Challenge...NOT for everyone!

Went Monday for my scope. To the suprise and extreme delight of my surgeon, I have NO ulcer! Now, this can be a great thing of course, but then it puts me back to...then what is it? The pain has actuallybeen quite a bit better over the past 3 days, so maybe it was a temporary glitch? a long one tho. So we shall see what becomes of the pain.

My eating has been good for the most part. Too afraid to eat much with the pain I had been having, and not wanting to trigger it again. Sunday My food intake consisted of an atkins shake around lunch time, a few grapes, a few blackberries, 1/4 c cottage cheese and some homemade chicken veggie soup for dinner. Not quite enough protein, but the shake helped and I was close to what I needed to get in at the low end.

Got a copy of my labs, and have a few things running low. Most of them indicate a mild anemia has began with me. One indicates my blood cells aren't able to carry as much oxygen as they should, which makes my need to stop the smoking that much more urgent. These 2 factors put together, can easily acct for the lethargy I have been dealing with (anemia and low blood oxygen) Along with the extreme stress and challenges i am facing lately. Worked very hard at not smoking the last 2 days. Did great yesterday until evening, when my husband and i had a bit of a disagreement (ok a huge one) over a very important and touchy matter. Looks like I have some stress ahead for quite a while, but still have to manage to stay away from the smoking. Not such an easy task, as they are like a smokers pacifier when stress levels are high.

Day before yesterday I got in almost 10,000 steps according to the pedometer, which came to over 5 miles. Yesterday got in almost 8000 steps, which was almost 4 miles if i recall correctly. Shooting for 10,000 today. We shall see where it ends up.

Today, I have lots of errands to run. Need to pck up more primer and paint for the garage we just had built, have some banking to take care of, and several calls to make, some very important to my future. This is not going to be an easy day for me, I am sure. BUT I will be strong and do fine. Just have to get through some bumps in the road of life.
Hugs and love to you all. Have a great day and take very good care of yourselves.

Hello everyone. An unusually busy day for me today, I'm very tired now but wanted to report in before I go sleep. Glad you are doing good with your water, Mag. Perhaps you have some stomach meds to help you with the burning? I make sure I always have some, cause I've had stomach problems from before the surgery.
Patrece, glad to hear no ulcer! Did they suggest why the pain? Weird.
Well... just want to report I'm still doing OK in the food dept. Very few carbs, almost all protein still. Might be a little harder from now on, hubby is now on a new diet, a Mediterranean one. It has a lot of legumes, very little meat protein, so I'll be eating a lot of fish, which might be good for me after all. I don't really know how we are going to do it - we are both meat eaters!
Amalia

Maybe if this diet restricts what you both eat too much, it is not the right one for you? What about the NEW Atkins, with the fat content scaled down? Either way, I do wish you both the best of luck and success in it.

I was out cold when the surgeon spoke with my husband about the outcome, so i didn't have a chance to speak with him. He took a biopsy, to check for H pylori infoection, which can cause similar pain and symproms, so I am supposed to call him thursday for the results of that.  I must also work to get my iron level up as I am slightly anemic.

Keep up the great work in avoiding carbs. So proud of all of your hard work.

Hi there e-1.  I am so glad to here that we are all making progress.  

Sorry Patrece for not knowing whats going on, but so glad that it was not an ulcer.  Also you can quit smoking.  Dont let stress affect ur health anymore than it normally does by adding the cigarette.  Remeber you are worth it and YOU CAN DO IT!

Mag: so glad that you are getting some rest.  I wish I could sleep for 8 hours straight.  When I see my PCP, I will ask for a sleeping pill.  Sorry about your therapy sessions coming to an end.  Like Patrece said, maybe you can get the therapy to file for an extension or something. 

I have been doing ok.  I had a great weekend.  I have drank my protein shake sat, sun, and tuesday ( so I make sure I get 50+ g of protein in it).  I tried a ribeye steak on monday.  It was tastey, bit not as great as i remembered it.  I was a little scare so I ended up eating more of the veggies, which is what I am trying to do.  Been great with taking my vitamins and  medicaions.  2 sessions with personal trainer this week (one down and one more to go).  Been a little slack on the water.  Trying to increase it today.  Foods havent been that bad.  Got me some steamed shrimp that I have been eating on all weekend and some cottage cheese to eat with the fruit salad that I made for the week.

Thank you so much Fran for your faith in me and the encouragement.  It is much appreciated!
Glad your weekend went so well for you. Keep up the great effort! I know it is not always easy, but you are so worth it girl! One thing you can do when you want to taste a meat thats a bt too fiberous to digest yet is to chew the heck out of it, then spit the remainder of it into a napkin. I did this with steak whe I first began trying to eat it, because I knew it would not sit well. Just a thought..

Have a great week and just try to get in a few extra sips of water each day, until you get it back up to where it should be. Baby steps move us forward too! Hugs!

Soooo.... Did ok with the eating yesterday, although not alot of it, posted what I had in the perevious entry. Lost track of my steps, because my 5 years old granddaughter discovered my pedometer, and just HAD to experiment with it. LOL she is sooooo cute! But am sure i was at least at 8000 steps, if not the 10,000. This morning i awoke to a pleasant suprise...down 2 pounds! Yeay! 8 more to go to get back to my lowest consistant weight of 153. Although when there I floated between 153 and 157, usually closer to or at the 153. I think today I have decided that I will eat nothing except a little fruit, a lot of veggies, and maybe a homemade veggie chicken soup for supper. I will also have a liquid protein supplement like an atkins shake or unjury shake. Or maybe will just add protein to my orange crystal light.

Planning to take a 2.5 mile walk this evening after it cools off outside. It is supposed to hit 102 degrees today. It is already in the mid 90's and we don't reach peak temp until 3 PM or so and it is just after noon now. Will focus on laundry, and getting this place cleaned up and ready for my grandsons birthday party on Sunday that will be held here. He will be 1 year old the lil stinker pot!  Soooo, on that note I will bid you all a farewell, so I can get my behind in gear around here.

Oh yes...I have upped my iron to try to reverse the anemia. Wish me luck. Also have to call today or tomorrow to find out the results of the H pylori test, again wish me luck.
I wish you all a wonderful day, happy moments, and lots of little, or not so little victories!

Hi everyone. Here to report that I did OK on my diet today. Lunch was grilled pork chop and salad, dinner was grilled fish and salad (yea, we grill a lot). Only extras were some pumpkin seeds. Not too bad. I'm a little disappointed because scale hasn't moved for a while but I should be used to being stuck by now.
If worst comes to worst I expect I'll lose a bit next month when we vacation near the beach like I did last year. Oh, I bought the Atkins diet book just to look it over. Haven't got too far in it yet, I'm still in the 1st chapter but if I'm gonna do the diet it's a good idea to figure out what I'm doing wrong! LOL

Amalia

Ahhh not necessarily that you are doing anything wrong. Our bodies lose much slower and are more stubborn about letting go of the excess, as we get closetr to a normal wieght. Just hopw it goes. Look at me...I have been dong this challenge for what 4 weeks or so now??? and am only down by 7 lbs, and thats the fastest I have lost anything in months and months. I bet alot of it was water weight. BUT I am headed in the right direction and so are you! Even if we are not losing consistantly, if the scale is not going up, we are doing well. Our body will take a break from the losing when ever it pleases i am afraid. It just isn't like when we were new post-ops anymore. You are doing great! Water intake and protein where it should be?
Hang in there girl. You are a success!

Hello to my special ladies,

      I'm very tired so not going to post much. I am so proud of you all. I know we are all being success stories. I agree with Patrece that any step we make towards following our plan is great. 

    Amalia, Have you measured to see if you are losing inches? Maybe that is what's going on.

     Where to start. Still manic but not as wildly so. Saw my PNP today. He raised my Lamictal and Triavil and wants to see me once a wee****il we get me to my stable place. 

     Saw my surgeon yesterday. That is why I didn't post. I was too upset about the visit. I thought he would be pleased with my major improvements. Even though I have lost more weight in 5 and 1/2 months than I thought possible, he was unhappy that I had such a small loss over the last 6 weeks. I tried to tell him about the problems I have faced and his reply was, "I don't want excuses, I want progress." He wants me to lose 8 pounds in the next 2 weeks. Yikes!!!! That's a tall order. I told him the Bi-Polar was very difficult to deal with right now. He said," You should have expected that." I told my sis that he needs to go home and play kissy-face with his wife. I was sooooo upset about it yesterday. Today I have a much better attitude. He has been wonderful, kind and helpful since the first time I met him. Must of been an overwhelmingly bad day for him. I will move forward as best I can. Of course I have blood work to get drawn, but I'll worry about that tomorrow. (Gone with the Wind) 

Hugs and best to all.   Mag       
    

Mag...hugs to you. Your surgeon is playing the tough love role with you because he wants to see you succeed in this. My surgeon would do the same with me. Thats one thing I love about him. He accepts no excuses from me. I can come up with them all day, but he is right, I have to manage my wls journey, no matter what I am facing. I have a feeling this is what is going on with your surgeon. If he thinks you aren't progressing as well as you should and didn't try to push you forward, he wouldn't really care about you, so don't take it personal. See our reasons are excuses to them, because they know we will face a lifetime of challenges that will get in our way if we let them. They want us to stick with the program no matter what. And we should because we went through far too much not to. We deserve this success! Take those small steps girl, and keep moving in the right direction. Up the protein and water and get in some extra walking or something, and you'll get that 8 lbs off. You are only 6 months out, you can do it with the right balance! It will help when your depression is more in control, but if you begin to see more progress, it may help spur you out of that too.
No this isn't easy, but you are so worth it lady! Let us help you along!
Hugs and love to you.

By the way, I think your weight loss rate has been awesome!