Heart Healthy

I posted this link in a group I belong to on Facebook for healthy weight loss foods. In the months following my weight loss surgery, I’ve done a lot of research on healthy foods. I want to eat a healthy diet (but not be ON a diet if that makes sense). This is part of what I posted about the link.

I get ‘poo poo’ed’ a lot for my love of nuts and other healthy fats but in moderation they are fantastic for you (too much of anything can be bad for you, after all). I feel sometimes Americans are a people of extremes. Fat is ‘bad’ for you so Americans don’t just eliminate the fats that ARE bad for you, they go to the extreme of eliminating the healthy fats, too. Fats your body needs.  http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/slideshow.asp?show=51

I’ll admit, I’m a ‘full fat’ kind of girl. I DO pay attention to the KINDS of fat I am eating but, to be honest, I can eat so little. Why would I waste what little room I have on low fat foods that taste like crap? And if they DON’T taste like crap they are ‘usually’ (but not always) full of extra sugar or carbs to make them taste not like crap, or full of other processed crap your body doesn’t need. Also, to be honest, full fat foods leave me feeling sated for much longer. I also know not all lower fat foods taste like crap but the majority seem to.

Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary. I know what works for ME and MY lifestyle and MY body.

Maui Bound

So I’m going on my first ‘big’ vacation since my surgery. The husband and I are headed to Maui in just a bit, a trip we normally would not be able to afford but my incredibly generous in-laws are there and are paying for us to come meet them. This will also be my first time on an airplane in years. The last time I flew I needed a seatbelt extender, I bet I fit into a seat this time around.

I’m not too worried about being terribly strict with my diet or finding healthy low carb options while I’m there. There’s tons of fish and I can get FRESH ahi tuna and mahi mahi, which makes me very happy. My one real indulgence is going to be fresh pineapple juice but I’ll balance it out with some protein so my blood sugar doesn’t decide to go insane.

I really am very excited about this trip. I love Maui (I’d live there if I could manage it) and I could really use this time to unwind and destress. Maybe I’ll get brave enough to get in front of the camera for a few vacation pictures. Been a long time since I’ve done that.

Mean Girls and Weight Loss Surgery

This is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. I’ve noticed a trend in the post weight loss surgery world, one that kind of bothers me. I’ve noticed a lot of us (and I’ve been guilty of it myself so I’m not pointing fingers at anybody) turn into ‘mean girls’ after surgery.

An example. Someone posts a picture comparing a curvy girl (usually the lovely Marilyn Monroe) to someone who might be considered by most standards too thin. The comments on the thin girl are cutting. Some examples: That’s so gross! That’s unattractive! She looks sooooo unhealthy! That’s disgusting.

Those same comments posted on a photo of an obese woman would have us all frothing at the mouth, getting out the torches and pitchforks, and all out lynching the people making such insensitive comments. Why do we find it acceptable in the first case but not in the second? Is there really a difference between saying the obese woman looks disgusting or saying the thin woman looks disgusting?

In my mind? No, there’s not much difference. I’m no size advocate but, personal preferences aside, I don’t think either is acceptable. I wonder if some of us just forget how hurtful and hateful those kinds of comments really are.

What do all of you think? I really want to hear opinions.

Happy Post Thanksgiving!

I hope everybody had a great holiday yesterday. We had a great day here filled with family and a dear friend who spends every Thanksgiving with us as her family is on the other side of the country. It’s become a tradition to have her here every year.

I have a post I’ve been working up to that I hope to have up sometime this weekend. It may rock a few boats but, eh, what can I say? I’m so not a people pleaser.

I’m a terrible, terrible blogger

Hi. Remember me? No? I don’t blame you. I’m a crappy blogger and I haven’t kept up with the newsletter either. I am working on some guest posts for the newsletter, though. Things are going great. Just out living life, which I did not really do as much of before my sleeve as I should have.

Weight is still pretty much stalled. Plateaus suck, but I can live with it. I’m still losing inches, slowly but surely, even when the pounds don’t come off. I still love my sleeve. Even if I’m never ‘thin’ again, my life has improved 100% already.

I have some great recipes to post so I’ll be doing that. Weather is getting colder and I start craving soups and stews. They’re warming, filling, and all of the ones I’ve found are pretty protein packed. I’ll also post the update on my leg (from my last blog post). It was a fun story (not).

Updates Finally!

I haven’t updated recently, for that I apologize. I’m really a TERRIBLE blogger. No, really, I am. I’ve pretty much just been out living my life. Since losing a chunk of weight, I’ve been a lot more active. That means getting out and doing more.

The first part of July, my best friend in the whole wide world had a VSG! I went to Ohio and spent a week there, so I could be there for her surgery. It was great getting to see her and spend time with her and her family. When it was time to come home I was really sad but now that we know it’s not too expensive for me to travel there, I may get to see her more often.

I had my one year follow up at my surgeon’s office yesterday. My one year isn’t until the 18th but I had an issue I wanted looked at now. I’ve been having some swelling in my legs, especially the right leg, some edema, the skin on top of my shins is reddened (more pink than red but still a color change) and there’s some intermittent achy pain, again mainly in the right leg. I admit, my first thought was the possibility of DVT so I wanted my surgeon to look at it. No, I did not go to the ER – don’t judge me. Seriously, just don’t.

My appointment went really well. I’ve lost a total of 60% of my excess weight and, even though I’ve been on a six month plateau, my weight is right where they ‘wanted’ me at this stage. They were really encouraging about the plateau, too, and I’ll be seeing my nutritionist on Friday to discuss it and see if there’s anything we can change. I still need to do my one year labs, but they’ll call me if there are any issues with them.

About the leg… 

A quote by Werner Erhard on being Okay

If you could really accept that you weren’t ok, you could stop proving you were ok. If you could stop proving that you were ok you could get that it was ok not to be ok. If you could get that it was ok not to be ok you could get that you were ok the way you are. You’re ok, get it?

Werner Erhard

I don’t know but I think this is the best thing I’ve heard all day and something I (along with a few others) really needed to hear today.

Hunger

One of the great side-effects of the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy is my lack of hunger. One of the things the VSG does is significantly reduces the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Some people never lose their hunger. Some people lose it for awhile and it comes back after six months or so. I can say for myself, at nearly 10 months out I rarely experience physical hunger.

It is difficult to describe the difference between my hunger pre-surgery and the hunger I experience now. Pre-surgery, my hunger was a desperate, almost panicky feeling. Even worse, I felt it all the time. I was never ‘not hungry’. I could eat to the point of being stuffed, physically uncomfortable even, and less than an hour later I’d feel as if I was starving again. Since my surgery, I have not felt that way, not even once. When I do get hungry, I can ignore it for a bit. Prior to surgery it was a constant roar in the back of my mind. After surgery, it is a meow and a quiet one at that.

When I see someone who had a VSG panicking because they are feeling hungry again, I don’t really know what to say to them. Hunger is normal, naturally thin people get hungry too. What is not normal is the way hunger affected us before surgery. It can also be difficult to determine if what you are feeling truly is hunger. Is it head hunger? Is it stomach acid? Stomach acid can mimic the symptoms of hunger to the point the two can become very confused.

Broken

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For approximately ten years, maybe a little more, I’ve had undiagnosed lower quadrant ‘gut pain’. The very first time I experienced it, it sent me to the ER. The positioning and type of pain seriously had me believing I had appendicitis. It was not. I had no fever. My white blood cell count was normal and the CT scan they did showed a perfectly normal looking appendix. What it did show was an inflamed ileum.

The gastroenterologist the surgeon called to look at me (since the surgeon did not want to perform surgery on me unless 100% necessary) admitted me to the hospital and pumped me full of enough antibiotics to cure a small third world country of syphilis. The pain went away but the cause for it was never found.

A few months later, I had the same pain. Went to get it scanned. This time the ileum was not inflamed. Neither was my appendix. The solution? Pain medication (which did not work but made me care less I was hurting) and steroids. Joy of joys. If you’ve never had to be on prednisone, you don’t understand what a joy this crap is. And by joy I mean hell.

Because of this weird, undiagnosable pain, I had my first colonoscopy before I was 35. The results were nothing out of the ordinary. I did have a polyp that was removed, but it was not the cause of my pain. A second colonoscopy a few years later yielded the same ‘no answer’ results.

I’ve been poked. I’ve been prodded. Changing my diet seemed to help a little. Since going fairly strictly low carb, the pain has improved. It’s not quite so often, but I still get it. When I do get it, it’s awful. The pain nearly doubles me over.

I don’t know what to do. On days like today, when the pain strikes out of nowhere, all I want to do is curl up and cry. I have, in fact, cried a lot today. It REALLY hurts. It’s a sharp, stabbing pain that also throbs. It also just exhausts me. I got a full night’s sleep and already feel like I haven’t slept a single minute.  Add that to the frustration of not having lost a single pound in three months, in spite of doing everything ‘right’ and following all the ‘rules’, and I’m feeling more than a little broken today.

Who Benefits Most From Weight-Loss TV Shows? | XFINITY TV News

Who Benefits Most From Weight-Loss TV Shows? | XFINITY TV News.

This is a really interesting article on the current trend of weight loss shows. Who does it benefit? Is it really making a difference in America?

I am one of those who doesn’t particularly find shows like the Biggest Loser inspiring. I’m sorry but anybody can lose weight when they are taken to a ranch and pretty much pushed day in and day out to lose weight. I also tend to agree with a quote in the article by a bariatric surgeon.

“Obesity is an epidemic and these shows are trivializing it,” he says, noting that the diet and exercise plans are often extreme and unsustainable. Still, Khalili says his patients can take some eating and exercise tips from these popular programs.

The new extreme makeover show seems a little different. The people featured on the show don’t go to camp and they go through the weight loss while living at home and facing the things day in and day out that got them fat. I haven’t watched it yet, but I might.