Sorry it's been so long!

Hey everyone,

Sorry it's been forever since my last post. I've been going through a LOT of emotions lately. Way more than most people can handle, and I'm not doing too good at it either. I've heard this is common after weight loss surgery. I'm working through it, but have become a little anti-social lately. And for me that's rare!

But for a lap-band update, I just wanted to share that right now SUCKS! I'm still 1 week away from getting my fill (well almost, I get it on Friday) and so I'm completely un-restricted right now. I can still eat a lot, and I'm getting hungry in-between small meals so I'm eating bigger meals. I'm eating healthy still, but it's really frustrating when I feel like I'm eating too much.

I'm able to see some difference/ loss in my neck and face, but the scales haven't budged in the last 2 weeks! That's a sure sign I'm beyond ready for my fill! I just want to feel some restriction so I know that this thing is actually working!

So next week I will report on how the fill went. But for now I'm stuck in an emotional and frustrating time. I know it will pass...eventually.

15 LBS GONE!!!

YAY!!!!! I reached my 15 lb weight loss goal today!

I'm so happy!!

I had originally given myself the first month to lost the 15 lbs and it's only been just over 2 weeks! And I still haven't even had a fill yet! And that's only SINCE surgery, that's not counting what I lost before surgery.

A few people have commented that I look good, but honestly I don't see it yet. I know that 15 lbs on me doesn't look like much, so it's going to take a lot more for me to actually start seeing the difference.

Man alive, if I could keep losing 15 lbs every 2 weeks I'd be at goal in NO time! :) LOL, but I know that won't happen. And that's fine :) I'm just excited anyway!

Happy 4th!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

I'm so mad, I was going to take pictures of dinner so that I could post them on here, but I was enjoying it so much that I forgot :(

But we had bbq shish-kebabs. We had chicken ones, veggi ones w/green peppers and onions, zucchini ones, shrimp ones (MY FAVORITE), and steak ones (which I'm not SUPPOSED to have steak yet, but I tried it and my band tolerated it very well). We also bbq'd corn on the cob but I can't have corn yet.

After a HEALTHY and YUMMY bbq dinner, we drove out to watch the fireworks. They had the BEST display this year, especially considering all the budget cut backs other towns were doing, and we're a tiny little low-budget town! It lasted 50 minutes before the grand finale.

Then for dessert we had no sugar added/ 98% fat free ice cream sandwiches and sugar free snow cones.

Overall it was a WONDERFUL holiday and I had the best dinner :)

OH-and to update, I've lost 14 lbs since surgery! Woooo! Almost all my incisions are healed and scabs are gone :) I have no restriction though, so it's a little hard to not wonder if I'm still eating too much, but I'm trying really hard not to. My fill appt is coming up toward the end of the month :)

FIRST REAL MEAL

My TEDIOUS 4 day liquid diet is over! PRAISE THE LORD! I know I'm probably ticking a lot of other bandsters off since most other patients from different surgeons have to do at least a week of liquid and here I am rejoicing that 4 days is done with. Sorry!!

Today I was able to move to somewhat normal foods! The only things I can't have until 1 month out are 4 legged proteins (beef and pork basically), peas, corn, and potatoes. Those are still too hard to digest right now. But I can have any other fruit, any other vegetable, any other meat, any thing else at all :) Well...besides bad foods obviously. Right now I can eat 4-8 oz or 1/2 to 1 cup of food. Since the only actual restriction I feel right now is from swelling, this will probably increase once the swelling goes down before I get my first fill in 1 month.

For breakfast I had a Yoplait Light yogurt (Apple pie...THANK YOU Stacie for turning me on to that!) I was being a wuss and couldn't muster enough courage to try for a piece of whole grain toast yet.

I was a little braver at lunch. I had 3 naked nuggets, 1/2 of a cheddar cheese stick, and I made about 1/4 cup of re fried beans but could only eat half of it before my 20 minute eating limit was up.

That went really well! It tasted SO good. I cannot tell you how utterly sick of broth and jell-o I am right now! I just ate everything really slowly, chewed VERY well, and swallowed slowly and stopped after each couple of bites to make sure it wasn't coming back up, lol. Luckily none of it did :) And by the end of my 20 minutes, I felt satisfied. Not full, but satisfied.

For dinner I made teriyaki chicken breast with Yoshidos sauce. MMMM that was SO good. I steamed some fresh zucchini (being very careful to thoroughly chew the skins since they were harder).
I was really wanting that chicken (from the lack of protein lately) so I skipped out on anything else and just had a little more chicken than I normally would. That also went very well and nothing came back up! That was 4 hours ago and I'm hungry now. But I'll sip my water and wait for breakfast to come since I'm sure this is an emotional hunger...although it's hard to tell over this loud rumbling coming from my tummy!

Oh, and these are served in those baby plates I bought and posted about in an earlier blog :) See how it LOOKS like I have a lot of food? When I really don't!

Random

My aunts form Arkansas sent me these BEAUTIFUL flowers when I got home from the hospital! I love getting flowers.


Here's my favorite lily from the bouquet my husband and family got me when I was in the hospital. MMMMM these just smell SO wonderful!

This is my at home office :) Complete with flowers and a pillow to put in between my big tummy and the desk that it pushes into.

Here is a closer look at my 5 incisions. One on top right under my bra line, then the 4 bottom ones. The 2nd from the left is the BIG one where they put the port (this is taken in a mirror, so it's actually on my left side) and you can see it took a lot more tape to close up. That's the one you will always see me holding or pressing because it will hurt the longest :(

OK that's it :) Just a short one to share some pics!

Food Porn- the origin

One term that I’ve come to embrace in the weight loss community is “food porn.” This is any kind of picture or text that refers to food. Any kind of picture or text that makes us WANT that specific food.
I know some of my more mature followers may not love this phrase, however I think it makes the impression much more understandable.
Another term that is used is “food horny.” It goes hand in hand with food porn, obviously ;) If one says they are food horny, it means that they are craving something almost beyond self control. If one says “Warning, food porn ahead” it means that they will be talking about something that may trigger food horniness in the reader. It’s only fair to give a warning so that you don’t sabotage your fellow losers (people trying to lose weight). The foods in food porn aren’t necessarily BAD foods, but everyone has different eating guidelines and may not be able to eat it or it may trigger a craving for something else.

That being said…WARNING-FOOD PORN AHEAD…I was SO food horny last night! It was the first time since surgery (which I know isn’t really a long time, but still) that I wanted something so much. I wanted everything, cinnamon rolls, white cake w/raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting, pizza with extra cheese, sour patch kids, movie theater popcorn, you name it, it was craving it! It was bad, I was close to tears. But at the same time, this was a really good confirmation that my band was a good idea. Pre-band, I would have simply gone to the store, loaded up on all that junk, come home and stuffed myself for the temporary “fix” and then felt awful about myself afterword.
But with my handy dandy band I don’t even have that option. Sure I could probably suck the sugar off some sweet and sour patch kids and yeah the ice cream would melt right through the opening, but I’m more alert and focused now. I actually have to stop and think, is it worth it? Did I just spend ALL that money to cheat? Did I just spend the last 4 days on a nasty liquid diet so that I could sabotage myself? NO!
So even though I know there will come a day where I will CONSCIOUSLY give in to my naughty food porn temptations, I will do so without guilt knowing that I can and will control myself. And I know I will have the brains to get RIGHT back on track and be sure to walk an extra mile so that the extra calories are never even noticed :)

Ha...

This is what happens when you eat nothing but sugar free Jell-O and sugar free popcicles all day. I think it might stay that way forever.