Weigh in Wednesday week 3

Starting weight: 278

Last week's weight:252.3

Today's weight: 247

Lost: 5.3

Total loss: 31

Woohoo.  Clearly, I only lose weight on odd weeks.  And I'm okay with that.  I'm still sore from the work out on Monday.  Lava Lamp and I plan on working out later today.  I'll let you know how that goes.  Food is still going well.  I have eaten between 700 and 900 calories.  I exceed protein and water goal everyday.  Last night I make pulled pork from a pork tenderloin and one of my coworkers barbecue sauces.  Fantastic.  This is the easiest I have ever lost weight.  This has been the easiest to stick to the rules.  I'm stoked.

I continue to have issues with insurance.  Hand to God, this is going to give me an ulcer.  For a surgery that I had to weight two separate times for insurance approval, this is a big sticking pile of poo.  The good news is, if everything goes South, they can't repo my new stomach.

Wow... I'm outta shape

So today was a slow start due to the rain.  Nothing makes you sleep better than good ol Kentucky spring thunder storms.  Every time we had a bright flash of lightening my Yorkie mix, Shakes, would jump on me right when the thunder hit.  You could say I was thunder struck.  (It's OK.  I think I'm funny.)

So today I could begin lifting weights.  After the running fiasco, I sucked up and realized that I need to lose some weight and get in shape before I attempt elite fitness.  So here we start.  I did Jackie's 30 day fast start.  Poor little Jackie does not have much of a personality, but her work out DVD is awesome.  It's pyramids so it really pushes you, but no movement is very hard.  Also, you never have to support yourself with your arms.  This is my problem with Jillian Michael's 30 day shred.  Inevitability, around week 3, I hurt my shoulder.  So I will stick with Jackie for a little longer.  At least until I can complete the DVD without breathing heavily at Jackie thinking I'm gonna puke.  

Tomorrow will be cardio day.  If the rain keeps up, I will be doing Zumba on the Wii or another exercise video.  

Stay tuned til Wednesday's weigh in...

Saturday... Weird

Today, I hung out with some friends and then Lava Lamp and I went on a hike.  We walked for an hour and a half.  It was beautiful, if not a little muggy.  I didn't have my phone, so no pictures.  I will try to do better.  

Food has been weird today.  One of the ups of living in the barbecue belt is that we have more than few barbecue joints in town.  This translates to eating some yummy chopped pork and some tasty baked beans.  All of it was nice and soft.  Went down well.  And then came the broccoli casserole.  I have eaten this stuff for 3 or 4 days with no problems.  Today, 15 minutes after I ate it, it came back up.  I will say puking after VSG is very dainty.  No pain. No muss.  Fantastic.  Afterwards, I felt fine.  Just weird.   

My calories have gone up to 800- 900.  It;s working out well.  I have to stop myself from panicking.   I think that, because I'm eating more, I'll gain weight.  I have to stop and take a deep breath.  I'm still eating far below what I burn by exercise, and well, just being fat.  The weight will come off as long as I follow the rules and keep the faith.

Tomorrow will be another meeting with friends and another walk.  

Weighing matters

I weigh every day.  I know. I know.  Every one says it's not good for you.  But I have a heart defect.  I weigh every day to make sure I'm not taking on fluid.  I weigh every day to make sure my salt intake isn't too much.  I weigh every day to make sure I'm eliminating what I put in.  I have read horror stories about VSG patients being admitted into the hospital for constipation.  I so don't like hospitals.  So I weight every day.

The trick is not getting to caught up in the number.  I face my fear every day I get on the scale.  When I don't magically lose 5 pounds over night, I take a deep breath and repeat to myself that I am not a failure.  That this will take time.  A year at least.  If not more.  Breathe in and breathe out.  The weight will come off if I follow the rules.  If I stick to the plan and do as I am told, I will lose the weight.  I have to have faith.

Weigh in Wednesday week 2

Starting weight: 278

Last week's weight:252.6

Today's weight: 252.3

Lost: 0.3

Total loss: 25.7

Not a big loss, but a loss.  I'll take it.  The good thing about keeping up with everything that goes into your mouth and how many steps I take is, that I know the weight will come off eventually.  I have eaten between 600 and 800 calories this past week.  My exercise hasn't been great, But it's been good. If I hold the course, the work will pay off.  Keep the faith.

Oh the horror

So my left lower quadrant pain is awful.  I took lortab for the first time in a week.  So excuse me if I sound high.  I called my doctor's office and I talked to Mary, my doctor's nurse.  Mary is wonderful.  Fantastic.  Mary is a "I don;t know, but I will find out" kinda lady.  Mary is going to try and fix my insurance debacles.  Mary also had  the explanation for the pain.  the stitch where they took my stomach has popped.  The pain should only last a couple of days.  Or three weeks.  What the %$#&!!!  I can't do that.  So here's to hoping that pain goes away soon.  In the mean time, I made a cottage spinach bake. Here's the recipe.

2 cups low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese
2 whole eggs
10 oz pack of frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
½ cup Parmesan cheese


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In large bowl, mix all ingredients together well.
3. Place evenly into 8x8 pan.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese bubbles on outside.
5. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

That's all for now.  I'm gonna lay back and be stoned.

Monday Update

Yesterday, I was super sore for some odd reason.  Either trying to eat to much, slept wrong, or too much exercise.  Who knows? Either way, I spent most of Sunday with either ice or heat on my back and shoulders.  Today, it was a lazy day.  All I did was sew and hang out with friends.  Calories were 720. Protein was 81.  Water was 68 oz.  On track.  I love that my sleeve won't allow me to over eat.  Today would have been a perfect day to except defeat and eat a cake.  Instead, I made the right decisions food wise and my sleeve was not hungry.  

Today, I made some crab salad.  A package of crab meat, 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt, and half an avocado.    I ate a half a cup and Lava Lamp ate the rest.  It was yummy.  Hopefully, tomorrow my good humor will return.

What am I eating...

According to my treatment team, I need 70-80 grams of protein a day.  How does one do that?

So here's what I'm eating.
Refried beans from the Mexican restaurant.  one side orders equals 3 meals
Cottage cheese mixed with mashed potatoes.
Ricotta cheese bake. Basically, it's the cheesy part of a lasagna.  Or just the good part.   I got the recipe from eggface.  She requests that you post her link, instead of the recipe so here we go.  http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html  That link also shows other  pureed food ideas.

I'm still drinking a protein shake a day.  The good thing about my old bar tending days is being able to mix protein powders.  I have some left over medifast shakes that are orange, banana, and strawberry.   The orange and strawberry taste fantastic when added to my chocolate bulk powder.  The banana and chocolate are divine with a couple of tablespoons of PB2, peanut butter powder.  Straight chocolate tastes much better with a dash of cinnamon.  It helps to keep things interesting.

Last night I made this recipe.  I modified it from bariatric foodie recipe i found on pintrest.

Cauliflower bake.
4 cups of cauliflower, mashed
3/4 cup of Greek yogurt
1 cup of cheese, i used Colby jack
1 egg.

Mix all that together, place in a casserole dish, and add a 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese on top.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Feel free to play with the time and the heat.  I like a brown crust on top.

It was good.  Reminiscent of funeral potato casserole.  I'm keeping under 800 calories and meeting my protein and water goals.  Just got to continue to keep the faith.  I have this fear that I will do everything right and not be able to lose the weight.  Deep breathe.  Deep breathe.  Gotta keep the faith.

A lovely roller coaster day (TMI warning)

Down
This morning Lava Lamp didn't go to work due mild illness.  He woke me up at 7 and kept me up for an hour.  (He had a headache.  Men are babies when there sick.)

Up.
Buddha crawled in bed with me and we spooned.  I fell back to sleep.  A 90 pound presa canario makes a wonderful body pillow.

Down
I started the couch to 5k.  Wow. I am out of shape.  I could barely jog for the 60 seconds.  I have a feeling I will be repeating this first week.  If I just keep at it.  I kept reminding my self that what I was doing was the equivalent of a normal size person running with 2 of our 50 lb dog food bags strapped to them.

Up
Hey I actually went out and did the program

Down.
When I got back to the house, I forgot I had had surgery and downed a glass of water and then puked it back up.  So not good.

Up
I had a big girl poop.  A man I knew in the priesthood once told me, "You know what's really over estimated? Sex.  You know what's really under estimated? A good poop."  Today, I would agree with that statement.

Down
I received a letter from my precert company that they did not approve my second day in the hospital.  Appeals process here I come.  I wish insurance wasn't such a tug of war.

Up
The surgeries over with.  Nobody can repo it now!

Big Up.
I do volunteer work in the chemical dependency community.  Tonight I gave a talk a couple of towns over.  It went over splendidly.  They gave me a microphone and everything.  Woohoo.

Hello Mushies

I went to the doctor today.  He was pleased with my progress.  He said I'm on track to a BMI of 26 or 27.  That's my surgeon's goal.  I would prefer a healthy BMI, but whatever.  We will cross that bridge when we come to it.  I know I want to do a year of hardcore and then reassess later.  Herbie the hematoma bought me an extra week of leave.  It's a plus that I have a job that involves twisting, bending, carrying 50 pounds, and the like.  I need to call my FMLA company tomorrow and let them know.  The best part was he cleared me to run.  And when I say run, I mean more like really slow jog or fast walk.  I'm going to start a couch to 5 k program tomorrow and keep up with the walking.  The dietitian was impressed with my water intake.  I so don't want to be readmitted for dehydration.  The exercise specialist said to watch out doing intense work outs.  Honey, I have a heart condition.  I do not over do it.  I got this surgery so I would not end up on the cardiac floor.

And we have been cleared for mushies.  Pureed phase as my surgery binder calls it.  On the way home we stopped and got some baby bell cheese.  It was delicious.  And totally filled me up.  Lava Lamp and I stopped at the grocery store and got a bunch of groceries.  During my liquid pre op phase, I researched some recipes.  I'll report back on them.  For dinner we got Mexican.  I ate a 1/2 cup of re fried beans and a tablespoon of guacamole.  It took me 45 minutes to eat.  It was so delicious.  My food and Lava Lamp's food was under 10 bucks.  This surgery is gonna save us a ton in take away and grocery bills.  When we grocery shop, we usually get a treat for our selves while we are there.  He got his chocolate cookies.  I got a bottle of Figi water.  I like the taste, but due to cost, i drink tap.  Oh how the times a change.  So far this has been one of my better decisions in life.

Weigh in Wednesday Week 1

Starting weight: 278

Today's weight:252.6

Total loss: 25.4

Not a bad start.  I know that this year will be the easiest at losing weight.  I plan to through everything I have at.  Lava lamp and I ordered focus T25.  I should be released to full activity in another 4 weeks.  I plan to start it then.  I'm not a gym membership kinda girl.  I rarely drive and lava lamp and I share a car.  If I want to go some place, I walk.  Actually not that inconvenient because of where I live.  I don't want to walk to a gym just so I can run in place.  For the price of a membership, we got the T25.  When I have a destination in mind, it helps to motivate me to get out and walk.  Today, I walked 5 miles.  Tomorrow, it's off to the doctor.  Let's pray for getting advanced to pureed foods.

Another great blog out there is http://jessicasjourney2onederland.blogspot.com/  If you can't tell, I suck at computers and blogger has me confounded most of the time.  (How do you add a weight loss ticker? Why does my post keep ending up in the comment section?) I keep at this because I read the research in regards to having support.  Because of my lack of transportation, real live support group is out of the question.  (It's an hour away).  With that said please excuse my lack of Internet savvy.  Thank you for visiting.

Another day in paradise...

I'm officially one week out from surgery.  I walked another 10,000 steps today.  Woohoo.  It's kinda sad that only have another 2 weeks of medical leave left.  Herbie, the hematoma, is coming down nicely.
I've lost 21 pounds so far.  I wasn't going to start weight ins till Wednesday because my surgeon tanks you up with fluid before you leave the hospital.  A lot of the initial weight loss is that fluid working its way out.  However, I weigh 14 pounds less than what they weighed me at in the hospital before the surgery.  I'm thinner right now than i have been since doing the 6 months of medically supervised weight loss.
My recovery is going fantastic.  I'm still not lifting over ten pounds, but I feel awesome.  I'm down to about 4 doses of 460 mg of Tylenol a day.  Once Herbie leaves, that will be less.  3 doses of that is during the night when Herbie wakes me up.  Today, Lava lamp and I went to the fabric store to stock up.  I'm getting a little stir crazy while he's at work so I figured I'd cut and piece a quilt in the meantime.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's weigh in.

Oh and by the way, a really great blog out there is http://holleealexandria.blogspot.com.  I started reading her when I was researching weight loss surgery.  She's a fun read.

POD 6

My hematoma, Herbie, is shrinking. I started to take arnica Montana. It is an herbal supplement for bruising. Fantastic stuff. I have used less Tylenol today and haven't had any liquid lortab in a couple of days. The pain has settled into a dull soreness.  I have enjoyed my time off.  Hanging out with the dogs and reading John Greene's "The fault in our stars".  Very good book and a very quick read.  Tonight I'm going to go for another walk.  I'm trying to get in 10,000 steps a day or 5 miles.  Yesterday was the first day that i didn't get it.  Only 6,000.  I wear a fitbit.  More about that...

The six month period that i had to go to counseling (nutrition, exercise, and with a physician) enabled to find out what works for me.  I clearly do not have what it takes to get to the gym every day.  I purchased a fit bit flex after tax time and this little guy is amazing.  It shows me via dots how many steps I have taken.  Then it downloads to my computer and my phone.  It's great motivation.  I also recently got the Aria scale that interacts with the fit bit software.  My weight is downloaded to the fitbit software.  And all of the fitbit software transfers to my fitness pal.  The fitbit soft ware is great, but the food adding portion blows.  I like my fitness pal because it works better.  It allows bar code scanning and adding recipes.  Also has an extensive library that you can search.

So right now I will continue my full time job of drinking water, eating protein, walking, and relaxing.

Seriously

I have 4 dogs.  

This is Buddha. A 90 pound presa canario

This is izzy. A 50 pound pit bull. 

This is sister. Another 50 pound Pitt bull

So imagine my surprise when I was woken up when this monstor is the one that jumped on Herbie the hematoma this morning. 

My adorable 6.9 lb yorkie mix. 

Dafuq. 

Herbie is mad. 

My tummy feels tight and the pain is worse. Not bad enough to call anyone, but worse. Not fantastic like yesterday, but it is starting to calm down. Oh well. Good days and bad days. 

I lost 5 pounds between yesterday and today. Woohoo. 

Herbie the hematoma

Post op day 4

I feel really good. Today lava lamp and I went on a walk. I'm lucky to live in town with great side walks. We walked to the library and a thrift stores. A few miles with a couple of bathroom breaks. I'm walking slowly but I'm walking.  Liquids are still going down well. I'm currently ignoring the wait for 30 minutes before and after meals to drink, since I'm drinking everything. Tonight I will have some purée soup, so I will start trying to rock the rules.  

Everything is going well except for the damn hematoma at one of my stab sites. He's painful and always let's me know he's there. I can't lay on my left side. I have named him Herbie.  I go to the doctor on Thursday. Hopefully, Herbie will make himself scarce.  

Wednesday will be in weigh in day.  I have a nifty aria scale that downloads my weight to the fitbit and my fitness pal aps. I weigh everyday. The one that will count is on Wednesday. 

Now some parting shots of Herbie. 

It finally happened

I had the vertical sleeve gastrectomy on 4-8-14.   My nurses and surgeon were awesome.  My nurses really went to bat for me and personalized my treatment plan. I received Iv tordol and Iv acetaminophen. That stuff was awesome. I'm still a little sore. It's more like a really intense workout than having most of an internal organ take away from me.  

The best part of this so far is I'm not hungry. I'm drinking my water and protien shakes.  My fiancée has eaten mcdonalds, subway, and candy in front of me and I don't want any. I'm full and satisfied and it doesn't look good.  That was worth surgery.  Usually when I'm dieting I'm so hangry ( angry hunger) that I want to slap the person next to me. 

I'm back home with my puppies. Time to heal and enjoy my three weeks off.   Here are some pictures from the hospital.  

Lava lamp and I hanging out in my bed prior to surgery.  We only got 2 hours of sleep before we had to leave for the hospital. 

Post op. When I get dilaudid, I turn into Miley Cyrus.