biscuit

so today i went for a group meeting with the nutritionist and then my first post op appointment. the meeting went well. there were four of us total and i was the "youngest" band there. lol everyone confessed to their food cheats. i must say it made me feel a whole lot better. out of the four, only one of us (an older lady who actually LIKED the horrific protein shakes) didn't cheat in some way, shape, or form over these post op liquid diet days.

the lady to my left confessed to downing lots of cheese off of pizza and thoroughly enjoying it. the guy on my right confessed to.... well, a lot. first he goes, "well... i had a biscuit." and the nutritionist was like "you mean a piece of one." and he was like "no, i had a whole one". we were all in total shock. i mean, breads are known to be hard foods for us banders anyway and here was this guy barely two weeks post op confessing to downing and ENTIRE biscuit?

yeah..... but he didn't stop there. he went on to tell us that along with his biscuit he also had eggs and grits. all in one sitting. he got all that down no problem. we were floored. of course, he was reprimanded for his "naughty behavior" but he just laughed and we moved along. later, he also confessed to having 3 to 4 yogurts a day as well as a lot of v8. i am still shocked about the biscuit.

as for me... i confessed to doing what i call "the chew and spit" where i chew some food just to taste it and then spit it out (since i can't swallow it). gross, i know but it served its purpose. i also admitted to the cadbury creme egg that found it's way into my mouth to melt itself into nothingness. somehow though, i still felt my little cheats were nothing compared to my group meeting buddy's breakfast of champions.

we were all moved into the mushies phase - woohoo! and given the go ahead to start pureeing to our heart's content all the meats we want.

we were also given lots of nice "nutritional input". i had a hard time staying focused on that though because i was a little busy thinking about the nutritionist herself. see.... when she first walked in, the lady to my left asked the nut (nutritionist) if she has always been that thin. (she was super thin... i'm talking maybe a size 2!) the nut says yes and that she has never really had to worry about her weight; she was just "blessed" with a great metabolism. so with that info being given right off the bat, i just had a hard time listening to a rail thin woman who's never dealt with weight or food issues telling all us "big folks" who just had weight loss surgery what we should and shouldn't do and how to "make ourselves" not overeat and etc. it's like, what could she possibly know about how hard it is to move away from the ever appealing bucket of chicken? how can she relate to the feeling of being depressed when you go shopping in a store and can't find anything big enough? so depressed that then you go waller your sadness in hot fudge sundae with extra fudge. i just don't get it. i guess i would feel more comfortable (and the lady on my left said she would have, too) if the woman had at least had some personal experience of dealing with weight issues. but alas, she was born with the great metabolism. oh if we all could be.

but anyway.... after all that was done.... the four of us headed back to the doc's office to sign in for our post op check ups.

i was called in 2nd and was surprised to find out that i had lost more weight than i thought. yep. it's 12 pounds down in 12 days. a pound a day! pretty happy with that progress there i must say.

it took a while for the nurse practioner to come in to see me and first thing when she walked in i told her how freaked out i was about having stitches removed. i mean, i've only been stitched twice in my life - both related to childbirth- and the stitches were self dissolving. the thought of having stitches pulled outta my healing incisions really didn't sound that great to me. but she assured me it was fine and proceed to quickly (and i do mean quickly) rip off the plastic sheets protecting my bobos. surprisingly, that didn't hurt like i would have thought it would. i could tell she was a pro at this and that made me feel a bit better. then she proceeded to rip the stitches out. and i say rip because that's pretty much how it was. she grabbed the end with her tweezer things, pulled hard and fast and boom they were out. that didn't hurt either. i was shocked. it felt a little wierd after though but they said that was normal.

minus the stitches and plastic sheeting things, my incisions look so much better than i would have imagined. just small lines with a faint pink tinge to them. woohoo. they still itch like crazy though.

i booked my next appt for 2 weeks from now (april 7) and that's when i'll get moved onto "soft foods" and the final stage of my new diet. i'm wondering if those two weeks will go by as fast as the first two have?

other thoughts.....

while i still haven't noticed a real difference in my clothes and how they fit, i did go shoe shopping today and noticed that i am a smaller shoe size. how that works,i don't know, but it's true. normally i'm a size 9 to 9 1/2 at this store and today, all the 9's were too big. i had to buy 8 1/2's. i think that's great since that's what i used to wear all the time anyway. my shoe size got bigger as my butt did. go figure. so maybe if my shoe size is shrinking my butt is, too, and i just haven't noticed it yet. just trying to stay positive, ya know? lol


a friend came over to visit (and color my hair) and i had her take two "12 pounds down" photos of me. a frontal and a side shot. of course, i think they look horrendous and dont' really want to show them to anyone but i know i need them for "documentational" purposes. for remembrance and for being able to see change. so far, i still don't see any.

three folks have told me they see weight loss in my face. one is the aforementioned friend and fellow bander (she's almost 2 years out). another my husband and the last my 7 year old daughter. she came up to me this evening and said, "mommy, you're getting skinny!" i laughed and told her it's about being healthy not being skinny. although truth be told.... BRING ON THE SKINNY!