Vitamins

Here's the chewable vitamins I found for the liquid/puree/soft food phase.  And I have to be honest....they taste TERRIBLE!!!!  It was all I could do to choke them down.  It's so important to take your vitamins, so I made sure to take them everyday at the beginning.  And once I was cleared for tablets again, I quickly converted.

After about the first month, I was able to start taking these chocolate chews.  SOOOO much better.  It was like eating candy.  Yummy. 

My Staples

I think I've already admitted that I'm a creature of habit. Once I find something that works, I tend to repeat it over and over. So here are a few of my favorite things. These are the staples I turn to each day when I'm trying to do "high protein". 

Some details for your convenience:

Muscle Milk - 180 cals/20g protein
Turkey jerky - 45 cals/4g protein per stick
Protein bar - 190 cals/20g protein

The Snapple and Coffee are just for reference, not protein of course. But they're my faves and part of my daily routine so I wanted to share.

I'm still trying to break the hold sugar has on me.  Now that the holidays are officially over, I have high hopes. Wish me luck!

Day 43 - LAST day of soft foods/purees

Man, I've had the munchies today!  I'm not sure why.  I've done well on my protein numbers.  And I'm trying to make good, high protein choices.  But dang.  Luckily I'm not tempted by the chocolate bowl in my office.  Because it's full, let me tell you.  But so not worth it.

8/8/2013 Data:

Weight:  259.6 (31 pounds!!)
Exercise:  20 minute walk

Days 41 & 42

This week I'm realizing how awesome it is to feel good.  You know what I mean?  When you're feeling good and not having any pain, you don't think about it.  Until you feel bad.  And you can't sit up straight, or bend over and tie your shoes without sharp pain.  That's when you remember how great it was to feel good.  And you can't wait for that to happen again.  Well, it's finally here for me.  I had read that it takes about 3 weeks to really recover.  And of course I thought "pish-posh....not ME!".  Well, folks.  It's true.  I definitely felt better after the first week and a half.  But it took 3 full weeks to really feel GOOD.  And it's a great feeling.  So if you're just starting this post-op journey...hang in there.  It gets better every day.

8/6/2013 Data:

Weight:  261
Exercise:  20 minute walk with Tricia

8/7/2013 Data:

Weight:  261.2

Exercise:  20 minute walk with my boys

Day 40

So Monday was a typical Monday.  The one we don't want to face.  The day we all wish we could just stay in bed and sleep.  Honestly, if I could come into work at 9:00 instead of 8:00, I'd be happy.  Just one more hour would do me.

I've been looking for a way to track my weight loss and progress online and I think I found it.  It's called Weight & BP Tracker and it's located at:  http://www.weighttracker.info/.  Plus it's FREE so check it out.  You can also track your blood pressure (which has never been a problem for me, thank goodness!) and inches lost.  Here's a snapshot of my progress page and my weight loss chart:

You can see how it tracks your total progress, your BMI, your average loss per week and your projected time until you meet your goal.  Very cool.  I'm a visual person so I like to see it all in one place like this.

 8/5/2013 Data:

Weight:  262.4
Exercise:  No.  Didn't happen.
Food Diary:

Day 39

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day.  However.  If you look at my food diary, you can tell I had the munchies.  BIG time.  Sunday was a lesson for me in exercising my willpower.  People may think this is "the easy way out", but it's not.  It still takes a LOT of work to make good choices.  And I really struggled with that on Sunday.  I don't think I was even hungry.  I just wanted to eat.  And I couldn't eat a lot at one time, thank goodness!!  But I was able to get 3 cookies down with some milk.  And it tasted amazing.  But I immediately felt guilty.  And swore I wouldn't do it again.  If I gain weight after all this, I will be VERY unhappy with myself.  So back on track tomorrow.  No really!!!

8/4/2013 Data:

Weight:  262.4
Exercise:  20 minute walk with Zac.  Yes, I went twice as long as I've been going for 3 weeks.  YAY!
Food Diary:

Days 36-38

I'm being reminded day after day that I need to work on my brain when it comes to eating.  I STILL think that my portion sizes are WAY too small, and yet I can never finish more than 8-10 bites at the most.  Even though I want to eat more, I just can't.  And I also learned that 'they' are not kidding when 'they' say not to drink during your meal.  I've been trying to follow that rule, but sometimes I need the drink to help wash down my food.  However, my hubby and I were enjoying a kid-free dinner at Cotton Patch.  We did great on splitting the meal...I had 1/2 a cup of the potato soup and about 5 bites of his tilapia, but I was drinking my unsweet tea pretty heavily.  Well, "it" hit me like a ton of bricks.  This feeling of nausea/queasy/dizzy.  I just knew I needed to get home right away and lay down.  I'm not sure why the liquid does that...maybe it fills you too fast?  I don't know, but I certainly learned my lesson.  I will no longer be drinking during dinner.  Also, tonight after I finished back-to-school shopping with my boys, I ran through Freddy's for a hot fudge sundae.  Let me tell you...pre-surgery, I ate one almost every day.  Like, the Large size.  The whole thing!  So tonight I saw the "mini" size and guess what I thought?  "WAY too small!!!!" so I got the regular instead.  And it was way too much.  I ate about 1/4 of it and I was done.  I thought the ice cream would go down pretty easily and it did, but I got full pretty fast.  Which is great.  That's what I wanted, right?  It seems like all these things I've been craving are just not as good as I remember.  Which is a good thing.

8/1-8/3/2013 Data:

Weight:  262
Exercise:  Not much to be honest...it's so stinking hot and humid outside I can't stand it.
Food:

Day 35 - 6th day of purees/soft foods

So I've realized that my eyes are still bigger than my stomach.  I know it's a 'head-thing' that I'll have to get over.  I still look at portions and think 'it's not enough!!' but then I can't even eat it all.  I get full after just a few bites, which is awesome!  But I still love eating so much that I almost wish I could eat more.  Almost.  But I also realize that I love losing weight much, much more than I love eating food.  So I'm still convincing myself to make good choices.  I really focus on getting enough protein at each meal, which means ice cream is definitely out!  I just hope I can keep it up when I can actually eat more.

My clothes are definitely getting bigger.  My pants are almost hanging off.  However, I haven't been able to wear a smaller size since my tummy is still swollen and it hurts for anything to touch too closely.  At least I'm finally able to sit upright at my desk without a lot of pain.  I hope the swelling goes down soon.

Today is 3 weeks post-op.  The dreaded "3 week slump".  So I'm trying to prepare myself for it.  But I'm sure I'll still be upset.  I should probably put up the scale.  But I know I won't......

7/31/2013 Data:

Weight:  263.2
Exercise:  Got both my boys to walk for 10 minutes.  Even though it was SO stinking hot.
Food Diary:

Day 34 - 5th day of purees/soft foods

Tuesday was a long day.  For some reason, I had the munchies all day.  Fortunately, I was able to fight it.  I've worked way too hard for this to give in to some ice cream.  I did, however, pick up some frozen yogurt with some berries.  And it was AWE-SOME!!  So much better than the hot fudge sundaes I used to eat.  Better FOR me, anyway.  That night I made the mistake of watching my cooking shows.  I really should quit them because they make me hungry, but I was too lazy to get up and actually go get food, so it worked out ok.  See - laziness DOES pay off!

7/30/2013 Data:

Weight: 263.6
Exercise:  Didn't get to walk....couldn't talk anyone into going with me :-(
Food Diary: