I was going to call this Break On Through To The Other Side (thank you Doors). But I figured I'd get sick of it after a while. I'm going to use this space to keep track on the 2 week march toward surgery and then to keep track of the recovery and progress. That way I can keep it all together and if I just do one thread, it's all in one place without clogging up the Blog Area. I'm sure it's gonna be excruciatingly boring to everyone--me included! I'm a list and minutia kinda gal. I like tracking and counting--although I can be equally lax about crap. So I stop just short of OCD town (not that there's anything wrong with that).

My official 2 week liquid diet starts tomorrow. I decided to jump on it today because Sunday feels like a great place to start and because it's hard to do better than yesterday as my last food day before surgery. I'm a Texan, born and raised, and yesterday we had a fairwell to my ass and thighs via a Texas BBQ tour through Houston and Tomball. I ate so much brisket, sausage and ribs, I can honestly claim to be over it. Growing up in a BBQ family, slow smoked meats is almost in my blood. So it was only natural that I would choose that as the last rights.

I'm having RNY on February 20th and as I understand it, moist (fatty) brisket might not be my friend post surgery. Supposedly high fat foods (which moist brisket is) might cause a sort of "dumping" in the poop department. So I figure my future, once healed, might only include lean cuts of brisket and smoked meats. It's a choice I will readily make to lose weight and get my health back.

So the morning Day 1 hasn't been very difficult--a little hunger and growly tummy, but nothing that makes me feel anxiety. Protein drinks on board and this afternoon will shop for SF popsicles, SF jello and bone broth. I think I'll stick to packaged bone broth so I can get the actual nutritional information from a certified source. There's no real way for me to tell how many calories and carbs are in the bone broth I make here at home.

My Pre-Op Plan includes: 80-100g of protein; low fat; 60g carbs and somewhere around 1000cals per day.

4-5 Protein Drinks containing a minimum of 15g of protein per serving. They must be low fat and low sugar and can't contain over 4g of sugar per serving. I can have clear low sodium broths, sugar free drinks, sugar free jello and sugar free clear popsicles (no fudgsicles or ice cream based pops).

I will do this from now until February 20th.

I'm pretty sure I will be doing plenty of the following:

Edited February 4, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

I do!

39 minutes ago, Apple203 said:

Fluffy, I started tracking my weekly weight to spot trends when you mentioned it -- great idea. Not sure if I have a trend yet:

You know, I think it's technically probably too early to spot the trends for us. I think maybe why mine "appears" to be somewhat apparent is that I do get into a lazy rut with food. I pretty much eat the same 3-4 things for breakfast and lunch every day--week in and week out. LOL. And 98% of our dinners are a grilled or pan-seared protein and a veg then avo-tom salad. LOL.

Edited May 4, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

Don't laugh y'all. I made the "big haul" at Big Lots today. I found a Hamilton Beach smoothie maker for $15.00. (Damn you Drs. Weiner and Vuong! Damn you both. LOL. Because of you I'm STILL jacking with making green smoothies, trying to lose weight despite the increase in "healthy" carbs, thinking that I can UP my nutrition by blending the crap outta my greens and a few berries and twigs. So I'm still trying to find a blender that will pulverize better than my big Ninja which just shoots me the bird every time I try to use it.)

I also found Tuna Pouches for $1.00 (and no they aren't expired). I also found sardines in water for $1.00 and can's of smoked oysters (thanks Mama...) for $1.25. So I have cheap lunch lined up from here to tomorrow! LOL.

Now. Today was Day2 of Big Ass Salad. Can I just tell you I'm a little obsessed with cucumber for some reason? Today was another Greek salad and instead of shrimp, I opened a pouch of lemon pepper tuna. It was just "okay." Can I tell you it sounds much better in theory? Cuz come on. Pouch tuna IS more convenient. But in the end, it's still tuna that lives in a pouch. I love real tuna-raw or cooked. But I'm not so crazy about pouch tuna. I ate all of it though. I'm pleasantly full...worried I could eat so much, but some say you can eat more salad than other things. And my doc says canned tuna and chicken aren't as dense as fresh cooked or frozen "solid" proteins. So I'm comforting myself with that one.

Also, I added 10g of shelled roasted unsalted sunflower seeds. Damn, way to jack up the calories on a salad! Hope they had some deep nutrition. LOL. I nearly gasped at the nutrition. I don't often have a meal that goes over 200 cals!

Nutrition: (same ingredients as yesterday's listed salad, but with tuna rather than shrimp) 210cals; 23g protein; 9g fat; 9g carbs; 1g fiber; 9g net carbs; 2g nat. sugars.

FluffyChix, you inspire me! I'm only 7 days out from a mini-bypass but my favorite foods are salads, veggies and meat. Your recipes and journey give me hope that at some point I will be able to eat these things again! Thank you!

Ok guys. Just a brief fly-by then off to an arts & crafts fair!

We had a great time at the ballpark yesterday. Our team one and is in first place in the league! Woot!! 7-0 games won. Wore shorts. Was great!

Now this morning used my new Hamilton Beach "personal blender" to make a green smoothie. $14.99 at Big Lots! Yippee!!! It made the smoothest, most non-gritty fully blended smoothie I've ever made at home! And I'm trying out doing 3g of psyllium husks in it. If this goes down and sits well without marching through me like Sherman through Georgia, I'll go up to 6g of psyllium husks. May be dicey, but I have GOT to up my fiber. I am used to having 10-12g of psyllium husks daily pre-surg. So hopefully my gut still remembers that volume!

Here's the green smoothie recipe. Sorry no piccys.

GREEN SMOOTHIE

Serves 1: IDK. A big ass glass full. Will have to measure my glass volume later, but it's maybe 16oz? (Ok measured: 400ml; 1 3/4cup; about 14oz. )

44g frozen blueberries (about 1 1/2oz)

2oz frozen chopped spinach

25g Isopure Bananas and Cream protein powder

4g Vitacost peanut butter powder (Peanut Butter Slim=PB2 you get in the grocery)

3g NOW! whole psyllium husks (optional but it keeps me full longer)

6floz Silk Cashew Milk (can use So Delicious Coconut Milk, almond milk, or FF Fairlife or FF Mootopia)

4floz cold water

ice cubes (optional)

Nutrition w/o psyllium husks: 168cals; 25g protein; 2g fat; 10g carbs; 3g fiber; 7g net carbs; 6g nat sugars

Nutrition w/psyllium husks: 179cals; 25g protein; 2g fat; 12g carbs; 5g fiber; 7g net carbs; 6g nat sugars

Have a great day!!!

Edited May 5, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

My weekend check-in Fluff - glad to see you're still doing great! Hubby has lost 2 waist sizes since I've had surgery and his carbs went waaaay down (he's pretty good about eating what I feed him. We're neck and neck right now, trying to pass each other in weight. Can't remember the last time I weighed the same as my husband!

Greek salad sounds excellent. Today is all taco/fajita all day for us (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) but I'll be grocery shopping tomorrow....

16 hours ago, Miss Topaz said:

My weekend check-in Fluff - glad to see you're still doing great! Hubby has lost 2 waist sizes since I've had surgery and his carbs went waaaay down (he's pretty good about eating what I feed him. We're neck and neck right now, trying to pass each other in weight. Can't remember the last time I weighed the same as my husband!

Greek salad sounds excellent. Today is all taco/fajita all day for us (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) but I'll be grocery shopping tomorrow....

Holy cow! That's awesome!!!! On both counts--hubs losing 2 waist sizes and YOU being right close to each other. Doesn't it make you fee fantastic? I swear that was a SV that was so dear to me. Can't wait for you to report that you've passed him by and are wearing his jeans now! Then that his jeans are too big for you!

Sooooo craving tacos!!!! And we're making fajitas tomorrow. I was so pooped when we got in that we just had turkey roll-ups and raw veggies for dins. Then I needed a little more protein, so had my decaff sf peppermint protein mocha. Tonight is lc fish and shrimp tacos. Tomorrow is beef and fajitas chicken. And Tuesday is chicken, mushroom, peapod stir fry. LOL. Then no cooking for the rest of the week cuz we will have a metric crap ton of leftovers and I'm good to fly 'til next Saturday! hahaha.

Happy belated Cinco de Mayo!!!

Sadly the arts & crafts fair was cancelled and we never found Mai Fest. But we explored Brenham (cute cute town on the way to College Station), and stopped at a some Texas wineries. I drank my iced tea and Mr. F. gacked over bad wine. But the views were great, the breeze was awesome, and the sunshine magnificent. We had great conversation and met some lovely peeps along the way. So it was a great day for a drive and an adventure.

And we're about to go walking on the nature preserve this morning. Sunday brunch with bacon! Then back home to lots of chores.

Edited May 6, 20188 yr by FluffyChix

Gacking over bad local wine made me LOL -- I feel the same way about one local winery we go to now and then for events. Great events, beautiful place, bad wine, ha!

1 minute ago, Apple203 said:

Gacking over bad local wine made me LOL -- I feel the same way about one local winery we go to now and then for events. Great events, beautiful place, bad wine, ha!

Bahahahaha! He was a trooper, for sure! Texas wines are something of an oxymoron! LOL. I asked him if he thought they grew the grapes for photo ops only! LOL, cuz most get either grapes or concentrate from California. And you gotta think the vintners in CA aren't stupid. Just like in Italy, they keep the "good stuff" in country! LOL.

I kid you not, at one place, I smelled each glass and they all made my nose burn!!! I'm like dayum...can you say not fully fermented alcohol and acetone?? *snort*

But yes, the atmostphere is soooo lovely and relaxing! Glad to hear you have that too. Cuz you know, mizreh loves company! Hey, how's the charting going? Is that thing which won't be mentioned going down still? ((hugs))

I haven't ventured to CO wine country yet. It's on the other side of the mountains, cuz on the eastern side, nothing grows but prairie grass! I did break the taco trend last night by getting bison/prickly pear cactus chili. It was tasty! Hubby tried the 'devilled egg tacos' which were, as I expected, weird and unsatisfying. I did do a bariatric no-no though. I ordered a drink with dinner - drank some beforehand but did sip some in between bites of chili. I'd had over 60g protein earlier in the day so didn't feel too bad. First alcohol since sleeve! It was a cider made with CO peaches (which are awesome - from the other side of the mtns of course) and 'high-altitude' apples. Not sure we have any other kind in this state! I didn't finish the pint as tiny tum was full, but it was tasty and didn't immediately make me fall off my bar stool. I think 2 would've done it though!

Re those jeans - I haven't tried his jeans yet, but a couple years ago we got quick dry pants for kayaking. I had xxl and he had xl. I tried on the xl yesterday and they fit! So in a way, I'm now wearing his pants

And now, talking about wine tasting, I want some good salumi and cheese for dinner.... I can live without the baguette and sweet butter, but damn..

Nope, I kicked my glasses of banned wine to the curb again last Tues/Wed (can't remember exactly). Life goes on!

I love wine <3. In fairness, I don't drink often, and its uncommon for me to have more than a glass in one sitting but my doc says no booze for 1 year. I'm going to miss a nice glass of white wine in the summer

Yes, I tasted a couple of sips of a Michelada. BIG mistake. Not anxious to repeat alcohol any time soon--including my beloved wine. Honestly, I thought I'd miss it. But I do not. I'm much happier with tea. And plus, any time pre-surg that I had alcohol of any kind, I stalled for 4 days. I could count it on the calendar. And I'd usually go up a couple pounds about 2 days after drinking. It SUCKED!

8 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

Yes, I tasted a couple of sips of a Michelada. BIG mistake. Not anxious to repeat alcohol any time soon--including my beloved wine. Honestly, I thought I'd miss it. But I do not. I'm much happier with tea. And plus, any time pre-surg that I had alcohol of any kind, I stalled for 4 days. I could count it on the calendar. And I'd usually go up a couple pounds about 2 days after drinking. It SUCKED!

I'm not even tempted at this point. Just the sip I have at communion still burns. A whole glass would probably eat a hole in my stomach! This is such a new experience for me, I always had the famous cast-iron stomach! Now it's made of tissue paper!

2 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

I'm not even tempted at this point. Just the sip I have at communion still burns. A whole glass would probably eat a hole in my stomach! This is such a new experience for me, I always had the famous cast-iron stomach! Now it's made of tissue paper!

OH man! I have to give the wine chalice a miss at mass! I just cross myself and walk on. The thought of it alone makes my esophagus and tummy burn! But I will say, I do enjoy sniffing Mr. F's glass of wine and his glass of whiskey! And I'm truly satisfied with that--with no longing or feelings of needing to have one. Hope that isn't an eating disorder. LOL.