9 Weeks Post Op

After not having a car payment for almost 5 years, I now have a car payment!  The Passport has seen its better days, and I needed to move on.  Mark and I completed the paper work yesterday evening and brought home the Pilot.  I had to visit the dealership this morning to have the spare keys made.  It is really nice driving down the road and not have an overwhelming concern about the transmission.  I know any car can cause trouble.  I am not unrealistic.  Now I have something I can drive to Savannah and see my Mama!  Ian and I will be making that trip next weekend.   Here is my new ride! 

I am down 64 pounds!  Things are still moving slowly, but they are moving.  I need to exercise.  I know my weightloss would pick up if I were exercising more.  Now that the weather is warming up, I can get back out and start walking again.  On a great note, my blood sugars are normalizing!  I usually wake up with it between 90 and 110.  It hasn't been above 140 during the day at all this week.  Woohoo!

I need to get back to journaling my food here.  It makes me more accountable.  Here is my menu from today.  I did NOT meet my protein goal today. 

Day 43 Post Op

All day - Crystal Light Tea and Lemonade
Breakfast - EAS CarbAdvantage Protein bar - 17g protein
Lunch - Leftover chili from Applebee's the night before 1/2 c.  - 16g protein
Dinner - Montery Chicken Ranch Fajitas (Chicken 2oz, Cheese 1oz, Tomatoes 1oz) from On the Border - 16g protein
PM Snack - SF pudding - 1g protein

Protein Total - 50g

8 Weeks Post Op

Here is a picture Mark took yesterday in the snow.  WOW!  I did not know I looked so different. 

For your viewing pleasure:
This is March 2009













This is yesterday, February 2010 minus 62 pounds

Almost 8 Weeks Post Op

My new yummy discovery?  Diet Lemonade from Chick-fil-A.  Delicious.  I purchased a large beverage Tuesday morning.  By lunch time I had finished about half of it.  My next new yummy discovery?  Unsweet tea with Splenda poured into a half full cup of Diet Lemonade.  It was blissful!  I am not a lemon with your tea person.  Looks like I am a tea with your lemonade person. 

You would think I would learn my lesson quickly.  After all, I am a teacher.  But nooooo.   I have to make the same mistake several times this week.  So I guess I need to write it over and over.  I will chew my food.  I will chew my food.  I will chew my food....

If I do not chew my food it will get stuck.  I do not know where it is getting stuck.  I only know that it hurts.  It also causes an aversion to smells and the need to vomit.  This morning was the worst.  I think I will blame it on the parent that I had to meet with this morning.  I had a parent conference this morning at 7:30am.  It lasted until 8:30am because this parent does not understand that her son cannot read.  She thinks he is just not trying.  Regardless, I had a staff development meeting at 8:00am that I was late for.  This created some difficulty in warming up my breakfast and eating before the meeting.  So I go in late and there are Chick-fil-A Chicken Minis.  Well good!  I can have a few of those delicious and moist nuggets of chicken minus the bread.  Did I chew?  NO!  Once again, I inhale and swallow.  That piece of chicken stayed wedged somewhere in my upper digestive track for almost an HOUR!  On top of the pain and pressure in my chest, it caused a horrible case of the hiccups, of which I have not had since surgery.  Anyone who knows me, knows my hiccups presurgery where loud and painful.  Yeah.  Okay.   I had to leave the conference room to walk around.  One teacher kept offering me water, not understanding that it would not help.  With the chicken wedged in, there would be nowhere for the water to go. 

Fast forward to this evening.  I come home and warm up some left over tilapia.  This fish was moist and falling apart.  It wouldn't even stay on the fork it was so tender and flaky.  Did it make the trip?  Well, not before getting stuck, just like the chicken.  How the hell??  I can only assume the episode this morning caused some irritation and maybe some swelling.  I will need to stick to soups and soft foods tomorrow just to let my insides get better. 

Okay, enough griping.  My endocrinologist agreed to take me off the metformin and the scale is now moving again!   I am now 62 pounds down!  Yay!!!

7 Weeks Post Op

I saw my surgeon yesterday.  It was a delightful visit.  Dr. Macik is not a very talkative socialite.  He is, however, highly qualified in his area of expertise.  He actually talked more than I expected yesterday and smiled a few times!  It warmed my heart.  He says things are looking very good.  He is quite pleased with my weight loss so far.  According to his office records I have lost 30 pounds in 7 weeks (a little more than 4 pounds a week).  I have also lost some inches.  From my measurements yesterday I have lost 4 inches in the abdomen, 2 from the breasts, 3 from my hips, 2 from my left arm, and 1 from my left thigh.  We did talk about the change in medication made by my endocrinologist.  He said the reason he took me off of metformin is because it will slow down weight loss.  Well, as many know, my scale hasn't moved in about a week.  My blood sugars have also crept up.  So I am taking it upon myself to remove the metformin and go back on the glimepiride.  I actually did this today and my blood sugars are already better. 

Chew, chew, chew.  This will have to be the next mantra.  I truly think, now that I have had a real dumping episode, that not chewing my food enough is causing the queasies.  It is my understanding that food has to truly start major digestion in the mouth now since I have no stomach acids to break things down.  Unfortunately, inhaling food is a hard habit to break.  Being a teacher does not help the situation.  We have 30 minutes to eat, call parents, go to the restroom, etc.  So I am now on a retraining mission.  I must chew, chew, chew.  This is not the alphabet chewing that you learn at Weight Watchers.  I have to chew until my food is pulverized! 

One of my administrators saw me for the first time in months Wednesday.  She runs our SST/RTI process (educational jargon) and I do not usually attend those meeting anymore since I am not a homeroom teacher.  She was floored by my weight loss.   She did not know I had the operation, and her reaction was genuine.  I have to say it felt really good!  I also had a student that commented that I was "skinnier" now than at the beginning of the year!  Definitely two nice "wow" moments this week. 

6 Weeks 3 Days Post Op

My relationship with food is changing.  My head wants the food.  My head remembers what all the wonderful foods taste like.  My head tells me to eat the food.  My designer pouch/stomach tells me otherwise.  It (I have not named my pouch yet, but it does seem deserving since it has a mind and personality of its own) does not like most food, and my taste buds do not remember how things should taste.  Let me say, that is weird!  I think I am now learning to eat for sustainability. Many people say they learn eating to live instead of living to eat.  I still enjoy sitting in a restaurant chatting it up with company.  I still enjoy the aromas coming from the kitchen when I cook.  It is just the dynamics within my head and body have changed. 

I am now down 59 pounds.  I have been stuck at this weight for about 4 days now.  I guess you could say this is my first stall.  Most people have one at 3 weeks out, but I did not.  I can definitely see a difference in my face now.  I have this pencil point dimple on the right side of mouth that I haven't seen in several years.  And I am still quite fascinated by the collar bones and hip bones that are quite apparent when I lie down. 

I see Dr. Macik again this Thursday.  I will post another update then.