It’s Friday again.. time for another new lunge. I first have to admit that I didn’t do so great this week. I got my 60 lunges each day on Sunday and Monday, but since Tuesday I’ve been fighting a head cold. It’s been a back and forth battle between a sore throat and sore sinuses. Either way, I seem to be on the losing end. I am feeling a bit better today and will try to get some lunges in yet today and tomorrow… but not sure if I’ll hit 300 for the week. Maybe I’ll break it up in to two smaller sessions each day? The ones I did do though, yea, they were working very different muscles than the last couple weeks.

Anyways, starting Sunday it’s a new week, and a new lunge… one called the Curtsy Lunge. Based on the name, I’m not sure that I, as a dude, want to be doing these in public. Check out the video below to see what they’re all about.

And of course I have to give a shout out to Alysa over at Inspired RD for inspiring the whole lunge club thing in the first place.

There’s a recent video interview and slideshow video out about a girl name Betsy. A couple years ago, at the age of 12, Betsy had a gastric sleeve procedure done by Dr. Alvarez of Endobariatrics. Dr. Alvarez also happens to be Betsy’s uncle. This first video is the slideshow… showing Betsy as an obese child up until where she is currently, a very fit looking teen. It only takes a few minutes… take a look, I’ll be here when you’re done.

So what’d you think? Me, I have to quote Beth on this one (I found the video above initially on her site).

Torn.

For those of us who were obese as kids… we know the cruelty that other kids can inflict… both intentionally and not. In middle school I was called “porky portinga” by a few. And I can remember the mental anguish I put myself through over things like how tight the 8th grade school uniform was on me. And I wish I could say it’s something that the kids grow out of… but when it comes to how the obese are treated there’s way too many adults that are as bad, and worse.

So on the one hand, I can understand the desire to put a stop to that sort of thing in any way possible. And generally we can’t change others, so it can be easier to change ourselves. But then again, there’s noting truly easy about bariatric surgery. And the changes that it not only imposes on a person, but the ones it then also requires of the person in order to maintain a long term success… cripes, I know I wasn’t ready for something like that at 22… or 32… let alone 12.

Based on the video above, the later photos shown, I thought Betsy had to be in her late teens at this point and I was heartened to see she’d been able to keep things going so well for what seemed to be a number of years. Then I watched the video below… here, go check it out, again, it’s just a few minutes long.

In this one, we find out Betsy is now 14. She’s two years post-op. There’s no denying she’s doing great… but at the same time, she’s barely out of the honeymoon phase. So I’m very much back to being torn.

Now, Betsy may do very well long term. I’m not trying to say she can’t do this. But she also has an advantage over most folks, let alone most kids – her uncle is the one that did her surgery. She has someone that will (hopefully) be there for her for the long haul when it comes to continue support and education. I’m also more than a little curious about who paid for her procedure as I believe there are few, if any, insurance companies covering bariatric surgery for kids.

And it’s important to point out, she’s still barely a teen, and while I have no kids of my own… I’ve got plenty of friends who do and if my little glimpses are any indication… well, sure, the whole rebellious teen thing may get overplayed at times, but these sorts of things are always based on at least some bit of truth.

So yea. I’m torn.

Much in the same way I am torn on the lowering of BMI requirements for gastric banding surgeries. Is broadening the eligibility, be it through age or BMI, really help those who would now be considered on the fringes? The merits of helping people in these situations turn things around before they become much worse, before the “damage is done” so to speak (both mentally and physically) outweigh the risks of these folks not taking the procedures as serious, jeopardizing the long-term success?

I don’t have the answer… do you?

I think anyone who has had kids, babysat kids, has had young kids as nieces or nephews, whatever… we all know that kids reach a certain age and they go through the “why stage”. Where it seems like the only word in their vocabulary is “why?”. I don’t need to give examples, you know what I’m talking about. And I think we all get to that point where we break down and answer “because”. “Because it is.” Because I said so”, and so on.

Well, I think we all need to revert back to childhood a bit and start asking “why?” a lot more.

If you’re a pre-op, you are going to be getting a ton of information thrown at you as you prepare for bariatric surgery. Please, don’t ever be afraid to ask why. Why can’t I can drink with my meals? Why do I need to focus on protein first? Why do I need to take so many supplements. Ask away! Knowledge is power. The more you know, the more prepared you will be. What other cliches can I throw at you here?

I’m serious though. Ask questions… of your doctor, your nurse, your surgeon, your peers. Especially your weight loss surgery peers – most of us never get tired of helping others down the wonderful road we’ve taken ourselves.

But asking “why” doesn’t stop there. Last year I took a bit of flack on a forum out there for asking “why”. See, someone had posted a question asking how soon after surgery before they could start drinking wine again. There were the usual answers.. “at least a year”, “what does your surgeon say”, things like that. But I felt there was a key question missing there. “Why?”

With everything we put ourselves through in order to prepare for, get through and survive this surgery…. why… why would you want to even consider alcohol in those first few months after surgery? Alcohol has absolutely no nutritional value, it is nothing but liquid calories at best, and an activity that can have much more severe consequences post-op at worst. And I’m not even going to get in to possible addiction issues.

Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you not to drink, we’re adults. I’ve drank. But I was about 16 months post-op when I had my first beer and I had been at a pretty stable weight for 5 months at that point. And in the nearly two years since… I probably haven’t had enough to fill up a case yet. So yea… I’m not saying abstain entirely, but c’mon.. during that time when you’re losing… just… why?

And with some of the recent hub-bub going on regarding my doing the 5 Day Pouch Test, I was reminded of this simple word, why, once again.

Kaye Baily, the author/founder of 5DPT left a nice comment for me on my most recent posting and she basically (intentionally or not, I don’t know) reiterated my own feelings that it’s not the test itself… but rather why. Why are you deciding to do something like that… something that to many is no better than any number of the crash diets so many of us tried time and time again before surgery.

Just like we all have different reasons for having had surgery in the first place, we can have varying answers to a question like that… and I while I have my opinions… like the above one about drinking after surgery…  and even these answers are not always absolutes. Given the popularity of that funnel video one would think I’m the king of not drinking after meals, but I’ll be honest here – there have been times where I break the 30-minute rule.

Shocking, right? But for me it’s not about the what, it’s back to the why. Simply put, I was thirsty. I made a conscious decision, knowing I would likely have to be extra cautious of impending hunger because of that decision to take a drink of water. I wanted to take a drink, I was a aware of the why behind it, and can live with that decisions – no regrets. That’s not to say asking “why” gives you a free pass to breaking the rules, but I think for many of us, being more aware of not just what we do, but why, it keeps us so much more in the game than we ever were before.

So yea, while I have to say my answers are generally pretty damn good ones, I also can’t forget that they’re not the only ones. And what “works” for me… may not work for you. But to never ask the question, to never look at the why, is to continue to blindly stumble through things, never learning to make better decisions.

So it’s been a bit over a week since I finished up the 5 Day Pouch Test, and I’ve had a few people asking me questions about it… I sort of left the last posting stating how I likely wouldn’t know the impact for awhile, but let’s see if I can address some of things now.

How much weight did I lose? Well, I tried to be up-front and realistic in the fact that this isn’t… and shouldn’t be about losing weight in and of itself. If you go in to doing the 5DPT with the expectation of losing a bunch of weight that week, I think not only are you doing it “wrong”, but you’re doing it for the wrong reason.

Another regular on the BTV Forums posted some pretty passionate thoughts she had against the 5DPT. And yes, I had to stop of a moment as I read them to remind myself this was about the 5DPT and not about me. Least I don’t think it was. One of the arguments against it was that it’s simply another “crash diet”. While I disagree with the assertion that the 5DPT in and of itself is a crash diet – mainly because it isn’t presented as a way of losing a ton of weight – I have seen people treat it as such. The folks that feel they can go off the wagon and it’s ok, cause they’ll just do this every few months to “get back on track”. While maybe the original author could do more to dissuade this whole scenario, I don’t believe using it in this way is outright supported.

Does it fit a broader definition of “crash diet”? Yea… I suppose. But at the same time, how many folks who have had bariatric surgery out there rely on logging their food intake day in and day out? How many continue to count calories… or protein… or carbs? How many of these same folks blast programs such as Weight Watchers because they are “diets”? How is what they’re doing not a “diet”?

Yes, I personally tout eating a healthy diet. I use the “d-word” in the sense that diet is what you eat on a regular basis and that the by-product of a healthy diet is that you can reach and stay at a health weight. When talking about diet in general I am not using it in the sense of being something you “go-on” for a period of time with the specific goal of losing weight. I’m talking noun vs verb.

There’s probably more I could get in to here… but that’s for another posting I think.

So did I lose any weight? Maybe. I didn’t make a concerted effort to weigh before and after. I did weigh myself at one gym the Saturday before and at another gym the Friday I ended and there was a 1-2 pound difference towards losing. Can it be attributed to the 5DPT or was it just a difference in scales or some other factor, there’s no way to know for sure.

Overall, I did find myself eating better this last week. Possibly even eating less on average than I had been over the last few months.  And I am also eating better overall again, avoiding the junk better. But not entirely.

Can I attribute any of this to the 5DPT? I’m inclined overall to say not really. But again, it comes back to my original thoughts on using this as part of a mental-reset. And it’s also why I said it could take awhile to figure out if it’s helped even in that context.

Do I regret having tried it. No. Even if all it’s done is given me that first step back towards more mindful eating, towards getting myself back on track, on making me more aware of what I’m doing, what I’m eating, etc. Than I suppose it was worth it.

And I still ain’t buying the book.

To quote Ms. Black,

It’s Friday… Fri…day. Gotta get down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend

I’m almost to the finish line here.

So yea… last day of the pouch test, things are going fine I guess. I posted late last night cause it was nearly 11 by the time I got home so I was able to cover everything. This morning I had the rest of the taco meat I made. Side note, I did use grass-fed beef and I’m really impressed with just how much better it really does taste. Yes, it can be a bit more expensive…. but.. one thing I’ve been doing (but didn’t this time) is combine my cooked meat with either beans or whole grain to make it go further. I haven’t tried doing it for actual burgers yet, but I did make some Freekey Joes where I used a mix of meat and freekeh, a whole grain that turned out wonderfully.

So yea… I had about 9 ounces, it’s what was left after I portioned out the 8 ounces that I took with me yesterday for dinner. It wasn’t all beef though, I did have about  3/4 cup of onion that I cooked in there as well. And it filled me up pretty good. I had a protein shake at about 11 and I was feeling fine up until then. Though I am really thirsty today for some reason.

Another slight detour… kind of touching on some stuff from the other day… time spent in the bathroom. I’m making less trips the last day or so, but I know my intake of liquids isn’t any less, even if I haven’t been doing all liquids I’ve still been doing LOTS of water. As someone looking in to nutrition stuff and how digestion works and all that… it’s obviously because some of that liquid is being used to help in the digestion of the solid food I’ve had the last couple days so it’s basically just coming out the other end. So yea, I’m not sure why the fact that I was going so much earlier this week was any sort of shock. And not to gross anybody out or anything… but when it comes to volume in versus volume out… Well let’s just say even in my pre-op days where I would easily be eating two or three times as much food overall… I’ve never had to rely on my plunger so much as I have the last couple years. I don’t know if folks with bands and sleeves have to deal with that or if it’s just RNY and DS types with the malabsorption. But yea, if you’re looking at one of these surgeries, make sure your bathroom has a sturdy plunger at all time.

Ok, made it through the workday, my afternoon snack was some pickled herring, then dinner of some rotisserie chicken – actually a couple different times. I still had some chicken breast from what I cooked the other night, but I really wanted some dark meat. The rest of the evening has been getting some things done around home .. web stuff for the radio show, some wlsfa stuff, finish this posting and get ready for my first day of training at the new job tomorrow. All sorts of fun.

Overall, I think today has been the “easiest”, because first, I know I’m almost done with this and second, the food I’m eating is pretty normal.

Tomorrow may actually be the toughest day this week… because I’m going to be in training at Panera over lunch time…I’m sure they’re going to be wanting us to sample all sorts of stuff. And I will, but I’m going to limit myself to one or two bites. Not sure about dinner tomorrow yet, I want some vegetables. I have some broccoli, but I have a feeling it won’t have survived being in the fridge as long as it has. I have some squash I could roast. I don’t have an entree on hand though. Will have to look in the freezer. Oh, I have some tuna steak in the freezer, maybe that. Anyways, getting ahead of myself here. So yea, tomorrow and the days coming up may or may not be tougher simply because I don’t have these self-imposed “restrictions” any more. I mean other than the ones where I need to avoid the junk.

We’ll see….

Ok, I could probably have come up with a better title for today’s post, but penultimate just isn’t a word I get to use enough so I figured I would take advantage of the opportunity.

Breakfast this morning was a couple of scrambled eggs and a couple slices of back bacon. Back bacon, for those who don’t know, it’s made like bacon but instead of using the fatty pork belly, it uses the much leaner pork loin. It’s similar to Canadian bacon, but it’s not smoked at all like Canadian bacon is. I got mine from the local co-op, so it had no nitrites or nitrates. It’s good… but I think I need to get some of the regular bacon for next time. Yea, it’s fatty.. but nothing is quite like the real thing (once in awhile at least).

Was a bit of a weird morning too… I dunno… I got my stuff ready for my meals today last night, so that was all ready to go. And this morning as I was getting dressed I set aside shorts and shirt to throw in my gym bag so I can stop later today. (I’ve been writing these posts in stages throughout the day by the way) I pulled out of the driveway, got half-way down the block and realized I didn’t grab my gym stuff. Back to the house, run upstairs, grab the clothes, back downstairs, put them in the gym bag, back to the Jeep. Then I get half-way to work and realize I forgot my water bottle!

WTH? I can’t remember I didn’t grab my water bottle. It’s ingrained in me… I typically fill it with ice as my breakfast is cooking. I didn’t today for some reason. It sits right by my phone charger so I see it every morning. I just plain spaced it. Fortunately I had a spare in my Jeep… just didn’t have my nice cool ice-water this morning. sigh.

I didn’t do a protein shake breakfast like I did yesterday, but I did have a snack around 9:30 (I eat breakfast around 6am by the way). I had some pepperoni slices and a cheese stick. And then did a protein shake about an hour or so after that.

Lunch was around 12:30 .. the poached fish I made last night. It was.. ok. Didn’t really pick up any flavor from the juice I poached it in. I find, in general, I can eat a lot more when it comes to fish and seafood. Which yea.. it’s not nearly as dense as chicken or beef or pork. So I suppose that makes sense. It wasn’t long after I finished the fish that I decided I was still hungry and had some cottage cheese with cranberry sauce mixed in.

Ok, it’s much later in the day now… I made it through the afternoon ok. Before leaving work I had the rest of the pepperoni and cheese I brought, then I headed to my aunt’s to work on her computer a bit. I brought my taco meat with me, heated that up and ate that before leaving there around 6:30 to head to the gym.

It was packed again, slight wait to get on an elliptical. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I did 15 minutes on there and about 20 minutes on the weight machines… curls, tricep extenstions, shoulder presses, chest presses, hip adducters.. I think that was it. Showered and headed to the radio show meeting. Drank one of the Premiere Protein shakes there.. oh.. and I did have a couple of the wintermint lifesavers they have out.. whoops.

I’m home now…it’s nearly 11 and while I should be sleeping I’m kind of awake and just a bit hungry. A bit more pepperoni with some gorgonzola to take the edge off so I can finish a few things before crashing.

Overall, I think I’m eating less than “usual”. Though with the shakes, I’m definitely getting more protein than usual. But I’m eating more frequently.. these small meals and snacks. So trying to figure how that’s gonna balance out. Maybe that’s ok… if I’m able to better pay attention to when my pouch is full/not full…? I’m still thinking it will be a couple weeks before I realize the full impact from this week. Will I be able to continue to keep away from the sweets? Will this week be enough for me to mentally reset and realize that yes, I can get through the day without visiting the candy dish?

Time will tell…

Food! I got to chew some food today. Well, sorta. I mean it doesn’t take much to chew scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, and tuna salad. But hey, after two days of liquids it’s a step up.

Breakfast was a couple of scrambled eggs with a couple spoonfuls of Pace picante mixed in. Lately when I do eggs like this, I’ve actually been nuking them. Spray a small bowl or ramakin and microwave about 90 seconds to 2 minutes for a couple eggs. Using some non-stick spray helps too. I’ll sometimes (like I did this morning) stop it about 30 seconds short, sprinkle on a bit of shredded cheese and then finish cooking it.

I do this for breakfast once in awhile, but usually will toss it a whole-wheat tortilla or pita… and it’s very filling. The two eggs alone didn’t quite do it this morning so when I got to work I had a protein shake. This got me through most of the morning. About 10 I did have some cottage cheese. bit over 1/2 cup with some more picante mixed in. Honestly though, it didn’t do much of anything for the lil bit of hunger I was feeling.

A cup of the ginger/lemon tea staved things off for me till just after noon where I had a nice bowl of refried beans (a cup or so?) from the batch I made up last night. I can’t help but wonder if the fact that I’m “eating” today is somehow causing me to feel more hunger? About an hour after I ate lunch I was feeling hungry again and ate some of the tuna salad I prepared. I took a packet of tuna, added some finely chopped onion, finely shredded carrot and some chopped jalapenos and about a tablespoon of plain yogurt mixed with some of the 3000 chili spice mix from Penzy’s along with about a teaspoon of my hot pepper sauce.

It’s been a couple hours since then and I feel myself getting hungry again. Just a little, but it’s there.

After work I had a protein shake and then some more tuna while I was waiting for my support group meeting to start. Went through about 32+ ounces of water during the meeting.

Got home and started cooking up a mini-storm. Oh! After I opened the mail that has my season tickets for the MN Swarm!

So I chopped up the rest of the onion from yesterday and cooked that up and added a pound of grass-fed ground beef. browned that up as I squeezed a lemon and some clementines and some dried cilantro. Heated that just to a boil and added to a baking dish with three ocean perch fillets, popped that in the oven and let that poach for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I added a packet of taco seasoning to the ground beef, portioned it in two containers. One to take to work tomorrow for dinner and the other for over the weekend I suppose.

I took a pound of chicken breasts I got over the weekend at Trader Joe’s, seasoned half with lemon pepper and the other half with the chili 3000 spice mix from Penzeys. After the fish came out of the oven those went in. I had some ground up quinoa left from the last time I made some chicken nuggets, so I took some of that, added some garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne pepper and dusted the last two fish fillets in it. It’s similar to using cornmeal when doing a pan-fried piece of fish, but it’s quinoa.. so bonus!

I cooked those in one of my cast iron skillets, whipping up some tartar sauce (with plain yogurt – not mayo, some pickle relish, lemon juice, garlic powder, touch of salt and black pepper) to go with the fish… both tonight and tomorrow. It was a pound of fish, five pieces. I had two of them tonight.

So it’s about 5-6 ounces of fish there I suppose. It filled me up good. It’s bout half an hour later and I’m still feeling it quite well. But I’m also thirsty, so when I’m done here I’m gonna grab some water. Normally if I’m feeling this full after eating I try to wait longer to drink cause I know it will empty out the pouch and I run the risk of getting hungry again soonly, but it’s close enough to bed time I’ll be ok.

So yea.. I dunno today wasn’t “hard” by any means. Overall I ate a decent amount. I’m missing not having vegetables at all though. I need to think of a really nice vege dish to make for dinner on Saturday. hmmm.. I have some squash still from the farmer’s market, maybe that will do.

I did resist grabbing candy from the dish in my co-workers office. That’s been one of the tougher things… not grabbing a couple of those mini-peanut butter cups. So if all I get out of this week is being able to avoid that stuff for awhile, it’s a good thing. Oh, going to my aunt’s house after work tomorrow to work on her computer, then I’m hoping to hit the gym before the radio show meeting. Not going to make it for my usual dinner and relaxing at Panera. I thought about still going and getting the tuna sandwich and not eating the bread… but I need another trip to the gym this week. Hopefully by going a bit later than usual too, it won’t be as busy. We’ll see.

Till tomorrow!

image credit: Chatanooga Choo Choo Hotel

First off, it’s been a BEAUTIFUL day here in Minnesota. I didn’t spend nearly enough time outside. But after work I did decide to walk down to Lake Calhoun, around it, and of course back. I snapped this shot shortly before sunset.

Ok, so today was day two. More liquids. I did the Premier Protein shakes for breakfast again. I actually was kinda full after 1-1/2 shakes, so I put the open one in the fridge at work when I got there. I ended up drinking it later, just after lunch I think. Yes, it was more than 30 minutes after.

I drank about 20 ounces of water and had a mug of ginger-lemon tea again mid-morning. I really wasn’t feeling much in the way of hunger all morning though. A bit before noon I walked to the grocery store about a block from work and grabbed a couple cans of soup. I went with the fiesta nacho cheese. I started out with about half a can that I put just a few tablespoons of water in. Like I was talking about last night, I wanted it nice and thick to hopeful keep me feeling full longer. I think it worked, though I did end up eating the whole can. With the additional cooking time, I’m not sure I stayed within the 15 minutes you’re supposed to eat each meal in, it was probably about 20 minutes.

I do have to say, I’ve been in the bathroom many many times today, my bladder was needed emptying time and time again. About 40 minutes in to my walk I stopped at one of the porta-john’s around the lake and not even half-hour later when I got back to work my bladder was bursting again. I’m not drinking any caffeine, so nobody try blaming that. And even tho everything I’m “eating” is basically liquid, I know I’m not downing any more than I have any number of other days the last few years. I dunno, seems sometimes I just have days like this where I could almost set my watch (if I wore one) by how frequently I have to go. If it wasn’t such a gross idea, I might actually consider measuring just how much… cause no, this ain’t a prostate thing where I just feel like I have to go… the bladder is full.

And I guess while we’re on the subject… yes… I’ve had to take a seat a couple times today, but I’ll say the volume there is nothing like usual and leave it at that. Well, except to wonder slightly what tomorrow will be like after two solid days of no solid food.

I had a couple pudding cups for an afternoon snack as well as some more ginger-lemon tea. I tell ya, I had forgotten just how… bleh… SF pudding really tastes. It just tastes… fake. I don’t do pudding often, but I can tell you that after I finish the last two from this package… no more. I’ll make something from scratch or use my Bird’s custard and just use an unrefined sugar or something. If I’m gonna have something like this, I want some taste to it.

Oh, I put about a tablespoon, maybe more, of chia seeds in my afternoon tea then poured it over ice. Chia sorta … gels up a bit when it soaks in water. I wanted to make something to drink that maybe had some substance to it, see if it would help keep me feeling full for awhile. I’ve read about doing this, as well as athletes using it before events to help hold water in their body. It’s an idea I think I’ll keep playing with.

Dinner tonight, I just finished a can of cream of onion soup. I added a bit of garlic powder and cayenne pepper. It was good, but even though I think I’ve not been feeling as much hunger today overall, it didn’t fill me up. I’m going to wait a little bit then go have a protein shake.

I also need to do some cooking tonight… first time since Sunday night. I have some pinto beans I cooked then that I want to make in to refritos to bring with lunch. I’m also going to mix up something to mix in with some tuna that will be the main event for lunch. I may do a couple different tuna mixes to bring. Tomorrow is a bit of a long day. Tomorrow after work is the Mens Images – it’s the support group just for guys that the hospital where I had my gastric bypass sponsors, and I help facilitate. I don’t do much actually, I take attendance and help keep the conversation flowing, but we don’t have set topics or anything. It’s just some of us guys getting together to chat a bit about where we’re at and if someone has any specific questions we’ll talk about that stuff. With the new job, this may be the last one I make it to for a bit… we’ll see how my schedule plays out.

Anyways… I’m pretty sure I won’t make it till I get home (about 8:30) to wait to have dinner so I’ll bring something I can eat before the meeting. When I get home I have some fish I’m going to cook up.. I’ll have some then if I’m hungry, otherwise it’s lunch for Thursday. I’ll also have to cook Thursday’s dinner tomorrow because on Thursday it’s radio show meeting time… I am going to my Aunt’s after work to fix her computer, then will find somewhere to hang out, eat my dinner and wait for my 8pm meeting. Actually, now that I think about it, I may have to cook up the chicken I’m planning on having for lunch on Friday tomorrow as well, because I don’t get home till nearly 11 on Thursday. hmm… fun.

Anyways, I’ve had a couple people today ask me on FB and Twitter why I’m doing this… I thought sort of got in to it in my initial posting… maybe they just hadn’t read that, but either way I’ll try to get in to it more again later this week. I’m also not expecting to have any grand revelations about all this for anyone by the end of this week, just to warn you. I’ll have some impressions sure, but as to if this works, as in helping me get back on track for more than just this week or so… well, that will take some time to tell now, won’t it? So yea, I’ll have to revisit this whole topic again later, after it’s all had time to sink and and such.

Thanks to everyone who’s left me comments here, on FB and such. Even those who think I’m nuts for trying this. This whole thing may just be a “waste of time”, but that’s part of why I’m doing it. How can I really speak for or against it if I haven’t been there, done that?  So yea… that’s it for now, back tomorrow!

I made it to the gym after work. I drank another shake on the way there. Another 30g of Protein, on top of the 32g from the Gotein I had around 2pm. I’m rebooting my workout a bit too. Did Week 1 of the Couch to 5K followed up by some upper body weights. Been trying to figure out how to get re-movtivated in that department as well.

I did stop and pick up some soup. Progresso to be precise. One can for tonight, another for tomorrow. Half-an-hour after eating the first I was still hungry and went for the other. I should have gone with the condensed soup. I could have used half the milk/water called for, made it nice and thick and it might have actually filled me up. So I got a lot more calories for dinner than I otherwise needed. Sodium too. Damn there’s a lot of sodium in that soup.

Oh, I did have a couple cans of condensed soup in my “pantry”, but I am glad I didn’t rely on them. I won’t embarrass myself by admitting to how many years past their expiration they were.

Anyways, the second can did more than fill me up. But it’s bout an hour later and I think I’m getting hungry again. Nothing terrible, but it’s kind of annoying.

I’m actually kind of tired tonight. Not from lack of eating or anything. Mondays are always kind of tough. See, I typically sleep in a bit on Sundays, because I can. In the case of yesterday, that meant till about 9. Got up, futzed around, went to work, came home, made a killer pizza for dinner…got some stuff ready for today, etc… and it was well after midnight before I was asleep. This morning I was up at 5:45ish. So yea… bit over five hours of sleep on Monday’s don’t seem to cut it.

so, maybe the best thing to do is to down some water and hit the bed… maybe a couple crosswords before drifting off. Something to keep my mind off snacking. It’s not even like I have anything really terrible in the house… well, maybe some stale pretzels. I have a couple bananas that need eating. There’s clementines. Oh! There’s the herring I picked up at Ikea on Saturday. Yogurt, cottage cheese, stuff like that. But, I need to try and stick with this. Well, I want to. And I can. So I will.

Ok, like I said yesterday… today I started the 5 Day Pouch Test (5DPT). Today and tomorrow is liquids. As I’m writing this, I just had lunch, and I’m doing fine so far I guess.

Got up at my usual time and took my time getting ready. Knowing I wasn’t going to be “eating” breakfast sort of… not relaxed me. But I think I sort of let my guard down. It’s not that I rush to eat, but my usual breakfast for the last six months or so has been a couple toaster waffles with some peanut butter, jelly and chia seeds. Sometimes it’s home-made protein pancakes I’ve made ahead and frozen, reheating them in the toaster. Typically it’s the Eggo Nutrigrain, multi-grain, low-fat waffles. If they’re on sale I’ll splurge on one of the “health food” brands, but that’s sort of rare. Once in a great while I’ll do something different like some scrambled eggs. I did splurge a couple times last month and had some baked French toast too.

It doesn’t take me long to eat breakfast… 10 minutes maybe. I’ll usually get them ready and go check email or something. This morning I skipped all that and spent a few minutes longer than usual on the computer when I realized I hadn’t cracked open my shakes yet.

I didn’t use my usual powder from True Protein, instead I bought a case of Premiere Nutrition’s chocolate RTDs at CostCo. The stuff from True Protein is unflavored and unsweetened. I typically use a fair amount of fruit and such when I use it for shakes, something I wanted to avoid for now. So the ones RTD’s would have to pinch hit today. They’re 11 ounces each and have 160 calories, 120 of which come from the 30g protein, then there’s 5g of carbs (1g from sugar) and 3g of fat. There’s also 3g of dietary fiber, so the net carbs is only 2g. These weren’t as thick as the ones I’ve had the last few times… not as filling… so I did end up drinking two of them on the way to work at 6:30 this morning.

That and my bottle of water (about 16oz worth) got me through most of the morning, Typically I would have a banana around 9ish. One of the things I know I should be doing is adding some sort of protein to that morning snack. I don’t think I need any more peanut butter though, maybe I should start having some nuts with it. Anyways, instead of the fruit today I had a cup of tea I made using organic ginger, a couple slices of a Meyer lemon and about a teaspoon of honey.

The ginger is good for settling down your stomach, and the combo is one I have been taking the last couple years any time I feel any hint of a cold trying to grab hold of me and .. well.. so far it’s helped me fight stuff off. It’s also sort of filling. I had a couple of these (about 12oz each) between about 10 and 12.

Around 11ish, I was definitely feeling some hunger, that’s when I had the second cup of tea.

Lunch at about 12:30 was a cup of Lipton Hearty Chicken Noodle Cup-a-Soup. I managed to strain out all but about a teaspoons worth of the noodles. I was going to buy some chicken bullion, but the sodium levels in the ones I looked at yesterday kinda scared me, so I decided I’d just use up these soup packets if I decided I really wanted broth. I think I actually bought them the winter before my gastric bypass operation back in 2009 to have on hand in case I needed something to eat. Scary thing is, the package says “Use by OCT 03 06″. I know I didn’t have them THAT far back, so yea… gotta start checking packages better! The broth tasted fine… which is also kinda scary.

Anyways, I followed that up with a thing of SF Jell-O and a couple of the SF pudding cups.  That whole lunch maybe had 10g of protein if I’m lucky. It’s after 1:30 now, and I’m sort of feeling a bit of hunger again. I need to do a shake as part of my lunch tomorrow for sure. I brought some Strawberry Gotein to work with me too, I may mix up a shake using a couple of those. That will give me about 36g protein and about 220 calories I think. I’m hoping that holds me trough the rest of the work day (till 4) when I will be heading to the Gym.

I’ve been very careful to avoid any of the usual temptations. The candy dish in my co-workers office, the tins of popcorn sitting in the break area. It’s been all to easy to grab some of that stuff here and there over the last few weeks. er, months…

Tonight is going to just be more protein shakes I think. Not sure if I have any cans of cream style soup at home or not… maybe I will pick up a cream of mushroom or something, hadn’t really thought of that when I was at the store last night. Or maybe I’ll splurge and make a protein shake using my regular stuff and some frozen fruit to make it thick enuff to stick around the pouch for awhile. We’ll see.