Note to self ... and an SV!

I made myself some mashed sweet potato and had it with 60 g of tuna for dinner last night. Four forkfuls later and nothing would else would go down, not a pleasant experience. I got through my first pb'ing episode after after a bit of trial and error. I thought a bit of water would help and it just made things worse. I've learned my lesson, I was trying to eat way too quickly and not chewing enough  -- a guaranteed recipe for disaster. After I got the offending bits up (sorry if TMI) I was able to enjoy the rest of my meal albeit at a much slower pace with smaller amounts at a time.

I had an SV this morning! I'm following a similar weigh-in routine  to Catherine and Cara  and I am now in the 260's. I've reached my second goal, yay me! Still a long way to go, but heading in the right direction.

I was planning to check out some treadmills while M is at work, but it's minus 18 degrees celcius here in Toronto (about 1 Farenheit) and I'm not looking foward to facing the cold. It's still early so hoping it will warm up a few degrees.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Mushies!!

The photo above was this morning's breakfast. A scrambled egg and 1/2 jar of organic baby food (peach). I could almost wax poetic over it, can you tell I enjoyed it? I bought the miniature forks and spoons when I was in Japan a few years ago and they're quite handy for limiting how much food I can put in my mouth at a time.

I can eat anything as long as it's puréed;  what are/were some of your favourite mushy foods?

Mindful vs. Mindless Eating

While I was having my lunch-time meal of soup today I realized that during the past roughly 3 ½ weeks I have been eating with thought. In the past I ate when I was bored, stressed, angry, happy, unhappy, lonely, because the food was there, because I didn’t want it to go to waste, because I deserved a reward and just because. Very rarely was it driven by true hunger.

When I began the pre-op diet I was determined to follow it to the letter and it was tough in the beginning but I stuck with it. I looked forward to each meal and relished each one although I was having the same things day in and day out. It felt good eating things that were good for my body and for the most part unprocessed.

Post surgery I have been eating the same way. It takes me about half hour to finish my protein shake breakfast and I enjoy each mouthful. Lunch is soup and I take the half hour at work to enjoy each spoonful while I look out my office window rather than what I used to do -- gobble something down in between responding to emails and phone calls. Dinner is also soup and again I take the time to enjoy each spoonful. Tomorrow I get to move to purées and I plan to continue eating the same way. Part of it is dictated by the band; I can’t eat nearly as quickly as I used to and the other is that I appreciate every morsel now that I am eating much smaller portions.

Eating mindfully has made it easier; it is no longer being miserable over what I can’t have but rather enjoying what I can.

Scars

I finally removed the surgical steri strips and was happy to see that 3 of the total 4 incisions are very small, less than the diameter of a pencil.  Removal  really didn't hurt except for the incision near my port which is about 4 cm (1.5 in) in length. My incisions were sutured below the skin and glued. All have closed up nicely which allowed me to begin my treatment regime.  I began researching how to care for surgical scars a while back (I have a compulsive need to research  everything). The doc at my surgical centre recommended Bio-Oil which I've used  before. In my research however, I came across rosehip seed oil which is what I've started using. It is supposed to be good for minimizing scars and preventing the formation of keloids which is the thing I am  most concerned about. I've only been using it for a couple of days now so maybe in a month or two I'll be able to say more definitively that it's as good as it's touted to be.

I am now in the market for a treadmill (yes I'm researching that too :)) and M has started setting up a workout room for me, well both of  us. I've wasted many a gym membership in the past and don't want to go down that road again. I realize that working out at home is the best option for me right now. There are many yoga, dance and spin studios in the area which I will take advantage of once I get back in the exercise routine, but  I plan to ease into it slowly. After all it's a journey right? I'll have to confirm when I can actually start exercising again, but for right now I'm enjoying the leisurely strolls through my neighbourhood.

One week post-op and new followers!

Hello to all of you who are now following my blog! Isn't Amy W. great? I would like to follow your blogs as well, but there are a few that I'm not able to link to; please post your address in comments. I'd love to read about how everyone is doing.

It is officially one week since I've been banded and I feel good today. Although I did not have very much pain after surgery, I was a bit sore. During those first few days I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. That's all gone now and I get to remove my bandages tomorrow. I'm going to wait until Saturday though as I'm a bit scared to see what's hiding beneath those strips.

So after a bit of mulling I stepped on the scale today (first time since surgery). I wasn't sure how I would react if I had gained, but wouldn't have been too bothered if I had not lost any. I'm down a few pounds, and just 4 pounds away from my second goal of 270. Today is also the first day that I've felt a bit hungry, I'm starting to fantasize about the scrambled egg I'll be able to have next Tuesday. I'm still in the full fluid stage and get to move to puréed foods next week. Can't wait!

Back to Work

This is my second day back to work post surgery and so far it's been fine. For the most part I sit in front of a computer all day so I don't have to worry about over-exerting myself. I do find myself out of breath which really isn't normal for me. I am a fast walker and on my 15 minute walk yesterday I had to walk at maybe half my speed. I guess my body is still healing so I'll just make note of it for now and see if it improves by the weekend.

I got to have my first full fluid drink this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to have a protein shake for breakfast and am really looking forward to the strained butternut squash soup I'll be having for lunch. I didn't think I'd ever be so excited over soup.

I haven't weighed myself since surgery, I'm kind of scared to. What if I haven't lost any weight? I know that some people don't and I don't know how I will react if I haven't. I'm going to mull on that one and perhaps wait until the weekend.

I don't have any soreness, but find that I can't sleep through the night. Hopefully that will go away soon, it's no fun waking up 2 1/2 hours before the alarm is set to go off. Also, occasionally my hand will brush over my port when I'm lying down and it kind of freaks me out. I just try to avoid it, I'll get use to it I'm sure. Sleeping in general has been a bit of a challenge as I normally sleep on my stomach and I've been trying to sleep on my back. I use 4 pillows which helps a little, but still not very comfortable. Thankfully we have a king-size bed so I've made a zone for myself. M has been asking every night when the pillows will go away -- not to snuggle or anything but because he normally uses 2/3 of the bed. Maybe I'll keep the pillows for a bit longer than I need to ;).

The day after surgery

I've been banded for about 36 hours now, it seemed so far off for so long and now it's real. It was kind of surreal for me yesterday, as I met with the nurses, the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, I kept thinking "am I dreaming all of this?". I had not had surgery before and never had to be put under anesthesia so I must admit although I was calm for the most part a bit of nerves kicked in on the walk to the operating room.

The last thing I remember is the O.R. nurse telling me to think of something good and me thinking, "hmmm this anesthesia isn't kicking in, I think it's going to take a while". Next, I'm waking up in the recovery room. I felt really tired and my chest hurt but that was about it. I was able to walk from the recovery room to the resting room where I napped for a couple of hours. I drank a bit of water and M came to pick me up and and 15 minutes later I was home.

So how does it feel to be banded? Well, surprisingly not too bad. My chest still hurts. The gas is trapped in there and doesn't seem to want to come out. I've been doing lots of laps in the house, walking up and down the stairs to get things moving. I'm also drinking all of my liquids through a straw so that I don't accidentally gulp. I'm a bit sore, like I've done 100 sit-ups but I've only had to take a couple of Tylenol(crushed of course) since surgery.

I met my pre-op diet goal when I weighed in at the surgery centre yesterday! I've lost exactly 15 lbs. A great way to start off my banded life.