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Saturday, December 31, 2011

After Christmas Weigh-In

Well, I was afraid to get on the scales this morning as usually I gain weight over Christmas but ta-da! since my last weigh-in I've lost 6 more lbs for a total of 61 lbs.

It's been a crazy time for my body though, getting through Christmas.  I am off all my special diets and now on the Food For Life diet, which is basically a high protein diet with veg. coming second, eating 6 small meals a day.  This has been hard to do over Christmas what with the dinners, going to restaurants and get-togethers.  But on the other hand my body just won't let me over eat.  I'm now also gradually trying to ease the "problem' foods back in to see which ones my body can handle and so far so good except for one thing.  I added caffeine the first day I was allowed to, with a half of a cup of proper coffee.  Heaven!  No side affects or discomfort. So I'm back to a cup of coffee once or twice in the mornings, but not every day, unsweetened and using skim milk. 

Over Christmas I did cave, and I tried really hard not to, but I just couldn't stand it, and had a few sweets, but I was only capable of nibbling and taking teeny portions.

My big problem, and I ended up doing it three times before I learnt my lesson was pasta.  This is a troublesome food for many people because it expands once it reaches your stomach and oh man, was I in absolute pain!  The feeling is hard to describe but it feels like a cannonball sitting in your chest and feels like you are going to vomit.  The spit fills your mouth and you're nauseous and moaning and can't keep still because of the agony.  It lasted for hours each time.  So, obviously I can't handle pasta, and have learned my lesson now.   This has prevented me from trying bread yet, too.  Since it is a similar product as pasta.  Just looking at bread reminds me of the pain from pasta, so I'll hold off for a while before I try it.  I'm just happy I can have my coffee!

Oh, and I did have a few alcoholic drinks over the holidays too.  Just one per evening, nursing it all night.  Rye and flat ginger ale.  (I'm not allowed carbonated drinks) It didn't make me drunk or sick, so that was nice to know I don't have to become a teetotaller.  Another problem I ran into when I went to a restaurant was that I ordered water to drink and it was placed in front of me and without thing I started to sip it through the straw.  Then I remembered, I'm not allowed to use straws!  And my stomach started to rumble and I had gas (the burping kind) for about half an hour.  I'll get used to all this and now that life is settling back to normal it will be easier to remember my not alloweds!

On the exercise front, I have a walking partner!  Winter and cold weather have arrived so we won't be going out as much as often now but on nice days ... Plus for Christmas I got the exercise Wii games I wanted "Walk It Out" and "Just Dance 2".  I just saw the new dance one out is Abba, I so want that one!

Until next time!
Keep healthy!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Before and Now Pictures

OK here goes!  The changes aren't huge in the photograph but if you study the two you'll see significant changes.  Mostly what one can see from the photos is that I now have better posture.  I can now stand up straight, my arms hang straight down to the sides, my butt doesn't stick out at the back. Look how my body was almost as wide as the door frame in the Before picture, while the Now pic. I'm considerably narrower.  Dh noticed the big change in the size of my arms.  In the Before picture I had to hold my head up so I didn't have a double chin, in the Now picture I can look straight ahead without a double chin showing up.  Next picture will come at 75lbs lost or thereabouts. I'm hoping for a bit of a waist by then :-)

              Before                                                                              Now

September 2011                                                                    53lbs lost - December 2011

Friday, December 9, 2011

Going Smoothly

Things are going good!  I've been back for my one month check-up and they are very happy with my recovery and results.  I'm all healed and have no issues.  At my appointment I saw the nurse and then the nutritionist and it took about 40mins. all together. 

Last week I switched to the "Pured Foods" diet which was actually a nightmare.  I didn't think it would be a problem but when I actually tried to eat baby foods it made me nauseous and gag.  Pureed chicken and veg., it just did not go over well with me at all!  I managed to make it 4 days; I was supposed to do it for a whole week, but I just couldn't so I skipped to the next diet which is "Minced Foods".  Oh, sooooo much better!  The nutritionist said this was ok, that a number of people have trouble with the pureed diet and they are in the midst of re-writing the programs diet stages.  They won't be eliminating pureed but they will be adjusting it.  So he said to make sure I stayed on minced until the appropriate time to go on the next diet.  So that means I'm on this one for just over a week.  On Wednesday, I will move on to the last one week diet "Soft Foods".

My favourite thing to eat right now is 5 pieces of cubed chicken, then cut up into tiny pieces and dipped into a tablespoon of "just peanuts" peanut butter. Yum!  And the nutritionist told me about Greek yogourt, which I'd never heard of before.  It is very high in protein, a cup of it is equal to a third of my days worth of protein!  It's a lot thicker than regular yogourt but I love it.  Just have to be careful of the calories.  But then one individual container is a meal for me!

If you visit the actual blog, you will have noticed that my weight loss ticker has been moving up even though I haven't posted for a few weeks.  I've now lost 53lbs. and feeling great about myself.  I don't have a lot of clothes that fit right now.  This seems to be a size I skipped right over on my journey of weight gain LOL.  But I have a small selection that I barely even remember wearing before. 

I know it's time to put up some pictures ... This is a big step for me.  I'm getting my hair trimmed today and then I'm going to take a photo and compare it to my before picture and if I'm pleased with the comparison I will post the Before and Now pics.  I think that posting pics at every 50lbs would be a good interval anyway.

Oh, and more good news.  Since my last post I went for my yearly with my gyn. and she was very pleased that I'd had the operation and with the results, the weight loss but also the new mobility.  I have a female condition that makes me a candidate for uterine cancer, so I have to take hormone pills to help keep me safe from that.  Of course, I'm checked every year, but she said that once I've lost 120lbs all together we'll try taking me off the pills.  I don't have the condition because I'm overweight, it's just that being overweight exacerbates it.  So I'm off the hypertension pills and have a perfectly normal bp now and the future sees me getting off another pill.  These are part of the health benefits that I first and foremost had the surgery for.

That's all for today.  If you are lurking out there, my stats say there are people out :-), and have any questions you'd like to ask me just leave a comment or email me and I can make your question a topic for a future post.