2/25/2010

A Day In My Belly:

Breakfast-

Coffee

Lunch-

Pure Protein Bar- Chocolate Peanut Butter

Raw almonds and walnuts (6 pieces total)

Dinner-

Chicken- 1/3 breast (pre-cooked mesquite chicken from Sams... So Good!)

Black beans- 20 beans?

Fire roasted bell peppers- few small slices

2% cheddar- just a sprinkling

Salsa

Oopsie-

1 Sugar Free Russell Stover Marshmallow Egg

Protein Packed

I've been eating a lot of this lately.....

Lowfat Cottage Cheese

It's lowfat, decently low carb, and high in protein. It's great alongside some vegetables, fruit, or sprinkled with some cayenne or just salt and pepper. I think my absolute favorite way to eat cottage cheese is with slices of home grown tomatoes with salt and pepper. It's the best!

My local grocery stores charge about 3 bucks (sometimes more) for a 16 oz container of this stuff. I have found that I can get this huge 3 lb tub of it at Sams Club for less than 5 bucks. Buying in bulk obviously makes more sense. When I have it on hand I usually eat cottage cheese once a day and end up making my Carb Man (Carbohydrate loving husband) some lasagna with it. It's great stuff.

Anyways, that's my bit of advice for the day.

Happy Eating!

4-Month Update

Dec. 5 was my 4 month Surgiversary and I'm down 98 since June. So exciting!

I'm still only eating two small meals a day. Sometimes I struggle to get the equivalent of one egg down while other times I feel like I eat a ton. (A ton for me is still less than 1/2 cup of food.) Funny how my perspective has completely changed.

Here are a couple of photos...

I mentioned hair loss in my last post. Here's proof that it's falling out. This is the hair that came out with one comb through following a shower.

I'm also having to clean out the bathtub drain on a daily basis now.

Can you see my 6 incisions? They're looking fabulous, aren't they?!!?!

Now if only I could get rid of those

darn stretch marks.

(Mirrored Image)

Life Savers!

I'm very much a fan of the Minute Maid Light beverages. They're quite tasty and a quick way for me to get in some liquids. The lemonade only has 5 calories in the entire can and the other 3 flavors have 10 calories. The cherry limeade is probably my least favorite, but it's still really good.

What would I do without cheese? These little things are fantastic. Each individual serving has 50 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, and 6 grams of protein. They're perfect for portion control, sack lunches, and an on-the-go meal.
We've gotta have fat. My fat no longer comes from tortilla chips and queso, but from wonderful things like seeds and nuts. I feel that I'm kind of a nut snob, but I gave these a whirl. They're amazing! They were roasted and salted perfectly. I love that this mixed nut combination includes walnuts.
This is a ZERO calorie chai. Yes, you're supposed to blend it 50/50 with milk, but I break the rules. I add a little bit of half-n-half (1 1/2 Tbsp. (30 calories)) and lots of water. It mostly tastes like chai tea with cream versus a chai tea latte, but it's so much healthier.

This will make a great dessert. 2 tablespoons of the Reddi Whip has 5 calories. Well, I can't physically eat much so I figured I can responsibly enjoy some of this. Bones will have to help me eat the banana too because there's no way I could eat an entire one myself. I will absolutely savor my tiny bites though. ; )

I never tried a bread and butter pickle until this year. Can you believe it? Well, I found these wonderful no sugar added bread and butter pickles at my local grocery store. They were on sale for 2 bucks and I had a 50 cent off coupon. I stocked up! They're sweet like dessert and have the perfect crunch. Yum!

I'm an Aldi shopper. This deli meat is budget friendly. I get a whole pound of deli sliced chicken breast for less than 3 bucks. I enjoy taking 1 slice and rolling it around a slice of 2% American cheese or around some low-fat cream cheese. They're great hot or cold.
I found these at my local grocery store. I figure I'll allow myself 1 for Thanksgiving. I plan on adding some sugar-free Torani pumpkin syrup to ricotta and then stuffing it in one of these little guys and then top it off with a squirt of Reddi Whip. We'll see how that goes.

I know it's not on my list of foods I can eat, but it's better than all the other sweets and carbs that will be everywhere I look on the Holiday's.

What a find! I'm looking forward to trying this with my next batch of chicken, tuna, or egg salad. This was on sale at my local grocery store for 1.50 and I had a 50 cent off coupon. I only paid 1 buck for this. Excellent!
I've NEVER been a fan of sweet pickles, but at the price I paid I figured I'd try 'em out again. These are the no sugar added kind too so they're much healthier for me. I love that they're in single serving packages. I'm guessing I'll probably get several servings out of each little package though. Funny how that works now. lol! Good thing they don't expire for a really long time.

LOVE these! I highly recommend them. They count as a fat. I only eat about 4-6 at a time. That's 1 fat serving. Fat never tasted so good. Mmm....

Today's Menu

7am Breakfast: 1 Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar

12pm Lunch: 1 single serving (pre-packaged) of Reduced Fat Cabot Cheddar Cheese

7pm Dinner: Deli Roll-ups (deli sliced chicken rolled up with....... 1. 2% american cheese; 2. low-fat cream cheese), Celery with peanut butter

I went to the store today and really stocked up. We're just about ready for Thanksgiving. That's wonderful! With the Holiday's creeping up I want to make sure I'm prepared for everything. I've never been much of a sweet eater, but that didn't matter around the holiday's. I purchased some ricotta cheese in case I feel like indulging a bit. According to Shelly (my hero) at theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com, you can add 1 tsp. of sugar-free Torani syrup to ricotta cheese to sweeten it up and make it a scrumptious dessert. We'll see how that goes. I don't have any experience with ricotta so we'll see how that goes.

I also bought a can of fat free whipped cream. It's only 5 calories per serving. I figure I can top a few banana slices with it or something if I feel the need. That'll be a nice treat.

I broke down and purchased another pair of jeans tonight. They're Nine West size 14. Not too shabby! I also got a new coat.. size medium!

Waddling around...

I went for a "run" yesterday. It may have looked more like a jog or a waddle, but it actually went pretty well. I ran just over a mile and walked 2 miles. Not too shabby for my first time out. I'd love to be able to run 3 miles without stopping by Christmas. It's a tough goal, but I must have something to shoot for.

When I woke up this morning I was pretty sore. I only walked 3 miles today. I hope go for another run by the end of the week.

I'm in the final stretch of my soft proteins only stage. Zucchini, tomatoes, and green beans sound so amazing right now. It's been a month since I've had any vegetables. It wasn't easy because they're my favorite! Just 1 more day of this and then I'll get my best food friends back. I won't be able to eat more than a few small nibbles, but that's alright. I just have to remember to eat protein first!!! Yes, 2/3 of my meal will be a lean protein and the other 1/3 will be a veggie. At least I'll finally be able to eat shrimp, lean ground turkey, chicken breast, sirloin steak, etc. It's about time!

1st & 2nd Post-Op Meals

My first 2 weeks post-op consisted of a clear liquid diet. I know it sounds horrible, but it wasn't so bad. Herbox broth, Smart Water, Crystal Light, and sugar-free sno cones were my drinks of choice. I'm pretty sick of the sweet stuff right now, so I've switched to unsweetened herbal iced tea. It's delicious! I didn't struggle with hunger at all during the 2 weeks. Thank goodness!

Here are a couple of pics of my first post-op meal. There is a before and after pic. I only had about 1/3 of an egg on my plate to begin with.

I never felt full, but I felt content. I sure didn't want to eat so much that I tasted it twice.... if you know what I mean.

This was my 2nd post-op dinner. I had fat-free refried beans with 2% sharp cheddar cheese. I gave most of the cheese to my dog. He loves that stuff!

In order to get more protein, I also made some tuna salad. I used tuna from a pouch with lots of low-fat mayo and some mustard. The mayo and mustard were to help it go down. I still seemed to have a bit of a problem with it though. I would chew, chew, and chew, but the mayo and mustard would leave and I'd be left with the gritty tuna in my mouth. Lets just say that I preferred the refried beans, but at least I tried to get more protein down.

Here are my before and after pics of my post-op meal #2. I'm doing better!

What did you have for your first few post-op meals? How much did you eat?

**** Down 52 lbs. since 06/14/2009****

2 week Surgiversary!

Today is the 2 week Surgiversary of my Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. Everything has been going great. The dermabond is almost completely gone and my wounds look like they're healing well. I've been getting in all of my water and taking my multi-vitamins. I still have some soreness where they pulled my stomach out, but it's only normal. It's not even bad enough for me to bother taking pain meds at this point. It's just a little uncomfortable and annoying.

I ate for the first time in over 2 weeks. I was pretty scared, but everything went well. I had about 1/5 of a scrambled egg with a sprinkle of 2% sharp cheddar cheese and a dab of low-fat mayo and mustard. I always liked cheese, but it never tasted so good.

Tomorrow night I plan on having some fat-free refried beans with a sprinkle of the 2% sharp cheddar cheese. We'll see how that goes.

I'll be posting post-op healing belly pics soon and sharing more of my pre-op story.