Sizes and Pounds and Measurements -- Oh My!

I don't get it.

I'd pinned up my second set of jeans -- Size 18s -- for a couple of months now, and finally decided to buy smaller jeans before my July 22 10-day, trip to beautiful, exotic Barcelona, Spain, to visit darlin' daughter who had been in the study abroad program. 

Hooray, I slid comfortably right into Size 14s!!!!

En route to Montjuic on the Teleferic with Barcelona in the background.

OK, here's the confusing part. I took my measurements this morning and they're virtually the same as they were three months ago.  I don't get it. I know I'm a smaller size and a lighter weight. And I look better and my cheekbones are emerging. Lots of NSVs or non-sleeve victories too.


In this picture on the Teleferic (gondola) en route to the top of Montjuic in Barcelona (that's why a pole is sticking out of my head,) I'm wearing a blouse I formerly couldn't get into. My favorite NSV was that my knees and feet didn't hurt on the about 2-mile walk weaving down through all the gorgeous gardens and the Joan Miro' museum.


And I even went to the Sitges (pronounced sea-CHAISE) beach the day before and spent time in a SWIMSUIT on the fine, sand beach at the sparkling, clear Mediterranean.


So here's the offending measurements:

Aug. 2, 2012
Bust w/o bra: 41", -2"
Waist: 39", -4"
Hips: 45", -5.5"
Neck: 15", -1.5"
Upper right arm: 15", -1"
Thigh: 27", -3.25"
Right Calf: 17", -.75"


April 1, 2012
Bust w/o bra: 42", -1"
Waist: 39", -4"
Hips: 45", -5.5"
Neck: 15", -1.5"
Upper right arm: 15", -1"
Thigh: 27", -3.25"
Right Calf: 17", -.75"

Jan. 20, 2012 (The first time I measured after my Dec. 27, 2011, gastric sleeve surgery.)
Bust w/bra: 43"
Waist: 43" (makes me wonder if I'm a tree trunk ... I think getting a waist back will be sublime!)
Hips: 50.5"
Neck: 16.25"
Upper right arm: 16"
Thigh: 30.25"
Right Calf: 17.75"

Those measurements will be better next month. That's it. No discussion. They just will be.

My internal system has been malfunctioning for more than two weeks straight now, since returning from our West Africa trip July 14. I know this is too much information, but still can't seem to solve the problem, no matter what I eat or don't eat. Still hoping it was the antibiotics for my now-extracted tooth. I was as a bit better this morning, but then the problem came roaring back after breakfast. Hoping my innards will settle down in the next day or two. Looking forward to seeing how my weight settles out after I'm not dehydrated anymore.

All my tests taken between West Africa and Barcelona came back negative, so if it doesn't stop soon, it's more tests for me. Sigh.

Other than that, it really wasn't that hard to travel with my sleeved stomach. More on some of that famous Barcelona food especially the tapas and coping with that soon. I even had some molecular gastronomy, which was blow-your-mind-kinds of food.

Onward,
Carol

Not the Way I Wanted to Make it to Onederland, But Happy to be Losing

At Can Majo', a wonderful seafood restaurant on the Barcelona waterfront.

I made it to Onederland last week, although not the way I planned. For those who don't know, Onederland is when you get to the 100s from the 200s. I'm at 195 pounds and down 78 pounds at the last check before I hit the road again July 22 to Spain.

I got back from 16 days in West Africa on July 14, and immediately became very ill. Had my abscessed molar extracted Monday, July 16, then became ill from something we still haven't figured out. High fever, chills, sweats, aches -- 102, 103 for a couple of days, the 17th and 18th, also raging diarrhea which has continued and not slowing down. Fever broke early Thursday morning. Can't remember being that sick for about 10-15 years.

Figuring I brought home some varmint (parasite) from West Africa, I went to my physician on Thursday, July 19, and they did a bunch of tests. Blood tests, stool tests (yicky.) Gave me some Lomotil (actually the generic.) Worked a little. The good news is that I didn't pick up malaria in West Africa, although I didn't think so because I was taking the preventative med Malarone, you never know. Malarone has flu-like symptoms btw.

Complicate it by my getting a flu shot each year like clockwork, so I didn't think it was the flu.

Had a long-planned trip to Spain July 22, to visit my daughter who has been studying abroad in Barcelona. Took it anyway, even with system somewhat dodgy. A little turbulence and I lost my dinner in a plastic cup though. The Delta flight crew was extremely understanding and helpful.

We're having a good time, planning my bathroom breaks often and I'm hanging in there. Drinking LOTS of water, trying to stay hydrated, but it just runs right through. Sigh.

More soon!

Onward,
Carol

Traveling and Losing Weight

Pit cooking kabobs at Indigo Indian restaurant in Lagos

 It's our last day in Lagos, Nigeria, for the foreseeable future, and for the first time traveling, I managed to lose weight during my visit thanks to my sleeve. I'm now down 70 pounds to 203 and getting closer to Onederland (being in the 100s vs. the 200s.)

There are so many wonderful restaurants here. The international community is strong and many of our favorite restaurants are various ethnic restaurants — Indian, Chinese, Thai, even Tex-Mex.

Hubby has been working in Lagos for four years and we repatriate together today. 

In our last few days here, we had some wonderful times with old and new friends, often around a great meal.

The biggest thing that was a challenge is that many Lagos restaurants use lard in their cooking and lots of salt. But I figure anything in moderation. My favorite dietician Steph at WeightWise told me when we first started this journey that I could eat a bite of anything and that's kept me from going a little batty watching everyone else eat things I can't.

One friend was determined we would try his favorite Thai restaurant Bangkok and we had possibly the best prawns I've ever had for an appetizer. One member of our party also ordered them with red curry sauce for an entreé. I limited myself to one prawn appetizer and it was worth it. I'm not sure what they did coating or cooking it, but it was magical with just the right crunchiness and not greasy at all.

The prawn appetizer at Bangkok Thai restaurant in Lagos

Hubby and I ordered a duck dish to split with the best name ever — Angry Duck. I think it came by its name because it came out of the kitchen making a huge sizzling sound, sort of like fajitas do in a Tex-Mex restaurant. It was fragrant with spices and so tender. Again, just a couple of bites and I was happy — it was a splurge on my diet, but a modest one.

Other great dishes were Pineapple Rice full of cashews, various veggies, of course, pineapple and served in a half of a carved pineapple. I passed on eating it because of the carbs. But hubby sure liked it, and I mostly posted the picture because it was so pretty and unusual.

And that brings up something else. Many of the dishes at Bangkok had carved edible vegetables adorning them or were served in other beautiful ways. I swear it makes food taste better when it looks incredible.

Pineapple rice at Bangkok

At Indigo Indian restaurant, one of the dishes we ordered was "cottage cheese," prepared in a Tandoor oven. It was not like any cottage cheese I've ever had. It was more like a firm tofu, with miniature potatoes and chunks of corn accompanying it, all in the colorful tandoori style. I ate the cheese only, but with the tandoori method of cooking, it was cooked in a low-fat style I appreciate.

Some other favorites were Bottles, a Tex-Mex restaurant that serves up some excellent salsa and guacamole, fajitas, hubby's oozy, cheesy enchiladas and bean burritos for our vegetarian friend. We also love to go to Pearl Garden Chinese restaurant and Café Royal for an English breakfast or a hearty burger or main-dish salad for lunch. 

Onward,
Carol

The Whine About Wine for Gastric Sleevers

Probably the hardest thing after my Dec. 27 gastric sleeve surgery was not drinking wine. And I've had the occasional glass, usually with hubby, but sometimes in a solitary way just reading a book and kicking back.

My wine-drinking philosophy when my sleeve started feeling healed was to count the calories I'd had that day and see if my calorie count would allow a glass of wine or two.

This is not a terribly good idea, I'm sad to say. There are several reasons why, but the most resounding one came out a couple of weeks ago. Check out this new report:

- Weight Loss Surgery Increases Risk of Alcohol Addiction in Some from ABC News

- For another thing, I don't lose weight if I drink wine. That was the whole goal of the surgery — to give myself this marvelous tool to lose weight — and drinking wine screws that up.

- When you drink wine or alcohol, it hits gastric sleevers hard and you get tipsy right away. And it passes through and almost immediately that wine glow wears off. Instead of feeling mellow, like I felt drinking wine before having the surgery, my body feels differently and the wine is somehow more aggressive towards my body. Having the sleeve definitely changed how I enjoy wine.

- The other thing the psychologist at WeightWise warned about is transfer addiction — that is, transferring a food addiction to an alcohol addiction. 

Plus there has been alcoholism in my family, so I'm going to have to be especially careful about that.

To drink or not to drink? That's the question, if you'll forgive the paraphase. Do I really want it? Yes. Do I really need it? No.

Oh, and by the way, I'm more than halfway toward my weight goal now. 

Onward,
Carol

Tips from the Road: Traveling When You've Had Gastric Sleeve Surgery

The Indian Taco at Tocabe American Indian Eatery in Denver.

In the past few weeks, I've been going, going, going, and haven't been doing a lot of posting, posting, posting.

All that traveling has meant a whole lotta eating out and challenges to stay on track with my six-month-old gastric sleeve surgery. But I did pretty well and managed to get a few more pounds off.

I was in Houston and Galveston Island, Texas in late May, visiting friends and family with hubby; Keystone, Colo., at TBEX12, a travel blogger conference in mid-June; Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country at a family memorial service a couple of weeks ago; and am writing this from Lagos, Nigeria, where I'm helping hubby move back to the States (He worked there the past four years.)

And I confess that while I tried a few things that weren't strictly on the program, I found I could find something workable on just about any restaurant menu even Italian restaurants. Several of the hotels where I/we stayed, particularly Keystone Lodge, had nice kitchens with refrigerators great for stashing the leftovers.

Hubby's Texas waffle. Yikes, I didn't eat this.

Here's a few tips from the road:

Make good choices: Driving to Keystone, I stopped in Denver at Tocabe American Indian Eatery, an Osage Indian-themed restaurant I'd heard about on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network. The pic above was actually my neighbor's Indian Taco she kindly allowed me to photograph.

I ordered the equivalent only without the fry bread, a Melting Pot Salad with pulled bison brisket flavored with pungent herbs and spices, black beans, salad, cheese and roasted house-made salsa, romaine lettuce with a squirt of sour cream and chipotle sauce. I should probably mention that I'm not a big believer in fry bread as a Native American food because it came about from the rations of flour and lard Native American tribes received from the U.S. Government on their forced relocations from the East Coast in the 1800s.

I'm a big fan of main-dish salads, grilled proteins and veggies when eating out. I've mentioned before that the grilled chicken at KFC is one of the few fast foods I'll eat.

Assorted Sashimi Plate at Full Moon Café in Norman, Okla.

Stay away from the white food: Eat around the rice, potatoes, grits, pasta — or better yet, tell the wait staff you'd rather have more veggies or fruit instead. As much as I love sushi, I stuck with the beautifully presented Assorted Sashimi Plate (sushi seafood without the rice) recently at the Full Moon Café in Norman, Okla. High quality protein, no fat, no carbs.

Start with the protein: Because I fill up so quickly, I eat my protein first, veggies second and fruit third if I have room.


Hubby and I ate at the wonderful Pearl Garden restaurant on Victoria Island on my birthday a few days ago and I ordered Prawns and Cashews in a Crispy Basket. The prawns didn't have any sauce on them, but were perfectly cooked, tender and succulent. I loved the presentation in the crispy potato basket, but didn't eat that. I snapped a pic, just because the dish was so beautiful. I did have some wine, which brings me to my next point. 

Prawns and Cashews in a Crispy Basket at Pearl Garden

Watch out for the alcohol: I've found if I have wine, I don't lose. And hard liquor knocks me on my butt promptly; I just can't metabolize it very well. More on that in a soon-to-come post. It also breaks the rule about not having liquids with more that 15 calories per 8 ounce serving. Hmmmmm — makes me thirsty just thinking about it.

Stay hydrated: Bring your low-cal sports drinks in a cooler. I like the Fuze Slenderize, PowerAde Zero, Sobe Lifewater. Unfortunately, PowerAde doesn't fit in my drink holder in the car though, which is inconvenient.

On a related note, drink lots of water while waiting for your entreé: Because I can't drink liquids while I'm eating, I drink my water first. Steph, my fantastic WeightWise nutritionist/dietician, says we're supposed to wait an hour before drinking anything after eating — so get your water while you can.

This morning, dry and unpainted, I was down to 204 pounds, which is 69 pounds lost from my all-time high of 273. Weight loss has been slow and I'm still losing hair, so I know my body is still adjusting to changes.

Onward,

Carol

The Good, the Bad and the Not So Ugly

I've been having some issues with my sleeve playing bad head games on me. The psychologist at my surgeon's office suggested that I don't go off my daily 30 mg dose of Cymbalta and I'm glad I didn't. I've been stalled for about six weeks now, going back and forth from 207 to 210. The stall is getting SO DISCOURAGING. My highest weight was 273 and I'm feeling a lot better, but I'm still so far away from my goal of 135-140 pounds. I'm about five-and-a-half months out.

The NSVs are definitely a tradeoff with the negatives.

NSVs (Non-Sleeve Victories) include going off one of two blood pressure meds, going off an anti-inflammatory med, knees and feet feel a lot better. I'm about out of another pair of too-big jeans. My stress incontinence is about over, and my cheekbones are starting to emerge. My husband says my sleep apnea is waning and I'm not snoring nearly so much if I nap or fall asleep without my CPAP.

On the negative side, I am definitely grieving food, although I believe you can still eat beautiful, fabulous food prepared well -- just not as much of it and definitely not some things. My face looks like a red-dotted road map with zits and I've been having hair loss, although I think I may be turning the corner on that. The nausea that hits if I eat too quickly is a little disconcerting, but I'm dealing with it.

But all in all, I'm glad I did it. I feel much better and have lots more energy.

Onward,
Carol

Garden Goodness

Basil, lemon and regular thyme, curly and flat parsley, yellow cherry tomatoes. Yum!

Want to take your culinary offerings up a whole bunch? Amp them up with herbs, Herb.

My two square-foot gardens debuted this year with herbs and veggies. They're about two-feet high, three- wide-by-eight feet long and built with cedar posts and chicken wire on the bottom that I'm hoping to keep the moles from coming up and dining on the roots.

I used discarded mini-blinds to make my squares and just cut them to length and hammered them into the cedar posts with nails.

I used about a bag of compost added to the top soil in each garden, but that's all the soil amendments I did for this year.

And now I have several kinds of garlic I'm about to harvest, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes and Beefeater tomatoes. Plus there's lemon basil, radishes (although they're almost gone,) chives, marigolds, several kinds of lettuce still, arugula, rainbow Swiss chard, quinoa, red okra, celosia and marigolds for color, and other stuff I've forgotten.

Radishes -- adds punch to salads or a fun side dish sauteéd.

You can add fresh herbs to just about anything and it helps the flavor. I added fresh thyme and oregano to my Lemon Baked Chicken last night and freshly picked parsley, arugula, lettuce and radishes to my tossed salad. Fresh herbs went into my vinaigrette too.

As far as my weight loss goes, I'm just stuck, stuck, stuck between 207 and 210 -- 66 pounds off. When hubby goes back out-of-country for work tomorrow, I'm going to clamp down and see if I can't get to Onederland in the next couple of weeks (getting below 200.) No glasses of vino. No giving into a cracker craving occasionally. I've gone to too much trouble not to continue to get and keep the weight off.

I'm still losing hair, but that's slowing down thankfully. I've always had quite a thick mane so it hasn't been noticeable. From everything I've read, it's just the body adjusting to lower calorie intake -- not a big deal and it stops and grows back after awhile.

Onward,
Carol