My Gastric Sleeve

Forbidden Foods

 
Even if you do not plan to do so, if you have an eating disorder it is incredibly easy to find small ways to cheat on a diet after weight loss surgery. Since my gastric sleeve, for instance, I've watched little treats creep into my eating patterns. After my talk with my surgeon about protein, I decided it was time to search the refrigerator and do a methodical purge. Here are the foods that went on the endangered species list.

Culprit: Ice Cream

Problem: My favorite type of ice cream is Ben and Jerry's. I used to tell myself I ate it only for the politics, but let's be honest, it's also some of the best ice cream out there. Ben and Jerry's is even kind enough to sell some of their most popular flavors in itsy-bitsy cartons. What harm could they do? Well, when you consider that each of those itsy-bitsy cartons contains around 200 calories and almost no protein or other substance of nutritional value, the verdict isn't so good.

Status: BANNED

*****

Culprit: Soft breads, croissants, muffins

Problem: The problem with these foods is two-fold. First, no matter how much I love them--and I do love them--they upset my stomach. Within twenty minutes after the first bite, I'm miserably sick, gulping Zofran like candy, and promising myself I'll never do anything so dumb again. The second problem is that these foods are high in carbohydrates but have little or no protein, so I can't even argue they're a good nutritional choice.

Status: BANNED

*****

Culprit: Chocolate Peanut Butter

Problem: Wal-Mart offers a species of cocoa-enhanced peanut butter to die for. Sure, it's got a lot of calories, but not any more than regular peanut butter, and a two tablespoon helping nets you a whopping six grams of carbohydrates. Unfortunately, this product is a chocolate lover's dream, and it's awfully hard to stop eating after that two-tablespoon serving. Because it's so damned easy to consume a day's worth of calories in a few ecstatic bites, chocolate peanut butter had to go on the problem list.

Status: RESTRICTED to no more than one jar per month.

*****

Culprit: Mousse Temptations from Jell-O

Problem: They're sugar-free, only 60 calories per carton, and they even offer two grams of protein per serving. What could be wrong with that? Well, it's easy to indulge and eat two or even three of those small cartons. That drives the calorie count up to 180, and although I do get six grams of protein from the deal, Mousse Temptations carries very little else in the way of nutritional value. Besides, if I fill up on that, I'm not eating the foods that are really good for me like tuna, lean meats, low fat cheese, eggs, and nutritional shakes.

Status: RESTRICTED to one Mousse Temptation per day.

*****

Culprit: Diet Coke

Problem: Diet Coke has no calories, so it isn't going to make me fat, but it is a carbonated beverage that can uncomfortably expand the small portion of stomach that remains after a gastric sleeve. And again, filling up on Diet Coke means not filling up on healthy foods.

Status: RESTRICTED to one small can or cup a day, between meals

*****

I'm sure as the weeks go by, I'll find other foods that need to be weeded out of my diet as well.

And weed them, I will. I'm serious about this weight loss thing. This is a game with only one possible ending, and that is me winning and becoming the healthy, capable human being I know I can be.  

Turkey Creek Festival in Merriam, Kansas

 
Every third Saturday in May, the city of Merriam, Kansas holds its Turkey Creek Festival at Antioch Park. The festival offers music, games and rides for kids, booths selling jewelry and other crafts, and refreshments. Now, I happen to live less than three blocks from Antioch Park, and I love events like this, but for the past three years, I haven't been able to go to the festival.

Why? Because I couldn't walk the two and a half blocks to the park, much less walk around the park to enjoy the events once I got there.

Today, with a fifty-pound weight loss under my belt, I decided to try to make it to this year's festival. The weather was beautiful, a little humid, perhaps, but certainly not too hot as it sometimes is in May in the Midwest. I paced myself and walked the two and a half blocks without breaking a sweat.

Three Good Reasons NOT to Skip Meals

 
A gastric sleeve removes the part of your stomach that produces ghrelin, a hunger-inducing hormone. With that gone, the typical person experiences little if any hunger after a gastric sleeve procedure. I certainly haven't been hungry much since my surgery. It's easy to power my way through the entire day without eating a bite.

You would think that's a good thing. Fewer meals mean fewer calories and fewer calories mean fewer pounds, right? Wrong.

MILESTONE: 50-Pound Weight Loss (& a Lecture on Protein)

 
I saw my bariatric surgeon today, and she told me I had officially hit the 50-pound mark. We talked about how my clothes felt and looked better and how I didn't become so horribly short of breath with exertion anymore. She was very pleased with the results of the surgery.

Just one thing concerned her. Since the surgery, I've been suffering waves of overwhelming fatigue. Sometimes I can scarcely keep my head up and my eyes open. I've been known to arrive home from work, fall directly into bed, and not stir until the next morning.

My doctor reminded me that I'm only three months out from major surgery and that my body is still probably doing some healing. She also, however, expressed concern that I'm not getting enough protein. Protein, she explained to me, is the second most abundant substance in the human body (water is first) and "the most important nutrient in a bariatric diet."

Clothes Shopping: The Ecstasy and the Agony

 
After three weeks or more of saying I was going to do it, I finally took the plunge. I went to Wal-Mart (yes, I know, politics=bad, prices=good) to replenish my fast-dwindling wardrobe.

When I had the surgery, I was fitting into a size 28...barely. When I went shopping on Sunday, I had no problem putting on a size 20. For those of you like me who are mathematically challenged, that's a loss of eight dress sizes. Let's just say I did a lot of jumping around and humming the theme song from Rocky.

But it wasn't long before the depression began to set in. There's a line in the musical Wicked that I've always loved: "I simply couldn't be happier...no, not simply. 'Cause getting your dreams, as strange as it seems, is a little...well...complicated."