lilbear412

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 So I am in the 180's now.  I KNOW its been 20 years since ihave been here at this spot in my life.  I feel really good.  My body is not that of an 18 year old but i don't care about that.  I still have my tummy and my legs are not thin.  But I never want to wear a bikini anyways and my size 14 pants are starting to get "roomy".   My legs were chunky when i was 8 so i will never have nice muscular legs but they are much thinner than they were 9 months ago.  

My goals everyday are still to get my liquids in....eat my proteins..try to stay away from refined carbs as much as possible but in reality, if i have some carbs i don't sweat it cause in real life i might have 1/2 cup pasta sometimes or a muffin or a candy bar. I just don't want to do this everyday all day long.  If you start telling yourself you can never have a muffin or a candy bar again, then you will crave and cave much more than just giving in once in awhile.  Moderation is the key.  

At 9 months out i am not losing nearly as fast as i was before.  I seem to be losing like 3 lbs...then nothing for a couple weeks or longer.  Then another 2 lbs drops off..then nothing for weeks...But the scale is still moving downward and it still needs to do this for another 35 or so lbs.  I am eating around 1000 - 1200 calories a day.  Sometimes a bit more.  I bought a Fitbit to see how i do daily.  On my work days i do awesome..on my none work days not so much.  But i work 5 or 6 days a week so this is good.  Most of the time i get upwards of 10,000 steps a day which is the recommendation.  I am not doing much more for exercise and shame on me.  But when you spend 6,7, 8 hours standing and moving who wants to go exercise.  Its summer in MN now so my plans are to start getting out and walking more and get on the bikes. 

All in all, i feel darn good.  My body feels good...my mind feels good...my health is good.  

 So i had this little operation and wonder if my doctor even did anything to me....ok so i had a real aversion to smells for the first 2 weeks but after that i slowly got better and am not so sensitive to smells.  I had aversions to foods.  I just can't eat any more broth if my life depended on it.  lol  Still my mouth will water when i think of something i want to eat and i crave but when i go eat it i can only eat a bit and i start feeling like yuck i don't want this or its not as good as i thought it would.  OK lets rewind...

After surgery - i get back to my room.  I can't really remember much of my first day post op.  I always have remembered recovery before but this time i don't remember anything.  I don't remember being brought back to my room either but do remember getting situated in my bed and being told to eat some ice chips.  I slept mostly the first day but did eventually get up and go to the bathroom (no cathedar for me) and take a walk and i drank some water.  Second day i got up and it dawned on me what i had just did. I had my insides rearranged and did i really think this through clearly??? then i quickly realized i couldn't go back and change a thing so i was ready to start my new life.  I drank some water, did some walking, drank more water, snoozed, walked, took a quick shower and then slept some more.  Day 3 after surgery day i got up took a shower..drank some more, ate some broth, did some walking and took a good long shower that felt so good.  They took out my IV and my Jacson pratt drain and my husband came and got me and we went home.  

That first week after surgery was just spend moving as much as i could...resting as much as i could and healing. Blowing into my spirometer, eating my broth (a big YUCK to broth) and drinking water.  5 days after my surgery was my 1st appointment where was told i could start on a full liquid diet.  This is when i started realizing that everything i ate was to sweet for me.  But i ate jello, and drank what i could and tried some yogurt.  Three days after that i was allowed pureed foods.  This was also tough for me.  By this time i was feeling decent and starting to get some hunger a bit.  Pureed foods just didn't seem to be right for me but i did what i could.  Ate mostly all the foods i could puree and lived mostly on pureed refried beans warmed  up with some cheese melted and some greek yogurt on top.  Three weeks of this and i graduated to soft foods.  I can now pretty much eat anything soft.  I try to make sure i eat protein first and then some soft vegies.  I fix most all my foods so that they will end up soft such as stews where the beef is tender and i can eat it with vegies.  I am only allowed to eat 1/4 cup.  As of late i have noticed that i can eat my 1/4 cup for breakfast, 1/4 cup for lunch (maybe as i am not usually that hungry) and by dinner i can eat probably upwards of 1/3 cup before i start feeling full.  Need to spend more time in the evening meal concentrating on my food, and how it makes me feel like is it filling me up or am i totally missing something.  I feel guilty for eating more than 1/4 cup but do not feel satisfied after that little bit.  Next i will graduate to soft foods which don't make sense to me because i am already pretty much eating soft foods.  But i think i can add some harder foods like carrot strips and cucumber strips and such to my list.  Then finally, right before thanksgiving i can go to normal foods.  I am assuming by this time i will be somewhere around 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup each meal.  Can't wait to get my protein in the morning by eating a protein bar.  Instead of trying to choke down protein shakes and such.  Which i fail at miserably.  

My plans from that time forward are to just keep the white carbs at a minimum and try to keep up with my protein and vegies and a few fruits.  I loved bananas before so hope i can eat them later.  I have had a bite and it was good and didn't bother me in the least.  I can't wait to be able to eat a few chips and salsa though.  A craving i have had.  Or an occassional sandwich with a piece of bread (whole grain).  I can take or leave pasta and rice but i do so crave an occasional soft shell taco or a small taco salad.  

Vitamins i take right now:   Calcium Citrate which i get from bariatricadvantage.com.  I eat the chocolate and carmel chews and the lemon calcets.  Looking forward to swallowing pills again someday.  NO calcium carbonate for RNY people because the carbonate will not absorb.  

Multivitamins..i only take 1 a day for now as thats what my BSrn told me to take.  NO childrens vitamins i take Centrum silver chewables.  I should be taking 2 a day and will eventually do that.  

B12 1000 - i take these 3 times a week.  I was told to take once a week by my BSrn but am taking them three times a week.  I take the Natures Choice ( or whatever its called) from CVS and they are sublingual that melt immediately in my mouth.  They are cherry flavored and tasty.

B3 sublingual -  I take 1000iu's a day.  I take the Dots brand.  One tab under the tongue.  Its a bit tart and takes about 20 minutes to melt under my tongue.  

Eventually i will add Iron and vitamin c to the mix.  Am curious for my first labs at my 6 months to see what i need to increase or decrease or whatever.  Then i will adjust from there.  

Thats pretty much whats going on in my little corner of the world.   thanks all ...... Laurie

 today i went to a Minnesota Twins game.  I tell you what.  i was so hungry and knew that i was going to let myself have something to eat at this game.  I just couldn't NOT eat.  I am a strong person but i did have a sandwich.  A tony olivia cuban sandwich which is toasted like a panini.  It has a slice of ham and some pork and some cheese.  I tried to find the one thing that would load me up with protein and not be deep fried.  I got home and had a small piece of pizza also.  I have been doing so good and then boom, this not having any food at all for this post op diet caught me.  Now for the next 2 days its only liquids again and then the 3rd day i need to do the clear liquids and the magnesium citrate which i had no intention of using.  I figured i was ok doing this as others have said their pre op diets consist of protein shakes AND 4 oz of protein foods x times a day plus vegies and fruits.  My diet does not include any of this.   As of today i had lost 9 lbs on my pre op diet.  But i broke my Doctors rules.  My seriousness is valid as far as after surgery.  i know i have to be careful what i eat or i will pay for that myself.
Oh and i am scared of the surgery.  Because i have been reading all the problems some people are having.  Gas, and constipation and not being able to eat anything...feeling stuck and some more really serious stuff.  But i also know that there are only a few people on this forum and a small example.  Over all in the big picture, probably few people have problems so i can only hope i will be one of those that doesn't.  

In just a week i will be having a Roux N Y surgery.  I can't lie i am scared to death.  
Scared to fail, scared of being sick all the time, scared of complications from surgery.
I also worry if i am making a vane decision.
 
But, i am way overweight.  I have never been this heavy.  I was a bit chunky for a bit as
a child but most of my childhood i was thin.  Until i quit smoking as an adult then i 
gained a whole bunch of weight.  I now have sore legs, knees, feet and i can't even 
hardly walk a flight of stairs let alone go for a walk or play with my grandkids.  I have 
no energy and it just seems right that i should have this surgery.  If for nothing else,
then for my health.

 I do not have thoughts that i should weigh 100 lbs.  I don't want to
be that way.  I want to lose and be comfortable and feel good again.  I hope to weigh
somewhere between 145 and 160.  Even though i should weigh between about 
115 to 140.