Two days following the plan and so far so good

I have paid particular attention to chewing over the past few days and my sticking episodes have improved plus I was able to eat enough that I was full for the rest of the evening. Best of all my yo yo seems to have broken and I am down the 4 yoyo pounds plus 3 more. I am 4 pounds from my all time low....

This has spurred me to be really good today so that I can finish the 4 pounds off and move into new weight loss territory.

Chew, Chew, Chew

Every time i feed my grandson I say-chew chew chew (he is still learning to eat solids). Well Duhhhhhh yesterday after I examined the quantity of vomit i expelled following an attempt to eat a hotdog for lunch (minus the bun) I discovered that everyone should be saying that to me! Although I think I chew I am obviously not doing so well enough-There were pieces in there the size of my thumb (long and wide)....

so in addition to writing down what I eat and counting protein I need to freaking chew!

Part of my problem-and I think this has been a lifetime problem-is that I dont like to think about eating. I wait until im hungry. With the band I have waited until I am even more hungry because half the time I have to really think about where and what I can eat with this band. By the time I actually sit down to eat I am starving and then start wolfing my food and then I get stuck and then i barf....

The good thing ( I guess) is these problems do not seem to irritate my stomach at all. I appear to be fine after.

arghgh restricted? or not??

So for the past week or so I have been clueless as to whether this band is at a good fill level. I get stuck so it is definitely there. but when i eat I get hungry really quickly again. On the other hand I have had meals where I can eat way too much. For example-twice i have had fish and chips and was able to eat two fairly large pieces and some french fries.

Additionally I have gained and lost the same 4 pounds three times.

I do not know if I am doing my usual lose 10 pounds and then i need another fill or what (only this time it is 14 pounds).

I am afraid to get another fill because I still barf about once or twice a week. Usually this is because i try to eat some meat product or bread product that i know I am not supposed to.

lately the barfs have been-steak, hamburger, turkey, 1/2 a bagel. This concerns me a bit-I of course can eat fish so far (i don't really love it and being without a stove does not make this problem very easy to solve). After fish I am not sure how I am supposed to maintain a high protein diet. 60 grams a day is difficult if you cannot eat most meats. I get 15 grams in my protein bars (breakfast). 7 grams for 1 oz of cheddar cheese (i usually have 2 ounces so that is 14. The fish and chips offer up 28. I of course change things up from time to time-like attempting other meats at dinner etc.

I just figured this out while i wrote it--im a little freaked. I guess i am going to have to at least keep track of my protein for a while. Maybe more protein in will help me stay full longer? or barf more!! haha

Ok now that I have barfed on the page-it appears I need to 1. keep a food diary...Damn I dont want to. 2. eat more protein. 3. look to see if i open up as I get to the bottom of the 4 pound yoyo.

Oh happy dayyyy oh happy dayyyyyy

So I have a new development. I have had pretty good restriction for the past month (ever since the leaky port scare, overfill and then tweak). I have fought it a little-Getting used to eating so much less food is kind of difficult at first. I used to eat really chunky sandwiches and thought I could not eat bread anymore. I can now however eat from 1/3 of a sandwich to 1/2 depending on the day. I think this has taken some time to wrap my head around (with several visits to my garbage disposal as proof).

Well today I was shocked to discover (when I tallied what I had eaten before dinner was: 2 protein bars and 1/2 a sandwich. For dinner I had a small bean burrito (eaten slowly and first 1/2 then the second after a wait time and burp). and 1/2 cup of rice pudding. I am completely satisfied, not hungry.

I am pretty impressed I have to say. I hope this is how things are going to be for the distant future. I am steadily losing weight. I have avoided eating any of the chocolate (well my chocolate anyway). I had a couple of bites of my children's here and there.

Off the diet topic-yesterday we finished the first half of the kitchen floor (bamboo) and are hoping to get the electrics fixed up so that we can put up the first of many bits of Ikea cupboards (i'm kind of scared of all of that flat pack).

Today all hell developed when my oldest daughter on her 8.5 months of failed sleep cracked crying with her bag on bags look. I took on childcare while she 'slept.' I found out later that she was unable to sleep and ended up talking to her sister for two hours on the phone.

Well we dragged my grandson and two other of my daughters around town looking for a car replacement (the sleep deprived daughter is buying it for herself and i now need a new one). I did buy a car. It is a Mazda 5 (a pseudo-van) LIke a van only 'car'ier. I like it so far but I am a bit concerned when I have to parallel park to pick my youngest daughter up and school-

So to end the saga-I am now on baby night duty. I sent my oldest daughter to bed with a sleeping pill and said I will get up with my grandson tonight (I might spend tomorrow sleeping :)))...So far he has stayed asleep. He twists and turns in bed like crazy and has made two peeps but from 9-11:30 he has stayed asleep. Wish me luck!!!

Tina

I love my garbage disposal-

So I have been doing really well-the scale continues to move ever slowly downward. Today, because i have yet to do laundry after our trip to the UK (yes you can count correctly-it has been 8 days since we got home). I have been tooo busy :) and too lazy and tooo jetlagged. Anyway because i have not done laundry I was a tad desperate today for something to wear. Well I had a dig in my closet and found my too tight pair of levis (from a year and a half ago). This pair of jeans was purchased just before my big regain. At the time i bought two pairs of jeans. They both fit me but as the weight came back on one of them became known as the tight pair-i stopped wearing these. I got into the big pair of levis (even though they are the same size) just after I had the flu. I got into this pair this morning!! yipppeee hooray. I also got into a shirt that up to now I have had to wear open with a tank top underneath. again a big yippeeeee.

Ok now onto why I love my disposal. Wellll I have been craving steak. Don't ask me why I am not really a meat lover but nonetheless I wanted it. So we went to Outback steakhouse and my mouth watered. I dutifully drank my liquids before the food. I had a tiny scrap of the yummy bread (i used to eat 1/2 a loaf) and a couple noodles from my DD's Macaroni and cheese. My steak and baked potato came. I ate about 1/2 of the steak (a 7 oz uncooked i am sure) and two very small bites of the potato. I was stuffed, I was over stuffed....I had to do a runner to the toilet to relieve the excess spit from the meal. I pulled out a ziplock and continued to expel spit in the car...ahhh i wished for a good belch but no such luck. It took 7 more heaves in my oh so helpful garbage disposal at home to finally launch the nasty-too large, not chewed enough steak from my gullet. Sigh...and now I am hungry again. Damnit!!

Oh my goodness I am embarassed!

Sooo I just discovered that my personal blog entry (from December 10) was posted on a work blog. I like this whole blog thing but i do think mixing work with personal is problematic. After my discovery (a full 23 days after posting in the wrong place) I have moved it to its correct location and deleted it on the other website. Soo there were no comments, no emails telling me of my booboo...so either no one saw it or they were too kind to comment :)

So my status thus far-I am working off of a perfect fill (I miss food sometimes but the weightloss is grand!) I lost 6 pounds over Christmas vacation and I did imbibe in some fun things-cadburys, pomme frittes, latkes but only bites here and there and verrrrrrrrrry carefully as I risked vomiting if i was not extremely careful.

In all I am now down 32 pounds. I have 9 more pounds to lose until I reach my first milestone (my lowest weight on weightwatchers that I Promptly regained in rapid pace two years ago). After this goal is met (I hope soon) then I will be making new ground-I have not been below that weight since the late 1980's.

Note-Bunny i sent you an email but mine seem to always go to junk so have a look for it!!

The sugeon missed!-reposted from December 10-

So I went into the doctors on Monday-I was wide open. Having something go wrong with your band really messes with your head. I spent all last week testing the band to the max. I even tried an old school sandwich (I have not been able to eat untoasted bread since my first fill). at the doctors office He attempted another fill. He poked and poked but just hit the port and deflected off.

He finally gave up and sent me to x-ray where things when soooooo well! They took multiple pictures of my port then he positioned a giant sewing needle shaped instrument over my port area. He alternated taking pictures and repositioning until the eye of the 'needle' was directly over my port. Then the doctor pulled the syringe off of the needle and poked around right where he marked the eye area and took more pictures. He repositioned the needle once and nailed my port right on the bulls-eye. He then pulled the camera off, put the syringe part back on and gave me a whopper of a fill!

Sooo Now im reallllly full. I don't know if I should be sticking it out and wait for swelling to go down (or fat to be lost around my port) but I ate some of my grandsons rice cereal today with apple juice and it hurt going down. I can drink clear liquids but that is about it. I am going to give it until Friday before I call in for a slight unfill. The doctor said that from now on I will be going to x-ray for my fills :) so much nicer than the blind poking I think!!

The final conclusion was that I did not have a leak but that the doctor had missed last time and he either hit it part way and pulled out part of my fluid or ended up pulling out the lidocane that he put in before attempting the fill.