…Heart On Her Sleeve…

during week 5 i was given some clarity. it would seem that this reflux i thought i had was actually pain associated from me introducing too many foods too fast and actually eating too fast. durrr. i guess i’m a little slow on the uptake, and never made the connection. the symptoms, i guess, are similar. pain, burning and tight feeling behind the sternum. lots of pain and burning.

i’ve always always been a fast eater. like so fast that i barely tasted my food before it was gone. so fast that my stomach hadn’t even registered that it was full of food before i was finished scarfing. i suppose that’s part of what got me to where i was, weight wise.  eating fast has been a really hard habit to break.  i felt like i was eating more slowly, but i guess it wasn’t slow enough.  i have to constantly remind myself to take small tiny bites, chew 4293143929 times and eat SLOWLY or suffer hot sleevey wrath.

be the turtle, jude. slow and steady wins the race. i’m hoping it will one day just become second nature.

i have a very good friend who also had weight loss surgery (the duodenal switch, which means we had the same things done to our tummies, but they also did surgery on her intestines) she also happens to be a surgeon.  she also happens to always be right.  anyhow, while i was in all that pain, she suggested that i take it back to soft foods for a couple days and let things settle down.  once things were feeling better, i should introduce new foods carefully and focus on chewing very well and eating very slowly.  of course, she was right and it worked like a charm.  my tummy is feeling so much better, and the pain is about 95% gone.  things aren’t feeling 100% normal, but pretty close to.  i’m much happier this week

OK so you’re here to see numbers, right?  i lost another 3 lbs in week 5, which puts my total weight lost since surgery at 34 lbs, and 54 since my consult.  i’m very pleased! i’m feeling very energized and happy. i joined a gym and am feeling good enough to commence with the sweating.

my darling boyfriend and i will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary shortly, and as an anniversary gift, he got me a wii fit!  i’d heard such great things about it, and was really interested to see what it’s like and now i have one.  we fooled around with it last night, and it is so much fun!!  i haven’t done a full work out on it yet, but the games were awful fun.  a very thoughtful gift.  he’s been very supportive through all this, what a doll

ON TO WEEK 6!

i love to cook. i actually used to cook for a living.  the restaurant industry threatened to murder my soul, so i had to get out,  but my love of cooking never died.

now that i’m out of the liquids/pureed stage (which are extremely boring, btw), i’m having fun introducing new foods and being able to cook again. here’s what i had for lunch today:

Going to Hell in a Ham Basket

1 large egg
1 slice deli ham (i use the president’s choice vermont with maple syrup)

set oven to broil, and place the rack 6 inches or so from the element. Take a muffin tin and give it a spritz with non-stick food spray type stuff. use your ham slice to line one of the cups so it forms a hammy receptacle in which for you to crack your egg. once you’ve cracked your egg, put it in the oven. i like my yolk plenty runny, so it took only 8 minutes in the oven before the egg white was solid enough. season with salt and/or pepper to your taste. i served mine with 4 trader joe’s mini multiseed soy sauce rice crackers.

i used a mini muffin tin in the above photo, but it was too small and my egg white runnethed over. i lost about 1/3 of the white. a normal sized muffin tin might be a better idea.

next time i will also try lining the muffin tin with the ham slice and putting that under the broiler on it’s own for a couple minutes so the edges crisp up a bit first.

this was really a perfect little wls lunch.  i had a little cup of mandarin segments afterward, (packed in juice) and felt very satisfied! if i were further along, i would serve this up with a little salad on the side, but my tummy isn’t quite there yet.

i am a day late and/or a dollar short.  my 1 month surgiversary was yesterday.  i can’t believe it’s gone by so fast! just like every wednesday, i weighed myself, and this week i lost another 6 lbs, making it 31 lbs since surgery!  add the 20 that i lost pre-op and we’re at 51 lbs since my consult in february.  i am pleased!  if you look at the top of the page, i am keeping tabs on my weight loss under the tab “weight loss tracker”.

i took photos the day before my surgery with the intention of taking the same shots once a month so i could see how i was losing month to month.  the good news is, i actually followed through!

front view

side view

back view

as you can see in the side view, most of the weight came directly off my belly. which is just fine with me!  i anticipate taking these pictures every month to see how my progress is going!

so monday night, my mom and i hopped in the car and drove to ypsi for a recheck with dr pop on tuesday afternoon.  the reflux i was having was scaring me pretty badly, with the chest pains and the thinking i was dying and stuff.  it occured to me that the reflux happened after i ate a tomato-y soup/chili type thing, and maybe i should stop with the acidic foods.  once i blanded up my diet again, the pain and burn seemed to go away.

when i got in to see dr pop, he advised me to stop any and all acidic foods for another month and then slowly try to reintroduce.  the last two days i have hardly had any reflux at all, so i’m very VERY happy about that.

i’ve introduced cheese strings, very moist meats and hummus into my diet, so yay for variety.

my energy is back to about 90%.  big yay!

and finally, today is weigh day!  i dropped another 7.5 lbs this week!  thrilled about this!

for those keeping track, that’s 45 down since february (first consult at barix) and 25 down since my surgery on april 22nd.  can’t beat that with a stick!

i’ve been having some vicious acid reflux, which has been giving me some pretty alarming chest pain.  the chest pain itself freaks the shit out of me and gives me some bigtime anxiety.  i’m heading back to ypsi on tuesday for a recheck and to see what dr pop thinks about the matter.  perhaps i need some adjusting of my meds, right now i’m on zantac 150 twice a day.  otherwise i feel pretty good.  incision pain is muchly improved.  but i gotta get this reflux issue handled, because it’s very very very annoying and painful.

i am feeling a lot better than i did at this time last week.  more energy, less pain.  i’m getting in at least 50 gm of protein/day.. which is getting closer to my ultimate goal of 78/day.  i know once i’m fully on solid food again that it’ll become much easier.

wednesday is weigh day, and today i weighed 268.5 lbs, which means a loss of 5 lbs this week!  i’ll take it!

that’s a loss of 17.5 since surgery and 37.5 since february!  i’m a happy camper.

things are getting better all the time.  my pain is less, unless i over do things.  my energy is still somewhat limited, but i can see that it’s getting better.  i still do get tired a lot.

i am SUPER BORED of living on liquids, and can’t wait until i can have foods with texture in my life again.  i used to love pudding, really!!  i would seriously stab someone for a crunchy apple right now.