DOWN 10 MORE

This is hard to explain but sometimes I worry that I will just keep losing weight until I disappear.

Don't take that to mean this weight loss is easy.  It isn't.  I work hard to meet my nutritional needs every day.  I have to take a lot of nasty vitamins and supplements 4 times a day. My diet doesn't have a lot of variety and while I am experiencing more hunger, most of the foods that sound good are off the table either because they are carb heavy or because when I go to eat them they don't taste good or feel good in my stomach.

I am loving being down 90 pounds!!  I am actually down  119 pounds from my highest weight a couple of years ago. I intend to lose at least 40 more.  Maybe 60 more.  That would get me to the weight I worked really hard to maintain in my 20's, so it seems unrealistic - but maybe not!

I had a good session with the trainer at they gym and have a long list of exercises geared to make me stronger and, with any luck, help fill in and take up some of the slack skin.

I don't think I'll disappear - but I am working to be a new, improved model of myself.

TYPICAL DAYS

 I mentioned in my last post that I would list a typical day or two of eating at 4 months post op.

I start each day with about 1/4 cup of grape juice with my potassium supplement mixed in.  Then I usually have a protein hot chocolate and a protein bar.  I make my own and I have an assortment of them from different companies. I try to make sure they are at least 10 g of protein. So usually my breakfast is between 20-30 g protein.

This is what the taro one looked like!

Mid-morning I have a snack, right now I am enjoying Trader Joes Protein Banana Muffins - 7 g protein but 22 g carbs, so I don't eat them too often! Otherwise I might have some sunflower seeds, nuts or finish my protein bar from breakfast.

Lunch is when I get the most variety and opportunity to experiment.  Costco had a good price on Bay Shrimp so I bought a few pounds and portioned them into baggies and put them in the freezer.  If I take one out the night before, it is thawed enough to add some chopped celery, mayo and seasonings.  I have been putting it in a container with 1/2 avocado and it makes a great lunch with some Wonderslim crackers - 19 g protein. I also look for soups with higher protein and add the protein pretzels or crackers to up my intake.

The other day my boss took me to lunch at a Dim Sum place (I managed to get a customer to finally pay off a $10,000. bill he had owned since last April!) I had almost 4 pieces of Dim Sum.  I am terrible about the names, but one was shrimp in a translucent wrapper, two were minced shrimp and pork dumplings and one was taro with something in the middle.  It was great and I was thrilled that I could eat so much.  I suspect the "wrappers" added up carb wise - but what the heck.  It was a treat!

In the afternoon I sometimes have a protein bar/chips depending on how much I ate for lunch and when I managed to take a lunch break.

Dinner, for some reason, is the meal that I have trouble with.  By the end of the day I am hungry but my stomach is easily upset.  I usually have a small portion of chicken and few bites of veggies.  One recent dinner I added about 1/4 of a potato skin (potatoes scooped out but with butter and salt!)  I have been trying out a lot of recipes from low carb cookbooks to expand my dinner menus. If my protein isn't adding up to 90-120 g for the day, I have a protein drink or another protein hot chocolate.

For a treat, I love to have my red grapefruit sections.  The other night I was wanting something different so I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips and put roasted almonds in the melted chocolate, spread them out on wax paper to harden and broke them into pieces.  A few of these nuts is a nice treat with hot tea at the end of the day.

4 MONTHS POST - OP WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY

Next week I will be 4 months out from my surgery. I basically feel much more "normal" in that I am not so tired, I am exercising and I can eat a larger variety of foods.  My weight is already down 63 pounds since the surgery and 83 total.

What follows may be TMI for many people, but as I know I have readers looking for info on the post-op experience from the BPD-DS, I may get a bit personal!

I had purchased the 60 day DS kit of vitamins and recommended supplements from Vitalady before the surgery, but whenever I tried to take them I threw up.  The chewables have gotten me through as I healed but I am trying out the "real" stuff this week.   I have 4 packets to take each day, they need to be taken with food in my stomach (I learned that lesson the hard way when I waited too long after dinner to take them the other night.)  Since they are capsules and tablets of all sizes and shapes, it does take many, many sips and swallows to get them all down.  Difficult to manage.  Then comes all the burping and stomach discomfort. Everyone says it gets easier and I am counting on that but I really miss the ease of the chewables!

My doc had me go back to the lab to re-test all the areas where I was low, especially the potassium and I am all good now!  In fact, I went in on Saturday morning, sailed through the lab quite quickly, walked over to radiology and lucked into a walk-in appointment for my mammogram.  Wow - what a great difference having smaller and less dense breasts makes for that particular annual event! 

I am adding  (I can't believe I am saying this knowing how hard it is to take all the stuff I am taking now) a pro-biotic to my regimen to try to get my bowels in order.  I know that all the diarrhea I have been experiencing is not good for maintaining my good nutrition levels and I have read that the pro-biotics can help. I am not sure what is causing the bowel issues.  I keep my dairy pretty low.  I am afraid it may be the salads which is sad because I so enjoyed having them.  I promised myself I would not have one this week to test it out - so we'll see.

Otherwise, I am tolerating meats much better, I even had some thin slices of rare skirt steak the other night.  Eggs still make me gag as do homemade protein drinks.  I need to be VERY mindful when I am eating to go slow.  I usually violate this when I am eating at my desk at work - I get pain from stomach to throat which feel like the food is stuck.  It takes 15-20 minutes to subside. If it happens at home I can lay down which helps.

My portions are still in the 1/2 cup per meal range so I rely on high protein snacks to boost my protein up to the 100 g range each day.  I will post some food logs later in the week to show what I am eating and how it all adds up.

CLAVICLES

I was washing the dishes tonight and saw my reflection in the window.  I could clearly see my clavicles.  I have not seen them in years.  They aren't too pronounced yet - but clearly there.

Wow.

BRA SHOPPING - I DIDN'T NEED TO SEE THAT

For the past month or so I have put off shopping for new bras.  As we know, gaining and losing weight are bra shopping occasions and I have lost a lot of boobage.

I went out this weekend and was professionally measured.  My bra size didn't change all that much, but I was probably wearing them too small in the first place.  I tried on about 15 bras at Penny's and not one fit.  I went down the mall to Lane Bryant and tried about 7 more.  None fit.

I was a distressed and sweaty person so I went home.

The reality is this.  I have a lot of loose, saggy skin hanging around my armpits. It needs to be contained.  And those padded, push up bras make my breasts look puckery.  Not a good look.  I like a simple, unpadded bra.  I don't care if my nipples might show.  When did everyone get all weird about nipples?

I was disheartened and tried to explain to my husband why I came home in such a state.  He was really sorry he asked.  He didn't want to think about the saggy, armpit skin thing.  Ever.

I braved another shopping trip this evening and got lucky at Kohls.  The key to dealing with sudden weight loss saggy stuff is an Olga bra. There were several of them that fit very well and managed to manage the flesh.  Plus they were BOGO1/2 off.  Nice since I suspect I'll need new ones again in a couple of months.