…Heart On Her Sleeve…

well, i hit my first “stall” in that the scale did not move this week.  i weigh in on wed’s, and the scale blinked the same 252 at me as it did last week.  i squinted my eyes and asked the scale if it was sure about that, and it said yes, now get off me.

i’ve been reading the obesity help ontario forum religiously for months and months, and from what i’ve read, many people experience a small stall around the 3 week mark.  just your body catching up with the huge shock of surgery and rapid weight loss.  understandable.  but still, frustrating because i am an instant gratification junkie and want GREAT RESULTS EVERY WEEK GODDAMNIT.  sure, this is totally unreasonable, but so am i, dear readers.

i will wait till next week and see what the scale says before i think about changing anything i’ve been doing.  i do eat carbs, though i do try to keep them below 50-70 gm/day.  i figure i like them, and i can eat them without binging thanks to my new tiny banana-shaped tummy, so if i can continue losing, they stay.  if i see that they’re causing the scale to stop moving, i’ll cut them down.  i hope i don’t have to though, cause i loves them.   fwiw, i try to keep my carbs in the “good” or complex category with fruits and whole grains, but i have been known to respond to frozen yogurt’s sweet siren song from time to time

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.

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!

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.

in an attempt to lose 10-15 pre-op pounds, i’ve been doing a modified southbeach type eating plan for the last week, and sure as shit, it works like a charm.  i’ve always done very well when i’ve cut out refined carbs.

newsflash: they’re bad for us.  *GASP!*

so basically, i’m sticking to meals consisting of lean protein, low fat dairy, plenty of veggies, and good fats like nuts and olive oil.  no counting of calories, just eating sensibly sized meals and stopping when i feel satisfied, not stuffed.  funnily enough, this is pretty well the recipe for success post vsg, as well but of course the surgery will have me feeling full much sooner due to my eensy weensy tummy

this morning i had a mushroom eggbeaters omelet with a cheese string cut up and thrown in there, and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

for a snack i had a small handful of almonds.

for lunch i had some yummy creamy broccoli soup that i made, a couple pieces of smoked fish (i love the stuff), and a salad.   oh and a lil sugar free creamsicle

dinner will be some roasted chicken that i made yesterday, more soup, and some steamed veggies on the side.

i will also CHEAT by having some blackberries and sugar free lemon yogurt with some slivered almonds on top.  phase 1 of southbeach is not supposed to include fruit, but i figure no one ever got fat by eating a cup of blackberries once every other day

so i’ve been getting back into meal planning and cooking, and it makes me happy.  it makes me happy to be in control and making healthy choices.  and it makes me SO unhappy to be making poor choices and eating crappy foods and feeling like garbage all the time.  so why is it always so easy to revert back to these bad habits that make me feel terrible?   oh, my brain is messed up, folks.

seacrest out.

so, dig..  my surgery is performed laparoscopic.

lap-a-ro-scope

/?læp?r??sko?p/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [lap-er-uh-skohp]
–noun Surgery. a flexible fiberoptic instrument, passed through a small incision in the abdominal wall and equipped with biopsy forceps, an obturator, scissors or the like, with which to examine the abdominal cavity or perform minor surgery.

the abdomen is inflated with c02 gas to give the scope a nice clear view.  anatomically,  your stomach is somewhat obscured by the part of your liver that drapes over top of it.  if you’re really fat, your liver also becomes fatty and gigantic, covering up more of the stuff the surgeon needs clear access to.  a small weight loss (in my case 10-15lbs) can shrink the liver significantly, making things less complicated during surgery.

a southbeach-like eating plan has always worked very well for me in the short term, so today i bid farewell to my cruel carby mistress.  sayonara, sugar.  byebye, bagel.  you get the point, i’m gonna have a headache for a few days.