Feeling Better After Changing Diet

I had been so down. I was eating pure protein for the past two weeks. About 100 g of pure protein. Now, keep in mind that I am not like your average Joe. I have diverticulosis, which is potholes in the colon, too much protein can kill me.

Yesterday I added the following to my diet at about 6 pm:

1. some fruit from a can (no syrup)
2. some raisin bran cereal with a little milk (I am dairy sensitive, but decided to chance it).
3. a couple of pork rinds (my first time eating them ever) with some spinach dip.

This morning I had the first natural poo that I have had since my surgery. The first one unassisted by miralax or stool softeners.

I had been so fried for the past week or so. Miserable, tired, cranky and my diverticular pain was back.

Yesterday I swam 30 minutes of hard freestyle laps and burned about 525 cals, but had only taken in 328 cals of pure protein for the day. I felt like I was going to die.

Eating some carbs, even thought they probably were not optimal really helped me. I took in a total of 884 cals and expended 525 on the swim.

And I was down today on the scale.

I decided to skip the morning protein shake and try to see how I do getting my protein from food, which is what my doctor recommended on Monday. She also told me to balance out my eating, but I was too afraid to stray from  the pure protein. She was the one who suggested the raisin bran.

So, this morning, instead of egg beaters (which have so much crap in them) I had Egglands Best Egg Whites with a sprinkle of cheese and some diced ham and about an hour before that, I had a fiber one bar and right now I am having COFFEE. Black coffee.

I decided to skip the morning protein shake and try to see how I do getting my protein from food, which is what my doctor recommended on Monday. She also told me to balance out my eating, but I was too afraid to stray from  the pure protein. She was the one who suggested the raisin bran.

What?

I hear Angels singing.

Snow, swimming, taking your swim to a new level.

I am writing this to follow up on a video that I made this morning, which talked about increasing the intensity of the swim by changing your kickoff glide to a dolphin kick. I will post my video here, but also, I am going to link to a video which will show Michael Phelps doing the same kick.

 It has made my legs so strong. Start the linked video of Phelps and his competition at about 3:33. Pay attention to their turns and the kick that they do with each turn.

-----> Phelps Video:    http://youtu.be/Pe3I8NkR5oQ

Four + weeks until surgery!

Hi everyone, which is probably no one, because no one ever comments.

Anyway, I am past the five week point and now at four weeks plus change until my VSG.

I see a sleep doctor on Monday to adjust my CPAP settings, I have not been sleeping well since I asked my family doctor to change me to the auto pap setting.

When am I going to learn not to self-diagnose?

I bought some supplies for after my surgery and the anti-bacterial soap for before the surgery. I am getting excited, but it is not close enough for me to be getting scared yet. That will come, I am sure.

The thing that has gotten me through my previous surgeries has been faith in God. I know that if it is my time to die on the table, that I have trusted Christ as my savior and I am saved. If I survive, then I am a fighter and I will do the very best I can, with His help, to get better and whip this weight battle.

I am feeling much better about the diet that will be my life, since lately the six month diet is coming easy to me. I rarely have days over 1400 anymore and some of my days are closer to 1200. That is good news in that I have not eaten a lot of the crap that I used to eat.

If I go out for food, I am having salads with low cal dressing or chili. If I have chinese, I am having veggies and chicken with no rice or noodles.

I have not had a reese cup pass my lips or a double or mega stuffed orea in two months. That is really saying something.

Watch my surgery date tracker. Prayers are requested.

I am off to swim. Gotta get that swim in!!!

Crazy things I have seen in my pool

A Day Out for Me!

Do you know how long it's been since I have stayed away overnight without the kids? Ok, counting out hospital stays and sleep studies? It has been decades. I have a son with mid-functioning classic autism and he has a lot of separation anxiety.

I am going to Ohio for an Ugly Christmas Sweater Sleep Over at Cindy Virdin's house (www.cindyvirdin.com). Can't wait.

I got up this morning and had my swim, which was AWESOME! I had the whole pool to myself and the water was warm. I got there right at 6 am and only turned on a couple of the poolhouse lights, so the light was low and the water at the deep end was mysterious.

As I started to really work the breast stroke on my 5th lap, the waves started and the low lights just made the waves look so cool as I swam. From my perspective, under the water, I was able to see the waves dancing in the moonlight through the glass ceiling.

You should have been there.

Once I started with the butterfly on my 9th lap, the water began to lap out of the pool, huge waves splashing on the deck as I swam through the bubbles that I was creating. The pool is 25x75 feet and that means that when I am in the pool doing my butterfly, I am transmitting enough of my own physical body power to move over 105,000 gallons of water!

I bagged up a bunch of my clothes that are too big. I have a huge bag of 5X, 4X and 3X clothes that I have outgrown. I started seeing the front of my bra in the 3x shirts and it was time to downsize. I don't have many clothes in 2X, but Cindy tells me that there will be some at the swap.


Here is a video that I did this morning in my car. It was dark. :)

Thanksgiving - 80 days until VSG

Today I cooked our Thanksgiving dinner. We visit my husband's great aunt, who is 87 and lives in a senior living center. We visit frequently, but have all of the major holiday dinners there, because it would suck for her to be alone.

So today we had our dinner. I started cooking last night. It was not as hard as I thought it would be to be in a house that is drenched in the smells of food all day.

My calories for the day were 1637, that is over by 237, but in the big scheme of things, it's good.

Yesterday was my FIFTIETH birthday! Well, actually today is, but we celebrated yesterday. I had a bit of cake, dinner at Max and Erma's and got some really super presents. I felt really loved on.

Charlie has been having a lot of meltdowns, but we are dealing them one at a time. Today we had four. That's hard. It's hard on all of us.

I came home from being out with the family and was STARVING. We had eaten at 2 PM and it was 6 and I was just starved.  I had turkey, stuffing and gravy and some deviled eggs. I didn't journal before hand ---

Hang on, he's at it again...

--- but the result was only being 237 calories over. I can live with that. I did a kick ass swim today and swam an hour yesterday.

I have learned that in order to do a really good dolphin kick, you really have to twerk a little underwater to get the undulating movement going. Man, it felt weird, but good.

I also had to order a smaller bathing suit. Mine is way big on me, but most of that might be deterioration from chlorine. I am afraid the new one, when it comes, won't fit.

80 days to go.

Weekends and Holidays are the Hardest. And some good news.

I am still in the five month pre-op diet phase with about 12 and a half weeks to go until my surgery date in February. Daily, I log my foods and exercise on My Fitness Pal (username:imawaterbender) and I also keep a written log to turn into the Lifestyle Classes at Magee Women's Hospital monthly.

The week days I have a set routine:

Get up
Get the kids off to school
Go swimming (the pool is usually empty)
Eat breakfast
Clean stuff/laundry
Eat lunch
Go out for a while, oil paint, do some exercise - basically ME time
Get the kids to do their homework after school
Make dinner
Listen to my husband's diatribe about how work went (usually an hour or so)
Eat
Get ready for bed.

On the weekends and when the kids are off for these long holidays, everything is mish-mashed. I don't really like to take my kids swimming with me, but I can't leave Charlie and Rachel at home and there is no sitter.

When kids are in the pool, they keep coming into my lane when I am swimming laps. There are no lane ropes and it's irritating. That means that I either don't swim or I swim when hotel guests tend to be in the pool and they irritate me, too. Same reason, no respect for a swimming doing laps.

 

Disclaimer: Not my actual kid.

Everyone makes such a mess that it's harder to keep things decent. And by decent, I mean, my house is usually not that tidy and they make it look like a tornado hit. Then, when I go to clean things up, it's disheartening to see that nothing lasts. I sweep the floor and minutes later there are chewed up paper towels and paper from the dog getting stuff that the kids have dropped.

I just get pissed off. That makes me want to eat junk. Plus they all eat junk. Don't say get the junk out of the house, because I have done that and my husband just buys more. It's like they love throwing it in my face.

So I usually end up breaking down and eating crap.

Yeah, Not me, either.

Yesterday I nuked taquitos from a box. I had no idea how caloric they were. They are so SMALL! I was still hungry, so I had more. When I journalled them I had to do a double-take. I ate 880 calories of them before I had journalled them, putting me over 1800 calories for the day. I decided that I was done eating for the day, problem was, it was just 1:00 PM.

I told myself that if I needed to eat, it had to be green beans because they are low in calories.

That was hard because I had promised them that we could go see a movie. We went and I only had water, but I was ticked off. Mad at myself for eating that crap and made at them because NONE  of them are having to be constantly on a diet like I am. I went to bed early to keep from eating at night.

God I hate struggling. But I guess I am learning. No more taquitos for me and have on hand foods that are good for me AND satisfying.

But let me end this on a positive. I went coat shopping on Friday and was looking at the 3X coats, wondering if I would fit into one. The last coat I bought was 5X. For some reason I tried on a 2X and it fit really well. I looked down the aisle and was astonished at how many more options I before me, because I fit that size. There were so many more 2X than 3X.

But realistically, just shopping at a store that sells regular sized clothes is a novelty for me. I had been ordering all of my clothes online. This opens up a whole new world to me. And it's just the beginning.

I do feel upset and jealous that others in my circle of life don't feel that they need to control what they eat. They don't have diverticulitis and can eat nuts, seeds, pecan pie and they don't care. Their waists enlarge and it doesn't seem to bother them. I fight it and they mock me with their food.

I am not fucking giving up. 

I feel good! Eating better.

My dietician had told me to go back to eating like I was in the month that I had the most success. So I have done that. I printed out my logs from My Fitness Pal (username: imawaterbender). What surprised me is that the biggest changes that I made from the month that I lost vs the month that I gained were:

1. I was concentrating on really, super chewing.
2. I was not drinking with meals.
3. I was drinking a lot more water daily.
4. I was not cutting out all carbs.
5. I was eating about 1600-1800 cals a day, rather than 1400.

So, that is what I have been doing this week. As a result, I am more energetic, less lethargic and less pissed off, in general.

So I am off to get into the pool now.

Swimming!

Doing Better with the CPAP, also more about Swimming and the Sleeve

Good morning!

I had a good night's sleep last night. Twice I woke up to see if my CPAP machine had turned off. I didn't feel the air pressure, but upon checking, all was good. So, apparently, I am adjusting to the air pressure.

I have put a container of vaseline on my bedside table to coat my lips before bedtime. This helps keep the air from drying them out. If my lips get dry, I tend to open my mouth more during the night. The vaseline is just the ticket. Now that I have adjusted to air flow, I plan to get a nasal only mask today with a chin strap, to try to eliminate some of the dry mouth and facial reddening from the air on my face.

My face is a little red, as you can see in the video that I made this morning. It feels a little warm to the touch this morning in the cheek area. But I think it's just from the humidifier and the mask. It does not hurt.

I am off in a little while to go for my swim. I have a lot on my mind and that half hour of silence in the pool is wonderful. I went twice this weekend and on Sunday the pool was just jammed. I didn't like that much. It's hard to swim around people and my pool does not have lane ropes. But I got in a good swim anyway.

I saw a video recently where a woman was talking about how her sleeve keeps her from eating, even though her mind really wants to eat. Although she was upset about it, at the time, it really encouraged me because I tend to eat when I am not really hungry and eat past my hunger and that is what I want the sleeve for, so that my BODY can meet up with my MIND and keep me from giving into fleeting urges brought on by the sight and smell of food.

Here is the link to that video. 

By the way, just so that you know, I cringe EVERY time I make a video. I dislike looking at myself, but I know that it is important to document this process.

Here is one of the very first videos that helped me conquer my fear of swimming.