizes they carry anymore!!

very true about the gift cards. If I get cash, I will for sure spend it before its time to get the new wardrobe! The one thing I miss since the surgery is not the variety of food, but is the oppurtunity to clothes shop. Not that I was happy shopping for size 26 or 28's but ahhhh, the feeling of new clothes!!! And I refuse to go shopping for clothes right now with the ever-changing weight. I have had a fun time going through boxes of clothes from 2-3 yrs ago and seeing what fits and what goes in my too-big box now. The weight can't come off fast enough so I can get out there and get some clothes that are kick-a@@ and fit and are hopefully size 12 or smaller!!