As regular readers know, I had a rather unusual December. For the first three weeks, I was on work travel for a class, and I flew home on December 22. It was going to be a strange Christmas no matter what, but I didn't know what I had in store.
Let's go back to early December when I got to my new hotel home for three weeks. I knew a Wal Mart was close, but I didn't know it was THAT close. I got to the hotel, and meticulously unpacked, to see if I forgot anything, then embarked on my three minute walk across the parking lot to Wal Mart.
My hotel room had a full size refrigerator, two burners, and a microwave, so there was no excuse to stick to my normal eating routines. The first week I cooked up a pound of ground beef, and the second week was a kielbasa. The third week got a little more into convenience foods and leftovers. But more on that later.
The hotel gym left something to be desired. There was one elliptical, two treadmills, a weight station that would do for a shorter trip, and a single barbell. One. Luckily, there was a gym across the street that was used to people coming in for a few weeks at a time, so they had a good deal. The gym offered recorded classes, which I surprisingly enjoyed, as all of the materials were right there, as compared to doing it at home and making do with replacement items. They also offered live classes.
At the actual class site, there were a lot of places to go for healthy walks during lunch, and I did that nearly every day. I hit my 10,000 steps nearly every day and I hope to maintain that.
A few things I learned:
Don't be shy about what you've been through. We were sitting in a large seminar with over 100 people, broken up into class. So I sat next to this guy who would be in my class. We got to talking, and we ended up not just in the same class, but at the same table. When it came out later in the day that I had had WLS, he said "Oh yea, I noticed your Medical ID when I was talking to you this morning." He is a volunteer EMT and it warmed me to know that he noticed this. Quick plug for an awesome husband, he got me a new ID to go onto my FitBit so I only have to wear one bracelet.
People are super understanding and want to learn. In the first week, we went out for German food. We were warned by locals that they had massive servings, and several people in the class told me to not order anything and I could have some of theirs.
Not weighing yourself daily for a period can be healthy. I vowed to not get on the scale while I was gone and some of the most unexpected things happening. First of all, I lost five pounds while I was gone. Second, instead of getting on the scale after a heavy lift day and being discouraged even though I knew why the scale went up, I did a workout that my body wanted to. I did Yoga a couple of times, a live bootcamp class, running, walking, and LOTS of kettlebell workouts. If I was weighing myself, I would have probably done more of the same instead of realizing Yoga is a heck of a lot easier when you're down over 100 pounds and kettlebell workouts are killer.
Take the stairs. For some reason I didn't really take stairs if an elevator was around. But I started taking the stairs out there and I haven't stopped.
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Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Traditions
I'm going to deviate from my normal format where a clear connection is made between my life now as compared to my life before surgery.
This has to do with traditions and when it's time to let them go.
This season we're in is all about the traditions. We all have them and they all mean different things to each other, even within the same family.
A newer tradition we have started in the last couple of years since my brother moved closer to us, and he is the only one on my side of the family that has little kids, is that we go to his house on Christmas Eve for dinner and merriment.
A tradition my husband and I have done since our first Christmas together is that we do a Feast of the Twelve Fishes but with sushi. We do this because when we started dating, we pretty much just went out for Asian food for lunch, and in marrying him and taking his name, I gave up a pretty rocking Italian last name.
The thing is with traditions is that they grow and transform, or maybe even go away, as families change, get older, and then add new ones in the form of in-laws and children. My niece and nephew are 5 and 3 so Christmas literally changes every year with them so far.
My husband and I recognized that some of the traditions that we have participated in are not going to work for us this year, and maybe for the foreseeable future. This has caused a lot of strife in our family.
I'll skip you the gory details, but between my history of Seasonal Depression, the fact that I'm actually on a work trip for almost the entire month of December, and the fact that my coping mechanism has been taken away from me, we decided to take Christmas to the barest of bare bones. This has not been kindly received from certain members of our extended family, so we have decided to spend Christmas with just the two of us, and possibly making that a tradition.
I think the funniest thing about all of this was that when we decided to do Christmas on our own, our minds immediately went to food partially. Food is so deeply rooted in this season its nearly impossible to escape it.
There are a few important things I'm taking from this rather difficult last week and a half or so:
1) When traditions come before people, it's time to let them go. I'm not saying that if one person can't eat cake anymore we need to not have cake. I'm saying it's unreasonable to maintain a tradition for the sake of tradition if its simply not working for certain members of the family. Allow your family to continue to serve cake, but make sure they know you will not provide cake if it's ever your turn.
2) Allow yourself to be excused. If an aspect of the holiday is starting to be too much for you, politely excuse yourself and take a walk around the neighborhood or find a quiet room to sit down in for a few minutes. I feel like such an anti-social creep when I do this but I know it's needed if I want to be a constructive member of the family.
3) Learn to watch for your signs of overdoing it. This can vary for everyone. For me, I will feel an extreme temperature change. I'll suddenly get very hot or very cold.
4) Know when to say no. This is so much easier said than done, but understand your limits and know when it's the right time to refuse and invitation or say no to an aspect of a celebration.
This year is going to be interesting to say the least. I think I have a healthy relationship with food but I forgot how much I depended on it during this time of year. I'm hoping that lowering stresses as much as I have control over will help me every step of the way.
This has to do with traditions and when it's time to let them go.
This season we're in is all about the traditions. We all have them and they all mean different things to each other, even within the same family.
A newer tradition we have started in the last couple of years since my brother moved closer to us, and he is the only one on my side of the family that has little kids, is that we go to his house on Christmas Eve for dinner and merriment.
A tradition my husband and I have done since our first Christmas together is that we do a Feast of the Twelve Fishes but with sushi. We do this because when we started dating, we pretty much just went out for Asian food for lunch, and in marrying him and taking his name, I gave up a pretty rocking Italian last name.
The thing is with traditions is that they grow and transform, or maybe even go away, as families change, get older, and then add new ones in the form of in-laws and children. My niece and nephew are 5 and 3 so Christmas literally changes every year with them so far.
My husband and I recognized that some of the traditions that we have participated in are not going to work for us this year, and maybe for the foreseeable future. This has caused a lot of strife in our family.
I'll skip you the gory details, but between my history of Seasonal Depression, the fact that I'm actually on a work trip for almost the entire month of December, and the fact that my coping mechanism has been taken away from me, we decided to take Christmas to the barest of bare bones. This has not been kindly received from certain members of our extended family, so we have decided to spend Christmas with just the two of us, and possibly making that a tradition.
I think the funniest thing about all of this was that when we decided to do Christmas on our own, our minds immediately went to food partially. Food is so deeply rooted in this season its nearly impossible to escape it.
There are a few important things I'm taking from this rather difficult last week and a half or so:
1) When traditions come before people, it's time to let them go. I'm not saying that if one person can't eat cake anymore we need to not have cake. I'm saying it's unreasonable to maintain a tradition for the sake of tradition if its simply not working for certain members of the family. Allow your family to continue to serve cake, but make sure they know you will not provide cake if it's ever your turn.
2) Allow yourself to be excused. If an aspect of the holiday is starting to be too much for you, politely excuse yourself and take a walk around the neighborhood or find a quiet room to sit down in for a few minutes. I feel like such an anti-social creep when I do this but I know it's needed if I want to be a constructive member of the family.
3) Learn to watch for your signs of overdoing it. This can vary for everyone. For me, I will feel an extreme temperature change. I'll suddenly get very hot or very cold.
4) Know when to say no. This is so much easier said than done, but understand your limits and know when it's the right time to refuse and invitation or say no to an aspect of a celebration.
This year is going to be interesting to say the least. I think I have a healthy relationship with food but I forgot how much I depended on it during this time of year. I'm hoping that lowering stresses as much as I have control over will help me every step of the way.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Hydrate or Die
A few weeks ago, I found myself attending the AUSA (Association of the United States Army) Conference held annually in Washington, DC. As a Department of Defense employee, I was allowed to go and my installation sponsored a bus trip.
AUSA showcases current and future technologies. Not to get too deep on acquisitions, but contractors need to put out their own money to develop a technology with the hopes that someone will buy it. Waiting for the call for bids to develop would often put these businesses in a poor posture.
This stuff is way beyond my pay grade, but nevertheless, it was a fun day checking out stuff.
I found a few booths that were giving away samples of hydration aids and I was immediately drawn to them. When they heard about the bariatric needs for hydration, I think I literally saw dollar signs in their eyes. They had been focusing on athletes and soldiers, but this market of individuals who have unique hydration needs was disregarded in their market research.
Hydration is important for everyone, but for bariatric patients it is even more important. The most common cause for hospital readmission following surgery is dehydration. It is also the most preventable. I was not the best bariatric patient I could have been regarding this, but with some tips I've learned perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.
1) You're only drinking that first week, right? Make sure you are getting water and electrolytes in as well as protein. My husband is going to go through this procedure sometime in 2018, and during that first week, he will have water, a protein shake, or both within arms length all of the time.
2) There is no such thing as too much water. I stupidly listened to the Facebook support groups, that if I drank too much water, my stomach would stretch back out. I was told by my research surgeon that this will not happen. Water just flows through your new rerouted system, which actually means you need more of it. If you drink a sip that's a little too big and you feel pressure, then you know you've sipped too much. Learn from that.
3) But, you will not get 64 ounces of water in immediately. Be patient with yourself. Know where you were at the previous day and try to do a little better the next day (this is where my severely analytical side kicks in).
4) When you get tired of water, mix it up. I still deal with this. I went away a few weekends ago, and I just didn't put any flavor in my water for some reason. I found my intake getting slower, and it took a day to realize that I was missing my flavor. It was in my bag the whole time. There was no reason for me to get a little dehydrated. Crystal Light-type individual flavor packets are great because they are portioned out. I have started using the squeeze bottle style so I can leave one or two in my bag at a given time.
5) Electrolytes are your friend. Use them. When I go a day or two without a little bit of an electrolytes in my drink, I notice that I feel just a little dryer. I have spoke the praises of Propel, but I also use the WalMart brand of Electrolytes as well as Mio.
AUSA showcases current and future technologies. Not to get too deep on acquisitions, but contractors need to put out their own money to develop a technology with the hopes that someone will buy it. Waiting for the call for bids to develop would often put these businesses in a poor posture.
This stuff is way beyond my pay grade, but nevertheless, it was a fun day checking out stuff.
I found a few booths that were giving away samples of hydration aids and I was immediately drawn to them. When they heard about the bariatric needs for hydration, I think I literally saw dollar signs in their eyes. They had been focusing on athletes and soldiers, but this market of individuals who have unique hydration needs was disregarded in their market research.
Hydration is important for everyone, but for bariatric patients it is even more important. The most common cause for hospital readmission following surgery is dehydration. It is also the most preventable. I was not the best bariatric patient I could have been regarding this, but with some tips I've learned perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.
1) You're only drinking that first week, right? Make sure you are getting water and electrolytes in as well as protein. My husband is going to go through this procedure sometime in 2018, and during that first week, he will have water, a protein shake, or both within arms length all of the time.
2) There is no such thing as too much water. I stupidly listened to the Facebook support groups, that if I drank too much water, my stomach would stretch back out. I was told by my research surgeon that this will not happen. Water just flows through your new rerouted system, which actually means you need more of it. If you drink a sip that's a little too big and you feel pressure, then you know you've sipped too much. Learn from that.
3) But, you will not get 64 ounces of water in immediately. Be patient with yourself. Know where you were at the previous day and try to do a little better the next day (this is where my severely analytical side kicks in).
4) When you get tired of water, mix it up. I still deal with this. I went away a few weekends ago, and I just didn't put any flavor in my water for some reason. I found my intake getting slower, and it took a day to realize that I was missing my flavor. It was in my bag the whole time. There was no reason for me to get a little dehydrated. Crystal Light-type individual flavor packets are great because they are portioned out. I have started using the squeeze bottle style so I can leave one or two in my bag at a given time.
5) Electrolytes are your friend. Use them. When I go a day or two without a little bit of an electrolytes in my drink, I notice that I feel just a little dryer. I have spoke the praises of Propel, but I also use the WalMart brand of Electrolytes as well as Mio.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Constipation(!)
I'm just going to start here:
Having a gluten intolerance and diagnosed with IBS (likely Celiac but faulty blood tests) I've always been open to talking about my bowels.
But I have talked more about my bowels in the last six months or so than I ever thought was humanly possible.
Bariatric patients deal with constipation for several reasons. First of all, we drink protein shakes like they're going out of style, and they can bind you up. Second, we take a high amount of iron daily, which also binds. And, for the first 8 weeks post op, we don't get a lot of vegetables in, which doesn't help us correct the issues. Further, our bodies need to adjust to the new much smaller portions and there isn't as much moving through to help things along.
I started experiencing constipation during my Liver Shrink Diet two weeks before the surgery. At my return to clinic visit about ten days out, the Nurse Practitioner told me to get myself unconstipated before the surgery to make things less painful. I was told when they pump the gas into your abdominal area (common for laproscopic surgeries) if you have constipation it hurts a lot more. So starting at 10 days out, I had a cocktail of Miralax every night. Which did it's job...but the time I was constipated led to hemorrhoids. Yea. I'm going to go there.
Hemorrhoids have lived to their description as the biggest pain in my rear and lurks where ever I go. It has led me to change how I sit, remembering to take a cushion with me, and using a Squatty Potty whenever I am at home. For those of you that have seen the commercials, Squatty Potty really does live up to expectations. The hemorrhoids are also a double edged sword: they flare if I don't go every day, but they're so painful I don't want to go.
So by about two weeks out, I realized that if I had a little bit of coffee, I would be able to go. Now this was a huge bariatric no-no, but I couldn't see another way out. A few weeks later, that trick stopped being so dependable and I started having fiber every morning, which also helped.
Also, getting the proper water in helps a lot. Like, I think it prevents constipation all in all.
After a long trial, I have developed a system that works for me.
I take Colace three times daily.
I now take my vitamins in a powder that I mix with water. This powder includes a little fiber which has replaced my separate fiber drink (for the most part). I take this twice a day.
Daily, I try to get vegetables in.
If I have not gone by my bed time, I set aside 10 minutes to sit on the "throne" using the Squatty Potty and if I haven't gone in 10 minutes, I take 2 Senna Tabs and go to bed.
If the Senna has not worked overnight, I take a fiber drink in the morning and go to work, and hope for the best. At this point I carry hemorrhoid cream with me.
Constipation and hemorrhoids are not pleasant but they're a realistic side effect.
Having a gluten intolerance and diagnosed with IBS (likely Celiac but faulty blood tests) I've always been open to talking about my bowels.
But I have talked more about my bowels in the last six months or so than I ever thought was humanly possible.
Bariatric patients deal with constipation for several reasons. First of all, we drink protein shakes like they're going out of style, and they can bind you up. Second, we take a high amount of iron daily, which also binds. And, for the first 8 weeks post op, we don't get a lot of vegetables in, which doesn't help us correct the issues. Further, our bodies need to adjust to the new much smaller portions and there isn't as much moving through to help things along.
I started experiencing constipation during my Liver Shrink Diet two weeks before the surgery. At my return to clinic visit about ten days out, the Nurse Practitioner told me to get myself unconstipated before the surgery to make things less painful. I was told when they pump the gas into your abdominal area (common for laproscopic surgeries) if you have constipation it hurts a lot more. So starting at 10 days out, I had a cocktail of Miralax every night. Which did it's job...but the time I was constipated led to hemorrhoids. Yea. I'm going to go there.
Hemorrhoids have lived to their description as the biggest pain in my rear and lurks where ever I go. It has led me to change how I sit, remembering to take a cushion with me, and using a Squatty Potty whenever I am at home. For those of you that have seen the commercials, Squatty Potty really does live up to expectations. The hemorrhoids are also a double edged sword: they flare if I don't go every day, but they're so painful I don't want to go.
So by about two weeks out, I realized that if I had a little bit of coffee, I would be able to go. Now this was a huge bariatric no-no, but I couldn't see another way out. A few weeks later, that trick stopped being so dependable and I started having fiber every morning, which also helped.
Also, getting the proper water in helps a lot. Like, I think it prevents constipation all in all.
After a long trial, I have developed a system that works for me.
I take Colace three times daily.
I now take my vitamins in a powder that I mix with water. This powder includes a little fiber which has replaced my separate fiber drink (for the most part). I take this twice a day.
Daily, I try to get vegetables in.
If I have not gone by my bed time, I set aside 10 minutes to sit on the "throne" using the Squatty Potty and if I haven't gone in 10 minutes, I take 2 Senna Tabs and go to bed.
If the Senna has not worked overnight, I take a fiber drink in the morning and go to work, and hope for the best. At this point I carry hemorrhoid cream with me.
Constipation and hemorrhoids are not pleasant but they're a realistic side effect.