Little Green getting little(r)

[Little Green 583]

Actually, Little Green is a reference to a Joni Mitchell song, NOT a comment on my size - but I thought the title might be funny

So I'm 2 weeks away from surgery and just started my liquid diet. I thought I'd officially start one of these "tell your story" posts so that I have a place to keep track of all my stats and thoughts.

My highest weight is 381.25 and that was 6/14/14. After that I lost down to around 300-ish in about 18 months doing calorie-counting on MFP, but regained nearly all of it after my husband became disabled in a motorcycle accident. About a year after the accident - last March - I visited the bariatric surgeon for my first consult and I weighed 367 pounds. I've gone up and down since then but I started my liquid diet (today!) at 350.2.

I am a classic story of overweight-since-childhood along with a rapid weight gain starting in my late 'teens after getting a job and my driver's license, giving me full access to fast food morning, noon, and night. I'm not sure of all my milestones throughout the years but I know I weighed 180 pounds in 7th grade at age 12, and more than 220 when I graduated high school. I'm 5'8 so BMI 25 is 164 pounds and my goal weight is 150.

About six weeks ago I decided to go vegan and I've been transitioning into that diet ever since. I'm relying on plant-based Protein supplements during the liquid phase but I hope to move to getting protein from whole food as soon as possible. My post-op diet will definitely be a lot higher in carbs than most people on this board are used to, but I'm confident in my choices and really excited about the health benefits in addition to weight loss.

I am going to try my darnedest to weigh myself only once per month after surgery. I did the obsessive daily "don't drink anything, have a bowel movement, get naked, and weigh myself" routine during my MFP days and it was really harmful to me mentally. I'm also logging my food in a physical journal and I won't be weighing anything or measuring beyond the standard 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, etc. meal sizes for post-op guidelines. Measuring food definitely works and I think many people can benefit from it. But again, it ended up being bad for my mental health. My ultimate life goal is to eat and enjoy an abundant amount of healthy plant-based whole foods without weighing or measuring portions. I know it will be awhile before I get there, but that's where I'm going and how I'm positioning myself for long-term success.

So that's a little about me! I'm going to post random crap in this thread, like musings on diet stuff, numbers, feelings (I have a lot of them), my appointments, etc. Thanks for reading!

[Little Green 583]

Stats for yesterday: 855 calories, 92g Protein.

Stats for today: 910 calories, 94g protein.

Feeling extremely nauseated for the last couple of hours. It started right after I had my "last" Protein Shake at 11:30pm - I say "last" because once I started feeling sick I chased it with a Premier Protein premade (unfortunately non-vegan) shake to see if that would help the nausea. It did for a bit but now it's back. Have had around 16 oz of Water since then with no relief from the nausea.

Could be from the weird temperature of the protein shake (mixed it with warm broth but took awhile to drink it so it was kinda lukewarm and gaggy toward the end), could be coincidence, could be from the 36+ hour headache I've got going, could be anything really. I remembered I had some dramamine in my purse so I took one of those and I'm going to eat a couple sugar-free popsicles to give my belly something small to do.

Still not much hunger - hardly any hunger today. If I hadn't had that Premier Protein shake & these popsicles, I would have only been at 720 cals for the day. Brain fog is worse, moods are more stable but generally lower than yesterday (had some good highs yesterday that upped the average lol). I enjoyed talking with my therapist but unfortunately she's not available 24/7 for the next 12 days. Can't imagine why not!

I've gotten lots of good support from my 2/15 RNY buddies @TexasGal40 & Misty (I can't recall your exact username, Misty, sorry!) as well as my non-WLS friends and my mom. My husband has been a bit less supportive, not on purpose, I just think he's mystified and doesn't understand what I need. I'm usually excellent at telling him what I need - but as I said 100x to my therapist today, this just sucks and there's nothing to do about it. (He's also forgotten about the liquid diet a couple times... the ultimate betrayal when it's consuming my life LOL.) I've tried distractions but I'm not interested in anything. Netflix, reading, YouTube, even BP (sorry you guys, I still love you!), none of it is really holding my attention.

In better news, I was watching some of Dr. Weiner's videos earlier today and commented on one about the pre-op diet. He replied and told me good luck on my surgery! *swoon* Celebrity status, y'all! Now if only I can get a shout-out from Dr. Greger and Dr. Barnard, I'll be set for life! LOL

[TexasGal40 20]

I’m sorry that yesterday was tough. I hope today is a bit easier. On a side note, I think you are an excellent writer. You crack me up!
Another person recommended a book and I just started it. It is very insightful and offers some good tips. You should read it. If nothing else, it’s a good destruction and reinforces the positive changes you are making during this Pre Op phase.
Keep up the good work!

[Little Green 583]

15 hours ago, TexasGal40 said:

I’m sorry that yesterday was tough. I hope today is a bit easier. On a side note, I think you are an excellent writer. You crack me up!
Another person recommended a book and I just started it. It is very insightful and offers some good tips. You should read it. If nothing else, it’s a good destruction and reinforces the positive changes you are making during this Pre Op phase.
Keep up the good work!

Thank you, for the compliment and the book recommendation! I know I checked this one out of the Kindle library but can't remember if I read it or not. I will go and download it again for sure!

[Little Green 583]

Today was the easiest day so far. I slept around 11-12 hours and that wiped out my headache. I think having a smaller window to eat also made it easier to deal with.

I've decided to include the Premier Protein shakes for the rest of the diet. It's not that the fact that it's whey Protein instead of soy/pea protein, but the fact that it's ready-made, it can be served really cold, and much less gritty/powdery that makes it a lot more satisfying. I think it's more important to meet my surgeon's requirements while staying sane than insisting on a totally plant-based diet at this point. These are temporary measures to get ready for surgery. So I'm happy with that.

I'm also "cheating" a bit... not really sure if it's cheating or not, maybe just getting creative lol. My sweet husband found some protein veggie broth at Walmart today, made with soymilk and lentil protein. It's 90 calories per cup with 9 grams of protein. Well. If I double the servings it's 180 calories and 18 grams of protein. Well lookie there, that meets the "protein shake" requirements! .........almost. The soymilk they use is sweetened, so in two servings there's 6g added sugar and 10g total sugar. Our Protein Shakes are supposed to be 8g of sugar or less.

So... hmm. After some thinking I decided to do around 1.75 servings (1 and 3/4 cups) and call it 160 calories, 15g protein, and 8g sugar. Bippity boppity boo, now it meets the requirements. Tastes much better than mixing the powder protein with regular broth. So, is that cheating? I'm not sure. But again... priorities are meeting the requirements and staying sane... I think it's all right.

Ended up at 850 calories and 109g of protein today. Whew, that protein! My poor kidneys lol.

Edited February 4, 2018 by Little Green

[FluffyChix 17,415]

Hey girlie! How ya doing today?

I decided to go ahead and start my liquid today--technically supposed to start in the morning but I ate so much yesterday, it might as well be my "last meal day".

Can you show me how you got to 900calories? Cuz, today's proposed menu gets me to 500cals. And for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get to the 1000cal range the RD told me I should aim for with the pre-op?

Thanks!!

[Little Green 583]

44 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

Hey girlie! How ya doing today?

<snip>

Can you show me how you got to 900calories? Cuz, today's proposed menu gets me to 500cals. And for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get to the 1000cal range the RD told me I should aim for with the pre-op?

I'm feeling pretty good today! I needed a bath and a break from reality so I stayed at my Mom's overnight (nothing against my husband, no fighting or anything, just some alone time) and soaked with a bath bomb in her big tub. Slept in a bit today, although not as much lol. My parents drink Decaf coffee so I finally got to have some coffee!!! Just the smell alone was enough to make me happy.

As for the bolded, I sure can!!! Any excuse to show off my planner! I'm using an hourly planner as my food journal. The stickers and such are just for fun, not strictly necessary.

So this is my diary for the first three days. I get 5 servings of Protein every day plus unlimited broth, popsicles, Jello, etc. The lowest calorie Protein Shake I have is one of the vegan ones which is 130. The rest are between 160 & 190. So average calorie of a protein serving, we'll call it 165. 5 x 165 = 825. Add a few servings of broth and a couple popsicles at 10 or 15 calories a piece and that's 30-50 calories more.

Everyone's diet is different. I get to have two Protein Bars a day, thank the sweet Baby Jesus! What does yours look like and why are you having trouble getting your calories up?

Edited February 4, 2018 by Little Green

[Little Green 583]

Click the photo for a higher quality version so you can read it better (if needed).

[TexasGal40 20]

What popsicles are you eating?

[FluffyChix 17,415]

I don't know if you can click on this and read it? This is my proposed food log for the day.

[Little Green 583]

1 minute ago, TexasGal40 said:

What popsicles are you eating?

I think they are actually Popsicle brand LOL. I didn't know that was a brand. Maybe it's like the Kleenex/Crockpot phenomenon. They have two sugar-free boxes, one is regular flavors (cherry, grape, orange) and one is tropical flavors (pineapple, "tropical" orange lol, and fruit punch). I like the regular flavors the best - taste like childhood!

[FluffyChix 17,415]

I'm about to go HEBing, is it worth it to get both kinds of boxes? I am a pineapple (Dum Dums), fruit punch hoe, but also love my childhood popsicles. LOL.

[Little Green 583]

2 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

I don't know if you can click on this and read it? This is my proposed food log for the day.

Looks like you are splitting one of the Protein Shakes in half? Don't do dat. Just have 3 Premier Protein shakes. That alone is 480 calories and would put your day around 670 calories. Maybe do 1.5 scoops of the Syntrax. Fluffy, I love ya girl but this diet is hard enough at 850 calories. Don't kill yourself at 500 calories.

[FluffyChix 17,415]

BTW, LOVE LOVE LURVEEEEEEE your journal, gel pens and stickers. I have journal envy right now.

[Little Green 583]

1 minute ago, FluffyChix said:

I'm about to go HEBing, is it worth it to get both kinds of boxes? I am a pineapple (Dum Dums), fruit punch hoe, but also love my childhood popsicles. LOL.

Yeah, why not? Worth a try!