Pandemonium

It's a new week! How are you doing and what are you thankful for/glad about this week? I'm thankful I had the chance to sleep in yesterday due to the Labor Day holiday, even if my body woke me up earlier than I'd have liked. I'm thankful that my taste buds have changed in ways to help me avoid some foods, as my boyfriend made some chicken nuggets last night and I took a small bite of one just to indulge and ended up spitting it out because it just didn't taste good. I'm glad that gochujang exists as it has amped up my pureed chicken salad in a very delicious way and gives me just a little spice.' I'm glad that I've reached my first weight loss goal and am not working on the next one. At my current trend, I should hit it in 10-12 weeks, though I'm not going to get upset if it take a little longer. I'm glad that I am taking a short 3-4 day vacation next month to one of my favorite places now that the summer crowds will be clearing out. I'm a little scared since I will have less control over my food and there will be some dining out, but I'm using the next month to prep and find options that will work best for me.

So I get a bunch of targeted ads on Facebook for food products due to the amount of Googling for low-cal, low-carb recipes and foods that I do. I rarely check them out but this one made me too curious. I was supposed to get my delivery yesterday, but FedEx and I have a not great relationship and so the package never showed. Won't get it until Tuesday now. Still, I am very hopeful and will be sure to update once I get the chance to taste them. https://tasteflavorco.com/collections/frontpage/products/taste-lover-bundle

OMG I miss red beans & rice soooooo much! That looks AMAZING!

One thing to note is that the Premiere Protein POWDER is much different than the pre-made shakes, though it does still use concentrate, but the isolate is in a greater quantity: INGREDIENTS Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Contains 2% or Less of Soluble Corn Fiber, Sunflower Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Xanthan Gum, Salt. CONTAINS: MILK https://www.premierprotein.com/products/vanilla-milkshake-powder

So, as I said I would...I broke my rule and weighed myself this morning. BOOYAH!!!!!

I haven't, but now I'm curious as they've got some interesting flavors. Prices are a bit higher than the powders I use, but not exorbitantly so.

But then I did a smart thing! So, I went out earlier today to accomplish two things. First, to vote in my state's primary. Second, to get passport photos taken. Except I did them in the reverse order. I went to the CVS down the street to get the photos done. While waiting for them to print, my eyes unfortunately landed on a temptation too great for me to ignore. I love Oreos. Like...really love Oreos. And I adore the special edition flavors that they come out with. I have not had Oreos in probably 9 months. That is a slippery slope I did not need. Except they had Tiramisu flavored Oreos for sale. I also love Tiramisu. So...I walked out of CVS with a package of Tiramisu Oreos. Then I went to my polling place and voted. I came home, got in the door, and opened up that package of Oreos. At which point I took 4 cookies out... And vac-sealed them into individual bags that then went right in the freezer. My boyfriend will be the beneficiary of my cookie weakness while I keep my four cookies locked away in the freezer for another 6 or so months. At which time I might indulge. Or I might throw them out because I'm not sure how freezer burnt cookies would taste.

Next goal is 190. That number actually came from my surgeon the last time I spoke to him. That'll still put me in the Overweight BMI range, but I think I need to see what I look like at that point to decide whether to push lower or not.

I had my surgery on July 7th. So today is 8 weeks post-op. And thank you! Realistically I know I have ht my goal, but I just need the scale to actually say it. Which it will!

So bear with me on this one. Back in February when I had my first appointment with the Holyoke Medical Weight Management program, I met with one of the two physician assistants that handle the intake of new patients. In that meeting, I went in looking into the medical weight loss program since I was under the impression that I was not eligible for further bariatric surgery. One of the first questions asked of me was what my goal weight was. I was told not to overthink it and to simply give her a number that I wanted to get down to. I said "225 pounds", which seemed like an unachievable goal, but it was what I weighed 20 or so years ago and while still overweight, was a comfortable weight for me. As that would involve losing 116 pounds, she informed me that I would be unlikely to achieve that goal in the medical program, but that it would be much more achievable in the surgical program. She quickly cleared up my misconceptions about my eligibility for revision surgery and sent me home to think about how I wanted to proceed. A couple of weeks later, I was back in for my official intake into the surgical weight loss program to start the journey to removing my lapband and revising to a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. From that point, you've pretty much seen my progress and success. So I only weigh myself once a week and it is on Tuesday mornings (used to be on Fridays, but once I had my surgery, I moved it to Tuesdays to align with the day I had surgery). Here's this week's update: Starting Weight: 341.1 Surgery Day Weight: 262.8 Pre-surgery Weight Loss: 78.3 Current Weight: 225.2 Weight Lost in Past Week: 3.8 Post Surgery Weight Loss: 37.6 Total Weight Loss: 115.9 So, a couple of things: 1) I weighed myself 5 damn times this morning to see if I could get that .2 to go away. It didn't. My scale is too accurate to indulge in my shenanigans. 2) I am going to end up breaking my rule and will end up reweighing myself on Thursday or Friday, just so I can see that .2 disappear. 3) I have now lost more than a third of my body weight. 33.98%, to be precise. 4) Next goal is 190lbs. But first I have to get rid of that annoying .2lbs

So what is everyone thankful for this week? I am thankful that the summer heat is starting to subside here and I've been able to get outside for my walking again. I'm also thankful that I haven't had any tolerance issues with any of the foods I've tried so far, though admittedly I have been playing it safe and not branching out too much yet. I'm also thankful that my bosses informed me of my raise for this year and it is beyond generous.

Most of the weight loss was pre-op. I started my surgeon's bariatric program at the beginning of February. I lost 78.3lbs pre-op and have lost 33.8lbs post-op. As for ricotta bake, it's a VERY easy recipe that falls squarely within the soft foods category and tastes a lot like lasagna without the noodles. https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1793517 It's also very versatile because you can make additions to it. I made a big batch tonight and added in some seasoned ground turkey to up the protein content.

And if it helps, I'm just over past 7 weeks post-op and I'm still on soft foods because my doctor threw his own book out the window and decided to do a very slow progression for me. Once you get to soft foods, you're gonna be thrilled and it'll make the wait to get to solid foods that much easier. Scrambled eggs will never taste as good as they do the first time you eat them post-op. And...there's the ricotta bake to look forward to.

Trust in your bariatric team. The diet restrictions are definitely tough to deal with, but it's only a temporary thing. They are there for a reason. It's to allow your new stomach to heal fully from the surgery. Jumping ahead too soon could have very dire consequences and cause serious setbacks. You've come this far and you're doing great!

Well, I decided to do it. It was time. I made the ricotta bake. I wanted more protein, so I browned up a pound of ground turkey with some onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning and mixed that in with the other ingredients. Quadrupled the recipe so I could feed my boyfriend, have leftoverS for hi. And plenty of leftovers for me to freeze for later. Served myself 3.8 ounces. and of course, that was more than I could fit/needed. Boyfriend said it tasted just like lasagna without the noodles. I had meant to add crushed red pepper, but forgot. Would definitely make it again, but probably skip the mozzarella. Part-skin mozzarella always ends up like cardboard and was so hard to chew well enough.

Mistakes may have been made... Decided to try some ground chicken mixed with some khua kling seasoning...which is way spicier than I remember it being. We’ll see how this goes... Felt the fullness warning, but the spice hasn’t caused any issues thus far. Which is nice because I LOVE spicy foods.

Aside from age, you need to go into the My Surgery section of your profile.

I'm almost 7 weeks post-op and my doctor kept me on a very slow progression when it comes to food. Thus I am in some kind of a pureed/soft food hybrid phase right now. I tried to do 3 ounces of pureed chicken salad a couple of nights ago and couldn't finish it. So it seems I'm comfortably doing 2-2.5 ounces right now.

Echoing what everyone else has said. It is very common. Same thing happened to me when I weighed myself the day after surgery just to see. Fast forward another day and several trips to the bathroom where I peed out the four IV bags of fluids they pumped into me in the course of 24 hours and all of that weight was gone. Weigh yourself when you're 1 week post-op and see how things are proceeding.

This is the most basic listing I could find on Baritastic. Seems about right to me for just the meat. Sauce would be axed on to it.

I actually am taking pantoprazole daily and have been since a week prior to surgery, Doctor wanted it in order to help reduce the inflammation. And I was taking sucralfate for the first 4 weeks (also to help the inflammation heal) and then I ran out. Asked my doctor if I needed a refill and he said no, since I wasn't having any vomiting, nausea, heartburn or reflux. Maybe I should get them to get me a refill just to be on the safe side.

I don't actually use ice, so it's as cold as the fridge gets it. I've been suspecting that I may be drinking too quickly since I've caught myself not quite gulping, but sipping quickly and repeatedly. I'm going to make a concerted effort to slow myself down on drinking to see how if it helps. I'm hoping that is the case!

Yeah, I'm asking about that awful little four letter word, Or rather initialism. So, I have never had any history of reflux. I can count on two fingers the number of times I've experienced heartburn in my life. This was part of the reason I decided on VSG for my revision. When I had my endoscopy prior to surgery, my doctor said there were some minor signs of inflammation that he attributed to a very minor hernia brought on by my band having slipped. The tissue sample analysis likewise supported that the inflammation and damage was very minor. My doctor didn't find it to be anything of concern and thus we went forward with VSG and fixing the minor hernia as part of the operation. The past six weeks have been going well, if not a tad on the tedious side dealing with my doctor's very slow diet phase transitions. Except in the past week, I've begun feeling what I can really only describe as a sensation in chest, right below the sternum. It only really occurs when I drink water/Crystal Light. It isn't a burning sensation or anything. It's more like an odd pressure that just lingers. I'd say that it's accompanied by an abundance of belching, making me suspect that it's just gas, but it doesn't really occur when I drink protein shakes. And well...post-op, burping and farting has seen a marked increase anyways. It's only in the past week that this has begun to crop up. And again, only when I drink water/Crystal Light. I've had no problems with when eating anything. So...folks who have had to deal with the nasty GERD goblin...what kind of symptoms do you experience? Am I possibly just being overly paranoid?

That's what I initially was afraid of, but I'm not sure. Attitudes are similar, but their patterns of "speech" are miles apart. Plus, he wouldn't be able to go more than an hour without touting his amazing success at losing weight.

You just need to go under My Surgery in your profile.