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.
Showing posts with label clothes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clothes. Show all posts
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Time for a Diet Upgrade & Weigh-In
Wed. was the beginning of my new diet, "Full Fluids". This one will, once again, last two weeks but it is the final 2week diet after this I will go through a series of 1 week diets as I adjust my body to accepting solid foods again. This diet basically adds just a few new items to what I am already eating but they are big ticket items that make me feel like I'm actually "eating" again.
I can now have hot cereal such as oatmeal or cream of wheat, made very thin; low fat, artificial sweetened yogourt with no chunks in it; and low fat, cream soups made with skim (0%) milk, strained. I can also have low fat artificial sweetened puddings if I want but I never used to eat them so I don't see the point in eating them now just for the sake of it. I've also stopped eating the jello, too, now, since I don't like it. I must continue with the three Boosts a day and of course, the vitamin supplements which are for life. In case you've forgotten I'm taking Calcium +D, twice a day and a pre-natal supplement once a day (this is because they have twice as many nutrients than a regular one a day multi-vitamin. Even men who've had the operation take the pre-natal for life.)
Of course, I'm in heaven with the new food! I love cream of wheat and am glad to have real fibre back in my diet. Yogourt is one of my favourite foods and the cream soups are a hot meal, finally! Suitable ones I can eat are hard to find though. Tomato soup is fine. But others even when they say low fat often have the milk products already added, in the canned versions. So I can't have these since they are made with cream (not skim milk). So far we've only found Knorr packaged soups which you add your own milk to and only in Cream of Broccoli. But we'll keep looking around and try some health food stores too because this is definitely a food I want to eat for life.
Other good news! I did a weigh in on Tuesday in preparation for the new diet and have now lost 43lbs but more important than the numbers I have also gone down 2 clothes sizes. Clothes I was wearing before I started the Opti-Fast (Oct. 8) are all too big for me now! I'm reaching to the back (well middle) of my closet and wearing clothes I haven't worn in years. I'm losing it all in my abdomen and my friend says you can see it in my face. I can see my toes when I look down! That's a new sensation. But even more importantly my mobility has improved exponentially. I can bend over, touch the ground, tie my shoes, put on my pants, generally move around with so much ease now where before I started this program I had serious mobility issues that were just getting worse. I feel healthier.
As far as surgery recuperation: all my incisions are now exposed and healing nicely. Some have little scabs, a few are already healed. I'm still tender on the outside and a somewhat sore on the inside. Sleeping is still an issue but nowhere near as painful as before. I can sleep on my side now, once I slowly get into position but still wake a few times a night. But as I said it is nowhere near as bad so I'm just grateful it is improving and figure another week should do it.
Walking is going fine. I'm back to going to Daily Mass, so I walk to church and back every morning plus I walk downtown whenever I need to. I'm walking wherever I have to go, if possible and we are parking at the back of parking lots, trying to just make life naturally more active. Plus several times a week, I'm going out for a walk around the neighbourhood going a little further when I feel I can. I feel I'm doing fine at this stage. I'm still slow because my insides are sore but I can walk, just not fast.
Be back again either in 2 weeks when the diet changes to "Pureed Foods" or after Dec. 6, my one month check up at the clinic, whichever comes first. You do the math, too early in the morning for me and I have to go get ready for church.
I can now have hot cereal such as oatmeal or cream of wheat, made very thin; low fat, artificial sweetened yogourt with no chunks in it; and low fat, cream soups made with skim (0%) milk, strained. I can also have low fat artificial sweetened puddings if I want but I never used to eat them so I don't see the point in eating them now just for the sake of it. I've also stopped eating the jello, too, now, since I don't like it. I must continue with the three Boosts a day and of course, the vitamin supplements which are for life. In case you've forgotten I'm taking Calcium +D, twice a day and a pre-natal supplement once a day (this is because they have twice as many nutrients than a regular one a day multi-vitamin. Even men who've had the operation take the pre-natal for life.)
Of course, I'm in heaven with the new food! I love cream of wheat and am glad to have real fibre back in my diet. Yogourt is one of my favourite foods and the cream soups are a hot meal, finally! Suitable ones I can eat are hard to find though. Tomato soup is fine. But others even when they say low fat often have the milk products already added, in the canned versions. So I can't have these since they are made with cream (not skim milk). So far we've only found Knorr packaged soups which you add your own milk to and only in Cream of Broccoli. But we'll keep looking around and try some health food stores too because this is definitely a food I want to eat for life.
Other good news! I did a weigh in on Tuesday in preparation for the new diet and have now lost 43lbs but more important than the numbers I have also gone down 2 clothes sizes. Clothes I was wearing before I started the Opti-Fast (Oct. 8) are all too big for me now! I'm reaching to the back (well middle) of my closet and wearing clothes I haven't worn in years. I'm losing it all in my abdomen and my friend says you can see it in my face. I can see my toes when I look down! That's a new sensation. But even more importantly my mobility has improved exponentially. I can bend over, touch the ground, tie my shoes, put on my pants, generally move around with so much ease now where before I started this program I had serious mobility issues that were just getting worse. I feel healthier.
As far as surgery recuperation: all my incisions are now exposed and healing nicely. Some have little scabs, a few are already healed. I'm still tender on the outside and a somewhat sore on the inside. Sleeping is still an issue but nowhere near as painful as before. I can sleep on my side now, once I slowly get into position but still wake a few times a night. But as I said it is nowhere near as bad so I'm just grateful it is improving and figure another week should do it.
Walking is going fine. I'm back to going to Daily Mass, so I walk to church and back every morning plus I walk downtown whenever I need to. I'm walking wherever I have to go, if possible and we are parking at the back of parking lots, trying to just make life naturally more active. Plus several times a week, I'm going out for a walk around the neighbourhood going a little further when I feel I can. I feel I'm doing fine at this stage. I'm still slow because my insides are sore but I can walk, just not fast.
Be back again either in 2 weeks when the diet changes to "Pureed Foods" or after Dec. 6, my one month check up at the clinic, whichever comes first. You do the math, too early in the morning for me and I have to go get ready for church.
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