What's on the menu today, RNYers?
Glad you made it home safely Em and glad everyone had good Mothers Days. My weekend was odd as Saturday was spent helping my oldest son move. We spent the night at a hotel and my oldest graduated from college on Sunday. My youngest son got sick Saturday night and worse Sunday morning so I ended up in the ER with him on Mothers Day. They did a CT and found out he had a kidney stone but we were done in time to go to the graduation at least! My eating was off all weekend because I wasn't able to eat at my usual times but I did exercise as usual in the fitness room at the motel. I even went swimming and no one ran screaming when they saw my saggy legs. So to today. B 1/2c steel cut oats with nuts and 1/2 banana with peanut butter L 1/2 c chicken salad with 1/2 c Greek yogurt S deli meat and cheese D 31/2 oz pork chop and 1/2 baked potato S 3/4 c Greek yogurt with nuts. Post op nearly 21 months and weight 118.8 today(down a bit due to less food than usual). On track with fluid and vitamins so far and heading down to do 30 minutes on treadmill and 20 minutes on the bike when I am done with my cup of coffee. Have a good Monday everyone!
Oh no! I had kidney stones right at the end of my senior year of college and again the following year. Knock on wood, I haven't had any since, but I'm actually a little worried since RNYers often can end up being more prone to getting stones. They are for sure no fun! The first time I had them the woman on the other side of the curtain in the ER also had kidney stones and when asked about her pain level she told them "worse than labor," which got me a little worried. I hope he's on the mend - and I'm sure you/he has heard this advice - but drink, drink, drink - that's all that helped me.
Glad to hear you could still make it to graduation - congratulations on getting a kid through college!
RNY @ Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia with Dr. Tatyan Clark 3/18/2014
Good morning!
I dropped the kids off at school this morning and it was so beautiful out that it took my breath away. Warm spring weather is the most amazing gift, and we get it ever year!!!! I am reading The Diet Fix by Yoni Freehoff (which I totally recommend, amazing, such a great complement to surgery) so i am changing things up a little bit (eating within 30 minutes of waking, eating often so that i don't get hungry) and it is working really really well.
B: 1 cup chicken rutabaga stew (because it is too good to save for dinner)
S: big salad with 3 oz chicken, 2 T avocado, 1 T vinagerette
L: probably more chicken rutabaga stew
S: carrots and cukes with 4T hummus
D: 1 cup bean salad with lots of veggies
S: if I am hungry, orange and yogurt
I have two little ones home sick today (croup!) and was up almost all night with the littlest. When i get really exhausted my hunger/appetite mechanisms get all wicky wacky so I am going to work hard today to eat every 2-3 hours to avoid getting too hungry which will wreck me for sure. Let's all hope that tonight goes better.
The good thing about having little ones home sick is that I get to be home from work! So in between wiping their little noses I will work in the garden. I LOVE my garden this time of year.
D:
Hey Louise! How far out from surgery are you? Your menu looks good - I am a huge fan of lunch for breakfast as well :) I mean, why not eat chicken at 8 am? Germans eat liverwurst in the morning lol. No judgement here!
I see a value in eating every 2-3 hours but my program subscribes to a 3 meals NO snacks plan. I do have a snack before the gym at times (and will continue to do so) but I do find that I can eat 200-250 calories per meal so I shouldn't probably incorporate too many snacks! Sorry your little ones are sick, but if you get to hang out at home, garden and skip work...then that's not too shabby :)
I am about 20 months out. I have been maintaining for ten months or so. I totally don't get the 3 meal a day rigidity that some programs have. I mean, if that works for you, awesome, but it seems really weird to have those super rigid rules with no willingness to account for individual differences in people. 3 meals a day might have worked for me very early on but now it would be more problematic. In order to get enough calories I would have to eat pretty nutrient dense food (which would be fun lol!) but I don't like eating that much at once. I have experimented with eating larger meals less often and it works okay but I always had at least one snack in there. This seems to be a better fit for me.
Pre op I was one of those people who would eat well all day and then lose my mind at night and eat and eat and eat. And guess what? now that I am 20 months out that same behavior is threatening to sneak back in. If I stay on top of my hunger all day and eat first thing when I wake up it is amazing how well I do. But if I spend part of my day hungry, I just struggle and struggle. I am glad I don't have a program telling me that I can not eat this way. I rely on my program to give me good info but I also have to rely on myself to know what I need. So good for you for adding that snack. When I was early post op I would see what others were eating and secretly wonder if it was okay that i ate so often or so much. But then I finally realized, hey, if it is working for me then it must be working. Right? i think I must be pretty active and have alot of muscle mass or something because I just need to eat more than some, about 2200 calories a day, more if I am really active (hiking more than 3 or 4 hours).
It is great to see you working so hard and investing so much in this. I think there are people who just get the surgery and expect it to "just happen". Clearly it isn't like that. At least not long term. All the work you are doing now will really pay off way down the road when you are years out. Your trip looks amazing. i am headed back to the garden!
WOW lucky you that you can maintain at 2,200 calories a day! It's so helpful to see someone 20 months out who is almost a year into maintenance. And I agree, if your plan is working for you, keep it going! I may eventually have to add snacks but as of now, because I can do 250 calorie meals three times a day, snacks would give me a lot more calories. I think my program wants people to not graze. I definitely don't follow it to a T - they don't think people should track their carbs! They say "get your protein and everything falls into place". Which is NOT the case for me lol. I have to really work hard to not have carbs.
And thank you, yes, I hope this hard work pays off down the road! I feel a little anxiety because I have read some posts of people who get fatigued maybe a year in...they have spent every waking hour counting calories and tracking protein and they just want normalcy. I just need to be careful to track no matter how much time has passed :)
Good Morning Everyone!
Great pics Em, looks like it was a wonderful trip. Anny, one really awesome thing is Fitbit and MFP sync. So they talk to each other and it's wonderful. I track my food on MFP (b/c like you I started doing it on Fitbit, but then found MFP way more functional). I still track my fluids and sleep on the Fitbit. It's kind of nice b/c you can pick and choose the aspects of each program that are easier for you. I find both tools so useful and helpful in keeping me on track.
Time since surgery: 3 months and almost 3 weeks
B - Premier Protein
L - Premier Protein
D - TBD
My goal today is to be over 90g of protein and under 20 carbs. I've noticed I've let carbs slip back in and I've taken bites of things here and there and I want to go back to a super strict diet for a couple of days, just to reset my brain.
V - Forgot to take this morning, will get them in though
E - Long walk planned, possibly Shred 30 also
W - On track
Hope everyone has a great week!
