NikiS

It's been a while since my last entry. It hasn't quite been 3 months since I had surgery. My official anniversay will be December 20. To date, I have lost 49 lbs. My Christmas goal was to be 50 lbs lighter but since I am so close to achieving that goal I amended it. My new goal is to be a total of 55 lbs lighter by Dec. 31.
 
During my short journey there are things that I am still learning like the importance of slowing down when I eat, not eating too much, not drinking while I eat, and the the ever present vitamin! I take my multivitamin on a daily basis it's the calcium citrate that I sometimes forget.
 
Lately, exercise has been null and void. I know... I have to get better with this. I'm sure the weight would melt off faster if I incorporated a regular routine.
 
Not all is lost...I do eat healthy and I am very conscious of my protein intake. At my last doctor's appointment I was told the majority of my protein should come from food and that I should only use the shake as a supplement if I miss a meal.
 
Another plus is since surgery which was on September 20, I have gone from a snug size 20 to a comfortable 16. Ross has become my very best friend. They have some really cute and affordable clothes in there. Despite the smaller clothes, to me I look exactly the same. I guess I'll see what everybody else sees soon enough.
 
This has been an amazing, life changing, well worth it experience!

So, I have to admit... this pre-op diet has been quite difficult.... I think I slightly underestimated the hold that my FRENEMY food had on my life.. In fact, I should call it my food master!!! I've always been the type to not want anything, it if I couldn't have what I wanted... so, day 1 was SOOOO hard!! I wanted eggs, I wanted rice, I wanted cheez-its!! I had to tell myself, NO, NO, NO!!!!! It worked until 8ish and I was desperate to chew... I got over it!!!
 
I'm learning that there will be lots of times when I will just have to GET OVER IT!!! These few days have taught me some very valuable lessons:

I can't expect to just WAKE up and be a healthy person mind, body and soul.. All of it takes working through some difficult things and training myself to gravitate towards a new normal.
Some of my journey must be private and/or only shared with a very select group of people. I have no room for constant negativity... the "old" me is constantly looking for an ally.. so, I refuse to give "her" one..
I must be diligent about ensuring that my head and heart are aligned when embarking on this life altering event... (I have, but it's still not a cake walk!)

You hear so much about protein, protein, protein but no one told me I could get too much protein - YIKES!!! I am probably one of very few people that actually enjoy my protein shakes. Since Day 1 they have never been a problem for me to drink.
 
I had my surgery on September 20, and I thought the weight would simply melt off. I've heard about stalls and slow weight loss I just never thought I'd be in either one of those categories. After all, I'm dinking my protein, taking in plenty of liquids and doing well with food. Exercise is another story all together, but I digress. On post-op day 19, I called my physician's office to ask a few questions and before I hung up I asked if it were possible to have too much protein and was told yes!
 
My protein shakes are 28g and I have 3 of them a day. That's already 84g of protein. Greek yogurt is 16g. That's 100g already and that's without my soft meats (I'm in the mushy phase). Tuna, salmon, talapia, etc. is protein. On average I was getting in close to 135-140g! That's too much. Not to mention, protein builds muscle so if you aren't walking or exercising you may gain. Of course if you're just coming out of surgery you can't really exercise but you can walk which I haven't been doing. No wonder the scale isn't moving!!!
 
My doctor said to decrease the protein (keep it between 70g-90g a day) and get moving! I have lost some weight. I've lost 30 pounds since surgery, and I know I have to take it easy because it's only been 3 weeks but I still need to do my part.
 
Too much protein...who knew!!

So...today is Day 2 of my liquid diet. Initially, I was so psyched about this portion of my journey it didn't matter if my physician told me I could only have one can of Slim Fast to sip on for the entire day. Keep in mind I said initially. Today, however, I am singing a new tune. Although I love the flavor of the Slim Fast I AM STARVING !!! At this point I don't know what I want more...sleep or food. Yesterday I was not this tired. Today, I feel like I haven't gotten any rest. I'm assuming it's from the lack of food. I'm still encouraged and am looking forward to the next leg of my journey which is surgery on September 20, but right now... right now I'm exhausted and could go for some extra spicy buffalo wings with chucky bleu cheese dressing on the side. But since that's not gonna happen, I guess I'll just have to take a deep breath and hang in there! *Huge sigh*