7 1/2 Months Post-Op and -38lbs

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted to this blog. Oh well, the important thing is I’m back now :-). Well as of today I am 7 ½ months post-op and I am down 38lbs. Now, I wanted to say “I am only down 38lbs” in that last sentence, however, I refrained. Even though I have not lost as much as I’d like, 38lbs is still a victory. I have never lost this much weight on any of my other weight loss attempts. The reason for the slow loss is obvious. I struggle with diet and exercise. It is not due to lack of restriction, because I do have restriction, it is due to my lack of discipline. It has been a challenging journey and I don’t know why, but I didn’t think it would be this hard. I have my good weeks and I have my bad weeks. But I’ve decided that as long as the scale is going down and not up, I will not complain. I have gone down a size in my pants as well as shirts and also a cup size in my bra (yay!). With that said, even though I’m not complaining, I am aware that I need to do better. I am taking this journey day by day and I just keep telling myself “I can do this; I did not lay on that table for nothing”. :)

No Restriction!

Ok, I think I can officially say I have “No Restriction”. It seems that all of my swelling has gone down and I can eat a lot more now. This is really scary for me because I am an over eater. I heard about this happening so I am not surprised, but because I have had some restriction up until now, I thought, well maybe this won’t happen to me. Yeah right!


Even though I am not eating huge portions, I am eating a lot more. Yesterday, I reached 1200 calories! I have not had that many calories in one day since surgery. Of course all the foods I ate were “lap band friendly” but wow, I ate a lot. For dinner I had 12 oz of food (1 cup cream of wheat and ½ cup steamed veggies). After I ate it I thought to myself, didn’t the nutritionist say she never wanted me to eat more than 4oz?? Yes she did. I can’t imagine eating only 4 oz and feeling satisfied. Hopefully all of this will change once I receive my fill on 2/25…..well wish me luck today, I would like to stay under 900 calories.

Maybe I dont like bread that much?

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I know I did, I had bread for the 1st time since my liquid diet! I was a little afraid to eat it, thinking it would get stuck, but I remembered by nutritionist saying “you can’t be afraid to eat certain foods, you have to try them and see if they work for you”. So I went to Subway for lunch while I was at school Saturday. I was unprepared with my own lunch and I had to eat something. I got the crab meat salad sandwich since I can’t yet have raw veggies. I only at about 2/3 of the bread that was on the sandwich because it just seemed like too much bread to be eating. Anyway everything went down fine! However, bread is not something I will be eating too frequently. It just seemed like too much work. I had to eat sooooo slow and stop in between. I mean I do that any way but this was even slower. It was too much of a chore to eat.
So this week I will be trying to cut my eating off at 8pm (at least 3 hours before bed) AGAIN. I tried that last week and it didn’t work out so well. I will also strive to get my 64 ounces of water in each day……….where’s my water bottle??

3 weeks post-op- Exercise

Well I am exactly 3 weeks post op and so far I've lost 20 lbs.  That is a victory for me, however, 15 of those lbs were lost during my 2 week pre op liquid diet, which means that I've only lost 5 lbs since surgery.  I'm really not happy about that.  I believe it is due to lack of exercise.  I had a lot of pain after surgery so it took me a while to get back in the swing of exercising, however, this week, I'm back in the swing of things.  I've been walking at least 20 min. a day.  I know I need to bump that up to 30 min.  I borrowed a Zumba Fitness DVD from a friend so I'm going to give that a try.  I think my restriction is totally gone.  I know I can eat more, but I don't.  I still control my portions.  I have been having craving for "bad food" like crazy.  These cravings were not that bad at 1st and I think it's because I was scared to eat after surgery.  But now that I know I can tolorate food, I want food! (The bad kind).
Yesterday I started on soft foods, so today I ate chicken for the 1st time since before my pre-op liquid diet.  It was grilled chicken breast from Applebee's.  It went down perfectly. 
I've really been trying to stop eating after 7 or 8 and let me tell you, it has been my biggest challenge!  Thats when I really get hungry, after 8.  But I will keep trying and I know I will get there one day.

I wanted to share a recipe with you guys.  "CRUSTLESS QUICHE"  I made it and it's pretty good.  I've made it twice and I found that it is better if you sprinkle the cheese on top during the last few minutes of cooking instead of putting it in the mixture.  For some reason, the 2% cheese turns "gritty" and tastes horrible when mixed in the egg mixture.  This recipe is good for the "mushies" stage as well, however, you might want to omit the crab meat (or not)  :-)

CRUSTLESS QUICHE
3/4 cup egg beaters (I used the cheese & chives kind)
1 egg
2 sticks imitation crab meat (chopped)
1/2 cup 2% mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup milk
season to taste (I used seasoned salt & pepper)

Mix all ingredients, pour in small baking pan and bake 15-20 min or until egg mixture is firm
(you can even do this in a toaster over)
makes 4 servings

calories per serving- 105
protein per serving- 11