The week in review

Well, it didn't go as planned. Monday I took my lunch and life was good. Tuesday was our Mid-Manager's retreat. BORING!! Lunch consisted of grilled chicken, bbq pulled pork, potato salad, cole slaw, green beans, salad, and cookies. I got a small piece of chicken, a tsp of pork, potato salad, green beans, a little cole slaw, a little salad and cookies. I always get a smidgeon of each because I never know what will go down and what won't. It went okay. I ate 3/4 of the chicken, pork, potato salad, green beans. I ended up eating about 3/4 of my plate. Wednesday my hubby and I went to the state fair. I had several lemon shake-ups. LOVE EM! I had 1/2 a cheeseburger and some aussie cheese fries. A little caramel corn and that was it. Not too bad. Lunch on Thursday was from our company caterer which was angus patty (like salisbury steak) mashed potatoes and salad. I ate all of the meat and a little of the rest. Friday was QDoba so I did not keep to my plan to bring lunch everyday.

Next week I should have a better shot at it. I start a computer programming class next week, Mon/Wed/Fri, during lunch so I have to bring my lunch if I want to eat. That leaves Tues/Thurs. I think I can make it work. I also take 2 night computer programming classes each week.

So, for this next week I once again am going to try and get my protein in.

It will be hard because of my son's football and in a few weeks it will be his football and my daughter's cheer.

The daily buzz....

Hunger is not a problem these days as much as getting the protein in is. I believe that I haven't lost any weight because I am not getting enough protein. So, my goal this week is to increase my protein daily to get in at least 120g a day. I need to find my niche again and this is the only thing I can think is causing me not to lose weight. I am not overeating, if anything I may be under eating because I am not hungry very often.

So far today...

B: eggs, laughing cow cheese (28g protein)

L: McDonald's Angus deluxe snack wrap (20g protein)
D: will be meatloaf casserole. I don't know if I have calculated the protein in that or not. Need to check on it.

Even if dinner is 20g of protein that will leave me short on protein for the day since we should have at least 70g of protein a day. What to do, what to do? I am usually not more hungry than this. I am not a fan of protein bars or protein shakes. I prefer real food to get my protein. I am making spinach artichoke dip for snack so that will add another 7-10g of protein.

Another thing I have been or haven't been doing lately is eating my protein first. I am a plate grazer. I eat a little of this and that all over the plate. When I first had surgery I put only protein on my plate first then veggies after I ate the protein. I don't anymore. I fix my entire plate and hence I graze on different ones instead of eating my protein first. So I have identified two potential causes for me not losing weight. This week I will put them to the test.

Speaking of tests, Tuesday will be a big test for me. I have a Mid-Management Retreat. My first one. It is an all day event at a facility away from work. We eat breakfast & lunch there. I know for breakfast they are having ham biscuits. I plan on eating my breakfast before I leave home. So I may eat a little fruit. Lunch will be chicken. I can do chicken. The test is that I don't get stuck. This retreat is with dozens and dozens of people so the stuck potential is high and close proximity to the bathroom is low. Fingers crossed.

I also plan on going to the state fair this week. Wow how will I ever resist the krispy kreme hamburger on donuts or the fried kool aid? Yeah I don't see them as a problem, yuck!  I used to love the ribeye sandwich, too tough for me to chew now, and the pork sandwich. Pork gets stuck. Fried broccoli and cheese and fried cauliflower, can't have. I loved the fries with cheese, bacon and ranch. Can't really eat fries anymore either. Oh and funnel cakes or elephant ears?? Bread product, not likely. I'm really not sure what I will get to eat. I went last year and got a healthy veggie plate from one of the stands and was bored and disappointed. I mean part of the fun of going to the fair is the fair food. I might try a Gyro. Never had that. Burger without the bun I guess. Not too appealing at the fair. Looking forward to the lemonade shake ups. YUM! Lots of walking to be had there so I will get my exercise in. Not too many places to sit down and veg out. I can have the sliced apples with hot caramel. Yummy. We are going sans kids so I am looking forward to enjoying some time with hubby just perusing the fair seeing what we want to see when we want to see it.

The rest of the week will be ordinary. I just have to bring my lunch. I have problems with a friend who wants to get lunch daily. We don't actually go eat somewhere, we just run and pick it up so it's a lot of fast food. Famous Daves (BBQ place), QDoba(southwestern) which is actually high protein(45-50g) so I don't mind that one, Homerun Burger, Jason's Deli. Other than QDoba none are good choices for me. I want to bring my lunch all week that I am there but how to tell her without pissing her off?? She uses our lunch time to vent about how crappy things are for her since I left the unit. I feel bad for her but I am not sorry I left. I had a great opportunity and took it and am extremely happy where I am at. Anyway, I need to think of myself and where I am heading both health wise and job wise. This time I come first. I am off work two days this week so that only leaves two days to bring my lunch. I can compromise to Qdoba one day but the other will be my lunch from home.

Now I am off to get laundry finished for another school week for the kids and work week for me.

MIA for a while

I have been busy busy for quite a while. My new job keeps me busy all day but now that I get off work at 5pm I have more time for my family. My son just started football. He's in middle school. You know he played flag football for 3 years. He's in 7th grade and is playing his first year of full contact football.
Now, my son is by no means a big boy. He's tall but lean and they have him as a linebacker. So sad really. Some of the boys he's played against he said he just prayed they didn't fall on him. They were HUGE!!

Well we have been going to his games which are about 2-3 games per week. My daughter starts cheer at the end of the month so once we get football over we will be going to the elementary school basketball games that she cheers at.

 My new pic from last week

Band news-- 
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No gain, no loss. I thought I was getting restriction back but no, it's gone again. I guess I just need to suck it up and go get a fill. I hate to shell out the $150. As I have said before I don't have restriction. I eat fine for about 5-10 min then BAM. A wall slams down and the food prairie dogs back up my throat. Sometimes there is pain in the chest with the food coming back up. Sliming is a real possibility. Throwing up is almost a certainty.
I don't overeat though. I think because most of the time the food comes back up I end up not getting enough food. I have added some protein drinks on those day. I still am not fond of protein drinks.

My food intake today:

B: a scrambled egg, wedge of laughing cow @ 6:30 am

L: a deluxe angus snack wrap from McDonalds @ 12:30 pm

D: Chicken breast, cauliflower @ 7:00 pm

Snack: snack pack of pringles, rice krispie treat.
Vitamin Water Zero.

I only eat when I am hungry so it's not as if I am hungry often. The food I do eat stays with me for a long time. Sometimes I force lunch or dinner because I am not hungry but I know if I don't get enough calories/fat in a day I can't function and my body will revert to starvation mode. I had that happen when I was 17 yrs old. It is not pretty. I was very sick. I didn't know at the time but later found out the cause. I had sores in my mouth and down my throat. It was so bad I couldn't eat or drink for 3 weeks and I couldn't even swallow my own saliva. I spit in a tissue. I ended up in the hospital with collapsed veins. When they were finally able to get an IV in me I was 70% better in no time due to the fluids. Test revealed I was in starvation mode. I also learned after spending a week in the hospital that I am allergic to artificial sweeteners like splenda, aspartame, etc. Stevia doesn't bother me because it is natural.

Tomorrow is a new day. I need to get this figured out. I guess I am back to trial and error. More error than anything it seems.

I think its time for another fill

But I am still on the fence about it. After weeks if not a few months of consistently getting stuck I have been able to eat bread lately. Not a lot but still, something I don't usually do.

For instance, when I eat egg salad on toast, I can eat 2 slices of toast. Last night I grilled burgers and I ate 2/3 of a burger including the bun. But that's all I ate for dinner. Today we got HomeRun Burgers. I usually take the bun off and eat the meat and toppings. Today I cut the burger in 1/2 and picked off most of the top bun and ate half of it with about 6 cajun fries. Now the kicker is I seem to get full faster when I eat some sort of bread with my meal as part of the meal like the toast or the bun.

Tonight's dinner is Chicken and Black Bean Quesadilla.

My total food intake for today was:

Breakfast:2 tbsp egg salad on 1 slice of toast.

Lunch: 1/2 Cheeseburger w/ 6 cajun fries

Dinner: 1/2 of a Chicken/Black bean quesadilla (maybe as I have eaten 1 wedge and may not finish the 2nd wedge yet)

I feel restriction which I haven't felt in months. Not the stuck feeling but the full feeling. It's nice to feel it again.

Ok, I got a new phone for my birthday so it takes pics front and back. Sweet! Here is today's pic of me. I took it at work today. After the pic I called up the salon and made an appointment for a cut and color next Friday. I desperately need it!!

I had a wonderful vacation, and am really rested. I am glad to be back at work but still puzzled by the restriction feeling. It's something I haven't felt in so long it is foreign to me. Hello my old friend, welcome back! I hope you stay awhile. I may hold off once again on getting that fill.

Question, does anyone else "hiccup" when their pouch is maxed out? When I eat (when I have restriction, that is) when I have the restriction feeling, I start to biccup. It's a cross between a belch and a hiccup.

Oh well, here's to restriction, may you reside in my band as long as you can...