Take that Dr. Poon!

I am jumping the gun a little bit (a pound early) but I am now at my lowest weight when I was with Dr. Poon.  Susanne even mentioned in our last session that I weigh less now than when I first met her in regards to the Poon Diet.

I know that he has the best of intentions and others have had great success with his plan but it wasn't just for me.  As I have learned that having someone tell me "no" causes me to obsess about that thing until I get it.  So what was on Dr. Poon's "never to have again" list? Some examples are:
-Bananas
-Mango
-Pineapple
-Marshmallows
-Potatoes
-Yams
-Snap peas
-Refined sugars

So I decided that to "celebrate" I had a mango greek yogurt and a fresh banana.  I know I am a party animal! Believe it or not I was a bit malicious when I was packing my lunch this morning.  I slipped the banana in my lunch bag and thought "take that Dr. Poon, I lost the weight and I can still eat a banana!"

While looking on the 'net for the list of "forbidden/banned foods "I came his blog comparing all the different type of "diets" out there and this is what he said about my surgery: "Bariatric surgery:  Costs lots of money and the morbidity and mortality rate is high."  I can understand that the higher BMI patients would have issues but I wasn't that high, just had co-morbidities that caused me concern.  As for the cost?  Well those darn Opti shakes (*yuck) were a pretty penny, but the surgery was covered by our government health plan.

So I am glad that I took the journey with Dr. Poon, but I am even happier with my choice to have the surgery. 

More bend in the learning curve....

Easy go, easy come.  I know it is backwards but that is the only I can explain the 5 pounds I have gained from Monday morning.

I am getting my protein in each day, I am drinking lots of fluids but most likely not enough, and I think it is what I ate.

On the OH forum, they say that it is easy to slip into old habits and I think I might have done that this week.  I know I have the mindset of eating what I want but in smaller portions and I have been keeping to that.  I think it is the type of food I have been eating. 

On Monday DentisT, Nash and I get together for a binge watch of a show called Once Upon a Time on Netflix.  So with that, we eat dinner while we watch the episodes.  This time around I thought I would make ceasar salad to go with some pizza from the second job.  I ordered an ultra-thin crust that was well cooked so that the little yeastie buddies would be well deactivated for the tiny tummy.  Well I had ¾ of a slice and then the toppings off a second one that had bbq sauce and honey garlic sauce.  At this point the tummy troll grumbled so I called it quits.

Tuesday I made chicken with swiss cheese and sliced ham on it.  I was craving mashed potatoes and I found that I was eating that first and not the chicken.  Mind you the tummy didn’t like the swiss cheese since I had a slice while I was making supper and it didn’t sit too nicely.  I found out talking to others on the OH board that the drier cheeses are tougher to get through.  So I guess the cheese just sat there and really didn’t get digested.

That leaves yesterday…..I was in a webinar sitting at my desk and I found that the mindless eating set in.  I had a few sunchips and a few squares of chocolate that I bought at the food court.  This was 1.5 hours after I had my installment of Swiss Chalet chicken and some pudding not the typical 3.

So today I am sticking to what I call “pure proteins” (milk, chicken salad) and staying away from the “white stuff’ and I don’t mean snow or cocaine LOL

I guess I need the smack to realise that things are proportional to the tummy now.  Before surgery, eating like this wouldn’t have mattered in these small amounts but it does with a small tummy.

Well I'll be darned!

I had a session with Susanne and she informed met that I now weigh less than when I first started seeing her while at Dr. Poon!

One thing we talked about was the thoughts of "getting my money's worth" out of something.  I am finding that since I am a "life long member of the BLT group" I feel like I am wasting food.  If I am craving a square of chocolate (as an example) I feel that after I have taken the square, the rest of the bar will sit in the cupboard and I am not sure when the next craving will for chocolate will hit.  So what happens to that bar? It can either sit or be eaten.  But in my mind I don't want to waste that $1 so I feel compelled to eat it.

I talked to the DH when I got home and he said that I shouldn't fret over it since it is only a dollar.  He never once has said to me that I was wasteful when it came to food and most of the time he eats leftovers or they go to the girls as a special supper.  So I just need to put the food away and not worry about.  I guess that will be my goals until the next session with Susanne.

As of Family Day I am officially down 45 pounds!

The part the gets me is that I started this journey I was the 250-300 range and looking at the chart below I well above the curve of weight loss.  I am not complaining by no stretch of the imagination, but it is nice to see that I am excelling at something LOL

Expected Weight Loss after Gastric Bypass Surgery
	Average **EBWL %	For patients weighing 200-250#	For patients weighing 250-300#	For patients weighing 300-400#	For patients weighing 400-500#
10 days-2 weeks	10%	10#	12-12#	10-30#	10-25#
by 6 weeks	15-20%	15-25#	15-25#	25-35#	25-45#
by 3 months	25%	25-35#	25-35#	35-55#	35-60#
by 6 months	50%	35-45#	45-60#	50-80#	50-90#
by 18 months	50-8%	70+ #	80+#	100+#	100+#

I had to venture out for some skirts for the office this weekend after my session with Susanne.  After 2 hours and 5 stores later I came home with 2 more skirts.  Well my woes were on FB and DentisT decided to raid her closet.  She though I was smaller than I am since she brought over some skirts that were 2 sizes smaller than me!  So I kept one to keep as a reference and I told her that once I get onto that one she can bring back the other ones for me to wear LOL  Also Mom has heard about it all and she has someone that is "tall like me" that is clearing out her closet and has some jeans that Mom is bringing over next time she comes. 

I guess I will need to start purging the closets soon.

Well that was nice.....

I know when we have surgery the results are hardly noticed by us since we see us every day.

Things that have accumulated in the past 24 hours made me realise that I have lost weight.

-I tried to get dressed yesterday morning to find that one of my "go to" skirts for the office is too big.  I nearly walked out it when it started to slip down my hips. So I went into the other room and  rooted around for a something to wear and came across a jean skirt in my "too small yet" pile and it fit!

-I headed to the Chiropractor from my monthly adjustment and he said "I can tell you are losing weight, I can feel it in you neck." My neck?  I guess we all had to start somewhere LOL

-I tried an old favourite recipe last night called "pineapple beans" and I was shocked on how sweet it was.  I normally would have eaten bowls of it until I exploded.  But after my "chew, chew, chew" through dinner I could only get just over a 1/3 of a cup into me.  But I am happy to say that the pineapple didn't cause any issues.

-So after the skirt shortage, I decided to head to the town mall to find out that there isn't a simple long skirt to be found for me in the whole place!  I guess I will have to venture out to nearby to see if I can find anything.

So with all of this going on I stepped on the scale this morning to see that I have lost another 40 pounds (by a mere 2 ounces but I will take it) so I am 44% way to my personal goal!

Well that was embarassing.........

Yesterday I spent the last of my Target gift card that I got from at Christmas.  With them closing the stores up here so stuff is off from 10%-30% off the original prices.  They had the sales start last Thursday and I was expecting some slim pickings after the weekend but it wasn't too bad.  So I picked up "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", Monty Python's "Holy Grail" and "The Princess Bride" and some dog bones.  I think that I am done with Target now since I really couldn't find much in clothes and  shoes but did find a handbag in red at Christmas and went back and bought the same one in brown at the sales.

Then I had dinner with Curl at Montana's since Miss Mel-Mel was at the groomers for a few hours and they were in the same parking lot.  I was looking through the menu and I found nothing that really jumped out at me that I really had a craving for to eat.  I have been finding lately that I go in waves of cravings.  After surgery, I couldn't get enough egg salad or yogurt.  This time around it is Swiss Chalet chicken with the house sauce as well as Kozy Kabin tapioca pudding. So I settled on a kid's size chicken breast and asked for steamed veggies.  I KNOW!!!! I ASKED FOR VEGGIES!  I am noticing after surgery I don't mind steamed broccoli or cauliflower.  Where as before I would smother them in cheese sauce, butter or ranch dip.

We had a good chat over dinner for a few hours and we stated talking about my surgery and how things have been going.  Well I started to tell her about lunch with Hicks and how I whipped out my card like a pro to the waitress.  I was going to show Curl the card and I went to reach for my wallet.  That is when I found out I didn't have it.  O_o I started to panic, just because of the fact I couldn't pay for my kid's meal or get Miss Mel-Mel from the groomers!

Lucky for me Curl was an awesome friend and said that my $11 was on her and she could Mel's grooming bill on her CC.  I was almost in tears when we had this conversation and it good to know that I have such a good friend!

So we sprung Mel from the groomers and I headed home doing the speed limit in the DH's truck so I wouldn't get pulled over and the DH said my wallet wasn't in the car where my purse was sitting earlier this afternoon.

So that means there is one place left.  My desk at the office from when I went to Target. Lo and behold there is was when I came back in this morning.

Stepping up

Wow, tonight was a great leap for me.

At BWLSSG Tim mentioned that he hasn't eaten any red meats since his surgery since it doesn't agree with him.  Also SunshineHerder is afraid of salad since her blockage almost a year ago.

Now that I am onto whole foods, I tried a few things I was afraid of; carrots and steak.

I had some parboiled carrots with some chicken at lunch time and I really chewed and chewed and it went down well.  I was concerned that with it being as fibrous as they were they would case a blockage.  I waited patiently for the Tummy Troll to kick in and start digesting.  Well he started and off he went.  Phew, another thing to strike off the list.

Next up was steak art supper.  It was a nice piece that I ended up cutting off the DH steak before I started cooking it.  Just a simple dusting of salt, pepper and onion powder and cooked to well done.  I started off cutting it up into the little bites that I am to do and chewed and chewed.  I was surprised that after 40 chews (yes I count) that I didn't get it to the "applesauce" consistency that I was to get.  The closest I could get to was a fibrous mush so I swallowed and waited.

No negative signs so I tried again.

Same result of forever chewing and next thing I hear is the Tummy Troll digesting.  I am happy to say that 2 hours after eating, I am posting about it without and side affects!  Another item off the list.

Next adventure?  Perhaps some fresh fruit that has the peel or lettuce.

Really hungry

I had a root canal done and I was torn on whether to eat before I headed out since I new it was going to take 2 hours at 5 pm.  But then I thought that I didn't have time to brush my teeth so I didn't want to make my mouth dirty so I passed on the eating.  So when I got there was hungry but stuck it out.

Well my dentist likes to use orajel before he started the freezing which is great until I swallowed. Well with the tiny tummy, there was enough orajel in my saliva to stop the hunger.  This was just odd in my mind.  I didn't think that such something this would have such an affect on the tummy.

I think about how food affects my tummy or how pills affect my tummy but not the contents of my saliva would. Who knew?

WOOT woot!

A day of victories.....started into a new weight decade (40's, 50's, 60's etc ) so that means I am 35 pounds gone! I tried on a pair of pants from the summer to wear out for lunch and they finally fit properly!

I was doing a happy dance in the bathroom and the DH didn't say much.  So I figured he was downstairs or far enough away from the bathroom that he didn't hear me.  No biggy since I opened up the bathroom door and found him in the computer room replying to an email.

That is okay since I had a little dance with myself and celebrated.

They like me!

I had my 3 month probation review at the office and I had a pretty good chat with my manager.

Items that were brought up were:

-I have great communication skills with those in the office and out. 

-I have taken on knowledge of the new software very well 

-I am willing to try to solve issues before asking others which they thought was great.

-I was also told that they enjoy me at the office and was wondering how I was dealing with things.  Well I tol them that Nikki is the one to answer that since she is the one that I look to for signs of things I don't see.  If I am in stressed enviroment Nikki will pace and try to get me out.  WIth Nikki sleeping at this office I said it was a great example how comfortable I am.  I mentioned that when I worked at the other place that Nikki would be so exahusted from the day that she would climb onto the gray couch and sleep right though suppertime. The manager was surprised at this, but it was truth.

So when everything was said, they have put forth a proposal to have me for a fourth day a week, but we need to see if it approved.  So I am not counting my chickens quite yet.

Follow-up

I had my 1 month follow up at St. Mike's and I was looking forward to meeting up with Fiona as well.  It just happened thah she was the appointment after mine so we made an afternoon of it.

I picked her up at here place ad we made it to St. Mike's with time spare so we hit the cafeteria for lunch and was able to introduce Fiona to spanikopita since we split one and enjoyed quite a chat.

We headed upstairs and found out that we were normal, our aches and pains were normal and we didn't need any further follow up surgeries.

I think we had a great time and I look forward to hanging out with her more often.

Another trip around the sun

Well for my birthday I thought I would keep it low keys since I had the big BBQ in then summer so I just wanted to spend it with the DH.

We started off at IKEA since the table my brother built needed some different chairs than what we were using.  The table is sitting a bit higher than a regular table since the 17" chairs we have has us sitting with the table top at chest level.

So I suggested that we hit lunch at the IKEA restaurant and I ordered off the kid's menu!  I don't think that I could have eaten all 10 meatballs that came as an adult portion.  So the kids portion was 5 meatballs, mashed potatoes, yogurt and a milk.  Not bad for $4 LOL I got through a few meatballs and some spuds, I took the yogurt home and called it lunch.

We found some nice chairs that folded up so we applied the store credit we had from earlier and I apologised to Nikki that she had to travel with the chairs in the back.

From IKEA we headed to the movie theatre in Oakville to see a movie since I wanted to try out the VIP seating that they offered.  Boy was I glad that I did!  Look at how comfy this chair is!



So we paid a few extra bucks for the comfy chair and no one wasn't allowed in unless you were 19 since they had chair side services that offer alcohol and food. This is great since I didn't have to deal with young kids with their phones or dealing with them staring at Nikki and I since we were in the front row again.

We saw The Imitation Game and the DH mentioned that we were the youngest ones in the theatre but I didn't mind if I got a night away from younger kids. Yes this makes me sound old, but I will take the peace and quiet.

As we were leaving the DH looked down and said "look at the commoners leaving their theatre" and I said that I don't think I could slum by going to a regular theatre again LOL.  Mind you haven't seen a movie since then but when we talk about going again I ask if it for a VIP seat :)

Christmas with my family

My family is pretty relaxed on getting together over the holidays so I really didn't mind that we get together until after New Year's.

If I was smart enough I should have waited to buy the turkey and the Christmas presents haha.  But as it was I was able to snag the last frozen turkey that I normally get at the grocer's.  At this point I was going to pay whatever it was just to get it.  I was able to get the meal all pulled it together for when they were to get here for 2.  We had quite a bit of mashed foods since I was just getting into the "soft foods" stage of my recovery.  After all the cooking we did, my mom mentions that we didn't have peas.  O_o  I guess I will have to make a point of making them again when she is over next LOL

My brother was great and built us a custom table for the kitchen since I always enjoyed having meals at a table so the DH and I can catch up with each other instead of in front of the tv.  I think it looks great since my brother was able to match the colour of the stain to my cupboards since he took a drawer front at Thanksgiving.



Now I just need some chairs...........