1 year post-op labs

Dec 31, 2011

I got a call from the nutritionist (Pam) regarding my 1 year post op labs that I had done on the 8th of Dec.  My protein dropped two points and my vitamin K1 is simply all over the place.  In this lab, she said it was about as low as it could be.  (I'll have them fax me a copy of the labs next week.)   I don't think I'm retaining my vitamin K1.  I believe I am absorbing it as one of my labs showed my vit K1 incredibly high.  But, I ran out of K1 a few weeks before my labs this time.  So, I wasn't taking it and it bottomed out.  Something else I'd been doing was that I had been sticking to the prescribed 1,000 mcg per day instead of some times going higher.  When I previously took higher doses of it above what I was suppose to, maybe 2 or 3,000 mcg on some days, my vit K1 had come out as extremely high.  Right now, i'm suppose to up it to 2,000 mcg per day.  As I said, I suspect my body is absorbing it but not retaining it.  Very odd!  I need to learn more about vit K1.  

For my 9-month labs, my protein was low, or possibly I should say still a bit low although it had not been a focus until then, and I was told to up my protein intake.  I did increase it but I don't think I've been consistent enough in what I was taking in.  I had started tracking my food again late November / early December.  Someone recommended myfitnesspal and I started using it and have found it to be a wonderful tracking system.  Anyway, I looked back at my food tracking and it was not as consistent with the protein as I thought it had been.  I do think I've been pretty consistent, at least through the week, of getting my protein up over 100.  When I talked with Pam, I was thinking I had been pretty consistent at getting it in anywhere from 110 to 160 grams a day and went with a 130 grams per day as an average.  Maybe that's high.  Maybe I'm fooling myself.  I need to do a better job of tracking my food intake.  

I told Pam I would make 160 my new goal average.  I am going to have to make the bulk of that protein via protein drinks.  I'm just not feeling that good about dense proteins!  I don't like the way they sit on my stomach.  it's frustrating.  I can eat them, but I think quantity is an issue for me.  It's not fun to eat a very small portion of food and not feel food satisfaction from the quantity and the way it feels heavy and uncomfortable on my stomach.  I feel like I'm more picky now than I was earlier on!!!  That is frustrating.  

In contrast, I can eat processed foods like crackers, cheetos, etc, no problem.  Processed foods seem to sit easy on my stomach and they fulfill my desire to munch, munch, munch.  I do feel that this is getting in my way of losing weight (I have 55 more lbs to go).  And, it is probably getting in my way of getting in sufficient protein.  Regardless, protein drinks will still be my primary source of protein and I stand by that choice.  There are folks on here that would slam me pretty hard and preach that I am not doing right, I need to get real, yada yada....  but I'm feeling a bit defensive at the moment.  Anyone who is reading this and dealing with protein issues, don't feel bad if protein drinks are your primary source of protein.  There are A LOT of people for whom protein drinks are the protein answer.  Don't let anyone tell you differently or make you feel bad if you find that is the case for you.  

Returning to my processed foods (carbs) related snacks....  my answer for that is to be honest with myself when tracking my food on myfitnesspal.  Another member mentioned that the scale seems to move for her when she keeps her carbs down to about 30 grams a day.  Phew!!!  That is low!  One cup of milk has 11 grams of carbs in it.  My protein powder (Jay Robb's Egg White) has 4 grams of carbs per scoop.  My morning protein drink is cold coffee, 2 scoops of protein (8 grams carbs), 1 cup of whole milk (11 grams carbs), and maybe some heavy whipping cream (I'll count it as 1 carb).  So, my morning protein drink has 20 grams of carbs! I have been experimenting increasing how much heavy whipping cream I use in order to decrease the amount of carbs.  A cup of heavy whipping cream has 7 carbs in it.  So.. replacing the whole milk with cream, it knocks it down to 15 carbs and 55 grams of protein.  Now, given my need for increased protein, I will probably be adding another double scoop of protein in the evening when I get home from work.  I'm not sure what my evening protein drink will be.  It will probbaly vary a bit as I'll have more time to play with the drink, but it will have a minimum of 8 grams of carbs in it.  So, that will give me 23 grams of carbs just from the baseline of getting in my protein needs.  So... 30 grams of carbs is a hard goal for me.  What I started doing when I started logging my food again is that I made it an initial goal to get in no more than 100 grams of carbs per day.  When I got the knack for that, I started making 50 grams of carbs per day my goal and seeking how close I could get to that.  My nothin-but-net, slam dunk goal is to get it down close to 30 grams of carbs per day, just to try it out, see how the scale is moving for me, and see how I feel at that level.  I will work to make small adjustments to see how close to that goal I can get. 

I feel good about these goals, and I feel good that they will help me reach my overall goal of reaching my goal wt.  One more change that I've made, and this is the end of my first week of having made this change, I am now recording my wt once a week (on Saturday) instead of every day.  I might still weight myself every day, but I'm only going to record my wt once a week.  I feel that this will allow for wt bounces to sort themselves out and give me a chance to see if I am actually on a downward trend a little more clearly.  And, it will hopefully take some of the frustration out of things when I don't see the scale move the way I want it to some days.  I feel good about this decision.  :-)  

0 Comments