What's on your menu today (Monday) RNYers?

Hi All!

Good weekend but too much eating. Back to it starting now! Work should be very low-key this week because it's spring break, which will help!

QOTD: waking up early (5:00 am or so) and having a quiet couple of hours to myself, and afterward easing into my work day by spending the first hour or so working from a coffee shop.

2 years 9 months out:

B: homemade Greek yogurt with homemade blueberry sauce

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

L: cottage cheese, 1 T peanut butter on celery sticks

AS: L&F yogurt or crustless protein pumpkin pie

D: Chinese-style chicken & veggie stirfry (no rice)

ex: 30 mins on the cross-trainer

Good morning menu friends! Starting our last 4 work days here at this camp then we head to northeastern Louisiana to Dubach. Had a great weekend sightseeing with other volunteers: Friday we did a wetlands preserve,a rum distillery and had great cajun cooking,Saturday more cajun fare and antiquing in nearby Lake Charles. Yesterday the couple from North Carolina and I did a swamp tour by boat and saw lots of gators and birds. It was so much fun. Then we all cooked steaks and had a potluck together. Chuck cooked a big pot of huge Gulf shrimp we had bought. Yum! Amazingly I've stayed protein forward and weight is good. Post op 5 years 6.75 months and weight at 118 today. Lily and I will walk later four miles as usual. Heres the food B 1/2 c steel cut oats with protein and peanut butter L 4 oz deli meat 3 baby carrots D smoked sausage 4 oz 1/2 c green beans S sm apple 1 T peanut butter. QOTD my first cup of coffee,being able to do something I couldn't even imagine before surgery like crawling under a low bed on my stomach to paint,and getting up to a message on Facebook from a friend checking on me. You folks ALL make day great each and every day. Thanks for that!

Good morning! The weekend was good. I eased up on the gas and had a few treats over the course of the weekend, but stayed more or less on course. Still below goal and so on, just let up a little bit. Monday am and I'm back with the program, coffee in hand.

Friday's appointment went well. I mentioned last week that my EKG done for this appointment resulted in a phone call from my doctor, that an anomaly showed up that they wanted me to to go to a cardiologist to get checked out in greater detail. My clinic didn't receive the EKG done a couple of weeks ago, but when I told them about this, he decided to run one right there. In Windsor, there is a cardio wellness clinic right beside the bariatric clinic, and my doc is also running that. The nurse says he is also a cardiologist, which I found interesting. Anyway, she ran the test, it showed nothing to be concerned about. The one blip is something that even he has, that a lot of people have, and it doesn't necessarily indicate a prior heart attack (especially where it showed up in the scan). My GP is being very thorough and cautions though, which I certainly appreciate (even though he scared the bejeezus out of me). He said he was going to put a note in the file, and call my doctor with his results, and leave it up to us to go to the cardiologist or not (I plan to anyway). With the amount of weight I've lost, the amount of cardio and exercise I get, my vitals and bloodwork being bang on the money (my cholesterol is amazing now, even lower than expected), he believed that IF there was ever an event, it was so long ago and so slight that it wasn't something to be concerned about. All these factors mean that I've done everything I can to correct things and to keep it up. That was a huge relief to me.

All of my bloodwork was fine, the BP was perfect (even a bit low), resting pulse was good, weight and measurements were down. Following the physical checkup, I had a good chat with the NUT. We reviewed my dietary choices and tweaked a few things (as expected, nothing major). She's not a fan of shakes or bars but gets the convenience factor for me. She just wanted to see "one shake or bar a day, not both, eat food more than those products", which I get, and agree. And to up my water if possible, LOL. I might need gills for that. She understands that there will be times where eating isn't perfect, but to stay on plan is uber important, etc. We discussed my weight and how many people have asked if I was ill, how my wife has made a couple of comments during a neck/back massage where she could feel my ribs like a xylophone, feel tendons etc. moving around, at my current weight that I shouldn't go much further. The NUT agreed and I "may" have blown a little smoke saying I agreed. Truthfully, I want another 20 lbs or so so I can level off, come back up to almost where I'm at and be good with it.

Menu: B: Protein bar and coffee, L: leftover shepherd's pie (high meat content) S: Unknown. Snacks: yogurt/berries and cottage cheese/dill pickles.

QOTD: That first coffee at work, a hug from my kid before I head out the door on my bike (I usually get out of the house before anyone else is up though), seeing the sky change on my commute as the sun comes up, and the city comes alive, the feeling of my drumsticks in my hand and the pedals on my bare feet behind my drums, hearing a great song rip into my earbuds while I'm working out....so many things I'm thankful for but there's a few.

I guess looking back at that, it should have been a separate post. LOL Sorry for the ramble. I'm procrastinating at work. Haha

Glad it turned out well, always good to have a thorough Doc on your side. I have one as well.

That's a good QOTD add-on to my answer. I also love watching a first rays of sun breaking through the windows of the pool area. The club I belong to has giant windows all along two sides of the pool. Really makes you feel like it's an outdoor pool at times. I do love those first rays of Sun (though with DST now, it will be a while before I see that again).

So happy everything is OK.

That's all good news! I'm glad to hear it!

Cheers to the good report!!!! These doctors sure know how to scare us!

Good morning Daisy and Menu crew. Great weekend, went to Montreal for a Hockey game and dinner with Friends, the Canadians lost...again!!! They are 1-3 in games I have attended this year...BOO!!! LOL. Dinner and company was good though. There was a little boy about 8 years old that sat next to me during the game, he was rooting for Washington so he was very happy with how the game turned out.

*** Has anyone tried the Kirkland Signature protein bars from Costco? If no, I would recommend them, similar to Quest bars.

Accountability - OK, but included a couple of things I do not normally eat.

QOTD - I need my day to start uneventful. I like to plan for things, so if something unplanned starts my day off it can have an impact. Once the weather cooperates I love to start my morning out on the deck, read the paper, drink my coffee and listen to the birds sing. Bethany enjoys that as well, she will sniff around in the morning when I am out there. I redid the deck last summer and we added a 12 x 16 metal gazebo , I will have to get some pictures when we have it set up for summer again. I love the backyard.

B- 2 scrambled eggs and 1 sausage link ( I am not able to eat all of the eggs)

S - oikos triple zero yogurt

L - Basil and garlic chicken meatballs from Costco ( Thank you for the idea JB, I also bought the skewers)

S - Hamn roll ups

D - Baked cod

Post workout - Premier protein Shake

Snack - skinny popcorn

Cal - 1181, carbs - 48, prot - 128

Exercise - Gym night - 3 mile run and biceps/shoulders/abs

Stay healthy my friends, Mike

Good morning!

I spent most of the weekend on the couch with a heating pad. I coughed real hard and felt a pull/ tear in my lower left stomach. Since I'm just under 2 weeks out from surgery I contacted my surgeon and he thinks I strained a muscle since it only hurts when I move.

QOTD: I miss my morning coffee at the moment but after some time I know I can add it back in. I wanna day the little thing I love the most is the Good morning text I get from A certain someone special.

B: protein shake

l: yogurt

D: egg salad

e: hopefully walk some of my strained muscle allows it

W&V