Finally, the Weight is Over

8 ounces of strawberries
6 sugar-free dessert cups (they’re in the bakery section)
Fat-free whipping cream (you can find it if you look hard enough–and I’m not talking about Cool Whip, who have yet to put out a sugar-free product, as near as I can tell. You’ll find this in the dairy section)
Splenda, either packets or measurable

About two hours before you plan to serve it, take the big hairy green bits off the strawberries, and slice them up into a large bowl. Sprinkle four to six tablespoons of the measurable Splenda onto them (or eight to ten packets of Splenda) and add about a half cup of water. Stir well, cover, and stick the bowl in the fridge. Stir them every half hour or so, or just when you think about it.

Just before you’re ready to serve, whip the fat-free whipping cream according to the directions, and add Splenda to taste as you whip it.

Get out six dessert bowls or plates. Put a dessert cup on each. Using half the strawberries, put some fruit and juice on each dessert cup. Then whipped cream on each, then a layer of strawberries again, then a dollop of whipped cream.

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.

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.

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.

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?