Marianne G.

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Blog is up on Facebook. 

Yay me!  60lbs gone.  I have put up a blog on Facebook notes so I'm not doing another one here just to repeat the same stuff.  Just wanted to do a little dance and celebrate! 

Unreal!  It's been 60 days since I started on the Optifast and it's been 39 days since surgery and I have dropped 52 lbs.  BTW I'm only announcing this on here, please do not say how much weight I've lost on my Facebook wall.  I like to save the amounts for my monthly updates! 

It's certainly been fun trying on clothes that haven't fit for me for sometime.  I have got 4 huge Rubbermaid totes with clothes in them plus the stuff in my closet and the stuff in my drawers.  I didn't realize I had so much.   However, they are in varying sizes because of the weight I've put on over the last few years.  The bright side is that I can just reverse the order of wearing them as I go down in sizes.  I can start a new tote with the clothes that are too big and hopefully will never have to see again. 

I look forward to the next 50 lbs coming off! 

Surgery was exactly one month ago today.  I've done quite well I think.  I've managed to lose a total of 43 lbs (as of this morning).  27 lbs were lost during the 3 week Optifast diet and 16 lbs since surgery.  I've moved on to Soft Solids in my diet now.  That means that I am slowly trying things like wraps, pita bread, bread, rice, pasta.  I was only allowed melba toast and crackers before and couldn't understand why we couldn't have the others.  I was at a 1 month dietician's class this past week and she explained this way.  Bread, rice and pasta have a tendency to expand once they are in the stomach and of course that could be dangerous and painful.  I decided to try my pasta first with vegetable soup.  You know the kind that has the pasta alphabet letters in it.  I figured it has already expanded since sitting in the can for however long  and I figured it would be a good way to test if I could keep it down.  Success!  I had a piece of toast this morning with some apple butter on it.  Taking tiny bites of that crunch was a wonderful sensation in my mouth since eating mushy pureed food.  I have yet to try rice.  Perhaps I'll try the chicken with rice soup...same principles as the vegetable soup. 

So far I've pretty much tolerated every new food that I've tried although strangely one day they go down without incident and another day give me some grief.  I made beef stew one day and threw in potatoes, carrots, peas and onions.  I cooked it all day in the crockpot so that the meat would be fall apart tender.  That first day I ate about 2 tbsps of it and it tasted oh so good.  Didn't bother me at all.  I had enough left that I froze some and yesterday thought I would have it for my dinner.  I had 2 tiny little tips off my fork of the stew and I could tell it wasn't sitting right in my stomach.  So I backed off and decided to give my stomach (pouch) a rest and try something a little later.  About 30 minutes later it had started to calm down so I had a few sips of my Crystal light and felt that feeling all over again.  Scrambled eggs make me feel very full on tiny amounts and I have to make sure to add milk when I'm cooking them so they are not too dry.  Cooked chicken breast hasn't bothered me to my relief because we eat a lot of chicken.  I did however get deli meat one day that was a roast chicken.  One day it agreed with me and another day it didn't. 

So the whole food process has been trial and error and I suspect it will be for some time.  I'm feeling good other than the pain that insists on staying with me in my knees and back.  I've gone off a whole pile of my meds and plenty of them were for pain so I guess that's why.  I'm still hoping that with more weight loss they won't hurt as bad or go away totally. 

Weight the morning of beginning the Optifast:  351 lbs.
Weight this morning:  307 lbs. 

16 Days post up and I thought it was time for a quick update.  I made it through the first couple of weeks of eating cottage cheese, yogurt, creamed soups, oatmeal and protein  shakes. 
So I'm supposed to be on pureed foods now.  I've tried a number of things and they've gone down well and stayed there and I've tried a couple of things that didn't sit so well.  I haven't been sick but it's just uncomfortable with the food just sitting and reminding you that it might not have been a good idea.  My first properly cooked meal consisted of a chicken breast, a cauliflower dish baked in the oven and mashed potatoes. 

The chicken was a Blue Menu product, it already had a some seasonings on it.  I sliced it up into strips and cooked it in a frypan.  The cauliflower was first boiled and then mixed with some other ingredients including low fat cheddar cheese and then baked.  I decided for the mashed potatoes that I would try including greek yogurt instead of butter the way I used to make it.  I had a couple of strips of chicken and my heart sank as I put them in the blender.  I hit the button for a few seconds too long and it turned the chicken to a very smooth paste.  I did the same thing to the cauliflower and it was a smooth paste as well.  Hubby did a good job with the mashed potatoes being very smooth and creamy so no need to put those in the blender. 

Apart from the consistency of the chicken, it actually tasted great!  I ate a little and waited. I ate a little more and waited.  This is great, it feels fine and I think I'm going to keep it down.  I waited 15 minutes and decided to try the potatoes before they got too cold.  I can't say that I really cared for it, it tasted like mashed potatoes with a sour cream taste overload.  Good try for incorporating extra protein but I'll have to work on that.  Maybe using greek yogurt on a baked potato might be a better choice.  The cauliflower dish was excellent and I will make it again.  Even hubby loved it and he doesn't like cauliflower.  I won't put it in the blender though.  After boiling and baking it, it was already soft enough and a little bit of chewing was enough. 

The only problem with the meal was the colour.  I didn't plan that out very well because everything was this creamy white colour.  But it was delish and it all stayed down.

I didn't expect to have any problems with scrambled eggs but I was unpleasantly surprised.  I put just a little bit on the end of my fork.  I did that twice and couldn't believe that I felt really full already.  I mean it wasn't even a teaspoon of scrambled egg.  I had to eat, rest, eat, rest and so on.  It took me a long time to eat but at least it stayed down and didn't upset my pouch. 

It's been about 6 weeks since I've had a really nice meal and I was dying for one.  I decided I was going to make a roast beef in the crockpot along with carrots, mashed potatoes (no greek yogurt this time) and some creamed corn.  The house smelled delicious all day as I was cooking it and hubby and I couldn't wait to taste it.  I figured if the meat was fall apart soft, I could get by without putting it in the blender.  Since I'd already tried the other foods I thought I would eat the roast beef first and then rest to see how it was sittin.  I ate about a teaspoon of beef and really, really chewed it very well.  Hmmmmm, not so good.  I could feel it just sitting there.  Kind of like Christmas Dinner when you know you've had 1 too many slices of pie on top of that huge meal.  Only I hadn't had anything to eat before the beef.  That was it, 1 tsp of beef and it just sat there.  I had to wait it out, I had no choice.  I never did get to eat the mashed potato or carrots or corn.  About 2 hours later I had my old standby; low fat cheddar melted on a couple of melba toasts.  That satisfied my hunger and went down just as it should. 

I was reading through some older posts on this website and quite a number of people mentioned having Wendy's chili.  I laughed when I first read that but as I thought about it, I decided to give it a try.  It's high in protein and right now of course I'm concerned about getting enough protein.  While it cannot become a way of life for me, it makes sense to get  a small serving and have that for 2 or 3 meals. 

Last thing I wanted to mention for now is protein powder.  I bought this stuff tonight that cost me $30.00 for a huge tub of it.  I brought it home, mixed it as per directions and took 1 swig and just about spit it out.  Yuck!  So I tried mixing a little bit of instant decaf coffee into it.  Double YUCK!  Now I have to figure out a way to use this crap up so I that I'm not throwing money out the window.  Why don't any of these sell sample sizes?  I can't be buying 50 million different kinds until I find something that I like the taste of. 

That's it for now.  Will update again after I've tried some more new things! 

surgery completed july 18.  everything went well.  really sore from gas but not too much pain.  at a hotel near hospital until monday and then heading home.  typing on stupid laptop which keeps screwing up so keeping this short and sweet.

Not sure what's going on...the weight loss has stopped.  I've been on my Optifast diet for almost 3 weeks now.  I go for my surgery on Wednesday.  The past few days have been frustrating, aggravating and just plain sad.  The weight loss on the Optifast diet started off with a bang to the tune of 2 lbs a day.  By Day 12 I had lost 24 - 25 lbs.  And then it stopped.  Over the last few days my weight has been between 326 and 330 depending on what time of the day I've weighed myself.  Now I understand the whole plateau thing but this is crazy.  How can anyone plateau off with the amount that I'm eating or not eating to be more specific.  Here's my intake daily; 

Breakfast;  1 Optifast Shake, Crystal Light,
Lunch;  1 Optifast Shake, 1 Cup Broth, Crystal Light, Diet Iced Tea
Dinner; 1 Optifast Shake, Crystal Light, Diet Iced Tea, 1 Stalk Celery, 1/4 Green Pepper
Later;  1 Optifast Shake, Crystal Light, Diet Iced Tea, 6 Cucumber Slices

?????

I just started the Optifast diet last Wednesday.  (June 27)  I am supposed to have 4 Optifast shakes every day.  I can also have crystal light, clear tea/coffee and broth.  The only foods that I'm allowed to eat are; green peppers, celery, cucumber and lettuce.  It's going ok although I am still hungry.  The good news is that I've lost 10 lbs.  Yay me!  I guess I can get used to the smaller portions but not having a very good variety of stuff that I can eat is hard.  To get through the next few weeks without being terribly miserable is my mini goal for now.  I wish I could fast forward to say 6 months after surgery.  :)

I've finally received my date for surgery; July 18, 2012.   Originally I should've gone between December and March.  A lot has happened since I decided to have the surgery.  I lost my job back in November.  I felt pretty confident that it was because of the surgery.  Of course they denied it and I couldn't prove anything but too much pointed to that fact.  When the committee (social worker and dietician) found out that I had lost my job they decided to delay me receiving a date.  I tried to tell them that losing my job was actually a good thing.  The stress from working there was really starting to eat away at me.  They said even though it was a good thing it was still a big thing and too many big things going on all at once was not ideal.  After they finally gave me the thumbs up they said I should be getting a call from the surgeon's office to set up a date.  I waited and waited but no one called.  After waiting about 6 weeks I finally called the surgeon's office and was promptly told that someone must have forgotten to phone me. 

I guess the most important thing is that I've got my date. 
More later.