The year is almost to a close… and the last couple months have been… a heck of a ride.
I figured I’d jot a few notes on where things are at with the whole losing weight/considering surgery thing.
On the balance scale at the gym today I was 349, in shorts, socks, t-shirt. The fact that I could use the scale is a milestone… the thing only goes up to 350. The scale at home here has me at 344. Let’s be optimistic and use that one… which means I’m down 25 pounds since the day before Thanksgiving and 30 from my highest. And I’m starving.
So actually, today I was likely fairly close, maybe even under. But last Friday I broke. I went to a pizza place for their lunch buffet. About 5 slices of thin crust pizza and a large salad with plenty of French dressing. I’m sure that put me over the top in one sitting. But I left full.
Don’t get me wrong… it’s not all doom and gloom or anything. Last night I baked up a northern pike fillet that I baked with a crust of soy nut crumbs with a lil parmesan cheese, topped with a cucumber dill sauce, a side of cooked apples and some of my peppered green beans. I seem to have those about once a week…
Years ago… before Atkins was the thing to do when it came to low/no-carb diets, there was this… The Mayo Clinic Diet. I titled this “So Called”, because this never had anything to do with the Mayo Clinic, and the Clinic has done a lot to make sure people know that, in fact they now have their own actual “Mayo Clinic Diet“. The stuff below is basically a no-carb, high protein diet that promises you will loose 50-55 pounds in 10 weeks.
I followed this plan about 10 years ago, and I did lose weight.. 40 pounds in about three months, and then I stalled out for the next 2-3 months and decided if I wasn’t going to lose weight I wanted my potatoes back.
This appealed to me at the time because I could eat as much as I want, until I was full. Yea, I’m losing weight on this 1500 calorie a day thing… but I’m never full (unless I cheat… which I have a few times). And the two days off thing… that was kind of appealing as well. Though after no potatoes for over a month, I had some McDonald fries… and they just tasted… off. Anyways, there’s a variation of this out there too called the 12-Day-Diet or sometimes the Grapefruit Diet. Same basic premise, but it’s about eating like this for the long term, not just for 10 weeks.
I’ve gone to the gym every day since Saturday. They have a walking track, that’s all I did Saturday was walk. Four laps around the track, bout 150 steps each lap, took about 10 minutes. Then I had to take a break, my lower back would start to hurt. Five minutes off, then another four laps… another break… four more laps. Bout 30 minutes total. It’s a start, right?
The scale in the locker room only goes to 350. Does me no good. I was hoping to use the scale there to track my weight… but that’s what I need to get to .. and yea, I could keep checking till I get under that, but that doesn’t help me check my progress. Feh, got home and ordered a 440# scale off Amazon. Guess it won’t hurt to have one here at home. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a scale before… other than my 5# kitchen one.
Sunday… first 10 minutes on the track, then decided to do the treadmill. Two 10 minute sessions, half-mile each. So that puts me at walking a mile and a half each of those two days.
I was going to skip Monday… but decided not to, so had to go home and grab my bag and then go. Good thing it’s only bout a mile and a half from my house. Went back, decided to jump on the treadmill, made it five minutes and started feeling sore. The grab bars are just a bit too low for me, and for some reason I’m not quite coordinated enough to walk on there without holding on. Moved over to the recumbent bike and did two, ten minute rides on there. Couple miles each time I think.
Been doing pretty good on the meals. I don’t know if I’m keeping under 1500… according to what I put in the meal tracker at sparkpeople.com I am… but it just seems like … I dunno. The watered down Gatorade I drink probably adds a few calories, but less than 100 I would think. And I did have a treat the other day. I was cleaning out a cooler in the garage and found a Snickers bar in the lid compartment. Kinda frozen. I cut it in to four pieces (was a regular size bar), put three in a baggie in the freezer and ate one.
It was good.
It was really good.
But I only ate that one bit, the rest is still in the freezer. And I’ve been eating some snacks here and there. 100 Calorie packs of pretzels, fat-free pudding cups, LOTS of dill pickles. (hey… it’s only bout 15 calories!) And I’ve been trying to be creative with my meals. Tonight I marinated a portabella mushroom cap in some italian dressing, then broiled it. Then flipped it over, put a thin slice of onion, some feta crumbles, and some seasoning and broiled it some more. Yea, I probably shouldn’t have had the feta.. but it’s been in my fridge for over a month.. and I keep the portions to the 1oz, but since I was havint 3oz of steak… I kinda went over on my protein portions for today. Sliced up the left over steak I used and put it on a piece of “Not So Wheaty Bread” and did the same bit of feta and seasonings before broiling that too. Both were very good.
Oh yea… Monday I was with one of the sales guys at the gym (paid the first month and set up fees for my dad to join the gym) and decided to suck it up and ask someone at the gym if they had a larger scale. He showed me one in the personal trainer office. 364.8 - yea… if that’s in tune with the one I stepped on at the doctors last Wed, I’m down nearly five pounds… in as many days.
So…. if I can stick to eating 1500-2000 calories a day will I lose weight? Of course. Will I keep it off? I… don’t think so. I wouldn’t say I’m starving… but I am going hungry each day. I’m snacking at times of the day I wouldn’t normally… which may not be bad… but I’m not getting FULL with my meals. I think what’s going to keep me going for the next few months is that I have to put up with this as part of getting the surgery. The point of having such a surgery is so that when you eat these tiny amounts, you feel full and you stay feeling full until the next meal. I think I had two dill pickles and a sugar free fudgecicle on Sunday… cause I wasn’t feeling full ever. Yesterday wasn’t as bad… cause I was more distracted and busy at work.
Sure, it has been less than a week, but already I think I’m seeing better than just last week how WLS will help. Cause I am eating right… but I’m still hungry. So I know I can eat right, I’ve always known I can… but I am going to need help to eat less. Not sure there is any other way of getting around that. And it’s not like I am not drinking enough water. I drank about 10 cups just at work today. Another cup at the gym, cup of V8 before breakfast, and I’m sure I’ll go through another 2-3 cups before bed yet. And yes.. even tho it doesn’t effect me like it would post-op, I’ve stopped drinking with and for awhile after meals.
So to keep this working long haul, I think I need the right tool.
I don’t know the last time I tried cottage cheese, before yesterday. But, it’s on the list of foods that is good to have both as part of my pre-op weight loss, and one of the first foods I can have post-op.
My aversion to it has been mostly phychological. When I was a kid, maybe 4th grade or so… we took a weekend trip down to see my mom’s friend in Albert Lea area… “Aunt Betty & Uncle Jim”. When we got back we discovered a bowl of mostly eaten cerel had been left out… and what was now left in the bowl looked like cottage cheese. After that, I couldn’t look at the stuff without that memory coming back to me.
Yesterday I had some cottage cheese with breakfast, mixed in a spoon full of lingonberry preserves I had picked up at Ikea. Afterwards, I couldn’t help but think of the deer hunting scene from the movie Red Dawn - “It wasn’t so bad.”
So yea, I met with the dietitian on Tuesday, and after we talked about eating after surgery we got in to what I need to do before surgery to lose the pre-op weight. Basically, I’ve been put on a “Calorie Controlled Lifestyle” Here’s the explaination of just what that is from one of the flyers they gave me;
This calorie controlled lifestyle is a healthy diet used by many to lose weight or to control their diabetes. It is easy to follow and is appropriate for persons of all ages and stages of life. There is no need to count calories or to spend extra money on specialty foods. This diet is split into 6 food groups, and you are allowed a given number of servings in each group. This will help to ensure a balanced diet that will better support your body and its needs.
And the joyful part of this is I am supposed to limit myself to a whopping 1500 daily calorie level.
Ok, as I posted yesterday… I’m looking in to bariatric surgery, or as folks around the net seem to refer to it as “weight loss surgery” or WLS. The pros of doing something like this are pretty much self-evident. What about the cons? What about the risks? I haven’t been blowing sunshine up my own skirt on this, I’ve been trying to find out about the downside to doing this as well.
Years ago… before Atkins was the thing to do when it came to low/no-carb diets, there was this… The Mayo Clinic Diet. I titled this “So Called”, because this never had anything to do with the Mayo Clinic, and the Clinic has done a lot to make sure people know that, in fact they now have their own actual “
