Today was my three week post-op check up ... one day early.
The appointment went really well. We were both pleased that the referred pain in my shoulder blade was gone and that I am feeling so well. We were both a little disappointed in the weigh in results. We both wanted to see more weight off since the last weigh-in. BUT, she said that I was retaining a lot of water, so that should come off shortly.
I am now released to soft foods! I can't tell you how happy that makes me. About as happy as moving to pureed foods after being on fluids, LOL. While I loved refried beans and cheese two weeks ago, and truly thought it was the bomb, I can do without seeing it for awhile! Soft foods ... fish, pulled pork, potato! Num!
Today's official weight:
Weight: 273
BMI: 44.7
Down 13.4 pounds! since the day of surgery
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Beans and Cheese How I love thee ...
... let me count the ways!
In amazing small bites.
Dear Valar I don't think anything has tasted any better! And thankfully I had absolutely no issues with it. i actually fixed it and ate one bite and waited 20 minutes before going back and finishing. I wanted to make absolute 100% positive that I would have no issues.
So for anyone who might be looking for options on Pureed Foods here is what I did.
I took a can of Rosarita No fat refried beans
and put 1/4 cup in to my mini blender, add a dab of water and blended. Now maybe I didn't need to do that, but I really really really wanted to make sure that it was "pureed".
Added a pinch (I know really scientific) of Extra Sharp Tillamook cheese and microwaved for 30 or 40 seconds. Then stirred.
I realize all that sounds ridiculous and duh ... but trust me when you are new into the pureed part of life, you are desperate for not just ideas, but specific instructions. You DO NOT want to screw this part up.
It was amazing.
In amazing small bites.
Dear Valar I don't think anything has tasted any better! And thankfully I had absolutely no issues with it. i actually fixed it and ate one bite and waited 20 minutes before going back and finishing. I wanted to make absolute 100% positive that I would have no issues.
So for anyone who might be looking for options on Pureed Foods here is what I did.
I took a can of Rosarita No fat refried beans
and put 1/4 cup in to my mini blender, add a dab of water and blended. Now maybe I didn't need to do that, but I really really really wanted to make sure that it was "pureed".
Added a pinch (I know really scientific) of Extra Sharp Tillamook cheese and microwaved for 30 or 40 seconds. Then stirred.
I realize all that sounds ridiculous and duh ... but trust me when you are new into the pureed part of life, you are desperate for not just ideas, but specific instructions. You DO NOT want to screw this part up.
It was amazing.
One week - Post op
I had my one week post-op check up today. I got gold stars on my water, walking and the protein I have done so far. I am surprised because I thought I needed more water, but hey! I will take the gold stars!
I am officially approved to drive again and approved to move on to pureed foods.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be moving on to pureed foods. Water is great and Jello nummee and popsicles - the bomb (please note the sarcasm). But after a week I am flipping tired of all of it and ready to move on to something with a bit more substance. I can't wait!
And for the official weigh-in ...
Today's official weight:
Weight: 278.4
BMI: 45.6
Down 8 pounds! since the day of surgery.
The roller coaster has started!
I am officially approved to drive again and approved to move on to pureed foods.
And for the official weigh-in ...
Today's official weight:
Weight: 278.4
BMI: 45.6
Down 8 pounds! since the day of surgery.
The roller coaster has started!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Day 6 - Post op
I walked for 10 minutes today! It was a fairly decent brisk walk.
HOWEVER
I have been so exhausted since that I obviously over did it. I need to do 5 minutes and then go back and do 5 minutes more at a later time.
I guess not only is it baby steps at a time, but its learning lessons each day.
HOWEVER
I have been so exhausted since that I obviously over did it. I need to do 5 minutes and then go back and do 5 minutes more at a later time.
I guess not only is it baby steps at a time, but its learning lessons each day.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
What newbies need to know before/after surgery
This was posted on a Gastric Bypass Surgery support forum and was so amazingly helpful and wonderful that I wanted to post it here for me to look back on and remember. I also printed out for my dear sweet wonderful Dwarf Ranger to read and be able to understand what will be happening in just two short days...
1. Do your own research! You are responsible for your own health! Ask questions and do lots of research!
2. Be clear about why you want this surgery. If you are having the surgery to weigh a certain number on the scale, wear a certain pant size, to make your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend happy, or to fit in or to stand out, then realize now that none of these have anything to do with the reality or success of this surgery.
3. Do this for you and for your health. This isn’t the easy way out. WLS will fail you if you fail to live the WLS life. Be diligent, be mindful, be aware, and be present with the journey.
4. This program is for life. It is a wonderful tool for health. It is only a tool. You still have to do all the work. There is no finish line. Just day after day choices.
5. This is NOT a diet. This is healthy eating for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! If you think of this or treat this as another diet you are setting yourself up for failure. This is a new way of life, for the REST of your life. Keep that in mind and you WILL succeed!
6. If you are looking for happiness and fulfillment from everyone around you, you won't find it. No one can MAKE you happy. Happiness comes from within!
7. In the end, you are your own best support person. Don’t expect everyone to understand or be supportive. Tell only those who are supportive or tell everyone.
8. This procedure doesn't fix you or your life, just your guts. You are responsible for working on your emotional and mental issues along the way. There WILL be emotional and mental challenges. If you haven’t already started doing the mental and emotional work, START NOW!
9. Some people, NOT ALL, experience buyers remorse if you are not mentally or emotionally prepared. Just because you've had your guts rearranged does NOT mean you don't still have A LOT of work to do emotionally. The successful people ALL do their emotional work. Positive people have a much easier time on this journey than the whiners, complainers and poor me's. This is your chance to change your life for the better!
10. You have the choice of how you want your roller coaster journey to be. Kicking and screaming, or screaming with joy!
11. Your life and your relationships WILL change. You are developing a new relationship with food, yourself, and life.
12. Having a goal or prize or image will help keep you focused and moving forward.
13. You WILL have pain and it will take time to feel like yourself again. The pain WILL go away. You will heal. Focus on protein and water. Protein melts fat, and water flushes it. Some days you will have energy, and some days you won’t. Rest when you need to.
14. You WILL have temporary post op weight gain as your body processes the fluids and inflammation from surgery.
15. Your whole belly MAY turn purple from blood thinners after the surgery.
16. If you have a problem, CALL your doctor! Don't mess around!
17. You may or may not have temporary moments of insanity. They will pass faster if you just let them go and not fight them.
18. The more you walk the less gas you will have. Sip while you walk. That way you will get more water in. The more water you sip the faster the drugs will flush through your system and the better you will feel.
19. Don't drink 30-45 minutes before or after meals. Drinking before makes you too full to get the food you need. Drinking during or too soon after flushes the food. Drinking in between helps keep you feeling satisfied.
20. Eat one food at a time to find out which foods give you gas. DONT EAT THOSE FOODS! You won't be able to get much food down at first, or many calories, so don't worry about that. Always eat protein first.
21. It's not how much food, but what food. PROTEIN! You may not be able to handle meat protein for several months. Shelly has great protein recipes of all kinds, heavenly protein smoothies, and even protein ice cream. Check out The World According to Eggface.
22. Taste, texture, and smell preferences change after surgery.
23. Fiber + water = no constipation. Diarrhea is common immediately post op until your body stabilizes. Keeping your water up helps prevent dehydration. As your bowels stabilize your still need to keep your water up to lubricate and stay regular. Many people need a regular fiber supplement. You SHOULD be daily regular. If not, get your fiber and water intake up. Smooth Moves Tea works wonders!
24. Your stomach does NOT get hungry at 1 week out. The hunger is all in your head. At one week, your stomach is still inflamed, swollen and healing and needs very little coming into it. Hunger, at least the first month, and often for many months, is head and emotional hunger. You are used to turning to food and are going through mental withdrawal.
Gurgling noises are normal functioning noises. The glands that line your stomach go into action every three to four hours whether you eat anything or not. SMELLING FOOD, SEEING IMAGES OF IT OR EVEN JUST THINKING OF can start the release of gastric juices. The movement of your stomach walls and the juices being excreted creates growling and gurgling noises.
So when you are obsessively thinking about or drooling over something that sounds good you are actually activating the hunger signals. Hence it being called head hunger!
25. Hormones, periods and therefore emotions can be affected for a while post op but will stabilize in time.
26. Your weight WILL fluctuate up and down from day to day plus/minus 1-3 pounds.
27. Don’t be a slave to numbers. If you obsessively weigh you WILL make yourself crazy! DON'T! Obsessive weighing = insanity.
28. Everyone sheds at a different pace. Comparing only makes you needlessly crazy.
29. You WILL have LOTS of plateaus/pauses! Get used to it! The first plateau usually happens around 3-4 weeks. Protein first thing in the morning!!! Water, protein, adequate sleep, less stress, addressing emotional number memories, and exercise will help them to pass. The weight will shed whether you drive yourself crazy along the way or not.
30. As you backtrack through time, weighty memories surface, usually during plateaus. Working through them helps to move through the plateaus, and the whole journey, faster. When you hit a pause, look at what was going on in your life when you were at this weight before. You are releasing more than fat. You are releasing years of weighty emotions, memories and pain that you have stuffed or eaten: worry, anger, resentment, grief, sadness, guilt, fear, drama, victimhood, self- punishment, fears of the future, what if’s, old patterns, old beliefs, and attitudes that no longer serve you, etc., etc.
31. Questions to ask yourself during plateaus: What am I afraid to let go of? What am I hanging on to? What was going on in my life when I weighed ___, that I don’t want to address or look at? What old attitudes, beliefs, or thought patterns am I resisting releasing? What is it about succeeding with this that scares me? What emotions do I want to “stuff” my face with?
32. If you eat too much or too fast you WILL get sick. Chew your food to mush. One bite at a time. One food at a time. Eat with presence so that you can pay attention to your pouches signals.
33. Listen for the subtle cues of your new pouch. If you listen, your pouch will treat you well. If you don't, you will regret it. Pouch signals range from runny nose, stuffy nose, gurgling, subtle fluttering, sneezing, hiccups, etc. Learn your pouch signals.
34. Measure everything until you know what 1/4 or 1/2 cup looks like.
35. Track everything! Great Iphone apps are, Target Weight, Water Tracker and Food Scanner. Or use a document chart.
36. Protein, vitamins and water are important for the rest of your life! Get your protein first. It helps with wound healing, muscle mass, and hair loss. Water keeps you hydrated. Vitamins provide the nutrition to help keep you healthy. Get blood tests regularly.
37. You WILL lose hair between months 3-7. If you have thick hair you are lucky. If you have thin hair you may need to cut it short, wear a hat, a scarf, or just don’t concern yourself with it. Biotin, Nioxin hair products, and protein help but it still comes out. Shampooing less often, refraining from coloring, perms, and heating appliances helps as well. Your hair will grow back.
38. You will have body aches and pains along the way as your body posture adjusts to not having to carry such a load all of time. There are a myriad of ways to help with aches and pains.
39. You are going to have loose skin, bat wings, saggy belly, legs, arms, breasts. That’s a fact. Many people who never cared how they looked being fat, all of a sudden care when they are flat out skinny. Either accept the loose skin or start saving!
40. Relax! The harder you hang on, the longer it will take to meet your goal. Instead of refusing to "not" meet your goal, try affirming that you WILL reach your goal.
41. You WILL have A LOT of non-scale victories.
42. The people who focus on daily non-scale victories have an easier time on this journey.
43. You WILL be happier, healthier and have a more fulfilling life than you could have ever imagined!
44. Enjoy the ride of your life!
1. Do your own research! You are responsible for your own health! Ask questions and do lots of research!
2. Be clear about why you want this surgery. If you are having the surgery to weigh a certain number on the scale, wear a certain pant size, to make your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend happy, or to fit in or to stand out, then realize now that none of these have anything to do with the reality or success of this surgery.
3. Do this for you and for your health. This isn’t the easy way out. WLS will fail you if you fail to live the WLS life. Be diligent, be mindful, be aware, and be present with the journey.
4. This program is for life. It is a wonderful tool for health. It is only a tool. You still have to do all the work. There is no finish line. Just day after day choices.
5. This is NOT a diet. This is healthy eating for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! If you think of this or treat this as another diet you are setting yourself up for failure. This is a new way of life, for the REST of your life. Keep that in mind and you WILL succeed!
6. If you are looking for happiness and fulfillment from everyone around you, you won't find it. No one can MAKE you happy. Happiness comes from within!
7. In the end, you are your own best support person. Don’t expect everyone to understand or be supportive. Tell only those who are supportive or tell everyone.
8. This procedure doesn't fix you or your life, just your guts. You are responsible for working on your emotional and mental issues along the way. There WILL be emotional and mental challenges. If you haven’t already started doing the mental and emotional work, START NOW!
9. Some people, NOT ALL, experience buyers remorse if you are not mentally or emotionally prepared. Just because you've had your guts rearranged does NOT mean you don't still have A LOT of work to do emotionally. The successful people ALL do their emotional work. Positive people have a much easier time on this journey than the whiners, complainers and poor me's. This is your chance to change your life for the better!
10. You have the choice of how you want your roller coaster journey to be. Kicking and screaming, or screaming with joy!
11. Your life and your relationships WILL change. You are developing a new relationship with food, yourself, and life.
12. Having a goal or prize or image will help keep you focused and moving forward.
13. You WILL have pain and it will take time to feel like yourself again. The pain WILL go away. You will heal. Focus on protein and water. Protein melts fat, and water flushes it. Some days you will have energy, and some days you won’t. Rest when you need to.
14. You WILL have temporary post op weight gain as your body processes the fluids and inflammation from surgery.
15. Your whole belly MAY turn purple from blood thinners after the surgery.
16. If you have a problem, CALL your doctor! Don't mess around!
17. You may or may not have temporary moments of insanity. They will pass faster if you just let them go and not fight them.
18. The more you walk the less gas you will have. Sip while you walk. That way you will get more water in. The more water you sip the faster the drugs will flush through your system and the better you will feel.
19. Don't drink 30-45 minutes before or after meals. Drinking before makes you too full to get the food you need. Drinking during or too soon after flushes the food. Drinking in between helps keep you feeling satisfied.
20. Eat one food at a time to find out which foods give you gas. DONT EAT THOSE FOODS! You won't be able to get much food down at first, or many calories, so don't worry about that. Always eat protein first.
21. It's not how much food, but what food. PROTEIN! You may not be able to handle meat protein for several months. Shelly has great protein recipes of all kinds, heavenly protein smoothies, and even protein ice cream. Check out The World According to Eggface.
22. Taste, texture, and smell preferences change after surgery.
23. Fiber + water = no constipation. Diarrhea is common immediately post op until your body stabilizes. Keeping your water up helps prevent dehydration. As your bowels stabilize your still need to keep your water up to lubricate and stay regular. Many people need a regular fiber supplement. You SHOULD be daily regular. If not, get your fiber and water intake up. Smooth Moves Tea works wonders!
24. Your stomach does NOT get hungry at 1 week out. The hunger is all in your head. At one week, your stomach is still inflamed, swollen and healing and needs very little coming into it. Hunger, at least the first month, and often for many months, is head and emotional hunger. You are used to turning to food and are going through mental withdrawal.
Gurgling noises are normal functioning noises. The glands that line your stomach go into action every three to four hours whether you eat anything or not. SMELLING FOOD, SEEING IMAGES OF IT OR EVEN JUST THINKING OF can start the release of gastric juices. The movement of your stomach walls and the juices being excreted creates growling and gurgling noises.
So when you are obsessively thinking about or drooling over something that sounds good you are actually activating the hunger signals. Hence it being called head hunger!
25. Hormones, periods and therefore emotions can be affected for a while post op but will stabilize in time.
26. Your weight WILL fluctuate up and down from day to day plus/minus 1-3 pounds.
27. Don’t be a slave to numbers. If you obsessively weigh you WILL make yourself crazy! DON'T! Obsessive weighing = insanity.
28. Everyone sheds at a different pace. Comparing only makes you needlessly crazy.
29. You WILL have LOTS of plateaus/pauses! Get used to it! The first plateau usually happens around 3-4 weeks. Protein first thing in the morning!!! Water, protein, adequate sleep, less stress, addressing emotional number memories, and exercise will help them to pass. The weight will shed whether you drive yourself crazy along the way or not.
30. As you backtrack through time, weighty memories surface, usually during plateaus. Working through them helps to move through the plateaus, and the whole journey, faster. When you hit a pause, look at what was going on in your life when you were at this weight before. You are releasing more than fat. You are releasing years of weighty emotions, memories and pain that you have stuffed or eaten: worry, anger, resentment, grief, sadness, guilt, fear, drama, victimhood, self- punishment, fears of the future, what if’s, old patterns, old beliefs, and attitudes that no longer serve you, etc., etc.
31. Questions to ask yourself during plateaus: What am I afraid to let go of? What am I hanging on to? What was going on in my life when I weighed ___, that I don’t want to address or look at? What old attitudes, beliefs, or thought patterns am I resisting releasing? What is it about succeeding with this that scares me? What emotions do I want to “stuff” my face with?
32. If you eat too much or too fast you WILL get sick. Chew your food to mush. One bite at a time. One food at a time. Eat with presence so that you can pay attention to your pouches signals.
33. Listen for the subtle cues of your new pouch. If you listen, your pouch will treat you well. If you don't, you will regret it. Pouch signals range from runny nose, stuffy nose, gurgling, subtle fluttering, sneezing, hiccups, etc. Learn your pouch signals.
34. Measure everything until you know what 1/4 or 1/2 cup looks like.
35. Track everything! Great Iphone apps are, Target Weight, Water Tracker and Food Scanner. Or use a document chart.
36. Protein, vitamins and water are important for the rest of your life! Get your protein first. It helps with wound healing, muscle mass, and hair loss. Water keeps you hydrated. Vitamins provide the nutrition to help keep you healthy. Get blood tests regularly.
37. You WILL lose hair between months 3-7. If you have thick hair you are lucky. If you have thin hair you may need to cut it short, wear a hat, a scarf, or just don’t concern yourself with it. Biotin, Nioxin hair products, and protein help but it still comes out. Shampooing less often, refraining from coloring, perms, and heating appliances helps as well. Your hair will grow back.
38. You will have body aches and pains along the way as your body posture adjusts to not having to carry such a load all of time. There are a myriad of ways to help with aches and pains.
39. You are going to have loose skin, bat wings, saggy belly, legs, arms, breasts. That’s a fact. Many people who never cared how they looked being fat, all of a sudden care when they are flat out skinny. Either accept the loose skin or start saving!
40. Relax! The harder you hang on, the longer it will take to meet your goal. Instead of refusing to "not" meet your goal, try affirming that you WILL reach your goal.
41. You WILL have A LOT of non-scale victories.
42. The people who focus on daily non-scale victories have an easier time on this journey.
43. You WILL be happier, healthier and have a more fulfilling life than you could have ever imagined!
44. Enjoy the ride of your life!
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