We’re not doing anything special this Labor Day weekend.  Just hanging around the house.  It’s suddenly very hot in Michigan (well close to 90° anyway) after an unusually cool and dry summer.  I asked the kids if they wanted to make one last trip to the beach, but they said they’d rather relax around home.  My senior daughter is busy filling out college applications and my freshman son is exhausted after his first week of high school.  The kids’ school is not air-conditioned and the building is 5 stories tall.  So, they do a lot of walking up and down stairs.  The heat is supposed to continue at least through Tuesday - so they have some very uncomfortable school days to endure, I’m afraid.

Now on to the topic at hand - weight loss!  All of a sudden, I’m losing a pound a day!  The last two days I have made a concerted effort to get more like 70 grams of protein a day and some days my calories have been closer to 1000, and the weight is falling off!  I have felt hungry from time to time also - which is new.  And if I’m hungry, I find myself something to eat rather than suffer, but I always make sure it’s a protein food.  I never would have done this previously.  I would have gone right for the carbs.

In guy #1 news, you may recall I heard from him a week ago Wednesday stating he would call me this week.  As I said, I wasn’t going to hold my breath, which is a very good thing, because last week came and went with no e-mail or phone call.  I give up.  You know, I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life.  Even being married to my ex, I was really alone.  Guy #1 is obviously not the attentive type either - and I guess the last thing I want to do is link up with someone who will ignore me again.  The search goes on…….

This week, I’ve had teacher meetings every day.  Our students return the Tuesday after Labor Day.  My own high school children started back to school yesterday and both are happy about the year.

It’s very weird to be totally occupied by work during the day.  I find I can’t focus on food and my eating plan.  I can see this whole “eating right” deal - eating 60-80 grams of protein, 64oz of water, no more than 30 grams of fat - this is going to be challenging now that I’m so busy.  The good news is I haven’t eaten bad stuff, but the bad news is I’m not eating enough.  And this will both slow down my weight loss and potentially cause my hair to fall out.   I have to admit that my hair is my one vanity.  My nice hair stuck by me even when my body didn’t look so great after gaining all the weight.

I’ve heard that when they do weight loss surgery that some of the nerves in your stomach are severed and this affects your hunger signals (as in, you don’t necessarily have them for a while).  Currently, I just don’t ever really feel hunger.  This may change, however, as things heal and new nerves grow, so I might have more challenges in the future in trying not to eat too much.  We shall see…..

Well, I had my six week post-op appointments yesterday.  First I met with the exercise physiologist and had to confess that I haven’t been walking.  He just encouraged me to get the exercise back into my weekly routine.

Then I met with the nutritionist.  All foods are now available for me to eat!!  She said as long as I keep protein between 60-80 grams per day, and fats under 30 grams per day, anything else is fine.

Last, I met with the Physician Assistant.  My blood pressure was 110/70 which I was really happy about.  By their scale, I’ve lost 42lbs since May 12th.  I was thinking this was kind of slow, but they were very pleased and said I was doing fine.  I visit these three again in October for my 3 month check.  I’ll have blood work done at that time to make sure I’m not becoming deficient in a vitamin or mineral.

Hey, I finally heard from guy #1 again.  I wrote to him and asked him WTH was going on and he answered me.  He said he’d been travelling for work and would call me next week.  I still won’t hold my breath on that.

It has been very busy getting ready for the new school year.  Next week, I have two days of staff days to plan for.  I’ll probably go in and do some last minute organizing tomorrow.

The last two days I’ve been experimenting with adding more calories to my diet to see if that might help me to lose weight more quickly.  Yesterday, I worked to get to 900 calories.  Today I think I’ll hit 950 calories.  My weight was down a pound this morning, but it’s hard to tell if that’s real or just a typical fluctuation.  It’s kind of weird to think that eating more calories could help a person lose weight, but if you don’t eat enough calories, your body thinks you’re starving and holds onto your fat stores for as long as possible.  I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.

I’ve been feeling very well.  Other than at meal times, I feel completely normal and wouldn’t even be able to tell I’d had any surgery.  My incisions are shrinking away.  I  think I’ll have very little scarring.

In family news, my oldest daughter heads back to college on Sunday.  She is excited to go, although we had a very nice summer together.  Tomorrow she and some high school friends will head over to Lake Michigan for a final hurrah!  My next daughter is starting senior year festivities this weekend and will be gone on a retreat until Monday.  My son will be having his freshman orientation on Thursday of this week.  Away we go to another busy year!

I said I wouldn’t write about it again until it happened, but I can’t resist.  No, I have not heard from guy #1.  In fact, it’s been over a week since I’ve heard from him at all.  And they say women are complicated…….  I see myself as the Charlie Brown football kicker in this “relationship”.

I think I’ve lost a couple more pounds.  I’ve really had a difficult time with not wanting to eat the last few days.  You know how when you’re sick you sometimes just aren’t interested in food?  It’s kind of like that except I don’t feel sick at all.  I feel perfectly fine - just no interest in food.  The problem is, eating very little actually doesn’t promote speedy weight loss.  Yesterday I think I ate 500 calories and today I think only 400 calories.  I do pretty good with breakfast, dinner, and a late snack, but am finding it so difficult to eat lunch and other snacks in between.  Whoever thought I would have trouble eating enough?  Certainly not me.

And you may have noticed I haven’t been bragging about my exercise.  Um……that’s kind of because I haven’t been walking.  And there’s no excuse.  The weather has been unseasonably cool and dry here.  Sigh….

I did get a Richard Simmons “Sweating to the Oldies” DVD in the mail yesterday.  I’ve got to get going on this.

Still waiting on guy #1 to ask me out…….I guess I won’t post on this again until he makes his move.  Look for the post several months from now when this whole cycle starts up again.  Sigh….  You probably wonder why I bother with him?  I’m not so sure myself.  There is just something that draws me to him.  My ex was a “yes dear” kind of man.  This guy told me to stop being so bossy last time we were actually dating.  And I respect him for that.  OK, I’ll admit it, I totally can not figure him out - and that is intriguing!

Well, I managed to keep all my food down today.  I made a point of really concentrating on chewing and it seemed to do the trick.

I haven’t seen the scale move in the last day or so, but I am really noticing that my pants are getting big on me.  So, I must be losing inches right now.  I’m happy either way - on the scale or in the clothes - losing is great!

Otherwise, there’s not too much to report - still awaiting guy #1 to call or e-mail, but experience has taught me not to hold me breath!!

I have had the foamies happen to me twice since surgery and yesterday was one of those times. 

I was eating my usual ham and cheese and decided to roll it up in half of a small tortilla shell.  I think I maybe did not chew well enough, or ate too fast.  Soon, I had some very uncomfortable pain in my chest, and felt like I had to vomit. 

I knew I’d feel better if I threw-up whatever was stuck, and it just wasn’t happening.  So, for the first time in my life, I thought, I’m going to have to make myself throw-up to get this over with.  Luckily, I must have been just about ready anyway, because just touching my tongue did the trick, and relief was soon mine.

So far, I think I’ve dumped twice - both in the first few days after surgery.  I was trying to take the prescribed oral medications, and I think the sugar content of the meds didn’t agree with me.  

Luckily for me, I was feeling great again in about 15 minutes after my foamy attack, and will eat much slower and chew much more next time!

In terms of my e-mails with dating guy #1, I heard from him via e-mail again last night (just a short note), but he still hasn’t asked me out…..

I think I have said it before that my previous eating behavior during the work week was to skip breakfast, skip lunch, and then once I was home eat until I went to bed.  Nowadays, I am definitely trying to be more healthy and follow all the post-op rules for Roux-en-Y surgery.

This means I am supposed to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a couple of snacks.  I was pretty good at this when I was on the liquid diet.  It was easy to pick up a protein drink at regular intervals.

Now that I can eat meat and cheese, and the mushy foods too, I have really struggled to eat at healthy intervals on days that I work.  I think I’m falling back into my old habits.  I guess my main problem is that I cannot remember to eat lunch when I’m at work.  I apparently don’t experience hunger at this time of day.  I’ll be working on something and then I look up at the clock and it’s already 2pm.  Oops, missed lunch again.  Another issue is that if you are going to eat lunch at work, and you can currently only eat about five different foods, you have to remember to bring something to eat at lunch with you when you leave in the morning.

Today for instance, I had a Yogurt for breakfast.  I forgot to bring a lunch, so I had “lunch” at home at 4pm.  Then I had “dinner” at 7pm.  now I have to quick fit a high-protein shake in before I go to bed.  Bleah!  Too much food too close together.  I will definitely try to do better tomorrow.

On the dating front, I actually heard from guy #1 who confirmed he’d like to see me again, but still hasn’t actually asked me out.  I reassured him I’d like to see him too and gave him my cell phone number again.  I wonder how long it will take him to actually call me to ask me out……..

My dog is in tip-top condition but her meds have made her HUNGRY.  While she was sick, she probably went three days hardly eating anything at all.  Apparently she’s making up for it.  She usually is so gentle about taking offered treats.  But goodness, today everyone better watch their fingers!

Since about five months after I separated from my then husband (divorced for 1½ years, separated for 2 years now), I’ve been dating on and off.  I haven’t had too much trouble getting a date, even being overweight.  I guess I have a decent enough personality to pull it off.  So far, I’ve used eHarmony and Yahoo personals to meet new people.  This is because I run into very few available men in “real life”.  I’ve never been a drinker or bar type person, so I’m not into the local social scene.

Anyway, the online dating has worked pretty well.  I’ve met some very nice men.  The longest I have dated any one person is four months.  I broke it off because I didn’t see it going anywhere, and he lived kind of far away from me.  Interestingly, I still am in occasional e-mail contact with three of the guys I’ve dated.  And more interesting, each of these three fellows will occasionally say something to the effect of “we should get together sometime”.  For one of three (the one I dated four months), he really means it, and if I told him that sounded like a good idea (which I haven’t), I’d probably see him tomorrow.  For the other two, they never follow through and actually ask me out again even though I e-mail back to them and say getting together again sounds like fun.

So, why do guys say “we should get together sometime” if they really aren’t interested in doing so?  Is this just the male version of the phrase “have a nice day”, and it really has no more meaning than that?  I never really dated when I was young (other than my ex, and he doesn’t count for much in terms of how a typical male behaves), so I am finding the dating process perplexing.

Because I had the weight loss surgery scheduled for early July, and began my appointments in May, I decided to stop dating for several months.  I didn’t want to pull someone I was casually dating into my personal surgery and diet drama.  In some ways, it has been a relief to take a break from the whole dating process.  On the one hand, I have enjoyed dating - meeting new people - feeling alive.  And on the other hand, there is some associated stress, which has been good not to worry about.

So, on Saturday, one of my old dates e-mailed me and said, “We should get together sometime.”  He ended with “Can’t wait to hear from you!”.  So, I e-mailed him back the next day and said, “Getting together sounds like fun.  Let me know.”  Now this has happened before, and I imagine I won’t hear from him again for weeks, possibly even months.  Weird….. 

Then my insecurities about my appearance start to creep in.  Maybe he is attracted to my personality and after e-mailing a bit thinks he wants to see me again.  But when I respond in the affirmative, he remembers that I am heavy and shys away…….

Sigh, well in the next year, I should be all slimmed down and won’t be able to blame my dating woes on my weight anymore.  Geez, then I’ll probably have to blame my personality……  Well, maybe being single is not so bad…..

My scale shows one more pound gone!  Oh, and my dog is all healthy again!  : )

Starting yesterday, I was able to add meat and cheeses to my food choices.  The best part about meat is that it has a lot of protein so now that I’ve added it to my diet, it is easy to make my protein totals.

My nutritionist recommends adding one new food at a time, so that you can better isolate any foods that give you dificulties.  Yesterday I added lean ham and 2% American cheese to my foods.  Today I ate ham and cheese again at lunch and 2oz of chicken at dinner.  One of the ways I make chicken is to take a fourth cup of Terriyaki sauce, mixed with one cup of water, and simply boil boneless, skinless chicken breats in it.  The chicken comes out moist and flavorful.  One nice thing is that no fat is used in the preparation.  Then you serve the chicken and some of the resulting juice over rice and add a vegetable and a bread choice.  Tonight, though, I just had the chicken.  I’m not supposed to have rice or bread, and I made corn for the kids, which I’m not supposed to have yet either.  But, the chicken was plenty for me.

Here’s what I have and/or will eat today:

Breakfast - Proti Chocolate Protein Drink

Lunch - 5 saltine crackers with a hint of miracle whip, 1oz ham, and 1 slice 2% american cheese

Snack - Meijer brand (midwest grocery chain) Strawberry Non-fat Yogurt

Dinner - 2oz chicken

Snack - Unjury protein with 1 cup 2% milk