Day 28: Protein, protein, protein, and more!

Boy I've got a lot to say in this entry. Today, on this 4 week anniversary of my surgery, I decided to go protein bar/water hunting. This is what I came up with:

I also found some pink lemonade Stacker 2 protein water with 30g of protein per bottle. I've heard mixed reviews about it, but hopefully it's something I can enjoy and benefit from.

I've tried all the protein bars, these are the only ones I found with reasonable amounts of carbs/sugar/fat too, some bars had 20g+ of sugar!

The Best - Proteins Express by Genuine Health. It was definitely the best tasting and has: 200 calories, 6g of fat, 24g of carbs, 6g of sugar, and 14g of protein per serving. It was also the cheapest of all the bars I bought at $2.49.

The Worst - Iso-Pro by Precision Sport Supplements. 2 words: Cardboard box. Plus is was HUGE. A massive bar I could never finish in a week. It has: 280 calories, 8g of fat, 26g of carbs, 2.5g of sugar, and 30g of protein. It just so happened to be the most expensive at $3.19.

As for the Atkins bars...let's just say I'm happy I decided not to buy a whole box! They were 'okay', the mocha flavoured one was very strong and almost made my eyes water...then brownie one was alright, but I think the mocha taste was embedded into my mouth. Those had: 230 calories, 9g of fat, 23g of carbs, 0g of sugar, and 20g of protein.

That was my protein bar experiment and I will try the protein water out tomorrow. I hope it does the trick!

Today was also my official weekly weigh-in and I am happy to report that I am down 3.5 lbs this week :) This bumps my total loss to 23.4 lbs!

Lastly, I got my act together yesterday and decided to keep track of my nutritional intake and without even knowing it, I got in 57g of protein yesterday, plus 556 calories. I thought that was pretty great for what I had in mind. I'm already at 54g for today, but there will be more before the day's end. I know it's not enough, but for now I think I'm doing pretty good considering. 70g here I come...

That's it for now.

Day 27!

As usual, nothing unusual to report. Everything is going good, I may have had too many carbs today, I should watch for that tomorrow. Mashed potatoes go down so less and painlessly compared to meat, no matter how much I chew. My mom made mashed potatoes with supper last night and there are always a bunch of leftovers. I also got these tofu burgers and although they're very good, like other things lately, they seem to get stuck right in my lower chest area, I guess where the opening of my pouch is. I've noticed that when I get those pains...taking a small sip of water makes it so much worse. It passes quickly and the worst of it is over within maybe 10-15 minutes...but boy do I feel like I'm going to die at times! I'm going to watch for that in the coming days. Maybe I'm just got being careful enough and eating too fast.
Aside from that the weather's been pretty crazy in the past couple of days for walking, I need to start that up tomorrow. Won't be long until I can re-join the gym!

That's it for today...4wks out tomorrow!

Day 26!

I can't believe how quickly time has gone since my surgery. I mean I'm going to be 4 weeks out on Tuesday! Such a big number. Soon I'll be counting in months. Today was my first support group meeting since surgery, which I guess explains my reflective mood. It was so nice to have conversations with people who understand how I am feeling. I'm so lucky to have found this group! We're going to meet again for coffee in a couple of weeks since our next official meeting isn't for another month and a bit. Also, today a woman in our group, who had the surgery in large part because she couldn't conceive, announced that she was 2 months pregnant! She's done really well and has lost 130 lbs in 11 months, so it was a long awaited announcement.
Aside from that I haven't weighed myself this week, food is going down and staying down good, and I'm still doing good on water.

That's my weekend update...

Day 24

Quiet day at the office and I'm here sipping on a really gross protein drink looking forward to going outside for lunch. I have a crappy lunch today unfortunately and I'm thinking about picking up a tim hortons chicken salad wrap, it didn't seem too bad on the website, and I'll only be having half of it. Oy this shake is making me nauseous. 5hrs to go! TGIF

Day 23: Feeling hot hot HOT

Man oh man has it been hot in the past couple of days. Doesn't help that the a/c isn't working and the pool isn't open yet...time to call the pool guys! I don't work on Thursday so I was stuck in the house all day. I did take some time to do some sun bathing for the first time this year. It was sooooo nice. I can't wait to catch a little colour, I hate being paper white.
Not much to say on the weight-loss front, I got in almost 3L of water yesterday, went for a short walk during my lunch hour and may be going for one again later tonight, once it cools down a little...I haven't eating as much today, but protein-wise I'm doing pretty good for the day.

That's my short update :)

3wks: It's official: My scale hates me

I promised myself that I would never complain about being a slow loser, or hitting some stalls. It's all normal. Well, now I'm complaining.

Screen shot of my cute excel weight loss spreadsheet:

I was 250 .8 last night, how I gained over 2 lbs overnight is beyond me. This is my body saying "DRINK YOUR PROTEIN SHAKES WOMAN!" I just know it!

Work today went really well. I have to say, I've been going to bed super late, and waking up super late so of course I just could not get to sleep last night at all. It was hard to get out of bed so early to shower and get ready. But I made it! Thankfully, it was quiet enough to enable a smooth transition back into normal life. I had my yogurt in the morning, then warmed up my mashed potato/cauliflower concoction but I really wasn't in the mood for it for some reason. I gave that up for a while and drank a lot of water, waited, and had some deli style LF smoked turkey. Then it was finally time to go home, where I had some chicken stir fry. The weather was so beautiful today, I begged my little brother (he's 12) to come take a walk with me. He refused at first...but then came up to me and asked me when we were leaving! We walked everywhere, he took me through these passages in the woods, we walked around the football field, around the movie theater, it took us an hour and a half! I really hope it's something we can stick to until it gets too hot to be outside!

That was my day 21 :)

Day 20: Picture time!

Ok, so when I was about 2mos pre-op, I thought it would be a fun idea to take pictures every day to track my progress. I thought this would be great except for the fact that I look like crap everyday :) I've had these pictures on my camera since the surgery and I though now, 3 weeks post-op would be a good time to post them. Here goes nothing...


^Day after surgery...friends came to visit and insisted on pics!

^ Just after coming home from the hospital...notice the big tiger balloon my best friend brought me. I look so tired and swollen. Oy!

^ My birthday, 1 week post-op

^ 2 weeks post-op

Food-wise today was good. I had another late night last night (gotta love the social life of a 20 year old!) so I rolled myself out of bed really late again. I had some yogurt, chicken salad with 1/2 of a whole wheat tortilla, I tried having some protein shake, but I only got 3-4 sips...and then I had some fajita chicken for supper. Once thing I'm proud of today is I finally did a good job of waiting before and after meals to drink...and I got in 2L of water/crystal light. Finally! Now if only I could stack up on that protein!
I go back to work tomorrow and got some great suggestions on here and on OH. I have a giant pile of stuff to bring to the office tomorrow. Protein, smoked turkey slices, melba toast, cereal, oatmeal, tea, crystal light, yogurt, and lots of other stuff...hopefully that'll keep my satisfied all day!

Can't wait for tmorrow's official 3 weeks weigh-in!

Day 19: Oh Beef!

Ya..beef. My pouch and beef just did not get along today. My grandmother came over with some meatballs she made (and did not fry!) and although they (I had 1.5 medium sized) were very moist, and I chewed them very well, they just did not go down. And what did go down, came right back up. I had some heartburn too. It's better now, but my I still feel some burning in my pouch, even when I take some sips of water.
I also had a bit of mashed potatoes and cauliflower, some SF fudgesicles, and a tiny bit of chicken leftover from last night. I woke up reeeeeeally late (late night last night) this afternoon so I didn't have enough awake time to eat as much as I probably should.
1 more day until I'm back at work full-time! I will definitely need some lunch suggestions...I'm not one to plan, and I know that I need to. Hope it all goes smoothly!

Day..umm..18?

Long time no update..again. I'm alive and doing well! The scale finally budged this morning. I was ± 3 lbs all week and getting pretty anxious! I finally hit my lowest weight in over a year 251.8! This also brings my total weight loss since my pre-op to exactly 21 lbs. Very happy about that one. It's funny, I thought my clothes would last me longer...but I'm already down to 1 pair of pants, the rest of it is too big! Good thing it's summer...I have a couple of capri pants that were too small from a couple of years ago...and tops, well, those I have in just about every size imaginable.
Eating is still going well. I guess my stomach is healing nicely because I started feeling full for the first time since surgery this week. I'm also trying really hard not to drink, it's so hard though, I just get so thirsty. I'm still struggling with the protein...I have it every meal, but I probably get 30 or so grams a day, not the 70 a day my surgeon would like. I'm gonna keep introducing it, and adding the unflavoured protein to the stuff I can, it's not easy!
I go back to work on Tuesday and cannot wait to get back into a routine. It's gonna be hard getting dressed every day, and preparing meals the night before, I suck at planning, but it'll be fun to get out of the house.

Aside from that, life is just dandy :)

2wks post-op!

Today marks me being 2wks post-op and my official weekly weigh-in kinda sucked...I gained exactly 1 lb. It's to be expected I guess, I'm not disappointed per say, just a little bummed. Story of my life! I know the scale will get moving again soon.
I woke up pretty late this morning, so had my yogurt late...then boiled and mashed some cauliflower and a couple of little potatoes, mixed in some garlic and very small pieces of onion, and then set it under the broiler for a bit, topped with some breadcrumbs and a tiny bit of cheese. Yum! It was so good, I had it for lunch, and then some more for supper. I'll definitely be making some more of that in the coming days.
Water drinking is also going good and yay for extra energy!

That's it...hope this week goes as well as today has!

Day 13

Long time no update! I've been doing well, definitely getting some of my energy back. Getting out of the house has been great. I'm slowly getting back to 'normal'. I start work at my dad's office again next Monday, and then my retail job the first week of June. It's much more physically demanding so I'm kinda dreading getting back to that one.
Food-wise I think I've experimented too much in the past couple of days, so no more of that! I had some cheese last night, like I've been doing quite a bit of lately, with no problems. I don't know if I just had too much of it...but I dumped. I asked my surgeon today and apparently cheese is a no for 3 months. Who knew! I really don't enjoy dumping, I had the same reaction with the carnation instant breakfast too. My heart starts pounding, so much that I can see my shirt move...and then the only way to make it 'stop' is making myself throw up. No one likes to throw up. And last night even drinking water hurt. My stomach muscles were not happy! It's better today, I already have 1/2L down.
This morning I had my 2wk post-op follow-up. They took the freakin staples out finally! I was thisclose to taking them out myself. They were itchy and blurgh. Hated them. It didn't hurt that bad either, just those on top, they didn't look 'healed' like they others were. I met with Dr. Christou and he answered the questions I had and I was on my merry way! I gained almost 3lbs this week for some strange reason...probably because I royally suck at protein shakes. I hate all of them. Too sweet, too ick. I gotta start them up though...despite how much I hate them.
I also bumped into a woman who had the lap-band put in on the same day that I was there and she's having a really hard time. Today was the first time she'd been out of the house. She's had horrible acid reflux and they found out today that her port area is badly infected, which happens to 4% of lap-band patients. She's been on antibiotics for it..but if it's not better by Friday they said they'd just to the gastric bypass next Tuesday. I hope it gets better for her, I don't know what I'd do in that situation!

Anywhoo...that's it for now :)

Day 9 Part II

This evening went a lot better. I finally got up out of the house for the first time since Tuesday to do some of my grocery shopping since I was so sick of the same 3-4 foods. I do so much better on days where I can leave the house for a bit. I got some good cheese, some LF grilled chicken patties (Og of sugar, 21g of protein per serving!), some cottage cheese, some pickles, more bottled water (I can only drink bottled now..strange), carnation instant breakfast, tofu (no idea what to do with it), hummus, LF tzatziki, and I finally found yogurt with just 5g of sugar! There are a few things but I'm really happy to have extra choices this week.
My dad gets back from his latest business trip tomorrow and I think we'll start our nightly walks up again, hopefully I can keep up!

That's for for part II of day 9 :)

Day 9: Ick

There was no blogging last night because I felt like crap, simply said. All day was weird I just really didn't feel like eating...at all. I tried having a scrambled egg for lunch but it just wasn't going down, the texture was bugging me, the taste was bugging me, I had half and gave up. Then I had some oatmeal and that went down ok, I wasn't hungry so I didn't get much of it, maybe 2-3oz tops. And then at 9pm, I started feeling hungry so made some egg salad since I love/d it and can get in some extra protein. Big mistake. Within minutes my heart started racing, I got extremely tired, started to sweat a lot, and started feeling nauseous. I decided to put myself out of misery and just make myself throw up and I did feel a lot better, but still. I did drink 1L of water though which is great.
I'm trying to drink up again today but it's not looking good! I'm so sick of the same foods!!!

1 week post-op: I survived my first birthday!

One week post-op :) The day started off really well, I had a good amount of protein shake this morning and then went to shower. As usual, I felt crappy afterwards...but I think just taking it really easy after is fine. My dad came home from with the a nice big orchid, which I've always wanted really. The surgery was my birthday gift, so this was a nice surprise. I then went to my dad's office, but when I got there, the elevator was broken...I almost went back home because just walking up and down the screen exhausted me...but I didn't...I walked up the stairs. Ouf what a mistake. It was like being in a shower again...I was seeing spots, felt really tired all of the sudden. No more climbing 3 flights of stairs! Once I was home from that, my friends were waiting to take me pottery painting! It was a really cute place...I painted a nice plate for myself while sipping on my new 1L water bottle. Once we were done that I was starving and decided I could have some chicken at this greek restaurant. Well I did fine! I got 1 chicken brochette for $3 with some garlic sauce (made with yogurt). I had 3-4 pieces and start feeling full, so stopped right away and that was that.

It's hard not to drink when I eat just because I'm so scared to get something stuck so I've been sipping after every bite just to make sure it's all gone down. Is that ok?

First post-op WI: 254 lbs...18.8 lbs down since pre-op diet, 13 lbs lost since surgery :)

Anywhoo...I'm 20! Yay!

Day 6: WOOHOO

Yay for little bursts of energy! I accomplished a lot today, which is just what I needed I think. First I woke up and had 1/2 a protein shake, once again mixed with soy milk. Then I started on that water. And then the mechanic called because my car (which broke down 4 days before surgery) was ready to be picked up. It had actually been ready since last Thursday, but I wasn't ready to drive yet, for obvious reasons. But today I felt good, my surgeon said I could drive whenever I felt ready, and I did! So I went and did that...then off to pay my driver's license...and then to Wal-Mart. I was asking the pharmacist if there were different types off multi-vitamins I could take because I really hate the one's my surgeon prescribed. Centrum 50+ chewable. Blurgh. And he said I could take 2 Flinstones' vitamins (the ones with iron) as long as I kept taking the other stuff (biotin, iron, calcium, and b12). That works out great!
At the end of this trip I was pooped, and definitely glad I brought along water, amazing how dry my mouth got!

Tomorrow is my 20th birthday also...and we've decided to go pottery painting, which I absolutely love!

Day 6 is going awesome so far :)

Day 4

This is going to be a short entry because frankly, I can hardly keep my eyes open. I'm getting really frusterated with this no energy thing. My head feels great but my body just wants to sit, sleep, and do nothing. I know I'm recovering from surgery, but I should be able to walk and stuff, no? Just getting up to get some water exhausts me. I thought I'd be able to take walks outside by now! Something really scary happened this morning too. Since I've had my surgery, showering has been weird because I guess being so 'active' for 10 minutes wipes me out. Usually I feel it coming on and I have time to finish up real quick and get out. But today, I started feeling it pretty early but I figured it was just early still and I hadn't had anything to eat yet. Wrong. I got so faint I started seeing spots and barely made it out it time before getting to the bed naked and soaking wet. I felt better after a few minutes, but maybe I won't be showering for a couple of days until I get this protein thing right.
Other than that, things are going good so far, I really worked on that water today. I also had 2 SF popsicles...boy was I happy to find them! I also had an egg. I know it's early but I really need that energy burst. I scrambled it and chewed the crap out of it, small pieces at a time and it went fine.
So that was my day, tomorrow I'm going to concentrate on protein!

Any tips?

My struggles on day 3

Yesterday went very well, the only minor 'problem' I had was at night when I was sipping my protein shake. I drank just about 1/2 a cup and began to feel a bit icky. I stopped immediately, but I did end up with a fever and feeling a bit out of it until I went to bed.
I woke up feeling very bloated and even a bit nauseous. I showered and sat down ready to drink my crystal light. Two ounces later, I began to feel full again, even after sipping it slowly for 2 hours...so I stopped because I didn't want to overdo it. I wasn't nauseous or anything, but I was so full the thought of drinking made me sleepy. I tried sipping on chicken broth at 5pm, but a few sips and I just didn't feel like I could handle it, so I stopped.
So by 7pm, I had had 2oz of water, 0.5oz of broth and was still bloated! It was so strange because I still feel awesome, my energy level sucks, but no pain at all. Even my throat was 90% better. I broke down and asked an OH friend who told me that the bloating was from the leftover gas in my body pressing on my pouch. So I drank a 10oz glass of water (sipped over the course of over an hour) and even was able to get in a few teaspoons of Weight Control oatmeal.
I do feel better now, a bit tired since I've been going to bed so early and waking up so early...it's passed my bed time!

I've lost a total of 10.5lbs since the beginning of my pre-op diet, half of that is since yesterday. I almost fainted when I saw that number. I just hope I made the right decision!

So, now what?

I have been home for almost 8 hours now and man...I feel awesome! I could do without the sore throat but I almost feel as though nothing has happened. I was walking around before and started feeling a bit feverish, so sat down and am now feeling a bit better. I sipped on some SF lemonade all afternoon, then had a few teaspoons of SF jello, and now I'm just sipping on some Matrix Cookies & Cream protein shake. It's delicious, seriously! I am trying my best to go slow and just listen to my body. I still have some gas in my stomach, and it rumbles, a lot...I'm also trying to get up and go to the bathroom whenever I get up. Gas sucks.

Head hunger never really left and I have a feeling it's going to be hard for me not to experiment, I'm already looking forward to having some pureed stuff. These liquids are definitely keeping me full though, I just need my brain to understand!

I made it home!

I survived my RNY :)
The first day was the worst, I wasn't ready for the gas pain I had with no relief. I had 0 complications other than my oxygen levels dipping a bit when I would go to sleep. I was up and about that night...but I think I may have overdone it a bit because I was sick soon after I sat down. Day 2 was better, I was able to walk a lot more and last night they took my i.v. out and let me take a shower which was a godsend! I felt smelly. I also had some jello and broth yesterday and everything was great. Last night my throat also started bothering me a bit. It still does today, but I can't complain. I haven't had any pain medication since yesterday at 4am.

It feels good so far to be a loser!

3 days post-op