Hard to be just a lil over 5 weeks ago, I was riddled with nerves wondering if I was making the right decision to have surgrey. Today, I know having the VSG was the best decision I could have made for my long-term health. It has re-engergized my motivation to work out and already so much of my confidence is being restored...
Last week, I blogged about how I was bothered and now I guess I realized I am hurt that my ex-boyfriend had not acknowledged my weight loss. Well I talked to him about it and how that makes me feel. I am not sure what I expected to get out of it because I as reflect on the conversation, I am not sure he ever said he has noticed I lost weight. In fact, I do not realize much of the conversation, only that I walked away from it unsatisfied with his response. But life goes on...
On the positive side, though my ex is not noticing so many other folk are noticing my weight loss and it is really a good feeling. I met up with friends over the weekend and none of them knew about the surgery and so I was worried about addressing the weight loss and not drinking. Well the not drinking never came up because I kept a cranberry juice in my hand and they only had good things to say about my weight loss...No questions as to what I was doing but just that I looked good...I also have began to see the weight loss in myself. When I was smaller, I always thought I had a long, giraffe neck so I hated my neck. Well I notice that giraffe neck coming back and I have never been happier to see it... And I am also noticing it in my midsection...It doesnt stick out under my boob like it used to...Shirts and dresses fix so much better...Yayy...
Oan: Despite the warning against tomato based things because of acid issues, I thought I would give chili a try. Bad move. Other than the protein shakes that i grew tired of, it is really the only food that I have reacted bad too. Other foods have made me feel bad but more because I ate to fast and not because of the food itself. So for now, I am not doing tomato based because I already have enough issues with heartburn. I am pretty much able to eat most things. I went to our farmer's market this past weekend and ate fried noodles...It was just about a cup but still I know I was so out of line. It made me work out harder. I got mile 3 mile walk/run jog done in 43 minutes. I started out at 60 minutes...
I am so happy that my stall/weight gain from last week did not carry on into this week. Last week I picked up two pounds by the time of weigh in. I actually picked up three pounds by Saturday evening. But today I am happy to report I got those pounds I gained off and then some...
It may be ambitious but I am going for 199.8 by Friday's weigh in. I am already down to 204 today so I gt 4.2lbs to make it happen. I am going to push the workouts and stick to high protein/low carb for the week. I want Wonderland...I want Wonderland...and with it so close it makes me go even harder for it.
Last Wednesday, I had a 7 week check up. At that time, I was down nearly 60 pounds. Since last Wednesday, I have lost another 6 pounds. I am 8 weeks out and have lost about 75% of what I wanted to lose. For those who are wondering, I did not start out an ultra heavyweight. I started out with two goals: a weight goal and a sculpting goal. I am certain that the sculpting goal will take more time.
My restriction hasn't really changed but there are times that I can eat more than I would expect I could. Sometimes, my stomach is fickle.
My new obsession is the chicken tortilla soup I wrote about last time. I must have been in Whole Food's three times this week just to get that soup and those parmesan crisps. I'm addicted. I found the nutrition info online and it's not too bad at all.
In a more technical vein, I have heard people on these various boards talk about how much protein one can absorb in a single setting. It usually comes up when people are drinking a protein shake that has 40+ grams of protein per serving.
I think the magic number at which your body supposedly stops using ingested protein is 30g. This doesn't make any sense to me and here's why:
First, our intestines are nearly 30 feet long. The process of digestion takes hours. While it's feasible to assume that we only digest so much per hour, it makes no sense to think that after our bodies have digested a certain amount of what we've eaten, no matter how much of it we've eaten, it just stops and won't process any more.
Secondly, let's say one eats all of the 0.8g/kg of body weight that the RDA recommends for protein intake in 1 meal and another person ate the same amount of protein as the first person but spread theirs out so that they didn't go over the magical 30g. This means that when it's all said and done, the first person, who is eating the exact same amount of protein every day as the second person, would end up being protein deficient while the second person would be perfectly okay (from a protein perspective). The only difference I can see here is that the first person's body will take longer to digest and process the nutrients and the second person will have shorter digestion sessions.
I'm sure that body weight, genetics and all of that other good stuff has a lot to do with it as well; not to mention goals (ie. muscle building vs. fat loss).
It seems to me that the "limit" that a body can process and use in a single meal would be pretty much equivalent to what it can use in a whole day (more than 30g, I'm sure). There's an empirical study that actually appears to state that the older the individual, the better it is to do a large serving of protein for muscle retention than several small servings. There's also another that says that there was no difference in eating the bulk of the day's protein in one meal or spreading them out.
The studies I'm referring to are both by Arnal et. al. :
Journal of Nutrition- 2000- Vol.130(7) "Protein feeding pattern does not affect protein retention in young women."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition-1999-Vol 69(6) "Protein pulse feeding improves protein retention in elderly women."
They're good studies and they are short reads.
Do your own research but whatever happens, always stay vigilant.
