What's on your Menu today (Wednesday) RNYers?

New cars are exciting! Yay

Good morning menu friends. It's 41 here now in the cornfields of Illinois--warmer now than when we went to bed. Lily and I will head out in a few minutes for our 4 miles. I will also do another mile after dinner. QOTD I had been considering surgery for about a year but the turning point was officially starting meds for diabetes. It took about 7 months for me to meet with all the people needed for surgery and get clearances:dietitian,psychologist,exercise specialist,nurse educator,and my cardiologist. It was the best decision I ever made and definetely changed my life for the better. Accountability was good with no extra bites taken. It helped that I had knitting club last night so my hands were busy. Post op 5 years 4.5 months and weight back to my regular range at 118.2. Heres the food for maintenance today B 1/2 c stwel cut oats with protein and peanut butter L 3/4c ham and beans D 31/2oz ground beef with salsa and some cheese S sm apple with 1 T peanut butter. Have a great day everyone and take the time to make some smart choices that move you closer to your goals.

like my fellow librarian on here, I, too, have my annual physical today. I've been looking forward to it since it's with a new PCP whom I've been really excited about, but I'm really upset because my weight is up to 148 again this morning - the top of my new, hated range. WTF??? I don't know what's going on. I was under 1500 calories yesterday, 200 calories under what I've been averaging for months (1700). I'm also feeling really bloated, so maybe it's another salt reaction - I don't know. I hate this!! When I was SMO I would have given up, but I won't. I'll stay at 1500 kcal for the next two or three weeks. If that doesn't work, I'll cut back more. I'll also mention to the PCP about all this bloating. Maybe there's something going on? I doubt it, but we'll see...

QOTD: I started thinking about WLS probably 10 years ago. I went to an info session (or two) back then, as well as a couple of support group meetings. But my insurance didn't cover it, so I didn't pursue it. I kept waiting for my insurance to start covering it, but they never did. My former PCP started suggesting it about three years before I had it. Again, the insurance issue was what was holding me back. I decided to wait until I was eligible for Medicare. But a couple more years went by, and I started to fear I won't make it to Medicare-age - or have major health problems by then - if I didn't do something about my weight. So I switched over to another, very expensive insurance policy that did cover it. I was told that most people who wanted WLS switched to the expensive policy for a year or two, then switched back. So that's what I ended up doing. It took about a year once the decision was made. I decided to do it in the spring or early summer of 2014, but my new insurance didn't kick in until Jan 2015 - so I used those months to knock out my six-month supervised diet. I started classes in the weight management clinic in Jan 2015. I could have had the surgery as early as March, but because of my work schedule, I had to wait until June.

2 years 7 months out:

B: homemade Greek yogurt with 1 T tahini mixed in, raspberries

S: protein/Miralax shake, coffee with half & half

L: L&F yogurt, 2 T peanut butter on celery sticks

D: chili with shredded cheddar

maybe another L&F yogurt or a piece of crustless protein pumpkin pie later - but only if I'm hungry AND have enough calories left over.

About the three year mark was when I suddenly stopped maintaining my weight and the scale began to creep up. I cut my calories back a bit and got back to my happy place.

I"m hoping that will work for me as well. Although logically, it has to. It may just take a week or two at the lower calorie level (1500) to start showing up on the scale as a trend rather than a normal fluctuation. I'll give it a couple of weeks - if the weight doesn't start trending down, I'll cut back a little more. I hope I don't have to cut back too much - 1500 kcal is still OK - it just means cutting out an extra thing or two that I may not miss all that much. Much lower than that might be challenging - but I'll do what I have to.

my weight started creeping up in late Oct/early Nov. I thought it might have been holiday eating, because there were a few days when I was up around 2000 kcal, but I ran some reports on my logging software and looking at monthly and weekly averages, it was still around 1700 calories - same as it's been for the last year. So it's got to be rebound weight. I will get this off!!

Good luck at your appt.

good luck at your annual physical!

Good morning! I'm well. After yesterday's shenanigans trying to walk to work, I'm none the worse for wear. This morning the walk was more slippery than yesterday but fine as I was more mindful of the steps.

B: Protein shake

MS: Pure Protein bar

L: Beef Barley soup

AS: Pure Protein bar OR a protein shake, depends on how I feel

S: The soup again (hopefully)....it's amazing.

ES: Decaf

Vitamins and water, no problem.

I didn't get to walk last night, I fell asleep after supper. As such, the scale didn't move an ounce but that's OK. My body just relaxed, my daughter covered me up with this blanket that was a birthday gift from my sister. It's 2 layers of felt with tied tassles at the end (green and yellow, supposed to be Green Bay Packers but the green is more John Deere, so I call it my tractor blanket and I love it). I slept for an hour and then woke up to go play drums at the church in preparation for Sunday.

QOTD: Someone I know well had the surgery and was very successful, but at the time I didn't really envision it for me. All of my knowledge on the subject stemmed from watching shows where the recipients were 600-900 lbs, so that's the weight range with which I associated it, and never really thought about it much. This person planted the seed, so to speak, and when my own efforts in the gym stopped at around 60 lbs lost (it hovered around 330-340, down from 391 with sweat equity), I asked my doctor about it in May of 2016. July 4th was my orientation at the clinic, and all of the testing happened between July 4 and somewhere around the middle of September (sleep study, ab ultrasound, blood tests and so on). A bunch of trips to the clinic, a couple of trips to Guelph to meet the anesthesiologist and the surgeon, and end of Febuary of '17 I was on the slab to join the losers bench. 7 months and a couple of weeks I guess.

Best decision I ever made in my opinion. I'm a man of faith, so I had absolute peace about it (with the exception of one minor freakout the night before in the garage so I wouldn't wake anyone.....I've since patched and repaired the wall and the things that broke in the process). Even in that fleeting moment, after I stopped a second, I felt peace wash over me and I was steady as a rock the rest of the time. I just prayed from the beginning that if I'm NOT meant to do this, for one of the tests to dictate that. Each and Every test and education class, every meeting and consult was perfect, smooth sailing, and there was very little pain to deal with after. In the hospital, I asked them to take me off the morphine as soon as I woke up, and they did. I think I only took 2 doses of Tylenol, and though I filled the pain killer script for home, I never took any. Whatever the surgeon did in there with my plumbing, I wondered at times if he did anything at all beyond make a few stab wounds. The work begins now that I'm at goal....but it's been a great ride so far with relatively few issues.

I'm glad I went this route.

I guess that's more of a novel. Sorry 'bout that. LOL

Glad that there were no lasting results from your planking...

It was like that for me, too, once my surgery date arrived: I was completely at peace, all worries laid to rest, simply ready, willing, full of faith, and happy to be there. Pretty great!