moxiemommy
Holidays just around the corner
Dec 09, 2010
I can't believe it has been so many months since my last post! I am now almost 5 months post-op, also post Thanksgiving, and Christmas is just around the corner.
I have learned so much about myself in the last several months, and lots about eating and cooking 'the right way.'
I must say--for the most part, I am not denying myself any foods, with the exception of sugar. Even with sugar, I have been taking some in--in MAJOR MODERATION--rather than denying myself 100%. For me, that seems to be a much more realistic way to go. One thing I learned from my past is that if I try to completely deny myself something, when I rebound I hit it hard. I do have a physical aversion to sugar, but nothing so dramatic as the symptoms that many people describe as their dymping syndrome.
WHERE I WAS
I've learned that much more than sugar or anything else, my problem before WLS had to do with a high fat intake. I have learned, through monitoring my daily food intake religiously on fitclick.com, that my fat intake was actually quite high. Although I never really ate 'all that much,' it turns out I was eating a pretty high concentration of fat; much more so than I ever imagined. How many of you have learned the same thing? Keeping to an average of 30 grams of fat a day or less sure has taught me a lot about how I got to where I was!
WHERE I AM
And now...for where I am...5 months post-op I have lost a total of 53 pounds! That may not seem like a whole lot to some of you. For me...it is HUGE! My doctor's PA told me that since I didn't have a tremendous amount to lose to begin with, things would probably go kinda slow for me. All I can say is, at this point I can see and feel the difference and I don't care if it takes another year or more to take the rest of the weight off--the scale is moving in the right direction. Finally, my propensity to focus on everything else I NEED TO DO besides going to the gym and exercising slows progress, to be sure. I'm okay with that, too, while I'm in transition.
WHERE I'M GOING
Christmas is just around the corner and there is soooo much to do. Deadlines at work, decorating and cooking; shopping, if and when the money rolls in. I have every confidence that I will be able to survive the holiday food festivities with as much success as I did at Thanksgiving. I ate a little bit of everything I wanted, all in moderation, making sure to keep my protein high and my fats low. There was moderate loss in the two weeks surrounding Thanksgiving, as compared with substantial gains last year. Staying the course is my plan, modifying recipes where it is practical and makes sense, but not denying myself any of our beloved traditional Christmas foods.
I'll check back in on the flip side and let everyone know how I made out! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!
0 comments
I have learned so much about myself in the last several months, and lots about eating and cooking 'the right way.'
I must say--for the most part, I am not denying myself any foods, with the exception of sugar. Even with sugar, I have been taking some in--in MAJOR MODERATION--rather than denying myself 100%. For me, that seems to be a much more realistic way to go. One thing I learned from my past is that if I try to completely deny myself something, when I rebound I hit it hard. I do have a physical aversion to sugar, but nothing so dramatic as the symptoms that many people describe as their dymping syndrome.
WHERE I WAS
I've learned that much more than sugar or anything else, my problem before WLS had to do with a high fat intake. I have learned, through monitoring my daily food intake religiously on fitclick.com, that my fat intake was actually quite high. Although I never really ate 'all that much,' it turns out I was eating a pretty high concentration of fat; much more so than I ever imagined. How many of you have learned the same thing? Keeping to an average of 30 grams of fat a day or less sure has taught me a lot about how I got to where I was!
WHERE I AM
And now...for where I am...5 months post-op I have lost a total of 53 pounds! That may not seem like a whole lot to some of you. For me...it is HUGE! My doctor's PA told me that since I didn't have a tremendous amount to lose to begin with, things would probably go kinda slow for me. All I can say is, at this point I can see and feel the difference and I don't care if it takes another year or more to take the rest of the weight off--the scale is moving in the right direction. Finally, my propensity to focus on everything else I NEED TO DO besides going to the gym and exercising slows progress, to be sure. I'm okay with that, too, while I'm in transition.
WHERE I'M GOING
Christmas is just around the corner and there is soooo much to do. Deadlines at work, decorating and cooking; shopping, if and when the money rolls in. I have every confidence that I will be able to survive the holiday food festivities with as much success as I did at Thanksgiving. I ate a little bit of everything I wanted, all in moderation, making sure to keep my protein high and my fats low. There was moderate loss in the two weeks surrounding Thanksgiving, as compared with substantial gains last year. Staying the course is my plan, modifying recipes where it is practical and makes sense, but not denying myself any of our beloved traditional Christmas foods.
I'll check back in on the flip side and let everyone know how I made out! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!
Stall must be over...
Aug 08, 2010
Well, my first stall has come to an end. Thanks to all the seasoned posters who wrote about their stalls I didn't concern myself too much when my weight loss came to a screeching halt about a week-and-a-half post-op.
Tomorrow is my 3-week surgiversary (if there is such a thing) and the scale has gone down 4 pounds in the last two days. My total loss now, including the pre-op diet, is 27#. That is from my highest weight, which was about a month or so before surgery during my 'farewell tour' of all my favorite fooderies.
My highest weight was 223, pre-op was 218 (I think), today's weight 196. I am so grateful to be on a downward spiral that I know will continue and not reverse itself. In a few minutes, I am on my way to our church picnic, the second food frenzy of the weekend. Hopefully this one will go better than the one on Friday where I was overcome with aversion to the smell and sight of some of the foods. Everything today will be homemade, though, so that will probably make for a better experience than the grease-laden 'carny' foods on Friday.
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Tomorrow is my 3-week surgiversary (if there is such a thing) and the scale has gone down 4 pounds in the last two days. My total loss now, including the pre-op diet, is 27#. That is from my highest weight, which was about a month or so before surgery during my 'farewell tour' of all my favorite fooderies.
My highest weight was 223, pre-op was 218 (I think), today's weight 196. I am so grateful to be on a downward spiral that I know will continue and not reverse itself. In a few minutes, I am on my way to our church picnic, the second food frenzy of the weekend. Hopefully this one will go better than the one on Friday where I was overcome with aversion to the smell and sight of some of the foods. Everything today will be homemade, though, so that will probably make for a better experience than the grease-laden 'carny' foods on Friday.
2.5 weeks post op
Aug 07, 2010
Well...It has been almost 3-weeks since my surgery. So much has happened--good and bad--that I hardly know where to begin. I am back to work already...sooooon, I know, but I have multiple projects and deadlines that just wouldn't wait for me.
My progress with pain has been excellent. I have very little pain left--just a twinge here and there when I move the wrong way. I've been making a concerted effort to get out and walk every evening. Sincerely, I can't wait to get back to the gym!
After losing 23 pounds (from my highest) pre-and immediately post-op, I hit a stall sometime early in week 2. I know I shouldn't be hopping on the scale like an obsessive jack rabbit, but after going through everythng I have I've been really impatient to see the scale move. Finally, this morning, I'm down another two pounds for a total of 25 (about half of it post-op).
Eating has been a real challenge. I have major sensitivities to dairy AND soy so the liquid phase kept me feeling queasy, uncomfortable, and generally miserable all the time. Ahead of schedule, but with MD approval, I started adding solids in ahead of schedule and began to feel better immediately. I'm doing my best to take it slow, knowing full well I am ahead of myself and don't want to screw anything up. Needless to say, there have been a couple of times when I've gotten things stuck in the pipe and lived to regret it!!
Last night was a toughy. We went to a local corn festival. I don't have the problem that some of my WLS brothers and sisters experience--'head hunger'--quite the opposite. I have a total aversion. The entire time I was there I was getting completely turned off by the overwhelming smells of fried carnival foods; the site of people walking along gorging on all sorts of artery clogging abominations, the whole experience. By the time we arrived back home I had a headache and couldn't wait to call it quits for the night. Too much, too soon. It reminded me of when I quit smoking. I couldn't walk into a bar or any other establishment where others were smoking. It made me sick to the core.
As I read others' posts on this site I am full of hope. Every day I dream of what it will be like, a month, two months, a year from now. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I commit to making the most of it with exercise, diet and moderation. I have come so far I have no intention of going back again!
0 comments
My progress with pain has been excellent. I have very little pain left--just a twinge here and there when I move the wrong way. I've been making a concerted effort to get out and walk every evening. Sincerely, I can't wait to get back to the gym!
After losing 23 pounds (from my highest) pre-and immediately post-op, I hit a stall sometime early in week 2. I know I shouldn't be hopping on the scale like an obsessive jack rabbit, but after going through everythng I have I've been really impatient to see the scale move. Finally, this morning, I'm down another two pounds for a total of 25 (about half of it post-op).
Eating has been a real challenge. I have major sensitivities to dairy AND soy so the liquid phase kept me feeling queasy, uncomfortable, and generally miserable all the time. Ahead of schedule, but with MD approval, I started adding solids in ahead of schedule and began to feel better immediately. I'm doing my best to take it slow, knowing full well I am ahead of myself and don't want to screw anything up. Needless to say, there have been a couple of times when I've gotten things stuck in the pipe and lived to regret it!!
Last night was a toughy. We went to a local corn festival. I don't have the problem that some of my WLS brothers and sisters experience--'head hunger'--quite the opposite. I have a total aversion. The entire time I was there I was getting completely turned off by the overwhelming smells of fried carnival foods; the site of people walking along gorging on all sorts of artery clogging abominations, the whole experience. By the time we arrived back home I had a headache and couldn't wait to call it quits for the night. Too much, too soon. It reminded me of when I quit smoking. I couldn't walk into a bar or any other establishment where others were smoking. It made me sick to the core.
As I read others' posts on this site I am full of hope. Every day I dream of what it will be like, a month, two months, a year from now. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I commit to making the most of it with exercise, diet and moderation. I have come so far I have no intention of going back again!
Don't tell me it's not the protein powder...
Jul 06, 2010
Okay...starting a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start trying out different protein powders for flavor, mixability, and price. Seeing that I was going to have a two-week steady diet of protein shakes, not to mention the after-surgery binge on them, I felt that I needed to do some research. A number of years ago I was on a liquid diet (Medifast) and got so sick of those shakes that by the end I was getting nauseus at the mere thought of them.
Naturally, my first trial was with the protein powders that are produced locally and marketed by one of the partners in my WLS clinic. After one of their support group meetings, I ponied up to the nutrition bar and bought a 'sampler pack' of their various flavors. Eager to try the product out, I made myself a shake when I got home. I must say, the taste was pretty good, nothing at all like I remembered from my Medifast days. I though, hmmm....if they other flavors are this good, I can live on this for a couple of weeks. Then, I went off to bed with visions of cocoa beans dancing in my head.
Before I go into what happened next, let me set the stage a bit. I am HIGHLY sensitive to caffeine--even a whiff of it at 8am and I am not sleeping that night. That means...no regular coffee, tea, iced tea, diet cola, etc. I rarely order decaf at a restaurant because I've gotten 'slipped a mickey' just a few too many times by staff who don't understand the importance of the difference between regular and decaf. I also suffer from lifelong insomnia, for which I am medically treated. Thank God for those little blue pills. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't even have a clue what a decent night of sleep feels like.
0 comments
Naturally, my first trial was with the protein powders that are produced locally and marketed by one of the partners in my WLS clinic. After one of their support group meetings, I ponied up to the nutrition bar and bought a 'sampler pack' of their various flavors. Eager to try the product out, I made myself a shake when I got home. I must say, the taste was pretty good, nothing at all like I remembered from my Medifast days. I though, hmmm....if they other flavors are this good, I can live on this for a couple of weeks. Then, I went off to bed with visions of cocoa beans dancing in my head.
Before I go into what happened next, let me set the stage a bit. I am HIGHLY sensitive to caffeine--even a whiff of it at 8am and I am not sleeping that night. That means...no regular coffee, tea, iced tea, diet cola, etc. I rarely order decaf at a restaurant because I've gotten 'slipped a mickey' just a few too many times by staff who don't understand the importance of the difference between regular and decaf. I also suffer from lifelong insomnia, for which I am medically treated. Thank God for those little blue pills. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't even have a clue what a decent night of sleep feels like.
Day 1 - Here's what I ate
Jul 05, 2010
Breakfast: protein shake (cappucino) w/ 1/2 c. skim milk, 1/2 c. decaf
Mid-morning: 1 oz grilled salmon
Lunch: protein shake (strawberry) w/ strawberry Fruit 2-0
Mid-afternoon: salad w/low fat dressing, 2 oz grilled chicken
1/2 can condensed French onion soup
1 low fat string cheese
Dinner: protein shake (orange creamsicle) w/ 1 c. skim milk
1 Crystal Lite frozen pop
Evening: 1/2 protein shake (cappucino) w/ skim milk/decaf
Sugar free Jello
80 oz water, 20 oz Fruit 2-0
I haven't been hungry all day but I've been peeing like a racehorse. (I'm not sure what that means but we've been saying it for years!)
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Mid-morning: 1 oz grilled salmon
Lunch: protein shake (strawberry) w/ strawberry Fruit 2-0
Mid-afternoon: salad w/low fat dressing, 2 oz grilled chicken
1/2 can condensed French onion soup
1 low fat string cheese
Dinner: protein shake (orange creamsicle) w/ 1 c. skim milk
1 Crystal Lite frozen pop
Evening: 1/2 protein shake (cappucino) w/ skim milk/decaf
Sugar free Jello
80 oz water, 20 oz Fruit 2-0
I haven't been hungry all day but I've been peeing like a racehorse. (I'm not sure what that means but we've been saying it for years!)
Day 1, Continued
Jul 05, 2010
Well, I don't plan on blogging prolifically every day and several times a day throughout my process. It's just that today is such a gawdawful hot day that the only comfortable place to be is down in the basement. Since I am consciously avoiding all that is stressful (work, laundry, paperwork, etc.) there is little left for me to do but blog.
I'm quite sure the heat has something to do with this but I am halfway through day one and I can honestly say I haven't felt any gnashing cravings or hunger just yet. Two protein shakes down, plus a one-ounce serving of salmon and all of my water. I've been peeing my freaking brains out, as I knew I would. I even had one minor accident on the way to the toilet, also, as I knew I would. Can't wait to get this extra lard off of my bladder and hopefully get it under control again!
I'm about to go try one of my WL buddy's suggestion of Campbell's french onion soup and string cheese--hoping it will take the edge off the afternoon and bring me into the evening. Not that I'm feeling particularly hungry right now but I know if I don't stay the course I'm going to have one helluva bout of munchies around dinner time that I am pretty sure won't be sated by another shake.
I am keeping track of food intake at http://www.fitclick.com. I figure if I become obsessively religious about the next couple of weeks my focus will steel my resolve. This has just been such a long time in coming I can't believe I can finally start counting the days!! Can't wait for some money to clear my accounts so that I can finally order some more Syntrax Nectar. I love the stuff!! That is what is going to make the liquid diet and post-op period liveable. I found a great place to order it, cheapest I have found for sample packs, great shipping time and good customer service. If you are interested in ordering Nectar, send me your email. I'll get 5% off my next order and when you become a customer you can tell your friends and get 5% off too.
Email me at [email protected]
0 comments
I'm quite sure the heat has something to do with this but I am halfway through day one and I can honestly say I haven't felt any gnashing cravings or hunger just yet. Two protein shakes down, plus a one-ounce serving of salmon and all of my water. I've been peeing my freaking brains out, as I knew I would. I even had one minor accident on the way to the toilet, also, as I knew I would. Can't wait to get this extra lard off of my bladder and hopefully get it under control again!
I'm about to go try one of my WL buddy's suggestion of Campbell's french onion soup and string cheese--hoping it will take the edge off the afternoon and bring me into the evening. Not that I'm feeling particularly hungry right now but I know if I don't stay the course I'm going to have one helluva bout of munchies around dinner time that I am pretty sure won't be sated by another shake.
I am keeping track of food intake at http://www.fitclick.com. I figure if I become obsessively religious about the next couple of weeks my focus will steel my resolve. This has just been such a long time in coming I can't believe I can finally start counting the days!! Can't wait for some money to clear my accounts so that I can finally order some more Syntrax Nectar. I love the stuff!! That is what is going to make the liquid diet and post-op period liveable. I found a great place to order it, cheapest I have found for sample packs, great shipping time and good customer service. If you are interested in ordering Nectar, send me your email. I'll get 5% off my next order and when you become a customer you can tell your friends and get 5% off too.
Email me at [email protected]
Day 1 - Liver Reduction Diet
Jul 05, 2010
Well--today I start the journey...it's a two-week countdown from here, My surgery is 7/19/10. I weighed in this morning at 218.5, just a little shy of my highest ever--220. I probably would have been a bit lower but yesterday I took full advantage of it being my last day to eat what I want when I want and had some leftover icecream birthday cake, a brownie dessert, steak, potatoes loaded in butter, pizza. Not only was it my 'last supper' but it was also the Fourth of July...big food day.
I dunno whether it was because my husband was being a complete a'hole last night or just because he truly wants to show support but he joined me in a protein shake this morning. I made an ice-cap with hazlenut flavored Splenda, pretty good, I must say. I'm feeling very fortunate that my clinic has modified the diet to include one salad and 4 1oz servings of lean protein a day in addition to the liquids. I'm pretty confident I will be able to get by on that.
Thankfully for me, day 1 is being spent at home. I have an opportunity to ease into this from the comfort of home instead of having to go right back to work after the holiday. This, of course, is a great benefit to me right now because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be spending half the day on the toilet.
Well-more another day. Someone was supposed to come by this mornng and fix my windshield. They are officially late. I have to call and find out what's up.
0 comments
I dunno whether it was because my husband was being a complete a'hole last night or just because he truly wants to show support but he joined me in a protein shake this morning. I made an ice-cap with hazlenut flavored Splenda, pretty good, I must say. I'm feeling very fortunate that my clinic has modified the diet to include one salad and 4 1oz servings of lean protein a day in addition to the liquids. I'm pretty confident I will be able to get by on that.
Thankfully for me, day 1 is being spent at home. I have an opportunity to ease into this from the comfort of home instead of having to go right back to work after the holiday. This, of course, is a great benefit to me right now because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be spending half the day on the toilet.
Well-more another day. Someone was supposed to come by this mornng and fix my windshield. They are officially late. I have to call and find out what's up.
