Pre-op Diet: Day 11

I have a love-hate relationship with Sundays.  Obviously I love it because it's Sunday and it's still the weekend.  But I hate it a little because it means the next day is Monday.  And I feel like every minute is just ticking closer to Monday.  We met the in-laws for lunch at Carino's.  Now, you might wonder how the heck I was able to eat properly at Carino's.  I wondered the same thing.  BUT you might NOT know that Carino's now has steaks!  That's right.......a 12 ounce ribeye and a 12 ounce strip.  It comes with steamed veggies, pasta and a salad.  So I talked the hubs into splitting it with me.  I got 4 ounces of the steak and half the vegggies.  The steak was awesome, y'all!  I highly recommend it.  AND I sat there while everyone else tore up that bread and it didn't even bother me.  However, I'm not gonna lie.....when Zac's big-bowl-of-mac-and-cheese came, it was all I could do not to stick my face in it and inhale the whole thing.  But I refrained.  And somehow made it through.  All in all, a success in my book.

Then Hunter and I went to see White House Down with Mandy and her son Dalton.  The smell of popcorn didn't affect me as badly as I thought.  I brought a shake and drank it right before the movie started because HEAVEN FORBID I get hungry during.  But it worked.  I sipped on water throughout and felt great.  Another milestone for me!  Also - great movie....you need to see it if you haven't already.

7/7/2013 Data: 

Weight:  280.2 (up .2 pounds, but it's ok.....not gonna panic!)
Exercise:  20 minute walk
Food Diary:

Pre-op Diet: Day 10

Yesterday was tough.  Probably the toughest day I've had on this 2-week diet.  I was hungry ALL day and my head hurt so bad.  Luckily it was super slow at work, so it wasn't too bad.  But it was one of those days you just make it through, you know?  I still managed to walk, which is super awesome.  But it was only for about 10 minutes.  Halfway through, I looked at Hunter and said "Are you done?" and thankfully, he was.  :-)

Today was a very lazy day.  My favorite kind, in fact.  We slept in, which means eating breakfast later, which means being hungry less.  Like that math I did there?  And of course, spent time with the new puppy, Dixie!!  She is a cutie-patootie.  And she's in love with Hunter.  So she's pretty much his dog now.  Which actually worked out, because our Shorkie (Shih Tzu/Yorkie mix) Duke was none too pleased about her.  He wasn't mean to her, but he really wanted nothing to do with her for sure.  I told Dan it's like we're grandparents....Hunter brings her to us when he's eating or taking a shower or such, but then we hand her back and he feeds her, takes her out, sleeps with her, etc.  It's pretty freaking awesome!  All the fun without the responsibility.  This must be what it feels like to be a kid......

7/6/2013 Data:

Weight: 280.0
Exercise:  Push-mowing the yard for 1 hour
Food Diary:

Pre-op Diet: Day 9

I can't believe I had to work today.  But I have to save all the time I can for surgery/recovery, so here I am.  Slaving away.  Actually, not really.  All the bosses are off today and it is soooo quiet, so it's almost like a vacation day.  Got a lot done, which is always nice.  I planned the next week and a half of meals for my family so they'll have something to eat while I'm recovering.  I'm hitting the store today and hopefully that will be it for awhile.

So exciting news today!  Our new puppy is coming home.  My bff Tricia is picking up her and her sister out of town and bringing them back.  My puppy is Dixie and hers is Bella.  We are SO excited.  We've been waiting for them for several months.  I foresee not much getting done this weekend.  I'll be busy playing with my puppy.  :-)

Check out this cuteness:

Bella on the left, Dixie on the right

7/5/2013 Data:

Weight:  280.6 (it's probably been well over a year since I weighed 280!)
Exercise:  20 minutes walking
Food:  I've been really hungry today for some reason, so this is the first time in awhile that I've had all 3 shakes.  It definitely helped.  For dinner, I made Mexican Chicken, which is basically 1 can of reduced fat cream of chicken soup mixed with 1 cup of salsa, poured over chicken breasts and topped with 1 pkg of taco seasoning.  Cooked in a crockpot on low for 8-9 hours.  Yummy!!!

Pre-op Diet: Day 8

Happy (Belated) 4th of July!!  We actually did more this year than we've done in awhile.  Probably because I know I won't feel like doing much for awhile after my surgery (next week, baby!!).  We slept in, went and got lunch at Cotton Patch, watched Despicable Me 2 in 3D, went home for a bit, then headed back out to the George Bush Library for fireworks.  It was a great night.  And I was afraid I wouldn't get my walking in, but.....we parked in a parking garage and rode the shuttle to the site, not thinking about the return situation.  Well, after the fireworks were over, the lines for the shuttle were a mile long.  So we walked.  It was about 20 minutes at a VERY brisk pace, so I was really glad it worked out that way.

Here's my boys waiting for the fireworks to start:

And the obligatory shot in the "Oval Office":

7/4/2013 Data:

Weight:  282.8
Exercise:  20 minute hike to parking garage with Dan and Zac
Food:

Pre-op Diet: Day 7

Hi, my name is Cheri and I'm a compulsive weigher-inner.  You know how you're supposed to only weigh yourself once a week?  Yeah, well I don't do that.  I weigh myself at LEAST every morning.  Sometimes more than once if I don't like what it says the first time.  Then I weigh myself when I get home and try to estimate what it will say in the morning.  THEN I'll weigh again before I go to bed.  Why, oh why do I do this to myself??  It's totally a mental game.  I've done this so many times over the years......stay motivated when I'm losing weight, but then the FIRST time that scale goes up, I think "Well, screw this!  Might as well eat what I want!!".  Sound familiar?  Well, the reason I'm talking about this today is because it happened.  The scale went up this morning.  Just .4 pounds, but still.  Wrong direction!!!  However, this time I'm keeping my head.  I'm not freaking out.  I'm just re-evaluating.  If I'm honest, I've been a little loosey-goosey with my diet.  Not eating sweets or carbs or anything.  But not following it 'to the tee', if you know what I mean.  So today I'm back on track and following it to the letter of the law.  Wanna know why?  It's that dang liver.  It's all I can think about!  My liver has to lose some fat/weight/whatever by next Thursday, so it's on like Donkey Kong.  

On another note, here's a picture of my sweet family....and my bad hair, puffy face, fat, fat, fat, yuck.  But we're all together, so that's all that matters.  I love these three with all that I have. 

My Hunter and Zac...aren't they the cutest?  

And all four of us again.  Did I mention it was a REALLY bad hair day??

7/3/2013 Data: 

Weight:  283.6

Exercise:  20 minutes walking with the boys

Food Diary: 

Pre-op Diet - Day 6

Back at work today and it's not too bad, since it's only 2 days until the 4th of JULY holiday!!  Man, I love a holiday.  We're planning to do something fun with the boys, but don't know what yet.  Stepped on the scale this morning and.........I actually lost FIVE pounds on our road trip!  I KNOW, right???  I'm super duper excited.  Man, I hope it's all from my liver.  :-)

7/2/2013 Data:

Weight:  283.2 (so actually 7 point FOUR pounds!)
Exercise:  20 minute walk with the boys
Food:

NOTE - I switched from the Bariatric Advantage Iced Latte protein to the Unjury Chocolate Splendor and it's SOOOOOO much better.  I'll keep the BA Iced Latte for after surgery when I probably don't care what I'm drinking and use the Unjury for now.....while I still care.  

Road Trip!!!

So we hit the road on Saturday for our annual road trip with the boys.  I was a bit nervous about my eating. I feel like ALL I ever think about is eating. You know what I'm talking about....so anyway. I ate breakfast and lunch at home, so that helped.  Then we stopped at McD's on the way and I drank a shake while everyone else had a snack. We went to a movie that night and ate dinner at the mall food court.  I was able to find a really good, very fresh grilled chicken salad.  I got the fat free ranch dressing and just barely dipped my fork in for the taste.  I don't know about you, but I can't eat a salad dry.

On Sunday, we got up, had the standard free breakfast (which had EVERYTHING I needed...I was shocked), lounged in the room for a bit, then checked out around noon.  Since we couldn't check into Great Wolf lodge until 1:00, we stopped for lunch.  Then we hit the park.  Had a great time, but it's always good to get back home and back to a normal routine.

Wow!  This will definitely be a "before" pic of me.  Yikes!

I didn't track on My Fitness Pal for Saturday - Monday, but I really watched what I ate and had NO breads or sweets.  Here's my stats:

Weight:  288 (Saturday morning before we left)
Exercise:  We walked the Grapevine mall for at LEAST 20 minutes looking for something to eat on Saturday and I walked for 20 minutes with my boys on Monday night.

Saturday, 6/29/2013

Breakfast:  1 hardboiled egg, 1 piece of toast with spray butter, 1 small apple, 1 glass of crystal light
Lunch:       Chili made with ground turkey, beef broth and diced tomatoes
Snacks:     2 protein shakes made with water (decided to cut out the almond milk and save the calories)
Dinner:      Grilled chicken salad with cucumbers and 1/4 of the 40 calorie package of fat free ranch dressing

Sunday, 6/30/2013

Breakfast:  1 hardboiled egg, 1 piece of bread, coffee with half and half, water
Lunch:       Cheddar's parmesan-encrusted sirloin with wedge salad (you must try this...it was aMAHzing.  I didn't eat it all.  It was 6 oz, so I left about 2 oz. on the plate, which is something I've really been working on.  I was raised as a 'clean-your-plate kid.)
Dinner:       4 oz. of prime rib, salad with fat free vinaigrette dressing.
Snacks:      2 protein shakes (I'm having a hard time getting all 3 shakes in, but I'm not hungry so I'm not worrying too much about it)

Monday, 7/1/2013

Breakfast:   Omelet with spinach, mushrooms and ham (OMGSOGOOD!!), coffee, water
Lunch:         Cracker Barrel chicken tenderloins, green beans.  NO rolls.  I consider that a personal accomplishment, for sure!
Dinner:        Leftover over turkey chili
Snacks:       2 protein shakes