I am starting Thursday 13 today. Don't know if I will do it every week but I will try! I wanted to point out some things I have noticed since having surgery so that is my topic today!
Thursday 13: Changes since Surgery
1. Fit into the seat at the movie theater with both arms down - comfortably!
2. Don't get looked at funny when I walk into my fancy gym.
3. Don't get looked at funny when walking to the pool in my bathing suit, or when swimming laps.
4. Can actually SWIM laps again.
5. Have changed several clothing sizes and wearing all of my old smaller clothes.
6. Don't have many food cravings at all, which is so freeing!
7. Not embarrassed to change clothes in the gym locker room (completely naked, since I am usually changing into/out of my bathing suit.) Although, I actually DO get some looks, and then I remember duh, I have all the scars on my tummy from the surgery and people are wondering what the heck they are. Do I care? Not really.
8. I smile more.
9. I can walk, hike, etc and actually enjoy it and not feel like I'm gonna die.
10. Even though I have more energy overall, I want to sleep ALL the time. Lots of naps, lots of going to bed early. I think the quick weight loss wears out my body.
11. I find myself taking on more. Not just more physically, but more responsibilities in my life. I have the energy to try to do more.
12. The door gets held open for me more. People strike up conversation with me more.
13. I fit onto the massage table without my arms hanging off the sides.
I can only imagine how many changes I will be able to list in another 50 lbs. I am still a person who is 100 lbs overweight, and I can say all these positive things. I'm really looking forward to what is to come.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Party Plate
Last night I went to my first party post-op. I've been to family BBQ's, but those were easy because everyone knew I had surgery. At this party, my friend who hosted it knows I had surgery, and she is about to have surgery herself... but none of her friends know, so we couldn't really say that was how we knew each other, and I didn't want to tell them I had surgery just because that might complicate things for my friend. So although I would typically be open and tell people I had it if they asked, last night was a little different.
Luckily my friend had a very nice spread and I was very happy with my plate. :)
Here's me and the lovely April, and her spread of yummy foods.
Here is what I ended up having:
I had a turkey & cheese pinwheel but I removed the lettuce and tomato, and after taking this pic I also removed about half the amount of tortilla. I also ate all the carrots but only a tiny bit of the ranch (it was spicy for me), and a little while later I was able to eat the little lemon treat. I would say this was about a 6" diameter plate so the portions were pretty small that I was eating.
I would have liked to have more turkey and cheese from that pinwheel but there were about enough for the people there so I didn't want to take a 2nd one, but I think I made it work. Luckily I had PLENTY of protein yesterday because I got a protein smoothie from my gym after my workout.
I felt comfortably full and happy at the party, and also like I really didn't draw any attention to myself. No one seemed to be pigging out since they had already eaten, or maybe they eat that little anyway, so for once I blended in! Normally in the past I would have wanted to eat 3 times that amount at least and I'd be paranoid that people would notice me pigging out. It was nice to not feel that way. :)
If you want to see more pics and hear more about the party, visit my personal blog here.
Luckily my friend had a very nice spread and I was very happy with my plate. :)
Here's me and the lovely April, and her spread of yummy foods.
Here is what I ended up having:
I had a turkey & cheese pinwheel but I removed the lettuce and tomato, and after taking this pic I also removed about half the amount of tortilla. I also ate all the carrots but only a tiny bit of the ranch (it was spicy for me), and a little while later I was able to eat the little lemon treat. I would say this was about a 6" diameter plate so the portions were pretty small that I was eating.
I would have liked to have more turkey and cheese from that pinwheel but there were about enough for the people there so I didn't want to take a 2nd one, but I think I made it work. Luckily I had PLENTY of protein yesterday because I got a protein smoothie from my gym after my workout.
I felt comfortably full and happy at the party, and also like I really didn't draw any attention to myself. No one seemed to be pigging out since they had already eaten, or maybe they eat that little anyway, so for once I blended in! Normally in the past I would have wanted to eat 3 times that amount at least and I'd be paranoid that people would notice me pigging out. It was nice to not feel that way. :)
If you want to see more pics and hear more about the party, visit my personal blog here.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Video Update!
PASSWORD IS: healthupdate
I posted the Vimeo video here since it is higher quality. If you are also a YouTuber, you can see this video on YouTube HERE.
I had to end the video abruptly, so here is the proper ended and also a shoutout to my friend April.
Again, password is healthupdate, and if you would prefer to check this out on YouTube you can do so here.
.
11 Weeks Random Chatter from Christie Stearns on Vimeo.
I posted the Vimeo video here since it is higher quality. If you are also a YouTuber, you can see this video on YouTube HERE.
I had to end the video abruptly, so here is the proper ended and also a shoutout to my friend April.
Again, password is healthupdate, and if you would prefer to check this out on YouTube you can do so here.
.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Things I've Been Eating at 2 1/2 Months
A commenter said she would like to see more of what I've been eating at 2 1/2 months out. The thing is, a lot of it is the same stuff I've already shown. But I really should be better about documenting my eating out experiences and anything new that I eat also. Here are a couple of things from this week and a rundown of my typical diet at this time.
Egg Bites
Finally got around to trying a couple of Shelly's Bites! We made the Breakfast Bites and the Denver Bites. They were pretty easy to make... somewhat time consuming (at least to me, who hates cooking) just because of chopping everything up. But Ian chopped up most of it the night before :) We made a whole tray of one kind for him and a tray of the other for me - this way we were able to use the whole carton of eggs we bought. They are delicious! We cooked them for the 30 mins stated, but they are a little overcooked so next time I'm thinking 25 mins. This is a great thing to make up on weekends so that Ian can grab-and-go for his weekday breakfasts. As for me well, I just like them cuz they're yummy.
The World According to Eggface is a great recipe blog and she shares nearly 50 varieties of her Bites recipes (many are not breakfasty, either!) and all other kinds of awesome recipes that I can't wait to try.
Grilled Chicken Fillet from KFC
I needed to grab something quick while out and I spotted KFC. I knew they had some grilled chicken options so I decided to investigate. I got this chicken fillet for $2.49 ... it was well seasoned and juicy. Not at all plain as I thought it would be. I also got a honey mustard sauce and used just a little of that to add extra flavor... it was delicious. A great drive thru option. I was able to eat the whole thing and I think it was about 3 oz.
Red Robin BLTA Croissant
Found this pic on the web because I didn't take one. Several notes - I do not get tomato - I do not get avacado - I add cheese. This was one of my faves before surgery so I ordered it again this past week when out to lunch with a friend. It came with watermelon (bummer, I prefer the cantaloupe) and fries. What I was able to eat at 2 1/2 months out - One HALF the sandwich but with the bottom part of the croissant and all the lettuce removed. Basically I ate the meat and cheese and some of the top part of the croissant... plus two large french fries. I brought all of the rest home (including just two more french fries), gave the watermelon to my husband and had another meal, just the same, later on.
Other Foods @ 2 1/2 Months
I am still eating a lot of the same things. Some meals I eat regularly are:
- Premier Protein Shake (usually 1 a day for breakfast)
- 1 Wheat Thins Flatbread Cracker with 2 oz of tuna or chicken salad on it
- 1 Wheat Thins Flatbread Cracker with cream cheese spread, 1 slice turkey, 1 slice american cheese on top
- Hormel White Chicken Chili (about 4 oz) with shredded cheese on top
- 2 Egg Bites (listed above)
- 1 scrambled egg (or egg beater equivalent amount) with 1 Morningstar Farms vegetarian sausage
- 1 light mozzarella string cheese with 1 slice turkey breast
- 1 light mozzarella string cheese with 1 oz peanuts
- 2-3oz chicken breast or turkey meatballs with campbell's cream soup of some kind, that has been cooked in crock pot
- 1 Asian-style beef skewer
- 6 grilled shrimp
- 6 cold shrimp with cocktail sauce
- Homemade flatbread pizza
- 1/2 a personal size frozen pizza
- 3 tyson chicken nuggets with a tablespoon of ranch
- sugar free pudding with protein powder added
- Snack Plates from Starbucks (I've posted about these) - 1 snack plate gives me 2-3 meals
- turkey pepperoni or turkey lil' smokies with a light string cheese
- fruits and veggies - very few and not with every meal. Still not enough room for too much of them.
In general I am eating 2.5-4 oz of food depending on density and consistency.
Egg Bites
Finally got around to trying a couple of Shelly's Bites! We made the Breakfast Bites and the Denver Bites. They were pretty easy to make... somewhat time consuming (at least to me, who hates cooking) just because of chopping everything up. But Ian chopped up most of it the night before :) We made a whole tray of one kind for him and a tray of the other for me - this way we were able to use the whole carton of eggs we bought. They are delicious! We cooked them for the 30 mins stated, but they are a little overcooked so next time I'm thinking 25 mins. This is a great thing to make up on weekends so that Ian can grab-and-go for his weekday breakfasts. As for me well, I just like them cuz they're yummy.
The World According to Eggface is a great recipe blog and she shares nearly 50 varieties of her Bites recipes (many are not breakfasty, either!) and all other kinds of awesome recipes that I can't wait to try.
Grilled Chicken Fillet from KFC
I needed to grab something quick while out and I spotted KFC. I knew they had some grilled chicken options so I decided to investigate. I got this chicken fillet for $2.49 ... it was well seasoned and juicy. Not at all plain as I thought it would be. I also got a honey mustard sauce and used just a little of that to add extra flavor... it was delicious. A great drive thru option. I was able to eat the whole thing and I think it was about 3 oz.
Red Robin BLTA Croissant
Found this pic on the web because I didn't take one. Several notes - I do not get tomato - I do not get avacado - I add cheese. This was one of my faves before surgery so I ordered it again this past week when out to lunch with a friend. It came with watermelon (bummer, I prefer the cantaloupe) and fries. What I was able to eat at 2 1/2 months out - One HALF the sandwich but with the bottom part of the croissant and all the lettuce removed. Basically I ate the meat and cheese and some of the top part of the croissant... plus two large french fries. I brought all of the rest home (including just two more french fries), gave the watermelon to my husband and had another meal, just the same, later on.
Other Foods @ 2 1/2 Months
I am still eating a lot of the same things. Some meals I eat regularly are:
- Premier Protein Shake (usually 1 a day for breakfast)
- 1 Wheat Thins Flatbread Cracker with 2 oz of tuna or chicken salad on it
- 1 Wheat Thins Flatbread Cracker with cream cheese spread, 1 slice turkey, 1 slice american cheese on top
- Hormel White Chicken Chili (about 4 oz) with shredded cheese on top
- 2 Egg Bites (listed above)
- 1 scrambled egg (or egg beater equivalent amount) with 1 Morningstar Farms vegetarian sausage
- 1 light mozzarella string cheese with 1 slice turkey breast
- 1 light mozzarella string cheese with 1 oz peanuts
- 2-3oz chicken breast or turkey meatballs with campbell's cream soup of some kind, that has been cooked in crock pot
- 1 Asian-style beef skewer
- 6 grilled shrimp
- 6 cold shrimp with cocktail sauce
- Homemade flatbread pizza
- 1/2 a personal size frozen pizza
- 3 tyson chicken nuggets with a tablespoon of ranch
- sugar free pudding with protein powder added
- Snack Plates from Starbucks (I've posted about these) - 1 snack plate gives me 2-3 meals
- turkey pepperoni or turkey lil' smokies with a light string cheese
- fruits and veggies - very few and not with every meal. Still not enough room for too much of them.
In general I am eating 2.5-4 oz of food depending on density and consistency.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Ian's 2 Month Progress Update
Today is my husbands 2 month surgaversary :) He did EXACTLY the same as me --- 50 pounds!!!! So proud of him!!! It's funny how differently it went for us but it turned out the same in the end. He lost almost the same amount in his first and second months whereas I lost way more in my first month and not much the 2nd month (it's picking up again now though, yay!)
His total loss = 50 lbs. Loss this month = 24 lbs. Total inches lost = 31.5 ... Inches lost this month = 8.75.
Now on to his progress pictures! On the left is starting, middle photo is 1 month, righthand photo is this month.
He says he really hadn't been feeling like he was making a whole lot of progress this month - even though I was telling him he looked smaller - so he says the photos and measurements are an absolute must so you can see the difference. Once he saw those things he could really see it and he says without that he would have been discouraged. He is happy to report that he continues to feel stronger, have more energy and be less tired. He is still feeling very happy that he had surgery.
His total loss = 50 lbs. Loss this month = 24 lbs. Total inches lost = 31.5 ... Inches lost this month = 8.75.
Now on to his progress pictures! On the left is starting, middle photo is 1 month, righthand photo is this month.
He says he really hadn't been feeling like he was making a whole lot of progress this month - even though I was telling him he looked smaller - so he says the photos and measurements are an absolute must so you can see the difference. Once he saw those things he could really see it and he says without that he would have been discouraged. He is happy to report that he continues to feel stronger, have more energy and be less tired. He is still feeling very happy that he had surgery.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Starbucks Chicken & Hummus Snack Plate
I thought I already posted this but I guess I didn't! I tried a different snack plate at Starbucks - the Chicken on Flatbread with Hummus. This is a lower calorie, higher protein snack plate than the Protein Plate. I absolutely LOVE this snack plate. It's delicious.
The chicken strips in this snack plate are very flavorful and tender - absolutely delicious. The veggies included are cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, and cucumber sticks - that's right those are cucumber! The hummus is really good too.
I am able to eat all the chicken and a couple veggie sticks as one meal, then as another meal I finish the veggie sticks and hummus and have maybe 1-2 bites of the flatbread dipped in the hummus too. I ignore the tomatoes because I don't like them.
This is a great on-the go option.
I've actually had this one 3 times this month because it's just so darn tasty. The only one I haven't tried yet is the fruit & nut one - which I'm sure is tasty too but it has way higher calories and fat so not sure if I WANT to have it... since these other two snack plates are both good optons and tasty anyway.
A New Love Hate Relationship
We decided to break up with our old analog bathroom scale. It was not accurate and not very readable. Simply changing how you stand can make it fluctuate 5 pounds or more. I was getting along okay because I was doing all of my official weigh-ins at the gym... but my poor husband was getting pretty frustrated not having any clue where he was at in his progress.
Yesterday we went out and purchased this baby:
We all know that during this process we can hit stalls and get frustrated when we don't see a change. I was particularly interested in having a scale that would show more than just our weight. This calculates body fat percentage and weight of fat, body water and bone mass. How cool! I've never had a scale that did this before. It also has 4 user settings so we can each set up a profile with our height, age, and gender... and it stores our weigh-ins under our user profile. Here was my very first reading this morning:
I did this with clothes on and my phone in my hand (to take the picture after)... this should be close to what I would weigh at the gym except I didn't have my gym shoes on. But sometimes I weigh at the gym barefoot if I am about to go swimming. I will be going back to the gym tomorrow so I plan to weigh at home first in my whole outfit and then at the gym to see how close they are to each other.
At the moment I am a bit frustrated. My issue with home scales has always been consistency - if I get on it 3 times in a row, I expect it to give me somewhat close to the same number all 3 times. When we were trying scales in the store, we did this... and this scale gave me the same # 3 times in a row. However this morning, it's a different story. I got anywhere from 248 to 251. I know in the grand scheme of things 3 lbs is not a big deal, but when you want to know if you lost weight this week, it CAN be a big deal. I think I will just plan on taking the average of 3 times on the scale, but this time I just took the heaviest weight result since it is still a loss from last weigh-in on Wednesday.... I think the biggest problem is our bathroom floor just isn't quite level enough. Maybe I'll try it downstairs in the kitchen and see if that does any better.
Yesterday we went out and purchased this baby:
We all know that during this process we can hit stalls and get frustrated when we don't see a change. I was particularly interested in having a scale that would show more than just our weight. This calculates body fat percentage and weight of fat, body water and bone mass. How cool! I've never had a scale that did this before. It also has 4 user settings so we can each set up a profile with our height, age, and gender... and it stores our weigh-ins under our user profile. Here was my very first reading this morning:
I did this with clothes on and my phone in my hand (to take the picture after)... this should be close to what I would weigh at the gym except I didn't have my gym shoes on. But sometimes I weigh at the gym barefoot if I am about to go swimming. I will be going back to the gym tomorrow so I plan to weigh at home first in my whole outfit and then at the gym to see how close they are to each other.
At the moment I am a bit frustrated. My issue with home scales has always been consistency - if I get on it 3 times in a row, I expect it to give me somewhat close to the same number all 3 times. When we were trying scales in the store, we did this... and this scale gave me the same # 3 times in a row. However this morning, it's a different story. I got anywhere from 248 to 251. I know in the grand scheme of things 3 lbs is not a big deal, but when you want to know if you lost weight this week, it CAN be a big deal. I think I will just plan on taking the average of 3 times on the scale, but this time I just took the heaviest weight result since it is still a loss from last weigh-in on Wednesday.... I think the biggest problem is our bathroom floor just isn't quite level enough. Maybe I'll try it downstairs in the kitchen and see if that does any better.
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