Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Ironic, isn’t it?

OK, I click to the irony that, on a blog devoted to weight loss, a large number of the posts are recipes… but, as a writer, I have to click to ironies… it’s part of my charm. :)  See my other blog, MetaWriting, if you don’t believe me.  My entire life is one irony after another.

Anyway–the scale said I’d lost 98 pounds as of this morning.  Only two more to go to be in the century club. Only six more to go to be under 200 for the first time since 1990.  Yep, 16 years ago, I weighed 198 pounds, after losing 70.  When I get below 198, I will be lighter than I’ve been since I got out of the Air Force in 1983–23 years ago.  I weighed 166 when I got out, and shot past 270 in the next six months, due to a combination of having weight restrictions relaxed for the first time in four years and taking fertility drugs.

Told the docs I was gaining weight like mad on the drugs, and they told me it was all in my head.  I told ‘em it was all on my ass.  Been struggling with my weight ever since.

 

Posted by Lisa at 11:52:11 | Permalink | No Comments »

Monday, March 20, 2006

Recipe - Easy Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Still experimenting out here– my hubby sez he likes this one, too

Easy Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas
1 can of Campbell’s Southwestern Pepper Jack Cheese Soup
1 can of Campbell’s Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup
2 or 3 frozen, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
(I used two, ’cause evidently they came from morbidly obese chickens… big’uns!)
1 cup of your favorite chunky salsa
(I use Walmart’s Great Value medium - it’s one of the best around if you like Tex-Mex cooking, costs very little.)

After the crockpot concoction is complete, you’ll need…
Small corn tortillas
Mexican cheese (Cheddar Jack with Jalapenos or Taco cheese, or just cheddar)
Fat-free sour cream

Pour one can of undiluted soup in the bottom of crockpot. Add salsa, spread until it covers the bottom. Place frozen chicken breasts on the mixture. Cover the chicken breasts with the remaining soup. Cook 7-8 hours on low. Shred the chicken, and stir the mixture up.

For the WLS post-opper: Put a small amount of cheese in a tortilla and microwave 10-15 seconds to warm the tortilla and melt the cheese. Add three to four tablespoons of chicken enchilada mixture and fat free sour cream to taste.

I have NO idea how much protein is in one, but it should be in the seven to ten gram range, according to how much of the chicken mixture you put in each tortilla.

For the rest of the family: To make a casserole-type dish for the rest of the family, put cheese and chicken mixture into tortillas, roll up and place in a casserole dish (6 tortillas for a 9×9 dish, 10 for a 9 x 13 dish). Cover with remaining cheese, and you have a can of chili around, you can mix that with some of the salsa and throw that over them as well, with the cheese on top. Heat in 350 degree oven until the cheese and chili is bubbly. Serve with sour cream on the side.

Posted by Lisa at 12:05:29 | Permalink | No Comments »

Triumphs

This was originally posted on Thinner Times forum on January 7, 2006.

I finally got a job, after about three months of searching. That was triumph #1. I promised myself I wouldn’t shop until I’ve lost 100 pounds, but had to for the new job.

Triumph #2 - went shoe shopping yesterday, and lost a full size, from a nine back down to an 8… very weird… but a triumph, nonetheless.

Triumph #3 - went shopping for pants today–a lot of my old business suit tops are just fine after the weight loss, but the pants have a tendency to fall down when I stand up. When I tried on pants in the store (something I used to never do–I’d just grab and go) I’ve lost from a 3X or 28-30 size down to 18 or 20, according to brand and style. 18 or 20!

Posted by Lisa at 12:01:02 | Permalink | No Comments »

Recipe - ‘Shrooms

Teriyaki Yummmm

Sliced mushrooms - about a third of a cup (they cook down pretty small)
Teriyaki sauce - about a quarter cup
2 oz of low-fat mozzarella cheese (I use the Precious string cheese thingies)

Heat the teriyaki sauce in a small skillet until it’s just bubbling, and throw the mushrooms in. Cook them at medium high to high until the teriyaki sauce is very nearly gone. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the shrooms, or peel string cheese into strings and layer them over the shrooms. Once it begins to melt into the mushrooms below, flip the mixture over like a pancake, cook ’til it’s brown on both sides.

16 grams of protein from the cheese and 180 calories - lots of salt from the teriyaki, so don’t make this if you’re salt-sensitive or have high blood pressure, etc.

A Loaf of Wine, a Jug of Fish

Note: the wine means that there’s little or no fish smell in the house.

White cooking wine - about a third cup
Frozen fish filet or steak (I used cod loins) - up to an inch thick - four ounces
Sliced mushrooms - 1 cup or so

Pour the wine into a small skillet, place the fish in the middle and the mushrooms around the outside. Heat to boiling, medium-high to high. Cover for the first few minutes, and then uncover and turn the fish over a few times. Keep cooking it until it flakes easily - it’s easy to overcook, so you have to watch it pretty closely. Cooking time completely depends on how thick the piece of fish is. When the fish is done, remove it from the pan and keep warm. Finish cooking the mushrooms in the wine until the liquid has completely boiled away, then add them to fish and munch out.

20 to 30 grams of protein from the fish (according to what kind you use), and the whole meal is about 150 calories.

Posted by Lisa at 11:59:01 | Permalink | No Comments »

Just breaking up the monotony

As you may have figured out, I am actually doing a lot of this blog on the same day.  I’m moving some of my posts over from Thinner Times, an absolutely wonderful forum that appears to have grown much more than its originators would have believed.  There are so many terrific people on the forum, from those who just got back home from  having gastric bypass surgery to those who had it four or five years ago.

If you’re thinking about having GBS, you couldn’t pick a better place to go and find out more–from those who know.

 

 

Posted by Lisa at 11:58:06 | Permalink | No Comments »

Recipe - Turkey Sausage and Pasta

This is only after you’re out a few months from the surgery. One of my husband’s and my favorite simple dinners, and it had to be modified only a little.

Turkey Sausage/Pasta

Serves 1 WLS patient and 2 of the unsurgerized

1 pkg. Oscar Mayer Light Turkey Sausage
Parmesan cheese
Any pasta that you like
Cooking spray

Skin the sausage with a vegetable peeler if you’re still at a stage where you shouldn’t have it — but for those who are far enough out, the skin is very thin, and I had no problem with it chewed up very fine.

Slice the two links into rounds about a half-inch thick, and keep all the juice that comes out of the package as well. Spray a frying pan lightly with the cooking spray and pour the juice from the package into the pan. Place the sausage in so that each piece has one side of the round down, and then brown on both sides almost to burnt–the darker it is, the more flavorful.

While the sausage is browning, cook whatever pasta you’ve chosen according to the directions on your package.

I reserved four ounces of the cooked sausage for me, sprinkled with parmesan cheese, and served the rest of the sausage over the pasta in a large bowl, also sprinkled with parmesan.

4 oz of sausage and cheese 18-20 gr protein

Posted by Lisa at 11:51:35 | Permalink | No Comments »

Where the rubber meets the road

OK, here’s where my WLS tool and writing matter. I am tired–just started a new job, and still getting used to working post-op. I am lonely–my husband’s on another business trip, gone for another week yet. I am situationally depressed–not clinically, just a little sad, a little blue.

And this is where, pre-op, I would have busted out whatever food was available and gone piggerific. But I’m post-op, so I went and got a glass of iced tea (with Splenda) and am sitting here typing like mad. Coping without food is a learned trait. And there’s no way in the wide, blue-eyed world that I would have learned it without the surgery.

Not saying it’s easy–I still WANT the food, the comfort, the touch, taste, texture, smell. But what I’ve got is my tool, some iced tea, and the knowledge that someone out there who I’ve never met will read this and understand. This is where the tool, and all of you, matter. Thank you.

Posted by Lisa at 11:45:55 | Permalink | No Comments »

Fears

NOTE:  I’m bringing some of my posts in from the ThinnerTimes forum that stand on their own.  This was posted there on 2-19-06. 

Not trying to wallow in my emotions here or anything, but I need to lay this out somewhere. I also don’t want you to think I’m paralyzed by fear. Most of what you see below are fleeting thoughts that have re-occurred enough that it makes me realize that they are something I’m worried about.

1. I’m afraid I’ll wake up and all this will be a dream…that I haven’t lost all this weight, that I’m still over 300 pounds and lumbering around in my world.

2. Sometimes I fear that I’m disappearing–that I will simply continue to shrink until I am only a voice crying in the darkness, and then that too will fade.

3. I fear that I will get the weight lost and then get stupid and gain it all back, doing even more damage to my battered body.

4. I’m afraid that I will change into some other person, from a modest woman to someone who will dress like a cheap floozie just because I can. I remember thinking so many times, “Yep, if I had a body like that, I’d dress like that, too.”

5. I fear that I will always consider myself a patient–that I will never get to the point where I can go an entire day without thinking about my pouch or what I can or can’t eat.

6. I’m afraid that I have simply switched my obsession with getting enough food to obsessing about getting too much food or eating the wrong food.

7. I’m scared to think that men will look at me as if they want me again, and that I might not be able to resist. A shrink once told me that I got fat in order to keep myself faithful to my husband. What if the weight is all that kept me in my marriage? What happens once it’s gone?

8. I fear that, once I lose all the weight I want to lose, I won’t particularly like the person that I’ve excavated from under the layers of fat.

Posted by Lisa at 11:44:15 | Permalink | No Comments »

Recipe - Easy Fish Dish

Lemon Fish with Herbed Rice

Campbell’s Supper Bake - Lemon Chicken w/Herbed Rice
Three or four thick fish filets - about 4 oz each, uncooked
Two tablespoons of butter/margarine
2 and a half cups of hot water.

That’s it! Prepare just as the box tells you do, but with the fish instead of chicken, and because it’s basically poached in the rice water, the fish stays nice and moist. Chicken done this way gets a little dry (to me) and it’s hard for WLS folks to eat. But fish comes out perfect… tastes just lemony enough without being obnoxious, and because of the way it’s cooked, it doesn’t stink up the house. Yum.

 
One serving for the person who’s had gastric surgery - one piece of fish and two tablespoons of rice - 18 to 20 grams of protein, according to the size of the fish. 

Posted by Lisa at 11:41:18 | Permalink | No Comments »

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Beginnings

I’ve resisted this for a lot of reasons, but having gastric bypass surgery has done such amazing things to my life that it’s hard not to share.  Plus, I had contemplated writing a non-fiction book about the journey, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.  While I am a writer, my first love is fiction, and I think I need to keep that passion stoked.

On the other hand, I think I need to tell the story somehow… and plan to do so on this blog.  I’ll be adding pictures to the album as I get further along in constructing this blog.  And, if you’ve found this place, I hope some of what I have to say is helpful to you in your journey. 

My surgery was September 26, 2005.  According to my home scale, I weighed 303 pounds that morning.  As of today, my scale read 210.  I’ve lost 93 pounds in 5 and a half months.  I feel great, I look better than I have in 15 years.  And I have a story to tell.  Hope you stick around.

Posted by Lisa at 19:27:25 | Permalink | No Comments »