Race Day

Today's race had me laughing a bit.  First of all it was a race to benefit the local beauty pagent scholarship program so there were a lot of very beautiful girls either participating in the race or there to volunteer.  It was pretty hilarious to see these beauty queens all decked out in their designer sweat suits, full make up, perfect hair -- out there trying to run.  Then there was another set of folks out today -- moms maybe?  At two different times on the race course I saw some middle-aged women wearing their race numbers and in their perfectly pressed work out gear and they were stopped along the race course puffing on cigarettes.  Definitely not your typical race full of athletes today.

Distance:  3.1 miles

Time: 49:01 -- a new record!

Pace:  15:49

Weather:  62 and sunny with a stiff breeze off the water

Increased Protein Intake

So for the past couple weeks I've been eating a lot of protein. Hitting about 150g protein per day. It's a lot harder than I thought it'd be -- easy for a few days, but hard to do it consistantly. If you'll remember, I'm doing this major increase because of my low prealbumin numbers in the last lab draw. I've got another lab draw scheduled for June 13th, so we'll see if this is working or not. A typical day's protein intake includes: 68g protein -- two protein hot chai teas per day (AM & PM) 12g protein -- about 2oz sliced deli turkey per day for breakfast 24g protein -- about 4-5oz chicken breast on a salad per day for lunch 12g protein -- a couple cheesesticks for an afternoon snack (or 2oz more of turkey) 30g protein -- about 4oz steak a couple times this week for dinner This comes out to 146g protein and when you figure in 1 or 2 grams here and there from whole grains or veggies or dairy I can hit the 150g mark with this type of plan. I'm also averaging about 1200-1300 calories per day. But the only problem I'm experiencing is that I'm bored. The turkey slices are delicious, but I don't want them for breakfast everyday. I love the chai tea, but I definitely need to mix it up with different flavor protein drinks instead or some other high protein snack that's not super filling. And I miss my popcorn in the evenings as my late night snack -- but with dinner being so late most days and needing an extra protein drink before bed, there's usually no room in my tummy for popcorn even though I could easily fit it into the nutrition balance of the day. Maybe I need to throw that PM protein drink into the mid-afternoon slot instead?? I'm not complaining.. .just thinking out loud, mostly. I need to work harder to add variety, that's for sure. Variety is hard though when you're not home much and don't have time to be creative in the kitchen. But it sounds like I need a plan, huh? Just rambling today, I guess. ~Pam

GoWear Fit -- My First Week

UPDATED: June 26, 2009 Ok, so it hasn't yet been a full week of wearing the GoWear Fit. But I'm going to do an update anyway.

THE ARMBAND
Many have asked me if it's comfortable to wear or if its feels restricting in any way. No, it is definitely not restricting and now that I've worn it for several days, I really don't even notice it's there. The device came with a size medium band and it fits my flabby arm just fine - batwings and all. If you have bigger batwings than I do (my arm is 13"-or so) you might want to order the larger band that you can get directly from www.gowearfit.com.

THE DISPLAY DEVICE
Some have asked if this is really necessary. Technically no, you don't need it for the armband to work. However, I feel this is an essential part of the system because it gives you immediate feedback on your activity and calories burned. It updates instantly by syncing with your armband through magic. It tells you your calories burned, steps taken and total time accumulated of activity - both moderate and vigorous activity, plus it has a clock with the time. The device can either be worn on a wrist band (like a watch) but it's really ugly and doesn't go with my business attire -- or you can attach the device to a clip that you can wear on your waistband like a pedometer, which is what I do. I had to walk down to my car to grab something and I was watching my steps go up as I went. Without this little display unit I don't think the whole system would have the same effect on my desire to move more.

INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE & ONLINE MANAGER
Ok, I admit it... the software and device set up on the computer was a big fat pain in the butt! It took me about 3.5 hours of fighting. I'm pretty tech savvy but I still had to call on my best friend - an IT tech - for help. The online Activity Manager doesn't play well with the latest versions of Internet browsers and of course, that's all I had installed on my system. So I had to figure out how to downgrade from IE8 to IE7 (which is a whole other rant of its own) and when that wasn't working well, I tried to downgrade from Firefox 3 to Firefox 2. And my Java version was too new as well and I had to downgrade to a lower version. Then after all that I still couldn't get it working and realized that I needed to manually install the device drivers for the armband. Unfortunately the GoWear Fit website doesn't have a good troubleshooting section on how to get things to install or sync initially. Lots of troubleshooting for other issues, but not this one. I dunno... maybe it was just a fluke and it was my computer that was causing the problems, but I was in a seriously pissy mood by the time it all got settled. BUT... now that it's all set up and stuff, it works great. In fact, I'm able to access the software through my prefered browser (Google Chrome) even though it's not a supported browser. But the initial set up needed to be done through the older browser versions.

UPDATE: I must be the oddball on installation. Virtually everyone else I've talked to has a super easy install with absolutely no problems or glitches.

THE ACTIVITY MANAGER
This is the online program that you use to upload the data from your armband and input your food for the day. Each evening (or morning) when you upload the data from your armband you plug it into a USB connection, click a few buttons and the software reads the data and then populates the report. It shows you a graph of your daily calorie burn for the full 24-hour period. You'll see spikes for when you were active and burning more calories per minute ... but even when you're sitting still or sleeping, there's still a calorie burn of about 1 to 1.5 calories per minute. It's fascinating to see little spikes during the day. Like that trip down to my car will show up as a little 4 minute spike of activity around 10:00 a.m.

MODERATE VS VIGOROUS ACTIVITY
This is one of the super cool features that the BodyBugg doesn't have. The armband knows the difference between moderate activity and vigorous activity. Most of my stuff is moderate with walking and yoga and stuff. But when I do the walk/run things on days I'm feeling energetic those little running episodes show up as vigorous activity. So my 6 mile walk this past Saturday actually recorded about 4 minutes total of vigorous activity while I was doing some running and I could see on the graph where those run spikes happened.

SLEEP EFFICIENCY
This is also a feature that the BB doesn't have. This one amazes me! Wear the armband to bed and it knows you're laying down. Then it also knows when you're actually sleeping rather than just laying there awake staring at the ceiling. And if you wake up in the middle of the night, it knows that too! The other night, for instance I laid in bed for 8 hours but only slept for something like 6:45 and my sleep efficiency was around 85%. And a strange pattern I'm seeing is that I always wake up at 4:00 a.m. for about 15 minutes, then go back to sleep. I wonder why that is.

FOOD LOGGING
The GoWear Fit software has two options for food logging. You can do a 3-Day Nutrition Assessment where you just enter 3 days work of food during a week and the software uses an average to determine your typical calorie intake. Or you can do daily food logging and it uses exact numbers each day. You change this setting in your preferences section. The food database seems pretty extensive with lots of different foods and brand name items. You have to enter food by meal though -- breakfast, AM snack, lunch, PM snack, dinner, late snack -- so that gives you 6 meal times throughout the day. But sometimes those labels just don't fit my lifestyle, so I just enter food into whatever makes sense. I do not plan to keep using the food log inside GoWear Fit though, but for now I'm using it to get a sense of how the software works and get some baseline information. I much prefer FitDay and I have 3 years worth of custom foods in my account. I wish there was a feature in GoWear Fit that allowed me to manually enter my total calorie intake for the day.

UPDATED: I have continued using FitDay as my food journaling option. There IS a way to manually enter my total food intake from FitDay into the GoWear food logging system. At the end of each day after I've entered my food into FitDay, I open the GoWear food log and create a new custom food for "breakfast" -- this food includes the totals for my entire day as a single food entry. I name it "06.26.09 Fitday Log" and include the stats from FitDay for the day. The only glitch is somehow GoWear doesn't calculate carbs the same way FitDay does. So you have to subtract your Fiber gram total from your Carb total before entering it into GoWear -- this will still give you the same number of calories, but your carb/fiber totals will be off. But this doesn't bother me since the only thing I care about in GoWear is my calorie totals. My nutrient balance is dealt with over on FitDay. DO I LOVE IT??

Yes! Absolutely love this thing! It's like a little game with myself to see how many calories I can rack up throughout the day. Instead of writing an email to ask a question of someone down the hall, I'll get up and walk down there instead. It is making me much more conscious of my activity for sure. But more importantly, it's giving me hard data about what my body is doing and what it needs.

How many posts have you seen on this blog saying I'm changing my calorie intake -- based on advice from a nutritionist or some research I've done or just to experiment with what'll happen. But now it's not a guessing game anymore. I know for 100% certainty how many calories I'm burning per day and I know how much food I'm allowed to eat and still achieve the deficit I need to lose weight. I haven't changed anything yet.

I'm still in data-gathering mode right now. I'll give it another few days to see how things look after a full week or normal activity and eating. Then I'll determine if anything needs to change or if I'm on the right track.

I'll keep ya'll posted.
~Pam

My New GoWear Fit

I've been saying I wanted one for over a year ... and I finally did it!  I bought a GoWear Fit calorie tracking device.  Originally I'd planned to buy the BodyBugg (like the Biggest Loser folks wear) but after doing some research I settled on the GoWear Fit instead.

I got it Friday night and set it up with my computer.  Saturday was my first full day of wearing it and I'm pretty amazed so far.  I'll do a full review of it in a few days after I'm able to see some trends and establish some concrete numbers.  But my initial impression are good so far.  Here's a few thoughts:

• I burn about 600 calories while I sleep
• I wake up during the night more often than I realized. My sleep efficiency is at about 85%
• Yesterday I burned 2500 calories through my normal routine and exercise
• My calorie intake yesterday was much higher than normal because I ate too much crap - 1800 - but it was still low enough to create a calorie deficit overall
• When I'm wearing the GoWear Fit I want to move more
• Seeing the calories-burned-count go up all day long is a major motivator for exercise or just being more active in general
• It's 9:15 a.m. and since midnight I've burned 712 calories so far 

So I'm pretty excited to have it.  I'll keep ya'll posted on how it works out.

BTW -- if you're going to buy one, get it on Amazon.  I got the armband, display watch and 3 months subscription for $209.  Here's the link.  Scroll down to the section called "Best Value" and you'll see an option to buy both the armband and the display together and save $50. 

Talk to you soon!

~Pam

Aquarius

I got one of those forwarded emails today ... you know the ones -- "forward this to 12 people and you'll be a millionaire within 3 hours."  But actually, this one was pretty interesting.   LOL!  Here's a description of my personality based on my Zodiac sign.  It's frighteningly accurate.

AQUARIUS 

The Sweetheart 

(Jan 20 - Feb 18) 

~Optimistic and honest. 

~Sweet personality. 

~Very independent. 

~Inventive and intelligent. 

~Friendly and loyal. 

~Can seem unemotional. 

~Can be a bit rebellious. 

~Very stubborn, but original and unique.

~Attractive on the inside and out. 

~Eccentric personality. 

Today's Eats

So I figured I'd share what I ate today.  With this "new" eating plan I just wanted to give you a bit of a glimpse into what I'm eating these days.  It really doesn't feel that much different than I've been doing all along - but I guess I'm a bit more aware of the exact balance of my meals (protein, veg/fruit and starch).  

So here's what happened today:

Commute -- Hot Protein Chai Tea

Arrive at work -- "fake latte" (4oz steamed milk, 16oz coffee)

Breakfast -- 3oz sliced turkey, 1/2c grapes and 1/2 serving Fiber One twigs

Lunch -- 3oz baked chicken w/ mushroom sauce and half of my side salad

Snack -- 1/2c grapes and 2 cheesesticks

Post-workout Snack -- Nature Valley granola bar (not originally planned)

Dinner -- 3oz sliced turkey, 1/3c grapes and 4 large strawberries w/ Splenda

Calories: 1,272   Fat: 24.4g (16%)   Carbs: 138.2g  (20g fiber 39%)   Protein: 154.3g (45%)

So the big change for me is breakfast.  Normally I'd have a yogurt w/ fruit or Fiber One and it would easily hold me until 1:00 for lunch.  But all that food for breakfast today really filled me up way full.  In fact, an hour after breakfast I was still feeling too full to start drinking water... which put me behind schedule on water for the day.  

Then when lunch came around I didn't want to eat.  I brought 4oz of baked chicken but couldn't finish it and I brought a normal sized salad and could only eat half of it.  It was very strange and I'm not sure I liked the feeling.  Tomorrow I'll cut back to 2oz of meat at breakfast instead of 3oz. 

And by the way.  That sliced turkey I keep eating.... it's Jenni-O Cracked Pepper deli sliced turkey.  OMG!  This stuff is amazing!  It's real turkey breast, not parts-are-parts stuff and the outside is coated with fresh cracked pepper for a little tangy bite.  Delicious!  4oz is only 100 calories and 24g protein. I get it sliced thick so each slice is about 1oz.  Try it.  It's amazing!

Palm Pre Available June 6

Ok, so I know this has nothing to do with weight loss surgery or being healthy or finishing races or taking your vitamins. But today... the geek in me is happy, happy, happy!! I've been waiting for this new phone for months and guess what landed in my email box this afternoon? Today's official announcement of it's release on June 6th... well, it just puts a smile on my face. For this, I would even camp out at my local Sprint store and wait in line all night. But... I'll be on Mackinaw Island on June 6th doing the 10k race (I've already checked, there is no Sprint store in Mackinaw or for anywhere within 50 miles). I need to come up with a Plan B for getting my hands on this beautiful new phone before the weekend is over. OMG! Happy, Happy, Happy!

Thoughts on the Food Plan Change

I've given this a lot of thought and here are the things I've considered:

1. My current eating routine is a solid, healthy, well-balanced plan.  I'm strict with my food but not so strict that I feel like I'm living on a perpetual diet.  I know how many calories I eat and what percentage of protein, carbs and fat those calories make up.  I am not sitting around eating Big Macs and large fries.
2. I know my RMR is 1450.  I'm already eating below my RMR which should automatically cause predictable weight loss.  But it's not.  I'm averaging about 1200 calories/day.  
3. I exercise a bunch.  I average about six hours per week.  The Nut says when my workouts intensify with the training program that it will make a dramatic difference in her food recommendations.  But really... those long training sessions are only happening one day a week and the length of the workouts will increase to about two hours of walking instead of one.  So this big jump she's talking about is going from 6 hours a week to 7-7.5 hours a week.  That's not a dramatic jump in my opinion.  So for her to base her advice on my doing minimum exercise seems silly to me. 
4. Her quote of "some days you might only eat 600 calories a day and that's OK" -- this really bothers me.  An active, healthy 185 pound adult should never eat 600 calories a day and especially not on purpose and on a regular basis.  Science dictates that my body NEEDS a minimum of 1450 calories per day just to keep my body functioning.  How can you ignore that science?
5. If I look at her eating plan for meals and consider the higher recommendations of food volume, than I'm not that far off from her recommendations already.  4oz dense protein, 4oz veggie or fruit and 1 starch per meal.  I probably eat more than 4oz of veggie but then don't eat a starch with most meals - otherwise it's pretty close. 
6. She was very adament about my drinking 2 or 3 protein shakes per day.  At 30g per shake, that's 90g.  Plus, add 4oz meat per meal that's another 84g (7g protein per 1oz meat).  That would give me a total of 174g protein per day.  BUT... in the next breath she says "make sure you're getting 60g-80g protein per day."  I wonder if she's ever actually done the math.
7. No food-based snacks allowed.  I can see how this rule would apply if you're drinking protein shakes as your between-meal snacks.  But protein shakes are not dense protein, right?  So if the goal is the keep the pouch full for as long as possible to stave off hunger, then why choose a slider food like a protein shake? My daily schedule dictates that I eat lunch around 1:00 and don't get dinner until around 8:00.  That's 7 hours and I know from experience that a protein shake isn't going to cut it to keep my pouch occupied.  That's why I have a 4:30 snack that keeps me sane until I can get dinner. 
8. No Yogurt.  This ban I can actually understand because slider food doesn't stay in the pouch for very long and you can get hungry again sooner.  So if I have issues with getting hungry, I can see following the advice of not eating slider foods.  But this really is not a problem for me personally.  Is yogurt dense protein?  No.  But it's got 12g of protein in a serving which is pretty darned good.  Am I justifying?  Probably.
9. What if I don't lose any more weight?  What it takes me another two years to lose these last 30-or-so pounds?   Is my brain in the right spot to live in the body I now have?  Am I obsessing about food more than I need to?  Am I expecting too much?  .... all questions for future blog posts, huh?
10. My "Resistance to Change Factor" is pretty high.  I had a former boss who would always refer to the RC Factor in new employees and the need to have a low RC Factor in order to adapt to all the everyday changes.  I guess I need to crank down the knob on this a bit and be more open to changes and trying new things. 
11. I'm taking the PA's advice on the protein increase.  I want my prealbumin number to increase and the way to do that is to get my protein intake up to 150g per day consistantly (I'm already averaging 120g). 

So here's my plan going forward:

7am protein drink

10am breakfast

1pm lunch

4:30pm snack

8pm dinner

11pm protein drink

LOL!  If you have been paying attention to my eating you'll realize that this isn't different.  It's exactly the same as what I've been doing all along.  The only change is actually the 11pm snack is now going to be a protein drink instead of a food snack, but that's not really different because I'd do a hot chai tea as my late night snack half the time anyway.

But I'm going to make a few changes within this schedule.  

Each meal will follow the Nut's plan of:

• 4oz dense protein
• 4oz veggie or fruit
• 1 starch

Breakfast has traditionally been yogurt w/ fruit or Fiber One twigs.  Since I eat breakfast at my desk at 10am, this is convenient and easy.  But I'll have to make a change to the above profile at least for now.   Lunch and Dinner will be pretty much the same as what I've always been eating except I'll have to figure out how to add a whole grain starch with each meal.   My afternoon snack will be, as always, a balance of protein and carbs and will be something filling enough to hold me over until dinner.  And I'll end my day with another protein drink (probably protein hot chai tea, of course). 

Calories??  I really don't know where my calories are going to end up per day.  I'll know more how things pan out tomorrow after I try it for the first time and going forward in the next few weeks as I experiment with different meal ideas.  My goal is to stick with a similar range that I'm at right now (1200-ish) but with 150g protein I might need to bump it up a bit.  I don't want to go with super low carbs simply because I need them for exercise and general good health.  Looking back at my log I seem to average about 100-120g healthy carbs per day, so that seems like a good range to stick with for now. 

And because I know myself and my rebellious nature, I'll continue to take weekends off of planning and tracking.  If I'm too strict with a food plan (any food plan) and I don't have a couple off days thrown in, I know that I'll start feeling confined and restricted and go off on a binge.  So to avoid that, I know I need to give myself permission to NOT count calories.  It's not that I go hog wild and eat everything in sight -- the rule is "eat normally and make healthy choices."  So I'll use this as a way to balance the strictness during the week.

So there you have it.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

~Pam

White Chicken Chili

I thought this recipe was already posted here, but when I went looking for it, it wasn't. I originally found the recipe here. I make a few tweaks along the way.

White Chicken Chili Recipe

• 2 lbs cubed boneless skinless chicken (a rotisserie chicken works great for this)
• 2 (15 oz) cans great northern beans, drained (I like garbanzo beans so I usually do one of each)
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 7 oz sliced green chilies (I used diced)
• 32 oz fat free chicken broth
• 4 oz sliced jalapeno peppers 
• 1/3 c fat-free half-and-half (I use skim milk)
• 1 c fat free sour cream (or use greek yogurt for extra protein)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• salt & pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until they are soft. Add the chicken, beans, jalapeños, green chilies, broth, & all of the spices and simmer for 1/2 hr. Add the sour cream & half-and-half (or milk), stirring frequently until hot. Great served over rice, or just by itself. 

Race Day

Yesterday morning I met up with Kristy and Lori for the 5k race at the Bay City State Park.  It was Lori's first race and she did amazingly!  Kristy rocked too finishing just 9 seconds behind me. 

This race was actually pretty tough because of the course. Much of it was on hard-pack trails with gravel. Then some of it was also over grass which was wet, too long and obviously not on even ground. 

I have been practicing some speedwalking techniques in my workouts lately - upright posture with shoulders back, buttocks tucked in, core engaged, shorter steps, arms close to the body and used to propel me forward.  When I'm on pavement I feel like I'm walking much faster than my normal pace - it doesn't work so well on rough terrain though.  I've yet to time myself with the speedwalking to see if it's really making a difference. 

Here's the results for Kristy, Lori and I:

32. Pamela Saginaw, MI 39 50:21.09 197 

33. Kristy Bay City, MI 51 50:30.18 198 

39. Lori Saginaw, MI 42 51:20.84 205

My Stats:

Distance: 3.1 miles

Time: 50:21

Pace:  16:15

Weather: 55-ish, chilly and drizzily

Food Plan Changes

My last post was pretty long and rambling.  My thoughts on it are even longer.  But this post is going to be short.  

Basically I'm struggling with the idea of going back to the food plan that I was given at 2 months post-op.  It just seems wrong to me.  Why would my Nut say it was OK for me to eat 600 calories a day at 18 months out?  I just can't seem to wrap my head around this advice and I need to take some time to think about what I want to do. 

So I'm letting it stew for the weekend.  I'll decide what I'll do next week.  However, I'm still adding the second protein shake to my routine, so that's decided already.  

I'll keep ya'll posted. 

~Pam

18 Month Post-Op Appointment

Yesterday was my 18 month anniversary. I had an appointment at the bariatric clinic and met with the PA and Nutritionist. There are changes on the horizon and I've still not fully digested everything that was talked about yesterday.

LABS
The PA said that for an 18-month patient that my labs are outstanding! Yeah me! However, there were a few key areas she had concerns about. Enough concern that she's requested a re-draw of labs in 4 weeks after some changes. Her biggest concern was my

Prealbumin - it's too low even though it is within the normal range, she wants it higher. (Result is 24 on a scale of 18-38.) This is a measure of my protein intake and how the body is utilizing it. I already get 120g protein per day. I'm bumping that up for the next 4 weeks to see what that does. (Below I talk about the increase in protein shakes during the day... the lab result is the reason I'm going along with it.)

She also didn't like my Ferritin number. She's having me stop my iron supplements to see if the iron is screwing with the ferritin. This really doesn't make logical sense to me, but I'll do it and see what the results say next month.

I personally am concerned about my Vitamin D. But the response I got was that results in the 30's was typical of WLS patients and they were fine with that number. But from my own research I know that anything under 50 indicates that my body is simply using the supply as fast as I'm taking supplements. It's only after I maintain a level of 50 will the body actually start to store Vitamin D for use later. I'm doing the 50k, once per day regimine for 30 days, then backing off ... I'll have a redraw for Vitamin D next month too. We'll see.

Copper / Zinc interaction. I'm still reseaching this because it doesn't really make sense to me - but the Nut said that I need to keep my zinc and copper doses far apart from each other. So I'm now taking zinc in the morning, copper at night. Somehow they interfer with each other, but I need to understand this better before I'm convinced its true.

EDITED: Yep, copper and zinc don't like each other - so I'll separate the doses as recommended.

FOOD
This is where the big changes are happening. I know I've posted about my nutritionist before and I'm not always thrilled with her advice. In fact, the advice I got yesterday is the exact same advice I've gotten since I was 2 months post-op. As you all know I've been struggling with really, really slow weight loss. Since August last year I've lost 15 pounds and 5 of those pounds came off in the past 4 weeks. So in an attempt to figure out how to make me lose weight faster and have a "more predictable" amount of loss, the Nut has suggested going back to the same plan I was suppose to be following when I was 2 months post-op. Here's the plan:

• 8am - breakfast
• 2-4oz dense protein
• 1/4-1/2 c. veggie/fruit
• (suggested meal: 1-2 egg veggie/cheese omelet and 1 slice melba toast)
• 9am -12:30pm - fluid time
• 16oz water
• 8oz protein drink
• 1pm - lunch
• 2-4oz dense protein
• 1/4-1/2 c. veggie/fruit
• If not full... 1 additional side item (veggie/fruit/starch)
• (suggested meal: wrap sandwich w/ 1oz turkey, 1oz cheese, lettuce on 1/2 tortilla)
• 2pm - 5:30pm -- fluid time
• 16oz water
• 8oz protein shake
• 6pm - dinner
• 2-4oz dense protein
• 1/4-1/2 c. veggie/fruit
• If not full... 1 additional side item (veggie/fruit/starch)
• (suggested meal: 1-3oz grilled chicken, 1/4-1/2c steamed broccoli, 1/4-1/2c cantaloupe)
• 7pm - bedtime - fluid time
• 12oz water
• 8oz protein shake
• 2 popsicles

Ok, so my Nut wants me to change things up and give a new eating plan a try for two weeks. (EDITED: I'm re-thinking this... might not try it, we'll see.)  

She's banned yogurt and any slider foods (even though I didn't complain about getting hungry after a yogurt meal.) I'm not allowed food-based snacks anymore, she wants all snacks to be a protein shake instead. She said some days I might only get 600 calories, but some days might be 1100... and that was just fine, but to worry about portion size rather than calories or nutrient grams. (Even though I don't believe I have any issues with staying within my portion size requirements and if I don't eat enough calories, I know my body revolts and I have a tendency to binge on crap.)

At one point she asked me: "Can you eat 2-ounces of dense protein AND 1/2 cup of vegetables in the same meal?" .... as if my pouch was still 1-ounce in size and that eating 4-ounces at a single meal might not be possible for someone who is 18 months post-op. I was flabergasted, of course, because the amount of food I eat now (8-10 ounces/meal) is expected and typical of someone at my stage. How can she not know that?

EXERCISE 
So the Nutritionist also said my exercise routine wasn't anything out of the ordinary and simply met the minimum recommendations. I am now doing 6 days, 60 minutes per day. Apparently the minimum recommendation is 4-6 days per week, 30-60 minutes each. So even if you're at the top end of the scale, it's still only the minimum apparently. "When I start doing more," then I will need to adjust my eating to accomodate the added exercise. (Meaning when my half-marathon training keeps me on the road for more than 60 minutes per session.) Life is not "The Biggest Loser." Normal people don't have 4 or 5 hours every day to spend in the gym. It's very difficult for me to understand that 6 hours of exercise a week -- walking/running 25-30 miles a week -- is not enough to be more than the minimum expectations.



What's Next?
I've got some thinking to do. Planning and rearranging. And I need to figure out how to have peace with some of the stuff the Nut has told me and advised me to do. I need to do some research on the vitamin and mineral stuff to see how true the information is that I've been given. I need to come up with a food plan that I can live with that won't make me feel like I'm on a diet. Thankfully I have yoga class this afternoon. At least that will give me the chance to focus on my center... relax a bit and let all these issue melt away for an hour.

~Pam

Liza is about to be a loser

A faithful reader of this blog is about to have her surgery tomorrow - May 12th! Wish her well and go visit her amazing blog called Bariatric Babe! Congratulations Liza and welcome to the losing side! ~Pam

Greek Yogurt Coleslaw

My buddies over on OH have been playing Iron Chef for the past few weeks.  This is the first chance I've had to participate.  This week's secret ingredient is "Greek Yogurt."  I've never been a big fan of the yogurt, but I played along anyway.  Here's what I came up with:

Greek Yogurt Coleslaw

• 1 small (really small) head cabbage
• 3/4 c. shredded carrots (or buy the bag of shredded carrots at the store)
• 1/4 c. fresh chives (from my garden)

Dressing:

• 12 oz greek style yogurt  (I used Oikos from Walmart)
• 1 sploosh white vinegar (maybe 1/4c ??)
• 2 T. Splenda
• 1 T. celery seed
• salt & pepper
• milk (optional)
• mayo (not officially a part of the recipe, read description below)

Shread the veggies and mix in a bowl.  It was fun to get to use fresh chives from my garden (which isn't actually planted yet, but these came back from last year).   In a separate bowl mix the dressing.  Depening on how much cabbage mixture you have, you might need to increase the amount of yogurt and vinegar.  I personally added a splash of milk to thin out the dressing - but you might not need to do this.  

Ok, so I made this up and let it marry a bit in the fridge for the flavors to mingle.  But I really didn't like the taste of it.  I'm sure this stems from the fact that I don't like greek yogurt - it was a bit too "sour cream" tasting.  So I added about 1/2 cup of mayo to the salad and mixed it in.  The flavor improved 100% and I actually like it.  

Downtime vs. Being Busy

I'm gone about 60 hours a week for my job.  I'm taking a full load of classes at college.  I'm part of the 20-week training program that ends in a half marathon this fall.  I attend three different WLS support groups per month - leading one of them.  I'm a part of a photography group, a girlfriends dining group and a crafters group all with full schedules I could take advantage of.  I own my home and have the regular household chores that everyone has except since I'm single, I get all of them by myself.  And of course I've got family obligations just like everyone else.  

I'm damn busy!

I'm also a homebody.  I like being home and hanging out in my own space. I like to sleep late sometimes or spend the day watching movies or engrossed in a good book.  In the summer I like hanging out on my patio enjoying the sunshine. 

But I also like to travel and go on day trips.  Although I don't seem to have the time to do this as much as I want.  Which is why I made the goal to do the Traveling Race Mania thing.  

How can I fit it all in and still have a life that I enjoy?

As you know from my last post ... when life gets too crazy I tend to revert back to my most basic comfort desires.  Comfort foods, hibranating at home and letting bad health habits creep back into my routine.  This can be dangerous if I let it happen too often.  And I don't want days like that to happen -- it makes me feel bad.  So how do I avoid it?

I need to figure out how to not be so busy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... easier said than done.  About a month ago I started using Google Calendar a bit more faithfully than I had been.  Everything is now on the calendar so I can see all the commitments and appointments I have.  Everything.  It's pretty overwhelming to see it all there in writing.  

But over the past couple days I've been going through and making adjustments.  Deciding what's important and what can be eliminated.  Now that the days are less crowded I now need to set a specific schedule for school work.  My goal is to actually set up an area in my house that is devoted strictly to doing school stuff.  Not a desk necessarily .. but maybe my easy chair with a table next to it for comfortable reading (cuz there's a LOT of reading going on here!).   Also need to get my Crim training schedule and homework exercises onto the calendar so I can see it all in one place.  

It's all a major balancing act.  Being healthy and having more energy and being involved in achieving my goals -- it takes a lot of time and commitment.   I just need to refine my schedule a bit more so it doesn't become a burden and is actually something I enjoy.  

But it is all worth it for the life I have right now.

~Pam

Screwing Up

Lately I've begun to notice a pattern of bad behavior in certain circumstances.  Today happens to be one of those days. 

Here's the pattern (I think).  When life gets very hectic and I'm busy every day for many days in a row I get this overwhelming feeling of just wanting to be home.  Literally I find myself saying over and over in my head, "I just want to be home."   Today is one of those days.  It was about 2:00 this afternoon when I realized how often I'd been saying that to myself - almost like a mantra.  It's weird.

Ok, so how does that relate to bad behavior?  

First -- on days when I don't have specific obligations or commitments after work or on the weekend and I can actually just do whatever I want. I should actually hit the nature trails and get in a good workout.  Tonight's weather was good and I had no plans.  But I skipped the workout so I could be home. 

Second -- when I find myself mentally exhausted I get lazy with my food.  Lazy and sloppy and I don't care if I let bad eating habits creep back in.  Today I didn't care and I ate crap food.  I don't feel guilty about it - I do feel slightly yucky because my body doesn't like crap anymore - but mentally I just don't care.  I think somehow the exhaustion and the need to be home makes me want comfort in some way and for so much of my life I used food as a source of comfort, so it's easy to fall back on that feeling.

SO.... this bad behavior doesn't happen very often.  I do get the "I want to be home" thought pattern often, but it usually doesn't cause the bad behavior to this extent.  So I shouldn't be beating myself up for not being perfect 100% of the time.  

---

Alright.  I just went and updated my food log.  (Yes, the link on the right still works.)  It's just over 1,400 calories (and that includes still eating the dinner in a bit).  Definitely heavy on the carbs, but at least I've still got my protein needs in and my fiber numbers don't actually look that bad.   When I think about what these numbers really mean and compare them to what they would be before surgery ... it isn't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.  

BUT - I think it's my attitude that's attached to the bad eating and skipping exercise that bothers me the most.  I believe I need to work on scheduling more downtime so I don't get to the point of breaking.  Maybe I need to figure out how to scale back on some of the stuff I'm commited to.  I dunno.. it's something I need to think about. 

Ok.  Now I'm going to go eat dinner.  Earlier today I'd planned a big ole salad topped with grilled chicken - except I've switched the chicken to turkey to save a few calories.  Then off to bed early so I can recoup a bit.

~Pam

18 Month Lab Results

My 18-month follow up appointment is next week at the surgeon's office. I had my labs drawn a week or so ago and just received the results in the past few days. Overall, they aren't too bad. But I have a couple issues that need some aggressive attention. VITAMIN D -- annoyingly, my D is tanking again. At my 1 year labs it was up to 62 but now it's back down in the 30's. I had suspected that the boost I saw at the 1 year mark was because of the Florida vacation and time on the beach that happened a week before the labs were drawn... now I know that's true. All along I've been doing about 4,000IU of Vitamin D3 per day except for the months when my PCP had me on the Rx version of 50,000IU of Vitamin D2 once per week (which did nothing). At this point I have increased my dry Vitamin D3 intake to 10,000IU until I can talk to the PA at next week's appointment. I wrote to Michelle at Vitalady and she suggested I do 50k every day for 30 days, then every other day for 60 days... then retest to see how my levels are. I'll run this plan by the surgeon's office next week -- but for now this is my plan as soon as I receive my shipment of 50's. (This advice is NOT for people with normal digestive systems or people with healthy Vitamin D levels... speak to your doctor before you even think about this.) FERRITIN -- last round of labs showed low iron levels (not low, out of range, but that it had dropped from previous tests). That number is back up after starting a supplement 6 months ago. However, my ferritin seems to be on the low end of the range. It's 36 and the normal range is 30-400. I don't have a plan for this yet, but will be discussing it at my appointment next week. COPPER -- it's low so I'll be boosting my supplements a bit. Again, will discuss at next week's appointment. VITAMIN B1 -- it's still well within the normal range, but it had shown a dramatic drop since the labs at one year. It went from 33 just six months ago to now being 16. B Vitamins are a common deficiency -- especially B1, B6 and B12. But I'm not sure why just B1 would drop and not the others. HDL Cholesterol -- This is the good cholesterol number that we want to be high. It's an indicator of overall healthy and physical activity. My number in November was 72 -- right after the half marathon and an extensive training season. And now after a long winter and slacking on exercise it's down to 57. Need to work hard to get that back up where I want it. I really find this stuff fascinating. Pouring over the reports, researching the results and understanding what's going on inside my body ... isn't it so cool?! And having all my results in a spreadsheet so I can see 18 months worth of labs all in once place, side-by-side really helps me get a clear picture of my overall health. Are you up to date on your labs? If not, here's the list of tests you should have done after RNY. ~Pam

Adjusting to fewer calories

Nikki asked that I talk about the adjustment I went through when I lowered my calories a few weeks ago. I went from a consistent 1400 down to a strict 1000-1200 calories per day. Admittedly I was very comfortable at 1400. It was easier to plan meals without being so restricted and I was able to be more creative in what I ate. At a year post-op, my pouch could hold more food so eating more wasn't really a problem. It did take me some time and mental adjustment to be OK with 1400, but once I was there, it felt right. In fact, I believe I would comfortably live on 1400 calories for the rest of my life -- it was a good place for me. So dropping back down to 1100-ish was a big struggle. It made me feel somewhat deprived like I was "dieting" again. My pouch still wanted the same amount of food to keep me satisfied and feeling full... but I needed to be creative with the types of food I ate. I needed food that was filling and dense but very low in calories. So instead of a dense, calorie laden casserole for lunches .... I'm now doing salad loaded with veggies and lean protein. Very filling, but with about 1/3 the calories. Snacks rarely include a 200 calorie protein bar anymore. Instead I'll do fruit and cheese or PB2 yogurt with apple slices. And adding no-calorie foods have become important too. A crushed-ice slushie is filling and satisfying and doesn't cost me any calories. Hot drinks also hit the spot for very few calories -- hot tea, hot SF apple cider mix or SF hot cocoa. Planning my meals at the beginning of the day is key, I believe. Everything I plan to eat for the day gets put into FitDay in the morning and I'm able to play around with amounts and ideas before I actually eat anything. Once I'm satisfied with the numbers and the balance - I'm in a good mental position to just ride the wave throughout the day without obsessing about which food to eat next. Weekends are more lax for me. I've come to realize that I am a rebel. If I have to follow a strict plan for too long then I tend to get rebellious and go a bit crazy with breaking rules. So by planning to be more relaxed on the weekends, it helps me stay on track during the week without feeling restricted too much. It took me a long time to figure this out about myself, but now that I know it and have adjusted my life accordingly... I seem to be able to handle the strict diet plan most of the time. One day I'll be back up to 1400 calories (or more) every day as part of my maintenance diet plan. But for now I'm willing to sacrifice in order to get to my goal weight. As long as the scale continues to move, I'm happy to comply with whatever restrictions I put on myself. ~Pam

How I Made the Scale Move

I've had several people ask me how I broke my plateau and have been able to keep the scale moving. So I'll share my thoughts and strategy with you all ...

First of all... I hesitate to think that I had anything to do with the end of the plateau. I have come to the realization that I've got very little control over the scale and that my body will do whatever the heck it wants to do. And it'll do it in it's own good time - not on my schedule.

Some background. In December I noticed a dramatic slow down in my weight loss and after speaking to my dietician about what I should do, she suggested I increase my calories up to 1500-1800/day. Needless to say, I freaked out about that number. So instead I had my RMR (resting metobolic rate) tested to find out exactly what my body needed -- rather than just some random number pulled out of thin air. My RMR came back at 1450 -- meaning my body needed 1450 calories just to survive doing nothing but sitting like a bump on a log all day.

So mid-December I started increasing my calories to the 1400-ish mark. It was a huge mental struggle but eventually I was able to sustain that amount for a while. But while eating that much the scale stopped completely. For four months.

I tried everything to get the scale moving again. I followed my list of questions about How to Break a Stall religiously. I'm sure you all remember the myriad of posts here about my frustrations with the stall -- so I won't rehash it all for you.

In April I decided to drop my calorie intake down to the level that I was eating when I used to be losing. Which would be around 1000-1200 calories/day. Almost immediately I saw movement in the scale. So I kept it up. And in fact, I still shoot for around 1100 calories five days a week. I'm less strict on the weekends and eat around 1400 calories.

So why the two numbers? 1100 during the week and 1400 on weekends.

Well, I'd been doing some reading about calorie cycling. The principle isn't exactly like what I'm doing, but the general idea is that when we give our body the exact same food and calories every day, then the body becomes more efficient and finds ways to exert less energy to do the same task over and over. So we need to change our diet routinely just like we change our exercise plan.

Interestingly, in the past week and a half while life was very chaotic and there was no routine whatsoever and my calories were all over the place .... I lost 4 pounds. Granted, I tend to be a "stress-non-eater" -- which means when I'm stressed I don't eat -- so the dramatic loss might be due to lack of food. But the food that I was eating was pure crap most of the time. I've eaten more fast food in the past week than I have in the entire 18 months since my surgery. I also haven't exercised in about 2 weeks. So I was definitely keeping my body guessing about what was coming next.

But was it my actions that caused the weight loss in the past few weeks? Or was it my body just doing what the heck it felt like doing? I don't know. I firmly believe that as a morbidly obese person that we "broke" our metabolism and that the whole "calories in vs. calories out" thing doesn't work for us like it does for someone who has been thin all their life. I think we just do the best we can do and let the chips fall where they may. And this week, I just happen to be on the losing side of the scale war. I'm not complaining... I'll take any loss the scale wants to give me and celebrate for the victory.

Sorry the explaination wasn't more earth shattering. LOL! But honestly, I think the best way to break a plateau is to just not give up. Don't quit just because you're discouraged. Before surgery I would have quit. I would have thrown my hands in the air and proclaimed the diet a failure and gone back to eating like crap. But this time around I stayed the course ... eat right, exercised and kept following the rules. And even though it took four months - the "not quitting" thing paid off.

~Pam

I'm Overweight!

It's official.  I'm overweight.  WooHoo!

This morning I weighed in at 184, which puts my BMI at 29.7.  So I'm no longer obese... I'm just overweight.  

I think this calls for a celebration.  A reward.  Jewelry!  I had already planned on getting a new charm for my Pandora bracelet when I hit this milestone, but I didn't expect it to happen for another month or longer.  

I see a shopping trip on the task list for tomorrow.  

~Pam