You know you've had bariatric surgery when...

...you make a 210 calorie frozen entree, and you cannot eat the whole thing! 

It seems like it's been awhile since I wrote, but I guess it's been only a week.  I have lost just about 40 pounds.  I am exercising more.  Glen and I walked 2 miles the other night, after I spent the day cleaning the house.  Yesterday, the girls and I walked to Fort Fraser AND we did water aerobics last night.   I saw Dr. Hawasli last week and he was happy with my progress. 

My clothes are getting big on me, but I can still wear a lot of things.  I am literally going to wait till Labor Day weekend to shop for school.  I am wishing I had Stacy and Clinton to help me put together 20 outfits from 7 pieces of clothing!  :-)  I went on-line to look for some hints on how to do this.  I do not want to buy a lot, and then have to turn around and buy more.  Okay, so I'd be thrilled to have to do that, but I don't want to pay for it!  Yes, yes, yes, I know about going to thrift stores, but I am still plus-sized, and often the selection is pretty bad.  I definitely want to buy 2-3 pairs of pants, some tops, a jean jacket, and I'm not sure what else yet. 

I am now at the "soft foods phase", so NO MORE PUREE!!!  Yeah!  Not that I ate much puree...I really ate a lot of soft foods (eggs, beans, turkey lunchmeat, etc) and just chewed a lot. 

Oh, and I went with Teri to her seminar...and I actually got to be a guest speaker.  I talked about how in Jan 2010 I weighed 300 pounds, lost 30, and gained over half of it back.  That I knew HOW to lose weight, but with the large size of my stomach, I could not SUSTAIN it.  I told them about my fatigue and some of the pureed things that I ate.  It was great for me to be a "success story" and I think they appreciated seeing someone who had it recently and is surviving and making it work. 

School's starting soon...

It has been 5.5 weeks since surgery.  I have lost 30% of what I want to lose.  I am still eating pureed foods, though I will admit that I am eating some soft food too without pureeing it.  As I mentioned before, I made the 3 pureed recipes that were suggested in the book.  Other things I have pureed are roast beef (made by Teri), chicken with lowfat mushroom soup and non-fat gravy, and chili.  Almost every day I scramble one egg.  Sometimes I put cheese on it, and I have tried broccoli, mushrooms, and spinach.  I have also eaten hummus (sometimes with fat-free feta cheese sprinkled on it), guacamole, refried beans, baked beans, watermelon, and about a teaspoon of potato casserole.  The last three items were at the Guzik family reunion.  We went to the Armada Fair, which was going to be a challenge.  I did not want to take food with me.  I did end up packing an applesauce and two string cheeses.  I was hoping they'd have baked beans and watermelon at one of the little stands.  I couldn't find anything, but then finally one new vendor was selling barbecued pork and stuff like that (like Famous Dave's), and they had baked beans for only $1!  They were good because it wasn't a lot, but it did have some meat in it too.  I also bought some turkey lunchmeat and I roll up one piece with some light Laughing Cow cheese as a roll-up.  I do not miss desserts at all, but I am craving eating something crunchy and salty.  For some reason, drinking plain water makes me queasy now, but I drink as much other things as I can:  K20 protein water, Crystal Light, kool-aid made with Stevia, diet cranberry juice (surprisingly good!), and occasionally iced tea and decaf coffee.

I started going back to the pool for water aerobics, but I will admit that exercising every day has not been happening for me.  Sometimes I clean a lot and that feels like a workout, but specifically "working out," no.  I do need to continue to go to water aerobics, then also walk outside or on the treadmill other days. 

I will be working again soon and I am curious if it's going to make things harder or easier.  I am hoping I'll be less tired, and I will get on an eating routine and a plan for making lunches and dinners during the week.  We also have to save money because we are doing a 3-day Cedar Point trip in October, and also Disney World in June.  I am really excited about the Disney trip, and am hoping my health is good and that I will have reached my goals by then to have a really enjoyable, comfortable trip!

Finally awake

Yesterday began my official time that I can move away from protein drinks and yogurt and start having some "real" food, albeit pureed.  So I made the couple of recipes that they offered in the guideline book: deviled eggs, tuna salad, and chicken supreme.  They are all pretty good.  I started just eating a spoonful or two, but then I found I wanted to eat too often, so yesterday I tried having bigger portions and I did okay.  I still had one protein drink.  Yesterday, I took my iron with eggs instead of dairy, and it felt pretty good.  Dairy can block iron absorption (and vitamin C can help absorption as well).  As of yesterday, my abdomen felt better, and I stayed awake all day, and had enough energy to do a mile on the treadmill AND go to water aerobics last night.  AND in the past two days I lost 1.8 pounds.  So now I am going to work on other blended recipes.  We went out two nights ago and got a set similar to the magic bullet, but it has larger cups and it also has a bigger blender.  Our blender doesn't work that great, so hopefully this one will work out. 

Milestone

Today marks the completion of week 4 since surgery, and 6 weeks since I started the pre-op diet (which is my starting point).  I have lost 30 pounds, and as of today I am no longer MORBIDLY obese (ugly word).  My BMI is 39.9, and I am now under the classification of "Class II Obese". 

The other day I guess I did a really stupid thing.  I was feeling pretty good and wanted some exercise, so I went out front to trim down the bushes in our front yard.  It was just the soft branches that had overgrown.  Well... I ended up injuring something because under one of my incisions it was really painful.  It was on the weekend and I wasn't sure whether I should call my doctor.  I had no other symptoms, no fever, problems consuming anything, etc.  So I just iced it, took my Vicodin two nights in a row, Tylenol as needed during the day.  It mainly only hurts when I cough, sneeze, or breathe deeply. 

I saw my regular doctor yesterday, and he kind of made it sound like it was stupid for me to do, but seriously, I got a list of good exercise, but no list on what not to do, and it just really seemed like an easy, wimpy job.  I still did not call Dr. Hawasli's office; it still hurts, but it's getting better.  Dr. Carion thinks that I injured muscle in the area. 

Today I start the "puree" phase of my diet.  Actually for a couple of days I have been have some things here and there, like refried beans (on the list).  On Sunday, Glen grilled chicken.  I pureed it with some of the marinade, and it looked nasty, but it tasted pretty good, and I ate it with some soft potatoes.  It was so small, like 1.5 oz of chicken and prob 2 tbsp of potatoes, if that.  And I have had a few bites of scrambled egg and some cheese, chewed really well.  I just get so tired of the sweetness of protein drinks and yogurt.  I really just want other protein, but not sweet.  I am not craving junk food, other than I would love to have one crunchy, salty potato chip...but I won't.    So... I do the pureed phase for two weeks. 

Last night I made their three suggested recipes.  One is for deviled eggs.  EVERYTHING, including egg whites and some cottage cheese, gets blended together.  I tried some and it's actually pretty good.  Then I made tuna salad.  It looks nasty, and I didn't taste it yet, but I will give it a whirl.  Lastly, is "chicken supreme."  I cooked a chicken breast, broth, and 3 cups of veggies for an hour, then blended it with low fat cream of chicken soups, then mixed in a cup of potato flakes.  So it's like a really thick soup.  I tried it last night and it's pretty good.

I have some other ideas, but I need to eat these things first.  I probably shouldn't have made three things at once, but I was anxious to put some variety into my diet.  :)

Back from vacation

We returned from our vacation.  We had a lovely time, but Glen got a cold starting Saturday night, and now all of us have it in varying degrees.  I did fine with eating and drinking on the vacation, and took several walks on the beach.  I reached the next milestone which is that I lost 20% of my excess weight.  I am excited about that, but my weight loss right now is kind of pretty slow, almost non-existent.  I need to start exercising more, but one thing is that I am really, really, really tired.  I can't remember if I talked about it before.  There could be a variety of reasons.  Could be the loss of blood/low hemoglobin still, it could be the low calories, and it could be the lack of caffeine.  I am like a zombie.  I don't sleep a lot, but I just feel really weak.  I did talk to my dietician/coordinator about it.  I see my PCP, Dr. Carion, on Monday, and will see Dr. Hawasli toward the end of the month and at that time they are supposed to do more bloodwork.  I talked to several people who had some form of bariatric surgery, and I have heard of people being tired anywhere from 2-6 weeks.  So for now I am just going to hang in there, get enough water, protein, calories, and iron, and will talk a walk every day, even if it's not super strenuous.  I just feel like I could sit and watch TV all day, and I hate that feeling!