Weight Loss Surgery Blog

18 Month Check Up

2011-03-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

I recently went for my 18th month check up. Here's a rather long recap.

Preparation

One way to help you get the most out of your follow up appointments is to prepare. This time around I only met with the doctor and the exercise expert (last time I met with the dietitian and the behaviorist too). In preparation for this visit I had a gazillion vials of blood drawn. It sure seemed like a gazillion! It was really twelve. I also wrote down my current exercise activities and any fitness/activity goals I would like to shoot for and any questions I wanted to ask. These "mile marker" appointments are a great time for me to review my goals -- to see how I'm progressing and if I'm still doing what I purposed to do when I set the goal. To ask my self if I need to tweak things or make a radical change.

The Office

Every time I go to my surgeon's office, I am absolutely impressed with how well run it is. They have enough staffing for the patient load, and the entire staff is very well trained. I've been in there close to 2 dozen times and everyone appears to be doing what they are supposed to be doing -- everything and everyone involved with my appointment is in order and there are no long wait times. I also like the fact that my surgeon is huge about follow up and support groups -- the extra support and accountability really does make a difference.

The Medical Evaluation

First I met with the nurse. She weighed me, took my vitals and did a body composition scan. Then the doctor came in to examine me and ask a million questions. I am a participant in 2 medical studies so I answered a laundry list of questions about how my health and life is going since surgery. One of the potential side effects/complications of gastric banding in general (and having your band adjusted too tight) is acid reflux so he asked me several times in several different ways if I'm having any problems with acid reflux, which made me a little nervous. Is he expecting I will have a problem? But over all, I'm glad he was so thorough.

My doctor said I'm doing very well and he is pleased with my progress. I've lost 14lbs since my 1 year check up and gained more muscle mass, which means the weight I am losing is fat -- not muscle. That's a very good thing. If you don't ingest enough protein and take efforts to build your muscle mass, you stand to loose it and that's not what we hope to achieve with weight loss surgery.

The Exercise Visit

We started off great; I always like meeting with Andy. He is so very helpful and inspiring! At 18 months out, a visit to Andy to discuss fitness is optional and you have to pay out of pocket (previously the cost for this visit was in the program fee). I think he was delighted that I found fitness important enough to continue to include visits with him in my follow up care.

Just hopping onto my soapbox here.... Exercise and physical fitness are vital to long term success with any weight loss surgery and feeling good. At my one year check up and at this one, I heard from every professional I met with that many patients start experiencing struggles with weight regain at the 1 year mark. Exercise goes a long way towards helping reduce the chances of regain and can help with continued weight loss. Knowing this, why would we purposely exclude one of the "success keys" to our weight loss journey?

Review of Fitness Goals

Andy and I went over my fitness goals that I shared with him at my 1 year check up. (here they are reprinted for you)

8-3-10 Fitness Goals: I would like to be able to weed whack for 1.5 hours without needing to rest. (We have a nearly 2 acre yard with close to 1 million obstacles that need weekly weed eating. Because my husband has been working such long hours lately I've been helping him out by doing this chore and it is killing me! I feel like I need to rest every 15 or 20 minutes. It would be a real victory in my book if I could do this without needing to rest. I mean, come on. How strenuous is it to weed whack?!

As of last October, I could weed eat for an hour without feeling like I needed to rest. This is partly because my husband got me my own smaller -- almost kid sized weed whacker it only weighs about 15 pounds compared to his manly John Deere weed eater that weighs twice as much. I'm sure this season it will take me a little time to get back into the swing of things but by my 2 year appointment I fully expect to be able to do our enormous yard all at once without needing to rest!

8-3-10 My other fitness goal is to be able to comfortably lift 60lb cement and 70lb sand bags. I can do this now, but not comfortably -- esp the 70lb bags of sand. In the line of work my husband is in, there are always bags of cement and sand right in the way of something I need and my husband isn't always available to move them for me. This probably seems like a weird goal, but at our home between my husband's work supplies, the landscaping supplies, the bird seed and the water softener salt there is always something heavy that needs lifting. It would be a great convenience to me to be able to do all of this comfortably. Plus, there is another thing at work here; when I was nearly 10 years old, I was allowed to start stacking straw in the hay mow of our barn. Those bales weighed in the 50 -60lb range and I did it with ease -- at 10 years old. Nothing makes you feel so soft and old as not being able to lift something a little kid can.

I can do this now! My husband hurt his back this winter, so I've been doing a lot of the heavy lifting (with him hovering over me like a Nervous Nellie so afraid I was going to kill my self). A couple of months ago I moved a stack of 70lb sand bags into the shed and then later lifted them up into George's truck.) 40lb bags of salt don't even require batting an eye lash. It is so fabulously awesome to feel strong. Now I would like to not be so clumsy. lol

New Fitness Goals

One new fitness challenge I want to take on is yoga. This will hopefully help me develop better coordination and improve my flexibility. It will be done at home to a dvd, where I can look like a freak in private. I have issues about exercising in front of others : )

One other thing I would like to do is learn how to swim and try water aerobics. Probably water aerobics first -- is looks like so much fun! Plus I'm scared to death of ~~learning how to swim~~ drowning. Our town has a very nice aquatic center and they have many lessons, activities and open swim periods. Since the cost of the facility is subsidized by property taxes the out of pocket cost to use the facility is pretty inexpensive. I'm pretty nervous about doing the whole water aerobics thing for a couple of reasons, the bathing suit and doing it in front of other people. But learning how to swim and doing some time of water exercise (besides swimming) is something I've always wanted to do and swimming is something my husband loves. He said he would like to come with me -- so there's a fun thing we could do together!

Andy was very encouraging and supportive --- he seemed to know this pool thing was a big mental barrier for me to overcome. He suggested that I go in there some day with no plans to get into a swimming suit and just check the place out -- get the full tour and watch a class in action. Baby steps. I think I can do it.

The Importance of Follow Up

Undergoing weight loss surgery doesn't "fix" you. I know... big news flash if you've never undergone weight loss surgery or think it is an easy way out. Even if we progress far enough to loose every last pound of excess weight we still benefit from regular medical follow ups, exercise, proper nutrition and emotional/mental support. I liken it to someone that has coronary bypass surgery. Sure -- those blockages are cleared out for the time being, but if you want the best shot at long term success, you have a lot of follow up to do!

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Treats

2011-03-07T05:52:00.000-08:00

Weight Watchers has put out a $1.00 off coupon out for their ice cream treats. Go here to get yours. Here's a list of all the frozen treat offerings and their point levels.

I Bought the Red Purse

2011-03-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

I bought the red purse. To most people that's probably not a big deal. But to me it is. As a matter of fact it's HUGE! You see, I've always been so practical, choosing neutral colours and plain jane stuff and not really spending much attention or money on clothing or accessories.

I had been looking for a plain black handbag for months and couldn't find anything that wasn't adorned with numerous buckles, I wanted a classic, rather plain black handbag with handles just big enough to fit over my shoulder so it could easily be worn over my shoulder or carried. Obviously I have very specific handbag needs.

Earlier this winter I found the perfect black handbag -- because you know black goes with everything and that's just what I do. I found it at the grocery store no less! And it was only $11-- it's the exact same purse as the one pictured above, only black. My first inclination was to get just the black purse. After all, who needs two purses?! Shhh don't tell my fashionista sister I said that. She would faint dead away at the thought of only one purse.

The whole time I was looking at the black purse I was longing to buy the red one. I've always wanted a bright red purse, they are so beautiful and add a little sparkle. If I went with the black, I figured I would be wishing I would've got the red one too. So, since it was only $11 more, I splurge on the red one too.

I'm Just Not Hungry

2011-01-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Uh, that's my husband -- not me. My husband has been laid up for a month with a back problem and is on doctor's orders to take off 3-4 more months. George is one of those people that never seems to struggle with their weight -- EVER. (yeah, I know, but I still love him : ) He has a very physically demanding job and normally eats 4000+ calories a day to be replenish his energry supplies.

I've always suspected that I am one injury away from gaining a massive amount of weight. You see; I count on my activity level -- even now with the surgery to keep my portions in check. If I was in any way not able to exercise or had to reduce my daily activities for any length of time, I'm pretty sure I would balloon up overnight. Even though I eat 1400 calories a day, I still have to count on at least 30 minutes of pretty heavy exercise to make that 1400 work for me. Couple that with inactivity in general and Houston we've got a problem. For example, the first week I changed from an active job to a desk job I gained 5lbs --in one week! And the next week I gained more and the next week more, well you know the rest of the drill. I kept eating the same even though my calorie needs dropped dramatically.

An Experiment

It's not that George is my science experiment or anything, but I was curious, so I've been watching him. I wanted to know if his body told him to eat less (because obviously mine goofed up on that point -- or maybe it told me and I didn't get the message?) Anyway, it's been a month now that he's been taking it easy. The first couple of weeks he was on some pretty strong medication that took his appetite away (maybe the medical community should be hawking this stuff instead of Dexatrim and the like) so I thought, okay; it's probably just the medicine. The last two weeks he's only eaten about 1/2 to 1/3 of what he normally eats. I wondered if he was doing this on purpose to not gain weight. Because if I was laid up, you had better believe I would have to have some sort of serious plan of action to not gain a bazillion pounds.

So, I asked him. To be real honest, he looked at me like I was nuts. Don't worry; it's not like I haven't seen that look before: ) Apparently he hadn't even CONSIDERED food. It's not something that ever crossed his mind. He just looked at me and said with a puzzled look."I guess I'm just not hungry so I don't eat much. Probably because I'm not working hard".

And, that my friends is one of the reasons why the experts tell you that if you are obese, you will always be "obese" in your brain -- even though you lose all your excess weight and look like a skinny minnie on the outside. We just don't view food the same as those that have never had a weight issue.

Tips to Fight Discouragement

2011-01-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I had weight loss surgery. Doesn't that mean I've essentially bought myself a ticket to "the easy way out"? Where the weight just drops off and in the blink of an eye and I'm Skinny Minnie? Um.... yes and no. Mostly no, at least for me.

As of this Monday I am down 58 pounds. Fifty-eight pounds in seventy-seven weeks -- that's how long it's been since my surgery. Now, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely thrilled about losing every single one of those pounds. If you average it all out over the 77 weeks I've lost an average of .75lbs each week which is 100% on track with the 3 year weight loss plan my surgeon's team and I developed. The problem is I'm feeling all discouraged and just blah in general about it. Actually in my mind, I had myself thinking I was way off track and was really behind on the plan and was doing horrible. When I ran the numbers tonight I was really surprised to find that I'm a fraction ahead of my goal.

So, why am I feeling so down and discouraged?

Reason # 1. I am comparing myself to others.

I've been doing this a lot lately, even though I know it's wrong and caution others to not do it. I know several people (some in real life, some on support boards) that have had surgery after I did and they have lost twice as much or even more weight than I have. Now, there are some surgeries where you can lose all your excess weight in 6 months -- for people that had those types of surgeries that is a reasonable expectation. Even folks that have my surgery type (adjustable gastric band) can loose everything in a year or so if they follow a very strict low calorie plan and exercise a bunch. The problem is I am comparing apples to oranges; I have a unique plan designed just for my needs and I should only be comparing my progress to the expectations laid out in MY plan - not someone else's plan. It just seems like those other plans are so much more exciting than my own right now.

Reason #2 I am in another stall.

I had a big stall 12 pounds ago and wasn't really expecting another one so soon. According to the doctor there's not much you can do to fight these stalls. Just keep on keeping on until the scale moves -- the body has to catch up with what's going on.

Reason #3 I'm getting a little bored with this weight loss thing.

Did I just say that?! Hello? This is the rest of my life. One of the chief reasons my surgeon's team and I made a 3 year weight loss plan was so I could very slowly transition into a new "normal" pattern of eating. The key for me was this transition phase had to be gradual enough so I could smooth right on into maintenance phase without the dropping off a cliff feeling of "oh, GREAT, I am at goal, I can eat like before". The way I eat in the active weight loss stage needs to be very similar to how I will eat at goal. The problem is this isn't all new and exciting anymore (at least most of the time). The logical mind would come to the conclusion of "Hello, anybody home? THAT's what you were aiming for!" Alas, my mind isn't always logical.

Now that I have a good grasp of why I'm discouraged, here's my plan to get free from discouragement. Hopefully this will be of some encouragement to you if you are struggling like I have been.

Step #1

Stop comparing myself to others -- especially to the people that had surgeries where it is common to lose 10, 15 or 20lbs in a week. I didn't choose that route on purpose and I need to tell myself that's okay. I also plan to remind myself regularly that I chose this route and method to give myself the best possible chance at maintaining my weight loss.

Step 2

Accept the fact that stalls of several weeks, perhaps even a month or two are a part of this process. But that does not mean I get to unwrap a candy bar because I feel sorry for myself. Count myself very fortunate that I did not gain any weight over Christmas - what an awesome bonus, considering I had several days of higher calorie eating. Continue to focus on eating good, high quality, lean protein and drinking lots of water. Even if I don't lose a pound from doing those things, they are still good for me.

Step 3

Recognize that I have some "head work" to do on this weight loss surgery thing not being new and exciting anymore. I didn't have surgery because it was going to be exciting -- obviously definitions of exciting vary : ) I did it to help me reach a healthier weight. Eating right probably shouldn't be thrilling or exciting. It should probably just be eating. Sure we can enjoy and appreciate tasty foods and meals, but excitement? That's unrealistic. Is this one of the things I need to be on guard against? Feeling as if my new way of eating isn't exciting, so why bother -- just go for the 400 calorie coffee?

Healthy Printable Coupons

2011-01-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

There are quite a few printable coupons for healthy products out on the net. Here are just a few. You can also go here to get a great assortment of personal care, paper, Valentine's candy and animal products coupons.

$1.00 Lank O Lakes Cheese
$1.00 Welches Juice
$1.00 Eucerin Lotion
$1.00 Oscar Meyer Carving Board Meats
$1.00 Truvia Zero Cal Sweetener
$1.00/2 Athenos Greek Yogurt (has anyone tried this?)
$1.00 Udi's Gluten Free Foods
$1.00 Good Earth Tea

Free Winter Samples

2011-01-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

Quality Health is giving out their free winter samples. Go here to sign up for yours.

Using Nutrition Facts to Build a Better Meal

2011-01-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

One of the most helpful things I’ve learned since having this surgery is to have an awareness of what I am eating. This is especially helpful to me when dining out a “healthy” fast food place. I put the word healthy in quotes because a lot of quick serve restaurant places brand themselves as so much better for you than the typical drive thru burger joint. And in many cases that can be true, but if you are looking to limit calories you have to choose very carefully at these places.

Case In Point: Weighing My Choices

Today I planed to get a bite to eat at Panera, one of my favorite healthy quick serve places. Since I had a free espresso drink credited to mypanera card and the remnants of a gift card to use, you better believe I wasn't going to turn down a free fancy coffee and a cheap meal.

Knowing fancy coffee drinks have a lot of calories – but not wanting to pass up a treat I did a little checking of the menu to see what my options were.

I love the companies that have the interactive nutrition facts menu where you can add or delete menu items and a whole host of condiments to arrive at a meal that fits my needs.

Obviously, the cappuccino and the plain latte offer the lowest calorie choices, but I wanted something a little fancier -- but not 400 calories fancy. So I weighed my choices and picked what I was willing to splurge on calories for -- sugar or fat. I opted for the caramel latte -- only no caramel, just sf vanilla syrup. I could've saved an additional 100 calories by foregoing the whipped cream, but didn't because I wanted the extra treat of the whipped cream and made the conscious choice to include it.

Being aware of what I am eating helps so me so much! The nutrition facts are not for me to identify the lowest calorie/fat food and choose that no matter what. It's more of tool for me to develop a good idea of what I'm going to be eating and to plan better choices. If I'm at a place that doesn't have the info available, no big deal.

Try New Things

Once I decided what free coffee to get, I checked out some other menu options and decided to do a U Pick 2 deal to try 2 new items out. Usually I get the same old same old when I go out and don't try new things very often but lately I've been having the urge to try new things.

For lunch I ate a 1/2 Cuban Chicken Sandwich and am planning to take the 1/2 Thai chicken salad home for supper. Plus, I forgot they give you a side item too. So now I have a bag of chips for some other day. Planning out a meal like this is such a lesson in contrast for me. I'm always reminded of how much I used to eat before surgery. I would've gotten the full everything coffee drink, possibly a pop, the chips, a whole salad or sandwich and eaten it all in 15 minutes or so. A meal like that is more calories than I would eat all day now. Again, it's not that a meal like this in and of it's self is "bad" (of course it's probably not something you would want to do daily) it's just that I could never use all those calories up before they ganged up on me as a fat roll.

Today's Lunch

Coffee: 220 calories, 8 grams protein

1/2 sandwich leaving 1/2 of the bread behind: 255 calories, 19.5 grams protein

Dinner

1/2 of a Thai Chicken Salad: 260 calories, 18 grams protein

Using Cauliflower to Make Mock Mashed Potatoes

2011-01-18T05:46:00.000-08:00

This week I decided to try something new in the cooking arena. I have long been curious about about the low carb trick of substituting mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes. My first thought was "yuck". But after all I do really like cauliflower so there was no way I would end up with something inedible.

Last night I made Shepherd's Pie and instead of the mashed potato topping, I used mashed cauliflower.

Here's how I did it: Take one whole cauliflower and rinse well. Separate into large chucks from the bottom up. Note: when cutting cauliflower or broccoli, try not to cut into the top part of the head, you will have more "crumbs" than you know what to do. Cook in boiling water until tender.

Mash well. My masher is one of the more open types (not the little squares) so I had a hard time getting the cauliflower to mash up super fine. This masher works well for potatoes but not something as grainy as cauliflower. When making mashed potatoes I usually use 1/2 cup of warmed milk and 2 tbsp butter. The cauliflower didn't seem nearly as dry as mashed potatoes so I only used 1/4 cup of milk and the 2 tbsp of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

As I was mashing up the cauliflower it was very clear that I wouldn't be tricking anyone into thinking these were anything like real mashed potatoes, no matter how much butter,salt and pepper I added.

Here's the final product: the shepherd's pie with mock mashed potato topping. I added 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and a sprinkle of paprika and parsley.

My personal feelings on the matter:

It was okay. I really like cauliflower, so keep that in mind. If you don't like cauliflower this might not be the dish for you. They were not similar in any way to mashed potatoes in texture, taste or appearance. A shepherd's pie really should be topped with mashed potatoes. The only reason I would do this again is if I were out of potatoes, but had cauliflower on hand, or if my husband or I were on a very strict low carb diet.

Here's the nutrition info for 1/2 cup of mashed cauliflower (absent the milk and butter). By using cauliflower in place of mashed white potatoes you save yourself 12.8 carbs and 34 calories for each 1/2 cup serving. Personally, I would choose the mashed potatoes.

A Good Closet Cleaning is Good for the Soul

2011-01-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

This year (well, so far this year :) I'm on a big cleaning and organizing kick. I'm trying to do one project a week. Last week's project was cleaning out our bedroom closet. Boy did it feel great to get a good way into cleaning it up!

(This is the after -- NOT the before. I'm not done yet)

A lot of what I cleaned out of there were clothes that were too big for me. As I went through each item, I was appalled at just how big some of these things were. Most things were especially loose in the legs and arms. Which means my stomach is not shrinking in proportion to the rest of my body. Rats. Another interesting/appalling thing was how worn some of those clothes were.

I've always been a big fan of wearing clothing until it's actually used up or on it's way to being too good to wear in public but I didn't realize how worn things had gotten. Most of what I tossed out hadn't been worn in months and as I was carefully looking each article over to see if it should be taken to the consignment shop, donated or torn into rags, I noticed that most things fit into the "rags" category.

While it felt terrific to eliminate the old clothes -- freeing in a way, it was also a little disturbing how old and raggy some of that stuff looked. Had I always done that -- worn clothes into absolute rags? Or, had I started to do it because I didn't feel comfortable even trying on new clothes because hardly anything fit. Or, was it because on some level I didn't think I deserved to look nice if I was so overweight? Probably a little of all three.

Another thing about discarding old too big clothes. I have this nagging little fear in the back of my head of "waaaiiiit!!!! save those because you might grow back into them". The one other time in my life where I lost a lot of weight (early 20's oh dear, that seems like eons ago) getting rid of old clothes didn't bother me one bit. I yanked those clothes out of my closet and threw them into trash bags and dropped them at a charity or gave them to friends faster than you could bat an eyelash. After all, my weight loss was going to stick. I was never going to be overweight again. On the other side of regaining every single one of those pounds back and then some I'm not so cocky.

A Sober Reminder of Why I'm Doing All This

2011-01-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I spent a couple of hours in the waiting room of an Internist this week while my husband was following up on his pinched nerve. Waiting in there was a real eye-opener. Let me tell you -- a REAL eye opener.

First the scene... this is a busy practice of an Internist, not a regular family doctor. Internists typically treat patients that have one or more chronic diseases to manage -- they are not about just a once a year check up to make sure you are healthy. During the 2 hours I was in there (thankfully they had a splendid stack of magazines!) several people came and went. As the patients kept coming, I gathered from the conversations that most of them were in the office on a very regular basis and had several ailments. Some patients even knew each other which could be because we are in a small town or the patients are in there so much they recognize each other. Not sure, maybe some of each.

There was one common characteristic of every single patient in there save one (she was 95 and slender). They were all overweight. We're not talking the "pleasingly plump" or "middle age spread" type of overweight. We are talking really, really overweight -- the kind of overweight that affects your breathing, your mobility -- your life span.

It broke my heart to see these women (all were women). None of them smiled or looked at ease. They could barely walk, or stand. One or two seemed to be able to breath okay but the rest had very labored breathing that was not from exertion. The most talkative lady mentioned to another patient that she was trying to save a toe from being amputated (complication of diabetes). As I was sitting there, it hit me that none of these ladies was very old -- maybe in their 50's and early 60's. And most notably, there were no elderly overweight women in there. As my mom once told me: there aren't but a handful of significantly overweight women in her huge senior housing complex because (to put it delicately.....) they are all dead.

As I took all this in and remembered my mom's comment I choked up with emotion. The road I was headed on before surgery was leading me down the exact same path. In twenty years, maybe sooner, it would be me in the waiting room of a doctor's office -- unable to move without pain, unable to breathe easily, with one or more chronic diseases to manage. As I was steadily gaining weight, I didn't realize how much life the weight was sucking out of me. It happens so slowly. Things become a little more difficult so we stop doing as much as we did and as we age, we tend to chalk up most of our declining health getting older.

It doesn't matter how nice we are, how giving we are, how good of an employee, mother, spouse, sister, friend we are ... obesity doesn't consider any of that as it shoves us into an early grave. I don't want it to happen to me. I want to be fit enough to enjoy and participate in my life, not slowly disengage from it.

Happy New Year! And a Progress Update

2011-01-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

I wish you all have a glorious New Year! Our festivities for the "eating season" are complete, well, except for one more, next weekend we have my work Christmas part, but I won't be tempted to overeat at that (this might be a separate post). Since Thanksgiving I've been to several holiday get togethers, potlucks, hosted a cookie baking day, eaten a good deal more than my allotted 1400 calories many days, slacked off on my exercise and discovered a new favorite "sandwich" at Wendy's. After you caulk up all that you can pretty much count on seeing the scale go up.

Well, by some miracle that didn't happen. Surely I didn't lose any weight, but I was actually expecting a gain of 2-5lbs. Please don't wish me ill if the number is up on your scale this year. I don't know how this could've happened! Well, actually I have an idea but I'll share that in a minute.

My Progress So Far

As of right now I'm at my lowest weight in over 4 years which is 56lbs down. My size 18 jeans are now needing to be put in the dryer to shrink them down a little before wearing. I can fit into a pair of size 16 dressy black boot cut pants and look pretty good if I wear a longer non-knit shirt to skim over that disproportionately large tummy bulge. But who am I kidding, I know these 16's are sized big because I can't comfortably get into any "real" 16's yet. Still, that number looks so good! It really keeps me motivated.

Maybe Why The Scale Didn't Break this "Eating Season"

I've always been pretty active and do a lot more moving besides what I classify as "exercise". This winter I've been doing a lot more moving that usual. My husband has had a lot of lower back pain this fall and winter and is now laid up with a pinched nerve. I've taken over a lot of things that he used to do or that I used to just help with. I routinely bring up several loads of wood from the back corner of our property to the outside wood box and then I move it again into the garage, next to the stove. I've also been hauling all the birdseed and critter food bags which are 50lbs each and the softener salt bags and helping him unload his work truck more often. Other than slacking off on my formal exercise, eating all the goodies and more calories this is the only thing I've done different. Personally I like this type of non formal exercise a lot more than formal exercise, it feels like I'm accomplishing something important and useful.

What A Thanksgiving Dinner Looks Like As a Weight Loss Surgery Patient

2010-11-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a difference a year makes!

Just for comparison's sake, I looked through my food log and dug up what I ate for Thanksgiving dinner last year. Here it is:

Thanksgiving 2009
2 oz turkey (1/4 cup)
2 oz ham (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup dressing
1/4 cup mashed potatoes
1/4 cup broccoli salad
1 piece pumpkin bread
1/4 cup grape salad
1/4 cup green bean casserole
1 inch wide slice of pumpkin pie

Everything but the pie and pumpkin bread measures out as 2 cups. Including the pie and pumpkin bread I ate pretty close to 2.5 cups of food over the course of 45 minutes. I clearly remember last year's meal. I was 3 months out from surgery and was still trying to wrap my mind around not seeing the piles of food on my plate touch each other. The two cups of food seemed too small to be much of a way to celebrate Thanksgiving. (The bread and pie were eaten later on a separate plate as dessert). At that point my band wasn't tighted up very much so my hunger wasn't kept at bay as much as it is now; I remember being hungry again 3 hours after eating this meal and wondering if this band thing was just not going to work out for me.

There was one comforting thing about last year's meal; even though it was more than what someone that's had weight loss surgery can eat, it was far less than what I would've eaten before surgery. I remember thinking that things could go well on this journey, if I simply ate less than before -- less of everything at every meal. I was bound to lose weight. And essentially that's what's been going on for the last year.

Fast Forward to Thanksgiving 2010:

As I was eating last year's Thanksgiving dinner, I never thought I would be able to look at a feast plate of food with such small amounts on it and think "this a great, bountiful meal". Well, that happened to me yesterday -- only with less food!

We went to my in-laws place up at the lake and it was sort of a potluck with us visitors contributing a dish or two. The table was filled with all sorts of delicious, good smelling food; all my favorites. I hadn't had any breakfast (I know this is a no-no, but it's not like I was saving up room, I just was not hungry up until pretty close to the big event).

Here's what I put on my plate yesterday:

2 ounces of Turkey (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup of mashed potatoes
1/4 cup of dressing
a drizzle of gravy on top of the items above
1 rounded teaspoon of baked beans
1 level teaspoon of corn
2 rounded teaspoons of cranberry relish
1/4 cup of 7 layer salad
1/4 cup of squash
2 grapes

This food comes in measurement wise -- at about 1.5 cups all spread out into tiny little piles. Instead of feeling deprived; my first thought was honest to goodness: "how am I going to be able to eat all this food!?" Wow, things have changed a lot for me in a year. And you know what? It was too much food for me. I left behind some of the potatoes and dressing and the baked beans, because I didn't feel like I could eat anymore and be comfortable..... plus I wanted a taste of some desserts. It is Thanksgiving, you know: )

It took me about 30 minutes to eat the meal, and then I waited a little bit and had few bites of 3 kinds of desserts (probably 1/3 cup all totalled) : cranberry cheesecake, pumpkin pie and rhubarb crisp. Obviously all this food is pretty calorie laden (and delicious) so I'm not exactly sure how many calories I took in, but amount-wise I count this Thanksgiving as a huge bonus. It is just so hard to believe that this new way of eating is becoming "normal" for me.

A New Found Confidence As Heard From the Man Cave

2010-11-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

My husband loves his Man Cave. The Man Cave is our attached garage complete with a huge workshop and a wood stove. Not very fancy, but to a man that puts tools right up there with God and his wife; it's a little slice of manly heaven. He conducts all of his business phone calls, chews the fat and solves all the world's problems with our male neighbors over a cup of coffee in the comfort of his Man Cave.

Last Sunday evening while George was conducting one of his important manly phone conversations with one of his brothers I came out to take out the trash and see if he needed anymore coffee. I teased him about his Man Cave (how can a girl not?) and then he said something smart aleck-y back. We love a little good natured bantering around here.

As I was going back into the house, I overheard George tell his brother I have this new found sense of confidence. If it comes from the Man Cave it must be true. For some reason this comment really struck me and I've been mulling it over since Sunday.

My new found sense of confidence

At first thought, I was surprised to find that George thinks I have more confidence; most of the time I certainly don't feel like I have more confidence. But, for him to state this as a plain-in-your-face fact, it must be pretty obvious to him. I've come to the conclusion that I must be giving out more self confidence vibes, even if it doesn't seem like it. That's a good thing as long as it doesn't cross over into an unhealthy amount of it. I like to think of it as a nice little bonus to losing weight.

Edited to add:

George is generally one of those silently proud husbands. I know he is proud of me and my weight loss accomplishment but he's not telling me every time he turns around or anything. At Thanksgiving he must have mentioned "my new found self confidence" 3 or 4 times. So unlike him! But, at least he means it as something good and I can tell by the look in his eye when he says it that he likes the new spunky me.

Posing for Pictures Isn't Quite as Painful Anymore!

2010-11-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Last September I wrote:

“I don't have very many pictures of me; I hate being in photos and one of the reasons for that is I seem to take up the whole camera lens compared to others in the photo. I'm not kidding. A few months ago (right before surgery was scheduled) I was in some group photos taken at a baby shower. These photos were published in our company newsletter. I opened up the newsletter that night with a little bit of excitement. After all, I'd worn a pretty shirt in a flattering color, took a little extra effort with my hair and put on a big smile. You are always prettier when you smile.
Looking at those group photos was a real eye-opener. I was literally twice the size of everyone else and looked like I was crowding out the smaller people. Talk about a let down.

After sharing my heartfelt disappointment with you, I'm going to share another secret.

It is critically important to not let a feeling like this ruin your day and cause you to put yourself down and to further feelings of self-loathing. We need to keep this emotional stuff in the right perspective. My friends and family love me. That's me, Trixie. They love me thin/fat and anywhere in between and most importantly God loves me. Myself worth is not based upon a number on a scale or what dress size I wear.

Whether I weigh a hundred pounds less or a hundred pounds more, I will still put a big smile on my face and participate in life.”

Today was an especially sweet victory for me.

This morning I was in a meeting and noticed the baby shower photograph I mentioned above pinned to the bulletin board. Curiously, I studied it for a moment: I am definitely the largest person in the photo; clearly trying to stuff myself into a size too small shirt which gapes open 3 inches at my widest point and the shoulders look tight and pinched. I am wearing the exact same shirt as in the photograph, but what’s different this time is it’s quite loose. The 3 inch gap has been replaced with being able to button the shirt and have 3 inches of extra space at the widest point.

The day I first saw the photo I was so very sad about how I looked. I’m still not happy about it; but I feel so much better because I’ve spent the last year doing something about it.

Do Something -- it's one of the most wonderful things I'm in the process of learning on this journey. If we don't like things the way they are, most of the time, we have the power to do something about it. Why is it so hard for us to "get" that? Sometimes the changes are slow and difficult and painful -- but they are so worth it in the long run.

At 53 pounds down, I'm not quite so sick about getting my picture taken, as a matter of fact, I was delighted to pose with George for the wedding picture I posted here on my other blog. Looking at that picture, there are a thousand things I could single out as being less than ideal. But I've decided to just be thankful for how happy and confident I felt that day and the 53 I've lost instead of focusing on how much more I still have to lose. Just being willing to happily pose for the picture was a miracle in itself.

Maybe There's More To It Than Just Eat Less/Move More

2010-11-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

Years ago, my doctor asked me why I thought I was overweight. I incredulously replied, "because I take in more calories than I use up." Duh.

Before having surgery, I would've sworn up and down, that's all there is to being overweight.  To lose weight, you just reverse the equation.

Then I had surgery and became exposed to a whole new world of folks that struggle with weight issues, no matter how little they eat or how much they move. A lot of these people eat 900-1000 calories a day and do tons of exercise and they struggle to lose weight -- even with surgery to aid in that effort. Some people are just born with super fast metabolisms.

Case in point: My mom

Dear sweet lady that she is (because you know I don't really want to kill her) eats a pan of fudge in one weekend -- an 8x8 pan. Eats frosting from the can so regularly that she keeps a can of it on her dresser. Just recently she said she was getting too thin because she was drinking skim milk and had to switch back to whole milk. She does not have any sort of eating disorder and looks very well. She has always been this way. 140lbs was the most she's ever weighed and that's at 9 months pregnant. Why couldn't God hook me up with those genes? My oldest sister got them instead and my mom had to beg her to drink milk shakes to put on weight. Begged to drink milkshakes?! Come to think of it, there is a growing list of family members that might need to be knocked off : )

Another Case in Point: A Teeny Tiny Pastor's Wife Always Eats More Than Her Athletic Husband

At my brother-in-law's wedding reception this last weekend, I sat kitty corner from the Pastor's wife. This dear, sweet little petite lady couldn't possibly weigh and ounce over 100lbs and she ate and ate and ate some more.  Plate #1was a full sized dinner plate of salad. My first thought was, oh, that must be all she eats, no wonder she is so thin. I was totally surprised to see that followed by a plate of "real" dinner food. Figuring that must be her once a month splurge on over eating, I stopped discretely spying on her plate.

Until she walked right by me with plate #3 piled high with ever more dinner type food. It was then that I decided she must be one of "those" people that are blessed with a fast metabolism.  There's more. She went back for a stack of ice cream and chocolate syrup so high it was melting and falling over onto the table. She passed on the wedding cake because she doesn't care for cake. She loves ice cream she went back for a repeat on that.

When this lady announced she was going up for a second chocolate sundae I must have had some sort of a weird look on my face (probably shock, because I think all that food weighed more than this tiny little lady). Her husband noticed (he probably gets that a lot) he and I just smiled at each other for a moment and he said she always out eats him, every day of the week and he is a runner!

Clearly some of us are born with a natural capability to not store calories as fat. Clearly I am not one of those people. Drat.

Do you know anyone that is blessed with a fast metabolism. Or, do you have one? Please note if you do, we can still be friends :)

Ideas for Healthier Choices at Fast Food Joints

2010-10-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has a great, information packed article up about how to make healthier food choices at fast food places. There's lots of information about how to make better choices at sub shops, Mexican and burger joints -- even the places that label themselves as "healthier fast food". Go check it out!

Since the band, my days of eating anything of significance at a fast food place have virtually gone bye-bye. Before surgery I spent about $40 a month on eating out for lunches, most of which were 800 - 1200 calorie packed meals that included fries. In spite of cutting back drastically on fast food, I'm not one of those people that thinks that you should never, ever eat fast food, ever. It's probably best that we acknowledge that most of it is not the healthiest of fare but to indulge once in a while shouldn't be a big deal. Try looking at it from a total meal standpoint: if you eat a total crap fast food meal once a month that is just 1.1% of your total meals for the whole month (1 meal out of 84). It's unlikely that one meal is going to do you in.

Exactly How Are My Fast Food Choice Impacted By The Band?

Before my gastric band was adjusted to a good level of tightness, (also called the sweet spot or green zone) it was physically possible for me to eat a typical fast food meal -- sandwich, fries and drink. I made the decision early on in this journey to severely cut out the typical fast food simply because this journey is not only about weight loss for me; it's also about becoming healthier. This does not mean I never eat from a fast food place or that I don't sometimes want to order all my old favorites and eat till I'm stuffed.

When my band was finally adjusted to the right level eating a typical fast food meal became absolutely 100% impossible. How do I know this? I tried and tried again. Oh, it was horrible! And has pretty much cured me of trying to eat fries or anything with a bun. Sometimes it seems weird to be forced by my band to not eat fast food, ideally I would like to make that choice on my own and just decide not to eat it. But, I am very thankful for the band -- it provided the immediate negative reinforcement I needed. The more time that passes since surgery, the less interested I am in eating the typical fast food stuff, I just don't seem to crave it like I used to, so I do kind of feel like I'm deciding to not eat it now.

What CAN I Eat At a Fast Food Place?

Wendy's small chili. My all time new favorite fast food is Wendy's chili with 1 sour cream; it's very tasty and it really sticks to my ribs. I've always liked Wendy's chili, but before the band, I would be hungry an hour after eating it. Now it will last me for 4+ hours. It's really nice to only spend $1.58 on a fast food lunch!

Any Salad with Grilled Chicken. One of my favorites is the McDonald's Southwest Salad. I eat almost all of the chicken and about 1/2 of the greens. Good for hot summer days when chili doesn't sound good.

Taco Bell Hard Taco or part of a taco salad. I can eat a hard taco pretty well. Not so healthy, but is sure is a lot healthier than eating 3 or 4 like I would've before surgery. I can eat about 1/4 of a taco salad -- either the chicken or the beef. I suppose if I took a really long time, like an hour I could probably eat almost all of it, but honestly I feel sick thinking about eating it for that long.

Subway. Every once in a while my husband wants subs for supper, my personal favorite is Jersey Giant, but only if I can eat all that good bread (in my opinion they have the best wheat sub bun). It seems weird to not be able to take a big bite out of a sub. Subs are a difficult food to take a tiny bite of. Because of the difficulty I have with soft, doughy bread, subs are not my first choice for a meal. Most often I would choose to get it made into a salad, but sometimes I like just a taste and texture of the bread. My personal favorite at Subway is the Philly Cheese steak; I can eat 3/4 of the insides and 1/2 of the bottom bun.

Qdoba. One of my favorite quick Mexican places; I like to order any of their chicken burrito bowls without the tortilla. With these I'm always guaranteed leftovers for another meal or two. Sometimes I order off their Craft 2 menu and get 2 baby sized bowls or taco salads, Each one is just the perfect size for a band meal. Other times I'll get the Chicken taco salad -- I have to be very careful with this; it is my favorite taco salad in the whole world and I'm tempted to start shoveling it in way too fast and then end up getting stuck.

* It's important to note that several of my choices, if eaten in the amounts provided by the restaurant are not particularly waistline friendly, (especially if you get every available condiment). But, in the portion sizes I eat, hardly anything comes in over 300 calories.

There are quite a few other places I'm sure I could find something tasty to eat that is band friendly. This is just what I like in my area. What are you favorite weight loss friendly fast food places?

My Weight Loss Menu for the Week

2010-10-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

It's time for another Weight Loss Surgery Style Menu for you. You can view my regular supper menu here, on my other blog, Farm Home Life

First off: breakfasts and lunches:

Monday:

B Decaf coffee with milk and scoop of unflavored protein powder, mid morning, humus, low fat cheese and 6 Kashi triscuit type baked crackers.

L didn't pack anything; will be getting a Wendy's small chili (for many people with a band, soups, stews and chili are considered a "slider food", meaning it slides right out of your stomach and you don't get the long lasting feeling of satiety. Thankfully, this isn't the case for me, at least at this point in my journey, Wendy's chili is thick enough that it will keep me full until supper time.)

Tuesday:

B Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (steel cut oats, 3 Tbsp Pumpkin puree, 1 tsp brown sugar, cinnamon and milk)

L Garden Salad with 2 ounces of turkey breast, 1 slice bacon, 1 egg and a sprinkle of cheese for protein

Wednesday:

B "Homemade" Greek Yogurt, Apple and 1 tsp of carmel apple dip (there will be a post on how to make "homemade" Greek Yogurt later)

L Something from my freezer stash of Homemade TV dinners.. maybe meatloaf

Thursday:

B 2 scrambled eggs with cottage cheese and American cheese

L Chili (LOVE chili!) served with a dollop of sour cream and cheddar cheese, a few crackers too

Friday:

B Apple Pie Oat meal (same as above only, sub 1 small apple for the pumpkin puree --- deeelicious!)

L Chinese take out. I've been in the mood for Chinese for the longest time. I've discovered the most economical way to get Chinese take out is to go to a buffet and do the to go containers -- you pay for just what you want to eat, for me it's only $2. I will be getting peanut chicken, about 1/4 cup fried rice, broccoli and a spring roll. This is not the best of food choices, but it fits into my meal plan and calorie count for the day.

Saturday:

B Greek Yogurt and 1/2 a banana

L Not sure, my brother-in-law's wedding is at 3pm. There's no way I would expect a big spread for lunch. I'm thinking about packing something from home in my little cooler bag that will be very easy to eat quickly, maybe cottage cheese and fruit, or deli roll ups.

Here's What I Eat for Supper
Keep in mind I make "regular" meals for supper. Just because I had stomach surgery, I do not expect my husband to eat exactly the same way I do. Most of the time I can eat the same thing George eats, just a lot less of it and with a simple modification or two.

Monday: Stouffer's Lasagna, garden salad and garlic toast. Here are the nutrition facts for the lasagna. Notice it is for 7.6 ounces. There is just no way I can eat that much, my serving will be about 1/2 that at 145 calories. So that means I'm getting only 9 grams of protein. Not enough for one meal; so I'm going to add a hard boiled egg to my salad for 7 grams. Normally I would pass on the garlic toast, but this is with homemade bread and it is fantastic! So, include a small piece of that and add 4 grams of protein -- all together I will get 20 grams of protein at this meal.

Note: I can kind of see right now that I am having "eyes bigger than my stomach" issues about this meal. I will probably not be able to eat 3.8 ounces of lasagna, a piece of garlic toast and a salad. If as I'm eating the first few bites, and sense that it might not work out, I will only eat a little of the noodles.

Tuesday: Chili with sour cream and cheese, cornbread. I will have 1 cup of chili, 1 Tbsp light sour cream and 1 ounce of cheese. I will either have 4 club crackers or a 1x2 inch square of cornbread. I really like both, but now a days will only eat one. Pre surgery, I would've had 2-3 cups of chili, 12 crackers and a big square of cornbread -- with butter and honey.

Wednesday: Turkey sandwiches and left over chili. I will probably just have a repeat of Tuesday's meal. My husband really likes something to dunk in his chili that's why we've got sandwiches on the menu -- most of the cornbread will be gone.

Thursday: Sloppy Joes, Broccoli Salad. Now-a-days I eat my sloppy joes open faced on just a small portion of bread, well toasted. If I were using hamburger buns, I would eat 1/2 of a bottom bun and 1/2 cup of filling. This time I will use one thin slice of homemade wheat bread. The broccoli salad is one of our favorites. I will eat about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of this.

Friday: Out to a steakhouse with a big group of family. I'm planning to go with a 6 ounce sirloin, mashed potatoes and broccoli. This meal comes with a salad and unlimited hot rolls. There will undoubtedly be several yummy appetizers at the table too. Oh my, what's a girl with a super small stomach pouch to do?! Pick your favorites and enjoy tiny amounts of them. This is a special treat meal for me, so I'm going to eat things I would not normally eat when dining out and I'm going to savor every bite.

We've already established that I'm going with the sirloin -- (medium well); I will eat 3 ounces of it, 1/4 cup of mashed potatoes and 2 spears of broccoli. George will eat the rest of my meal, as we will be out of town the next day and leftovers might not taste so good when we return. As much as I enjoy salads, I'm going to give my salad to George too -- so I can eat some of those yummy appetizers --hopefully it will be some kind of a chip dipped in a fattening dip of some sort : ) But, when you only eat 2 or 3 the calories aren't too bad. Surprisingly, with 2 meals out on this day, I will still come in under 1500 calories. Pre-surgery I would've NEVER been able to do that!

* One thing I won't be eating at this meal are the hot, fresh rolls, They smell so good, all yeasty and doughy and then throw in the butter. I don't want to take the chance on getting a bite of one stuck, it would ruin the whole meal. This is where the "negative reinforcement" of the band really helps keep my eating in check.

Saturday: Eating supper out at a restaurant after the wedding ceremony. This is a local landmark restaurant up at the lake and they put on a pretty good buffet I will be going with a baked chicken breast, veggies and maybe a cup of soup, if they have any that looks really good.

Appreciate Every Stage of The Journey

2010-10-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here a picture of me sporting my new size 18 pants. Hitting this size was kind of a milestone for me and I've been thinking about my progress a lot this past week. Over the years I've developed a lot of thoughts about the size 18 and what it means to me.

This losing weight sure brings out a lot of emotions and old memories. I w as in an 18 for the first time when I turned 18. At the beginning of a marriage to an alcoholic, I quickly found eating to be a way to cope with my situation; the pounds piled on quickly, all the way up to a size 24/26. When we divorced two years later, the weight started dropping off as fast as it went on -- that was really exciting! I had no idea how fat I had become until the pounds started falling off. The day I bought my first pair of 18's after this weight loss was a real high point for me I was absolutely on top of the world. There wasn't anything I couldn't accomplish. For the first time, I felt beautiful, attractive, confident and comfortable with my body.

Soon after I moved down to a 16 and then a 14 and started dieting to squeeze into a 12. Once 14's fit me comfortably I looked back at my "old" size 18 pants and thought to myself what a fat cow I was when I wore those jeans. How could I possibly have felt good about my self when wearing pants that big?! I grew to despise the me that proudly wore a few more pounds and the 18's.

It wasn't long before I started thinking about my size 14 body -- if I could make it down to a comfortable 12 or even 10, my size 14 body would be horrifically large and out of shape in comparison. That was the beginning of the end: I stopped enjoying the journey and began to believe that nothing was good about me or my body until I was at a "normal" size. There were no "good places" along the way; I stopped being so happy and grateful for my weight loss. And then, someone I cared for deeply made an off the cuff negative remark about my weight and it was all down hill from there. "You are too heavy." That one unkind comment shattered my world. It was reinforcement to me that my body was not good and therefore, not worthy of my attention to keep my weight down. I started gaining weight immediately and did so steadily for the next 11 years.

For years I was so hurt by that comment and used it as my excuse for gaining weight. Maybe that needed to happen to me so I would finally realize how I view myself shouldn't be dependant upon how others view me. I think now, if the same comment was made to me, even by the same person, I would simply dismiss it and go on about my day.

This time around I want to enjoy and appreciate every step of this journey. While I'm still a long way from goal, I want to celebrate each pound lost and when I move down to a 16, I want to look back at pictures of me in my size 18's and think "Yeah, she was pretty good then too".

New Jeans NSV

2010-10-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we are going to have two clothing posts back to back. Yesterday I went to Sears to use my terrific $10 of a $20 clothing purchase coupon. My intention was to pick up 2 pair of wool socks for my husband. Once I saw the jeans, and realized if I can get into a size 18 skirt, then I might be able to squeeze into a pair of size 18 jeans and all thoughts of socks for my hubby went out the window.

I promptly tried on a pair of Levi's and loved them -- they fit great all over. For an apple shape like me, it is very difficult to find a pair of pants where the waist is comfortable and the hips and bottom aren't two sizes too big. For any other apple shaped ladies out there, I recommend Levi's 590 jeans.

After trying on the 18's and seeing they fit well, I really couldn't believe it. It seems like so long ago, (nearly 5 years) since I've been able to get into a pair of pants that didn't have a 2 in the size number. It was surreal and thrilling all at the same time. I've been steadily losing weight all along for over a year and this was the first time, where I thought to myself "this is really working!" Intellectually I understand that this surgery has been "working" all along because the scale is definitely moving downward, but I am only just now starting to feel smaller.

A Guide to Shopping for Beautiful Plus Sized Clothes

2010-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

See the outfit above? It's what I'm planning to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding in two weeks. Black cardigan, dressy black tank top and a wool skirt. The whole outfit is on the cheap, (About $40 if you don't count the knee high black leather boots. I love a good bargain, but I also like quality and the boots would come under the "quality costs good money" category. Thankfully, they are still in style! The last time I wore this skirt was 4 years ago. I just love it: it's a beauty (by my standards:) classic plaid, long, lined wool, perfect for the cooler seasons here in Michigan; it looks especially good with knee high dress boots. This skirt has been in my closet mocking me (and gathering dust) for a full 4 years.

I felt so victorious as I hauled that skirt out, dusted it off and give it a try on. It fits almost perfectly -- I need to lose about 1 inch off my waist to have it fit exactly the way I would like. Darn fat. Darn apple shape. I couldn't help thinking that if I carried most of my excess weight in my bottom and hips, this skirt would look absolutely fabulous -- just the thing for a small waist and showing off pear shapes. But, the grass isn't always greener on the other side; pear shapes have their difficulties too.

Plus Sized Fancy Dress Clothing: Does it Exist?

As a plus sized lady, it is very hard to find clothing that makes you feel great when you are wearing it, especially if you are on any kind of a budget. There are a few times a year that I need to dress to the nines and it is almost impossible to find something that fits well and makes me feel pretty and confident -- not spending the evening in worry about what is pinching or binding and how many rolls are showing. I can't even count the number of times I've spent all afternoon shopping for a nice outfit and left the stores on the verge of tears for the discouragement of it all. I'm not expecting to go in there and come out with an outfit that will turn me into a Hollywood starlet, I just want to feel like the best me that I can.

We all want to feel that we look our best, especially for nicer occasions. I haven't got this all figured out by any means, but here are a few things I've found helpful for finding great dressy clothing, which also works for every day wear too.

1. Know what works for you. If you are a pear shape, A line skirts look fantastic on you. What colours do you look best in? Go for those and certainly don't buy any colours that make your skin look positively ill -- we all have colours like that.

2. Start shopping early. If you need a lovely outfit for New Year's Eve, don't wait until the last minute. Many stores won't even have one outfit that you want to try on; you will usually have to try numerous places, so start early!

3. Expand your search: try consignment shops, ebay, the online version of brick and mortar stores, catalogues and the mother of the bride and bridesmaid sections of bridal shops. This is where starting early really pays off. You might have to try 3 or 4 purchases and return them all before you find just the right thing.

4. Be prepared to spend more than might expect. Fancy dress clothing tends to be made of costly fabrics, and includes special embellishments such as sequins and therefore will cost more, especially for larger sizes. There are several occasions when I've found a great deal, but there are also times I've paid more than I expected.

5. Consider creating your own special outfit -- not for the novice sewer. Working with satiny, shimmery materials is not for the faint of heart. I love to sew, and when I work with these types of "fancier" materials, I find they slip and slide all around and require the utmost in patience and careful measuring. But, the beauty of is you can create something so beautiful in the perfect colour -- just for you!

6. Be prepared to face discouragement head on. When you can't simply walk up to a rack and select several terrific possibilities, and instead have to search and search for only one or two acceptable choices from many stores the temptation to write yourself off as a big, ugly slob is great. Do not do it! You are a uniquely beautiful woman that deserves to feel elegant, beautiful, and confident when dressed up for your special occasion and you will, it just might take you a little longer to find the perfect outfit. Besides I've heard skinny women bawling in a dressing room because they think they look too fat for their nice outfit. It's all relative.

Free Healthy Samples

2010-10-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sign up here to get free healthy samples from Quality Health. You can also sign up for a free Walk Away the Pounds guide here and 100 diabetes friendly recipes here.

My Really Bad Food Day

2010-10-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, today is what you would call a very bad food day! Not only did I eat too much at lunch, it was too much really-bad-for-me food. I'm posting all of today's food and the calorie count along with some notes so you can see what a "bad food day" looks like for me since having weight loss surgery and what on earth I was thinking.

While a day like this isn't pretty and certainly nothing to be proud of. I am proud of the fact that I don't make choices like this very often anymore and most importantly I'm not letting it turn into an excuse to eat poorly for the next meal or the next day or week.

Breakfast: 180 calories

1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 1 small apple and 1 Tbsp of carmel apple dip

I had the inspiration for this carmel apple yogurt concoction yesterday and yes, it is every bit as good as you would imagine. I should find a way to blend this up and freeze it to make homemade ice cream. Now I'm afraid I won't be able to eat Greek yogurt any other way.

"Snack": 328 calories

Fancy Coffee Drink

Good grief what was I thinking?! As I was running my lunchtime errands I stopped by one of those fancy coffee shops to use a gift card. My plan was to get one of their plain decaf coffees and then add in a little regular coffee for caffeine's sake and then a splash of cream. I'm not a coffee drinker in general and certainly not anything fancy, but since I wasn't paying (gift card) I wanted a treat -- got something called a pumpkin spice latte. It cost nearly $5 (good thing I wasn't paying) and it wasn't even very good. When I got back to the office and checked the calories online I very nearly died -- what on earth is in something that tastes that bad to give it 328 calories?!

Lunch: 1155 calories

Chicken Salad Sandwich and Onion Rings

Here's where it all went wrong (okay, so we aren't counting carmel at breakfast as wrong...) I was out running errands and stopped by one of my favorite onion ring restaurants. Did I mention I LOVE onion rings? So, in addition to the onion rings I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. I also love chicken salad and I tend to forget that most restaurants don't make it with low fat mayo like I do at home -- so the calories and fat are a LOT more. I almost gagged when I read the nutrition facts online -- afterwards. If I was going to eat my normal bandster portion of a meal like this meal, it would be 1/2 the sandwich and 2 onion rings. We would be looking at about 400 calories total.

But I wanted to eat all of this food and over the course of an hour that's just what I did. Talk about grazing -- that type of behavior is what the nutritionist would slap your wrist for. You know what? It wasn't nearly so good cold.

Supper: 200 calories

2 eggs with a sprinkle of cheese and salsa

A neighbor gave us 3 dozen eggs last night so we dubbed tonight breakfast burrito night. I really wanted to add in a little sauteed potatoes and a slice of bacon, but figured I hadn't better, what with all the garbage I ingested earlier.

Other things I wanted to eat today but didn't:

Glass of Coke
BBQ chips and dip
Apple Pie (thank goodness this wasn't made yet or I would've given in!)

Total calorie count for the day is 1863. My calorie goal for each day is 1400. Some days it's hard to get in the 1400 and yet there are other days when I'm tempted to eat a house. I'm not saying 1800+ calories is necessarily a bad thing, especially if it's good healthy food. My little sister routinely eats 2500 calories a day or more, and my husband, over 4000 but they both work at very physically demanding jobs -- I don't.

You know eating is a weird thing. Just because you have surgery to help you lose weight, doesn't mean you are never tempted to eat crap -- or too much of it. It is really dangerous to give in too often, surgery or not. I didn't realize this until I was typing this up but this is my normal once a month time to crave anything and everything -- even foods I don't particularly like! Funny how that sneaks up on you. Now that I know this with my brain, it will be easier for me to tell my stomach no when the cravings start tomorrow.

Excersise: It Does a Body Good

2010-10-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

The benefits of exercise are many. I was clearly reminded of that this morning as I overheard a friend talking about her new weight loss program, which is simply exercise.

This lady is starting out from a several years long bout of absolutely zero exercise, actually she only moved when absolutely necessary, which in turn has wreaked havoc on her ability to do even the smallest amount of exercise without feeling like death was near. Or, to even participate in daily activities that many of us take for granted.

One Smart Lady

Frankly I admire her courage. Do you know how many people get to the point where she was at health wise and they just give up? This lady fully realized that something needed to be done and she had the courage and determination to get started with whatever she could do.
She was wise enough to understand that she could start out doing what most of us consider very light exercise, but she did what she could. If there was a ever a plan for success, that's it folks. Sure you might not be able to do much at first, but do even the least little bit you can and then gradually work up from there.

Every Little Bit Counts

After a couple of weeks of doing what she could she's worked her way up to 10 minutes a day. This morning I overheard her telling a coworker how it was going so far. She was so happy, and excited. She said she had more energy than she remembers having in a long time. You could hear the pride of accomplishment in her voice as she said she was able to get more done over the weekend that she had in years. Years people. She probably felt better last weekend than she has in years and years. She went on to site several more areas where she is experiencing increased mobility and energy.I wanted to run right in there and give her a congratulatory high 5!

All this because of her dedication to start doing what she could and to gradually work up from there! She's doing just 10 minutes now and that 10 minutes is life changing! Just think how amazing she will feel in another few weeks!

Healthy Printable Coupons

2010-10-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's time for another round of healthy printable coupons. Here is a list of the more popular coupons out there right now. If you aren't interested in any of the items below, you can always go here for lots of money saving coupons on products we call can use, cleaners, paper products and such. This time around they have quite a few higher $ coupons.

$1 off Aveeno Lotion
$1 off Lubriderm Lotion
$1 off Welches Healthy Start Juice
$1 off Smart Balance Milk (this is great stuff if you are wanting to move to low fat milk, it has the texture of whole milk)
$1 off One a Day Vitamins
.75 off Dannon (if you like Dannon yogurt, be sure to check out all the Dannon coupons here, there are several!)
.40 off Yoplait
$1 Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Kits
$1 Weight Watcher's Bakery items
$2.50 Benefibre

Anything Medical is Still Creepy....

2010-10-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

I am the biggest baby in the world when it comes to hospitals and surgeries... basically anything medical in nature. I am still trying to recover from the trauma of spending an entire night in the ER with a friend that went in for pneumonia. For most of my teen years I used to think I wanted to be a nurse. I read every RN magazine and all my grandma's nursing books cover to cover. Fat lot of good that did me when I realized actually being in a hospital setting around seriously ill or bleeding people actually made me nauseous and faint. Reading about it is a lot different than seeing it. It was then that I decided to move into Accounting. There's generally a lot less screaming and blood shed, unless it's tax time or you are undergoing an audit.

Before having weight loss surgery, one of my life's goals was to never have surgery. But I eventually decided that if I didn't plunge ahead with this surgery I would almost certainly need surgery for something more serious down the road. So onto the operating table I went.

After my surgery, a remarkable thing happened -- I was no longer deathly afraid of surgery (hospitals still rank high up on the icky scale). For the past year I've thought to myself. "Hey if I ever have to have a surgery down the road, I can probably handle it, providing it isn't a surgery to reattach an appendage or replace an organ or something really scary like that" I was thinkin' gall bladder or something along those lines. (It is very common for people that have lost a lot of weight to need to have their gall bladder removed -- about 35-40% do)

Well, this morning confirms that I am as much of a fraidy cat as before. This morning on the way to work I heard a 30 second clip of a lady describing her need for sinus scraping surgery (I'm sure there is a more technical name for this) and I honest to goodness almost passed out. Waves of nausea kept coming for the next several miles. I'm not normally a get sick to my stomach kind of person but hearing about the possibility of having ones sinuses scraped out with sharp metal instruments almost did me in.

Just for fun, any particular medical procedures that really creep you out?

Another Neat Experience & A Lesson Learned

2010-09-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I was out running errands. One of those errands was to Qdoba Mexican Grill to pick up gift cards. Qdoba is one of my favorite lunch places and I happened to be in there right at lunch time -- only I wasn't hungry. At all. I could almost hear the hallelujah "it's a miracle" chorus. I didn't even get hungry all the time I waiting in line to buy those gift cards -- all the while smelling and seeing all the foods I love. I don't ever remember something like this happening unless I was sick with the flu or something.

That's the good part. As I was standing in line I kept thinking, "it feels silly to stand here all this time and not plan to order something. After all I'm going to be out for a while and maybe I will get hungry later. Maybe I should preemptively order something and then eat it when I'm hungry." So, I actually forced myself to order the queso and chips. I wasn't even the least bit hungry. Once me, and my gift cards and queso were all settled into the car, I went on about my way, not evening thinking about the food. (Another never happened before miracle. Sure I could forget about something yucky like Liver, but chips and cheese dip?!)

Once I got home, I reheated the queso and had about half of it and a 1/4 of the chips. I didn't look up the nutrition info on it; but I'm pretty sure fried chips and cheese dip ranks right up there in not-good-for-you land. Then I was too full to eat real food -- you know the kind with actual nutrients.

This was a good lesson for me. I don't have to eat just because of what time it is, where I'm at or how much I spend on the food. I just wasted $4 on junk food and the ability to eat a nutritious supper.

Breakthrough..... er.... sort of

2010-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

Since my 1 year check up I have been on a frustrating weight loss plateau. For a solid month and a week I've been hovering right at 46lbs lost. There was that one day a few weeks ago where I was down 47 pounds -- as soon as I saw that number I hurriedly rushed to log it before I gained a pound. It seemed like the scale would never start moving again. Ugggggh

From my research prior to surgery and all my fellow weight loss bloggers I know plateaus are very common. As we lose weight, our bodies go through a lot of changes and sometimes they just need to stop and take a break to adjust. It is particularly common for this to happen as we reach the mile markers of losing 10% and 20% of our total body weight. I'm just a few pounds shy of the 20% mark.

I don't remember having any really frustrating stalls at the 10% marker and was almost thinking I wouldn't really experience any major stalls, because the scale kept moving most every week -- even if only a fraction of a pound. But after a month of no forward momentum I was starting to get pretty discouraged. Until tonight.

A Simple Lesson

My husband brought home a new back pack style leaf blower tonight. He kept going on and on about how wonderfully light it is. Let me tell you the truth, that sucker looks heavy. But, I figured if he's going to be the one using it most of the time, then let him think it's all light and fluffy and enjoy using it all the more. He was so impressed with it the he kept wanting me to try in on and admire it with him. Not wanting to be a kill joy I mustered up some enthusiasm and a smile to go with it and tried the monster back pack on. It was very heavy. Reminded me of my high school days when I wore a back pack so heavy you could fall backwards, legs kicking in the air like a turtle.

After I keep insisting it's way heavier than he thinks (but it does work very good and I can't wait to blow all the leaves out of my flower beds!) I look at the box to see how much it weighs.

21 pounds

Those 21 pounds of leaf blower riding on my back were so unnatural and uncomfortable. It's shocking to know that at this time last year I was carrying more than twice that on my frame. When you lose weight gradually over the course of a year, you don't fully "get" how much weight you've lost until you try to carry it again.

What an encouragement for this to happen tonight, just when I needed it. Of course I could always look at it, that even when I get 50 more lbs off I will still be carrying around more weight than my body needs. That's another problem for another day. Today I'm a lot lighter and freer than I was a year ago and that is plenty good enough for today.

My nutritionist's advice for breaking a stall:

Just an fyi. The scale is down 1 more pound this morning (47 total). I usually only weigh on Monday's (so I don't become obsessed with a number). But, I confess to weighing almost every day for the last couple of weeks.

Earlier this week my nutritionist suggested I up my protein to 85 grams a day. My recommended daily protein intake is between 60-80 grams. For several weeks, I've been trending closer to 60 than 80. My band feels a little tighter this week which means it's been more difficult to eat enough real food (which is my preference) to get in 85 grams of protein, so I've started drinking a protein hot chocolate in the morning. Those little protein hot chocolates are so good my husband asks for them. I'm hoping this will do the trick. Who wouldn't want adding a hot chocolate a day to be the secret to weight loss?!

P.S George is "dusting" the garage with his new leaf blower. Tee hee

One Year Check Up: Part 4

2010-08-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

In Part three we covered just how important it is to set specific goals and write them down.

So now what? I have my goals all written down. Isn't this just like those New Year's resolutions I always forget about by January 4th? Actually no. Well.... okay yes, it is -- if I don't do the final step:

Set Behavior Goals (declare what you are going to do and then do it)

As soon as the Behaviorist, Scott instructed us that we need to set behavior "goals" to reach our other goals everything clicked for me. It made so much sense! I already do this very successfully in other areas of my life. I hadn't been doing it in the weight loss arena, which ta da!!! was why I hadn't been successful in the past. Declaring what we are going to do and then taking steps to do just that isn't some pie in the sky new philosophy of success. Actually, it's more like old fashioned common sense.

Here's an example: On January 1, 2010, I posted my goals of things to accomplish in 2010 on my FarmHomeLife blog. About half of the list is completed. There are some major things on there that I really wanted to do such as save for a trip to San Antonio and whittling down my list of un-done things that were driving me nuts. I'm making very good progress on these and plan to be finished by year end. Boy, is that a good feeling! A few of the things on there I wish I could say are done are not done. And.....the reason they are not completed or at least in progress is because I failed to create a plan of action. I failed to plan how I was going to achieve my goals, so in essence; I planned to fail.

What exactly is "planning our behavior" and how can we plan our behavior so we set ourselves up to meet our goals?

Planning our behavior is be deciding how we are going to act or react to a give situation, event or interaction and then actually following through. It works for everything, not just weight loss. Here is an example of where I do it right, followed, of course by an example where I have lots of room for improvement:)

Saving money: Last year I made a commitment to not take money out of our savings in order to treat my mom to a trip to San Antonio to visit family. So I had to figure out another way to come up with the money. I opened a special savings account at a new bank and then set up a direct deposit. One of my behaviors is to never carry the debit card with me so I won't be tempted to withdraw money. Another behavior is to personally deposit any little bits of extra money I have. I found if I held on to these small amounts with the intention of depositing one larger amount later; I end up spending it.

How I Blew it Big Time: Increasing my online income

One of my business goals for 2010 was to increase my online income by 10% without increasing my time spent working. I completely blew this goal. As a matter of fact, I blew it so bad; my projected 2010 income is actually down about 20% for the year. This is 100% due to the fact that I failed to develop a plan to increase revenue and I even slacked off on the plan that I was on to keep revenue stable. I had no idea of what behaviors I needed to do and when to do them.

It's amazing how simple a solution can be; but we often overlook the simple for the complicated. Now, that I've got a better grasp on how to plan for my success; I will be applying this tactic to all areas of my life.

Examples of planned behaviors to aid weight loss:

Exercise: let's say you hate exercise, or, can't find the time in your schedule. Or, maybe finding the motivation is a big challenge for you -- that recliner looks too inviting.

You could go with the idea that some is better than none and then make a plan to do just a little bit of exercise and then do that consistently every single day. I've have to do this on days when time is really tight and I can't even squeeze out 15 minutes for myself. First thing upon rising; I'll get on the elliptical or walk for just 5 minutes and then I try to do 5 more at night right before bed. It's not ideal; but some days that's all I can realistically do. That at least gets me going and I don't fall into the boat of skipping exercise for several days in a row.

Eating: let's say you are tempted to overeat when you are mad about something or you are having a really stressful moment. Replace eating with something else. Just saying that is not enough. Actually make a plan: "When I am really mad about X, instead of eating I will clean the kitchen sink or any other activity I choose".

Often our responses are on auto pilot and we respond in the manner we do simply because that's always what we've done. But it doesn't have to be that way.

We can't change other people and we usually can't change much about circumstances but we can change how we respond. We can choose to respond differently! If we are dead tired and want nothing more than to put our feet up in the recliner, we can choose to walk for 5 minutes. If we are having a bad day and want to raid the fridge to make ourselves feel better, we can choose to do something else (not involving food) that will make us feel better.

Practice Makes Progress

Forget the old Practice Makes Perfect saying. That's going to set you up for failure. We are all human and we will mess up on our weight loss journey. We will slack off on exercise or eat something not so good for us. But we've got to keep plugging away at our new thinner, better-for-us behaviours and one day, many of those new behaviors will become old behaviours. Friendly, familiar and blessedly routine. They won't require such a concentrated effort anymore and that is what makes for a life long change.

Free Grilled Chicken Recipes

2010-08-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Go here to get 19 delicious recipe ideas for grilled chicken. You can also get some great healthy Mexican recipes here.

Redneck Fest & The Gift of a Supportive Husband

2010-08-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we attended what I fondly refer of as our "Annual Redneck Fest" -- the biggest drag race event in our state. I like cars in general, especially if they are fast and loud. Combine that with fire and I'm sold. Here is a picture of me standing in front of one my favorite vehicles, a jet semi that burns up the track at over 300 miles an hour.

To date, I've not posted any pictures of my progress here. That's mostly because I hate having my picture taken and was even too embarrassed to ask my husband to take before photos of me. Kind of silly, considering he sees me every day. It's not like I'm 3 years old covering my eyes and thinking no one else can see me if I can't see them. Oh wait -- that is what've I've been doing. haaa haa Anyway, here's what I look like with 47lbs gone; 53 more to go.

Here's my favorite jet truck getting ready to shove off.

Here he is on the move. Even all the kids that pretended they were too cool to be there and had their face in a cell phone all day couldn't resist this.

A Sweet Compliment -- If you aren't one of the other ladies at the races....

While we were enjoying the breezes high up in the stands and taking in the crowd; out of the blue George said "if it's any consolation 90% of the women here are bigger than you". As you can imagine; it took a moment for that to sink in. This was not true, of course. (I figured he'd spent too much time looking at slightly overweight ladies stuffed into too tight sweaty tank tops. Which, would make anyone wearing looser clothing look pretty good.) But he assured me it was true and then went on to say "you've really lost a lot of weight". I could tell by the tone of his voice and smile how proud he was of me and he happy he was to be there enjoying the day with his pretty wife.

Hot New Healthy Coupons (And some not so healthy ones : )

2010-08-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've shared the latest new healthy coupons with you, here's what's out there right now:

$1.50 off 2 Kashi TLC bars
$1 off McCann's Irish Oatmeal (I want this just for the cool can)
$1 off Truvia No Cal Sweetener
.30 off Yoplait Greek
.50 YoPlus Yogurt
1.00 Yoplait Smoothies

Now, about those Kashi TLC bars -- they are good stuff! If you are in the mood for a bit of humor (and a fairly accurate description of a Kashi cookie) you must read my review of Kashi cookies. I would always rather have a small portion of the real thing instead of a "healthy cookie".

As always, the Internet is full of lots of other good coupons. This time 'round we've got several high dollar diaper coupons, lots of back to school snacks for the kiddies and household supplies. Go here to get those.

Sweet or Unsweetened?

2010-08-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

Come over to my other blog, FarmHomeLife and weigh in on Sweet vs. Unsweetened tea!

If you are are a sweet tea drinker and watching your weight; I would love to hear how you handle your sweet tea needs. Do you still drink regular sweet tea, only less of it? Or, do you use a zero calorie sweetener? Did you bite the bullet and move to unsweetened tea? Do you have another favorite summer beverage?

One Year Check Up: Part 3

2010-08-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Part 3 of my first year check up involved my head. At first I was a little nervous, but the behaviorist promptly put me at ease and my session with him turned out to be my favorite, hands down. One of the things Scott started off with was this:

"When you aren't sure what/how you should be eating, you see the dietitian. When you aren't sure how you should be exercising, you see the exercise specialist.

When you know what to do, but can't seem to make yourself do it, you see me."

I think most all of us know what we should be doing to lose weight, but we just can't seem to make ourselves do it. Hey, it's true for me... I ~~got cut open~~, had surgery to help me to do what I already know to do. But, there is more to it than surgery, there's some head work that needs to be done to help keep the weight off.

According to Scott, the magical 1 year mark is when a lot of weight loss surgery patients start to fall off the wagon and re-gain weight. Even though they've spent a whole year learning and adapting to a new way of eating. We know what to do, we just can't seem to do it anymore. Most of his talk was focused on how to set yourself up for success. The tips shared at our meeting were geared towards weight loss and health, but they are so universal, they apply to all areas of our lives.

One of the keys to long lasting weight loss (and a successful life in general) is to develop strong "guard rails" for our life. If you are familiar with the bible; you will recognize this is a modern day paraphrase of Mathew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: We just can't do whatever we want whenever we want and be successful at life. We need to know where we are going and how we will get there. Towards that end, my assignment was to establish my "guardrails" for this second year of weight loss. Here's a list of my assignment and my responses:

1. Write out this year's weight loss goals (okay to break into mini goals)

Lose a total of 25lbs -- approximately .5lbs per week.
Gain 10lbs of muscle. (We do a body composition test every six months so this will be easy to tell)

2. Write out any specific size or fitness goals

Size Goals: By Christmas I would like to comfortably wear a size 18 pants. Actually I would be really happy to end the 2nd year in a size 18, but I'm going to go out on a limb and work towards a 16.

Fitness Goals: I would like to be able to weed whack for 1.5 hours without needing to rest. (We have a nearly 2 acre yard with close to 1 million obstacles that need weekly weed eating. Because my husband has been working such long hours lately I've been helping him out by doing this chore and it is killing me! I feel like I need to rest every 15 or 20 minutes. It would be a real victory in my book if I could do this without needing to rest. I mean, come on. How strenuous is it to weed whack?!

My other fitness goal is to be able to comfortably lift 60lb cement and 70lb sand bags. I can do this now, but not comfortably -- esp the 70lb bags of sand. In the line of work my husband is in, there are always bags of cement and sand right in the way of something I need and my husband isn't always available to move them for me. This probably seems like a weird goal, but at our home between my husband's work supplies, the landscaping supplies, the bird seed and the water softener salt there is always something heavy that needs lifting. It would be a great convenience to me to be able to do all of this comfortably. Plus, there is another thing at work here; when I was nearly 10 years old, I was allowed to start stacking straw in the hay mow of our barn. Those bales weighed in the 50 -60lb range and I did it with ease -- at 10 years old. Nothing makes you feel so soft and old as not being able to lift something a little kid can.

3 Write out what I would like to be able to do, that I feel excess weight is holding me back from doing.

In making this list I realized that I must have a latent adventuous side to me as all my things for this list involve possible death. Here goes:

1. Do a Zip Line Run (know of any in Michigan?)
2. Ride on some killer roller coasters at Cedar Point
3. Take a glider ride
4. Ride in a hot air balloon
5. Go Skydiving

Several years ago I rode in one of Waldo Wright's restored open cockpit planes at an air show. It was the most exhilarating experience of my life and from that moment on I've been hooked. However, my husband is the kind that wouldn't do any of those things for a million dollars (okay, he might do a roller coaster). His policy is that he will stay on the ground and pray for me not to die. I find this rather ironic as his dream is to go as far north in Canada as the roads will take you and then sleep out in the open where you could very well be eaten alive by a bear. These 5 adventuresome goals might have to be spread out over my life and not just next year as I'm not sure how much of it my husband will be able to handle.

So... now I know where I want to go, next up is how do I get there? Stay tuned for Part 4.

An Example of My Band Sized Portions

2010-08-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Above you see a plate nearly full of my delicious Quick & Tasty Mexican Casserole. I mean this stuff is fabulous -- rice, beans, mexican bbq chicken, onion, black olives, salsa, sour cream, homemade guacamole. Before surgery I would eat a large dinner plate of this piled high -- it was so good, I just couldn't say no. Now, my serving size is 1/3 of what you see above. Thank you, band!

1 Year Check Up: Part 2

2010-08-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

My surgeon's office is a very comprehensive bariatric practice; they have everybody and their brother on staff to help you succeed. That means a lot of appointments and tons of follow up, but in my opinion, it's worth it.

Medical Evaluation

My first appointment of the day was with the PA. The nurse did a weigh in, checked all my vital signs and did all my measurements. Once the PA arrived he ordered 16 vials of blood to make sure all is well at the one year mark, and asked me a gazillion medical questions for one of the two Lap Band studies I am a part of.

Most people that have weight loss surgery have some very serious health issues they are trying to resolve and the studies are trying to prove that quality of life and health are better after losing weight. Seems like that would be a no brainer, but apparently somebody has ponied up money to study this. Since I had no medical problems (yet) from being fat this part was a long list of no's. For which, I am very grateful; because although I've always been labeled as a "very healthy fat person" I knew my day was coming if I didn't lose the weight. You simply cannot be really overweight for decades and not develop obesity related illnesses.

The PA said I've done a great job this past year and that I'm right where I should be on my 3 year plan. (Even though I came in at 46lbs down - 4lbs shy of my goal) We set a new goal for me to lose 25lbs this year, which is just a fraction over .5 pounds per week. This year I will increase my strength training to build more muscle mass. So for my 25lbs of weight loss; I will actually be losing about 35lbs of fat and gaining 10 pounds of muscle if all goes as planned.

My one take away from this was that I need to be a lot better about my sleep and consistently get 7+ hours of sleep per night; preferably 8.

Waiting Room

In between appointments I did a lot of waiting in the lobby. In a lobby that contained only 5 Golf Digest magazines and plastic surgery brochures. I'm the kind of person that has to read in a waiting room --I will read anything I can get my hands on. But I drew the line at Golf Digest. So, now I want every plastic surgery I can get my hands on and have my purse stuffed full of brochures. Ater hearing several other patients remark about the lack of magazines I finally remembered that I had several stacks of good magazines in my trunk, left over from our total failure of a garage sale. The receptionist gave me the okay to donate them. Now the waiting room is fully stocked with lots of good magazines; hopefully no one minds they are a year or two old.

The Registered Dietitian Meeting

This was an especially good meeting; it was an hour long in a group setting with 2 other ladies. The dietitian told me that my existing plan is working well and to not change a thing because it's not broken. She reiterated her view that it's okay to have treats and "goodies" once in a while so long as you are within your allowed calorie range for the day. Technically, she said you could eat them everyday, but then you are at risk for not getting in real nutrients that your body needs.

We need to be mindful of our eating. If we are hungry, we need to pause for a moment and think carefully about what we are in the mood to eat. Do we want sweet, salty, spicy, hot, cold, crunchy creamy. Once we figure out what we really want to eat; we need to eat that thing or combination of foods. If we do not, then what our body/mind needed was not met and we will soon be looking for something else that meets that need.

Weight Regain?!

The dietitian said at the 1 year mark, a lot of patients struggle with regain, so that's what most of the meeting would be about. I was more than a little scared by this because I'm on a 3 year plan and would be totally frustrated if I started gaining now! She did mention that occurs mostly with those that lose their weight rapidly, so if I was still losing; then I shouldn't worry. Whew!

The Importance of Protein & Water

She reiterated how important it is we focus on eating nutritious foods and getting in 60 -80 grams of protein a day. Because we eat such small amounts we have to be very choosy most of the time about what we put in our bodies. There is simply not room for junk food and nutritious food. We also have to make sure to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day to help. The water is especially important while losing because as you lose fat; toxins that are stored in the fat are released; the water helps dilute them and flush them out of your body quickly. Plus it helps to hydrate your skin.

It is important for us to consider our protein sources. Some foods that contain protein are much higher in fat than others. We should be careful to mostly chose protein sources that are not loaded in fat; like bacon and sausage and full fat dairy.

Okay, now I'm on my soap box.

Neither of the dietitians on my surgeon's staff advocate fat free anything; they advise using lower fat or "just a smidgen of the full fat version", which I think is terrific. That said; I do believe they think 2% milk is from the devil. I don't have the heart to tell them I was raised on high fat goat's milk and didn't have any sort of a weight problem. Or, that I grew up eating lard and white potatoes every day. My dad ate that way his entire life with zero health problems from it. So did my Grandma and Grandpa. Can you imagine a dietitian sputtering about that being sheer luck and something about "one in a million"? Well, most of America ate like that for a few hundred years and you didn't see very many fat people. Now that we are all about diet this and that -- grocery stores filled with non-nutritive low calorie "foods" we are getting fatter and fatter as a nation.

Vitamins

A word about vitamins: as a band patient; I don't have any special vitamin regimen that I have to stick to like Duodenal Switch and RNY patients have to. Which is what I consider to be another great benefit of the band. I just need to take a good once a day multi vitamin. The dietitian, went over how important it is to find a good quality vitamin; as some are just junk that your body can't even absorb. I will be doing a separate post all about vitamins at a later date.

My take aways from the meeting with the dietitian are the need to carefully think about what I want/need to eat and then eat that thing. And, if it ain't broke; don't fix it.

Next Up: Part 3 Important Life Tools from the Behaviorist.

My One Year Check Up Part 1

2010-08-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Today is my one year surgery check up and these are my Victory Pants. Remember when I first told you the story of these pants? How disheartening it was to finally pack them away after years of wishing, hoping and dreaming to fit back into them one day? The day I packed these pants up I felt like a worthless weak-willed slob that was only good at one thing: failing.

Now these pants are my Victory Pants. I tried them on again last night and they fit! I can zip them up and breathe and everything -- when I'm standing up. When I'm sitting down or bending over they are just a smidgen too tight. I thought out the whole situation to see if there was any way I could wear these to my check up. But the logistics of the appointment just aren't conducive to slightly too snug pants that don't have a shred of give to them. There's the 1 hr drive, three appointments and all the sitting while there. That's too long to suck it in.

Which is too bad because it would've been the ultimate victory to walk in there wearing the conquered symbol of my defeat. Five more pounds ought to do it. I should be able to sport these pants in total comfort with not even an inkling of looking like a sausage stuffed into a casing. The victory will be all the more sweet then.

Today's appointments went great; I'll do a recap of them for you in part 2 this weekend. The meeting with the behaviorist was my favorite. There was so much good "take aways" that I was busily scribbling for nearly the whole session. It wasn't just weight loss related stuff either -- it's good for every aspect of life.

Foods We Love But Hate to Admit Loving

2010-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

We can commit to eating super healthy, go on all the diets in the world, have weight loss surgery and yet we still have a favorite treat food(s). Most of the time, those treat foods are something that falls smack dab in the middle of the "bad food choice" category and we are ashamed to say how much we love a particular treat for fear of seeming really unhealthy and stupid about our food choices.

James Oseland the judge of Bravo's Top Chef Masters and the editor in chief of saveur.com details his top 5 favorite foods that he's ashamed to admit to loving here. Among his five are one of my all time favorites -- the glorious McDonald's Fish Sandwich.

My top five bad-for-me-but-I-still-love-em foods are, in no particular order:

McDonald's fish sandwich with extra tartar sauce

Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream (not the cheap stuff; both the pie and ice cream must be top quality)

Homemade fried (not oven baked) french fries drenched in salt and ketchup

Krispy Kreme glazed lemon filled doughnut

Vanilla ice cream (I'm an ice cream snob, only the very best will do)

What are your top 5 favorite bad-for-you foods?

Happy Anniversary to Me!

2010-08-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the one year anniversary of having my Lap Band installed. This has been a good, weird, challenging, hard, happy year all rolled into one. Squeezing one of the most monumental years of one’s life is a tough thing to do!

My first year’s weight loss goal was 50lbs and I’m 4lbs shy of meeting that goal. That’s not causing me any sadness because I have a suspicion that if I didn’t have a cup of salty popcorn the last two days in a row, I would be at 50. On Friday I head out to the surgeon’s office for my official one year check up.

In honor of this milestone I’m sharing a list of 20 things that are different/better this time last year. As my anniversary date drew near I spent a lot of time reflecting on this past year. There’s so much that’s happened and yet so much that feels the same. The weight loss and the changes to me and my body feel like they are happening too fast some days and too slow other days. Most of these 20 things could be a post in and of themselves; over the next few weeks I will be elaborating more on some of them.

1. As of today I’ve lost 46lbs
2. I have a noticeable amount of extra energy
3. I don’t feel sick, bloated, stuffed or tired from overeating
4. I kicked the fast food habit
5. As a result of kicking the fast food habit, I now have $40 extra a month to go towards our vacation fund.
6. I do not feel guilty when I eat
7. A small amount of food is very satisfying and I seldom feel deprived
8. It is much, much easier to pass up treats at work
9. I feel better physically and emotionally
10. I don’t think about food or eating very much
11. My wedding rings are no longer cutting off my circulation
12. I have hope
13. I feel stronger for admitting I needed help to lose the weight and then getting that help
14. I've learned a lot about myself
15. Most restaurant meals seem huge to me now
16. I am more conscious of nutrition labels
17. I am seldom physically hungry
18. I wear smaller sizes (I'm 2.5 sizes down)
19. If I ever want to pig out on something I just physically cannot do it.
20. Okay, make that 19 things that are different. I can't think of a 20th thing that's different at the moment.

Our Weekly Menu WLS Style

2010-07-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here's our official weekly dinner menu as posted on my other blog, FarmHomeLife. I've made notes below each meal to give you an idea of how I make a "regular" menu work for me, with very few accommodations.

Sunday

Grilled Hamburgers, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

I made a couple of small hamburger patties with mesquite seasoning just for me (one is for lunch today) and ate the patty, onion, lettuce and tomato sans bun. I ate a few bites of potato salad and a small ear of corn.

Monday

Beef Stroganoff over noodles, 7 Layer Salad, Dinner Rolls

We had some leftover steak from a couple of weeks ago. I sliced it all up nice and thin and will use 3/4 of a pound of this, saute some fresh mushrooms and onions and make a beef stroganoff to serve over whole wheat egg noodles. For my part of the meal, I'll forgo the noodles, or just a have a few and then some of the salad -- also forgoing the dinner rolls. Since I only have so much room in this small stomach of mine, I have to prioritize and let's just say I LOVE 7 layer salad. Actually I could eat just the salad, but I want the protein from the stroganoff so I'll be having some of that too.

Tuesday

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, 7 Layer Salad, Garlic Toast

I'll be having all of the above but in smaller quantities and a few bites of the garlic toast. Because we are having meat sauce instead of meatballs this meal will be a little lower protein than I would normally eat for supper. I'll need to make sure that I eat a protein/carb snack mid afternoon.

Wednesday

Reubens and Broccoli Cheese Soup

I like a Reuben sandwich pretty well, but for this sandwich the bread is a crucial part of it. Somehow the insides of this served in lettuce cup isn't very appealing to me. I'm a little puzzled what to do with the meal. Perhaps I could try for 1/2 a sandwich and hope to get in enough protein from the meat and cheese. I love broccoli cheese soup but can't make a whole meal out of it. I'll probably have 1 cup of the soup as a 1st course and let that settle for a bit first and eat the 1/2 sandwich.

Thursday

Grilled Ham Steak with Mustard Brown Sugar Glaze, Augratin Potatoes and Peas

If you've never had a glazed ham steak on the grill you are really missing out. Growing up on our hog farm we used to eat something like this almost every day. Funny thing... we ate ham and eggs (sometimes bacon or sausage) toast and fried potatoes for breakfast 6 days a week an nobody had a weight problem.

This meal I'm eating a little bit of everything. Augratin potatoes are a real favorite of mine. Before surgery my entire filled to the brim dinner plate would've consisted almost entirely of potatoes. Now it will be 3 ounces ham, 1/4 cup potatoes and 1/3 cup peas.

Friday

Cheeseburger Pizza

This is my homemade version, piled high with goodies. Since my latest fill I don't have room for much of the crust at all. I'll have to go with more toppings and less crust. This is one of my higher fat recipes with the ground beef and cheeses for this pizza. I might go 1500 -1600 calories this day.

Hot New Healthy Coupons (And some not so healthy ones : )

2010-07-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

It's time for our healthy coupon round up! Click on the links below to print yours.

.75 Voskos Greek Yogurt
.30 Yoplait Greek Yogurt
.50 Lg Yoplait
1.00 Yopliat Smoothie
1.00 Tropicana Trop50 Light Juice
3.00/10 Smart Ones
1.00 Truvia
1.00 Lactaid Icecream
1.00 McCann's Irish Oatmeal

In addition to these healthier goodies, you can go here to see the full list of all the great money saving coupons -- including Starbucks ice cream,diapers, frozen meals, pet foods, baking supplies, etc.

My Weight Loss Plan

2010-07-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

On a couple of the weight loss surgery forums I participate in, people often inquire about how we lose weight with surgery. Other than the obvious fact that we take in less food. Newbies often want to know if a "plan" comes with the surgery. We all want a plan don't we? I think having some sort of a goal and a plan to get there helps us stay on track and gives us an easy way to measure our success.

I'm a big plan type person. If I have a plan I feel so much better, safter somehow -- especially if it's a plan I can actually do. At my first couple of visits with my surgeon and his staff, I didn't get a plan per-se and I felt a little weird about it. Was I just supposed to have my surgery and then... what?! Would I just loose weight and somehow my body would stop at a certain point? What if that point was too high or too low? What if the surgery didn't work for me? What if I couldn't eat all the nutrients I needed? Would I be wrecked for life? There were a million questions and concerns floating around my mind. I needed to know exactly what was going to happen, what my responsibilities were and where I was going and how to get there.

You don't ever get to have a weight loss surgery and then be totally free from responsibility and weight loss surgery in and of it's self is NOT a weight loss plan.

Before surgery, I met with my surgeon, the psychologist, exercise guy and dietitian to develop an individual weight loss plan just for me. (Sure having the surgery is a giant help in losing weight, but there is more to it than that.) So far this plan is working pretty good for me. All of my questions and concerns were addressed in the building of this plan and it's something I'm able to stick with.

I'm a big believer in working with your surgeon, dietitian, exercise person and psychologist (if your surgeon has these people on staff) to get the best results with the band, (or any wls). If you've had surgery or are looking into it, I strongly recommend you create a workable plan for your success. Most success in any area of our life does not come by accident -- you have to plan to succeed.

Here's the basics of my plan and my comments. I emphasize this is a plan for me to help me achieve my goals. Don't feel like you have to do the same thing -- others probably have plans that work best for them. You will figure out one that works great for you too!

Current Calorie Limit: 1400 per day (on a "bad day" I will eat up to1600 calories which is about 1x a wk)

From what I gather 1400 cal a day is kind of a high amount for bandsters. Many are at 900-1200. This amount is set for me on purpose because I do not want to lose my weight faster than about 1lb a week. I want the time to mentally and physically adjust to a new, changing body and have a better chance of very little excess skin when I'm all done. When I lost a ton of weight years ago I had ZERO excess skin, but I'm a little older now (yikes, how did THAT happen?! : ) and I want to give my skin time to bounce back. Plus I'm still pretty nervous about not being able to get all my nutrition and lots of fresh fruits and veggies in if I were to drop down to lower calories.

Now, how do I feel eating 1400 cal a day? Well pre surgery I thought I would be starving because I was eating about 3,000 cal a day. I'm actually very surprised (and delighted!) that I feel satisfied and NOT HUNGRY on this amount of food. It took me 6 fills/adjustments to get to this point where I don't experience much hunger, so it does take time and lots of patience to get to this point. But each fill along the way helped quite a bit. At this calorie level, sometimes I have a hard time being able to eat enough food to get to get in 1400 calories, if most of my food for the day is pretty low cal stuff. Thank you to my band for that small stomach pouch! This would've NEVER happened before the band.

"On purpose" Exercise: 30 minutes of moderate exercise 6 days a week. For me, this is walking, elliptical and lifting weights.

I was already doing all this before surgery. From what I was eating calorie wise before surgery, my dietitian said I should've weighed at least 50lbs more. As I lose weight the exercise I do burns less calories because it takes less energy to move a lower weight body. The plan is for me to continue with this amount and when I reach a stall of more than a couple of weeks, add in a little more. Of course exercise is good and it can't hurt to add in more just for the heck of it before I stop losing. But I'm keeping this in my "stall breaking arsenal"

"Activity" Exercise: I'm a pretty active person, even when I weighed a lot more. I live out in the country and take care of an 800 sq foot garden and 6 flower beds I do a double set of stairs about 20x each day at work and always get in my 10,000 steps on the pedometer, before any "on purpose" exercise. In the winter I like snowshoeing and other fun stuff outside.

Again, I was doing all this before the band. My doctor said I was by far the healthiest obese person she's ever seen. Goody. All that means, is that I need to become even MORE active as I lose weight. Because all that activity burns less calories as I lose weight. This isn't such a bad thing, it's just that I'm not sure what else to do. I want to find new things that are fun and to have more free time from work to do them!

Weight Loss Goal: My weight loss plan is 2-3 years.

My first year goal is to lose 50lbs and I'm right on track to meet that goal. At the end of the first year (next month!!!) I will sit down with my surgeon, exercise guy and dietitian and tweak my plan for the next year. I also get to meet with the psychologist make sure my head is still on right and that I'm adjusting to all of these changes without going nuts.

I will continue to follow the calorie, exercise and activity plan until I stop losing weight for a while and then will make some tweaks to one, two or all three areas to increase the loss. I do have some concerns though, that to maintain on the lower to medium bmi range of healthy for my height that I will need to be a 1000 calorie a day person and run marathons. But, I'm not going to start at that point!

I Never Knew How Good Meat Could Be

2010-06-28T05:36:00.001-07:00

Before surgery I was a big time carb lover. Still am, if the truth be told. But now things are different -- I've become more balanced in my eating. I still have the carbs I enjoy so much, but I've also began to enjoy meat too. It's not as if I was tending towards being a vegetarian or anything close to it. It's just that pre-surgery, I always seemed to go for the starchy stuff: mashed potatoes, fresh bread, homemade mac and cheese. Those were my favorites! Meat was an afterthought; at most meals I would consume maybe an ounce or two at most. I just didn't think I liked meat very much.

As a weight loss surgery patient, the one of the special dietary rules that I need to follow for the rest of my life is to make sure I consume 60 -80 grams of protein each day. When I'm actively losing weight my protein consumption needs to be close to 80g or just above. When I'm at goal, I can bump it down to 60 or 70g.

Since bumping up my protein intake, I am now choosing to eat more meat at lunch and supper for a total of 6 to 7 ounces per day. At first it was a real challenge because I much preferred to eat starches as the main part of each meal. Now that I've become accustomed to it, I've discovered that I really do like meat after all.

Just this last weekend, I found myself craving a good steak for the first time in forever. I splurged and picked up a big package of steaks. They spent Sunday morning soaking up a mesquite marinade and George grilled them up after church. They were absolutely delicious!

It's all about balance

After having weight loss surgery, it's easy to get out of balance and focus on that one oh-so important requirement from the dietitian: "Make sure you get all your protein in!" Just because I need to eat a little higher protein than average, doesn't mean that's all I eat. Heaven's no, that would be bad! I also enjoy a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, beans and whole grains. Remember I'm still a carb lover at heart, but now I love meat too.

For example, today's breakfast included Fibre One cereal, fresh strawberries and cottage cheese. Today's lunch is leftover steak and corn, if needed, my mid day snack will be 1/2 an apple, a few Kashi crackers and a 1/2 ounce of low fat cheese. Tonight's supper will be a steak fajita salad bursting with onions, red and green pepper, topped with a little cheese, black beans, tomatoes, salsa and sour cream. It really is about balance.

The Comparison Game and Why You Shouldn't Play It

2010-06-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

Growing up, our family was very poor (by US standards). We lived in an old ramshackle farm house, only wood stoves for heat, no hot water and no indoor bathroom facilities. Sounds kind of sad and depressing huh? Not really. I was happy as a lark and had no idea our family was poor. Until I started school.

Kindergarten went well, as I was still in my own little world and mostly oblivious to what other kids had that I didn't. In first grade, I started to notice how much I lacked in the way of material things compared to the other children. At first it was the free lunch, and then the bread sack liners for my holey boots and so on. By the 2nd grade I was comparing myself to every kid in my class and always falling far short of "acceptable". I felt woefully inadequate -- a world class failure at age 7.

Home was my haven. At home I felt loved, appreciated, confident, able and important. School was tolerable because of the loving security of home. As soon as I hopped off the bus each day, I blossomed into the real me as the burdens of school drifted away. At home, we were all in the same boat, there was no comparing and falling short. There was no emphasis on what we didn't have or what we lacked. But there was a lot of emphasis on what we did have - how loved, needed and appreciated we all were, on how much we, as a family could accomplish.

It's taken a lot of years for me to "get this". My whole problem was comparing myself to others. If I was able to understand this years ago it would've saved me a lot of heartache.

Playing the comparison game is dangerous. When we compare ourselves to others, one of two things happen:

1. We become prideful, thinking we are better than those we compare ourselves to

2. We become sad and insecure because we don't feel like we measure up.

Both are just as destructive. This article is covering topic 2 as that's where most of my experience is.

If you are feeling down, discouraged and unhappy, think carefully about what you've been thinking about and who you have been comparing yourself to -- whether it be conscious or unconscious. When we compare ourselves to others we are creating our own unhappiness and discontentment.

So how does this Comparison Game play into weight loss? I read a couple of message boards for those that have had weight loss surgery as well as several blogs on the same topic and almost everybody is playing the comparison game, whether they realize it or not. I'm guilty of it myself.

It's this subtle and sometimes not so subtle comparing of different weight loss surgeries, how quickly or slowly someone is losing weight, how toned they look vs. how much extra skin they have, how many calories they are eating, whether they do protein shakes or not, what surgery someone had to help them lose weight, what size are they wearing, whether they indulge in a few bites of dessert or not, how much exercise, etcetera and etcetera.

Personally I don't see how anybody can play this game and come out feeling like they are okay. When we start comparing ourselves to others, we end up convincing ourselves that we aren't as successful and are therefore "less than". What a recipe for disaster!

My encouragement to you today is that you take a few moments to reflect on who you have been comparing yourself to and then stop doing it. Just go cold turkey and do whatever it takes to stop comparing yourself to others. Sure, it's great that others are doing well and it's wonderful for you to celebrate that fact. But, just make sure you don't get hung up on wishing you were them. You deserve better than that -- you don't deserve to be a copy of someone else. You deserve to be your own person with your own successes to celebrate.

This journey is our own. It won't look like anyone else's and it shouldn't.

For more on overcoming comparison and living the extraordinary life, you can read my article entitled The Extraordinary Ordinary Life

So, What is the Lap Band?

2010-06-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

A lady from work asked me the other day "so what is the Lap Band?" That's a fair question; being so intimately familiar with it, I tend to forget that a Lap Band isn't something that everyone is acquainted with.

A Lap Band is a brand name of a Gastric Band (Gastric means stomach). To put it simply, a gastric band is a band made of medical grade silicone that is cinched up very tight against the upper portion of your stomach and then sewn in place. This band has hollow pockets like a balloon on the inside wall that surround your stomach and a piece of long, flexible tubing that is connected to an access port.

How does the Lap Band Fit Inside My Body?

During surgery the band itself is cinched up around your stomach and sewn in place, then the tubing is ran underneath your abdominal wall and up through your abdominal muscles (but underneath your skin and fat). Once the tube is through your muscle it is attached to the access port which is sewed or hooked onto a thin layer of connective tissue called the fascia that covers your muscle.

Can You Feel the Band Inside Your Body?

Yes and No.

Yes, you can tell the band is in there once it's adjusted correctly, because it is tight enough around your stomach that it physically stops you from eating too much and it makes you feel satisfied on a much smaller amount of food. It's kind of a weird feeling, but it's not like you sit there and think "Agggghhh!!!! I feel it squeezing my stomach like some kind of green alien hand or something". It's much more subtle than that. It's more like a tightness right under your breastbone that's a bit uncomfortable if you eat a little too much. Not very creepy at all.

As far as the tubing -- can't feel anything there. But I do wonder if it's just floating around inside me, but then I think there's probably enough fat inside my abdomen to keep it packed tightly in there.

Now for the port: I can only speak for myself on this. Personally, I can feel the port only if I really press hard on my abdomen and feel just the right spot. This is mostly because I carry the bulk of my weight in my stomach. There's a good several inches of fat covering it up -- ahem. (Which by the way would come in handy if anyone ever tried to stab me to death. Don't laugh, I know someone that had their life spared in a stabbing due to a thick layer of fat.)

Women that tend towards the pear shape often have issues with the port being visible underneath their skin, once they lose some of their weight. I think it would kind of creep me out a little bit to be able to see and easily feel my port but that feeling has to be weighed carefully in comparison to being really overweight and unhealthy. Personally I would rather have a port that shows than the alternative. But, with my apple shape unless I get down to a really low weight, there's a good chance I'll never see my port.

How Does the Band Actually Work?

Okay, I'm not a medical person, by any stretch of the word, so this is the lay person version.

The port is used by a medical professional to inject a sterile saline solution into the tubing. The solution flows from the tubing into the open balloon on the side of the band that's touching your stomach wall. The solution plumps up the balloon to squeeze your stomach tighter. The band is adjusted a little bit at a time over the course of your first year or two to get it adjusted just right for your body. This is a highly individual thing. All bodies and stomachs are just a little bit different and it can sometimes take quite a while to get the band adjusted to just the right level of tightness for you.

Good things happen when the band is properly adjusted:

1. The band allows your body and brain to get the "I'm satisfied, not hungry, full, whatever-you-want-to-call-it message.

The whole point of the band is to restrict or squeeze the upper portion of your stomach so that only a very narrow opening to the lower portion of the stomach exists. The reason you want a very narrow opening is because that allows the food you eat to be stored in the small upper portion of the stomach long enough to stimulate a specific nerve that tells your brain "HEY, STOP, I'M NOT HUNGRY ANYMORE, FOR PETE'S SAKE, STOP EATING!!!"

When your brain and body get the signal that you are satisfied, the theory is that you stop eating. A lot of obese people do not get that "I'm full signal" until they've eaten way too much food so having the band is a big help in that area.

2. The Band Forces You to Stop Eating ..... Sometimes

When the band is properly adjusted there is only so much room in the small upper portion of your stomach. That means it will only hold so much food. If you eat too much, one of two things will happen:

ONE: The food comes back out, which is kind of like the adult version of babies spitting up and not so much like vomiting.

TWO: Your stomach stretches out very uncomfortably to accommodate the extra food. This can be very painful and make you wonder why on earth you thought you could eat that much.

Neither of these things are good for your stomach or the band and it is not advisable for anyone with a gastric band to allow the band to "force you to stop eating". Also, it is important to note that the band does not always force you to stop eating. Some foods have a texture that allows them to slip right through the narrow opening between the upper and lower portion of the stomach allowing you to eat large amounts. An excellent example of this kind of food is ice cream.

3. The band allows you to feel "not hungry" for several hours at a time.

The theory is that when you are not hungry, you're not rummaging through the fridge looking for something to eat. And when you do eat, you tend to make wiser food choices.

All three of these factors combine together to help you lose weight. For me personally, I experience the most help from factor #3 and then factor #1. Even at 10 months out I am amazed that I can become satisfied and stay satisfied on such a small amount of food for hours. Something like this has never happened to me before surgery and honestly it feels like a miracle. Because I'm not constantly starving I'm not looking for something to eat all the time. When meal time rolls around I don't really have the urge to try and eat too much because I'm not "chew-my-own-arm-off-hungry".

Occasionally I've had experiences with #2. And, I must say I've been sorry every time. It's either really gross or it hurts way too much to want to repeat the event. The thought of hacking up what I've just eaten or being in a lot of pain is so unpleasant that it keeps me from trying to eat too much. Ahhh, gotta love that negative reinforcement. I'm glad the band has this feature, apparently I'm somebody that responds well to immediate negative reinforcement. If I was a cow, I wouldn't go near the electric fence!

Here's a diagram of filling/adjusting the band.

Here's a diagram of an unfilled band and a filled band.

Restaurant Eating: 101

2010-06-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Have a plan and work your plan.

That’s one of my favorite strategies for going out to eat, especially at new places. Having a good idea of what I’m going to eat ahead of time makes ordering quick and easy and it gives me an opportunity to be aware of the nutrition content of what I’m ordering. Restaurants are notoriously sneaky for turning even the healthiest of foods into a nutrition train wreck.

Today I’m headed off to Olga’s Kitchen for a fun lunch with a girlfriend. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to Olga’s so I popped onto their website to check out their menu and nutrition facts.

Here’s a little mini view of what’s going on in my head as I make the decision of what to order:

First Thought: I know, I’ll go for a bowl of the white chicken chili! That should be a good choice.

Second Thought: Yikes! That’s over 500 calories!! Another one of those sneaky restaurant tricks. I can have chili at home for 300 calories – with all the good toppings. Plus, being a soup, this might not stay with me as long as a dense protein.

First Thought: Oooooh, sandwiches! I love the Olga bread. I want a giant Chicken Fajita sandwich and a bucket of curly fries.

Second Thought: No, you can’t really eat the bread or the fries. That would leave just the “guts” of the sandwich. What’s the point?

First Thought: Ahh, the salads. That’s what I’m in the mood for today.

Second Thought: What? They only have two salads listed. I know they have more salads than that! Plus the nutrition info they’ve got listed for the two salads has the bread included. Maybe I’ll check out the menu and see what the other salads are. If I get the dressing on the side and get grilled chicken it shouldn’t be too bad at all, especially since I’m not eating all of it like before.

First Thought: Hmmmm Spinach Pie.

Second Thought: 298 calories – that’s a lot less than I would’ve thought! Too bad I’m not in the mood for it.

Moves away from the nutrition facts and on to the menu.

First Thought: Ooooooooh unlimited soup, salad and snackers. I want that. I’m really hungry right now. How come I’m so hungry?.

Second Thought: Oh, it’s those pms cravings I wrote about yesterday. Well, I’d better get over that or I will make myself sick trying to eat too much and then waste my money and I probably won’t see a loss on the scale this week. Not worth it.

First Thought: Half Sized Portion of any Classic Salad. Hmmm, these might be the salads I was thinking of.

Second Thought: I could get the dressing on the side and only eat the part of my ½ salad ‘cause the ½ salads will probably still be too gigantic, this would be a good choice. But, I betcha they will charge me almost as much as they would for a whole salad. Darn.

First Thought: (and 2nd, 3rd and 4th thoughts): Ahhh, the salads I was thinking of: the only one that stands out is the Southwest Chicken Salad. Says it’s made with crispy chicken. That probably means fried chicken. Boy, I bet that would be good! Would that add a lot more calories? Maybe I can get it with grilled chicken? Boy, that crispy chicken sure sounds good. Those fried chicken strips I had last month didn’t have very many calories, especially since I could only eat one of them. I bet this would be about the same. Stomach growling, darn cravings. I want the crispy chicken!!! Oh wait, I’ll need to take the rest of this home for leftovers, I betcha the crispy chicken won’t taste very good the second and third time around. Could I possibly eat this for Saturday morning breakfast?

Edited to comment on my meal.

I ended up working my plan and ordered the Southwest Chicken Salad. It was every bit as good as I thought it would be. This was a really big salad and I ate 1/4 of it. There's enough chicken left for one more meal out of it. If I'm still interested in eating leftovers more than once, I'll add some chicken from home.

Is Weight Loss Surgery the End of Food Cravings?

2010-06-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

No!

This morning I wanted a pop tart in the the worst way – make that two pop tarts.

When I first arrive at work I trot upstairs to the break room to stow my healthy lunch away in the fridge.I’ve walked by the vending machine thousands of times and am very seldom tempted. Most of the time I don’t even notice it.

But this morning, something was different. I actually stopped and stared at the contents. I stood there in the beckoning glow staring at the packages bursting with calories and fat, wondering why on earth I was having such a craving for pop tarts of all things. I don’t even like pop tarts.

In answer to all the questions from family and friends about food cravings: YES I still have cravings. I even have them classified into special categories.

Here’s another example of a recent craving:

A few weeks ago my husband and I went out to Big Boy for lunch. As soon as we sat down, a waitress delivered a fish sandwich dripping in tartar sauce to the lady sitting across the aisle. A few moments later another waitress came forth bearing an enormous slice of strawberry pie piled high with whipped cream. As soon as I saw sandwich and the pie my mind told me that’s exactly what I wanted for my meal.

Identify Why You Crave Something

These are examples of two very different types of cravings. The craving for pop tarts was one of the kind of cravings you (or it is just me?) get just before that time of the month. Where you feel as if you could eat everything in the house – even things you don’t like. I like to call them PMS cravings. These kinds of cravings for me are mental in nature but turn into something physical where my stomach is growling and telling me how hungry I am – even after I’ve just eaten something.

PMS cravings are easier for me to fight because it’s all very logical. They come like clockwork every month. I know without a doubt that I’m not truly hungry and that my body is tricking me into thinking it is. This morning as I looked over the pop tarts puzzling at my strong craving for them and told myself that I wasn’t hungry and that I didn’t even like pop tarts and then went on about my business.

Now for the emotional Cravings which I’ve broken down into 3 categories:

Nostalgia
Lonely
Stressed

Back to my Big Boy Fish Sandwich and Pie Craving which I consider a Nostalgia craving.

Big Boy is one of those places where you either love the food or hate it. They are very popular in the “larger” towns in rural areas. Growing up as little redneck farm kids out in the sticks, it was a very special treat for us to go into the “big town” of oh, probably 10,000 people and eat at the Big Boy restaurant. Whenever we went to Big Boy I got the fish sandwich and loved every bite. Every time we went to Big Boy, it was a very a happy, fun, special outing. As a child I had always wanted to try a piece of their pie but never was allowed to. We were on a budget and after all, you don’t take a whole family out to dinner and order dessert too. The dinner was special enough.

As an adult, I’ve tried many items off the Big Boy menu and to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t care for their food – any of it. And yet, I LOVE to go to a Big Boy restaurant! That’s nostalgia, folks. It’s like going back in time for me to sit in a restaurant that looks exactly the same as it did when I was a child. I feel the same way about the food --- it’s all the same as I remember and I have such happy memories of eating it that I want to repeat the experience.

This Nostalgia type of craving is much harder for me to beat and thankfully this is where my gastric band helps me. If I were to order the fish sandwich, and the pie, I would probably only be able to eat the piece of fish without the bun and a few bites of pie. Okay, I could be happy with that. Fried fish and pie isn’t the best of meal choices, but it would be a rare treat, and my meal volume and calories would be greatly reduced. But, I’m far to thrifty to throw away $10 on a meal like that. I still have the “need to get my monies’ worth” thought pattern so instead of a one time meal like this (George would eat the rest of my pie, so it would be a one time meal) I try to select a menu item that will give me 2 or 3 meals. In this particular situation I went with the chicken taco salad and had 3 meals for something like $8

Lonliness & Stress Eating

The other two types of emotional cravings I experience are triggered by Loneliness and Stress.

In the summer my husband works a lot of long days, many times we don’t sit down to dinner until 8, 9 or 10pm. That’s at least 8 hours between lunch and dinner for me. I generally have a protein/carb snack so that I can hang on until George gets home. It’d during this snack time that I’m missing George and wishing he was home so we could eat together and have a little bit of free time before bed. I’ve always loved family meal times and it’s a real priority for my husband and I to eat together. Even after being married a few years, mealtime is still a special time to relax and unwind together. When I eat my snack alone at 5:30 I feel as if I’m missing that unwinding feeling and that connection with George, and I want to eat more to make up for it.

Eating because of loneliness is still my most challenging food craving, even after surgery. The only thing that helps is knowing that when I have my small protein/carb snack at 5:30 is that I am not physically hungry whereas before surgery, I would still be physically hungry. I still have to force myself to get out of the kitchen and away from the food so that I don’t eat until I’m sick. Thankfully the band would stop me from eating too much, but hey, who wants to make themselves sick?!

Stress Eating

Honestly, I didn’t realize that I ate very often in response to stress until I went on my preop liquid diet. Turns out almost every day I would be so frustrated with a project and not knowing how to solve a problem that I would unconsciously reach for a snack. Big eye opener there! I’ve emptied my snack drawer and substituted tea as my stress reliever. The tea is working out great, I get a little boost of caffeine and I get to step away from my desk and the problem for a few minutes. But, old habits die hard. Ten months later, I still find myself opening my desk drawer for a snack when I’m stressed. I’ve even been known to dig around in there hoping I forgot and left something in there!

Having weight loss surgery isn’t some miracle relief from all food cravings. Chances are very good that you will become even more aware of your cravings than before – because you won’t be giving in to them so much. When you do give in, the band helps a lot by severely limiting the quantity you can eat. Plus, because you have to chew so thoroughly before swallowing, you would tend to become bored and sick of eating before you ate very much.

Our Weekly Menu WLS Style

2010-06-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here's what we are having for suppers this week at our house. At first glance this doesn't seem very band friendly. That's why I'm detailing the simple modifications I make for my meals. I'm all about making "regular" meals work instead of preparing 2 entirely separate meals.

Monday:

Grilled Hamburgers and Brats, Oriental Cabbage Salad, Corn on the Cob.

Okay, so the brats are obviously a a high fat meat choice and not the best I could choose. Luckily, I'm not crazy about them. They are for my husband -- he loves brats. On Sunday we grilled up a bunch of lean ground beef hamburgers that are well seasoned and some brats -- enough for leftovers on Monday. Gotta love leftovers for a quick weeknight supper! Since I had a hamburger patty and baked beans on Sunday I'm doing something different tonight: I'm planning to just eat the Oriental Cabbage Salad only add 3 ounces of grilled chicken for some protein. I've never had it this way but I betcha it will become a new favorite.

Tuesday:

Tacos with all the fixings

As always I will be having a taco salad with black beans, a sprinkle of cheese and lean taco meat for the protein. As I mentioned before, I adore anything served in a lettuce cup, but for some reason tacos taste better to me in taco salad form.

Wednesday:

Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

This is a new recipe I concocted a few weeks ago. It's pretty good and I will try to remember to take some pics and post the recipe. Pre surgery I would've eaten far too much rice and very little of the meat and veggies in a stir fry. Now, I focus on the meat and veggies and very little rice.

Thursday:

Goulash, Whole Wheat Bread, Brussel Sprouts

Goulash is a first for me since being banded. I am not sure how this will work out as I can't seem to eat but a few bites of pasta without it getting stuck. This might turn out to be a problem meal for me as the whole wheat bread is out too. Don't get me wrong, whole wheat bread is good for you, (so long as you aren't eating the whole loaf:) it's just that I can't eat that and the protein. I may set aside a little of the stir fry from Wednesday for me to eat this meal.

Friday:

Homemade Pizza Night

Most of the time I do homemade pizza so I can control the quality of it and the thickness of the crust. Sometimes I will do one of the cheese Walmart take and bakes and add my own toppings. When I do the premade pizzas the protein content is less and the carb count is higher because it's a white crust. But it's one meal out of 21 for the whole week so it's not a deal breaker.

The Big 4-Oh

2010-06-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

This week I’m pretty excited because I’ve hit another milestone. I’m down 40lbs! At 44 weeks out that averages out to be .9lb per week. This puts me right on track for my first year’s goal of 50lbs lost.

Skinny Cow $1 off

2010-06-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Skinny Cow just released a $1 off any Skinny Cow product coupon. Now, how's that for a good deal?!

I've never tried the Skinny Cow ice cream but have had their bars and ice cream sandwiches. Personally, I think the sandwiches are better than any of the non diet sandwiches. What do you think of Skinny Cow products?

Great Healthy Printable Coupons -- Get Yours!

2010-06-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

This week is another hot week for healthy printable coupons. Click the links below to print yours.

$1 off Land O Lakes Cheese

Various Green Giant Frozen Veggie Coupons

$1 off 2 Lean Cusine

$1 off Sara Lee Deli Meats

$1.50 off Minute Maid Orange Juice

Lots of Yoplait Coupons

.50 off Dannon Activia

$1 off Cascadian Farms

.75 off Fiber One Cereal

$1 off Kraft 100 calorie cheese (great for kids lunches!)

$1 off One A Day vitamins

$1 off Truvia zero cal sweetener

Don't forget you can sign up here to receive email notices of great coupons.

You'd Better Sit Down For This One.....

2010-06-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Oh, my goodness, please sit down, I have some news for you. When I realized this I had to sit down myself because I almost passed out from the thought of it.

I forgot to eat a meal. Yes, me -- never-miss-a-meal-Trixie forgot to eat!

I’ve always wondered who those freaks of nature were that forgot to eat? How do you forget to eat?! Come on, does this really happen?

On Saturday morning, I had my usual cup of tea, checked the weather and news, talked over the day’s plans with George and then got started on the laundry and cleaning. I got so involved with what I was doing that I totally forgot to eat breakfast! This has never, ever happened to me before. Sure, there have been plenty of times when I purposely skipped breakfast because I was in a hurry, didn’t have anything on had, etc. But this was the first time ever that I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I completely forgot to eat.

Another First:

By the time I realized that I had forgotten breakfast it was almost time for me to leave to pick up my mom for lunch and errands. So I thought I would just wait until lunch to eat. Mom and I picked up lunch and went to the rehab facility her friend is staying at while recovering from hip surgery. When we got there, we visited for awhile and took the full tour and 20 minutes later sat down to eat. Lunch ended up being much later than I planned, but the weird thing was I wasn’t “bite my own arm off hungry” or even really hungry at all. In fact the whole 20 minutes we were carrying around our food that was getting colder by the minute, I didn’t care. Pre surgery I would’ve been diving into that sack to sneak something out of it and I would’ve been grouchy because we were “wasting time” and not eating that delicious food the moment we took possession of it. Seriously, the entire time we were taking the tour, I kept thinking to myself “I should be worried about this food”. Such a good/weird feeling!

As exciting as forgetting to eat was for me it’s not going to become a habit. Later that evening I wasn’t hungry for supper because lunch was late. About 8pm I started to feel pretty faint and nauseous so I decided to eat a little something. After some chicken and veggies I felt a lot better and chalked up the day as a good lesson.

As happy as I am to lose weight I never want to become someone that skips meals, whether done intentionally or unintentionally. It’s just not good for me.

News Flash: Vomiting & the Lap Band

2010-05-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

You can vomit with the band.

Or, at least I can. Sorry! I know this is a gross topic but I’m going to cover it because it’s important, especially to those looking into getting a gastric band.

Before having surgery, I was really worried about whether the band still allowed you the capability to throw up. After all, the surgeon wraps a band around your stomach and then cinches it up so tight that you only have a tiny opening between the upper portion and lower portion of your stomach. I wondered how on earth something was going to be able to come back up that narrow opening – errr…. quickly. I was very worried what would happen if I ever got food poisoning and not throwing up wasn’t an option. Would I just explode?

Last Friday night, after contracting a case of food poisoning or some vicious 24hr bug I found out I was able to throw up. It wasn’t pleasant, but throwing up never is. My stomach hurt quite a bit more than it would have pre-band. In a weird sort of way, I was relieved to find out that I could throw up, if my body really needed to. But it’s definitely not something I want to repeat anytime soon!

Please note that vomiting is not especially good for you if you have a gastric band around your stomach. Repeated vomiting can cause the band to slip out of place. But I do feel better knowing the band is designed to take the occasional bout of vomiting. My surgeon recommends if you are really sick and are repeatedly vomiting that it’s important to go in and have your band unfilled, so that you don’t put undo pressure on it and possible cause a problem.

Hot New Activia Coupon!

2010-05-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

Dannon's put out a great new .50 off Activia Coupon. If your store doubles coupons, and you pair it with a sale you can get a great deal on yogurt. Go here to print yours.

Hope Friday

2010-05-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

This month of May holds the first anniversary of very special day for me -- the day I'll always call Hope Friday.

You see, for years, I contemplated the idea of having weight loss surgery. At first I mostly toyed with the idea of surgery as some kind of pie-in-the-sky solution to my weight problem. As someone on the outside looking in, weight loss surgery appeared to be the magic answer. Once I became intrigued enough to do some research, I found out that weight loss surgery wasn't nearly as much of a "magic pill" solution as I thought, but still, it would be a tremendous help. I personally know several people that have had surgery to help them with their weight; and they've all had pretty good success losing their weight. These people looked terrific, were much happier and more energetic as if the emotional weight melted away as the pounds dropped off. I wanted that too! But there were several barriers standing in my way; all of them self imposed.

The first major barrier was my thinking that "I can/should lose this weight on my own".

Oh, dear friends, I can't even begin to tell you how I tore myself up emotionally with this attitude! Admitting I needed medical help was just so difficult to come to terms with. In addition, my Christian faith played a major roll in all this. If you are new here, I'm one of those kind of Christians. The kind that believes what God says, even when it's not politically correct. Okay, for those of you that are still reading… : ) in regard to weight, God clearly states in His word that gluttony is a sin. It makes us feel a lot better to think we don't have any control over what we do or our choices. Heaven knows I like to believe that too -- it takes away my responsibility. I knew I was sinning by overeating -- my issue wasn't that I didn't exercise enough or that I was eating all the wrong foods. Actually I made pretty good food choices most of the time and was very active. It was all pure gluttony. News flash: sin is something we can control. My weight problem was all me and I needed to fix it on my own. Did the last few of you leave?

I felt that if I could just be stronger to resist the temptation to overeat I would be able to lose the weight on my own. And, therefore did not really need (or deserve) to have surgery to help me lose weight. Yet, my own practical experience told me that I was never going to be able to lose the weight on my own without a tremendous amount of determination and resolve. I'm afraid I just couldn't muster up the type of determination and resolve that it would take. Knowing that was so discouraging, almost to the point of losing hope that the weight would ever come off, short of a miracle.

The second major barrier was the fear of surgery.

Don't laugh, but one of my "life goals" was to never have surgery if I could help it. I was terrified of having surgery! Even while I was being wheeled into the operating room I wanted to jump up off the gurney and run out of the room screaming, "You butchers will never touch me!" But, I had one of those backless hospital gowns on so running away wasn't really an option.

What Hope Friday is all about

Hope Friday was the first day that I had real hope that I would finally be able to be successful in my weight loss efforts -- almost like a brand new day. In the months and days leading up to Hope Friday I did a lot of research about my surgery options and grilled everyone I knew that had weight loss surgery with a million and one questions, but was still really struggling with making the decision to move forward with plans for surgery.

It all boiled down to this:

Having surgery meant I would have to admit I needed help and I didn't want to do that.

One Thursday evening while sitting in my hairdresser's chair getting a hair cut it occurred to me that people receive help for what ails them all the time -- even for problems they've created.

Just think, couples go to marriage counselors to help heal their marriages, people that overeat and underexcersise themselves into type 2 diabetes take pills and get shots of insulin to help them control their insulin levels. People that smoke their way into COPD take inhalers and oxygen to help them breathe, people that eat themselves so fat for so long that their knees and/or hips give out accept the help of new knees and hips. What person experiencing a heart attack would refuse emergency help because he felt he caused it by living of fast food? "Oh, I don't want help because I contributed to my problem!" Can't you see how silly that would be? That's when we need help the most!

I went to bed that night thinking of all this. If I refused the medical help that I needed to lose the weight, I could easily become someone that needs insulin, emergency help for a heart attack, a new hip or a new knee. If I needed any of that sort of medical help, I would be doing everything possible to get it, why was weight loss surgery any different? How much more drastic those things seemed that having weight loss surgery!

The next morning, Hope Friday, I awoke refreshed and in complete peace about the whole matter. I can remember that morning so clearly. After getting into my car to go to work, I placed my coffee in the cup holder, buckled my seat belt, and sat for a moment in the driveway looking out across the newly sown field and our green expanse of yard and thought. "This is it! It's okay for me to have surgery, I'll be okay, everything I'm worried about will be okay.

Healthy Coupon Roundup

2010-05-20T03:55:00.001-07:00

Here's another batch of healthy coupons for you!

Athenos Hummus Buy One Get One Free, go here to get it.

After printing this one, you can hit your browser's "back" button and refresh the screen and it will automatically print another copy.

$1 off 2 Nestle Water Packs, go here.
.75 cents of Pur Via Natural Zero Cal Sweetener, go here
$1 off 2 Oscar Meyer lunch meats (includes the deli slices), go here
$1 off Kraft 100 calorie cheese bites, go here
$1 off 2 Uncle Ben's Brown Rice, go here

A Couple of Neat NSV's: PJ's & Chicken Strips

2010-05-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

What on earth do chicken strips and PJ's have in common? This weekend held a couple of nice non-scale victories for me one has to do with my favorite pair of pyjama's, the other; Sunday dinner.
First: the pj's

Since I've never been one of those types that looks good in nice ~~lingerie~~ fancy underwear and fancy underwear isn't all that practical so I've happily settled for having cute pjs. The pj's in the above pic are the cutest (much cuter in real life, and the bottoms are not darker blue, just something funky with the photo) little blue flower print calico with a grosgrain ribbon as the drawstring waist. They are 100% cotton and oh so comfy. These pyjamas (and a slightly less cute plaid pair) have been mocking me every day for 3 solid years.

I bought these pj's three years ago for a trip. They were the right size and everything so I thought no problem! And, then I remembered they didn't have any stretch to them and all my other pj's did and then..... I washed and dried them, all 100% cotton of them. Well, you know what happened, they essentially sized down 1-2 sizes. There was no hope of me even getting them on, (think sausage bursting out of it's casing). But I liked these pj's so well I just folded them up and placed them in my dresser drawer hoping that someday they might fit me.

For the next three years as the number on the scale kept going higher, there were some pretty dreary days when I looked in the drawer at my favorite pj's. I thought I would never be able to wear them. On a lark this weekend I tried them on -- and they fit with room to spare, nice and lose and comfy just like pj's are meant to be.

Second: Lunch today at the diner Sorry, this is long. Should probably be another post.

Since this last fill, I've found that eating out, for the food's sake is fairly pointless, esp if the meal is fast-foody in nature. We ran some errands after church today and it was getting to where we were both pretty hungry. We ended up stopping at a local Steak and Shake near the highway.

I ended up ordering their chicken strips meal. This meal in itself is a victory. In my past life, at a "restaurant" like this I would've never ordered anything that didn't come on a bun and with extra tarter sauce. So the chicken strips were a big first for me. Now chicken strips from a diner aren't known to be all that healthy, but compared to a sandwich dripping in condiments, plus fries, it pales in comparison. I was actually very impressed by these strips. Not greasy at all, and not too bad for you (for fast food) even if you eat all 3 of them. I would order them again if we go here.

So lunch victory
#1 is not feeling like I had to have what I usually would want.

#2 Not even wanting the fries that came with it

#3 Not stabbing my husband when he asked for one of the chicken fingers. (Pre surgery, I would wanted to stab his hand with my fork at the mere possibility of him taking some of "my" food. Sorry honey!)

#4 My husband has spent the last 12 years telling me I should eat slower. Today was the first day, EVER that he said I should eat faster. ME, eat faster?! lol. He was actually worried I didn't like my meal.

Our Weekly Menu

2010-05-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's the "regular" non weight loss surgery dinner menu for our house this week in blue text. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? T

The red text details how each meal was easily modified for me and you will clearly see it's still a very delicious menu. Who said eating good for you has to taste bad?

Sunday: Grilled Steaks, Oven Roasted Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts, Rolls

(I had 3 ounces of steak, which is 1/2 cup, 5 brussel sprouts, and a few bites of roasted potatoes. No roll, not even a bite)

Monday: Salmon and Broccoli with Lemon Pepper Butter

(My husband is out of town today so this is what I'm making just for me. The salmon is one of those frozen fillets in the bag from Wally world and is a 4 -5 oz. piece)

Tuesday: Meatball Subs, Broccoli Salad, Corn on the Cob

(There are some days when I would simply love to take a gigantic bite out of a toasty meatball sub all oozing with sauce and melted cheese, but the fact, is I physically can't unless I plan on being sick after swallowing that giant bite of food. With this meal, I have a choice to make: My "sub" could be the bottom half of the bun well toasted, topped with 4 meatballs, marinara sauce, melted provolone cheese. And then I would have some of the broccoli salad, but no corn -- simply no room. As much as I love a gooey sub, I like fresh corn on the cob even more. So, for this meal, I choose to just have the meatballs, with a bit of sauce and a thin slice of melted provolone, the broccoli salad and one small ear of corn. My main focus at each meal is getting in the protein and veggies, so I routinely have to make choices like this.

Wednesday: Ham & Swiss Sandwiches, Broccoli Salad

(Did you read how I'm now addicted to anything served in a lettuce cup? You can forget the bread with this meal! Deli ham and thin sliced swiss and a strip of red onion all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf and then dipped into a bit of lowfat ranch is the way to go. It tastes so fresh and crisp I can hardly describe how tasty this meal is -- plus I get to have my favorite broccoli salad too?!)

Thursday: BLT's, Baked Beans, Fruit Salad

( Instead of a BLT, I will be having a BLT salad, with a couple of strips of bacon and lots of tomatoes, and some green onions. It seems a bit weird to eat some baked beans as a side dish to a salad, but hey, I do like baked beans and need the protein content since I definitely don't plan on eating 10 strips of bacon to get my protein in. Salad pretty much chews up into nothing so I can eat more of this than you might think with me having a tiny little pouch for a stomach. )

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

(I will make mine the standard whole grain, thin crust and top with lots of yummy toppings. When I make a really thin crust, it makes me feel like I'm getting more pizza, but more importantly it allows me to not fill up on bread so I can make sure to get in enough of the cheese, meat and veggies.)

Free Pedometer from Nature's Bounty

2010-05-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Walking. It does a body good!

You can get a free pedometer when you sign up to receive Nature's Bounty emails. If you don't have a pedometer, I recommend you give one a try. Wearing one (easily clips on) really makes you aware of just how much you are moving a day. And, as we all know, moving our bodies more is an important step in the right direction!

Go here to get yours. FYI: you can also sign up for some more free healthy samples here.

Everything Tastes Better in a Lettuce Cup

2010-05-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Photo Source: Catering Specialist

I have recently discovered the culinary delights of lettuce cups. All I can say is "OH MY, how delicious these things are!!!! Double, triple, quadruple exclamation marks and all. These babies are THAT good -- anything served in a cool, crispy green lettuce cup tastes so delicious and fresh to me. I use them for chicken salad, tuna salad, fajitas, egg salad and anything else I can think of!

In a way, I am surprised that I never figured out until now how delicious food wrapped in lettuce is. I love food and cooking and have even enjoyed those delicious Asian Lettuce Wraps served in Chinese restaurants but never made the connection that I could use lettuce cups for anything at home, or that they would be so very good.

In another way I kind of know why I never made the connection. Before having surgery, I would've felt deprived or cheated if I didn't have my chicken fajitas all wrapped up inside a few tortillas, or my chicken, tuna or egg salad slathered inside two slices of bread. Now that it's virtually impossible for me to eat that much bread and still get in the protein I need, I've decided to focus on the protein and not so much bread. (I can still eat a little bread, just not 2 slices at once and 3-4 ounces of protein and veggies/fruit.)Thanks to my band I feel very satisfied with a meal of no or very little bread and do not feel deprived.

Presentation is Key

How a meal looks goes a long way in helping us enjoy our food. A meal of chicken salad glopped onto a plate doesn't look very appetizing, does it? A transformation happens when I place the chicken salad into a fresh, crispy green lettuce cup. The same meal looks colourful, vibrant, fresh and tasty.

Photo Source: EssentiallyHealthyFood

Another thing I love to use lettuce for is deli ham or turkey "sandwiches". I take a leaf of lettuce, a thin slice of ham or turkey, a few shavings of cheese and some thinly sliced red onion, a drizzle of low fat ranch or Caesar dressing and roll it all up into a tasty, crunchy "sandwich".

A Fun Fashion NSV

2010-04-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I had the pleasure of putting on a beautiful pink shirt that I haven't worn in over 3 years. Wish I had a picture for you. It has long flared sleeves and is just the right colour of pink for me and fits perfectly. I've already received several compliments on it from the ladies here at work wanting to know if it was new. I proudly told them "no, this is the first time in 3 years that I can wear it!" It feels like a brand new shirt though since it's been so long : )

Pretty exciting!

P.S. I'm having heart palpitations about all the pretty new clothes I will be able to fit into this fall and winter. Those will be some fun shopping trips! Now comes the part of finding some creative ways to earn the extra money to pay for them so I can shop guilt free.

How to Eat Weight Loss Surgery Style off a Regular Family Menu

2010-04-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

During the years I spent trying to lose weight without having to "resort" to weight loss surgery I took a weight loss class offered by a local hospital. On of the most helpful things I learned was that I could make healthy choices from almost any menu. Many of us that are overweight are "all or nothing" types. If we see a buffet or a menu with lots of less than ideal choices we somehow think we have to have it all. It's as if we can't make healthy choices unless that's the only thing offered. Okay, so maybe you don't do that, it could be just me : )

Here's our menu for the week with notes on how easily I modify things for myself. A lot of the meals I make can be either healthy or not healthy depending the ingredients, how they are prepared and how much is eaten. Since I'm cooking to please my husband as well as myself, I need to take into account there will be some things on the menu that are not as suitable to me and my needs but they are not totally off limits.

Monday

Chicken, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Garden Salad

From this meal I will have about 3 ounces of the chicken with a little gravy, a small green salad and a couple of bites of stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Tuesday

Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Since my last fill, most bready stuff gives me a bit of trouble, plus I just don't have room for it and the protein so for this meal I will have about 3 ounces of meatballs with some sauce and a garden salad. I might try taking a few strands of whole wheat past and one bite of garlic toast if I have room.

Wednesday
Tacos with all the fixings

Up until this last fill I could eat 1/2 of a whole grain tortilla. Now I'm pretty sure I won't have room for that so my plan is to make a taco salad. On a bed of lettuce I will put 1/4 cup of taco meat and 1/4 of re fried beans and then top with all the yummy taco toppings. Boy, this sounds so good as I'm typing this!

Thursday

Oven Fried pork chops, Corn on the Cob, Mixed Veggies

For this meal I will eat 3 ounces of a porch chop, about half of the corn cut off a cob and a few spoon fulls of mixed veggies.

Friday

Pizza Night

Just a small amount of this. As I mentioned, bready things, including some doughs like pizza dough are hard for me to get down. I usually try to eat the toppings and have a little of the crust. It depends on the day and how tight my band is, so I'm not really sure how things will go until I'm eating it maybe I can have more crust, maybe less.

New Small Plates for My New Smaller Meals

2010-04-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

After analyzing all my issues last week of rebelling against my new, even smaller meal sizes I realized part of the problem may be that my meals look so very small even on a small "lunch sized" plate. I found this cute little kids plate and bowl set at Jo Ann Fabrics and had to get it. The bowl comfortably holds 1 cup of food and gives me enough room to stir it up if it's something like a salad and I need to mix in some dressing. The plate also holds one cup of food; right up to the red border. Even though I'm a grown up, I get such a kick out of the cute little lady bugs!

For Comparison's sake here are some pics of our regular plates. The one on the left is the standard dinner plate (which I would fill to overflowing pre-surgery). It measures 10 1/4 inches across. The center plate is what we call a "lunch" plate; also known as a salad plate. It measures 8.5 inches across. This is the plate that I estimated at 7 inches because I thought the big dinner plates were 9 inches because somewhere I read that standard dinner plates were 9 inches. Sure, they probably were 9 inches 30 years ago! Just goes to show you how much our portions have been distorted in this country.

Since surgery I moved down to the lunch/salad plates and that was a very good step. I learned in a medically supervised weight loss program years ago that a "normal" meal size should fit on this size of a plate and no food should be touching. Pretty different from what we are used to, huh?

The plate on the right is called a bread and butter plate. In our house we call it a dessert plate. This plate measures 6 and 3/4 inches and is similar in size to my little ladybug plate. Lately this is what I've been eating off of because the food looks bigger that way. If it's something messy, or I want to have a little more room to work with my knife and fork I will still use the lunch plate.

Healthy Coupon Printable Round Up

2010-04-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the better healthy printable coupons out there right now.   I often get asked at the grocery store by the people behind me and sometimes even the cashier where I get so many great coupons. Online, I tell them!  You can eat healthy for less, print your coupons today and always, you can go to coupons.com and print out all kinds of coupons, healthy or not. Right now they've got lots of great pet food coupons and coupons for local things.

$1.00   Welches Grape Juice
$1.00   Any Cascadian Farms Product
$1.00   Tazo Tea
$1.00   8th Continent Soy Milk
$2.00   Ester C
$1.00   Olive Oil
$1.00   Alaska Seafood
$3.00   Off 10 Smart Ones Meals
.50/2   Birdseye Steamfresh
.55   Hillshire Farm Hearty Slices
.50   Any Newman's Own Product
.50   GG Frozen Veggies
.55   Yoplait lg container
.30   Yoplait Greek

My Most Challenging Week Thus Far

2010-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

When I first started this journey last summer I would've said surely the 2 week mostly liquid pre op diet would be the most challenging part of the whole process. Then as surgery day drew nearer, I would've said the surgery itself and the recovery would be the hardest thing of all.

I made it through surgery and started the 2 weeks of nothing but liquids post op diet. Week one went fine, but by week two I was ~~pretty darn~~ ready-to-chew-my-arm-off-hungry and desperate to chew something, anything. That last week of liquids ranked as even more challenging than even the surgery!

Life Loves to Present a Challenge

Life and this challenge stuff is interesting. No matter what challenges or difficulties come our way -- they are downright hard as we are going through them, and we dislike every single minute of it but we persevere and make it through. It feels terrific to conquer a challenge and to move on to new things, doesn't it? But, it's never very long before another challenge comes along! This past week has been one of those "put it down in the record book" challenges for me.

So This Means I Get a Challenge?! Uggggghhhhh

Now that my band is adjusted to a very good level right since my last adjustment I am at the point where my meals are very small indeed -- the smallest since having surgery. Back here I wrote about my "new" much smaller chicken dinner and my much smaller serving of homemade pizza and included some pictures. Go take a peek, so you can see what I'm talking about. I am finding now, that I can only eat about 1/2 of those "new smaller meals" and it's been really hard for me to mentally adjust to this. I am seldom physically hungry and only if I've gone a long time between meals. This is all mental.

I knew based on discussions with my surgeon, dietitian and other lap banders that my food volumes would be decreased to this amount when I reached proper restriction of the band. After all, that is why I had surgery.... That said, it's come as a big shock to me -- even though I have gradually reduced my meals with each fill to get to this point and even though I knew intellectually my meals would become even smaller. Intellectually -- humppph... some days it feels like my brain isn't even connected! It's actually in my desk drawer right now, I'm trying to soothe it by gently patting it.

Where/how do I start to explain what's been going on this week?

To put it bluntly I've made myself sick and so very, very sorry I've exceeded the band's limit on my stomach several this week. In my analysis (oops brain is working again) of this I've figured out I've been "getting sick" for 4 reasons, generally all in the same meal:

1. I ate too much, period
2. I ate something that doesn't go down well, like a doughy bun
3. I took bites that were too large
4. I drank after this in an effort to help resolve items 2 and 3.

I've learned the hard way that doing anyone of these things, and especially more than one of them in the same meal are a surefire way to make yourself miserable. By miserable, I mean throwing whatever you ate back up and before that lovely event, you get a lot of pain right under your ribcage that causes you to question your sanity for ever doing items 1-4 and makes you vow to never do them again.

Oh dear, what a week this has been! It started out with my realizing that my meals are now, for the most part going to consist of 1 cup of food or less. Go measure that out, it's not very much. I say "for the most part" because, somethings I will always be able to eat a bit more of, like lettuce greens and soups because they are not dense foods. That's okay and to be expected. Up until this week I was able to eat 1.75 or 2 cups, depending on what it was (2 cups if we're talking a salad). While the 1.75 to 2 cup meal size is much smaller than pre-surgery, it is twice as much as I can eat now. Cutting my meals in half has been even more challenging for me than when I cut them in half to get to the 1.75/2cup mark. Somehow it seems much more drastic.

It's really tough to try and put this into words, but it is like my mind is rebelling about seeing such a small amount of food on my plate. It can't accept the fact I will be satisfied with this meager amount of food for hours, so it's telling me to keep testing and see if I can't eat a little bit more, or take a little bit bigger bites or blah, blah, blah -- - or else.... get this: "YOU WILL STARVE YOURSELF TO DEATH!!!!!" I can almost hear my mind screaming this to me. Rationally this is not true. I'm eating 1200 to 1400 calories per day, per my dietitian's recommendation and almost all is good healthy choices (well, with the exception of my McDonald's nightmare, detailed here).

Here's a news flash for you, my dear brain: That is what normal weight women eat (at least the ones that don't work out 3 hours a day. And, guess what, these women are not starving. It is important to note, they do not carry an extra 100 pounds on their bodies every where they go, every moment of every day.

After a week of this stuff, I feel a lot more optimistic and hopeful as I write this on Sunday evening. I've done a lot of thinking, praying, journaling to try and get my mind on board with my new stomach and it's all helped. Today at lunch was the first meal I've eaten all week and not felt totally cheated by eating such a small amount and it was wonderful. Here's what lunch was: 1/3 cup of sloppy joe mixture, 1/2 ounce of low fat cheese, 1/2 of the bottom of a whole wheat burger bun, 1/4 cup green beans and 1/2 of a deviled egg. I ate that at 2pm and now at 8, I'm just starting to feel a little hunger.

One thing I found to be very helpful in not feeling like I'm some how missing out by only eating a little bit, is to really force myself to focus on the taste and texture of my food and to enjoy each tiny bite.

The Great McDonald's Debacle

2010-04-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

I am now at the point where I cannot under any circumstances eat a McDonald's fish sandwich and fries. I know because I tried. Twice this week.

In the last 8 months (since surgery) I've eaten a fast food type sandwich exactly twice --3 months ago and 1 month ago. I had pretty much retrained myself to think of a fast food meal as a Wendy's small chili or a salad topped with chicken.

During this week with all my mental rebellion of small meals, I had a realization that my favorite fast food meal of all time, (the fish sandwich meal in case you hadn't guessed) would probably be forever crossed off my list of possible meals. Talk about a temper tantrum. I felt like lying down on the floor and kicking and screaming like a banshee, or like I did when I was 3 or 4 to hear my mom tell it.

Being the intelligent bright person I am (not) I headed off to McDonald's twice to test myself and see if I could at least eat a good share of a fish meal. Neither time worked out very well. The first time the food was cold and very unappetizing to start out with. Things only went downhill from there because I wanted to eat the sandwich with the bun "like a normal person" after a few tiny bites in, I ended up getting sick right there in the car, in the McDonald's bag. YUCK, yuck and triple yuck. You would think this experience would've solidified my resolve to not test my limits again. Wrong.

On trip # 2 later in the week, I struck pay dirt and got a very hot, fresh sandwich and fries. They smelled delicious! This food in all it's greasy and caloric glory dripping with extra tarter sauce was just too good to pass up. There was a way I was going to be able to eat the whole sandwich and a good share of the fries -- I would take teensy, tiny bites and would go very slow, a half hour if needed. No dice. After 15 minutes I ate about a 1/4 of the sandwich picking away a lot of the bun and about 5 fries. News Flash: fries are not good when you eat them in pea sized bites. By then everything was cold and the grease was starting to congeal. Major yuck again, and yet I plodded on because I was listening to my mind that kept saying "you used to be able to wolf this meal down in 5 minutes, you should be able to now." This time I learned my lesson. I was so miserably sick I could hardly stand it.

It took me a couple of tries and a wasted $11.50 but this is one lesson I'm crossing off as complete.

New Healthy Printable Coupons!

2010-04-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

It's the beginning of a new month and that means lots of great new money saving coupons are released. Here's what you can print today:

From Coupons.com

.50 off 2 Birds Eye Veggies
.50 off Green Giant Steamers
$ 1.00 off Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt
.75 off Jello Sugar Free Jello (can get regular too)
.55 off Hormel Natural Deli Meat
.30 off Yoplait Greek Yogurt
$ 1.00 off 8th Continent Soy Milk
$1.00 off Filippo Berio Olive Oil

From RedPlum.com here's the great coupons I can get in my area. Red Plum runs their coupons by zip code. I'm sure if you live somewhere other than out in the boonies like I do, you will have an even bigger choice of coupons than I do. Go to Redplum.com and enter your zip code to see how many great coupons you can print.

Here's a list of the healthy coupons for my area:

.50 off Florida Crystals (natural, organic sweetener)
1.00 Promise margarine
$2 off Nature's Bounty Vitamins
$1 off Isopure (protein water)

Easter Dinner Buffet: My Plan of Action

2010-04-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

This year we planned to take my mom out after church for Easter Dinner. When I know we are going out for a meal, I try to have a plan out what I'm going to order before we get there. The restaurant where we were planning to go; has a great almond chicken salad, which I planned to order. I felt pretty good about this choice; but in case I got there and wasn't in the mood for a salad, I was going to get the fish, which was plan #2.

However, we left out one small detail -- the restaurant was closed! Hmmmm... should've checked that out first, huh? At the last moment we had to find a place nearby that we could get into without reservations. We ended up a Old Country Buffet, much to the delight of my husband who has no weight problem to speak of and LOVES buffets. Just a minute.... I have to get a knife so I can stab him. Just teasing ; )

I started to panic a little thinking, oh great, how is this going to work out for me? A buffet? I'll want to eat everything in site. My head was filled with all kinds of thoughts; all of which were accompanied by a little mental foot stomp because darn it all I wanted my way. lol

1. I want to drink a bunch of pop (or soda, if you will) because it's freeeeeeee!!!!!

2. Everything I like here and ate presurgery was a carb -- the only protein squeezed in there was completely by accident. What if I just load up on carbs? Hmmm, that won't be so good! Will be hungry in 2 hrs.

3. I don't want to just eat a hunk o meat and some veggies, I want something good!

4. I'm afraid I'm going to miss eating 2 -3 plates heaped with food.

5. Okay, time to calm down and make a plan. They have a lot of food here, there's got to be some fairly good choices that taste good too. I'll be eating slower than I ever have in my life at a buffet so the food will last longer

My Plan of Action for Eating at the Buffet

Thankfully the line was long and I had plenty of time to come up with a sensible eating plan. I think number I was most worried about #4. Lately my mind has been so weird about this whole thing -- again it's the whole "surgery was done on my stomach, not my head thing." I was really worried I would want to just fill my plate to the brim and then make myself sick trying to eat it all. Before seeing all the food on the buffet (waiting in line, remember), my plan was to make a yummy salad (I absolutely love their salad bar) and then have 3 ounces of baked cod with a bit of tarter sauce, and 1/4 cup of that delicious baked cornbread dressing. I could be happy with this. The cornbread dressing was the one an only must have thing on their buffet for me; I could easily pass up everything else, so it was important to me to incorporate just a taste of what I really, really wanted so I would not feel deprived.

After we got seated and I went up to take a look at the food, I decided on a different plan and found a recipe that I would like to try and make at home. Here is what I ended up with:

My main part of the meal was a baby sized taco salad. They had cutest little taco salad shells and all the fixings for a taco salad, so being the Mexican food lover that I am, I went with that and it was very good. They had taco "meat" available, but avoiding buffet "meat" is one of my life's goals, plus it was swimming in grease; I went with the beans and cheese for the filling instead. I topped it with a little mini salad of lettuce, black olives, salsa and a bit of sour cream. All totaled, this was about 1 cup of food minus the taco shell, which I did eat a few bites of. Did I tell you how cute this was?! I just have to find these little shells so I can make some for us. For some reason, a taco salad is more festive when it's served in a tortilla bowl. My husband with think these are cute little appetizers and eat 6, for me one can be a whole meal.

In addition to my taco salad, I had an ounce of broiled fish, 2 bites of pizza and 1/4 cup of cornbread dressing. All in all, it was a nice meal, thank you to the band, I was forced to eat slowly enough so I finished when my mom did and then we talked while George finished up.

By eating the 2 bites of pizza and bit of cornbread dressing I did not feel at all deprived, plus that cute little delicious salad really made this meal enjoyable for me. The only thing I wasn't happy about is my meal cost $12.79; what a waste of money for such a small amount of food!

Crispy Outside, Moist Inside Oven "Fried" Pork Chops

2010-03-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Oven Fried Pork Chops

A lot of people don't like pork chops because they tend to be tough and dry. If it's not that they are swimming in fat and every bite you take comes with a chunk of gristle. Neither sound very good to me.

Even if you are not a fan of pork chops, I bet you would love my moist, tender oven "fried" pork chops. You can get my super easy recipe here. They are so juicy and tender you can cut them with a fork and yet the outside is nice and crispy, just as if you really fried them.

We must remember when watching our calories that even the leanest pork loin is still going to be more calories than boneless, skinless chicken breast. That's just a fact of life. But, when you compare the boneless loin chops trimmed of all visible fat you aren't looking at many more calories. Here's the nutrition info for a 3 oz serving of pork loin. I don't have the nutrition info for one of my cooked pork chops, but I would probably allow an extra 100 calories for a tsp of beaten egg, 2 Tbsp of bread crumbs and a small amount of cooking oil. Sometime I'll figure out exactly what the nutrition content of my recipe is; now that I'm curious : )

I'm Amazed at This New Way of Eating

2010-03-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

This morning as I sat at the computer and checked email I ate my little cup of breakfast. As I've done for most mornings now, I looked at my little breakfast in amazement and spent some time thinking about what my new eating life is like.

The first thing that strikes me is the size of the breakfast: this morning it was 1 egg, 2 Tbsp of ham and 1 ounce of lowfat colby cheese. This much food took up exactly 1/2 of a cup. It seems so little and yet it keeps me satisfied for 4, sometimes 5 hours. That, folks is a miracle for me. Pre surgery I would have never been satisfied for several hours on a half a cup of food. I would've had another egg, 2 pieces of toast or a whole grain english muffin. And, that's not a bad breakfast; as a matter of fact; it's a pretty good for you breakfast -- it's just more calories than what my body needs.

"They do surgery on your stomach, not your brain"

This is a popular saying amongst those of us that have had weight loss surgery. At first I didn't get it; but after living with a lap band for the past 7 months I'm "getting it" a lot more. You can make it so you can eat less; but after years and years of eating too much food, it takes awhile for your brain (and your eyes) to catch up. It almost seems surreal to eat such small meals and not feel hungry soon afterwards. I have never been much of a snacker. I did almost all of my over eating at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since this last band adjustment where the band has finally (after 7 months!) been adjusted to a good level, I've been going through a lot of mental stuff with regards to snacking.

Since this last adjustment, my portions sizes have decreased a little bit more, my bites are smaller now, too. It isn't possible for me to just wolf my food down -- I need to c-h-e-w. That's a new concept that I've been trying to practice since having surgery. But, the fact is; that I never chew really, really well; unless I'm forced to by this band around my stomach.

My mind is having a hard time getting used to all of this and it's revolting. Lately I've had all this dialogue about food and eating going on in my head, that I've never had before. When I fill up my little toddler Lady Bug Plate with 6 triscut crackers topped with 2-3 ounces of tuna salad I look at it and think "oh, that will never satisfy me. I just know I'll be hungry in an hour". Then in an hour or two I notice I'm not hungry; and worry that something must be wrong. Then my head says to me: you had better eat something, anything because you should be hungry right now. You need a snack. Now, that's weird!

With the exception of the weird food thoughts this has been an awesome experience and I enjoy marvelling at how I can be satisfied on a small amount of food, and lose weight; when for so long; the only direction the scale moved was up.

Portion Size Distortion

Even though most of the time I'm amazed at the size of my new, smaller meals I am beginning to experience a breakthrough with my mental image of what constitutes a portions size. Pre surgery, I would've looked at the portion size on the nutrition facts label of almost any food and automatically doubled it. If it was for 1/2 a cup of ice cream; I would've mentally figured out a cup (or more:). Or instead of 1 smalled baked potato it was 2. For crackers; I most certainly felt that eating only 2 servings was "dieting" and using a lot of self control.

Well, you know that 6 cracker serving of triscuits I mentioned earlier? That's a real serving -- what the Triscuit people expect a normal person would eat. When I first started counting out 6 Triscuits I thought I was going to shrivel up and die if I didn't eat at least 12 or 18 of those suckers. The other day I was preparing to eat the last of my tuna salad; the triscuit box was nearing empty, so I just poured out a few crackers onto a plate. About twice as many as a standard serving size poured out -- about 12. My first thought was "oh my goodness, that's a lot of crackers!!"

This was a breakthrough moment for me. I have never, ever, in my entire life thought 12 crackers was too much. The fact that this was the very first thought that popped into my mind when I saw "all those crackers" spill out onto the plate is so monumental it's hard to put it into words. It means that my distorted view of what constitutes a serving size is changing!

Healthy Printable Coupon Round Up

2010-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

It's time for me to let you in on the latest coupons for good for you food. Here are some of my favorites this week:

Click on the link to access your coupons.

$1 off McCormick spices and herbs (herbs are a great way to make your meal tasty without using salt!)
$1 off Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt
$1 off Yoplait Yogurt
$1.50 of Kashi Bars
.75 off Fiber One Cereal
.50 off Land O Lakes Butter & Olive Oil spread (my store doubles; so this is good for a $1 for me)

As always, Coupons.com has lots of great coupons besides these. Go here to check them all out.

My Recovery From Clean Your Plate Disease

2010-03-18T12:31:00.001-07:00

Hi, I'm Trixie and I have Clean Your Plate Disease.

Don't laugh! For those of us that struggle with not being able to leave food behind on our plates, this feels like a real honest to goodness disease. We probably all need psychotherapy. If we leave even a tablespoon of food behind, we feel so incredibly wasteful and guilty -- so we end up eating everything on our plates whether we are hungry or not. Guess what that leads to? Obesity.

How/When Did I Start Down This Road?

Growing up, we were quite poor and food was not something we had in abundance. Up until age five I don't remember having any food issues what-so-ever. I happily ate whatever Mom dished up for me and never ate until I was full. When I turned five I was allowed to dish up my own food and one time I dished up more than I could eat. I don't remember what the food was; it was a little sticky and I took too much. I tried to put a little back into the serving dish and couldn't without it making a mess, so I just put it on my plate instead. I stopped eating when comfortable and left the rest on my plate. It was the most natural thing in the world to stop eating when I wasn't hungry anymore.

Daddy told me to eat the rest of my food and I replied I was too full. The tirade that ensued was so shocking, so vivid that I remember every detail perfectly, thirty years later. Something inside Daddy just snapped. As he stood there, towering over me yelling and screaming about how important it was to not waste food, I shrunk down into a little ball, petrified. Time stood still; the yelling and screaming went on and on and on. It wasn't your typical raised voice admonition to eat your food; there are starving children in Africa, you know. It was pure rage.

This moment was one of those "life altering moments" -- where you are a certain way before the moment and then afterwards, life is different; you are different somehow. Ever since that specific moment I have felt compelled to eat every morsel of food on my plate, every. single. meal. for thirty years. To leave food behind on the plate is like being asked to cut off a limb. It's brutal.

Your Head Can't Tell Your Heart Anything

Intellectually, I know why Daddy flipped out that day -- he grew up in some pretty unimaginable circumstances and was literally half starved a lot of the time. Plus he worked so hard to bring in what food we did have during my childhood. Although my brain can reason out that situation and understand they why behind it -- there is some part of me that could never move past it.

I wasn't aware of how powerful this event was in my life and how much control I allowed it to have until I was in my early 20s and my Dad died. His death caused me to deeply reflect on him; his life and my life growing up as his child. When I realized this was the one single event that led me to a life long battle with overeating and weight gain I became angry and resentful. If this one event hadn't scarred me so badly or hadn't ever happened at all I seriously doubt I would have ever had a weight problem. I wanted to scream at him, why did you do this to me?!

It didn't take very long for me to realize that blaming someone else doesn't help a situation. As a matter of fact; it tends to make things far worse. In spite of knowing this I was still very resentful and hurt about the whole matter.

And then there was this miracle day, two weeks ago.

I was alone, sitting at the kitchen table eating a meal. Prior to surgery; I would have been able to pack away anything I put on my plate. Now things are different; I have to be careful to choose only a small portion. That day I chose a little too much and there was no way I was going to be able to eat the last few bites and not be really, really, really uncomfortable. That old familiar feeling of not being able to throw the last of it out or put it in the fridge for later washed over me. I just couldn't put the food away and I knew I couldn't eat it. I was paralyzed. What was I going to do?

As I sat there for a moment thinking again of why I felt this way and remembering that incident from so long ago and becoming angry with my dad, a little voice in my head asked "don't you think he would be sorry?"

Another life changing event! A miracle when you least expect it.

God whispered right into my soul: Don't you think he would be sorry if he knew how much this has hurt you? I thought about that for a moment. If Daddy was here right now and I told him how much his words had affected me, I know with absolute certainty that he would pull me onto his lap, hug me close to him, stroke my hair and tell me how very sorry he was and that he had never, ever meant to hurt me. He would make it all better.

I pushed the plate away, laid my head down on the table and sobbed as thirty years of hurt washed out of me.

Did You Just Try to Burst My Bubble?

2010-03-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I delayed having weight loss surgery for so long was that I kept thinking I could/should be able to lose the weight without "resorting" to surgery. Yeah; that didn't work out very well for me. I was in extreme denial about the fact the no matter what I tried I could not lose the weight without help.

As of this week I am 31 weeks out from surgery and have lost 29 pounds. That's an average of .9 pounds a week during this journey. While there are lots of people that have lost more at this stage; there are a lot that have lost less. I'm pretty geeked about being average!

Pay it forward

A lady I know is planning on getting a Lap Band. She has a myriad of very serious health issues and is looking to lose weight so she can have a long happy life. She's closely followed my surgery, asked all sorts of questions and wanted updates on how things are going. I'm not shy. I share this stuff with anyone that asks for a couple of reasons:

1. My hope is that my real life story might encourage someone else. I know how much I've been encouraged by others that have shared their experiences with me. I want to do that for someone too.

2. I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to other people's disapproval or negative comments about me. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't care, if you know what I mean.

Just last week this lady asked for an update on how much I've lost; I proudly told her 29lbs and asked how her surgery plans were coming along. She replied; "oh, no, I'm not getting surgery. I mean you've only lost 29 pounds. I could lose that in (get this.....) 2 months just by watching what I eat".

This is a thrilling journey for me; nobody can burst my bubble

Instead of being outraged at the possibility she might be belittling my weight loss; I had to laugh a little inside -- 15lbs a month?! I remember being in that place not too long ago -- although I wasn't as optimistic as 15lbs a month; I would've said more like 3 or 4lbs a month. Goodness I'll readily admit I need help just to lose the 3 or 4 pounds a month! It's been terrific to have this LapBand to help me. During this time I've learned so much -- not just about food and eating, but about myself. What a neat experience!

The Long Trip to Hope

2010-03-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend I did a through cleaning of our closet, my dresser and sorted several totes of clothing. Whew, does it feel great to cross this giant project off the "To Do" List!

My main purpose for this project was two fold.

1. I have waay too many clothes that I do not like and never wear, and it's driving me nuts! I can't stand clutter and storing stuff I don't even like. I need to actually bite the bullet and tell myself I'm not being wasteful by donating, selling and otherwise ridding myself of the burden of too many clothes.

2. All of this clothing runs the gamut between 3 sizes.I wanted to pick through everything and keep the things I actually liked and have a chance of fitting into this summer.

After a whole afternoon of sorting and cleaning, there was a massive heap of stuff that I didn't like, even when it fit me so it was sorted out into two giant bags to donate and one tote of stuff to sell on Craig's List, Ebay or the consignment shop. How on earth did I end up with all this stuff?! I'm left with one tote containing shorts, a few shirts, a black sweater set and a few pairs of crop pants (are crop pants out of style? PLEASE tell me no, because I will wear these till the day I die. Side note: capri pants are crop pants on me -- I'm short: )

What's the point of all this is?

While sorting I came across a beloved pair of cargo khaki pants that can be rolled up and made into capris. The perfect lightweight summer pants. I remember when I bought these pants at sears several years ago. I fell in love with them straight off. I felt slimmer, sporty and really pulled together when I wore these pants with a crisp white shirt or striped button down shirt. The pants were even a little bit too loose! Talk about good for your self esteem -- those pants were.

I remember the spring I could not wear these pants any more. There was just no way I could zip them up and still breath, sit down, move -- you know, crucial stuff like that. None of my pants fit that spring. I tried on every spring/summer piece of clothing I had. Nothing fit. I was astonished. How could this have happened?! Especially to my favorite loose fitting pair of summer pants -- the ones that made me feel so good to wear? It was a real blow to my self esteem. With warm weather right around the corner, I headed off to Lane Bryant to buy myself a whole new spring wardrobe in a larger size.

The nice sales clerk asked if I was treating myself to something special (because I was obviously on a shopping spree). She was overweight and seemed friendly so she might understand how hard this is. So I told her all my summer clothes were too tight. She patted my shoulder and said "I understand". And, you know, I think she really did. It didn't make me feel any better. I went into the dressing room to try some more things on and cried. I cried right there in the Lane Bryant dressing room because I was too fat to fit in clothes that most people would consider "fat" clothes to begin with. I cried because I was here spending a ton of money on even fatter clothes. I felt like a world class failure.

I kept my favorite pants hanging up in my closet as a sad reminder of my weight gain; hoping one day I would be able to fit into them. I packed them up and moved them into my husband's house when we married 3 years ago and then packed them up again to move to our farmhouse. A couple of years ago, in the interest of making more space in the closet I took them off the hanger and placed them in a tote for storage. I'd put off doing that a long time, because to do that meant that I'd given up on ever loosing the weight It was such a hopeless, defeated moment when I packed up those pants; I'll never forget it.

All of these memories came back to me clear as day; when I came across my favorite pants; still neatly folded, showing the creases from their last ironing, years ago. Teary eyed, I tried them on, half hoping by some miracle they would fit and yet not wanting to be too disappointed. I could get them on, technically; but they are a couple of inches from being buttoned and then a couple more from being able to breath, sit down and move comfortably.

Before trying the pants on, I was worried if they didn't fit; how badly would I feel; would it be like the first time I realized they were too tight? This time was different. I wasn't bothered at all, because now I actually have hope they will one day fit!

Hope is such an amazing thing, isn't it?

3 Great Cheese Coupons

2010-03-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

Coupons.com has 3 good cheese coupons out right now. Pair these coupons up with a sale and you can get some pretty good priced cheese. Low fat cheese is an excellent lower calorie, low carb snack that's packed with protein! If you don't prefer low fat, you can always get the regular kind.

$1 off Land O Lakes Deli Cheese

$1 off Alpine Lace Cheese

$1 off Kraft Deli Deluxe Cheese

My husband and I really like Kraft's Deli Deluxe cheese because it melts so beautifully. It makes a great grilled cheese sandwich and melts perfectly atop a tuna melt. It's an American cheese -- and it's real cheese. It's sold right next to the "other" Kraft sandwich slices but notice those are called "processed cheese food". Um, yeah, that sounds delicious -- what's in it that it can't be called real cheese?

Free Sample of Ideal No Cal Sweetner

2010-03-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

You can get a free sample of Ideal No Calorie Sweetner here. You can also print a $1.00 coupon from the same page.

Try Curves for Free

2010-03-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

Go here to try Curves free for one week. Have any of you done Curves? Would you recommend it?

Here's Hoping the 4th Fill Does the Trick

2010-02-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had my 4th fill. I'm now up to 10ccs in a 14 cc band. Yesterday I was on liquids; today I was able to start with softer foods -- essentially anything that's not a dense piece of meat or raw veggie. For lunch today I had a small Wendy's chili and was very satisfied. Satisfied to me means I could probably eat a few more bites, but I don't really feel like it or am not tempted to. Hmmm, now that's a first ; )

Being satisfied on 1 small chili is a pretty exciting thing for me. It's been a solid 3 hours since I ate the chili and I'm not hungry in the least or even thinking about food. Pre surgery I would've wanted a large chili (and all the fixings that go with it) and been starving at 3pm. This band is such a neat tool to help me manage my portion sizes and hunger levels. When I'm not ravenously hungry that I tend to make better choices regarding food quality and portions.

I'm really looking forward to this fill doing the trick at least for a little while.

I'm a Catalyst For Change!

2010-02-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Who knew?

The first two times I went to have my fills done under fluoroscopy at the hospital, I was so surprised by one key part of the process that I thought was missing. Allow me to explain.... anytime I have heard of others getting a band adjustment or the one time I had it done in the surgeon's office, the patient is made to drink water or some other liquid right after the fluid is put in the band. This is to ensure the band is not so tight that you can't even swallow your own spit. Imagine how horrible that would be.

When I received my fills at the hospital the doctor put the fluid in, said good bye and made a bee line for the door. I said, wait a minute! I need to drink something to make sure there's not too much fluid in the band. He must not have heard me because he kept walking away. Not to be deterred I asked the lab tech for a glass of water -- they looked at me like I was nuts. But they got it for me; I drank both times with no ill affects and explained to them why it was so important to make sure you can swallow water with no problems after a fill. Having your band too tight you can't eat food well is definitely a problem, but it's not a problem that's going to land you in the hospital for dehydration in nothing flat.

This kept bothering me. How many patients did they send home from the hospital that needed to go back in to have a too tight band loosened? I mentioned it to my surgeon's nurse. Eventually my comments made it all the way to the head of the radiology department at the hospital and they changed things!

When I went in yesterday for my adjustment, the lab tech guy said they changed their protocol for giving fills and thanked me for saying something. He said they didn't understand how important it was that the patients be able to swallow liquids well after an adjustment.

My 4th Fill is Coming Up

2010-02-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

This week I'm going in for my 4th fill and a check up with my doctor and the nutritionist. I was supposed to do this two weeks ago, but we were completely snowed in. Everything was rescheduled for this Wednesday. We are in the midst of a beautiful snowstorm at the moment. It's just gorgeous out there! Wish I could be out there playing around with our beagle, while George plows the driveway and around the outbuildings. We are in Michigan so a big snowfall isn't too big of a deal, everything will be cleared off the roads by tonight -- so no problem for me to make a long drive on Wednesday.

I'm looking forward to getting another band adjustment; I'm 6 months out and am really looking forward to getting it properly adjusted at some point here. For me, this has been a pretty slow process. I'm excited about the prospect of having a little more help from my band with regards to portion control. I find myself getting hungry after just 2 -2.5 hours after eating what's considered a typical protein based bander sized meal (.75 to 1 cup of food). The nutritionist tells me that with a properly adjusted band I should be able to go about 4 hours without being hungry.

This time we are going to try doing the fill at the doctor's office. Based on my prior experiences with fills, I'm little apprehensive about trying to have this fill done in the office again. My port has flipped so that it is quite difficult to manipulate it and get it into the position for a fill. It's much easier for the doctor to see where the port is under fluoroscopy than to just feel around blindly and take a stab at it. I've had my last two fills at the hospital under fluoroscopy, while in there I had the doctor take pictures of my port to send to my surgeon for review. Based on these pictures, my surgeon thinks the PA should be able to access my port in the office. Hopefully all goes well. If the port can't be accessed in office, I've got a back up appointment at the hospital so I can be sure to get a fill, no matter which way it has to be done.

Still Loving Our Elliptical

2010-02-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

It's been one week since we got our elliptical machine and I still love it! The first night I was able to do 9 minutes on the second setting. First I did 6 minutes and took a break for a couple of minutes and did 3 more for a total of 9. It felt like if I did any more, I was

A. going to have a heart attack or
B. be really sore the next day

After a week's worth of slowly increasing my efforts I can now comfortably do 14 minutes a day on the 4th tension setting. This is less time than I did on the stationary bike, but it's a much more difficult workout so I am hoping to notice more results than I did with the bike, even when spending less time at it. So far the only difference I notice is a little more energy each morning and my legs feel stronger. It's hard to quantify or specifically state how my legs feel stronger (maybe I mean that because they don't ache anymore. lol)

The changes are so small from just one week. I wasn't expecting a new exercise to be life changing in one week, that's called delusional. Long term I do hope to see some more significant changes. Over the next couple of weeks I'll continue to gradually increase my workout time. Any exercise that gets your heart rate going and the sweat to pour, has got to be good for you!

HOT! New Healthy Coupons (and some not so healthy ones)

2010-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

There are a bunch of new healthy coupons out there. I've linked up to some of the best ones below.

$1 off Yoplait Frozen Smoothies (I'm interested in trying this and reviewing it here. Has anyone tried them; what do you think?)

$1 off Polaner Sugar Free Jellies and Jams (has anyone tried these; are they good?)

$1 off Weight Watchers Baked Goods (these range from 1-3 points each)

$1 off Kellogg's Heart Smart Cereal

$2 off Ester C (this is a great, super absorbable Vitamin C - hubby loves it)

$1 off Truvia Zero calorie Natural Sweetener

.50 and .75 off Reduced Calorie Margarine

.75 off Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt

$5 off any Weight Watchers Scale

I realize that many of you that are interested in bettering your health want a treat now and then and are feeding families that don't need to watch their weight. For that reason, I am including a link to a wide variety of coupons that are not nescecarily "good for you" products; this link also includes cleansers and other miscellaneous coupons. You can go here for all of these coupons.

We Love our New Stamina 1772 Elliptical Cross Trainer!

2010-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

George and I have been wanting an elliptical trainer for quite a while now. We got it Friday and before going to bed got it all put together and tried it out. I love it!

The workout on the elliptical is so much more intense than what I was getting on our stationary bike. As a matter of fact I could only do 9 minutes on the elliptical without feeling like I was going to die or at least be in a lot of pain the next day. I don't know if it's because this is a new piece of equipment to me, or what, but the time on the elliptical just flies by, compared to the bike. Hopefully this means I will be less likely to climb off before my workout is done, just because I'm bored.

Elliptical Buying Tips

We were pretty overwhelmed by all the choices and the expense so we put off buying our elliptical until we could do enough research to make sure we were getting the best bang for our buck.

There are quite a lot of elliptical cross trainers out there, they range in price from around $100 up to $2,000+. Some are rated very well, others have a large number of reported problems. We did a lot of research and a lot in-store try outs on scads of different models before making our decision.

One thing that really helped us in our decision making process was to figure out the three most important features we were looking for in an elliptical. Once we knew this, our goal was to find one that met these criteria and was in our price range.

Our Top Three Elliptical Criteria

1. It must be comfortable to both of us. (George is tall with a wide stride and I'm short with a shorter stride)

2. It must fit in the designated space in our family room -- which is quite small. This ruled out all of the larger, more expensive ellipticals

3. It must be quiet. Our stationary bike was pretty loud and frankly neither of us wanted another piece of noisy equipment.

When it was all said and done, we chose the Stamina 1772. It meets all of our criteria and came in below our price range due to a good sale at Dunham's.

My husband who makes a living at being very mechanically inclined found the Stamina 1772 easy to put together. As a matter of fact, it took longer for him to unpackage the unit (each piece was wrapped individually and the screw threads were all taped) than it did to put the thing together. In order to not run into any of the commonly reported problems with this unit, such as bolts and screws coming loose, it is very important to use the lock tight washers and "real tools" to put the thing together, not the fake "housewife" tools that come with the instructions.

Being newbie owners of our new Stamina 1772 elliptical trainer is pretty exciting, we love how quiet it is, how comfortable and natural the motion is and the small footprint. We also loved coming in under budget at $199. My natural inclination is to be a little wary of something that seems so good, but costs so much less.

My husband and I are you-get-what-you-pay-for kind of people. We don't buy bigger ticket items very often and when we do, we expect to pay a little more and get something that will last for a long time. We have, however been happily surprised on other occasions with merchandise that is less costly, but functions beautifully for years. So, we will give this unit a good try. I'll be sure to update this post if we run into any issues and report how they were handled.

What's a Typical Menu for Me Post-Surgery

2010-02-11T13:01:00.001-08:00

A lot of friends and coworkers have asked me what all I can eat since surgery and ask if I make separate meals for myself. Many people that have had weight loss surgery have issues eating certain foods and they try to avoid those items. A common example are doughy breads and fibrous veggies like asparagus. So far I haven't ran into any problems, except for that one time when I choked down 2 bites of the driest banana bread known to man kind and just about choked to death on it. What happened to banana bread that's moist and delicious?

At this point I'm pretty sure I can eat anything I wanted to -- although not so much of it as before surgery. However, that doesn't give me license to visit the stop and shop and fill up on candy bars! The reason my food choices are so wide at this point is because my band still needs more adjusting -- it's not fitting as snugly around my stomach as it should for optimal results. Once my band is tightened up, I expect there will be at least a couple of foods that I need to stay away from or make sure I chew very, very thoroughly.

How I Approach Cooking

At this stage in my banded life I cook pretty much the same as I've always cooked. Please note, every dish does not start with the Paula Dean method of a stick of butter. We moved to a more healthy diet of limited fats, lower sugar, real foods, and whole grains a long time ago. We are not fat free, low carb, no carb, all organic, and no treats what-so-ever and probably never will be. I had this surgery to help me eat more normal portions of fairly healthy foods, while still indulging in a treat once in a while. I want to eat like a normal person, and not go totally off the bandwagon to the other extreme.

My goal, is to keep the healthy changes to our menu and use the lap band to help me eat less.

All that was to say I'm not into making special meals just for me. My husband is wonderful about eating almost anything I make -- even the burned stuff :) Only once in a great while does he ask for something special or say he's not in the mood for what I'm planning to make. This gives me a lot of flexibility in making our meals.

"Regular Food" Works For Me

On my other, blog, FarmHomeLife I post a weekly dinner menu each Monday. You can view this week's menu here. This is the same type of food I made pre-surgery, because my food intake capability is less than before, and I need to focus on making sure I eat enough good quality protein I do a few things differently than before surgery. Here's this week's menu with my notes about how the meals differ since surgery.

Monday -- Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin's.

Pre surgery I would eat 2, sometimes 3 of these (with the tortillas) and be so full I could burst. Well, now, there is no way I could eat that amount -- especially of the tortillas. Instead I ate 3/4 cup of the meat, pepper and onion mixture topped with a little cheese, low fat sour cream, lettuce and tomato and 1/2 of a small whole grain tortilla.

In contrast, my husband who works hard physically all day long and doesn't have any kind of a weight problem to speak of, ate 6 of these tortillas filled to overflowing and then a little dessert. If he wasn't such a sweetie I would be stabbing him in his sleep -- especially when he asks me why I'm not eating 3 brownies with him.

Tuesday -- Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Pasta Salad.

George just loves pasta salad. I like it pretty well too. It's a dish that screams summer to me, so I made it this week for a little variety. My recipe is a fairly good for you one that tastes great. Previous to surgery I would eat one tuna salad (made with Miracle Whip lite -- mayo lovers don't send me hate mail :) on the "big bread" that my husband loves. Before marriage I used to buy the little loaves of Whole grain "health nut" bread and a whole loaf would easily last me two weeks. George took one look at those tiny little slices and said he would need 6 or 7 sandwiches instead of his usual 4. So in the interest of saving money and time I started buying the big slice bread -- wide pan they call it.

I guess you could say wide pan = wide a _ _ because I started eating one huge sandwich, which was almost the equivalent of two of my old sandwiches. One day last year I bought some of my old favorite little sliced bread and made some sandwiches for us both. I set mine next to George's ginormous wide pan bread sandwich and was appalled at the difference. How could I have let that sneak up on me!? My mom tells me that everything used to be smaller like that. She said never in a million years would you go to a restaurant and get a meal so big you needed to take 1/2 of it home.

To make a long story short, I ate 1/2 of a tuna sandwich made with the 'big bread' and 1/3 cup of pasta salad. Pre-surgery it would've been a whole sandwich and at least a cup of pasta salad.

Wednesday -- Chicken Parmesan, Garlic Bread and Salad

Our lettuce was bad, so we ended up just having the chicken parm and garlic bread. This was one of my new "let's have something I don't usually make for variety's sake" meals. Presurgery, this meal would be an entire 9 inch dinner plate full and I would be stuffed. Now, I had 1/4 of a chicken breast with a little melted mozzarella cheese on top, sauce and 1/3 cup of whole grain spaghetti and one 1x2 inch square of homemade garlic bread -- it was rich, doughy and oh, so good. Pre surgery I would've wanted to eat nothing but the bread. Now, I'm finding once I eat the meat part of my meal, I'm not tempted to overdo it on carbs. Protein does wonders I never knew!

Thursday -- Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Carrots

I like to make up and cook several meatloaves ahead of time and keep them in the freezer for nights when I want a quick, but homemade tasting supper. That's were this meatloaf is coming from -- the freezer. We only have one large sweet potato left, so I will have a tiny bit of that and save the rest for George. I may need to make another veggie to make up for the lack of potatoes. The carrots, are not plain jane boiled carrots. They are glazed with 1 tsp of butter and 1 tsp of honey. Just a little bit of extra calories for a whole lot of flavor.

Friday -- Some kind of pizza.

I usually make my own, but lately George has been wanting take out pizza. So if we get that, I will have a couple of small pieces or 1 larger piece. Again I eat much, much less than pre-surgery. If we do homemade pizza I like to make a healthier crust and it's thin crust to boot. Here's the recipe; it makes a lot of dough, in case you are feeding an army when you make pizza; and it includes instructions for a white crust.

Note to Self: A Crisp White Shirt and Blue Jeans = TGIF

2010-02-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite classic casual outfits is a crisp white button down shirt and blue jeans. Years ago, when I worked in a grocery store, this was my "uniform"; I wore a dark green apron in addition. Clean, neat and professional, for the duties my job entailed. I liked the look of a crisp white shirt and jeans so much that I took to wearing it at home. Somehow over the years of gaining more and more weight it became too depressing to continue to buying larger and larger sizes of my favorite outfit; I shied away from wearing the white shirt, jeans combo. I never even realized I did that until this morning!

My closet, despite being packed with clothes seems to have very limited choices for me right now. I have about 6 or 7 different tops I can wear -- half of those are light pastel color button down shirts. The other half are dark colour winter wear. Don't get me wrong, these are cute clothes -- all are tops I bought because they make me feel great and look great. But... I'm bored with them.

Today (Friday) I was planning to wear the same burgundy long sleeve turtle neck and vest set as I did on Monday, because I couldn't think of anything more inspiring to wear. Over the course of this week, I've gone through my closet several times and just could not find anything else to wear. So frustrating! A lot of my clothing is just a tad too small to be comfortable in, and most of the tops were thin 3/4 sleeve shirts. It's not quite warm enough to wear those yet. Still, I tried on nearly every possibility just to see how close I am to comfortably fitting into them. Hopefully by spring I can wear all those cute spring shirts without looking like a sausage that's too big for it's casing.

This morning in a last ditch effort to find something less boring to wear, I tried on a crisp white no-iron long sleeved shirt that's one size down. This shirt has been hanging in my closet for three years; I haven't worn it for over 2 years. I had overlooked this shirt earlier in the week because it was waaay too tight the last time I tried it on. Well, it's still too snug to button -- as a matter of fact there's a 3 inch gap that's got to go away before I could even hope to button it. And, there's even more gap that needs to close, if there's any hope of me wearing this shirt buttoned in public (the whole over stuffed sausage casing thing...). The arms and shoulders weren't too tight so it was still a go for today. Once I shook all the dust off (hey, it had been hanging there a long time), I paired it with long sleeved white v-neck t shirt underneath and some boot cut blue jeans.

Just that little bit of changing up my outfit for the day made all the difference in the world. I felt terrific and went on to have a great day -- all because of a crisp white shirt.

Free Healthy Samples

2010-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

Quality Health is once again offering a sign up for free healthy samples. Go here to get yours!

You can also print lots of great coupons for healthy (and some not so healthy: ) grocery items here.

My New Favorite Khaki's

2010-01-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

I recently used a gift card to order two pairs of my favorite Land's End khaki's. The ones I had been wearing were so big that they were beginning to make me look fatter -- I didn't realize that clothing that's way too loose does that. Mostly because I've never had that problem before. Good problem to have if you ask me.

I've been buying the Land's End line of khakis in one style or another for the past 12 years. They are my favorite fitting pants, ever. At the risk of sounding like a Land's End commerical; they fit me well, wear very well, and the customer service is terrific.

However, this week I was mightily disappointed when the wrong pants arrived. They were the wide leg version, instead of the boot cut. Don't get me wrong, I like a wider pant leg at the bottom (balances out my wide stomach region) but these were super duper wide leg. I contacted Land's End's fabulous customer service department, thinking this would all be fixed quickly. Not so, there was no way I could convince the customer service lady that these pants were not the boot cuts pictured on their web site and the-ones-I-already-own-4-pair-of-so-I-know-what-I'm-talking-about pants. No siree, the warehouse label said boot cut so they were boot cuts.

Honestly I was pretty ticked off because I figured I was stuck with these "substandard" pants that I didn't really want and LE wouldn't fix the problem. I had carefully debated whether to even spend my gift card on the pants anyway because at some point here, hopefully I will be down another size and they will be too big. It seems silly to buy pants that won't be worn for very long, but I really wanted them so I treated myself, and I wanted them to be exactly what I ordered.

An Interesting Lesson Learned

Last night it occurred to me to at least try on the pants before returning them. Lo and behold they fit me perfectly! The wide legs didn't seem to look bad at all and most importantly I felt like a million bucks! My pretty button down shirts that could only recently be buttoned without popping the buttons off fit even better without all the extra material from my too big pants in the way. It looked as if I lost 5lbs instantly, just from a better fitting pair of pants, plus there was the additional excitement of wearing a smaller size. Talk about a good way to end the day.

After all that whining and being mad at Land's End, I love my new khakis and am very happy at the way things turned out!

Get $1 off Healthy Tortillas (and the not so healthy ones)

2010-01-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

Mission Foods is offering a $1 off any package of Mission Tortillas if you sign up for their mailing list. Go here to get yours. Remember to use your browser's back button and print a second coupon. These won't last long.

In addition to the "regular" tortillas you can also try these healthier varieties:

96% fat free Hearty Healthy

Carb Balance (which I've tried and they taste the same as the regular)

Multi Grain

Life Balance

Review of Breakstone's Cottage Doubles

2010-01-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

I've been a long time fan of Breakstones' Cottage Cheese Doubles. If you've never heard of Cottage Doubles, they are a delicious combination of fruit and cottage cheese. They come in several flavors --blueberry, strawberry, peach and pineapple; all are equally good in my opinion. They come in handy for a quick grab and go breakfast or snack. And, they contain a pretty good amount of protein -- yea for cottage cheese!

How much do they cost?

Well, here in the Midwest they cost a $1.29 each and regularly go on sale for $1. Last week I took advantage of a great deal and was able to snag 15 of these suckers for free. So, I've been eating one of them almost everyday and that got me to thinking of sharing them with you.

Breakstone's Cottage Doubles cost more than any yogurt I can think of besides Greek Yogurt, but they are awfully good and give you a lot more protein than you will get from most yogurts and less sugar.

Now, I know you can buy the fruit and cottage cheese separately and make your own combo for a lot less. But, I've found that as much as I plan to do that, I seldom end up actually doing it. The times that I do, the larger container of cottage cheese goes bad and then I've wasted my money. The individual serving sizes work much better for me.

Here's the Nutrition Info per each 5.5 oz serving:

Calories 130
Fat 2
Carbs 16
Protein 11

Have you considered Curves?

2010-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

Curves is running a great special where new members get thirty days free. Click here to find out more.

Attention: Plus Sized Clothing Designers and Store Buyers: Fat Women Want Nice Clothes Too!

2010-01-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

My personal style would be best described as classic and sort of feminine, except for when I'm running around in my favorite old comfy jeans and tennis shoes; ) I've learned from experience that buying well fitting, high quality clothing works best for me; the other stuff is usually uncomfortable and wears to rags in a matter of months. You can read more about my ideas on clothing here.

I'm sure all women, no matter their size experience difficulties finding just the right item of clothing that fits well, but as plus sized lady, I have the darnedest time finding higher quality, well made items in my size. Most of the time when I am in the plus sized section of a regular store, I am first appalled at the extremely limited selection in general, and then by the poor quality of those few items. What makes designers and buyers think that plus sized women want to wear something a kin to a printed gunny sack? Yes, I am fat, but that doesn't mean I don't want to have some sense of style. Honestly, do these people think we don't want to wear stylish, good quality, clothing that makes us feel beautiful just because we are overweight?

I refuse to buy anything that does not make me feel great when I'm wearing it.

As a result, my wardrobe sourcing is pretty limited. I've had very good luck with some tops from CJ Banks; many of their skirts have worn fabulously for me for several years. I order all of my slacks from Lands' End. Lands' End pants are a little pricey, but they fit well and wear very well. I'm on the shorter side, so I really appreciate the fact the Lands' End custom hems many of their slacks at no charge. I work in a professional setting, and I like to wear the no-iron button down shirts that look fresh from the cleaners all day long, for years I've purchased the Jones New York line of shirts. Again, not cheap, but these shirts fit me perfectly and still look fabulous after 3 years of wear (that's 156 washings, folks!). I love shopping thrift stores. Most of my finds are work clothes for my husband, but every once in a while I find a beautiful CJ Bank's skirt and that makes my day.

Even if I were thin I would still value good quality, non trendy clothing but...

I am not a clothes horse by nature; I've never had the desire to buy the latest, greatest anything, including clothing. I'm fairly certain, that if I were to drop 100 pounds overnight I would not run out and start buying cute clothes just for the sake buying them. But, let's face it, whenever I'm in the plus sized clothing section, I find myself looking over to the "regular" clothes and wishing there was some way I could fit into one of those cute blouses or pretty skirts. The possibility of me ever actually fitting into any of the clothes on the regular rack feels like a dream that will never come true.

The glimmer of hope.

There's a finally a glimmer of hope at the end the tunnel for me! This afternoon I went shopping at Sears to use up a gift card I got for Christmas. When I started on this weight loss journey, I was a size 24. A few months ago, you read about how ecstatic I was to move down to a size 22. The 22's are now pretty loose (can pull them down without unzipping) and the trousers I'm wearing today need a belt in the worst way. Right now I'm borderline being able to fit into and zip up a pair of 20's depending on the brand and style of course. It feels like it's taking for-ever to move down to a size 20 after my fast jump from 24 to 22.

This afternoon, I tried on several pairs of Levi's in size 20. Drumroll please............ AND they all fit and could be zipped up! I'm tickled pink! I'll be honest with you, I was still wistfully looking at the cute spring tops (yes, spring tops are out now?!) in the regular section. But today was different. Today I had hope.

Southwest Chicken Salad

2010-01-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite "meal" salads is Southwest Chicken Salad; it's filled with lots of protein, a variety of veggies and a little southwest kick. All that flavor and crunch together make this salad a "must make". It's especially good as a light supper in the summer; for those evenings when it's too hot to cook.

Southwest Chicken Salad

4 cups torn romaine lettuce
1 cup cooked diced chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup black beans -- well drained
1/2 cup corn -- well drained
1 small tomato, diced
1 small red onion, diced
Crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Dressing:

Sorry, but I don't have any measurements on this, but I usually mix Hidden Valley Light Ranch Dressing with medium salsa or picante sauce. Sometimes I add a little light sour cream, or taco seasonings such as ground chili powder and cumin. It all tastes good, try any flavor combination you like!

This post is linked to TMTT.

Third Fill Update and a NSV

2010-01-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a week and a day since I had my third fill. I delayed writing anything because I wanted to wait a bit and see how this one panned out.

I am noticing a teeny bit more difference than last time, still not full restriction like I had for several weeks after surgery, but it's something! I'm just hoping it lasts for a little bit longer this time. This fill put me up to 9cc's in my 14cc band. The nurse at my surgeon's office says I'm now at the point where I'll need to get fills in increments smaller than 2 cc's. When they first start out adjusting the band, they can do bigger doses, but now I need to go about 1cc at a time and then down to .5 cc's.

That's a little bit of a bother because my surgeon's office and the hospital are an hour away, and that means a lot of driving. At least it's a nice drive in good weather and it's not like I didn't know this going in : )

The one thing I noticed straight off from this fill is that I need to eat slower now. Even though I take smaller bites and chew semi-well; I still need to make sure I don't take one bite before the other one is completely swallowed. I've noticed that some foods feel like I'm swallowing a lump in my throat if I don't pause between bites.

Hmmm... pausing between bites. That's a new thing for me. I have a sneaky feeling that If I had been very good at that before surgery, I may not have gotten fat enough to need weight loss surgery. I would've gotten so tired of taken an hour to eat what I normally gobbled down in 10 minutes that I would've just gave up. Life's funny like that ; )

Now, on to why I had this surgery, meeting my weight loss goals! I've been doing a lot (well, not a lot, more like 10 minutes, but I feel better saying "a lot") of extra exercise to combat the weight gain I normally experience at the holidays due to inactivity and richer foods. By doing the this I managed to hold on to that 1lb loss and keep it at an even 25lbs gone.

One of the benefits of this increased exercise (and possibly the 25lbs lost) is that it appears my fat is "rearranging" it's self -- if that make sense. Even though I haven't lost any more weight, my clothes are starting to fit better. Sunday I put on a beautiful berry coloured v-necked shirt that I have not worn in 3 years (yes, it is still stylish) and it looked so good. I couldn't believe how good it felt to be able to get into that shirt! What a self esteem booster! I wore it to church with a sweater. It's still a smidgen too tight on the sides when I sit down so I'm going to give it another 2-3 weeks before I start wearing it to work with no sweater.

Okay, So I'm Getting Another Fill

2009-12-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

The fill that I had a couple of weeks ago made a teensy, tiny difference but not a whole lot once I got past the first few days. According to my surgeon, once you lose the initial swelling from surgery and the fat around your stomach shrinks from loosing weight, the restriction on your stomach loosens. So on with the filling process.

I'm scheduled to go and have another 2 cc's (bringing me up to 9) put in under fluoroscopy this Thursday. If my hubby doesn't get called out on any emergencies I'm going to see if he would like to go with me. It's an hour away, and it would be nice to have some company on the drive. His busiest time is during the summer and the only time he was able free up was two days for my surgery. He's a little curious about what all goes on when I go to the doctor.

NSV

2009-12-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

George and I hosted my side of the family for dinner on Christmas Eve. We had such a good time getting to visit with everyone and enjoying a nice meal.

On the way out, my sister stopped me and whispered in my ear to me how she could really tell that I had lost weight. It was so funny because she kept apologizing for not saying anything sooner, she said she didn't know where her eyes were before, but she really noticed it that night. She's so sweet; she kept whispering to me, like she thought I might be embarrassed or something like that. Oh goodness! Little does she know that if I lost enough weight I would proudly march in a parade naked so that everyone could appreciate all the Big Mac's I didn't eat.

This was especially cheerful news for me to hear, because I'd been holding steady at 24lbs lost for several weeks now and then managed to lose one more pound. I was beginning to get a little discouraged thinking that is all I was ever going to lose; it was nice that she noticed.

Healthy Stuff for Free

2009-12-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Quality Health just came out with their new line of free winter samples! Go here to sign up.

Good Fill = Restriction

2009-12-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

After my fill on Monday I dutifully did my two days of liquids and am now on anything but a big 'ol hunk of meat type foods for a day or two.

Today when eating my oatmeal with nuts and cranberries I noticed some of what many banders refer to as "restriction".

Let me explain:

Usually 2-3 mornings a week I make a 1/4 of dry steel cut oats with a 1/2 cup of milk and then add in a little fruit and/or nuts. Once the oatmeal is all puffed up and and the fruit and nuts are in there it's about 1.25 cups of food. Normally I would eat all of this and it would keep me full until close to noon. This is exactly what I made for breakfast this morning.

But today was unusual -- I was full after eating only 1/2 of the oatmeal mixture (3/4 cup). Wow is this a big deal to me! You should've seen me this morning. I was all but squealing with delight to all the girls in the office. Too funny.

But with restriction comes some responsibility....

Now that my quantity of food is reduced, it is even more important that I make wise choices.

I also need to make sure that I do not overeat as doing that routinely can lead to complications with the band. Feeling full with a band is quite a bit different than feeling full without the band. It's hard to explain, but the best way to describe it is that I feel a weird feeling (doesn't hurt) up high right under my breast bone. I don't necessarily "feel" full, but it feels like I wouldn't want to eat anything more. It's not like Thanksgiving-give-me-stretchy-waist-pants feeling at all. It's just my stomach saying -- hey! You've had enough, stop!

I need to make sure I chew my food well and eat slowly. Oh, how difficult these two things are for me! I grew up with brothers that would take the food off my plate if I didn't gobble it down quickly -- that habit stuck. From what I understand, with a properly adjusted band, you can get into lots of trouble not chewing well and eating slowly, so I've really got to force myself to slow down and chew.

Healthy Pasta Salad That Tastes Great

2009-12-15T17:12:00.000-08:00

I betcha you didn't think there was such a thing as a good-for-you (or at least not bad for you) creamy pasta salad that tastes great, did you? Well there is!

In the past, I have always made pasta salad with regular pasta. A couple of years ago we made the switch to all whole wheat and now we actually prefer the taste. The secret to making this such a flavorful salad is the Kraft dressing -- it really makes the flavor pop.

8 ozs Whole Wheat Elbow Macaroni -- cooked
1/4 cup diced cucumber
1/4 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup frozen green peas -- defrosted
1/4 cup diced carrot
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/3 to 1/2 cup light Miracle Whip (depends on how wet you like your pasta salad)
2 Tbsp Kraft Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing

Mix all of the above together and let chill for several hours.