So, did everyone survive the holiday?

Wow, what a great day - but what a nightmare foodwise (sort of). Breakfast - Bruch w/ the boyfriends family. They requested that I make....potato casserole (I tried to cut down on the fat - but it still wasn't exactly healthy). Then they served. Stuffed rasberry french toast (w/ a pudding type topping), quiche (very sweet crust), fruit (w/ sugar)...etc ....etc..... I ate a bit of the inside of a piece of quiche. Lunch - we were in transit - it didn't happen Dinner - traditional turkey dinner.....green bean casserole, turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls and corn etc, twice baked potatoes, stuffing......starch, starch...I had some turkey - there was no gravy (the sister-in-law forgot it), so I had to use the green bean casserole and the "sauce" from that to moisten the turkey to get it down. Dessert - was several hours later, carrot cake and cheese cake. Skipped that of course, had a cup of tea. When I figured out my protein from the day ....I was WAY short. Oh well, at least I didn't get sick or OVER eat. Today is nice to be back to work, where I can concentrate on protein (allready have packed in close to 40g) and water, I even made it out at lunch time to do some walking/hiking and try out my new Christmas gift (a Garmin handheld GPS)

Holidays went awesome. Glad they are over though lol. Did well food wise. Even got to have 1 BBQ chicken wing. OMG it was yummy!!! lol Sounds like you had a super day. I wouldn't worry about the protein lol just try and remember what LAST Christmas was like food wise and I am sure that the protein issue this year pales in comparison lol. Have a super week! *huggles* Felicia

YUM! I love BBQ!!!!! Glad they went awesome! Hugs, Melissa

Wow what a feast we normally would have had there huh! Last year would have been great! I made it through pretty well. Found out that my downfall is that I know I do not dump on sugar . Normally I am happy but when little kids make you cookies and you try and have one....wow they taste good and then you feel horrible about it. All in all I did pretty well though. We started everything on Sat with a dinner at our place. i made everything so I knew what went into teverything. We have ham, roasted asparagus, spinach gratin, herb roasted baby new potatoes, roasted garlic mashed potatoes and then of course carrots and celery cut up with a spinach artichoke dip. So there was a lot for hubby and I to eat and then also others to enjoy. The next day we were down in South Jersey at a friends and that went ok. They all knew we had both had WLS so they also knew not to be offended if we did not eat something. They had a soup which was great but FULL of barley . Just ate some of the broth and the carrots. They then had salad....went well...just had 3-4 pieces with dressing. (did not have low fat but it was low carb) Then they had ham, potatoe and onion pierogi, green beans, and bacon wrapped shrimp YUMO! So all in all there was a lot we could eat. Still way low on the protein as there was no shake and both days it was tought to get liquids in. Like you though we did not get sick and did not overeat. YAY!!! Hubby was bad and had a piece of pumpkin pie but I was able to very easily say oh no thank you but I am stuffed! Did have some coffee too with cream but they forgot to mention that it was sweetened creamer but it was ok I just did not fini**** and put it in the kitchen. We were quiet here with just us yesterday so we were back on track. Made hubby some eggs with some sausage for breakfast (special treat) and then we went out to eat later in the day and I had some fajitas (I just eat the chicken and beef it is great!). Oh and they gave me the shrimp to take home so I had the three that were left over for lunch. we survived. I am not wanting to see what that cookie is going to do to slow the weight loss but all in all I am not worried about it as I know that before it would have been more than a cookie! I am so glad you a great day though! All in all that is what is most important. I love it that now food is not so important anymore other than trying to figure out how much protein is in a shrimp! LOL (still had not find that one out) Awesome present! I was tickled as I got a new SLR digital camera! YAY!! I am a scrapbooker fanatic so hubby actually put a lot of thought into it. he is awesome!!! Hugs to all, Melissa

I have just discovered that shrimp goes down really well for me too! I can of canned shrimp has 29.54 grams of protein in it!!!! (according to fitday) We had a great Christmas as well and I made it to the end of the day without feeling like I was goinf to explode. Nice change from last year. I did brunch; so I served lots of cheeses and meats with some fresh fruit. That made for easy choices for me and my family. Dinner was great! I actually ate turkey with a touch of gravey, potatoe stuffing, corn bread stuffing, peas, turnip and a half of a pickled walnut (that is an English tradition). I only had about a tablespoon of each but it tasted great. I love plum pudding with whipped brandy sauce! This year my MIL made it with a diiferent sauce that looked like liquid fudge. The smell of sweets turns me off so I really had no trouble avoiding that. Yeah Take care, Tara PS I got on the scale on Christmas day to discover that I had lost 53 pounds! That exceeded my goal of 50, nice little prezzy for me.

Throwing a little "raising the roof" party for you! Congrats on the 53 pounds. I'm glad you had a great holiday!

Man! I was really hoping someone would serve shrimp at some point during my day yesterday.

They were yummy. I have been eating a lot of shrimp as they are so easy to make and pouch really likes them. He said that he got the shrimp at Costco. It was really verry good. It was a med sized shrimp with a piece of pepper jack cheese wrapped in a piece of bacon.. It was good but he actually overcooked it a little so you would have to make sure and not do that Shrimp is GOOD!!! Melissa

I wasn't able to get in all of my protein each day, either, but I didn't OVER eat either. I did get so excited looking at and smelling all of the food, that when I did sit down to eat on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I ate too fast and got a little sick, but it passed after about 5 minutes without me and then I was able to SLOWLY eat more. I did pretty good passing on the desserts. I did have a peanut butter ball (buckeye) and a couple of pieces of chocolate...I also had 2 cookies that were made for "santa"...but this is the amount of sweets that I had the ENTIRE HOLIDAY WEEKEND. Much better than in the past. This wouldn't have even been the amount comsumed during my first trip to the dessert table. We had ham at my mother-in-laws on Christmas Eve and my mom's on Christmas Day. Not a variety. Each day we were running around and not on any type of schedule. I am struggling to get back on track with my protein and water. I'll get it tomorrow...I hope. I ran out of the protein powder that I was using and bought a new one to try and don't like it. I miss the GNC Optimum Nutrition Rich Chocolate I was drinking daily. I am trying to hold out until the first of the month to use my GNC discount. As far as the scale goes...I was 225 on Sunday...YAY!!! Then I got on on Monday and it said 225.5...BOOO!!! Then I got on it again today to see what damage I did on Christmas and it said...(Drum Roll Please)....223!!!!!! A 59 lb loss since my pre-op appointment. The first time that I have EVER LOST 2.5 lbs over the Christmas weekend!!!!! Sounds like we were all pretty much in the same boat for the weekend. And should I mention that I didn't get any exercise in? Well, I didn't. Hee Hee. New Years Resolution time.