The Importance of Protein

At my recent appointment with my nutritionist, we talked about the fact that I am not getting enough protein.  I am supposed to get at least 65 grams of protein per day and I am averaging less than half that.  Malnutrition is always a possibility after gastric bypass, and I knew that going in, but I don't think I fully understood what would happen were I to be malnourished.  

Because let's face it:  I think I'm invincible.

But then I went on vacation and noticed that my hair was coming out by the handful in the shower and there were strands of espresso hair covering the bathroom floor.  It's disturbing.  I'm fortunate, though.  I've always had an abundance of super thick hair, so despite the heavy loss, it's not noticeable on my scalp, i.e. I don't look like my hair is thinning.

Despite the appearance, I decided it was time to get back on the bandwagon.  I haven't been eating properly (and it's not just the lack of protein).  I hadn't been exercising.  I don't drink enough low-calorie beverages (or really, any beverages for that matter).  And my weight loss is stagnating because of it (and yeah, the tequila didn't help, either).

So last night, I stopped into GNC and picked up unflavored whey protein powder.  At 110 calories and 21 grams of protein per scoop, this will give me a great boost.  Today, after some experimentation, I determined that a half scoop to my normal serving of oatmeal was the right combination.  I added the half scoop to a packet of HMR hot cereal (with apples and currants - yum!) for a breakfast that has 265 calories and a whopping 21 grams of protein.  It's actually so filling that after 30 minutes, I still have a significant amount left to finish.


I also picked up a complete multivitamin because we discovered that the chewables I purchased were not, in fact, complete.  Sure, they had the vitamins I needed, but not the minerals, so that was exacerbating the situation.  There wasn't much selection and I don't like horse pills, so I only purchased a 4-pack.  We'll see if I like them once I get them down.


I thought it was some fluke that I felt like exercising earlier this week, but apparently not.  This morning I woke up with a burning desire to walk/jog the two mile loop at Breakheart Reservation.  It was such a beautiful morning (temps in the high 50s/low 60s, full of sunshine) and I had a great time, much to my surprise.

Losing Weight, Losing Track

It seems it's been a month since I've had anything to post here.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Of course, I've continued to lose weight and in fact, the week before I left for vacation (or like a week ago, basically), I'd finally gotten below the 200 mark.  It felt amazing to be able to say that before I went to my family reunion, especially because the last time I was here was only for a day or two and was way back in 2007 and prior to that, it'd been when I was a teenager. 

I'm hovering between a 40-43 pound loss at the moment (in three months) and I'm starting to realize that I really do need to start exercising now.  Not because the fact that I'm not is hindering my weight loss (it's not) but because as I'm losing the weight, I'm finding that I'm not appreciating the previously firm (while fat) parts.

I found out that the guy who used to teach the Zumba classes I was attending a while back, actually bought the studio and is now running it himself.  For $28/month I can attend one Zumba and one Yoga class per week.  So I'm thinking of starting out with that and then maybe adding hip hop at Springstep or maybe joining a rowing league in the spring.  All I know is that I've got to do something.

I've packed up four bags of clothing to give away and I'm sure that I will have more once I finish unpacking from the trip.  I know of at least two jean skirts, a dress and some tshirts that are now too big.  I've been collecting clothes from other people as well and supplementing with small purchases from Target and Marshalls to just get me through to the next smallest size.  I've gone from a size 20 to a 14 and went from a XXL to a L.  I have clothes in my closet now (since I've been collecting them) that are 6 to 16.  I never knew what that felt like.  I always thought it was stupid to hold onto things that will never fit you again, but in my case, they just don't fit me yet.

I wasn't eating consistently while I was on vacation.  I didn't have a big choice in what I ate because we all (about 25 of us at times) ate together for most of our meals and there were a lot of things I'd normally eat (say, like oatmeal) that we didn't have in the house.  I got sick two nights in a row at dinner because I'd had pork (against my better judgment).  And of course, I was drinking tequila, so I will probably not see any losses on the scale for the next week or so.

I did try to be a little active while I was gone - walking the beach and swimming laps in the indoor pool - and that all probably just offset all of the unhealthy foods I was eating plus the booze.  My first meal upon getting home?  Rice (brown) and beans (pink). 

This week while we were away, it finally hit me that I'm losing a lot of hair.  I know this is because I'm not getting enough protein and because I need to replace my daily multivitamin for a complete multivitamin.  On the upside, I've got more than enough to spare, but I really do need to make sure that I'm getting enough of the proper nutrition.  They all warned me this could happen, so I'm not terribly surprised by it.

Official weigh-ins begin again on Wednesday!

Week 9 Results

Wow, I've had an exhausting weekend!  I logged about 600 miles on my car driving between Boston-NYC-Provincetown, MA-Boston, but it was a great time and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  Even if that means I'm completely sleep deprived.

As of this morning, I am down 36 pounds! 

Man, I can't wait to get down to that nice round 4-0 number.  Soon, soon, I know.

Now that Labor Day has passed, it's officially boot season.  This makes me so happy!  What doesn't make me happy is that with this weight loss, I now need to find both a new fall jacket and a winter one as well.  I'm going to hold off on the winter one for now, but have to start looking with some seriousness for something to wear in the fall.

Also, I have to wrap my brain around sizing and what I am/am not anymore.  I got caught in a rain storm yesterday in P-town and jumped into a store to buy a hoodie.  XL was swimming on me, and of course it was my first inclination.  I bought a L but it too wasn't really a good fit either.  C'est la vie!

Week 8 Results!

It's 6:35 AM on Thursday morning.  I'm humming Cross the Line and I'm running through the list of things I still need to pack in advance of our trip to NYC this weekend for Electric Zoo (a musical festival for electronic music junkies).  Of course, I realized I hadn't checked in for week 8 yet, so here goes.

I am officially down 33 pounds!

I've decided that rather than continuing to post weekly on Facebook, I'll save my friends the ad nauseum updates and instead post every 10 pounds or so.  I'll continue updating here weekly and if I were even techy, I'd figure out how to do a table in HTML so I could post my weekly weigh-ins on one page.  But I'm not.  And I'm not going to post it if it's not readable anyway.

According to my surgeon, I'm on track.  Look, there's no way I was going to lose 30 pounds a month when my starting weight was just over the qualifying amount.  So 33 pounds in two months is right on target.  He says I will probably lose another 15-20 in the next month and then it will start to taper off; down to 8-10 for the following three months and then 5-8 after that for the rest of the first year.  So, my desire to be down 60 pounds by Christmas, is, according to his estimates, reasonable.

I've been having some pain to the left of my belly button and when I told him about it, he jabbed me in the precise spot it hurt.  Apparently the nerve endings are starting to come back to the area where I have internal stitches/staples, so this is common. I may feel like this for a few months.  He wants me to practice good posture (remember those lessons with a book on your head?), continue wearing the binder (which I need to order a new one online since the ones in the drugstores are made for people with exceptionally short torsos) and do core exercises.


Otherwise, I'm healing normally - despite the fact that I've still got a little crust at the opening of my incision.  That may take another week or two to fully close.


Now, I'm off for the Very Long Weekend of crazy DJs, dancing for 10+ hours a day and little-to-no sleep.

Miscellany

Now that Hurrican Irene has passed us on the East Coast and I'm not laying on the couch like a soggy noodle thanks to both dentistry and crazy air pressure that made me nauseous all weekend, I can share a few more things with you.

I went thrifting this weekend.  Inspired by a friend (who also has a pretty amazing blog you should follow), I spent about an hour at the local Salvation Army tearing through their women's section  like nobody's business.  I snagged a black and silver tank top, a plain black tank top, a Banana Republic tank (good for work), two pairs of Ashley Stewart jean skirts and a black velvet blazer that's perfect for Fall.  All in, I spent $37.39.  Not too shabby!

Last night, I sat down with a pair of scissors and a seam ripper and tore apart one of the denim skirts.  It was about 4" too long to be anything by dowdy.  I cut it back and patiently sat around shredding the hemline.  When that was done, I went to town deconstructing two t-shirts I'd had made up especially for our trip to Electric Zoo next weekend).  I cut a wide, boat neck and created some slashes in the back of the first one.  The second one, I turned into a tank with slashes in the side of the shirt that I plan to double weave, but just haven't gotten around to yet.  Because the third one fits perfectly, I'm not doing anything to it. 

Packing for this event is always tough, but is made even more tough this year due to the fact that we're attending two after parties.  So in addition to having to pack three sets of clothes that will be comfortable dancing outside for twelve hours a day, I also need to pack at least two outfits for the after party.  This normally would mean I'd sit in my bedroom and try on everything and cry because nothing looks right.  But this year, I've got options!  I've got skinny jeans and tanks and Airwalks and skirts and all sorts of things to fall back on.  It's actually fun thinking about this instead of being stressed about what to wear!  What's not fun is spending time thinking about how little sleep I'll be getting.

In other news, I was craving corn chowder last night.  I don't know why, but sometimes I get these odd cravings.  I can say that they're not like pre-op when I craved sugar and sweets, so hey, that's a plus.  Anyway, I found this amazing Ina Garten recipe that if I could eat more than 4-5 oz. at a time would be deadly.  But since I can only have a little, I figured I'd give it a shot.  It was delicious!  Of course, now I have enough corn chowder to last me through winter (and I only made half the recipe, friends).

A few last things that have helped me since I've been post-op:

• Dinner Rolls.  Yep, dinner rolls.  Since I can't tolerate a lot of bread since my bypass, I found these little babies to be the perfect size for a PB&J, or tomato & mozzarella sandwich.  We found a bag of 48 at Costco for a few bucks and I've frozen them and just take one out and defrost it when I want it.
• Hint water.  I finally found something I can drink that doesn't have fake sugar (or any sugar, for that matter) but still adds some flavor!  Getting my fluids in is finally not a problem!  I'm about to start ordering this by the case from Amazon (no joke!) because I can only find a few of the flavors in my local grocery store.  I might also stop being a lazy ass and just make my own.
• I've stopped looking at breakfast as eggs, oatmeal and cereal and instead have adopted a more Mediterranean style with cheese, fruit, pita and hummus.  I found this amazing lemon hummus at the grocery store this week, but before that, I'd pack individual servings of Sabra hummus that I picked up at BJs.

Shoe Love and Other Miscellany

In an effort to get my house in shape (which in turn is also sort of a metaphor for my attempt to get my LIFE in shape), I realized I was going to have to part with the bag o’shoes that no longer fit or that were so far gone that not even the cobbler (because yes, we still call them that in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts) wouldn’t be able to resurrect them.

I said goodbye to three pairs of beloved boots and at least 9 pairs of heels and flats.  Many of the heels had the nails coming through.  Some had soles that were falling off.  But many of them, and in fact, my primary reason for needing to do this, is that since my surgery and subsequent 30 pound loss in 7 weeks (you didn’t think I’d leave my weekly progress out of this post, did you?), my feet have shrunk a half size.

Huh?

Yeah, I’m not kidding.

I was in a shoe store the other day looking for a pair of shoes to wear to a music festival I’m attending in NYC next weekend and when I tried on my usual 7’s, they were too big.  6’s were too small, but the 6.5’s were just right.  I thought it may have just been the brand, because like clothes, all shoes are cut differently.  But no, my feet have actually shrunk a half size.

The good news in all of this, though, is that now that we’re approaching Fall, I needed some new shoes anyway to get through the season and the upcoming Winter.  So this culling just created more room for me to replace them. And in other news, I’ve been checking out some boots online.  For most of my life I’ve had to order them from plus-size specialty stores because my calves are too large.  But it now appears that they’re small enough for me to buy them from DSW where is where I get most of my best deals.

Other than my feet shrinking, I’ve gone through every article of clothing I own and now have three bags of clothes to donate.  I’m on the cusp of needing some new work pants because my old ones are starting to fall off and of course they don’t have belt loops.  I’m hoping to hold off until Winter to buy new pants because Fall is another extension of dress season for me.

I’m not going to hit my target of losing 41 pounds before the music festival next week.  I mean losing another 11 pounds in the next week would be ludicrous, but I’m okay with this.  I think that my imagination got carried away by the crazy losses in the first month.  I mean, losing 24 of those 30 pounds in the first month does a little job on your brain in the process.  Now I know to expect an 8-10 pound loss per month going forward.  That means that by Christmas, I could be down as much as 60 pounds total.  How amazing that would be!

MacGyver!

"MacGyver – (v) 1. To use ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools available at hand. 2. To jury-rig.

We have a lot to thank Angus MacGyver for. This mild-mannered and mulleted TV action-adventure character showed us how to solve everyday problems with a combination of ingenuity and readily available materials. Like burning through an armoured door with nothing but handlebars and a flare, for example." Cycle Chick

This morning, I found it necessary to MacGyver a tourniquet-like device to stop the ozzing of one mostly healed abdominal wound with only a paper towel, some scotch tape and a prayer. This wouldn't be necessary if I'd either invest in more Tagaderm patches or you know, find Band-Aids.   It also wouldn't be necessary if it weren't summer and I didn't insist on wearing white shirts.

But since I didn't and I do, I found myself in quite the predicament this morning.

So far, that scotch tape is holding up pretty well.